Our Family of Three

Last week Kelsey took a few pictures of our family as we are now - before we add one more in a few days!
I'm still feeling pretty good and have actually been sleeping very well the past few nights. I'm so thankful for that because I know my sleep is soon to be interrupted by late night snacks and diaper changes!

Trick or Treat!

Tonight was trick or treat night for us and Malachi was on a high all day looking forward to it. He told anyone who would listen that he was going to be the Cat in the Hat and was going trick or treating with his friends Isaac, Lucas, Rinne and Cooper in their neighborhood. Erik and I have never seen Malachi run like he did up to each house tonight, saying "trick or treat!" and sometimes remembering to thank the people for his candy.

On the way home Malachi got some vampire teeth and had lots of fun being "scary Cat in the Hat."

Jack-O-Lantern

Malachi has been waiting about two weeks to carve his pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern, so finally last night we decided it was time. He wanted to be up close to the action, but definitely did not want to touch any of the yucky stuff inside the pumpkin.

This is Malachi's scary face that served as the inspiration.

Notice the computer on the counter - we had to keep tabs on the Aggies who defeated Texas Tech!

Great carving job, Erik! On another note, only one more week to go till my due date (I know, I look enormous!) and another doctor's appointment on Tuesday!

Erik's running...

...for school board!

During one of the first conversations I ever had with Erik he told me that someday he'd like to hold an elected public office. Well, that time may come pretty soon - he has decided to run for a spot on the Paint Valley School Board!
We normally like to spend his day off doing something together as a family, and today was no different. We spent the entire afternoon outside painting campaign signs that will be put up in Bainbridge, Bourneville and outside Chillicothe (at the edge of the district). Election day is only about a week and a half away, but better late than never, right?



The first week of November could potentially be a very exciting week for him. Here's the schedule:

Saturday, October 31st - Boys' cross country regional meet, top 4 teams and top 16 individuals advance to state
Monday, November 2nd - Baby Allsop's due date
Tuesday, November 3rd - Election day, vote for Erik!!
Saturday, November 7th - Boys' cross country state meet

I suggested putting "Erik Allsop RUNNING for P.V. School Board" on his signs since everyone around knows him as "that guy who runs a lot," but that was a little too cheesy for his taste!

Update!

I've had a request for a new blog entry, so, Heather, this is for you. It's nice to know that somebody reads this, even if it is because you're bored in the middle of the night and Cooper won't let you sleep! Maybe in a few days/weeks I can just call you up and we can chat at 3 AM!
Actually, come to think of it, I'm usually awake at that time already.

We've been busy again this week. I'm two weeks away from my due date and Erik is hoping that the baby comes sometime this week. I'm pretty sure he mostly just wants some time off work after being there for what seemed like 72 hours straight during the Fall Festival of Leaves.
Malachi loves the festival, especially the rides and cotton candy. Last year Aunt Meg told him that cotton candy cures the hiccups, so this year he started faking the hiccups as soon as he saw the booth with cotton candy!

I had two baby shower cakes to do this weekend so I wasn't able to help out in the store much. That was probably a good thing because after a few hours today my ankles have disappeared. Other than little things like swelling and difficulty sleeping, I'm still feeling pretty good. My next doctor's appointment is Tuesday. At this point I love going to the doctor to see how much closer we are to welcoming this baby - and finding out whether Malachi will have a little brother or sister. Any guesses?

I have big plans of cleaning the house all week. Nesting, maybe? In any case, my floors need to be scrubbed a bit before I have less time and more people around!

Less than a month!

In fact, we have just over 3 weeks to go until my due date! It's hard to believe that we're so close to welcoming another baby into our family - the past few months have flown by!

I had my 36 week appointment with my doctor on Tuesday. The baby's head is down and I am a little over 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced, which means that my body is beginning to make some progress to get ready for labor. The heartrate has been in the 140s pretty consistently throughout my pregnancy, but this time it was in the 150s. I guess the baby's getting excited about what's to come too!

I'm feeling pretty good overall, in spite of not sleeping very well and having some minor aches and pains. The most important thing on my mind right now is spending as much quality time with Erik and Malachi as possible. I want to really enjoy these last few weeks of our family the way it is now before things change forever!

Wedding season is officially over for the Cake Kitchen, too! This was my final wedding cake of 2009 and I'm looking forward to a bit of a break until January. Congrats, Matt and Stef!

One reason why...

...I love Fall and living close to my Grandma Litter - homemade apple butter! I can remember going to her house every year when I was little and helping (as much as they'd let us kids) make apple butter. She doesn't do this at her house anymore, but there's no doubt she's still in charge! (Have I mentioned how awesome Grandma Litter is?)
On Saturday morning I was delivering a cake and as I drove through Bourneville, I spotted Grandma and some others from her church stirring the big pot over a fire.
I knew my plans for the way home had to change! Malachi and I stopped to visit for a while, got some of Grandma's homemade veggie soup (the best) for lunch and sampled the fresh-from-the-kettle apple butter. I was planning on buying one jar until Malachi devoured an entire bowl as if he were eating applesauce. We left with five jars, but as Grandma assured me, "they keep for a long time." I'm not sure that it will matter if they keep or not - they're gonna be gone as soon as I can get to the Mennonite bakery for some bread! YUM!!