Cupcakes and Candy

Happy Halloween!

Over the weekend, we went to Walmart for our traditional Octoberfeast supplies (I need to add Zac's homemade macaroni recipe) and the kiddos were invited to decorate their own cupcakes in the bakery. Free cupcakes! Who can say no, right? They iced and sprinkled and topped with a trinket and Prego-brain forgot to take a picture of finished products before they were gobbled. Oh well.

Trick-or-Treating was moved to the 30th because the weather was "supposed to be rainy". I'm too uncomfortable to walk around much, so Zac took the three kiddos while I sat outside and handed out candy. The kids scored big time this year. I told them we aren't buying ANY sweets whatsoever until it's all completely gone. When I was younger, Emily and I would pool our candy and divide it evenly and give any extras to our parents. I do the same with their buckets. Elias can't have gum or Tootsie Rolls, so the big kids get those and he gets extra chocolates or lollipops. Zac and I get what's leftover.

It's a bittersweet Halloween this year. My previous pregnancy's due date was today, so it's crazy to think I'd have a tiny baby already. This was also the last holiday with Emily - the last Firsts-Without-Her on the calendar and then maybe that knot in my throat will be easier to swallow when I think about how much I miss her.

Pumpkins & Treats

What a busy day!! We met Mom at the church so she could follow us to the Mitchell Farms pumpkin patch. All the kids rode with her, so Zac and I played our 90s music super loud and enjoyed the hour-long drive.

The day was nice and breezy and the kids had a lot of fun. We even ate some carnival foods for lunch, like nachos and giant corn dogs, or fries topped with pulled pork.

We gathered up our pumpkins and headed back home to change into costumes and head to the Trunk or Treat. I was impressed by how big the venue was. When I was a kid, Trunk or Treat was primarily in the church parking lot and only members of that church participated. I remember getting maybe a handful of candy while awkwardly dressed in a homemade costume and being denied candy for not knowing a Bible verse. Not to mention the face-painting from someone who attempted painting a butterfly on my cheek without knowing what a butterfly looked like. The times have changed and the kiddos enjoyed themselves. They scored more candy from this than they did in our neighborhood last year.

Hospital and stuff

I brought Elias to the hospital this morning, along with the big kids, to have his procedure done. He didn't even cry until we were leaving and the anesthetic wore off. Motrin helped a ton and he was back to his normal self again, just sore.

In other news, the weather has been chilly enough to turn the heat on in the mornings and wear sweaters outside! I'm so relieved to get away from the sweat and bugs, even if it's only temporary.

C Spire

Once a month, the C Spire over here hosts a gaming competition. We've been attending for the past three months and the kids really enjoy it. I was able to attempt playing Fortnite for the first time back in September and failed immensely because the controls are just not what I'm used to. But, it was fun. This month, they hosted a costume party and I jokingly told Zac, "What if nobody else is dressed up and we all look silly like Carol from The Office when she dressed like a cheerleader at the Diwali celebration for Kelley?" Zac confidently assured me that wouldn't be the case. But it was. Soooo our family was the only one dressed up and lucky for us, Elias won a $25 gift card to Burgers & Blues as costume-winner. He was quite pleased with himself.

Cupcakes & Bonfire

Now that Jac is in the youth (I know, little man is now big man), he was invited to a bonfire this evening. Zac went with him for some quality time and they enjoyed sodas and s'mores and spooky stories. One of which was "If you were alone in your house, but you heard a fart, would you be afraid or laugh?" Hmmmmmm...... They had such a fun time, though. I'm glad Jac is branching off a little bit and experiencing some social activities outside his comfort zone.

I took my younger two out to Party City and bought Elias a much-begged-for Chase costume from Paw Patrol. He loved it, but we'll get to that in a moment. We weren't hungry, so I brought them to GiGi's Cupcakes and let them each pick a treat. Leah chose S'mores to make up for missing the bonfire, Elias chose Double Stuffed, which was basically Oreo, and I picked Wedding Cake, which was only slightly disappointing in that it tasted primarily of vanilla.

We came home to get Elias in the bed so Leah and I could watch Hocus Pocus, but he was super hyper from eating a lot of frosting, so Leah baked a pizza for us and I managed to get him to sleep right before Zac and Jac got home. Oh yeah, about the costume... I had Elias try on the Chase suit and if there was a worse meltdown from any of my kids, this one surely topped it. It started with putting the hat on his head, then convincing him to just TRY ON the goddamned body suit, to him just standing there in tears telling me, "I just don't like it! I don't like Paw Patrol, Mom... I just don't like it..." So, I told him I'd take his picture to show Papa, then he could take it off. In spite of the pitiful tears, he's absolutely precious.

