The Season

Eggnog, Christmas music, sleeping in. Here we come Christmas yipee!! I need to pace myself though, last year I was almost sick of Christmas festivities come January 1st. Almost. So this year I'm only allowing this nonsense on the weekends, maybe until my birthday (Dec. 13th, take note and buy gifts). The other five days a week it's regular cream in the coffee and no Christmas music. Although who would say no to sleeping in if the option was there? Today my kids slept 'till nine!!! How did I get that lucky? It's crazy I know.
I have allowed myself to do some Christmas prep, mostly just 'cause I'm crazy and obsessed. I started making a Christmas quilt. Here's a picture of the squares cut out. Just a bunch of cheap stuff from Fabricland. This was mainly for practice, but I'm starting to really like it. We started watching the Lost series on DVD, so now I'll have a cozy quilt to cuddle up with (and our awesome fake fireplace yay) Here's the kids and hubbie in front of the "fire" one blissful sleep-in morning. Here's a picture of the house we're framing next door to us. This is what Matthew does in real life, when he's not here feeding the baby or listening to Christmas music. He also started playing soccer again this year, exciting. I haven't gone to a game yet, they always start late, I'll have to just suck it up and get a babysitter someday.




Here's some quick pictures of the stupid baby blankie I finally conquered. I just couldn't figure out what to do with this, took it out a million times, then finally figured it out as I was falling asleep one day. And of course it was so simple. So here's Owens, and an girlie one I made for my friends baby. I think this will be the standard baby gift from now on. Sorry to ruin the surprise Linds;-)


Well I'm feeling pretty nauseous for some reason, so I'm gonna go eat some real food. Speaking of which that's another Christmas season thing I love, food, right now it's mainly citrus fruit. We don't eat it until nowish, and then it's such a treat. Today it's grapefruit, yum! I'm trying to clean and organize today and take a break from sewing. It's hard.

Grandpa's Plaids and other things

This post is a tribute to finished projects. Finishing things is a very big deal for me and must be celebrated. I never finish things. I haven't celebrated the finished bassinet here yet (I have on facebook in Owens baby album). So here's my little cuties with the finished product. The condensed story of this bed is this: While pregnant with Katelyn 3 or so years ago I saw this picture of this 400$ bed. Naturally I really wanted it, and naturally I wanted to make it instead of fork over the money. My wonderful husband did his part right away, cut out the wood and had it all ready. I bought the fabric and got together with my wonderful sewing friend Marilyn, but got stuck so I didn't finish it. Then when I was pregnant with Owen the plan was revived. It wasn't actually completely finished until after he was born. But now here it is and I'm hoping he can use it for as long as possible.

Ok, another finished project: Corryn's quilt. I think I told you about this a couple posts ago. So here it is all finished, I gave it to her last weekend. Considering I'm not a huge fan of different plaids this turned out pretty good. I like the pattern, it's an Amy Butler one. I saw the picture of this quilt but again, didn't want to actually buy the book with the pattern in it, so I just drew it up on graph paper. I think I'm always going to do that, it works well. Is that breaching any copy right laws? I hope not.


So now I'm starting new stuff:-) Sydney and Katelyn get to be flower girls next month and Shari and I are making the dresses. So that's one project. It's a simple pattern but apparently I'm a sewing reject and totally can't figure it out. I'm learning a lot, mostly patience. Don't want to give anything away on that though, so I'll post pictures after the wedding.
The other project is Owens quilt. I feel like I'm really doing stuff I like now. I got all this fabric on Etsy. I'm waiting for this fabric to fill in these blank spots in the picture. Hopefully that link up there worked so you can look at the picture if you so care to. Here's his quilt so far, can't wait to start sewing it together!! This poor boy plays on my childhood strawberry shortcake quilt, he needs something a little more boyish.


So with that, I'm outta here, I have some sewing to do. Needless to say my house is feeling very neglected lately. In fact the laundry got so bad Matthew was driven to do a few loads last night. Good method for getting out of laundry eh? But of course I have time to spruce up our fake fire place:-) It's not actually a fake fireplace. It's gas with fake logs. It's pretty cheesy to me, but still nice to have. I just like real logs that actually burn. Someday, someday.....
In other news I've had a headache for three days, I think it's a pinched nerve or something. That and the fact that there was only half a cup of coffee left by the time I got to it today, and it was cold. Boo. It's a good thing I have a sweet cuddly girl on my lap right now, otherwise I might be grumpy or something.

