Baby Girl

Here she is, our new baby girl:

Hello Taylor Jane! She is on track to be born May 18. Savannah is thrilled. She loved getting to go see the ultrasound and can't wait to meet her baby sister. By the way, that is just what she ordered :)

It's Official

We got a special early Christmas gift today. Brian, Savannah and I all got to head down and see the baby! (My ultrasound was today) After a lot of jostling around they were able to tell us that we are having a girl. Savannah is thrilled! She wanted a sister and cannot wait to meet her. They had me do a level 2 ultrasound because I declined the genetic testing. Also, my original scheduled ultrasound date was too late and they didn't think they could get me in at the office for an ultrasound this week (due to the short week) so we got to go to Winnie Palmer for the ultrasound (where the baby will be delivered). Everything looked good with the baby, healthy and growing. She is 11 ounces (not sure if that is the norm or not). And, might I add, already sitting on my bladder! The ultrasound tech made a point to say that the baby is sitting really low (which explains why I have to go to the bathroom sooooooooooo much more this time around). Anyway, it was a nice present to get to find out what the baby was! Merry Christmas everyone!

Trip to Disney

Brian and I decided to take Savannah to Disney this past weekend. This is only the second time she has actually been to the park. Thanks to our friends we were able to get tickets at a pretty reasonable price so off we went. We did not tell her where we were going. Just got her ready and headed off. She was funny! We past Sea World (which she knows well) and said, "oh, we are passing Sea World". Then we pull onto Disney property and she says "oh, we are going to pass Disney too". Now, she hasn't been enough to know that when you go through those arches with the Disney characters that means you are entering their property, not passing by it :) So, at this point we told her where we were going. She was actually speechless for a second or two! It was really quite amazing :) Needless to say she was thrilled. She had a wonderful day up until dark, at which point she decided it was time to go because there were going to be fireworks, mind you, it gets dark at around 6:00 and the fireworks were not until 9:00! No concept of time, though, so that did not help. Her favorite ride was the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride. She really enjoyed that! She also went on Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Not sure she loved those, though :) Of course, we sucked up about 4 hours in Fantasy Land. It's a Small world, Snow White, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella's Carousel, meeting Ariel (for the first time!) were all fun but the lines are definitely the longest in this area. And full of tired kids (and parents). After all of this, we went to meet the princesses because it was dark at this time and the princesses were inside (which meant no fireworks). We did not get to do this the last time we were at the park because the wait was an hour and a half. We ate lunch at the Crystal Palace where we got to eat with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. It was a wonderful day!

EA Kids Christmas Party

One of the new benefits of Brian moving to EA is that he is finally working for a company that is actually family friendly instead of just claiming to be. Last Friday Savannah and I got to visit Brian's job for a Christmas party they put on for the kids of the employees. There was cookie decorating, a visit with Santa, a gift from Santa, goodies to eat and it was even "snowing" out back.

After the festivities, we were able to go up to Brian's office and meet some of his co-workers. We got a tour around the building and Savannah got to see her "crush" Mr. Doug. Brian and Doug worked together at Highwinds and Savannah took an instant liking to him. So she is thrilled to able to see him again now that Brian and Doug are working together again. Savannah also enjoyed the arcade that EA has for their employees. She tried her hand at Ms. Pac-Man and enjoyed "driving" race cars in the Nascar game. She had a great time and I enjoyed getting to meet some of Brian's new co-workers and seeing his new office.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Savannah asked today when the next Thanksgiving was going to be. She was disappointed to hear it was not going to be next week :) We enjoyed the day at my Brother's house with his family and my parents, Aunt and Uncle and Grandma. We had TONS of food (I think Brian calculated 42 pounds of meat, that is insane!) and a wonderful day. The day was actually a little chilly which was a nice change to most Thanksgivings we have had down here. Actually, most of November has been in the 60s as a high which I have really enjoyed. I did not take any pictures on Thanksgiving day so nothing to share :( But, I do have an interesting picture of what happens when I leave Brian alone with my laptop :) Actually, he was replacing the mouse which is a bit more detailed than doing so on a desktop computer. Thankfully everything went back together without any extra parts and even booted up the first time!

I did end up going out shopping today. My mom and I ended up heading out around 9 and got home around 2. I was able to finish up a couple of people and get a good start on Brian. Once I got home we went out and got a tree! Savannah was very excited. We like to buy our from a local nursery who gives you a coupon to get a free tree to plant. I am a little sad because we are discussing possibly getting a fake tree after Christmas this year. It just doesn't seem like Christmas without a real tree. I also do not particularly like the look of a fake tree but the prices are getting a little ridiculous. Also, I am pretty sure that they are really bothering Savannah and I with all of our allergies. Even Brian seems to have a hard time with it. So, we are discussing the idea of a fake tree. We'll see how it goes. After dinner we decorated the tree. We seem to have a new tradition of watching The Polar Express while decorating. It helps keep Savannah distracted when we are doing the not so fun parts like putting the lights on. As we go through the ornaments, she gets to hang up all of the non-breakable ones. So, the bottom half of the tree is full of the soft or metal ornaments we have and all the glass one are on the top :) It works out well, too, because the heavier ones end up at the top where the branches are stronger. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and Black Friday, if you participated.

