Coolest Thank-you!

Last Monday the kids & I went to a birthday party for a little girl in our ward that was so great! It was so creative & well thought-out! People tell me how creative I am but I'm only faux creative! I spend tons of time online looking for ideas for parties & crafts & all kinds of things, but the parents who did this party just came up with all the stuff on their own! Now that's creative! So it was a rainbow-themed party and my favorite thing was the rainbow Jello. The dad had taken 6 or 7 different colors of Jello & layered them one at a time in a bunch of clear punch cups. Then if the kids liked they could have "clouds" (cool whip) on their rainbows. How cute is that?! I'm sure it's been done before but I would have never come up with something like that without finding it online first!

So the party was really cute & then the mom & dad & girl came over at the end of the week with thank you cards that she scribbled on & the dad made balloon animals for everyone! I guess when he was in college he did balloon animals to make some extra money. What a fun skill to have! Callie got a cute purple flower. Jack first got a green brontosaurus. He popped it a couple minutes later when he was playing with it on the floor so then the dad made him a yellow t-rex. That popped quickly too! Finally he made him a little blue mouse - a balloon animal that isn't easily popped! :) The kids loved them! I could only ever dream of having such cool thank-yous - and especially for being so prompt with them!!! It took me a month to sit down with Callie & do hers & I'd even bought the cards before the party! Typical Hillary.

Who are the grown-ups here?

Jeremiah & I have joked quite a bit lately that our children act so independent they could probably get on just fine for days with nobody around. Some points to prove our case:

Last night Jeremiah had put the kids to bed & was out in the garage working. He heard children-voices in the house so he went in to check things out & they were up in the living room with all the lights on like they'd never even been put to bed, playing with their play food and pots & pans "cooking."

I stayed up way too late last night so I slept in this morning. I woke up & went in the kitchen to investigate the noises I was hearing. Jack had just finished making Callie some chocolate milk (from powder) & was working on his own. They're not even allowed in the fridge w/out "kermission" (Callie) and they're also not supposed to be getting up into the cupboards. They've never spooned out their own powder before either. Surprisingly there really wasn't a mess from it!

About an hour later I was doing dishes & all three of them were in the living room playing on the floor. I heard Callie talking to Ellie about spitting up & mentioning a burp cloth. I went in a couple minutes later to check on them & Ellie was sporting a bib around her neck! I never even put bibs on her! I thought it was totally cute of Callie to do that!

A little before 11 I was in my room feeding Ellie & I knew the kids had been in the kitchen but a lot of times they're just getting into the crayons that are in their own "coloring cabinet" so I didn't think too much about it. A few minutes later Callie came in & told me it was time for lunch & that she'd made us "sammiches" for lunch! And indeed she had! One for each of us - they usually only get half sandwiches :) She made her sandwiches by layering American cheese slices & chunks of string cheese, then pressing it all down together! Jack kept calling his a cheeseburger & he made a HUGE mess of his (shocker)! I ate mine, except I gave one of my 2 pieces of Am cheese to Jack. :)

First Day of [Pre]School!

Today was Callie's 1st day of preschool! She heard me talking on the phone to different friends about preschool a couple of months ago when we were trying to decide whether or not to send her at all & she would say, "Oh please mama! Please, please, please, let me go to school!" She was "so extremely excited" (her words) to go this afternoon! She was especially excited to read a Barbie book she'd spotted on Meet the Teacher Night last week! :) Highlights of school today: a sticker for listening to all of the rules, playing outside, having a snack, and reading! Highlight of my day: going to WalMart with 2 kids instead of 3! :) Is it bad that I wasn't the teensiest bit sad to send her to school today? Not because I wanted a break, but because I was really excited for her since she was looking forward to it so much! I think it will be different when it's kindergarten, but preschool's only 3 days a week for 3 hours. No tears from this mama today! Just happiness for my big girl!

12 on the 12th

Tuesday, August 12th:

Totally didn't get 12 today. Just one of those days...

Started the day at the gym. Yay me! I signed up with a friend so I'm going to stick with it! For 6 months anyway - that's my goal. Only doing cardio for now.



Following my realtor to a house. Today's houses were much better than yesterday's! The whole thing is a bummer though! For supposedly being a buyer's market, it doesn't seem like much of one. There's just not that much inventory. And some people have their houses completely overpriced & they've been sitting on the market for months, more than a year in a couple of cases, & they've hardly lowered their price. Don't their realtors tell them they're never going to sell their house at those prices? It just makes me mad that some people are so pretentious! Well they obviously aren't desperate to sell their houses when they're $60,000 overpriced!!!



Callie, Jack & Ellie all went to my friend's house while I did some house hunting. Callie was so happy to hang out with her best friend Corinne! :) I think it's funny that my 4 year old has a BFF!


It's a bit ridiculous that at almost 3 Jack still eats like a 1 year old! It drives me nuts! My mom said that she almost quit after 3 kids (she had 6) because she was tired of cleaning up after meals. Amen! This is a regular occurrance at most mealtimes! Milk on the table, chicken on the floor, RIDICULOUS!


Checking out floorplans online in case we decide to go that route. We'd planned on building (we've been planning that forever but we've now actually paid to have real plans drafted!), but with the market being as bad as it is, we're going to have to hold on to our blueprints & keep our house & rent it out. We now plan on buying or building less of a house for the time being.

Watching the Olympics with Jonny & Katie. Thrilling. Not really. I'm just not that into it. But go USA anyway!

love this face

The difference between first time parents & 3rd time parents!

Ellie LOVED it & was annoyed that I wasn't sharing more! :) (5 mos.)(and in case you noticed the backwards shirt, Uncle Jonny dressed her! :))