Halloween

 I went back and forth between going out trick-or-treating or staying in because of COVID. All of the doctors at work were staying home due to high covid numbers and so I felt swayed to follow. But, ultimately, we decided to go out anyways. We wore masks, didn't open our treats until our hands were sanitized and we stayed away from crowds. The nice thing was there wasn't very many crowds this year. Usually our neighborhood is FULL of kids but this year was much different. It was nice and made me feel safer. 

It was unusually warm today, which is odd because it literally snowed like 3 days ago. But, because it was warm, most everyone was outside, leaving candy on a table or something creative because of COVID. It was great!

Brooks would not put on a costume and only went up to one house to get a treat. Besides that he enjoyed sitting in the wagon eating Hallie's treats or pushing the wagon. Hallie ran from house to house with her best friend, Jack, and had the time of her life.

Hallie was a firefighter and Brooks was going to be either Iron Man or Marshall from Paw Patrol but he was neither. 

My mom came to pass out candy for us so Russ and I could go out with the kids. It was perfect. She could maintain her distance from all the kids and only occasionally had to get up to refill the table. So much easier then opening the door 1,000 times at night! This might be our new go-to if the weather is warm enough.

A creative catapult dispenser to give us our candy. Some people just put candy on their lawn, others did a table like we did, and some we still knocked on the door for. 

Brooks pulling neighbor, Flora, in the wagon. 

And the highlight of Brooks' night was seeing the werewolf. He still talks about it 2 months later! He loved pretending to howl like the werewolf. We look forward to this house every year! 

Russ and I put our kids to bed around 8 and then went to the Naylor's house (2 doors down with the baby monitor) to party with them. It was a great night, and I was very happy that 7 days later we didn't catch Coronavirus!

Kids

I am so so grateful to be a mom to these kiddos! I love them with all that I am. They are the best in every way! They are becoming such good buddies and friends. They pretend together and entertain each other quite well. They occasionally get on each others nerves, like siblings do, but for the most part they play really well together. I am crazy about these two!!

A flamingo and treat from the primary. We were supposed to "pay it forward" and move the flamingo to another house and give a treat to another family in the ward but it just never happened. The flamingo sat in our yard for weeks and then broke. Eventually, I just threw it away. I felt guilty about it for a minute but truly we are still surviving here in the Ahlberg household so the guilt didn't last too long.

Hallie reading to Brooks. I love that she can read to him!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins tonight as a family. Hallie loved carving her own pumpkin, with a little help from her dad, and Brooks enjoyed painting his pumpkin and also painting himself. Haha! I supervised the whole thing, mainly making sure that Brooks didn't make too big of a mess. We had Halloween music on in the background and enjoyed spending time together as a family. I sure love these 3 of mine!

Hallie's scary monster pose! She's my favorite.

20 Week Anatomy Scan

This appointment always makes me a little nervous. But I am anxiously excited in combination. Knowing that God is in complete control and whatever happens is what He wants is comforting. 

Luckily baby has all the parts he needs to have and in all the right places. And he is still a boy! He very much had his hand around his private parts pretty much the whole time. The ultrasound tech also commented on his "big lips," so we will see if he comes out having some luscious lips. 

We had the worlds best ultrasound tech (the same one who did the gender reveal with us). She was SO thorough and spent tons of time with us looking at the baby. She said she normally takes 60 pictures during these checks but with us she took 90 something! She said baby was cooperating so well and that we were fun parents to do the ultrasound on. 

Baby's heart was 149 bpm. He was measuring only 4 days ahead of schedule. He is also measuring in the 81st percentile for size. The tech was so fantastic and made sure baby's heart looked good, his kidneys were functioning, no down syndrome signs, no clubfeet, no spina bifida, no cleft lip, and everything else was hunky dory! I don't remember any other tech being as detailed oriented as she was. It was fantastic!! We loved her! Can't wait to meet this little boy of ours!

I met with Dr. Becheck after the ultrasound. I am definitely gaining weight. I worry this will be my heaviest pregnancy yet. I'm only 6 lbs away to where I was when I delivered Hallie and about 11 lbs away to where I was with Brooks. Oh well. It's nothing I can control. 

                                                             Look at his toes!!

      I told her this picture creeped me out a bit with his eye! So she put Happy Halloween next to it!