One Halloween to Rule Them All

We'd been planning these costumes for a year. We had a stroke of brilliance after Halloween last year and decided we HAD to do this next year. We even roped our good friends (practically family at this point) the Knoxes to join in the insanity fun. 

And then Jon's dumb job made him travel the two weeks before Halloween. We thought about putting it off a year, but decided to just run with it. And so, Jon or no Jon, the Halloween festivities began!

First, Samwise Gamgee

A better view of the hobbit feet: 

And every Fellowship needs Merry: 

Pippin and Galadriel are best buds: 

(one day this can go on their wedding video)

Forget the Elvish seriousness in the movies and books--Galadriel is really a cheeseball: 

Except when the party is over and she's exhausted.

Then it's all Elvish stoicism.

Also, she hates her circlet (which she helped make and design): 

And the hamster ball makes a comeback as the Eye of Sauron: 

I might have had a little too much fun with my makeup.

It's not every day you can write the words from the One Ring across your face: 

The Bloods' contribution to the LOTR theme: 

(Samwise HATED his hobbit feet. LOATHED his hobbit feet. Why? Because they covered his precious shoes. It didn't matter that the shoes were still on his feet. It mattered that he couldn't see them underneath the hobbit feet. Even after removal of the offending feet, he was clearly traumatized). 

Now for some Knoxes: 

Gandalf the Grey 

(this was supposed to be Jon's costume, but Craig makes a great Gandalf)

The lovely Arwen:

Gimli: 

The most adorable Gollum you will ever see: 

Frodo (who was only willing to put on his decidedly non-princess costume 

because he got to wear the One (ear)Ring around his neck): 

Gimli has a hard time eating pizza.

Beards can be such a pain. 

(Yes, that is TOTALLY her actual hair. The Knoxes are as hardcore Halloween as we are).

We also recruited Kaia from another awesome family.

Legolas makes an excellent bearer of Samwise the Whiny: 

Merry and Pippin, looking very serious: 

Not so serious, this time with hobbit feet: 

Arwen takes the Eye of Sauron for a ride: 

And Sam enjoys lounging inside of it and eating some candy: 

But mostly Sam wants to be with Lydia, the love of his life: 

Even when Lydia is getting pictures with her friends, Sam is not far from her side: 

The full Knox/Blood/Uhlig Fellowship of the Ring

(don't miss the awesome Melissa as Boromir and Anna as Aragorn)

Epic.

Something Old, Some Things New

Time to pull out the (old) kid-sized hamster ball for another Halloween costume!

Seth needed a new bucket for Halloween.

Aaron was quite sure Seth's new bucket was really Aaron's new bucket.

A new (bigger) house means we needed a new (bigger) couch! 

We stumbled across a great deal and snatched it up.

The kids are thrilled with the launch pads  power recliners.

Daddy has now unplugged them and hidden the cords. 

Carving Pumpkins

A morning in the pumpkin patch obviously leads to an evening carving pumpkins! I was a little nervous to embark on this adventure without Jon around for backup (not that he carves or scoops seeds--but he does help clean up and put kids to bed). But tradition is tradition and those pumpkin seeds can't go to waste, so let the carving begin!

Ready to begin gutting!

Aaron was an enthusiastic pumpkin gutter. Too enthusiastic, in fact. I looked over and he was using a scoop to fling seeds and innards all over the place.  

Seth gave it a valiant two-minute attempt before giving up and "letting" me finish the rest: 

Catherine was not at all inclined to sticking her hands in a slimy pumpkin. She did painstakingly retrieve some seeds using a spoon (those hands must not get dirty!): 

Cute little boy ready to carve his pumpkin:

This year's pumpkins featured a cement mixer, Ariel, and a Minecraft diamond sword. Seth actually carved about 80% of his pumpkin by himself. I was really impressed!  

Seth and Catherine assisted Aaron by stabbing his pumpkin with toothpicks.

It definitely makes the cement mixer look more terrifying: 

Three crazy kids with their pumpkins.

And the lights from our front yard.

Lohr's Field Trip

Sometimes, schools are dumb. Sometimes they take a trip to the pumpkin patch, but siblings are not invited. So Dad and Catherine go and Mom & Aaron stay home. Lame. But even worse was Seth's school, which did absolutely nothing. All these local orchards and pumpkin patches and they didn't visit any. 

When a friend put together a trip to the pumpkin patch, I decided to pull everyone out of school to enjoy the trip. Totally worth it!

Aaron was a little chilly, and not a fan of holding still

This girl refuses to let me do her hair.

And then pictures turn out like this.

Seth was the biggest kid there, but he loved it.

I may not have brushed my hair that day. 

But I love these three monsters!

Picking apples with the Oliveras (Seth ditched us for the Knoxes).

Splitting the wards is still rotten. We miss them.

Everyone was pleased with their pumpkins and apples. 

Ditching school is awesome!

When Dad's Away...

Another trip to Dugway, another couple weeks of adventures for me and the kids. We started this one off with a bang. Literally. I was putting the kids to bed when we heard a loud noise that shook the entire house. After some investigation, we discovered that the garage door had sheared a bolt and snapped a wire, allowing the door to fall down. With the van inside. And church the next day. 

The bolt

The pulley and wire

Luckily we have some amazing friends who will come over at 9 pm to hold open a garage door so I can back my van out. It was a chilly week to be without a garage to park in, but I was just grateful the door didn't fall on the van or one of us. And it was only $200 to repair. 

