October: Grinches and Transformers and Ninjas, Oh My!

October's weather was gorgeous so Aida and I decided to take advantage of the time when the boys were both at school to enjoy some little hikes and couch naps. She would hang out in the carrier, eventually dozing off and I just enjoyed the nature and baby snugs. Luke and I also got to go on a little hike in Sessions Canyon with Kayla and Parker.

Lukey-boy pulled out his first tooth! Here is how he told the story:

" I was just sitting in class and pretended to sneeze and yanked it out!"

He then went to the nurses office, got to fill out a little tooth to hang on the wall and got a little box to keep his tooth in. He was so excited!

Beginning of October also started costume making season. Luke decided he wanted to be the Transformer, Bumblebee...that actually transforms. Dallin did his research, then commenced working every night on the elaborate costume. Luke later decided he wanted to be a ninja for trick-or-treating. All was well. He did love his costume and I think Dallin really loved engineering the costume. I got the easy job of creating a Grinch costume for Caleb, which won funniest costume at Trunk-or-Treat. Originally, Aida was going to be Albert Einstein (thus the fun beanie), but ultimately decided to go with a hedgehog for a more warm costume. 

All kiddos loved trick-or-treating with neighbor friends. It was a beautiful night, filled with giggles and candy galore. 

Pumpkin patches are one of our new favorite traditions in October. If you remember, I said October had beautiful weather; except for the evening we decided to go to Peterson Family Farms. Man, oh man it was cold! We shivered as we ate our food in the bitter wind, then scurried to get our pumpkins and warm up in the car. The next week was absolutely gorgeous, so we decided to visit Pack farms with the Evans, just to salvage the pumpkin patch experience for the kiddos so they would want to keep doing it.

We also got to carve pumpkins with the Evans family for one of our EvaGreen dinners. Each month, we get together and have dinner, just to stay connected with our favorite people.

We got a visit from Terri, during which she brought the kiddos personalized Halloween shirts, we went to the Pumpkin Walk in Logan followed by ice cream at Aggie Ice Cream, a corn maze in West Jordan and made Halloween sugar cookies. The pumpkin walk was another success (so much creativity), the corn maze was a failure with Luke and Terri. Both have vowed to never go into a corn maze again and this one ended with Luke valiantly yelling, "I can do hard things!" the last half hour as the sun started to set. Proud of him for working through his fear and continuing on, even though I'm pretty sure he thought we took him in there to meet his Maker. The cookies were darling and delicious; maybe because of the little extra spit the boys contributed as they licked sprinkles off their fingers and then continued to decorate...We kept those ones for ourselves, depriving our neighbors or that special ingredient. We also managed to squeeze some Aida baby book making, as well. Thank goodness for Terri or my children would have no baby books. We always love spending time with aunt Terri.

We love October and the fun it brings every year. Our friend, Skelly the skeleton, joined the family, bringing smiles with where he showed up each day. Giggles and snuggles were enjoyed. We always have rough days, but we work through them and are grateful for all the ups and downs of life!