In case you didn't believe me...

...in regards to the craziness of my child. Not sure where he gets this daredevil side from! Here he is jumping off the couch into Daddy's arms...over and over again. And once without Daddy there. Oops.

Photoblog is updated!

Fourteen Months

Xavier is at such a fun age! I feel like I need to do a better job of writing this stuff down, so here’s an attempt at a little update on my big boy…

Ever since we left his grandma’s house a month ago, Xavier has been a bossy little fellow. He heard my mom telling the dog to sit and get down, which in Xavier-speak became “Dit, dit, dit!” while pointing his finger at the same time. He tells random dogs to dit, tells our kitties to dit, occasionally tells us to dit. When Grandma Hill took him to the park last week, a woman was working on training her dog and Xavier helped her out by chiming in with…you guessed it… “Dit!”

Xavier is now a climbing machine. Climbing chairs, sofa, toy chest, whatever. Thank goodness he hasn’t figured out how to climb out of the crib yet. He likes to attempt to pull pictures off the wall (especially one picture of Uncle “Date” (Nate) spinning a basketball), find and hide (really, we are missing one!) remotes that are above the couch, and play in the curtains.

It seems that Xavier may end up having a musical (Mueller?) side to him. He loves to sing with the radio and sing in church and he’s pretty into dancing too. When he dances, he gets the whole body moving, not just a head bob. In church, he likes to sing when the organ is playing even if it is not a hymn and nobody else is singing. Today he combined his climbing and singing abilities by climbing atop his toy chest that has a radio on it and using the antenna as a microphone.

Xavier loves to read, but we mostly stick with board books. Just today he ripped out three pages of Polar Bear, Polar Bear (at least it only cost $5 at Kohls)… He is obsessed with Eric Carle books and in particular, Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He will find that book even if it is hidden on his shelf. He likes to hold our index finger and use it to point and he turns the pages in anticipation. I found out today that reciting Brown Bear in the car even without the book works as a calming method. And yes, that means that I can recite it word for word. Not too tough when you read it, oh, four times a day.

This is for Xavier’s uncles…Xavier loves to play ball! He has a bin filled just with balls and I think about half of his play time consists of shooting hoops (which might also include putting Christmas ornaments through the hoop). While Daddy is big on monster jams, Mommy is working on getting X-man to tuck his elbow and shoot with one hand. He’s a good passer and rebounder and is unselfish with the ball. He also has quite a pivot move where he walks away from Mommy or Daddy four or five steps, quickly pivots on one foot and sprints back at us. This should really open up the court for him once he is facing defense.

Speaking of Christmas ornaments, Xavier was positively enthralled with our 3 foot tall Christmas tree. We have since removed all glass ornaments (and vacuumed up the two shattered ones) as well as the ornament hooks. I don’t think he can do much to destroy the other ornaments and supposedly he left the tree alone at his babysitter’s house except for the Mr. Potatohead ornament. He did pull our tree over once, but I’m fairly sure his tears indicate a feeling of remorse.

We love this little guy SO much!!
(I’m on Matt’s computer, so I’ll have to add pictures later)

Two New Photo Shoots!

I did two photoshoots on Wednesday...you can see more on my photography blog!

Logo for Photography--Help, please!!

Which one of these do you like the best? Do you like the font that I used for the "RH" part? Anything else you would change? Thanks for your help :)

100th post

This is my 100th post, but it's going to be a boring one...sorry.

Just wanted to pass on that the photoblog is finally caught up!
www.photoblog.com/rachelhill

Baby Jesus

Xavier can point and show me who Baby Jesus is on his new Christmas book! So precious...

(and yes, that means we are already reading Christmas books...oops).

Free

Here is a link for a free 8.5x11 photo book from Snapfish!
http://www1.snapfish.com/info18
The offer ends on Sunday.

Halloween

I realize that I'm over a week late with these pictures, but that's better than not posting them at all, right?! Xavier was a dalmation puppy for Halloween and he enjoyed crawling around in puppy fashion in the backyard for his mommy to take photos...until he noticed the other dog. Then all he could do was point and the two doggies ended up checking each other out. The costume lasted less than an hour and no trick or treating yet for this little guy...

Family Photoshoot

Last weekend, Xavier and I went home to St. Louis for a little post-cross country season vacation (the flight was my birthday present from Matt). While we were there, we had fun doing a photoshoot of my parents and Erica in Forest Park. For more of the pictures, go to my photography blog.

Running update

Here's my week:
Monday--4 miles
Tuesday--getting a cold, no running
Wednesday--5 miles
Thursday--3 miles
Friday--off
Saturday--2 miles
Sunday--6 miles
Total--20 miles.
Met my goal of 20 miles, but would have run a lot more if I hadn't been sick. Feeling better now...

