First Post and Halloween

We're finally doing a first post! Our purpose in starting this blog is to have an up-to-date place for birth parents and case workers to come and learn more about us. We've called it The Open Book because we hope to be open about our lives and what it's like to be part of our family. Brian and I both will be posting things and maybe I'll take dictation from Bridget once in a while, too. :) Each post will have a label and when we have more posts, you can look up the subjects you're interested in knowing more about. If you have questions for us, please leave them in the comments or e-mail us if you're more comfortable.

Halloween has really turned into our favorite time of year. Before we had children we were Hallowienies. Brian and I wore costumes one year in the ten we had before Bridget. For a few years we even turned off the lights and pretended we weren't home for Trick-or-Treaters. (Ah! I can't believe that now. Except that we were living on a busy street and the kids who came to the door were all over 12 years-old and dressed in a football jersey for their costume. I have a hard time rewarding such lame costumes.)

Bridget was born June 25, 2006. That Halloween we dressed her like a baby elephant and took her all over the place to get the maximum laughs out of the situation. Who knew it was so funny to have a baby look confused about what they were wearing and wondering why everyone was laughing? Not us.

The next year we borrowed a Pocahontas costume from one of Brian's cousins. That was the year my youngest sister had a baby boy, Gabriel (or Graybiel, as Bridget says it), on October 30th. We went to the hospital to see them on Halloween. In addition to taking Bridget to all the spots to show her off and get candy for ourselves, of course. The funniest part of the 2007 Halloween was that Bridget wanted to wear her costume. I saw some of her friends pulling things off their heads, but Bridget was careful to keep the headband on.

I feel like a real Mom this year because I made Bridget's costume. This is a huge turning point for me - I'm almost 35 years-old and I've never made a Halloween costume! I'm not a great seamstress (I do more quilting than clothes sewing), but I'm so proud of Bridget's costume. (I would like to be better at sewing. It's hard right now because the office/sewing room is under construction in the basement and when I sew I have to get all my stuff out in the dining room. Bridget picks up my fabric scraps and puts them on the sewing maching when I turn my back. Helpful. :)) We're looking forward to taking Bridget to Brian's work and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and at Grandma's house. We even went into American Fork Canyon a few days ago to get some location appropriate photos of her in her costume. So I guess we've gone from zero to crazy parents in just three years, eh? I'm already planning for next year. :) Now THAT'S scary.