timeline

Here's a recap of my night:

Came home from yoga and a little dishing with my sisters at 9:30pm, both kids in bed. Dishes done. All toys put away.

Good hubby.

10:30pm - Went to sleep

11:45pm - Jacks came into our room.

11:46pm - Got Jacks a glass of water, put him back to bed

1:15am - Woke up abruptly to Finley screaming "FIONA! FIONA!"

1:16am - Went in to find her new beloved Cabbage Patch Kid stuck in the rails of her crib

Unstuck the doll, rubbed Fin's back, sang her a song, waddled back to bed

2:03am - Jacks climbs into bed again. His cough was keeping him up, so I gave up and let him sleep in my bed

2:15am - Look at the clock

2:30am - Think I have fallen back to sleep, wake to snoring husband. Ask said husband to roll over

2:35am - Coughing attack by Jacks, get a glass of water

2:37am - Realize I have to pee, up again

2:45am - Husband snoring again

2:55am - Jacks rolls on top of my head

3:00am - Go to Fin's big girl bed, try to get some good sleep

3:15am - Finley crying, let her cry it out, she's fine

3:20am - Can hear snoring AND coughing coming from my bedroom

3:30am - Go to couch, decide to watch senseless TV

4:45am - Realize I'm still watching TV, shut my eyes and think I fell asleep

5:05am - Hear hubs get in the shower

5:30am - Hubby leaves, Jacks up...it's morning

10:15am - Writing a blog trying to stay awake. It's going to be one.long.day.

Just getting ready to be up all night with my precious nugget, right??

20 weeks

20 Weeks!

I would love to say I am halfway there, but we all know that's unfortunately not the case with these babies.

Next week I'll be more like half-way.

Non-the-less, I'm feeling AWESOME. Really tired some days, but for the most part, still enjoying this trimester.

Baby is moving a ton, and Brad and Kara have both felt him move.

Yep, I called it a him. I do that all the time. See, I'm 99.9% sure this baby is a boy.

We had our ultrasound today, and although the sex of this baby is written in an envelope, we haven't found out quite yet what it is. We really wanted the kids to be involved in finding out, so we're having a little reveal on Saturday. {No, we're not going to lie and say we don't know this time.}

But seriously, if it says this baby is a girl....I will insist upon another ultrasound to find the boy parts that was apparently missed the first time around. That's how sure I am that there's a little wenis in there.
Brad claims he knows it's a girl. What does he know. :)

Moving on...

20 weeks.

There is something seriously distorted about this picture. I am MUCH larger than this picture shows.
I have no idea where the baby was hiding here, but it is VERY deceiving.

See, this is more like it....HUGE.  No really.....HUGE.

And here's our little nugget {ah hem BOY ah hem}

I'm a little worried about the nose in this picture, although the ultrasound tech swears its just an arm or something behind him. To me he looks like a cartoon character, so I need to ask the doc about that one.

He did win the cuteness award when he kept sticking out his tongue, then we knew for sure it was one of our kids.

We can't wait to meet you, little Hoverson. Now do your job and put some meat on those bones.

learning the ropes

The Finster decided to learn the ropes before Thanksgiving Dinner this weekend.

Here is Grandpa Keith showing her how to shave.

Clearly Fin had a cover on her razor, but she was LOVING it.

fall fun

So, there are a few obligatory things to do each fall in MN.

One: carving pumpkins.

I'm not going to lie. The kids lose interest really quickly, and Brad ends up doing most of the work, but there's nothing like seeing your kids eyes light up as bright as the pumpkins when it gets dark and they see their creations for the first time.

This is quite possibly my most favorite picture of Fin as of late. No, she's not looking exceedingly adorable or anything, but THIS is the face we see from her during almost every conversation.

Everything ends with a "K??" from her. It is quite cute. She cocks her head to the side and makes sure you're in on her scheme.

"Mommy help me with the puzzle.....K??"

"I'mma go wake Jack up....K??"

"I'm going to put my baby in the toilet for a bath, K??"

And since the "K" is in such a high voice, you have to just laugh every time. EVERY.TIME.

And why does this pumpkin piece look like cantaloupe right here?  Lord help me if she tried to eat it.

A couple of weeks earlier, we went on a hayride for church. Props to Jess who actually took some pictures. I had my camera in my hand the entire time, but since my mouth was up to my face trying to hold in the vomit {sorry, I should have prefaced with a disclaimer} I think I took three pictures total. And one was on Jess' camera. FAIL.

