Instagram Diary...

Once again I have been tending to the flu-ridden sickies I like to call my family. :) So my blogging has been put on hiatus this week, and so has my review channel. Plans go out the window when your family is sick, bleh! Not to mention how much snow I have shoveled in the past 2 days!! It's redonkulous, and no end in sight!  On the bright side, I am now buff...so watch out. ;D

Anywho, if you'd like to keep up with what is going with the WholeFamDamily then you can always follow me on Instagram. I'm thinking of doing a post showing Instagram pics each week, in case people don't have the Instagram app. :) Don't be scared, we're all weirdos in real life. ;D

1. Somebody loves Nutella...wayyyyy too much 2. Just me and a crazy 3yr old  3. Polka dot tights for church, weee! 4. I reorganized my closet by colors, which I have a lot of...and love it! ahhh! 5. Blend up your spinach and freeze in ice cube trays, you won't waste it before it goes bad and just pop in your smoothie! 6. Daddy is home!  7. Just a little guitar jam sesh  8. Oh ya know, just my lil' sister with her band, no big deal. *BIG DEAL* 9. Me and the goofball 3yr old again, it's kind of a habit  10. Love my LOVE stackable rings from Forever 21  11. DO those dishes girls!  12. Girls' night with my friend Heather, it was so fun!  13. Loved this quote, definitely something I need to work on!  14. So much snow..so much shoveling I have done & continue to do, bleh! 15. This nugget finds her way into my bed every night. She isn't even subtle anymore, she just says, "Mommy I HERE" sheesh...  16. Just the 2 littles looking adorbs as usual.

I really do love documenting our everyday life and moments in pictures, so if you'd like to tag along in my day to day just find me @hillbnorth  :)

You can also "like" my Facebook page theWholeFamDamily or follow me on Twitter @thewholefamdam for updates on new blog posts and such!

Love yous, 

Hillary

Girls' Night IN...

My 4 girls have been trying pretty hard to fill up that "Caught you being GOOD jar" this week and we were supposed to go to a movie Friday night for a reward. BUT, I woke up with the flu...YUCK!! We're talking bad body aches, your skin hurts, shivering, feeling nauseous, everything.  So going to the movie was a NO GO! Of course all of this happens when my husband is GONE. And by GONE, I mean a 4 day Vegas trip w/his work buddies,  to celebrate getting his Bachelors. So yes, it's murphy's law or something that he goes and takes a break and has fun while I get the flu, taking care of 4 kids, bummer!

(I just took care of flu-ridden children all through Christmas break, bleh!)

   BUT, I promised them we would have our own GIRLS' NIGHT, since Daddy was having a boys' weekend.  Piper woke up early Saturday morning throwing up, so now there was 2 of us with the flippin' flu.  Our girls' night was not looking promising.  But I decided that they could still have some good memories and hopefully remember the time mom was sick but still pulled off a super fun girls' night for them.  I know this won't be appreciated until they're adults, but it's the thought that counts, ha. 

Since some of us could barely make it off the couch, instead of dressing up and going out to a fancy dinner, they still dressed up and I MADE a fancy dinner.  You're welcome hubby for saving you some $$, pfffttt. I let the girls raid my closet, jewelry, makeup and accessories. They came up with a mixture of their own clothing and mine, don't they look fancy! (my guess is they all used bronzer as blush..ahem.) Piper (in the purple & gray) was a trooper cuz she really wasn't feeling that well...

So PHASE 1: was DRESS up Fancy and eat a Fancy dinner :)

Okay, Belle's full name is Scarlett Belle...it must be in her blood to act like a southern Belle! ha!

I lit candles, had flowers on the table, & quickly put little place cards on their "REAL" plates.  Our dinner was mini meatloaves, croissants, and ramen noodles, haha. Semi-fancy ;)

PHASE 2: was a DANCE Party!  Piper and I sat down and watched as the other girls danced it up! DJ, turn it up!!

 Eventually, the dancing turned into dance fighting/wrestling, so then we moved quickly onto Phase 3: ICE CREAM SUNDAES & a MOVIE! This may be the first time in the history of ever, that I passed on the dessert and drank some tea... i MUST not be feeling well! ;)

The girls were pretty much stoked about these. How come I don't do this more often? Saves $$ and it's the like best thing "EVER"! They scarfed down their ice cream and we watched the Lorax with the lights off.  Finally, it was time for the 

FINAL PHASE: Sleepover downstairs!

