A Year in Review..

Wow, what a year 2014 was!  I think it was one of the hardest, most exciting, blessed, amazing years of my life! I completed 'A Year in Review' blog post for 2011 and 2012, and must have overlooked 2013.  Since I skipped 2013, here are some key features!

1) I learned to love and appreciate the island over the course of this year.
2) In February, we rescued and adopted out a beautiful little island puppy!
3) In April, my mom came to visit and we had a wonderful time!
4) In April, we also got to take a trip to Florida to visit MomMom & PopPop and Joedy & Gerald.  It was a great two weeks!
5) In July, I did my first major hikes in St. Kitts, including hiking to the top of the Volcano!
6) August brought my time as a teacher at the Ross Prep School to an end... Very sad!
7) August 3rd was a big day!  It was the day I took my first pregnancy test...and it was POSITIVE!  August 6th, a second positive test began to confirm the pregnancy, and a blood test shortly after gave us the 100% positive!
8) End of August we took a weekend getaway to Nevis, paired with lots of nausea and sun!
9) September we found out we were having TWINS!!
10) October we shared the news with our families and friends.
11) November we found out we were having GIRLS!
12) November Joedy came to St. Kitts for her first visit and to take Brinley dog home for us!  Another great week!
13) December I said 'see ya later' to St. Kitts and headed home.  We were home for Christmas for the first time since 2011!

In looking back, 2013 was a pretty great year too!  It seems our life keeps getting better and better!  I am certainly excited for the years ahead and to see what other great things are coming for us!

January 2014... We were so happy to be home for Christmas and New Years for the first time since 2011!  MomMom and PopPop made a winter trip to NY and our families were all together for a holiday!  Unfortunately, Brayton's time home was short and he had to venture back to St. Kitts to complete his final semester at Ross, but the girls and I stayed at home.  It was so incredibly hard to have him leave, but we needed to be close to good medical care.  It is a very good thing we didn't head back to the island because on January 24th I was take to Crouse Hospital by Ambulance from the ER for signs of pre-eclampsia..This began my hospital stay...

February 2014... The scariest, and best month of the year!  After three weeks of being told "plan on delivering tomorrow", "let's wait out delivery a couple more days" over and over, weeks of hospital bed rest and Brayton being in St. Kitts and me being in the hospital, we finally got to meet our girls! As the month of February progressed, the girls grew stronger and stronger but we also had to send Brayton back to the island for 7.5 weeks.  It was incredibly hard to send him off while his babies were in the NICU and know he wouldn't see them again for almost 2 months.  It broke my heart every single day and I don't know how he did it, and did it with strength.  We are so lucky to have an amazing Dad/Husband!

March 2014...The beginning of March was spent with more NICU time.  On March 16th, Elliana got to come home!  I then spent the next week and a half bouncing between NICU and Ellie at home.  It was one of the hardest 10 days!  On March 26th, Juliette got to come home!  Finally, we were ALMOST all together again!

April 2014... After a couple weeks of being home, we were settling in!  We had professional pictures taken at the beginning of the month and spent the next few weeks patiently waiting for Daddy to get home for good!  April 20th, we surprised him at the airport as he arrived home from St. Kitts FOR GOOD!

May 2014... Beginning of May we moved, yet again!, to our new place in Ithaca.  It was really great to finally be a family all under one roof, in our own 'home'.  We took the girls for their first trip to the zoo, celebrated Mother's Day, took advantage of our family time, and cherished each moment with our babies!  

June 2014... The month of June was lots of baby time!  I couldn't have asked for more!  We took advantage of the weather and took the girls on some of their first hikes.  We had a weekend in the hospital so Ellie could begin her Propranolol for her hemangioma, celebrated Fathers Day driving home from the hospital, celebrated Morgan's HS graduation, and Lyndi's wedding shower!

July 2014... July was a fairly uneventful month, spent again being Mom and Dad and cherishing our twincesses!  The girls did have their first swim in Aunt Lo's pool!  While it doesn't seem exciting, and nothing major happened, learning to be a Mom of twins was busy enough, and perfect enough!  Nothing else was needed!!

