Christmas 2009

Candy! Presents! Christmas!

Cold Weather and Hot Chocolate

The best part of cold weather? Knowing you can come inside and get warm! Who ever knew cold weather could be so much fun?

Little Princess (aka High-Maintenance Woman!)

Well, our "little" lady is growing like a weed! I've always told Val that I needed a couple of kids to support their old man since I wasn't entering into the most FINANCIALLY rewarding of all professions. Who knew that support may end up coming through the WNBA? Our princess in pushing 12-lbs and 22" long at 6 weeks and is averaging almost 1-lb per week since coming home from the hospital! I knew that there had to be some reason my 5-foot-nothing wife could wolf down more pizza (or popsicles) than I could!

To keep the grandparents updated I've been uploading lots of pictures of the little munchkins so click the title of this post to go to my Picasa page and check out all the other photos. Keep us in your prayers as well since I'll be starting class tomorrow and it looks like this will be a tough, if rewarding, semester. Val still has a few weeks of maternity leave, but it's going to be a while new world for everyone with another tricycle motor/rug-rat in the mix and two very occupied parents!

From August 2009

Taking It All In

There's a whole new world to explore...the few hours she's awake each day! This is a rare moment, getting some shots of those blue eyes while the sun is up, since this little high-maintenance lady is one serious night owl!

From August 2009

From August 2009

Brotherly Love

Zayne has taken to the reality of a new baby in the house very well. He's been very helpful, bringing her bassinet in the room after she wakes up, bringing her blankets and toys while we're holding her, and (as you can see) getting in on a little baby-holding time himself. We'll see how long this lasts!

From August 2009

From August 2009

A Seat In The Right Direction!

Zayne has recently become increasingly upset about diaper changes, though any discussion of using the "big boy potty" has always met with equal resistance to the idea of continuing to wear diapers! So, we haven't been pushing the idea on him and just decided to wait until he was ready to move past the diaper stage (though I'm certainly looking forward to not changing those stinky things anymore!)

This morning as Val was in the bathroom beautifying herself Zayne strolled in, stuck his seat on the potty, dropped his pants, and instructed her that he wanted his diaper off! So, naturally, as with any historic moments, I snapped a few shots - a little entertainment now and some EXCELLENT blackmail/embarrassing high-school graduation material a few years down the road!

From August 2009

From August 2009

First Sermon (Updated with New Link)

Today, August 9, I was given the opportunity to preach before the church, New Covenant ARP, and found the experience to be more than I could have ever imagined it to be! The responsibility of preaching the word of God is not one I take lightly and I certainly hope that everything that I said was, first and foremost, truthful and glorifying to God. Click on the link to be taken to a site where you can hear the sermon and I appreciate any criticism that you may have as I will always work to improve my abilities to speak the word while always relying on the power of the Spirit to insure that work is fruitful.

Download 8-9-09 - Who Am I.mp3 from FileFactory.com

Abrielle Josephine - July 13, 2009

Well, I guess I have SOME excuse for not posting this earlier...lack of sleep and dealing with a 2-year-old and newborn can keep a guy pretty out of it! I have uploaded TONS of pictures of our newest little addition though and you know there will be many more to come!

AIRPLANE!!!

Firetrucks, buses, tractors, and AIRPLANES! Any big, noisy piece of equipment will do to keep this little guy entertained and he'll be CERTAIN to notify you of each and every one he sees! We have tons of fun playing outside spotting the airplanes zooming overhead, running to the window anytime the garbage truck comes by and you'd think it was Christmas morning anytime we get to see a firetruck zooming by with the lights flashing and sirens wailing! So, when we discovered a small aviation museum near the airport here in Charlotte we spent a Saturday afternoon with Zayne exploring the world of some old planes and military equipment and watching some newer airplanes take off from the airport - how exciting!

Falling Down on the Job!

I've been more than a bit remiss in maintaining our family blog site lately. When I logged on and realized that I hadn't posted anything since April, I thought it might be a good time to post a few updated pictures of the little man for all of you to keep track of our little soldier since he's growing like a weed and changes more and more every single day. Hope you enjoy the new pics!

My little outdoor adventurer doesn't know what to do with himself for more than a few hours indoors each day. So, we find ways to keep ourselves entertained outside, from playing with Ben, to mowing the lawn (me with the real mower and Zayne with his bubble-mower), to washing dad's truck and then playing in the water and mud that results - the real fun of washing the truck!

An Occasional Change of Scenery from the Books

I've been working with the new software I downloaded from Google and playing with some of the pictures that I've had on my computers for months and years now. It's a lot of fun (and can be a bit time consuming!), but I'm including a link to my Picasa Web Album where you can download pictures if you're interested.

From Drop Box

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustinJHilliard

Not Enough To Do!

