One week from today!

One week from today Luke and I will be in Utah and about 4 days later Andrew will join us. I would love to see any of you that will be in the area. I will be in Sunset from the 4th to the 8th or the 9th and then after that we will be in Salt Lake until we move to Provo at the end of January.

Luke is growing, and I am so excited my skinny baby is getting fatter :-) Do you see the little wrinkles in his thighs? He is such a good baby. Which is good because our flight to Salt Lake is a little over 6 hours. Thats a long time when you are that little.

Andrew and I are doing well. Andrew is wrapping things up at work, and I just went to the doctor today and got the go ahead to drive and do limited exercises!!! YAY !!

We had a little intimate Christmas with just the 3 of us. And then the next day went to the home of a couple in our ward to play games. Happy Christmas everyone. We are so grateful for all of you, for our friends and family and all the blessings you bring into our lives.

Oh. p.s this is one of Luke's favorite games... He straightens his legs, locks his knees and turns on his side. He will have none of this swaddling business:-)

Moving Home... Utah here we come!

We found a house! Actually my friend Ali found us a little one bedroom house in Provo. We are so excited to move in. It becomes available the middle or end of January so we will be staying with his parents in Salt lake until we can move in. We have moved so much we have always tried to live in a furnished apartments and consequently own no furniture. We are hoping to find furniture to furnish it from a second hand store when we return. However, if anyone has a bed or a dresser, or a couch, they are getting rid of in the Utah or Idaho area please let us know ;-)

Merry Christmas!

Falling into Place...

Wow it has been a journey, but our little one is 4 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe it. Things are starting to get all cleared up medically. The neuraligist thinks that he was premature by a couple of weeks and that might have been what was wrong. So we have to get a follow up EEG in February and we went into the endocronologist today. He put Luke on a supplament for his thyroid. It is more of a procaution than a need. But we will be seeing another endocronologist as soon as we move back to Utah. It is all overwhelming. But my anxienty for his health is getting better and better. Oh my goodness he has been cranky all day. But hey, now we know he can cry :-)

I have a friend who had her baby a month before I did. She came over the other day and we just talked, it was great. Here our some pictures of that day. Luke and his "girlfriend" Daisy ( note the matching car seats). WE didn't mean to dress them in blue and pnk but hey it made for a super cute picture! The young women in our ward decided they were going to get married:-)

Just for Cori

Best pizza ever! Ode to Aunt Cori in Chicago!!!!!!!

Our Florida Christmas

Wow, it has taken me a whil to post, I am so sorry. But things are gong well and I am adjusting to being a mom. I like it!!!!! Luke is doing so well and growing like cazy! I try to leave the house at least once a day. But because I am unable to drive we have to schedule or be creative in our outings. A week or so ago it was a drive to down town Kissimmee to the Dollar Tree to get decorations for our Christmas. We will be moving that same week so we didn't want anything that we would have to clean up and our budget was less than 10$ so we thought we would go to my favorite consumer hot spot and purchase our decorations. We decorated the tree for 6 $ and got out our stockings. It was fun, my mother had brought us some christmas gifts so we even had something to put under it. We miss the snow and general Christmas atmosphere of home, it's very different in this area becasue of the tourist atmosphere. But we are so excited to have the best Christmas present this year.... Luke! This is his stocking isn't he cute~

I couldn't help but post this picture

Dress up- Manly Style

So my sister and my mother had some fun before they came picking out outfits for my son. Their favorite was this very cute turtle outfit. However, when my Mom showed Kim the hat she bought. Kimberly insisted it was a girls hat so they went back out and bought the boy hat as well. We had lots of fun trying on all the outfits.





p.s His feet are not "this" big, the shoes are a size 2




But Luke agreed with Kim (it was a girl hat).

Home...

