A Glorious Day!

The day we got our first egg....

We have been waiting for several months to see a chicken egg in our nesting box.

Kendall was in charge that evening of putting the chickens away and when he came in he was grinning from ear to ear!

He had the egg behind his back.  "Guess What?!"  And then he showed us the cutest brown speckled egg we had ever seen.

Soon after the other chickens started to lay but we couldn't eat any of the eggs for a little while until we had a little stockpile.  The boys wanted to constantly look at the beautiful eggs.

They are delicious!!

 

Back to School Carnival

Right before school started, the boys' dreams came true...

Aunt Martha put on an AMAZING surprise carnival.

The kids were downstairs at Mammy's house while she got it ALL ready. 

When they came upstairs the living room was transformed.  It was set up with tickets and prizes and games.  She and Uncle Todd had even dressed in costumes as carnival workers.

Glow in the dark toss, darts that popped balloons, guess what is in the box, cup stacking, and ladder bean bag toss to name a few.

So much work went into it and the boys were dying.

The next morning after breakfast they had part 2.  All the outdoor games!

The boy keep telling me that this needs to be a new back to school tradition.

Experiencing an Ultrasound

We took Nathan and Kendall to the "big" anatomy ultrasound where they check out the baby thoroughly.

It was the first time for them to see our squirmy little baby.  The first time to see their new brother. And the first time for them to see my belly for that matter.  Haha!

It was a sweet experience.  An instant bond was there and immediately we fell in love with that tiny miracle up on the screen.

Little fingers and toes.  A spine, skull, and wiggly arms and legs.  He even gave us a thumbs up!

This is what they thought about the experience:

Dad: "I felt an overwhelming sense of amazement, excitement, and love.  A lot of anticipation for when I get to see him and hold him."

Nathan: "This baby is the best baby , EVER!  How big is he going to be? This is definitely my brother!"

Kendall: "He is SO cute!  Wait?!  Is he going to be black and white?! He is SO cute! I want to kiss him right now! And hug him!"

Everything looked great and I was measuring a week ahead but they still wanted to keep my due date December 30th.

Clipping Chicken Wings...

We knew it was time to clip the chicken's wings when the girls' would appear in the front yard or end up at the neighbors.

Again, we watched some you tube videos, got a pair of scissors, and went to work.

The kids caught the chicken's and Justin showed us how to do it by pulling out their under layer or flying feathers.

It doesn't hurt them which is what we were all worried about.

Quick and painless and in a matter of minutes they were back roaming the yard.

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.