Halloween and other October pics

Here is a late post from Halloween. Cute Seth was so tired he fell asleep almost as soon as they started trick or treating. It was chilly (if you couldn't tell). Matt, Kara, and Lindsay had a great time. I didn't get pictures of Lindsay and Kara. Lindsay was a unicorn and Kara was a fairy. Matthew was a skeleton.

Elise Taylor

Elise was born on October 16, at about 12:50pm. It was a pretty fast and fairly easy delivery. Hurray for the epidural. She was 8 lbs 8.3 oz (8 lbs 7 oz according to the first scale, but the nursery scale said 8 lbs 8.3 oz). She is 20 inches long. Here are pictures from the hospital and one from home.

I forget how purple they are at the very first.

Here is one with Matt holding Elise. It is fuzzy, but it is the only one with him.

Here is Lindsay holding Elise. Lindsay loves to hold the baby. She would hold her all day long.

Seth loved looking out the window more than looking at the baby.

Kara didn't like to hold the baby. For some reason she loves to sit by the baby and look and talk to her and have her hold her fingers, but she doesn't want to hold her.

Here is one with Elise here at home. She almost looks like she is smiling.

funny

So, Brian lost his cell phone. It is not uncommon for either of us to misplace our cell phones. Anyway, his is harder to find because he always has it on vibrate. It was a little unusual that we couldn't find it because he was sick Friday and Saturday and spent most of the days on the couch or in bed. Saturday, he did get out and rake some leaves and he was going to mow the lawn, but the battery cables had eroded, so our mower wouldn't start.

Anyway, so we looked in all the usual spots- coat pockets, couches, his car, and it was no where to be heard or found. So, we looked in the only other spot we could think he had been. We were behind our garage in the leaf pile, and we could hear it vibrating inside. We could also see it glow as we dug our way closer to the sound. It was funny to find it there. We were glad we thought of it before it rained or the battery died.

Anyway, just a funny story.

4 1/2 days (or less), but who's counting?

Friday is the big day. If I haven't had my baby, I will be induced on Friday. The hope is that I will be at the hospital at least 4 hours before the baby is born, so I can get my doses of antibiotics (for GBS- just a precaution). It is nice to have an end in sight, but for some reason (I am sure it has nothing to do with still remembering how much having babies without any medication really really hurts), I am dreading the labor. I guess I am fearing it will be so fast again that there will be no chance for an epidural. Oh well.

It will be nice to have the baby here, and I do so enjoy having a new baby to hold and bring home, and seeing the kids hold the baby will be so sweet. We are excited (sort of). Anyway, just wanted to share. I should probably post a picture of me fully pregnant to save for posterity, but I don't have one, and I am not looking my lovliest right now in my sweatshirt and stretchy pants. Maybe I'll get around to it before I have the baby- maybe not.

Lately

Well, we have been having fun with the new school schedule. Matthew and Kara enjoy riding the bus, and they really seem to enjoy school.

Lindsay and Seth have been so much fun to have around at home. Seth has been so happy. He will take a nap sometimes, but he doesn't really need them any more, maybe. He has been going through this phase at night where he will cry a lot unless Brian or I will go lie down by him. I don't know if that is because he is overtired because he doesn't take a nap, or if it is just a phase. I am tired of it. I was hoping to get more uninterupted sleep at this point, but oh well. I will try giving him a nap today (for his or my sake?) and see what happens. At least he is happy as happy can be during the day.

We are getting ready for the new baby. We got a new infant car seat. I probably should have bought one for Seth because our previous one was new with Matthew. Boy have the prices increased since we last bought one. Today we will go through the baby clothes and get those ready. I am not quite sure where we are going to put the clothes. We just realized we need another dresser for the baby's stuff. I guess we have another week or two or so. We did get a rocking glider chair for the baby's room. We didn't bring our rocking chairs with us when we moved. I also decided to try the Maya Wrap/Sleepy Wrap/Baby Wrap. Whatever you call it. It seemed like the one people liked the most, and if you make it yourself, it is way the cheapest option. If I don't like it (or maybe as the baby gets older), I think we will try one of the convertible front and back carriers.