One Month

Now that cross country is over, I want to concentrate on my own running and being healthy more. When you are a coach, much of that energy goes into the kids. So it's my turn now! Anyways, it is one month until Thanksgiving and my goal is to be fitter and healthier during that month. We are planning on running the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot (4 mile race) and I want to try to break 30 minutes. Not sure if that is possible, but at least it gives me something to work towards, right? I ran 4 miles in 32 minutes a few weeks ago so at least it is in the realm of possibility. My plan is to run 5 or more days a week, at least 20 miles a week. I also need to be more intentional about adding strength/ab work, so I want to do that at least 2 times a week. Finally, I want to make sure I'm eating enough fruits and vegetables. I decided all of this on Monday, but it took until Wednesday for me to get it posted.

New Header

I finally updated my header when I realized the picture was from over 6 months ago! oops... Also my photography blog is updated as well. Jamie had updated hers and inspired me to do mine as well! Thanks!

I survived cross country season...

Being a wife, mother, head coach, and teacher (even part time) is not easy and I haven't had much free time lately. Our cross country season concluded with the state meet yesterday and even though I love to coach, I am happy for a break.

(By the way, thanks to my husband for all the free time he gave up so I would be able to coach!!! Matt made it possible for me to combine coaching and being a mom and Xavier became a big part of our team, attending about half of the practices in his jogging stroller and most of the meets. Thanks, Matt!!!)

I am looking forward to more time to spend hanging out with my husband and son, sleeping, staying caught up on schoolwork, reading, running, working on photography, keeping my house clean, etc!

He's Walking!

I'm a little late posting this, but our little guy is walking around these days with as many as 8 steps before hitting the ground. Last week, we were excited when he took 2 steps but he wasn't anywhere close to walking longer. Then, just all of a sudden this past Wednesday, his walking just took off. He also loves to climb and we finally decided to get rid of our coffee table for this reason!

I don't have any good pictures of him walking yet, but I'll work on it!

Cross Country Chapel

A few weeks ago, my cross country team led chapel at our school. The main part of our chapel was a video that we filmed during practice. I will try to add the message/short sermon that went along with it later, but for now you can see how we adapted The Parable of the Sower to running!


Special thanks to Kevin for his video editing skills!

Caught up!

My photo blog is finally caught up. I was almost a month behind!
www.photoblog.com/rachelhill

You can see a few of his one year portraits here:
www.rachelhillphotography.blogspot.com

Senior Pictures--Megan and Sara

I finished proofing the senior photos I took last week.
If you want to see more, go to www.rachelhillphotography.blogspot.com

Xavier's first year slideshow

Let's try this again...this should be a better quality video than my first attempt on here!

Happy Birthday, Xavier!

I can't believe my baby is one today! I'll write more later (we are at a conference in Breckenridge), but I wanted to at least post this slide show I made of his first year of life! Warning--it is 12 minutes long! And I have this saved as much better quality, but couldn't figure out how to get that up on here. Oh well...

Edited to add: the first shot of this video is not my naked boy...wish this wasn't showing like that. Sorry. And the video quality is really bad. Sorry again...

What a difference a year makes...

One year. 62 pounds.

Seniors!

I did three senior photoshoots this weekend! Along with having a cross country meet an hour and a half away on Saturday...busy weekend. I'm still editing/proofing, but here's a look at the first one. Follow the link to see more:
www.rachelhillphotography.blogspot.com

Lauren and Nick's wedding

Congratulations, Lauren and Nick! We had a great time at the wedding last weekend. Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics. I realize now looking at them that most of them are Lauren and Nick looking at each other instead of the camera...oh well. Those were the ones I liked best!

Xavier LOVES his Aunt Erica...

We're talking slightly obsessively loves her! The whole time she was here, he could not get enough of hugging, looking at, and playing with Aunt Erica! I'm never seen him take to someone this much before. He would crawl over to her and put his head in her laugh and then stand up on her shoulder and hug her. He also loved to play with her hair and pull off her glasses...sorry, Erica! :) Here's a few (well, maybe more than a few) pictures of the the two of them together. You can click on any of these to see them bigger.Notice the determined look on his face--and the glasses in his hand!
Erica had just emerged from the basement after waking up and Xavier sprinted over to her. This is the last morning they were here :(

We love you and miss you!

What do you think?

This is Lauren and Nick's wedding present for Saturday. (Lauren already knows about this) It is an 11x14 size photo in a 16x20 frame. It's going to be on display at their wedding, so hopefully they like it!! It is currently sitting on a random shelf in my house and looks better than the picture (it was dark when I took it).

28 days later...