We are home!!!
Yesterday afternoon we were discharged from the hospital. It was so good to be home. My days and nights are so mixed up I have a difficult time waking and sleeping. But I can not express how good it feels to have Luke back in our home. What a week... I can't even explain, it feels so sureal. I felt so helpless, seeing my son have to go through so much and not even a week old. But I soon learned he handeled it a little better than I did. So I began stepping out and having Andrew go with him when he had his procedures. It just seemed like so much for the little guy to go through, 2 spinal taps, catscan, MRI, EEG, and so so much blood work. He was such a trooper! But I am happy to say each day he spends more time awake ;-) Each day he is crying a little more:-) and we feel like he has done so much better since we have brought him home! Both Andrew and I feel strongly that he will be OK. Thank You all for your notes and prayers. We have appreciated then so so much. We took lots of pistures in the hospital. One of the pictures is of him and his grandma bates, we took this picture because they had to changehis IV and for a little bit he had 2, one on each side of his head. He also left the hospital in an outfit his grandma hill gave him so this is one of the pictures we tried to take of his grandma but he had to yawn. Oh, and his belly button fell of in the hospital so we had to add a picture of that! But I wanted to let you know we are home and and doing much better!

So much has happened.

I am so sorry we have not posted in a while but as some of you know it has been a very eventful week. On Wed. evening we went to the emergency room with Luke. He doesn't cry and wasn't waking for his feeding and it took us almost a half hour to wake him up. We where worried he was dehydrated. Well once we brought him into the emergency room, they noticed some needs for concern and we were admitted that night. Actually, we were in the emergency room from about 7pm - 9am and then we were admitted that morning and have been here ever since. We have had many tests done but at this time the doctors still have more questions than answers. But he is eating, gaining weight, and breathing normally. So at this moment he is not in any immediate danger and we really feel he is doing so well. They are looking on doing a few more tests today. So we could leave as early as monday or we could be here a couple of weeks. Crazy hu? I never expected this, but I am learning daily and I love him so very much.

I appreciate so much all of the comments on the blog (Especially the comments from my former students!) and the prayers and fasting of our friends and family. I am nursing so I have not yet left his side at the hospital. But we are at Arnold Palmer Childrens Hospital, which is one of the best pediatric hospitals in the south east united so I feel very confident we are in good hands.

We love you all so much, and will let you know when their is more news!

And now, what you've all been waiting for... more pictures and movies!

Hey everyone, I've been a little busy and haven't gotten a chance to upload some of our other great pictures and movies of Luke. Just a quick update first though - Kristi and Luke just got discharged from the hospital today at about 5:30 or 6 p.m., she's really been a trooper and is taking a well-deserved nap right now. Luke is just fine, though, as you'll see in some of his photos, he's a little jaundiced right now, but the doctor expects that will go away soon. So without futher ado, the real reason you checked our blog today... our son, Luke!

Thanksgiving baby!

The rumors are true! Kristi had our baby! But rather than give you the final stats, I'm gonna walk you through our experience, so we don't have to explain the story over and over again! Here goes:

As you all know, Kristi's due date was Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving day) and our doctor wanted to do an ultrasound on the 21st to see how the baby was doing. Everything looked great, but when they baby was hooked up to the fetal monitor the doctor didn't see the the baby's heartbeat go up and down enough like he wanted to see. So he sent my 2 cm-dialated wife home with orders to eat and then go walk around for a couple of hours, then to go to the hospital where they would again check the dialation and monitor the baby's heartbeat. After a nice meal and a lot of walking we arrived at Winnie Plamer Hospital and signed in at Triage at 1pm. She had some exams and was monitored for a while on the fetal monitor.

