Halloween 2008

To be honest, Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday. I do think it's cute to see little kids dressed up in their costumes and being so excited to get all that candy. But skeletons, witches, spiders, carving pumpkins and walking around for hours out in the cold getting way too much candy just aren't my favorite things. Saying all that, we are pretty proud of ourselves that we put on the smile and carve pumpkins, dress up our kids and even put up one or two decorations around the house.

Nelson Family Tradition says that on the Monday before Halloween we carve our jack-o-lanterns for FHE. This year was no exception. The good news is that most of our children can actually carve their own pumpkins now! And the big ones can help the little ones too! They all had a lot of fun--as you can see!




Craig even got into it (I thought it was great since I know it's not his favorite thing) and helped Carly carve her pumpkin. He had fun grossing everyone out with waving the pumpkin guts around in our faces.


On Wednesday before Halloween we had a Stake Youth "Harvest" Dance. This was Brad's first dance ever and his sisters did a good job getting him ready. They gave him dancing lessons in the kitchen, including teaching him how to escort the girl on and off the dance floor and giving him pointers on conversation starters and good questions to ask. Ahhhh . . . the blessings of older siblings. So here's Brad, his friend Cody, Craig and Ashley ready to go to the dance. Don't they look great?



On Thursday was our ward's Trunk or Treat and Hallowen Carnival. Carter was very excited to be Zorro and Carly was Alice in Wonderland.




And Blake said he wanted to be a policeman. We got his costume all together and at the last minute he said "I know . . .I'll but a pillow up my shirt and look like a "real" policeman. He was so funny. He had just the right size of cop pot belly.




And Craig looked great as a jailbird--complete with a real ball and chain--courtesy of Craig's brothers who tied it around his ankle at our wedding reception! See--if you hold on to something long enough it WILL come in handy! Everyone in our ward loves the way Craig is such a FUN bishop. He cracked everyone up in this costume.