Classic Hilton's

And I do mean that literally! I still don't know quite how it happened, but regardless, the England- Ostrander- Hilton community grew in numbers yesterday as w e welcomed Darla, an 8 week old pug to our busy little world. It took her all of two minutes to wrap every one of us around her little paws! My favorite part of watching our three dogs interact is how similar they are to my three children. I don't normally like to compare my kids to animals, but the resemblances are striking!  Darla and Madi are the adorable, engaging babies. They must be coddled and cuddled, and frequently find themselves the center of attention.  Achilles and Brooklyn are the patient first-borns. They know how to behave and can interact with minimal instruction.  Grayson and Piper...sigh...the toddlers. They are busy, rambunctious, and in need of constant supervision!  Together they add spice and laughter to our lives!

Christmas this year was a blast! I'll go ahead and say it...it was the best Christmas of 2012!! ;0) First, we all ended up sick, except for Mom, though I promise we tried our hardest to infect her! Madi and Grayson both ended up with a stomach virus that gave them round the clock bouts of diarrhea (this also gave Madi a very angry diaper rash!), on and off fevers over the course of a few days, and all around crankiness. Brooklyn, Ray, and I now have head colds.  Even so, we've had fun.  Brooklyn and Ray sang in the Christmas Eve service, which was so beautiful! I think the Christmas Eve service may be my favorite service of the year. We came together and we worshiped. We glorified the Lord in song and readings. It was loud and a little chaotic and people kept shuffling little ones and in and out (because their little bodies can only handle so much!), but we were all together for that one beautiful purpose. To acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The e...

If I'd pushed a little harder to get our Christmas letter out, this is what it might have said... Merry Christmas! What a wonderful year it has been for the Hilton's! God has continued to grow our family, first with the addition of Achilles, a six year old Peekapoo that we rescued in April. He is very much the fourth child in our home.  what's that? Fourth child? Last year you only had two! How do you now have four?! Yes, indeed, we added another baby to our family in 2012! Our dear, sweet Madilyn was born in June. At six months old, she is a healthy, happy addition to our home.  We are all enjoying watching her little personality emerge. She is sweet, engaging, mellow, and all smiles all the time!  Grayson, getting closer to two by the minute, continues to establish himself as the BOY of the family. He delights us on a regular basis with his ever expanding grasp of communication and language, and there is not a single surface in the house that he will n...

I'm pretty sure when I look back on these days I will remember them idyllically: peaceful, filled with laughter, everyone getting along... I won't remember the thirty minutes it takes just to get everyone buckled in the car, or the forty five minutes before that, where I'm pulling everything together to be ready to go out!  I won't remember that Grayson hits his sister or that Brooklyn aggravates her brother or that Madi is sitting quietly in the hall, forgotten again!  I will remember that Brooklyn loves planning - making lists, knowing the details, and being involved in every aspect of the event that she can be.  I will remember that Grayson makes us LAUGH  with his demands for attention and attempts to communicate. I will remember that Madi smiles with her whole body. 

I'm a little shocked by how poorly I documented the day with photos. From the looks of it you'd think it was all about the food! Ive also run out of free photo storage space, so to see what was captured on film, please visit my share site Three is a Crowd - of Fun . The food was delicious and a great deal of thought and skill went into it, so I'll talk about that first. Mom roasted a turkey for the first time ever. She stuffed it with a yummy cranberry stuffing and it turned out beautifully! Dad fried a turkey that also turned out to be mouth wateringly good! For appetizers we had fruits and veggies with a variety of nut butters. I arranged them to look like turkeys, which was fun. They turned out very cute if I do say so myself!  The day was delightfully laid back. We watched the parade, the kids played outside... Jenna and Brett came up with Brett's parents. We enjoyed good food, great company, and fun games. (Brooklyn is surprisingly good at Apples to Apples and ...

