CONGRATS TO LEI & JACOB!!!

Yesterday Leilani called me to tell me about her new little baby girl, Mara Jade Esparza born on October 24th. Mara is healthy and beautiful and Mama is doing well, (but tired, of course). Congratulations!!!

Lei and I had a great conversation. As I listened to her talk about her experience, (over 40 hours of labor!) I was flooded with memories. I was emotional thinking back about each time I gave birth to my beautiful daughters, and how totally different each experience was. The overwhelming love and emotion that accompanies motherhood is totally incomprehensible until you experience it for yourself. I'm so glad I can share that with Leilani now that she is a Mother too.

My life is so full; I am so blessed. My children bring me such joy, I thank God for the opprotunity to experience the selfless love that is being a Mother.

Last night I took down all my Halloween decorations and put up my Thanksgiving ones. Of all the decorations I have for various holidays, my Thanksgiving decorations are my favorite. I've been trying to build up my Thanksgiving decor collection over the last few years. It's always bugged me that the stores go from Halloween to Christmas without giving much thought, if any, to Thanksgiving. A holiday that revolves around food should be a hallowed day!

Halloween was really fun. We spent an extended weekend with Steve's family. Steve has not dressed up for Halloween since kindergarten, but we may have turned a corner...

Obviously Steve was a cowboy on a bucking bronco, Cali was a "pretty" witch, Kensie was Sleeping Beauty (again), Mollee was a chick and I was a butterfly.

I had blue and purple wings too, but I wanted to show a close-up of my face paint and I didn't have my wings on when we took this picture.

We had a great time with the family and Cali and Kensie got plenty of candy.

Hope everyone else had a fun Halloween!