Happy Halloween!!!

Well another year has gone by and it was time to make the costumes. Last October, Matt and the kids decided what we should be for Halloween and the idea was talked about all year long. About the end of August, I decided I had better get started with the costumes so it wouldn't be so stressful. I was really stressing over sewing the satin material and wanted to get it out of the way early. I set down and worked on the dress for Clarissa for a few days and took it at a pace that I could enjoy it. I was excited when it was done since I defined this particular costume as a huge stepping stone in my sewing abilites. I have made pj pants for the kids for the past 12 years, halloween costumes for the boys that seemed to be pretty easy and tried my hand at making skirts and matching applique shirts for the girls. After finishing the dress I took a break since I had my parents coming in so Matt and I could go to Mackinac Island.

There was this really neat thing that happened with the other costumes. I went to Jo-ann's to buy the material and while waiting in the cutting line, I meet this really neat lady. She asked what I was making with all the different colors of fleece. In talking with her, I learned that she wanted to make the same costumes because she had 7 daycare children. After us talking some more, she informed me that I had talked her into making the costumes for her daycare kids. Before I left the store, her and I planned on getting together to work on the rest of the costumes. Boy was I relieved!! I was wondering how I was going to make the kids costumes without patterns and little did I know that Heavenly Father would put this lady in my path at the store. After my little vacation with Matt, I went over to her house and she had already made a pattern for all the parts we needed. She is AMAZING!! In the 5 hours I was in her house, we talked and got to know each other. We both kept mentioning what a blessing it was to have run into each other. A little lesson for both of us in listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. She does not share my same religious background, but she strongly felt that the Holy Ghost prompted her to go to the store that evening at 8:30 when she is normally bringing her day to a close. The same goes for me. I am usually in the middle of putting kids to bed and going to bed myself at that time of evening.

Long story short, the kids loved their costumes! We went to our church ward pary on Friday night and our family tied with another one for the Family Theme catergory. Many people asked how Clarissa ended up being the Princess instead of Abby and our answer was, "We will reuse these costumes in a couple years when Abby will fit into the dress."

The only thing that did not happen was the kids didn't get to go Trick or Treating on Saturday. Matt and the boys headed up North to work on the cabin to meet a deadline and didn't get back until 8:30 p.m. The silver lining is that the kids don't have that much candy to eat. Yeah!!!

We hope that everyone had a great Halloween with their cute kiddos and have a great fall.

Happy Halloween!

We could not have asked for a more beautiful evening for trick or treating! We didn't even need a coat or jacket. It was so fun to see the kids in costume without being covered up.

Danny went dressed as 'Cat in the Hat', Jake was 'Harry Potter', Aaron was 'Darth Vader', Caleb as a wizard, Clarissa was 'Cinderella' and last but not least, Abby was a little pig. The girls had the best ride in the neighborhood. While they rode in the stroller, the boys collected candy at the neighbor's for them.

We had our Ward Halloween Party a couple of days earlier and Caleb won the 'Best Witch or Wizard' award. He was so surpirsed when they called his name. What a perfect way to end the party.

We also had the opportunity to have Tom and Michele go with us and the kids. Tom had just finished his last day at work so he is now officially retired from General Motors and unfortunatley will be leaving Michigan. We will miss them so much. Thanks for all you have done for our family. You will be missed more than you know.

Carvin' Pumpkins

This year we decided to have the kids carve their own pumpkin. What a mess that turned out to be! They tried carving different types of things on them, but we learned the pumpkins were too small. We ended up having a lot of different jack-o-lantern faces.
Maybe next year we can buy a couple big ones and see what types of things there are to carve on them.