Hello, My Name is Hillary and I'm a Pin-oholic

I have been super addicted to Pinterest lately. There are so many great ideas for things that would be so fun to make. I love to sew and my goal to improve and not need to unpick every project at least once. I also love to crochet but I am very basic at it and I would love to improve in that too. Getting more things accomplished off of Pinterest is definitely one of my goals for the new year.

For Christmas, I wanted to home-make at least one present each. I ended up making two for Bella. I made her a custom made apron in less than 2 hours and a reading cushion that I designed and she loves.

For Tristan I made a tool belt and I also made a felt truck.

And for Lilly, Clifford and I built the dress up unit and I painted it. I also made her birthday dress with a few different patterns and ideas I found.

Next Christmas? maybe an all home-made one? We'll see. But until then, I will have fun making things with my bare hands as gifts or maybe even for myself. I'm looking forward to a new year of bettering my skills, loving my family and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2012 may be a challenging one as Clifford finishes up the teaching program and does his student teaching, and Bella and Tristan enter into their two's but it also promises to be filled with lots of good memories and laughter and blessings. As long as we always stay close with one another and keep family and Christ first, nothing can hold us down too long and we can make this a great year! Happy New Year to all of you and Happy pinning and crafting to those who have Pinterest. I love you all.

Christmas 2011

We had to wake Tristan & Bella up because Lilly couldn't wait any longer to go downstairs. She was so excited to see all the gifts and that Santa ate some cookies and used the key. She loved the dress up unit we made for her and all the new skirts and dresses. Bella and Tristan loved figuring out how to open presents. And they all loved sharing all their toys with one another. I love that my kids' favorite gifts were the books. I made stockings like the ones my siblings and I grew up with and Lilly really loved them. We ate a yummy breakfast and shared the morning with Clifford's parents. Our ward was at 11, so we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves before getting ready for church. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of memories and family. We spent the evening with my family and it was a great time. This was such a fun Christmas and now I can't wait to start planning next years. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we invited family over for dinner. So I spent the day preparing the meal and getting things ready. During that time, we made a gingerbread Nativity which Lilly made all the people and animals and decorated. She even thought of how to make the crown for one of the kings. I just helped her make the structure. she had been looking forward to making it for so long. She had a great time. She also made "orderves" for our guests with the left over Dots and marshmallows (I wish I had taken a picture of them). It was so creative and cute of her. We also baked the Santa cookies together. I can't wait till Bella and Tristan can help out in the kitchen. It is so much fun getting ready for Christmas with little ones. That night we had fun with Clifford's Aunt & Uncle and Grandpa and Mom & Dad and cousins. Then we opened our jammies and Lilly got Santa's plate of cookies and hung the Santa key that I made from Pinterest. We don't have a chimney so only Santa can use it to open our locked door. She loved all the new traditions and she was so excited for Christmas to be here.

Live Nativity

This year, Lilly was really interested in the story of the Nativity. We have lots of books about it, we just bought a Little People set which they all love and when we look at the lights, we point out all the Nativity set ups. We want to make a tradition of seeing the live Nativity. Last year the babies were so young and we didn't want to hassle with them crying. I am so glad we went back this year and I don't want to miss it again. We went with my sister's family and we all had fun. It is so important to me to focus on Christ's birth this time of year. And it made me so happy that Lilly was old enough to love hearing about it and remember the details and sing the carols.

The Tale of Two Santas

Everyone is allowed to teach their kids whatever they want and that's fine, I'm not judging. I have heard a lot this year about people not teaching their kids to believe in Santa. They have good reasons and they have strong points as to why not, but I just wanted to share a little about why I choose to still teach about Santa. I don't believe that my kids are more fragile than I was and I don't worry that I will scar them for life if I tell them a few fibs. I loved my childhood and never felt betrayed when I came upon the truth. I feel it is fine for my kids to have one foot in fantasy while they are still young and innocent. I do believe in putting the focus mainly on Christ, but Santa represents the things that Jesus wants us to be: charitable, selfless, giving, kind, loving. It is a tradition passed on for so long teaching us to give without recognition and teaching our children to believe in something before they are ready to believe in the bigger things. And when my kids figure out the truth and are let in on the magic, if they question anything else, I will use that time as a teaching moment about praying for faith in Jesus to build their testimonies and know for themselves of what is true. So, because I love Santa, we went and saw him at Walmart. Lilly was so excited to go. But as we rounded the corner to his spot in the garden center, Lilly froze and wouldn't sit on his lap. We convinced her to sit and tell him what she wanted and she warmed up to him. But later, as I was getting her down for a nap, she asked me a really serious question. She wanted to know if he was just someone in a costume like at Halloween. I asked her why she thought that and she said it was because he didn't have a beard. So, I let her in on the big secret. I told her that Santa is too busy to go to all the stores and malls and that he only sometimes is at the places. But that he trains helper Santas and they are his friends and will tell him what you say. I told her we would go see the one at Tuacahn and she could decide if he was the real Santa or just another helper. After we saw that one, she was pretty certain he was the real thing. And she felt pretty important being let in on something the babies didn't know. Bella, on the other hand, didn't like either one and Tristan only liked the candy canes.

