Nic this morning...

There will be a few posts today... 
First and foremost... Halloween pics from this morning.
Nic was allowed to dress up, but he had to be a character from a book. We took his black cape from Darth Vader and turned him into Dracula.

He even sparkled a little. :)

More to come.  Especially because today is Alex's 17th birthday!

You Twisted my Arm {More Halloween Printables]

I have another Halloween printable to add to the collection. This one is a favorite of mine. I love the poem! It really takes me back to all of the great Halloween books I read as a kid.

Little lesser-known fact, my husband('s family) does not celebrate Holidays. Whereas, my family does. I've always loved Halloween, but put it on the back-burner so not as to cause issues (big girl under-roos, compromise, whatever you want to call it).

Alex understood the rule. We celebrated Christmas, his birthday and 4th of July. He was a Halloween baby, but he knew we didn't really dress-up or go Trick or Treating.

Isabel semi-understood it, but she still wanted to dress-up in costumes (usually a princess and once Madonna). She pushed the limits a little.

Nic? Forgettaboutit. His FAVORITE store is the Spirit store. He doesn't understand that it's only in existence for 2 months out of each year. I am not even remotely stretching the truth when I say that we have to go look at the store, anytime we are in the area, EVEN WHILE IT'S AN EMPTY SHELL from December - August. Nic even made me take this pic to show his dad as if when we told him, he wouldn't believe us:

So, now with Nic totally into all things Grim Reaper, I am having a blast putting Halloween into our family routines and memories. We all know that my hot boyfriend has a hard time saying "no" to his third child. Que sera, sera. It also helps that we are now homeowners, it's FUN to decorate your own home. Here is my Halloween post from 2010 and from 2011.

But back to the free print...[the fun stuff!]

You can download a 5x7 below:

Speaking of Mustaches...

Oh, you don't remember us speaking about them?! Okay, I may have mentioned them briefly when I did the post on Nico's morning. 

Here's another Halloween printable for you. Go on. Love it. Pin it. Print it. =)
Who doesn't love polka dots, ghosts and staches?!

And maybe Pringles? He does kinda look like the guy on the can. Oh well... this is my little Halloween Costume Contest buddy! You can download him from here.

Something Wicked

In a Halloween kind of way. =)

I am trying so hard to hold back, slow down and enjoy September. But it's hard. Halloween is so much fun. I decided to start working on some Halloween printables to help fight the urge to decorate my house!

I will have at least a dozen to share over the next month or so; even some exciting news later in in Sept. But for now, to help YOU get in the mood, I have two free printables!!

You right click and save as OR download them below:

As I mentioned, I've got a ton of printables in the works, so please feel free to check out my Halloween Printables folder on Box throughout the next month or so for new {free} printables.

Halloween isn't just Halloween around here...

Today is Alex's birthday.
He's officially 16.
Can you believe it?!

I hardly can.

Yep. The only photo I got of him the entire day.
And I am pretty sure it was an accident that I even caught him on "film" at this particular moment.

Besides Alex's birthday, today was Halloween!!

Here's a sneak peak of my feature wall... decked out with candy and a skull.
It's changed a few times. Remember this?  And this?  I love what I came up with. It feels more ME!
I have a few more things to add, but there's no rush.

Here's a close up.
See on the left?! That's Nic from two years ago.
This year, he opted to be Buzz Lightyear. Again.
As in, I think he was Buzz Lightyear last year.

Here's our scary entryway, waiting for trick or treaters...

Here is the house, all spooky and ready to go.
I can't figure out where the sky went in this picture...
I swear it was there... I didn't photoshop it out.
Spooky.

Here is grandma and Abby... our official candy giver-outers. They did a great job!

What?!


What's that?!


You can't see grandma too well?!

Hold on.




Let me try something.


Just another second
{keep scrolling}
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There!!


How's this?!

Better?!

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween.

Our Great Pumpkin Adventure

I call it an adventure because I waited until the 11th hour to purchase our pumpkins.
As a result, both local stores (including Wal-Mart) were sold out.

So I took the girls and Nic on a late night adventure - and out in the middle of somewhere, we found a pumpkin patch.

With pumpkins.

So we brought them home and carved our hearts out.

Nic loves Picasa - and he made me do THIS to him.

Our First Annual Halloween Celebration

As a kid, I used to love Halloween.
The husband, not so much.
More often than not, the kids weren't dressed up, we didn't take them Trick-or-Treating, we didn't pass out candy. There's a valid reason, but it sucked just the same.

I found Alex to be the least interested as a kid.
Isabel was way more excited... and pushed the limits...
Nic? Has no idea that there's even a POSSIBILITY that people sometimes just don't celebrate  Halloween.
This kid was BORN for it. In fact, he's been planning his costume (changes) for weeks. He is adamant he shares his birthday with his big brother and the big H day. He has been shrieking "Happy Halloween" for months now... to anyone who will listen.

So, this being our FIRST Halloween in our new house, I wanted to make it special. Even if it did ruffle a few of the husband's feathers.   Thankfully, one Mr. Husband, is completely and totally smitten with one Mr. Nicolas.  =) Makes things a LOT easier. It's so hard to say "no" to Nic.

The kids and I spent all day decorating the pad. And I think we did a good job!  My parents arrived around 4:45, ready to help celebrate!  Mom got Nic dressed, I took Isa upstairs to get her all did up. Alex is too cool.

My dad took the kids down the street for a bit while we waited for the husband to come home from work. Once he arrived, just the five of us went off again, in search for scary houses and tons of candy!  My parents hung out at the house to hand out candy and hold down the fort!

I am truly blessed.

I know my husband isn't totally comfortable with holidays, but he was so great about us having our fun yesterday. And that we did. I didn't want the evening to end. We got to meet a lot of great neighbors, which was a true plus!

Here are a few pics:

At one point, Nic decided to add his Pirate hat and sword to his Buzz Lightyear costume. Unfortunately, I didn't get that on camera - but trust me, it was super cute.

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Halloween, yourselves!!

What do cookies and sunsets have in common?

Oooh! A riddle!

Orange you glad you stopped by today...? :)

The kids and I decided to make some Halloween cookies last night.  I need to put it out there first and foremost... I have never EVER made sugar cookies. Nope. Never.

And after last night, it may be a long while before I ever attempt to again. I think I am a chocolate-chip-cookie-maker type of gal.  I am sure the dough was not supposed to be falling apart as I rolled it to 1/8 of an inch.   After an agonizing 7 minutes, they were done. Thankfully, my taste-testers said they tasted ok.

Did you get that?  OK.  Not "great!" Not "These are the BOMB, mom!" Just ok. Lowercase oh. Lowercase kay. 

Wait, I just remembered, Nic did say they were the best cookies ever. Can I trust a three-year old and a smile?!  See for yourself...

I wanted to share this [below] with you. This is the view from my kitchen table each and every night. Aren't I a lucky gal?! 

Random... Or is it?

have a happy monday!