Grayson James Delano Hilton September 5, 2012 - 18 mos 22 lbs, 7 oz, 31 in The best kind of trouble we could ever wish for. Dear Grayson, At 18 months old you are a tornado of activity!  You more than keep us on our toes! You communicate beautifully with fluent toddlerease as well as a series of gestures and grunts. Most recently (you are 20 months old as I finish writing this - see what I mean about keeping busy??) you have started saying "Yesh" or "Yeah" or "YEAH!!" to pretty much anything we ask for you. It's adorable. You also have words for Nana (nany), Bob Bob (BahahB), Daddy, Mommy, and Madi (baybee). You have a sort of grunt for Brooklyn that you actually say with your mouth closed. It's interesting. You can also make a number of animal sounds and gestures: elephant, cow, pig, horse, tiger/lion/bear/alligator (which all sound the same), Thomas/trains (whoo whoo!), a very girly dinosaur, monkey, anything with a siren, dog, and...

October 22, 2012 - Madi Rae officially turned four months old! At your check up you weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 15 oz, and measured 22 inches long. Based on the growth charts I have, that put you in the 2nd percentile. But hey - at least you were on the charts!!   About a week prior to this appointment, I put you on formula due to a number of eating issues we seemed to be having. First, you had terrible gas every afternoon. We were almost thinking colic, except that it didn't ever last that long and there were lots of tricks to help you feel better such as the football hold. Unfortunately, once I started supplementing with formula, you lost interest in nursing. Considering all the facts, I believe something about the hormones in my birth control had an effect on my milk. My theory is that you were not getting enough at each feeding, which the doctor did confirm as a possible side effect. We gave it our best shot, but between the antibiotics (which I believe had a la...

My kids are so great!  Friday morning, Mom took Grayson and flew to Indianapolis. Brooklyn and Madi and I packed up the car, finished Brooklyn's school, ran errands, and then picked Jenna up from work and hit the road for six hours!  Madi struggled a little in the car (poor things gets terrible gas bubbles sometimes!), but we made it to Clarksville, IN in six hours. We got into the hotel and the girls fell asleep immediately and slept through the whole night. It was wonderful! The next morning we finished the drive to Fishers, Indiana where we were throwing my cousin Kaitlyn a baby shower. I was so impressed by how good my kids were! Of course babies are babies and need certain attentions, but overall they were so well behaved!  Again, Madi had some gas before bed, and both she and Grayson woke up with very short night terrors, but some things can't be helped.  I was truly dreading the eight hour drive home. But the kids did so great! Grayson, whom I was es...

I'm reading a diet book (contemplating some major changes to our family's dietary habits) and one of the best things I've gleaned from it so far was from one of the success stories. Normally I skim over the success stories because, quite frankly, I don't care that you  lost 100 pounds and are now a marathon runner. You  have no idea what I'm  going through. So good for you - be proud of your success, but I am much to busy and wrapped up in my own stuff to really care.  Anyway, this particular success story had something very good to say.  Those first couple of weeks I didn't feel like eating romain lettuce, collar greens, or Brussels sprouts. I followed the plan. I was heavily addicted to salt, creamy cottage cheese, ranch dressing, cheddar cheese, and crunchy peanut butter. I followed the plan. My son became seriously ill and life suddenly became an out-of-control roller coaster. I followed the plan. He had to be transferred to a hospital in another s...

I am too depressed to blog. I have dozens of ideas in the back of my mind, even notes that I've put on my phone so I can remember them later. Great things - updates on what we're doing, Halloween and homeschooling conundrums, parenting anecdotes, scripture insights and questions, marriage stuff, and some really great thoughts on art and theater and that whole cultural conversation. But honestly, by the time I get around to actually writing any of them, the pop culture references or holiday season they fall in will probably be irrelevant.  Is it possible for postpartum to hit as much as four months after birth?  I'm also tired. Even on my best days of great preparation and planning my life seems to move from one interruption to the next. I think I'm getting better at seizing moments, but sometimes I don't know how anything is getting done at all. If it weren't for my smart phone and wi-fi, I don't think I would be in communication with anyone outside my h...

I love fall! Summer is hot. August is consumed with school starting. September is all about getting into the swing of things - it can start cooling down or it can swelter. It's kind of a toss up. But October, ahh, October! Consistently cooler weather, reds and oranges and browns (all very good colors for me!), and the official beginning to the holiday season! Every weekend is booked - not with one activity, but with several! More detailed posts to come on some of our favorite events, but here are some highlights. back yard camp out - yes please! I love how they manage to look so grown up, yet still so beautifully innocent at the same time! We play outside a lot in the cooler weather. a pumpkin IN the pumpkin patch! That's Alfalfa sitting in the middle there.  the baby in the puppy pen, the puppy in the bassinet...hmmm, something is not quite right here!

