My girl. Because Halloween is on Monday, Morgan and I set out to carve our pumpkins, and continue our quest to get into the holiday spirit. She was very curious about the pumpkins, and we had a good time with our craft!

Morgan decorating her pumpkin

Scooping goop. She didn't want to touch it this year.

Where's the Pumkin's head?

Taking the pumpkin's hat off!

Morgan and our pumpkins, on the deck.

Welcome to the Second Trimester

How your baby's growing: Head to bottom, your baby's 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. Her body's growing faster than her head, which now sits upon a more well-defined neck. By the end of this week, her arms will have lengthened and will be in proportion to the rest of her body. (Her legs still have some growing to do, though.) She's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair all over her body (called lanugo). Her liver starts secreting bile this week, a sign that it's already functioning properly, and her spleen starts contributing to the production of red blood cells. She's also producing and discharging urine into the amniotic fluid, a normal process that she'll keep up until birth. You still can't feel your baby's movements, but her hands and feet (which are now half an inch long) are more flexible and active. Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.

7 inches tall?

7 inches tall!? My buddha belly doesn't seem big enough for a baby that's now 7 inches tall..... I don't think I have even felt the bab move yet. ... although I kinda did the other day... but it seems early to me. I was 19 weeks before I felt Morgan... if I remember correctly. That can definitely be debatable.

On top of finding out that my sister is having a baby the same time as me, my very dear friend, who was also pregnant, and due the same time as Sabrina, had a miscarriage on Monday. Everyone is doing well, they are just trying to cope with their loss, and figure out where to go from here. I'm not sure what I would do in their situation, but I think I would probably try and get pregnant again soon. With Marci, and this is just my theory, I think she was pregnant with twins, as she's a twin, and they just didn't attach themselves and separate correctly. Maybe she'll get those twins she wants this next attempt. Good luck with that! I can't even imagine trying to juggle two babies at the same time, with a toddler to boot! Good thing she's a stay at home mom!

On Thursday we went to Marci's house so that Morgan could hang out with her best girlfriends and make haunted houses. It was fun! It was a mess! The kids arrrren't quite ready for this type of activity, which made it more exciting. On Saturday, we went to a Halloween party at the Hagan's again, so we are getting geared up for the holidays!

Morgan

Morgan, decorating our "house of horrors"

Krysta and Marci

Rylee.

Morgan and mama!

Our three haunted houses. Mine is on the left. They were all out of houses at Costco, so we got a Christmas gingerbread house. I had trouble getting the "glue" to stick, so we made our as ugly as we could. Morgan would take bites of candy, spit them out, and I'd stick them on the roof. Ick!

My man

Sometimes you don't know how much you love something until it isn't there. I need Steve, I need to talk to him because I am about to explode, but he won't be home until next Sunday. I hope he is having a fabulous time, he has been a great father and provider, and genuine workhorse getting us into this house, and was worried about leaving me in disarray, but deserves this break so much I encouraged him to make his way to Desolation (that's his hunting unit). I miss my man. I'm so lucky to have him. He does a great job providing a great home for us, and our expanding family. What a great life I have. Let him come home safe, rested and happy from a great week of hunting in the woods. I am ready to see my honey. Morgan is ready to see her daddy. And Poon needs an attitude adjustment, pronto. I guess I do too.....

.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


Okay, I'm better now.

No, one more should do it. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I think I can easily paint this like they did below without a stencil. I just need some green and blue/purple paint. Should be fun! ... Someday. As Sabrina can attest, the Fiero packrats are going to be busy recycling and round filing for quite a while.

This is how I am going to do the flowers for Morgan's room. I think they are grape hyacinths. They look fairly easy. What do you think? Cute, huh?

Baby Update

I went to my monthly OB appointment on Wednesday. I was anxious to get there, because with the amount of wild activity we've had in the month of October, I haven't had time to be pregnant, and was worried about my bunny.

Apparently the cold and flu that I got was really common in the area, so Dr Barstow wasn't concerned. And the little one gave us a high five and had a heart rate of 155, so is doing just fine. What a trooper! I also gained 2 pounds, so even though I got sick, and lost a little weight, all of the junk I've been eating during the moving process brought me back and added some more. Good for me?

Anyway, 13 weeks today!

NW vs. NE

So, I was unloading my car this evening after I had put Morgan down for the night, and Cooper was outside with me. Next thing I know, I look over and he's chasing a cat around the yard. Then he trees this cat. Then he started barking at it.

