Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Christmas is one of my most favorite times of years. Christmas decorations, Christmas Carols, all the hustle and bustle. And most of all I get to share with my boys the most important reason for the season: Christ's birth. I asked Tate the other day what Christmas was really about, his response "Giving and Jesus' birthday". I love all the fun of the season, but I always want my boys to remember that precious baby who came to earth so long ago.

This year we "adopted" a little boy from our Christmas for Kids program at church. His name is Isaiah, and he is 5 years old. Tate and I went one Friday night and went shopping for Isaiah, I dropped his gifts off at church on Monday night. Tate had a lot of fun shopping for his "new friend". Im not quite sure that he truly understands the concept behind helping those who may not be as fortunate as us. But hopefully, in a few years, he will understand.

I wanted to share some of my "favorites" from around our house this time of year....



My little artist has been busy at work. He is insisting on coloring pictures to cover all of our cabinets. My mom used to decorate her kitchen with all our holiday artwork. The difference is, that Tate wants to fill the whole kitchen in one day. :) I keep trying to explain to him that he will make plenty of pictures at school for him to decorate with. By the end of this Christmas Im afraid my kitchen may be one large Christmas coloring book.



May I introduce Christopher-Pop-in-Kins? He is a new addition to our Holiday season. Chris showed up on our doorstep Thanksgiving Day. Apparently he made a deal with Santa to visit real boys and girls until Christmas Eve and keep an eye on them for him. He occasionally "pops" out while we are sleeping and reports to Santa on Tate and Daytons behavior. We always know when he has been gone, he ends up in a different place in the house when he returns. So far Chris seems to have had a pretty positive effect.



One of my favorite decorations are these "star" ornaments that we found in the basement of my Grandaddy's house when we were cleaning it out this past summer. They are from when my dad was young. I love having a memory of my grandparents near on Christmas.

I will finish with a family tradition that I started with Tate. Every year the boys each get an ornament of their choosing. Of course the first year they both have their first Christmas ornament. Then Tate has a Tractor (2007), Batman (2008), A Power Ranger (2009) and this year, of course, is Iron Man. Dayton isnt really old enough to "choose" his. I had a really hard time deciding too. He loves music, so I thought I would find something musical and kidproof. I found an old Fisher Price Ornament on Ebay that plays "Oh Christmas Tree". Its plastic, so totally kidproof. He seemed to approve. Here is a picture of the ornaments and then of the boys showing them off. I think I will make the picture a tradition too. :)

A Year in Review

I AM NOT good at this. I openly admitted it. They say that admitting a flaw is your first step right?? I really want to be good at it- so, I will try harder. I have been keeping up with other peoples blogs, not to mention a few awesome coupon and deal-finder websites. All done by moms- and I always think- if they have the time to do ALL of this I should be able to keep up a blog for my family. Ive gotten so busy with life, that I have forgotten to take time to document it. Poor Daytons baby book hasnt even been written in. I really need to get to that...... :)

WELL, its been a year. My baby boy just turned one and my big boy will be 5 in two months!! I cant believe it!

Tate is wonderful. He is getting so big and doing so well in school. I had a parent/teacher conference with his VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten) teacher yesterday and he is doing great. He is student of the week next week, we had to take in pictures and ans a questionare....I will have to post a picture of his poster. He recognizes 17 out of 26 letters of the alphabet! And that was in Sept. She said she is pretty sure he knows them all by now. He is always asking me if he is writing his letters correctly. He loves to just sit and write his letters. And he LOVES coloring and painting. He is my little artist. He is always making beautiful pictures for all of us. I know I will treasure these one day, but for now it seems like most days my house is over taken by paper. His new favorite thing is to play Mario on my Wii. He loves it. He gets 30 minutes a day, if he behaves, and if his homework is done, his toys put away, and he has had his shower and is ready for bed. Most nights hes on top of it, some nights, not so much.. :) Here are a couple pics of my Tater this past year...





