Halloween Party!

My company has a Halloween party for all the employees children every year and this year was the best because I had a child to bring to it. Mara loved it too! She loved seeing the kids all dressed up and a lot of our offices were decked out for the event and she loved that too. She kept saying "Oooooo," about everything and when she got really excited, she would say "Ooooo" in a high pitched voice. Everyone was getting a kick out of it. Her two favorite areas in the building were the finance department, that was decorated like Dr. Suess stories (I didn't get a picture of it though) and the art department that went all out as "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." They photoshopped their heads onto Oompa Loompa's in the hallway and Margo even dressed up as one for real, but I don't have a picture of her:( Mara liked Tim's Oompa Loompa head the best and tried to take him with her.






Other highlights included:

Mara's first cupcake. Daddy only gave her the icing though and he stole the cupcake from her and ate it himself. Mara licked her lips for a half an hour after this...no lie



Her name was on a star on the "Walk of Fame!"



Then she mangled the star that had our last name on it.


Then there was some play time with friends.

Bobbi


Gavin and Jessi (and Mickey Mouse)


Becky


Then she tried her first piece of candy. I saved the best for last...

Another Halloween Collage

You can tell what I've been doing with my free time lately, huh? Our new computer let's me Photoshop so much easier than our slow old one that required waiting upon waiting for each feature to happen. I'm lovin' it!

New Camera

I'm on the hunt for a new digital camera...a professional one and I'm so excited! I love Photoshopping and it will be so much better when I have great quality original images to start with! I've found the camera that I want and am price shopping for the best deal. Watch out Mara, you're about to be blinded by camera flashes very soon! (hopefully!)

The Group Hug

This was the first time that Mara was included in the traditional "cousins" group hug during the goodbyes at a family gathering so I had to commemorate it with something special...even if Mara is chewing on her shoe in the picture:)

Mara, You've Got Mail!

Mara got a bright orange envelope in the mail today so I put her on my lap to help me open it. I said, I bet this is from Grammy and Grandpa and sure enough the return address said, word for word, "Grammy and Grandpa." Aaron and I got a good laugh out of that. As Mara and I pulled the Halloween card out of the envelope, she was grinning from ear to ear and as I unfolded and read the card to her she bounced with glee on my lap. It's safe to say that she was thrilled with her first Halloween card. Thanks Grammy and Grandpa!

Learning to write...

My friend Margo's son, Max, is learning to write. This picture was sent to me with the email title "Proud Parent Moments." I'm sure this isn't the first or the last time that Margo has/will be "proud" of him like this. LOL. It sure gave me a good laugh this morning though!

Family Pictures!

Beth took our family pictures yesterday and they turned out beautifully! We are in love with them!!!!!!!! These are the images that Beth has posted on her blog and she said there are more to come! Yippee!!! Thanks again Beth! We can't thank you enough for giving us such wonderful memories to treasure.

Hi Katie!!

I found out this weekend that my friend, Katie, is an avid reader of my blog so I thought I would say "Hi!" and share a couple photos for her. Here's Katie's son, Jared, the cutest little Dragon ever!

(Katie, just click to enlarge the image and then right click to save it.) :) Enjoy these "Photoshopped" pictures...on the house:)

8 Months!

Mara is almost 9 months old and I finally got around to doing her 8 month photoshoot today. I incorporated the Halloween theme since it's October and then I Photoshopped them into a collage. My little girl is getting so big!!! (Click on the image to enlarge)



I had to include this too. This is what it looks like when an 8 month old gets fed up with having her picture taken and decides to pull the backdrop down. She thought it was quite hilarious of course!

Viola!

Through the magic of Photoshop, "Grumpy Mara" becomes "Happy Mara."





I used her face from this picture and Photoshopped it into the "4 Generations" picture:) It was quite a daunting task for someone who's an amateur like I am, but I'm pleased with the results!

A Year Late in Posting This One!

I was going through the pictures on my computer and came across this picture. This was created for me last fall by my friend, Tom, in the art department where I work. He called me "Wonder Woman" for the rest of my pregnancy.

