It's make your mamas proud time!

I kind of like Halloween. I don't like carving pumpkins. So when Shawn & Annie's family offered to host a Family Home Evening and carve pumpkins all together, I was all for it - knowing that I wouldn't have to do much. I think Brandon was relieved to miss it as well. (He's working 4 days a week, 10 hours a day if I've forgotten to mention it. He leaves at 7:00 AM and returns at 7:00 PM Monday - Thursday. The days get long, but when Friday rolls around it all seems worth it. For the most part.)

 

Dr. Richards and Dr. Richards put their surgery skills to the test (with the aid of a drill - genius!) and sculpted the most precise jack-o-lantern features you ever did see.

Being Mason's first Halloween (he missed it last year by hours) he thought the whole pumpkin thing was pretty cool.

 Until he found out it had a face. Game over.

Annie came up with the idea for Teagan's darling kitty face and it was perfect for her. Mason, when you're looking back on this photo and wonder about your pumpkin - it was a gift from one of Brandon's patients and I didn't want it was too sentimental to carve.

Not sure how many years we have left to make family Halloween costumes work, so we wanted to make it work while we still can. I give you, the Wreck-It Richards.

For fear of someone reading my family yearbook in the future when movies like Wreck-It Ralph are "classics" or completely forgotten (but let's face it - Disney will be around until the end of time) I wanted to give you a little bit of reference for our costumes.

I think we did pretty well. But you have to have seen the movie for our costumes to make any sense, and I thought that since it came out in 2012, that wouldn't be a problem. But I was surprised at people's reactions at the Ward Trunk or Treat on the 30th. Only a few had seen the movie. The fact that Brandon only made it for the last 15 minutes didn't help our cause. In hindsight, I looked like a weirdo, but it is what it is. We owned it regardless.

I grabbed a $5 witch's wig from Wal-Mart, dollar store stickers and hair clips, a hoodie we happened to get on clearance months ago without having thought about costumes, a tutu she had in her closet (or is it repertoire?) and the perfect leggings from Grandma to complete the ensemble. I didn't know how the wig was going to go over - the girl won't wear anything at my request, so I made sure to have her help me in hopes she might feel some ownership. And she owned it. Wore it the better part of the day. She was perfect.

Fix-It Felix Jr. JR. came together nicely. A hat from a cousin, clothes he already owned, a darling pair of boots from Wal-Mart that he can use when he actually begins to walk, a Batman belt and hammer borrowed from cousins and some cutting and pasting of the Fix-It Felix logo and he looked the part.

We hit the ward's Trunk or Treat on Thursday night and hit the pavement with Shawn and two of Teagan's cousins on Friday night for a little while. Despite Trick or Treaters showing up at our house around 4:00 in the afternoon - really? - we didn't leave until it was dark. Mason was stuck in the stroller and couldn't have cared less about the whole ordeal, so once we got up the hill to Annie's house, he and I called it a night (this little man has gotten me out of Trick or Treating early two years in a row - thanks, Faced!) while Brandon and Teagan pushed on to the mansion up the hill with "the other Richards". They were rewarded with a full sized bag of Skittles and ended up home not long after Felix and I. I guess Ralph didn't want to go pee pee in his big boy slacks.