Trick or Treat...Yeehaw...Choo...Moo...

Once again, Uncle Windell outfitted the kids for Halloween. Anna requested Jessie (from Toy Story). While we were shopping before Windell left, Jacob got to pick what he wanted from Toys-R-Us. I tried talking him into being Woody but once he saw Thomas, there was no changing his mind--until Anna's costume got her and he said "Where's my other costume? I wanna be Woody!"! Isaac didn't get a choice :)

 Anna had to get Graci dressed up, too! She even took her trick or treating with us. A couple weeks ago, she was talking about wanting an Itty Bitty Baby (the American Girl baby doll). I had told her before she got Graci that maybe she should get the baby instead, since she loves to play with her baby dolls. She hasn't really played very much with Graci since she got her (which I pointed out to her). She said "Well, I don't really know how to play with her. What am I supposed to do with her?" So I told her how to play with Graci (she does whatever you do) and now she's been playing with her.

Thomas and Jessie :) And yes, it was warm enough for Jacob to be wearing flip flops!!

 Cheese!

 Anna was pretty excited that I gave her freckles, just like Jessie!

 Isaac was THE CUTEST little cow ever! :) I was surprised that he didn't hate the costume. He didn't even mind the hat. He just didn't want to stand there and pose for pictures!

 The ladies at Aaron's office spoil these kids every day (they ask the kids to come visit every day)! They're so sweet and the kids love them. I appreciate that they have crackers as well as candy :)

CUTE! We would be disowned if we didn't stop by the admissions office...

 Having a snack while we waited for Addie.

 What to eat, what to eat??

Always time to pose for Mama :)

Pumpkins and Fairies

The kids were excited about their costumes Uncle Windell sent! Especially Anna (what little girl wouldn't be excited about this costume?!)

I thought it looked like a butterfly, but she insisted it was a fairy (like Tinkerbell). Either way, she was way cute! :)

Binga found her a pair of sparkly shoes to wear, but she hurt her toe earlier in the day and she refused to put shoes on. So she wore flip flops. And she loves having her hair curled and fixed. She's so patient to stand and wait while I fix it. She even asked if I could fix it like that the next day for school! I think I'm glad I've only got one girl...!

When the costumes came, Jacob wanted nothing to do with his. He liked Anna's, but didn't want to even try his on. Then the next day, I couldn't get him to take it off! But of course, wouldn't you know that come Sunday evening when it was time to trick or treat, he screamed his head off!!!

As soon as we got outside, he was just fine and happily went along.

The only problem after that was the first house we went to were good friends of ours, so we went inside. Then every house after that, Jacob thought we needed to go inside (he actually snuck inside one!!!). And he thought he needed to eat a piece of candy between every house! The weather was pretty nice...once the sun started setting it got pretty cold. But we all had fun (okay, I was quite worn out by the time we finally made it back home!). Several people said I should have painted my belly like a basketball & Aaron dress as a player...too much effort!!! :) The kids are now loaded with candy. Which is very much out of reach, seeing how the other morning I got out of the shower and found Jacob had eaten 2 Reece's!!

Pumpkins and Costumes!

We finally carved our pumpkins (the two that hadn't rotted...whoops) and Uncle Windell sent us costumes again! We're in Iowa this weekend, so we went to my parents' church fall party. It was a lot of fun with all sorts of games and candy! I told Mom I'm not sure which one was more tiring...getting them in and out of the car or chasing Jacob all over the church! I think the latter!!! :) They both had a lot of fun.

Anna said she wanted to be Mary...

and she had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow...

and everywhere that Mary went, her lamb was hollering so!
(as you can see, he didn't like it at first. thus I have no picture of them together. you're lucky I even got a picture of him at all! first he screamed and then at church he didn't stand still for 2 seconds!)

But once we got to the church and Jacob realized that there were games to play and candy to get, he was all about being a lamb!

