Charlie Has Arrived!

Better late than never...
We are so excited to announce the newest member to the family has arrived safe and sound!  Charles Armstrong Hill ("Charlie") was born at 2:38pm on Friday, April 13th, 2012.  He was healthy, happy, and too cute for words!
I think quite possibly the worst thing you can do while pregnant is assume that a baby will arrive early... or "like the last one"... Because Kaitlyn was 4 weeks early, I could not imagine that Charlie would ever had made it to his due date!  Then he shows up 3 days late.  You just never know when they are going to make their appearance, and now I know...
I will also add that I have been attempting this post since April and continue to get interrupted (like every two hours ;), so in my true slow fashion, I'm lucky to get it out before June, and I apologize for that!
Here's some pics from the birth and hospital!

First glimpse of the world and very alert! He was 7 lbs. 6 oz, and 21.5 inches.  Just a little blond fuzz on his head and dark blue eyes! I could tell he is going to be tall. He has those same long legs as Justin and Kaitlyn.

Not my best photo ever, but really amazing. While these are never flattering, they are totally worth it. It was definitely not a quick and easy labor and delivery as the second child is rumored to be.  But he's here safely now, and I was so thankful!

Delivery Details (Guys, I'm sure you're not interested...)
That Thursday night 4/12, I started having contractions, and my water broke at midnight.  The labor started immediately, so we headed right into the hospital.  Luckily my mom was at our house, so she was able to stay with Kaitlyn!  She had arrived on 4/7 to Montana with the hopes of the little guy already being here!  When Justin dropped me off at the Emergency entrance, I told the man at the desk I needed to get to Labor and Delivery ASAP!  His response... "Are you visiting someone?"  NO, YOU IDIOT, I'M ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY ON YOUR FLOOR!  Seriously, it was 1am and I was clearly in labor!  So, everything moved pretty quickly through the early morning and we were all thinking he'd be born by 9-10am, but his head was tilted funny as I went to push, which basically meant that I was doing hours and hours of pushing, and he was not cooperating, so as you can imagine- having no sleep that night, no food since dinner on Thursday, and all that pushing, I was done for!  Finally, he arrived that afternoon at 2:38pm.  To make it slightly worse, my epidural only fully took effect on the right side, so I was feeling everything on the left. Justin was awesome through everything, as I knew he would be.  And I think at the end of the day, he was feeling extra thankful that he was a man, and did not have to endure childbirth as we do!  ;)
Here's his first picture with Dad!

Here is my mom "Nana", Charlie's first visitor at the hospital! I have to add that the Friday morning we went in, she took Kaitlyn to school in my car, and got a $85 ticket for running a stop sign because she was flustered I hadn't had the baby yet, and was in unfamiliar territory.  She told the cop the whole story: she was visiting from Atlanta, I was in labor at the hospital, etc, etc. He still had her go ahead and pay him the $85 (cash), and went on about his day. Not typical around here but made for a great story! Poor mom! All was worth it when she got to hold her new little grandson!

Big Sister! 
Kaitlyn's first meeting with Charlie at the hospital that Saturday!

She thought he was going to be bigger...like her size...so she could play with him! Haha!

If you know how animated Kaitlyn is, you can imagine how ecstatic she was to meet Charlie, her new baby brother!   Besides acting out due to all the new attention to the baby and just being 3, she is adjusting pretty well!  She loves to help with changing him, trying to make him smile, and especially pouring water on him in the bath!   ...See the next post for more on life with balancing Kaitlyn and Charlie! ;)

Justin with both kiddos! Proud Daddy at the hospital! (and proud Sis)

All snuggled up! Everything at the hospital went great. The doctors and staff and the nursery were all wonderful, and it was a great experience!

I think this last pic is my favorite- He looks so content and innocent, and he was so little!  It is really amazing how much someone can grow in six weeks!  

This is getting too long, so I will have to do another post about life at home with Charlie, more pics, things I've learned about having 2 kids, and Kaitlyn's top 10 funny quotes of the last few weeks!

***Hope everyone's doing well and having a great Memorial Day weekend! Stay tuned!***

March Madness! Birthdays, Baby Due & New Rooms!

My goal has been to do at least one post per month, however, February kind of went by like a tornado!  Finishing up work for me was pretty stressful and being 9 months pregnant- at the end of each day, I have been done for!  As Kaitlyn says, "Charlie's taking up all the room in there!"

So, as of March 1st, I was done with work at Northwestern Mutual!  So far, it has been great. It's so nice to actually catch up on things like laundry, and plan some new meals, and pay more attention to everyone!   I can't ever imagine getting bored or running out of projects to work on or activities to do with the kids, especially this summer!

