Halloween

I personally am not a big fan of Halloween, GASP!! I know. But Halloween never has represented to me good and fun things. Sure growing up I loved getting candy, what child doesn't, and sure I loved dressing up in whatever was my passion at the time but for most of my teenage life and all of my adult life I just haven't liked Halloween.

First of all I HATE being scared. I even try to watch old favorites like Hocus Pocus but just find myself entirely uninterested. Not saying that Hocus Pocus scares me, just anymore it doesn't create in me any feelings I find I enjoy. Since becoming a mother I have liked it even less as becoming a mother seems to have increased my sensitivity. Plus I really don't like the whole "give me candy, give me presents, thanks for nothing" mindset. Thanksgiving has always, and will probably forever be, my favorite holiday.

But I am not an entire stick in the mud. I'm not going to be the type that will not allow my children to enjoy the holiday but I am definitely not going to treat the holiday like the best in the world. So I did put together a costume for Audree and she was quite adorable. She was Minnie Mouse and she loved wearing her Minnie outfit. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures but if I am in the mood to dress Audree up some day I'll take pictures as proof of how adorable Audree was as Minnie Mouse. We didn't put quite as much effort into Arya seeing as she's still a baby and all. But we did have a cute little tutu so she wore that.

So Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. I had volunteered to make chili for the dinner and spent the better part of my afternoon making a large pot of it. I felt like I worked my butt off and had to deal with two kids in the most rotten of moods, which of course put me in a rotten mood, and in the end there was very little payoff. The ward party was pretty lame. I got there already miffed to find out that I brought chili just so people could eat it. I thought there would be a competition and seeing as in my last ward I got the 1st place prize in that chili cookoff I was excited to see what I could achieve in this ward. So I was slightly bummed after that and then anxious to eat some yummy chili Mark comes back to tell me that my chili was already pretty much gone! I am glad people liked my chili so much but I was so looking forward to having some. I guess the upside is that Mark told me chili was the only one that was gone. So even though there was no contest I was happy to know that my chili was enjoyed by everyone who was able to get there before it was gone.

The rest of the activity was lame. The games were all for the kids and were too advanced for somebody Audree's age. So she played with the toys in the nursery for a little bit, we decided that we didn't want to stick around for the trunk or treat and we left. Lame I know. But my night was better enjoyed being home with my husband and not dealing with the stress of being at that party. And right when we got home we put the girls to bed and had some time to ourselves. Now that is time well spent, to me.

The following night we had a good amount of trick or treaters which was pretty exciting. Back when we lived in the condo's our friends Jill and Tyler would stop by with their girls and that was about it. We'd maybe get one other trick or treating group and usually they were teenage boys.

And that was our Halloween. Now that it's over I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. Nothing is better to me then spending time with family, eating the best food in the world and being able to forget life's worries for at least a day, usually a weekend since Mark gets the day after Thanksgiving off from work. And not that we should only be thankful for what we have only one month of the year, but I am always glad for the yearly reminder, in case I forgot or wasn't doing so good.

And so we enter into another November. For me "the holidays" are here. Another year has passed and tis the season to not only be happy and joyous but to remember all the good things in life.

It's funny right now for me to think that a year ago come Thanksgiving day, I found out that our little rascally Arya was a girl! I was so psyched that my aunt, who is an ultrasound tech(forgive me for not knowing the proper title), offered to take me to find out the gender and just as I knew she would be we found out Arya was a girl! A year later and my baby is 6 months old, our life has changed dramatically, and I have so much to be thankful for. I love the holidays!