Halloween

TRUNK OR TREAT

For Nolan's first Halloween we dressed him up as Calvin and Hobbes. I came up with the idea after my co-worker, Bethany, kept saying Nolan reminded her of Calvin.

As soon as I decided to do it I was all in and so excited to get started putting the costume together. The only problem is that you can't actually buy anything C and H's related. Bill Watterson (the creator of C and H) didn't want it to become too commercialized and refused to sell the rights to the comic. 

However, lucky for me I found a pattern for the Hobbes doll that someone had created and provided for free online! The pattern is for the Hobbes that everyone else sees, not the Hobbes that Calvin sees in his mind. 

Anyway, I have never made anything even close to a doll before, but I'm glad I gave it a try and I think it turned out pretty cute! Justin even helped me cut out some of the stripes.

I found the perfect red and black striped sweater at Kid to Kid for $2.99, so the last thing I needed to find was a red Radio Flyer wagon. However, it proved to be more difficult to procure one than I first thought. Doesn't everyone have one?! But most of the people I asked either had a plastic one or had given theirs away years ago. Luckily though I happened to mention that I was looking for one to my Aunt Brenda and she reminded me that they have one! The costume was complete!

He's definitely the cutest Calvin and Hobbes that I've ever seen (and I Googled it to verify ☺).

Heading to the ward Trunk or Treat

 

 As we were walking along looking at all the trunks I hear this loud, "Look! It's a Calvin and Hobbes!" And this guy was pointing at Nolan. He had this huge grin on his face and said, "Oh my gosh, that is SO good, we have to show my wife!" "Honey, come over here!" haha.

To be honest I wouldn't have really been able to tell from his costume alone, but he and his wife had dressed up as Calvin and Hobbes too! They agreed though that Nolan was much more perfect for the role haha! The wife was sweet and asked where I found that cute Hobbes doll and sang my crafting praises when I told her I made it. It sure made me feel good!

Obviously Nolan didn't care much about the candy, but he did like crinkling the wrappers, shaking his little box of nerds like a rattle, and playing with these glow sticks!!

Most of the trunks had games or stickers rather than candy (lame), plus we felt a little funny waiting in line to get candy for a kid who clearly can't eat it much yet haha. So here's Nolan's 'haul' (minus the Nerds that mommy ate ☺)

 Family pic at the end of the night

My whole family are BIG Calvin and Hobbes fans. How lucky am I that I have a son with lots of blonde hair and perfectly pulls it off?! Here are some good strips for your enjoyment ☺

I love Calvin's mom

 So me in school haha

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HARRY POTTER PARTY

A few nights before the Trunk or Treat we went to what is most likely the coolest Harry Potter themed anything that we will ever go to - at least until we go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter one of these days ☺.

I'm in the YW in my ward and the YW President, Sis. Menlove, and her family have thrown this HP party for three years now and they do an incredible job!! It helps that they have an amazing home and gigantic backyard, but they seriously thought of everything! I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Entering the "Great Hall"

 It's kind of hard to see this in the photo, but they even had a patronus on the other side of a man made lake in their backyard! Oh, and they made one of those sea urchin things from the Tri-Wizard Tournament and had it coming out of the lake.

A huge spider on the playhouse

Nolan wasn't too sure about the slide at first, but liked it in the end

Letters flying into the fireplace behind framed photos of Dudley.

It was seriously so fun and I even got Justin to dress up and put on a Gryffindor tie!

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 Lastly some cute fall pics of Nolan that Jeanni took 

BYU Football vs Wagner

The Cougars had a game last Saturday against a 'never-heard-of-'em' team from Wagner University, but since the game was at 1pm and there aren't many that Nolan can go to we decided to go anyway and watch what was sure to be a massacre.

On the way to the game we made a stop at my work to see Bethany and Sean. They are this cute couple that I work with and they are seriously the best. I'm so glad I got a picture of Bethany so I have an excuse to record how awesome she is. Usually only parents (and probably grandparents ☺) think their offspring are the cutest, sweetest, and smartest and all other babies can't hold a candle to them. But Nolan has another big fan in his corner and that's Bethany. She actually asks to see pictures of him and thinks he's the cutest, most perfect thing ever (Agreed.). Sometimes when I come in with a story about how Nolan was throwing a tantrum or something she looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "No way, he's an angel all the time isn't he?!" 

Whenever Justin comes down for a game or something she's always asking if he'll get there before 5 and if he's bringing Nolan. Unfortunately, that's not very often so I was so glad that we got to stop and hang out for a bit.

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As we predicted there weren't too many people at the game so we only spent about one quarter in our actual seats (which were right in the sun) before moving to the shade on the other side of the stadium. Even though it was a blowout it was still really fun. It was so casual and low-stress - much different than the other crowded games - and I kind of liked it!

To demonstrate just how different this game was than all the others...we actually bought concessions! What?! We both agree that we just can't bring ourselves to pay 3x what something actually costs, especially when we're already paying to go to the game. Growing up we never got snacks at games, or candy at movies - ever. We did however learn the art of sneaking candy into theaters and games haha ☺. Ideally we'd like to keep our kids expectations low...very low...or how about non-existent in that department so we were himming and hawwing, but thought it'd be fun to get a CougarTail this one time. I'll admit it was pretty dang good!

So here's a picture of our first CougarTail. I think Nolan enjoyed it!

I also maybe sorta bought some ice cream too when I saw my very favorite flavor, Graham Canyon! See? Concessions are a black hole you get sucked into! hehe

Justin always makes sure Nolan knows what's going on on the field at all times.

Kisses for mommy! ♥

Born to be a Cougar!

Gooooo Cougars!!!