Double Digits

Jackson is now officially TEN!  This year instead of having a big crazy party (like last year) Jackson decided he would rather take three of his closest friends to a movie and do a pizza party before the show.  Will Moore, Jack Doney and Brody Colbert (and Noah) went to see the new Harry Potter flick, "Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find Them."  I have been wanting to see this movie for MONTHS and was a little disappointed that Joe would be taking just the boys.  So.  I arranged for a babysitter and joined the man-crew!  And made sure to sit on the far end so I could fully enjoy it.  Haha!

Today is Jackson's official birthday.  Here's the thing about having a party on a different day than the actual birthday, you feel like a schmutz if you don't make the actual day special too!  I ran out of balloons and told Jackson last night that we wouldn't be able to balloon his door like we've been doing for the past... forever each birthday.  His response: "Well, ....can you streamer it?"  Cute.  And Yes.  We did put up streamers.  I guess it still means a lot even in the double digits.  Before Jackson and the kids left for school this morning he was pretty pumped about getting something special in his lunch.  Hmmm....  I DID manage to put a simple birthday note in there, but upon hearing that Joe said his special lunch was that HE was going to pick him up from school and take him out to lunch.  Bless Joe.  Apparently while on their lunch date at A&W (and later DQ for ice cream) Joe was asking about all the things he planned to do this year as a ten year old and Jackson's response was, "hmmm... probably get more responsibility."  "Do you like having responsibilities?"  "Yeah.  Maybe this year I could run errands for you and Mom and babysit for longer and make more meals."  Haha!  "Well what about FUN things?  "I could work on learning more algebra."  Not.  My.  Kid.  And then Joe asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up.  "I want to make video games like Uncle Doug.  And if I can't do that I'll be a scientist."  What will you do for a hobby?  "I like to cook."  And cook is exactly what Jackson did for his very own birthday dinner.  He insisted on making us each our very own specialty omelette.  He got really annoyed when Joe would hover around him in the kitchen and start telling him how to do things.  Haha!  Sarah and her girls came over tonight too and we had a little Christmas piano recital/sing along, complete with family gifts and angel food cake (note to self, store-bought is gross.  Don't be lazy next time and just make one from scratch!).  He finally got his own scooter this year.  He and Noah have been trading off scooter or bike (we have one of each), so now we have two scooters.  Yay!  I'd like to get the boys one more bike so we can officially do family "bike" rides together.  I think it turned out to be a good day for Jackson.  If his spazziness tonight was any testament to how happy he felt inside, it would be safe to say he was REALLY happy.

Jackson, you truly are (still) an old man in a little kid's body (except for when you are being a super spazz like tonight).  I love that you love to learn.  I just got your report card and almost every subject is Mastery, which means well above and beyond.  That makes me so proud of you.  You are setting such a good example to your siblings through your love of learning.  You are also always reading.   Especially right before bed.  Usually I set aside time before bed, but sometimes it's too late for books and even then you will open one up and read as much as you can before lights out (even if it's only a couple minutes)!  And then you will try to engage me in conversation about the facts you just read.  Sly.  Very good at stalling.  You take a book with you any time you know you will be waiting; for example, piano lessons when it's Noah's turn, or at Granny and Grandpa B's when nothing's really going on, or in the car on long drives.  You are still all about your "fact" books.  Jack got you a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book just on Thursday and only four days later you are already halfway through that massive thing!  Most of the things on your Christmas wish list this year were books.  I think the point is across.  You like books.  A lot.

You love basketball.  You are competitive and love to play.  You EVEN love the drills.  You also love watching the Oilers play with Dad and Noah over some freshly popped popcorn.  And as a true Canadian, you love to play hockey with your Dad and Noah too.  One day I will not be pregnant or holding a baby and I will kick all your bums!

Lately you boys have been making videos on my camera.  It is so fun to watch you be creative and enjoy something that isn't playing videogames.  Which you also love.  You also love playing Scrabble and other board games.  We've been trying to utilize our Sundays more often for playing family board games and I love it.  Apparently so do you.  Exploding Kittens in another (weird but) fun one.

We went on a date just you and me after your Christmas concert last week and it was so refreshing just hanging out and visiting over McDonald's fries and ice cream.  I teased you about the girl you sit beside (Chloe) and you talked to me about pre-algebra.  I feel like maybe you were meant to be born into your Uncle Jared's family, but I will happily take you.

