Snapshots of Halloween

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. It turned out to be a pretty fabulous day, other than the fact that I started to not feel so hot while trick or treating with the kids. Turns out Hals and I have strep throat. Whooo hoo. Don't worry, we are on our antibiotics and in 24 hours we will be as good as new.

Really, though, the day was actually kind of emotional for me. Why? Because it was one year ago, Halloween 2012, that we were officially assigned to Flor.  That point was the beginning of everything. I can't believe it has been a year. Seriously. It seems like we just barely got home from Ecuador (granted that was a good 4 months after the assignment, but still!). I remember the emotions, the stress, the craziness so well from last year. And here we are, a year later. You might all just want to get prepared; I might be writing some emotionally charged posts the next little while as I remember what we were going through last year. I think yesterday was a good reminder for me to be grateful. Last year, I wanted so badly to just have Flor home and to be a family, and look- here we are! We have been a family for this long and at this point last year, I couldn't even fathom being here. It seemed so out of reach.

So, let's start November with a little bit of gratitude. I am grateful that we were able to complete Flor's adoption and that she is home and part of our family. I am grateful that the process went as smoothly as it did (though if you would have asked me during it I would have told you otherwise). I am grateful that Heavenly Father answers prayers and hears the cries of His children. I am grateful that Flor is sealed to our family and has access to the blessings that come from that sealing. So many blessings to think about as I reflect on my thoughts and desires from one year ago.

How easily distracted I am! How about some Halloween pictures. I didn't do that great with taking pictures as rangling three kids alone is tough enough (I think Devin has worked every Halloween since we have been married. Or at least since we have had kids.)

Cute doggy. He took his role seriously and went around saying "woof, woof!" 

Well these are out of order, but here are our lame pumpkins. Seriously, can't anyone just do normal pumpkins like us so we don't have to feel bad about ourselves that we don't know how to carve a black cat on a fence with a skeleton and a witch hat with the words "happy halloween" and the family motto? Geez. 

We went trick or treating downtown with some of our  neighbors. It was really nice to have the older girls help me with Hallie while I pushed Flor and Jace. Isn't the monster costume so awesome? These kids often babysit for me too and our kids just love them. So great to have such fantastic neighbors.

Apparently these two were having a thrilling time. Jace smeared his dog nose about 1 minute after it went on. Oh, well. And i know this is off topic, but I just can't help but look at Flor's face and think how beautiful she is. She really is so pretty. I can say that because I didn't have anything to do with it. :) 

It was only after we got home from downtown and Hallie got home from further trick or treating with the neighbors (the other two were done so we came home and had dinner) that I realized that I didn't have any pictures of just Hals in her costume. So here is the Princess in her sagging dress. Still cute.

I just get a kick of out this. Flor rocked that costume. haha. 

I took Flor out to the bus and then came back in to find Hallie getting Jace dressed in his costume. It was darling. I hadn't planned on having everyone go full costume mode all day, but whatever makes them happy, right?

Seriously so out of order. Jace helped me hand out candy at the door and he was so excited about it. He would drop one candy in one kid's bucket, then five in the next kid's bucket. There was no rhyme or reason to it, it just had to be his way. Such a cute boy.

Aaaaaand, that's a wrap. Bring on the rest of the holiday season!! I don't LOVE Halloween like some people do, but I do love it for the fact that it is the beginning of the whole holiday season, which I do LOVE. I am busting out the Christmas music officially. Sorry honey.