Evan and his pumpkins

I just thought I'd post these before it got too late. Evan is so much fun. He helped carve pumpkins and then explained how the pumpkins were feeling.
These were my weak Halloween decorations on the front porch.

Evan was so excited about the pumpkins. Just not excited about getting dressed up.

Look! Dad is Blogging!!!

I know what you guys think, "I thought Dad does not have much money; what is he doing with a $7k camera gear?" I say, ask your Ate'. She's a genuis!!!

Since architectural renderings are less in demand because of the economy, I switched to architectural photography and I am enjoying it much. I am looking at a few projects and it pays just like renderings. I'm looking forward to a New Jersey job, a shopping center.

Here's the new E.L. Bowsher High Schools where all of you graduated from:

From this....

To this... When an architect and illustrator hits the camera. (Spot the differences.) and thanks to Lysle for giving me the programs to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images by merging 3 to 9 photos of progressive exposures to get the details in both shadows and highlights.

Auditorium

Gym

Atrium

Classroom

And here's Mom with Gabriel showing the height of Dad's old tripod still in use.

Gabriel with Grandpa while preparing for the shoot.

Can't wait for Evan and Brady to come with Cache and Brett for Thanksgiving
and wish that all of the grandchildren could be here in Toledo.

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Troy

Christmas...Who has Who

So we will do families rather than couples and kids. $50-$60 will be the amount. Hope this all works for you all.

Howells have the Steeds and Steeds have the Howells
Lysle O has Enoch O and Enoch O has Lysle O.

Happy shopping!!

Our Family This Month

Hi, Everyone:

Just thought you would like to see this pic of our family. Mireille, you can right click and save this pic for your album. I know that you wanted it.

Love you all!

To Infinity and Beyond!

This year we strayed away from our Buckeye inspired costumes and it was a big success. Gabriel LOVED being Buzz Lightyear. As soon as I brought home the costume, he flew it around the house going "Whoosh...whoosh!" Once we put it on him he would say, "I Buzz! I Buzz!" It was too cute. Here's a pick of him when he was just wearing it around the house.



Gabriel's favorite thing to do was lie on the floor so he could see the lights on the wings blink.


He went trick-or-treating for the first time on Friday and had lots of fun. He made sure to say please and thank you and also Happy Halloween. He said it really funny though putting the stress on Halloween and getting really loud. He even saw some little Asian girls about Rori & Kaori's age. When he saw them he went, "Rori! Rori!"

Here's some pics from trick-or-treating.

So this was definitely a great Halloween. Gabriel just seems to get more and more fun as he gets older. Thanks for sharing all the pics of the kids. I think Evan's costume was my favorite. He cracked me up!

Love you all! Happy Halloween!

Joy, Enoch & Gabriel

Princess and Princess

So of course my girls will be princesses....again. I wonder what they will be next year. The good thing is that I don't have to go out and find a costume for them because we usually have cousins that have outgrown their dress-ups and have passed them down. Kaori was Ariel and Rori was the pink Tinkerbell - I believe her name is Rosella.

Rori was a champ at trick or treat. Those of you who don't remember but Rori has been known to be the growing tumor on my side. But lately she has become more independent and the other night she was amazing. She asked me every time after heading to the next house if she could WALK and she was usually the first one to get her candy and head towards the next door. She could have gone forever. WOW is all I have to say.

Can I just say Texas has been awesome for Halloween. No winter coats or boots. It's perfect.



















Kaori has this pose lately...it's her I'm sassy look....with the hip pop and her hand is usually at her face or up and to the side. I don't know where she got it but every time we ask her to smile we get this.

Happy Halloween!!

Ok, so Halloween at our house is just getting to be an ordeal. Four kids needing make-up and attention to get ready is making me and Mike rethink having another kid, just kidding. Our kids are sooooooo cute that we just can't help but have more (not anytime soon, are you kidding!!).

We had our trunk-or-treat for our ward on the 17th and it was way early, but we crashed the in-laws ward on Halloween. The kids also got all dressed up for school and we went trick or treating at the Bass Pro Shop for free. It was really fun.

Taylor was a "Wicked Witch". She is way too pretty and good to even be "wicked".


Victoria was a fairy princess. She is growing really fast lately and she is looking more like her big sister. She is in kindergarten now and it is funny to see her bopping off to school.


Luke was Indiana Jones. He loves this costume!! He got to wear it to his preschool class. He is really tall and he is going to be 4 on the 12th. Crazy. He was just my baby.

Troy was the Incredible Hulk. Isn't he cute? I saw this costume advertised and everywhere I looked, it was gone. I went all the way to Rancho to get this costume for him. It was the last one!! Yay for me! He is going to be 1 on the 16th. Can you believe it? He is starting to walk too!!


This is a picture of Victoria. She was a scarecrow for her school's Halloween Scarecrow day.



This was the same scarecrow dress that Mom made for Taylor when she was in kindergarten and hopefully my last kid will be a girl so that she can wear it too.