Exciting New Addition...

Yep, it's what you think, we are expecting a new addition to the Hill house this Spring, and couldn't be more excited!  I'm feeling great so far- Due date is April 10th (although we know how that went last time... about a month early), and we get to find out the much anticipated gender in exactly 1 week!!! The day before Thanksgiving!

It is such a mystery to me- I cannot wait until I know whether it's a boy or girl.  It just clears up so many questions, and beyond that, there has been a major girl trend in both of our families for some time, so a boy would really add an interesting twist.  I am one of two girls, my dad has three sisters, my sister has two girls, Justin's sister has two girls, and we have Kaitlyn!  It will be interesting- if it is a boy, the poor thing won't stand a chance with all those female cousins or he'll just get completely spoiled by them!  Very exciting.

The other exciting part is that come springtime, I'll be done working for a while, and be able to stay at home with the new little one!  I am so ready for this, been working so hard the past few years, and it is so challenging to try to balance work and being a mother.  I know the biggest challenge is probably going to be just being a mother, but at least I can start focusing all of my attention on it rather than splitting it between the two.  Moms that have gone from working to not working, I welcome your advice and ideas on how to best make that transition...

Here are some great pics we got on a hike we did through Hyalite Canyon, where there is a really beautiful waterfall. Gunther came on the adventure and didn't want to leave!

Well, it's officially cold now!  We had a nice drawn out October of cool fall weather and beautiful leaves, and delayed snow... but it is coming!  It's snowing as I'm writing this... right now I say it's beautiful, check back with me in March, and there might be some other choice words.  My mom was just here for a week while Justin was at a conference back east, and she saw snow in the forecast and said, "When do you think it will let up, Are we gonna be snowed in the whole week?"  And we just laughed because it will now snow from November to March/April, but life goes on, they have plows, and gravel trucks, and everyone bundles up and has 4 wheel/ All wheel drive and just goes about their life.  People love to ski and snowboard, take their kids sledding, and just really get in the middle of it, and that's what I love about this town, people really take advantage of all that it has to offer and make the best of it and enjoy.

Other new developments!  Kaitlyn is potty-trained!  Got her first haircut over the weekend, it took a while to get any hair at all!  She now loves to sing the ABC's and has been counting for a while now. She's really excited about being a big sister, she says she's going to teach "her" everything:  how to walk, talk, eat, crawl, and run.  Kaitlyn insists it's a girl!  She loves going to her pre-school, and enjoys making new friends!

Justin is doing great- He is enjoying his job and there are lots of new projects on the horizon that will be keeping him busy. He has done a phenomenal job at getting involved in the community and meeting new people (which he's never had a problem with).  But there is several organizations he latched onto immediately, which has been great: a LEADS group, Leadership Bozeman program, the Bozeman Trout Unlimited, and a Men's Golf League to name a few.  

We are planning to head back to Atlanta 12/22 through 1/3 for a nice long holiday visit!  So excited to see family and friends and be able to spend Christmas and New Years with everyone!  It will be busy but fun, and we plan to make the most of it!

Everyone have a great week!!!  I'll be doing a post with the gender specifics before Thanksgiving so stay tuned!!!

Summer Recap- Part 2

Justin's Parents and Sean- 4th of July!
Again, I know I'm behind, but it really was a crazy summer that I am still trying to get my arms around!
The second Montana visit was Justin's parents and his youngest bro, Sean!  We had a great time celebrating the 4th, and another interesting trip to Yellowstone Park!  We got some great pictures thanks to Sean taking over the camera while Justin was driving!  Here's some of the best of Yellowstone... Actually, let's start with the video of a herd of buffalo running down the road as the guys were heading to go fishing.  This was wild, they are just driving along, and there's this herd, hundreds, just moving right along with the traffic...

There was a ton of pics, so here are some of the best!

 Sean, Justin and Mark went fly fishing on the Madison, the Firehole, and the Gibbon Rivers. Props to Sean, who caught the only fish of the trip!

 The Clan! We stayed overnight at West Yellowstone, a quaint little town right outside the West entrance.  It was the 3 Bear Lodge, and our room was themed, with a built in cabin for Kaitlyn (and lucky Sean) with a toddler bed and a twin! It was hysterical!

Here's a male and female elk and an up close bison- I think him and Sean shared some words...

Waterfalls, geysers, bison, elk, lakes, mountains, canyons, hot springs- we tried to see and capture it all! What a truly beautiful place, all in a natural and untouched environment for people to enjoy...

4th of July
Sean had to head on back home to VA on the 4th, so the rest of us went to a nearby little lake to watch the fireworks= don't have pics from these festivities, but people get into their fireworks out here like I've never seen before. There were 5-6 different major fireworks shows going on at each corner of this little pond (smaller than the 7 Oaks pond), right where we were.  Beyond that, because you can see for miles, we could watch shows from all over!  It was crazy.  This was the first year Kaitlyn hasn't been scared of them (like there's been so many years). But her first 4th, we were at Pete and Courtney's wedding, and my parents had her, and her second 4th, we were on vacation at the beach with Pete and Court, and she was terrified, and we went inside.  Haha- so it was nice to enjoy the show!

