Pumpkins!

Blake's Halloween festivities began on Friday at school. The kids got to decorate their own trick or treat bags and go trick or treating throughout the school. She was pretty pumped about it. She also got to pick a pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch they had setup at school. They also had tons of cool little activities outside for the kiddos. Blake didn't actually pick her pumpkin out, though. An older boy picked one out for her ;) He was very nice to pick one out especially for her that was way up high on a hay bale where Blake couldn't reach. She said, "thanks!" Daddy better start watching out for those boys! When we got home from school, she got to eat some of her candy.
Here she is posing with the trick or treat bag that she decorated and her pumpkin. Everytime she shows us the pumpkin she says, "Blake's pumpkin...boy give me".
We've been travelling, sick and just flat out busy the last month, so we just made it out to the pumpkin patch today. The field was really picked over, but we still had fun hunting for one. Blake liked riding in the wagon.
Pumpkin huntin' with Dad

Blake posing with the pumkin that we found.
A somewhat staged pumpkin patch photo
the BIG pumpkins
Blake with our loot. They had several pumpkins already picked that were pretty nice. Most of the ones out in the field were pretty bad.
Well now that we have pumpkins, it's time to gut them and decide what type of designs we are going to carve into them. So we'll have more pics to post soon - stay tuned!

Blake is really excited about getting to wear her costume and go trick or treating tomorrow - more pics to come on that, too! HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!!!

An OK Visit

Lauren and Blake recently got a chance to go see Grandma, Grampy, Uncle Chris, Aunt Katie and Cousin Collier in Oklahoma. Great-grandma Kramer was visiting Ponca, so we got to see her too. We flew into OKC and spent the night at Chris & Katie's beautiful new house. We even got to experience an earthquake! HA...HA...we didn't actually feel it, but I guess people who were on a second story or higher did. Grampy even felt it at his office! The next day Lauren drove Blake & Collier to Ponca to see the rest of the fam while Chris & Katie took an anniversary trip to Vegas. The girls played well together and had tons of fun. It was hard to get pictures of the two standing still, but here are some of the better shots we got.

Collier standing still...momentarily anyway ;)
Blake giving a big cheese on the trike at Grandma & Grampy's
Blake & Collier sizing each other up. THANKS Grandma & Grampy for the cute matching shirts!
Blake loading up the back of the trike for Collier
Blake & Collier were VERY big helpers when it came to watering. Well, they had more fun putting rocks in the canisters and shaking them.
Collier watering
Collier with Grampy's famous bubble machine
Blake chasing bubbles
Collier in action
Blake with the bubble machine
Both kiddos attacking the bubbles
Blake and Great-grandma Kramer
Needless to say, it was a great visit. It always seems short, but it was so nice to get to share a pedicure/lunch date with Great-grandma Kramer while Grandma watched the girls - THANKS! And as always, it was a joy to get to hang with little Collier even though Blake's new phrase is, "don't touch Blake, please". Collier was pretty good at invading Blake's personal space on a regular basis :) Like father, like daughter - there were several times during the week that Lauren had flashbacks to when her and Chris were little. I guess the apples really don't fall too far from the tree.

In other news, Bob is getting geared up for a hunting trip/vacation back home, and Lauren is planning on setting up a booth at her very first craft fair. Lauren has a friend from college that sells jewelry, so her and Blake are going to go hang with Jess and the kiddos and try to sell some stuff. It should be a fun weekend! Lauren is also having a MUCH easier go with this pregnancy and baby boy DeCoteau has been moving like crazy, so things seem to be going well on that front. We're also expecting a visit from Grandma & Grampy in late November - can't wait! Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall.

ND & Mickey Mouse!

We finally got the pictures from our visit to Garrison, ND developed. Here's Blake hanging out with Grandpa DeCoteau. Blake with Aunt Joyce Great-grandma DeCoteau and Blake Blake with Aunt JoAnn Playing with the cool toys at Gene & JoAnn's house Hangin' with Uncle Gene Driving her truck around the yard fun on the trampoline "JUMP HIGH!" as Blake would say Blake also has a new found love for Mickey Mouse. She freaks out when she sees him on TV - it's hilarious! Here's a little video of her in very mild freak out mode (of course she didn't completely freak out when we busted out the camera...O WELL)

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!