1, 2 buckle My Shoe...

3, 4 Shut The Door

To Another Year of Marriage!!!

Yes, it is true, Spencer and I are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary today! It was a quiet day again, like usual, because of Spencer's schooling but we made the best of it.

Thursdays are always his long day and today was no different. We will go to the Cheesecake Factory this weekend to celebrate and of course there was the little gift exchanges but student loans don't allow for much more. However, as lame as this sounds, I am just grateful to share in the journey of my life with him. I couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else by my side.

"I don't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me; love is knowing all about someone, and still wanting to be with them more than any other person, love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of, love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone, but still getting weak knees when they walk into a room and smile at you."

I couldn't have said it better than this. Spencer knows my imperfections, my disappointments. He knows that I can struggle and yet, he loves me anyway. He treats me so well and I am so blessed to have him as my husband and the father of our child(ren). Thank you, Spencer, for everything! I love you!!!

Happy Anniversary!

No, Not Eggs...

but... PACKAGES!!!

Ok... So there were eggs and a basket for Ethan and Spencer got a pair of shorts and a swim suit from the Easter bunny but for the most Easter came in packages this year!

The first arrived on the Wednesday before Easter from Spencer's family. They told us not to open it 'til Easter Sunday. Not very often lately is there something to REALLY look forward to for me and Spencer, so we got a little anxious waiting. We opened it about noon on Easter with Spencer's family on Skype. We were blessed with toys for Ethan, as well as some pajamas and a huge cuddly bunny. Spencer got girl scout cookies and a good looking Utes shirt. I was excited for a Sudoku booklet and a box of numerous puzzles. (I felt really special that Shelly and Kevin remembered how much I LOVE puzzles like sudoku, cross numbers [like crosswords puzzles but with numbers], and hitori.) To say the least we felt VERY blessed and VERY loved! 

The second package came on the Friday before Easter from my family. I was really excited to open this one partly because even my parents were really excited for me to open it and oh man I had no idea how excited I was going to get! There were lots of pajamas and an outfit for Ethan, along with a little wooden plane and some movies. There were lots of books for Spencer and I to read. ...BUT the BEST part was the container that held... 

TWO LESLIE'S MINI CAKES!!! 

Yep, its true, my parents love us! :) This is the first year ever that I have not had a Leslie's cake for my birthday and as sweet as my dad is, he tried to find out if there was a way he could bring a cake with him when they came to visit just before my birthday but we all know that wasn't going to happen with the airport security. My mom packed the cakes really well, sticking an ice pack in with them and when i told her that it worked amazingly and everything stayed nice and cold. She was happy to hear that and said she would try sending some eclairs for Spencer next time since everything stayed nice and cold. The cakes were by far the BEST package I have EVER received!!! THANKS MOM (AND DAD... he said it was mom's idea) FOR BEING SO INCREDIBLE! 

Easter egg hunt our church family put on
for the community.

Now, I had a long serious talk with the Easter bunny and told him that Ethan was only to get ONE thing from the bunny and I wanted it to be a biblical item but when me and the bunny went out shopping to find this item I picked up a few items that were on the necessity list and realized there was no reason the Easter bunny and I couldn't go in on Ethan's basket together. So it was agreed, The item from the bunny and all of my stuff would be Ethan's Easter present. All I can say is that Ethan was SPOILED!!! He got a couple swimsuits, some flip flops, clothes, an umbrella stroller, and because they were having a buy one get another item free sale on the biblical toy the Easter bunny found Ethan was blessed with TWO toys! (The biblical toy was a Fisher Price Little Peoples Noah's Ark.) 

Ethan's Easter Basket

I know that we were really blessed with lots of fun gifts but before I rap up this post I just want to stress how much I appreciate what this holiday really represents. I am so grateful for the fact that I can stand here today and ask for forgiveness of the mistakes that I make. I know that God lives in me and I know that I am given that forgiveness because of the sacrifice that He made. Praise God that He died on the cross and rose again three days later for ALL of us.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Locked... IN!!!

We get locked out of houses and cars. There are lock outs in sports, but rarely do you here about people getting locked in. 

Well, we had TWO lock ins in a matter of only 24 hours! 