This was what Kaitlyn's hair looked like when Justin picked her up from school with his family when they arrived! Naptime does a number on her! Haha!

Stay tuned for Summer Recap #3...The Williams and Evans Visits!

Summer Recap- Part 1!

Oh my goodness! It's getting chilly here already!  Yes I am a little scared for what's in store, we do not even have a snow shovel/ snow blower yet, but it is on the radar...  "Mr Prepared" is going to be sure we are ready for our first Montana winter!  With that being said, I can't believe our summer has come and gone...  So many visitors, so many new experiences, and just all-around great times with family and friends!  My goal is to recap each visit with a new post until I am caught up, and then I promise I will be better at posting this fall!!!

Visit #1: My Sister, Nieces and Mom
It was so great to have them out in June right when the weather was first warming up for the summer!  I left work early, picked up Kaitlyn from school and we headed to the airport to get Jenny, Shelby, and Julie!  Classic, I had put Kaitlyn in a pretty yellow dress to greet her cousins, and she had an accident at school, and ended up in a mis-matched outfit and hair all over the place when I picked her up!  What are you gonna do, right? Not important! So here are some pics from picking them up at the Bozeman airport after two long flights from Nashville, TN!!!

They were doing about 5-6 days here and then 3 days in Vegas, so we had a jammed packed schedule!  First on the list was to hit the little sprayground park near our house to let everyone run off some energy from traveling!

The next day, Nana was flying in and got delayed, so we all went to the Dinosaur Park and had a picnic lunch there in Bozeman.

Nana finally got here later that afternoon, and we went and had mexican...well, you can't really get true mexican here, so let's call it "southwestern"... at Rio Sabinas!  Next on the agenda was our trip to Chico Hot Springs and Yellowstone!  Chico is a quaint little mountain resort outside the entrance of Yellowstone and it sits on a natural hot spring, which is basically like a giant hot tub, but with no chemicals, so the water is just constantly running through.  It is so nice, they have a bar there at the pool, a great restaurant, and then other activities like horseback riding and scenic river floats (which our crew was a little young to do)!  It's about an hour or so from our house- very scenic drive...

Here's us in the hot springs, or the warm pool, as Kaitlyn calls it, then there is also an extra hot pool that is too hot for kids, but oh so nice!

Here's a great picture of the view at Chico! It's kind of at the foothills of the mountains in the middle of nowhere- they do a lot of weddings here- beautiful! 

Kaitlyn and the girls were fired up after dinner, dancing, singing, running wild, having a grand ole time! I think they were still up at 10pm!

We stayed there overnight, and headed into the park the next morning for a full day of adventure! Here's another view on our way in!

You could probably take 3-4 days, at least, to see ALL of Yellowstone, but we did the condensed 1 day version so we could spend some more time at home and in Bozeman.  Here's Jenny and Shelby at the entrance!

This was one of the many animals we saw, which after much discussion, we deemed to be a female moose.  We saw lots of bison too.  And we had kind of a rare experience in that we saw 3 bears that day! This is really how it is, you are literally driving along, and you say, "Oh look, there's a moose right there (10 feet away)."

We saw Old Faithful erupt! Here's a pic, it is one of the most well known geysers in the world, not because it's the biggest, but the most reliable!  Every 90 minutes or so... for us it was 2.5 hours, I think, it's not exact!

Ahhh yes, two very tired little girls!  Snoozin away!

Justin took Julie and Kaitlyn on a couple bike rides in the chariot, which is always more fun with a buddy... and more work on dad, but totally worth it to hear all the giggling and carrying on!

One of my sister's favorite things we did was hike the "M" trail in Bozeman.  Even Shelby did it!  She did an excellent job, because it is a challenging hike, but so worth it!  I'm so glad she came along, not something you get to see everyday!  You can see for miles and it is beautiful!

On one of the hottest days, we went to the country club to swim! Everyone had a ball and we definitely enjoyed the non-humid summer weather! I think Kailtyn's favorite thing is to eat at the pool and have popcicles!

This is their last morning here before flying onto Vegas. Nana is spoon-feeding Kailtyn her Apple Jacks and spoiling her rotten!!! :) haha!

It was so great having them all here to visit and have some quality girl time!  It was sad to see them go knowing it would be Christmas before we are all together again.  But what I'm learning is when you move far away from family and friends is that you have to make the most of your time together and use skype and the phone, and blogs, and email, and pictures as much as possible!  We are lucky we live in a generation where there is so much technology at our fingertips to stay in touch!  At least it makes it a little easier...

Stay tuned for Summer Recap- Part 2!  Justin's family visit and the 4th of July...