Our Happy Halloween

We did something completely different than we have in the past for Halloween this year.   We traveled to see my family in Oklahoma, which allowed all of the Oklahoma cousins to trick-or-treat together.

While we were there, we also had a combined birthday party for Luke, and his cousins Brody (7) and Traber (also 4).   Lastly, we topped off our trip with a super-fun Halloween Party at my aunt and uncle's house.

Cousins...before trick-or-treating together

They had a blast together--and, as you can see, practically ran from door to door.

It was pretty funny to see the difference in all of them trick-or-treating together, versus separately as in previous years.  All of my siblings and I discussed that in previous years, with our own individual families, the kids walked (or rode in a wagon) from house to house and somewhat leisurely migrated from house to house.  But, that was definitely not the case this year.  What I noticed was that at each house, the four first-born kids arrived first, competitively trying to see who would arrive first and get to ring the doorbell or knock on the door.  In fact, I heard from one of them, who was dragged down a bit by his costume, exclaim several times, "I want to ring the doorbell!"  The second-borns were definitely more laid back about all of that.  It's funny to see the differences already at these young ages.

Kaylee--dressed as the Little Mermaid, Ariel.

Kaylee's Big Brother, Brody.  Seen here as Si--from Duck Dynasty, complete with huge tea container to hold trick-or-treating candy.

Raiding a house...I mean, trick-or-treating.

Lilly--sunshine.  It was cute--at every house she told the person who gave her candy that she was giving them a sunburn.   Several weeks ago she told my sister, Holly, that she wanted to be a sunshine for Halloween.  So, my sister and her husband made her costume.  I thought it was cute.  You can see Traber in the back--he is a tornado, which my brother and his wife made also.

It was so much fun to watch Abbey go door to door (although much more slowly than the other cousins) to trick or treat.  Our little strawberry really enjoyed it.

We decided to go to the trunk-or-treat at my parents' church afterwards.   Luke loved it.  Abbey did too, but by this point she was a bit tired.

At this point, she was content to hold a wrapped piece of chocolate and sit in her stroller.

Luke enjoyed the pony rides.

On Friday and Saturday, we had the other two parties scheduled, but we also made sure just to enjoy some quality time together.  I really miss my family.  It is tough to be this far away, especially after the past year, but I am glad the we can take a few trips like this every year to visit.

Grandpa taught the kids about metal detectors.

Exploring!

The fall colors were gorgeous there and the weather was perfect.   Needless to say, we spent most of our time outdoors while we were there.

The Halloween party at my aunt and uncle's house was Saturday night.  We managed to take a self-timer group photo before we headed to those festivities.

From left to right: Bull-riding cowboy and his cowgirl, Duck Dynasty family, bumblebee, Pete the Cat and his girlfriend, white cat, strawberry, a couple of walkers (zombies), secret agent and white tiger.  Seated are a little cowgirl, little mermaid, sunshine, T-rex and an OU fan.

My dad stayed in character from the moment he put on his costume.  It was hilarious--he had ALL of us laughing.

My zombie parents.

So now we are back home and back into our new routines.  Now that things are beginning to become routine, I should be able to pick back up on blogging more frequently.  I thought about starting a couple of regular posts with recipes/nutrition information and one on what God is teaching me that week.  If nothing else, it will help me keep all of my favorite recipes in one place.  And, blogging about what God is teaching me will really help keep me accountable to discerning regularly what he is communicating to me through his word, in prayer, and in circumstances/experiences.