Because we were tiling our house, I didn't really get into my Halloween decorations. I was quite content with that until last night (the night before Halloween). Steve made me a light bulb connector for my big pumpkin because candles just don't do the job, and then I just felt like I needed something more. I didn't use even half of my stuff, but I did decorate my door a little and I had Steve hang a strobe light up above my door. My neighbors are probably going to be annoyed with that. Anyway, I usually do a huge spider web around and above the door, but it wasn't worth the time this year, being the night before Halloween. I must have a problem. I am not sure why I couldn't follow through with leaving it alone, but I was just compelled.

For Family Night last week, we let Brinton make a haunted castle. It was a pre-made kit that is just like a gingerbread house kit, but with a chocolate house cookie with Halloween decorating stuff. Earlier that afternoon, we were leaving his favorite friend and cousin,Jackson's,house. He didn't want to leave (when does he), so I told him we were going to have some "fun" when we got home. We broke out the kit and taught him how it was all edible and he loved it SO much. Of course he didn't want to stop eating it and got pretty messy. His face and hands got a little gross, so I had him scare me - that's the beautiful picture with black on his face and hands. He did a pretty good job. I took care of the frosting (not so wonderfully), but he put the candies all over and chose where he wanted the ghosts on the front.There have been quite a few times since then that he has asked if we will have "fun" when we get home. Apparently nothing else we do at home is fun and the new reference for the word fun is to make something you can get a sugar high on.

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Then, for Family Night this week, we carved pumpkins with my side of the family. My parents have a tradition to have all their kids and grandkids come over on the last Monday before Halloween to carve pumpkins. First we have a soup dinner. Whoever made the soups this time is pretty much awesome! (It was me, haha.) After we all eat, everyone picks their pumpkin. My Dad loves to garden, and grows more than enough pumpkins for all of us and our kids.I, of course, always claim one of the biggest ones. I am pretty sure no one minds, because they are a little tough to carve sometimes. It takes some leverage and a sheetrock saw in this case. This Family Night is something I look forward to every year, even though I end up carving all the pumpkins. Steve usually guts them all out for me because he doesn't like to carve for some odd reason. Give me a knife and I can get to work! I did one for me, Brinton, and Zander. In all honesty, I probably would have carved one on Steve's behalf, but there wasn't enough time.This year, Steve got Brinton to help gut his pumpkin. I had to take quite a few pictures because, as you can tell, he was REALLY disgusted. I was laughing so hard. If Zander could talk, I bet he would appreciate the "Z" I carved on the top of his pumpkin. Brinton wanted a cat, so that is what his pumpkin ended up being. It was fun for him to chose and be excited about it on the doorstep.

This weekend, we had some good Halloween Fun! On Friday, we had the Ward Halloween Party (for some reason, I want to call it the Christmas Party - I guess I am just excited for Christmas). Anyway, we all dressed up and got there late, oops. We didn't really have a theme, which I usually try to. This year, it's kind of random.Steve is a pharaoh, I am a geisha, Brinton is a knight, and Zander is a bat. I was surprised at how many people were at the party. The cultural center was jam-packed. They had a chili cook-off with over 20 different kinds of chili to vote for. I never knew there could be so many different kinds of chili.

Brinton had fun with his friend, Thayne, and then after the dinner, they had a little "cat walk" for the kids to show off their costumes. Isn't Brinton cute?

After that was all over, we met in the parking lot for the trunk-or-treat. It was adorable to hear Brinton go around saying, "trick a trick." Pretty good for just working on it that night :) He of course liked eating the candy even more than walking around, so he parked in the back of the car for the last part of the night and went through his goodies.

On Saturday, Steve and I went on a date with some of his friends from way back when. I had a babysitter for BOTH of my kids (for the first time, so that was fun.) I brought my camera but felt a little silly to want to take pictures, so we just didn't. We went to Teppanyaki Japanese Steakhouse for delicious eats and some entertainment. It is one of my favorite restaurants and we had an awesome chef this time. After that, we drove up to Salt Lake to go the the Castle of Chaos (haunted house). By the way, it was LAME! I have never been easily scared, so I wasn't expecting much. It was even worse than I thought it would be. Oh well, that's what happens sometimes. It was really nice to just get out with Steve and do something though. And, we tried to be in the spirit of Halloween.

This past week, Steve and I have been tiling our floors like crazy people (more on that later). Anyway, we were going to do our laundry room and we found a little surprise when we pulled out our washer and dryer. Mold! So the sewer line was apparently not tight enough and some water leaked a while back. I know, that's gross. My brother informed me that it is really about 90% dishwater and shower water, and only 10% toilet water. That 10% is enough for me to think it's disgusting. Well, Steve cut out a section of our wall where the mold was and we bleached it off the concrete (it got under the linoleum). In an attempt to move forward with our tiling, we needed to have that repaired. Steve got some supplies from my Dad who seems to always have everything we need (ThAnKS) . . . including sheetrock. Steve patched it all up and we were on our way. As we were looking at the tile in the bathroom, we hear Brinton really excited about something. Steve sees him just a little bit messy. By a little bit, I mean a lot.

He had played in the drywall mud that was on the wall. He pulled off the tape where you make a seam from the old sheetrock and the new sheet rock joint and went to town in there. Normally, there wouldn't be so much mud, because you can usually just put it over the tape. However, the sheetrock we were using was thinner than the sheetrock originally there, so Steve had to cover all of it with mud to fill it to the same thickness. (Maybe we should have just gone to Home Depot to get the right stuff?) The first thing Steve tells me is to get the camera, so I did. Our curious little artist was using a new medium (drywall mud) and new tools (feet and hands) to make his masterpiece. Good thing we love him and I must say I am surprised that neither Steve or I even got a tiny bit mad about it, even though we were cleaning footprints off our newly laid tile and screws that were scattered all over the room. Just a minor setback to our tile, I guess.

On Friday of last week, we went with my sister-in-law to get our family pictures taken. It was so so so so so so so (do you get it?) cold. Anyway, I was really worried that none of them would turn out because we were just rushing to get it over with and I had Zander wrapped in a blanket pretty much the whole time. Well, I'm happy to say, that they turned out great. You can see them through her blog. I had a girl in my ward make my boys some hats to match the outfits and they turned out really cute. I was so glad I had them because I think their heads may have frozen right off. I am sure I will have some of them on my blog in the near future, but in the meantime . . .

Every conference weekend, during the priesthood session we have a fun tradition. All the girls in my family go to my parents house while the boys go to the session with my dad. We try to do something productive, usually. This time, I started painting halloween decorations that I bought like two years ago. Anyway, after the guys get back, we all have banana splits and just visit. It is so fun and I always look forward to it. Thanks, Mom, for always letting us come trash your house (and then clean it up as good as we can before we leave). What traditions do you have that you look forward to?

Okay, this really isn't about how we love bedtime. I do though. I wish I could sleep all day sometimes and Brinton is usually really good about it (he even asks to go to bed a lot). Brinton's little imagination is growing and it is so cute. He has liked to put his stuffed bear to bed lately, which is adorable to me. He lays the bear on his pillow and puts his blanket on top. Then he says, "Nye night, bear," and leaves the room closing the door behind him. Well, just the other day, he was putting his "guy" to bed. He has some little people that came with his Geo Tracks train set that he got for his birthday. The people are about two inches tall and he calls them his "guys." It was so hilarious to see him putting this tiny little thing under a blanket on his pillow and then telling him he loves him and good night. I had to take a couple pictures :)