Baby Gavin

Last Thursday I got to meet Baby Gavin. Gordon and Lorlie's baby boy that was born on the 31st of May. He's so cute. Erica had a garage sale and Lorlie said her and Gavin were going to be there, so Cooper and I stopped. It was great to see them. While Erica was out manning her garage Lorlie and I were inside feeding our babies.

I did get a few shots of Gavin and Lorlie!

He is such a little peanut. I can't wait for Cooper and him around Thanksgiving and Christmas, they will be such buddies!

Back to the grind

That's right, today was my first day back after 12 weeks of maternity leave :( I can't believe how fast it went, it still seems like yesterday that I had Cooper. It's been a joy being off with him for that long and I'm so grateful for McGraw-Hill to allow me that time. I could not imaging having to go back after only 6 weeks, no way!

So with me going back to work, that means my little man had to go to daycare/school. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I did have lots of tears on my way to work this morning. The girls at the center was asking me something on my way out but I had tears in my eyes and just wanted to get in my car. But once I wiped them away it was all OK.

My morning went OK once I got Cooper out of bed, he just did not want to wake up. Usually he'll wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 but today I had to wake him up so I could feed him before getting in the shower. Once Tom got up at 5:45 I brought him in bed with me and just stuck breakfast in his mouth *LOL* he didn't seem to mind once he figured out what was going on. He didn't each much before going back to sleep. I got up pumped, then headed into the shower. Once I got ready I went to get Cooper up, thinking he would have been up, but nope, here is what he was doing:

The little twirp did not want to get up! LOL

Finally got him up and ready. This was one of my favorite outfits, it fits him perfectly and I know it's not much longer he'll be out of it. And since the daycare center is fairly cool I thought it was perfect, because it's hot outside I would put this on him if it was just him and I.

And a few more just because, he's all happy in his car seat.

I just love this little face, he's filling out so much and I love his double chin, except cleaning under it!

And since I have Jazzercise on Monday's and Thursday's I go up to feed him over lunch, it was awesome to see him, it really broke my day up and I was super excited to just see him. I got there around noon and he was just getting his diaper changed, he was crying and once I picked him up he was much better. It was so nice to cuddle with him. Feeding went good, he was hungry. He then fell asleep so I put him in his crib but once I put him down he woke up, so I gave him his pacifier and he just laid there. I gave him a kiss goodbye and headed back to work.

Here he is lying in his crib! The girls as day care said he just loves his little lamb, which we already knew so they like to give it to him, it's always in his car seat, if he's fussy they'll give him the lamb and it will calm him right down.

And my desk at work! I got this frame from my friend Julie at work and I couldn't wait to put it on my desk. And the little butterfly solar thing, not sure what they call it, but Deona at work had this sitting on my desk. I've always wanted one and now I've got one. I have a nice bright office so it works perfect!

One last thing that I have to tell I had Jazzercise tonight so Tom had to pick up Cooper. He picked him up around 4:00, he's now working days so he gets off at 3:30, it's so awesome. Well, when I got in my car after Jazzercise there were a couple missed calls, a text message from Tom and a voicemail. The text said "where are the bottles? How am I supposed to feed him with no bottles" oops - Oh Crap is what I responded back. I had all 4 bottles with me that goes with the pump and the 3 Dr. Brown bottles are at the daycare center. I listened to the voicemail and it was Tom and Cooper talking in the back ground and Tom said "tell her, tell mom where's my babba at? And I can hear Cooper talking, it was so funny. I felt so bad, I called and Tom improvised...he used a sippy cup and a nipple, not sure how that worked but he had Cooper in a different outfit since he said he got milk all over the place. I laughed imagining what he was doing. Anyway, there were 3 bottles up in the closet but Tom dug through the closet and just missed them. So note to self - get a few more bottles, the one in the closet are the bigger bottles but they would have worked, I'll just have to get a few more smaller bottles.

Special Camping Night

Yesterday, I packed up Cooper and went camping. Me, Mom, Grandma, Nikki, Lexi, Justin, Jake and Matthew all went camping! It was so much fun. I picked up Matt on the way to Mom's, we took her van. You think with everything we had we were going for a week, holy cow.

It was a beautiful day, we decided to do this since school was finally out and it's my last week of maternity leave :( not looking forward to Monday at all! Well I kind of am, but we won't go there right now. We got up to Whitetail around 11:30, we unloaded, got everything situated and headed up to the pool. Nikki, Grandma and Lexi drove up later and got there around 2:00 and so did Justin and Jake, they had ball practice or something so they arrived about 2:30. We were already at the pool, I wanted to see how Cooper would do this time, it was so nice out. Cooper ate and slept all while waiting for everyone to arrive. I didn't want to get him in the water until everyone else got there just in case, I only wanted to get him in once because the water was a little chilly.

Getting all ready to go camping, see my new shirt? It says "Camping is Yummy" and it's a little raccoon roasting a Smore's and of course we had to have to have one, Cooper got it in other ways but I think he liked it.

