Back in October...

Halloween is something we all look forward to around here. There was a lot of other stuff going on around that time, though, so it wasn't celebrated with quite as much oomph as usual. We got the basics down, though.


Jack was designed by each family member submitting their ideas and then a vote being taken to determine each facial aspect. My eye brow design was chosen...I'm not sure what happened in the carving process...they must have gotten tired. The eyes were Kelsie's idea. The nose came from Dal's design and Ty was the mastermind behind the mouth.

I asked the kids what they wanted to be this year. (I even remember to ask way early because Kelsie had a storytime Halloween party at the beginning of October she was supposed to dress up for.) Kelsie said she wanted to be a ballerina and Ty wanted to be a Lego Knight. I love my kids. These were both things we already had in the dress up box. We added some sparkles to Kelsie and fixed Ty's shield and we were all set. Nothing could have been easier!

It was a good thing their costumes took no effort whatsoever because I stressed over ours for quite a while. I was determined that Dal and I were going to dress up this year because we always feel lame on the years we don't. The trouble is that I am a firm believer that spending a bunch of money on a Halloween costume is pretty much the biggest waste ever. This makes coming up with costumes much harder. Through much debate, discussion, many sleepless nights, and tears, this is what we went with. (OK...Dal knew what he was wearing from the beginning... I just added the hat at the last minute to make it look like Dumb and Dumber) I changed my mind about 10 times but waited until 2 days before to look online for pregnancy Halloween costume ideas. Duh! There were tons of ideas. This was the easiest so we went with it. In case you are confused...I'm a cat...a cat who ate the fish...Really? You don't think it's cute? Oh well. I liked it and it took like an hour to put together.

We had a great time, as usual, at the ward dinner and trunk-or-treat. You won't believe it but somehow I managed to win the chili cook off this year. Yep...first place. Apparently my recipe has improved enough to jump from third to first place over the last year. Is that bragging to tell you that? Probably. Mostly I think it is funny. Hey...whatever they want to do is fine with me. If they want to give me a prize, I won't turn them down.

Since Sunday was the actual holiday, we spent the night at home, handing out candy. We had some friends over for our annual spooky dinner. Sorry...no pictures this year. It wasn't quite what it was last year, but it was yummy and we had a good time. Hope you all had a great Halloween too. (Yes...I know it is now after Thanksgiving!)