After about 30 minutes on the fetal monitor Kristi and I were talking, wondering whether they were going to induce her or not, when three nurses burst into our room, grabbed an oxygen mask and slapped it on her face as a fourth and fifth nurse rushed in asking the other nurses "What's wrong? What's wrong?" My poor flustered wife was looking around trying to ask what was going on while the first three nurses (all trying to talk at once) explained that the baby's heartbeat had suddenly dipped. They assured us that the baby was fine, but that this indicated that Kristi's labor would potentially be higher risk, and that there was a possibility of having to take our baby C-section. Our doctors decided to induce Kristi since the baby was ready and Kristi was having regular contractions (though they weren't very strong.) So a little worried but still feeling good, they wheeled Kristi up to the labor and delivery room. They checked her once again with the monitor and the baby did well enough and the doctor said we were going to go ahead and try a regular vaginal birth. Here's a little video of us waiting for Kristi's inducement to really kick in. (They induced her at 7 p.m.)




After this, we waited for Kristi to dialate. After about 8 hours of labor, Kristi had only dialated to etween 5 and 6 centimeters. We were worried too, because with the harder contrations the baby's heartrate would slow down. Exhausted, Kristi decided that it was time to get an epideral, not because of the pain, but because she wanted to have enough energy to push at the end; and the prospect of another 5-8 hours without rest wasn't great. After the epideral, Kristi rested more, but after about another hour and a half with no more progress, the doctors told us that they had decided that we needed to have a C-section becuase the baby was rejecting labor. So at about 4:30 a.m. Kristi went in and got set up for her operation. And at 4:53 a.m. our little baby boy, Luke Parley Hill was born.


Happy Birthday baby Luke: Blond hair, blue eyes, six pounds and 3 ounces, 20.5 inches long. Born Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) at 4:53 a.m. Tall and skinny with HUGE feet!

Isn't he cute! (Kristi holds Luke for the first time!)
















Kristi is doing really well, and she's recovering much faster than most women do from this type of surgery







All worn out.








More photos to come...

Moving back to Provo

Well it is almost that time, in January Andrew and I will be moving back to Provo and we are trying to find a place to live. There are lots of places available on line, however it would be nice to find a place someone knows. So I thought I would write a little post and ask if any one knows of any apartment that will be available starting in January! If so just let us know!

I am doing great cleaned the kitchen today, and I vacuumed!

Counting down....

Yep, it's another pregnancy post!!! And I am sure there will be more through out this week. Andrew and I are doing fabulously! And having so much fun preparing for our future addition to our family.

However I have a thought. Everyone asks me are you to that point where you don't care what you have to do, you just want the baby out. I am assuming what they mean is, Are you so incredibally uncomfortable that you are ready for the pain of labor just so you won't be pregnant anymore? This is where I think I am broken. I love being pregnant, and while I do have moments of uncomfortableness, When Andrew asks "do you want the baby to come today?" My reply is usually "um.. how bout tomorrow" Now don't get me wrong, I can't wait to have him in my arms and I can not wait to see his little face. And though this might sound funny, I am really excited for labor. I have never really had any intense pain before and I am excited to feel the accomplishment of labor, plus I have never really been in a hospital before so that is also a bit of a novelty.
But at the same time I just hope I am not missing some vitally important element, That you need to have that intense feeling that.., !!ITS TIME FOR HIM TO GET OUT! in order to get through labor. And who knows maybe that feeling will come in the next couple of days! Yes I know this is a funny post, but I have funny thoughts!

My new favorite passtime

Ode to vacuuming, how I love thee!!!!!!

Can I just tell you the last few weeks of pregnancy are full of many strange feelings, excitement, nervousness, but my favorite feeling is the wonderful overwhelming urge to clean!!! I love it, especially my new very favorite cleaning passtime, VACUUMING!!!!! I can't explain it!!! It gives me almost a bit of a thrill. I love to push the vacuum and see if I can make all the vacuum lines go the same direction. (Do you know what I mean? The lines look different when you push the vacuum forward and when you pull the vacuum back.) I like the look of pushing, not so much the pulling. I try and see if I can make all the carpet look that way. Luckily we only have the 2 rooms in our house that have carpet. I wish I got the same sort of thrill from mopping, but alas, I really have no desire to clean tile.

