Our Life Lately

I know it's been awhile. We've..err, I've...been busy "nesting"...I guess. I wanted to get everything unpacked and organized in the house before the baby gets here. Everything has a place for now. There's a long way to go to get it to become "ours" but at least all boxes are unpacked and everything is organized.
But that's not all we've been doing.
Isla's been riding her bike. We were out one morning at the Goodwill and picked this bike up for $7. I had wanted to hold-off for Christmas but then I thought what Christmas is going to be like here...snow-covered. No fun for bike riding. So we loaded it up in the van and she's been riding like a pro.

And she's loving it!

I've picked crochet up again. I haven't done anything for several years. But I'm determined this time to really learn. I've found some great tutorials on Youtube that have been helpful. I guess now I have more use for crocheted items since I live in Wisconsin. Cold weather arrives early here in the great north. And I'm wanting to make some stuff for Isla and the new baby. The boys just want hats. Knitting is my next challenge. I'm thinking I'll have a long winter inside since we'll have new baby with us.

Leaves started changing early and our two large trees in the back were bare in under 2 week's time.

It's been quite a process to get all the leaves up. It's been many weekends of work and Blasen has never liked raking leaves and I've helped as much as I can. Apparently, you can't just leave them. With all the moisture from snow in the winter it will mold your grass and mice like to nest in the leaf piles. So, up they had to come. I would say we're close to 40 bags of leaves to the dump. Next year we'll definitely be getting a bagging attachment to our "lawn tractor" as they call them here.

We had a fun Halloween. We carved pumpkins at the last minute...well, the night before. True to my pregnancy protocol, I've been sick(more on that later). That postponed or completely nixed some Halloween fun.

These guys didn't seem to mind when we carved pumpkins, as long as we did it. And all the pumpkins were half-off at the pumpkin farm the night before Halloween...a plus in my view.

Blasen had trick or treating duty this year. I usually end up doing it. Blasen always seems to be out of the country this time of year. With baby coming soon, we decided no out of country trips this year. The kiddos braved the 30-something degree weather for about an hour of trick or treating. I was really surprised. Our Army soldier, Iron Man, Fairy Princess, and Horse had a great time.

I dutifully went to get my flu shot thinking I did good, but then got bronchitis instead. That led to severely, in my terms, pulling some back muscles. I have been on the mend and doing last minute preparations for the baby's arrival. I think I'm ready...at least with all the necessities. I guess I need to pull out the bassinet at least so she'll have a place to sleep. A carseat might be handy too. So a few more things to do. Or I can just make Blasen dig them out when I'm in the hospital. Yesterday and today, I finished stocking up on groceries. With every other child I've always been running out of stuff, but my mother has been there to go run to the store for me. Not this time though...at least initially. She's coming right after Thanksgiving just to be on the safe side since my official due date is the day after Thanksgiving. So we've got food, house is clean, I voted today and now I've updated my blog...I'm ready to go?