beautiful autumn weather for a couple trips to the park this week-

wednesday morning we went to our favorite story time at the library & followed it with a trip to the museum at prairie fire to dig for dinosaurs with the jansen boys-

amazed we got all 4 kids in the same picture frame :)

for the first time, i let both girls loose in the basement while i did laundry- & i am so glad i did! i hadn't seen them for nearly an hour when lucy ran upstairs in costume & exclaimed, "oh i just LOVE playing dress-up!" the wild mess in the basement was totally worth it for them to have some independent playtime & for me to have a bit of time & space to get laundry folded, put away & beds remade [which is getting tricker as my mobility becomes more limited with the growing beach ball under my shirt!] i can't believe eloise is actually big enough to join her sister for big kid stuff like this!

couldn't illustrate their individual personalities better if i tried-

wonder woman & her sidekick :)

& how nice of daddy to get a new playset for the girls :)

lunch at fritz's with meme after dance class saturday morning- eloise's train-sighting excitement is quite a sight :)

& eloise has started calling lucy "cici"- it's pretty much my favorite thing ever!

28 weeks tomorrow! this dress has carried me through 3 pregnancies- into the 3rd trimester we go! jon said the other night just how excited he is to meet this little girl. my anxieties about delving into the newborn stage again have pretty much washed away over the past couple of weeks. eloise is getting more independent & lucy asks when her baby sister will be here multiple times per day, while checking in to kiss the bump. i am so grateful to be adding another precious girl to our family & this world, and i'm giddy with excitement to see my THREE girls together!

jon left town this afternoon [after letting me sleep in this morning, making pancakes, cleaning the house, grocery shopping & bringing home lunch for his girls!] adore that man. his travel is really picking up from now until mid-december, but he somehow managed to start painting lucy's new room yesterday! we went back & forth & back & forth about what to do [as did lucy] & we finally decided to tie it into the other girls' rooms. the nursery is pink & gray, and lucy's current room is lilac & yellow, so we took the gray from the nursery & the yellow from lucy's room, and we're doing gray & yellow walls, yellow closet, gray bathroom, white furniture & bright pink accents- bright & sunny for our sunshine girl. jon got all of the yellow done yesterday, so we'll pick back up with the gray next weekend. side note- while digging through storage the other day as i put away halloween decor, my jaw literally dropped at the number of baby girl clothes tubs i have stored down there. ohmygosh. i'll be glad to get all of the girls' clothes switched over to their rooms- it'll be a BIG project that meme will be excellent at :) :) :) i just can't wait to dress this little one in soft baby clothes & gowns- swoon!

enjoy your week! we're getting extra excited for the holidays with such fun adventures filling up our december calendar!

xoxo,

-ivy