Christmas 2010--belated. Don't judge.

Sighhhhhh, I love Christmas. Here are some memories from Christmas 2010:

Our ward Christmas party began with small-group carolling to some of the less-active members or to those who have a hard time getting out to church. It was so much fun!

We also got to meet Santa. When I told Cadence that she would meet Santa at the church party, she excitedly asked, "Mom, you mean I'm going to get to hang out with Santa!?!" They COULD NOT wait.

Here Cadence tells Santa all about the picture she colored just for him:

campbell and santa

layla and santa
I felt so bad! But I had to try.

The week before Christmas-week, I had spent a lot of time baking, making homemade gifts, and dipping pretzels, and thank goodness I had. Because the Flu was our only Christmas visitor. Spencer seemed to be sick for a few days, but he toughed it out pretty well. Cadence and I got it, too, but the babies never did (thank goodness). Cadence ran a fever on and off for three days and was very fatigued and had a head ache and other aches and pains going on. She was miserable.

Christmas Eve came and we thought we'd seen the worst of her symptoms, but instead she got worse.

That evening, just as we were setting up for our "Shepherds' Dinner" (dress up like shepherds and wisemen and eat hummus, couscous, pita bread, etc.) old Murphy put his law to work. (Dang you, Murphy!)

It was a peaceful, serene moment, something that never happens at our house. I was playing on the floor with Cam and Layla and looked up to see Cadence shivering on the couch, her eyes a little glazed. I got up on the couch and held her on my lap, trying to warm her. Spencer was building a cozy little fire in our fireplace. Just then, Cadence started to spew! All over me! Remember that I hadn't been feeling well myself, so I was doing my best not to chain-react. I yelled at Spencer to quickly find something forher to barf into, and up he jumped. As he ran to the kitchen, and Cadence continued to decorate me with her unhappy stomach contents, I miraculously noticed that Layla had climbed up onto the fireplace and was inches away from the fire. "LAYLA STOP!!" I yelled (looking back, I think I was literally paralyzed with puke), which gave her pause enough to buy Spencer enough time to run back and get her before she climbed into the fire. Meanwhile, "Old Faithful" was faithfully outdoing herself, and so Spencer ran back to the kitchen, Layla under arm, and grabbed a pie tin. Somewhere in all the chaos Spencer noticed that the house was filling up with smoke and that he had forgotten to open the vent (is it called a "flue"?) in the chimney. Well, we're new to this home-owner thing and have no implements for our fire, like a poker stick. So as he checks back in the kitchen to see that Layla is still safely distracted, he runs to grab his work gloves, comes back, singes the hair off his arms and burns his thumb but is able to open the "flue", and manages to get a few pictures of Cadence and I, sitting shocked and disturbed on the couch.

It took a few minutes to get myself to move. It was gross.

Here's the Shepherd's dinner, a few minutes later than scheduled, due to barf and shower.

Layla got to dress as an angel for the Shepherd's dinner, and she found great joy in this. The rest of the costumes didn't make it to dinner, for fear that they would be barfed on.

That night Cadence received a priesthood blessing from her daddy and Bishop Chandler. By Christmas morning, she was herself again! I kept trying to tell her to "pace yourself" and to rest frequently so that she wouldn't hit a wall (which I had done repeatedly the last few days), but she never did listen, and she never did hit any walls. Thank goodness for the priesthood.

This Christmas was the most fun yet for Spencer and I. As the kids get older and are able to share excitement over it all, it becomes such a hay day for us!

Here, Cadence sits on her "sick bed" and wonders what lies beneath the sheets that Santa borrowed to cover the goods. Campbell gets her first glimpse of Santa's offerings:

.

We await the big reveal

And this is what's waiting for us:

There were several gifts that halted the present-opening process. Some of the gifts that they just had to play with first were the 4-wheelers, the legos, dressups, lace-up cards (from Mammaw and Gramps), Rapunzel book with music player (from Grandma and Grandpa O), and the zhu-zhu pets

Layla loved her Bullseye (Toy Story) rocking horse,

and had mixed feelings about her Rex (also from Toy Story), which she got from Mammaw. The Rex toy is about 60% of her height and when you squeeze it it makes a strange duck-like roar, which Layla is perfectly able to mimic. It frightens and fascinates her all at once. She is so interested in it, yet it makes her scramble for something safe to cling to whenever she hears it's "roar". She talks to it like it's a person, which is not normal for her to do with toys. She touches it's nose and even tries to hug it, but then recoils in fear. She's slowly getting over her trust issues, but meanwhile Spencer and I are entertained and yet nervous at how similar the relationship is to one of abusive boyfriend/needy girlfriend. Spencer and Layla have a moment with Rex:




Layla also couldn't move beyond this card from Mammaw that was inside one of her gifts.

