Halloween 2010

 

We (especially Mom) proudly present Halloween 2010

 Army/Camo guy

 Cute Cowboy

 Cute Girl from the 1950's

Finding these glasses was one of my Halloween triumphs. Emma was not so sure, but once she started getting feedback from other adults she trusted more than me, she started buying in.

 Hermione Granger from Gryffindor (one of Harry Potter's friends)

 School costume parade

 David's preschool class

(I got to help with Emma's class party. It was a lot of fun. Emma mostly thought it was fun to have me there. (I love the twin boys in her class who were Mario and Luigi.)

 Visiting with the Sorenson cousins and Aunt Lynn

 Party at Grandma's house.  Spencer added a BYU football helmet to his ensemble. Michael and I were tacky tourists.  My dress and sunglasses are authentic 1970's garb from my mom.  Despite being polyester, the dress was really quite comfy!

 Cowboy cousins - David and Isabelle Cannon

Sadly, Trick-or-Treat night was quite soggy, but with lightsticks in hand, everyone was un-deterred.  This was the first year David really figured out the 'people give me free candy' part of Halloween. He was unstoppable! :)

September Hike to Stewart Falls

A Monday night hike to Stewart Falls up Provo Canyon.

We started at the old Theater in the Pines above Sundance and Aspen Grove. Brought back many fine Stake Girl's Camp memories for Amy.

 This was by far the longest hike the kids had ever done and they did great.  Spencer insisted on leading the pack all the way (see above.)

 Gorgeous color and scenery along the way.

  Top of the falls in the background.

Then there were 10

There not in a very good order. Isabelle was insistent on being on top

David King

The little redhead.

The newest arrival

The first Miller baby

The first Bowen baby

Abby/Snow White

Chunky Boy

My baby sister

And me. The first of the pack
I have the cutest cousins and siblings ever

Boy Cousins

Labor Day weekend we had Michael's brother John and his three boys come visit from Idaho. We had a great weekend with them, watching football, playing with toys, eating pizza, and hiking Battle Creek Falls.

Emma and James.

Battle Creek Falls was a fun hike and the kids did great! 

They also loved catching caterpillars to bring home.

Uncle John is a super fun Uncle. (Our kids are so lucky to have an abundance of super fun Uncles.)

I love the height of Joseph in this picture.

You can see where John's boys get their super ninja skills from.

Thanks again for coming to visit us, Idaho Smarts. 

We love having you!

We have lots of fun girl cousins too, but boy cousins are seen less frequently so they are a special treat. Up until now the Idaho Smarts have been our only boy cousins, but . . .

. . . later that day the kids were able to meet their newest boy cousin, Ethan Miller.

Ethan was born at the end of August.  We think he is impressive and look forward to passing on more boy-cousin Ninja skills.

And THEN . . . guess who arrived just today? Baby Boy Bowen! Another boy cousin! We can't wait to meet him too. And we anxiously await Baby Boy Sorenson in the next month!  Hooray for fun cousins.

Recap: May 2010

I am still attempting to catch-up on pictures from the summer. (I am mainly doing this for adoring Grandparents who live far away and want to see our every move, but we don't dismiss the interest of the rest of our huge family blog audience. :)

Mother's Day breakfast, robed in my own Snuggie

Visiting the Salt Lake Cemetery with Grandma Udall

More pictures of our May adventures can be seen at 

this Web Album (click here)

A couple of clips from the kid's Dance Festival at school.  The Kindergarten did the chicken dance. Spencer is the kid in the yellow shirt who struts into the center of the screen.

The 5th Grade. Catherine is in the center in the navy blue shirt.

The 3rd grade did The Evolution of Dance. Here is the finale.     

Independence Day

Life has been crazy around here for the past few weeks as Michael worked feverishly behind the scenes on BYU's quest for independence in football.  Everything finally came together last Wednesday as Michael pulled-off a stellar press conference announcing the big news. (He even got a nice shout-out from the WCC Commissioner during the live broadcast.)

Here is our friend Steve Sandberg getting interviewed by Dick Harmon of the Deseret News. Harmon writes a column about BYU football and during all the speculation reports he wrote about BYU's efforts to get out of it's crappy Comcast contract (one of the main reasons BYU wanted out of the MWC) and that BYU sent "one of these smart lawyer types" to find a way out. That would be Steve. All this came together mainly because of Steve's hard work.

I was excited that I got to see the press conference in person. One of the best parts was seeing the ESPN VP raving about how much ESPN loves BYU.  It was also pretty cool to see LaVell. Dave Rose is the head basketball coach and Greg Wrubel is the local radio announcer that calls all of BYU's football and b-ball games - aka "the voice of the Cougars." But most of all, it was great for me to see Michael in action.

Michael and Steve - these guys both look good considering the spectacular sleep deprivation they were up against.

Here’s where you can watch the press conference. You just need to register quickly (free). You can fast forward past the first two minutes of the guys in the studio. The first 19 minutes are the best stuff.

http://www.byutv.org/watch/1385-313