Guess Who...

decided to WALK this past weekend? Yep! Shiloh Hill! Of course, she's not walking in this photo, nor do we have any footage of her walking. But we will soon. :) It's just that with all the walking and festivities of the Risher Christmas weekend, we're a little tired.




She wore us all out, including her brother. See? Incidentally, he got a pillow pet over the weekend and LOVES IT!

Something Big at Deeper Still

Well, it's been two weeks now since Deeper Still in Birmingham. And I have yet to report how awesome it was. I guess I've been processing all that we heard from the speakers since then and it was a LOT to process. Overall, it was just an awesome time of fellowship with some lovely women and an awesome word from Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore.

I'm not sure what's going on with blogger, but my photo uploading is all wonky, so I can't separate my comments to the pics below. The first picture is our ladies group from Pinelake in front of our bus right before the trip home. Below the group photo is a shot of the speakers...the best I could really get given the lighting in the arena and the distance from the stage. :)







This last pic is VERY special and awesome to me, as it represents me meeting Angie Smith, author of the book "I Will Carry You!" For those of you who have no idea who this is, the really REALLY short version of the story is that Angie is married to Todd Smith, lead singer of Selah. Angie and Todd had a daughter, Audrey Caroline, who was born and died on April 7, 2008, one day before Aaron went Home to be with Jesus. Angie has a lovely blog (www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com) wherein she shared her walk through grief after Audrey's death. As I walked along beside Angie in loss, it was encouraging to me to see her dealing with the same issues and struggles as me on a day to day basis. Angie has been able to use her loss in a BIG way, writing the book I mentioned above and speaking at events about her walk through grief and the Lord's plan for Audrey's life and death. It was great to see how God has used her loss to encourage and impact others...I only hope the Lord will use Aaron's short life in a big way, too!

Trying to Get a Cute Family Photo?

Too bad. ;) Little people don't always cooperate.

11 Months? Say What?

Yep, it's true. Shiloh turned 11 months old over the weekend. It hardly seems fathomable that she's almost a year old!

She's such a fun little thing. Loves sucking a wet rag and playing with her brother. They play "chase" and she screams at him. When she's had enough, however, she fusses at him or says "no-no," her favorite word these days.

Her vocabulary started with jabbering "mama," "dada" and "nana," although she doesn't really associate them with anyone. "Bye-bye" was the first real word (accompanied by a sweet wave of the left hand), with "uh-oh" starting soon after. She uses "no-no" if you do something she doesn't like or if she sees something she wants to play with, but knows is a prohibited item. She also recently started saying "thank you," although it sound more like "tah-too." My favorite new word is "bow," which she sings sweetly any time she sees Riley or Mama Kitty. :)

Along with sucking a rag, she loves to crawl around and investigate her world, pulling up on anything remotely stationary. Our prediction is she will be walking before she turns one...we'll see if that happens! Her favorite foods are yogurt, carrots, zipper peas and dumplings. Oh, and she loves cookies and suckers, just like her biggest brother!

I'm Pretty Sure...

this is the most adoring big brother ever created.

Shiloh is certainly lucky to have him. And we are, too. :)

Some Keystone Pics

Levi and I took a little field trip to the summit on our last day. We had oreos on our way up the gondola. Can you tell?

One of the prettiest views. But literally, there wasn't a bad view in any direction. Everywhere you turn, there are gorgeous mountains. This is by far the most beautiful place we've ever skied.

One of my favorite easy greens. :)

Tired, sore and cold. But smiling. :)

I managed to sneak a few pics of Levi on his way to ride the gondola up the mountain with his ski school class. It wasn't hard to go unnoticed...since I was covered in clothing and goggles from head to toe. Isn't he a cute little ski bum?

So...what do the younger Hills think of Santa?

They're not fans.

No, really. They're not.

Some of My Favorite Pictures EVER

This morning was full of photo sessions. First, we visited Santa Claus at Candy's Confections. Truth be told, neither Levi or Shiloh enjoyed that event. Santa did not get to hear anything from either of them except wailing and gnashing of teeth.

So, we moved on.

We had a little photo fun off Spillway Road on the new walking trail. There are some beautiful bridges and leaves as the trail nears Highway 471, so we took advantage of the opportunity and snapped about a thousand pics of the kids.

Here are four of my favorites of Shiloh. Many more to share later, but it's late and there's football to watch. :) Enjoy.

