Halloween 2019

Storybook parade at school

Bryson as Batman 

 Carter as a Death Eater

Trunk or Treat 

October

The boys' elementary school does a storybook parade every year, i.e. an excuse for the kids to dress up mid-October.

Carter as Nate the Great

Caleb as a baseball player

Although there aren't pictures, Matt took the three older boys camping on Friday, Oct. 16. There was a Cub Scout activity all day on Saturday to pass off some requirements, so several families camped the night before. Matt drove Carter and Bryson home during the day so Carter could go to his soccer game.

After Carter's soccer game, I took the three youngest boys to a carnival at the birth center I delivered at as they celebrated their 20th anniversary. Carter and Bryson loved the face painting.

Bryson tuckered out from our long day.

Later in October I asked Bryson to hold Austin on my bed while I emptied the dishwasher. As I was finishing up, I noticed that it was really quiet in the room. Usually Bryson is singing or talking to Austin. I went in and checked on them to find Bryson asleep and Austin calmly awake. In a matter of a minutes, Austin was asleep as well. It was so precious.

We've had some crazy rainstorms lately. Carter went out to watch the rain one afternoon and fell asleep in this funny position

Bryson, Austin and I went on a trolley ride while the older boys were at school one day.

And Halloween 2015

Neighborhood party

After trick-or-treating

That sums up October!

Halloween 2013

Carter wore several different outfits for Halloween this year. He dressed up as a firefighter for our preschool Halloween party, a pilot for actual trick-or-treating, and then chose a lion costume for this picture. Caleb is Nate the Great, and Bryson is a lovable dinosaur.

Halloween 2012

A cold front came through right before our church Trunk or Treat party, so we were dealing with windy weather + sprinkling at 50 degrees.  Much different than the 80 degrees the day before!  The poor kiddos were so cold!  Caleb just wanted to stay in the car.

Gavin the pirate and Carter the lion 

Dallin as Thor and Caleb the mailman

Family picture for Halloween

(I went as a bowling ball)

A fun family activity for Family Home Evening: Caramel Apples

We all enjoyed coming up with our own yummy creations!  Caleb and Carter had a lot of candy on their apples, and mine had a lot of chocolate. :o)

We enjoyed having my grandma come visit for the last two weeks!  It was a little confusing for Caleb to understand that I have a grandma just like he does.  She was a good sport to put up with our fluctuating--but mostly warm--weather during her stay!

Pumpkin Time

Picking the perfect pumpkin took all of 2 seconds for Carter.   He found the perfect, "Carter-sized" pumpkin on the first try.

Caleb was much pickier.  We had to look over every section of pumpkins, and it took a lot of persuasion from Daddy before he would select his pumpkin.

Holding their pumpkins

Happy boys at the pumpkin patch

Matt helped the boys carve their pumpkins.  They told Matt exactly what they wanted and helped during the process.

Carter's finished pumpkin

Caleb's finished pumpkin (with a strobe light inside)

Update on the boys:

Caleb: School is going smoother now.  Week 4 of school, Caleb finally admitted that school didn't seem so long anymore, and it was about that time that a few days he would even say that school was fun that day.  Now the only things we're running into are some minor bullying issues.  His personality is such right now that he's a "teacher's pet" and "goody-two-shoes," not necessarily bad traits but they don't always go over well with other kids in the class.  There's a kid that picks on Caleb occasionally by doing things like standing behind him in line and poking him, etc.  He's too afraid to tell the teacher because he doesn't want to be a tattletale, and he's also too afraid to stand up to the kid and tell him to stop.  We've talked about this situation and others like it at home focusing on standing up for himself and also being like Jesus in trying to be nice to the kids that might be picking on him so hopefully they'll want to stop.  These situations are SO hard on me as well...I want to protect Caleb from anything bad in the world and it makes me hurt inside so much that these minor bullying issues are going on.

Saturdays are very busy now with Caleb's soccer and baseball games.  Caleb is very competitive in both, especially soccer.  No matter how tired he is or if he falls down etc., he is up and after that ball to try to score a goal.  He's getting better at being a "team player," i.e. passing the ball to teammates instead of always trying to shoot a goal himself and celebrating when a teammate gets a goal instead of being disappointed that it wasn't him that made the goal. :o)  I'm always so proud of the fact that he never gives up and is running constantly the whole time!

Carter:  Carter is a funny, funny boy.  His moods swing from one end to the other so quickly!  He can be a sweet, lovable boy one minute, but the moment he hears the word "no" to a request, a huge tantrum inevitably follows.  So we're working on accepting a no answer appropriately.  He's definitely not a good friend to kids his own age.  He's very bossy and gets very upset if a kid his age is doing something that he doesn't think is right.  We especially have issues with his cousin, Gavin.  Gavin adores Carter, and I'm not sure why because the minute Carter gets around Gavin, he starts bossing him around and yelling at Gavin for something innocent that Gavin is doing.  Gavin is just all smiles about it all and according to my sister, Ariane, he talks about Carter all the time at home.

Carter's vocabulary never ceases to amaze me as a new word will pop out of his mouth each day that I didn't even know he knew the meaning.  He speaks in sentences so well.  His speech isn't perfectly clear, but most people can understand him really well.  Some words he still can't say, but that he uses all the time: he calls movies a "vie" and band-aid a "ban-ban."  Potty-training came much easier for him than Caleb, and he potty-trained sooner than Caleb as well.  (Carter was potty trained by 2 years and 3 months, and Caleb was closer to 2 1/2.)  We still will have the occasional wet bed at night, maybe 1 or 2 times a month, but if he needs to go really bad in the middle of the night, he usually is pretty good about waking us up and telling us he needs to go.  He's not quite tall enough to go independently, so he needs our help any time he has to go potty.

