Halloween and then some!

We had a fabulous holiday...not only was this a really fun year with Max being a little older and more into it, but we also had my DAD here for a visit. How lucky are we?! It was such a great, kick-back weekend. I feel so blessed by this little family of mine and loved having my dad here to enjoy and spoil my kiddos as well.

Family Home Evening before the big holiday - pumpkin carving, baby! First I had to take some cute shots of my cute kids with their pumkpins...but heaven help me, I could not get them to look at the camera at the same time!


I love to make the top for pumpkin...I love to scoop out the insides and seperate the seeds...I don't love the creative end of pumpkin carving for some reason (deciding what the face will look like). I leave that part to Ty. I did actually carve my pumpkin after he drew the face for me. I don't know why I don't enjoy that part more!The actual night. A football player and his own personal cheerleader! Don't let Max's non-smiling face fool you, he was thrilled with his costume. Still loves it. (Yeah, I know we live in Seahawks territory and he's dressed as a Patriot, but a new uniform set was like $50 and we found this on ebay for $11...I figured nobody would beat up a cute 2-year-old)We went Trunk-or-Treating, which I have to say was quite lame. I don't really want to be in charge next year, but I wouldn't mind telling them how to make it GOOD! :) There's just so much that could be done. Oh well, we supported it at least. Then we hit the neighborhood a bit. We went to Max's Tutu's house (his adopted grandma) where he received an already full halloween bucket! Made trick-or-treating super easy - we could have just made that one stop and called it good. She sure spoils that little man. Next was a little "after party" at our place. We had some friends over for hot chocolate and donuts (a Mann Fam tradition). It was a really fun night! I forgot to take pictures until some of the crew had already left.


Max's best friend, Reyes Linton. We saw them on the street trick-or-treating and both of them started to squeal when they saw each other. Actually, they do that everytime they see each other. I love those two! Halloween was a hit.

For the rest of the weekend we just hung out close to home. My dad added 5 lights in our bedroom, cooked some awesome meals, made salsa and let a very excited 2-year-old boy totally wear him out. The fam also came and cheered me on a bit during my 20-mile run and my dad's stuffed hot dog creation was just the ticket for my post-run meal. It was the best my stomach has transitioned after a long run. Such a perfect visit - I already want him to come back. I always forget to take pictures during family visits. We're too busy having a good time! But here are a few 'randoms'...

Left: photography by Max. Center: Dad working his lighting magic. Right: Kelly's newest passion.
Hmmm...I wonder where she gets those baby blues from???We definitely didn't want to 'kick him to the curb', but we had to drop him at the curb nonetheless. It was still hard to say goodbye even though I'll be seeing him in two weeks when we fly to Vegas. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming, Daddy! We love and miss you!