Ain't she cute? :)

Five, Six...Nine and Ten

Guess who just turned TEN months old? This little sweet pea!

Guess who had the evil, wretched fever virus for NINE days? The same little sweet pea...but she wasn't feeling so sweet. But with the help of this big brother, she got better. Wouldn't you? If you had these hugs all the time? :)

Right in the middle of the evil fever virus...she got tooth number FIVE. And over the weekend, tooth number SIX! One on top and one on bottom. But she's still smiling...see?

Some Thoughts on Halloween

Halloween 2010. Levi's first experience trick or treating. First time he has ever really expressed an interest in "dressing up." He's getting so OLD (sob...).

Anywhoo, he was a fan of Halloween. After a couple of shaky visits to someone's door, a few firm words about saying "thank you" from his daddy and after seeing bigger kids handling it like a pro, he wholly embraced the trick or treating concept.

Shiloh, on the other hand, was not so much a fan.

I'm not sure if it was going outside at dusk, prickly pine straw, being left abandoned on the cold ground, the hat... So many options.

Perhaps 2011 will be another story. :)

Something to Smile About

It's been two and a half years since Aaron left us for Heaven. Not every day is a happy one when we miss our little boy, but we know he's in a better place. On top of that(as if Heaven could be topped!), some things (and people) give us a reason to smile. One of those people is my friend Jennifer Scharfenstein. She and her husband Jody lost their daughter Savannah in 2006. They put their grief into action by starting Savannah Smiles, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation founded to help families with final expenses of their children, as well as emotional support for grieving families like ours. Even though we've never met, to say Jennifer is close to my heart would be an understatement.

This past Friday was the annual Savannah Smiles golf tournement in Slidell, the biggest fundraiser of the year for my friends and their organization. At every hole, there is a photo and information on the children and families helped and blessed by Savannah Smiles. My sweet friend Ginger sent me a photo of our precious Aaron's photo at one of the holes.

The Scharfensteins are wonderful people and have suffered much. Yet, they are using their loss, grief and knowledge gained through tragedy to bless others in a BIG WAY! Please check out their website at www.savannah-smiles.org or their Facebook page. There you can see pictures of Savannah and the rest of their beautiful family and learn more about how to help families in grief.

Did Someone Say...4?

Are you seriously telling me that this guy is FOUR YEARS OLD? Why, yes. Yes, he is. :)


The Hills have been so busy with parties and sickness that I haven't had time to blog about the fact that THIS LITTLE GUY...

(at about two months old--who is incidentally the same guy as this BIGGER little guy)

just turned FOUR! After this party, he asked "mommy, am I a big boy now?" to which I reluctantly replied, "yes...yes you are." And he promptly jumped up and down and cheered. :)

It's Indescribable...

...how much love I have for these little people.

And how blessed I feel...

that they are so happy (though silly).

Each day I marvel at their cuteness...how much they are learning and growing...

and am thankful at the depth of their love. :)

I Won't Share...

...my grilled cheese sammich wif anyone.

Nine Months

I really can't believe this little girl is nine months old already. She's such a busy, happy little person. She has much more of an agenda than Levi did at her age and I fear that she'll be walking all over (or maybe running) before her first birthday... She's already figured out how to roll her brother's bus across the floor. It's a good thing he shares...at least sometimes.

We went to visit Nanny and Papaw over the weekend. Nanny's birthday is this week, so we celebrated with candles and cupcakes. Levi found some time to help his Papaw bury a gutter pipe, too.

Soccer Can Be a Slow Game

It just can. I mean, who knew we'd have to sit around and wait for the other team to arrive.

Or wait for our turn to take the field.

Sometimes we have to wait on the other team to line up, find enough players or tie a shoe.

And Sister has to wait, too.

But when we SCORE...it's well worth the wait. :)

Turning 40 is Dreadful

Especially when your wife flocks you in public. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOTT!

Soccer Starts

We recently had our first soccer game. It was quite an adventure, especially Daddy was the head coach this week! But he took it all in stride.

Here are the boys discussing their strategy.

Where are we going with the ball? They all yelled "THE GOAL!"

This was a shot of Levi's best drive of the game. The "Fire" got the ball close to their goal and Levi passed it to E...

who sunk one of several goals of the game!

Even though the game was at 8:30 in the morning, it was SUPER HOT. Moo, Pop and Shiloh watched the action from the sidelines and tried to stay cool!