Noah and I are home today because he’s sick. I picked him up early yesterday from school because he was throwing up and today he’s resting feeling pretty bad. Since I’m home anyway, I decided to really focus and get things done around here. I am totally excited that I finished all of the shopping for our nieces and nephews last weekend. Today I’m wrapping the presents and having them shipped. I also ordered Christmas cards and started on my 2009 calendars. After wrapping presents I’m going to finish the laundry and then it’s scrapping for me. Have a great day!

My laptop had been on the fritz since Ben switched out my 160GB hard drive for a 320G. So almost two weeks later he reformatted the thing and now it’s running beautifully. I’m soooo happy that I’m able to do layouts again and edit photos. Thanks, Honey!

With that said, I’m way behind on posting.

Here are some photos from our Halloween party. Andréa was an 80’s girl, Noah and Ethan were a pair of ghoulish night creatures,  Maddy was Dorothy and Preston was the Lion from the Wizard of Oz. Lorraine and Curtis made an appearance before heading out to their costume party.

We all had a great time eating pizza and sweets, bobbing for apples, and jumping in the moonwalk. We’ll have to do this again next year!

That's what I attempted to do toady, take a decent family photo. We headed out to the Japanese Gardens in hopes of capturing a great photo to hang in our living room. I can't say that we captured great photos but we did make some new memories :)

I have tons more to share but I'll save them for a later post. Now for two out takes that totally crack me up.

Here's Ethan yelling "Only one more picture!".

Noah using my tripod as an armed weapon...boys!

A little something that happened tonight: The boys were playing with a baseball in their room and it somehow finds its way through their bedroom window. After we talk to the boys and Ben tapes up the window, I ask them "Why were you throwing the ball in the house?" and Ethan responds "Mom, the past is the past, we have to let it go and move on".

Enough said.

Here's a photo of my beautiful little big girl. Looking at this just makes me want to freeze time and keep her just like this-innocent. She is growing so fast, my heart can't keep up. She is so beautiful inside and out, words cannot explain the love and adoration I have for my girl.

That's right, I said it, my husband is a ring tone thief. He bought me the Blackberry Curve a few weeks back. Since I got a cool new phone, I wanted a ring tone to match. I had mentioned that I wanted to buy the Soprano's theme song, a few days later he surprised me by putting it on my phone. Well,a few days ago I had mentioned that I thought the Office theme song would make a much better ring-tone and had planned to buy it. Well, last night the phone rang and all I heard was the Office theme song and beamed and thanked my honey for buying me yet another ring tone, only to realize he was answering his phone :( I was so mad that he stole my idea  right from under me! Lol! 

Speaking of my husband, he was elected MVP of Microsoft. Congrats, Baby!

Andréa needed a Styrofoam sphere to make a model of an atom (she started Chemistry this year)  so we headed to Michael's. They have some of the cutest Halloween decorations! I would have bought a ton more if I didn't think I was going to get into trouble when I got home :P Anyway, I bought three foam pumpkins, a candy jar, Foamies Haunted Graveyard kit, a potted bouquet of faux mums and of course the object of our shopping spree, the ball. The pumpkins they have on display are completely decorated with decoupage or black glitter....harlequin patterns, stripes, polka dots...they're sooo cute. Andréa can't wait to get her hands on ours to paint and glitter them. Here are a couple of photos of our decorations.

silk screen close-up, by my aunt Carol	Andréa painted this skeleton last year

this is by far my favorite!

I'll leave you with a handsome photo of Noah...he and Ben were chatting. Have a great week!

My friend had her baby boy a few days after the hurricane blew through Houston. I was able to visit her in the hospital and then again yesterday. Her little boy is such a big newborn, weighing in at 9.2lbs. and 21" long. Here's a little three photo collage I put together with a couple of the photos I took yesterday. Enjoy!

  Ben and I went back to work today and the kids will be off to school in the morning. So life here is almost back to normal-Barnes and Noble is still closed because of the power situation :(

Yesterday Ben came back from the grocery store with a wheel of camembert and we already had some wine (thanks to Carolyn's wedding) so, I thought it would be nice to sit on the patio and hang out. We've been trying to enjoy each other even in the hum drum and chaos that daily life brings. So, here's to some really good cheese and wine with the one you love :) Happy Monday!