Halloween night when the witches run!

For Halloween this year Abbie really wanted to be a witch and when I found a costume for her, I found a similar one for Leah so I convinced her to go as a witch too. I had a witch costume from last year that matched also so it was fun to go as three black and orange witches. Here we are all dressed up and ready to party:

Porter was a black and white cow and a cute one at that

Here are all three kids right before trick-or-treating, aren't they so cute together?

All the cousins together

Cleaning out and carving the pumpkins that we got at Wheeler Farms

Jared made a bunny out of his, it wasn't really his intention at first but the face just ended out looking like one and so we added ears at the last minute and it looked pretty cool

We ended out going to three Halloween trick-or-treat parties so the kids got a ton of candy. Here is Abbie with her loot after the last night, which was actually Halloween night.

Leah with her stash

Porter playing in the piles of candy with one of his favorite things, a sucker. Ever since that night, if he sees the kids with their pumpkins out or eating any candy, he starts yelling "candy, candy, candy!" until we give him some. He mostly gets the smarties and licorice which he seems happy about so that's good he hasn't discovered the hardcore stuff yet.

What a great Halloween week!

Fall Fun in October

In October my sister and I made a trip up to Idaho to visit my sister Kim. My mom also came over for a while, here she is with Kaleb (4 mos) and Porter (11 mos):

The cousins having a picnic in the nice summer like weather

Lining up to do the airplane with Aunt Liesl

We put rag curls in the girls' hair after bathtime

Here's Abbie and Leah the next day (the kids sleep in them and then you take the rags out and you get the best bouncy curls!)

Abbie and Leah are also in ballet with a few of their cousins, they love it!

Porter loves this Johnny jump-up that we borrowed from Kim

A week or so after the Idaho trip it snowed for the first time. Abbie and Leah were so excited to play in it they put on their snow gear and went out right after breakfast. Here they are showing me their snowballs (before throwing them at me!)

The snowman they made, they were so excited and loved finding rocks, sticks, gloves, and a hat to decorate him with.

The next day we went to a farm for a preschool field trip. Here is Leah on one of the tractors.

Doing the hay maze with her cousins

Looking for the perfect pumpkin

Leah and two of her cousins with the pumpkins they got to bring home

Abbie's kindergarten class had a Halloween party that I helped out with. The kids played a game where they took turns wrapping up each other in toilet paper and making mummys. Aren't they cute?

Leah being a princess witch (just before going out trick-or-treating)

Porter not so sure about this trick-or-treating thing

My adorable princesses and the frog on Halloween night!

What does a princess, a smartie-pants doctor, and a magic 8 ball have in common?

They can all be Halloween costumes! Here we are at our ward party the other night:

My beautiful princesses, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella

Doctor smartie-pants

And my belly as a magic 8 ball!

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I actually got voted most creative costume in our ward! I never win anything, especially dress-up contests; I usually try to blend in and not do anything too noticeable but with a belly like this, it's hard not to be noticed. It's also not very often that I'm going to be 9 months pregnant on Halloween so I had to play it up!

Ready to go trick-or-treating

Excited about visiting our neighbors and getting candy!

This was my view most of the night, I couldn't keep up with the girls! They just kept wanting to go to more and more houses and by the end they couldn't carry their pumpkins, they were so heavy!

Checking out their loot

Happy, sticky faces

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The best part of the night!

This brings back many memories of trick-or-treating for hours with my siblings and then trading candy once we got home, making piles of all the different kinds of goodies we got. We would eat all we wanted that night and then hide it in our rooms and slowly savor it over the next month, a little at a time until all that sweet goodness was gone. No wonder I had so many cavities growing up! And that's exactly why I hid 90% of it after the girls went to sleep. Now I just have to discipline myself not to eat that 90%!

You know it's October when...

You find the kids playing in their Halloween costumes almost every day,

You rake the leaves and the next day it looks like you did nothing,

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It's time to winterize the yard and garden,

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There are twenty different varieties of apples at the store,

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and they taste delicious made into applesauce, pies, or just plain (with maybe a little peanut butter),

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You'll wait in line for half an hour in the freezing cold for cinnamon donuts and fresh apple cider,

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You'll pay $3 for 5 minutes of play just to see your two year old smile like this,

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You convince your husband and kids to pose for pictures like this,

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And you'll brave the mess and danger of carving pumpkins with guts and seeds and knives everywhere...

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To see your kids' excitement when you light the candles and turn off the light!

Happy Halloween!