Halloween 2014

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays around here.  The kids love, love the anticipation of dressing up and deciding what they want to be.  I love Fall and love Fall and Halloween decorations.  I do stress a bit about costumes and getting everyone one that they are happy without spending a fortune or searching high and low.  Over the years, as we have bought and accumulated different costumes, we have kept them all in a box and we now have quite the variety in all sizes.  We also buy costumes on clearance the day(s) after Halloween.  The trick is convincing the kids to want to wear whatever was on sale that year. :)

Everyone was pretty easily pleased this year, minus Chloe.  Mitch borrowed a costume from his cousin and the twins and Livy wore former costumes that we had in our Halloween stash (easy!)  Chloe had something very specific in mind and when she has something in mind, she can be very hard to please.  She wanted to be a zombie.  I had a long black dress in our box, which she reluctantly decided would work, and then spent weeks scouring the internet and drawing pictures of how she wanted her face painted.

Ben took off the few days prior to Halloween to go on a Man Hunting Trip with his brother Nick and their dad.  Ben could be happy doing pretty much anything outdoors, especially if it involves a tent and/or a gun.  He loves doing his outdoor activities with his brothers/bro-in-laws and dad.

The mighty Elk hunters!

Watching for elk

The second day, the weather was cold and rainy.  Ben said he was freezing but having a blast!

When it wasn't looking likely that they would shoot anything, they finally spotted an elk within their range at the 11th hour.  Nick spotted it in the distance and Ben's gun and bullet took the beast down.

Nick, the orthodontist, trying to come up with smiling shots for his new practice. :)

The boys got home late the night before Halloween.  Half an elk hanging in our garage for a few days definitely added to the creepiness of Halloween.

The Wednesday before Halloween, I dressed up for our ward mutual Halloween party.  I thought I'd better put our "never used" Price is Right t-shirt to good use.  It would be a shame to not get to act like a contestant after rudely being denied entrance into the show just a week earlier. :)

My parents also flew into town the night before Halloween.  I don't think my kids could have been more excited- Halloween and Grandma and Papa here for their fun day!

Halloween afternoon, the twins were invited to a Halloween party at their friend Liam's house.  These 3 together are quite the trio.  They had a great time!

While the girls were at their party, the rest of us (including Ben, who took the day off) headed to the elementary school where both Mitch and Chloe were receiving awards.  (Mitch, 4th from the right).

Chloe, middle row, 5th from the right).

The kids love having grandparents in town for special events!

After school was a mad rush to get everything done we needed to before hitting the streets to trick-or-treat.

Papa was awesome and helped paint Chloe's face in the very specific way she wanted.  I had gone out a few days earlier and bought new face paint and some scar tattoos that she was pretty happy with.

Papa gave Livy a little makeup too!

Chloe was in a rush to get over to a friend's house, as she had been invited to go trick-or-treating with a group of friends, so we quickly did a group kid shot before she left (and before anyone else was really ready).

Our traditional Jack-o-lantern pizza!  The kids are always too excited to eat much.

After dinner, we had more faces to paint and got everyone re-dressed.

Lexi and Grandma, the two scary witches.  (Doesn't my mom look terrible, in a good way??)

My sweet pumpkin!  We had her in the original Andros baby Halloween Pumpkin outfit in earlier pictures, but as we were taking it off for dinner, the zipper broke.  The previous costume was worn by all of the other kids, minus one of the twins, who wore this one.

Livy was not sure what to think of Grandma and Papa in their crazy outfits.

The group (minus Chloe).  I didn't dress up.  I figured pregnant mama was a good enough costume!  Aren't my parents awesome?  They love dressing up for Halloween and put lots of time and energy into their costumes each year.  We are always excited to see what they come up with each year. 

Leah was so excited to be Spider Man.  She wore her costume for hours each day in the week leading up to Halloween.  She wore it so much that I found multiple holes in the costume and had to sew them.  Mitch was beyond thrilled to be Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  It made his whole year.  Thanks cousin Carter for sharing!

Chloe with her good buddies.  She was so, so excited to trick-or-treat with friends- a first for her!

Our first stop was Grandma Cynde's house, of course.

She was prepared, as usual, with mounds of goodies for the kids.

Cynde gave Olivia a baggie of graham cracker bears- it was the best thing ever.  It kept her happy in her stroller the entire evening.

I love the happy, smiling "bad" witch. :)  Doesn't she look so scary with that big grin on her face?

Our next stop was the most popular house on the block (during Halloween, anyway).  This is the 3rd year in a row that this family has gone all out for decorating for Halloween.  We are always so excited to see what they will do next and it is always bigger and better.  This year's theme was a scary carnival.

This hand made clown mouth that led to the front door reached all the way up to the second story!

For the first few houses, I let Livy walk up to the door.  She ha no idea what was going on, but knew it was something fun and exciting.

A classic Olivia- standing and leaning her head to check out the situation.  It was so cute seeing her stand there with her little candy bag.

After she'd collected a piece of candy or two, we strapped her in her stroller, where she stayed happily for the rest of the evening.  She was such a good girl.

Redneck Ben, who dressed up as well (or did he?)  Would you buy an airplane from this man?

Our trick-or-treating crew!  We were so lucky for good weather that night.  It literally poured rain all day long and has us worried that we would be out in the soaking rain all night.  It stopped literally an hour or two before we left to go trick-or-treating.  It was perfect!

On our way back home, we passed by the Carnival house again and grabbed a quick picture with a scary clown.  So creepy and so cool!  This house was awesome!  They have hundreds of trick-or-treats stop by each year and give candy to all of them.

Back home to check out our haul! 

One family does not need this much candy combined...

Livy went from kid to kid, stealing any candy that she could get her hands on and eating any piece we would open for her.

She enjoyed her treats by the fistful! :)  It was a crazy next few days, trying to keep her out of the big kids' candy.  She knew just what it was and whenever she saw it laying around, she cried and cried to have some.  It was hard getting the kids to keep their candy out of her sight.

Chloe got home late, after a fun filled evening with her friends.  She had so much candy that she brought her treats home in a box.  She easily had 2-3 times as much candy as each of the other kids had by themselves.  It was ridiculous.  We were glad to have Grandma and Papa there to help us eat some of the candy!

Another great Halloween for the books!