Merry Christmas...

It's easy to celebrate Christ's birth when holding my brand new baby boy!

The hospital, milk allergies and the Twilight cast...

Unfortunately our little man has had a rough first couple of weeks. First, he had really bad jaundice and had to be on the bilirubin lights for 9 days. This wasn't too bad, but we barely got to hold him and the nurse had to come to our house each day and take his blood which is always sad. Then, on Wednesday when we were getting ready for bed we noticed Greyson had blood in his stool. Our pediatrician told us to bring him to the ER where we waited for 11 hours through the night until they finally admitted us. It turns out Greyson has a milk allergy. They put him on a special (and really expensive) formula and he's doing better. The doctor said I can try to breastfeed again, but not for 2 weeks because I have to eliminate all dairy and soy from my diet. That might not seem too hard, but trust me it is! We'll give it a try though. I'd rather be able to nurse him than feed him that expensive, stinky formula!

While we were at the hospital, they put us in the pediatric cancer wing because Greyson is so young and they didn't want him near any contagious kids. Before we knew what was wrong with Greyson I just couldn't help but feel so bad for the parents and families with terminally sick children. My heart really went out to them. If all Greyson has is a milk allergy, then I feel blessed.

I know this is random, but since we happened to be in the cancer wing we had some unexpected visitors - Esme, Carlile, Rosalie and Emmet from the Twilight movies. They were visiting the kids and teenagers and stopped by our room. It was actually a nice break from everything else we were going through. They were sooo nice and seemed genuinely interested in us and actually spent 10 minutes talking with us. Before they left they gave me an autographed book from Stephenie Meyer. Kinda cool.

Introducing...

Introducing Mr. Greyson Brock Hickman. Our little Christmas present decided to come 18 days early this year! He arrived on Monday, December 6th weighing in at 7 lbs 11 ounces and 21 inches long. He has a little jaundice so he has to lie under the bili lights for a few days (that's why there's a funny light in the pics), but other than that we're great!

He gets to wear these awesome shades while sunbathing under the lights

Our little Christmas present!

I was watching Beauty and the Beast with Kaitlyn and it was the final scene where Belle and the Prince were kissing. Katy was wondering why they were kissing.

I said, "oh, they love each other a lot like mommy and daddy".

Kaitlyn responds, "yeah, but you and daddy are married so you don't love each other anymore".

I was laughing hysterically. Probably true in a lot of marriages across America.

Guess who I saw today...

Stephenie Meyer! I knew she'd been attending my church (at a different time) for a couple of months but I hadn't seen her yet. Today I was walking out of the restroom and almost ran into her family. I didn't talk to her or anything because I didn't want to be annoying. I'm sure church is the last place she wants fans following her around - at least I wouldn't. She's a very pretty lady and I probably wouldn't even have known it was her if I didn't know she was in town. I heard, not firsthand, but from a good source, that a teenager approached her at church and asked for her autograph and that she replied, "sorry, I don't sign autographs on Sunday". Good for her!

Now if only I could run into some of the cast around town...j/k
(They're filming all of the indoor scenes in Baton Rouge - apparently big tax breaks here)

The Pumpkin Patch...

I was so excited to volunteer for Katy's first pre-k field trip to the pumpkin patch. This was by far the coolest pumpkin patch I'd ever been to - and good thing too because it took us an hour on a school bus to get there! They had this huge trampoline jumping thing, a hay ride, a zip line, a hay maze, a petting zoo, face painting, a pumpkin patch and a story area where they teach you everything you ever thought you wanted to know about pumpkins! It was a lot of fun spending the day with Kaitlyn and not having Lex tag along. As much as I love Lex, she can be a pain in her big sister's rear sometimes!

This is the boy who seems to have captured my Kaitlyn's heart! She talks about him all the time and they even hold hands (a lot of the boys and girls do, but still)!

Kaitlyn's BFF who is also goes to our church

Just got her face painted and won't smile for me!

Here's that huge jumping thing. Not really a trampoline, but don't know how to describe it.

Dear Thief...

Dear Thief,

I was having a wonderful time enjoying the weather and playing with my children at the playground today, until you crept out of nowhere and stole my purse right off our picnic blanket. Feel free to keep my fake leather purse from Target, my ten year old wallet, $30 in cash, canceled credit cards, disabled cell phone, diapers, wipes, gum and chap stick. I'd appreciate it if you'd return the pictures of my children, my keys, and my sense of safety, which you've replaced with a sense of paranoia, distrust and vulnerability.

Crime happens everywhere and I was obviously mistaken thinking my purse was safe within eyesight at the family playground. I've never been subjected to much crime, but since moving to Baton Rouge I've been in a hit and run, my car has been broken into, there was a shooting 5 houses away from us and now my purse was stolen. As if the bugs, humidity and swamps weren't enough!

Yours Truly,
The naive, trusting, pregnant woman you stole from today

P.S. I hope you get caught on the gas station surveillance camera trying to use my gas card.