Halloween

This will go down as one of the best, warmest Halloweens in memory. It was 71 degrees today, and in the mid-60s while we were trick-or-treating. That may not seem newsworthy, but up here in Montana is practically unprecedented. It was gorgeous! It was also a banner day because Darreck worked a day shift and was able to spend the evening with us. We don't get him around most Halloween nights, so the boys were super excited to trick-or-treat with daddy.

I started off the morning by dropping of Max at school. In lieu of a Halloween party, his class wrapped up career month by dressing like what they wanted to be as adults. Max went as a zookeeper, complete with a stuffed snake around his shoulders. Jack, Luke, and I hung out this morning, and Luke wanted to try on his past Halloween costumes, including the beloved monster. For only being two, he certainly got into the spirit of things.

Darreck got home at four, and we went over to my parents' house for waffles and bacon, our Halloween tradition. We let the boys trick-or-treat in their neighborhood before everyone went their separate ways. Tonight is the cross-town football game, so Kayla had band and my parents went to watch. We came back home to put Jack to bed, and Darreck took the two big boys out for a few more blocks. I was worried about this being Luke's first real year trick-or-treating, but he was more than willing to give up the unsafe candy in exchange for things he can eat. It ended up not being nearly as much of an issue as I feared.

The boys' costumes this year were fun. I normally don't reuse costumes, but I had to dress Jack up as a Jack-o-lantern. It was just too perfect. We assumed both Luke and Max would want to be teenage mutant ninja turtles, but Max opted instead for a a "white ninja" costume. The pictures of him are priceless because he insisted on posing in fighting stance for each one. Luke, as usual, was hard to pin down long enough to get a picture. The boy is a never-ending ball of blur in photos. Better busy than bored at least.

I loved Halloween this year because everyone was out and about. I loved to see the neighborhoods full of kids laughing and playing. I think Halloween brings out a real sense of community, especially on such a nice night. Hopefully we'll get another good year next year, too.

Lazy Sundays

It's been quiet with mom and dad in Hawaii and grandma laid up with her knee. Too quiet, in fact. Given that it's October, which means general and stake conference, our Sundays have felt weird all month long. Today was one of those horrible days that looks absolutely gorgeous but are so miserably windy you can't even step outside. In other words, aside from church, today was a waste. However, there's no better way to turn around a wasted day than to get some great pictures of my boys. It was the one and only productive part of today.

Jack-O-Lantern Carving

Today was the day- our annual carving party! Mom and dad, along with Kayla, took off to Hawaii, and Grandma-Great is recovering from her total knee replacement, so we've been on our own this week. Darreck, the boys, and I went and picked out pumpkins Wednesday night, but we waited until this morning to carve them. It's a lengthy process with Darreck. He does not believe in two eyes, a nose, and a snaggle-tooth mouth. These pumpkins must be works of art, which I love in hindsight but it drives me batty that day. These things take hours, and the boys lose interest after the first twenty minutes. But it makes Darreck happy, and that's worth a lot to all of us.

As per usual, we put on the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas and went to town. Darreck's creation this year is Darth Vadar, with a huge shout-out to Max. Luke and I tackled a ghost/monster/pumpkin triad. They turned out super cute, and the boys loved it. Well, except for Jack. He didn't appreciate being ignored for that long. Give him a few years and he'll come around.

Mom's 50th Birthday Party

Today we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday, a few days early. It was such a fun day, mostly because it was the first time we really surprised her with something. Dad and I have been planning this for awhile now, and many of her friends were able to attend. All good things! Dad chose a Hawaii theme, fitting because they'll spend her actual birthday in Hawaii. Unfortunately, he didn't mention the theme to me beforehand, so she got a pumpkin shaped cake for a luau birthday. Luckily, no one really seems to mind those little mishaps.

We're so thankful to have such a wonderful mom and grandma in our family. She's always willing to help out, and she loves spending time with our boys. Grandma's house is my boys' favorite place in the whole world. As an adult, it's been fun getting to be better friends with my mom. She's incredibly fun loving, amazingly organized, has the world's softest heart, and models faithful living for the entire family. It was an honor to celebrate her birthday with her, and we hope to have many decades more with her.

Jack is Three Months

Normally I say that the first year of a kid's life go by way to fast, but Jack's seems to be running on rewind for some reason. Summer, and his birth, feels like it was eons ago. Maybe it's the major family shift of starting school, but it really does seem like summer existed in a dimension separate from this one.

He's still growing great and doing extremely well. He's gotten much happier over the past few weeks, spending less time crying in the evenings and much more time smiling. He can hold his head up on his own now, and he just surpassed his three month growth spurt. It'll be another month until he sees the doctor, so I don't have an official weight. He's still waking up two to three times each night, which I could certainly do without, but he's excellent about putting himself to sleep. And, in spite of many predictions to the contrary, he still has all his hair. Ha! So there all you doubters out there!

In other news, Max went to see the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day in theaters today with Grandma and Papa. I'll admit, I was slightly jealous. That's one of my favorite children's books, and I'm fond of threatening to run away to Australia when days don't go my way. He had a blast, but I was left behind with the two little ones. To amuse Luke, I let him "paint" on the wall with water. Kept him occupied for an hour. That's what I call a good rainy day activity!

Halloween Preview

Target has Halloween costumes buy one get one free this week, so I figured it was about time to prep for the big day. The boys, being little boys, couldn't wait to try out their new get ups the second they got home. There was a lot of karate chopping and rolling around on the floor in our house tonight. Come to think of it, that's not much different than most other nights around here...

Cookies for a Cop

I feel perpetually behind on the family blog lately. Actually, I feel perpetually behind on life lately. I don't know why I've struggled to get it together at the start of this school year, but life has been crazy hectic. However, we have done some fun things lately, so I should probably add some pictures for the posterity.

Yesterday, for family home evening, we discussed service, both those who serve us and others who need our service. For the activity portion, we baked cookies for the policemen on duty that night. It was a simple thing, but the boys got really into it. They donned their matching aprons, got in on the mixing, and had a ton of fun meeting the shift commander at the police station. They may have gotten to bed a little late, but it was worth every second. Plus, now I have leftover chocolate cookies! Win-win.