It’s my oldest sister birthday today. She turned 43! She’s old– lol

I had hoped to typed something about her but I have had one of thoughs days and I am tired now. I will see her tomorrow at Old Country Buffet between sessions. I am sure she’ll be so happy when my herd comes into the restaurant- all 8 of us!
When her kids were younger (Eric and Rachel) I helped out and now that my kids are younger she’s here to help me out.

Little did she know that I would be helping her out with her 2 children and she would be helping me out with my 6!

You gotta love sisters right?

Happy birthday my one and only chocolate covered peanut.  I want to eat you up!!

This is a quick update just in case I never get around to blogging about it:

Boys (even Drew) all got buzz cuts except Jack who got a trim.  I wanted him to buzz it but he wants LONG hair like a girl I say to him, lol

Zoey signed up to try out for track after much argument with her mother

Drew LOVES to put the  entire role of toilet paper down the toilet, yes he has done this more than once.  He likes to put all sorts of things down the toilet like tooth brushes, brushes, clothes, tissues, basically anything that’s on the counter or the floor. The kids keep forgetting to shut the door and make sure it “clicks” closed

Drew tried to shove a pen down Berkley’s mouth, then went to the corner and prayed.  I was on the phone with  Aunt Kristin she said Drew was probably  praying, saying”  Heavenly Father, please don’t let my mommy kill me, please don’t let her kill me..”

Nolan got a letter in the mail today from Gma Hill and was VERY EXCITED!

Lucas still hasn’t lost any teeth and is feeling sad because his cousin Brooklyn had lost 4.  His words “she is only 5 years old and I am 6!”  He’s  a bit jealous you think?

Berkley in the hospital  with RSV and Brocilitious.  We were in the hospital for 4 days before coming home.  That was hard.

Berkley got a tooth last week.  Yes it’s for real!!

Berkley is on a pretty good night schedule-  8-9pm–  5:30am.  Eats at 5:30 and sleeps until I wake her up around 8:30-9am.

Daniel got a raise and it sucked!  Our health insurance went up and so it basically covers that.  Oh wait,  now that I think about it, we are making less!  That super sucks!

I have been doing great exercising.  I am training for a 5k.  Feel good but no weight loss just yet

We might pierce Berkley’s ears soon

The older kids don’t watch too much TV anymore, pretty much only on weekends.   Drew does like to watch Barney when the kids are at school but the others,  not so much anymore.  That’s a good thing

yes, I am alive. Just a bit behind on blogging…

I decided to give Drew an M&M this morning after getting back from our errands. We went to get diapers at Target (also a bag of M&M’s). I also had to drop of a prescription at Walgreen.  When we walked into the house he went right for the diaper bag. I tried to hide them, hoping he would forget I put them there, but no such luck. He got them out of the diaper bag while I was bring in the bags. He was trying to rip the bag opened. I decided it would be better to help him by opening the bag and giving him one instead of him tearing it apart and eating the entire package.

I didn’t think he could get this messy. Well I was wrong. It’s amazing what a tiny piece of chocolate can do to a 1 year old little boy. I busted out the camera and took some snapshots of the creation he manage to get on his face in a few short minutes.

Every time I ask him to say “cheese” for the camera he does but his eyes are closed.

I should’ve given him an green M&M for St Patrick’s Day.  Oh well,l better luck next year.

Note: He is wearing green to celebrate this glorious holiday.

This is an email I wrote to a few of my friends last week.   One of my friends told me I should blog it, so I am..

Here’s the great email.

Ladies,

It was great to see you guys today.  I was glad I came. Drew needed to see other people and so did I. I need adult conversation, especially today.

Today is the dreaded WEDNESDAY for me.

This is the “homework from he!& day”. The kids come home with a ton of homework.

4 kids around the table all doing their homework at 4pm.  2 of them need to read out loud, the other 2 don’t want to hear reading out loud. All of them need me to help, or at least “mother” needs to be readily available to answer questions if they get stuck.  Usually the baby needs attention. And Drew, well Drew- he’s 1, need I say more…

They all come home needing to eat a snack because they are starving.  All the boys need to pee. They can barely get their stuff off as they run towards the bathroom trying to take each other out just to get there first.  After home work is done, its time for chores, which they complain about every day. After taking twice as long to do them because they have complained about the chores is dinner, and hopefully I haven’t burn anything.

