The Ghost of Hallow Eve's Past

This time of year marks the beginning of our journey with Kyler. It was at our annual pumpkin carving party last year that I had announced, to many of our closest friends, that I was pregnant. Just reliving the memory by writing about is bringing the butterflies back to my stomach. I was only 5 weeks along and wasn't entirely sure that I was expecting when we were planning our annual pumpkin carving party. As the party was quickly approaching and I still hadn't gotten my period, I was beginning to wonder what I would say to people when they would ask why I wasn't drinking. I thought of buying some O'doul's and pouring in into a beer mug, or even making some sort of mixed concoction that looked alcoholic just to make people believe that I was drinking. In the meantime, I had taken another home pregnancy test (the first 2 were negative) just to see what was going on. The third time's a charm, because this one had shown positive. Josh and I were elated. We just started laughing a somewhat nervous yet excited laugh, and held each other tightly. Then we came back down to reality - How were we going to tell our parents and what was I going to do for the party? Well, at this point, the party was just a week away and we still hadn't come up with a plan. The only thing that we wanted to be sure of was to tell our parents first. We just had to find a way to do so in the next week.

I had convinced my mom that I needed help cleaning my house for the party, in reality I did not, but it was a ploy for her to meet up with me in person. I had gotten a "brag book" that said, "My Grandkids". I emphasized the s on the end of the word and put a picture of my pregnancy test on the first page. She was elated! Since we couldn't meet up with Josh's parents in person, we had e-mailed them the same picture of our pregnancy test then quickly called them. Josh instructed his dad to check his e-mail. Once he did, Gerald jokingly said, "What does that mean?" Josh told him to go and get Rita and that she would help him to decipher it. Once they did, they too were elated! Then the party rolled around. I didn't want to tell people as they arrived, rather I wanted to make a big announcement. As our friends slowly arrived to our house, many of them asked why I wasn't drinking yet. I told them that I didn't really feel like it now, but maybe I would later. Later came and went, and I still didn't have a drink. Once the majority of our friends had arrived, we did make the announcement. One of our friends told me he felt like such a jerk when he had previously asked why I wasn't drinking.

Baby's First Halloween

This year, pumpkin carving was a bit of a different story for me. We had many of the same friends over this year and they were glad to see me back to my old self again.

Family Fun!

Let me just sum it up for you:
~25 of our close friends (whom included: Superman, Lois Lane, Elvis, Michael Phelps, Mary Tyler Moore, a sheep, a monkey, two pumpkins, Teen Wolf and a couple of football players)
~two babies and one on the way
~3 dogs
~336 trick-or-treaters (my next door neighbor kept a tally)
~2 bottles of Jagermiester
~Just shy of 100 bottles of beer
~one bottle of wine
~2 pans of gringo enchiladas
~a vegi tray
~lots of chips and salsa
~a pan of brownies
~8 carved pumpkins
~one big trash can filled with pumpkin goop and seeds
~12 rounds of Guitar Hero
~and Josh singing karaoke
Needless to say, we had a great night!

We are already looking forward to next Halloween. Josh and I were just talking about it, and by then Kyler will be walking and saying a few words!