Happy Halloween!

We took our little ducky trick-or-treating tonight. Is this the cutest ducky you've ever seen? She was completely happy just sitting in the stroller with a candy bar in each hand. She had no intentions of eating them, but she just liked having them in her hands. When we pryed them away from her they were warm and squishy in their wrappers, so she wasn't happy when we threw them away. She had a great time, though. By the way, look who's walking! She's so advanced for 15 months, don't you think? :)

Happy 38th Post to Me!

When I logged in, it said I had posted 37 posts. So this makes 38. What a milestone. Is there any number more insignificant than 38? Here are a few of the Evmeister. She was sitting in front of the glass door, and since it is winterish outside, in front of the door is about the only light we can bring into our house. I'm pushing for skylights in the living room. I have to have some new lofty goal since I got the camera. I thought she looked so sweet and innocent, so I snapped a few. I hope you like them.

Ceili

This baby has such a great little personality. I think you can see it here. She's a tiny little thing with a great big smile and big baby blues. Her mommy is my college roommate's sister. I couldn't wait to take her pictures.

I know this has nothing to do with Ceili, but I have to tell it because I think it's funny. Tonight we went to my niece Blake's volleyball game (SIDEOUT!), and my niece Jordan (whom you blogheads have all seen and read about) said to my brother, "when I become a big girl like you, can I still call you 'Daddy'?"

Anyway, here are some of little Ceili Marie.

Jack Rocks

I had another friend allow me to come in and take some pictures of her child. I definitely needed the change of scenery. Here's 9 1/2 month old Jack. He is so so sweet and so so busy. We had to bribe him with things that he could put in his mouth, like cell phones and rocks. You can see the rock in the picture below. Thanks for letting us come, Beth!

Evie G Funk

That's her rapper name...Evie G Funk. I don't have much to write about, but Greg thinks I should write about my dead pansies. But what he meant was my dead impatiens...the only pansy around here is Greg A Funk. Yeah, the frost got them last night. They look like e.coli spinach now. You can't even tell that they were ever flowers. Pretty sad, really, considering I gave them a watering every morning this summer, and now all I've got to show for it is dead pansies. Oh well, there's always next year I guess. Here are some pictures from today. I would've taken some when we went on our walk to Lo Bill, but only Evie's eyes and cheeks were showing (all bundled up) even though it was pretty sweet. Speaking of Lo Bill, I've entered us about 15 times in this "Win a Disney Cruise Sweepstakes" they are having in November. It's for a family of 4--all expenses paid. As you know we are only a family of 3. I'll make you a deal. If you comment on this blog posting and I like it better than the other comments, you can come with us when we win the Disney cruise.

Fazoli's

Christina brought Maddy over again today, so Evie and I had some company. I can't believe how much she has grown in such a short time. It's amazing what eating 24 hours a day can do for a baby. We went to Fazoli's and had some real Italian real fast. Hey, that's catchy; I should tell them about it. Then we came back here and I got to give Maddy her bottle. I think I must've given her too much without burping her, because we saw it again later. I'm just so out of practice! :)

UNSHARP MASK!

Thank goodness I talked to Jen Sherrick today and asked her for some feedback on my pictures. She ripped me a new one. Just kidding! She mentioned some acronym and I was all, "what is she talking about?" until I looked it up to see what it stood for...USM, as in Unsharp Mask, a filter in photoshop that has brought my pictures to life! Who would've thought that something that is called UNsharp would actually make a picture sharper? Somebody was tippin the bottle when they named that one. Here are a few more that weren't good yesterday but today they look much better. Thanks, Jen! I mean, yeah, I knew that.

Blue-Eyed Beauties

These are two of the four blue-eyed cuties that moved in next door to us. The little one is turning a year old on Wednesday. He's walking in case you are wondering. Evie isn't impressed or motivated by it though, in case you are wondering that too. The older one was loving the fact that I was taking his picture...he kept getting in a hunched over the knees pose and saying, "this makes me look like a baseball player." Then he'd ask to see how it turned out on the lcd screen. He's a really sweet and funny little guy. And his little brother gave Evie a big bear hug.