On the original copy, Tom put "Appearing Live At" and then inserted our company logo on the bottom right side of the picture, but for internet safety purposes, I took that part off.

I would have given anything to have this body while I was pregnant! I may not have had the most comfortable pregnancy ever, but at least I had friends to keep me laughing through it! Heck, I'm still laughing about this one a year later!

1 Month Old Already!

My how time flies! Kade is already one month old. He weighs 10 lbs. 10 oz. too! He’s going to be a big boy! These are some of the pictures that Jen sent out in his “1 month old” update email. He’s such a cutie! I just can’t get enough of him!





We got to see Kade last weekend (on his actual 1-month birthday!) and these were some of the highlights.

Kade, showing off his muscles and wearing his "camos" for Uncle Aaron.

This is what I miss about Mara being tiny...the cuddles.

Aunt Jen entertaining Mara with Max.


Uncle Nick and Mara had a great time together too…drinking and sleeping. LOL.




I love seeing Nick with Mara. It’s so fun to see your children loving the same people that you love… and Mara sure does love Nick. Hopefully Kade will feel the same way about me! There’s something really special about seeing my daughter with my brother. It’s just strange because you grow up with someone and know all the goofy things about them (like how they can impersonate Ace Ventura perfectly) and then all the sudden you are adults and sharing some of life’s most special moments together, like raising children. I’m just so grateful that Nick and I are so close and hopefully our kids will be too! I just wish that we lived closer! I miss Nick and Jen now more then ever because I want Mara and Kade to grow up together. At least the holidays are coming soon so we will get to see them more as a result.

Here are some more of my favorite pictures of Uncle Nick and Mara. These were taken at the hospital when Kade was born. Mara had a blast playing with Uncle Nick. I think he enjoyed it too : )

What a Glorious Site!

A gallon of gas for under $3!

Another One Bites the Dust

Aaron just called to tell me that he was heading home from Best Buy and I said, "What were you doing there?" and he told me that he was working on the computer at home and it froze, so he turned it off and it wouldn't turn back on. The Geek Squad at Best Buy said that our motherboard is toast and that it is probably a result of a power surge. Aaron said that he hadn't noticed any problems with the power or other electronics in the house so I don't know how a surge could have caused the problem, but either way, our computer is dead. They said that they can probably transfer files to a new computer (for $99, yikes) but they won't know for sure until they try. Luckily, I have all but about 15 of my most recent pictures of Mara stored on our back-up hard drive and on an SD card. If it was a power surge though, I don't know if it would have affected our back-up too. I sure hope not! Our computer has been running slow for so long that I thought we might have to invest in a new computer in 2009. I wasn't planning on this expense right now though! I know nothing about computer storage, what amenities we need, etc. so if you have any recommendations please let us know!

I will be putting Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on the new computer, along with a couple other graphics programs. I know those are big programs.

Any computer suggestions?

I also wanted to add that this is our second computer that has had a crashed motherboard! I have no idea how it keeps happening, but I am not a happy camper!

Baby Doll Shop

A few weeks ago, Mara and I ventured over to Christine's house for a visit. I was nervous to go on a 3 hour drive by myself with Mara, but she was perfect! While we were there, Christine took us to a quaint little shopping area that had a doll shop. It's a shop that Emily loves and now I can safely say that Mara does too. She went bonkers over the dolls. This was the first time she had really seen dolls that look like babies (instead of just cloth dolls) and she loved them. She loved the dollies so much that Christine bought her a couple dolls to take home with her.





Other highlights from the trip included falling asleep during dinner because she had played so hard with her cousins all day.



Playing with Emily.





Hanging out with Olivia.




A shopping spree at the Carter's store for fall clothes...thanks to Christine! (It's a good thing that I don't have one of those stores close by! I'd be broke!)



A walk around the neighborhood while mommy napped. Thanks to Christine and the girls for that too! (Picture to come)


We had such a wonderful visit and can't wait to go back!