A baby picture

I'll spare you the ultrasound pictures and post this picture of our baby fully clothed instead.

I had an ultrasound yesterday, and our little girl was looking completely healthy. I'll have to trust the ultrasound tech when she said it was a girl because I couldn't tell in the least. But it was great to see her heart beating beautifully and find that everything appears to be developing as it should. Nikki couldn't be more excited, but she wasn't too keen on the idea of giving up her room for the new little one. At least she has a little time to get used to that idea before it happens.

More October

It's taken me a while to get the next installment of pictures uploaded, but here we go. I'm not even sure what today is, so I have no idea which days these were taken, I just know it was in October.

 Witches' broomsticks -- quite the hit

 Spooky thumbprints, these were fun and Ryan loved watching what creatures Nate could make out of Ryan's fingerprints.

 Mummies!

 I made Ryan a reversible Batman/Superman cape to go along with the pajamas he was recently given. I have no problem sending my son trick-or-treating in pajamas this year!

 Halloween sugar cookies

 Kate and Sam spent an afternoon with us one day, which was great. The kids loved playing with them. I think they realized that some things are going to have to change around here when our baby comes. Hannah and Nikki were pretty vigilant about watching what Sam was finding on the floor. This spider web game was a toddler activity, so it was fun to have Kate around to play it. I ran out of white duct tape, so we had to move on to blue painter's tape!

 Ghost spinners

 Our little ghost. This wasn't an activity I planned as it's not very safe, but Hannah and Nikki got a kick out of watching Ryan dance around and chase them and bump into things as a ghost.

 Haunted gingerbread houses -- please close the pantry door before you take a picture next time!

 Caramel apples. Just as I finished cooking the caramel, my neighbor called and asked me to come right over. So I told Hannah and Nikki to stir in the vanilla and dip the apples as I ran out the door. They were a little slow in getting the apples dipped and it mostly dried out before they got too far into it, but it was delicious anyway. As a side note, my neighbor ended up being taken to the hospital by parametics because she was having chest pains, but she came home later that afternoon with everything okay. Kind of a crazy morning.

 Jello worms -- more trouble than they were worth

 spider web fingernail polish -- next time I think Nikki will ask Hannah instead of me to paint her nails!

And today I got the stuff to make Hannah and Nikki's costumes. Nikki decided she wants to be Dorothy, and Hannah is going to be a mermaid. I'm afraid that even though I told Nikki she can't wear these shoes in the house there is going to be red glitter around for months. But she's excited about her shoes, so I guess that's what's important. (By the way, notice the road construction in the picture in the newspaper. That's the intersection right by my neighborhood, and I can't tell you how inconvenient it is to have that road closed! While it probably doesn't really take me as long to get places as I think, it's a huge headache to have to go so far around to get anywhere. One more month and it'll be done and my life will be so much smoother!)

I didn't get a picture of our leaf rubbings, and I was gone this afternoon when the kids raked up leaves and jumped in them. Maybe they will do it again and I can get a picture then. So, we're staying busy and loving the fall weather!

October 1-4

October is here again, so we are in full holiday mode around here. We have a calendar with Halloween/fall activities planned each day. So far, we're doing a pretty good job staying on schedule. Of course, it's only day 4!

 Day 1 -- Spider cake (I thought we had pipe cleaners, but we didn't. Then, I went to the grocery store looking for chocolate licorice, but they didn't have any. So, our spider ended up with blue squiggly legs. At least they tasted good!) When we cut into him, green jello guts oozed out at us, and Ryan loved it.

 Day 2 -- Halloween play-doh. Nikki raised her eyebrows a bit when I said pink play dough was all we were going to have to work with, but I think she forgave me by the end.

 Day 3 -- Halloween origami. Yeah, I don't know how the purple flower and Ryan's Easter basket fit the theme, but they spent hours having fun with this activity.

Day 4 -- Today we went to a nearby park where they were having a spider learning activity. It was good to get out of the house, and we met some friends there. So it was a success even if it was creepy to read that North Carolina has between 400-500 native species of spiders. I was interested to learn what this spider is called. It's a humpback orbweaver spider, and a couple of weeks ago a huge one made a home in our garage. Julie is going to laugh at this story, but it's all true! I noticed him when I almost walked into his web going around the side of the van. They sit scrunched up in the middle of the web, and when I surprised him he spread his legs out and surprised me by looking like he was about to jump on my face, which I completely believe he would have if I hadn't jumped back. He ran up his web into one of my Christmas wreaths (Nate will be hanging those this year), and I forgot to tell Nate about him that night. The next day he had expanded his web to encompass my van. I crawled through the passenger side door to get in and called Nate to kill this spider when he got home. Of course, since his web had been destroyed when I moved the van, he had disappeared by the time Nate got home that evening. He didn't believe me when I told him it was the size of my head, but I told him when he saw this spider he would know it was the one. A couple of days later I noticed a big ugly web on the corner of the door going into the house. Sure enough, there he was sitting up in the corner of the ceiling. I know he was trying to catch me. But I keep reassuring my children (and okay, myself) that Dad killed him. He is dead! Just click on the picture, make it full-screen, and then you will have a life-size image of my spider. :) I'm not kidding.