Simply Hil

Yesterday we buried our sweet baby Michael, just one day after he was born. We found out Thanksgiving day that he was no longer with us and went in for induction Friday morning. He was a perfect little boy with an unfortunate heart condition . We are so grateful to our Father in Heaven who has blessed us so much through this hard time. Our arms are empty, our hearts ache, but our blessings are abundant.

Today was rough. I started out this morning feeling down and it didn't help that I had absolutely nothing planned for the day to distract me from how I was feeling. Today was the first day I was without family and without anything to do. And it hit me hard. I started to lose it at one point and had to go take a shower so that my Little Guy didn't have to see me sob uncontrollably. It is interesting to me how emotional pain can hurt so much physically. Starting out the day that way is never any good, and I only continued to cry off and on throughout the day. One thing I have found that helps me get through days like today is thinking about how many blessings there are in my life. In honor of Thanksgiving being just around the corner, I thought I would join in with the rest of you and list the things I am grateful for. :: My Husband. The one who is always there to comfort me in his arms. The one who can always make me laugh. The one who provides for and loves our littl...

We had quite the whirlwind of a weekend. It all started on Wednesday when we met with the perinatologist. He took a look at our baby's heart and told us that he felt like the condition was severe enough that we needed to meet with a specialist from Primary Children's Medical Center as soon as possible. He called up his doctor buddy and was able to get us scheduled for an appointment on Friday afternoon. We left that office with a temporary diagnosis of something called Left Ventricle Hypoplasia. At this point we were still very hopeful that things would be okay after a few surgeries and recovery. When we met with our doctor at Primary Children's, they did a very extensive ultrasound of the heart (called an endocardiogram) and took TONS of pictures of our little baby's big heart. Once he was done looking at it, he asked us to meet him in a more comfortable room where we could talk. This was my first clue that something pretty serious was going on. My second cl...

I am now exactly half-way through my pregnancy... I think. There seems to be some confusion with my due date. My doctor and estimated date of delivery tell me I am 22 weeks along this Wednesday. However, when I had my ultrasound, they told me I was about a week and a half off which would put me at 20 weeks this past Sunday. I'm hoping when we have our other ultrasound this week that we will be able to tell which one is correct. :) I am still feeling great, no more morning sickness or heartburn. I am having a hard time falling asleep (thanks to the active little one in my belly) as well as staying asleep (thanks to crazy weird dreams with Michael Jackson preaching about life after death...). I can finally feel the little guy's kicks from the outside and can't wait for my husband and Little Guy to feel a nudge at just the right time. My mom comes into town tomorrow. I can't wait to spend the rest of the week with her. Little Guy is beside himself with excitement, ...

Today was a long day. I couldn't help but count down the minutes until the hubs would come home and take over... or at least help out. I never did get a break, I had forgotten about the meeting that he had tonight. So, after doing a quick dinner and putting the little man down to bed I got in my scrubs and pink fuzzy slippers, pulled out my new shiny magazine and warmed up a cup of hot cocoa. I'm ready to relax.

My sweet friend dropped off some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies one night and they were devoured in less than an hour (so yummy!). We were left wanting more, and decided to make some the next day. I started searching for my mom's recipe knowing that hers is always the best. I couldn't find it, panicked, calmed down and called her. Now I am sharing it with you! I had forgotten just how many cookies this recipe makes. Be forewarned! I think we counted over 80 cookies. I baked about half of them, and then froze the rest of them by dropping the dough balls into a tupperware. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies 1 1/2 c. shortening 4 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 large can pumpkin 2 pkg chocolate chips (or more) 1 T vanilla 7 1/2 c. flour 1 T nutmeg 1 T cinnamon 1 T baking soda 1 T baking powder 1 1/2 t. salt Instructions: Preheat oven to 375*F. In large bowl, cream together shortening, sugar and eggs. Add pumpkin and vanilla until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix ...

With Christmas just around the corner, I was excited to have discovered Amazon's Universal Wishlist. So excited in fact that I wanted to share it with you! The following is a short tutorial on how to use this awesome tool that allows you to add items to your Amazon Wish List from any website. Before we begin, you must first have an account with Amazon.com . Once your account is all set up and official, go to the "Get the Universal Wish List Button" page . It looks like this: As you can see here, it tells you to click on the button and drag it to your bookmarks bar in your browser. It will then ask you to name it. I named mine, Hil's Wish List. Next, all you have to do is start shopping. Once you find something you think would be a great idea for your husband/mom/dad/brother/sister/friend etc. to get you for Christmas, just click on your brand new sparkly button like so: After clicking on your "add to wish list" button, or in my case "Hil's Wis...