Welcoming a new baby boy!

 

Happy Day!  Baby boy is here!  Nathan David Hill was welcomed into our family this past week, just one week after we arrived in Idaho (we just moved from Des Moines for David's new job after graduating residency).  What a whirlwind it as been! It seems baby Nathan waited just long enough for us to unpack to make his grand entrance into the world. He came 11 days early and weighed in at 8lbs. 7 oz.  Momma is so happy he didn't wait any longer and grow even bigger! 

 

Here's how things happened: one night last week I had some stronger contractions as I was trying to sleep but didn't think much of it since they subsided by morning and I felt normal.  We babysat my sweet great-nephews for a short time and after lunch waited for our new furniture to arrive, which did arrive and is awesome!  I was soaking in the newness of the sofas by lounging around on them when my contractions started up again (about 2pm). They were pretty consistent and after waiting an hour or two and realizing they were increasing in strength I decided to go upstairs and pack a hospital bag...novel idea, huh?  At that point we got a phone call from David's mom Julie telling us that David's sister Callie (who's due date was that very same day) was headed to the hospital because her water broke!  What a coincidence.  We told her we were probably headed to the hospital too (still unsure if the contractions were going to fizzle out or not). 

 

David, being the good doctor he is, thought to go ahead and check my cervix and reported, "you're dilated to a 6...we need get to the hospital."  We called David's family and his sweet sister Amy came over to take care of the girls and off we went down the street to the hospital (we don't live far, thank goodness!)  Upon arrival at 4:45pm things were getting pretty serious on my end and the first thing I asked for was an epidural, pronto!  It took a while though and we were both nervous that things were moving too quickly to get any pain medication.  Finally anesthesia came and did an intrathecal which worked just in time and I was so grateful!  Nathan was born at 6:10pm by Dr. Isbell here in Idaho Falls.  The OB I had chosen here in Idaho Falls (Dr. Leavitt) was on a plane to New Zealand that day so Dr. Isbell was the physician on call.  David was hoping to be able to deliver Nathan but we hardly knew this new doc and he was pretty old-school and particular about the delivery (but also did a phenomenal job delivering) so David stood by me and was an all-star coach!  I didn't even need any stitches...that's a first and recovery has been soooo much less painful!  We are excited beyond words to have Nathan in our family.  He is such a good baby and sweet as can be.



 

 

 The big sisters meeting their baby brother for the first time!

 Josie (2 yrs.), the newest big sister, holding Nathan.

 Savannah (4 yrs.) holding baby brother.

 What a proud big sister Tabitha is! She is 6 1/2 years old and loves to hold Nathan and love him all she can!

 Nathan, one day old.

 Father and Son!  When David came back to the hospital the day after Nathan was born he looked at him and said, "Hey, that's me as a baby!"  Babies always change so much after that first day of being swollen and bruised through child birth so to see him after his swelling went down and color improved made us both realize how much he really does look like his daddy!

 Natalie and Nicolas (our niece and nephew respectively) fed our girls and brought them to visit again in the hospital.

 David and the girls brought flowers and balloons for Nathan and I!

 Handsome baby boy!

 On our way home!

 Cousin Hailey, such a natural when it comes to holding babies!

 Auntie Amy (David's sister) holding baby Nathan.  It was her birthday and she even brought us a delicious meal. Thanks Amy for everything!!

 Grandpa Hill soaking in the moment with Nathan, who is the first of the grandkids to be carrying on the Hill family name. :-)

 Aunt Jenny and Brooke with Baby Nathan.

Tabi asks to hold Nathan many, many times through out the day and she does a great job!  Here Nathan is trying to eat her arm!  :-)  We love you Nathan!  Welcome to our family.

Josie Lyn Five Months Old

Here are some baby pictures of us all. First is our little Josie who will be 5 months old on Monday. The next photo is Savannah at 5 months old and then Tabitha at 5 months. Next is me at about 2 1/2 months and last is David at about 2 months old. It's fun to see us all as babies and the family resemblance! Pretty fun! Below are some pictures that I took of Josie this morning. She will be 5 months old on Monday the 12th. She is just so precious. We all love her to the extreme! She is the happiest, smiliest, chillest baby ever. She is super easy to take care of and loves to cuddle. The past four nights she has slept 10-11 hours straight through the night and the past two nights she has fallen asleep on her own. I just swaddle her (leaving one arm out) and make sure she is fed, then lay her in her bed and without even a fuss she goes to sleep! It's like magic. She brings so much joy to our home and her big sissies love her!

This one is for Nat. I totally love this hat!!

This last picture is my new favorite! It is such a blessing to be the mom of these three sweet angel girls!!

The Iowa State Fair

We sooo enjoyed the Iowa State fair this past August! It is the second largest state fair in the country and it is awesome! We got to go two different days and had a blast together as a family and with some friends. Here are the girls with a few of their friends at the cute "helping hands on the farm" activity.

They loved it! They put so much produce in their baskets though that it all kept falling out!

Me and Savannah at the end of the giant slide! Super fun!

David and Savannah on one of the rides together. It's one that goes round and round. The g-forces push you to the outside of the seat. After the ride started he realized he should have had Savannah on the inside instead of the outside. He had be careful not to smash her! :-)

Gotta love this face!!

Sweet Josie baby was such a trooper on those long fair days. She is an angel.

And yes, we did indulge in some over the top food from the fair. The corn dogs were enormous and we loved the funnel cakes. Yummo! Thanks for a fantastic time Iowa State Fair!

Summer so far in Iowa

And now for some recent updates from our Summer so far here in Iowa. Boy has it been hot this past week! We've been 99 degrees the past 3 days with a heat index of 106! Whew, we've been playing in doors a lot. The girls are happy and well and play pretty well together. Josie is the sweetest angel baby and hardly makes a fuss unless she is hungry or tired. She is our chunky monkey and is always willing to give a smile!

Josie at 2 months old.

Josie Lyn at 3 months old. When she was first born I thought she looked a lot like Tabitha but now that she is getting older we've gotten a lot of comments that she looks like Savannah and I can see it here in this picture. She definitely has her own cute look though.
Fourth of July parade here in Iowa. The girls had a blast and got tons of candy. We were lucky enough to get a spot in the shade.

And sparklers that evening! I love how Tabitha is sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth in this picture because I have a lot of pictures of me doing the same thing when I was her age!
We've been doing a lot of swimming and playing in the water. Des Moines has so many free splash pads and wading pools plus we had this awesome blow up waterslide donated to the residency program here. It's a blast!

Funny Savannah can be so sad one minute and then so happy the next! She's got a really expressive little face and is such a HAM!

Thought I'd just throw this in here. This was Savannah's attempt to put a video in the VCR! ha!
Big Sister Tabi loves to hold baby Josie. Isn't she a chunk?! Her smile melts my heart!
And finally, here's me and David, the proud parents of three little princesses who make us so happy (and tired sometimes). We love you all and hope everyone is well. We can't wait to see you all in November/December!