Some years Halloween sneaks up on me and finds me woefully unprepared. Seriously, every single year we end up scrambling the day of trick-or-treating to figure out someone’s costume. At least one person ALWAYS has no plan.

THIS year I want to make it different. We are going to do this right. I mean honestly Halloween has never been my favorite holiday because all things gross and scary are definitely not my thing. I’m holding out for Christmas before you will see any lights going up at our house.

BUT we do love fall, and pumpkins, and even trick-or-treating. I mean look at these guys:

What you don’t see in that adorable photo is how much the dinosaur cried about having to wear a costume or that the Lightning McQueen tried on 3 different costumes before he finally settled on that one.

So I am proud to announce that preparations are underway. Perhaps if I tell them 1000 times what they are going to be in advance, they will have accepted it and no one will melt down because their costume is “dumb, stupid, itchy, too big, too small, or too embarrassing.”

In fact, there was one year that my costume was “so embarrassing” to them that they begged me not to wear it on Halloween night!

I am soooo embarrassing.

Like my neon wig? You can find similar ones in green, pink, or blue here.

I haven’t decided for sure what I’m going to do this year yet, but I did get excited when I found this:

That’s April O’Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for those of you not born in the 70s/80s. Awesome, right? And you might recall that one of my sons used to be convinced that I am April O’Neil.

….And how hilarious would it be if one of the boys wore this:

just the wig, not the mask. Hehehe I think that’d be so fun, if I can get them to go along with it.

Of course, we’re on our 13th year of parenting, so we also have a bucket of worn out costumes in the basement. I’m hoping I can get one more good wear out of this one with John David or Daniel:

We are huge fans of all costumes Star Wars and super hero related. Try this place if you’re looking for costumes from your favorite t.v. shows and movies.

You could even be Forrest Gump. I kid you not. Look!

Have you noticed all those cute inflatable dinosaur costumes? I saw a really neat giraffe one that I’d love to see someone wear:

I truly wish John David’s Yoda costume still fit because guess who is going to be Yoda this year!!

Daddy is Yoda this year!!! But shhh! don’t tell my children because he wants to surprise them…which I didn’t realize when I told Daniel yesterday. Or was it JD I told? With someone I let the cat out of the bag..

You can find character hoodies and t-shirts here if you’d rather not go full-costume. I think the hoodie is the perfect solution since Halloween is usually a cool night. This one is light weight, cozy, and instantly recognizable. I may take a turn wearing it myself next year!

…And of course, when preparing for Halloween, you gotta buy candy every time you see that it’s on sale. I personally have 3 bags expertly hidden in my house. Not a single boy knows that I have any. The only problem is that I have started eating it already….

Sigh. Self-control seems to have flown right out the window.

Now for the best news of all.

TVStoreOnline.com  is providing a $40 gift card for one of my readers!!!!

In order to enter the giveaway, click on the option you’d like to do below. For example, you can click “visit their Facebook page.” It will ask you to log in to Facebook so that we will know that you entered.  You can enter with just one option, or you can choose all 3 for even more entries.

All I get is your name and email, and I only use them to notify the winner.

This contest ends October 8th at midnight. That way the winner will have enough time to use their $40 gift card in time for Halloween!

Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post It’s That Time Again: Planning Our Halloween Costumes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I don’t know how, and I don’t know what all their criteria is, but believe it or not, I am in the top 50.

It’s okay. You can be surprised. I am too! This is a Voiceboks.com contest. I didn’t do anything to enter it. They just picked me. Talk about a nice pat on the back. I’m going to enjoy this today, and I won’t let it bother me at all that I have 3 votes so far, while this one chick already has 51……

So this will not be mine to win. However, I’d love to make a good showing, so if you enjoy my blog at all–or just are related to me and want to help me (ha!), that’d make me really happy.

Here’s the link, if you’d like to go vote for me:http://voiceboks.com/category/blog-influencer-nominee/

You just scroll down until you see my picture and then click on the thumbs up.

Thank you so much!

And in return, here’s a little adorable-ness to brighten your day:

He says “cheese” surprisingly well. Also, I just said the sentence, “No, JD, not the bathroom,” and he actually listened and came back. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you!

Through 3 babies, I kept this dalmation costume clean. Enter Halloween 2014.  Sigh.

