Happy Halloween from the Gustafson "Ghouls"

The girls have been so excited about Halloween this year! They have been preparing all month. They went to a farm to pick out pumpkins and painted them.


They got apples and made caramel apples with Daddy; we all went shopping together for Halloween costumes; checked a pile of Halloween books out of the library; watched Garfeild's Halloween special, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Barney's Halloween Party and Ichabod Crane; Matilda's school had a Halloween party; they wore glow-in-the-dark skeleton pjs; and were delighted to recieve adorable felt trick or treating bags from Mona and Joe.

Today was the big day. They got all dressed up--Evelyn was Little Red Riding Hood and Matilda was a witch.






Ed loaded them up in the wagon and they went Trick or Treating for over an hour while Adelaide and I handed out candy at home. They came home with their bags full of candy!


There is one house on a street near ours that goes all-out every year with spooky Halloween decorations. Matilda has noticed and has been talking about going there for weeks. They went door to door all the way there, but when they got to the much anticipated spooky house, they just couldn't get the nerve to go up to the door through the dark tunnel the home owners had constructed. Ed reports that both girls broke down in tears in the driveway of the spooky house and demanded to come straight home--they didn't even want to do any more trick or treating at other houses! Maybe next year they won't be so scared. But they had a fantastic time. And they thoroughly enjoyed having a few pieces of candy after dinner. And we had MANY more trick or treaters this year than we have before. I think we only have about 5 pieces of candy left-over from the 2 shopping bags full that we purchased!

Happy birthday, little Lulu!

Evelyn turned 2 today! Late last night, when she was fast asleep, Ed and I blew up a bunch of balloons and covered her floor with them to surprise her when she woke up this morning. Matilda, Ed and I all burst in singing happy birthday first thing this morning, just to get things off on the right foot.


She kept busy playing with her balloons all morning while we got the house picked up and got ready for her little party. Grandma and Grandpa came over and we opened presents. She was pretty spoiled this year getting movies, books, stickers, play food, a "bilibo," and Jessie from Toy Story, but the highlights were her doll house, the baby doll cradle and rocking chair--complete with new doll who she sings lullabies to:


And a Dora the Explorer tricycle


After presents we had pepperoni pizza and oranges for lunch followed, of course, by birthday cake! I made a sour cream pumpkin spice cake with a swirl of brown sugar streusel, apricot filling and an orange glaze in a pumpkin shaped pan--with some sprinkles of course, it IS a birthday party! The whole time we were singing "Happy Birthday" she was trying to blow out her candles. When we were done, she successfully extinguished them--she is our first child to blow out her own birthday candles! She was so excited about all her new toys that she hardly had any cake. Although, I did give her the scraps from carving the cake the day before and it was judged "nummy!"


As the festivities drew to a close and nap time was near, we managed to get all three of the girls rounded up for a birthday picture--here they are: 3, 2 and new:

Evelyn is turning 2!

Just 2 short years ago, we headed to the hospital to start an induction of labor to meet Evelyn. Hinting at Evelyn's active nature and enthusiastic personality, the labor and delivery were much faster than anticipated!

She had grown, learned and experienced so much in the last year.

In October, She dressed up as a bee and had her first experience trick or treating.

In November, she learned to walk, and she flew to Canada to visit friends with Mommy.

In December, her language skills really took off!

In January, she kept busy with housework, and weaned at the end of the month.

In February, she learned to pose for pictures with "CHEESE!" She got all 4 incisors in the same week, and she had her 15 month check up where she came in at the 90th percentile for height and weight at 27 pounds and 33 inches.

In March, she continued to climb on everything, from standing on top of her rocking horse to trapping her big sister under a laundry basket--I have yet to see a physical challenge she's not ready to try to best. We also found out in March that Evelyn would be a big sister!

In April, I was pretty sick, but Evelyn and Matilda stayed happy and busy dressing up as princesses, drawing, dancing, singing and watching princess movies. By this point, Evelyn was as heavily invested in princesses as Matilda. She was also learning to adore her baby dolls and enjoy longer more complex bedtime stories.

