The Hill Family

We are home after a month long adventure.  I have lots and lots to blog about, but I need to get caught up on the rest of my life and laundry first.  And I'm going to let Simon sort through the thousands of pictures. I have reached the third trimester in my pregnancy.  This pregnancy has been different.  We have been away from home for almost half of the pregnancy so far and I can finally start a routine now that I am six months along.  I am feeling pretty good, especially since I started taking lots of iron.  It makes a big difference.  I know I have backaches, swelling, heartburn and lots of contractions ahead of me, but it's okay.  We have been wanting to add to our family for awhile now.  It took time, some heartache, and tears.  I am so grateful to be pregnant and we are so excited to meet this little girl in a few months!  This picture is 26 weeks along.... It was taken in the Sahara desert.... I'll explain later.  ...

When I was pregnant with Auburn we thought it would be a girl because of my little niece.  She was four at the time and before we knew that we were expecting a baby, she did.  At a family reunion she repeatedly told me that there was a baby in my belly.  I laughed, and told her she was confusing me with her Mom, who was expecting a baby girl.  She was persistent and told me that it was a baby girl.  Well a few days later, we took a test and she was right - a baby!  We were thrilled!  We figured if she was right about the baby then she was probably right about gender. I had a strong feeling before I was pregnant with Conley that we were going to have another girl.  When I became pregnant with Conley I just knew that it was a boy.  I told Simon that my feeling had changed and this was for sure a boy.  When the doctor told us that we would be having a little boy I wasn't surprised at all. As for this baby, I have felt from the beginning...

It's been a while since I did an update on these two little sweethearts.  They both are very excited to have a little brother or sister.  They are also very excited to go on our upcoming trip.  They pretend they are going on trips all of the time.  They play very well together and come up with some very imaginative games on their own.  I find myself thanking the Lord throughout the day at random times for these sweet little kids. Auburn - almost 4 and a half loves to read, and is doing very well in English and is starting with Spanish takes a ballet class in German and dances around the house has developed her very own style of drawing and will sit for long periods of time drawing and coloring she draws pictures for her friends can write her own name, all of the letters and is starting to spell other words on her own loves playing with her baby and stuffed animals is very compassionate loves all things "princess" would prefer to live ...

 What do you do with weeks and weeks of snow?   Go sledding of course.  Oh, and make snowmen, snow angels and snow balls.

Those of you who follow college football know that this year there was a BCS bowl game along with the National Championship game in Miami.  Simon looked at tickets for the BCS bowl game thinking that they would be ridiculous and guess what, they were super cheap so we took the whole family.  It was FSU vs. Northern Illinois.  We were kind of hoping for Northern Illinois, but they couldn't get it together.  It was a late night for the kids, but they loved it.  They cheered when either team scored and loved finding the blimp.  Simon went the night of the National Championship just to see if he could get a ticket.  He could of if we were willing to spend around a thousand dollars so... he came home and watched the game with our neighbor.   At the end of the game, Auburn was a little tired and I got a few snuggles. Conley's view of the game Simon's parents came to visit before we headed back to Ge...

Christmas Eve we had hot chocolate and cookies. Santa managed to find us in Miami Auburn and Conley exchanged gifts this year.  It was so fun to take them shopping and let them pick something out for each other.  Conley gave Auburn a My Little Pony, she gave him a football. Conley loved his Thomas train set from Santa. The weather was so nice on Christmas that we took the kids to the park and beach.  We apparently were not the only ones with that idea, it was packed.  The kids had a great day! The next day my parents and sister joined us.  We had a second Christmas.  I don't know if anyone got pictures we were all to excited to see each other.  We spent some more time at the beach and exploring the city.  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Here are some of the things we did in Miami to keep us busy.... The Gold Coast Railroad Museum Simon and I were totally bored here, but the kids thought it was the greatest thing ever.  Afterwards they kept asking us to go and we overheard them discussing it at night when they were suppose to be sleeping. The train that they are standing in front of carried a few Presidents of the United States. They had a great area set up with tons of Thomas train sets and the kids spent a good deal of time playing there. We spent a lot of time at parks and found new and cool ones all over town.  I have to say that playgrounds are better in the US and much safer than the ones here in Germany. The kids are running and skipping down the hill.  The Miami Children's Museum Auburn the firefighter shopping at Publix, the best grocery store ever My little construction workers T...