You are always asking me if I need any help.  You are not only super observant but are happy to do the next step: ACT.  Table needs to be cleared?  "I can help you Mom."  Jane is crying?  "I can get her bottle Mom."  Mom is exasperated because she can't keep up?  "Can I help you with something Mom?"  It is the sweetest and best.  Oh man.  I don't deserve you.

Your Dad and I love you lots and appreciate your thoughtfulness and constant love and care.  We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Love,

Mom

(My pictures aren't uploading right now for some reason so I will post it like this for now and update later.  Boo).

Jane. Sick. Freezing. Santa. Church. Cookies.

Jane.  That girl is getting around!  She is a pro crawler which means I have by default become a pro-sweeper.  Everything goes into that mouth!  Finger sweeping her mouth is just an ordinary part of my day.  I think she has started to figure out that if she doesn't like what she's chewing on, she crawls to me and lets me know.  Ha!  (And whew!).  She also got her first tooth a couple weeks ago and just started clapping last week.  She now pulls herself to standing and took her first assisted steps just yesterday!  She said "Mama" once at Costco.  ONCE!  And hasn't said it again since.  She and the girls love playing with this manger set on the fridge.  Karen gave it to our family years ago and it remains a favourite in our house.  It's a miracle we still have all the pieces!  Well.  All the important ones anyway.

I heart Christmas.  I feel like we can finally start enjoying it.  Christmas shopping is done.  The kids are done being sick (fingers crossed).  And it finally snowed last week!  The kids were really worried about that aspect of Christmas.  But not to worry, the snow came, and it came with a vengeance.  And a windchill.  The kids still haven't had a chance to enjoy the snow because it's been in the minus thirties this week.  I have also had the luxury of driving them nice and early in the morning and hoping our car starts!

Last week, I had all these great Christmas plans that we were going to do and they got ruined by sickness.  I know it's inevitable, but we have been battling sicknesses in various shapes and forms for the past month and a half.  Gross.  But if I am being honest with myself, I am glad they happened now and not over the holidays (even if they were drawn out).  We had to cancel going to the Santa Parade and taking family pictures for Christmas cards and a Christmas brunch that I would have loved to attend but ALL of the kids were home sick at once. Ha!  

(Promise Jackson was sick too.  He was just sick on my busiest day when everyone was home at once!)

The kids that were feeling well enough on this particular day I took to see Santa at the library (poor Ellie had to stay home---sad!).  The boys almost didn't come and when I asked them why, Jackson said it was time for them to move on and Noah added, "Yeah Mom, we need our puberty."  Hahaha!  They ended up coming as my helpers anyway, since apparently they need their puberty and don't have time for Santa.  The little kids were all in awe when he entered the room, but when they figured out that Santa was not so good at remembering to show the pictures of the storybook, they got restless pretty quick!  Zoe wasn't having it and finally popped up to stand right beside Santa so she could see.  If you didn't know this about my child, she's shy.

This is Jane's first picture with Santa.  I can tell all she is thinking about is how much she wants to touch that beard.  Alas, she just stared like this for a whole minute while he talked to her.

By the time Saturday came around our kids were pretty much on the mend.  Good thing too because our whole family was participating in our Ward's Christmas Party, "A Night in Bethlehem" where everyone was to come dressed in biblical attire.  It was awesome actually.  They gave us coins as we entered and had various stations where the kids could spend them doing different activities and use them to "buy" food.  Everyone brought blankets and we ate on the floor.  And then there was a program with the Nativity. I was a shepherd and sang in a quartet, "Shepherd's Cradle Song" (so so so pretty!) and did a last minute solo "Away in a Manger" with guitar throughout the program.  It was fun having a reason to pick up my guitar again.  It's been a while.  Joe was a wiseman, and the kids were dressed as angels because they were singing a musical number called "Heavenly Choirs."  It was really sweet.  Jackson and Noah were NOT on board with wearing angel costumes all night so they came as shepherds instead and threw on their angel robes right before the song and flung them off the second they were done!  What a lovely evening it was!

Every year we have to do cookies.  Usually I do sugar cookies, but earlier this week Ellie brought home a gingerbread cookie recipe, so I thought it would be fun to try!  In a perfect world I would have all the children gathered round me with Christmas music playing and everyone happily helping make the cookies!  Maybe even singing along in unison.  This year, I did no such thing.  I made the cookie dough the night before by myself and while the kids were at school I had Zoe help me cut out the cookie shapes while Jane napped.  It was heavenly.  There's something to be said of one on one time with your kids.  I loved this.  Pretty sure Zoe did, too!

