countdown to candy!

This year for Halloween

 he says he doesn't want to trick or treat

anymore

and I'm just a little sad

he changes his mind

and

we encounter a true zombie

{I know it's a little gross, but he loves all things Zombie, right now
 and HE loves how he can really look like one}

...

Things are in full swing

and I am happy and excited

First we stop by to see our wonderful neighbors

Ray and Paulette

{who love Sam to pieces}

look at Ray pretending to be a zombie

cute.cute.

Then we head on over to my sisters

for our traditional Halloween night out!

She has all the fixings for chili and potato soup

to fill our bellies before heading out on a cool night

Brad gets all the kids faces/makeup ready

Not the cute.sweet.costumes. 

they wore when they were young

but I'm okay with all the blood and gore

they loved it


After the traditional trick or treat route ...

{minus Logan & Dalton, they were out with friends}

where we get to see some of our old friends

that we usually only get to see on this one night

every year

... we headed home to 

count/dump/trade their loot

Everyone had a  fangtastic time

I love this Halloween tradition

I love that our entire family comes together, to see the boys

I love how all the adults walk together, while the boys run from house to house

I love

every.single.bit.

I am so not ready for this trick or treating tradition to come to an end

Carving out Memories

We decided to try patterns

for the first time ever

We always see all of these elaborate pumpkin carvings

on our friends and families pumpkins

but we have never tried it

We have just stuck to the traditional 

homemade jack o' lantern face

until now

...

Kevin seemed almost as excited as Sam 

to get to business

he even brought his own power tools

I think they turned out pretty great
for our first time


Can you see our 


haunted house, 
evil pumpkin faces 
and Dracula


We were pretty proud of ourselves
not as hard as I expected

Still good for something ...

Metro North Mall

is definitely 
still good for something

Parkour ...

of course

For the Love of Music

Sam is learning the trombone this year

in school

It will really be his first time 'learning'

an instrument by a teacher

other than his dad

{he took about 4 drum lessons and quit}

I think he didn't like the structure of the lesson

he needs to hear the music and play 

what he wants

on his own

but I think this should be different

he chose this class in school

he knows that he has to stick it out

I'm really excited to see how it goes

Here is his first mini concert

I drew a little circle around him

so that you could see where he was

He is practicing at home

and seems to be loving it

Yay!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

I love fall!

it is seriously my favorite time of the year

Every year, we kick off fall with our annual trip to

Omaha to spend with family at

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

This is no ordinary pumpkin patch
we have our own campsite and bon fire with hayrides,
corn mazes, apple chunkin, petting zoo, paint ball,
 haunted trail and graveyard, pig races, corn sand box
bouncy jump pillows, live shows and shopping
and so much more ...

sam/paul/brittley/trev/cole/brailey/bradly

of course there has to be parkour 

Isn't this pumpkin tree cool!

the only way to relax, after a busy day ...

Every year we look forward to the pumpkin patch in Omaha

It's only a three hour drive and always worth it!