HALLOWEEN 2010

Halloween was a lot of fun this year at our house! I even took the time to make something for Kylie's class party.....

Not to mention make this banner that I had brewin' in my head.....

And we can't forget our door decoration. We've had this silly skeleton thing for years. We've named him "Bones". This was the first year that Kylie didn't cry when we put him up!!

The funnest part is always the parties! We were in town this year to be invited to the annual Hammond party. We had a lot of fun visiting with friends & eating YUMMY soup. EmmaLee even orders the cutest pumpkin bread bowls. We had Mr. Clean & his maid in attendance. Their entourage included a ninja, Iron Man & the cutest Wonder Woman you've ever seen! Then, we had H.I. McDunnough & Edwina from Raising Arizona. (Quite the show stopper - they were hilarious!) There entourage had a witch, prisoners & the most darling Cindy Lou Who! We also had more prisoners in attendance with Alice in Wonderland & a Vampiress. One of my favorites, though, was EmmaLee's mom & her bumble bee costume she made. It was awesome! After attending their ward Trunk or Treat we came back to homemade donuts & lots of candy trading!

Next, was our ward Trunk or Treat. Which we have never attended. It was fun & Erik even got guy time with Luke. Their picture fully deserved the "BFFL" tag. I felt the need to dress up my costume this time because it was the biggest tent of a costume ever! It may have looked more dumb, but at least I didn't feel like a house. And I just couldn't resist taking a pic of our newest bishopric member dressed as Superman & his princess wife. Too cute! I also love the pic of my girls walking with Juliet. Priceless!

However, my favorites of the night are the following two where it looks like my girls are taking off with peoples kids. Especially Kylie's! This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. Her face is classic & totally looks like she's taking this child!!


Lastly, was the Smith-Hallows gang party. Everyone who didn't show up in costume had to take a pic with the silly noses. I was tired of my silly costume by this time, hence the nose. The Rubbles stole the show at this party! As well as the Flower Child. And yet again, another picture of Erik cuddling with other males. (I can't even tell you how many of these we have. Or pics of him with other wives just to confuse people. That could be a whole other post.) Anyway, Halloween also brings Steele's birthday, so it was a perfect time to celebrate! He received some hair gel & made the best mohawk on Max!

HALLOWEEN 2009

Erik loves Halloween. He was dying to carve pumpkins this year. We usually do, but for some reason we haven't the past couple of years. We did this year. Only I didn't take a bunch of pictures. Nor did I have candles to put in them. Therefore, we don't have pictures & the pumpkins rotted fast before I got candles to light them. Oh well! We still had fun.

This year for Halloween we headed down to Arivaca, AZ for the second year in a row to hang out with Luke & Rennie's family again. We had such a blast last year that we figured we needed to do it again this year while we still had the chance. If you've never heard of Arivaca don't be shocked. It's definitely a small town. Which is what makes events like this all the more fun! Small towns know how to do holidays.

Everyone gathers at a church for dinner (aka hot dogs & such) & mingling. Then, you jump on a hayride. Lucky for us, my brother Luke drives one of those hayrides as a representative of the boys ranch, so we get to reep the benefits. All the hayrides caravan through the town making various stops to trick or treat to booths rather than doors. After about 3 different stops everyone ends up on the main street to "trick or treat" to all the booths up & down the street. It's great! No doorbells, wondering if people are home & just lots of fun. This is more than likely our last year doing this, so it was fun to go one more time. One of the booths...

My poor girls have the worst mother when it comes to these kinds of things. I'm not good at going all out for a one night deal. Nor am I creative at all in this area. Kylie actually had her costume planned all year. She was dying to wear her pirate costume she wore for a dance last year & there was no changing her mind. She told everyone she was Elizabeth from "Pirates of the Carribean". And we let her.

Jadyn wanted to be a vampire. We went to Wal-Mart to look for a black dress. When we went to buy it the cashier asked Jadyn if the dress was for her & what was she going to be. Jadyn replied that it was for her & that she was going to be "Victoria" from "Twilight". That took me by surprise. I looked at Jadyn & asked her how she even knew who that was? Not only that, but why am I buying you a costume when she could just wear regular clothes if that's who she wanted to be! Silly kid! I guess I forget how observant she is. I'm a huge "Twilight" fan (as I'm sure you already know), but I've never let my kids watch it. I just don't know how that came about!

Here's our scary group of pirates & vampires on the hayride.....

Only in a small town would you see this I think....

I love how the parents are COMPLETELY decked out & their daughter is in a cheasy, crummy, some kind of princess costume. Isn't Halloween for the kids?!

This old guy was awesome zipping around on his TINY electric scooter...

His name was "Little Mike". He was trick or treating himself & didn't even get off his scooter. He'd just zip up to the tables & hold out his hand. HILARIOUS! Another thing you would probably only ever see in a small town.

On the drive home (about an hour to Luke & Rennie's) I think the kids were a little tired...

Thanks again Luke & Rennie for the fun time!

HALLOWEEN 08

We had a blast this Halloween. We pulled the girls out of school early (which meant Jadyn didn't go at all) & headed down to Arivaca, AZ! Luke & Rennie invited us down for fun & excitement in a small town. There's no other way to do it - small towns know how to hook it up! Everyone in the town met at a church & had hot dogs, etc. Then, everyone piled onto a hayride. Luke had the best rig, of course, so we hopped on for the ride of a lifetime. Once we were on our "hayride" we followed a line of other trucks & made designated stops to trick-or-treat. Not until after I got yelled at for not following the rules though. Seems you're not allowed to jump onto the truck when it's about to move. Once the signal of one honk was made you were to remain still. Who knew it would be bad to jump on after running from grabbing something out of the car? At least no one got hurt. We made 3 small stops where people had tables set up to pass out candy. Then, the last stop was on Main St. - the downtown area - where the street was lined on both sides with tables to trick-or-treat at. We were really proud of Kylie who usually ends up not trick-or-treating because she gets scared of scary costumes, but she was a trooper this time & we didn't have any issues. The kids had a blast & told us multiple times how fun it was & that is was the best! (We owe a HUGE thank you to Rennie's mom for making Kylie's chaps & vest for her cowgirl costume. Lainie wanted to be a cowgirl, too, so she was nice enough to make Kylie some as well when she made Lainie's. They were perfect!! Thank you Sally!! Oh & Rennie for Jadyn's costume. Basically we didn't buy costumes this year - we just bummed off Rennie. Yeah us! Thanks again Ren!!)
Then, what's Halloween without having a little fun with the mullet?! We got some choice looks. Maybe people thought we were poking fun. We were - only just at ourselves! WOW! That's a scary picture of me! Notice I'm doing a hang ten sign with a mullet on. HUH?! I don't know. But, Ren, looks perfect!
We rode horses on Saturday at the ranch & Erik took pictures of the Hallows gang. The boys even had a little mishap on a horse & fell off while riding bareback. They're tough, so it didn't do anything to them. We had so much fun we ended up staying until Sunday morning instead of leaving on Saturday as planned. It's just so hard to leave when you're having fun! Thanks again Luke & Rennie for the fun weekend!!