Daniel usually walks in the door 6:15ish, we eat, or should I say shovel spaghetti down. Yes every Wednesday is spaghetti because its quick and easy. But I can screw that up to.  I have burned the garlic bread- yes it’s happened more than once!!

The Hills at the table—

The kids are all talking to him at once because they know they only have so much time before he leaves again. I usually sit at the opposite end of the table staring across at him, wanting to talk but I can’t. Why can’t I talk?  Because they are all Hughlett’s and so they are all just like me. They need to talk. There are no quiet meals at our house.  I don’t even know what that’s like.

Nolan needs to tell him about his latest invention,

Lucas needs to talk about how someone hurt his feelings at school,

Zoey needs to talk about how very violin is too small, or how I wouldn’t let her hang out with her friends, or whatever dramatic teenage girl talks about,

Jack is freaking out about how something is due tonight for scouts and he can’t find his scout shirt and book.

Drew just wants daddy to hold him so he is usually crying in his high chair. Holding a kid and trying to eat is quite funny to watch I must say

As for Berkley she is usually sleeping (thank goodness)

After we eat the grub I made, Daniel hands over Drew, who is hysterically crying because he wants his daddy.  We walk to the window and wave goodbye. And then he drives away off into the sunset with the 2 oldest kids, Zoey and Jack-my 2 helpers. I want to cry but that just takes time so instead I turn around look at the tornado that hit my house, take a deep breath and walk down the hallway to start on baths.

The good thing about today is I can usually get Drew, Nolan and Lucas in bed by 7:30.  After they are all snuggled in, I walk back down the hallway and through the kitchen that is a complete disaster, to the family room to my baby. We sit on the couch and stare at the messy kitchen, I don’t know what she is wishing but I am wishing I had a maid to clean it up.  And then I remember I do have a maid- IT’S ME!!!! How lucky am I? Sometimes I clean it and sometimes I just sit there and do nothing, absolutely nothing….

A piece of advice to all mother’s without school aged children just yet.  Remember these 2 things:

1. Do not try to call a mother between 4-8pm on a weekday.  Our lives are just crazy!
2. Definitely no drive by’s just to say HI. A mother of school aged children is not allowed to sit and relax between the hours of 4-8pm, let alone chit chat.

If you come to my house, you will probably be helping out with homework, fixing my dinner, feeding my baby, changing a diaper, breaking up a fight, helping out with chores, or cleaning up a 1 year old mess (because he was left alone for 2 minutes while you helped another with homework)

I promise that one day when this is happening to you, you will think of me and laugh. If you aren’t laughing, call me and I can talk you through it

Wednesday are totally crazy, stressful, and tiresome.  Pretty much every Wednesday I wake up tired.  You guys saw me today, I was looking rough!!  The only thing that gets me through it is to laugh.

I often think what Joseph B Wirthlin said in the closing of one of his talks—

“Although my mother has long since passed to her eternal reward, her words are always with me. I still remember her advice to me given on that day long ago when my team lost a football game: “Come what may, and love it.” I know why there must be opposition in all things. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love it.

As we look for humor, seek for the eternal perspective, understand the principle of compensation, and draw near to our Heavenly Father, we can endure hardship and trial. We can say, as did my mother, “Come what may, and love it.””

Ladies, have a wonderful afternoon.  I am glad I was able to talk to each one of you today…

Senta

PS-  Emily you are looking especially beautiful today.  You  look super gorgeous today on your due date!!

My Sister Sarah is currently attending BYU-Idaho where she is majoring in Broadcast Journalism.  In one of her classes, the Professor is having a contest to see who can get the most traffic on there Media Blog, and there Podcast sites.

If you have time, please visit the following sites, daily…or even hourly, what ever you can manage.

Blog: http://sporksister.blogspot.com

Podcast: http://sporksister.podbean.com

The following is one of the high caliber reports that you will be able to view by visiting Sarah’s Blog site

Gosh I love this thing.  I hope the person who invented this thing is living the high life and enjoying every minute of it.   I bought this for Drew and it was well worth my money.   Everyday that Berkley sits in it is just a bonus for me.   I love being able to put the Miss B  in the seat and make dinner.  She is up and looking around.  Drew was the same way.  I think this is one of those items that you save even after your kids have grown out of it for when visitors come.

