A visit from Grandma

This past weekend we were lucky to have my mom come up for the weekend. Olivia was SO excited to have grandma come up - she counted down the days from the beginning of October! My mom arrived early afternoon on Friday so we hit up MOA while Olivia was napping at school. We picked up Olivia at school and took off for Punch pizza.

Saturday morning Olivia and my mom played and played and played while Duane and I took a tour of the hospital where we'll be having the baby. In the afternoon while Liv napped, my mom and I did some more shopping and then we came back home and decided to have a night in. Duane was busy putting up a tent in the backyard while my mom and I made dinner. Liv cleaned her plate in no time and was ready to get back outside and roast marshmallows! We enjoyed s'mores and then suddenly Liv started saying, "I'm really tired. I think it's time to go to sleep in the tent." By 8:45pm, Duane and Liv were tucked into the tent and my mom and I headed inside. They spent the night in the tent until about 5am when Liv woke up saying she was cold. Duane made her sooo happy by camping!

Sunday morning we ran to Target and then spent the rest of the day at home. My mom helped me clean all the windows and go through some baby toys. Olivia spent the rest of the day playing with my mom and being outside with her. She begged Duane to carve pumpkins but then quickly found other ways to keep herself occupied while he did all the work.

she was involved enough to tell Duane exactly how to carve the pumpkins

"Ewww!!"

meanwhile Liv is playing in the yard while Duane carves the 2nd pumpkin

We had a great weekend and really appreciate my mom flying up here! Olivia really had a great time and I know she's missing her playmate!

Jumping in the leaves

Thankfully, our fall has been what I would consider an Indian Summer - very mild with beautiful temperatures! For a child, though, who has been talking about fall and falling leaves, she wants nothing more than to have a big pile of leaves to jump into! Duane was finally able to scrape enough leaves together and she had a great time jumping in them.

 

Family pictures

Our family pictures are ready! Thankfully, my friend Noelle agreed to do our pictures again - she is further along in her pregnancy than I am and I couldn't have been more grateful to her taking the time to do our pictures on a Sunday morning.

When I was pregnant with Olivia, Duane and I took a "belly shot" together and I loved it. I made sure to capture another "belly shot" with the 3 of us. I think it might be my favorite out of all of the pictures she took! Feel free to follow the link to see all the photos. Oh, and the other prego whose belly I'm bumping is the photographer, Noelle!

Link to the gallery:  http://www.fishtalephotography.com/RedCart4, 
Visitor Password: olivia

Pumpkin Patch fun

Since we were going to be spending a lot of time this past weekend painting in the baby's room, we knew we needed to get outside and do something fun for Olivia. We headed up to Pine Tree Apple Orchard in Dellwood, MN. In my opinion, Pine Tree is the best orchard/pumpkin patch in the Cities. Our first item on the agenda was to get a treat - Liv had an apple doughnut and Duane and I split a piece of apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Once we were loaded with some sugar, we walked and walked and walked in the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkins.

first she found a green pumpkin just her size

then she found an orange one that she wanted over the green pumpkin

As of today, I'm 30 weeks pregnant and entering what I consider the panic stage. I feel like we're not ready for this baby at all and so I've been nagging and pushing Duane to get a lot of random things done. (Thanks for putting up with me, honey!) For starters, it was either we start painting the room or I was going to call a contractor and schedule someone else to do it. It didn't take more than suggesting that and Duane was getting out the brushes! :)

We have 2 coats of white on all the trim, closest doors, etc. but they need 1 more before they look perfect. The walls will be a light gray and I'm going to use the same bedding we had for Olivia. We still need to order new blinds, a fan, add a rack in the closet and put together the crib....not to mention decorations and shelves. AAAHHHH!!!! Can you see why I'm freaking out?! We haven't even seen the hospital and maternity ward where I'll be delivering.... Okay, deep breaths. Maybe I should just go to bed and worry about this tomorrow.....first I think I'll have a bowl of cereal, then go to bed.