It was April Fool's. Started like any other day with the added "I'm pregnant!" April Fool's jokes. (I only throw that in there because many thought what I am about to tell you was a joke... IT WASN'T!) I had been doing the house chores, just moved onto the laundry. Everything was folded or on hangers and just needed to be placed in the closet. Now, our closet is so short that I have to crawl in and out of it to put things away. There is no way to open the door from inside the closet, so I always leave one foot hanging outside the door (until I have to turn around to get out) in order to keep it from closing on me. Ethan, of course, was hanging out with me having a ball. I got everything put away and as I turned to get out of the closet Ethan reached out and pushed on the door... LOCKING ME IN THE CLOSET! He immediately realized what had just happened and began crying. I was able to calm him down through the door as I sat inside trying to think up a solution to the current situation. I knew that my bedroom door was open and there was no gate set up at the top of the stairs... AHH!!! 

I sat in the closet thinking of all the things that he could get into that might hurt him, as well as trying to figure a way out. I was pushing and pushing with no luck. It felt like if i pushed too hard I was going to break the door. The door is not a perfect fit so I even tried pulling the door towards the hinges to get it out of the lock only to be disappointed. I tried bending a hanger but couldn't get the hanger up high enough for it to be of any use. All the while I am pushing my face into the ground trying to watch Ethan from underneath the door. I am talking to him and banging on the door to keep his attention in the room.

Praise God that he listens to me for the most part. From the time he was six months old (two months prior to this) I had been working on him listening to me and have been receiving promising results too. I came to the conclusion that as long as I could keep him in our room I had time to try and find a way out of the closet without breaking the door, especially considering we just don't have the money to be intentionally breaking things around our home. 

I have to say that I probably had every emotion except maybe anger go racing through me during my time in the closet. I had to laugh at certain points because well, my 8 month old managed to lock me in my closet. I was heartbroken at times because Ethan would see me stick my fingers out from under the door to let him know I was still with him and it would cause him to cry. Frustration ran through my body because I couldn't get out and I was praying up a storm that Spencer would come home between pre-clinicals and class, only to realize as time passed that Spencer would not be coming home before class. UGH!!! 

About 45 minutes into this ordeal Ethan started to get really antsy wanting to leave the room. At this point I began making as much noise as possible only to create a bigger problem (one I was afraid of). My noise attracted the dogs... Ethan LOVES the dogs. My sweet Miracle was not my miracle worker this time around though. She actually bailed on me leaving the room. Blessed as I am Faith, thankfully, kept Ethan's attention and she stayed in the room with us. She was so sweet sitting at the closet door crying because she couldn't get to me (She likes to cuddle). 

After an hour of crazy ideas and no luck getting out of the closet I made the decision to break the door if I had to but I was getting out! I felt up the door to find where the lock was. Placing both my hands over the location of the lock, I stood up as much as I could and began shoving! After about the 7th shove I came FLYING (not exaggerating) out of the closet. Made Ethan jump but he immediately began laughing. 

An hour earlier I had just finished the household chores. Now, an hour later, I had a whole new chore... picking up my room after Ethan had free rain to anything and everything he could get his hands on. We said a little prayer praising God for keeping Ethan safe and helping me escape my dungeon. Then we took pictures and called Grandma Leonard to share our story and laugh a little at the humor of it all. 

The lock ins don't stop there though! The very next day, Spencer, Ethan, and I went out to run some errands. We ALWAYS put the garbage and the dog food in the main floor bathroom because Miracle has a way of letting us know she doesn't like to be left at home while we go out. I guess this time we didn't get the bathroom door shut all the way because when we returned home we had a few surprises to greet us. Spencer was the first in the door and all he could hear was crying. He was able to locate Faith but Miracle was nowhere in sight. He checked to see if she had knocked the gate down to get up stairs but found the gate still standing. Spencer began to panic as he came to tell me but stopped dead in his tracks at the bathroom door, realizing crying was inside the bathroom. However, I think it is fair to say that a feeling of annoyance set in as he opened the door to the bathroom finding the garbage (including bad fruit) ALL over the floor and Miracle sitting in the shower. We have no idea how she managed to lock herself in there or how long exactly she had been there but were grateful it was in the bathroom rather than scattered through three different rooms. Spencer cleaned up the bathroom and we had to sit back and laugh wondering who would be next to get locked in somewhere. 

Lesson to learn: If you are ever at our house and you hear a crying or banging coming from the other side of a door, you might want to make sure a Hill hasn't gotten locked in on the other side of the door. ;)

A Special Birthday

I have to start this post by saying that I have one absolutely amazing husband. He is so good to me and I couldn't feel more blessed to share my journey in life with him.

