Trying to get back in to this! (Part 1)

A lot has happened over the past month which has kept me from updating this. First and foremost, we lost my Mom on October 23rd. I created this blog almost only with her in mind (and of course our other family members) but I knew it was driving her crazy being so far away from Sydney that I thought she would enjoy hearing about our adventures and seeing more up to date pictures (plus I knew she would just print whatever she read to show my dad!) So, now that she is no longer with us I found it really hard to even pick this "blogging" thing back up. My biggest obstacle to overcome was: how do I just jump right back in to our life showing fun pictures and sharing sweet stories when a huge part of our life is gone, no longer able to read about or see the pictures that I post? Most of you that read this already know of our family's loss, but I felt I had to make mention of my mom and the role she played in my decision to even create a blog. I didn't feel I could jump back in to this without mentioning and remembering her first. In addition to all of that however, I started to realize that this was also the (only) place where I recorded all of the things we did and the cute things Sydney was up to. Very soon, will include news of our baby and so on and so forth. So I am going to try very hard to keep this updated for those that read it and to get back to sharing our life with you! :)

I'll try to bring the tone of this post back up to a positive one now! While we were back with family after my mom passed, it was really a blessing to get to spend so much time with our family. Sydney spent a lot of time with her dear Aunt Dee (and I think even temporarily named one of her babies after her! :) ) It was such a relief to know that Joe and I could be where we needed to be (at the hospital, or other places helping Dad out) and know that Sydney was having a ball with Aunt Dee or any other family member that happened to stop by. Since we don't usually get back to Delphos as often as any of us would like, it was wonderful to see Sydney take so quickly to everyone! She was such a good girl during the whole time we were there--she was literally taken from daycare and straight to my parents' house which I know had to be rough on her. She adjusted so well though and that made everything that we were having to struggle with a little bit easier.

Anyhow the weekend after we returned to Ottawa was Halloween. Joe was working outage at work (i.e. LONG work days, very little time off!) so Sydney and I headed to Delphos for Halloween to trick or treat with her Papa. She was a Nebraska cheerleader and thank goodness they won that day! Otherwise we would have been pretty embarrassed! (Traci said we could have just drawn tears on her face though if they would have lost! :) ) Sydney, Papa, and I spent the afternoon making leaf piles and letting Sydney run through them. It was her first leaf pile experience and I took about thirty pictures! She had a blast though; the weather was perfect and it was sunny. Then she ate supper and it was time to get dressed! We first trick-or-treated at Grandma Dodo's house, then another family up the street, Aunt Chub's house, and then my parents' neighbors. She didn't get a lot of candy (which is okay by us!) but she looked like a very big girl walking up the sidewalks and picking out candy (with help from Mom of course!) It was a fast and furious weekend but we had fun trick-or-treating with family.