Halloween: If you don't know me by now

 Part One: The Great Pumpkin

I need to change the phrase "pictures are worth 1000 words" to "pictures have 1000 funny stories behind them".  Case in point:

These pictures, at face value, may seem to portray a calm family, one who is leisurely posing in a pumpkin patch for some great pictures just as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean behind them.  In reality here is how getting these picture went down:

9 am: decided we are going to go to Half Moon Bay
1:30 pm: leave house after trying to get out for hours
3:30 pm:Arrive in HMB (should be a 40 minute drive but traffic was HORRIBLE), pull over and immediately feed screaming babies in parking lot
4:00: finish feeding boys, get drinks and snack for mom and dad
4:30: arrive at beach to let dogs run around and burn off some energy
5:30: leave beach, super tired, decided to forgo pumpkin patch and just go home
5:40: see random pumpkin patch on the way out of town, decided we should try and get pumpkin pictures and pick out pumpkins
5:45: run into store across the street from the pumpkin patch to buy Chris a plaid shirt
5:55: pull into pumpkin patch, Man yells "you have 5 minutes", race to pumpkins, snap pictures of us with  the boys, get stranger to take our picture, pick out 3 pumpkins, pay, walk back to car
6:03: realize boys are soaked, change their diapers on front seats and reload kids in car seats
6:20: leave for home
7:00: get home, realize we left our pumpkins on the side of the road (forgotten once we turned out attention to butts)

And that is how we roll :)

Part Two: Halloween

I have never been a fan of Halloween.  I can't pinpoint why exactly, but thinking of a costume and putting the "look" together was never that fun to me.  Now that I am a mom, I knew I had to 'woman up' and get excited for this holiday.  Chris was already excited.  He wanted to dress up the boys and kept offering to buy costumes whenever we were out and about shopping.  I knew, however, if I was going to participate in Halloween, we were going to do my kind of Halloween with a great character who's given me a great deal of joy.

 One day I googled "homemade moose costume" and found a picture that made me laugh out loud.  As soon as I saw a picture of a little kid in his homemade moose costume, I knew this is what Brady and Brody were going to be for Halloween.  We already had everything we needed except the white gloves.  I bought the white gloves a few weeks ago and they sat in my living room waiting to be sewn, taunting me for weeks.  My time in the evening is pretty limited,  I pump 3 or 4 times, wash bottles, do dishes, and go to bed as soon as I can.  Putting aide time to sew seemed nearly impossible.  In typical Carrie fashion, I waited until the day before Halloween to put together the first moose outfit.  As soon as I finished it, I tried it on the Brody and proceeded to laugh myself into a tizzy.  Once I saw his cute face in the getup, I knew this was going to be worth it!

Chris came home and after seeing Brody, immediately announced that we all needed to moose.  This was not in my plan; I had no intention of dressing up.  But in the spirit of the holiday and family, I sewed another two sets of antlers on brown sweatshirts and the family of meese came alive.

My husband does not do anything half way.  If he was going to be a moose for Halloween, that meant he was going to be a moose ALL day.  My normally well-dressed-man left for work in his moose costume to fly solo for a few hours until the boys and I met him at 12 for his office Halloween party.  To say we were a hit is an understatement.  We were applauded, cheered and praised every step we took.  It was hysterical and it would have been only half as fun if just the boys were dressed up.  We also wore our costumes when we handed out candy.  When we finally took them off before bed, I was a little sad to see my little meese disappear. Good thing I already know what they are going to be again next year! :)

P.S.  I did hear some people say we were awesome reindeer.  Um, yeah, those people were not allowed to oggle the babies or take our pictures