We had a full Halloween weekend this year. We made the trip to Ankeny since we hadn't been home in almost 2 months (for us, that is a really long time). We had plan to make it a short trip, but Saturday morning we got a very exciting phone call! I had tried very hard not to make Marcie feel like she had to come home just because I was coming home (although, I am sure she still felt that way), but lucky for us Chad had to work (sorry Chad, your loss is my gain in this situation) so she packed up Saturday morning and joined us for the weekend! I am not sure who was more excited: me, my mom, or Claire! We spent the day decorating cupcakes, playing games, snuggling with a baby, trick-o-treating, and laughing hysterically at the kids while they told their jokes!
The frosting on Cane's mouth and the fact that he is licking his lips is a dead giveaway the he couldn't wait to put the legs on his spider before tasting his cupcake!
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The best part of trick-o-treating was watching the kids tell their jokes! Cole thought his joke was hilarious every time!
Here are a few adorable pictures of Graham!
I could look at Graham all day long! I am loving having a newphew. I thought this might make me want to have another, even though Nick and I are fairly certain that we are done. But, I think it just confirmed our decision. I love getting to snuggle with a baby, but I think that stage of my life is over. I enjoy having a little independence and not worrying about the every two hour feeding schedule or "do not disturb" nap times! I will just get my fix through Marcie, for now, and Matt and Sarah in the future! Matt will be mad at me for even mentioning them having children, although with as much as he is working, he would probably rather be spending that time with a baby!
On Sunday we went to Nick's grandma's for dinner to show off our costumes to all of Nick's family! We then headed to Cedar Falls to go trick-o-treating again! We have somewhat of a tradition of trick-o-treating at my good friend Kari's neighborhood every year. They live on a nice, quiet street, with lots of young children and families. We always go to a few houses around her house and then go play at her house for awhile. This year Kari put together little Halloween goody bags full of little gifts. The kids LOVED it, and immediately began playing with all their new little toys. These little rockets were a hit! And of course Claire's bag was filled with princess things, which she shared at school the next day.
Whew, here was the loot! The kids were very excited to see all the candy they had collected! But unfortunately they have a PE teacher as a mother who knows they don't need to eat all this, so we ended up picking out about half the candy to donate to a good cause. At school, I joined efforts with a local dentist office and offered students the opportunity to earn extra movement time if they brought in some of their excess Halloween Candy. The candy is then being given to "Iowa's Bravest," a non profit organization who support the troops, they will send the candy to the troops in Holiday care packages. This is the first year I have done this, so I didn't know what to expect, but kids have brought in over 50 lbs of candy already! It is amazing!
We then headed to Grandma McQuinn's for Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago I was very sad after talking to my brother. He was preparing me for the fact that he didn't think he was going to be making it home for Thanksgiving due to work. With there upcoming home location still being up in the air, no specific end date, and no idea when we would see Matt and Sarah again, I was very sad. However, we were very excited to find out that not only was he going to get some much needed time off, he was going to be able to come home for 5 days! We had a great time just hanging around the house, playing games, and having a few drinks. 
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