Counting & Donkey...what?!

Blake likes to count and recite her alphabet. She can count to 4 fairly consistently, but sometimes she leaves out the number 3. You'll see in the video below. Her alpahbet goes something like this, "A, B, D, R, W, X, Y, Z". She's getting there, though ;) The movie that she has been asking to watch the most lately is Shrek; only she refers to it as donkey shrek. The only problem is that Blake can't really say the word shrek. She says...well, you can hear for yourself in the video below.

It's a boy!

Well, I'm sure by now that most of you have heard that our little one on the way is a boy. We had our ultrasound this morning where they were able to take a peek for us and let us know. We're currently having technical difficulties with the DVD, so here's some of the pictures for now. The printer at the doctor's office must have been running out of ink or something because all the pictures have streaks right through the middle of them...O WELL. Here's the boy parts, so they tell us. I'll take their word for it.
Here's a 2D pic of the little guy.
This is one of the 3D pics where Lauren thinks that he kinda looks like Blake.
And, here's a little bit better 3D pic. Lauren thinks he kinda looks like Collier in this one.
The due date is still January 30th. The little guy was quite the mover and the shaker this morning, but according to the ultrasound tech and the nurse everything looks great. The doctor will still take a look at everything and go over the pics again with Lauren at the next appointment in about 4 weeks. The only unusual comments that the tech made was that this little guy has "nice long legs" (which would explain the insane amount of movement that Lauren has been feeling lately) and that Lauren's cervix is in great condition - "it could handle triplets". Let's just be thankful that it doesn't have to ;) Well, hope all is well with everyone else - HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

A WITCH!!!

First off, here are a few pics from the last week or so:

Blake all ready to go to school one morning. She goes to a day care three days a week, but she calls it school...well, actually "cool". A common phrase from her is, "pay keedz cool morrow". Translation: play with kids at school tomorrow
Our beautiful babe wiped out on the couch

While Blake was sleeping, Lauren FINALLY made her pillow cases for her pillows that we bought about a month ago and hadn't yet put on her bed. It was too cute when she finally woke up and saw them because she was SO excited. It's amazing how easily entertained they can be sometimes.
We have been reading The Night Before Halloween a lot lately. Yes, it's a little early, but it seems to be Blake's book of choice at the moment. Anyway, Lauren was explaining to Blake that she'd get to dress up and go trick-or-treating on Halloween. They went through the book and pointed out all the different costumes that the kids had on. When Lauren asked Blake what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said, "a witch". So, Lauren has been on the lookout for a cool witch costume. She finally found this one...
...but, it was over $75 for everything that went with it - YIKES!!! Lauren decided just to make her own version. Here's what she came up with...the front

Lauren got the striped tights at Old Navy for $5 and scored on most of the material. She especially likes the lace with the spiders in it :) We found a cute hat for $2 at Target. Lauren will probably put some of the leftover green & pink material on it to jazz it up a bit.

The back - we found some cheap spiders at Target too, so we may put some on the collar kind of like in the super expensive costume picture. Lauren's also debating about making a pink belt to go with the costume.

The top is actually sleeveless, but since it'll likely be chilly here on Halloween (if not snowing) Lauren bought a cheap long sleeve tee at Old Navy. She'll probably add some green cuffs to the sleeves and maybe a hint of pink somewhere to make it match better. Here's the costume without the long sleeve tee under it.

A closeup of the top...

...and a closeup of the bottom.

Lauren found some cheap materials to make Blake a broom, too! All in all, we came out of the deal spending less than $25 and Lauren was able to get this much finished within 3 hours - WOO HOO!!! Yes, I'm VERY proud of myself and bragging at this point...wouldn't you ;) Since it's pretty much just going to be used for one night, Lauren didn't really finish all the edges on the material and came up with a pretty cool trick to keep them from fraying. Instead of using fray check or similar product, Lauren used clear nail polish with glitter in it to give the edges a sparkle and keep the material from getting all frayed - looks great! Now, we just wait for Halloween to get here :)

Two Year Pics

Things here have been busy. Bob started his new position as branch manager at work and Lauren is still juggling part-time work, coping with pregnancy and caring for a two year old in between. We recently took a trip to Garrison, North Dakota to visit Uncle Gene, Aunt JoAnn and more of the DeCoteau clan - Grandma DeCoteau, Grandpa DeCoteau, Aunt Joyce and even cousin Pat and two of his kiddos. Lauren forgot the camera - SHOCKER! But, we did get pictures with a disposable camera. We'll post pictures later after we get them developed and put on a CD. But for now, here are some of Blake's two year pics:










Otherwise, Lauren & Blake took in a few Rocky soccer games today and got a chance to meet up with one of Lauren's old teammates from Sweden as well as much of the coaching staff from those glory days. Blake had a blast! She got to play soccer, but more importantly she got a sucker, some cheese puffs and chocolate chip cookies. That kid scores food no matter where we go! We'll also have our 20 week (well nearly 21 week) ultrasound on Friday the 17th, so we'll probably be able to tell the sex of the baby after that appointment. Bob's bets are on a boy; Lauren is thinking girl; and Blake still wants a "yister". I guess we'll just wait and see ;) Hope this finds everyone staying happy, healthy and enjoying life!