Halloween Thirteen!!!

Now that it's almost Thanksgiving, I will FINALLY blog about Halloween!! :) As always, the Halloween festivities began with the carving of the pumpkin. We let the big girls completely create the face on their own this year, and we told them to be "creative as possible." :)

 Don't they blow you away with their creativity??? (Note sarcasm HERE).

 Like always, Daddy got out the power tools, and the carving began!! (and yes, Claira is in her diaper.....that's generally how we roll....)

 I love how Daddy and Nora always take this so seriously...carving is a fine art, really. ;)

 GUTS!!!

 Even Clairy got dibs on the actions (in her diaper). :) She LOVED the pumpkin seeds!!

 Daddy's infamous yearly pose :)

 Love my goofy kids :)

 Of course, Ella had to teach Clairy to climb on the rails....you know, the essentials....(Note the pumpkin guts down the side of the leg.....I swear we bathed right after this).

We also had to pause to play with the idiot cat. I guess he deserves a blog on his own since he's now been "our's" for about 3 months. He has even slept in our bed.....the world must be ending soon. We have officially named him "El Gato" which means "The Cat" in Spanish. Even Claira calls him "Gato." Love it. :)

After finally bathing (you can probably tell because the fros are more tame), the girls came out to have a photo-op with their pumpkin. They attempted to make the crooked smile of the jack-o-lantern. :)

Finally, the official Halloween day arrived!! This was the first year that my girls didn't go as a "theme," which kinda broke my heart a bit. But on the other hand, I'm glad that they think independently and don't always follow each other's lead. Soooooo.......Nora was Merida from Brave:

 Ella was a beautiful butterfly:

And Claira was a cow. When she was an infant, she smelled like milk ALL.THE.TIME. So, Josh made up a song to the tune of "Deck the Halls" that goes, "Clairy-Berry smells like dairy. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la." So, of course, when we spotted the cow outfit, Josh HAD to get it!! :)

Even if our sweet 3 weren't themed this year, they were beyond precious in their own ways!!

Did I mention that Josh and I were nerds??

As always, we headed over to Grandmommie's and Paw-Paw's:

Aren't Josh and Dan TWINS?!?!?!

And to our surprise, Grandmama and Lea were already there!! 

Grandmama was some wicked witch/goth/spider/skeleton lady (but, Claira still loved her.....Grandmama is her number one):

And Lea was Rosie the Riveter from the old WWII posters:

While we continuously grubbed on Grandmommie's yummy Halloween-spread of food....

I ran outside to love on one of my favorite amigas, Senora Edwards (Nora was STOKED!). Viveca thought I was beautiful. :)

When the other half of the Nesbitt's arrived, we were thrilled to see lil' Matthew as Clark Kent/Superman!!

 Lilah was Black Widow from the Avengers :)

Josh and I had to get a photo with Matthew since we all sport that nerdy-look so well. :)

It was finally time for the kids to Trick-or-Treat!!

 The little ones rode in the wagon....

 ....while the big ones sang songs and ruled the neighborhood....

Girl shot:

 After an hour or so, it began raining, but that didn't stop Daddy and the big girls:

 But Clairy opted to stay home to play with Paw and Uncle Matt :)

 When the night was finally over, the girls were EXHAUSTED (have you ever seen a 7-year-old with a foot that size??)

I will leave you with images of our STUNNING family:

Cheers to many festive memories of past, present, and future. May the traditions never stop!!!

Happy Halloweenies!!!!!!!