I did manage to save SOME fun for the other kids.  After dinner we decorated the cookies and Joe even bought them their very own gingerbread house packet to decorate.  This was the first time in my married life that I made my very own gingerbread house from scratch.  Growing up, we always decorated a gingerbread house from scratch and they were always much bigger than these two houses combined!  The kids sure did ask to help me on my house and I sure did say no.  Like a good Mom!  I don't usually care or am not necessarily particular about having things that are "mine" but for some reason it was just so nice to work on my very own thing by myself.  Joe helped the kids with theirs, bless his heart.  This was not as magical of an experience as the morning I had with Zoe.  Jane was crying under the table because she wanted to be ON the table (she cannot abide missing a party).  Ellie managed to fall over while trying to pick out a jellybean, dumping the entire jar of jellybeans on the floor (she was standing still.  I take it all back what I said about gymnastics helping).  And Zoe was crying because she was straight up tired.  All of these tears at once?  Super fun.  No wonder the boys don't want us to have any more babies because of the chance it might be another girl.

We are trying to follow the "Light The World" program that the church has put out this Christmas.  It's great!  Each day there are different ways we can celebrate Christmas by doing acts that bring us closer to Christ.  After gingerbread houses, Joe took the kids to the library (I stayed back with a sleeping Jane) to "decorate" their giving tree with socks and mittens to give to children in need.  This program has really brought Christ into Christmas for us this year.  I look forward to more Christmas adventures, sick-free and hopefully a little warmer.

Merry Christmas!

Bomb. Dropped.

 Jane.  Beautiful Jane.  Perfect Jane.  My last baby.  I've been telling myself that since the day I found out I was pregnant with her.  I have been counting everything as my last experience.  The last time I will feel this baby kick inside me.  The last time I will have "morning sickness" (all-day/all-pregnancy).  My last birthing experience.  The last time I will nurse.  The last time I will see 0-3 month clothing (and so on) as I box it up and give it away.  Everything has been the "last" with her.  I have had to do that to myself to tell myself that it's okay for her to be my last.  I can be done.  And each time I have said it, I believed it more and more.   Some days I don't even like being a Mom (is that terrible to admit?), so why is it so hard to believe that Jane is my last?  Being a Mom is hard.  My kids just got over a month's slew of runny noses and coughing only to have Noah barf a few days ago, accompanied with a fever.  Ellie came home from school early today with the same flu bug which means we probably need to cancel our weekend plans to visit Santa, go to the Santa Parade, take family pictures in the beautiful newly fallen snow and I don't know what we're going to do about our Ward Christmas party that Ellie is singing a solo in.  Joe just got back into town only to leave again.  Jackson just told me last night that he wishes he was younger again because we spent more time together as a family back then.  And then my heart breaks and I want to cry silently into a pillow.  I know this is not even the worst of it.

And then I look at this face.  This beautiful perfect face that I am so in love with....

And I think, am I done?  I asked Joe what he TRULY thought a couple days ago because he made a passing comment about it a few weeks ago and we never got back to it.  His response was not what I was expecting.  Before getting pregnant with Jane, Joe had told me that he felt like our family was done, just the four.  I did not feel that way (I also think he just didn't want to see me go through another miscarriage again).  It was me that wanted another and he supported my decision.  We are both obviously so over the moon to have Jane in our lives.  Our whole family is in love with her.  Joe's response was that he felt like there was one more waiting for us.  He also said it was entirely up to me!  Well.  I'm not sure what to do with that.  I have been telling myself over and over that we are done.  Jane is the last chapter in our lives.  I think I finally believe myself.  So to hear Joe say that he thinks there is one more is kind of.... lots of feelings.  We wrote out a pros and cons list like a couple of nerds.  We all know what the cons are.  Being in pain and throwing up and not being able to take care of my family (especially Jane at such a busy age) and being tired and cranky and losing my sanity and generally just not being able to give each child the attention they need.  BUT, one of the pros is that our family will no longer be a family of 7 (I hate that number).  Plus, a baby.  A close second.

I haven't made a decision yet.  If you were to ask me right now I would say no.  No thanks.  Don't want to go through it all again.  I've got my blue-eyed baby, thanks (said in a Harry Potter voice).  But if it were right and it was made super clear, I would do it again.

