Happy Halloween

10/31

I had to work the early 5:30 am shift today, so Steven was in charge of getting all the kids ready and off to school and the sitters this morning. I'd made sure I did all the prep work I could for him though which included laying out the kids clothes, Mason's costume, making his snacks for his class party (PB & celery monsters), and making our lunches for work. 

Mason was so excited that he got to wear his ninja costume all day at school. Dad got him to the early PE a little to early, so while they waited for the doors to be unlocked he snapped this picture of him.

 Thankfully I got off work at 2 and was able to pick up the kids from Josie's and get Mason from school. Emma and Landon had fun helping Josie's kids clean out pumpkins today while Mason had a fun Halloween party at school. However he was complaining of a belly ache when I picked him up from all the treats and snacks that they ate! When we got home I let the kids open their Halloween cards from Grandma Wilson, and they were excited about the dollars inside!!

Later Mason was doing his reading online with the help of his sibling sidekicks.

While they were all downstairs reading I set the kitchen up for a Halloween dinner surprise. I'd wanted to make it really fun for them, but then we had so much going on that I wasn't able to get all the stuff I'd wanted. I still tried to make it fun for them though by making purple "spooky" rice and pink juice. 

They thought it was cool, but it was still a fight to get them to eat their dinner. I think they were just way to excited about going trick-or-treating! Since Steven didn't go home till just before 6 I had to get all the kids ready for tonight and it was a rush to do that. Our neighbors the Dolton's invited us to go trick-or-treating with them at 6, so once Steven did get home he had to hurry and eat dinner so he could go with us. 

All the kids ready to do some trick-or-treating!

We headed across Garden street into the bigger neighborhood by us and just worked our way down the street and into the cul-da-sacs. The kids had so much fun going with their friends and would race each other to the houses, but poor Landon was so much slower and really struggled to catch up to them. We ended up having to carry him to most houses and just let him walk to the door. He really loved carrying his pumpkin and getting candy, but got tuckered out pretty quickly. He sure was cute though as were all the other kids and they looked like they'd robbed a candy store by the time we headed home. 

I didn't feel like we went to that many houses, but I think they got multiple pieces at each house so they had a ton of candy by the time we were done around 6:45. It worked out perfectly for us to get home in time for them to have a piece of candy, and get ready for bed.

Checking out their haul!

Then of course mom and dad got our pick of their candy while we sat down to watch a scary movie, which turned out to be not so scary though! It was a fun Halloween, and I'm actually pretty relieved to have it over with.

Trying...

This was the first month that we began trying for another baby, and despite my best efforts to not get my hopes up I did anyways. We've been very blessed in the past to always get pregnant on the first try, or without even trying like with Mason and this last baby. However, I had a feeling that since having the d&c that things might be different this time around, because who knows what effect that has had on my body. Well my 28 days had come and still no period, so my hopes started getting higher, but on Tuesday morning the 25th all those hopes came crashing down. It felt like a sucker punch to the gut and all I wanted to do was fall apart and bawl my eyes out. I pushed my urge to have a full on pity party for myself away and got on with the morning. I had lots to get done and there was no time to fall apart. The waves of sadness have come and gone all week as I've coped with the reality that this may not happen as quickly as I'd hoped for. I know it's only been one month of trying, but as our due date is coming up I can't help but think about what should have been. I have so many friends having babies soon and others announcing their pregnant and although I am happy for all of them, it just hurts to not be among them. Then today out of nowhere as I'm driving around town looking at houses with the kids Emma starts talking about how she wished the baby hadn't died so we could have a baby. She kept asking if Heavenly Father would send us another baby, and it killed me to tell her that I don't know, but that I hope he will. I really really hope he will and I'm trying to have faith in his plan for our family and in his timing.

In the meantime I'm glad I have this silly boy who can always put a smile on my face and make me laugh! 

Visiting Teaching and Lots of Leaves

This morning while Mason was at school I took the other two with me to go visiting teaching with my companion and her youngest daughter, but unfortunately the sister we were visiting forgot about our appointment and went out of town. Before we got a hold of her to find that out though the kids were enjoying her front yard swing. It was such a beautiful fall day today. 

After we got Mason from school we stopped at a park to play, but it was very short lived due to Emma needing to go potty only minutes after we got there. I only got this one picture of Mason and Emma playing a game of tic-tac-toe. 

Once we got home it was still to nice out to be inside and the kids were determined to make a pile of leaves that they could jump in, so they worked hard to make one. They did a lot of it themselves, and only needed a little help from mom. 

They then had a blast jumping into the pile and throwing all the leaves up in the air. This is the first house we've lived in with them where we have had mature trees that drop this many leaves. I've tried to keep up on them, but 5 minutes after I fill a couple bags a wind gust will come by and it looks like I never did anything. I've now decided just to let the kids enjoy them for as long as they want and when they've all finally fallen then we'll clean them up, hopefully before the first snow. 

