Halloween Through Thanksgiving Happenings!

Holy cow, life is crazy. Shortly after we brought Ewan home, we realized our house situation wasn't going to work for us. We moved in when we had one 2 year old child. As we were getting ready to welcome our third child, I told Quin we could absolutely not have any more kids because we were out of room. We shoved two more in there, and we really, truly were busting at the seams. We looked extensively at houses to buy and couldn't find any that would work for us, especially since we were trying to stay in the same school zones for Ewan and Milo. We eventually decided we needed to add on to our current house, so we have been moving on top of everything else. We moved into my parents' house the night before Ewan's heart surgery and have been working on packing our house up ever since. Every single Saturday we'd load everybody up and pack for a few hours. It has been a nightmare! Much to our relief, we finished up two Saturdays ago. Just in time for Christmas! There could not be a better Christmas present than to be finished packing and moving!!

Anyway, I have been completely delinquent in updating the blog! I have been saving all the pictures I've wanted to post in a folder, but just haven't had time to do anything with them! I hate being behind, so I'm going to try to get caught up! I'll focus on Halloween through Thanksgiving in this post.

We had a really fun Halloween this year! Ewan chose to be Woody, so naturally Milo had to be Buzz! And our five year old chose all on her own to be Jessie, so hooray! I just love matching costumes!

Every year we do cousin Halloween pictures with Quin's family. I cherish these pictures! Ewan was so, so excited to be in the family picture this year! Plus look how he has his arm around Milo! Melt my heart!

One of our Halloween traditions we fit in every year is seeing the witches at Gardner Village. We had so much fun this year! Ewan was hilarious as usual and had his own little personal dance party to the blaring Halloween music. Pretty soon he had a crowd gathered around him and they all clapped when he finished. He ate it up! To say he likes the spotlight would be an understatement. Ha!

A few days before Halloween (Halloween was on a Saturday and they didn't have school Friday) we went to the kids' school parade, then our kindergarten baby's program.

 She was so proud to show her "little big brother" off to her friends!

 Ready to trick-or-treat!

We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating! Ewan was really into it. He's a crack up! The problem is, people would offer their candy buckets and say, "Take one!", which of course he didn't understand. He took a whole handful at every single house. Good thing he's so cute and everyone laughed instead of getting annoyed! He thought Halloween was the best ever! People giving away candy!? Yes, please!

This fall we finally did family pictures! Our dear friend, Suzy Browning, and her husband, Dallas, did these beautiful pictures for us...for free!!! I won a mini session in June, and they upgraded it after Ewan came home. If you are in the Salt Lake area, please consider Browning Photography for your next photo needs! They are fabulous!

The day Milo started going to school in November, Ewan cried. He wanted to go to school, too! It was all too unfair! The public school said he couldn't come because he was on oxygen, but could get a teacher to come to our house a few times a week. This really wasn't going to meet his social needs, so I found a private school that would take him. Since he wouldn't leave his oxygen on, he could only go for two hours a day. I take him Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for two hours. He LOVES it! Here is is on the first day of school! He got a new pair of glasses two days before he started school, and this pair is a keeper! We tried Miraflex initially, but they didn't work with Ewan's face. They wouldn't stay up unless they were really tight, which then pressed into his eye lids and he couldn't open them. We asked around the Ds adoption crowd (specifically the Chinese one), and found out there is a brand of glasses called Tomato that is made in Korea and works really well on Asian faces. I ordered some and got lenses in them, and we're all in love! They fit him perfectly and he has kept them on since day one!

 It was our year to have Thanksgiving with my family, and since we've taken over my parents' house, we decided to get out of town. We went to Durango, CO, and had a blast! We rented a condo and stayed all together with my whole family and we had the best time! We ate well, went to Mesa Verde, saw a movie, played games, laughed a lot, and went to the Polar Express.   

Ready to feast at the kids table!

 The whole family after Thanksgiving dinner.

 We went to Mesa Verde the next day. Milo's into giving kisses these days!

 Cousin BFF's!

 Can you see the Native American ruins in the background? Amazing!

 Saturday night we went on the Polar Express. It was so, so fun! The absolute perfect way to kick off the Christmas season! I didn't get a picture of the train pulling up, but it was quite a sight! I took this one off the internet. So awesome!

Ewan LOVED the train ride and LOVED Santa!

 Here's Milo getting a bell from Santa!

 Group shot! You can't see Ewan, but he's beside me. You can see his tiger hat sticking up. So sad you can't see his face!

 Telling Santa all about wanting a Jumparoo for Christmas!

 My sweet Milo man was on Santa's good list for sure!

 Cousin Santa love!

After we got home from Colorado, it was full steam ahead to the Christmas season! Ewan loved every bit of it, and experiencing it with him for the first time was absolutely magical! Here he is eating a Candy Cane Joe Joe and watching Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (one of our favorite Christmas movies). Let the Christmas season begin!!