Welcome Abigail Carleen Ausenhus!!

On October 26, at 7:01 a.m., we welcomed our new baby girl into the world! Abby weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and measured 20 3/4 inches long. She is so very precious and an absolute doll!

If her arrival is a precursor to anything about her personality, watch out! From my first contraction to delivery time was only 2 hours. We obviously weren't expecting things to progress so fast, waited to make sure the contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart, and arrived at the hospital at about 6:30, thank goodness. I will say that I did walk into the hospital (which in retrospect, was probably not the smartest decision) but required a wheelchair by the time we reached the doors. By the time I actually made it into the delivery bed, I was dilated 9 centimeters and from there, the rest is history! We are so blessed to now have two beautiful, healthy children! Words can't express our love for each of them!

Abby was named after my mother, Carleen, who was the most loving, caring person I have known. I know there are two very proud grandparents smiling down from heaven!

Fall Fun

I love fall! I love the weather, the colors of the trees, football, the food, and all the fun activities that fall tends to bring. We've been trying to soak it up as much as possible over that past few weekends, as we wait in anticipation for Baby Girl to make her appearance, which is now less than two weeks away.

Last weekend, Ben and I went up to ride in the combine with Uncle Nick. Ben was in complete awe the entire time. In fact, he said only about 3 words for the entire hour we rode. However, we didn't even make it out of the field drive to go home before he exclaimed, "That was really fun!" He now talks about the combine daily and is constantly playing with his little plastic version, pretending to dump corn into the wagon.

We also went on a fall walk around ISU's campus several weekends ago. When we parked, we realized we could hear the ISU marching band practicing. Ben was able to watch for several of their songs and even see them march past us when they were finished. We had a great time pulling Ben around campus in his wagon and reminiscing about the good old days of college, while admiring the pretty trees. We finished the morning with a stop at an Ames favorite, Hickory Park, where Ben thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream, as you can see from the picture below as he is trying to drink up every single last drop!

Yesterday, Ben, Grandma, and I went to Center Grove Orchard to pick out a pumpkin. We found that it was much more than just pumpkins and apples! Ben enjoyed looking at animals, jumping in a corn pool, eating lunch, and even going down a super slide with Grandma. We were all worn out by the time we actually picked out a pumpkin!

Ben is eagerly looking forward to Halloween and is insistant that he wants to be a ghost for Halloween. He reminds us often that he will scare us when he says, "Boo!" He has also informed Brant that he should dress like a bear and that he wants me to be a cat. We'll see about that...

Well, I hope that our next post will be announcing the birth of Baby Girl! The pregnancy has flown by and we are very excited about finally meeting our daughter!

A Ride on Thomas the Tank Engine

Today was a big day! We braved the cold, rainy weather and Ben took a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine at the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad! Despite the glum look on his face in front of Thomas (probably because of the downpour), he really seemed to enjoy himself. When I put him down for a nap this afternoon, my heart melted when I whispered, "I had a fun time with you on Thomas today," and he whispered back, "Yeah, me too." Who knew two parents could be just as excited to see Thomas as their two year old? Or, should I more accurately say, just as excited to see the reaction and wonder of their two year old!

New Overalls

This weekend the temperatures were in the 50s and the rain was falling... and we discovered Ben didn't have a single pair of pants that fit him. This called for an emergency trip to Kohl's for some new fall clothes, none of which Ben approved of except for these adorable overalls. He wore these the remainder of the day! Of course, today was back in the muggy 80s, so all those new pants will have to wait a little bit longer!

On that note, my personal request to mother nature would be that the temperature could just stay at 72 degrees with low humidity until baby girl arrives. This way, I could continue to wear my comfy, less restrictive summer maternity clothes and sandals, and yet not have to sweat constantly or just always feel so hot. Five and half weeks until the due date!

What a Month!

Before beginning this post, I was looking back at our photos of vacation at the lake so nostalgically! I was again craving the peacefulness of the lake and the relaxation of summer. August has proven to be a rather interesting month in our household! Here is a recap:

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One of the highlights of this month was a weekend trip to Houston for my cousin's wedding. This was Ben's first ride on an airplane and his first stay in a hotel. He was equally excited about riding the shuttle buses at the airport, which would also be his first bus ride. The trip went very smoothly and it was fun to see a lot of my family while we were there. However, we found ourselves slightly exhausted due to the quick trip and the quick turn around of Brant leaving on another business trip at 5:00 am the morning after our return.

Another highlight in the few last weeks was a quadruple baby shower with college friends. Four of us are all due between October 1st and the 29th. I had so much fun catching up with the girls and enjoying lots of laughs! Thanks for a great time, girls!!

Ben continues to grow and amaze us. Lately, he loves to help me cook. We have been making lots of zuchini recipes with the many zucchinis from our garden. He also discovered that frosting cupcakes is most fun when you just eat the frosting! I really can't make any sort of baked good anymore without him wanting to "help." Ben has also recently shown a fascination with sharks, especially hammerhead sharks, which has led to some interesting conversations. Another new thing is that Ben has begun to be concerned about scary things. We're not sure where this stemmed from, as this is the kid that has never flinched at a thunderstorm and always slept with his door closed, but lately, he has expressed concern over scary voices (such as those on books on CD in the car) and noises at night. It is, no doubt, another phase we are entering, but I'm always so interested in how these things just seem to suddenly appear.

Another highlight lately is that I began my new position as an instructional coach this month. I've been back at work for several weeks, which is always a transition from summer. So far, things have been going really well and I'm enjoying the new challenges!

When I said we have had an interesting month, I didn't mean it all in the most positive way. Amid all the flooding in Iowa, we were one of the thousands of people who ended up with a wet basement. I woke up on one of the many mornings after a night full of rain and looked out the window to see our pond higher than I've ever seen it, our dock completely submerged, our neighbors pontoon gone and retaining wall collapsed, and a paddle boat in our backyard (which was not our paddle boat). The picture I've included above was actually taken the morning before night of the "big rain." Additionally, our cats would not leave me alone that morning, so I decided to go downstairs to see what was wrong. Sure enough, I reached the bottom of our stairs to find water all over the hard surface floors in our utility and storage area. I then discovered that the entire carpeted area of our basement was also wet. URG! To make a very long story short, after much frustration and our house beginning to smell like a sweaty sock, we finally were able to get a company to our house four days later and were immediately told that the carpet needed to be ripped out, along with the bottom two feet of dry wall throughout the entire basement. Since then we've also confirmed that it was a drain outside our basement door that was overwhelmed. Luckily, we didn't have any furniture downstairs and most things we were storing were in rubbermaid tubs, so we didn't lose any personal belongings. We weren't really using our basement as a living area yet, although we were planning to relocate our guest bedroom down there. We are much, much more fortunate than so many other people, so I'm trying to keep our inconvenience in perspective!

To top it off (and yes, we are laughing about this now, but I definitely wasn't before), in the last week we have lost water due to a pressure gauge in our well breaking, had issues with Brant's office phone, and a small, easy to fix breakdown of our air conditioner. All of these are now fixed. Ha, ha, ha...!