Halloween Fun

We LOVE October and Halloween-time!! It's one of Mamma's favorite times of year, as is commonly known. And we do it up right. Since I was pregnant this year and all out of sorts, there were a couple of things we wanted to do, but sort of fell through the cracks. Despite this, our Halloween was EPIC!

• Picking out Pumpkins

We went to a nearby pumpkin patch this year to pick out our pumpkins, though a different one from last year. This one was more of a Fall Carnival at a little farm than just a Pumpkin Patch. There was a little hay bale maze, a petting zoo, wagon rides and food and music on the weekends, apart from the actual pumpkins. We went on a weekday, after Daniel was done with work, so we missed out on some of that extra fun stuff. Maybe next year we'll do more.

We went into the pumpkin patch and the girls were beyond excited to look at and touch and try to heft every single pumpkin they saw. They both kept saying they wanted every pumpkin, and it was really fun and cute to watch them be so excited about it. I couldn't handle them being so cute.

After we picked out and paid for our pumpkins, we paid a little extra to go through the petting zoo, which was fun, too. The girls were a little hesitant for most of it; but they liked the little goats and rabbits, and they thought the pigs and turkeys were pretty cool, although they didn't really want to go near them.

*The amount of cheese in this picture could cover a few pizzas! I can't handle it!*

• Totally Fun Costumes

I had a quite a time trying to find costumes for the girls this year. I did NOT want to make any costumes this year (ya know ... pregnant), so I was trying to figure out what else to do. I kept asking the girls what they wanted to be. Camille didn't really know what I was talking about, and so, didn't really give me any answer. Brooke, however, kept changing her answer every time I asked her. At first, she wanted to be a bat, so I was trying to figure out how to make a bat happen. Then she wanted to be a witch, which would have been easy. There are about a million cheap witch costumes we could've bought. And then she said a few other things, which I cannot remember at the moment, but which also didn't last long. And lastly, she landed on Tigger, which answer stuck more than any of the others, although she did occasionally revert back to an old request.

We went to the 2nd-hand children's store to check out what they had, and lo! and behold! they had a Tigger costume IN BROOKE'S SIZE! Well, I had to buy it, even though she didn't seem thrilled with it at the time. She kept getting distracted by all the other costumes there. And the toys. I also found Camille's blue monster costume there, and it was too cute to pass up. So we left with a great costume for each.

But, ... I decided we'd try Costco really fast. I'd heard that they had some good options. We found the costumes after some searching, and looked through them. I asked Brooke what she thought. There were some cute witch costumes, some princess costumes, etc. But she was immediately and forever taken with the Rainbow Dash costume (from My Little Ponies). It was $10, so I thought, "what the heck? I'll buy my little girl this not-near-as-cute-as-Tigger costume." And then she had 2 options for costumes.

She wore Rainbow Dash to her Preschool Halloween party, Tigger for the Ward Halloween Party and Trick-or-Treating. And both the girls looked too cute for words!

• Ward Halloween Party

 Our ward Halloween Party was fun. Daniel and I didn't dress up this year. I was a bit ... lazy, you could say, and didn't want to put any effort in this year. And Daniel, I guess, was the same. BUT. The girls were SO cute in their costumes, and I couldn't leave Camille alone, she looked so cute in her monster costume.

• Holbrook Family 2nd Annual Halloween Feast Extraordinaire (we might have to shorten this name next time)

Last year, I decided we'd start a fun new Halloween tradition, because I love Halloween: a Family Halloween Feast. I mean, we have feasts for most of the major holidays, right? Or at least most of the world does -- Christmas Dinner (or Christmas Eve), Thanksgiving (obviously), Easter Dinner, 4th of July Barbeques... But there isn't really one for Halloween, and I decided there should be. So. This year was our 2nd Annual Halloween Feast. And it was FUN! The girls were much more into it this year. I got them all hyped up about it, and at least Brooke knew sort of what was going on because she could remember from last year. I made some of the same food, and some new things. Here was our menu: Worms with Sangria Sauce (spaghetti), Bones (breadsticks), Scarabs (roasted brussel sprouts), Dracula's Drink (blackberry Izze in fancy cups, with peeled grapes), Mashed Jack'o'Lantern with bugs (coconut yams with raisins), Witches Wands (roasted asparagus), and Ghost Cookies. It was so fun!

*Couldn't do it without my witches' hat!!*

After our dinner, I put out a smorgasbord of treats, we gathered the snacks we wanted in little bowls, and we watched Ichabod Crane for a little Halloween Family Movie Night. 

 

• Trick-or-Treating 

The Delhoyos invited us to do Halloween night and Trick-or-Treating with them. We went to their place for soup, salad, bread dinner, and then went Trick-or-Treating around their neighborhood afterwards. It was so much fun! There were a bunch of families joining us, basically everyone who lives over in this area: the Hebdons, the Faucettes, the Fischers, the Smiths. The girls were so thrilled about T-or-Ting that they didn't eat much dinner, especially Camillie. And they loved being with all the kids.

After eating real quick, we headed out to do our T-or-Ting. There was such an age range in our group of kids that after a while, we sort of naturally split into a few groups -- the older kids were fast, and they basically ran from house to house; and then there were some younger kids; and then there was us, and little Gabrielle Fischer. Our girls were pretty slow, especially Camillie. So, we hung back and stopped trying to keep up. It was fun, though. They both loved it so much, and it killed Daniel and I to watch how cute Camille was. She waddled up to each door in her little monster costume, getting distracted by pumpkins and decorations along the way. Then she's sometimes say her little, "Trick or Treat!" and sometimes she needed prompting. And then she'd walk away with a little, "Happy Halloween!" It was too much. And Daniel and I were both dying from the cuteness.

We stayed out way later than we'd intended to and did almost the entire neighborhood with our friends, skipping houses here and there towards the end. We were just having too much fun! And then, we drove back home and put our little monsters to bed.

*Halloween Day coloring. This girl LOVES to color, and we couldn't help but print off some cute Halloween coloring pages and color together. Camille wasn't as thrilled with the activity.*

*Our lazy bones pumpkins this year. Very little thought or effort went into these, haha! We'll be cool again someday.*

*We carved pumpkins just a few days before Halloween. Or they would've gone bad before Halloween. It was warm this year!*

*Our Trick-or-Treating group this year. So much fun!*

Camille's Birthday

My Camillie-Bean turned 2 on October 20th! It's hard to believe that she's 2 already! I still sort of feel like I have a little baby. Well, she is still quite a little thing, which makes her that much more irresistible.

It was a fairly ordinary day for us. Brooke fortunately had preschool in the morning, so I had the chance to take Camille on a little birthday date while Brooke was in school. Just the 2 of us. It was some boring errands and some fun ones: we went to Sprouts for groceries and Target, so that I could surreptitiously grab her one more gift; then we hit Barnes and Noble for her free birthday cupcake from Starbucks; and then we picked up some fries from Chic-Fil-A and headed over to the duck pond. We ate our fries and watched the ducks for some time, until we had to go pick up Brooke. I think Camille had fun watching the ducks, and some nice people gave us some food to give them. We had one duck in particular that was so hopeful for something to eat that he kept coming right up to us and peering at us. I was almost afraid he would peck one of us!

After some lunch and naps, the girls and I played a little and I made a special birthday dinner for Camille: chicken and fries (which is what she asked for), a steamed veggie (because, I couldn't not), and some fruit. We had chocolate chip cookie sundaes for her cake because I just couldn't bring myself to make a huge cake. Being pregnant and not into sweets much, I almost couldn't stomach the thought of making a cake. And besides ... she didn't seem to care too much. She was tragically fascinated by the candles after we had lit them, and felt the need to touch the flame of one candle. Her little finger got a bit burned and she cried for a while, poor little thing. And unfortunately, when we tried to sing to her again, she tried to touch the fire again. Slow learner! We had to take her cookie sundae away until after Brooke helped her blow her candles out.

She opened her presents -- some books, a little toy cash register, and 101 Dalmatians. And to top the night off, we watched 1/2 an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, which she was very excited about, for about 3 minutes. She ran around, danced and screamed excitedly when the theme song was playing, but then seemed more interested in playing with her cash register after the opening song. All in all, I think it was a successful birthday.

Trip to Medford

Late in September, Daniel had a training in Chicago for work, for almost a week. So, the girls and I took a little trip to Medford while he was gone. We stayed for nearly a week and a half. And we had a great time!