It is anything but clear.

It's Time to Swim

 Zoe has gone through so many phases with water.  When she was a new baby, she loved baths.  Then HATED them.  So much so that she would save her poops for bath time just to spite me.  Every time for about eight months she would poo in the tub!  Her first experience with swimming in a pool was great.  She LOVED it.  I couldn't catch her fast enough each time she would jump in.  And then the next year she hated it.  Would cling to me in the water, even with a life jacket, or even if she could touch the bottom.  This made swim time with a large family super fun.  This past Summer at the beach I never had to worry about her because I knew she would be close to the shore making sand castles or dragging beach toys around on the boogie board.  There was no way she was going to go in past her knees.  Only towards the end of the Summer did she start asking me to put her life jacket on so she could float around. That was a massive step for her.  And that was when I knew she was ready for swim lessons.  It's only been five classes and boy do I feel sorry for her teacher.  Zoe is constantly under the water or trying to swim/float away.  This totally reminds me of Noah at this age!  He was a fish and never listened to his teacher either.  Haha!  I was a swim instructor once upon a time so I know how it feels to have one of those.  Or many.  And I have produced two!  I'm so sorry to do that to the swim instructor world.  But on the plus side, she loves water again.  She loves her swimming lessons.  And another perk?  I get to swim lanes during her class!  I LOVE swimming and I miss it so this forces me to take the opportunity to throw on my saggy one piece swimsuit that I still have from my instructing days and get in as many lanes as I can in a half hour.  It's great.  I want to go every day.  An easy swim for me at my peak used to be 40 lengths.  At least.  One time I even swam a mile for fun, which I believe is around 72 or 76 lengths (somewhere around there).  It took me 45 minutes and it was super boring so I never did it again.  I haven't been swimming in years so I will pat myself right on the back for starting out swimming 20 lengths of the front crawl without stopping AND adding the breast stroke and side stroke (another 8-10 all together).  I will happily take the praise.  I was also really sore all week long the first couple times back.  Now that we are five weeks in, my muscles aren't on crazy fire anymore and I am feeling pretty great.  My body feels tight and strong.  It doesn't look it yet, but we'll get there.  I'm hoping with enough breast strokes my bum will defeat the pull of gravity.

I asked Zoe to pose for me.  She got real creative.

Olympics, Here We Come!

So this conversation started at the beach during the Summer when a friend of mine told me that she was going to be putting her daughter in gymnastics and did Ellie want to join her?  Let me back up even further.  I don't know that I've ever seen a Kindergarten report card that says that my child's motor skills are not really up to par when it comes to gym time.  Ellie has a gift for being able to fall down while standing still.  If someone is going to fall off their chair, it's going to be her.  The little girl wapping her hands lazily around on the playground?  That's my child. Well, Joe showed me this clip on the talk-show, "Ellen," where a Mom was having the same "struggles" (if you can call it that?) with her daughter, so she put her in gymnastics and now the girl is a pro.  She isn't clumsy anymore.  She has amazing balance and strength.  So when my beach friend (Alaina Johnson) suggested that Ellie join her daughter, I thought, "great idea!"  And you know what?  It was.  Ellie has been LOVING gymnastics.  Not only does she see her friends there, she is good at it.  She is stronger, more flexible, better balance, AND she gets to wear one of these.  We are all winning.

L-R:  Elle Wilson, Ellie, Zoey Taylor, Emery Gilchrist, Maryn Johnson

And this is only THREE months of progression.  Imagine where she will be in a year or two from now?  This is Ellie's first "thing."  I know she was in dance a couple years ago, but this is different because she loves it.  And isn't that exciting? Finding something that your child loves AND is good at?  Her teachers are amazing and it's even fun for me to watch.  Great job Ellie!

Christmas is UP!

Christmas is UP at the Burnhams.  We don't have many Christmas things so it doesn't take us too long, but it certainly feels amazing once it's all done.  I love pumping those Christmas tunes and everyone's happy and singing along.  Ahhhhh.  So great.  Also, we bought the world's skinniest tree.  Every time I look at it I laugh.  You can't see the star at the top of the tree, but it is almost just as wide!  Haha!  Joe and I decided to sell our leaning-tree from last year and buy a more appropriate-sized one for our tiny livingroom space.  It certainly fits better.  But yes.  It looks a tiny bit silly.  No pun intended.  Jane hasn't discovered how much fun pulling a tree down can be, so we haven't experienced that yet, but I have a feeling it wouldn't take much nor be too long!  We have only lost one ornament thus far, and about a zillion candy canes thanks to Zoe.  Actually, she keeps taking off ornaments and playing with them throughout the house, so I have a feeling we will continue to lose more ornaments.  They may not be literally broken, but their hearts will be because they will never live to see another day on our beautiful Christmas tree.

