Welcome baby Shea!

Last week our dear friends Andy and Mattie welcomed their first baby into the world--Shealynn Michelle--we were very excited to go visit them, but worried Emily wouldn't be able to join us because of hospital policies. Luckily nobody seemed concerned and Emily got to meet baby Shea with us! She was a little leary at first but warmed up very quickly and enjoyed giving Shea kisses and making sure she had her stuffed animals at all times!

Emily's artistic side

Emily started preschool in Dec. and with that has discovered an artistic side that Chuck and I aren't really great at fostering--it's a good thing she has Uncle E in her life! Here is a sample of her artwork thus far!






This one was done with Papa at story time at the library--hopefully a new weekly activity for them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily!

Emily turned 2 yesterday! We celebrated with family a couple of weeks ago and had a great time! Both sides of the family were here, Great-Gpa and Gma Hilman, Great-Gma G, and Great-Gpa and Gma Kingma were here, as well as Gpa-Gma Leader, and Gpa Hilman. Aunt Kathy, Garrett, Aunt Martha and Uncle Ethan, Great-Aunts and Uncles--Hildy, Dave, Sissy, Doug and Karen, Myrna, Lyle, Ted and Rich and Cousins, Jenna, Lilia and Garrett all came! (I think that was everybody!) Our house was packed but everyone seemed to have a good time--here are some of the pictures from the day!

Where has time gone?

Life has been busy here in the Hilman household....in November we went to Gpa and Gma Kingma's for Thanksgiving. After thanksgiving we were supposed to go to the State High School football game, but Em had a fever so instead we headed to Gabe and Sarah Beth's for the night before going to a funeral. Sat. morning everything seemed fine, so we figured it was a teething fever.
Monday she went to her 1st day of preschool at Kids and Company (which she loves by the way!) At about 2:30 I got a call at school saying she had had a great day, but had a rash that had been quickly spreading all day long. I call the dr. and they agree to see her that afternoon. Diagnosis--Fifth Disease--starts out with a fever, then a very tell-tale rash a few days later. Completely harmless at that point.

December has been lots of Christmases (with more to come). On Dec. 12th we celebrated Christmas with the Hilman side of the family---


Hanging out with cousin Garrett and the doggie that cousin Allen got...it's almost as big as Emily! At Hilman family Christmas Emily also got a kitchen that took lots of people a long time to put together, but well worth it. She also got a Leap Frog tag jr. reading system that is way cool! And of course lots of clothes...a girl can never have too many clothes!


Christmas Eve Gpa and Gma Leader, Uncle E and Aunt Mar came over for dinner, church and we opened presents with them---

This is the dress Great Gma Kingma and Gma Leader made for Emily and dolly to wear for church


Opening presents with Gpa....Gpa and Gma Leader gave Emily an OSU sweatshirt, a new bookshelf, and a stool (that serves as a side table to the Elmo couch).

Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa and from us--

Christmas morning in new pajamas and Elmo slippers!

Lounging in the Elmo couch Santa brought...this is definitely a favorite present of the year! Santa also brought some new books.

Showing off some of the new clothes

Lounging with the puppies

Emily very quickly figured out the present opening gig--the only problem was she wanted to stop and play with each toy--present opening easily could have turned into a several hour project.

During Christmas week Em developed a snotty nose and cough, Sunday after Christmas a fever. I kept her home from school Monday and we went to the dr. to find out she had an ear infection and and bronchitis, so we have an oral antibiotic an oral steroid and a neubulizer treatment (that Em hates) that we get to do for a week. Because she hasn't been feeling good, she also hasn't been sleeping...most nights she is up at least once if not 2 or 3 times. We are hoping that it is just the sickness and nothing else causing this!

This weekend we are going back to Indiana for Christmas with the Kingma's. We will be cheering on OSU in the Rose Bowl and hopefully making a trip into Chicago to go to the aquarium and get Lou Molnoti's pizza.

Growing Up...

Em reached another milestone this week.....we turned her car seat to forward facing! It's such a little thing, but just one more step in her growing up....she loves it being able to see us and talk to us while we're going somewhere, and we love it because we can actually adjust her carseat without fighting the straps every time!

Long overdue--

Emily's Halloween pictures--this was her first year trick or treating, and we were lucky enough to be in Cincinatti for Chuck's work convention for the weekend. So Aunt Jennifer took us trick or treating--Em loved it, figured it out very quickly, and also figured out that if she did "Go Buck's" she would get more candy...

The last picture was our last night in Cincy-Em figured out how to drink out of a straw and was absolutely thrilled with herself!

Our next adventure

Our next adventure was going to Ohio for the weekend. We had a great time going to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard on Sat. and then the Renaissance Festival on Sunday. And of course hanging out at Mike and Jen's!