Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  Snow White and "the cow" (I know, he'll never forgive us but it's a tradition...) had a great time trick or treating tonight and we were lucky enough to have super mild, 60 degree weather.

 Snow White in her chariot

 Really, Mom, do I have to wear this thing?

 Asher with the royal princess Kaitlyn

 Half of the crew. Asher, Kaitlyn, Ella (neighbor), Lindsey, CK and Reese

 Once Asher got the hang of it, he was a big fan

 We finally got the cow to "moo"

 By the end of the night, Snow White had had enough of trick or treating and enough of the paparazzi

A picture of the sunrise yesterday from our living room.  Not bad

 On the way to trick or treating, we spotted a bull elk and his elk posse so we snapped some quick pictures

Reese's cheesy smile started early

I was looking at some recent pictures of the kids and came across one of Reese.  Then I thought...hmmm...I've seen that expression somewhere before.  Maybe just a coincidence (or I always manage to snap the picture when she's squinting) but I noticed she has made that exact same expression before:

Corn Maze

We went to the local corn maze with our friends Reid, Mishel and Jessie yesterday.  It's the last weekend so tickets were cheaper and you didn't have to pay extra for some of the other activities there.  Good thing, because the kids (and adults) had so much fun in the bouncy house, slide, lasso throw and pumpkin sling shot that we never actually made it into the corn maze.  By the time we were done with everything else and it was getting dark and cold, we called it a night and went for pizza instead.  The kids had a blast.

CK and Reese heading down the slide

 Asher learning how to lasso

 Reese in the bouncy house; we basically couldn't get her out

 CK demonstrating his skills

 Jessie looking adorable

 CK and Asher waiting for Reese at the bottom of the slide

 Big smiles

 Reid and Jessie gathering pumpkins for the slingshot

 The big boys showing the kids how it's done.  There was no competition in this shot; not at all

 Asher was concentrating pretty hard

Kids 3 and 4-year old check ups

We took Reese and Asher to the pediatrician yesterday for their 3- and 4-year old check-ups.  They did great, especially Reese who had to get 2 vaccines for Kindergarten next year (can you believe it? already?)

Reese's current height is 44 inches (near 100th percentile) and weight is 51 lbs (also near 100th percentile).  She turned the examination table in the room into a train while we were there and the pediatrician called her "a character".

Asher's current height is 38 inches (about 66th percentile) and weight is 34 lbs (78th percentile)

They both look great according to the doctor.  Reese went first with the examination and flu shot (they got the nasal spray this year) and I think that helped when it was Asher's turn.  He sure was paying attention when the doctor was looking in her nose and ears.  Later I asked Asher how the doctor's visit was and he said "ok, but he hit me".  Of course, he was referring to the doctor hitting his knee to test the knee jerk reflex.  I tried to explain why the doctor did that but, I have to admit, why someone cares about your knee's ability to jerk forward is kind of difficult to explain to a 2-year old.  Oh well.

Reese now has all her immunizations up to date and is ready for Kindergarten registration in January and school starting next August.  She's very excited and was asking me how long until she gets to go to school.

I snapped a few cute pictures of Asher "preparing" for the arrival of his new sister in a few weeks.

 Hopefully the new baby doesn't actually end up sleeping in the bookshelf :)

 I spent some time practicing with my camera, trying to move away from the automatic settings and get better at using the manual settings.  Luckily, the kids humored me (for awhile, anyway)...

 like I said, they humored me for awhile.  This next one screams "ok, I've had enough brother sister time"

 We had our first snowfall here in Helena yesterday.  Some pictures as the winter wonderland was forming:

 Jetskis covered in snow is a definite sign that summer is over :(

We have a tentative birth-date

At my weekly appointment, my doctor scheduled my c-section for bright and early Monday, November 12th.  So unless our little girl has other plans, we'll be welcoming our new addition sometime that morning.  Next week we'll be switching me from the Lovenox I'm on to Heparin because Heparin leaves your body in 4-6 hours while Lovenox takes almost 24.  This will give us more flexibility if I do go into labor before 11/12 to do the c-section anyway with less risk to me or the baby of excessive bleeding.  If all goes as planned, I'll stop the Heparin 1-2 days before the c-section so I am not in danger of bleeding too much during/post surgery.  Then, like with Reese and Asher, I will start back on the Lovenox about 24 hours after birth for another 6-weeks post partum.  Probably more information than any of you wanted to know.  

Anyway, as some of you know, I've been having weekly biophysical profiles at the hospital.  These consist of an ultrasound where they measure the baby's growth, check that she's moving and "practicing" breathing and check my amniotic fluid levels.  The U/S is followed by a Non-Stress Test (NST) which consists of measuring the baby's heartbeat and movement using fun sensors placed on my growing belly.  I was bored in my NST today (sometimes, if she isn't moving as much as I'd like, it can take hours) so I took some pictures of what I get to see each week.  By the way, in case you can't tell, she passed with flying colors ;)  My fluid levels are great (they were a bit high 2 weeks ago but are near-perfect now) and she is measuring just over 6 pounds (give or take a pound, of course) which is right where she should be.  

Our white (yellow?) house is turning green

CK has been busy working outside and since it's been too dry to work on the infamous road, he's been doing a lot of siding.  Slowly but surely our house is turning green (see evidence below).  The final exterior plan is a lot of this dark green hardiplank siding, some grey metal siding (to offset all the green and break up the larger faces) and some stone accents.  The green looks really nice so far and I'm not sad to see the yellowing styrofoam go.

Reese, Asher and I were rummaging through some of our storage bins last weekend trying to find holiday decorations and baby clothes that need to be washed.  Look what Reese found- my bridesmaids may recognize it!

 Asher decided he needed fuzzy slippers to ride his bike