Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! It is by far my least favorite holiday, but I have to say, it's getting more fun as the kids get older, and it turns out, we have a great neighborhood for trick or treating! Last year was soooo cold but we still went with some friends in their neighborhood. This year we went in our very own neighborhood and it was really fun! Most everyone was sitting outside, so the kids didn't have to ring doorbells or anything. Lots of people had their firepits out on their driveways and there were just a ton of people and kids out mingling. It was pretty fun! We often forget there are so many people and so many kids in our neighborhood because we're pretty isolated from the rest of the hood on our little cul-de-sac (which is also very nice at times). We had quite decent weather too. It was 60 degrees and cloudy - hinting at rain - but we didn't get rained on, so it was great! The kids had a really fun time and Jeremy and I kept commenting how much better the whole experience was this time around. And we feel like our kids are getting so grown up! Anna is far from a baby now and it's weird to see her acting more like a little girl and less like a toddler. Sniffle, sniffle...

 We had a "butterfly" (she picked this out and claimed it was a butterfly), a pirate, and a ninja! I thought they all looked great!

Cutie pie! She got the hang of the trick-or-treating thing very quickly!

Arrrr matey! I found this gem at a garage sale. I'm glad he liked it! He even put some gold coins in his pockets. :)

Eli really wanted to be a red ninja, specifically a costume we saw at Costco, but I'm morally opposed to spending that much on costumes, so luckily I was able to find a good one at Once Upon a Child (for under $5!). With a little help from Dollar Tree for some weapons and my very small craft supply for a mask, we pulled it together! He looked awesome.




















We also carved pumpkins last Monday for our family night activity! Everyone got in there and dug out their gunk (Connor had to be convinced and then thought it was so gross) and Jeremy and I did our best to make their visions become reality.

 Eli wanted a vampire, Anna wanted a cat, and Connor wanted the standard jack-o-lantern face. We topped the night off with yummy brownies and ice cream, because of course we wouldn't be getting enough sugar later in the week. Eek! (And please ignore the messes in the background of all these pictures! It was a busy day).

Tuesday we had our ward Trunk or Treat, but Connor and Jeremy were too sick to attend, so I just took Eli and Anna. The sickies continue in our house. I thought Connor was on the mend when he broke out in a rash last week which lasted a few days, so we thought it best if he stay home! Jeremy had a bad fever last weekend and now has the cough of death that we've all had. Between working at work and working on projects with me at home, he has not rested enough (I take full responsibility), but he's trying to remedy that today. Thank goodness for Sundays to make us slow down a bit. It's hard to believe it's November! We've had so many illnesses and then projects going on lately that I haven't even thought about the fact that Christmas is coming quickly. Time to start getting in the holiday mindset! And here's a sneak peek at our garage-turned-Nowland-workshop. I'm so excited about our projects! We're planning on finishing them up this week. Stay tuned!