Simply Hil

The other day was gorgeous here in Utah. To say we have had a mild winter would be an understatement. We have yet to have any "real" snow that actually sticks around longer than 12 hours. I, of course, am not complaining. Though I do love snow in limited quantities, it's not something that I long or wish for. Despite the mild winter I still find myself anxious for spring, and the other day we had a taste of it. "We're going to the park." I exclaimed. Tiny Man looked at me puzzled, he doesn't quite know the word "park" yet. Little Guy jumped up and down clapping his hands. I smiled and turned to Tiny, "Should we go?" Those three words he does know and he immediately took off towards his room. I followed him, watching his little body waddle from side to side while his short little legs led him along. He then found his shoes and nestled down into my lap for me to put them on for him. Tiny is very independent, but he knows his limi...

From the archives : Tiny Man enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons iPhone style in bed with daddy. This morning started early. Earlier than I normally like to be dragged out of bed at least. Tiny Man had gotten his legs stuck in the rungs of his crib and was not happy . When we got up to rescue him from the grasp of his crib we noticed Little Guy was already awake. Just standing there in the hallway. If only I could be a morning person like him. It made me think back to high school when I couldn't sleep past 8 o'clock if it killed me. 6:30 AM was my preferred wake up time. Then there was college. I worked a 6am to 4pm shift at a call center. This meant waking up as early as 4:30am most mornings. I believe it is safe to say that the day my first child was born was the day I no longer could call myself a morning person. My boys have fought sleep with all their might ever since they were born, which makes for a very tired mommy who despises mornings. After getting both o...

A double rainbow spotted somewhere between here and my parents house on our road trip a few years back. When I first started Hil's Blog it was meant to be a place where I could come and write about anything I wanted. It didn't really have much purpose behind it, except for providing a place for my recipes, thoughts and experiences to all mingle together. A year after starting this blog I discussed the topic of finding joy and four months after that I added it as my tagline . However, it wasn't until five short months after that when I would truly need to make a conscience effort to implement the task of finding joy on a daily basis.  Five months after adding that tagline to Hil's Blog, we lost our little Michael . When that happened, it felt as though all of the joy in my life had been sucked dry. Greif was thick and heavy and all consuming. There were days when it was a struggle to even breath through the heart ache. I turned to my blog as an outlet for my tho...

Sometimes it's the easy recipes that are the most amazing, am I right? A couple weeks ago I came across this super simple recipe. I decided to make it seeing how I already had most of the ingredients in my fridge. Once they were finished baking the instructions told me to wait until they were completely chilled before cutting into them. However, when they came out of the oven I couldn't resist the sweet, sugary aroma that consumed both nostrils and had to try just a taste. It was with that first taste that I knew I was a gonner. We have made these three times since and with each time we have had to find someone to share them with in order to save me from eating the entire pan. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars INGREDIENTS 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese 2 cans Crescent rolls 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon DIRECTIONS Using a 9 x 13 baking pan, unroll one package of cresc...

Last Friday I had one of those moments when time slowed down enough to feel as though it were standing still. My crazy, busy one year old (who is more of a monkey these days than a tiny man) fell asleep right next to me on the couch after a long day of fighting a nap. As he has never slept anywhere but his crib (I don't count his carseat because he has never slept longer than 15 minutes in it) it was quite the momentous occasion. I couldn't help but snap a quick phone shot to document this rare occurrence. I laid there breathing in his smell, listening to his deep breaths and sporadic sucks on his binky. I watched his little hand twitch ever so slightly and finally fall completely limp to his side. There is something about watching a child sleep that is so rewarding. It is then when they truly look like the sweet innocent angels sent down to bless your life on this earth. Every night in the last four years since Little Guy was born, Jer and I have snuck into the bo...

I've had some discussions with family and friends recently that have made me pause, want to rewind and regroup. In one of the conversations the topic was about kids and the addiction to electronics these days. My awesome sister-in-law pointed out the fact that the addiction comes from the parents. If your child sees you frequently in front of the computer, your phone, the television, etc. then that's what they think they need as well. I had probably subconsciously made that connection before, but it had never been verbalized for me until that moment. The very next day, my siblings were all sitting around on the couch, each with smart phones in hand and a basketball game on in the background. My one year old went around to each one of them trying to get a phone. When he was unsuccessful he started to cry. I distracted him with a toy and he soon forgot about wanting a phone to play with. To me, it was a confirmation to what my sister-in-law had just said the previous night. ...

A couple of years ago when we still lived in Idaho, one of our neighbors brought us homemade hot chocolate. I was in absolute awe of this, not realizing it was something that could be accomplished at home (duh). I made a point to ask her for the recipe knowing it would be a good thing for this hot chocolate lover to have. I never was able to corner her for the recipe and forgot about it once summer came. That is until the following winter when our neighborhood ladies put together a cookbook. When I received my book I'd be lying if I told you it wasn't one of the first recipes I searched for. Low and behold on page five of that book laid the very recipe I had been coveting for an entire year. This year (since we are in an entirely different state now) I decided to borrow her idea and give my new neighbors a taste of our Idaho Christmas.  I wanted to find a cute way to package it and after a few minutes on Pinterest I was inspired and came up with this: What do you think? Cut...