Blessings

"When I count my blessings, I count you twice."  ~ Irish Blessing

(All of them. I count all 6 of them twice.)

Photo Retouching

Say you have a photo that you love, but it needs a little something. I am available for photo retouching. You can email me for details at christinedhall@comcast.net

Here are a few examples:

                              I brightened it up a little and removed the scratches from her eye and nose.

An example of a black and white conversion.

I removed the arm in the top left corner, the sign from the lawn, added a vintage coloring and vignette.

I removed the coke bottle from the corner, removed the orange coloring, added a texture and converted it to a vintage black and white.

Just a few things to keep in mind before contacting me:

*There is a $12 charge per image.

*The photo MUST only be taken by you.

*I reserve the right to decline any photo retouching if I don't feel I can achieve a satisfactory edit.

*Please allow up to 1 week for finished image.

Trick or Treat

I miss the cutesy costumes that I got to pick out for my kids back when they didn't know what Halloween even was. Now everyone wants to be "something scary". No one really knew what they wanted to be so I started giving out suggestions and all I heard was "no mom, that's not scary". This is what they decided on this year:

The Zombie

Sally the Ragdoll a.k.a. The Birthday Girl (see prior post for even more boo-tiful photos)

&

A 'Cute' Butterfly

(She really didn't want to put the costume on or stand still for a picture. Come to think of it, she was quite contrary most of the night.)

                                                                                     Freddy
He insisted on this costume. I kept asking if he was sure that was what he really wanted to be and he said it was. After trick-or-treating for a while, he decided that the mask was sweaty and smelled 'fishy' on the inside and that he didn't want to wear it anymore. Ryan told him that if he wanted to keep trick-or-treating that he had to wear the mask and so he kept it on. He pointed out to the kids that every year you learn something new. You learn what types of costumes you don't want to wear next time. And it's true!
(I think he decided that he won't be asking for a mask next year after all the complaining he did this year.)

The 'Scary' Spider

(with the smashed eyeballs because he got to wear his costume for 2 days in a row-note prior post)

P.S. he did see a Buzz Lightyear costume while we were picking up the older kids at school on Friday and told me he wanted to be that next year. :)

                                                   Little Munchkin didn't dress up this year.

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.

~From Scooby-Doo

                                      Daddy came home for the weekend and surprised us all. :)

Happy Birthday Boo-tiful!

What a busy, fun-filled weekend we had! My funny, always helping, animal lovin', carefree, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants daughter turned a whole 7 years old on October 31st!

I'll admit, Halloween never was one of my favorite holidays. I never liked, and still don't get into all the scary stuff. I can remember when I was pregnant with her saying to people that I hoped she wouldn't be born on Halloween. Any day but Halloween...and then she was. My little pumpkin. But since then, it's grown on me and I can now honestly say that I enjoy Halloween. Now I actually think it would be fun to have a birthday on that day. I mean, how many kids actually get to have a party AND a parade at school on their birthday? Or how many kids get to dress up as anything they want to be for their birthdays and tell others to come to their birthday party dressed up too? How many kids get to go up to all their neighbors houses and get free CANDY for their birthdays and then get to stay up kind of late going though it all? I think she likes that her birthday is on Halloween too. This year she got to wear her costume 3 days in a row! How fun is that?!

She went as Sally the Ragdoll from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

She picked out Superman ice cream and a leopard print birthday cake. YUM! :)

She learned that she doesn't really want to wear a wig next year because hers kept falling off while she was running from door to door.

She also knows that the bag of trick-or-treat goodies gets taken away for a few days when the candy wrappers and someone's chewed up bubblegum end up all over the bedroom floor too many times instead of in the garbage can.

And she asked me if she could have her ears pierced, so I think that we might go do that this week if she hasn't changed her mind.

Happy Birthday, Baby! I love you!

Love, Mom xoxoxo