her bucket runneth o'er...

What a week! We've been bombarded with Halloween goings-on like they're going out of style! Here's a recap:

Last week, the Early Start program Leah attends had a carnival for all the kids in their program in the county. Leah enjoyed touching (and let's be honest, eating...) brains. Yum.
She also had her first-ever successful encounter with a petting zoo. She's never been interested but she loved petting these sweet little animals. My fav was the pig and she wouldn't touch him, but they bonded while digging in the dirt together. No worries.At school this week, Leah and her buddies went trick or treating at the county offices next door. Cute, cute.On Wednesday, Kristen, Lindsey and I celebrated two years of baking cookies together. We started (with much uglier cookies) two Halloweens ago. Hard to believe. Yesterday we had a mother's group halloween costume party. Man, I love these girls. Kristen put together a fantastic party, as always. Chili, apple cider, trick or treating, pumpkin treats, decorations and caramel apples to boot. The group picture is a bit grainy, but that's a different story. The fact that we got all the kids to hold still at once is worthy of a prize.
Last night was our ward party. Ryan and Leah were quite the trunk-or-treating duo...no one knew that scary man was Ryan...Later last night was also a fun party at our friend's house. Yah, I said house. Because they rent a house, they have to host a party. Those are the rules here. Lots of fun games (including this delicious rendition of find the worm in the spaghetti...um, brains). Ryan thought he won, but then we realized he cheated. Cheater! It's okay, our team still won overall. Also, Ryan's identity while wearing his "biblical wig" was mistaken as "the guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart." So, that became his identity for the rest of the night. Jon and Kate (+6) graced us with their presence, as did Glinda the good witch, the tin man, a pimp, a HS football captain and his pregnant cheerleader girlfriend, Jim and Pam (and soybean) Halpert and more.

Today we spent the evening devouring chili, homemade spudnuts and wassail at a friend's house. Yum. Wait, did I mention yum? Yum.

Ryan wasn't sure who he really was. He kind of had an identity crisis. The aforementioned Brian David Mitchell was also confused as Moses, Jesus and a terrorist throughout the night. I had no idea Moses wore sunglasses.Everyone 12 and older knew I was Amelia Earhart. And everyone knew this little one was the cutest witch on the block. And this is how we feel about our whirlwind week.
And in the midst of the crazy news confirmed this week, thank you to everyone who has kept us in their prayers. We have felt nothing but love, support and kindness from so many family members, friends, neighbors...and strangers. Our buckets truly runneth o'er.