The Hills Go West...

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!!!

So, most of you know that normally every year I write up a nice long Christmas letter to let everyone know how the year went. Well, I decided against printing it out this year and including it with our Christmas cards. Not cause I am a cheap bastard...but because I honestly don't know if the Postal Service will be able to deliver it according to recent news. So...I am making the switch to digital!

As you probably know, this has been a major year for us. I started a new job January 1 and we moved out to Bozeman, MT in the middle of March. Well, actually I moved out here in the middle of March, did all of the unpacking, and then Kristin and Kaitlyn showed up in the beginning of April. Funny...I seem to remember completely unpacking our last house by myself as well. Oh well, I am sure it was harder for Kristin since she had never even been to MT and we were already in a lease on a house she had never seen. Good thing she trusts my impeccable judgment! We have had a lot of visitors and have had a few vacations ourselves. We both had close friends get married so we went to weddings and bachelor/bachelorette parties, went to Yellowstone a few times, I went to Colorado with my dad and brother, and we went to Wyoming on my company's summer meetings. Needless to say we had lots of fun this summer! I also played in a golf league every Wednesday night with a bunch of guys. Don't get me wrong...I am still a hack. Just now I am a 23 handicap hack instead of 36, and that included a stint on the injured reserve list for a few weeks due to a weird elbow dislocation.

As far as our family goes. Things are great! Kristin is six months pregnant with our son. I am fired up to have a boy! Kaitlyn has gotten so big you probably won't recognize her. She is a ton of fun and also a real pistol at times. She started making this face like Chuckie from the old Child's Play horror movies when she says no to something or tells Gunther (Gunner) to stop trying to eat her hot dog 'ronis! It started out of the blue and she does it on occasion. Personally it kind of freaks me out. No really, I sleep with one eye open now.

It has been difficult to leave all of our family and friends, but this is such an amazing place that it has helped ease the transition. Plus we had a lot of visitors over the summer and did a ton of fun stuff! Funny how now that it is 8 degrees out nobody is out here visiting...

Gunther is still a total PITA, but we love him.

And as for Kaitlyn...she experienced a lot of new things this year and has grown tremendously from each new experience. Here are just some highlights.

She went to a rodeo with her boyfriend Bridger,