Brian is still enjoying his job. He is busy busy with school this semester. He is a great Dad to the kids though. Matthew misses having a best friend, I think. He does have a couple of neighbor kids who come over, but they are girls, and while they play OK, it isn't as much fun as Patrick. I hope he finds someone soon. I think that when they come out with the school directory, we will be able to invite more friends over. Anyway, Brian has been trying to be especially good about playing with Matt. What a good dad.

Miscellaneous Pictures

Poor Seth, he fell one day while as Matthew was getting off the school bus. Usually when he smiles you can see his front top teeth, but his poor lip was a little swollen. He really cried. He let me put a washcloth with an ice cube on it all afternoon. We called it a rag, and he kept coming back and asking for the rag. Usually when he falls down or bonks or anything, he'll come and ask for a kiss (for example, he'll say "kiss finger"). Since this incident, he will still come and ask for kisses, but he also asks for rags. He'll say, "rag finger." It is funny how smart he is. The ice in the rag must have really helped. He is a cute kids.

When Brian plays the piano, Seth and Lindsay love to dance. Seth isn't dancing so much as playing with his cars, but he does show a good example of his determined walk, with his arms swinging, when he is going to get his car. It is how he walks to nursery on Sundays. Lindsay loves dancing to her Daddy's piano music. They are so fun.

Playing in the leaves

Our tree is starting to look pretty. Today it actually looks much more colorful than it did the other night. The two other maple trees are green as green can be. Brian raked some of the leaves in a pile for Kara and Lindsay. They had a great time playing in the leaves. I am sure as the rest of the leaves on the other trees start to turn and fall, there will be more times playing in the leaves.
Seth wanted a closer picture taken of him. I guess you can see we didn't wipe the spaghetti sauce off his face after dinner, but he was so cute coming up to me and saying cheese, I couldn't resist. He has been so happy lately. Even though he no longer regularly takes naps during the day (boo hoo- I was really hoping he would hold out for another month or two), he is still a happy happy camper. He is just a little cuddly near dinner time.

Wasp Hive

We have had some wasps around this summer. The kids found this hive on the back of our unattached garage. It is large. We might just wait until January to knock it down. Matthew took these pictures because his teacher wanted some pictures before we knocked it down.

Farm

Down the road a little ways there is a farm. They have pick your own strawberries, and they have a little country store. They also have a little petting zoo where you can feed goats and look at the llamas and peacocks. Anyway, they also have a corn maze this time of year. We had a free Saturday, and tried to go to the maze, but it was too muddy, so we got some popcorn and the kids played on the playground they have there as well. It was pretty fun. We would still like to go to the corn maze, but we had a good time anyway.
Matthew tried to hide from the camera (which he did successfully a few times), but I finally caught him as he was going down the slide.

Cute Kara on the tire swings.

Our little sad billy goat.

Seth, Dad, and Lindsay.

Cute Seth, climbing up the slide first, then going down.

Non first day of school

Matthew and Kara wait in our front yard for the bus. Matthew likes to ride his bike while he is waiting. Kara does too sometimes, but Matthew is usually ready first and waits longer.

Lindsay and Seth like to go out and wait for the bus as well. Every day when it is time to wait for the bus, Seth says "wait School bus. Outside" He loves to go out and wait for Matt and Kara to come home too. He asks all day long to "wait school bus." If it is warm, we like to go out and play and wait for them to come home. But, I don't have a picture of them coming home, just going to school.

Here is the school bus. Have I mentioned how nice it is to have the bus come right to our door. Especially when it is super cold, it will be super double (to quote Lindsay) nice to wave good bye and keep the new baby in the warm house.

Lindsay's birthday party

So, here are some pictures from Lindsay's birthday party. It wasn't really very warm outside (maybe in the lower 70s), but the kids really wanted to play in the sprinklers (which was great because the backup games I had planned weren't really all that exciting). Anyway, they had such a fun time playing in the water. It was a bit chilly, but that didn't slow them down much. It was also maybe one of the easiest parties ever. I love summer birthdays.

The sprinkler was at the bottom of the slide, so it was a water slide.

Lindsay was hugging Missouri (Mo mo). They are so cute.

Here is a little clip of the girls flying off the end of the slide and running around to go again. It was cute.



Here are a few pictures of the kids giving Lindsay her presents.
I think it is cute how excited the kids are to give her presents.

2009 Family Reunion Service Project

Kara and Seth when we were painting the shed.

Seth really enjoyed "helping paint."