Cinco

Yesterday, I was honored to become Iverson Charles' godmother!

Being a child's godparent is such a blessing. I love the special relationship it creates and the extra guidance God helps me to provide. Here is Iverson with both of his godparents (his Godfather is Isaac's brother Noah) and also with just me:

I also think it is really neat that Iverson is Andrea and Isaac's fifth child...and Iverson is my fifth godchild! It was meant to be. Hence, Cinco! It might stick.

I dearly love all of my godchildren: John, Emma, Camille, Tucker and now Iverson. You are each amazing human beings and I'm so thankful to be part of your lives. I'll always pray for you and be here for each of you no matter what you need.

“On this day of baptism may God, who loves us all, smile lovingly upon Iverson, so innocent and small… and may He guide Iverson throughout the years ahead as blessings light the pathway where those tiny feet are led.”

And finally, Mr. Baby Hog with Iverson:

A quick shout out to the Johnson family: we are so blessed to have you in our lives and to truly be part of your family. There are so many good quotes about friends being family, but this is my favorite and applies so much to you with us:

"Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what. There's a point in real friendships when you stop being friends and become family."

May the Force be with You

Other than Finn, we are not big Star Wars fans in our house. In fact, I'd even say we are NOT fans. However, Finn REALLY wanted to be Finn from Star Wars for Halloween this year. The last couple of years, we've dressed up together as a family (Batman one year and dinosaurs last year), so I tried REALLY hard to change his mind.

But, it kind of stuck and before long, Korri really wanted to be Rey and Mac wanted to be Yoda. I waited as long as I could to order the costumes in the hope that they'd change their minds (I REALLY wanted to go as Hotel Transylvania characters), but finally had to give in. The things moms do for their kids! LOL

Of course, we didn't get a family picture, but here are costumes (Mac changed his mind to Luke Skywalker at the last minute once he realized Yoda's costume came with a walking stick instead of a lightsaber!):

So we had Finn, Luke Skywalker, Rey, Princess Leia and BB8. Jim REALLY REALLY didn't want to go as Star Wars, but came around when he found this costume! It was cumbersome to walk in, so he made it to the end of our block before heading back home, which was fine so he could hand out candy.

And you seriously could not have ordered better Halloween weather in Minnesota than it was last night: between 45 and 50 degrees with no breeze or humidity! I was even warm at one point when we were walking around (the coffee and Bailey's might have had something to do with that; in addition to my super warm The North Face winter coat!).

After a rocky start (Finn and Mac both were crying for different reasons when we first headed out), we had an amazing Trick-or-treating. We met up with Angie's family, which was a blast until Mac missed the curb and fell and cut up his hand. Thankfully, I could leave the Bigs with Angie and take Mac home to get fixed up (nothing warm water and a Band-Aid couldn't fix).

And the spoils:

I do love that while my kiddos love getting candy as much as the next kids, they aren't greedy and when it's time to be done trick-or-treating, they are fine being done...even without a full bucket. Mac was pretty sure he got one thousand pieces! This year we went longer because we met Angie's family but normally we are done after an hour or less!

And our school has a "buy back" program where you can donate your candy and it is sent to soldiers. So we let them each keep 10 of their favorite pieces and the rest gets donated. And honestly, other than taking a LONG time to pick exactly which ones they want to keep, they don't even complain about it! Trust me, we do NOT need this overflowing tub of candy sitting around here! (daddy hasn't taken his spoils from it yet, though!)

And can you guess which one did this? So organized!

So, if they still want to do the family costumes next year, we are thinking Harry Potter. We'll see, I guess! Maybe I'll be a Dementor since I feel like I suck the joy out of their lives! Ha, well, not all of the time ;)

And our kiddos can't wear costumes to school, so this is my compromise: