Halloween

I have a really hard time getting into holidays. As a kid, I loved holidays. I loved decorating, I loved dressing up, I loved celebrating everything. Now, decorating is a task, thinking of things to dress up as for Halloween is an even bigger task, and trying to make the holiday "memorable" is just too much work. Usually holidays in our family pass without too much notice or attention to them. It makes me a little sad, but I am not really doing anything to change it. I think a lot of it has stemmed from the fact that I have been pregnant for the previous two holiday seasons and was working full time so there was no time for decorating or really planning or celebrating in general. This year, I was dead set on making the holidays more "special" but now that we won't even have our own home for the holiday season, looks like my plans are spoiled yet again. I guess there is always next year!

So, for Halloween, nothing really changed. We did not decorate at all. Not even a single pumpkin. We bought a pumpkin to carve at a friend's house when they invited us over for a gathering two weeks ago, but we never did actually carve it and then never brought it home. So, according to our home, Halloween was never here.

But, we did participate in our ward Halloween party Friday evening. It was a lot of fun. We borrowed costumes from Zane and Callie (because again- I can't think of anything myself) and even got there on time. Natalie was an adorable little skunk. My favorite part is that the bum says "little stinker." Watching her crawl around in her costume was just precious. Weston was a lion. He wouldn't put the top part of his costume on until we got to the party and he saw that everyone else was dressed up all strangely too. It made me laugh. Unfortunately I didn't really get good pictures of the kids. Bummer.

Weston enjoyed the cake walk as he was eyeing the cupcakes since we walked in the door. Dad (dressed up as John Locke from LOST) helped Weston win his treats. Weston really enjoyed his cupcakes and went back for seconds and even thirds. Oh boy!

Natalie was content to just chill in our arms. Uncle Hans went with us and he dressed as a punk rocker. Natalie was fascinated by his get up. She would not stop staring at him and especially enjoyed his lip ring. Don't get any ideas Natalie!

They had a fun little hay ride on the church ballfield in the parking lot. Someone brought a four wheeler and pulled a trailer with hay in it. Weston had a lot of fun on the ride. Natalie probably only noticed that it got a little colder.

When we went back inside we went into the "photo booth" and had our picture taken. That is the picture at the top of this post. Poor Natalie is in the height of her "stranger anxiety" stage. If someone even looks at her she breaks into histerics. We get into the room and I put Natalie on a chair for her individual picture. The guy stoops down to take her picture and she loses it; lip pout, professional tears, squealing sobs - the whole works. While I try to console her, Roland tries to sit Weston down for his picture. By the fact that we don't have one, you can imagine how well that went too. So, we settled on a family picture with a sheepish lion and a saddened skunk with a tear running down her cheek. Classic.

Trunk-or-treat time came and Weston ran around to his heart's content. No trunk-or-treating for him. Last thing that ball of energy needs is candy and Roland and I don't need it either.

Halloween night came the next day and we opted out. The day kind of got away from us and Roland got home really late from helping Nabeha move so we just called it good with the previous day. As we were piling in the car to go to our beds the firetruck came around so Weston had a lot of fun seeing the "truck! truck!" They were even kind enough to give our almost two-year old HARD candy. That was quickly confiscated and fruit snacks were given in its place.

So, uneventful Halloween. Maybe next year we will actually get to do some trick-or-treating.