My Newest Niece

This is my newest niece, Tabitha. I love newborn babies, and having a neice is so much fun since we are a little short on girls on the Mathis side of the family. She was born on Halloween and weighed a little under 6 pounds. What a cute lil' peanut! I forget how TINY newborns can be. Both Connor and Gavin were under 6 pounds...funny how I don't remember them ever being this small!

In comparison, here is my brute baby. He's topping the scales at 19 pounds. I cannot believe how big he is and he's just turned 6 months! He's so dang chunky and delicious.
What would we ever do without you, Brennan?

(Sleeping babies are so sweet!)
Lori and Trigg are in the process of moving from San Diego to San Antonio. Lori will be staying at my inlaws until Trigg can find a place to live. Having to move and just having a baby...wow. You guys are awesome. Not everyone can do that and remain sane.

I miss childhood. I remember (vaguely) how to turn an ordinary box into an extraordinary toy. My boys had lots of fun playing in the "peanuts" today. One would hide and scare the other (or me) and then laugh until they had tears in their eyes.
Anyone want a couple of nuts shipped to them for Christmas?

I LOVE Adobe Elements!

I have found a new passion and it's name is Adobe Photoshop Elements!
I cannot believe how easy and fun it is to create really cool effects and scrapbooking pages, greeting cards, etc. with this program. I was just playing around a little bit today for about 45 minutes and cranked out 8 or 9 sample pages. It was sooo easy. I dread scrapbooking. I love the effect, but it is so terribly time consuming, (and expensive) so I have purposely neglected my kid's pictures after the first year of their lives. Not anymore! WOW. You don't get the same texture and cute 3D effect of real scrapbooking, but it takes a FRACTION of the time and looks just as cute in my humble opinion. (These pages are simple, no graphics. The program has a ton, but I try to highlight the photo without clutter. Not that there is anything wrong with that! :) ) I bought my copy of elements for $90. What a bargain. Best program ever!
Ok, Ok, I will stop talking endlessly...take a look for yourself.
(Mindy, I hope it's ok I used a sample photo of Emily. She is just so darn sweet in this picture.)

Texas Snow

It's funny how I miss little things like building a snowman.
My kids have only seen snow a handful of times and wonder why it doesn't snow here in Southeast Texas.

My friend Audra came up with a solution to the snowman dilemma. We went down to Galveston yesterday, and spent the day at the beach. Audra and her family thought up the idea of a "Texas Christmas" card and asked me to take her family's picture in front of a sand snowman. It was a brisk 64 degrees and windy, but otherwise beautiful. The kids had a blast building a snowless snowman.

Today we are a little sunburned, but it was worth it.
Here is the fruit of our labor.....

Connor and Gavin barefoot in the sand. I tried to get a picture of all three of my boys, but Brennan was NOT cooperating. We sure had fun making our sandyman. (Hidden pictures...do you see the kite surfer?
The oil rig platform?)

This is Audra and her family. She has been one of my dearest friends in Texas. They are moving to Highland Park in Denver, Colorado at the end of the month. Lucky!
They'll get to make real snowmen very soon!

These photos are rough drafts of her Christmas cards...
Cammie and Kayla looking so cute!

Something (Not So) Wonderful

Ok, so the big surprise has become a big disappointment.
A company approached Sean and wanted to partner with him, but the company is in Buffalo, NY meaning we'd have to move there. Sean said no-can-do. Then there were talks of a buy-out of Sean's software company instead. A very lucrative buy-out...one million dollars or close to that. So, I got a little excited, naturally. The big meeting was today, and things did not go as we hoped. The company did not come remotely close to the original figure. The nerve!
What does this mean for us? Not much, really. Sean's business is doing extremely well. We will be just fine without a buy-out, in fact it is probably the smarter thing to do in the long run. The only thing it affects is our move time line to Colorado. Instead of moving whenever we want to, we now have to wait several more months until the software project Sean is currently working on is complete....no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Thank you all for your thoughts and good wishes on our behalf. Things always work out the way they are suppose to, so it's all good!
Next time I will keep my big trap shut so that I don't make you all suffer! Sorry. :)

Trick or Treat!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I guess it's because I love to dress up and pretend to be something or someone else for a day. Thankfully, I married a very enthusiastic guy who enjoys doing the same. My kids are crazy about Halloween too! Not for the candy, though. They love to dress up and strut their stuff. Here are a few highlights of this year.....
May the force be with you, Connor jedi master!

Gavin is Jack Sparrow with a babyface.

We've come to take your candy! Mu-wah-ha-ha!

Sean ready to ride his Harley...he looks so tough with that black goatee. Hilarious!

Jenny Jr. dressed up as a pumpkin...Brennan wins the cutest costume award!