Halloween 2006

For Halloween this year we went to the Westfield Topanga Mall in Woodland Hills to trick o' treat. We picked up Toni and met Araxi and her son Alex, Julie, and her two girls Emily and Clair. We even took Samantha with us because Katy and Juan Carlos couldn't make it tonight due to a family emergency.

We had a lot of FUN until the malls security stopped Phil to tell him that he couldn't wear his helmet nor have his "fake and plastic laser gun" with him in the mall for Halloween due to mall policy. So of course we all got upset especially Phil and Toni and they had to speak to a supervisor but to make a long story short...it was mall policy. What kills us is that there were a bunch of other people (kids and adults) wearing helmets and masks as well but they were only singling out certain people...I'm assuming adults. And they could totally tell that Phil was with his family and 3 other women with their kids... ay...yi...yi!! So Phil had to hold his helmet and laser gun in his hand for the rest of the evening...ugh! I felt horrible because Phil worked so hard on his costume for weeks...he made the entire costume himself and for this to happen to him...well I just felt really bad. But what made his night and ours... was that everyone (adults and kids) in the mall was coming up to him and saying how awesome his costume was and also wanting to take pictures with him! After that fiasco was dealt with...we had a nice dinner at Red Robin and took some more pictures.

We then went to Toni's neighborhood in Sherman Oaks to trick o'treat some more and check out this awesome Halloween display which this guy does every single year. All in all the kids got a bunch of candy and we all had a wonderful time. (Click here for pics)

Carved our Pumpkins!

We carved our pumpkins today...well Phil and the kids carved pumpkins today and I just took pictures of course...LOL. I didn't grow up carving pumpkins (my parents weren't into all the Halloween Craze like all my friends parents were ) and I was never really excited to stick my hands in a mushy and stringy pumpkin...lol but I love watching and taking pictures of people who do...it just cracks me up!

Underwood Family Farm!

We went to "Underwood Family Farm" this year (as we always do) and we had such a wonderful time. We went with Toni, Diane, her hubby Scott, their two beautiful girls Lauren and Amanda and us...The Shearers.

We started off with the corn maze...ugh we'll never go in there again we got lost...lol. But we finally got out of there and took a trailer ride around the beautiful farm. The kids loved looking at all the animals and then played for a bit. We then waited until the sun was going down and took some really cool shots of the kids in the pumpkin patch.

Afterwards we went to a BBQ place called "Bandits" for dinner. Scott and Diane highly recommended it and we had a wonderful and delicious dinner...it was awesome!

Halloween Festival!

My Foxy friend Araxi (love her) called me last minute on a Sunday morning to ask if we wanted to go to a Halloween Festival (hosted by Disney) at the Space Museum in Pasadena. So we said YES and Araxi and Alex picked us up and we had the "Best" time. The kids had so much fun in the jumpers, took some really cute pictures with all the pumpkin and decorations, decorated Halloween cookies and got to ride the horses as well. Thanks Araxi - we had a wonderful time.

Garage Sale!

We had been wanting to have a "Garage Sale" for over 2 years now and something always came up or we just weren't prepared time-wise. So as soon I heard that our city was having their "2nd Chance Garage Sale" where you can have one without getting a permit well...we jumped on that band wagon...lol. We started about a month ago my niece Katy, Phil and I got the stuff down from the attic, from the garage and the backyard and cleaned everything up and got it ready. Wow that was a process...but we got it done. Thank you so much Katy for all your help - we truly appreciate it very much.

So last Saturday we woke up really early (6:00am...that's early for me...lol) to finally have the "Garage Sale" So we turned on the TV and checked on-line and found out that it was going to pour down rain that day. So we waited and waited...and WAITED... and then finally we were about to take some things out mid day and then it got a bit ugly for a while...but again NO RAIN. All we could think about was taking everything out and then it would have started raining....ugh! So we wasted the entire day...as you can imagine we were so frekin PISSED OFF.

Sunday - once again we woke up really early and took EVERYTHING out and sold a bunch of stuff. I know that we would have sold a bunch more if we would have been out on Saturday but we didn't do that bad...we sold about 70% of our stuff so we were pretty surprised. Our really good friend Kevin Brando and my niece Miriam came and helped us...Thank you so much you two...we really appreciate all the help.

Students of the Month Award!

Well, last week we received a notice in Kaitlin's homework folder from the school's principal stating:

Congratulations! Your child has been selected by his/her teacher to receive a student recognition award this month. Wow...she has received one every year since Kindergarten - so this makes it her 5th one in a row...we are so proud of Kaitlin she has done such a wonderful job in school.

THEN... we got even more good news! We received the same notice in Nathan's Homework folder. WOW...we are so "proud of both of them"!!




So that night we took them to their favorite restaurant to celebrate "Islands" and we had a wonderful time.

Our Adorable...Freak-a-Zoid!

I've been meaning to post these adorable pictures of Nathan taken a while back and I just found them again while I was looking for other pics...isn't that always the case...lol.

Phil and I were in the kitchen making dinner one early evening and Nathan was playing in his room with Kaitlin and decided to get dressed by himself...LOL. I almost dropped the pan I was cooking with when I saw him...lol and I shouted "oh my Gosh...don't move...don't move". So I ran to the office to get my camera and he actually let me take some pictures...how awesome is that!

Check out our Adorable...Freak-a-Zoid...we wouldn't want him any other way...LOL!!

I got Tagged!

I've been tagged by my Best Friend Toni!

I was asked to list seven of my favorite songs. So I'm listing what I have loved for a while or what I am listening to and loving right now.

1. Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol (This is one of my current favorite songs)
2. Billy Joel - Just the way you are (One of my all time favorites...but I just LOVE everything from Billy)
3. James Blunt - You're Beautiful
4. Celine Dion (Duet with Andrea Bocheli) - The Prayer
5. Nickelback - Photograph
6. Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice
7. Green Day - Blvd of Broken Dreams

Now it's your turn. I'm tagging some friends who blog regularly and these are the rules: list 7 songs...no matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or are any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 others to see what they’re listening to.

I was pretty late in posting this so I'm sure everyone has been tagged but here's who I've tagged!!! Joanne and Yezenia.