It was a bit crazy in the house. Julie and the boys are living with mom and dad right now. Since August and for an entire year, or so. Plus, Mom had knee surgery in August, so she couldn't do much. AND she still watched Owen every Monday and Tuesday. It was pretty wild and crazy in that house. Brooke LOVED being with their cousins (most of the time. Ares and Roman were pretty mean to Brooke, and Makai was really mean to Owen and Millie). Camille took a long time getting used to everyone. She was pretty clingy to me, wanted me all the time, wanted me to hold her. She finally started warming up to people and doing her own thing after about 5 or 6 days there, over half our time! Maybe the next time around, it'll be quicker for her. I also think she was kind of overwhelmed with the number of people and how much was going on all the time. Plus, I often left her in the care of Julie or Mom so that I could run them errands or pick up Drew. And that certainly threw her off.

It was a fun trip, but mostly, I'm glad I went because I helped out a lot. I was helping to make meals for everyone, I did the dishes a ton and cleaned up the house. I kept mom company when she was holed up in her room. And I was able to be a listening ear for Julie, who is really struggling in her marriage right now. I like to think I helped them. At least, I hope I did.

The whole situation is a bit ... much ... for everyone. It's so hard for everyone, for different reasons. I saw my dad snap a few times, more than he ever did when I was growing up (that I can remember). And it kind of made me sad to see my family having such a hard time. I feel so sad for Julie, who is the most admirable woman I know. She is doing so much for her family and for Mark. More than other women would do. And she's handling it so well, although she thinks she isn't. She's so strong!

Anyway, we had some good times, too.

*Brooke loved playing outside with Makai, either on his bike or on a scooter. We went on a lot of walks while we were out there, or just sat on the porch watching the kids play. We hit the park once, too, with Grampa and Gramma, Aunt Schpuckie and Owen.*

*Just hanging out, watching a little Jake on Gramma's phone. Brooke had to borrow some of Makai's Jake jammies for a few nights. But, I don't think she minded.*

*Watching General Conference. Brooke was SO cute during GC. While all the boys, except Drew, were outside playing, Brooke stayed in and sat in that big pink chair and colored and listened and occasionally watched the whole of at least 2 sessions of conference. I was really astounded. It wasn't like I asked her to or insisted that she sit with us. She just ... did. Like she wanted to be with all of us while we watched and listened. And she was totally content to sit and color while we watched. It made me appreciate and love her so much for that. It was so sweet. At one point, I think during the very last session, she was out playing with Makai, and she fell really hard on the driveway. Julie brought her in, sobbing, and she sat with me for the last hour of the session. And totally fell asleep while sitting on my lap. It was so funny. I can't remember the last time she fell asleep on me.*

*Apple picking with the family! This was so fun! In between the Saturday sessions, Mom and Dad took us to a Pick-your-own apple orchard. We picked for almost a half hour and got almost 200 lbs of apples!! It was so fun! We loved it. And afterwards, Dad took us all out for ice cream.*

Yes, It's Been 3 Months

This pregnancy has been rather a challenge.

I mean, they all have been difficult, in their own ways. But for some reason, this one has been particularly difficult. On top of feeling nauseous nearly all of the time, and being low on energy, I really struggled with my emotional state. I think I may have had some kids of prenatal depression. I was unmotivated all of the time, didn't want to get out of bed, was super anti-social, and really wasn't enjoying my babies most of the time. It was really hard, and I couldn't figure out a way to pull myself out of my funk. I attributed it to 1st trimester difficulty -- like I said, prenatal depression. I think that's a thing.

I was well enough to function. I could carry on with most of my normal activities (although my workouts went to the crapper). But I had no desire to do so. I didn't cook much at all. I didn't play with the girls at all. I skipped out on a bunch of activities. I just didn't feel like myself at all.

A few weeks ago, I turned a corner, though, thank goodness. I stopped feeling gross all the time, I felt a bit more energy, I felt a cloud lift, really. I was feeling so happy again, all of a sudden. It's kind of funny. This time around, I kind of came to the conclusion that, since I don't get as sick as other women when pregnant, I tend to think it really isn't all that bad. I never throw up. I'm not hospitalized for sickness. But then, when it's all over, I feel like a completely different person. I feel so much better. And then I think, "Man, I guess it must've been worse than I thought."

It's such a relief to be feeling more like myself. And now, I can write again and catch myself up! There's a lot to catch up on.