Christmas Newsletter 2010

Merry Christmas from the Hill family!

If we could sum up this year, it would probably be defined by learning. With the many changes over this past year, we’ve had many opportunities to learn, grow, and change.

In April, God provided Tim with a second job working at the local Piggly Wiggly. He’s been learning how to stock shelves, fill propane tanks, and bag groceries! Though the extra income has been helpful, he’s been especially thankful to get a little better connected to some people in the community. He’s had opportunities to speak of Christ on several occasions.

On May 25^th, Wesley Owen Hill was born, weighing in at a hefty 9lbs., 5oz. (Poor Kristen!) It’s definitely been a challenge transitioning to two children. The need for constant attention combined with lack of sleep (Poor Kristen!) have taken their toll, but we’re thankful for God’s daily grace and learning to rely on the strength He provides. As much as we may not want to admit it, the struggles have had a purpose. God is refining us to make us more like Christ. And at the end of the day, we’re thankful for that, even if refining isn’t what we most want.

This summer flew by as Tim was preaching most Sundays. The highlight of August was getting ready for our church’s Vacation Bible School. We were thankful for Bible Baptist in Ishpeming supplying decorations, puppets, supplies, and material to allow our VBS to go well!

September we enjoyed a trip to Michigan for Jeremy’s wedding (Kristen’s brother). We’re very thankful for God bringing Jeremy and Siera together! A little over three years after our wedding, Jeremy and Siera were married and in the same city we were, and just a mile or so down from the church we were married in! We were thrilled to be a part of their big celebration.

Micah celebrated his 2^nd birthday, November 11^th. He’s at such a fun age, doing silly things to make us laugh, like wanting to try eating onion and ginger. It’s been so neat to see his knowledge increase, as he’s been learning his numbers and letters. And thankfully, he’s starting to enjoy playing with Wesley, who is now crawling and getting into everything!

And now, here in December, we look forward to spending time with family over the holidays, while remembering Jesus—the true reason for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Mommy's Little Helper

Micah is such a funny little guy! Whenever I do my baking he wants to sit in the stool and “help” me bake. He enjoys being able to taste test what we’re making...his favorite has been canned pumpkin, believe it or not! Anyways, one day I had him help me dump in some cinnamon into our bowl, which he quickly tried tasting some. I told him not to take anything out of the bowl. Next was the ginger that he dumped into our bowl, which he quickly stuck his hand in to taste some more! His reaction to eating the ginger was hilarious! I wish I had it on video! As soon as he tasted it, he stuck out his tongue and started screaming hysterically, trying to wipe theginger off his tongue. I quickly found his sippee cup and tried to help him out. I don’t know what plain ‘ole ground ginger tastes like, but he did NOT like it one bit! (And now I’m tempted to try my own taste test to see what it taste like!) I think he’s learned his lesson to NOT taste what we’re putting into our bowl. At least for now.

Play Time

I would not consider myself to be a creative person at all! I always find myself taking ideas that people post online. So when it comes to keeping Micah entertained or even introduce new play ideas to him, I’m not always quick to think of creative, fun ideas. I was so excited to find out about this book, Unplugged Play, that I quickly reserved it from the library. I loved this book and the many great ideas that it gave for different age groups. If you are creatively challenged and want some ideas for your kids, I definitely recommend this book!

The Big 2

It’s so hard to believe that our sweet Micah is already 2 years old! We thank God for giving us Micah…what a blessing! He has definitely brought a lot of laughter into our home. My favorite aspect about this age is how much more he can communicate with us. And the interaction is so much fun, too! He’s starting to play “pretend” as he pretends to feed his stuffed animals, or brush their teeth. His latest favorite game has been to go to the door, knock, wait for me to say “Come In” and then come get hugs and kisses from me. He’ll wave and say “bye” and head back to the door to do it all over again! So fun!! So a very happy birthday to you, Micah! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I decided to dedicate this post to some of my favorites. I'll start with...

Favorite almost-two-year-old: It’s so hard to believe Micah will be turning two November 11^th!! This age has definitely been challenging with the MANY opportunities to discipline and train him to be a godly young man. But he’s also so much fun! He has been so into learning the alphabet. Though he doesn’t know the “Alphabet Song” yet or know the order of the letters, he knows the sound of almost all of the letters, which I think is more important right now. We’ll work on order later. Three of his favorite things- Curious George, cars, and his magnetic letters. A not favorite for him—potty training! But we’re working on it!