This was Jacob's favorite game..because he got to open and shut doors!! He especially thought it was fun to peek in and see Pastor back there! :)

Anna was a little leary at first...she's used to Papa scaring her all the time! ;)

Anna and Gloria (Mia, Gloria was very happy to have heard from you yesterday!)

Anna was a pro at the throwing games! Daddy, you should be proud!!

You know why Jim is laughing back there? After Jacob played the game, Jim held up 2 candies for Jacob to pick from. Jacob grabbed both & shoved them in his bag!!

Feeding the shark! :)

Hoop a Pumpkin.

This was Jacob's second favorite game...rolling golf balls up the ramp and trying to get them in the holes. Of course, Jacob didn't get any in the holes, but he loved rolling them up the ramp!

CANDY!!

Anna played the guessing game and guessed 500 candy corn in a little jar (I don't think she won!)

You're supposed to pick a duck, look at the number on the bottom and get a prize. Jacob just wanted to play with the ducks in the water! :)

Oooohhhh, but then he got his own duck!

Feed the elephant! Anna did good at this one, too.

Who knows. He was probably yelling about more candy, more balls, more games!!!

Oh my. You see that look? THAT'S why I was tired when we left!!!

Anna got a butterfly painted on her face!! She loved it and we had to be very careful not to wash it off that night!

Carving pumpkins...See my seed Daddy?

Such a sweetie pie.

Since the pumpkins were a bit old, most of the slime was dried up. Anna jumped right in, but Jacob didn't want much to do with it.

He'd rather dig in the dirt and smear it all over his face!

Ornery!!!!!

Poodle skirt & light sabers and special friends

Uncle Windell sent us our costumes again this year (he's been our "supplier" since Anna's 1st Halloween). Anna was VERY excited about hers. Jacob didn't really know what was going on, but he wasn't havin' the hat! They were super cute and Anna had fun. We only go to a few houses, and of course the college. The funniest thing of the night was when we were at a friend's house and Jacob was squirming to get out of my arms. I finally let him get down and he headed straight for the coffee table (he likes to sweep everything off tables he can reach). So I went for him. My friend said "Oh he can't hurt anything." Anna says "You never can tell!" HA!!!

Mr. Vader (Darth Vader from Star Wars....not as scary as it could have been!) And this is the only picture I got with the hat on.

The 50s girl! (or pities guhl, as Anna said)

She was soooo good to stand still and let me fix her hair like this. Her hair is so smooth that it's not quick to pull it all back, and she usually wears it parted down the middle, so it's not easy to pull straight back either! She didn't even mind letting me curl it. I had fun:)

I didn't remember to get a treat bag, so she just used this one Aaron got from his half-marathon. It was HUGE, but oh well. As people said--that makes it all the longer before you have to go home with a full bag! ha

He only had one piece of candy, I promise! :) He was intent on watching Dora tonight. It was hilarious. He was totally chilled out in the recliner.

Earlier today, Kim's kids came over to play for a bit. They had so much fun! It got confusing more than once because their names just so happen to be Jake and Anna, too!!! So I had to use middle names! It wasn't too bad with the boys, b/c we usually call ours Jacob and hers is always Jake, but the Anna's...well, there was no way around that! So middle names it was. But it was still confusing! It's very funny. And they're very close in ages. Anna & Jake are about 5 months apart, and Anna and Jacob are only a couple months apart. Anyway, they went outside to play and decided to clean up the leaves! No prompting from me, I promise.

The other Anna stepped back to survey the work...

Aren't they cute? Jake and my Anna (Jake calls her Anna 2-A--it's so funny!) are such little buddies. I told Anna yesterday that they were coming over to play today and the first thing she does this morning is open the front door..."to see if Jake is here!!". And Kim said Jake was waiting on their porch for a long time this morning for us to come! :)

So it's been a busy, but fun day! And Daddy had to work really late tonight, so he missed out on the treating. :(