Our THIRD Musketeer!!!

It's a...

BOY!!!

I am in an interesting age bracket for having a baby.  That means I get to have lots of extra tests and care.

One of the tests I got to take was a blood test called the Harmony screen.  I was 16 weeks when I got my blood draw. It tests for  Down Syndrome and other chromosome abnormalities.  A bonus of the test is that you get to find out the sex of the baby.

I got a call 10 days earlier than the doctors had thought and she told me some great news.

The baby was healthy.

Then she asked if I was ready to know what we were having.

Was I ever ready!

She said, "Three of a kind, it's a BOY!"

I was shaking and had "perma" grin.  I just wanted a healthy baby and didn't care if it was a girl or boy but I knew this little boy was supposed to be in our family at this time.


I quickly left to go get BLUE helium balloons at the party store and get things set up to tell the rest of the family.

I found a box big enough and taped it up.  We gathered at Mammy and Papa's and the boys opened the box...

 BLUE balloons flew out and everyone cheered while jumping up and down.

I can't believe I'm going to have THREE sons.

Brandon's Homecoming...

There has been a tremendous amount of excitement in our home that grew the closer our trip to Texas approached.

We have been looking forward to seeing our nephew Brandon return from his mission to Brazil for months.

I met Brandon when Justin and I were dating and he was just six years old.  I had an instant love for him and his puppy dog brown eyes.  He won me over with his shy, heart of gold, respectful personality.  I have always been grateful for the way he has treated me, Justin, and especially my boys.

I was a proud Aunt as I listened to him give his homecoming talk.  It is always so amazing to see these boys leave for their missions and come back so solid.  His testimony that he bore pierced our hearts with conviction, peace, and love.  It affected Nathan so much that he keeps telling everyone that he wants to go to Brazil on his mission, "So Bad" and I know it is because of his cousin's influence.

We filled up the days and nights with  trips to the pool, In and Out Burger, an amazing homecoming talk, scooter rides, lots of video games with Jonah, Indian food, a bit of shopping, Kendall's new found love of the dog- Pepper, the movie Home, frozen yogurt, Basketball in the front with Logan, relaxing, the taco restaurant, and the grand finale...gut busting laughter at Uncle Gared's booty shaking with his shake-a-teers!

When we got to our house everyone found a couch or bed and napped the rest of the afternoon before even touching the luggage. (The boys just continued their nap from the plane ride.)

That is how you know you had a blast!

Uno games in June

This summer the boys and I have played hundreds of games while I have been on the couch with some pretty good morning sickness.

  Speed Uno and Skip Bo have topped our list.

I'm glad these boys love games as much as I do.  Sometimes after Dad gets home, he would join in on all the fun too!

Jake's baptism

Our family will take any excuse we can to get down to Arizona and this time we had a pretty good one... Jake's baptism!

At Jake's baptism after Uncle Doug baptized him, Mammy gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  I noticed Kendall was watching Jake like a hawk because he knew he was next and paid attention to every detail. I'm so grateful he has Jake to watch and I'm so glad that Jake has been so good to Kendall.  Then Jake got confirmed.  An amazing feeling was present.  The room was filled to the brim with Arizona family and friends.

Sara put on a lunch outside at their house afterwards and the sub sandwich was in the shape of a giant 8!  The table looked beautiful.  I wish my brain was working and I took a picture of it, oh well.  It's seared in my memory. Lots of people came over and it was so fun catching up with her sisters and meeting new friends.

I had full blown morning sickness and Kendall got croup pretty bad so he just laid low a bit with me.  Okay, it was really bad.  Like he could not breathe scary bad and was panicking in the middle of the night.  I was trying to be calm but inside I was freaking out.  tons of steam treatments and Justin gave him a blessing. After a few nights he took a turn and began to get better.  I STRONGLY dislike croup. Despite all that was going on we still managed to have a blast!

Doug took everyone out on the boat and one day all the boys went to Top Golf.  We went to Organ Stop Pizza, which for my kids was equivalent to going to Disney Land, and ate while a man played every song you could imagine on the Organ.  A trip to Bahama Bucks sealed the deal for the kids to some day move there and all the adults went out with Kyle and Melissa to Zen Burger one night for dinner and milkshakes.

Three Months

hold him a little longer

rock him a little more

read him another story

you've only read him four

let him sleep on your shoulder

rejoice in his happy smile

he is only a 

little boy

for such a little while

A Secret for the Boys...

This pregnancy has been a bit tricky to keep a secret from the boys.  I have been pretty sick at night and at 8 weeks I knew I couldn't keep it from them any longer.