It's like the Fairy Godmother came: All dressed and ready for their new ride.

We had a great day. We played and played and played! That evening we had planned to have several families over for dinner, but had to postpone until Sunday because of the illness we'd had. So Spencer and I thought, what is the most exciting dinner to Cadence and Campbell? BREAKFAST! So Breakfast for dinner it was. Including bacon, which I almost never allow into my home (it's like little sticks of heart-attack, the way I see it. Seems a little pointless to pay to bring that home).

The next day we had our belated Christmas dinner with some of our great friends here in AR: The Brooksbys, Dragoviches, Flemings, Gibbs, Halls, Johansens, and the Shephards. 16 adults, 23 kids, an 18-lb turkey (not cooked by me, thank you, Dragoviches), chicken ala king, tons of yummy potatoes, rolls, stuffing, fruit, veggies, and desserts, among other things, and a whole lotta holiday fun! We had so much fun. And I always love a good reason to clean the whole house. Seriously.

We missed our families this year, but we sure enjoyed hearing from them via phone and thinking of them and the fun times we had with them earlier in the year. Admittedly, it's hard to be so far from family at this time of year. We love our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins all very much, but we did enjoy being with our little family that is growing and changing so much.

I hope every Christmas is this magical....

And here's one more picture:

Thumbelina (A Tale of A New Thumb)

WARNING: This post contains graphic pictures of a wound. I made this for journaling purposes and for the medically curious mind. You've been warned. It's not the goriest, but it's not pretty. Do you dare?

Cadence's thumb accident occurred 2 months ago yesterday. Would you like to know if it's healed?

Here's the picture the day of the incident (gruesome, beware. You're just lucky it was taken with my phone):

Day one (this is the picture I txt to Spencer saying we were in the ER but we were fine )

Haha, I just remembered that yesterday Cadence took a big bite of a candy cane and observing the jagged shape and slimy red stump of the cane, said, "Mom! It looks just like my thumb did at the hospital!" And she was quite right.

Here are some of the stages. I took pictures at least every other day to track it's progress, but won't post them all here. I'm thinking of making one of those little photo flip books, though

Day 4

Day 4 comparison of two thumbs. The healthy one is slimy from a sucker that she was devouring as a way to calm her nerves, which were really tightly wound about removing her bandage:



Day 5


day 7 (taken at the wounds clinic)

At the beginning of November Cadence asked "Dr. Mac" (wounds specialist Dr. McEvoy) if she would have a finger nail on her newly sprouting thumb by the time Grandma and Grandpa Orton came to town--she really wanted to show them her new thumb! Dr. Mac said that he was sure that by Thanksgiving she would have a nail, at least part of one. And he was right!

Day 8 You can see the nailbed has formed partially


Day 15 I had attempted a smaller, sleeker form of bandage rather than the giant gauze wrapped in gauze covered by a brace and wrapped in sports-bandaging that went all around her hand and wrist. The smaller, sleeker version apparently tried to pickle the rest of her thumb. You can also almost see in this picture the "jewel", which she was quite proud of. At about this point a shiny pinkish bump formed in the center of her nail bed, as the shiny was being overtaken by healthy skin, and she was so pleased with how fancy it looked.

And since I've lost all our pictures for the last few weeks of November, we'll skip straight to...

Day 45, which was last week. It looks pretty much exactly like this right now:

The thumb is still a little shorter and stouter than her other, but she doesn't care. She's just excited that she can "move it around like a real thumb".

And sadly, I have to report that the original thumb is still in my fridge. It doesn't look quite like it used to. I keep telling myself that I'll throw it out on trash day, so that it can't just sit in my trash and haunt me, but I forget. And Spencer is still arguing that it's a good idea to keep it. (He's quite bitter about the doctors never relinquishing rights to his tonsils way back when he got them removed as a kid.)

And here's something fun: Guess how much this cost us in medical bills?

150.00 ER copay

114.51 Other ER stuff (hmmm, like the tsp of Tylenol + codeine? the water and gauze used to wipe down the OTHER FINGERS, since nobody even cleaned the actual wound?)

