Magic

I'm at a magical point in life. I feel blessed to realize this.

I really love having children. I love being a mom.

It's taken me awhile to realize this. I have always loved my children, but sometimes, I get bogged down in the day-to-day child care aspect. Sometimes I just want "to do what I want to do" (to quote Dottie). Sometimes I want to read a book all day long, be able to wake up later than 6:30, or go somewhere, anywhere, by myself.

But lately, I can't get enough of my children. I want to be there for every moment of their lives.

They are so precious.

What has changed me? I've been trying harder. Trying to be more patient, raising my voice less, and listening more. What do my children really want? Do they want to snuggle in bed? I can do that. Do they want to have songs sung to them and pet my hair? (Ruby is taking after Elliot) I can do that too. Do they want to invite friends over and have a girls party? I can do that as well.

Giving more of myself to my children has made me happier. When Jesus said, "But whosever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it," I think he was talking about motherhood. I have "lost" my life, but am finally finding the joy that is possible.

If you haven't had children yet, for whatever reason, stop putting it off. Do it. There is no greater joy.

I am not a perfect parent. I still struggle. But the more I try, the more I love. The more I love, the more I grow. My children are at a special age, and I want to savor every moment.

Fall Fun

We've had a busy couple of weeks with different fall activities. I'll let the pictures do the talking, and narrate as we go:

Dottie's school had a fall festival. She got her face painted there by a high schooler. Pretty good, eh?
Dottie had her best girlfriends over the other week to play dress-up. They put a skirt on my Rubester. I thought she looked pretty adorable.

Ruby frequently naps while I teach piano in the afternoon. If she wakes up while I'm finishing teaching, I'll tell Dottie and Elliot to go and play with her. This day, I walked in her room to find all three kids in the crib. Those little monkeys.

We threw our first Hansen Halloween Party. Dottie is my little party planner. She gets an idea for a party in her head, and just won't let go of it. She started inviting people over for a Halloween Party, so I had to follow through. It ended up being a lot of fun, thanks to Family Fun's party game ideas.

For the smaller kids, we had a "pumpkin patch" that the kids could decorate with silly eyes, noses, and mouths.

We had a mummy wrapping contest with white crepe paper. Elliot, the blur, nearly beat out the nine-year-old boy. He was a pretty intense wrapper.

Dottie and her partner.

A few of the partiers. I like how there were four princesses, all in pastels. Thing One jumped in there just to mix things up.

The other games we played (that I neglected to get pictures of) were the Waiter Game, Spider Crawl Race, Witch Tag (the biggest hit), and Ghost Bingo. The games were all very successful. It took a lot of work to plan, but it was all worth it when the day ended like this:

Dottie: "This was the best day ever!"

My children dancing in glee after having so much fun (and sugar).

The fun didn't end with the Halloween Party. That was Friday night. Then, on Saturday, we took our kids and a few friends to a pumpkin farm/apple orchard. Joe's new obsession is healthy but delicious fruit drinks to replace his soda obsession. So we drove an hour away to the Apple Capital of Texas in Medina. They make their own fresh-pressed and unpasteurized apple cider there. It was good cider, better than what you can buy at the store, but I still miss my Pennsylvania cider.

And we still have 8 days until Halloween! Will my kids still be having fun by then?

Found

Stickers from fruit have been found in my baby's diaper not once, but thrice. What have you found in your baby's diaper lately?

Tell Me How I Can Stop This Baby From Growing

Believe it or not, Ruby is 8 months old.

She's eating her first bites of pizza,

Being fed by her big sister,

holding her ground when Elliot tackles her (see the look in his eyes? Yes, she should be scared, but she's tough),

And starting to pull up on things on her own. Dottie looks like she's holding her there, but she's not.

We had to put the crib down a level so she wouldn't jump out. Ruby also has gone from doing the worm to real crawling, using her knees. I wish she would just freeze where she is right now. Because she is so adorable. She is so sweet when she sucks her little thumb and pets my hair. My mother heart can't handle another baby growing up!

Spooktacular Seaworld

I think Seaworld is finally learning some things from Disney World. To stay current with the young, hip rising generation, you need some fun-loving characters wandering around. SeaWorld recently opened a Sesame Street-themed area of the park called the Bay of Play. For Halloween, they had a trick-or-treat section in the Bay of Play with various aquatic animals like:

Lady Octopus? She should take some lessons from Ursula.

Friendly the Starfish?

Mermaids? But they're not Ariel or her sisters.

Flamingos with drooping heads,

and we think this one may be a jellyfish.

So maybe the characters aren't as cool as Disney. But my kids didn't seem to care. Not this year, anyway. And they did score a lot of candy there, even it was all the same (Black Forest brand gummies).

Craft for the Anti-crafter

I am not crafty. Oh no. Actually, most crafty things intimidate me. Like putting in a zipper on Dottie's Halloween costume. But sometimes, I feel bad for my kids, because of my lack of crafting wisdom. So I will try, from time to time, ideas from No Time for Flashcards or Family Fun. This was a Family Fun craft. You take a jar (I just used an old spaghetti jar), clean it out (of course), put masking tape in the shape of a jack-o-lantern face, then paint it (we used finger paint):

So much fun getting messy.

Then, you take off the tape, put a small votive candle inside, and voila!

You've got yourself a literal jack-o-lantern. And I didn't even have to go to the store to buy anything. This is why it's my kind of a craft.

Conference Weekend

I've decided that my favorite weekends are the weekends of General Conference. General Conference is a biannual meeting of our church that is televised (and on the internet, in our case). Leadership of the church talk on a variety of topics. Some of my favorite talks this time were about time management, fathers being good examples to their daughters, and the importance of motherhood. Pretty good topics, right? This weekend made me reprioritize. I have a new plan for my life to be a better mother, wife, and person.

So what were my kids doing during General Conference?

Don't ask me why Dottie's hiding behind Ruby.

Being cute and playing with a bouncy ball on the stairs.

The weekend was ended with stories by daddy. I feel refreshed.