My Four Year Old

My Lilly is one of my greatest joys in life. In honor of her turning FOUR, this post is all about her. She is the most observant little girl I know and you can't get much past her. You can't trick her because she can figure you out. Her memory is so amazing, it shocks me the things she can remember. She was only taught one time her Left and Right sides. Days later, out of nowhere, she showed me which was which. We ask her periodically and she always gets it right. Plus, she can remember things from a year or more ago. She is so sweet and loving to her brother and sister. She loves having siblings and tells me she wants me to have two more kids so we can have five. And, yes, she does the math. She is so funny about the future, she tells me she wants to drive her kids in my car when she grows up and points to a house she wants to live when she grows up. She talks about all the kids she wants when she's a mommy and it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job when she wants to do things just like me when she grows up. She didn't seem to care about the fact that she will not live with us forever. But when I started talking about her growing up too fast, she didn't want me to be sad and started worrying about growing up, so I assured her it was going to be a long time before she gets big. She loves to dress up. She is so girly and makes the best expressions. She has a great personality and sense of humor. She loves to draw and color and build with things. She loves to be read to and snuggle and she always tells us she loves us. I can't imagine my life without her and she has definitely made these past four years wonderful and precious. I asked her some questions and here are a few of my favorite ones: Favorite animal: Unicorns Favorite color: every color Favorite fruit: watermelon What do you want to be when you grow up? a ballerina and a zoo keeper What are you good at? dancing What are you not good at? dancing on my tippy toes.

Lilly's 4th Birthday

My beautiful, fancy daughter just turned 4. I wanted to make her day super special, so to start the day, I filled her room with balloons in the middle of the night for her to wake up to. The funny thing is, she told me that when she woke up and saw them, she thought "Who made this mess?" But then she played with them and was excited for her birthday to start.

I planned a Fancy Nancy dress-up party because she loves those books and she loves dressing girly and pretty. We invited a few of her little girl friends. We played a scavenger hunt where each clue led to another accessory to put on until they were all extra fancy. Then we had a fashion show to prance around in our beautiful attire. All the girls were giggling and having a great time. We painted nails and ate cupcakes and parfaits (ice cream sundaes) and played pin the tiara on Fancy Nancy and we popped balloons full of candy, which was a hit. It was such a great day and Lilly really enjoyed herself and loved having all her friends with her. And thanks to her cousin for being our fancy helper. I love my Lilly and I love making her feel special on her day.

Family Pictures 2011

My wonderful sister took our family pictures for us. Didn't she do a good job? All Lilly really wanted to do was climb around in the rocks and Tristan wanted to play in the dirt, so they weren't being very cooperative. But I'm still happy with the ones we got. And what more can I expect with two one year olds and a four year old. Can't blame them for wanting to play. I love my wonderful family and I love these pictures. Thanks again Melodie.

Halloween 2011

We had such and awesome day yesterday. I took the kids to two different Library's parties and we got together with my sister and her kids and our friend, Missy, and my brother and other sister, to go trick-or-treating. We all had a fun time. I always make Lilly's costumes. Last year my hands were a little too full to make 3 costumes, but this year, the babies can entertain themselves alot more so I got to sewing. I was going to go for something more simple, but Lilly wanted to be Rapunzel and I sort of wanted a theme. So I just did a Disney theme. I found both Bella's and Tristan's costume tutorials on Pinterest from two different blogs, and Lilly's I just made up by looking at the movie. People say I should have done Bella as Cinderella or Tristan as the Beast but I'm OK not having them be love interests, just like when naming them I didn't want to go with Tristan and Isolde (kinda weird). Lilly loved her dress so much and Bella liked hers but poor Tristan kept crying when I put his on. I realized soon after, why this was. One day, while fitting Bella's dress to see what needed to be tweaked, he wanted to try it on after her, putting his arms out and fussing. Of coarse, being bigger, I could only put the sleeves over his arms. But he was so happy. He had the biggest grin on his face. So days later, when all the costumes were finished, I put Bella in hers and as I went to put his on, he cried. Once I let him free, I watched and followed him to discover him chasing Bella down. I then understood what his problem was; he preferred her sparkly bright yellow dress to his costume and thought I had put the wrong ones on them. Luckily, by Halloween he had come to terms with it all and was such a handsome prince, ready to protect his princess sisters.

Fun Leading Up to Halloween

My little bone babies in their cute jammies. And all the fun we have been having to celebrate this spooky holiday. We've made lots of spooky foods, I carved a pumpkin while Lilly and her cousin and Aunt Holly painted some, but I forgot to take pictures of theirs. We also made a craft together that I got the idea form Pinterest- Ghost feet. Such a fun time of year.