August 2014... August brought the girls first camping trips!  The beginning of August, Mom, Dad and Gram were camping in Ithaca and the girls loved hanging out at the campground, swimming in their kiddie pool and hanging out with family! We also had a spectacular river weekend!  The girls loved being out in the boat!  Later in the month we had our second camping adventure, this time at Cedar and staying at the campground the entire time!  The girls had a great time!

September 2014... What a great month this was, and so busy!  MomMom and PopPop came up North and spent a few days with us on their way up!  It was great to see them and have PopPop meet the girls and MomMom be able to see them again!  We also had professional pictures taken again by the wonderful Amanda Lessner!!  The ladies all celebrated Lyndi during her bachelorette party and the guys all celebrated Travis in his bachelor party.  The best part of the month was Lyndi and Travis' wedding!  It was a perfect day, and we all had such a wonderful time!

October 2014... October was also a busy month!  We began solids with the girls using the baby led weaning method, and they both started getting teeth!!  We took our first trip to Albany to visit Bit and Tim and see their new house.  The girls also had their first colds!  Mom and Dad spent a weekend in Ithaca for their 30th wedding anniversary and we took ourselves on a wine tour!  October, of course, also brought the girls first Halloween!  We didn't do anything except dress them up and take their pictures!

November 2014... November was a pretty mellow month!  We had a visit from the Szczepaniak's, had our first library trip, experienced our first snowfall of the winter, and of course had our first Thanksgiving!  We had so much to be thankful for this year!!

December 2014... I didn't do a Christmas blog, so I will catch up a bit here!  The beginning of the month was uneventful, we just hung out at home!  Bit came to visit us and we had so much fun with her here!  Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas this year.  There was no snow (which I am totally okay with!), we didn't exchange gifts with each other and only did a few small things for the girls.  We were also in Ithaca just the four of us, which was really nice, and it was just like a normal day!  Since the weather was so nice, we bundled the girls up and took the dogs and went on a nice hike!  It was so nice to spend Christmas day with our little family, enjoying the outdoors and making memories!  I would love to be able to hike or be outside every year on Christmas!  We headed home on the following Saturday and spent lots of time with our families.  We told our families to be light on the gifts as our place is small and we would be moving soon, multiple times...but they didn't listen!  It was the girls first Christmas, and they are the first set of grandkids, so I guess that is to be expected!  The girls were spoiled with gifts, but more importantly, we were all spoiled with a great deal of family time!

                 

 

          

 

    

 

               

   



I truly believe that Christmas is SO much more than material gift receiving, and I really want to teach my children that.  As they get older, I plan to spend our holiday seasons giving to those who need it rather than piling our own home with gifts we don't really need.  I know Christmas is such an exciting time, but seeing people post pictures of their abundance of gifts all over Facebook made me feel so sad for the people viewing those, or the people in general, who weren't as fortunate.  So many people spend the holidays feeling the pressure of providing gifts for their children and families and society makes it so much harder.  I appreciate the excitement and feeling proud that one can provide so much for their families, I just wish it wasn't such a public announcement.  I saw this floating around a lot this season regarding gifts and I really like it. Give something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, and something to READ. I also really liked this....

Our time at home over the holidays was so busy, but it was a wonderful reminder of how incredibly loved our girls are, the people we have in our lives that are so important and that we need to truly cherish our moments with those special people.  

After a week of visiting, we were happy to come back to our quiet and the girls have both ended up with colds, so we are spending our week snuggling and getting better!  I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday!  

As we move in 2015, I am so excited for the year ahead of us.  We have so many things we are looking forward to and many things in our life that will be changing!  Let us find the positive in life, strive to be better than we were today, reach our dreams and live life to the fullest! Happy 2015! 

   

2012.. A Year in Review..

Compared to 2011.. I do not have much to say about 2012, other than I hope 2013 turns out to be a little bit better..  

January – I honestly cannot think of anything exciting happening this month! 

