Awesome October

Happy Halloween everyone!!  We had a really busy month with lots of activities, and unfortunately several sick days.  In spite of those we enjoyed our pumpkin carving, decorating halloween cookies, and halloween parties.  Also, Jayden went on his first field trip this month.  He and daddy went to Wheeler farm with his class.  They toured the farm and had a hay ride.

The first week in October we carved a pumpkin.  Daddy did most of the work, but the kids had fun watching him glow.  Unfortunately, I kept him in the house and he didn't make it anywhere close to halloween.  Thanks to Sid the science kid, Jayden was able to tell me that he was rotten :).  Unfortunately, HE had to tell me that our Jack-o-lantern was rotten.  (Thanks to two consecutive sicknesses, I spent one week waking in the middle of the night to bathe my puke covered children.  I spent my days cleaning up throw up, and washing all of the laundry from it.  Then shortly after a cold hit so I slept and cuddled my croupy toddler and finally my 10 month old.  Needless to say my house looks like a tornado hit it, and poor jack o lantern rotted away unnoticed on my messy table.)  Last week we replaced him. (we did at least mourn a couple of days for him!!)  Jayden and Ethan got pumpkins from a primary party and we made them into a pig and a bear/dog with pieces that looked a lot like they belong in a mr potato head.  They turned out so cute, but we didn't take a pic.  And they were easy too!
So, as I said, our parties started last Saturday with the Primary party.  Daddy took them around to a bunch of activities while I made cotton candy.  Then Sunday, we did our annual sugar cookie decorating party with grandma Milligan.  It was so fun, because they are finally getting old enough to want to participate.  They made lots of cute cookies, but again, I fell down on the job and didn't take pics.
Monday night we made jack o lantern pizzas for family home evening, then wednesday Jayden went to his school party. 
Thursday was Jay's birthday and we had the most wonderful date!  Thank heaven Rachel watched my boys and my still croupy daughter.  We have rarely gotten out in the past couple of years and it was so nice to get away.  We went to dinner and then to a Halloween store and a haunted house.  I think it was our best date since our kids were born!  The haunted house provided a much better opportunity than our typical dinner and movie night.  Standing in the cold in the long line gave us a chance to cuddle for warmth and lots of time to talk.  And we got to chuckle at the group of  cute little high school girls in front of us, doing what high school girls do.  Then of course, I had to cling to him in the haunted house for my own peace of mind.  It was fun for me the couple of times that he got startled and super fun for him when I got scared or surprised.  He so rarely gets that experience anymore since I refuse to watch scary movies. This was a good compromise.  I was scared, but it didn't stick with me like when I see horror movies.  Now I just have to wait a year till the haunted houses open up again!! :)
We got home late Thursday, and I stayed up to make Jello worms for our two family halloween parties.  Friday came all too soon.  From then to now all seems like a blur since our days were full of getting ready and going places.  But it was all so fun, it was definitely worth a little craziness.  Friday we went to Abuelita Turpin's work party at Cyprus Credit Union.  The kids got a treat bag, ate pizza, and went fishing for Halloween treats.  I saw a friend I worked with there five years ago and had fun catching up with her.  Jayden spent most of his play time making shadows on the wall.  They had a halloween picture projected on the wall and he made good use of the light.

Our next party was at Laura's house for my family.  We went early to make soup and jello worms.  It was such a fun night just visiting while Jay and Randall watched the Jazz game.  The kids made creepy cupcakes while eating slimy worms.  Jay made Jayden try one, and he gagged, but managed to eat it without any mishaps.  He did note, however, that it was disgusting :).  Its funny how much the look of things can effect other senses.  They are basically just raspberry jello and cream with some extra food coloring.

Another late night home last night and I was up early again this morning, finishing a couple things for our two baptisms we had today.  (How cool to be baptized on Halloween, huh?)  There was such a wonderful spirit there today.  (I always am amazed at how strong I feel the spirit at every baptism.  I just particularly enjoyed it today.)  Our ward was assigned to do the talks and one of my young women spoke on baptism.  She is such an amazing girl.  I am always so happy to see how strong and mature and beautiful they are becoming.  I think the challenges teenagers face are greater every year, and it awes me to see them making good choices, in spite of all of the temptation before them.  It was a wonderful morning, and then I came home and started getting ready for Halloween. 

Jayden and Ethan had hot dog octupus and fish for lunch.  They really liked looking at them, but again, the whole what it looks like thing got in the way, and they didn't want to eat them :)

I felt like I had tons of time, and would be able to do so much, but everything went wrong with my costume, and I still found myself running late for our visit with Jay's dad.  I totally lost my cool at one point.  It is so funny that on days that are supposed to be so fun, I ruin it by stressing out.  Luckily I came to my senses quickly and we got out the door.  It didn't end up mattering that we were late, because they weren't home yet, so my stressing was for nothing anyway. :)  So we headed over to the trunk-r-treat.  I LOVED IT!  It is probably my favorite part of halloween.  I love giving out the candy, and seeing all the cute costumes, and all the little kids I know and love, and just getting the chance to have a bunch of positive interactions with friends and strangers alike.  I mean, who is unhappy when candy is being passed out right?
Jay took the kids around.  He said Ethan wanted to stop and talk to all of the monsters.  He talked to Jay all afternoon about how they were both monsters (I think he was REALLY happy to be a monster like daddy)  He was saying that he was a blue monster and Jay was a zombie monster.  And he said, "I say Grrrr! and you say, Grrrraaaaaapes, I want Grapes!"  So as they were going around he would go up to the monsters and say, "Hi monster, I'm a scary blue monster.  What are you?"  Both Jayden and Ethan chose what they wanted to be and were so happy to be able to wear their costumes.  When I'd forget to put Jayden's foot covers on his costume he said "I need my waddling feet"  He chose penguins, but was hoping he could be in snow if he was a penguin.  Luckily, the first day he wore it, there was some snow on the ground.  He was so excited and had fun waddling around in it.  At the trunk-r-treat, Jayden saw a kid dressed as a toilet and said "Can I poop in you?"
After the candy was gone, we headed over to Grandpa and Abuelita Turpin's.  Grandpa got a new ghost with blinking eyes and waving arms taller than Ethan.  He did okay when we first came in, but then he wandered back over to the entry way (I assume in search of the candy bowl)  He was over there by himself when he set off the motion sensor.  He totally flipped out until grandpa and I went over to rescue him.  He was too afraid to walk past the ghost :).  And he said, "I'm super scared!"

We usually try to do themes, at least for Jay and I, but we all went our own way this year.  I can't do the Zombie thing :).  So we have a zombie, cotton candy, a penguin, a monster, and tinkerbell.

Finally we went to Grandma Milligan's party at Crystal's house.  We enjoyed her delicious chili and pigs in a blanket and Jay and the kids had fun trick-r-treating.  Then we watched a couple halloween movies and came home.  What a wonderful time!  I Love holidays, even with all of their craziness.

Here are all of Jay's "Zombie meal time" pics

These are some random October pics I liked.

I am amazed how big he is getting!  Look at those long legs :)