Happy Halloween...

Well it is not quite Halloween yet, but to me I feel like the holiday keeps coming and going. We had a fall festival at church and it was a lot of fun. As you can see the kids got all dressed up in their costumes and they were so excited. It was a like a trial run for Friday night! I also spent a couple of days in my classroom talking about Halloween and its history. I decorated my classroom with pumpkins, spiderweb, lights, and witches' brooms. I must say that this time of year is a lot of fun. In my district we get Halloween off, our fall break consist of two days which are usually the last two days in October, depending how it lands. I am resting at home and enjoying the two days that I have. Yesterday was Kennedy's birthday, and I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her since it was parent teacher's conferences and I had class. But today we are going to the mall and going to have some fun.

I am in love...

I had to share this picture with everybody. This is my nephew and me. I am in loooove. When I look at this little boy, I feel like he belongs to me. I know that he doesn't, but in some ways he does, right? He is my only nephew and I want to spoil him rotten. I try to imagine what the sound of his laugh is going to be like! I just want to tickle him and make him laugh. He is just a delight and such a blessing to my life. I love being an Auntie!

Fall at the Holt's house

I was looking around my house thinking of how much I love the fall. These pictures I took today while I was walking around my house. I love to decorate with my garland and special wreaths. I love the smells of the fall and I always spend money around this time of the year at Bath and Body works getting all the oils that help my house smell like the Fall. Growing up, my mother always had candy in a candy jar around Halloween. So of course, I have to fulfill the tradition! I have a special candy dish that is filled with candy the whole month of October. I even bought one for my desk at school. For the last couple of weekends I have been waking up real early and sitting out on my porch swing to watch the sun come up. For me, it is something that I always took for granted when I was a stay at home mom. Now I just love going out and enjoying the great weather. I always make these special cookies everyday after church. My kids know that Halloween is coming when I make these cookies. I also love the Fall because I know that is that much closer to Christmas. Even though my life isn't what I wanted it to be, and I am under a lot of stress, I am trying to make this time of year as happy as I can. I am usually glowing this time of year and loving every minute of it... I still am, but a little more hesitant because I am afraid of the future. I hate not know what life is going to be like a year from now. The sacrafices we are making right now will pay off. We will have a better life in the long run. And when I say a better life, I don't mean more "treasures", but security.

I love this time of year, and hope everyone else does too.

Who does this child belong to?

She belongs to Colby. Taylor is so funny! She walked in today all excited, and I asked her if she had looked in the mirror. She just gave me a funny smirk and said, "What?" Like she didn't look like a goof ball or something???? Just thought I would share the silly picture. Oh, and that is hot chocolate running down her clothes.

The wait is over...

The wait is finally over... my brother is a daddy... never thought I would say those words. I am so excited to finally be an aunt. This has been such an emotional week so far. Kenny is going to be an amazing father... he just loves this little guy. For those of you who don't know my brother has been told his whole life that he would never be a father. With the advancement of medical technology, my brother now gets to enjoy the pleasure and blessing of being a dad. Parenthood is something that I have taken for granted, and I do believe that all babies, no matter how they get here, are so precious. But, I must say that when I look at Ryder, I stare in amazment. I think about what it took to get him here, and how grateful I am that this all came about. The Lord has really blessed me this week. I feel forever indebted to my Heavenly Father for giving me a nephew, and more importantly, giving my brother a son. Oh, I think I forgot to mention all the stats... we named him Kenneth Floyd Carden IV "Ryder". He weighed 7lbs 15.4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. Britt worked really hard to get him here, 30 hours of labor and finally an emergency c section. She was quite the trooper! And the payoff of all the work, she got a baby that looks just like her!

Questions I was asked this week...

Okay, so I am always being asked questions, all day long! Of course, I am a teacher, that is what I do, I answer questions. Questions all day long can get a bit exhausting... but for the most part I am really patient and try to answer all of those questions... if I can't answer it, there is always Google. But the silly questions that I am asked are usually from my kids... okay, so are you ready for these????
1. "Mom, is it true that Marco Polo brought noodles from Italy to China?" - Taylor
2. "Mom, when did Chinese people discover American food?" - Taylor
3. "What does the word, A B S T I N E N C E, mean (as they spell it to me)?" - Lil Colby
4. "Do Chinese people do gymnastics?" - Taylor
5. "Did you walk by that tortilla place when you were little?" (Yes, I am so old that cars did not exsist!) - Taylor
6. "Mom, I don't want to whistle while I work!" - Marley (I know that is not a question, but I had to include it).

I guess it is clear that Taylor is the most curious one out of the group, does it surprise you? Anyway, I just jotted down these silly questions and thought I would share.

Decade day...

It was spirit week at Madison #1 (where I work). We had such a great time. Kennedy is in 5th grade so she dressed in the fifties and I am a 7th grade teacher, so of course I got to dress 70's. It was awesome. We had such a good time, it was a lot of fun. We also had a great time shopping for our costumes at the spirit store. The other picture is my friend Tiffany, she is the other 7th grade teacher. She is a great girl and I couldn't ask for a better "other half". She gets to teach 8th grade too, so she dressed in the 80's. It was so much fun and the students really got into it. Did I mention that I love my job!