Halloween and some Thankfulness

Hey every body. I hope that you all had a fun Halloween. Ours was pretty great.

I'm not going to pretend that I didn't come super close to having a break down because if I did my loving husband would give me the eyes of judgement because he knows the truth.

Halloween is a really fun Holiday that I never enjoyed until I became a mother.

When I was a kid my mom was less than enthusiastic about Halloween and we often went to the dentist in Utah on Halloween because it is also Nevada day and we didn't have school. We never decorated, I think that I had costumes but not any one stands out in my memory. The highlight was always the Halloween Carnival that the FFA would do every year.

The whole town looks forward to that.

When my sisters started having kids they would make their kids the cutest costumes every year and I couldn't wait for my turn.

I have made my kids costumes every year since Madeline was 9 months old with the exception of Madeline's 2nd Halloween when her, Carter and Andrey were the Backyardigans. Every year since then she has chosen her own costume. completely her ideas. I welcome the challenge and believe me there have been a few challenges.

Even though I stressed out about Halloween this year I gained a new appreciation for what makes Halloween special.

I saw Madeline at her school Halloween Party thinking that she was the bees knees. Everybody thought that her costume was pretty cool but, she thought that her costume was "awesome". She takes choosing her costume pretty serious and I love that she has no doubt that what ever she comes up I can make it.

So far so good.

I started to think about/notice all of the extra attention that kids get from their parents on Halloween. Help with their costumes and walking through the neighborhood trick or treating. It is no wonder kids get so excited over Halloween.

If you take away all of the hype of candy and costumes you have left some unique quality time with your kids.

That is what I loved about Halloween this year.

I love the time with my kids, I love the excitement when they see their costumes become what they had envisioned. Andrey and Madeline (best buds since they were babies) getting to trick or treat together was great, their excitement was unstoppable. Bradley was included in everything with the big kids and he LOVED that. He kept yelling their names like he was surprise that they were hanging out with him.

This was the Halloween were Bradley figured it out. He was so cute. He was excited to be a "hiyah bird" even though he really didn't realize what dressing up meant. He carried his costume around for days after I finished it but wouldn't put it on. For the pictures I had to wrestle him into it and he loved it immediately. He even asked to put it on today. When he came home with a bucket full of candy..... he could hardly handle the reality.

So, despite the extra spicy chile and the extra stick of butter in the cheese cake It was the best Halloween yet.

Now for the Thankfulness part of this post.

For the month of November I am going to TRY and post every day something that I am thankful for. I'm not going to promise because going from posting once every 2 months to posting every day might be too big of a leap for me but I will try.

I have so many blessings in my life and I need to appreciate them more.

I think that this will help me see how great I have it.

November 1st, 2011

I am thankful for Jared for taking off the afternoon from work so that I could help with Madeline's Halloween Party, for putting brother down for a nap so that he would be sweet for Halloween, for doing the dishes, for trying to calm me down when things didn't go how I'd planned, and for Trick or Treating with the kids so that I could have a minute to chill out. I love you. You are the sweetest.

P.S. Thanks to Jared, Hayley and Garrett for eating the chile. You didn't have to but it made me feel better that you did.