How to create Karl from Pixar's UP

Last night was the annual halloween party that we do with our friends every year.  Since we've all gotten married and have had kids it's now the halloween party 2.0 second generation.  This year there were only 3 families there since a few have moved away recently, but it was still fun to get together.  There were the becks: Kasey and Emily with their 2 sons: Jimmer (Thor) and Jeffrey (elmo), the Vaughns: Kyle and Becca with their 2 daughters: Ruby (tinkerbell) and Jane (cinderella), and us.

So I love Halloween-I know, no surprise here, but with a lil kid it's hard to figure what to do with them- either not care what they go as and find something free or the next best thing?  Find a costume whose parts you can reuse and get your money's worth out of.  Jake went as Karl from Pixar's UP.  I figure it's perfect for him cause he can be such a calm and somber child so he fits the look perfectly.

 After seeing how cute he was I kind of regretted not showing him off at our ward halloween party but oh well- it was fun to go to the Boise State game.  We got his cute cardigan online for 18-the most expensive part, but I figure he will wear it to church throughout the winter and it's ADORABLE ;).  He already had the white church shirt and pants, and the glasses, bowtie, and balloons were each a couple bucks.  I want to try and get some pics from the girls incase they got better than we did.

It was fun and Jake did great-he got over his initial shyness and walked around with the kids and played with all the toys.  He even got mad when it was time to go!  I think he will be ready for nursery when the time comes.  The older kids liked to jump up and hit the balloons which Jake didn't care about one bit.  I was proud.

I love Jeffrey's elmo costume-especially the pic where his head piece has slipped down so it really just looks like elmo is sitting there.

anywho, what you need:
First you just need a newly walking toddler- cause they walk like an old man. (check).  Next you need an old man looking outfit-muted colors: browns, blacks, whites and a bowtie:

(check)

Then you add oversized black-rimmed glasses.  These did NOT look this big online but what are you going to do?

(check)

As you can see, they did not stay on very long whenever they were on.  

Then you print out a pic of the house from Up and tape it to a balloon and tie the balloons around your lil one's waist and wahlah!

the balloons didn't really slow him down much-he seemed to forget that they were there.

Here's some group photos of the kids:

Jeffrey was not happy in his elmo suit :)

Jimmer/thor:

ruby/tinkerbell:

Jake liked the elmo suit :)

Thor and Tinkerbell sitting in a tree, h-u-g-g-i-n-g

love this one: hahaha

Jake was very interested in Baby Jane.

Again, I'll see if the other girls got any better pics/more straight on then to the side like ours.

I loved Jake in these pics tho-he totally looks like a baby version of Ralphie from a Christmas Story:

Happy Halloween!

Family

It's something that I've always known, that deep-down I'm sure everyone knows, but I love those moments when I re-realize how important family really is.  Not only how important they are, but how much I love/enjoy being with them.  This past weekend we had a fun surprise when eric and sarah's baby came a few weeks early.  We happened to be at a birthday party for my grandpa at the time so it was pretty fun/funny to be giving them the play by play on what was happening and seeing all their excitement.  I mean, you can't help it-when you hear a baby is coming-the reaction is just sheer joy.  No matter how great or bad your own family was, you just can't help but feel that excitement and that sense of importance-a new life coming into the world!

Steve and I went to visit them in the hospital.  I love, love, love the awe factor that a newborn baby brings.  Was Jake EVER this small and helpless??  I went home and looked at a bunch of pics and videos from when we first brought him home.

Introducing: Olivia Reagan Richards at 7 lbs 12 oz and 19.5 inches long.

steve stood in the corner content to look at her-according to him she was too fragile.  Can't wait to see his transition to fatherhood :)

They come home from the hospital today.  As much as I love newborns etc-I do NOT envy the transition that lays ahead of them.  Going from 0-1 kid is the WORST (and not cause of the kid-it's just so dang scary/stressful/you don't know what you're doing etc.  I figure any transition is better after that first one :)

After we got back from the hospital yesterday, we played cribbage and two rounds of monopoly-two because I knocked steve out of the game after like 20 minutes with the light blues and then the second time I beat them again with the cliche broadway/park place-not something I go after but it was all that was left  and ironically, since the other two had so many monopolies they couldn't afford  to put hotels on them.  Sometimes it pays to go small :)  

It was just so fun hanging out/talking/laughing.  I love hanging out with my family.  Then we watched the rifftracks of house on haunted hill (it's an old classic on hulu-highly recommend it for this week).

Tonight we're having a get together with some friends so I can finally dress Jake up in his halloween costume :)

Pumpkin carving

Well we noticed that one of our pumpkins was starting to already go bad just sitting out on our porch so we figured we might as well carve them and get some use out of them.   We'll see how long they last I guess, but they turned out pretty awesome.  We did 3 this year-2 from a booklet thing from walmart and 1 that we sorta did ourselves off of a printout.
Jake had a fun time watching us pant and sweat scrubbing out these gross pumpkins (I swear I don't remember it being that hard), and even managed to find some pumpkin seeds that he snuck in his mouth and chewed for who knows how long until I noticed and took it away-I know, mean mommy.

I made some pumpkin donuts for the evening which weren't bad

Code did the witch and the BYU pumpkin and I did the spooky one.  I figure it'll be good to have documentation that they existed since we're not sure if they'll make it to Halloween-we'll see!

I must say I'm pretty proud of our lil row of town-homes.  I'd say 50% of them are decorated all out and the others have something fallish at least on their porches so not bad.  I like being around festive fun people.

We've been walking by our new house everyday on our walks and I'm not seeing as much festive decor on that street, but I guess there are people out there who hate halloween (weirdos...) I guess Christmas will be the real measuring stick to see how festive our new street will be.

Yup, that's right.  We've told some people here and there but not officially announced it on here: we bought a house.  This past month.  We noticed it on our walks and suddenly there was a for sale sign.  I was instantly in love-mainly because of the backyard (it's fenced in but with gaps so you can still see in a bit).  They have a hot tub, covered patio with fans/light fixtures and a gas fire pit.  I just feel like it's actually a backyard that the kid(s) could enjoy AND the adults-which isn't always the case in my experience.  Plus it's RIGHT across the street from a huge open green field and playground (tho now that they're throwing in their cool playset we won't HAVE to go to the playground everyday ;)

We looked into other options too, cause we knew we'd want to get a house soon (we hate throwing money away every month on rent, and we feel like we'll be happy and in the area for the next 5 yrs +).  We looked at houses around here and up north a bit, and even played around with the idea of building a house on a lot that we found and liked in Springville.  But when it all shook out, we just felt right about this house and the estimate/loan etc just worked out perfectly.  Plus, they are building a house that won't be ready til the end of the year and our lease isn't up til the beginning of the year so it works out timing-wise.  They pay us rent and come christmas time they'll move out and we'll move in.  It's only like 3-4 blocks north of where we currently are so it should be an easy move-plus we'll have family in town for the holidays to help out.  We'll be in the same church building but different ward-that's the only sad part, but I like getting to know and make new friends so it'll be good and I guess it's not as sad as if we had been in the ward for years-if I have to move I'd rather move before I've formed deep friendships etc/easier this way, and i'm sure there will be people who never even knew we were in the ward haha.

Here's our house! (it's on a corner lot)

and here's the field area right across the street:

I'd put up more pics of the house but the app that had tons of photos of it up (zillow) has taken the photos down since it sold so more to look forward to.  Now get out there and enjoy you some Fall!