Halloween 2010

This year we celebrated Halloween by going to a trunk-or-treat and Halloween carnival at our church on Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun, and Kennedy in particular had a blast.  She dressed up as a ladybug this year.  Here's the costume as it should be.

Way cute.  And here's the really cute shot after she decided to start posing that I couldn't resist putting up here.



Unfortunately, it was chilly and slightly rainy on Saturday, so we had to add a little bit to her costume to make sure that she was warm enough.  It turned out pretty cute too though.

We volunteered to use our trunk to pass out candy.  Brett devised a system where he could keep his hand in the bottom of the candy bag and grab kids when they tried to pick a piece.  They had fun with that, and Kennedy would laugh hysterically when the kids got scared.  Noah was a trooper, staying out past his bedtime dressed in an outfit that was slightly tight and that he didn't like very much.



The carnival at the church had some fun games set up for the kids, but Kennedy's favorite was the cake walk.  It was actually just musical chairs and you won a cupcake just for playing, but Kennedy couldn't get enough.  She played 4 times (she only got a cupcake twice though) and was laughing so hard about running around in a circle and Brett throwing her into chairs.  We got rained out from passing out candy, so we went home earlier than expected, but the kids had a great time and we enjoyed watching them have so much fun.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

We were sad this year that we live so far away from the Waddoups because for the last 4 years we had invited them over to carve pumpkins, eat dinner and watch a scary movie.  We had our party just with our family this year though, and we had a good time.  We ate pizza and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with Kennedy.  Our pumpkins turned out wonderfully too!  I'm really proud of mine.  Usually I just do your typial triangle eyes and smile, but I opted for something a little different this time and it turned out great!



Brett's is always extremely intricate and takes him hours and hours to clean and carve.  This year it was just as intricate, but I think he's speeded up a little bit, which is good, because we had time to watch a movie afterward too.  Here's his rendition of Frankenstein's monster.



Kennedy picked out the ugliest pumpkin in the whole bunch when we bought them.  It looked dirty because it's skin was more like a cantaloupe than a pumpkin.  She requested that a ghost be carved into hers, so Brett freestyled one.

The best part about her pumpkin though was that we let her color it with Sharpies.  She used purple and green, and somehow managed to color it for probably 30 minutes straight without getting a fume headache.  She is very proud of the end result and had a great time carving pumpkins.

Pumpkins and Boo at the Zoo

I promised pumpkin pictures, and here they are! The two smaller ones are the cute regular pumpkins (the one on the right is mine) and the others were definitely more complicated. The Waddoups came over for our 4th annual pumpkin carving/movie watching extravaganza and Kim and Brett went nuts on their pumpkins. Kim carved a ghost family which was so cute, and Brett went with the Utah Jazz logo.

They turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. :) We had a great time. We got up the next morning to go to Boo at the Zoo. I have been trying to go for several years, but things kept coming up. This year, we didn't let anything get in our way. We dressed Kennedy up in her witch costume, and she was darling.

I'm going to try to get a better picture for you before Halloween, because it really is a cute costume. We headed out and saw tons of kids and families in costume. It was so much fun! We trick-or-treated at a bunch of stands set up around the zoo. Kennedy loved getting all of the free goodies that included pencils and eggnog. Weirdly enough she guzzled the eggnog. We got to see the baby elephant who is only a few months old too.

Kennedy's favorites were the monkeys and the zebras. Every time she saw a monkey she'd say, "Monkey! Ooh ooh!" She really enjoyed seeing all the animals and was really interactive. She was so tired afterward that she even fell asleep in the car, which never happens.

We had a great time with our Halloween activities, but they aren't done yet! On Thursday we are venturing to a haunted house with Brett's brother and sister. I'll make sure to give a full report.

Pumpkin Patch

I had some other cute pictures from before we got there, so hopefully they will upload later. But in any case, we went to the pumpkin patch in Santaquin last night to pick out our pumpkins to carve. We went last year too, and you can look at the post here. Kennedy had a blast. When we got there she just went crazy saying, "Pumpkin! Pumpkin! Pumpkin!" She couldn't decide which one she wanted. But this one finally won out.

We started taking some pictures, but she was so entranced by the pumpkins that she couldn't look at the camera.

Kennedy and daddy made some pretty cute ghosts.

And we became a family of pumpkins too. We had a great time on the hayride and running around the patch. But poor Kennedy did a face plant, and we didn't see the damage until we got back into the light.

Poor thing really got scraped up! This picture doesn't do it justice, she really got some good scrapes on her cute little face. We had a great time! We'll be carving them on Friday night, so look out for pictures then! And I will be updating the cooking blog today with Pumpkin Scones with Autumn Spice Glaze. So far, we're having a great fall!

