family sandwich: Batman, Belle and their Guardian Angel...oh and a crazy castaway and his friend Wilson

This year the kids really didn't have a hard time deciding what costume they were going to wear for Halloween. Avery knew right off the bat that she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I had already found this cute Belle dress at Savers last year 75% off on the costume rack. She already had the princess shoes and all we had to do was get some gloves and then she wanted her hair a very specific way which I did my best to achieve. With her dark brown hair I thought she made such a cute Belle. Emma kept saying, "Avery, you're beautiful! Mom look at Avery!" Her missing two front teeth make me smile, I am starting to wonder if they are ever going to come in.

I had a hard time deciding what to make Emma. I thought about a pumpkin or ghost tutu costume but then saw a picture of a little angel costume with feather wings and decided that was the way to go. No stores had any feather wings for her little size and online they cost a fortune so I headed to Savers and bought some white fairy wings. I safety pinned a white feather boa to each wing and they turned out fluffy and adorable and cost next to nothing. I did realize though as I was taking her picture that all three of her costumes have had wings. First year she was a baby owl, second a peacock and now an angel ;)

She looked so cute and loved wearing her wings and halo. She kept wanting to wear them before Halloween and I would only let her for a little while because of it being white I was worried she would get it all dirty. Now to her delight that Halloween is over she gets to have it for a dress up and she is very excited about that.

Hunter who is always in character once the costume is on made an awesome Batman. Originally he had wanted to be a zombie but once I said no fake blood he was bummed and then considered being a swamp creature which I was fine with but was more excited when he chose to be Batman instead. I know I know I am ridiculous but I just don't like fake blood or scary masks he is only nine for crying out loud. Deke and I cracked up that he specifically asked to get the one with the muscle chest though. Muscle chest fine okay I can get on board with that but gross zombie with fake blood, nope...sorry dude. Please tell me you can't look at this picture and not smile at his facial expression. I pretty much think you are awesome kid.

A smiling picture only on mom's request and so the rippling muscles could be shown :) :) By the way keep an eye out on Hunter's expressions in most of his pictures. Hilarious. He definitely was going for the serious superhero look.

All three of them looked soooooooo flippin cute in their costumes. I love Halloween!!!

I hate being bahumbug and not dressing up and I have this fun pregnant belly to work with so last minute we decided to come up with something. I looked online and saw mostly painted bellies which wasn't going to work. A million jack o lanterns, skeletons with baby skeleton shirts and different renditions of bun in the oven. Then I saw a couple that had gone as Tom Hanks in Castaway and the pregnant wife had gone as Wilson the volleyball in the movie. I thought it looked cute and was something we could round up easy the night before. So I took a white shirt and had Deke draw a volleyball on it and put Wilson on the front of it. I thought he did a great job, I cracked me up and my belly is just round enough to make a great volleyball.

We headed over to the church for the trunk or treat.....

Hunter hurried off to join his friends from scouts in playing some of the games and Deke and I started wandering through the different games and activities with the girls.

Ave mastered a coin toss came where you had to toss the penny onto a paper pumpkin...

Emma preferred a ring toss game with rope circles tossed onto pegs....

I looking obviously chubby and very overtired walked and did a few things and then would find the closest place to sit down and rest for a minute. He is not even here yet and I already am not sleeping good at night. I am a little worried about the transition because I have never felt so sleep deprived before the baby even got here.

Daddy and Avery....Avery loved the fact that Deke wore a wig she kept telling him how awesome he looked.

It was really fun because everyone kept coming up to Deke and I and telling us that our costumes were great. People kept walking by me and yelling, "Wilson!!" cracking up and saying that my costume was awesome. After the girls had played every game at least twice we headed to find a table and devoured some yummy hot dogs, cornbread and chili.

Played, ate, danced until it got dark and then started going trunk to trunk trick or treating for candy. Emma was a little scared once it got dark. She really did not like the adults being dressed up. She was okay with the kids being in costume but was really afraid of any adult that was dressed up. She was scared of a guy in our ward that was dressed as Capt. Hook, when he would walk by she would hide behind me and hold onto my legs. After a few cars she had the hang of it and would walk right up say trick or treat and hold up her pumpkin.

After walking all the cars the girls plopped down on the cool chest and started investigating their loot. Talking about their favorites and which ones they were going to trade each other.