Sock-it-to-me-tober

Toward the beginning of October, I started to feel a little bit better. I still have really rough days, but one Sunday, toward the beginning of the month, I was feeling brave and showered and put on nice clothes and make-up and went to church! I received so many compliments from Daniel on how pretty I looked, which I know really meant, "You look much less corpse-like today!"

Dan came to church dressed for the hurricane clean-up taking place after Sacrament Meeting. Lucky!!

This was the first year June really understood Halloween, and it was so fun. We celebrated all month long. My girls LOVE scary things (read: skeletons and witches, NOT Freddy Krueger).

We went to the Jacksonville Fall Festival for kids with special needs one Saturday.

We were lucky to get Gwen in her costume that day. She has worn it several times throughout the year, but decided this October that she was OVER IT and cried a lot about wearing it. She finally put it on for the fair because June wanted her to (note: not mom or dad), but refused to wear it for our ward trunk or treat or for regular trick or treating, thereby ruining our family costume idea (note: never doing that again).

All throughout the festival, I couldn't stop exclaiming such deep thoughts as, "We are hanging out as a family!!" or "We are having fun!" Between Dan's full-time work, school and church and my Pukey McPukerson self, we haven't done anything fun for months. I felt like a lifestyle blogger!!

 To top off the day acting as impostor people who have perfect fall days packed with autumnal-themed activities, I put on a Halloween-themed movie for the girls when we got home, and I did my annual tradition of making pumpkin chocolate chip bread for our friends and neighbors. I made about a dozen loaves this year. If Dan hadn't had to give us a shot of reality by leaving to do a bunch of school and work-related stuff, I would have thought we were all alien-abducted versions of ourselves.

Lifestyle blogger or food blogger? You tell me.

 Gwen is very discreet when she snitches some.

 June also had a very big week at school this last week. It was red ribbon spirit week AND she was named Student of the Month from her class.

I arrived at the school with about ONE second to spare. They called her name as I entered the room. I zipped across the room to where June was sitting and scurried her up to the stage. I understand my own mother a lot more now that I am one.

Meanwhile, Gwen kept running away and we didn't stay for any of the other awards.

I kind of laughed when the teacher told me June was receiving an award. She does get a good behavior report most days, but she bit a kid a week before this ceremony happened. It is not lost on me that there are 8 kids in her class and 8 months or chances to receive this award.

Catching a natural smile on June for pictures is a hilarious attempt at the impossible. For being such a smiley girl, she is stiff as can be about pictures. Or she jumps a lot.

I actually helped June participate in the Spirit Days this year. She loved it.

Tuesday was Career Day. I made her this beautiful chef's hat from a youtube tutorial out of tissue paper. (Craft blogger?)

I made one for Gwen too because I knew she would throw a fit if she didn't get one. Then of course Gwen was insulted that I expected her to wear one and refused to wear it. Which caused June to have a meltdown walking into the school. Moms just can't win.

Thursday was Red Day. June LOVES red and she loves rules, so she loved pointing out all of the people who weren't wearing red and informing them of what a disappointment they were to her. While checking her into the front office, another little girl came up to me and asked me if I knew what Red Day was for. Playing dumb, I told her that I did not and asked her if she would tell me. She told me it was "Congratulations to Drugs Day". Something I can totally get behind.

Friday was the Character Parade, and June's class dressed as pumpkins to go along with some pumpkin book they were reading.

A word about my emotional state while pregnant. I cry. A lot. I cried through this whole parade. No clue why. Let me tell you how many other parents were crying--zero. I also have cried singing along with "We are the Champions" on the radio. Things just get to me these days.

Of course, the highlight of the month was that my best friend, Linz, came to visit me. It's our tradition for her to come for "Heatherween", a combination of Halloween on Oct. 31st and my birthday on November 1st. We had a lot of fun even though I was upchucking on my birthday (woe is me). We shopped, we watched movies, we sang "Jessie's Girl" at the top of our lungs. We are similar in many ways. However, there is a key way that we are opposite. Linz has a science/engineering mind, and my brain pretty much refutes the idea atoms even exist. I don't like figuring things out or really working with my hands. So Linz always offers to do things for me that I am not into, like carving a pumpkin. 

I just enjoyed taking pictures of her face of concentration throughout. The finished product? No pictures. (Photography blogger?)

And no pictures of Halloween! Gwen ended up being a princess instead of a bee, and we went strong for about an hour until Gwen was pretty much comatose in the stroller and June was dragging her bucket of candy and saying things like "It's soooooo dark outside" and "This is sooooo hebby (heavy)." Kids are wimps. I could have gone for hours.

And now we are looking forward to another fun-filled holiday month!!! (Not our yard, but we take lots of pictures in other peoples' yards!)