Miss Abby is One Month old!!

Well, tomorrow she will actually be five weeks old so I am a little late in posting this. The time has gone by fast! We took Abby to church yesterday for the first time. I figure if we can all survive with Zach having the swine flu in our house, then we are probably okay going to church:) It was so fun to put her in a little dress! She is really starting to fill out, and starting to coo a little bit. I love having a little girl:)

Pirates Cove

First off let me just say that trying to find time for blogging with two kids is a little tricky for me! That is why I have been a little MIA. I apologize. I am trying to be better:) Last weekend we went with a bunch of friends from Zach's work to a place in Las Vegas called Pirate's Cove. This place was incredible. I don't know all the "stats" on it, but basically it is a 30 million dollar private property with three houses, a few pools, water slides, I think 20 bedrooms and bathrooms, like 3-4 kitchens, etc. The guy that owns it hired people from Disney and make it a complete Pirates theme...it was unreal. Even the cast of the Pirates of the Carribbean went and stayed there. It was a treat:) Andrew was loving the pools and water slides. On a sader note...Andrew was running in a fabric store the day and tripped and slammed his cheek onto the corner of a metal chair. It was so sad. I had to take pictures of his shiner. His whole cheek is swollen and black and blue. He wasn't liking that I was taking his picture though, so hopefully you can see it.

Life with us is good though...but very busy! I am learning the ropes of balancing two kids. It really hasn't been too bad. I think I am starting to get the hang of it:) Miss Abby is so sweet and so cute. She is starting to coo a little bit and I love it!

Well I couldn't find my camera for a couple days....hence the lack of pictures. But, I did find it...hallelujah. These are all pretty random but our little Abby is doing amazing. She is seriously a really good baby. She knows her nights and days now which is so nice. She seriously wakes up to eat about every three hours in the night...only feeds for like 15 min and then goes right back to sleep!! Andrew is such a good big brother. This morning he wanted to hold her really bad so I laid her on his lap (still holding her) and he got mad that I was still holding her and pushed my hands away, so I laid her on him in a way I knew she couldn't get hurt. He just smiled and pointed out her eyes, nose, hair, head, ears, etc. I could tell he loves her:)




This is Andrew's favorite thing to do these days: put on our shoes and walk around the house.


Last night Zach and I decided we needed to GET OUT! We had a babysitter come stay with Andrew and Zach, Abby and I went to dinner and did a little Christmas shopping. It was much needed and so much fun! I bought the Michael Jackson cd from the movie that night and here we are in the car jamming to MJ. Seriously i LOVE his music.


We went to Barnes and Noble for a little bit. I love that Zach is reading some book that might actually be beneficial to his life.....and I am reading People:)

Anyone who knows Andrew knows that he loves to be outside. It is causing a bit of a problem these days seeing how 1) it is getting colder and 2) newborn sister Abby cannot go outside at the moment. So, I am feeling super sad for him, and I am realizing that there is NOTHING for him to do inside, but watch "shows" as he calls it and I think that is getting a little out of control.

So, I'm really into reading lots of blogs these days and finding myself wanting to be creative like all these crazy women. I don't really think this is something that comes naturally for me, but I think it might be possible to work at it right? Anyways, I just thought I would share a little something I found over the summer, and finally just read:


I can't remember how I even heard of/found this book, but I ordered it off of Amazon this summer and I have been reading it tonight. I FEEL INSPIRED! This girl is amazing. Long story short I have some great ideas of how I can create a more fun atmosphere in our home for Andrew and have some really fun but creative activities for him to do throughout the winter. I won't go into details....but I highly recommend the book. She also has a blog: www.soulemama.com. I'm not blog savvy and I still have not figured out how to just create that as a link for you. Sorry:)

That's all for tonight....off to ATTEMPT to get some sleep!

Please leave a comment!

I recently sent out an email to all the friends and family whose email addresses I had asking for their mailing addresses. For those of you who did not get that email for whatever reason please leave me your address in a comment or email it to me at katie.hillstead@gmail.com. Thanks! I misplaced my address book so I am starting fresh....hopefully this will be the last time I have to do this! Thanks again:)

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was a fun Halloween for us:) At first we had to fight Andrew to put on his costume, but once I showed him what he looked like in the mirror he was pretty excited. I seriously wish he could wear this every day-- he looks so chubby in it! The night before we carved pumpkins with Todd and Natalie and had some wassail and yummy pumpkin bread. Zach and I are not the most CREATIVE people when it comes to carving pumpkins...but hey at least we did them this year! Then yesterday we took Andrew to the trunk-or-treat at church for a few minutes and then he went trick or treating with Zach and his Uncle Jake. He knew how to say "trick or treat" by the end of the night and I think he has had enough candy to last him a few months! Abby and I stayed home to give out candy. We had a whopping THREE trick or treaters. How depressing is that?!?! But we had fun at home with Jenna. Hope you had a fun Halloween too!