Drew likes to talk to Berkley when she is in it too.  It’s so cute!!

The time: July 2005.

The place:  Westwick Drive, in Wayne.

We had just went camping to Higgins Lake up north in Michigan.

We walked into our house completely exhausted, smelly, the kids were tired, and we were tired.  On the way up to camp that year, Jack threw up in the car. So day #1 of camping I spent the majority of the day in the laundromat cleaning laundry..  I hate laundry and was not looking forward to all the loads of laundry a family of 6 has at the end of a camping trip.

Okay onto the memory I want to blog about–

When we walked through the doors we started to put everything in the living room.  After dropping off my first load I noticed “white spots all over my house.  I mean all over.  I walked back outside to tell Daniel to come check it out. When we walked back inside we noticed some noise from the basement.  We were both puzzled.  Then all of the sudden he said “I bet it’s a bird”  I was like, no way.

He was right. There was a bird in our house the entire 5 days we were gone away camping.  This bird somehow got inside and flew all over the place, including the upstairs in bedrooms, bathroom, and basement.  We had a bunch of food in the basement and the bird munched on it the entire time we were gone.

Our house was a complete disaster.  I sat and just stared. I couldn’t do anything.  I was so angry, so very angry!  Daniel knew I was going to freak out so he sent me over to my sister house.  I went over there and told them the crazy story.  Their family laughed. She let me stay for an hour or so and then I went back home to deal with it.  When I got back to my house, the majority of the mess was gone. Daniel had sent the kids outside and cleaned it up.  To give you all an example of what my house looked like (mainly the bathrooms and floors) here’s an example photo-

I have such an awesome husband for letting me just “leave because he knew I wasn’t handling it well at all. My only regret is not taking photos of the mess.  That’s one year I will never forget!

Caramel Apple Pork Chops

* 4 (3/4 inch) thick pork chops

* 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

* 2 tablespoons brown sugar

* salt & pepper (for taste)

* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

* 2 tart apples – peeled, cored and sliced

* 3 tablespoons pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C). Place a medium dish in the oven to warm.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush chops lightly with oil and place in hot pan. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes,  turning occasionally, or until done. Transfer to the warm dish, and keep warm in the preheated oven.

3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, salt and pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add butter to skillet, and stir in brown sugar mixture and apples. Cover and cook until apples are just tender. Remove apples with a slotted spoon and arrange on top of chops. Keep warm in the preheated oven.

4. Continue cooking sauce uncovered in skillet, until thickened slightly.

Spoon sauce over apples & chops. Sprinkle with pecans.

Today my chocolate covered peanut older sister, Tamara, took some of her nieces and nephews to the movie.  They are reading the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”  Last Friday, the movie came out for book #1 (The Lightening Thief).  So the great Aunt that she is decided that who read the book could go see it with her.   My kids were so excited!

look at that good looking group

Lucas and I decided to have a date of our own.  After we dropped off Nolan, Jack, and Zoey, he and I went to Wendy’s and ordered Frosty’s, fries, and chicken nuggets. I ordered fries to dip into my frosty and he ordered chicken nuggets to dip into his frosty.  We sat and talked while we ate.  After that, we headed to ALDI’s to get a few groceries.  Lucas was so excited to put in the quarter, walk through the store and help fill up the cart, and I even let him choose a few items to buy.  I was happy I could walk through the grocery store without and children fighting!!

It was a great day with my boy.   I am so glad we could have this alone time together. For years he was the “baby” of the family and he loved that role. In a matter of 13 months I gave birth to 2 babies.  He was booted out from being “the baby” like that.  He probably didn’t even know what hit him.  Now he’s a middle child.  As some middle children say he stuck in the middle, feeling lost, alone and neglected..   I wanted to make sure he knew that even if we have had some craziness in our home this past 14 months I still love him and he’ll always be my favorite child named Lucas.

what a cute boy

I love you Lucas!  You are the best!!