Madilyn Rae 3 months and 2 weeks approximately 9lbs 1oz, 21 inches Here she is...her official 3 month photo! (I can't believe I actually got a smile - and that she fell asleep a few minutes later!!)   So, I plugged Madi's weight and age into my little percentile chart, and it seems she is in the lowest 5th percentile. Honestly I don't know what this means except that she is small. Brooklyn at this age was already chunking out at a healthy 13 lbs. I don't remember how big Grayson was (and I don't feel like looking it up) but you can see in pictures he was rounding out nicely as well.  I wouldn't say I'm worried, but there is a little voice in the back of my head (yes, Mom, it's your voice!) keeping this at the forefront of my mind, so I'll bring it up at our next appointment. You do seem to be hitting all the age appropriate milestones, so I'm really not worried. In the meantime, Miss Madikins, I enjoy your small stature! You are ...

The following entry may seem scatter brained and a little like an emotional roller coaster as I am sorting through my feelings of discouragement, pride, gratitude, and determination. I went to bed last night in pain. I woke up this morning in pain. Throughout the day if I do anything in the same position for too long, I find myself stiff and struggling to change. After Madi, I lost the pregnancy weight, but since then have only been able to maintain. I have increased my activity level so that I am doing something  every day, whether that is a yoga dvd, walking the kids to the park, or even cleaning something in the house. We are eating 90% of our meals at home, and I am making an effort to include fruits and vegetables at every meal, limit carbs, and chose lean proteins. Sweets and junk food still exist and do make their way into our kitchen, but I am trying to limit them as well.  I just don't feel good. I feel like my body is broken. I don't like the way I look or feel i...

Birthdays...Wedding...Funeral...Theater...Work...School...Travel...Sickness...CYT...Gymnastics...wow...I'm looking back over our September calendar and wondering: how did we do it all?    Brett, Jenna and their new addition Piper, moved to Smyrna. Yay! It's so nice having them close by. Of course they are busy looking for work and establishing themselves in their community, but we still get to see them pretty frequently. Mom and Dad celebrated 31 years of marriage by flying out to California to help them move all their stuff back east!  Brett, Jenna, and new puppy Piper! When Nana's away, the cat gets all sneaky! Ray was promoted to shift lead/Catering Coordinator at McAlister's and so was finally able to quit Target. His schedule is gradually becoming more predictable and I can see that he is growing in his management role. Acting is a little slow right now, but truthfully I am thankful for the breather. I think we needed this time to adju...

I read a random blog the other day. It was a fit person writing a letter to a fat girl. She wanted her to know that when she sees her on the track, she is proud of the effort she is making, keep going, blah, blah, blah.  I wasn't impressed. Maybe I didn't buy it, or maybe I just didn't care at that particular moment, but for whatever reason I was not encouraged or interested in continuing the conversation, so I moved on. Fast forward to today. The girls and I dropped Grayson off at school and went to the park. We walked the loop three times, and on our third trip around, we passed a beautiful young woman. She was fit and looked great in her show-offy work out clothes, perfectly curled pony tail, and fashionable sunglasses. Meanwhile I'm huffing and puffing up this tiny incline in my baggy t-shirt, hair falling out, sweat dripping down my face, pushing a stroller, and pulling a dog (who at this point was pooped). In my state of absolute mess, I thought about that b...

I'm not really in a good mood right now. In fact, I really feel like the bad word for "crap"...the one that just "happens". I'm hating what I see in the mirror. My clothes don't seem to fit right - they are all too big, too small, and just unfashionable. My hair is a mess. The only thing I can do with it is to pull it back in that stupid pony tale, which just makes me look like Hurley from Lost . Ray can't say anything without throwing me over the edge into tears or a rage of anger. Sometimes both. Mostly both. I would like nothing more than to curl up in a tiny ball on my bed and stay there for...well forever! Also there's the occasional cramping, bloating, and nausea. This smells suspiciously of PMS.  I hate PMS. One of my favorite things about pregnancy is the lack of PMS. I hate being on birth control. I don't know what's real (I mean in terms of my emotions. I know Brooklyn, Grayson, and Madi are real.  White Collar  and Drop Dead ...

