Halloween Part 2: Parties and Costumes

Pretty sure Halloween gets bigger and bigger every year! And I don't think it's simply because my family is bigger every year. Just like most people we had a church/community party, a work party, a family party, and the real Halloween night. Fortunately we don't have school parties yet!

First was our church party. Each family brought a crock pot of soup to share, it was delicious! Then because our ward is mostly primary aged kids, the rest of the night was set up for them. There were games/activities set up in all the classrooms.

(I was Pocahontas)

My squishy butterfly

(Derek never dresses up...)

Sofie's real costume was missing a piece when we were getting ready, so I had her throw on this back up. I made the tutu and thoughts the outfit was pretty cute!

Probably my favorite picture ever.

In the "dance room." She loved the fog!

Then there was the family party. This time Sofie had all of her costume. She was a cat. (or at least this was the closest thing I could find to a cat at Kid-to-Kid.)

A few of us ladies pigging out and talking (Maryanne took the pigging out part a little too seriously...)

The whole fam. Thanks for being so festive Derek!

Lindsey always comes to our party, and this year we were actually both there at the same time! That never happens and it was so great to hang out, even if she is a big baby.

Bunch of babies.

Next up was Daddy's work party. Ancestry always does a great job of entertaining us. This year the weather was beautiful enough to hold a carnival outside!

Sofie totally scored on her first try!

Derek's co-worker's baby was born the same week as Meili, so we were all in the hospital at the same time. It was so fun to see them together for the first time at this party!

Daddy's exciting cubie

FINALLY it was the REAL Halloween. I was afraid that after all of the parties and all of the counting down that Sofie would be disappointed in the actual night of Halloween. But no worries, it was a huge success! She got to go trick-or-treating with her absolute favorite people in the whole world and she scored tons of candy. The weather was PERFECT! She loved saying Happy Halloween to everybody that gave her a treat! (even if she did stutter because she couldn't remember exactly what she was supposed to say)

The traditional loot picture

We caught her with 2 suckers in her mouth. Clever child. Don't tell the dentist that she skipped out on brushing her teeth that night. She was out cold in the car before we got home!

Halloween Part 1: Things We Made

October has kept us busy busy. I love the fall because for some reason I suddenly start to feel the need to create. Maybe it's because all the flowers are dying and I have to compensate or something, but here are some shots of what we've been doing.

Ghosts, Pumpkins, Moons, Witches, Cats

Pumpkin carving! Sofie refused to touch the inside.

(I also made the Halloween tutu)

Try holding an 8 month old while slicing up a pumpkin. She screamed and screamed unless I held her that night. Seriously?

Mine was supposed to look cooler. I used translucent beads to spell "boo" but when you put the lid on there wasn't enough oxygen to keep it burning brightly, and I should have used green or blue beads, instead of red...

Derek's

Sofie's (aka Derek's)

My "jug-o-lantern"

Goblin Eyes

(Any excuse for deviled eggs is wonderful)

I found the perfect thing to keep Sofie occupied for like half an hour! Chopping Velveeta into itty bitty pieces for our chili queso dip.

This dip (my new tradition) and the goblin eyes were a hit at the family party.

Some felt, some scissors, done.

My sister and I were making this haunted house kit, but it took so long for the icing to set that we gave up. I think I'll use them for Christmas next month!

Xiao Mei

Mei has insanely grown this month!! At 8 months she is crawling around like a crazy woman, wiggling, chomping, babbling, and racing up my stairs. (She taught herself the stairs and the first time I found her scaling them I just about had a heart attack!!) No surprise that I'm 11 days behind in making this 8 month post, she keeps me on my toes. Seriously, not hard to get my 10,000 steps in every day.

She's fearless. Jumping right in to the wrestle session with daddy.

She's climbing up furniture and walking along things already!! It's totally foreign to me. At this age Sofie had another month before she even crawled!! SLOW DOWN MEI!

Those blue eyes are turning slightly grey-ish brown and I'm sure they're be as brown as Sofie's by her first birthday. She's a pretty good eater, but usually doesn't have much of an appetite after finishing off her bottles. Her top 4 teeth are all cutting through this week! This is her typical snuggle for bedtime pose, however why she wanted to snuggle with a wet rag is beyond me! Those two fingers are still her favorite...any help?

Aside from my stairs, which she scales at least 20 times a day, her favorite activity is standing. She loves to stand one handed but occasionally is brave enough to let go. The longest she's balanced without holding on is about 3 seconds. Poor child's tailbone is probably so sore!!

Other random 8 month stuff:

favorite sound is "na na na"

sleeping 11 hours at night

3 naps usually 1 to 2 hours long

pats with her hand when she sees someone or something she likes

loves to be silly and tease

holds her breath instead of laughing outloud

sweetest darling ever and I want to keep her right here at this stage!!

This was a few weeks ago when she had a different babbling phase, then it turned into growling, and now it's mostly "nanana"

Kasey's Marathon!!

Over Conference weekend my sister-in-law Kasey ran a freaking marathon!

She did great and came in at 4 hrs 43 min!! It was a beautiful day (for those of us who weren't running...)

The whole crew!

Sporting our nerdy homemade shirts to show our support.

The kids melting in the sun.

Proud Mom and Dad

Almost at the finish line! Kasey is the less flamboyant one on the left.

Triumphant Kase! Way to Go!

Keeping Busy...er

As if the 3 year old and 7 month old weren't keeping me busy enough, I've been working on some fun fall creations to fill in the itty bitty moments I have free, or close enough to free.

I didn't create these flowers, but I did plant them, water them, and pick them... and they're beautiful!

I was kind of sad they didn't have the wire in brown, but the green works.

It was fun to pick through my sister's backyard and find "spooky sticks" as Sofie calls them. A little spray paint, some black buttons, some ribbon, voila.

This looks nasty, but it turned out tasty. My very first pie (no good at rolling out pie dough turns out...). Pear Pie!

I put these up high so they wouldn't disappear the first day.

Free frames, free paper, free-hand letters, done.

They ran out of the original candy corns, so the vase on the left has layers of normal and "harvest" candy corn, not as cute.

Made from leftover scraps and stuff found at grandma's house.

Family Night Candy Corn pudding treat.

Next time I will be using orange food-colored vanilla pudding, not butterscotch, too brown.

But a fun treat!