Our Halloween!! - And other Fall Festivities...

I am going to try desperately to keep up on this blog through the holidays so that I don't end up with a MOUNTAIN of updating to do! =P

Kaleb always gets excited about Halloween. It's pretty cute. LOL. It's totally his favorite holiday. That's taken some adjusting from me since I quit being *really excited* about it years ago when Dad decided I was "too old". =D And I was okay with that since Halloween was never really my *thing* anyways. Once I had Angela, there was a new kind of excitement over it for me -- Dressing my baby up and showing her off. Then, when I met Kaleb, that first Halloween after we were married, I was informed that it was mandatory for me to dress up! And so a new tradition was born! Each year now we ALL dress up and go out and have a good time. I'm thankful for Kaleb's persistence because Halloween has been kind of *re-born* for me now. It's fun to brainstorm costumes for all of us, work on them together, and go out. =)

I decided to not be boring this year. Instead of just snagging pumpkins while grocery shopping, we went to an actual pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, the day we picked to go was right after the first "snow" of the year. The snow had basically melted, but everything was cold, wet, and MUDDY!! Our shoes were caked with about 5 pounds of mud each afterwards, but the kids had fun running around, pushing the wheel barrow, and selecting the "best" pumpkins in the field. =) The nice guy even gave us a discount on the punkins since the weather wasn't the best for punkin-pickin'.

***A Pic Of My 7 Cute Punkins***

We promptly returned home, ditched our mud-- I mean, shoes, and started carving away! Justin thought the Punkin Guts were disgusting and we couldn't convince him to touch them with more than one finger. He DID help design his own face but that was about it. Angie Mae dove right in and her and Mommy were master cleaners while Daddy did the carving. They turned out super-cute!

***Left To Right : Daddy, Mommy, Angie, Justin, & Baby Fred***

***Posin' With The Punkins***

***Punkins All A-Glow***

This year we all dressed up as characters from a show we love to watch on the BBC. It's called "Dr. Who". It's a strange show, but we've ALL become addicted to it! Even the kids will request to watch episodes! So, Kaleb was Dr. Who, Justin was the Doctor's nemesis, (a robot-alien creature called a Dalek), Angela was the Doctor's sidekick, (a blonde girl named Rose), and I was the Doctor's spaceship, (an old blue british police telephone box). There's a story behind why it's a "blue box", but I'll spare you the details. ; ) One funny fact about the spaceship I must share is that it is MUCH larger on the inside than on the outside. Kaleb joked that it was a fitting costume for me this year since I am also currently *bigger on the inside*. =D

***Rose from Dr. Who***

***A Dalek From Dr. Who***

***Dr. Who***

***The TARDIS***

***And Here's Our Version***

We started off the festivities with the costume parade at Angela's school. It was fun to see her with the rest of her classmates and her teacher all decked out and itching for the coming holiday. It was quite a big turnout and I was glad I had gotten there early and snagged good seats.

***Parading Through The Gym***

***Angela's Class***

***Cute Face!***

***Posing At Her Desk***

Then, the very next day, we headed out to Kaleb's work for a trick-or-treating costume parade. Kaleb was stoked to show off his family and all his co-workers thought the kids were darling, even if they had no idea who/what they were dressed up as! LOL! They loaded up on candy before actual Halloween night (literally, Angie's bucket was overflowing!) and we joked that now we didn't have to really go trick-or-treating since we already had a stash of goodies. We got blank stares from each of the kids that translated into : "Uh, no...."

***Our Little Dalek***

***He LOVES The Daleks***

So for Halloween night (technically the night before since we live in Mormon capitol here and Halloween happened to fall on a Sunday this year) I was super glad it wasn't SNOWING, but it was still pretty cold and wet. However, we all managed to have a good time and the kids ended up with another humongous stash of goodies once it was all said and done! I'm pretty sure we've got enough candy to last us through til next year! =D

We've also started another new tradition recently. Kaleb and I take turns each week trading off the kids and spending some quality one-on-one time with them. We've dubbed it *Date-Night*. So one week Angie and I will have a *date* and Kaleb and Justin will have a *date*. The next week, vice-versa. The week after Halloween it was Date-Night for Angela and I. We used some of the trick-or-treat goodies to make some interestingly yummy caramel apples. It was a fun (and delicious!) activity.

***Our Finished Apples***

***YUM!!!***