Justin and I went to the Doctor and got another ultrasound just to make sure everything was looking good.  We left with pictures and headed home to get things ready to tell them after they got home from school.

Mammy and Papa came over and we all hung out in the family room.

We played a little game on Mammy's phone where she got a bunch of noises and played them.

The first was a monkey, then a chicken, and an ocean.

Then a babies heartbeat...

The boys guessed a shark and a dishwasher.

It felt surreal.

We then told them that it was a babies heartbeat and they both thought it was theirs from when they were a baby.

No, it's in moms tummy....

That's when Nathan jumped up and asked screamed, "Are you PREGNANT?"

I nodded my head yes and they screamed and ran over hugging and kissing me and my belly for five minutes.  (The hugging and kissing of the belly had not actually stopped.  At 20 weeks I finally had to tell them they could only do it in private and no more at Costco and church. Haha!)

It was one of the happiest moments for this little Hillan family.

Giggles....

Both the boys are into abbreviating everything these days...

I picked tthem up from school and as we were walking home...

Nathan: "Hey mom, What's our A.S.S.?"
Me: "Your what?!!"
Kendall: "Our A.S.S.?"
Nathan: "You know, Our after school snack?"
Me: "Ohhhh, Let's call it your A.S. snack!"  Hahaha

We were reading scriptures and it was Kendall's turn:
1 Nephi 8:1
"And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also the seeds of fruit of every kind."
Kendall: "Oooooh, they are going to have a FEAST!!"

Six New Girls...

Chickens that is!

We knew that when we moved into a house that we wanted to give the boys some responsibility and try to teach them how to work differently than they had been used to.  

Work when it is not convenient or necessarily fun.

That is when the idea of getting chickens popped into our head... Plus the eggs would be a bonus.

We did lots of research.  We read books from the library, watched many you tube videos, and talked to several "chicken" owners.  

We decided on a coop from Costco that could hold 6 chickens.  The boys helped put that together and we waited for the right time to get the chickens.

We found a lady that worked at Murdochs that raised chickens until they were feathered out, about 3 months, and then she sold them.  One day we got a phone call and the lady and she told us that our chickens were ready.  We drove out to her farm and each picked some out.

When we got the box to the coop, we opened it to find the 6 little chicks all snuggled up ready for bed.

We placed them in their new home and Kendall said a prayer of survival for them that night.  

Since then our girls have been growing, and exploring and we have been learning!

The boys keep the coop extremely clean and the hens watered and feed.  They give them plenty of hen treats and love to hold them.

We love to watch them roam around the backyard and run up to us when the door opens.

These gals are happy!

A New Baby...

After Eight years we got the blessing of a lifetime.

A positive pregnancy test.

Many years my health was uncertain and Justin and I feared we would not be able to have any more children.

We had hoped and yearned and prayed for another baby but it seemed the Lord's timing was not ours.

I was making pancakes for dinner while waiting for Justin to come home from work.  As I flipped the pancakes, I decided to randomly run upstairs and take a "quick" pregnancy test.

I came back downstairs and plated the pancakes then ran back upstairs to throw the "negative" test away.

 I glanced down and saw TWO lines.  I began to shake.  I was overcome with every emotion you could go through for the next five minutes.

I immediately hit the floor and began to pour out my heart in gratitude.

I knew Justin would be coming through the door at any minute so I quickly got a pair of little baby boy infant shoes and placed it on our bed next to a little sign that said "Coming Soon."

When I heard Justin downstairs I called his name to come here.  I was in the bathroom pretending that everything was totally normal.  He came up and as if a magnet pulled him, he went straight to the new pair of little shoes.

He immediately got emotional.

 It wasn't just me on this trying journey but him as well. I was not the only one who dreamed of a new baby for years but him also.  He was by my side and experienced the same kind of emotional and mental pain.  Two steps forward one (or 500) step(s) backward- he had gone through it right there with me too.  We learned and overcame together and in turn our marriage and bond grew tighter and was strengthened because of many hard things.  It took me years to realize that hard things can actually turn into amazing blessings.

After asking me with tears streaming down his face, "Really?  Is this really?"

I shook my head yes and he then said, "We have to say a prayer!"

It was a day to remember and we couldn't be more thrilled to announce our little miracle due in December.

Happy ONE Year!!

We decided to have a party to celebrate the day we bought our new house last year.  We had all kinds of healthy snacks, balloons, and looked at lots of "before" pictures.

Such amazing memories have already been made within these walls and Papa and Dad have transformed this house into a happy home for our family.

I love the feeling here and hope each member of our family can make contributions to make it better and better each year.