Halloween

 I have really grown to love Halloween and this year didn't disappoint.  Everyone got to wear their costumes to school the Thursday before, since Friday was a day off.  That was a crazy mad dash to finalize costumes and such.  I was grateful for that though, since I had to do Halloween night by myself.  Halloween morning we all got up early to go up to West Jordan for Jarom's baptism.  What a cool day to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!  It was a really nice baptism.  I love the Spirit you always feel at those.  It's so refreshing.  I especially loved Meg's talk.  She had some great analogies and I loved her focus on staying clean AFTER the baptism and how to repent.  Not just on having sins washed away.  After the baptism we went to Litza's for lunch.  A family favorite :).  

Halloween evening was a bit stressy, but we survived! I have got to figure out how to fit dinner and costuming in one hour!  We had  yummy mummy dogs courtesy of Noah (I'm loving our new dinner plans), and grapes.  Then all heck broke loose as we scrambled to get ready "before 6:00".  That was the deadline I gave them since we wanted to meet up with the Maughan's and Clarks at 6:15ish.  I think things went better than I remember up until about 5:55.  Everyone else was all decked out, but poor little Molly was struggling.  I tried to put her in her costume, she hated it, took pictures, tried to feed Molly for a minute, but there was way too much happening.  She didn't fit in the baby carrier that Kenni had let me borrow, and I hadn't taken the time to even try it out before, so I resorted to the sling that she shouldn't be in for another month.  She screamed all the while this was all happening.  And did I mention Jack was having a major meltdown as well?  Needless to say, it was chaotic!  Not my favorite way to spent those 30 minutes.  I got outside and everyone was just standing there on our sidewalk, totally waiting FOR ME.  Kind of embarrassing since I had sweat dripping down my face, and other places.  I was so stressy right then that I left my camera on the porch on a chair sitting there, and FORGOT to leave the candy!!!  We thought about it once we started walking, but I was too mad/embarrassed that we'd already taken so long, I just said "no" when the kids reminded me.  I loved watching Jack figure out how things are done (again kinda), and get brave enough to go up to the door himself.  He was really cute a lot of the time.  He kept having bad mood swings and then would return and say, "I happy now!"  Funny kid.  I think he figured he had enough candy about a quarter of the way through trick-or-treating because he just stopped caring and didn't leave the stroller.  Kind of a bummer, but it's probably for the best.  He didn't really need more candy.  Erika stayed by me most of the time too, and was so cute, talking about anything and everything :).  I want to remember how happy she was to just hang onto my arm and tell me that she loves me over and over :).  Noah stayed sort of close as well, through a lot of trick-or-treating.  He, Josh and Corbin went around like Ninjas all night, hiding behind trees and stealthily trying to sneak ahead.  That was cute.  Luke, Bradley, Kelly and Charity were almost non-existent from the minute we left our yard.  I caught glimpses of them, but only as we were catching up to them after they'd waited on a corner or something.  I have a feeling it's not long before they just take off completely without us.  But I could hear their fun and loved that they were with each other.  Kelly also had Cassidy with her which is fun for her.  We trick-or-treated the entire ward!  It was a great HAUL-oween!

Erika had been wanting to be Venelope Von Sweets (sp) almost ALL YEAR, then took one glance at the Princess Anna costumes at Costco and changed her mind!!  I hesitated and waited a few shopping trips, but the easiness of this was too appealing- I let it stick :).  She looked ADORABLE!!!  I'm glad she chose that costume.  She loved it too.  She was bummed when it tore on our trick-or-treating, but it's totally fixable for dressing up :)

Charity went from wanting to trick-or-treat, wanting to go to a friend's house, wanting to stay home to pass out candy, wanting to come and just pass out candy as we walked, and then back to dressing up and trick-or-treating!!  It was a lot of debating!  She settled on an 80's costume, looked fantastic for something she had decided only minutes before!  I was so glad she chose to come with us.  She's still a kid to me.  I hate the thought of her being too old to trick-or-treat.  She looks so cute and 80's like :)

Kelly knew what she wanted to be all year as well, and then roped Cassidy into it a couple weeks before :).  They glued all the movie theater candy and such onto black clothes so they could go as "Movie Theater Floor"!!  So clever :).  I love Kelly's creativity.

Jack Jack was sure he wanted to be a super hero.  When we went to buy his costume we decided Superman, with no mask or hat was probably the most likely to be worn.  He let it hang in his closet for a couple of weeks!  Just getting anxious for Halloween!  Then when he finally got to wear it just went Super-Big Boy nuts!!  He loved it!!  I'm so happy to see his imagination coming out so much.  He really knows how to pretend, it's so cute!  

I thought of Molly's costume when Nate's co-worker gave us this owl hat.  It reminded me of the owl costume Alicia made for Asia a few years ago.  I quickly sewed up the "wings" minutes before dinner that night, (thanks to Kelly for cutting feathers the night before), and LOVED how it looked, but Molly was not on board with that!  She was not a fan!  I never planned on having her wear it trick-or-treating, but I had hoped to get a more decent picture.  I keep meaning to try again while she's sleeping... maybe I"ll get around to it... maybe I won't!  But either way, I now have a cute infant owl costume if anyone ever wants to borrow it :).  I should mention though, that she slept so peacefully the entire evening in the snowsuit, in the sling.  I couldn't have asked for better from her!!  What a blessing.

This was the only shot that looked even remotely good.  I feel like this is my off year for photos.  I'll be okay with that as long as next year is better :).  Halloween pictures are so important!!  Unfortunately my mom was taking pictures from over there (finger pointing to the right) so I didn't get them all facing me.  Love that.  And Jack.... see what I mean... well, maybe you can't in this picture, but he was totally wigging out.  This must have been before he threw his bucket across the front yard.  Poor guy.  I think he gets stressed because of me.  He was fine just minutes before.

I love that Luke is posing so cute in this one.  He really made the costume if you ask me... and I'm not talking about creating it- I did that :).  

My cool Ninja took a few seconds away from his friends to pose for this picture :).  He loves ninjas.  He really should be in karate or something.  Or not, maybe it's more fun this way.  But either way.  He has done this one before, so it's one of his favorites :).  I love the easiness of it.  He was so proud of his mask :)

He knew just how to pose!  I love it!

One of just Kelz :)

Bradley was going to be a ninja until a few days before Halloween.  It was a scary year for him :).  He decided to be a zombie basketball player.  I thought we did pretty good with what we had!  I wish we had white hair spray though.  He played the part well though :).  Especially in the pictures :).

see!!

And of course he was happy after it all :)

The whole family room floor was COVERED in candy!!  SHEESH!!

This was her face when she heard what the parent candy tax had been raised to :)

Cute boy.

I loved this Halloween.  I thought it went well.  I was pleased with how uneventful the trick-or-treating was without Nate.  I had really worried about that.  It was a total bummer to not have him there.  The kids missed him almost as much as I did.  Next year.  And we do get him for Christmas Eve and Christmas day this year, so that makes up for it!