Happy Halloween!

Mark and I had a great Halloween this year. We dressed up as a witch and a wizard for our church Trunk-or-Treat event on Friday night. Mark went a little nuts with the decorations and created an entire scene including a faux brick wall, fireplace with mantle (plus the creepy cat picture seen here), and table with potions and jars of gross stuff (eyeballs, fingers, rats....)

Gwen and Nicholas stopped by on their way to another party. And I'm glad Gwen was able to take pictures of us. The flash on the camera takes away from the spooky effects quite a bit, so trust me that it looked better than this in the dark. :)

He's a cute monkey! And I'm a scary witch!

All of our hard work paid off because we won a prize for the Scariest Decorations! Mark is seriously already planning for next year.

Creepy Cat

Since we're on the subject of Halloween, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of something we've been working on.....

Mark and I are going to be a witch and a wizard for Halloween this year. (It wasn't my first choice, but I think its turning out to be pretty cool.)

This picture will be part of our 'Trunk-or-Treat' set up. You'll have to wait until after the weekend to see the final pictures, but I hope it is successful.

Pet Costumes - Part 2

Just to make things fair among the animals, I have found an equally awesome costume for Dave. How cute is this shark sweater? (not the cat, just the sweater) Fun and functional!!

Made by Melisande of Youth Diaspora via Etsy

If you're worried about Lizzie being left out of the Halloween festivities, don't be. She barely even let's me pet her, so I know better than to try to wrangle a costume onto her.

Cowboy, Monkey, Jockey or Mailman?

We've had a major breakthrough with Mark. He is finally reconsidering his costume ban for our pets. We found these dog costumes at a local Halloween store. Its really just a harness type strap that you put on the dog like you would a leash. And its funny. And we're probably going to get one. But which is best?

Costumes also found online at : BuyCostumes dot com

Creepy or Cool?

A few months ago, a coworker asked me if he could take my picture so that his Dad (who is supposedly an artist in Japan) could do a painting of me. Creepy!

Then I realized that he asked all the women at work the same question. Creepier!

But when I got to my desk yesterday I found this. I think its pretty cool!!

Buca di Becker

Sheona and Jon kindly invited us all over to their house recently for dinner and so that we could visit with our Canadian cousins Neil & Kelly and their little boy Garroch. Last time Neil & Kelly were in town we all went to Buca di Beppo downtown. This time we opted for an in home meal because there would be a 3 year and newborn joining us. Sheona and Jon

went out of their way to make it a great night. They decorated their back patio like an Italian restaurant and made enough food for an Italian football team (and leftovers!).

I did a poor job of capturing the night, but here is what I got.....

Mom & Dad

The guests of honor...Neil, Kelly & Garroch

Neil & Nicholas

Sheona "The Baby Whisperer"

Sheona has a way with Nicholas. He will fall asleep in her arms every time she holds him :)

Oh Babies!

Mark and I became Aunt & Uncle to 2 babies this summer!!

Mark's brother and his wife had a baby girl on July 12. Little Elizabeth was born at 29 weeks and had to fight hard for her life. She is now home and we hear that she is doing really well. We hope to be able to see her soon!!

Here are Elizabeth's little feet just after she was born. So tiny and sweet.

And my sister Gwen had a baby boy on August 26. Nicholas is 7 weeks old now and the treasure of the Becker family. Gwen and Gabe are truly wonderful parents and its been great seeing their family grow and change over the past couple months.

Nicholas on his birthday