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!

A Shout Out to Big Brother Andrew

I thought our sweet big brother Andrew needed a shout out on here....so here we go. He is really starting to take an interest in Abby. The first couple days he hardly acknowledged her, but the past few days he is always looking at her, or kissing her or wanting to hold her. When she cries he looks at me with a really concerned face and says "oh sad." We also had a little family scooter session that we took pictures of. Poor Andrew is not understanding why we can't go outside very much these days. I need to think up some fun indoor activities stat (help please??). Love the picture where he is flexing his muscles...and I love his big red helmet. It always makes me think of mariokart!

I am in L.O.V.E.

Yesterday my friend Amy Clark came over and took pictures of Abby. They turned out AMAZING! I have not seen all of them yet but here is a preview.

Abby

I am finally uploading some more pictures of Abby. There are lots more to come, but here are a few. Natalie and Todd were so nice and left there super fancy camera with us to use in the hospital so these are just some of the pictures from their camera. I haven't even uploaded any from our own camera yet. Enjoy!

I find it very interesting that this picture was taken like an hour after I delivered her and I look somewhat normal. From that point on (and I still am) I am COMPLETELY swollen. It is so weird. My face is out of control. Don't you think that I would look worse in this picture than now? WHATEVER.