An (Almost) All White Halloween - October 2016

Okay, so I have to say, in case you didn't already know, I am not crafty.  I am not the kind of mom who sews Halloween costumes (or owns a sewing machine, or knows how to sew, for that matter.)  That being said, the kids are pretty much on their own to come up with a costume on Halloween.  And actually, pretty much my favorite part of this holiday is seeing their creativity and what costume they pick and how they put it together.  My kids crack me up!

This year, we almost ended up with everyone in white.  Aly originally wanted to cut out a garbage sack, put it over her head and be "white trash" for Halloween, but her friends convinced her to be the characters from Monster's Inc. instead.  She does make a cute Mike Wazowski.  Analise decided to be an exclamatory phrase for Halloween.  She decked herself out as a "Holy Cow!", complete with spots and halo.

Kate wanted to be a joke for Halloween.  She dressed herself up as a chicken (complete with homemade headband and rubber gloves for feet) and would ask people, "Why did I cross the road?" . . . "So I can get candy on the other side!" HAHAHA!

Kylie decided to be Princess Leia for Halloween.  She put her costume together wonderfully.  My favorite part is her flowing blond locks with her brunette Leia buns headband on top. ;)

As for the festivities, the girls loved going to the 7th Group Fall Festival, complete with pumpkin catapult, bouncy houses, crafts, carnival games, face painting, cotton candy, and photo booth.

There were also fun church activities - like making tasty treats in Activity days and a Youth Halloween activity.

Yay!  We got Boo, Mike, and Sully all together!

The pumpkin carving/painting got very creative this year as well.  We had ribbons, stripes, polka dots, a cyclops, a kitty cat, and some sort of vampire creature.  (It's kinda hard to see, but Kate stuck vampire teeth in her pumpkin's mouth.)

Last but not least, there were the school parties, or, I guess I should just say party, as Kate's class had their Fall Party in November.  Kylie's class had fun with lots of games and TONS of sugar.

Our Neighbor gave these eyeballs to the girls to put on their bikes.  Love it!!

It's finally in the 80's! a.k.a. October in Florida (2016)

So, the first week in October is one of my favorites for many reasons.  It's usually when it finally gets pleasant outside in Florida, it's when I put up the Fall Decorations around the house (aka the kickoff of the holiday season for us), and it's when I get to listen to the voice of the prophets through General Conference!   Kylie decided to make a "nest" to hang out in all weekend, the girls and I did a couple of puzzles, and of course there was yummy food to go around, all the while being spiritually nourished by our church leaders.   Seriously, Conference weekend  is one of my favorite times to spend with my family.

Thanks go to my expert fire builder.  Only Chris could have gotten this fire to work.  The wood was very green and wet.  It took him awhile, but he finally got us some good hot dog and marshmallow worthy flames.  

Another thing I love to do with my family is go camping.  This year we decided to camp at Fort Pickens, an old base on Santa Rosa Island, just across the bay from Pensacola.  It was really neat to be able to explore all the tunnels and caverns in that place.  The girls loved climbing, exploring, and running around as well.

Some tunnels were so small we had to go single file and couldn't all stand up in!

Love this picture of my girls!

So many awesome picture spots!

Stuck in Jail.  Some are more distraught about it than others . . . 

The other awesome thing about camping on an island was heading to the beach just a short walk from the campsite.  Chris even took the little girls down to the ocean at night to look at the stars.  Super cool.

The rest of October had some fun opportunities for me as well. I was able to go to Time Out for Women with some ladies in my ward.  Super fun to get to know them better.

I was also able to go with Kate on her field trip to the Native American Temple mound and first schoolhouse in Okaloosa County.  Lots of fun things to see and hands on stuff.  I love, love, love going on field trips with my kiddos.

Random picture of Kate that needed to be included.  I asked her to peel potatoes, which she gladly did.  It wasn't until I looked over a couple minutes later that I realized she was using one of the potato peels as a mustache!!  Hahaha.

The crazy thing that happened in October was that our ward got split.  It was definitely humongous when we moved in,  but I did not see this coming.  As a matter of fact, Chris got called to be a member of the bishopric in the newly formed ward and we still didn't see it coming!  All we knew was that they were calling a new bishopric and so we're sitting in the pew waiting for Chris to get called and they announced that they were splitting the ward.  We were in total shock!  Chris was a little nervous for his new calling, on top of being Battalion Commander, but he is doing a great job.

It was hard to let go of some of the awesome young women that I was just getting to know, but we do still see them and hang out sometimes, so that is good.  And I am grateful that with all the calling upheavals I still have the opportunities to serve with these amazing girls.