Happy Halloween! First of all we had the most beautiful Halloween ever in my lifetime. I couldn't get over the kids out trick-or-treating without a coat or even a hoodie underneath or overtop of their costumes. There were princesses that actually looked like princesses instead of snow princesses. WOW - I kept asking myself if we were still really living in Calgary.We had a really busy Halloween month. My brother Justin married Leah 2 weeks before Halloween. The Friday before Halloween we had a party/dance at the church which I was in charge of. It was a lot of work but was very successful. This Warewolf is the new addition to our Halloween decorations this year and yes he got to go to the ward Halloween party along with the Wicked Witch and the 8 foot tall Frankenstein. (All three of them have twins that live at Rachelle Kearl's house. It has become a tradition for the two of us to create something big every year.)
After that party was over we had our primary presentation that Sunday which I was also in charge of. At that point I had lost my voice completely with a cold that I had been fighting for a week.
Kailey and I had a mother daughter night at Achievement days and it was a pumpkin painting party. This is the pumpkin that she created that night.
Because we kicked off the Halloween season by going to Disneyland the kids decided they wanted to have Mickey Mouse pumpkins so Carson attempted to make his look like the Mickey Mouse Pumpkin at Disneyland.
JJ wanted his to have ears like Mickey but the face had to be a "real jack-o-lantern" (whatever that is?). He had very specific specifications on how I was to carve the pumpkin. Thank goodness when I was finished he said "It looks perfect mom!" He picked the biggest pumpkin to carve this year and in this picture he looks like he is wearing it!
Sadie wanted Minnie Mouse so that is what we did. She was pretty proud of her pumpkin!
OK - this is the only picture I have of my kids dressed up in their costumes. JJ and Sadie are trick-or-treating at the neighbor's house. Brandon, you would have loved Carson's costume this year. He dug out the old white trash costume in your bedroom and added Dad's scary man mask to it. It was hilarious. What was even more funny is when people asked him what he was and he wasn't sure what to say. lol Kailey was a cute sassy pirate girl. I might have to get them to dress up in their costumes one more time so I can take some picture of them. Jordan was the same cute pirate he was last year but when it came time for trick-or-treating he decided to be Tigger instead. He figured the Tigger costume would make him faster when it came to bouncing from house to house.
Carson and Kailey did a great job of decorating our yard for Halloween night. The kids didn't have school on Halloween day so I took them to the Southland leisure center to swim. By the time we got home it was getting late so I told them to start decorating and I ran out to get some pizza. It took forever for the pizza to be ready so by the time I got home they had the yard all decorated. I must say they did a fabulous job!
This picture doesn't really do it justice because you can't see the witch and her cats on the porch and the warewolf doesn't stand out too well. Once we turned on the dining room light it lit the witch up and they all looked really good.
We were going to have a Halloween party for Carson and Kailey and their friends the night before Halloween but we had to cancel it because we found out that they had both been slacking off in school and their grades were not good at all! They were really disappointed when Darcy and I layed the hammer down and canceled the party but we had our annual family Halloween dinner that night instead. It is a big event and the kids love decorating the house and setting the table for our spooky dinner.
Carson and his friend found a big cardboard box laying around and so they tied their sleds together and had Jordan climb onto the middle. Then they backed up and took a running leap for the sled to make it fly down the hill. There was another man walking his dog and when he saw these kids doing this he laughed so hard. Then the next time they went down the hill Black Jack jumped ontop for the ride down the hill too. It was hilarious. Good fun in the snow! Boy did it feel like Christmas time. 
We are having fun getting ready for Christmas and we may even have a white Christmas this year.