76.95 ER Physician (Spent 30 seconds in the room, if that, gave a sideways glance, never even looked right at me, declared, "nailbed gone, keep it covered", and left).

121.50 "NW Arkansas Surgical Group" (Wha? I literally have no idea)

144.80 Wounds Clinic (The only people who actually validated my concern and looked at the wound. But even they only cleaned and bandaged it back up.)

192.00 Wounds Clinic

226.86 Pediatrician (After unwrapping, she gasped and called the other ped in, who proclaimed, "OH MY! BLESS YOUR HEART! OH MY! MY OH MY!" And then they both said they had no idea what to do and sent me to the wounds clinic. Then the nurse came in and said she didn't know how to wrap it, wrapped it, and by the time we got to the car it had come unwrapped and I had to bandage it all over again, which was traumatic.)

So far, the grand total is 1046.62!

That may not seem like that much for an accident, but considering that NO medical procedures were performed, and almost nothing was done by the professionals.... I don't see myself paying all of these bills. I do see myself spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance and medical billing offices, two of the worst phone traps... maybe paying is better than that option.

Oh, and by the way, this does not include the three prescriptions (Tylenol + Codeine, Oral Antibiotic, topical antiobiotic, totalling only 12.00 thanks to Walmart), plus all the gauze, bandages, epsom salts, etc. All that probably would put the total closer to 1090.00ish.

I am so grateful that:

1. The accident was no worse than it was, which it could have been.

2. Cadence was so brave and tried to be as level-headed about it as she could.

3. This provided me with some very valuable experience and training for my future years as mother of Clives, lest anything worse should ever happen (Heaven forbid).

4. That friends and family were so helpful and supportive

5. That I haven't had to deal with much more blood since that event, as I've been a little beside myself everytime the kids so much as take a step on their own.

6. That it has healed so quickly and well, and that we didn't have to deal with any infections of the wound.

7. For modern pain medication that helped my little girl relax and get some relief in those first few days.

Happy New Thumb, Cadence! May it be the thumb that stays with you the rest of your life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAYLA!

Dear Layla,

Dec 12, 2009: 15 days old

Dec 9, 2010: One year later.

A few weeks ago you turned one! (The day you turned one we were making the full-day road-trip from Chicago back to Bentonville, and I've been praying that the pictures from your birthday party would miraculously return to us before I posted this, but now I think I'd better just say how wonderful you are at 12 months before you are not 12 months anymore!)

You are sheer joy. You excude it. You share it with strangers. You've used it to create a sort of force field around yourself, apparently protecting yourself from minor bumps and bangs (something's got to explain the way you seem to not notice 90% of the bumps and bangs, not to mention tugs and tackles). You spread it.

Life is sooo good!

You are also sheer noise. And sometimes sheer mess.

Let me tell you some of the great things that make you YOU:

You've recently learned to talk. Or at least you seem to think so. You babble in full sentences non-stop, except for the frequent pause allowing for responses, which are often, "Uh, okay. Really?" That seems to suffice and you go right on ahead with your babbling. For months you've been a great mimicker, and for even longer than that, you've had a quite successful growl. Now you growl, mimic, and babble! Such a good little companion.

You do have a few words under your belt. By your birthday you could say: Mama, Daddy, Layla ("Yaya"), Grandma ("baba"), hi, bye bye, and baby. These are all pretty clearly pronounced.

By your birthday you could take one or two steps, but usually only when tricked into doing so (like I wrench my fingers free while you are standing and taunt you with a desired object). A few weeks later as I write this, you are taking up to 5 steps at a time, usually on your own initiative--progress!

You love to eat. You love cheese most of all! You, like your sister, have Fructose Malabsorption, which means no fruit. Not even bananas for you! Which is too bad, because you love bananas and you know it. But you also love carrots and peas and the occasional chocolate cake. There's nothing I can think of that I put on your tray that you won't eat.

Although, since you only had 3 teeth by your first birthday, you still don't get much of anything exciting to eat. (Your 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th teeth have been in the works for about 5 weeks! Ouch!) I thought that the top two and the bottom two were alwasy pairs. What a funny little smile you have with just one top tooth, and it's been that way for months!

You have a little dimple on your right cheek, just like Campbell. I hope it stays. Your facial features and head shape are almost exactly like Cadence's, but you've got Campbell's dimple, coloring, and facial expressions.

Blessing Day: April 10, 2010

You sleep through the night about 5 times a week now (YAY!) and you bounce up and say "HI!" As soon as I come in to get you in the morning. Then you get all jumpy and excited in my arms as you look around the house for your sisters and daddy.

Your favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider", although you love any song with hand gestures or any finger plays. You love to clap along and I've heard you sing a few times, usually to church or Christmas songs, and not so much pop or other fast, lyric-y music.

You love your friends! You recognize the other little one-year-olds (there are several in our ward) and as soon as you see one you light up! You go towards them with beaming smile and babbling away, expecting them to throw open their arms and welcome you, it seems. But like most one-year-olds, they back off and get a little suspicious of you invading their space. It happens every time. It's so cute.

For the last few months, you've refused the pacifier. It seems to me that you figured out that I was only popping it in your mouth when I wanted to trick you into being calm and quiet (which isn't that often, since you are so happy most of the time). You'll take a pacifier if it is lying around and you put it in your mouth yourself, but if I try to put it in while you are upset, you reject it dramatically, as if to say, "I will NOT be pacified!!!"

You give the best hugs, you give sloppy kisses (verrry sloppy), you make everybody feel wanted. You are a mama's girl, though. You are busy, energetic, social, happy, adventurous, and pure. These things may be the things that make you who you are some day in the future. I hope that person is happy, balanced, and uses her gifts to bless the lives of others.

We love you Layla! Thank you for coming to our family. We wouldn't have it any other way. I mean that in the most sincere way possible.

Love,

Mom and Dad.

Grandma and Grandpa Orton Come/Thanksgiving in Chicago

Uh, does blogging just seem pointless when pictures are not the main subject? We lost our cameras. Both video and still. With a LOT of memories still on them. I want to cry. I REALLY REALLY want to cry. In fact, I want to SCREAM.



Mom and Dad Orton's visit.

Layla's FIRST birthday.

Thanksgiving in Chicago.

Cadence's new thumb.



Not to mention about 4 months worth of video, including a special Layla's Birthday Moment where we each said the things we love about Layla. How special was that going to be when she watches it as a 15-year-old?



Well, forget it. It's gone. gone gone gone. There's no sense in wallowing.... so I won't do it. Wallow, I mean. gone gone gone.....



WAaaaahaahahaaa. Sadness. Emptiness.



Okay, so I'll have to blog without my photo-journaling to guide me.



___________________



In spite of how sad I sound, there have been so many great and fun things to blog about!



My parents came to see us! Thanks to my generous Uncle Randall, who shared airline miles to send me my sisters AND my parents, we got to have Grandma and Grandpa Orton here for a weekend.



It was a quick trip but, in true Clive form, we managed to pack a heckuvalot into it. We hiked, we saw the sights of Bentonville (the home-office, the original "Walton's 5-10", etc.), we shopped at Walmart, we mountain-biked at Slaughterpen (sounds so lovley, doesn't it? It's loads of fun), we went to the big party on the square, we missed the lighting of the square (but saw it moments before and moments after), attended two churches (ours and the "Cross Church" which is a great southern church that is run so efficiently and effectively it's incredible), and threw a birthday party for Layla! And of course, played and played and played. A lot.



SoOO Fun! And we took such lovely pictures. Sigh. It's not the experience that was lost. Just the pictures. Keep telling yourself that... But seriously, without my pictures, I'm having a hard time recalling details. I've become dependent, for sure.

Cadence cried when they left. And inside, so did I. I haven't felt homesick at all since we moved here, but saying goodbye to my parents and wondering when in the world we would see them again made me feel REALLY far away. And oh-so-isolated. I really like my parents.

We really loved having them here. Getting to be with them and watch the girls get re-acquainted with them, sharing our life out here with them, and counseling with them.... So good for us.



LAYLA'S Birthday! I'll write a separate post for this special occasion; as is customary on this blog.



Thanksgiving in Chicago! Of all the things we have to be grateful for, one of the most obvious is our support network of friends and love ones in Chicago. It worked out perfectly to stay at the Robert's place (to all the many SFHS readers I have, this would be Dan and his oh-so-lovely wife Elise) while they were away for the weekend. That way we were close to everybody, but not right on top of them, and it was way more comfortable and homey than a hotel. So a great big thank you to the Roberts!

