.festivities, candy, and long walks.

Fall is drawing to it's close, but we have thoroughly enjoyed the last golden weeks of autumn.  October was packed from beginning to end with get togethers, party's, and of course costumes and candy.  My family always throws a Halloween party for all the siblings and the kids.  Finn could talk about nothing else, but the party for days leading up to it.  He was seriously so stoked!  Meg loved her fluffy dress, but was terribly unhappy about the other costumes...especially some of the scary boy cousins.  She was content just to sit on grandma's lap and snuggle.  Finn ran through the spook alley and had his witches brew.  There were LOTS of treats and of course some great dancing.  Then we finished it all of with an outside viewing of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  It was such a fun night watching Finn just loving all of it.

 Eisley was my prop this year

 Don't let Finn's face fool you...he loved every second of the party.  Meg on the other hand pretty much had the stink eye on the whole night.

Meg finally let her guard down to dance.  Here she is shaking it up with Uncle Bruce.

The month continued on with a preschool party, a scary movie night with old friends, and of course pumpkin carving.  I must confess, I was a bit nervous about doing it with three littles, but it went pretty smooth.  Finn had some great ideas for his pumpkin, and meg just colored contentedly on hers.

 That is one VERY HAPPY boy showing off the pumpkin family.

Finally the awaited day arrived...Halloween.  We opted for an early start in order to get the kids home and put to bed at a decent hour.  Finn made the rounds around the block shouting out trick-or-treat.  The only issue I had with the kid is that he kept telling the neighbors, "I don't like chocolate" if they gave him any.  We told him to just take it and say thank you and just take what was given you.  Here's hoping those manners stick for next year.

 With all the craziness of all the festivities.  Meg just couldn't make it to nap time one day.

She's is very much my handful right now, but she is super cure...especially sleeping.
The Sunday after Halloween also happen to coincide with Daylight savings.  Which I think only makes sense if you don't have young children or electricity.  I had high hopes with that added hour of prep time before church, but it all came crashing down as we sat down in the chapel. Finn and Meg were both in fine form, screaming and crying about such things like banana stickers, and not getting the right sacrament cup.  I came to a quick realization that it just wasn't going to work for us that day.  So I marched the kids home directly after.  My emotions were flashing between wanting to punch something  and crying.  It was just a morning where I felt like I couldn't do it anymore.  ALL three of the kids slept for 4 hours...what?!?!? And then we tried again with better success.  I decided that we needed to get out of the house and reconnect and run off some sugar.  We headed up to the Bonneville Shoreline for a long walk.  Being in the mountains always seems to help me center myself.  It turned out to be just what we needed.

 I always feel like Eisley gets left out of family adventure photos because she's always attached to the photographer.  So I made sure to capture her.  I like how's she's giving me a suspicious look.

 Crossing over the little bridge on the trail...Finn is waving hi.

Seriously...so beautiful!  Fall is so magical in the mountains.