Halloween isn't just Halloween around here...

Today is Alex's birthday.
He's officially 16.
Can you believe it?!

I hardly can.

Yep. The only photo I got of him the entire day.
And I am pretty sure it was an accident that I even caught him on "film" at this particular moment.

Besides Alex's birthday, today was Halloween!!

Here's a sneak peak of my feature wall... decked out with candy and a skull.
It's changed a few times. Remember this?  And this?  I love what I came up with. It feels more ME!
I have a few more things to add, but there's no rush.

Here's a close up.
See on the left?! That's Nic from two years ago.
This year, he opted to be Buzz Lightyear. Again.
As in, I think he was Buzz Lightyear last year.

Here's our scary entryway, waiting for trick or treaters...

Here is the house, all spooky and ready to go.
I can't figure out where the sky went in this picture...
I swear it was there... I didn't photoshop it out.
Spooky.

Here is grandma and Abby... our official candy giver-outers. They did a great job!

What?!


What's that?!


You can't see grandma too well?!

Hold on.




Let me try something.


Just another second
{keep scrolling}
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There!!


How's this?!

Better?!

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween.

Our Great Pumpkin Adventure

I call it an adventure because I waited until the 11th hour to purchase our pumpkins.
As a result, both local stores (including Wal-Mart) were sold out.

So I took the girls and Nic on a late night adventure - and out in the middle of somewhere, we found a pumpkin patch.

With pumpkins.

So we brought them home and carved our hearts out.

Nic loves Picasa - and he made me do THIS to him.

Woodn't you know it?!

I've been wanting to finish the sign I mentioned here....
Yesterday was the perfect day... 


Here's a quick review of what the sign looked like before:

Before, before:

After, before:

I got out all of my supplies and made stencils...
I used Power Point, printed off the letters in card stock and then used a blade to "cut" them out.

I used a mixture of Ivory, Khaki and Cinnamon spray paint... I was going for an "aged" effect.

Then I did the same for our last name.
It's a kitchen sign to hang over my sink - I wanted something clever, but couldn't come up with anything other than "Ayala's" - boohoo.

I had to make one stencil out of many pieces of card stock.
Thank you Blue Painters Tape!

This is where I wish I could have just used vinyl - but I didn't think it would really stick. Plus my vinyl gal is in Montana... I'd have to wait.

I tried to create a shadow...

And this is what I ended up with.

Or should I say...

THIS is what I ended up with?!?!? - below.

The name wasn't working out for me. I though I could have a cream colored picture frame (sans glass) and somehow get the wording in there. I actually thought of a million other things to do...

Isabel was outside "helping" me with something and spilled blue paint on the bottom of the sign.
So I tried to act like it was on purpose and splashed some in other places.

After some heartache, I decided to just spray paint the entire thing, the three colors I had. However, I had already used a gloss over the "Est. 1994" so it stuck out some.

So, finally I decided to try one last thing. Right over the spray paint, not even waiting 30 minutes, I used Jacobean colored stain and applied and then wiped. I then put the "Est." stencil back on and sprayed over it in the cinnamon.

And there you have my completed sign. I may add something later... but for now, I love it.

Now I just have to figure out how I am going to get this sucker up on the wall.

The Finale

Aren't you glad we only traveled from NC to AZ... and not around the world?
I could have gone on forever and ever and ever.

But, to be honest... All good things must come to an end.

Here are a few snapshots from the lovely state of Arizona.

Below is Abby's picture - her first in Arizona in 13 years.
Pardon the back-seat bed head. The trip was long.
We all were tired.

These pics are of the town of Globe and Miami (they are pretty close together, most people call it Globe-Miami).

What is with Arizona?! Always putting words or letters on foothills and mountains?!?!

This is the Queen Creek tunnel. About an hour and a half away from the town of Queen Creek (where we reside just outside of)... Isn't it neat?! The date is hard to see, but it's 1952 (hey - that's the year my dad was born!!).