February – I got suckered into helping cat trap Feral Cats on the island and feel in love with a feral cat.  In case you aren't aware - feral cats are wild cats.. They generally (unless really young) do not get adopted.. They get fixed and returned to the wild.. Well, I decided I was going to try to 'tame' this cat we trapped that I just loved..  That worked.. Until it broke through a screen and ran away!

March – Over the ONE long weekend we have in a 15 week trimester, we went Deep Sea Fishing with a group of friends.  It was a lot of fun!  We also completed the ChannelSwim and rescued Nevi and her litter of puppies.  Cannot imagine life without my girl now!  

April – Over April break we went HOME for the first time since arriving in August!  It was great and went by way to fast!    

May – We moved into a new house with the Cope's up on Fort Tyson rise and quickly discovered that we had moved into a centipede house.  It was INFESTED!!!!  Then we moved out!  Thank Goodness! Baby Eli was also born in May and missing out on that (and STILL not meeting him) has been tough!

June – Since we didn't stay in the centipede house, we moved into the villa with Cope’s and later Mattera's.  It also brought the end of my school year and the beginning of summer camp (yah...not summer vacation..summer camp... summer vacation doesn't exist here!)

July  - In July we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary!  

August – Finally, family came to St. Kitts in August.  It was a great time, and I was so glad my family got a chance to see the island and get a taste of some of my life experiences here!  

September – A new school year for me, and a new semester for Brayton!

October – Driving home one day, we ran into this adorable little homeless puppy on the side of the road.  We brought him home with the intention of getting him adopted.. and we did that.. He's sleeping next to me right now =) 

November – November brought another Thanksgiving on the island and away from home/family..  It was harder this year!  

December – And December.. Another xmas vacation on the island.. and another xmas away from home.  The first year wasn't bad..but this year was much more difficult.  

Now it is January.. Life is moving on.  Our time here is on the downward slope..  Let's hope for a better 2013..  So far, its not doing so well!! (blog to come later..)

A Year In Review . . .

2011 has been an exciting year for Brayton and I with many big adventures, many life changes and a whole lot of exciting times.  Most of our year was spent working, saving money, wedding planning and eventually, St Kitts planning!  It was a super exciting year for us, and I am so blessed for the friends and family that helped us through it all!

January - My 2011 began with my first car accident - nothing major luckily!  Just a deer to the front end!

February - Brayton's venture towards Vet School got one step closer as he, Travis and I took a three day road trip to University of Prince Edward Island for his first Vet School interview...The view was nice, he did a great job - luckily we didn't end up there!  And...I'd rather not talk about the trip...

I also was able to finish up my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction during February!  What a great feeling!

March - Brayton found out that he was accepted into Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and that we would be moving to St. Kitts in the Caribbean for two and a half years!  Big news!

While we were excited for moving to St Kitts, March also brought LOTS of snow, LOTS of shoveling and  a long tough winter!

April - I do not think there was much eventfulness in our lives in April - other than the continual loads of wedding planning!  Since Brayton found out he got into Ross, I had been working hard to try and get a teaching job there.  I spent a lot of time making my portfolio Electronic and working on Jane!  No time for events!

May - In May, my middle sister graduated from St John Fisher College in Rochester, a year early!  I couldn't be more proud of her!

http://www.mywedding.com/braytonandleann/index.html - just found this!  Totally forgot we even had that!  Times goes by so fast!

I had my first wedding dress fitting in May....I soo LOVED my dress..It was perfect <3

Also in May, our good friends Jessie and Graeme got married, two months before us!  We had a great time celebrating with them!

Jessie and Graeme <3

Us at the wedding!

May also led me to do one of the hardest things I have done in a long time....I gave my horse away.  There is nothing worse than taking an animal that has been your best friend, in your back yard, for 6 years, and dropping her off and walking away...I cried every day that week...I do have to say though, I am happy that she has a friend again, and is getting lots of love!

June - The end of June brought the end of my career at Indian River Middle School as a Middle School Special Education teacher...I had been there for 2 1/2 years and it was hard to leave, but I was very excited for the new things ahead of me which made it a bit easier!  I do miss my friends and my students from there often though!

