Baby

Its officially the beginning of the end. If the little man hasn't come in nine days he is coming whether he likes it or not my doctor says. I can't believe how fast- yet slow the last nine months have gone. Marsh and I could not be more excited! I think we both still feel like we really have no idea what we are doing for the most part but we are going to love this babe so much and I guess that is all we can do for now! I've been putting together his room and things very slowly so that I have something to keep me busy while Marsh is at school all day and here are some pics of where we are at!

I can't believe there will be a baby living here in just a few short days!

And here I am.. hopefully my last pregnant picture at 38 1/2 weeks!

OK baby now that your room is ready and your clothes are washed.. you are welcome to come at anytime!

Tender Mercies

The other day marsh and I came home in the heat a little tired and maybe slightly discouraged and there in our new home and in our back yard where we had just weeded (in vain we thought) almost over night this beauty popped up through the rocks! after driving around town i realized i think these technically might be weeds still for the area but... They are so beautiful to me and it made my whole day! It was a good reminder to me that we can bloom where we are planted...even if it seems difficult. Which is what i might have thought when we first got here, but this little tender mercy jump started me into a much better outlook. Its a silly thing but i am so grateful for these beautiful.. flowers/weeds that popped into our life just when i needed them. We have been blessed with so many tender mercies since we have been here i am so grateful for the extra little ways we come to know that we are being taken care of.

August 14th

This day means a lot to me.

 Two years ago today was the start of the most beautiful life I could ever have imagined. I couldn't have imagined it actually, how wonderful and perfect it would be to make covenants in the Lords house with a man who really knows what that means and to work everyday with him to keep them, to fall in love again every single day and just have fun being best friends. 

Everyday I spend with this boy makes me more grateful.  I am grateful that because of the choices we made on August 14th 2010 I get to keep this charming and perfect man as my husband and best friend forever. Like seriously forever, after this life and death, and onto eternity.  

Getting married is a funny thing, because you can easily say that it was the best day of your life, yet everyday after seems to be better than the one before, the first day is just the beginning, Thanks marsh for making everyday since august 14th even better! I cant wait for all the days to come! 

Happy Anniversary!

White Coat White Coat!

Today was Marshall's white coat ceremony, it was the official induction to Marshall becoming a doctor at ATSU. It was such a fun event! I felt so proud knowing how hard he has worked to get here, I seriously married the most amazing man in the world! here are a few pics of the ceremony and our new friends here in Kirksville

                                                                           The group!

                            This cute pic taken right before he chuckled and threw acorns at us!

                                                                       I love this Boy!

we're here!

We made it to our new home! Its crazy to think we have been here for 2 weeks already, and just a week from today Marsh will start all of his medical school adventures.  I'm handling this reality...ok...kind of... I blame my emotions on the little man inside of me that is ready to kick his way out. It's definitely his fault. We got here on July 18th -- it was a beautiful 104 degree day in Missouri :) but we were so excited to finally be on our way to our goals that we have talked and dreamed and prayed about for what seems like forever!
We left on an amazing high, finishing off with the most wonderful Hill family reunion -- my first one at that!  It was so nice to get to see everyone all at once, one last time, before we left. 

 

The week of the family reunion Marshall ran a basketball camp for all the older nephews.  He is so wonderful.  It was amazing to watch him get ready for the camp and how excited he was and how much he really wanted to help the boys be good, kind boys more than be good basketball players.  That is the man I married, it really is and I love it so much! He had quotes and lessons before each practice, and we even made them all personalized camp shirts!  It was actually a blast.. for me anyways.

We finished up the reunion in Bear Lake, then we came home and got to see cute Kimball get baptized!  I was so glad Mark and Aimee were here when he got baptized so we could all be there!  Plus, it gave us a little extra time to hang out with them again.  Our trip back there seems like it was so long ago now!

 

The baptism was on Saturday, and on Sunday we spent time with friends and family. On Monday we loaded up the van, and it was the beginning of many wonderful adventures!  We are so grateful to our wonderful friends and family that came to help.  It was so great to get to see Mari and Blake and Marie and Isaiah one last time.  They were so kind to come help because I obviously wasn’t any help.  But mostly I just loved getting to spend a last few minutes with them.  They have been the best friends to us this last year; I don’t know what we would have done without them!