There is also one small draw back to my new passtime. For our wedding we where given the most wonderful vacuum a Smart Vac. I love it! It is so light it almost pulls itself and it gets absolutely everything. However, I had to leave it when we moved. (there wasn't any room in the Accord)

Here we have a Royal Dirt Devil. I think it was made in the mid 90's. It doesn't have an on/off switch so you just control it by plugging it in. It also takes most of my body weight to push it. Oh how I miss my old vacuum, I feel like I never took full advatage of it when I had the chance. And now its in storage in Idaho. SIGHHHHHHHH, I will return to it soon.

I am feeling fabulous, and my last day of work is Saturday. The baby is just hanging out and he and I are growing and doing great. I think I will miss being pregnant, but I am so exciting for him to come. I can't believe it is coming so close.

Working for the mouse

Go ahead, take a good look. This is my home, my workshop, my sanctuary, and at times... my prison. Cubicle number 6125, from drafting press releases to coordinating media visits, this is the place where the magic happens.

If you're anything like I used to be, if someone told you that they do 'public relations' for a living you'd probably have very little idea (if any at all) of what that means. There are lots of different careers that fit under the public relations umbrella: public affairs, media relations, crisis communication, investor relations, and lots more. But I'll spare you the details on those because what I really want to tell you about is what I do for Disney.

Like I just said, there are lots of different types of public relations and Disney is a large enough company that they do it all. So there are lots of different PR departments in our company which are even further divided and specialized to the markets and niches that they operate within. The segment of the company I work for is called Disney Destinations. Our business is fairly self explanitory: I support Disney Destinations around the world including Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney.
Our department's official name is Worldwide Sales & Travel Operations, Public Relations, and we focus on media relations, though occasionally we do stick our thumb in the various other public relations pies that are out there. Also, our business focusses on travel agents. We have a consumer PR team that works the media that goes to the average Joe, but all of the publications that I interact with are travel trade publications that wind up in the hands of travel agents.

First of all, I have to say how much I love working for Disney. In PR, we write. That's our craft. If you don't like to write, this is not the career for you. That said, writing for Disney is awesome! Not only is it a fun product to write about, but reporters want to print what you give them. Almost anything Disney does is newsworthy to a travel industry reporter. If you write it, they'll print it. It's helping me build a nice portfolio. I also spend a lot of time translating press releases into spanish, I ghost-write a monthly column that we publish all over Latin America and I get to help out in the creation of fun projects like podcasts for Travelocity or special events for groups like AAA.

It's our job to maintain good relationships with the reporters and editors in our industry. So in a sense, we are the 'wine and dine' department for the media. Whenever media come into town we get to take them around the parks to show them what's new, or like I did this last week, we had to coordinate filming podcasts in all of the parks and many of the resort hotels. It's really great. I can't tell you how much fun this aspect of my job is. Simply stated: guess who else gets wined and dined when the media come into town?

And last but not least, I can't forget to mention the Disney Difference. Anyone who has ever worked for any large organization will notice that there is what might be refered to as a 'company culture.' This is as true as ever at Disney. We're all cast members. We all contribute to the show that gets put on for the guests. The corporation cares about its employees and goes out of its way to let you know you are appreciated. Not gonna lie, free theme park admission is a plus. You get all sorts of discounts at Disney and all over Orlando. This really is a great place to work. A great environment and great people. Now I'd be lying if I told you that everyday is perfect, but what job is?

Now this isn't everything that I do, but it's a big chunk of it. I hope this blog has helped you understand a little more about what I do. We don't know if this is where we'll end up spending my career or not, I've got to graduate first. But if we do end up here at some point in my career, it wouldn't be so bad.

38 Weeks

The baby has dropped. People tell me I look like I am going to pop, and all I want to do is clean ceiling fans, vacuum and do laundry. I love being pregnant! Yes its true the baby could really come anytime and while I don't feel it is in the imediate future (the next couple of days) I have moments each day that I feel like I am going to explode. Not to mention the crazy dreams, I have been having. I don't know if any of you experienced strange and vivid dreams in your last trimester, but my dreams have been out of control :-) But I am doing so so well and can't wait. We will be bringing the computer with us to the hospital, so hopefully you will have some pitctures for ya'll in the next couple of weeks. We will post again soon!

