Feeling Good at 22 Weeks!

Hi everybody.  So sorry that I have not been doing many blog updates. (I did do an October catch-up blog post today, so be sure to look for that one too.)  I have a million excuses but I think the main one is that I don't have much creative energy these days.  I think the little guy that I'm carrying is going to be one creative little dude because he is zapping all of my creativity.

I have not been doing any sewing, no crafting, no nothing.  Just keeping up with my kids and my house is enough right now.  The baby is doing great though.  I went to the dr. this past week and he said everything is looking very good.  The baby is growing, growing, growing.  I am about 22 weeks now.  I have been feeling pretty good too.

We are in the middle of switching around some bedrooms in our house to make room for the little guy.  Carissa is getting a bigger bedroom with a bigger closet.  This room was formerly my sewing room until a few months before I got pregnant when we made it Jason's hunting stuff room after I moved my sewing room into the former family room.  After he moved his gun cabinet into his new room and proclaimed that he was "NEVER moving that thing again" I got pregnant a few months later.  He has now moved the gun cabinet again to a different room.  We are now preparing his hunting room for Carissa and are getting ready to paint it yellow.  Carissa's current room will become the nursery.  I am anxious to get all of that done so that I can start decorating Baby Boy's new room.  Good thing we bought a four bedroom house all those years ago before we had any kids at all.

Carissa is excited about her new room.  Although she is under the impression that she is getting a new bed, new toys, and new dressers.  She is not.  We are merely moving her old ones in so hopefully she is not too disappointed.  She stays busy every day playing with her baby dolls.  Their names are Abby, Andrea, Mason, Patty, and Angie.  Right now they are all eating bananas.  Real bananas.  I didn't realize that she had peeled two of them and was playing with them until it was too late.  Oh well. 

Maleah is really into reading right now.  She has started reading chapter books and loves them.  This weekend she read quite a bit and I am so proud of her.  Her parent/teacher conference went great and her teacher says that she is a great student and was very impressed with her reading.

Jason shot a nice 10 point buck during bow season this past weekend.  He was happy about that.  It was a nice deer.  In other Jason news, he is now on day shift for the first time in almost seven years and that makes us all very happy.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week!  Time goes by so quickly.  We have so much to be thankful for and I am really looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with all of our families.  I am also really looking forward to some Black Friday sales.  I hope I have the energy for it!

October Catch-Up

Well, we had a super fun and super busy October. We went to two different pumpkin patches during the month- Streif's in Flora and Shreve's in Fairfield. The girls had a great time. Although, by the time we left Shreve's Carissa was running a fever. She ended up having a virus for a few days but was basically just fine other than a fever. Maleah's favorite part of the day there was that they have a bookstore at the pumpkin patch and she got to pick out a couple of new books. Here are some pics from the afternoon at Shreve's.

Next on the list of October fun was the Flora Halloween Parade.  Maleah got to be in the parade this year.  This past summer she won the Becky Thatcher look-a-like contest that they had at the Kid's Fishing Day at Charley Brown Park.  So she and the Tom Sawyer look-a-like (Nathaniel Freeman) got to ride in the parade.  They rode on the back of my convertible and threw out candy.  I drove and Grandma Debby held Carissa in the passenger seat.  Everybody had a great time.  It was lots of fun and Maleah loved it!  Here are some pics from that night: 

Okay, so next on the list was trick-or-treat.  Maleah went as a hippy and Carissa went as Minnie Mouse.  They each picked out their costumes themselves.  On the first night we dressed up and went to Cisne.  We trick-or-treated at Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence's house that night.  Then the next night we trick-or-treated in Flroa.  We met up with our neighbors Steve and Payton Rose (Casey was home with a sick Sheldon) for a little bit of our trick-or-treat time and then we met up with friends the Duquaine's for some of the time too.  After that we went to Grandma Debby and Grandpa David's annual Halloween party and had chili, appetizers, and homemade donuts, plus got to see lots more of our friends.  It was a really fun night.  Here are some pics of the girls in their costumes: 

Here are some cute pics of the girls playing in the leaves.  They love to jump in piles of leaves.  Carissa keeps bringing random leaves into the house with her and telling me "Here.  This is for the baby."  I just say thank you and then I throw it away when she is not looking.  Funny kid. 

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of me in my Halloween shirt that I painted.  A friend of mine from church, who is also pregnant, saw the idea online and asked me if I could make her one.  I agreed to give it a try.  While I was at it, I made me one and another one for a different friend as well.  It was a fun project and turned out pretty good!

We had a really great October!  I hope November is just as much fun!