So we started off!  At 11:30 the truck was loaded and ready to go, but the company hadn’t found the car carrier we ordered yet.  By 1:30 our bumper had been cracked and scraped by the company trying to put a car carrier on that didn’t work because they had given away the one we ordered! After exhausting a million other resources my sweet dad and husband left for Wyoming where they would get another car carrier to try.  At 6:00 that night they called because they got the car carrier to work-- don’t worry, they drove all that way to use the same carrier, but this time the worker man knew how to put the car on right!  The next day the girls-- My mom and I and my sis Joy-- took off for Kansas city on a plane.  I am so glad we flew!  I can’t imagine driving all that way right now.  We met up with Marsh and my dad in Kansas City... only after they had had a few more adventures with the moving truck… and we headed to our sweet little Kirksville!

 

I felt so nervous when we pulled up to our little house, but when we walked inside it was so much more wonderful that I had expected!  It is perfect for our little family, and its CLEAN! I am so grateful it's CLEAN! There haven’t been any bugs! It was a miracle! Dad and Marsh and Mom and Joy unloaded the truck in record time, and they finished right as the missionaries rode up to help-- perfect timing, right?! Just after we started figuring everything out, my brother Aaron and sis-in-law Sara pulled up with their babe all the way from Georgia! It was so sweet that they came all the way to help us get settled.  We loved it, but mostly we just loved so much getting to hang out with them again (and mom and joy just loved playing with baby Grant!). The eight of us spent the next few days putting the whole house together.  It was wonderful, and there is no way we would have been able to do it all on our own! After 2 days of working, my feet were so swollen I just had to lay there like  a bump on a log for a few days.  I felt so useless, and I was so glad everyone else was there. It made me really, really appreciate family love. We finished up almost everything in putting our house together, and then took off to Nauvoo--it's just and hour and 45 minutes away! 

 Aaron and Sara came out on Aarons b-day and right before Sara's so naturally we had to have a little celebration

 

It was a wonderful trip to Nauvoo, just like the one my parents took us on when we were little! It was Marshall's first time being there with the temple built, and it was Sara’s first time ever! It was so fun to be in the temple and enjoy it together.  I am so grateful we get to go back all the time.  It is our closest temple, and we are in the Nauvoo Stake.

 

I’ve said so much and should really go to bed, but that is the story of how we got here! I am so grateful my family was here the first few days; I needed it emotionally and physically in a million ways. It was so hard to let them all go home, but now it is just Marshall and I and the house is quiet.  It has been so nice that we almost welcome the quiet. The last few months have been anything but quiet in our lives. We have had a week and a half of just bliss, like a second honeymoon, just enjoying each other, trying new Kirksville things, and meeting new friends.  Kirksville has been good to us! I've loved soaking up these lazy days with Marshall, I love him so much more everyday. I didn't know it was possible and it is making it hard to think he will be gone all day long soon. It's funny how it works when you love and care about someone so much that you want to share every moment with them, yet you love them so much that you would do anything to help them achieve their dreams--even move to a town surrounded by corn 60 miles each way, stay home and cook and clean for them… it's funny, love is :) 

Me.. a Mom?

Fathers day, mothers day and this little babe constantly tap dancing around my belly button have got me thinking. But mostly its got me terrified.

The thing is that I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world! I have had the best examples raise me and love me and teach me everything I know, I don't know how I possibly could have asked for better parents!

The thought of being a Mom doesn't really actually hit me yet. Im 30 weeks pregnant today and that means in just 10 weeks not only will I live far away from my Mom but I will be totally and completely responsible for this little man. Each minute he doesn't kick I worry myself sick, and even when he moves so much my whole body gets jolted to a new position I feel so happy that he must be more comfortable now. Its crazy to think that I love him so much and all I can do is feel him, soon we will be able to hold him and look at him and talk to him. I am really starting to realize becoming a parent really must be the closest way we can understand Gods love for us. 

