Busy October

We had a relatively busy October, starting out with another one of Charles' cousins getting married in Kansas City. Due to a small church, Ella stayed with Uncle Clark and Aunt Cindy, while Charles and I made a quick road trip to KC.

The 2nd weekend of Oct, Ella and I had hair cuts - Ella's first one! Yes, almost 4 and her first haircut. We were a little leary since she didn't get hair until she was about 2. At any rate, all went very well. She went to the same guy who cuts my hair, Jamie Kramer. As always, he did a great job and Ella wasn't scared or nervous at all. She went and got her hair washed by herself and even sat very still. I was so proud of her.

Afterwards we headed to Pocahontas for the last time before the baby arrives - at 36 weeks, the doctors recommend staying close to home just in case. Ella was lucky enough to see Aunt Heather, Uncle Josh and Miss Paige quite a big during our quick stay. It was nice and relaxing, as always. Ella was even able to ride with Grandpa Roger in the combine while he was harvesting beans.

Then started our ventures of pumpkin patches and trick or treating. I was a parent champerone for Ella's preschool class that went to Howell's Tree Farm in Cumming. Lots of fun - even with someone having an accident. All was fine - she got to ride the tractor out to the patch and pick her own pumpkin, feed the farm animals and then play on all of their fun playground stuff - including pedal tractors, hay bales and a corn box (like a sandbox).

The same night, we had Fall Festival at daycare. The teachers did such a great job with decorating and having fun activities. The following Friday, we did Night Eyes at the Blank Park Zoo, which is always so much fun. Then the following weekend was Beggar's Night here (aka Halloween), on the 30th. Although cold, windy and misty, Ella had so much fun. I think she tired her cousins out with her ambitious amounts of energy, on no candy!

We also had to purchase a new infant carrier since it's been 4 years since we had Ella and her car seat was a hand-me-down from a dear friend. So it had 'expired'. Although the expiration date had passed, Ella still had plenty of fun playing with the old one!

Trudy and Jake Tie the Knot

Charles' cousin Trudy tied the knot with her low-key farmer beau in early September at Two Saints Winery. Beautiful ceremony and reception. Too bad I couldn't partake in the wine tasting! Congrats!

If I remember right, I was about 32 weeks prego here.

More projects

We tore up the carpet in our family room and dining room and decided to put in laminate instead. Quite the task with pulling up the old carpet, replacing some of the subfloor and then having two different kinds of flooring. Oh well - all is done at this point and we love it!

In the one picture, there is a weird piece of subfloor. For a while we thought we'd either find bones or a hidden treasure. Bad news - we found nothing but a lot of dust and crap.

Racing Stripes

Ella's new favorite movie - Racing Stripes. A baby zebra is left behind when a traveling zoo leaves in the dark and rain. A young girl and her father raise the zebra and she begins to ride it, eventually racing it as a local race.

Anyway, here is Ella on her play horse giving an interview following the race where "Stripes" has just won the race. More kid humor - she's asked us for a real zebra for her upcoming birthday. Needless to say, we won't be able to fulfill this request.

Lake fun

This summer, we spent a lot of time at the lake. Although, unfortunately most of the time, the

weather wasn't very cooperative. Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun. Most of Charles' brothers and sisters and their families were able to come up for lunch and an afternoon of fun. Makes me want to do it more often - but it's hard with 5 brothers and sisters, of which some have children and some of them are married. But, we make the best of it that we can.

Labor Day weekend is traditionally our last weekend as it starts to get colder here. It's unfortunate because Ella was finally starting to like riding the waverunner for more than just a few minutes as a time. In the past, she always wanted to get back to go swimming. Now, she was really liking riding around the lake and just having a good time. Hopefully that will carry over into next year, except then we'll have a 6 month old baby too!

We'll manage, I'm sure.

Fall pictures

I ususally try to take a series of pictures of Ella on my own. Both for fun and to potentially save us some money at the fancy studio we go to - a little sarcasm there. We use Portrait Innovations and in 4 years, it has suited us pretty well. It's just not fancy and usually exteremely busy, but it serves our needs perfectly.

Some of these pictures were taken over Labor Day weekend at Lost Island Lake. If I remember right, it was about 7 AM. Beautiful scenery.

The others were taken in the park that backs our home. It provides a beautiful backdrop - a rather warm Sunday morning. Thankfully Ella was a willing participant.