Life

     So much has happened in the last few months that I meant to blog about.  I even knew what I would write and how...and just never got around to it. 

     This fall has been a kind of ridiculously crazy one for my family.  My awesome brother Nick went on a mission (with no notice). 

...And I wished I was there.

     My absolutely amazing sister welcomed a beautiful baby girl after months of bedrest/ hospitalization, 10 weeks early.  Emery Hope was a tiny 1 lb., 13 oz. of perfection.   

And I wished I was there.

     Alisha and her family have blown us away with their hope and trust in the Lord during this very difficult time for their family.  I truly wish we happened to live in Lethbridge right now so that we could help lighten their load a little bit.

     Not only were a bunch of crazy things happening at home that I wished I could help/ be there for, but every 6 months or so I get homesick anyway, and that was really starting to kick in. About 3 or 4 days before Thanksgiving (the Canadian variety) I got tired of wishing and I started looking up plane tickets to make it happen.  And then remembered how expensive last minute plane tickets were...and and went back to wishing.

     The very next morning my mom called to let me know my Grandma Leavitt passed away.  About 12 hours later our whole family was packed into a mini van about to drive 30 hours to get home.  We made it just in time to have the first Thanksgiving dinner we've ever had with my side of the family.  I got to see family I haven't seen in years, got to help my mom a little bit, and visited with my Grandma Johnson a lot more than we usually get to.  (We stayed with her because on the same day that my Grandma died, my parents' basement also flooded.) 

     It was so nice to be home to remember and celebrate my Grandma's life.  She will be very missed.  She was honestly one of my very favorite people.  She was always there for me, and supported everything I did.  She was fun and happy and just someone who really made a difference in my life. 

I know that she must be so happy now though, being reunited with her beloved husband.  She talked about him always, with sooo much love in her eyes.  And I can't help but smile at the tender mercies of the Lord in the timing of the family reunion she arranged for us.  If she had to leave us this fall, it feels like it was for me that it was that week, because it ironically saved me from falling apart.  I need my awesome family in my life.



    But now we're home.  And with my family fix I feel like I can move forward (I kind of have to, so might as well:)  And yesterday was Halloween.  And it was sooo fun.  We cleaned our whole house up/ decorated it with paper pumpkins.  I made Lily a Princess Aurora costume (she wanted the blue dress) and a coordinating Prince Phillip costume for Jaxon.  (TJ had an opinion about what he wanted to be this year so I couldn't get him in on the theme.  Anyone want to guess what he was?).  Tony rescheduled karate and we went to the trunk-or-treat at our church.  And then we came home and had a little party with a few awesome friends.  The kids had a blast.  I was totally exhausted at the end of the night.  It was worth it.

Prince Phillip

Thomas The Train

 And Princess Aurora.  She had a very specific image in mind when she told me she wanted to be Princess Aurora, in the BLUE dress.  I spent all evening on it one day last week, and when she woke up she came in and saw it.  I thought she'd be so excited, and I said, "Do you want to try it on?"  She politely said, "No thanks.  I'll wait 'til you finish sewing it."  "Um...it's done." I said.  She looked at me super confused, "where's the spikey things, and the white spikey thing," she said pointing to random places on her body.  After looking at a picture on the internet to understand what she meant, and about 3 hours of work later, we had the dress she was imagining.  And she was right, she looked much more like Princess Aurora, even down to the very red lipstick lips that she insisted she needed to have. 

 The Princess looking happily at her Prince

 

At trunk-or-treat.  Yay for little friends!

Helping set up our live angry birds booth at trunk-or-treat

Party!!!

    We had a lot of fun, and looking at all of these pictures I think I'll put some of them up on facebook.  I love pictures of my kids on Halloween, I took a million!  I hope everybody else had a fun time!