Some Things I Care About:

supporting local growers
healthy eating
chemical free cleaning
the three R's
being a responsible citizen
sharing what we have in order to build relationships (ex: lawnmower, why do we ALL have one???)
reteaching society what's right (from body image to money and everywhere in between)
supporting small businesses (boo Walmart)
growing food for ourselves
voting and being informed
basically just thinking about others more than ourselves. These are things that I think about more and more lately, and I'm sure I could add to the list if I sat here longer. As Christians especially we have a responsibility. Thats all for today, just me thinking out loud. More fun stuff soon. I started Owens quilt yay!

Sweet Life

Life is in one of those places right now. One of those sweet places that I hope everyone has once in awhile. Every thing clicks and feels right and I'm thankful for the smallest moments. I love finding myself here. I can't say it's any one thing, it's just the combination of everything going on right now.



I found eggnog at Costco last night. I'll be drinking my coffee with eggnog until January, yay! This is the coffee mug I got when I went to see my sis this summer. In the background of this pic is the sugar bowl from my childhood. Felicia wasn't impressed that I got it, just wait until it's time to hash out the piano. These are the projects I've been finishing. I took that quilting class a couple weeks ago. I did this baby quilt for that class. So this isn't a pattern I'd normally use, but I learned a lot by doing it. I really don't like the batting I used for either of these. It doesn't drape at all. The purple plaid one has a story behind it. My grandma gave me left over fabric from making shirts for grandpa. Corryn, my cousin, is sentimental and was Grandpas favorite, in a good way. So I made this quilt for her and put the solids in to try to tone down the plaids a bit. I'm giving it to her this weekend, so hopefully she doesn't read my blog;-) And in the plaid quilt picture you can see my awesome old school sewing machine. It's done many miles for me the past couple weeks. It's my best friends these days. I'm so excited to get these out of my way so I can start on Owens quilt. I decided on a pattern for his, but then changed my mind. I'll post on his quilt in the next couple days. He's awake and mad so I gotta cut this short.

Cuties and Recent Projects

In my last post I mentioned I would take a day off the computer. I did only take one day, even though my lack of attention to my blog makes it seem I've been away longer. All that crafty blog surfing payed off. I have been so inspired lately, and yes definitely found the pedal to my sewing machine. We have become good friends that machine and I. I've taken it apart and cleaned it and learned all of it's tweaks. I took a quilting class last week, I'll post pictures later of the little project I did. I've been dreaming up all kinds of projects. My favorite site lately is Purl Bee which also has some good links here Another good one is this blog with a lot of nice quilts. For someone who hasn't even finished a quilt yet, I have a pretty long list of quilts to make. I'm starting with two, one for each kid. I got my fabric from Etsy this week to get started.





This is what I've gotten so far (for fabric). I found this adorable and super easy pattern for a skirt. It took less than an hour to make it. I didn't actually like this green stuff for the quilt it was supposed to go with, so a skirt it is:-) Oh, and she is wearing a diaper again this week, yay! I'm a potty training failure:-) I just really needed to step back from this whole endeavor. The annoying thing is, she was doing SO well. I would say she was completely potty trained for two weeks. Then on Monday she started... well you know. Lets just say it was messy and I was very very angry. So now I like her again and we'll try this again in a few weeks.




Owens just such a little squishy lovey baby. I just can't get enough of this kid. I love this stage so much, it's the best. Minus the mashed food. Although he does look pretty cute with carrot mash all over him when he's grinning from ear to ear. Big gummy orange smiles. No teeth yet, yay! No crawling either, and not too much rolling across the room or anything. I'm in no hurry for him to grow up, it's going to fast as it is. He was six months last week!
I'm loving autumn so much this year. I've been snuggling up with candles and.... I'd like to say a book, but just the computer these days. I made stew. I'm planning quilts. I bought snow pants. Those are my winter preparations.


This is our view of the pond now. We moved around the corner from our old house, but we can still see it out our side windows. We don't back on to houses here either and that's really nice. Matthew and my Dad are framing a house next door which we will most likely move into once it's done. So if anyone wants to be our neighbours in a few months just buy our house:-) I'm so freaking excited about this new house (the one being framed). More on this later. My hubbie is messing with my candles, I must intervene.

Taking a Break

That's right, I'm going to take a break. I've been wasting a lot of time on the computer lately. I just browse wonderfully crafty websites to get ideas and inspiration. So tomorrow I'm not going on the computer at all. Who knows what I'll do with all the time. Maybe I'll even find the pedal to my sewing machine! If I don't find it tomorrow I'm probably going to buy a new machine. I just want a really basic inexpensive one. Any suggestions would be great. I just figure when I pay for a new pedal and getting this old thing serviced, I'm almost spending the amount of a new machine anyways.