Wave of Light 2018

This year, I'm remembering two little ones I'll never know. Hard to believe it's been five years for the first and seven months for the second. Time doesn't stand still, even though it feels like it should.

I still think of you, my little loves. 

Baby Shower & Cat-free

Some people at the church threw me a cute baby shower for Bug. He's got so many diapers and tons of cute clothes. Earlier this week I had to call and correct his name from Christopher (not quite sure how that happened), but the cake still read "Nickolas" instead of "Nicolas" or "Cole", haha. It'll make for a good story, though.  It's getting closer to delivery time and as much as I feel ready to have him, I don't feel prepared to have him. I feel like there's so much more to do before he gets here. I don't even have a bag ready for the hospital. Hashtag stressed?

It was a bit of an emotional morning. We had been looking to re-home the cats for about a month now and finally found someone willing to take both of them... that is, until she backed out last minute after Zac had already put them in the car with all their supplies this afternoon. He drove around for a while trying to figure out what to do, but all the no-kill shelters were full and PetsMart couldn't take them. Once the shower was over, Mom texted a co-worker friend, Marcie, about the situation. It didn't take much convincing, but Marcie said she'd take them. I gave Zac the address and we drove to Crystal Springs to drop them off. Marcie lives on a large farm with goats, pigs, dogs, and cats. She also has three boys around Leah's age and younger. I think the kids feel closure seeing where the cats will be living. They said their goodbyes and we headed back home. I feel relieved, partially for mine and the boys' allergies, but also because they didn't have to go to a shelter. I think the kids are going to be alright, too. One day at a time.

12 Years Later...

Zac and I celebrated our 12th anniversary today. Well, technically, we celebrated yesterday at Jo's Diner while Mom kept the kids.

It was a busy day yesterday, though. I brought Elias to the hospital for a consultation on a procedure he'll need done in two weeks. The actual appointment was fine, as was Elias' behavior (no freaking out, yay!), but walking throughout the hospital, trying to figure out the floor I was supposed to be on while a nurse on one floor gave me one set of directions, then another gave me other directions. It was my own hellish Wonderland. Not to mention there were no water fountains nearby, nor vending machines, so I was much winded. So much in fact, I FORGOT Emily and Dad were no longer living during the health history interrogation. ANYWAY. We go back in two weeks. 

Our dinner was so nice. It's been about a year since we've been on a date (my birthday) and to just sit and enjoy some silence without interruption or complaints about the wrong order or a spill, etc. was just something we needed. For dessert, we stopped by Great American Cookies and while they were supposed to be closed at 8, the sweet girl working stopped us and told us she had time to take our order. They were so nice. It made me miss working for the company. We even stopped by Hobby Lobby so I could indulge in all the pumpkins and cinnamon. So fetch.

TWELVE YEARS, though. It doesn't seem like that many, but at the same time feels like so many more. It's crazy. He's just the best.

Louisiana Wedding

We spent the weekend in Louisiana so we could attend Krystal and Kevin's wedding. We arrived right around bedtime Friday night, even though the kids wouldn't settle down until after midnight. I had Zac and Sean run to Cafe Du Monde Saturday morning to pick up beignets for breakfast before we headed across the lake.

The ceremony was so sweet. Krystal and Kevin wrote their own vows (almost made Zac cry) and the food was really good. Karen made a three-tier pineapple cake from ten boxed cake mixes.

After the reception, we drove to see Zac's mom's gravesite, then walked around the mall for a little while to get Elias tired. He skipped his nap, so there was a meltdown after everything we thought could get him cheery. We stopped in a toy store, which was a mistake as he wanted a new car ($10, yeah sure), riding on the train (again), swimming in the water fountain (ha!), and getting buckled into his carseat. Needless to say, it was quite a treat. I'm just glad that his meltdowns require a small chat and he's okay again. Zac dropped me off to see Jessie at the tattoo shop while he refilled the gas tank because we barely got to visit last time we were in town. We were going to try to meet up with Katie at some point but her boys weren't feeling so good. Next time we visit, we'll have FOUR children with us. Eep! But we hope to make it a longer trip so we can get some better visits in.

Sunday, we went to see Mawmaw and Marie to visit for a few hours before making the drive home. We even caught Kyle on a lunch break to visit him a minute while he was working. It was nice seeing Mawmaw. We talked about babies and family, she gave me a hug and said she was sorry for Dad passing, then loaded us up with tamales to bring home. The kids had fun playing with Francesca, and we grabbed some snowballs from Southern Delights on our way out. We finally made it home around 11:15pm and I fell into bed, though Leah did wake me up by crying that her stomach hurt because for some reason, waking up a sleeping parent is a better choice than telling the awake parent of a stomach ache... such is the logic of my daughter. It was a rough night. I'm so tired today and the allergies are abundant. I'm losing my mind as I type.