Orb Weaver Spider Has Taken Residence in our Front Yard

UPDATE: This post was updated on September 9th, 2013.  The type of spider has now been correctly identified as a spotted orb-weaver.  Thank you to the Reddit community for their help.

I always enjoy running into interesting creatures around my house, like the Red-Spotted Newt I spotted in my backyard one morning a couple months ago.  The other day while taking out the garbage, I noticed a fairly impressive spider hanging off our front spotlights, and immediately called my wife out to check it out.  She was a bit uncomfortable with it since we didn't know what type of spider it was and it is a decently large spider (at least for this area).  After snapping a couple quick pictures, we went inside and searched it out on the internet, and are pretty sure it is a Spotted Orb Weaver (non-poisonous), though there are many different types of these spiders, each with a distinctive pattern and color.  As of yet we have not been able to narrow it down any more.

Spotted Orb-Weaver Spider in Pictures

The next night I went back outside to see if the spider was still there, and to hopefully get a couple better quality pictures.  It was definitely still there, and by that point had built a pretty impressive spiral web (confirming the orb weaver guess).  Using my usually mediocre phone and built-in camera to take some flash shots, I got what I thought were pretty decent pictures to show my wife.  Well I was in for quite a surprise when I showed them to her, because after she zoomed in, you could actually make out the individual hairs on the spider.  For spider enthusiasts they are excellent pictures.  For people who have a fear of spiders and other creepy crawly things, they may invoke absolute terror.

Well here they are, and you can't say I didn't warn you.

This is definitely the best picture of the spotted orb-weaver in our front yard.  This was at
dusk so I needed the flash, and at a slight angle upwards to try and get some of its eyes
and mouth in the picture.  The angle ended up making the spider look much larger than
it really was.  The spider from back legs to front is probably about two inches long or so.
It is times like this that I wish I had the Nokia Lumia 1020 with the 41 megapixel camera.

This one was also at a slight angle, but I was able to get some of the web in the picture.
The web is probably about one to two feet wide by around three feet high.  It is at a
weird location that makes getting a picture of the web itself very difficult., but I am
still trying to get one.

This one was head-on with the spider, which sits about eye-level next
to my front walkway near the garage.  From this angle you can tell that
the spider is not as long as it looked in the other pictures, but it is still
a decent size.

Of course this spider is nothing compared to the gigantic black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) my wife saw in Texas a couple years back.  But you know what they say about Texas:  They have some really crazy spiders and insects.

Luckily this spider is not actually the size of a car, but it was about the size of an open hand,
fingers included. This is a garden spider, which means it is harmless to people,
but boy is it big.