“Eden! Alice! Come downstairs so I can do your hair!” You yelled up the stairs as you helped your son into his own costume.

It was Halloween night—crisp at the end of October and absolutely bustling with life. The kids were excited for trick-or-treating around your neighborhood, but getting all six of them dressed and ready had to be done first.

I watched you, my wife of more years than I deserved, wrestle with Matthew to get his Deadpool costume off. I was sat with Elias, zipping up his mouse costume and flipping up his ears. He was quiet, as always, but smiled so big when I let him off the table to go show baby Lillian his costume.

Lillian was sat in her playpen in her bee costume, her brown and blue eyes staring up at her older brother. Alice and Eden finally came down the stairs, holding their costumes in their small hands and giggling. The house was chaos, but it was the kind of chaos I knew came with a family of our size.