Busy month!

It's been a busy month!
Last weekend was the annual Apple Festival in Dubuque. The kids had a blast looking at the pumpkins, tasting apple cider, getting their faces painted, and most of all, jumping in the bouncy castle. They were the only kids in for their first turn, so I actually got a couple good shots of them jumping!

Ezra got a flag for his design. He was very excited to come home and put on his army hat for a photo op. He was not so excited when his flag started to crumble in the bathtub.

After the festival, we headed to my favorite fall destination--The Pumpkin Barn! I managed to only get five pumpkins/squash/gourds this year, to Jonathan's delight.
After the pumpkin barn, we all went to a UD football game. The kids had no idea what was going on, (Ezra was pretty impressed by all the "wrestling" though), but they enjoyed clapping, shouting, whistling, and stomping on the bleachers immensely.
After the football game we walked by the Old Chapel and got a family photo (thanks Alan for the great photos!). Here we all are at the same spot Jonathan and I walked down the aisle nearly 8 years ago!

Then, Monday morning, a friend from church brought over two of his chickens that he wanted to get rid of. I think this will be our last slaughtering experience until we move out of the suburbs. Jonathan wasn't as enthusiastic about this one. The chickens were a lot bigger, and the kids weren't nearly as squeamish this time around. Although the twitching after death really freaks them out. Me too!

We couldn't get around to them Monday night and ended up being wakened bright and early Tuesday morning (very early morning) to roosters crowing proudly. We groggily and hastily moved them into our garage so we wouldn't get chewed out by our neighbors, then we took care of them Tuesday afternoon.
At one point, when Jonathan and I were both inside working on a part of the process on the first chicken, Roxie literally ripped the seams on her collar and chased the other one around the yard. She had it pinned and was relentlessly biting it when we caught her. We chased her off and the chicken promptly fell over stiff as a board. We thought she had scared it to death, but it recovered a few minutes later, only to be slaughtered a few minutes after that. Poor chicken.
A week ago, I had my first prenatal appointment (yes, I didn't bother calling anyone until then). The Dr. thought I was measuring big and wanted to rule out twins. So we had an ultrasound, our first one ever this early, and our first 3D one, too.
Just one baby. Too early to tell the sex, which is unfortunate because I wanted to know and we probably won't get another one. So we might have a surprise by accident this time.
The above photos is at 15 weeks, so baby is no bigger than an apple all scrunched up, but can you see the little face?! This is a pretty bad scan, but I think it's visible.
Recently we've been feeling a clothing storage squeeze. The kids clothes get bigger, they get more of them, and suddenly we don't have enough dresser space, and then a new baby that will ALSO wear clothes is coming.
So I was delighted when I found this dresser at the Salvation Army for $50. It has very sturdy construction with dovetailed drawers, so it's probably sturdier than half the furniture we own.

I didn't really like the weird tan color, so I painted it antique white, and you probably can't tell from the photo below, but I painted the knobs regular white, for a tiny bit of contrast. So, Sadie and Violet will get a new dresser to share, and the new baby will get the one that all Violet's clothes are crammed in now! Thanks Jonathan for letting me get this and moving it all around for me!


That's about it, but I've got a list a mile long of things I still have to do in the coming weeks, including a commission, several paintings for family, Sadie's birthday party coming up, and some art for a game expansion Jonathan invented for one of his favorite games: Glory to Rome.

Not to mention school, which is an all day job at this point! It's like a race to see how much I can get done before Christmas, and then another race to see how much I can get done before March! We'll see!!!