Justin's Birthday!
March 1st was also Justin's 32nd birthday!  So...Happy Birthday Justin- I'm no longer bringing in any money for us!  Haha!  Justin has actually been very excited for me to stop working for awhile and even more excited about the upcoming arrival of little Charlie!  For Justin's birthday, we got a sitter for Kaitlyn and went to a wonderful restaurant here in downtown Bozeman called Blackbird Kitchen.  It was amazing- very cozy little place with all healthy and natural ingredients and a wood fire grill.  Our salad was actually kale, don't think I've ever thought to try kale or had it out anywhere, it was delicious!  All he wanted for his birthday was a shotgun so he could delve into hunting season out here and take up a new hobby.  Here's a few pics from birthday festivities!

Justin's friend Steve also came down for a few days and they went snowmobiling in West Yellowstone and into Idaho.  They had a great time!

Kaitlyn's Birthday!
On Saturday, March 10th, we celebrated Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday!  We had a little party here at the house from 11am to 1pm with about 7 of her friends.  It was a "Tinkerbell Party" and the highlight was that Tinkerbell actually was invited!  Kaitlyn was completely beside herself!  Over the holidays, I met a girl at a cookie exchange party who started the local party character company, and sometimes, it's actually her that comes in character.  She made a wonderful Tinkerbell and came for an hour and brought a ton of balloons, did face painting and twisty balloons and just spent time with all the kids! Cute!  The dads grilled outside with Justin, and the kids got to play in the big field behind our house afterwards because the weather was in the 60's and beautiful!  She had a blast- here are some of the best pics!

Kaitlyn and Tinkerbell!

Having fun in the basement

 Tinkerbell's Arrival

 Daddy and Kaitlyn

 Evelyn, Maryn, and Kaitlyn getting twisty balloons made!

Brandon (Justin's co-worker) and Harlow (20 months)

 Kaitlyn opted for the arm unicorn tattoo!

 Evelyn opted for the full-on Spiderman face paint with her beautiful yellow party dress!!

 Blowing out her candle with Tinkerbell!

 Evelyn said it was "Spider-Girl"  (Our neighbor friend)

 Getting all sugared up!

The girls picking out what they want!

 She didn't understand why it washed off that night in the bath...

 "Bye Tinkerbell! Fly Safely" Kaitlyn said!!! Too funny!

Too much fun!  Later that night, we had been holding some gifts from all the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, so we had more birthday fun that night!  All kinds of great things came with turning 3! We have been able to use that to warrant things by saying "Three year olds don't do this and that," and it has worked very nicely as a milestone!  

Charlie's Room is Ready!

For Charlie's room, we opted for a mountain theme, so we have everything all set up now, so below are the pics! It's very Montana, but very simple and subtle, which we liked!

Charlie Due Anyday!!!
BAM!!!  Here it is!  This is what the end looks like, people, especially for a short person!  This is the: can't put socks and shoes on, can't gracefully get in and out of bed, can't pick things up off the floor, etc.  PLEASE BE NEAR THE END!  This was taken today, it will be interesting to see how much longer he holds out.  Don't get too cozy in there Charlie!

Christmas in the ATL!

What a trip!  We flew over the Thursday before Christmas (12/22) and came back the Tuesday after New Years (1/3).  So that was a 13 day trip with a toddler!  We had a great time visiting family and close friends and Kaitlyn had a blast spending quality time with all her cousins!  (Shelby-8, Julie-4, Ava-6, and Allie-4)!

Plane rides went as good as can be expected, and the only catastrophe was that Gunther was severely injured at the dog boarding place.  So we came home to a severe open wound on his backside and in his ear, dehydration, infection from wounds not being properly treated, and multiple minor lacerations all over his body.  The poor thing!  Thank goodness Justin took him straight to our wonderful vet early the next morning, and $540 later,  he had surgery to include cleaning out the wounds and stitches in both areas, fluids for dehydration, blood work, and a nice massive lampshade around his head so that he will not bother his stitches and effectively tear up the house.  Seriously, a dog that big with one of those things on is a disaster every 2 minutes!  Dealing with the boarder is going to be a separate issue that we are working on... What a nightmare!

Anyway, onto funner things!  We have lots of good pics from our trip, so here we go...

Santa came to our house in Bozeman the Thursday that we were leaving because, of course, he has to start on the west coast and make his way east (and there was no way we were shipping anything extra to Atlanta).  So here's Kaitlyn when she first woke up...  "Kaitlyn, SANTA CAME!"  <Shock>...

