HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2010

Wow... Halloween again.. so happy that the clouds went away and we had a lovely evening perfect for trick-or-treating. Especially since Alannah's genie costume wasn't very warm! I put a meal in the crockpot, grandma and grandpa came over to hold down the fort while we went trick -or-treating with our neighbors and then watched "How to tame your dragon" what a fun night! Too bad we had to go to bed early cause it was Sunday... 

My little Avila... was quite indecisive about her costume this year... she played with being a cheerleader, and had fun as the Statue of Liberty for school... but the one she ended up with for Halloween night... A snow queen. So her. Even though we already had plenty of costumes  in her closet, she really wanted to be a snow queen (darn that Chasing Fireflies Catalog!!!)... after making Alannah's genie costume which ended up being a day's work and about $25, I came across a snow queen outfit for $29.99 at Marshalls...  (this would've taken more time and probably the $30 in materials) Done! Plus Avila was willing to pay for half of it from her allowance... so we scored on a very really nice costume that she will have plenty of fun with.

Here she is practicing her regal queen wave... lol. She looks more like a beauty queen doesn't she? Oh she is everything girly and sparkly. LOVE HER!

And Alannah decided early on that she wanted to be a genie... and we searched for a genie costume, but there wasn't any around town, we found some on the internet but they were almost $40. So I decided to make her one, she was very happy, she got to pick out the fabrics in her favorite shade of Aqua. I even made her a bag in the shape of a lantern to hold all her candy!

Ssshhhh... don't tell her she looks like Princess Jasmine - she'd be mortified!

Mini-me...

Its so nice that daddy hollowed out all our pumpkins, and Grandma and Grandpa came to lend a helping hand, the girls carved so many pumpkins... here are avila's creations:

And Alannah's creations... of course there's a horse.. of course:

Alannah found me this Koala Bear template on the internet, she is such a wizard at googling...   if it wasn't for Jason doing the hollowing out of the inside, I'd never have gotten around to carving a pumpkin this year... here's to all my friends & family down under... we miss you much and wish you had've been here!

Here are the pics from the girls' school cultural day celebration, I love how they celebrate Halloween a little differently... Each grade had a theme and 1st Graders were asked to dress up as American Icons and 6th graders someone from the Ancient Egyptian era. So much fun! And we learned so much about the costumes as we researched  on the different elements. I had to make Avila's Statue of Liberty Costume, I couldn't believe my luck when I found this fabulous fabric at Triads that was the perfect shade of mint green and only $2 a yard!!! Good thing since it took almost 4 yards. The sash I thought would've been the simplest but took me the longest... don't know why it wouldn't drape nicely. It was very bulky.. oh well. Jason helped me with the crown and I quickly cut out the torch and made a keystone out of foam we had in the garage. The crown has seven spikes symbolizing the seven seas and seven continents of the world. The tablet is a book of law based on the founding principals of this nation and is shaped as keystone which is the stone that keeps the other stones together, and the inscription is the date July 4th 1776 in roman numerals which is the date of the declaration of independence. Who knew all this? I can go on and on since each and every piece of this Statue has a meaning or symbolism right down to her robe and sandals.. but you can google it. lol.

For Alannah we lucked out and was able to reuse her costume from last Halloween. She makes such a beautiful Queen Cleopatra. The whole school met for an assembly and each class got to parade their costumes. Alannah also had to give a presentation to her class about Queen Cleopatra who she has been studying about all month. She also had to bring in a dish from that era as part of her project, she brought  grapes and pita bread.

Phew! Good thing I only have two kids... Hope everyone had a safe and happy halloween! Now back to work!

[Fall Issue of Dandelion!]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the new Dandelions cover!! I promised you we'd seeing these two around town. So here they are:

 And a recap on their super fun super cute photoshoot!

Thanks for stopping in... oxoxoxxo

[two x cute]

Here are two little sweeties that I am so happy to share with you.  So here are a few checks I try to do before I take a picture: 

1. Make sure clothing is on straight

2. Make sure hair is out of the face

3. Make sure all limbs are inside the frame

And here's what you do when kids are two and under:

1. forget checking just shoot before they run away! LOL! They sure are a busy team, keeps their parents on their toes for sure! Thanks for being so patient, here's a sneak preview of what we got, lots more cuteness to come in your gallery:

They came with some great toys...

This plane is awesome, they just don't make toys like they used to.

Here's a before and after.. spot the difference? :-)

[Sacramento Parents Magazine Past 4 Issues!!!!!]

Wow... time flies. I am feeling extremely guilty I haven't been showcasing these amazing Sacramento Parent Magazine covers each month, but its now time to catch up!!
Starting way back at July's issue with a familiar face, sweet Sienna. She spent part of this summer in Nicaragua with our church ministry, teaching art to the kids. What a great cover!

August's Cover featured a special mom who's raising five kids on her own, AND going back to school! I will never complain about having too much to do!!!

And September's cover featured a darling gymnast from Extreme Gymnastics in Loomis. What a wonderful place made me feel very unfit. These kids have so much energy and talent in their little pinkie I was so amazed!

And this month's issue - October (already?) is sweet little Rosemary. She's is a true cover girl. This has got to be my all-time favorite. I couldn't help but notice this issue on the newsstands, it totally jumped out and said read me!!!  See Rosemary again on page 20, sporting super cute duds from Bellybou's at the Roseville Fountains.

The covers just keep getting better and better, and the magazine is full of useful information. Grab one today at your local store or library or one of their gazillion locations, to find out where go to www.sacramentoparent.com.

[more family time]

I've photographed this family so many times, I am seriously running out of new locations! They're so cute. They're my opposite version of my two girls, two boys. So great to catch up with them and see how the kids have grown.

 

 Sweet!!

[girl power...]

Finally... I am still pouring over the zillions of images we took while my sister was here this summer. But I have been dying to share these, these are by far my favorite of all time. Thank you Kelli Jane Seeley for these, I can't be more happy with them, I will treasure these FORVER and EVER... (post processing by me).

These outfits fell into place, except for Avy's outfit everything was already from our wardrobes! Now that's never happened before!  We picked up Avy's romper at Target, in the infant section! Can you believe that was a 4t? What a peanut!

How come little sisters always grow taller than you? But I still remember when I changed your diaper!

My sweets... they're getting so BIG. Soon they will be bigger than their mommy. I will remember them now how little they are at this time. Here we are with our nice tan from swimming at the pool every day!  My sister did our hair, it never looked so good...

My sister's been here 3 times, and this is the first time we've ever had our pictures taken together, it was supposed to be me, sis and brother... but little brother went camping instead! oh well, next time!

Did I mention she's hilarious??

Miss you sis! That was fun! Wished you lived closer...