I finally have my photoblog updated again. I was getting questions and comments from Xavier's aunts, uncles, grandparents, and others so I figured it was about time.

www.photoblog.com/rachelhill

So this post is dedicated to Grandpa ("Can you please just post one picture of my little boy before my birthday?") and his godmother Rebekah ("Do you know that you haven't updated since August 10th?!")...

By the way, August 10th was the day before cross country started! So that's my excuse. School and cross country are both going well, but seem to take up way more time than they should. We'll chalk that up to teenage drama and paperwork! I miss being home with my little guy SO much on the days that I teach. He does come to cross country practice in his running stroller at least half the time, so I'm glad he can be involved in that.

Senior Pictures

Yesterday I shot senior pictures for one of my student-athletes, Megan. Here is just one picture, but if you go to my photography blog, you can see more!
www.rachelhillphotography.blogspot.com

Fantasy Olympic Update

I win! I won 91 to 52 (and that's not even counting magazine cover points). And if you don't think it's fair that I got Michael Phelps, if you eliminate both of our best swimmers, I still win...51 to 39. I think that means Matt has to clean the bathrooms, right?! Something he's never done before...

I'm really sad that the Olympics are over, but I guess it's good if I start getting some sleep!

Fantasy Olympics!

Matt and I are competing in our own fantasy Olympics...my first foray into the fantasy sports world. Matt used to make fun of people who were into fantasy sports, until he tried it himself. I insisted that we used only American athletes so that I don't have to cheer against the USA!

Here are the rules: (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/080807)

Scoring: Every individual gold medal is worth five points. Every silver medal is worth three points. Every bronze is worth one point. Every team gold medal is worth 10 points, every team silver is worth five points and every team bronze is worth two points.
Bonus points: If your athlete winds up on the Wheaties box, you receive 10 points. If your athlete makes the cover of Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek or ESPN The Magazine before the Olympic torch is extinguished, you get five extra points. If your athlete is a flag bearer in the closing ceremonies, you get two points. If your athlete makes a public protest about Tibet or Darfur, you get one point.
Oh, and be very careful with your picks -- every athlete busted for doping will cost you five points.

And our teams...
Rachel-
Track and field--Sanya Richards, Allyson Felix, Reese Hoffa
Swimming/Diving--Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff
Gymast--Nastia Liukin
Boxer--Demetrius Andrade
Wrestler/Weightlifter--Dremiel Byers
Wild Card--Venus Williams, Serena Williams
Team Sport--Men's Basketball
Matt-
Track and field--Bernard Lagat, Jeremy Wariner, Adam Nelson
Swimming/Diving--Ryan Lochte, Aaron Peirsol
Gymnast--Shawn Johnson
Boxer--Rau'shee Warren
Wrestler/Weightlifter--Brad Vering
Wild Card--Donnie Robinson, Steven Lopez
Team Sport--Softball

We'll keep you updated on the medal count!

Olympics!!!!

We are excited about the Olympics starting! We had to take the picture above just in case :)And this is our imitation of the United States athletes' outfits at the opening ceremonies...what do you think??? :)

San Diego Zoo

Xavier has been to the zoo a lot this summer...once to St. Louis, three times in Denver, and now in San Diego. His favorite animal this time was the river otters--he loved watching them swim by.We rode the "Skyfari." Doesn't Xavier look scared?! I was a little too...it gets up pretty high!The Polar Bear Plunge...watching the polar bears dive in.

Xavier's first Padres game

Petco Park in San Diego has a "Park in the Park." The tickets are cheap and you have views of most of the field except some of center and left field, plus there is a big screen you can watch on the back of the batter's eye. It was a great place to take Xavier because he could crawl around (although he did attempt to eat peanut shells and joined several other families on their blankets...) and there was a playground too. In the first picture, he was rolling down the little hill! The Padres are so bad this year that they were offering $1 hot dogs and sodas to try to get people out to the park. We enjoyed the game, even though they lost...again.

Matt's Birthday

We were happy to be able to be in San Diego for Matt's birthday. Matt has a tradition of trying to eat all of his favorite foods on his birthday and usually ends up feeling sick. This year, we managed to keep it to IHOP and really good Indian food and talked Matt out of adding Popeyes, Roberto's, and Dairy Queen to that list! Xavier tried some Indian food and liked it! Matt's grandma had this sign on the door when we arrived:

Happy Birthday, DA!

Thanks for being a great DA! I love you!
Love,
Xavier

House Projects

At the beginning of every summer, I have a list of things that I want to get done. Not all of them will (as usual), but I was proud that I got a couple of projects done around the house today!

