Halloween

Halloween was three days after the funeral, and I was exhausted that night. Luckily, I am beyond blessed to have so many great friends and family that have helped take care of Briz and did so again that night. I went with one of her ready-made costumes from her "princess box." So she was a fairy princess. Not sure what that really is, but it sounds nice and girly and Briz was pretty excited about it.

We also had family and friends around so Briz went trick or treating with other kids, which made it that much more fun for her. And man did Briz have trick or treating down. Talk about efficient. She ran up to each house, usually pulling Will (and hurting him actually once). She knocked on the door, yelled "Trick or Treat" and grabbed as much candy as she could. If it was possible, she would grab handfuls, and then sweetly say, "Thank you." She would run back down to us, and then say, "Next house, " as she ran off. We went to maybe 15 houses and her little plastic pumpkin was full! She could have gone for hours if she could carry some more weight.

Her and Will are ADORABLE together. Two of the funniest kids I have ever seen.

Ella as minnie mouse.

I gave in to Briz and let her wear some make up.

Dress up + candy + makeup = a dream come true.

Briz being way too aggressive for Teya. Luckily Teya is used to it, because Portia (Teya's older sister) and Briz have a lot in common.

These two sort of have a love/hate relationship at times. They are kissing and hugging a lot. But then at one point, they got into a pretty intense argument over how many ladybugs were in a book (which resulted in Briz shoving Will and then throwing the book at him).

---------------------------------- Pre- Halloween ----------------------------------------

A few days before we left for Utah, we carved pumpkins. And as all of our family activities, it was pretty eventful :)

Holland was just tuning out the mania of Briz and trying to get a good rest. But I wanted her to be a part of our family carving. She was such a good sport.

Briz focused on scooping all the seeds out of the pumpkin. And as usual, missing an article of clothing.

Imitating his pumpkin face.

Briz imitating her pumpkin face, minus the two black teeth. We had all kinds of emotions with our pumpkins: happy, angry, and sad (can you tell I am a counselor?).

Halloween was a bittersweet night as I watched all of the kids running around, excited. While Holland would have simply been sleeping in my front pack that night while Briz trick-or-treated, I couldn't help but think of the future and what things would be like in a few years. I just pictured Briz and Holland trick or treating together and me constantly having to tell Briz to stop stealing candy from her little sister. But also thinking about Halloween fills me with a great sense of gratitude for my Brizzy Boo. She keeps me going and laughing and I don't know what I would do without her.

It also makes me so grateful for good friends and family to share Holidays with. While it is difficult to go through what is supposed to be a happy time with such a sad heart, it takes the edge off and reminds me of how much love there is on this earth.