I realized that Owen was getting gypped in the picture department. Here's one when he's just waking up, and another where he's thinking "what the heck is that silver thing, and where my momma?" And I stripped Dean and Annettes crab apple tree to make crab apple jelly, yum! I got this scale from my Grandma, I love it!
Our "LTG" groups started tonight. I'm pretty excited to just go deep with these girls and get to know God in a real way. I feel like this fall is a new beginning, a fresh start for our church group. Things have been pretty quiet and relaxed this summer. We are all excited to just get going, to get out there and love people.

Oh and my hubby bought me flowers today. I like him. A lot.

Real Life

I can take criticism. Someone pointed out that by reading my blog people will hate me. Ok, fine. That someone read aloud certain sentences in a VERY mocking tone. So I thought I would devote this post to them and others that may feel the same way. I never wanted to portray myself as perfect, if people came to that conclusion well then hey. Haa ha. No seriously though, I'm normal and to prove it here's my house on a typical day.







Laundry everywhere. A blanket for a window covering. Dishes, diapers, and dirt. Yup, that's my life. So don't fall into the trap of believing that I, or others, are amazing 'n all that. Even though I canned a lot doesn't mean I'm super wife/mom. Quite the contrary actually. My house, kids, and hubby were a little neglected during these last two weeks.
In other news, the potty training is going MUCH better than last week. No poop on the floor, yay! Also, my cousin and family are moving here today from B.C. I'm SO excited about this (and not just because they have cute kids). Owen is loving his baby mash, and slept through the night again last night, yay! Lot's of 'yay's' today. Oh perhaps the most exciting 'yay' of all: I got fabric in the mail today!! I'm making a quilt for Katelyn. I have to take a class 'cause I have no clue what I'm doing and I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to sewing. I'm still waiting for a bit more fabric, some inspiration, and a pattern. Then I'll get started. We'll see if this is a project that actually gets finished:-)




P.S. Does anyone know how to unexport my blog to facebook? Right now every time I update here it gets sent to facebook, but I want to undo that and can't figure out how. Stupid Facebook.

So Close

I'm nearly done my crazy canning kick. I've been canning for 8 days. I have one flat of tomatoes and less than a box of peaches to go.

Today I made jam. Every few minutes I sneak to the fridge and take another spoon full, YUM!! I desperately need to be done this craziness. I have a headache and my muscles ache and I have zero train of thought, not to mention my poor neglected kids. I'm trying to potty train Katelyn in the midst of all of this. And of course Owen decided to start eating solid foods this week too. The best part about that is that I get to sit down for 20 minutes three times a day:-) To answer my question about thawing from my last post: I keep about three days worth of food in the fridge. For each meal I put a bit in a bowl, which I then put in another bowl of hot hot water and leave it for a few minutes. Like a double boiler kinda, only... never mind you get the point.
Did I mention that I'm trying TRYING trying to potty train Katelyn? She just pooped on the floor. Yup, that's my big girl. Seriously!!! I was not impressed. I need to just take the time to work with her on this. She's so smart and she could be ready. I just need to teach her better. I posted a funny video on youtube. My name on there is hollhil. If you just type hollhil into the search line you can see all my videos. Anyways, watch and enjoy.
Ok, Owens done eating, breaks over. Two posts in one week yay! I'll try to keep it up!

I Love Autumn

I love autumn, but why does it have to be so busy!?! I always say how much I want to be a farmer, and I do, but I can't imagine all the work that would come with it. I already feel so busy. This morning I slipped my bare feet into my rubber boots and stepped into the deliciously crisp fall air. Mmm, I'm not ready for summer to be over, but nothing compares to that wonderful feeling of cool air. It's been so cold here already I've been covering my garden for weeks now! As soon as I get the chance I plan to just bring everything in and call it quits. I'm hoping my tomatoes will still have the chance to ripen a bit though. We were in the Okanagan last week for holidays. We love love love going and hope to go every year. In saying that though we really need to enjoy summer here more, it goes by so fast. I was away a lot this summer. I spent a week in Calgary with the girl friends. Then I flew down to San Diego for a super long weekend to visit my sister. Then Okanagan for a week with the fam. So I really felt the summer go by fast. Next summer I'm sticking close to home, my garden, and some good camping spots. Anyways, we brought back tons of fruits and veggies and I'm still dealing with them! I've been canning every day for a week now. I only have a bit more salsa and some jam left, then I'm done yay! It's been fun though, and so satisfying filling our shelves for the winter. To me there's nothing quite like it. Having a meal on the table and knowing that I ordered the seeds, planted them, nurtured them, harvested, and then prepared the meal. I just can't wait until I can grow everything instead of depending on the farmers markets etc.
Other things that have been occupying my mind? Fabrics. Glorious, beautiful, and oh so addictive! I've been dreaming up so many projects. I'm going to take a quilting class, and from there the possibilities are endless! Last year it was knitting, now it's quilting. I'll definitely be posting pictures as I go along.
I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, I really need to get to bed. Owen has been waking up early. He's showing signs of being ready for solids. I wanted to hold off as long as possible. I HATE this stage of mashed food. I do big batches and freeze it in ice cube trays. I hate thawing it, does anyone have suggestions? It takes forever. (p.s. I don't use microwaves, it's a long story) Anyways, I'm not looking forward to this stage. Maybe I can teach Katelyn how to feed him, ha ha that'd be even messier than it already is. I gave him banana mash today and he loved it. I'll probably make rice mash for him this week. When Katelyn started solids I ground brown rice in my coffee grinder and then cooked that for about 15 minutes. Mix it with some mommy milk, and the consistency and taste were pretty ok, I mean for a baby. Ok, you can tell I'm getting tired, sorry for the rambling. Goodnight.
P.S. Could I just complain about blogger for a sec? Why do they make it so hard to arrange your photos within your text? I wanted three pictures lined up side by side. Tomatoes in the field, tomatoes in a box in my sunny kitchen, and the canned tomatoes. I added them and then they end up all over the place and look retarded. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just click and drag them wherever you want? Argg

