Halloween

We survived the month of October and Halloween is in the books.  I have to be honest, I'm never too sad to see it go.  We had some fun times, though.

We carved our pumpkins for FHE:

Mine and Lizzy's

Joe's, Natalie's & Nate's (done entirely by me)

Elizabeth carved hers all by herself this year!

We went to the trunk-or-treat at the church.  We had some costume problems and were really running late but here we all are in our Harry Potter-themed glory:

Joe and I are supposed to be Lily and James Potter.
We were going for this look:

Not so great, but the best we could do with about 10 minutes and the things from our closets.
Joe was all costumed out after his firm's big Halloween to-do.  They go all out.  He might kill me for including this next one but hey--it serves him right for not reading our blog much. :)

He's the 4th oompa loompa from the right. He even had to write a song and choreograph this whole number for a skit they did.  It was pretty awesome but I don't think he'd appreciate me posting that link. :)

Anyway, back to the trunk-or-treat...
I thought this was funny one, too:

The girls were really getting into character, I guess. :)  They insisted on being death eaters since they wanted to be scary.  I think they scared a bunch of people with their masks.
I made some kid at the trunk-or-treat pose with Nate for this picture:

I just think that's a pretty darn cute Harry Potter.

This, for sure, is the cutest Dobby (not Yoda!) there ever was:

Come on! :)

A couple more snapshots just for fun while the older kids ran around playing games:

On Halloween day, the kids had their early-release day at school so we had some time to fill before trick-or-treating.  We hadn't done the pumpkin patch thing so I decided we'd do that. It ended up being perfect! No one was there and I loved the place we went to.  It was more like a historic functioning farm with a small patch.

 We got to go on a little horse-drawn train:

 Lizzy reading anything she can get her hands on, even the brochure:

 We saw a ton of Monarch butterflies, got to look for eggs in the chicken coop and feed some animals.
The kids bonded with this sheep:

It was a lot of fun.

We were pretty tired, though, so we didn't go out trick-or-treating for too long.  

This guy had two costumes this year since we had to make sure to put him in the traditional bunny costume:

And here's yet another bunny costume comparison...

Nate

Natalie

Elizabeth

They've got their own looks but they're siblings for sure.

I just love all those bunnies!

Richard & Toni's Wedding

At the beginning of October we drove out to Utah for Richard and Toni's wedding.  We were just recovering from some serious cases of croup that Nate and Eli had when it was time to go.  We were a little worried but thankfully the trip went well.  We left around 3am Thursday morning and got there that evening.  

Eli loved taking a break from his seat and having a turn at the wheel:

The older kids were so excited to see snow in Nevada!  It snowed quite a bit in Tooele on Friday and despite our lack of snow clothes, they loved playing in it:

Mostly they just loved playing with their cousins.  Here's Nate and Lilly at the rehearsal dinner:

In fact, Nate hasn't stopped talking about his cousins.  Just this morning he was moaning about how we don't live close enough to any of them.

We were worried about the weather for the outdoor wedding but when it was time for the ceremony, the sun was shining through the trees and it was beautiful.  It was a bit cold later on, but it was still beautiful.  I was so blown away by Toni's family (who made the wood arches, benches and tables) and how beautifully everything turned out.  I mean check this out:

(These next pictures are courtesy of Joe's cousin Monica)

The good-looking couple:

I liked this one of Marsha with the guys and cute Jace, the ring bearer:

This is what I did for most of the reception:

Elijah was cold, still sick, and not having it so I tried to be the good wife and manage him while Joe performed his groomsman duties and caught up with family he doesn't see often.  Despite a cranky baby at times, it really was a wonderful day. 

We spent one more day up in Logan with Tom and Lorna watching Conference and then it was time drive home on Sunday. It was a quick but fun trip.  Plus, we even got a great new family picture out of it (thanks to Tom!):