Joshua’s birthday dinner.  I said, “Joshua, we will have anything in the whole world you want for supper.” I was thinking to myself, “And I bet it’ll be pizza, and I won’t have to cook.  Squeal!”

No.

Healthy boy picked this, but of course I was also proud:

This summer I gave away ALL of JD’s 18 month pants. He was so big and wearing all 24 month summer clothes, so why keep the 18 month pants?  Notice the cuffs. Now none of his pants fit. Never mind that Goodwill got 24 pairs of 18 month pants…..

Roll Tide……and thanks for voting!

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October 31. It isn’t just Halloween–a very odd candy holiday in which perfectly happy, normal people throw skeleton decorations in their front yards. I don’t mean to be the Halloween Scrooge, but Halloween gets on my nerves. I passed a house yesterday with three fake tomb stones in the front yard. On the stones, the family had written the names of their children (living children).  Weird, ya’ll. I don’t care what holiday that is. It’s weird.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a day where my children eat too much sugar and ask me to spend a bunch of money on costumes. Then we attempt trick-or-treating, until some neighbor takes it all too seriously and comes running out with a hockey mask and a chain saw. One of my children always gets scared and wants to come home.

Or, the funny thing is, they are so excited to have six pieces of candy in their bag, they say, “Yes!  Let’s go home and eat all this candy!!!”

I’m much more intrigued by a whole other event that took place on October 31, 1517. Yes, THAT Martin Luther: the one that started the whole Protestant Reformation. I mean, it had to be done. In those days, the Church was selling “forgiveness for sins” in exchange for money. What! Martin Luther was a highly dedicated Augustinian friar, with a doctorate in Bible, so he knew his Word backwards and forwards. He wrote down every single way in which the selling of indulgences was unBiblical and an exploitation of the poor. He sent this letter to his bishop. Some say he even nailed it to the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg.

Now you know I’m on board with someone who takes that kind of stand.

This is not to say anything against the Catholic Church nowadays, but in Martin Luther’s time, reform desperately needed to happen. As for the church now?

Psst….When it comes to Christianity, being a follower of Christ does not depend on what denomination of church you go to. All churches consist of lost and saved people alike, I am convinced.

What matters is the heart. That’s what God looks at. Is your heart right with God? How does one even get “right with God”?

Well, the Bible says that we can’t really, on our own. None of us are righteous, no not one. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The Bible states that we are all in need of a Savior, and that savior is Jesus.

In 1517, the Church (not God’s Word), also taught that we needed a Savior, but not just that–we also needed enough good deeds, and we could just buy the good deed part by giving money to the church.

Wrong.

A clean heart cannot be bought.

I think John describes salvation best, in the verses that we always teach our children first:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

To be right with God, we need to come to a place where we see our sins for what they are–sins. We need to confess that, ask for forgiveness, believing that we can get that through Jesus. Why Jesus? Because he lived this life as a person, even though he is God, and he never sinned. However, he took OUR punishment for sin upon himself, simply because God loved us.

Jesus reconciled us to God.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2: 8-10

It’s a choice we all must make: to believe or not to believe, but if you choose not to believe, I hope you have well researched that decision. Life is so much better with Jesus in it.

Don’t you love a man who stands up for what he believes is right? Martin Luther didn’t turn his back on the church because of all the hypocrisy. Instead, he tried to change it. He educated, he persuaded, he was bold, and he was brave.

Eventually, change did happen, but at first all Martin Luther got for that was……excommunicated from the church. As it turns out,  choosing to stand up for what’s right isn’t always popular.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

A few facts you may not know about Martin Luther

1. Martin Luther taught other reformers to not resort to violence in their quest for church reform since that is not Biblical. That reminds me of how Martin Luther King, Jr. also sought non-violent means to promote Civil Rights. There’s the connection.

2. Martin Luther wrote catechisms to teach the basics of Christianity to the people.

3. He also wrote a new Mass in German so that the common people could understand it, and he omitted everything that “smacks of sacrifice.” Luther preached that Mass was a gift, not a sacrifice.

4. Luther wrote gobs of hymns.

5. Luther translated the New Testament into German, but they say it was slanted towards his interpretations.

6. Luther always took the firm stance that communion was literal, not symbolic, as many reformers believed.

Happy Martin Luther Day! Have a great weekend.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.  1 Corinthians 16:13

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