Scarecrow Festival

So, I am totally lame and as soon as I took one picture at the Scarecrow Festival the camera ran out of batteries. And the picture I took was not a good one. So, once again, I have no pictures. But I promise pictures from the Pumpkin Patch and Boo at the Zoo next week.

Anyway, we very much enjoyed the Scarecrow Festival. We took Kennedy on a train ride, which she loved, and Brett took her on about 5 bounce houses/slides. She had a blast. She loved the slides and getting knocked over by the bigger kids in the bounce houses. We went through the junior haunted house, and the whole time we were in there Kennedy just kept saying "whoa". It was fun to see all of the kids there having a blast. There was no free food, which the advertising led me to believe there would be, and for an 18 month old and a pregnant lady, that was bad news. Good thing that Brett took us to Iceberg for a giant shake afterward. :)

No Pictures, But An Update

So, yet again, I have no pictures.  Hopefully that will be remedied soon.  But here are a few things you might be interested in:

1. Brett brought home some lilies for me (my favorite) on Monday for no reason at all.  They are blooming spectacularly and are filling my kitchen with the best smell.

2. I decorated for Halloween yesterday.  I have a very small collection of holiday decorations, but they make me happy.

3. We finally heard back from the Coast Guard and our waiver for the new baby was approved!  Yay!  We still don't have a boot camp date, but we should by the end of  next week, hopefully sooner.  I will make sure to let you know as soon as we do!

Some Things I Have Been Thinking About

1. I'm officially in my 2nd trimester today.  I actually feel like this pregnancy is going much faster than the first, and it must be because I have Kennedy to keep me occupied and distracted all day.  In a few weeks I should be able to feel the baby move, which will be awesome, because then I won't have to wait to go to the doctor and hear a heartbeat to be sure the baby is in there.

2. I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ.  I don't know how I would get through without it, since I am completely imperfect.

3. How much I love my husband.  He is an incredible man and an amazing example to me.  I know he loves me and he shows it everyday.  He is my best friend and I love him more than I can say.

4. Halloween is coming up and so is the fall weather.  I am so ready for some cool air and to put my little ghost on my front door.  Holiday baking is going to start and I'll get to dress Kennedy up as something cute.  And I think we may actually make it to Boo at the Zoo this year. :)

Halloween Fun

We didn't do too much for Halloween this year, but we did have some fun.  We dressed Kennedy up in her little pumpkin outfit, as you have already seen, and we headed off to Brett's office to go trick-or-treating.  Considering that Kennedy is not anywhere near old enough to eat candy, she sure got quite a bit.  And wouldn't you know it?  She got all of mom and dad's favorites!  There were some really cool costumes at the office, including a pair of kids who came as Calvin and Hobbes.  They were darling!  One of our favorites was Matt who's mom made him a Winnie the Pooh outfit.  We had to get a picture with Kennedy since her room is done in Pooh.  There is a framed picture of us at Disney World with Pooh in her room, so this will go nicely.

After the trick-or-treating we headed down to Santaquin to get some candy (and dinner) from Grandma and Grandpa Lee and Jamie.  We got to see some cute costumes on the kids that came by, have a great dinner, and have a good time with family.  Unfortunately, Kennedy was a bit exhausted after such a big day and had to go to bed early.  Here we are in Santaquin in our matching costumes.

When we got home we put Kennedy to bed and headed to the apartment just above us (with the monitor of course) to the Halloween party that the Dicksons and Biolos were hosting.  The Dicksons came as John McCain (complete with goiter-ish looking cheek) and Sarah Palin, while the Biolos were the Joker and Two Face.  You have to get a look at Johnny's costume here.  We couldn't stay too long because of the baby, but we had a good time.  We tried to find a scary movie on TV, but of course there weren't any.  We ended up putting on Ghostbusters II, but being the old married people that we are we only made it about halfway through.  All in all we had a good time and hope that everyone else did too!

Happy Halloween!

3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

For the third year in a row we got together with the Waddoups to carve pumpkins and watch a scary movie.  We watched Signs (which is one of my favorites).  Kim told me that she went on a date once where the boys put a projector up in front of a corn field and watched that movie!  Creepy!  We also had a Dijon Chicken Stew that I made as well as Kaye's famous apple cider that she so graciously gave me the recipe for.  It was awesome and we had a great time.  I didn't get to carve my pumpkin (I'm going to do a Lucy pumpkin tonight) but Brett carved a cute ghost family!  Kennedy is in the middle and I have hair.  You'll be able to see it a little bit better in the later pictures.

Nate carved a goal post with a football going through it (BYU could use a few more of those at the moment) and Kim carved a pumpkin for Boston.  The pumpkin is a football helmet and she carved the face into it.

Our night camera wouldn't steady, so they're kind of blurry, but here they are all lit up!

I thought this picture turned out kind of cool.  It looks like the ghosts are on fire or something.

We're looking forward to lighting our pumpkins on Halloween!