Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

  We are postponing Thanksgiving until tomorrow this year so that Shawn can spend Turkey Day with her in-laws.  But, that gives us time to cook thankfully, especially since both Dave and I had to work all day yesterday.

  We typically go do Black Friday shopping after the crazy people go home, around 8am, and then afterwards, visit Santa for pictures with the kids.  However, since we adjusted Thanksgiving, we will probably need to do some cooking tomorrow morning instead, so, we decided to make a run for the mall last night.  The grocery stores were insane yesterday (I know, I forgot pumpkin!!), but, the mall was practically empty!  So, no lines...which is why we typically do the pictures on Black Friday...everyone else is preoccupied and forgets about the jolly man...

Halloween

These are actually pictures of the Halloween Carnival at Owen's school the week before Halloween.  The kids opted to wear different costumes on actual Halloween night.  I only got a phone picture of that, so, I will add that later when I'm more ambitious.

The same weekend we also did some pumpkin carving with the Crouse side.  Even cousin Eli got into it this year!

 Owen opted to do his own design...he opted for a bat (I know, its an impressive owl...but, not what he was aiming for).  He and Dave both used the Dremel tool to thin out the top so the design glows through instead of completely cutting into the pumpkin.  They looked great!

And Ollie was in the way, so, I took a picture of him...We might have some wishful thinking, but, we are wondering if his eyesight issues might have been due to malnutrition and that he's getting at least a little of it back.  Again, not sure that's true, but, we think we are seeing some improvements.  The vet swears he probably can't see at all out of the all blue eye and you can see the pupil is weird.  But, it moves with the other and he'll blink if you move your hand towards it, so, we just aren't sure what to think.

Some more...

I edited these forever ago and I guess I never posted them!!  These are mostly of Liv at her soccer practice.  This is the first year she played.  I think she was about the youngest on the team and although she loved the drills, she just wasn't able to hang in when they did the scrimmages.  So, she got a little discouraged.  But, she stuck out the whole season!  I think with as disorganized this group was, we will wait until she's 5 to try again.

And this is just my goofy boy playing in his Darth Vader costume... he keeps tying a couple pieces of the cape in the front because he doesn't think they look right....drives me crazy!!  Sometimes, I see his mother's hard head in him! ;O)

Wonder Woman and Other Random Pics!

As usual, time has gotten away from me.  I've taken a few photos here and there, but, not many.  I have finally had time to play with some of them though and thought Id share what I've got.  

Shawn got the girls these Wonderwoman outfits and wanted action shots with them.  We did these on an overcast day and I didn't have my lights up and running.  So, they aren't what I wanted...I also know now how they should pose.  I'm hoping to try one more time, but, thought these were fun regardless.

Liv is so proud of her cousin and still thinks she's the greatest thing ever.

Lizzy on the other hand is not yet impressed with her cousin or her aunt that takes too many pictures every time she visits...

Owen had to have retakes done because he was super sick the first round.  The photography company is a pain in the butt to deal with and ended up putting the wrong background on the retakes.  I was going to call and make them resend.  But, decided to just extract him myself and do my own background.  I actually like mine better than theirs anyway. 

In trying to get Owen's pictures just right, I learned some new techniques and it made me think of Liv's first Easter pictures.  I had tried using a green screen behind her and it was so bright, her whole body just glowed green.  But, with the techniques I learned on Owen's photo, I went back and edited one of hers.  There's several others I'd like to work on, but started with this one. I can still see a bit of glow on the white parts, I'll have to keep researching for these more extreme photos.  But, I'm MUCH happier with this picture.  I think she was around 2 weeks in the picture, she was such a crabby little thing!!