DMV, Leaves, and Trunk or Treat

This morning started off early with dropping Mason off at school and then taking the other two with me to the Loveland DMV so I could get our car registered here in Colorado. The registration on our car expires on Halloween, so I really had to get it done today. I double and triple checked my documents to make sure I had all the right stuff before going so I didn't have another incident like with my drivers license. We got there at 8:30 and they already had a full room. The kids went quickly through their snacks and had already lost interest in the tablet I'd brought and watching shows on my phone by the time we got called an hour later. As the lady was starting the process she said I had everything I needed, but then realized we didn't live in Larimer county and apparently they only do it by counties here and I was at the wrong DMV again!!! I seriously was holding back the tears as I gathered up my paperwork and the kids and headed back to the car. I could not believe we'd just wasted all that time sitting at the wrong place! We then had to drive out to the Greeley DMV which took a good 30 minutes, thankfully they weren't busy and our number got called right away! I was so relieved, because I don't think we could have handled another long wait. I was able to get both cars registered and we were out of there by 10:45! It felt so good to have it all down, but it sure did feel like a big waste of time.

Later in the day after we got Mason home from school the kids wanted to play outside in the leaves, so that's what we did. 

While they were playing in the leaves I was busy getting the van decorated for the trunk or treat at the church tonight and pulling out the kids costume. Emma decided to be Beauty after seeing the new nightgown I got her and Landon wore the dragon costume we had from Mason. The kids were so excited and I could barely get them to sit down and eat dinner before getting into their costumes. 

Once Steven we got home we headed over to the church and got there 10 minutes early and found almost an empty parking lot. It was supposed to start at 6:30, but I think it was pushing almost 7 before enough people were there to start trick or treating. 

I took the kids around while Steven stayed in the van and scared the kids with the monkey puppet.

The Johnson's decked out car. 

 There weren't many cars so we were done with our round pretty quickly, so I let the kids get a donut and sit down to eat them. 

In hindsight I should have taken them around again, as I saw the same kids go around 3 and 4 times! When I started seeing kids for like the 6th time I decided to close up the van and let Steven out. It was already 7:30 and the kids were looking tired so we headed home to get them in bed. 

Gymnastics

I officially signed Mason and Emma up for gymnastics today and they went for their second time tonight. We stayed for the full 2 hours this time watching both Mason and Emma and I decided that is just way to long to sit on uncomfortable benches and try and entertain a 2 year old! They had a lot of fun though and I got a few pictures of Mason learning to do flips on the trampoline.

A Visit from Anne

My good friend and old neighbor from Logan was driving through Colorado today with her sister Jamie after attending a funeral in Illinois and was able to stop by in Windsor to have brunch with me and the kids! I'm feeling so blessed today that I actually got to see her and spend an hour with her. I was reminded  how much I miss having such a good friend around and of course miss having her just 2 doors down! 

They stopped by our humble abode for a quick tour and potty break before we headed to McDonalds for some brunch so the kids could play while we chatted. I love that it felt like no time had even passed between us and the hour just flew by as we chatted. It really did make my whole day to be able to see her and have some real "girl talk" again! Thanks for the visit Anne, come back anytime!  

Silly Sitcker Pumpkins

This evening after dinner I pulled out the pumpkin stickers so the kids could decorate their pumpkins. These were last years stickers so they weren't sticking to the pumpkins very well this year, but the kids still had fun making silly faces on their pumpkins. I decided I much prefer this to carving pumpkins, it's way faster and way less messy! Mason still really wants to carve his so I might not have gotten out of it completely, but we'll see.

Saying Good-Bye

I've been dreading this day all week as I'm not prepared to say good-bye to my parents for the next 2 years! It seems so unreal. They wanted to get on the road early and planned to leave after I got back from taking Mason to school so I made sure everyone was up and ready to say good-bye to them and take some pictures. It'll be crazy to see how much our kids have changed when they see their grandparents again! 

When I got back from taking Mason we said our final good-byes and they got on the road. Emma and Landon watched them drive away and all I could think was that they have no real understanding of how long it will really be before they are hugged by them again. 

Honestly I can't even let myself think about how long it's going to be or I'm going to get really depressed! All I keep thinking about is what an amazing experience this is going to be for them and I'm going to start planning my trip out to Australia to see them! 

We love you mom and dad, thank you for such a great visit! We already miss you!

Church and Games

My parents were able to attend church with us today and then following church they played Candyland with the kids.

 Of course no game is complete at our house if someone doesn't end up crying and being a poor sport about losing. Today that person was Emma who got her feelings hurt and ran off crying to her room. Steven had to go talk to her and calm her down before she'd come back and play. 

This evening grandma was trying to teach our little two their letters. They were being quite silly during it though, props for trying mom!

Meanwhile Mason did his reading with Steven. 

While my parents have been here Mason has been sleeping on a toddler mattress in our room. When we went down to go to bed tonight we found him asleep like this. I have no idea how he could sleep like that!