Our Costumes

We had three fairies and an Iron Man this year. I made the fairies outfits (except the wings) and then bought the Iron Man costume since I was running out of time.

I even tried to do Ellen's hair too. It is long enough to put gel in it, which makes her hair curly and stand out a little. It looks a little fuzzy here. Calista ended up not wearing the white fuzz on her hair. It made her look too much like an angel.

Samuel with the Iron Mask on

Samuel without the mask. I painted his

face the same as the mask in case

the mask got stuffy.

Samuel and Aaron went to Baker this weekend to help people move and to work on the truck with Adam, so the girls and I stayed home. I took them to the trunk or treat at the College on Friday night. They got lots of candy, played pumpkin toss, and got their faces painted. They had a lot of fun.

Aaron and Samuel got back this afternoon, so Samuel was able to go with us to our ward's trunk or treat. There were a lot of people there this year. The last couple of years it has mainly been just our ward, but this year there were even some community people trick-or-treating, and the other ward helped hand out candy. We brought a big bowl of candy, that Aaron handed out to the kids. Whoever those kids were, they must've been excited. I was amazed at how fast he got done. He just smiled and said he just "gave it out as fast as he could." Probably meaning that instead of just a couple, he gave out handfuls!! I don't care as long as we didn't have to bring it home. Our ward also hands out donuts and hot chocolate. It was fun for the kids to be able to wear their costumes two times.

When we got home, we let the kids eat most of their candy, just trying to get it rid of it fast. I went through the candy and got all the hard candies and suckers and put them in a bowl to hand out to other people. I figure they are the ones that stay forever in their mouths, so they probably are worse on the teeth...what do you think "Dentist" Trace?

After all of our candy was handed out at the door, we turned off our porch light so no one would come. But that supposedly doesn't mean anything any more. We turned off our kitchen and dining room lights, and that still didn't work. We ended up turning off all of our lights except one light in the living room, that doens't shine directly at the door. So far it works, but I was amazed at how many people just come if a light in the house is on. We were also amazed at how old some of the kids were that came for candy. Growing up, we stopped trick-or-treating at the age of 12, which I think is a great rule. Once we get out of Primary, you are too old to go around asking for candy. Go ahead and dress up and have fun, but buy your own candy!!

Carving Pumpkins

We finally got to carve our pumpkins!! Ellen got left out on this activity, but she didn't seem to mind. We even bough candles to put in our pumpkins this year! The kids were really excited to see them glowing at night. It happened to be a windy night, so the candles didn't stay aglow for long, or maybe it was the cheap candles (I got them three for a dollar at the dollar store).

Samuel and his "vampire" pumpkin. If you look close you can see the two long teeth. Aaron has taught me something about cutting out the top of the pumpkins. If you are cutting a zigzag (or other design) top, make sure that you have one leg on the zigzag longer than all the others so you will know which way the lid fits back on! I remember having to turn the lids several times just trying to get it to sit down right. Also make sure your knife is at an angle when you are cutting so the lid doesn't fall straight down. Maybe you already knew these tips, but I didn't until a couple of years ago.

Jacque and her pumpkin. She is one who likes to pose for a picture. Each of the kids got to draw on their pumpkin exactly what they wanted cut out. Jacque must've gotten a little confused. Instead of drawing a face, she drew letters and numbers...thus the tattoo. Aaron took some alcohol to the writing and most of it came off.

Calista really enjoyed cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin. I think her pumpkin was my favorite. I don't know if it was just because it didn't have the triangle eyes, but it just looked really happy.

Calista's love of dogs

Calista is very afraid of dogs. I'm not sure how she got to be so afraid, but when I was visiting one of my elderly friends, Calista wouldn't even put her feet off the edge of the couch because there was a dog in the room. Yes it was IN the room, across the room in fact. And whenever the dog came near, all of a sudden, Calista would be climbing onto my shoulders. We've tried to work with her on her fear of dogs, and I'm not sure if its helping. We've walked peoples dogs, held her while she pet the dogs, and when she was at Mom and Dad's house a couple of weekends ago, they would give her candy everytime she was able to pet Aimee.

On our walk this morning, we passed a dog behind a fence. We say "Hi" to the dog and kept walking. (Calista and Ellen were in the bike stroller that I was pushing). After we passed the dog Calista says, "I like dogs. I like Aimee...when Aimee gets shot, Grandma won't have none more dogs." (For those of you who don't know, my mom and dad's german shepherd dog was shot by some unknown person about a month ago.) She said this kind of happily. I'm not sure if she was looking forward to that time when grandma would have "none more dogs" or if it was just the way she thinks life goes. I had to laugh to myself about it.

Daylight Savings Time Ends

Don't forget that we get to set our clocks back this weekend! Time officially changes Sunday November 1st at 2:00am.

A Bunch of Videos

While I was at mom's this weekend I decided to take advantage of her

fast Internet and load a bunch of videos that I've been waiting to share!

This is a funny video of Calista learning to ride her bike with training wheels.

She moves her legs as long as there isn't any resistance on the pedals.

Jacque can ride without training wheels!!

Samuel is being a tricky bike rider. He can ride with only one hand!!

Super Ellen!! I love her squeals here.

Here's a video from the air show we went to.

Hello from Ellen!

Most of you have already seen this video off of my

mom's blog, but for those of you who are not in my family,

this is a great video. It will brighten your day!

Apple snakes

I love making things with apples with this apple corer peeler. I borrowed Leslie's last year and then found on on sale this year at Bi-Mart. It makes this process so much easier. Calista was a great helper peeling and coring the apples. Once while they were working,

she commented that they were making apple snakes!!