Now, in our old neighborhood, had Cooper started barking at anything after dark, 10 other neighborhood dogs would have chimed in, asking what was up.

In the country? Only one dog ...... .. ... and the next door neighbor's donkey. There's nothing like the braying of a donkey, a sound like something at the slaughter, to break up a tired evening. Right now? HYSTERICAL. Last night at 2am? Still funny. We'll see what we think in a couple of months.

Oh, lovin' the livin' in the country.

P.S. Said cat is fine.

Punkin Patch

I was trying to include a pic of the fabulous Maze at the Pumpkin Patch, but their website isn't cooperating. See www.pumpkinco.org and maybe you can see it. It was fun! Bean was a trooper, and used our backpack to haul Raegan around, who sang to us occasionally. For once, I had my hands free. Morgan rode on Steve's shoulders. It's the first pumpkin patch where I haven't been carrying her around, in one way or another... :)

We met for lunch at 12:30 at the Sun Spot in Terrebonne, had some grilled cheese, and then headed over. We dressed the girls up for their annual pic, but discovered that toddlers are harder than infants to manipulate into a group photo. It never quite worked, but it was funny trying!

After we changed them back into their street clothes, we hit the petting zoo. That was cool.

Then it was off to the maze! It took us some time, as it was an intricate sphinx, but it was fun. After that we let the girls wander around for a bit, Raegan heading to who knows where, but the older girls were quick to track her down. It was fun!

I don't know, but I just had a great time! I could tell Morgan was enjoying herself. We have a lot of stuff to move, and tons to do at home, but it felt really good to take a few minutes, get with our friends who we don't see often enough, and do something special for our girls. They had a good time!

After we got home, Steve and Eric moved a big load of stuff. All we have left that will take two men is our washer/dryer/freezer/fridge/gun safe/Steve's garage armoire/the spare queen bed .... I guess that's a lot of stuff, but we really have moved a lot of our things. It will be nice to get this overwith! It has been really overwhelming, and actually rather stressful for me to even think about. I need to slow down and take care of this baby! No time for drama.

Anyway, I wanted to give you something cute to look at. I know I'm behind on my bloggin'. Take care!

Raegan and her Uncle Steve

Baby bee.

Oh, good job Davinie! Way to look at the sun and wash out your smiling daughter!

Attempting to set up a photo shoot.

More Rae.

Raggedy, not crying.

Rae.... cooperating.

3 of 4

Trying to establish a photo opportunity. Raggedy!

Rylee bear and Raggedy Krysta

One of the better photos of the two of them together. It's so hard! They don't cooperate!

Bean's little punkin'

.

My little bee. .... buzzin' out of the picture.

Of course.... an ADORABLE photo of Raegan Lion

Mama and Morgan!

My little bee.

Morgan and a wild hair!

I'm so proud of my girl. At first, she was afraid of all the animals in the petting zoo, and held onto mom and dad for dear life. However, after a few minutes, she felt more comfortable, and we were able to set her down so that she could check them out. She did good!

Morgan and the pigs.

Morgan and a bunny.

Steve and Morgan in the corn!

Morgan and Steve in the corn!

Hey! There's a strap in Rae's face! Good pic of Bean though.

I caught her! Morgan on the slide in the middle of the maze.

Lucy Morgan!

Raegan. I can't remember which peanut this is!

hee hee

A group pic, post maze.

The girls. Marci/Tami had gotten Morgan a t-shirt for the festivities, but didn't know Rae was coming, or she would have gotten one too. I didn't know they were going to do that! That was nice. I know, I'm facing the sun, and my pic is washed out....

Bad lighting due to sun, but the kids were screaming so much, I just kept snapping pictures in the hopes of getting one or two of them smiling. Krysta, Rylee, and Morgan, all within 6 months of each other. All expecting siblings.... and it looks as if they were be 5-6 weeks apart from oldest to youngest. Egads, the babyfest!

Mama's big girl can climb the big girl slide all by herself! Morgan and I took a minute from being sick, thinking about packing, and everything else to spend some quality time outside at the slide. She refused to take this ill-fitting bonnet off, but it actually worked well with her outfit, so I complied and let her keep 'er on. :)

Sweet cheeks, not looking at the camera, as usual.... and I had good light!

Look Ma, no hands!

Morgan posin' for pics.