The baby is here!

Emily Rose arrived at 11:20am this morning. She weighs 7# 2oz. Mom and baby are doing great! I have to make this quick because I have a baby to go hold. I will update you more later. I am one excited Aunt!
Smiles!


Edited to add: The insurance company just called and they ARE covering the pool!!!! It is a happy day at the Hill house. Praise God!

Film Festival

Anna and her friend Dani entered the Film Festival that our High School puts on this year and won a Certificate of Excellence for their documentary on Mr. Meyer's Sweaters.

Enjoy!

Collage 2008

Zack and Tyler sang James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" for Collage last night. I didn't know that they were going to do it without any music so I missed the very start of the song.
Enjoy!

Field Trip, Pet's pet, and Pool updates

I went along with Libby on her field trip to the Grand Rapids Civic Theater today. They did a play on the book "Miss Nelson is Missing!". It was very well done. Then we went to the park for lunch and to play.

I think our dog Allie would like a pet of her own, HOWEVER, I don't know of anything that would want to be her pet. She was trying to convince this poor baby rabbit to be her pet by throwing it in the air whenever it tried to escape. You will be happy to know I rescued said rabbit and moved it to the empty lot next to us. Now that bunny better not thank me by coming back to eat my garden.

Our pool is looking much better. They have put the dirt back in place, repaired the tear and are starting to fill it back up. The State Farm claims rep was supposed to have come out this morning to "asses" the situation. I was not home so hopefully we will hear from them soon regarding his evaluation.

Smiles!

Mark's birthday, Mother's Day, Pool problems

Life has been super busy so I am going to try to make this really quick...

Mark's birthday was Saturday. This is a picture of him from last fall. I just realized while looking for a picture of him that I need to take more pictures of him.

He planned a surprise for me, isn't that just like him. He reserved a 4:30pm tee off time for a game of golf for the 2 of us. He planned on 9 holes and before we even finished the first hole he realized we wouldn't be keeping score. I have only golfed once before so this was a learning lesson for me. Who woulda thought that it would be so hard to hit a little ball. We both had a great time and by the 18th hole (we did 10-18) I was actually looking like I might know what I was doing.

Then we met my VERY pregnant sister and her husband for dinner in Muskegon. They are getting impatient (due the 19th) so they are trying to fill up all of their spare time instead of just sitting home and waiting. She is feeling great. We enjoyed catching up with them and hearing about what they are thinking about the upcoming birth.

Mother's day was wonderful. My husband got up early and made everyone breakfast. While I was eating my breakfast my kids gave me a gift of Vera Wang "Princess" perfume. It smells so good! They also gave me a gift card to Victoria Secret and a singing card that they recorded their own voices on with Zack at the end singing in true 80's fashion "my Shinin' star" because that was the music that came on after their recording. I love it and will keep it around until it doesn't work anymore.

Then while I was teaching YC&W at 2nd service my family came home and made lunch. Zack cooked steaks on the grill, Anna made these potato bites, Kaylyn made this dessert, Libby helped over-see it all, and Mark heated up some frozen mixed veggies to round out the meal. It was absolutely delicious! Mark had asked me earlier in the week if I wanted him to take us out on Sunday and I had told him that I would much rather enjoy my family at home with home cooked food I just don't want to have to make it. My wish came true.

In the afternoon while Mark was catching up on some much needed sleep (long hours at the nursery) I took the girls (Zack went Turkey hunting) to visit my Grand parents and then we went over to my parents for a little while.

(This picture is from a visit 2 months ago.)

It was hard seeing my Grandma. She is in advance stages of dimensia and has just had a bout with a urinary track infection last week that really took it's toll on her. She looked like she had aged 10 years. She is usually spunky and Sunday she was very quiet and somewhat lethargic. It caught me off guard.

On to the pool problems....

Mark decided last night to open the pool and start to get it ready for summer. Here is how we are used to seeing our pool...


very welcoming wouldn't you say?

Here is what Mark found when he uncovered it last night....

did your stomach just sink the way mine did?

Look closely at this picture.


Apparently we have a hole in the lining and the water that leaked out of the hole also caused the sand behind the liner to become unstable and slide down causing a huge hill at the bottom of the pool. The pool guy is estimating $3000 for a new liner and $2000-$3000 to have his guys come in there and reshape the bottom of our pool. It makes me sick to my stomach! He did give us a glimmer of hope, however, he said that our home owners insurance might cover it and told us to get out there and take lots of pictures. We are praying for this to be the case.