Piper's puke bucket was strictly cautionary, i wasn't sure how the ice cream would sit well in her stomach but she was great! I ended up on the couch, on the floor, and then back on the couch during the course of the night. When you have a 3yr old who wants to be where you are and a dog who only wants to sleep ON you, then it makes it hard to get comfortable ;)  So even though I still feel like poop this morning, and will most likely kick it on the couch the rest of the day, I'm REALLY hoping my girls remember moments like these.  I hope they still had fun even though we couldn't do some of the outside activities we wanted, and I'm selfishly hoping this was burned into their memory, thus covering up all the memories of mommy yelling and be impatient, hahaha!!

I love my girls!! I hope my hubby had fun at his boys' weekend, but i don't think he had as much fun as WE DID!! 

Hooray for Girls' Night IN!!

*special thanks to my sis Arian for helping me think up some of these fun ideas*

If you follow me on INSTAGRAM you most likely saw most of these pics,
come follow me @hillbnorth  :)

Love yous, 

Hillary

Caught you being GOOD!

I saw this idea on Pinterest, ...i know, go figure! But truly, I'm so tired of yelling, saying NO, or reminding, pleading, begging, whatever for my kiddos to listen, pick up their stuff, be NICE to each other, etc etc etc.
So, instead of telling them what they're doing WRONG, the point is to catch them being GOOD.  Oh, you picked up your room without asking? You get a warm fuzzy!  Oh you helped your sister?, you get a warm fuzzy! Oh you just took the trash out without being asked? you get a warm fuzzy...and so on.

Already they're little fuzzies are piling up in the jar and they keep coming up to me and telling me things they did, like cleaning up the mud room, making their beds, finding a bowl and putting it in the sink.  I'm liking this idea already because it is positive reinforcement, and truly kids just want to please their parents, so I'm hoping with this tangible jar of goodness they'll FEEL good about being kind, good helpers and hopefully a lot of the whiny, brattiness can be checked at the door. :)

On Saturdays if the jar is filled up from the whole week, then we get to do something FUN as a family, i.e. Cheap Seat movies, Dollar Store, Ice Cream store, Skating, etc. So they are watching that jar like little hawks and even reminding each other not to talk back or be mean because then they don't get a fuzzy! aha! Jim said we should take some out if they're being naughty, but then it's negative again, so I guess if they act up then they don't get a fuzzy, which could affect it being filled up.

We'll see how this works! I'll let you know over the next few weeks if this is something that will be a good tool in creating GOOD kids, hehe.

Love, 

Hillary

Snow Day

This last weekend we had a snow day. It always sounds like such a fun and idealistic activity to participate in, until you have stuff your kids in 2 pairs of pants, snow pants, 3 pairs of socks, coats, gloves, beanie hats, and then search through 3 different stores to find some flippin sleds, cuz everyone else had the same idea you did...

Jim and I sounded like old, crotchety parents when the kids were whining about not wanting their coat buttoned up all the way, or tucking their gloves in because we're concerned about them being warm and they just want to go down the hill! I turned to Jim and said, "We're supposed to be having FUN!" hahaha, he just hugged me and said, "We ARE" and then poked me in the ribs hard...terd.

But hey, eventually they got to go down, and the kids were so excited!! Their squeals of joy as they zoomed down the hill and crashed and burned were enough to make you wish you were a kid again!

well, until you remembered that you have to keep walking up the hill once you're done speed sledding into the icy snow...work those little leggies girlies...and Jim!

My big girls would've stayed out all day long, but it truly was super cold!! So I applaud them for playing hard for a few hours.  But the "Littles" (Belle and Presley) Got tired of it pretty quick...these are my favorite pictures of the day, hahaha! (i love how Presley looks like a little eskimo creeper at the top while Jim is carrying Belle crying, aha!)

Anywho, I'm hoping it will be a fun memory for them, cuz we're never doing it again..ahahaha! J/K
Playing in the snow is super fun, but someone was MUCH happier inside the warm car...she must have my California blood in her ;)

I hope you're all enduring these cooooooooold, winter days. It's all worth it when you can go home and have some hot chocolate and cookies, woohoo!

BTW, I used my new Nikon D3000 i got for Christmas to take all these pics, I'm pretty much in LOVE!

Have a happy Tuesday peeps!

Love,

Hillary