Halloween!

This year for Halloween, Gabe was a "cowboy sheriff", Caleb was a red Samurai Ninja (why???), and Avery was an adorable butterfly/caterpillar. I made her costume myself based on the idea of her little bedtime blanket/wrap that she loves. The wings wrapped around her and turned her into a caterpillar. Caleb's costume was bought at Wal-mart, and Gabe's was real cowboy clothes borrowed from his cowboy/indian cousin, Orrin (seriously... if you know us you will get that.)

So on Halloween day I went into Caleb's preschool for their party from noon to 1:30 then I went to Gabe's party to help from 1:30 to 2:15. Kristy watched Avery for me. (Thanks!) Then we came home, Josh got home from his K-9 training at about 4:00, then we ate dinner and went out trick-or-treating from about 5:30 to 7:30. We did our street with all our neighbors and then went to one other neighborhood in the Willowbrook subdivision. I would say the boys had fun but also didn't get totally obscene amounts of candy, which was good. They actually have it pretty much gone already! I reached in their pumpkins for a piece and came out with a handful of empty wrappers! :(

The other exciting news....
Josh had been looking online for mini vans for the past few weeks. We had kind of discussed it and decided that our time for a van was coming, but I wasn't in any hurry just yet. Our Highlander is all paid off and I was not looking forward to having a car payment again... and driving a van. But Josh kept looking online all the time and we were planning to spend about 16,000 on a 2008ish Toyota Sienna, so one day he saw one in Idaho Falls priced at $12,900 for an 08 with low miles and we got all excited. We jumped in our car and sped down there ready to buy it. But then.... we saw it. And it was not pretty. It was pretty UGLY! It was totally trashed inside and out. We were depressed. So then we decided to go get some Chick Fil A and call it a night. However, on our way there, we passed another car dealership that had a white Toyota Sienna parked off to the side. I told Josh to pull up so I could just quick run in and see if it was for sale and what the price was. Well.... four hours later.... we were signing paperwork on our new van. Crazy. I must say I am a pretty good negotiator though. We ended up driving out of there in one of their vans as a loaner so they have a few days to get our new van cleaned and ready. It was just traded in the day before we saw it so it hadn't even been detailed yet (and it was still cleaner than that other one we looked at!) I am excited because we are still not going to have a car payment. We basically traded our Highlander for a one year newer, 15,000 miles less Toyota Sienna van that will fit our family a lot better. After all the negotiations.... we are only paying about $700, including all the fees, taxes, registration, etc. So we are pretty excited. It isn't an 08 like we were planning on, but it's still really nice and it won't cause us to go into debt! Yay.

I need to find my camera now so I can post some pictures!