Pumpkin Patch

As promised, here are a few from the patch/hayride. I don't know what or who Evie is waving at. Below is a picture of the jack-o-lanterns that we carved from the pumpkins today. From left to right, Greg McNoteeth, Jordan Smallpherson, Sara Bestlookingpumpkinintownman, Bailey Reallysmallfacely. My brother was really impressed with Greg's carving abilities and told him he should've been a surgeon. It must've gone to his head b/c moments later he shouted, "Doh! I forgot the teeth!" Then there were several jokes made about his toothless pumpkin...I think he's kind of cute, don't you?

Roscoe's Tacos

Someone actually took me up on my offer to take bad pictures of them...not bad as in dirty, but bad as in I wish I knew what I was doing. Actually we were going to the pumpkin patch with them today anyway, so taking pictures before we went and while we were there was a no-brainer. Baby Elaina is so beautiful, and she's very photogenic, but she is getting a tooth and was scared to death of this camera as big as your head (who wouldn't be?). So we didn't have very good luck with the opportunities to snap, but we made the most of it. I'd love to do this again with them in a few months. I'll post some from the pumpkin patch tomorrow. Here's a little teaser for you though: barefoot Evie in the orange melon field! We also had Roscoe's Tacos tonight, which was great. I don't have pictures of that, and I'm sure everyone was glad that the camera finally got a rest.

Watermark

I know it's late, I know you're weary. I know your plans don't include me. I'm super tired too, but I thought I'd post this real fast. I'll probably regret it in the morning, as we do most things that happen after midnight. These are not the best pictures, and I realize that, but compared to the other..pardon my French..CRAP that I took today, they are an A+. Notice the watermark. If you can't read it because it's too small, it says Sara Willhelm Portraits©. Notice the copyright. It means absolutely nothing. I know you are asking yourself, "where does she come up with these clever catch phrases?" but Sara Willhelm Portraits just came to me. It's very original. I'm going to start using it on all of my pictures so that no one tries to take my crap and pass it off as their own. Also, it's going to be the name of my new business. My mission statement will be "I'll take your pictures for free, since they won't be worth paying for." If anyone is interested, just let me know. But really it is all about the baby, and check out those crazy curls.

My High Chair

You know who isn't very nice? Alex Trebek. I don't know if anyone saw the end of Jeopardy tonight, but they had little kids on there, so we watched it thinking maybe we would know some of the answers. We didn't, but that's not the point. At the very end when they do final Jeopardy, the answer was something like "These are 2 of the 3 states that space shuttles have landed." One of the kids wrote "What are Florida and Houston?" This kid is only like 11, so it's completely forgiveable, but instead of saying something like, "No I'm sorry that is incorrect," Alex had to go and point out that "Florida is a state, and of course Houston is NOT." I don't know why he didn't just drag him across the stage and beat him with the you're-an-idiot stick. I think maybe he feels powerful knowing more than an 11 year old. Anyway I just wanted to share that. I hope SNL does a spoof off of it. Regardless, I was loving the way the light was hitting Evie today when she was eating her nanna. No, she wasn't eating her grandma, that's nanna as in Gwen Stefani's favorite fruit, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Plus it's easy to get pictures when she's in the high chair, since she can't run (and by run I mean crawl) away from the camera. And yes that is a tear on her cheek. Mommy is just not fast enough with that fruit.

Bold Color

Don't you just hate it when your baby is sleeping and the monitor is on, but then you realize the volume isn't loud enough and your baby has been crying who knows how long, and then you go in and she's wimpering b/c she's been crying for so long? Yeah, that's never happened to me so I wouldn't know. We're at my parents' house, and Evie can't stay out of the window, so here's one of that. Below is a picture of my friend Jamie holding Evie at Abby's bridal shower this morning. Rumor has it she hasn't been blogging frequently, so maybe hearing that she is on here will convince her to check it. :)

Pictures from 3 Days Ago

I had taken these a few days ago, and I had decided they weren't good enough to post. But I just opened them up again and I think I was just being too picky. We're heading to Washington this weekend for my friend Abby's pre-wedding extravaganza weekend. Shower on Saturday morning and bachelorette party on Saturday night. I'm going to party like it's 1999. But I really didn't party in 1999, so that wouldn't be much fun. Speaking of the year I graduated high school, when I was at the store yesterday there was one of those signs that said, "if you weren't born before this date then you can't buy tobacco." The date was 9/28/1988! That made me feel really old, since I was probably already holding hands by then.