In May, we celebrated Easter. The girls went to a farm to hold chicks and bunnies and hunt for Eggs. The Easter Bunny left baskets full of goodies for them, Kim and Eric came to visit and we had a nice celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

In June, we celebrated Father's Day... twice! Evelyn had a wonderful bike ride and picnic with Daddy and the next weekend we gave him presents and had ice cream cake! She also had her toe nails painted for the first time, continued to enjoy playing dress up and climbing everything in the house.

In July, we celebrated Matilda's 3rd birthday. Evelyn and Matilda also spent nearly 2 weeks in Door County. 1 week while Ed and I were in Canada, and then a bit longer for the family reunion. Evelyn had a wonderful time meeting her cousins and swimming in the hot tub, taking walks, and playing on the swing set. She even started coppying her older cousins by trying to drink out of big-girl cups! At the end of the month, I took the girls to the Shedd Aquarium while Ed was at the Big Ten media day luncheon. They had a great time looking at the animals and even watching a movie!

In August, Ed went away on a guys' trip and Grandpa Mike came to stay with us for a week to help take care of the girls. We all had a great time.

In September, Uncle Eric came to visit and go to a football game with Ed. Evelyn was so smitten with Uncle Eric. She and the girls had a fantastic time playing with him and loved not having to share him. 2 months later, Evelyn still asks "Where's Uncle Eric?" when she wakes up from nap and wants to play! She can't wait for him to visit again--and bring Aunt Kim! In September we also noticed that Evelyn was having skin reactions to disposable diapers, so we started using cloth diapers for her. She's showing interest in potty training and hopefully we'll be ready to give that a go this winter!

In October, Evelyn was invited to join Matilda's preschool for their first field trip and she and Ed went along to Norton farm for a hay-ride, pumpkin and gourd picking, and met a chicken! We have also been busy enjoying fall and Halloween activities--making caramel apples, painting pumpkins, shopping for Halloween costumes, sampling Halloween candy, reading spooky stories and watching fun kids' Halloween movies. And, the highlight of this month so far, baby Adelaide was born! Evelyn loves her baby sister and is very interested in what she is doing, making certain she's not crying, giving hugs and kisses and saying, "she's so cute!"

Tomorrow we will celebrate as my baby turns 2!

One Week Old

Adelaide had her first check up today. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces when she was born, but down to 6 pounds 5 ounces the day we went home. Today, she was already back up to 6 pounds 13.5 ounces, so she's growing really well! She's still a very content and healthy baby, is fitting in nicely and is getting cuter every day!

Adelaide Vivienne

As you well know, this has been a difficult and complicated pregnancy. Once we got close to the end, I had frequent monitoring, and very suddenly had some concerning bloodwork and symptoms to point to me possibly having cholestasis like I did with Evelyn. For the baby's safety, my doctor decided to induce at 37 weeks.





The induction went smoothly. I recieved my first dose of pitocin at 4:00am on Friday, October 21st and 9 hours and just 1 push later, we welcomed our third daughter, Adelaide Vivienne Gustafson, into this world. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces (the last ultrasound over-estimated her weight by more than a pound!) and 20.5 inches long. She has very dark brown, soft baby hair, dark blue eyes we suspect will turn brown, pale blonde eyebrows and a very pleasant pink complexion. She's long and thin but very healthy.




She took to nursing well right after birth and is generally a very sleepy and content newborn. Matilda and Evelyn absolutely love her and they want to look at her, touch her, hug her, hold her, kiss her and talk about her all the time. We are slowly adjusting to our new larger family and a more packed routine. I am recovering well and Adelaide continues to eat well, sleep, and be a perfectly happy healthy newborn despite being 3 weeks early. We are all so happy and blessed to be adding another healthy baby to our family.

Matilda's school took their first field trip today and invited younger siblings to attend as well. The kids went to Norton Farm where they took a hay ride, picked out pumpkins, gourds and corn, met a chicken, and walked through a corn maze. They had a great time at the farm and brought home a bag of apples to make caramel apples with this weekend. We also plan to paint the pumpkins they picked out and display them on the front porch for the trick-or-treaters.







Althought it is uncharacteristically warm here right now, you can't help but be in an Autumnal state of mind when your kitchen table is covered in mini gourds and your cute little girls keep asking when they can go on a hay ride again!