Happy Halloween!

Have I ever mentioned on here that I love Halloween? If not, let me tell you now, I love Halloween! I don't care how it started or what it might mean to some people, for me it's all about costumes, candy and fun. For the past few years we have allowed the kids to select our costumes. I say kids, but Sarah has selected them the past three years. This year it was Stevens turn. He was leaning towards Star Wars for a while and then he decided we would be ninjas. (his new future profession)

Before the big day we had to prepare. Sarah announced that we were in competition with our neighbors to have the best decorations. Think "Christmas Vacation" Halloween style. I couldn't keep up with her demands, but we had fun decorating. Next up were the pumpkins. The base had a pumpkin carving contest, so we created a "vampire pumpkin" that had eaten a couple smaller pumpkins.

Here are Mike and the kids carving...

Adam had fun painting himself, I mean the pumpkin, and then "carving" it.

Here is the finished product. We won "best family pumpkin".

Against all odds, we also managed to carve our "big Max". Had I made the hole on top bigger Adam could have sat down, which would have made for a cute picture. He didn't even want to stand in it though. 

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we had our ward (congregation) fall festival. Good food, friends and fun games.

Another child, another penny.

Do any of you remember when Sarah swallowed a penny? That wonderful picture of it lodged in her throat? The multiple trips to the Dr. and eventual trip to the hospital are fresh in my mind. I thought those days were behind me. Guess the weren't!

A few weeks ago I was doing laundry when I heard Adam say, "Look mom, a penny" followed by a few coughs and swallowing. Great! I asked him where the penny was and he said, " I don't know". When I asked if he swallowed it he said yes. Since Sarah's got stuck in her throat I didn't want to take any chances. Thankfully he happened to have his 2 yr check up that same morning (I was a LITTLE late making the appointment) so we were already headed to the Doctor.

They sent us over to radiology nearby and sure enough, there's the penny.

They said to wait and see if it passed. Adam has been using the big boy potty, so we can't be sure that it passed, but I don't think it's in there anymore. I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but it's almost humorous when knowing my children that Steven is the only one that hasn't swallowed a penny. I guess he learned from his sisters mistake.

Hopefully this is the last penny x-ray you'll see on here. :)