HAPPY St. Patrick's Day!!!

Now that I'm part of a proud Irish family, I have (GET) to adopt the traditions of this "sacred" day. The Hillary family would NEVER let a St. Patrick's Day go by without a belly-filling meal of corned beef and cabbage. Even though we're hundreds of miles away from the gang, we still celebrated in full force. Phil made the feast in the crockpot, and it was stewing all afternoon. I made the Hollandaise sauce (in attempts to mirror his mom's famous recipe), and we stuffed our bellies on corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and rutabaga. Our little baby girl needs to be trained early, and today was a good start for her. :) The only bummer was the our feast "had" to be eaten in our bedroom. The living room and dining area are completely "under construction" as we finish the painting project (see below). That didn't alter the taste. It only forced us to walk a little bit further for seconds. Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

The Watermelon Room

After the last painting project, we kind of got the bug to paint our living room. We both enjoy bright colors and the sunny Florida atmosphere. We spent several days rotating different paint swatches throughout the room, and we finally decided on this fun color. Phil was the busy painter, and I did the behind-the-scene stuff. The room looks great, and we'll post some more pictures when it's all back in order.

Phil HARD at work. He spent the afternoon and evening painting our living room. Without really intending to, we have created a bit of a watermelon room. He's still painting as I type this. See below for my contribution. :)

Corrie hardly working. Phil didn't want me to inhale the fumes, so I wasn't allowed in the painting room. We posed this little scene with the ice cream, reading, and face mask. The only real part of this scene was the consumption of ice cream. :)

FUN with The Carlsons!!!

Chad and Kathi Carlson were in Florida for a few days, so they made a little stop in Valrico. YEAH! We had a GREAT time on Tuesday evening. Phil made steaks, salmon, sweet potatoes, and grilled veggies. I made the ice cream for dessert...with a little help from Edy. It was such a blessing to spend an evening with friends from home!

It was SERIOUS business in the Hillary Home. No fun. No laughing. No jokes. No smiles. That is how we roll down here in Florida!

JUST KIDDING! This was more like it. If all truth be told, it took us a few shots to actually capture a picture without any laughter. What a FUN evening!!!

"It's a..."

READ THIS BEFORE PEEKING...

Today was our big appointment where we got to learn about the little life that we are expecting. Phil and I have anxiously awaited this day, and we wanted to make it special and memorable. I created a little card for the doctor to fill out (which will also go in the baby book), and then we asked her to keep it a secret while we were in the office. She quickly determined the sex of our little bambino, and then she printed a few "revealing pictures." At that point, we were convinced that it was a boy...even though we hadn't seen ANYTHING yet. The doctor had a fun time with our little card, and she sealed it all up so that we wouldn't peek until our special dinner. Then she showed us the baby on the screen, and we LOVED watching the fluttering heart and moving hands/legs. It was very exciting!
After the appointment, we went to one of our favorite restaurants to celebrate the big reveal. Phil had the sealed envelope in his pocket, and he wouldn't pull it out until after we ordered. We said a prayer before opening the envelope...simply asking that God would continue to prepare our hearts to be parents of our little boy or girl and that He bless this new stage of our journey. Then, with great anticipation, we opened the envelope...

The doctor told us that she was 100% certain...and the "revealing picture" (which is too PG-13 for this blog) makes it quite obvious that we are expecting a little girl in the Hillary home! :)

MISSING MY HUBBY!!!

Phil is in Birmingham, Alabama all week (for a zoo conference), and I miss him VERY MUCH!!! I don't like coming home to an empty house, I don't like eating dinner all by myself, and I don't like saying goodnight over the phone. It's like the old days...when all of our communication was over the phone, and we were hundreds of miles apart. I don't miss those days at all. On the other hand, I know this is a GREAT experience for him, and I'm really glad that he is able to enjoy this opportunity. He will be home on Saturday night, and Turnip and I will be very excited to see him.

"Cat's Eye Green" SURPRISE!!!

Phil had Friday off, and he was a busy guy while I was at work. First of all, he snuck my car from the parking lot at school and took it for an extremely overdue oil change. Then he washed it so that it was sparkling clean by the time I got out of school. WOW! BUT, that was just the beginning. When I got home from school, I quickly recognized Phil's guilty grin. I knew that he had been up to something (as if the oil change and car wash wasn't enough), and he followed me into the kitchen with the same little grin on his face. All of a sudden, it HIT ME! He had painted the dining room area, and everything was already back on the walls. WHOA! It looked GREAT, and I was absolutely shocked. Apparently, he spent the afternoon running around, painting, cleaning, drying out the house, and having it all set up by the time I made it back home. What a fun surprise! What a guy!!!

Thanks to Rachel Dieleman and Heidi Vissia...

Thanks to some of my recently pregnant friends (Rachel Dieleman and Heidi Vissia), I'm completely outfitted with cute maternity clothes. YEAH!!! These shirts somehow made a number of people think that we're having a boy. More than four people said, "You look like you're carrying a boy." That would certainly fit the Hillary style. :) We'll find out VERY SOON (March 10th).

