our new arrival...

She's here!!!

At 1:04 am on Wednesday, October 14th, Cadence Lesia Zastrow was born.

She weighed 7 lbs. 12.5 oz. and was 20 1/2 in. long.

The above pictures are from Sami (I know I've linked to her before but this is an awesome new website...check it out!). She wanted to get some good pictures before we went off to the hospital! So, the above pictures were right at the beginning of labor. Everything went really well and was pretty quick. We got to the hospital around 10:30 Tuesday night and she was born two and a half hours later. After she was born Sami came to the hospital to get some brand-newborn pictures. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful photographer as a best friend!!

Later that day our friend Michelle stopped by to visit and meet Cadence. She took these awesome pictures for us. It was so fun to see that she had captured Cadence with her eyes open. I think she'll have big eyes just like her sister! :)

We are so lucky to live in community! My labor had started just after I layed Bella down for bed on Tuesday night, and we were able to go to the hospital and not worry at all about Bella and having to take her somewhere because the family we live with were able to be there with her! So, the next morning after Cadence was born Sami got Bella all ready to come and meet her little sister. She took a few pictures of Bella waiting for Daddy to come and get her. When I saw Bella walk into our hospital room looking like this it made my day! :) Thanks SO much Sami!

Now we have two beautiful girls and couldn't be happier! Cadence is a great newborn and we are all doing wonderful!

The New Phase

It's been quite a while since I've made a blog post, and by request of Tony, I thought it was time to do another one!  Tony has been in Colorado at medical school for about a month now and he called the other day missing family and his niece, so I promised I'd get some pictures of Bella up for him to see!  

Life here at our house has been so great lately.  Lots of things changing and so many blessings coming from being obedient to the Lord in the things that He's called us to do.  If you would like to know more about all that's going on at our house, you can email me (nell_3@hotmail.com) and I would love to share with you.  But for now, I just want to keep this post short with some pictures of Bella for Uncle Tony (love you and miss you brother)! :)  

The first pictures are pictures that Sami has taken of Bella...okay, they're all pictures Sami has taken of Bella because she is an amazing photographer and our camera is broken!  I ran to the store one evening when we realized we had more people coming for dinner than we planned to get some extra noodles and stuff.  While I ran to the store quick, Bella stayed with Sami and she wanted to play dress up!  So stinkin' cute!  I pulled up to the house to Bella outside playing in Sailor's pretty dress and these wonderful pictures that Sami took. 

(this one makes me smile!)

These last two pictures were taken three or four weeks ago when we were at Riverside Park with some friends as they were getting engaged! :)  We had a picnic and at the end of it our friend Joe proposed to his girlfriend!  It was a great time, but Bella displayed her newfound attitude.  She will be turning 2 years old this coming Wednesday and she is for sure beginning to go through the phase of turning two.  She has been the queen of throwing fits and being sassy lately but it is pure joy being able to parent and learn through all of these wonderful things that come along.

The next time I post might be with pictures of Cadence!  She is due in a little over 3 weeks and we can't wait to hold her in our arms.  

We're going to the Zoo, zoo, Zoo...

A couple of weeks ago we got to take a week and go to Mukwonago to visit Adam's family. We had such a great time. One day we traveled to Madison with Grandma and met up with Laura, Oliver, and Eliot to go to the zoo. The zoo was the perfect size, we were able to see almost everything in two hours and still get the kiddos home for lunch and a nap! They had so much fun and I got to borrow Mom's camera for the trip to take pictures.

The first two pictures are ones that Sami has taken of us this summer. And the rest are from the zoo.

One Sunday after church we all packed up in our 15 passenger van and went to the beach at Ft. McCoy. The kids has such a great time and Bella really loved playing on the water toys that were there!

Sami got this hat from etsy.com and both Bella and Sailor look adorable in it! I love this picture, thanks Sami :)

And now on to the zoo. The giraffe was so pretty, my favorite by far!

Bella was so excited to walk that she kept pulling Grandma's hand all around!

Adam, Oliver, Bella, and Grandma

Oliver liked the jumping off and pushing the rocks almost as much as he liked the animals!

This was by the pot-bellied pig and I caught Bella trying to "oink" and get his attention.

As we were walking away from the bear exhibit, Bella wanted to say goodbye.

For the most part Laura and I were talking the whole time so, this is one of the few pictures that I got of her and Eliot with Oliver.

As you can tell by this picture, Adam really enjoyed the zoo! :)

Checking out the Prairie Dogs.

We had just gotten done with our snack break and decided that it was time to go home, so the Grandkids grabbed Grandma's hand and off they went.

First Haircut

Bella got her very first hair cut on Monday last week. Her bangs were just too long and hanging down into her eyes, so I decided that it was time to get them chopped off. We live right around the corner from a salon, so we took a walk over there one morning. Sami came with us and took some pictures for us, so here they are. The first picture is of her long hair before, and then some from during and after the cut. Bella did really well, she just didn't want to wear the apron that they put on to keep the hair off of you. After they let her take it off she was just fine!

Fun pictures

I found some fun pictures (all courtesy of Sami) of Bella on facebook that I haven't posted on the blog yet, so here you go!

This was one of our favorite shirts that Bella had! She still has it, but she has outgrown it. Had to get a picture while we still could (barely).

Here are some shots of Bella playing in a nice spring rain just outside our house.

Her first bath in our new bathtub was a great success. She had lots of fun!

Playing in our new yard is one of the kids favorite things to do.

This picture is of Sailor and Bella before we moved. Two beautiful little girls!