Santa brought Kaitlyn an art easel with a tub of supplies, a new snow bib, a new toy for Gunther and treats, and he ate the remainder of our cookies (yay)!  Kaityln was thrilled with the art easel- she had been talking about it for months!  When we were packing our bags for Atlanta later in the morning, she said, "Mom, don't forget the art easel for the airplane!!!"  Uh, no, sweetheart! :)

First stop was the Alexander house in Acworth, GA, where my parents live!  My sister and her family were there from TN and my grandparents (Nanny and Paw-Paw) from southern IL, who we had not seen in a very long time!  We had a wonderful visit. Here's the whole clan the night we ventured out to dinner at the Marietta Country Club!

Here's the three little cutie-pies all dressed up in their Christmas best! We even curled Kailtyn's hair!

Here's me and my mom getting Christmas eve dinner ready to roll!  Lasagna is the tradition!  Mom can often be seen in pictures with her eyes closed! As you can also see in this picture, little Charlie is ready for dinner (my massive baby bump)!

There's the Hills!

The three cousins had a blast dancing together and acting like Rockettes!

The holiday was complete with antlers and Christmas light necklaces!

They had lots of fun meals together... and desserts at the kid table, where the conversations were quite hysterical!  

Exchanging gifts this year was so much fun! Kailtyn was at such a great age to really enjoy everything, and the adults just did a gift card "Dirty Santa" game so that we just mainly focused on the kiddos, and then ended up with a gift card of our choice, after 2 rounds of stealing.  Of course, my sister ended up with a Home Depot giftcard- Haha!!!

Two peas in a pod!

My sister Jenny and little Julie!

Mom and Dad!

Nanny and Paw-Paw, just enjoying each other and the craziness that goes along with three little girls in the house!

HUGS!!!

Kaitlyn got 2 new babies from Santa (sick baby with a doctor kit, and crying baby)

Christmas morning we headed over to the Hill's House, where a whole new group was celebrating the holidays!  Here's Kaitlyn and Uncle Sean, who was visiting from Blacksburg, VA! He is also her new dance partner!

Grandma got Kaitlyn her own monogrammed apron, complete with mixing bowl, spoon, and rolling pin! She's been really into helping us cook, so she loves it! Cute idea!

There's Grandpa!

Kaitlyn loved partaking in the silly Christmas hat tradition!

Chris, Sean and Great Grandma Marion (AKA: "GG")

The three brothers and Steve, who stopped by for Christmas fun! Steve and Sean are coming out to Bozeman for winter fun in a couple weeks! We can't wait to have them visit!

Chris' girlfriend, Jen, got Kaitlyn a playdough set, which was a huge hit and was used to dirty up Grandma's pretty island the whole remainder of the visit!

Kathy, Sean and Mark!

Another hit! Rapunzel doll with matching costume! Too funny!

Grandpa with his three little munchkins! They had a blast!

One day we went to visit the Horton's, and Kaitlyn and Connor had a play date!  One minute it was "She's not sharing!!!"..... And the next...

...All was ok when the daddy's broke out the graham crackers and milk, and of course it was back to being best friends again!  The girls are 8 days apart, so it was so much fun catching up with Justin and Kristin (yes, we have the same names) about all the same funny stuff the girls are doing!

New Years Eve, the Hill side cousins had a sleepover, while me and Justin went over to the Lee's house for a nice dinner and New Years party with old friends. Justin's sister, Jessica and Kevin, also got to go to a New Years party, and Grandma and Grandpa sacrificed their partying for the grandkids!  

They had a blast and wore Grandma out!

They also had their own New Year's party, but didn't make it all the way until midnight!

Probably because they got exhausted playing "Just Dance" on the Wii! Too funny!

Another special treat this visit was seeing some of our great friends, who have all had babies since we moved!  Below is the Coffey's, who moved to Einhoven in June and had little Liam in August! Such a cutie!

The Lee's had little Casey in March right around when we were moving! We all got together for lunch at our favorite mexican place in Alpharetta, Tara Humata, then let the kids play! Here's all the moms, who really have it together...clearly... we were all smiling, and have all the kids smiling...

Haha- Here's the Dad's, they get an A for effort though!  A little over three years ago, we were all sitting on the beach, cold beers in hand, without any little ones!  Times have changed, but great friends always remain! It was great seeing our Alpharetta crew!

We also had a night on the town with some friends from college, but we didn't bring our camera in, so I don't quite have pictures yet, but will add them ASAP!

Christmas came and went so fast and now it is 2012!  Now onto getting ready for Baby Charlie to arrive, which will be here before we know it!  I'll be working through the end of February at Northwestern Mutual, training my replacements, then it's SAHM time for Kristin! I absolutely can't wait!  Due date is April 10th, but I would like to be ready early March since Kaitlyn was a month early. Justin continues to be a huge help around here and is thrilled for the new arrival, and starting our second year out here in Bozeman and enjoying all it has to offer! We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and is having a great start to 2012!!!