Oh man, I love my family.  And I love Christmas.

Janey at Nine Months

This little lump is nine months.  NINE!  I remember booking her "nine-month doctor's appointment" over the Summer and thinking, MAN, that is so far away.  But no.  I blinked and it already came and went!  She is a whopping 17 lbs people.  So.  So.  Tiny.  But healthy and thriving.  She is now in the 50th percentile.  Well done Jane.  She also started crawling a few weeks ago and is now decidedly a pro.  She has no time for jolly jumpers any more.  Or anything that will contain her.  Unless it's her high chair and there is an endless supply of food.  Even then....  I kind of dreaded this stage because I have four older kids that forget to close the door that leads downstairs, or they leave their Lego pieces EVERYWHERE (and you can bet I finger-sweep at least ten times a day), but this stage has been surprisingly fun.  I mean.  I don't like having to worry about those things, but as long as I'm keeping a solid eye on her or do a scan before putting her down, it's not so bad.  Okay, even with the scan she still manages to find something to put in her mouth.  Speaking of which, she is obsessed with the broom.  And yes.  Yes, she eats the dust bunnies off the end of it.  Gross.  Sometimes I don't need a broom because she is a professional sweeper.  I often find her under the table like a puppy, picking up whatever made it to the floor and putting it straight in her mouth.  I just have to make sure it's not days old.  Sometimes it is.  Well.  She hasn't gotten sick yet!

After my trip to Arizona last month I have had to start bottle-feeding Jane.  It was bitter-sweet and I really stewed over it, but after feeding her a bottle in my arms and watching her slowly fade away while clutching a blanket to her face has made this transition more sweet than bitter.  Let's not forget that it's super convenient.  No more pumping bottles to go on dates.  Or out at all.  No more nursing in public or having to find a place to quietly nurse.  And sometimes I even leave her in her crib holding her own bottle so I can rush to the bathroom on the occasion that I might need to urgently go.  Or more often than not because I have four other kids.  But also the bathroom thing.  (How many times have I nursed whilest sitting on the toilet!  Haha!  Sorry kids).

Sometimes I am lucky enough to just hold her and have her just lay there calmly and look up at me and touch my face.   Or fall asleep in my arms.  Or even better, shoulder.  Oh my!  There is not much better in life than this.

This lady started out HATING her baths.  The faster the better!  Now she lives for them.  It is especially nice now that she has some semblance of balance and can crawl around in the tub.  No more killing my knees while trying to hold her slippery body up and making sure she doesn't swallow water.  Bless the stress-free no-tears super-fun bath time.

I took this picture today.  Look at those eyes.  I get comments on them just about every day.  And her hair has sure grown over the past couple weeks.  Joe and I even noticed a little curl at the end of one side the other day.  This is what Zoe's hair looked like at this age, so I wonder if we will not only have a blondie-blue but also a curly-haired blondie blue??  If she's my last, might as well go out with a bang!  She still has a Noah-look to her, but more and more she is turning out to look a lot like a female Jackson.  Either way, she is sure a cutie.  The kids and I often talk about how lucky we all are to have Jane in our lives.  It is particularly sweet to hear Jackson talk about how blessed we are to have Jane.  Those boys sure love her and dote on her.  I had Jackson babysit her while I dropped Ellie off at gymnastics today.  I have strict rules about making sure to play with her in her room (he is not skilled in the finger-sweeping department!), and I came upstairs to him playing with her and talking to her.  Oh my.  It is so sweet.  And then he proceeded to make her a bottle even after I was home.  The older kids really like to help out when it has to do with Jane.  They jump at the chance to hold her bottle, or her, or carry her around, or make her a bottle all by themselves.  I only wish that were the case with changing her diaper!  Ha!  Baby steps I guess.  We sure love you Janey.  Slow down!

Halloween Halloween Halloween Halloween!