And that's not to say that there weren't a number of wonderful friends and a couple of cousins that would have totally made room for us in their apartments and let us totally crash their lives for a few days. We know you guys would have done it for us. But instead you let us take over your holiday plans and come and go as we pleased and fed us yummy yummy things. We are so grateful for the people we've loved in our past lives. We didn't get to see everybody that we would have loved to have seen, like the Barker's, Macnamara's, or the Giles (not that they were still there, but it was a little sad to not see them in Chicago), to name just a small few. But it was so fun to be able to spend time with the Snows, Hutchisons, Cliff and Gina, and some of the other business students. We also got to see Ella and Kristen our neighbors that had been such great neighbors!

We went to the Thanksgiving Day parade in Downtown Chicago, like we always did. We went with the Hutches, which was oh-so-fun! We had a DEEEEElicious Thanksgiving dinner provided by the Hutches, Bischof'fs, Palmers, Salazars, Milewskis, and Snows (a very handsome turkey), and let me tell you it was a bounteous bounty of satisfaction.

We stayed indoors the morning of Black Friday, which is my policy, until a little later in the day, when we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (sooo totally awesome!) with the Snows and the Hutches. We got to see the Christmas Tree display, which is something we have loved in the past. We also used our camera there a great deal to capture some of the love. And that's the last place it was seen by us.

Friday we also got to see Spencer's 1st cousin once removed James Evans and his really amazing family. We loved being in their ward in Chicago and getting to know them and learn from them. Sadly, Jeannie was working late and couldn't be there for the traditional day-after-turkey-soup-dinner/Settler's game, which Spencer won. The real winner, though, was Noah, who stilled played his "victory clip", which he made. It showed scenes of Catan with his grandma clapping and cheering, which he dubbed over like 50 times so it sounded like a crowd, and then his voice: "Thank you, thank you! LORD OF CATAN!" etc. It was so clever. That kid. Love those kids. That family. If we can be just a little bit the kind of parents that James and Jeannie are, we'd be in good shape.

Later that night (much later than it should have been), we watched "Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas", a Hutchison Family tradition-turned-Clive. It was so fun to see that with them, although, just like old times, most of the evening was spent breaking up fights, cleaning up spills, and keeping fingers out of the carbon monoxide alarm. Did I mention the Hutchisons are coming to AR!?! Yup.

Oh, my brain just turned to mush, so I'm going to back off on the details.

Some of the other noteable things we did were seeing the Lincoln Park Zoo's Christmas lights with Cliff and Gina and Reese and Maeve. What a wonderful family they are. It was great to be with them again and see the natural bond our kids have with one another.

And since the Robert's vacation couldn't last forever, we got to spend Saturday night at the Snows! We knew they would allow us to stay, no question. In fact, they said, "absolutely" before we even finished asking if we could stay with them one night. Which isn't surprising if you know them. Our girls love Matt, Mimi, and Josh. Oh, Josh. They love him. He is so much fun and so full of "vigor and vim"! That kid has a natural zeal for life. Tangent, sorry. But we love him, and mini-Josh, too. Whatever he's like :)

Oh, and Matt made us some super-good sandwiches. And we played Playstation Move Singstar something....it was so much fun!

So thanks to everybody, except if you are the body who stole my cameras. You didn't do anything to help me.

But seriously. We are so grateful for good friends and neighbors and family who have supported us all these years. For our brothers and sisters, too. For our wonderful, wonderful parents. And for our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Had Me at "HALLOW"

I had to let the dust settle a bit before I could blog about it.

We Clives love Halloween. Did you know? We do. If there is one holiday we feel we have the natural talent to excel at, it's this one. And this year, I feel satisfied, as if I fulfilled my potential. I didn't decorate as much as I would like. I threw no magazine-worthy party, but still, we had an award winning Halloween.

Halloween on a Sunday meant a weekend of celebrations! And the whole week before, since I didn't want to do all the little things I planned on doing for the holiday on the Sabbath, like make ghost cookies or glowing beverages, etc.

Friday we sent Cadence off to preschool in her costume and then we met up with her for the last hour for a party. The girls really loved being together at school.

I have to admit that as soon as I got them all in their costumes I was overcome with cuteness. All day.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, please don't ruin your hair that I braided myself...for days at a time...

Cutest Hotdog ever!

And you might seriously consider sitting down for this one. It may be more cuteness than you're prepared to handle. I give you: Dorothy Gale:

rapunzel+dorothy:

After the party, playgroup, then home for well-timed naps before we got back into our costumes and headed out to trick-or-treat at Walmart's "home office". This was very exciting and many departments went all out with treats and decorations.