Dayton is getting so much more independent everyday! Hes not only walking now, hes running! :) Its tough keeping up with those big boys! Hes a tough one though, he can fend for himself. He is already learning exactly what makes big brother tick. He can make Tate mad SO fast- and he laughs. Boy, am I in for it. He is so sweet though, you pick him up and he just lays his head on your shoulder and give you love. I love it and Im treasuring every moment, I know they wont last. He loves anything he isnt supposed to have, like most kids I assume. But particularly remotes, cell phones, iPods and laptops. And he knows the difference when we take the batteries out...He keeps us on our toes!





Austin and I are great- both jobs are going well. We have lots of plans for projects around the house in the upcoming year or so. Cant wait to get started! :) Well, thats enough for now, post again soon! :)

Dayton Matthew Hill is here!!!!

Wow....its been almost 2 months since I have posted anything. Sorry about that, Ive been a little busy! :)

Well, we are proud to annouce that our happy little family is now complete! Dayton Matthew Hill made is arrival on October 22nd at 10:19 a.m. He was 19" long and 7.2 pounds. And is perfect (exact words from all doctors who saw him in the hospital) We couldnt ask for any more than that! He will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and at his 2 week check up last week was already 7.11 pounds. He enjoys to eat!! He is a very happy and content baby, he sleeps a lot, which we dont remember Tate doing. Tate was always awake. He is also a very heavy sleeper, which is good. I was amazed on the day we brought him home- Tate was running through the house like a wild indian and Dayton didnt budge. Which is a blessing, because Tate is a wild indian most of the time. Tate is great with him. He is such a good big brother! He is an awesome helper (we just have to find things that he can do). And he is very protective already of his baby. Always has to make sure we arent going to leave him when we leave the house. :) He is only waking 2 times a night to eat, which I am happy with and he always goes right back to sleep after he eats. All in all he is a great baby and we are already enjoying him!!

I have been off work for 3 weeks now. Im officially supposed to go back next Thursday, but I called yesterday and offered to work half days Monday- Wednesday to get myself back in the swing of things and try and get used to being away from Dayton. (Not that I think I will ever get used to it). Then I will go back full-time on Thursday. It all worked out well because the next week is Thanksgiving so I only have 3 full days that week. Slowly working my way back in. Nervous- but a part of me is ready to be back.

Tate is doing great in school! We had a parent/teacher conference a couple weeks ago and his teacher just loves him and is very impressed with his progress. He was Student of the Week last week and since mommy was off work I got to go to the chapel service where they reconized him. He liked that a lot. I do wish I was off more often to do things like that with him. He still loves school....come April/May he will be ready for summer break though!

Austin is still working hard. He has put off school for now. It was too much. With his long hours he wasnt making it to class on time and he was gone all the time. We never saw him. So, he has decided to put it on hold and try to get a sales spot at his current job. Which is what he wanted to do originally but just didnt know how to go about it. He has talked to his district manager though, who has encouraged him to go in that route and to interview for the next opening. There is so much that they require you to know to be in a sales spot. So, his DM has also given him all the facts that he needs to learn so he knows everything he needs to. I am so grateful for him and all the hard work he does for us. He worked FL/GA again this year- it was an 18 hour day for him!! Thats unbelievable- I dont know how he does it! But, he loves his job.....I remember working retail and pulling those long hours, before I had kids....when its something you love it doesnt seem so bad. I kinda miss that- but wouldnt trade where I am for anything! :)

Austins mom and sister came for a visit last week. I was so nice to have them here. We dont get to see them often and the help was much appreciated. Its amazing how tired you actually are when you have time to sit down and think about it! So, it was great to have the extra hands. Austins Aunt Valerie and Grandma also came up on Monday and brought us lunch- which was delicious!! It was great to sit and chat with them for a while- we dont see them near enough!

Love and miss you all. I will try and keep up better.....I will attach some pics from the past couple weeks!

