A Spooktacular Halloween!

Like any good Halloween story, this one begins with candy. This is Spookly, our ghost who holds one of our favorite Halloween treats each year. These little things get eaten way too fast and it was not just Robert and I as the culprits this year. You could catch Annabelle sneaking handfuls at a time. 

After setting out the important things like candy and decorations, we were ready to enjoy the wonderful month of October.

A close up shot of the fun saying on my chalkboard sign this year.

Halloween is one of my favorite time of the year because I love dressing up. I put a lot of thought and effort into coming up with what we are going to be each year. I start early on making and getting the costumes ready. A sneak peak at the preparations.

We kicked things off early by going to a party at our local park thrown by a mom's group. 

It was fun having an excuse to dress up super cute for a park outing.

We milked the costume fun a bit more by attending our Church's Trunk or Treat. They announced it the Sunday before it was held, so I had to throw some last minute costumes together because I did not want to spoil our "real" Halloween costumes. Luckily, we had just the right things in our closet to make for a fun family costume theme. When in doubt go BYU!

Robert was our coach, Dawson was the football, I was the player, and

Annabelle was the referee and candy collector.

Then the big day arrived! We drove up to Jacksonville on Thursday night to spend Halloween weekend with the Fountains and some good friends of ours.

We decided to go with a true Florida theme and dress up as tacky tourists visiting the one and only Mickey and Minnie.

 I think they turned out so cute and I'm excited they will get to wear their costumes again when we go visit the real Mickey and Minnie at Disney World soon.

Annabelle really did love her costume even though this picture says otherwise. Her favorite show on TV is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She always stands up and dances and tries to sing the song when the show comes on.

You have to have a Halloween sad picture because dressing up and taking pictures can be hard as a little one. Good thing Daddy was there to save the day. 

Pictures were snapped and we were ALL ready to go. 

We headed over to our friend's Spencer and Hayley's house to have some chili, cornbread, and lots of other good food before heading out to trick-or-treat.

They had a little announcement of their own - baby boy #2 coming in April!

It was a wild party as you can see. 

Annabelle stayed by this gate the entire dinner because Ripken (Hayley and Spencer's dog) kept poking his head under to play with her.

Making the last final touches before heading out for the night.

All the babies from the party lined up and actually looking at the camera. It was a miracle! 

Then there's the outtake. Oh my heart, there's just too much cuteness here for one photo. 

After the second round of photos it was finally time to go.

Ready or not, here we come!

Our first house. Annabelle was very excited and knew just what to do. 

Success!

Who waits until they get home to start eating their candy? Not this girl!

She was so cute when she would knock on the door. 

She knew how to say trick-or-treat, but usually got shy when people opened the door. However, that did not stop her from reaching in for a handful of candy though. Her shyness has its limits. ;) 

Since Annabelle was the oldest and was really enjoying herself by running from house to house, we broke off from the group and stayed out longer than the others. Grandma Teri met up with us to finish off the street. Lucas was a trooper and stayed out with us as well. Robert was asked on multiple occasions if he was Annabelle's brother. Ha! I guess the extra padding he added around his gut didn't help as well as he thought it would. 

Once she got tired (yes, it actually happened), we ended back at Ms. Beth's house (Spencer's mom) for some full size candy bars and more snacks. Annabelle loved sitting on the table and eating chips with salsa.

Sleepy little girl and tired mommy. Dawson kept up well too and was a good boy that enjoyed strolling from house to house. We only lost our camera lens cap and broke a part of our stroller, otherwise it was a Halloween success for our first time trick-or-treating as parents.

I figure the post should end like it started, with candy. Here's Annabelle's with her loot from the night before.

TRICK-OR-TREAT!