Halloween Costumes 2011

I never really liked Halloween until I started making costumes for the kids. This year, the hot glue gun was my best friend and allowed me to make everyone's costumes really quickly. The boys decided on a skeleton and Elmo, respectively, a couple of months ago. They never wavered in their decisions.

Carson and I had fun looking up diagrams of the skeletal system and cutting the bones out of felt. Then I just hot glued them onto the same pants and shirt he wore for his costume last year! (So the total cost was about $2 for the felt.) He learned the names of the bones, and he LOVED having his face painted.

I was at Goodwill (in Tacoma, Washington of all places) and was looking around for a red shirt and pants to make Everett's costume. I found this Elmo outfit for 6 bucks! It is way too big for him, so I cut off half the legs and made one of them into the hat. Ping pong balls are the eyes, and the nose I just made out of orange felt. I didn't plan on painting his face, but after seeing Carson he just couldn't live without it.

 

And oh, sweet Faye, how I love having a GIRL!!!  The idea for the costume came from here. I decided to make the whole thing a part of the onesie instead of a separate piece. So I just cut and sewed the feather shapes out of turquoise felt, adding some batting and the stick part of the peacock feathers in sandwiched in the middle. I used the same felt to hot glue the feathers on the front of the onesie. I ended up just using straight pins to attach the feathers to the back of the onesie. It was way too thick to sew. I had a safety piece of sandwiched felt on the inside of the onesie so she couldn't get poked. I hot glued all the peacock feathers to the back of the felt feathers. I found the sequin fabric last-minute and added it on with hot glue, of course! For the orange tights, I just happened to have white tights and RIT dye on hand!! I tried to come up with a cool headpiece but decided she would just rip it off anyway, so in 5 seconds I made this little clip. Isn't she ADORABLE?!?!?!?!?! (Also, I did take pictures of the process of making the peacock costume, if anyone wants a tutorial.)

Happy Halloween!!

Faye is 9 months old.

This baby girl is so easy to love. She has curls. She laughs all day long. She has blue eyes. She does "how big is a baby," and it's SO cute. She is a crazy mover. She dives in her crib when it's time for her naps. (Ok, so she has some cranky moments, and sometimes her naps are too short, but now that she's asleep for the night I only remember the good things.)

I can't believe she is already pushing chairs all around the kitchen.

This is my favorite. So cute. She ducks behind the couch to do peek-a-boo.

Carson wanted Faye to have an "interview."

It's fall!

We got in the Fall spirit a couple of weeks ago by going on a fun hayride with some other moms and kids. The weather was perfect, which made for a lovely time at the park afterwards.

Dates.

The boys love it when they get to go on "dates." Last week, I told Carson that if he took a nap he could stay up and go on a date with Rick to his intramural football game. Carson was thrilled, although during the game showed no emotion; he stood and watched with a serious face, clapping occasionally. When he got home he showed his excitement and gave me a play-by-play. These two sure are cute together!

2011 Utah trip.

Visiting Utah in the fall rather than at Christmas time was wonderful. Utah really is beautiful, and the no-humidity sunshine felt just perfect!

Speaking of perfect, these kids were awesome travelers!! Faye is AWFUL in the car and can scream for hours, but she did great on the plane and even slept on me for once in her life.

There was even an hour when Rick had all three and I got to lay down and sleep on the other aisle. That is a dream come true!

We had lots of fun at Grandma GJ and Grandpa Sam's house.

Everett is getting pretty good at shooting hoops!

The whole Otto side got together to celebrate a few birthdays, and we played some fun games per Carson's request. Here Rick is trying to guess whose toes he's touching.

Carson and Ryker are BFFs. 

The Treehouse, a children's museum in Salt Lake, totally put our little museum here in Winston to shame. It was so great! We had a good time with Jeanel, Grandma and Ryker there.

The ladies.

A large part of our trip had to do with getting comfortable with dogs. Everett turned out to be a natural with Maisy and was sort of obsessed with feeding her. Carson got a little braver by the end of the trip, but he still would freak out sometimes when she would run in the room.

Jaclyn snuggles.

A little excited about Chick-fil-A.

We spent about half our time down in Orem and Provo staying with Suzette and fam. Oh hi Faye, you're cute!! (Also, Jeanel took Faye on a shopping spree. She's wearing jeggings here.)

Bowling at BYU! We did everything fun imaginable at BYU. The kids are already fans, and we promised them if they go to college here they can eat ice cream from the creamery every day.

We should take them bowling more often; they LOVED it.

There's that cute little thing again!

We let the boys get whatever they wanted for lunch from the Cougareat. 

I had to have a wrap from L&T, just like I used to eat all the time while studying! It was so fun to be at BYU and remember those fun, fun days there.

Chocolate covered cinnamon bears = happiness.

"I love BYU!"

The boys wanted to stay at the duck pond all day. This is right by where we took our engagement pictures.

And here it is folks, the Pendulum Court in the Eyring Science Center, where it all began. Rick thought I was sitting at this table when we met. I'm certain it was a table on the other side. Oh well.

Magleby's Fresh pancakes were a must for this trip! This also begins where my eyes are too red and dry to wear my contacts. I am still wearing glasses, and I HATE glasses.

Fun snacks at the Greer's. Faye looks like such a big girl.

This is what watching General Conference looked like for us this time around. Fun!

Some cousin fun for Faye.

At Jeff and Joni's, Everett really really wanted to pick up their rabbit. He almost got it.

Cute Jana.

There are always rainbows in Utah! This double one was even more amazing than the picture. After a bit you could see both entire rainbows. 

Everett hanging out with puppy Rosy.

And this is all the STUFF we fit into our little Taurus on the way home from the airport. All of this, plus FIVE PEOPLE. Our Taurus is amazing. And I got to snuggle real close to Rick on the way home, which was a nice bonus!