I was also able to celebrate a GREAT friends future baby girl, Mya, at her baby shower in June!  I am so  happy for Nikki and her beautiful little girl!

I also found out in June that I was offered an interview to the Ross Prep School in St Kitts and was asked to fly to Portland Oregon for an interview July 9th....5 days before my wedding!  Of course, I couldn't say no, so I booked a plane ticket from Syracuse to Oregon and then from Oregon to Virginia and Brayton picked me up there to drive to NC to get married in 4 days!

July - WEDDING MONTH!!  In addition to our wedding, our friend Jen got married at the end of the month!  She had a beautiful wedding!

We were also lucky enough to do a maternity photo shoot with Nikki a few days before Mya was born!  It was fun to play with our camera, experiment with our photo taking skills and see her look SO awesome in the last steps of her pregnancy!

Gorgeous pregnant girl! 

My favorite pic! 

And then there was OUR wedding.....I never thought it would come so fast!  There was so much last minute planning - for the wedding and job interview and upcoming move to St Kitts a month later - that before we knew it we were dropping me at the airport to fly to Portland and Brayton and all our friends and family were piling into cars for the week in Outer Banks, NC!

The interview went really well - even though it was a very LONG two days of traveling!  I even ended up getting the job and found out I would be teaching first and second grades!  Yikes!

The week in the Outer Banks was one of the best times I could have asked for.  We had an 8 bedroom house with all of our friends (and more friends and family close by) and played insane amounts of pool volleyball, drank lots of Margarita's, had a bachelor/bachelorette party...Rehearsal dinner, wedding on the beach (beyond perfect!) and a flawless reception.  I can not thank my friends and family enough for making it the most PERFECT day of my life!  ( And I guess my husband too =) )

If you haven't seen pictures, or want to look again - here is our photographers website:
http://www.alcweddingphotography.com/outer-banks/
Once there, Log in - Username: hillwedding
                                 Password: braytonandleann

Once you are logged in there will either be two links on the bottom for Hall-Hill wedding and engagement session - click and view!  If you need to enter a code it is: obx14711    =)

Following the NC vaca we headed back to NY and spent the remainder of our summer not working, boating, swimming, camping, drinking, relaxing and packing for St Kitts.  It was BY FAR the best, most perfect summer of my life!  I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends and family members and  leaving them in August was terribly hard!

August - River...river...river...river...that is about it!

Aside from the shopping trips, to do lists, and packing involved in moving to St Kitts for two and a half years and having to find a way to get EVERYTHING into 7 suitcases!

4 of the 7!  

 It was another perfect summer month that came and went far too fast.  Saying goodbye to everyone was really tough and involved a lot of tears!  On August 22nd we left upstate NY for a while and headed to the big NYC (6 hours from OUR upstate!) and spent the night with Travis, Lyndi, Bit, Tim, Brayton and myself.  We explored the city, ate lots of good food, had many good laughs and great times together before Brayton and I headed out!

Our last group shot before parting =(

Yup we sure did push the two beds together and sleep 6 wide <3

August 25th came and we said our last 'see you laters' to our siblings...Far harder than ANYONE else to leave...I cried, a lot!  And it lasted about 3 months!  And off we went.  We had an overnight layover in Miami and arrived in St Kitts the next day to begin our new adventure!

View from the plane...here we go! 

September - December -  we were in full swing with school and teaching and quite busy!   For full details on those 4 months, check back to the beginning of the blog =)

Our Christmas Card

The card - bad photo

The photo on the card

I guess looking back and recollecting - we had a pretty amazing year!  I hope that 2012 can bring us more excitement while living for the next two years on St Kitts - but I really look forward to 2013 when we move back to the States and can hopefully add even more to our lives <3

Thank you again to my friends, new and old, and family, new and old, for all the love, support and great times you have given Brayton and I in the past year and all our lives!  We love you all!  Happy New Year and good wishes to everyone!