Simply Hil

You requested belly shots, I delivered. I missed week 13/14, due to being pre-occupied with a baby and a wedding . It's crazy to me how fast my belly is growing this time around. I can't wait to see what it will look like 25 weeks from now! I have already switched over to maternity pants for the comfort factor. I think I tried to wait until the very last possible moment with my last pregnancy, but just don't care with this one. It's all about being comfy folks! I go tomorrow for my 15 week doctor check up. Can't wait to hear the flutter of the little heartbeat inside. I think we also get to schedule the big ultrasound where we find out if we get to buy lots of pink or hand down all our blue.

I have been designing blogs for quite sometime now, and have just recently decided to dip my toes into print work. I'm not lying when I say that the whole thought of it scares me to death. There are so many different factors that come into play. What if it shows blue on your computer, but prints off purple? What about those margins and crop lines? Where is the best place to print them? What kind of paper should it be printed on? It literally gives me a headache. Luckily, my sister-in-law Hannah was able to help walk me through it. She was a huge help! I would rather just stick with my digital designs where I know what I see is what my clients get. Who knows, maybe if I continue doing print jobs here and there I will get more comfortable with it and not cringe at the thought of it. I thought I would share a few of my latest designs, in honor of receiving my sister's wedding invitation in the mail last week. I was finally able to see the finished product!

It is interesting how the brain seems to block out any bad thing related to pregnancy and child birth. I think it happens for a reason, otherwise most people would only ever have one child. These past 13 weeks I have been refreshed on all things pregnancy. With my first child, I really don't remember ever being that sick. I know I felt a little queasy every now and then in the evenings, but usually would just go to bed and wake up feeling fine the next day. However, when I talk to other family members, they inform me that I was pretty sick the first few weeks. My mind must have blocked that out. All I know, is I don't remember ever being as sick (or exhausted for that matter) with that first pregnancy as I am with this one. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am no longer going to school or working full time like I was with Little Guy. That gave me something to take my mind off of how I was feeling. Instead, I am home all day long with a toddler trying t...

Today I had my first makeover ever. I know, sad right? I even did my own makeup for my wedding . Anyway, a lady in T.J. Maxx stopped me and used the ol' "Your eyes are beautiful, I would love to have you in my portfolio" pick up line. I was a sucker for any sort of compliment that day and set up a time for her to come over and show me how to beautify myself. She showed up at my house with 4 big bags full of makeup. It really put my miniature makeup bag with all but 4 items in it to shame. She proceeded to show me how to do the "smokey eye" look, which was a big change from my still-the-same-since-7th-grade makeup routine. She was very talented and very nice. She even put up with my almost-two-year-old as he climbed up on the counter, went through her things, emptied my spices all over the place, got out every cooking utensil in the kitchen, etc. etc. Bless her for being so patient! By the end of the makeover I not only had a lot of makeup on, but I felt...

So, one of the (many) mistakes I have made as a mom so far is not introducing milk to my toddler in a sippy cup often enough while he was on the bottle. This means when we got rid of bottles, he refused to drink milk any other way. Which further means he doesn't drink milk. I know how important milk is for a growing body to be healthy so I tried all sorts of tricks to get him to drink milk from a cup. None of those tricks worked until I pulled out my last trick. It like to call it stretching the truth, but in actuality it is lying. Here's the deal, I noticed that if I said "drink your milk" he wouldn't even try what was in the cup. After talking to my mom about the situation, I took her advice and went out and got some flavored milk. She is a genius and thought that maybe if it didn't taste like milk, he would drink it and we could all be happy because he was getting his calcium and all that good stuff. I first tried chocolate milk, thinking he would LOV...

It's that time of year again, when grocery store aisles are packed with all sorts of chewy, chocolatey, sugary sweets. I couldn't be more excited. I must explain the intensity of my sweet tooth before going any further on this subject. I did some intense family history research and discovered that I have relatives with sweet tooth's on both sides of the family. I really have no chance, since we all know it is hereditary... On that note, I love roaming the aisles and "buying candy in preparation for Halloween". At least, that's what I tell my husband. In all reality, we haven't had even one trick or treater in the two years we have lived here. Every year I turn into my mom and create a candy drawer where Halloween candy is stashed. I usually have to refill it several times before Halloween actually comes, but we'll pretend I didn't just tell you that. Oh, and I won't mention that I have already eaten an entire bag of Laffy-Taffy. Today ...

(AP photo) My whole life I have been kind of thrown into liking college football. I came from a home where we watched practically every BYU football game that was ever broadcasted on t.v. We even went to several of their games and made great memories by doing so. Now that I am married, I am once again thrown into it. However, I think at this point in my life I don't have to be forced to like it. Yesterday as 5:00 PM approached, I was more antsy to get home and turn on the game than my husband was. It was the first BYU game of the season, and it was a big one. They were playing the 3rd ranked team in the country, Oklahoma. The kicker (no pun intended)? It was on ESPN. We didn't get a single BYU game last year due to them switching channels on us. So the fact that it was on a channel that we get was a huge deal. I couldn't help but have butterflies in my stomach from pure giddiness as I watched my first college game of the year. The best part? I could feel a nice ...

Here is the recipe to the Peaches N' Cream pie from the post below . I had plenty of requests and decided to not be lazy any longer. The props go out to my mom. She is the one who invented this heavenly pie. She has also agreed to let me share it (thanks mom!). Lucky you. Enjoy! Peaches N' Cream Pie 2 baked 9-inch pie shells (I just use the pre-made Pillsbury stuff. It may not be grandma's recipe, but trust me, you won't be disappointed.) Basic Cream Pie Layer (from Lion House Classics): 1 quart milk 2 cups half and half 2 tablespoons butter 3/4 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla Reserve up to 1 cup milk to mix with cornstarch. Place remaining milk in top of double boiler; add half-and-half, butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Cook until butter is melted and milk is scalded. In bowl, whisk egg yolks well, add 1/2 cup sugar and salt and whisk very well. Slowly add egg mixture to hot milk mixture, stirring consta...