Rough Night

Evie had her first stomach bug last night, and it was really sad. The poor thing looked like she'd just celebrated her 21st birthday. By 1:00 am the worst was over, and she finally got some good sleep. She's not quite back to herself yet but on her way. She's asked that you not send balloons or cards, because she can't read and loud popping noises are scary. We don't want to ever have to see her like that again, but she sure was cuddly.

Going Through the Cabinets

Have you ever noticed that when you get the saran wrap off of the roll, it sticks to itself like it has a magnetic attraction for itself...and then when you finally get it unstuck from itself and you try to put it around a plate or something, it won't stick to itself at all? So frustrating. I think that's why God invented Tupperware. Evie likes to rummage through her wardrobe in her room and today while I was going all paparazzi on her, she actually started to climb up into it. I'm glad I had the camera. But then again when don't I have the camera?

Our Little Pumpkin

Maybe I should've waited until we went to the pumpkin patch to take these pictures, but I'm a little over anxious about it I guess. I love fall colors, not as much as summer flowers, but fall is fun. I remember last year at this time we would've been walking the streets with our little baby in a sling around one of our necks trying to keep her from crying. Then when we got tired of walking outside, if she was asleep, we'd hang the sling on a chair in the kitchen. I can't really go outside in the evening this time of year without thinking about that. It's funny how smells and sounds and coldish air can make you nostalgic like that. Kind of like when I smell peach cobbler it makes me remember home, or when I smell B.O. it takes me back to when we spent the weekend with Casey and Creepy Uncle Brock.

Oh Happy Day!

The camera gods have been good to me! And so has my husband! Now I really have no excuse for taking bad pictures. I'm so excited about it. I'm starting to get annoying (like I wasn't before), b/c I want to take pictures of everyone and everything. If you come within a 5 mile radius of me, watch out. My mom told me that she can't wait until this camera is old. I still have so much to learn with it, but it's not like it's rocket surgery, so hopefully I can figure it out. There are just so many things you can do with it and with photoshop. My niece Blake asked me if it could get rid of pimples, and I said yes, but my mom followed it up with not in real life. Just in the pictures. So I guess there are some things that I can't do. I love a blurry background though, and that's where this thing is amazing. I can also take indoor pictures now without the flash and with a moving baby. Have I mentioned that Jen Sherrick is my hero (http://jsherrick-thesedays.blogspot.com/)? If you see some similarities it's because I copy or probably will copy off of everything she does.

To da park! (again)

Do you think I should change the name of my blog to Fall Fun? I guess I shouldn't have used a name that would have to change with the seasons. That's like naming your child Autumn or Summer. What are these people thinking? Come winter, everyone is confused. Greg is at some kind of "meeting" (aka "date" with his girlfriend Shane) and will be until 9:30 or so, so I've just been sulking in my loneliness and playing with photoshop. Good news Diane: the camera fairy may make an appearance this weekend. Evie and I walked to the park again today, and I had the camera handy of course. We are getting low on paci's. When we were coming back home and going up Butt Hill (it's a killer) Evie dropped her pacifier. I didn't see it fall, but she was pointing to the ground and giving her I-don't-know hand movement and shoulder shrug. So I looked down and it was gone. I knew if we went back down that hill to look for it, we'd have to come back up (learned that in Physics 101), so I just had to let it go. I think we are down to 3. I haven't discussed it with Pants yet, but I think maybe after these 3 are gone, we should just call it quits on the plastic mouth plugs. We'll see how the princess handles it I guess.