Last year for co-op we went to an educational play with giant dancing dinosaurs. I wasn't terribly impressed, but Catherine has been talking about it for an entire year. So when we had the chance to go back, off we went!

Excited for the dinosaur show

Dinosaur shows are super boring.

Aaron would rather make pregnant Mom run up and down the stairs.

There was also one tragic night when Seth got invited to a birthday party and Catherine did not (somehow most parties so far have been ones both kids got to attend). Luckily a Happy Meal and an ice cream sundae were all it took to make the tears go away:

Sunday was a very exciting day. Not only was it the Primary Program (yep, still chorister here), but Jon was out of town and Aaron developed a pretty high fever Saturday. I sent out some panicked requests for potential babysitting for Aaron on Sunday, but the fever seemed to break in the night. I drugged him, dragged everyone to church, and got two of the Young Women to sit with us (one for Aaron, and one for Catherine, who I knew would be a princess at some point during the program). 

In one of those miracles, we all survived. The program went well, and both Seth and Catherine said their parts without issue. Catherine did refuse to go sit on the stand initially, but went up to say her part (weird, I know). She stayed on the stage for a few more songs, gradually falling apart until I signaled for her to come back down. Like I said, I knew I would need an extra set of hands for Catherine! Not too bad for her first Primary Program! This was Seth's fourth Program and my sixth!

We headed right home after sacrament meeting to make sure sick little Aaron got a nap (and didn't share with his Nursery peers). Even though the fever was gone and he took a nap, it was still a rough afternoon. We did a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

Poor sweet guy. Luckily it only lasted a few days and no one else seemed to get it. 

School Halloween Party

Seth's school threw an evening ice-cream social/Halloween party that the kids insisted we needed to attend. Jon and I were so excited to spend the evening with a bunch of crazy, costumed kids carrying ice cream around. But we went, because we really do love our children.

Aaron was kind of, mostly okay with his costume.

For 30 minutes or so.

Seth wanted to be a robber because he wanted to have a gun.

But, of course, no weapons of any kind were allowed at the school (roll my eyes).

So he was a gun-less robber: 

("Robbers don't smile, Mom")

I thought we had every possibly princess outfit for Catherine to choose from for Halloween. I was wrong. Luckily Amazon had an acceptable Ariel costume (it had to have fins, not be a dress). She adored her red hair. Her only complaint was that she can't wear the costume in the bathtub.  

Sticks are acceptable substitute weapons: 

(side note: it is SO FUN to have a mantle to decorate!)

And, of course, my best picture was taken on my phone, not my good camera: 

Love these three!

(Aaron's curls...so much awesome).

Catherine at the Pumpkin Patch

Sometimes princesses get to do fun things like go to the pumpkin patch with their preschool classes. What makes it extra special is that brothers were not allowed to come, which meant Aaron & Mommy had to stay home. Catherine was thrilled to have a special date with Daddy. 

(Yes, we still insist on Rapunzel hair. Every day.)

(Which is how we end up with pictures like this)

Showing off the two apples she and Daddy picked

Many thanks to Jon for being an obedient husband and taking pictures with his phone.

Even if he waited two months to tell me he took them.

October Things

My three boys on a couch.

Who knew Ariel was so into baking?

Putting eyeballs on our monster cookies

Spending his day off school reading a book in his pajamas.

A boy after my own heart.

Quite thrilled with her sparkly Halloween dress from Grandma Cathy.

The Aaron Show

I often find that my phone is filled with pictures of Aaron. Not that I don't love the bigger ones, but between preschool and 2nd grade, Aaron & I get to spend a LOT of time together, just the two of us. Plus, he's darn cute. 

Like his siblings before him, Aaron is OBSESSED with the iPad. If he sees it, he throws a fit until I let him play. His favorite games involve cars, but he also enjoys some of Catherine's educational games. And don't worry--the iPad spends most of the day hidden safely out of sight of ALL children.

His other obsession is his cousin, Russell. They've only met once, but apparently Russell made a deep and lasting impression. Aaron spends his days watching videos of "Wuss-uhl" on my phone. He also assumes that anyone who knocks on the door is Russell coming to visit. Russell sent us an invitation to his first birthday party, which is still hanging on the fridge because Aaron LOVES to find Russell and talk to him. Texas is way too far away. :(

After the iPad, Aaron's favorite activity is "splash and splash". He asks to play in the tub several times a day and is quite upset when I don't let him. Did I mention that the temper tantrums have started? Shopping with Aaron just got SO much more fun...

This was right after Aaron's two-year checkup (and I totally forgot to get his stats from the doctor. Loser Mom). The tears aren't from the shots (although there were shots and tears). The tears are from falling out of the van and hitting his head on the asphalt parking lot as we were leaving. This kid...

I am in so much love with his red curls. Which is why I find it so hard to cut them off, even when we are clearly past the "cute mophead" phase. That curl in the middle of his forehead kept getting caught in his ridiculously long eye lashes.

I finally decided to at least trim the curl in the middle of the forehead. But, of course, while I was chopping the curl he jerked his head back. Now instead of a simple trim, he got an entire haircut. And I still miss the curls. 

Aaron also decided to wait until Jon went out of town before coming down with a nasty cold. We were both up several times a night. Thank heaven for medication and Vick's Vapor Rub! This picture was taken the day he decided he did NOT need a nap, despite having been up three times the night before. I needed a nap...

I love this little boy so much.