Abbie's photo shoot

Here are the rest of Abbie's 5 year old pictures. Is this girl a natural model or what?

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You know it's October when...

You find the kids playing in their Halloween costumes almost every day,

You rake the leaves and the next day it looks like you did nothing,

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It's time to winterize the yard and garden,

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There are twenty different varieties of apples at the store,

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and they taste delicious made into applesauce, pies, or just plain (with maybe a little peanut butter),

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You'll wait in line for half an hour in the freezing cold for cinnamon donuts and fresh apple cider,

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You'll pay $3 for 5 minutes of play just to see your two year old smile like this,

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You convince your husband and kids to pose for pictures like this,

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And you'll brave the mess and danger of carving pumpkins with guts and seeds and knives everywhere...

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To see your kids' excitement when you light the candles and turn off the light!

Happy Halloween!

Just a teaser...

Abbie got her 5 year pictures taken last week and we got some really cute ones. Here's just one of the many shots we got, isn't she adorable? She was smiling and posing and was quite the model. I can't wait to show you the others when they come in!

Leaves are falling all around

We had one day this week where it was beautiful fall weather and so the girls and I went outside to play in the leaves. I also had fun taking pictures of them in the pretty colors. Here are some of the best shots:

We love fall and hope it lasts just a little bit longer!

Nesting...

Call it nesting or OCD or just the deranged doings of a pregnant lady but lately I've been feeling the urge to make crafts, sew blankets, organize clothes and closets, harvest the garden and make food, and just get tons of projects done. I've also been busy shopping online and finding deals on a new dresser for the baby's room, stocking up on diapers and formula and baby stuff, organizing my recipe box, updating the 72 hr kits, making lists and checking them twice, catching up on journal writing, saving and backing up pictures and files on the computer, and doing some deep cleaning (I actually dusted the whole house the other day and later got out the vacuum hose another night and cleaned all the corners and edges of a couple rooms because it was bugging me!) I feel overwhelmed with how much I need and/or want to do before I have the baby so it's a good thing I have the desire and some energy to tackle some of these projects now. So to feel a sense of accomplishment (and to check off on my list that I finally blogged about it :), here are just some of the things I've been working on lately...

I saw this rag blanket online a while ago http://quiltsjust4kids.blogspot.com/2008/04/pink-and-brown-baby-blanket-set.html and decided I wanted to make one for a boy if I ever had one. So here's the fabric I bought a few weeks ago...

I finally cut all the squares this past weekend...

And layed them all out in a pattern...


Now I just need to start sewing, which is the funnest part, and clipping the edges and it should look something like this when I'm done. I'm so excited!

Another fun idea I saw once, FHE jars. You put strips of paper in each jar that say titles of primary songs, gospel stories, scriptures, and games and then you just draw one out of each jar and you have an instant Family Home Evening. Very nice for when you have little kids and no time to plan a lesson or activity.

I couldn't stop with just one jar, though! I also saw this idea on my cousin's blog http://woodstockwoodstock.blogspot.com/2009/06/im-bored.html and had to make it too so I have something for the girls to do in a month when it's cold outside and I'm busy with the new baby.

My messy recipe/coupon/take out menu box that has been driving me crazy.

So I wrote down all the recipes on 3x5 cards and put them into a little file box, put the bigger recipes with pictures into a folder with sheet protectors, and threw out a bunch of outdated coupons and menus. Now, that's much better!

Since I organized all my recipes, that got me in the mood for cooking so I started harvesting the garden and have been making salsa...

And carrot cake, pot roast, and soups with many of the carrots from our garden. This is only half of them, I still have a bunch more in the ground ready to go in the next batch of soup or casseroles.

I was really bummed that I missed out on the prime peach picking time this year since I was gone to Utah for most of Aug. so I've been looking for good and cheap peaches in the stores the last few weeks and finally found some decent ones to cut up and freeze for winter.

Lastly, Abbie has been begging me to make bread ever since we came home from Utah because she got to watch her Aunt Irene make it several times while we were there and just loves it so much fresh out of the oven. I don't blame her, I love it too, it's just a lot of work to make it very often.

Here she is helping knead it...

And finally getting to eat some! Yay!

Can you believe I did all this while 8 months pregnant? I can't either! I'm tired just thinking about it so I'm going to bed, I've got to get my rest before the baby comes!