Matt and Cooper hanging out before heading up to the pool.

Coop doing a little sunbathing! He loves the sun.

Hanging with Grandma after his nap. He's just waiting to get into the pool.

I didn't get any pics of him in the water because my phone battery went dead but he did love it, we were in the water for about a half an hour. He squealed for just a bit but once he got used to the water he loved it.

After swimming we came back to the camper and hung out. Nikki picked up Papa Murphy's pizza so we started cooking them and of course had to eat lots of snacks. Grandma made her taco dip, it was so good. We played a little volleyball and finally started a fire. 

Later on after it got dark and we got all the beds ready, it was crowded in the camper but it was so worth it, we played Shit On Your Neighbor card game, we didn't play for money, but Justin brought all his change out of his car so we played with money just so we could eliminate the losers. Justin got all his money back, but Grandma was the big winner.

Here are the 4 kids on one side of the picnic table where we were playing cards.

And here we were on the other side.

Not sure what Justin is doing here, probably counting his money.

And the big challenge of the night, where was everyone going to sleep. Mom and Nikki discussing something, who knows!

Mom showing Grandma where she was sleeping, those two slept in my bed. I'm not sure what Nikki is doing. Must be posing for the camera.

Cooper knew where he was sleeping, he fell asleep about 8:30 in Great Grandma's arms, she knows how to get him to sleep. And she slept through all the commotion 

I'm not sure where the kids ended up sleeping because they were in and out of the camper all night switching spots, but here is where they were when I was taking pictures.

Justin on one of the bunks, he was almost too big, or I should say long, because he kept hitting his feet.

Jake on the other bunk, across from Justin, I think he slept here.

Matt on the couch bed, I know he didn't end up here because this is where I slept and Nikki ended up with me. Matt was going to sleep with me but ended up with Lexi on the couch by the bunks.

Bright light - the flash on my camera was super bright.

Jake posing for the camera!

Justin posing or something. LOL

And Matt's pose!

Poor Lexi! All she wanted to do was sleep.

And mom and Grandma sleeping in our bed, they slept good!

Mom and Grandma were in bed around 10 or so and the rest of us stayed up for a little while, the kids were in and out of the camper, they either were not comfortable or they were figuring out a different place to sleep. Nikki and I hung out by the fire until about 1:00. The boys and Lexi all came out for Smore's and a hot dog!

Sunday morning we got up cooked breakfast and headed back home. It was a great night, I'm exhausted tonight, I had to teach Jazzercise, and I'm ready for bed!

Cooper's Baptism

Today was a very special day in the Hillebrand household, Cooper was baptized! The weather was perfect and so was Cooper!

Here are Brandon and Cooper just chillin' before getting dressed, I didn't want to get his outfit on him too soon. You all know what happens when we do that!

And Micayla holding him once I got him all dressed. Doesn't he look like a stud? Sorry Micayla I cut you off.

All ready to head to church.

Mass started at 10:00 and we were up just after it got started. Chris and Kristi are Cooper's Godparents so they had a to do a few responses.

And Cooper getting the holy water poured over his head. He didn't cry one bit. Must be all the baths we take!

Our Baptismal candle.

And Pastor Jay showing him off to everyone in the church.

And of course afterwards what better way to celebrate then food. We had brunch style food and it was all so good. We had Egg Strata, Sausage Bread, French Toast Casserole, Fruit, and Cinnamon Rolls. I threw in some Mimosa's and we were supposed to get a Subway platter from Subway but the lady who took my order on Friday must have taken it home with her or something because not on Subway in Dubuque had an order for Hillebrands. I sent Chris and Kristi out to get it and put them on a wild goose chase. I don't know what happened but we really didn't need it because we had plenty of food. We'll save it for another day.

Grandma and Coopy (as she calls him)

Cooper's Godparents, they are so special to him and he loves them so much! They both had him smiling in church, after Chris fed him and Kristi changing his poopy diaper!

We had to put the little hat on that came with the outfit and get a few pictures. I forgot it before church, can you tell he didn't really like it? LOL

Once he got used to it, it was fine. Here is with Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks.

And Grandma and Grandpa Hillebrand. Thanks to Grandma Linda, she got him this cute outfit to wear for his big day. It was so cute on him, he looked like a little handsome man. 

And this picture just cracks me up, when I uploaded these I was looking at them and started laughing hysterically! Look at Tom's face it looks just like Coopers. Too funny!

I say that because that's what Tom will do when Coopers crying, he'll mock him like he's crying too. All and all it was a great day. After everyone left we relaxed for a bit then heading to The Knabel's for Mary Kate's graduation party...Johnny's BBQ! Yummy!

Tom starts day tomorrow, it's weird I hear him in the room snoring and usually it's so peaceful right now, this will take some getting used to! But I am so happy he's on days and I think he is too. Just say some prayers he likes it!