Well the fact that the deadline (August 25th) came and went without us even realizing our experiment was over might be a telling clue as to how well it went!  It's true. In many ways we allowed life to overwhelm us, living comfortably in our old habits rather than make the effort to renew our minds. If looked at closely, there were many failures over the last seven weeks. But there were also some small victories. Lessons were learned.  Ever since becoming a parent, my big philosophy has been "respect the power of the boundary and routine"! Even as infants my children responded to the swaddle. I could see it in their eyes. The boundary of the blanket gave them security and comfort. As Grayson is going through his difficult toddler phase, nothing works as well to calm those tantrums than a little alone time in his crib. Similarly, nothing gets my kids back to their normal happy selves like a good routine. Holiday, sickness, vacation, whatever it is that throws things out o...

  I need to take a moment to tell you what a great little boy this is! Poor guy has had it ROUGH the last couple of months, and especially this last week...we were pretty seriously thinking of changing his name to Trouble.  But in the spirit of sharing all things good, bad, ugly, and awesome, I have to say that Grayson had a good day!  It wasn't anything magical. Just a little glimpse that normal is still within our reach! He slept in until 8, played well, took a solid nap between 10:15 and 1:15, was an angel at the BBQ Festival, played well again until dinner (some of that was spent in his crib, but still...), ate a good portion of his dinner, and went down for bed around 8pm with minimal fuss. It is now 11pm and he has only woken up once, briefly, in need of his beloved paci.  As I sit and write and think through, I'm beginning to realize that the last two days have been good...not so much because Grayson has suddenly matured, but because I have been more a...

Can you believe it has been two months? Look at this beautiful, happy girl!!  Sweet little Madikins, you are a wonderful addition to our family! You are so laid back and peaceful and generally very content with whatever life gives you. But you are no pushover! You can make your presence known if need be and you will not settle for less than you deserve! You enjoy watching your mobile. I don't think I remember your brother or sister ever being so interested in them, but you love it.  At two months you are full of grins and coos and cuddles, and, though some accuse you of being a mommy's girl, you share them freely with everyone in the house. At your last check up  you weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz, and measured 22 inches long, so you're still a tiny little thing. You are eating well, sleeping well (sometimes even eight hours at a stretch!), and meeting all the major milestones most two month olds meet. If conditions are right you can even roll over from your tummy...

Okay, so I kinda thought things would be different. My chief complaint as a new, homeschool mom of three, is that I feel hurried and interrupted. Like there's never enough time to get enough done and I'm constantly in motion, and whatever task I'm working on will shortly be interrupted for something or by someone.  So I joined this accountability group called Hello Mornings! Basically they encourage you to get up early and start your day right, with exercise and time with the Lord. There's flexibility to do what works with your life, but also accountability and encouragement through your morning check in. Nice.  So I went to bed early last night (well, as early as one can with an infant) and set my alarm for 5 AM. I did manage to drag myself out of my warm, comfy bed. I started a Bible study on 1 Peter (which was simpler than I thought it would be, but has a lot of potential to be exactly what I need to hear right now) and prayed. Madi woke up, so I nursed her, and ...

The biggest change I have noticed over the last two months (since Madi joined us and we began the transition back into school and work) is how I feel  I am always being pulled from one activity to the next. I almost dread waking up because I know that once the day starts it will not stop until 11 at night, and that's only if I make it. Interruptions are frequent. The "to do" list is lengthy, and as soon as I cross something off, three more somethings are added. I am feeling  overwhelmed, incapable, falling short in every aspect of mothering (did I mention that Grayson is going through a challenging toddler phase, Brooklyn and I are adjusting to our new teacher/student relationship, and Madi and I have thrush, so I don't even have my sweet nursing breaks right now, just painful breasts that have to be pumped, which I hate doing, and the added guilt and disappointment that I can't nurture my baby the way I am supposed to, and Ray's hours are so erratic and alwa...