Some Videos

New Nephew, David James

Tim and Aria had their baby last night yipee! He was about 10 days early. He was 7 lbs 5 oz and I think 20 inches long. I went to see him this morning and heres the pictures especially for the proud grandparents, Larry and Judy.

Videos

Just to let you all know that I uploaded some videos onto youtube. Search using hollhil, Katelyn Hildebrant, or Owen Hildebrant and you should find them. Theres three new ones, enjoy. I love my kids. They let me sleep 'till 9:30 today!! We've been putting Katelyn to bed late 'cause theres so much to do during summer. Owen still gets up twice in the night, but is only up 30 to 40 min each time. Life is good for a mom who sleeps:-) Life is good. God is good. We've been learning and trusting. Ciao for now

More Owen Pics

Hello hello, I know it seems like it's been forever, but that's only because you all want updates on the cutest little boy. He's doing good. Babies don't sleep as much as you might think. I was so spoiled for the first three weeks of his life and now I'm facing up to real life. Tuesday was the worst. We felt like we were getting colds and Katelyn was still getting over a cold. Owen started getting gassy and we didn't get ANY sleep monday night. All this combined made for a very hard day. Today I feel a little more adjusted. I still wear sweat pants a lot and sleep whenever I can. Someday I might be normal again. Although I am still addicted to puzzles on line, how lame! Of all the things I can do with my time, that's the least appealing, and yet.... somehow, it's just so tempting. That and chocolate, which I've also been spending too much time with. Ok, I'm making supper (not really, just warming up leftovers that someone else made us). So heres the pictures!
Update: sorry about the picture link not working, my facebook albums are private now. If you want to see them and aren't on facebook let me know.

Baby Owen!

Here he is! Owen James born March 25th at 1:05pm. He was 6lbs9oz 20"long. Everything went great. We're all doing very well. He's such a content baby. I'm feeling great, although at this moment I'm really tired, so I'll be off to bed now, ciao!

So Many Changes

We sold our house! We're having a baby in hopefully less than 23 days! I have a sudden ounce of motivation! All very big news in my life. Now I'll expand on those.
Matthew just recently finished a house around the corner which we will be moving into. Then he'll start building the house right next door to us, so that's what will keep us busy for the next however long. We don't have to move until May 2nd, which is really good considering the baby is due April 5th!
I'm feeling so excited and as ready as I'll ever feel for this baby. Matthews parents are coming for Easter (very end of March) so wouldn't it be cool if number 9 came to see them a bit early? In Matthews words, this baby is already very much a part of the fam. Katelyn understands pretty well whats going on, which is good considering her age 'n all. I've been making a bassinet (which I started when I was pregnant with Katelyn and never finished) I'll post pics when it's done. Getting stuff like this done makes the baby feel so much more real (for Katelyn especially).
I've been done work for a few weeks now. Definitly keeping busy though. Made hundreds of perogies last week. Katelyn is SO fun right now. She's talking so much and just really fun to watch. I love seeing the world through her eyes, just watching her connect ideas and thoughts. Funny funny. She basically pretends to be me. Right now she has her teddy "eating lunch" in the highchair while she sweeps the floor, which is one of her favorite things to do. She also likes to play in her kitchen and play with her dolls. So you see, it's pretty much what I do all day, just a smaller version of it. She's still a good sleeper, which I need as I've been SO tired! And now I'm off to make some supper. And that about sums it up! I'll keep you posted on this baby, can't wait!