I did a little update in our bedroom. We have this nice furniture from my aunt, but I was a little tired of the green color. So yesterday I spent a few hours and 6 1/2 cans of spray paint changing the bed and nightstand to a chocolate brown color. My finger and my forearms are feeling it a little today (oh--and I got a little sunburn too)! Here's a peek at the room (still have some other stuff to update). The art above the bed is hung too high because I just stuck it on the old nails...If you were wondering, here's the before picture from when we had first moved in 3 years ago.
I also finished up Xavier's room... about 10 months late. This wall above his changing table had been blank because I was still deciding. I finally got some of my favorite photos framed...Xavier with his parents and godparents. I really like the way it turned out!
I also hung an X (thanks, Jamie T!) and put another X on his bookcase (thanks, Jamie M!) and hung a framed picture made from one of my cards from his baby shower (thanks, Aunt Bonnie!)
I know this isn't that much in the whole scheme of things, but I was proud of my little projects!

Do you like the changes I made?! Leave a comment!

Saturday...

I finally posted Xavier's nine month update/letter, even though we're moving in on the tenth month...oops. Scroll down if you want to read it.

Today was a nice day. By 8 am, I had run 8 miles with some cross country kids (the farthest I've run in a while!) in a beautiful canyon and headed home. Then I got to take a nap with my baby boy and two kitties...I never nap so this was a treat!

Getting caught up...

We haven't had internet for a little while, so I've gotten behind on my photo-a-day blog. I just added 13 days worth of pictures and I'm still not all the way caught up, but I'm getting there! Here's a little sample to entice you to go check it out...
www.photoblog.com/rachelhill

Also, check out Jamie's photoblog...she has some cute ones of Xavier swimming, at the playground, at Grant's Farm, etc.
www.photoblog.com/jamiemueller0522

Month nine

Dear Xavier,

Nine months on the inside and now nine months on the outside. Whenever I tell someone that you are nine months old, they comment on what a fun age it is. And they are right! I love that every day we can see your personality coming out more and more. When we go to the playground, you love swinging high up in the air and going down the steepest slides…I think you might have a bit of an adrenaline junkie in you.

This month we started attending story time at the library for kids under two. I’m amazed at how different your personality is when you are surrounded by all those kids. You seem content for now just to take it all in and observe and you always listen very closely to the books.

You finally started saying “Mama” on a consistent basis…on Father’s Day! I guess that’s okay since on Mother’s Day you were able to say “Dada.” I love hearing you call me except for the fact that my name always seems to be accompanied by crying, moaning, or screaming and is only called in moments of extreme distress.

The end of this month brought Uncle Aaron’s wedding to Aunt Katie and we traveled all the way to St. Louis to be there. You once again did a great job on the long car ride despite not being used to sitting in one place for so long. Every time we stopped, you crawled around in the grass at random fast food establishments. At the wedding, you looked like such a grown up boy in your little suit and I was so proud of you when Aunt Erica carried you down the aisle! Of course, it might have been nice if your daddy had been able to see more than five minutes of the wedding. Aunt Erica very accurately described you as a “wind-up toy” and you certainly weren’t going to sit still for the entire wedding service.

Summer has meant that both Daddy and I are home with you much of the day. It also meant that the celebration of our wedding anniversary…and your first night away from us! I didn’t even cry when we dropped you off. It probably helped that you barely noticed that we were leaving because you were so excited to see your babysitter again. You also went swimming in the big boy pool for the first time while we were gone. I was so ready to sleep in instead of being woken up at 5 am, but I sure did miss you after 24 hours away!

One of my memories of this month occurred at the ungodly hour at which you like to wake us up. At Grandma’s house, we would sneak you into our bed to avoid waking up the rest of the crowded household. When you were ready to get out, you let me know…by waking me up with a sweet (and slobbery) kiss.

I love you, Xavier, and I will never get tired of those sweet kisses, no matter how messy they are.

Love,
Mommy

Five years...continued

Happy Anniversary, Matt! It's hard to believe that we have been married five years already! But at the same time, we have experienced so much and been blessed with so much in the past five years...

-got married 3 weeks after the end of our first year of teaching
-moved to India about a week after getting married
-adopted our first cat, Scout (although poor Scout was eaten by dogs...)
-moved to Colorado
-each ran a marathon and 2 half marathons
-drove down almost the entire western coast of the country
-adopted 2 cats, Lulu and Diego
-bought a home
-coached track together
-survived a fall where we were both head coaches and I was pregnant
-had our first son, Xavier!

God has truly blessed us with one another! As we grow older, I see more and more why He placed us together and why he meant for us to be together. Thank you for being a wonderful husband!

Love,
Rachel

Five Years!

Disclaimer: I don't have any digital copies of our wedding photos or a scanner to scan them in...but these are digital pictures of some of the pages I made for a scrapbook for my mom. (The one page has a typo...it was 2003, I know!)