The girl's choices

Jenny and Calla are both tomboys, so their selection this year in what to "be" should be no surprise to their brothers and sisters. Jenny dressed like a BYU football player for her day-program on Wednesday. Today was "dress-up" day at the Jr. High for Calla. We borrowed a friend's costume (see blog post for last week). I can't believe it fit Calla, but it adapted well!

Annual Halloween party (for older kids)

Every October our friends Stan and Brandy Shumway invite the same five couples to come dressed up and party! Each year we can't wait to see what each other's costumes are. This year was lots of fun and the pictures prove it. Here's the fashion show...
"Ceasar" and his lady friend
"Scarey Nurse" (Kim Denham Stevens)
Court Jester and Dracula (Stan and Brandy)
"Flo" and the "Norseman" (Karen and Matt Hamilton)

Frank and Melba (she sews the costumes herself, then throws them away, can you imagine? She always does fantastic makeup also)

Jim Stevens as the "local misfit"
David and Denise Saline posing as themselves (no costume this year) Frank made the wonderful pizza. The white elephant gift exchange was odd this year, everyone wanted to keep their gifts! But there were lots of laughs because we chose our gifts so well. Thanks everyone for the fun memories! See you next year!

Calla's bedroom gets a facelift

Bye bye pink striped wallpaper!
(Mom might have to do some "touchup" painting after I get thru, eh?) Crazy positions in order to get the job done.
Face painting...or room painting?
Finished look. Calla loves it!
(I love that she gets to mark off a YW "Value project"!)

Saturday Shooting Spree

We went out shooting with Buck and Nelda Standifird on Saturday. He had a couple neat guns he brought, we especially enjoyed shooting his AK47. Mark got to play with his new birthday gun and really liked it. After he "initiated" it, we shot it too. Mark likes us to practice shooting for self-defense. Jenny got to shoot pop cans for the first time with the BB gun. She quite enjoyed it.

Birthday Fun

I don't know if I've ever scored as big on a birthday gift for Mark as I did this year. Thanks to a well thought out suggestion from our "boys" I was able to make a selection that seemed to please Mark. He was genuinely surprised.

8th Grade Softball Championship winners!

Calla's team defeated Winslow 3 to 0 to win the region championship recently. Her team has a wonderful coach, Cody Thomas, who works the girls hard and demands a high level of concentration and performance. The girls are well-trained and it showed. We appreciate Coach Thomas giving Calla the chance to participate this year. She has really improved and gained lots of confidence on the field. Congratulations, Calla!

R.S. Broadcast dinner decorations

We had a Mexican theme and hung crepe paper streamers on the two basketball standards and on a volleyball pole in the middle of the room. We borrowed some somebreros, guitars, and I bought a huge pinata down in Mesa and put a Relief Society logo on it.

Tanner and Jennifer Merrill wedding

Such a happy day! Tanner is one of Mark's sister's "twins." He met Jennifer over two years ago and helped her learn the Gospel, baptized her a year ago, and they planned and waited for their temple wedding. She looked absolutely gorgeous. I particularly loved how their reception was decorated. All Tanner's brothers helped put up a false ceiling, using rolls of plastic tablecloth and some white lights. In the center was a chandalier they found cheap on eBay. So clever! Congratulations to the happy couple!

BYU Graduation

It was fun to travel to Provo and watch Christopher graduate in Print Journalism at the deJong Hall on campus. His sons were very good during the convocation program, and we were entertained and impressed by the speakers and performers. It was fun to walk around the campus together and have Chris and Jenelle show us the buildings where they spent many hours learning and studying. We are so proud of both of them, for being graduates of Brigham Young University. What a wonderful accomplishment that took years of sacrifice as they supported each other in their academic goals. We love you both!