Seafood Spectacular

There's a new store, called Land & Sea, and it's like a candy store for seafood lovers. We had a fantastic

seafood feast of grouper,

swordfish, scallops, and salmon.

Dessert was perfect as well...ice cream for Corrie and oysters for Phil. We were both perfectly happy.

Birthday Dinner at Bonefish Grill

This was Corrie's birthday celebration at Bonefish Grill. Mom and Dad treated us to a fabulous meal at one of my favorite restaurants, and it was a delicious evening.

Official Due Date = 08/08/08

These pictures are just before 15 weeks, and I can feel my belly growing.Unfortunately, it still looks like bloated pudge, but I know there's a little baby inside that pudgy home. We had another doctor's appointment on Friday and got to hear the heart beat for the first time. WOW! In addition to that, the doctor gave us the official due date of 08/08/08 (which is what we were secretly hoping for...especially with a 07/07/07 wedding anniversary). I'm feeling MUCH better, and I understand why they call the second trimester the "Golden trimester"). We're enjoying the journey!

The "Secret" Garden

Phil surpised me with an amazing gift for my birthday. I've always wanted a garden, but I've never really had the right space or location. "Having a garden" has been on my life list for over five years, and Phil LOVES helping me check things off of my life list. To make a long story short, Phil secretly took the entire day (my birthday) off of work so that he could do all of this work without my knowing it. He spent hours rodatilling and preparing the ground for our enormous garden (the poor guy was sore for days), and then he surprised me with it when I returned home from work. What a gift of time, service, and love.

The garden is loaded with corn, tomatoes,

broccoli, carrots, green beans, cantalope

peppers (red, orange, and yellow), raddishes, spinach, romaine, and snap peas.

In the beginning stages of The "Secret" Garden!

My parents are in Florida for part of February, so we spent the weekend with them in Orlando. We enjoyed a wonderful day at Sea World. The weather was perfect, the park wasn't too busy, and we had great seats in five of Sea World's amazing animal shows.

Corrie and Phil in the park and with the penguins

Walking through the park.

The Dolphin Show

SHAMU at Sea World

Playing Euchre...the girls were victorious!

Pregnancy Updates

We are just finishing our first trimester, and that feels like a big milestone. I'm not throwing up anymore, and I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself. YEAH! Our baby is about the size of a lime, but he/she clearly looks like a baby at this point. We are continually amazed with the miracle taking place inside my body, and we're having a lot of fun as we anticipate the upcoming journey. Many of you have asked for belly profile pictures, so here you go. The pudge seems to have popped in the last two weeks, but that's probably because my appetite has rapidy increased. Phil made a feast for breakfast the other day (eggs and toast, pancakes, fresh grapefruit, and decaf Chai), and I ate ALL of it. At that rate, my belly will grow quickly.

Growing Baby Belly

These pictures are at the end of our first trimester. Clearly, my belly is starting to show a little pouch of our baby. It looks more like pudgy than preggo, but I know that will change soon.

These pictures are at six and eight weeks.

The Grapefruit Mission

This is the grapefruit tree that started it all. We woke up this morning, and Corrie had a craving for grapefruit. Her cravings are unpredictable and sporadic, but Phil loves taking care of them. This grapefruit tree is in our backyard...KIND OF. There happens to be a large fence in between our yard and the tree. Therein lies the challenge. For those of you who know Phil, you know that he loves a challenge. Still in our pajamas, we trekked outside for the grapefruit mission. The following pictures show the sequence of events.


This is Phil attempting to climb our fence...with a shovel (his grapefruit picker) in one hand.

Successfully on his way...

Doesn't he look excited? Perhaps a bit possessed?

WHERE'S PHIL???

If you look closely, you can see Phil in the middle of our little jungle. He has the prize in hand!

At this point, Phil started tossing the grapefruit over the fence. Only one of them split open, but the rest were okay! (Corrie was taking this picture through a tiny hole in the fence, since it was too high for her to see over...go figure.)

SUCCESS!!! This is the first one we tried, and it was DELICIOUS! Phil is holding all the seeds from just ONE grapefruit. It was incredibly juicy.

Happy Corrie with her grapefruit. :)

I now have a supply to last me until my next craving surfaces.

First Baby Picture

We just had our first official ultrasound, and this is a picture of our 10 1/2 week old baby. WOW! It was AMAZING to see the little heart fluttering as we watched our little boxer float around. Doesn't baby look like he's ready for a fight with his hands up in the air? Yeah, we're partial...but we think baby is pretty adorable!

This one had better resolution, and we think it really resembled daddy...or the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Sorry for the scary sight...hope it brought a laugh to your day. :)

Christmas in Florida!

This was our first Christmas together, and it was wonderful. We enjoyed time with our families, and we loved the mid-70 degree weather.

SURPRISE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's a picture from our Christmas celebration. Surprise!!! We're pregnant! This is how we showed our parents, and it was quite a shock for everyone. :)