Any advice?

Andrew and I have a couple of questions we have been thinking and researching. So I thought I would send it out there and see if anyone has any thoughts. Baby slings. Because I will be flying out to Utah when the baby is like 5 weeks old and we where looking for a baby carrier we decided we were going to use a sling. (so I will not have to hold him the entire time on the plane) we have been looking at zolowear (the most expensive and top of the line) which is like 75$ the maya wear which is like 55$ or possibley a pouch like peanut shell 50$. Do any of you parental folks out there have an opinion? are high quality slings that different from mid line slings? I know alot of people make their own sling, but seeing as I do not have any thing to sew with or on I don't think I will be able to do that ;-) If you have any ideas, advice or know of someone who does pass it on along. Ahhh I can't believe it, any time. Oh also, if anyone has anything they wish they had brought to the hospital and would like to share, I would love to hear about it :-) Hope all are well and happy we are fabulous out here!

Oh Cori, in response to you comment the address for the hospital is

Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies
83 West Miller Street ~ Orlando, FL 32806 321 843-9792

Food and Wine Festival

Andrew's work hosted a AAA tradeshow last Thursday at the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. They kindly invited me to attend as well. It was a entertaining night and we learned a quite a bit about wine ( this is not difficult considering neither of us know anything about wine). We went to th opening reception in the ballroom of the Boardwalk. At this event they sampled and discussed all these expensive cheeses and wines. Andrew and I deleved into the multi-colored cheeses. I had never seen pink and teal cheese before. And I don't think I will ever have a chance to eat them again. But it was a really interesting. It was entertaining to watch each of the servers come up to me with their tray. I have never drank before, so I didn't think there was anything odd with just saying no thank you. But what I did not realize was the servers would come up to me from behind to offer me a glass they would realize I was preagnant and walk away awkwardly silent. It was very funny. They soon brought me a bottled water and a wine glass to drink it in.

But after that we headed over to Epcot for the Food and Wine festival. They gave both Andrew and I a 50$ gift card to sample the foods. Andrew and I didn't even go through half of one of the cards so we are saving them up. Then after the festival, we went to the dessert reception in the Italy Pavillion where there was a special viewing area for Illuminations (the firework show). I however, spent the entire Illuminations in the bathroom. The baby does not care for fireworks ;-)

Yea for Andrew's job! I don't know when we would have had an opportunity to do this.

Almost Full Term

We are 36 weeks. Yea, can you believe it? The baby has dropped and I am so excited for him to be here. Andrew and I have been keeping busy and can't believe how fast time has passed.
We decided we probably should get serious and pack our suitcase because most baby's come between 37 and 41 weeks and we haven't even started. So better safe then sorry. However, I would still like to say I can not find any slipper socks. So if anyone finds a conservative, cute pair out west let me know and I will pay you back.
We did our hospital tour, and lactation class this evening, we had basic infant care last night and have our pediatrician and dental classs tomorrow. There is so much information, but I am so happy to learn.
Lots have asked to see my stomach so we took this picture. ( I wanted everyone to see my stomach) I have grown like crazy in the last couple of days. Its amazing!!! I am like expando-girl :-)

Update and Our First Anniversary

Hello, and greeting from beautiful central Florida. It is such a lovely time of year here, it is about 80 degrees with a light breeze. We are doing very well! Time is passing quickly, I am growing and there are is only 5 WEEKS until our baby is due. I going to the doctor every week and we are so excited. The baby is beginning to get a little stir crazy and we are so excited to welcome him into our family.

October 12 was Our first Anniversary!!!! We had wanted to go on one of the discount Disney cruises, but they don't allow expectant mothers after about 6 months. So we wanted to do something special here at home. However due to our budget, we had to be creative. Andrew worked four 10 hour days and was able to get Friday the 12 off. So Andrew and I decided we would have a two day anniversary...