We were less than 2 hours away from home in the above shot - but boy were we ready!!
We've been home a week now. We are settling in.
The honeymoon is over - and I for real have 4 kids in the house.
But, to be honest... I wouldn't have it any other way.
We love having Abby with us.
Good luck, Jess, trying to get her back!! =)

One Hot Date

I went on a date today...
Haven't been on one in a while.

My companion was a stud. {he still is, but since the date took place in the past, well - you know.}
For real.
Smart, funny, genuine... A real gentleman.

They just don't make them today like they did back in 1930.

Of course, from the picture above you can see that I had to share him with my cousins.

When we were all little, grandpa used to take us on "dates." We'd go to an ice cream parlor or Jack in the Box - it didn't matter. All that mattered was that we were little, dressed up and "out on the town" with our best man.

With life crazy and hectic for all of us now, I am ashamed to admit we do not spend as much time with grandpa as we could/should. That's the main reason why we wanted to take him out.

We chose 5&Diner, a 50s diner that serves THE.BEST.MILKSHAKES.EVER.
Our waitress was Pebbles. Her name tag read Milkshake Artist. Very accurate.

The hour that we spent in that silver and red pleather booth was probably one of the best hours I've had in a long, long time. I am such a lucky gal to have such a wonderful grandfather. I have so many memories that include him; one day I will share - if nothing else, to write them out.

Love you Papa Barney. With all of my heart.

Marcos & Jaime go to White Castle {or Castillo Blanco} - Part 6

For a moment, the ball to my chain thought he'd made it to his homeland.
Just kidding...

I am talking about New Mexico!

We barely made it into the great state before we came across a cool-as-heck travel center; specifically Russell's Travel Center.

It was night time, we were tired... this was the perfect fix!

 

Besides drinks, gum, post cards and deodorant - it had a MUSEUM!!
For reals.

Photo Dump!

Skurry!!

 

Well, hello Marylin!

This "thing" below actually had a talking voice that said weird things.  

Something about how awkward it was for us to be watching him.

Um. HE left the door open.

LOVE at FIRST SIGHT!!

(the car, not the dude)

Check out the bathrooms...

Well, I guess I should clarify - the ENTRANCE to the bathrooms.

After grabbing a few things, we were on our way!
Marcos had scoured the maps looking for a good way home. There a few ways into the Phoenix area and most had us go through winding, steep roads. Yuck.

So, he found a SHORT CUT.
dum, dum, dummmmm.
Right?

The issue? The gas station at the opening to the shortcut was CLOSED. Even though it was completely lit up - there were parking gates that were closed. No one was there. That should have been our first clue.

The car said we had about 70 miles left of our tank. We couldn't turn back.
We took the short cut. And prayed.
It was PITCH black.
And scary.
Thank gosh we couldn't see our surroundings - it was probably crazy.
We had no idea how long this short cut was. Exactly.

You know what I just thought of, as I am trying to make this part intense?!  We are home, so evidently we survived. Darn. Sorry for the spoiler.

As Marcos and I watched the tank drain and the light come on, we were super quiet. Abby was asleep. Would we make it?! (grr, of course we do.)  We passed downed signs, curious elk and not much else.

Just as we thought the car was going to stall, my stud made it to the end of the long road (aka shortcut)... It took us into a small town.

A small SCARY town.

Have you ever heard of Quemada, New Mexico?

Us neither.

OMG. I just learned that it means "burned" in Spanish. Dum, Dum, Dummmmm!

Marcos and I were able to breath again when we saw a gas station (using the term loosely - hey, it had gas!). The building was locked up tight. No lights. But the pumps were on!

As we gassed up, Abby awoke. Both of us concluded that every small, scary town, ever talked about or filmed was mushed together into Quemada. Abby says she was just waiting for an old man, complete with overalls, no shirt and a toothless grin to come out and get us.

The town was DEAD.

This was our view from the front seat, while Marcos filled up the tank:

As we rushed to get out of Quemada, we noticed a building off to the side, where there had to be at least 40 cars parked outside. Very Stephen King and the Hills have Eyes-ish.

But alas, we survived.
Which is how I will be able to bring you tomorrow's conclusion!


Boo!