BFF Kamille comes...

While Nate hunted in Montana for five days, Kamille was able to come and stay with me - to not only keep me company, but to help me with the girls. I basically told my husband he was NUTS to leave me all by myself at 37 wks pregnant and thus, he needed to remedy the situation by giving up one of his frequent flyer Southwest tickets to someone who is more compassionate. Since I haven't seen Kamille in a very long time, I was praying and hoping it would all work out for her to come visit. She has three girls of her own, so I know it took a lot of work on her end to free herself up so she could come and have a fun weekend with me! I miss her already and her effortless ability to bend over and sweep up droppings with the dust pan (a job I hate at the moment).

Baby Shower!

My beautiful host, Jody, and her mom.

I tell ya what... for a gal who moved to San Diego six months ago, I was not expecting a shower for girl #3... even more so, enough friends that would want to come! But my dear friend, Jody, hosted a super fun and oh-so-stylin party for me and Rowyn (pink OPI nail polish for parting gifts - how cute is that?!). I was tickled (pink) to have friends from church, my neighborhood, my aunties Dea and Lori (father-in-law, Bruce's, sisters) and Kamille all surround me with lots of laughter and love! Plus, Rowyn now has a few "new" things to greet her when she comes.

Happy Trick or Treating!

Haven took the following pics to show Nana our porch she decorated...










This is the 3rd princess dress Haven wore for a Halloween event over the past few weeks. I don't think there are any other options out there for Halloween costumes in the mind of a 4 1/2 year old girl besides a beautiful princess! Then there is Parker who can't wait to wear her giraffe costume for the 3rd time. The theme of their costumes this year is: Beauty and the Beast (even though she is the cutest giraffe ever in my opinion).

Parker's Post

And... here is Parer wishing she could attend preschool to play on the amazing playground.

Crazy Hair Day at Preschool... Auntie Julia comes to the rescue!

I left Thursday for Spokane to be with my two moms and Missoula friends at the Living Proof LIVE Beth Moore Event (which, by the way, was A-W-E-S-O-M-E) over the weekend. Auntie Julia, who lives just outside of LA, wanted to come down to help Nate with the girls while he worked. In Haven's mind, this meant The Fairy Godmother would be arriving soon, and just in time for Crazy Hair Day at school! I know I could NEVER have pulled off this hair-do. Thank you, Auntie Julia and your great hair pieces!!

Sleeping Vampire

This was what we saw last night as we checked on the girls before Nate and I headed to bed... a sleeping vampire.

Apparently, Haven really liked the fake vampire teeth she won at our playgroup's Halloween party.

Pumpkin Flasher!!

I had to dress up for a costume party that was held at a friend's house in our neighborhood. What does a 8 month pregnant gal do for a costume?!

I went as a Pumpkin Flasher... lurking in the dark shadows awaiting her victims to flash the obscene belly pumpkin.

I did get props for creativity! =0)

A sweet moment...

I caught a sweet moment the other day as Haven showed Parker how to use her Leapster. Parker loved being able to play with a "big girl" toy! I love catching these little moments in between the more frequent snatching toys out of hands, complaining of each other's teasing, crying episodes.

The shampoo and baby powder containers now join the markers in the gun safe...

I am just sitting down after cleaning for two hours. I did this a lot today.

This morning I found a thick layer of pink goo in the girls' bathtub and an empty strawberry shampoo container laying on the bathroom floor. This wasn't a huge surprise knowing Parker's personality and tendency to make messes. Okay... so, I now need to put up the kid's shampoo. No biggie. Only $2.99 wasted.

I must be a slow learner because tonight I realized I should have done this to the baby powder. I was visiting with a friend downstairs tonight when Haven yelled for me to come to her room (she and a friend were having a dance-off in my bedroom). I climbed the stair and walked into a white haze. The powder was thick in the air and I quickly opened up the windows just to get a fresh breath. I tapped on the window screens and a puff of white powder smoke blew into the air outside. A white film was covering EVERYTHING. Parker had managed to shake, squeeze and pour out the ENTIRE container of baby powder. I had just opened this a few days ago too, so it was full. Parker looked like a little ghost - white hair, white face, and a white room. My little Casper. I am so thankful my friend, Tara, was with me because she helped with with the vacuuming while I attended to the comforters, rug, furniture, clothes, walls, toys, Parker in the tub....

And all this happened after the sweet child care workers at the women's Bible study today told me what a good little girl Parker was and how she showed "leadership qualities!" She sure did show some initiative tonight as she used her leadership qualities to discover a new use for baby powder. I sure hope she discovers the cure for cancer one day to make all of this work worth it.

I was so in shock and sidetracked to how I was going to clean up the whole mess, that I didn't think about taking pictures.

The farm life

We did not foresee that this would be our last meal on the farm with Papa Otto when on a Monday evening we all gathered to celebrate family coming together. Four generations were present as Papa Otto lead the large group (he was always in the front of the buffet line) in a Prime Rib dinner. Two days later, he passed away and went home to Jesus. What precious timing. I so am thankful God allowed us one more memory with him as a family - just like many, many years of summers, Christmases, Thanksgivings, Easters... We were all able to attend the funeral and see first hand the love and respect my Papa Otto held in the farming community and town of Havre.

We all enjoyed a week of farm life:
Hunting, golfing, shooting stuff - enjoyed by Nate
Resting, not cooking, shopping, eating good food (especially the desserts), loving on my nephew, Crew, who I met for the first time - my favorites!
Riding the 4-wheel, visiting the horses, playing with cousins - Piper & Cameron, chasing the puppies, playing "Go Fish" - what the girls loved best!

However, we all came back with nasty colds and a little out of sorts being that we were sick and not on much of a schedule. It has taken me a week to get us all well again and have Parker back on her sleep schedule again! I refer to this stressful time of readjustment (which is often met with resistance and includes lots of discipline) as vacation detox. THUS the reason why it took me a while to write this post!

WHEW! We are packed...

We are off tomorrow to see family in Montana: Nate's parents, my parents, aunt, uncles, cousins, brother, sister-in-law and baby Crew!! We are all so excited. I knew the bulk of the work would be trying to pack us all up for Fall weather (it is still 75 degrees here). This meant digging out warmer clothes for Parker and trying on every pair of jeans Haven owns to make sure they still fit. This may not seem like a lot of work to the outsider, but to a 30 week pregnant gal, I was working up a sweat running around the house trying to make sure we had everything ready to go!

The purpose of the trip is to see my Papa Otto whose health is failing and will soon have his other foot amputated due to diabetes. We hope this time spent with him and the rest of the family will be special for everyone. Looking forward to capturing some memories on the camera. Stay tuned...