<3
Austin, Sarah, Tate and Dayton

33 Weeks.......Only 7 to Go!!!

Today, Dayton and I had our 33 week appointment. All is well. Dayton and Mommy are both growing right on track! I have been feeling great, other than my emotions are going crazy (and Im not very used to that). But the good news is, Dr. says Dayton seems as happy as can be! I believe that because he is very busy! Im pretty sure he knows the torture that awaits him (Tate and Andrew) and is preparing his defense moves. I just wish he wouldnt practice on his mommy! Since everything seems to be right on track with no problems my next appointment isnt until the 30th. We are getting very excited! Just about 6-7 weeks to go until we get to meet our sweet baby Dayton!

Trip to Orlando

So, over Labor Day weekend we decided to take a trip down to visit Jim and Linda. It had been Christmas since they had seen Tate. Austins work schedule doesnt work out for us to take weekend trips and with Labor day we just happened to both have Sunday and Monday off. We drove down on Sunday morning and Jim and Linda took us to the Sanford Zoo. We enjoyed seeing all the animals. The monkeys, of course, are always Tates favorite! Before we left Grandpa and Grandma even rode the train with him, which of course is a must on any train visit! After the zoo we headed to Margaritaville for a lunch/dinner. It is always one of our favorite places to eat when we go down. The atmosphere is just so fun! Tate loved all the different things to look at. And grandpa and daddy are already training him right to be a Jimmy Buffett fan! Monday morning we got up and had a good time just hanging around the house and cooking out for lunch. After lunch we headed home. We had such a great visit! Tate enjoyed seeing Grandpa and Grandma Hill.

Back to School....

So, Tate started back to school yesterday. Off he went with his Transformers lunchbox and backpack....and he of course had to wear his "school shirt" from last year! We had the meet and greet with his teacher last week, Ms. Lori, and learned that he has been placed in a "mixed" class this year. Basically, what this means is he (and a few other 3's) are in with one of the VPK classes (FL's pre-K for 4 year olds). They choose a few 3's to go in with the older kids. He does the same cirriculum as the 4's but they just don't put as much pressure on them to learn it by the end of the year. Next year he will be in a different VPK class with a different teacher as not to have the same activities and such. He has homework once a week and is learning so much!! This is great for him, he loves a challenge! I am excited that they thought he was capable of the work- and sad at the same time....kinda makes me feel like he is growing up quicker than he should be. Pray for him though as we continue to work on our biggest battle.....potty training! For the most part, hes a pro. But we have weeks that we have fall-backs and unfortunatly he will have to move back to his regular class if he cant get this under control. Accidents are not okay in the VPK class!
First day went great! Ms. Lori says he is so sweet and that when they sang the alphabet song and got to "T" he got so excited and said "T is for Tate"! He said he had fun, but when mom and I asked what he did his response was "Nothing". Its already starting....and hes only 3!! He was very excited to be going back again this morning. We have him going 3 days a week this year from 9-1. I think it is going to be good for him, especially with Dayton coming. He will have his own little "out". And then next year he will do VPK 4 days a week- at no cost to mommy and daddy!! YAY for that!! :) I will keep you updated throughout the year with activities and such at school. Its such a great little preschool and they do so much with the kids. Hope all is well....Love you all!!!

Daddy and Tate run the bases!

So, Sunday night we went to one of the last Suns games of the season. Tate had a blast, even though it wasnt possible for him to sit through the while thing. We watched the game, went to the playground, and ate corndogs, popcorn and peanuts. He had a good time. But by the end, I think we were all exhausted! After the games on Sunday nights the Suns let the kids run the bases. Tate was determined he was going to do this. Austin and I were doubtful that he actually would. When it was time I took him to the place that the kids were to line up on the field. Since he was so small, the staff said I had to run with him (there were a bunch a big kids). The only thing I could think of was "Great, 7 months pregnant, running the bases". Luckily, daddy came close enough for me to yell at him to come and run just in time! Tate said he didnt need to wait till the end with the little kids because he was going to "Go real fast mom". And he took off.....daddy even had a hard time keeping up! He LOVED it....and is already asking when we can do it again. Of course, when asked if he is going to play baseball when he gets older....the answer is still "Nope, just golf." Maybe we have a Tiger on our hands! Now if I could just find somewhere for a 3 yr old to play golf! :) ENjoy the pics...I wish some wouldnt have had so many other people in them...but what do you do?