Baby Bump-30 weeks!

I made it to 30 weeks.  That seems like a crazy thing to say when you are pregnant and still have 10 more weeks to go, but after the last month it seems like a miracle.  As for the 10 weeks thing, I doubt I will make it through more than 6 or 7 of those, but technically that is what I have left.  I just can't wait to meet this little guy, especially after getting those 3D ultrasound pictures, I can't stop looking at his cute little face, I made it the background on my phone so can see him every day.  Now if I could just quit having contractions......

Labor Day Weekend

I know that I am "nesting" already.  I have endless lists of things that I want to get done.  I have been making and freezing all our favorite dinners for when I just don't feel like cooking.  I am sure that there are going to be plenty of those days ahead, because we already have them, more that I would care to admit.  I'm cleaning and organizing like nobody's business, and it is rubbing off on the rest of the family.  (I'm not sure if this nesting is a good thing or not because I still have 10 weeks left if I go full term-I know not very likely- but if I am already nesting and have been since we got back from Utah then how early am I going to have this baby?)  Anyway, everyone has been helping all along, some more willingly than others, but on labor day weekend even Jake had a case of "nesting".  

A little back story....When we moved in this lovely pink carpet was everywhere...

Even in the dining room under our table.  Carpet under a table and kids just don't play well together.  We've cleaned it many, many times in the year we have lived here and it is just plain gross.  Plus, it's PINK.

It's really nice carpet; think, nice, plush, expensive carpet it's just plain ugly.  Pink, mauve whatever you want to call it, it's just ugly.  I know a couple of people that would disagree with me, but it is ugly grandma pink to me.  I would never pick it for my entire house, not even one room.  But I don't get a say, and we are renting for now so we couldn't even replace it with something else.  Well that was until we talked to our landlord about it this spring.  He said he was going to replace all of the flooring when they move in and he doesn't really care what we do because they plan on getting rid of all of it anyway.   Hallelujah!  We knew that we could rip it up, it was just a matter of timing, meaning Jake having the time to tackle such a major project.  

Well, that time came on labor day weekend.  I told Jake that one of the thing on my list was to clean all of the upstairs carpets because they were so dirty, again.  We talked about how sick we were of cleaning that dang carpet under the table and that really needed to take advantage of our landlord giving us permission to tear up the carpet.  The sooner the better because then we could get the most use out of it.  Jake hit the sales flies and guess what?  Flooring was on sale at Menard's and Jake had the whole weekend off.  Time to get rid of that gross carpet.  We spent most of the weekend ripping up the carpet and putting down the new floor.  I think it turned out just grand.  

It is not the color I would pick if it was my house, but it isn't and this matching the existing woodwork so this is what we got.  And it looks really good.  

And the best part is I never have to clean the carpet under the table again!  I am so thankful that I have a husband that can fix anything!  He also replaced the disposal in the kitchen that week.  I love my new floor and I really love my husband!

Abbie's First Day of Preschool

Abbie has been waiting for this day for a long time...and the last week has been especially hard for her since the "big kids" have already started school and she had to wait until today.  

We went in and found her name tag 

and the cubbie to hang up her backpack.  

Then she took off for the sand table.  

She had a great day and said that her favorite thing was the painting easel.  She is going to have a great year.  

I LOVE technology!

I had an ultrasound today to check the baby's growth and some other things that they didn't see well on the last ultrasound.  It was awesome to get to see our little guy again.  I have never had 3D ultrasound before but look how cute

The ultrasound wasn't done in 3D but they took a couple of the shots and turned them into 3D.  It was amazing to watch the layers kinda peel back and unveil the baby's face.  

Oh, and apparently we have another chubby monkey on our hands... based on how many weeks I am he should be weighing right around 2 pounds.  The ultrasound estimate puts him at 3 pounds 5 ounces.  

Ashton's Birthday

Yesterday was Ashton's 7th birthday!  I cannot believe that my little guy is getting so OLD.

He had school on his birthday for the first time.  So he got to open presents after school.  He was so surprised by this, we got him a Nintendo 3DS which he really wanted but we told him that he would probably have to wait for Christmas for it.... It has been played non stop since coming out of the box, by him and Lexie.

He asked Lexie to make his cake, so after school she made this masterpiece for him.  

Decorated in his favorite colors orange and blue.  

He chose to go to Green Mill in Hastings for his birthday dinner, we all had good food and a fun time.    It was another low key birthday for us, which is just fine with me.  I prefer quiet family parties verses friend birthday parties, plus I was just not up for a bunch of kids running wild around our house this year.  

I promised the kids that next year they can have friend birthday parties since it's been at least two years since they had friend parties.  