I guess that wasn't really that quick but at least I caught y'all up on life at the Hill's
Smiles!

Can it be the 8th already?!?!

Where did the month go? This won't be a very good check in, it is crazy busy here with spring sports, but here I go...

1. Keep up our 1,000 Gifts List
-Zero entries last month
2. Work @ becoming a Proverbs 31 woman
-Heading in the right direction.
3. Consistent quiet time/devotions
-Not as consistent as I would like.
4. Memorize scripture weekly
-I have not memorized any scripture this month.
5. Spend 1 on 1 time with each child
-Does sitting at track meets and soccer games count?
6. Complete sewn gift for Julie and Leo
-Haven't touched this because I am working on a baby gift for them and it should be done within the week.
7. Build up to run with Anna this summer
-I got nothing!
8. Complete knitted gift for Crystal and Jeremy
-Didn't touch it this month and they just celebrated their 1 year anniversary. Bummer!

Wordless Wednesday - Splash Youth Group

Pastor Brandon tortures youth members...

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

ARGH!

For the past 2 weeks I have been doing a lot of this...

because of this...


without much relief from this...

Pollens please go away!

Mom, can you make me this?

Anna seen a bag tutorial on this site and asked me to make it for her with a couple of her own design changes. She wanted the shoulder strap longer and the bag a little "deeper". I also changed the button closure to a snap just because I forgot to sew in the tab when I was making it and I had the snap already in the house. LOL! So Tuesday I made it for her. I still need to put the requested zippered pocket in it but she wanted to use it this weekend and I don't have a zipper in the house so she will have to wait for that.One funny thing about the site where she found the bag at, she found it by googling for a bag. When she gave me the site name to look at it I said, "Hey that name looks familiar" sure enough I subscribe to it in my Google Reader. What a coincidence.

Smiles!

Flocking to Zack for autographs?

Just kidding, he was running the Middle School Shot Put event and he was taking roll call but I couldn't resist.
Smiles!

Sports in review

Nothing to blog about so I will give an update on this week in sports so far....

Monday

Kaylyn
Shot Put 19'?" (she couldn't remember)
Pole Vault 5'6"

Tuesday

Anna
Soccer (Us) 3- (Them) 2
Anna scored 1 goal

Zack
Shot Put 61'8.75" (new record)
Discus 169'7" (new record)

Baby Shower

What a fun day we had Saturday celebrating the upcoming birth of my sister's baby!

Doesn't she look great! I am so excited for her. She is due May 19, so I think my picture on my side bar is off by a couple days.


We had no shortage of young ladies to help us celebrate Saturday. They were all so well behaved and so fun to have with us.


This last picture is for Megan. Have you checked out her belly gallery yet? As my sweet husband said when he seen this picture, "There is nothing more beautiful than a pregnant belly." Isn't that the truth. What a miracle.


Happy Monday!
Smiles!

WARNING-Don't read while eating.

So I am going through my Google Reader yesterday and this is what shows up...

(Click to enlarge)

I am thinking it has to be one of those wired headlines that makes it sound different than it really is so I click on it to read the whole story...


I am sorry if I made you just gag like I did while reading this story but seriously, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

"authorities removed the surviving sister... ( she) appears to have mental problems." -YA THINK?

Where are these poor sisters' loved one? Why didn't someone wonder about the missing sister? How incredibly sad!

Track fun

Kaylyn has been really working hard at clearing the 5' mark in pole vault. Last night she finally cleared it for the first time at a meet and then she went on to clear 5' 6" and took 1st place at the Middle School track meet. We were all very excited for her. Here is a funny video of her clearing the 5' mark and getting really lucky with how the pole landed.


She also took 3rd place in shot put with a toss of 21' 3" (I think, I am going off memory and that isn't always so good for me) but that went so fast that I missed it while waiting for Libby to get off the bus. Bummer!

Then of course Zack had to get in on the attention and show us his wonderful abilities....


I think he better stick to throwing things and not trying to throw himself. His size puts him at a slight disadvantage for such stuff. LOL! For more chuckles check out this video.

Smiles!

Wordless Wednesday - More of Jeffery's Trip

Jeffery loved the "free ride" at the airport.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.