Favorite five-month old: Wesley’s already 5 months old!!! He is usually very content to sit in his exersaucer and watch Micah. He’s pretty much sitting up on his own and even getting into the crawling position! I have a feeling once he gets mobile, he’ll be Micah’s little shadow! His own little personality is starting to come out as he’s always looking to see what’s within his reach that he can grab. (Unfortunately it’s been my bowl of cereal on a couple of occasions.) He’s also very social and usually doesn’t hesitate to smile at anyone who stops to talk to him.

Favorite husband: Well, since Tim is always a favorite I just had to put a picture of him in here! I just really appreciate his godly example to me and the boys! He's the best!

Favorite book: I’ve recently been reading Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick. It’s been very convicting and I can’t wait to pick it up again later today. I’m realizing how much I work at the Christian life on my own, leaving Christ out of the equation. I highly recommend this one!

Favorite recipe: Here’s a link to one of our new favorite meals we recently tried—sweet and sour chicken! Very yummy! Check it out! http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/06/10/sweet-and-sour-chicken/

Favorite season: And the last favorite I wanted to share was fall!! I just love the beautiful colors, the temperature, the smells…it’s all wonderful! Tim and I were able to take a hike up Sugarloaf Mountain in Marquette, MI a few weeks ago. It was the perfect date!

Micah knows hot

This is Tim chiming in on the blog for a quick post.

So tonight, Micah foiled my inadvertent plan to burn our place down.

We had just finished eating supper, and I thought it might be cool to brew us a cup of coffee on my new French press. So I put some water on the stove, and then set about to clean off the supper table while Kristen gave Wesley a bath. Micah was still seated at the table finishing off his last slice of pizza as I moved into the kitchen closet and quickly became preoccupied with crushing aluminum cans. After sufficiently clearing out space in our recycling container, I reemerged from the closet. That was when Micah nonchalantly pointed over to the stove and said “Hot?” So I took a glance at the stove—and saw flames shooting up from the stovetop!

Yeah, our oven mitt was totally engulfed in flames! I quickly dashed over to the stove and grabbed a piece that hadn’t yet burned and threw it into the water in the kitchen sink! So, Micah, our little firefighter, saved the day. His quick thinking and command of the English language foiled my absentmindedness. And me? I think I need to take some time out of the kitchen until I can tell the difference between a front burner and a back burner.

"All in a day's work."

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Happy birthday to my favorite person!! Tim- you are a wonderful husband and wonderful Daddy! I am so thankful for your godly example to our boys, and for your desire to continue to grow in Christlikeness! I love you and am so thankful for you!

It Starts Already!!

"Mom...he's touching me!"

Silly Micah

Micah has such a personality and makes us laugh! One day he brought me the camera and stood by the couch until I took this picture of him!!

True Woman Conference

At our church, I'm currently trying to get a group of women together to attend the True Woman Conference in Indianapolis, Sept. 23rd-25th. On Facebook, they are currently giving away a ticket every day in the month of August. Some speakers include Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Joni Eareckson Tada,and Dannah Gresh, with worship leaders Keith and Kristyn Gettty. It sounds like it'll be a conference you don't want to miss! So be sure to check out the details here to find out how you can try to attend this conference for free! And if you don't win a ticket, and you want to attend, you can purchase your ticket here. If you buy one before Sept. 8th, you can use the code TBC2010 to save $20! It'll be hard leaving my two little guys and my hubby for a couple of days, but I'm excited about this conference and I hope you'll be there, too! (If the links don't work, let me know...this is my first time trying to link pages to my blog!) And of course I couldn't do a post without a picture of my little guys!

Family Fun

Last week, we spent part of our morning picking strawberries! Our plan was to put Wesley in the baby carrier, and Micah would walk and “help” us. We weren’t quite sure how Micah would do, but he did awesome!! I’m not sure he was much of a help though, because as you can see from his face, he REALLY enjoyed eating the strawberries! But we had a great time watching him…so cute! And we were very thankful that Wesley slept the whole time, too. After picking all of the berries, I had fun baking some strawberry bread, strawberry crepes, a strawberry-rhubarb pie and making some strawberry freezer jam. I’m already looking forward to strawberry season coming again next year!