Things have been REALLY dull around the Hilliard house here in Charlotte these days. We've found that raising a child (who will be 20 months old in a couple of days) with Valerie working full-time for one of the largest banks in the world, Bank of America, (in the midst of one of the worst economic slumps since the Great Depression) while I'm enrolled in (and TRYING DESPERATELY to stay caught up with) 12 hours of Masters work here at RTS AND working a split shift for a commercial cleaning company that keeps me out until 3am on Saturday and Sunday nights just really wasn't enough to give us that sense of accomplishment and fulfillment when (or if!) our heads hit the pillows at the end of the day!

So, in light of our nagging sense of incompleteness, for those of you who may not yet know, we've decided to add another element of chaos to our world by giving Zayne a playmate for his birthday. We also discovered, at Valerie's last doctor visit, that my world will be in utter disarray for AT LEAST the next 21 or so years as we are being blessed by the Lord with our first little girl! Thankfully I'm taking a class on the poetry books of the Old Testament right now and we've been studying the imprecatory psalms so I should have a good solid knowledge base from which to call down cursings on any young men who ever try to come near my daughter. (Well, on second thought, maybe I'll just let Zayne handle the light work and save the cursings for another day!)

With our little girl's birthday rapidly approaching (July 18th officially, though the doc says she'll likely be joining us even sooner than that as it will be a scheduled delivery) we're now gearing up for the arrival and, of course, working on a name for our little bundle of joy. Now, naturally, we already have something in mind, but I did find a website that lets you all voice your opinion in the matter as well.

Clicking this button should take you to our list and give you the opportunity to cast your vote on a number of names, giving the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to those we've selected from the zillions of baby names on their site. Check back OFTEN since you know Val and I will go back and forth on this thing and add names to our list frequently!

One final note - here are a couple of the latest pictures of our little girl from our last trip to the docs office last week. Just a few more months and we'll be posting pictures of her posing next to her big brother (aka - "The Contender")

Trailblazing!

The last week or so of sub-30-degree weather has left both Zayne and I with more than a slight case of cabin fever and so we decided to go spend a few hours at our favorite local neighborhood playground, Shamrock Park.




After more than a few trips climbing the stairs and sliding down the incredibly exciting spiral slide we decided to go explore a little and walked the dangerous and exotic jungle trails down the winding creek through the park: forging rapids, dodging poisonous plants and escaping from man-eating dogs down unforged paths.

Well...it seemed that way to the 18-month-old mind at least!

What's This White Stuff?

Being from Texas, and being 18 months old, the experience of wet, cold, white stuff falling from the sky was a completely new one! It didn't take our little mountain man long to adjust, though, as he was beating on the doors and windows all morning wanting out (even though it was about 15 degrees outside) and was not interested in being bundled up in coats, hats and gloves once he got out there! This little bear wrestler wanted the full experience. He wanted to get his hands wet and a little muddy as he communed with nature (i.e. - ate snow off of the branches in the back yard!) and I'm convinced more and more each day that he's as ready as I am for that move to God's country (aka - Alaska!)

The Wonderful World of Sleep

Sleep -

Seems like it should be a simple enough thing to deal with. I mean, how tough can it be? You're tired, you go to bed. You sleep. You wake up. You get out of bed and go on with life. Easy! Right?

Please...Nothing could be further from the truth...

For the last few months, I've been noticing and increasing amount of stress stemming from the subject of sleep: when to sleep; when not to sleep; how much sleep is enough sleep? how much sleep is too much? Of course, I've really got no one to blame for this dilemma but myself. After all, here I sit, a 29 year-old borderline insomniac (who prefers early mornings to late nights) having just taken a job with split shifts that run until 3am on weekends with a beautiful pregnant wife who would LOVE to sleep AT LEAST 18 hours a day and a 18 month-old who, well, I think the following picture taken during what was supposed to be nap time a few days ago pretty well sums up his feelings about sleep.

The Gift of Prophecy?

"So, am I ready for that second kid? I think I am, but you'll have to ask Valerie!"

The previous quote, taken from my post almost 2 months ago, almost makes me question whether I had been either spending a little too much time preparing for Dr. Currid's Old Testament Prophets class this past semester, had been given the Spiritual gift of Prophecy, or if I just happened to take after a broken clock (which, after all, is right twice a day!).

Well, I'm fairly sure Dr. Currid would tell you that I DIDN'T overwork myself preparing for his class to the point that the gift of the OT prophets would have rubbed off on me, and I'm also convinced that the sign gifts such as prophecy have ceased since I'm not receiving any new inspired word from the Lord...so, I guess that leaves me with only one option as to how I happened to know that Valerie was actually pregnant with our second child as I wrote those words, considering whether or not I was prepared to handle another "little Hilliard"!

We received the news several weeks ago that as of next July we'll be adding the newest member to our family. Valerie is now about 12 weeks and everything seems to be going great with our newest little gift from God! With all that we've been through with our past pregnancies, we definitely appreciate all of your continued prayers that God would protect and sustain that which He has begun as we look forward with great joy and expectation to the arrival of our newest addition to our family.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.