This is the first time that I have ever celebrated my birthday without my family (my parents and brother). Though I missed them, Spencer and Ethan did an incredible job at making me feel special.

My birthday was a pretty quiet day considering Spencer had class all day but at 12:00a.m. March 23rd Spencer and Ethan surprised me with some flowers, a card from Spencer, a card from Ethan, a scratch card, a book, and a cake.

The book was really special because Spencer has never been the type to remember things people mention that would make good gifts and he is not the time to come up with fun creative ideas either. However, he has been getting so much better at it! I have been doing a LOT of reading with all of my free time and I have been talking about specific books too. Spencer is the last one that I thought would remember let alone get one for me but I was quickly put in my place when I saw the book. Doesn't stop there though... We are on a tight budget AND there is not a Leslie's Bakery in Connecticut so a tradition that is big in my family had to get placed over this year. I was really bummed about it but what I got in its place was just as amazing.

Spencer came home from school the night before my birthday and told me that he was going to cook dinner (nothing new, he does all the cooking in the house). He let me know when dinner was ready, we ate and then he went up to give Ethan a bath. I decided to be helpful and I put all the leftovers away and cleaned up the kitchen. As I was going to turn off the light, I noticed on a second glance a pan sitting behind Spencer's computer. The cake!!! Spencer secretly and as quickly as he could while making dinner baked (his first ever) cake for my birthday. Now, I had been in and out of the kitchen a couple of times while he was cooking dinner, I noticed a really yummy smell and was confused because it didn't smell like fajitas but let it go because there was nothing to suggest anything other than fajitas. Spencer came down from Ethan's bath and told me that I wasn't suppose to find the cake 'til midnight but "You just had to clean the kitchen up." I turned 25 this year, so he got candles to put on the cake and him and Ethan sang to me ringing in my quarter of a century milestone.

Last but never the least, CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!! Once the weekend hit we headed up to Hartford and I got my birthday dinner! Mmm, how I LOVE that place! :) It was definitely a special birthday and made me appreciate my amazing husband that much more for the man that he is!

Spring Break...

I think the only break we actually had was at 'break'fast and if I remember right some days I didn't even get that! BUT... It was one amazing week full of lots and lots of fun spent with both Spencer's parents and my parents.

No, no, no... both sets were not here at the same time... Man, that would have made a packed car! 

Spencer's parents got here on Thursday March 10th and we were able to hang out with them until Monday March 14th. Spencer didn't start spring break until after school on Friday so it felt like we lost some time with Kevin and Shelly due to that but we made the best of it. We spent our time visiting the surrounding malls, going to downtown New Haven, Boston, and just hanging out around home. Some of the places worth mentioning are the Yale bookstore (reminds us of home being surrounded by all the blue and Y's AND of course we always go wearing our UTES clothing), duckpin bowling, trolley touring Boston, Cheers for lunch, touring Fenway stadium, P.F. Changs (Kevin and Shelly's first time), and we took them on a tour of Spencer's campus. The weather didn't really cooperate with us so we didn't get to do all the things that we had hoped but we really enjoyed our time with Spencer's parents.

We dropped off Spencer's parents at the airport on Monday evening. However, we were picking up my parents on Wednesday evening so there was no time to waste. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning, preparing for our next visitors. Spencer also spent a LOT of time studying because as soon as he went back to school he had two exams! 

My parents arrived on Wednesday March 16th and we enjoyed their company until Sunday March 20th. It was a go, go, go kind of trip with them. We had lots planned and worked hard to get it all in. Thursday we headed up to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Yankee Candle Flagship Stores. We weren't really sure how much of a hit this trip would be but it was a total success! The hall of fame allowed for a lot of interaction and my mom feel in love with one of the stores in the candle shops. Friday we drove up to Boston, pulled out the stroller, and did the 3 mile Freedom walk. It was amazing and we took in a LOT of history. Once we finished, we did the 3 mile walk back to the beginning and headed over to Cheers for Lunch. Saturday we made our way up to Hammonaset beach and Newport, RI. We took in the 'Ocean Drive' in Newport, which is one of my favorite things so far. We spent the evening in New Haven duckpin bowling. We also visited the Yale bookstore, Quinnipiac bookstore, and Spencer's campus for a tour.

To say the least, come Sunday night Spencer and I were EXHAUSTED!!! We would do it all over again too if we had the chance. Being able to have spent that time with our parents was worth it and we are grateful for the memories we gained from the week.

Thanks for visiting, family!!!