Another great Halloween!  I finally got some "creepy" decorations for our door and won the hearts of my boys.  There is currently the Grimm Reaper hanging on our door and when it's nice and windy or accidentally turned around with its face to the window on a dark night, it is, INDEED, creepy.  The boys decided to go trick or treating with Jack Doney and Will Moore tonight, leaving life pretty chill at home this evening.  They got a decent haul and were talking a mile a minute when they got home.  Evidence that they had already eaten quite a bit of that haul.  Ha!  And evidence of a good time.  I got to take Ellie and Zoe while Jane stayed at home with Joe.  It was so relaxing, actually.  And the girls were so cute.  Every single decoration they passed, they had to make a comment on or touch or scream, or gasp.  Ha!  We had a good time.  They were major light weights, so I am going to have to depend on the boys for the bulk of my candy-stealing.

The kids carved pumpkins at school this year, which kind of made me want to be a lazy Mom.  I bought five pumpkins and only three were carved.  So, yesterday I finally shook off the laziness and procrastination that were weighing heavily upon me and we carved those last two pumpkins the day before Halloween, darn it.  And in our Sunday best, because that's how we roll.  And also because it was Sunday.  We even picked out some pumpkin seeds with the best of intentions, but they never made it to the oven.

Our Ward did Trunk-or-Treat this year.  The kids kept asking me what I was going to dress up as.  I promise I DO like to be the fun Mom for Halloween, but sometimes I'm too tired to be a fun Mom after getting all of THEM ready!  Ha!  So about twenty minutes before we were about to head out, I dug around in my "Cursed By a Woman" box of costumes and pulled out the easiest and comfiest one.  And then I made Joe join me in the name of participating as a Bishopric member!  It was fun.  I stayed in character about 90% of the time and scared all the kids.  They kept looking at me confused and uncomfortable because I kept staying in character.  Until I stopped because I had to laugh at the look on their faces.  If my kids were teenagers, they would have been embarrassed.  I think Joe looks like Elder Holland in about twenty more years.  Haha!

And here's our clan just before Trick or Treating.  We were lucky to get some decent weather.  It wasn't warm, but it wasn't freezing.  It snowed last week and this morning it was freezing rain.  So, I'd say we lucked out with a "brisk" evening.

I told myself that I wasn't going to buy any costumes this year and that the kids could throw something together with what we've got or what we can borrow!  Well.  I couldn't do that to Jane on her first Halloween.  The second I saw this at Costco I knew it had to be hers.  Even if she only wore it for the five minutes it took to capture these delicious pictures.  We DID do trunk-or-treat in our Ward where I got to show her off a little more, but tonight she got to stay at home with Dad, nice and warm and cozy, and help him hand out candy.

I told the kids to get into character, and Noah gets extra points for taking it to the next level!  He's a mad-scientist.  I am guessing his lab just exploded.  Or something to that effect.  He is looking like Joe more and more every day.

And here's the cutest little cowgirl in the Wild Wild West!  Fun fact: This is one of my favourite shirts from my rock-and-roll days.  I've worn it touring and in various photoshoots.  It was actually a second choice for my music video "Perfect" but I went with another outfit.  When the wardrobe lady said I could take one item home with me, I nabbed this shirt so fast.  I'm hoping one day to be able to fit back into this thing!  For now, it fits great over a winter coat as a Halloween costume.

Jackson took "creepy" to the next level.  He didn't want to just be a mime.  It had to be a creepy mime.  Because only creepy mimes wear their Mom's shirt.  Ha!  (We had to get creative.  Like I said, not spending money on costumes this year!  ...Except for my special child).  Gone are the days of cute Halloween costumes.  Well.  I think they were gone a few years ago.  I have boys!  Ha!

I was a fun Mom and let the girls stay up way past their bed time to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" while munching on candy.  I had all the intentions in the world to cuddle up with them and enjoy it.  It is one of my childhood favs.  But alas, I had to put Jane to bed, and then Joe needed to pack and shower so I had to man the door for the other trick-or-treaters, not to mention make lunches for school the next day and sweep up the dinner mess.  And tidy up the livingroom.  And the list goes on.  Before I knew it the movie was over.  I regret it terribly.  At least I got to watch the opening number with them, which is my fav.

Jackson was a bit sad tonight as I was tucking the boys into bed.  "Now Halloween is over and we have nothing to look forward to for a while."  Um.  CHRISTMAS!  They have already written their lists for Santa!  They are my children.