michelle cortez photography: November 2011

I have a big secret to tell!

I hate Halloween!!!lol
I hate the pressure of finding my kids costumes (I won't buy them because I feel like it's a waste of money, but I also don't believe in spending all of October making them!) I tried this year. I got about half way before I lost focus.
I grew up putting together quick costumes Halloween night with whatever we found around the house.
I hate candy! I hate that everyone gives my kids candy and my kids think because someone gave it to them it's ok to eat it all.
I hate other kids coming up to me and expecting me to give them candy just because it's Halloween. (without even saying "trick-or-treat" seriously!)
I hate kids (and parents of kids) who stay out until 10 or later "trick-or-treating" on a school night!!!
I hate that when Halloween's over I have to start planning for Christmas and thinking of buying Christmas presents. (I don't like feeling like I have to buy presents for people and the pressure of coming up with the "perfect" gift in my price range is almost unbearable. I don't know how many times I've thought how nice it would be to spend Christmas out of town!)

The best part of Halloween is how excited my kids are. Even with their half finished costumes! I love that my sister has a Halloween party for the kids every year. With face painting, cotton candy, snow cones and lots of games. She's so sweet to do this just for fun. I kind of like the ward Halloween party. I even tried decorating my trunk for the trunk or treat.

Ashleigh is Tinker bell. The tutu turned out great. I tried to dye a shirt to match but it came out more olive, plus it was too big. Poor kid didn't have a plain white long sleeved shirt and it was a little too cold for short sleeves. But she was happy.

When I see pictures of Devyn I laugh out loud!! She's a clown. I learned this year to stay away from face paint that doesn't dry. She had it smeared everywhere 2 seconds after I put it on. My mom was practicing her face painting skills on Devyn. That's a butterfly between her eyes. Everything about her costume is just so Devyn. Messy!!!

Elijah is Harry Potter. I made the robe (about 50% of it, My mom did all the finishing work). I thought I was done with his costume until Tuesday I realized I never got him a tie or glasses and he had to have a wand so I quickly got on Amazon and ordered his stuff. Expected delivery was 10-31. I thought for sure it wouldn't be here on time. It got here on Friday! I love Amazon. Poor Elijah his scar looks awful. I didn't realize how bad it was until I looked at these pictures. And I love that he's wearing his addidas pants with a white button up shirt! hahahaha

I have more big secrets!!

but first here are my adorable kids (all cleaned up after Saturday's Halloween parties)
Last Sunday was our Primary Program. It was awesome! Besides Ashleigh crying during the first song because a little boy took "her spot" and the kids not being able to practice their lines at home because their "oh so together" mom lost their parts like the second they gave them to her.

Ashleigh's getting a little to big for me. Someone please bring back my baby girl!!!

I love Elijah's silly crooked smile in all of his pictures lately.

I absolutely love these kids soooo much. Which brings me to big secret (not so much a secret because I think we've told everyone!) We are expecting number 4 in March!!!
It's kind of more of a surprise to us! We weren't planning it. It's been a stressful time for me. With the house on the market for a year and not knowing when it would sell and where we were going to move to, having a baby was the last thing on my mind. It took me a while to admit that it was going to happen (I didn't take a pregnancy test for 2 weeks, and I didn't call the doctor until I was 12 weeks and I didn't have my first appointment until I was 16 weeks) We just had our ultrasound on Tuesday and found out that the baby is not going to let us know if it's a boy or girl until it arrives!! hurray for surprises!!!