ONE month!!!

No pics for today....just had to pop onto the blog real quick and say loud and clear: ONE MONTH!!! One month from today baby boy is due! Christmas is one of my very favorite times of year....and what a special blessing that this year we get to think about and thank God for giving us another child to love. Realistically, I don't expect him to come right on Jan. 3 :) But, he will come in his own time and until then we are excited and waiting (somewhat) patiently....sleeping is becoming more difficult, but besides that no "real" complaints....just what's to be expected with pregnancy. AND...we have been telling friends and family for quite awhile now, but haven't "announced" it on cyber-world yet...we will name him Noah Allen. So, Noah Allen...you have a family very excited to meet you in ONE month!

Pumpkins and Pretty Princesses!

This year for Halloween the girls were both princesses (shocking, I know! :) ). Faith was "Barbie Rupenzel" and Lainie was Cinderella. They were beautiful little princesses (not that I'm biased!). Our Halloween festivities started off with a "costume parade" at Faith's preschool. All the kids changed in to their costumes and "paraded" outside for parent/siblings who took pics and cheered them on. The kids were all so excited about it, and it was a nice way to have fun with the costumes and help each child feel special. Little sister came dressed for the occasion too...I couldn't see leaving her out of the fun!

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating. First we went to our church's "trunk or treat" which was put on by the youth. There were different decorated/themed cars that had treats in their "trunks." The girls had a blast...and of course loved the candy. We then went to a Halloween carnival in town put on by one of the Christian schools. There were lots of games, bouncy houses, etc. It was chaotic, but a blast! By the end of the night everyone was worn out from a day of fun.

Don't forget pumpkin carving! Lainie was not a big fan of the slimy pumpkin insides!

 Big sister, on the other hand, loved all the sliminess!

 Daddy and his girls with the finished product!

 My baby "pumpkin" was a similar size to our carved one :) (pretty sure my baby bump is now much larger than that pumpkin!)

 Parading at preschool!

 Sweet sister princesses :)

 Cinderella :)

 We have a tradition of going trick-or-treating with the Williams family. This year Stella was a peacock and Hamilton was Geo from UmiZumi. We love this family!

We try not to make a huge deal about Halloween around our house, but it sure is fun for our girls to get dressed up, play games and get some treats!

Photo Rewind...

There are so many events that happened this last summer which I didn't capture on this blog. Thought I would just post some pics and quick snippets for fun :) Better late than never, right?!

Faith's FOURTH birthday! Had an "Ariel" party at a local gymnastics gym here. She had a blast with all her friends!

Trying out the balance beam at her party

Mommy and Daddy got Faith a princess BIKE for her birthday!  Quite a hit :) Complete with bell and carriage :)

Kids hanging out on the trampoline at the party

 Biggest kid at the party having fun in the foam pit :)

 This summer our little family also went on our first overnight camping adventure. Aside from having smores too late at night (which resulted in a very energetic almost 2 year old) it was a great success. We look forward to doing it more next year!

 smores...yum!

 Faith had her first dance recital where she performed with her ballet class to "You are My Flower" All the girls did awesome. It was so fun to watch. Faith even blew a kiss to the (packed) audience at the end :) 

 Gigi and Aunt Ally came for the performance!

 Back to IA for cabin week! LOTS of fun at cabin week....swimming, eating, games...it was a blast.

 Also back home to IA for Kristy's graduation! Woo hoo! Graduated with her RN. So proud of her.

 Grandma, Grandpa and Tucker came for a weekend visit towards the end of summer too. Great to have them here.

 Our last trip of the summer was to OK before school started. Gigi and Papaw had new kittens that the girls (well, all of us really) loved to pet. The kittens were so sweet and their mamma even sweeter.

 Lainie giving the kitten kisses

 Gigi opening her birthday card and finding out about her big surprise TRIP to Prince Edward Island!!! 

While in OK we also celebrated Lainie's SECOND birthday! Where is the time going?! It was a Dora theme. She loved the cake and especially the frosting :) 

Our sweet 2 year old.

Smash cake all to herself!

 Opening gifts from the family :)

 Faith pushing Lainie and Uncle Raymond at the party

 "Miss Kitty" is the kitten's mommy. The girls loved getting to pet her too

 Trip to the aquarium! So fun...and a great lift for Lainie :)

 Faith loving all Gigi's art supplies

 Kisses before we headed out!

Uncle Dylan also graduated from high school in May, but it was a quick weekend trip, and I didn't get any pics! Thankful we got to be there for his graduation party too!!

It was a busy summer full of traveling and family fun!