Saturday Fun

The last Saturday in August we had planned on going to the state fair, but with all of the contraction that I was having we decided that walking around the state fair for hours in the heat and humidity wouldn't be a smart idea so we decided to try and come up with plan B.  We really didn't have a plan when we set out from the house, but the day ended up being really fun.  We headed south and started driving down the river but instead of crossing at the bridge in Wabasha we continued down the Minnesota side of the Mississippi.  We found Lark toys just past Wabasha and stopped and let the kids ride the carousel and had ice cream for lunch.

All of the animals are hand carved, they were really cool. 

After that we continued down to Winona and had a real lunch, just late.  We decided to go ahead and cross over the river in Winona and started back up the Wisconsin side.  It was cool to go down that far since we hadn't gone that far before.  Our next stop was in Alma where they have lock and damn #4.  

Most of the lock and damns aren't open to the public anymore since 9/11, but this one is because it is right next to the road.  We stopped to have a look, hoping we might get to see it working, but didn't know for sure what we might see.  

First we had to cross over the train tracks using the pedestrian bridge.  Right as we were over the tracks a train came around the corner so we waited for the train to go under us. 

 

It was really loud.

Then we walked to the observation deck and watched and it let boats up and down the Mississippi.  I wish I would have taken a few more pictures of the process, but I didn't.  Here is what I did get though.  And I will try and explain how it works for all of us who have never heard of such a thing.  

Because of the elevation change from the Gulf of Mexico to Minnesota the Army Corp of Engineers built a series of lock and damns to help the tug boats get up and down the river easier.  This first view is looking south down the river.  With the channel flooded.  I wish I would have taken a picture with the water at the low stage, but I didn't.  I guess we will probably go back some day and I will take more pictures.  

The boats come in through the open gate (it is just starting to open in this picture to let some boats out)  then the gates on either end are closed and water is pumped in raising the level of the river about 20 feet.  I couldn't believe how fast the water came up, it only a couple minutes to fill the channel.  Then the gate on the other end is opened and the boats go out the other side.  For smaller recreational boats lock and damns really aren't that necessary, but for the bigger boats it makes for a lot faster trip up and down.  It was cool to get to watch it work a few times.  

Our next stop was Pepin, Wisconsin.  We have driven through here a bunch, but never stopped.  We were trying to go to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, but got there a little late and it was closed.  Oh, well it will be an adventure for another day I guess.  

This is a replica of the "Little House in the Big Woods"  where she was born.  

We decided to let the kids play at the park that was there since that was what Abbie had been asking to do the whole day.  

The merry go round was definitely the biggest hit on the play ground.

And Jake made sure the kids got a fun ride.  

We also played at this little train depot which was outside the closed museum.  

It was a fun day, and I am glad that we didn't go out with a plan because the day turned out much better than it would have if we had tried to plan it out.  

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for us.  It is so nice to not have to start school until after labor day!  But all the same I was dreading the alarm clock going off this morning.  I was pleasantly surprised though this morning, BOTH Ashton and Lexie beat me up this morning.  And they were dressed and eating breakfast when I got out of the shower!  Not such a big deal for Lexie she did that a lot last year, but Ashton was excited for his first day of school!  This is huge people! He had a rough year last year and would tell anyone who asked how bad he hated school (this was kindergarten for crying out loud). But we had a good talk with his teacher this year and she told him she would help him to not be so bored at school so that he didn't hate it.  I am so glad that he was excited for school this morning, I just hope that he has a good first day and that excitement continues throughout the year.  Here are their pictures from this morning.

Lexie on her first day of 7th grade!  Where has time gone?  Wasn't she just a baby the other day?

Ashton on his first day of 1st grade.  I pray he has a great year!

The Drive Home

We made the drive back to Minnesota just me and the kids in two days,  next time I am going to do the drive in 3 days so that we don't have to spend so much time in the car next time.  We only made one stop for fun on the way back and that was at this arch. 

 We had a good time taking the tour but I was to worried about getting back on the road to really enjoy it.  Next time we will take our time getting home, we were all exhausted by the drive this time and we got home at 10 pm which didn't help matters any.

The Rest of Our Trip to Utah

I am finally getting around to documenting our trip to Utah.  It has been a really long time since we got back from Utah but I wanted to get a few more pictures from out trip on here.  I'm pretty sure they are out of order but oh well.  We visited the new city creek center for lunch, just wish that we could have stayed a little longer.  

Playing in the fountain... 

Fun with the "City Creek"

Cute kids

At the Disney Store

Lunchtime

Uncle Ben bought a TON of fireworks for the 24th and we had a great time watching them from Grandpa and Grandma's front yard.

 Abbie got sunburned in Park City isn't that sad...

We got to meet the latest Christiansen cousin while both our families were in Utah

Maren's son "baby Max"

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with Grandma and Josh and Zack

(Lexie had her own fun this week by going to girls camp with my parents ward.)

We made a trip to the zoo right before we left Utah to see the new rocky shores exhibit and that was a lot of fun for the kids.  

 on the train

We had a wonderful vacation and wished we got to stay longer.  Can't wait to go back next year.