I'm not sure if this picture was taken during Fin's first or second hot dog, but BOTH of my kids kept slipping their dogs out of their buns onto the dirt and horse-poop filled ground. NOT okay. At least they didn't try to eat them after they fell.

Speaking of the ground though, it does bring me to one of my favorite stories of the fall.

Jacks had just dropped hot dog number two on the ground.  He asked for another one, so I told him he had to find a place to SIT and eat it instead of running around, and he agreed. Brad has just roasted another one to give to him when Jack was walking to his chosen spot.  As he was walking there, the TOP of his bun fell and we were laughing about it. Just as he turned around, he stepped in a HUGE pile of horse poop. No sooner as he was yelling "Ahhhh, HORSE POOP", but his third hot dog rolled right out of his half-bun. He immediately threw it yelling "Ahhhh, STOOOOOPID!". And while this is NOT a word that is allowed in our house, Jess and I thought we were going to split a gut laughing. If there is ever an appropriate time for the word, it was then. Horse poop on your shoes and no hot dog to show for it, I would have thought it was pretty stupid too.

punkins

On a fantastic day for October weather, it worked out well that while Kasey was in town, we could go to the pumpkin patch. 

My Mom, Dad and Jess and the kids all came, and we had so much fun.

Secrets, secrets... I'm sure not inappropriate AT ALL :)

So....this is what I get when I ask my littles to take a picture together. 

And you better have a FAST shutter speed just to catch  a masterpiece like this...

And this is what Jess gets. Pure perfection. Ahhhh, yes. Totally unfair. 

Because believe me, it's not for a lack of effort on my part.

A Melman pumpkin?

And one of my favorites from the afternoon...

Happy Fall, Y'all. 

What!? It's pretty much winter??  Yeah, I still have summer posts to write, lay off.

her first half

A few weeks ago, my Mom, Kara, Jess and I drove to Fargo to surprise Kasey running her first half marathon.

With surgeries on both of her knees, we knew it would be a challenge, but she ROCKED it.

Here she is with her friend Megan, ready to start the race!

 

After a bit of confusion {totally my fault, I MAY have read the map a bit wrong and had us in the wrong state!?} we finally found her on the route!

Seeing our signs....

The cheering squad.

 

Megan, Casey, and Kasey...roomies.

Good job, Kas! We knew you could do it :)

16 weeks

This one is for Ash, who has been patiently waiting for a blog post of my belly :)

This was snapped quickly on my way out the door this morning {hence the bad quality}

16 weeks and counting!

I've been pumped to have felt the baby SUPER early this time around, it never gets old to feel the little baby flutters, and reassuring each and every time he/she does their little sets of gymnastics.
And the best news....I'm feeling WAY better. There are still yuck days, but for the most part, I'm back to my old self. Whew.

happy halloween

Halloween typically starts the weekend before the big day, and this year was no exception.

We loaded the kiddos up and headed out to the farm.

First stop: Gigi and Grandpa's house.

We don't get to see them nearly enough, so it's fun for them to be able to see the kids in their costumes.

My little bruiser and his biggest fan.

I think Fin could have played with as many of Gigi's breakables as possible if we let her.

Good thing Gigi is a softie and ENCOURAGES her to!

After missing Grandma Lois (she's a busy busy gal) we headed back to the farm.

Here's our special Luci Mae. She's getting skinny, but she's had a LOT of good years on the farm.

In June, she turned 14. We thought she was 98 and doing pretty good, until Tom mentioned the rules had changed, and she's only 69. 

Well, we think you're lookin' good anyway, Luc!

We explored the farm way more than we have in a while, which was so much fun. We climbed on everything, and even spent a ton of time in the hay loft of the barn. I hadn't realized my kids had never been up there, and Jacks was SO interested when I told him how everything worked. I swear it never gets old to see your kid WANTING to learn new things. Especially when they were second nature to me growing up.

Little Gophers and The Dukes of Hazard.

The night of Halloween, it is always a crazy night, but we had SO much fun this year.

We started when it was still light out.

{you know, with a bribe of NO candy unless you pose for a picture.}

My creepy costume.

Hey, at least I wasn't a preggers nun, right??

Fin figuring out what my shirt was all about. It was SO hilarious, and quite adorable, too.

She even asked the baby if it wanted some candy. :)

Posing with Mr. Parker, the highway patrolman.

After the girls had enough, we went back to the house to hand out candy, and watch a little Lion King.

BUSTED

Then Jacks came home to help too. I almost think he liked handing out candy better than trick or treating.

He says he gets to see more kids that way :)

And they were obsessed with sitting on the step, looking at the pumpkins and watching for kids to come.

I hope everyone's Halloween was as fun as ours!