I just can't wait sometimes, and yet I just can't feel ready at all. I watch our dear friends Mari and Blake and Dax and Melanie start their own families and have the most adorable little boys, and never seem stressed or like parenting is anything but the most incredible experience of their lives. I hope we can be like them, calm and just love it! I hope we can be like our own amazing parents. I don't know how people do it really, but I am so grateful every day that we get a chance. 

Little boy I hope you know we will do our best! 

Picture Update

The weeks have flown by! Don't worry I am still very pregnant and loving the summer time! Way back in April -- which seems so long ago and just like yesterday all at the same time-- Marsh and I graduated from BYU! Marsh was so sweet and gave me the most amazing Cannon Rebel Camera that I just can't get enough of! And since you can probably tell that I am not the best at writing (and it can be more boring!) I think I'll update what our summer has been like so far with a slew of pictures! Sound good?

I wish I had a million words to say how wonderful it feels to have graduated! BYU was such an amazing experience and I can't believe it is over, but it feels so good to have graduated! I loved being in school with Marsh and walking together was so much more fulfilling!

At our graduation party with the family, we taught the kids about what a graduation is and had them practice "graduating"! With the traditional graduation song playing in the background (Marshall loves that song!), we had them stand in line, come up one at a time as their names were announced, and each received their "diploma", which was in reality their plates so they could get dessert!  It was awesome!  Thanks to everyone who came!

Baby and I have been growing just great (me maybe a little bit more than I would like!), but everything is going so well and we could not be more grateful!


We went to a lot of softball games for my little sister who played for Layton High School's varsity team as a freshman! She is so athletically gifted its really quite unfair! Although as I don't just love softball, it was so fun to watch her and just relax outside in a chair with the family.  Good times!

The first few weeks of May we took a trip back east and saw Marsh's sister Aimee and her husband Mark and their kids in North Carolina, and also traveled down to Georgia to see Aaron and Sara and baby Grant!
The last couple days of the trip, we also went with Aimee and Mark and their family to Washington D.C.. Marsh got to see Washington D.C. for the first time ever.  He was so excited about going that he had us stay up till 2 AM watching National Treasure 1 and 2 just so he could really feel like he was in D.C.! I think he liked it!

The picture on the left is us in front of our favorite place in D.C.--the Lincoln Memorial.  It was an amazing place.  It made us feel way more patriotic.  The picture on the right is my sweet man imitating the scene on National Treasure 2 where Nicholas Cage tells his friend he's going to steal the Declaration of Independence. Don't worry we went to see the Declaration next. 

While we were on our trip my dear friend Nique Wakefield got home from her mission, so the high school gang got together again to play.  It was so much fun!

I have loved sleeping outside this summer! We have slept outside 3 times already this summer, complete with a TV and way to many treats!  This is a picture of the morning after we slept outside with our niece and nephew Emily and Curtis!

This is the darling Baby shower my mom threw for me! She did such and amazing job, and I was so proud of how cute it was.  It was so great to see friends and ward members that I haven't seen in so long, visit with everyone, and just be excited about this little man coming into our lives. 

Dad also finished making the baby cradle.  Isn't he amazing?  I was so excited about it! (Yes, that might be a baby doll in the crib!)

My amazing sister-in-laws and mother-in-law also threw me an adorable baby shower for Marsh's side of the family! Sadly, this is really the only picture that turned out okay for some reason, but the shower was so fun and amazing! The women in Marsh's family are all so beautiful and amazing!  It was so great to spend the night with them being excited about our baby!

Last but not least, we just got home from the cabin at Yellowstone.  It is my favorite to be up there! This was my first time going in the summer, and it was so pretty up there.  Don't worry though, it snowed the first day too, so Marsh and I found these beautiful matching BYU jackets from the 70s in the closet to wear.  We had so much fun with the family just relaxing, laughing until I cried, and seeing beautiful things!

                                                                      I love these two!

                                               little sister Joy gathering her buffalo chips :)

It has been an amazing summer so far! I am slowly realizing that it will probably be our last real summer for a long time.  Next year with the military and medical school Marshall, only gets about 5 days of summer.  So we are soaking up every moment we can now!