Thanksgiving Program

Tonight was Savannah's Thanksgiving program at her preschool. She did such a good job! She got to dress up as a pilgrim. They looked very cute :) Each group got to sing two songs and then all of the 4 year old classes sang three songs together. It is amazing how much more they can do this year compared to last years Noah's Ark program. Apparently she was telling her teacher in school today that she didn't want to go up on the stage tonight. I was surprised because she has not mentioned anything to us and has been performing all the songs for us all week. Well, I am glad to say that she did go up on stage and did a wonderful job. The highlight for her was the her daddy played the piano for the program. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Thanksgiving Feast

On Thursday Savannah's class hosted a Thanksgiving Feast. Boy did we have fun! There was a lot of yummy food for us all to enjoy and then the children performed some music using the drums that they made at home to take in to school. Savannah loved getting to make the drum so I was glad that she was using it in class :) They made cranberry relish as a little gift for each parent and pine cone turkeys we can use as centerpieces. I can't wait to try the relish on Thanksgiving!

Halloween

I have been meaning to get on here and post some pictures from the actual night of Halloween. It seems that time just runs away from you sometimes :) Savannah had a lot of fun trick-or-treating this year. She had two of her good friends come along, which made it super fun :) She was able to venture out a little bit further this year but did not make it too much further. We all had a wonderful time!

Every year I look forward to cutting out the Jack-o-lanterns. Savannah enjoys scooping out the insides but she gets bored with the cutting part pretty fast. This year I almost bit off more than I could chew! It was touch and go there for a while, but I was able to get them done. Here are my masterpieces:

Savannah's Grammy and Papa gave her this fishing game for Halloween. Boy does she love it! It was an instant hit :) Of course, her friend has the game and loves to play it every time she goes to her house. So, I was pretty sure it would be a hit to have her own at home :) Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Please Pray

As we heading into this week we felt that things were finally settling down. Brian's work situation was finally resolved (he can't wait to start his new job), the baby news had finally been announced and Savannah was finally sleeping in again after that awful "fall back". Well, Tuesday night we get a call from Brian's sister saying that his father had been taken to the hospital. It appears he had passed out at church and they took him to the hospital where they were having a hard time stabilizing his heart rate. They eventually emitted him into the ICU and put an external heart monitor on him. On Wednesday, the cardiologist ran more tests and the decided that they believe he was suffering from something called "heart block". I had no idea what this was so I hit the internet and discovered that it means the "top part" of the heart does not talk correctly with the "bottom half" of the heart. So, they do not beat together causing skipped beats. This leads to dizziness, hence the passing out. After doing a heart cath, they determine there was not really any evidence of anything else wrong with the heart so they are now going to be implanting a pace maker in his heart to help everything beat together again. We pray that this is the answer and that everything goes smoothly today. It so, he will get to go home tomorrow.

Now, this was particularly scary because his father died from a heart attack at around the same age as Brian's father is now. Now knowing that this may be a hereditary complication, I am urging Brian to go get a physical and to inform his doctor of the possibility as soon as the insurance changes over with his new job. So, keep Brian and his family in your prayers as the continue to deal with this scary situation. It has been difficult for Brian to be far away from his dad this week. I pray we are able to see them all soon and that everything goes well today.

Big News!...Cont.

Those of you who got on here early enough on Thursday might realize that my prior post included two different "big news" items. You might have been confused it you came back later to see one of them was gone. For those who didn't see the original post, there was also an announcement that Brian would be taking a new job. Well, he went to work on Thursday and his current company countered his offer at the new job so he felt he needed to take time to consider what to do. So, after a lot of talking, praying, and a definite answer from God, I can now announce that Brian is in fact going to be moving to a new company. He will now be working at EA Sports programming video games. I know, if sounds like a total bore for him :) He is definitely looking forward to this new turn in his career. We both feel that it is a needed change and that it is the definite path he should be following. His first day will be November 24th. Wish him luck!

Big News!

We have been off the internet for a while. It seems someone felt they needed to unplug out internet connection. Not very neighborly of them :)

So, for the big news, we are expecting our second child! Savannah will have a new baby brother or baby sister come May. (May 18, to be exact, which just happens to be a good friends birthday). Savannah is over the moon and is telling everyone she can that "mommy has a baby in her tummy". The family is all very excited. This will be grandchild #7 for my parents and grandchild #3 for Brian's parents. We should find out the first week in January whether we are having a boy or a girl. We cannot wait! My new doctor is much calmer than my last, which is helping me be as well, and she will allow Savannah to come in for the ultrasound. I am excited that she will get to experience this with us!

So, as we approach Thanksgiving we definitely have a lot to be thankful for in the Hill household :)

Pumpkin Patch Day

On Thursday Savannah had he Pumpkin Patch Day at preschool. They went on a hayride, played pin the nose on the pumpkin, traveled through a tunnel for candy, played Hot Pumpkin, and picked a pumpkin for the classroom. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time! I enjoyed getting to be a part of it with Savannah this year!

Fun at the Zoo

Last weekend we decided to take Savannah up to the zoo to go trick-or-treating. This is only the second time she has been to the zoo, the first being quite a long time ago. She really enjoyed it but is not ready to go to a large zoo yet. Her favorite part was the petting area because she got to interact with the animals. Grammy and Papa came with us! The weather was beautiful!

Entrance to the zoo.

Savannah got to pet a snake!

Savannah and Daddy playing around.

Grammy, Papa, daddy and Savannah went on a hayride.

Savannah is pretending to be an elephant.

Savannah pretending to be a leopard.

Savannah feeding a goat.

Savannah and Papa going on a train ride.

Bouncy house fun!

Me and mom waiting for the Carousel to be done.

Run on the carousel!

Savannah feeding the mommy cow.