Notre Dame Graduation

As if we haven't had enough excitement in our lives ha! Nate graduated with his MBA 3 days after Reid was born. People kept telling me I was crazy for being so active after having just given birth, but I have felt so good and recovered so quickly! Anyways, I am soooo proud of Nate! He has worked SO hard! I am glad we are opening a new chapter but still so sad that this one is closing. I can't believe school is over. Life has been so crazy lately so I haven't had time to process much, so it may set in this week. Nate and I have loved it here and met some amazing people that we will forever stay in touch with. We did it all in 500 sq. ft! :) 

 

                                        

Reid Garth Hill

Reid finally made his entrance into the world! He came four days after his due date. We all love a good birth story right? Well Wednesday morning at 4:12 am I had my first contraction and it hurt for being a first contraction. I was almost positive this was it. I got out of bed and 6 minutes later I had another just as painful. I woke Nate up and was so scared. For some reason I was scared of this labor and delivery. Nate kept telling me I would be fine. My friend Liz was my doula for this birth and so I knew I needed to get a hold of her right away. About 2 contractions later they were 2 1/2 minutes apart. I was freaking out inside because I knew he was coming so soon. We were in the car and driving away 45 minutes after my first contraction. I got to the hospital and I was really calm and collected trying not to think about it and so the lady at the front desk thought I was checking in for an induction so of course I had to tell her I was in labor. When they checked me in the triage room I was dilated to a 6-7. I told them I wanted an epidural, but the doctor who checked me told me I was so far along and that since I had only been in labor for an hour that it would come so fast and the epidural would only take the edge off. I didn't care, I was not mentally prepared for a drug free labor :). During all of this my contractions never got any worse from when they started and were totally manageable (WAY different than with my girls). I got the epidural (which worked fabulously), was dilated to an 8 and pushed shortly after. He was born at 8:22 am. It was such a different experience and easy compared to labor with my girls. He weighed 8lbs 8 oz and was 20.75 in. long. He has already had his first appointment and gained 3 oz and .25 in. Reid eats and sleeps like a champ so far. I don't want to get my hopes up but he is so easy going. He LOVES to snuggle! If he cries or whimpers you just have to snuggle him and he is good for hours. The girls love him to death!! Adalie is so good with him and Hallie has good intentions. She often squeezes him too hard or shoves his binky in his mouth, she basically won't leave him alone....just as I suspected! 

My friend Shelly came to the hospital and took some great pictures for us! 

  

 Nate, me, and Liz right before the delivery

 Reid's first bath

 

Family of 5

 

 

On our way home

 

 Home and loving on brother

End of April

Here are a few pictures to wrap up April...

 The girls practicing holding baby brother in the rocking chair

 

After church one day the girls made a car and made Nate get in the back seat to pretend to be baby brother

 Hallie just chillin' in the bouncer eating pear watching tv

 Adalie, Hallie, and Oaklee being cute in the rain

 Hallie and Hannah tormenting a little dog at the Blue and Gold tailgate 

 These two make me laugh so hard--so sad that they only have a little bit of time left together

 The guys--last ND tailgate :(

 Amy and Nate as happy as ever!

 Do I look huge or what?! I have been reassured I don't look this big.....the camera adds 10 lbs right?!

 Adalie and Oaklee on their 5th or 6th cotton candy......

Nate is 30!!!

Nate has joined a new club--the 30 and over club! I don't know that it has really hit him (or if he even cares) since he has been so busy with school--did I mention he is done in 6 days!?! 6 DAYS!!! Anyways, since he was so busy the girls and I made him squeeze in a little bit of time for dinner and present opening. The girls each picked out something for him and were really good at keeping a secret. He tried and tried to get it out of them and they kept saying, "its a surprise you have to wait for your birthday". Hallie managed to make to his birthday because as soon as she woke up she ran to tell him she got him a "squishy thing" aka whoopie cushion. After dinner a few of our good friends came over.

South Bend

Well South Bend has been great to us! The weather has been funny--however I am not complaining. We had a nice summer and fall! Winter was so mild!! It was usually in the 30's and the snow never stuck around for very long when it did snow. Then in March we hit summer temperatures which was amazing! T-shirts, shorts and sweating. Then the next thing we knew it was fall temps again then some winter ones, and now we are back to spring. Its a good thing too because we go CRAZY when its cold out and have to stay indoors. We were getting used to the fact that we could be outside for so much of the day and then it quickly turned to cold weather. Hallie naps in the afternoon and Adalie plays for hours in the "backyard" with her friends so I have a lot of ME time when the weather is nice (which is why I am blogging now).

I struggled a bit with South Bend in the fall mainly because I was in my first trimester of pregnancy which is never fun and feels never ending. Once I crossed that bridge I realized how much I am going to miss it here! It has been such a great place for us to live! I hate thinking about moving and how my kids can't just run in the "backyard" and play with friends all day. The community here is awesome and we have made so many great friends! I know we will all keep in touch, but it won't be the same.

Graduation is in five weeks and baby brother is due in four and then our next step is to move! I can't believe we moved here almost a year ago. Time has flown by! I wish we could take the community with us! Well here are a few pictures of the last few weeks.

 Hallie and Adalie each got to participate in gymnastics one day inside of a bus. It was put on by the Village. They loved it!

 Hallie and Hannah waiting for gymnastics to start--they are really going to miss each other! 

 Go Hallie

 About to do a somersault

 Adalie warming up with sit-ups

 Adalie's somersault

 One of three Easter Egg Hunts we attended. So since this occasion my girls love to play "Easter Bunny" They involve other kids on the playground and take turns sitting on each others lap. 

 Daddy and his girls! 

 At the Easter Egg Hunt they had face painting and the line was HUGE so Nate took Adalie home and painted her face.

 Every morning without fail the girls stand in front of the door trying to stop Nate from going to school. Hallie will start standing in front of the door 10-15 minutes before Nate is even ready to leave. After he leaves they come and cry real tears for about 30 seconds and then move on. Just a routine I am used to I guess...

 Luckily he is strong enough to get out!

 This is one of Adalie's good friends Dorothy (look how tan they are already!!)

 They love to jump off the couch

 and draw on windows

While Hallie makes a mess of the bathroom!

One last thing I want to write about is that about a week ago Nate and I were woken up in the middle of the night to sound of our front door opening! Nate jumped out of bed as fast as he could (what a man!) and found Adalie coming inside!!! He asked her what she was doing and she said she was going to play outside! She was clearly sleep walking! We are not sure if she was out there for just a little bit or a long time which is scary to think about!! The next day we had a deadbolt installed!! I asked Adalie if she remembered leaving and she was confused and when I explained to her what happened she got scared and cried. I felt so bad!

Color Festival

Here at the Village we had a mini Color Festival and my girls loved it! Actually, when the color ran out they were pretty upset....