This department went all out on their "How To Train Your Dragon" Theme. They spared no detail.

Rapunzel and Dorothy deftly maneuver their way through the spooky corridors of the Walmart Corporate office. Rapunzel drags a hotdog in a stroller behind her to watch her six. Clever.

We went home and fell into our couches and wondered if we'd have the energy to keep up a whole weekend of this. Then our friends, the Flemings, came over and we worked into the night preparing our over-the-top trunk-or-treat castle. Having matching vans, we couldn't resist this opportunity to team up. Tara and I put a coat of paint on a few boxes, sighed, and declared the work "done!" and then Spencer and Dan went out and finished the job! I guess Tara and I were a little overworked from costume prep.

The next day we had our dual ward trunk-or-treat, which was a little chaotic and hectic for me, trying to get there in costume, get the chili there on time, set up the stuff, keep costumes straight, not lose Dorothy (who's a wanderer), keep the candy bowl stocked, protect my wig and earrings from a certain hot dog, feed the kids, trick or treat with the kids, give Ken a chance to eat... it was honestly all a blur and I was glad that at least I was lookin' good :)

Two hotdogs. Mmmm...

Gavin, Cadence, Cameron, Layla, and Campbell survey their spoils as the trunk or treat comes to an exhausting end.

After that, we rushed home, all but threw the kids in bed, and left them in the able care of some friends of ours while we went to a party thrown by somebody that Spencer works with. You should have seen this place! I would honestly not be able to tell you what the inside of their house looks like. I think I saw a kitchen. And a TV in the room where people were creating voodoo dolls (out of marshmallows) and then burning them (roasting). All the walls were covered with black fabric and maybe plastic bags and spiderwebs and ghosts.... it must have been so much work!

One of the most memorable moments was when the host lit a torch in the back yard and then ran into his own house (dripping with flammable decorations, remember) looking for the "infidel". This was followed by beheading with a full-sized guillotine in the back yard! Next the host beheaded his wife. When the little trick head didn't present itself, he picked up a spare zucchini that must have been lying by and declared that he turned her into a zucchini. I laughed. Hard. And then felt weird about the bum that had apparently wandered in and drunkenly sat down in the chair nearest me. I later found out he was the father of the one conducting the beheadings... glad I said nothing! He pulled of the street-look well. I'll say that much.

Oh, and another memorable moment was when Spencer and I won the best overall costumes in the costume contest, and were awarded a "Nook", which is the Barnes and Noble version of Kindle. BOOYEAH! That's right. Set out to win it. And win it, we did. But can you blame us? We're pretty awesome.

Here are some of the competition. Many Vikings. They were a rowdy bunch (well, just because they were pretending to be Vikings.) The one named Ragnar was the one who got beheaded.

Okay, how do you like these guys? Remember the aliens from Sesame Street? "BRRRRRIIING!! BRRRRRIIIIING!!!" Okay, I never saw these guys break character. I have no idea who they were. For all I knew, nobody ever found out. They wandered the party acting the part impecably, and it never got old. I found myself laughing out loud every single time I saw them.

Paula and Dwayne. I have no idea what these people are really like. They were quite nice to talk to but it was hard to not be anxious when talking to Dwayne. He was very convincing. Anyway, great costume, no?

Sunday we were a little conflicted about. I really didn't feel it was necessary to trick or treat or otherwise celebrate such a non-sabbath-like holiday. But we knew our neighborhood is a big place for Halloween and that our nieghbors would be looking forward to getting visits from little Rapunzels, Dorothies and hot dogs. So we set up some of our things from the trunk or treat,

and the girls handed out candy most of the night, with a little trip around the neighborhood for good measure. It was just right. And after I put Layla to bed, I even put my box back on. For a minute.

We had a great Halloween. Really truly. And I still can't get over how cute the kids were. Maybe that is why I love Halloween so much? Or is it that I love dressing up. A lot. Maybe we'll never know. But I know that being the box next to Ken made me feel really proud of him. I loved him even more than usual last weekend :)

So dreamy...
You can't exactly tell in the pictures, but Ken comes fully accessorized with a strobe light, ipod, and speaker.

So Happy Halloween, all y'all! I hope yours was as exciting and happy as ours.

And now I need to start thinking of our costumes for next year. Any suggestions?