I don't know that I've ever mentioned Carter's missing tooth.  He's missing a lateral incisor up top; according to the x-ray at the dentist's office, he has the baby tooth, but it doesn't look like the parent tooth is there to push the baby tooth in.  So in about 5 years or so, we'll have to start looking into retainers or other solutions for this missing tooth.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I care about teeth (although you wouldn't think that considering the fact that my husband is in braces still and had major teeth issues growing up), so I was pretty bummed about it all.

Carter's a sweet kid, and I've loved this one-on-one time that we've had together while Caleb is at school and before Bryson joins our family!

Pregnancy Update: Countdown is 2 1/2 weeks till my due date.  For some reason I've been feeling like he will come early this time, but that wasn't the case for the other two so I don't know why it would be different.  I'm always nervous about labor each time, but this time I'm specifically worried about getting to the hospital in time.  The first labor was 12 hours and the next labor was 3 hours.

I quit running this past week.  4 weeks out from my due date I ran 3 miles and the next two times I tried to run during the week, there was a lot of pelvic pressure and I felt it was time to quit.  I'm still playing singles tennis once a week with a friend though.  I just have to concede a good shot more often now instead of running the ball down.  My weight gain is 26 pounds so far, blood pressure normal, no swelling, the baby is quite active, and he has the hiccups all the time.  At my last ultrasound at 36 weeks, the baby weighed approximately 6 pounds, and the doctor predicts he'll be around the same size as my first two babies (7 lbs 11oz and 7 lbs. 13 oz).   I feel great--although the last month is definitely very uncomfortable and I have a lot of lower back pain--and I attribute it to my exercise throughout the pregnancy.

It's been good to spend this last month organizing (see my previous post about my Happiness Project).  I've been going through clothes and organizing every closet in the house.  I've also been making freezer meals in preparation for the baby.  After this week, I'll have 5 meals made and plan on continuing to make more up until he comes.  I also just finished my 2009 year for another blog book!  I just need to proofread and order.  I'm using Blurb to print my books because they download each post of my blog to a page in the book and format for me.  Usually I don't like the way it's formatted though, and I still go through each page reformatting, but I was very pleased with the final product of my first book.

Dressing-up

Caleb and Carter had the opportunity to dress up 4 times this Halloween. Carter loved every minute of it! He would have worn his dinosaur costume day in and day out if I would have let him.

Caleb the pilot at a church Halloween party

Love Carter's smile

Matt and I enjoyed dressing up for a friend's Halloween party this year. Caleb had the opportunity to dress up in a few different costumes (that I bought for preschool), and he loved having options.

Trick-or-treating

Caleb had so much fun. We went for awhile in my sister's neighborhood with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Caleb and Matt went longer in our neighborhood while I put Carter to bed and passed out candy. Carter held Grandma or Grandpa's hand the entire time and would have nothing to do with Mommy or Daddy!

What a fun holiday and fun time of year! Perfect weather too!

Halloween 2010

Cousin Sammy, Caleb, Cousin Drew, and Carter

Caleb insisted on being a lion because his favorite Primary song right now is "Follow the Prophet," specifically the verse about Daniel and the lion's den. (We have listened to this song non-stop in the car for about 3 months, and he's still not sick of it.) Carter was a dinosaur. He's 7 months old now and the costume is 18 months size. :o)

We actually spent Halloween weekend camping (I'll post that soon). After we got home Saturday night, we went to my parent's ward party so Caleb could participate in their "trunk or treat" since we had missed our ward party. I'm envious of Utah celebrating Halloween on Saturday. Caleb was sad that he didn't get to go trick-or-treating to all our neighbors.

Trick or Treat

This Halloween was a lot more fun for Caleb because he understood things a little better than last year. We had practiced saying words like "ghost", "pumpkin", and most importantly "trick or treat", so he was all prepped. The costume I bought for him, Caleb refused to wear, so we settled for clothes we already had as a baseball player (it was the cheaper route anyway). Unfortunately our ward didn't do a Trunk or Treat, which I was really bummed about, but Caleb went out that night with his cousins (I went with Caleb and Matt stayed home passing out candy). Caleb can be very timid and shy in new situations, so having his older cousin, Drew, there helped a lot. It doesn't take long to catch on that this is the coolest holiday of the year...going to stranger's doors, saying 3 little words, and getting free candy! He said "trick or treat" and "thank you" at pretty much every door, and his "trick or treat" is adorable if I do say so myself :o). We didn't record it on video camera, but I'll do a post soon of new words Caleb can say so I have a record of how he used to say them.

Caleb and Drew/Optimus Prime

Dallin the Pirate, Drew, & Caleb

Halloween

Halloween 2007
Halloween 2008--Same angry face
(Apparently Halloween is not a happy occasion for this kid.)
Caleb the Dinosaur meets his cousin, Dallin the Frog.
Mommy with her sweet Dinosaur
Family picture for Halloween.
I'm not big on dressing up, but my cousin made this cute shirt I'm wearing.

We went to our church 'Trunk or Treat' where they block off the church parking lot so that it is more of a safer environment for the kids. The kids trick or treat from car trunk to car trunk. I stayed behind and passed out candy in our decorated trunk of our van. (You can't see the spiders hanging from the ceiling because it's dark, but I thought our trunk looked pretty good). Matt took Caleb around and they both had a really good time.

Running Update: I ran 7 miles this morning! :o)

Favorite Pictures

My winning smile

Bath time is a favorite activity.

Sleeping with Daddy

We go on at least one walk a day, and sometimes Mom rollerblades!

Halloween was not a happy occasion, but even my grumpy faces are still cute.