We started by waking up early Friday morning and going to a breakfast buffet. We then went home got ready and went to EPCOT. Andrew wanted to take me to the SEAS and watch the new Nemo Ride and we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. This had been one of our first dates back when we first met. Following the show we went and enjoyed lunch at a cafe in the French Pavillion. Were I became part of a sidewalk acrobatics show. We then decided we were going to go to Ross and look for a robe for me and something new for Andrew. Alas, they did not have any robes but andrew and I moved onto our next adveture. The Dollar Movie. Yes, I wrote it correctly we found a dollar movie in FL. Granted it is about 45 minutes away from our house and in a little more rundown part of town. But we had so much fun. We watched the new Harry Potter which niether of us had seen. The movie went in and out of focus, the lights went off and on but it was an adventure and so much fun.

The Next day we slept in and went to Epcot for our lunch
reservations at La Cellier. It was a beatiful expensive resteraunt in the Canada Pavillion. We had a 50% off holiday coupon and a gift certificate, so we decided to splurge a little. We ordered a Duck Leg for our appitizer, I had a mango cranberry drink and Andrew had a rasperry chocolate something. We had so much fun. Then at the very end the restaraunt brought us a chocolate mouse sculpture with Happy Anniversary written on it in Chocolate and Rasperry. It was so kind of them. And was the perfect ending to our meal.

After that Andrew and I walked around Epcot and enjoyed the Food and Wine Festival. We became the special guests at the American Adventure. Where we were announced as celebrating our first anniversary, given priority seating, and givn a certificate and the cutest apple pie to share. We had so much fun. Just being together for those two days.

Conference Explosion

I am so sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog but we have been so so busy. We wanted to share a funny experience that happened last weekend between conference sessions. On Saturday between sessions we decided we would o to the dollar store (one of our favorites) and both pick up a treat. I picked up Smarties (these are the candies I have started craving) and Andrew chose a soda he had had on his mission Faygo (strawberry flavored). This particular soda is the most sugary and highly pigmented I have ever seen. However, to continue with the story Andrew poured himself a glass and went to unplug the microwave. Then it happened the most amazing flying beverage I have ever seen. Andrew hit the glass of Faygo with his elbow and it tipped, fell, bounced, bounced, and exploded. It was amazing!!! The kitchen was pink. We where both in shock for a moment. Andrew was still in his suit so I had him work on spot cleaning his suit whil I began cleaning the cabinets, counters, fridge, floor and dishwasher. Sadly,we could not return to the church and had to watch the next session on line. You see Florida has more bugs than any place I have ever lived in my life and if it didn't get cleaned immediately we would soon be sharing a clean home with many unwanted visitors. Not to mention I think ourkichen counter would have stayed permanently pink, like my feet. After cleaning the kitchen the soda had died my feet bright pink. It stayed this way for most of that week.

Below you'll find a video of the organic time-bomb that Kristi and I made. Enjoy it while it lasts, we are.

P.S. Kristi wanted me to let you know that this was just her stomach, so don't get too excited!

Conference Weekend

Here we are in our Florida apartment, its a little sparce, because we only moved with the things we could fit in the car. But we love it. This Friday will be our first anniversary!!!! Yea, we were hoping to go on a little get away but with our current budget we decided to stay at home.
I can't belive its been a year it has gone by so quickly. I am so happy! Marrying Andrew was by far the best descision I ever made.!!!

We are keeping busy and trying to get everything ready. I cut down my hours at work. I think that will be good for my body. I haven't been feeling very well lately, it is probably just because I have been super tired.

We are so excited it is conference, we have been getting all dressed up and watching it over the internet because I haven't been feeling very well this weekend. But we are hoping we will be able to go to the stake center today and watch it with the rest of our stake. President Eyering is coming here next week and speaking at our stake conference next weekend and Andrew and I will be singing it the chior.