Halloween and my ever-growing monkey

I hate scary things. I don't go to haunted houses or watch creepy movies.

 But for some reason, I love Halloween. Mostly the watered-down kid version of the holiday, but that's OK with me.

Halloween this year was a blast! I had so much fun, in fact, that I failed to take enough pictures. 

It didn't help that I had a tiny baby to tend to.

This is my costume crew:

Indiana Jones (with a shaved face!), Cosmo the BYU cougar, a Minion, and a Fox

And some of our house decorations:

We also hosted a Spooky Dinner for Grandma and Grandpa. We ate Dragon's Delight and Frankenstein's fingers. Topped off with Spiders and swamp water. We also forgot to take any pictures! We were having too much fun eating. 

I hope to make this a Halloween Tradition, so next year you'll see the awesomeness! (?)

 There was also a birthday. 

This kid is now 5. 

FIVE.

what?

 He wanted a Transformer cake just like the one he saw on a Target Ad. He even plopped his own toys onto the freshly frosted cake before I could even ponder how to clean a year's worth of 'play' off them before touching actual food. Oh well.... I let him eat those pieces.

 He could not (and has not yet) put down the new toys. Thank you family!!

He is such a delightful part of our family. I can't quite believe he is 5 already. Where did my baby go?
He is hilarious. He is friendly and spunky and EVERYONE loves him. I am often introduced as Pencil's mom at church. Kids in Grape's class at school pause to wave and say Hi when they see him.

He is a HUGE fan of Lego-Anything. Specifically Mixels and Star Wars (this week)
He eats sandwiches often, and sometimes he even eats the bread.
He can brush his own teeth (or so he insists) and he's discovered he likes showers (and shaking off like a dog afterwards)
He's decided Feta isn't so bad and he even held her the other day.
He pays for things with kisses and loves to jump on the trampoline (clothing optional-- by which I mean PJ's or unders or whatever... never naked.... yet...)
He chose his own words for his part of the Primary Program. He talked about Heavenly Father having a body with arms and legs and beards just like us.

This is from this morning-- he's ready for the day!  He gets himself dressed (and usually he even matches) and he LOVES pre-school. He even insists on jumping out of the car and running to the door without an escort. He dashes in, backpack on his back, and greets his friends with nary a look back. (never a look back! These independent kids are a pain that way)

 He also helped make his bed this morning- and he had to include Teddy. Teddy is his new sleep-time pal, and I love it, because Teddy was mine all those years ago. I introduced them a few nights back when Pencil had a bad dream. I explained that Teddy had been my dream keeper when I was little and now he could be a dream keeper for my sweet boy. I also explained that Teddy had been a gift from my dad when I was a brand-new baby.

He also had to keep his birthday note from Aunt Kelsey under his pillow. 

Cute boy!

To wrap up this here-and-there post, I'll just say that life is SO good. That's not to say easy or  perfect. That would be very false. But it is good. And I, for one, am thankful.

AND- just so we don't forget

Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate Halloween with us. (it's the third year for Grandpa and the second for Grandma... another tradition??)  We loved having them here.

This is them with 4 of their 5 (nearly 6!!) grand-kids.

And because I thought this was just too cute:

 ok- The End