Made by Memilyrae

We were so glad to hear that Shadow was having a reception here in Utah. We told as many as we could from good ol’ Choctaw so we could have a mini-Choctaw-Pow-Wow. I’m not sure who all came, but we Lukes went together. It was so good seeing Charlie and Shadow! We sure do love the Sherwoods and were saddened to hear about sweet Liz. I was glad to hear that she was able to help Shadow plan for the wedding even though she passed away 2 weeks before it. 🙁 My parents were able to attend the funeral and the wedding in Kansas. That’s why we’re glad they had a reception here as well. Charlie seemed much like the same old Charlie we all remembered growing up. We all look up to him. Annette and Mike had many more memories with him than I did but believe me – I couldn’t forget him…ever. 🙂

Shadow looked beautiful! Evie kept saying “Princess!” and pointed at her in her wedding dress. I asked, “Is the princess pretty?” and Evie shook her head ‘yes’. How cute!

We took a few pictures of us Choctaw-ians. The group picture might look a little funny because another person was standing next to Shadow’s new husband (I can’t remember his name – but he’s one smart kid!) and I tried Photoshopping her out to get it to be just us. 🙂 Enjoy

We are so excited that it’s football time again – and wow! BYU has not disappointed us yet. Seriously – 2 (Yes, that’s TWO) back-to-back shutouts so far (we’re hoping for a 3rd in a week and a half!). We are lucky enough to go to Mike and Nicole’s to watch it on tv since we couldn’t afford tickets this year and do not receive it on DISH. Here are a few pics from our BYU time with our family. Gavin is such a cutie! So are my kids! Evie is sporting a new hair style (flat ironed – her request) and Spencer’s picture is my new favorite. He really is a cutie just like his dad! And I hope I didn’t mess up Annette’s picture – the flash reflected in her glasses so I tried getting rid of it. GO COUGARS!

Wow. What a weekend. We are done with the 2008 UTOS Conference and it sure has been a busy week! Luckily I have an awesome family that helped with my kids and when I say ‘help’ I mean watched them nearly 24/7…well, actually 24/4. I slept in the same room but was gone before they woke up. So, thank you!

On Wednesday I did a little running around before heading up to Salt Lake Community College – Redwood campus. We were so lucky to have a lot of volunteers who helped with banners, registration, and room management. Some helped set up on Wednesday. Our Sponsors also came to set up booths. Wednesday evening we went to Fiddlers’ Elbows for a speaker’s dinner. It was 21 and over so we had to show our ID’s. The food was fantastic! I had 2 servings of ribs  but my favorite part was the bread triangles and spinach and artichoke dip. Will kept stealing it from me 🙁 We had a ton of fun. I left Steve with my Benji (Ben Payne) so I could down to my sister’s before the kids fell asleep. Evie was wide awake when I got there but Spencer was passed out.

Thursday was our first day of the Conference. I woke up at 530 (AH!) and met Steve to carpool up. We got there before the inside doors were open so we hung out a bit. Once inside we set up registration and our swag boxes (Novell laptop bags with more swag inside). Around 10 we started getting a slow flow of attendees that needed to sign in to get their swag and badges. Luckily I had awesome volunteers that helped with the madness of registration. Throughout the day we had registrations plus during each class time I took pictures of the speakers and attendees. Thursday evening was the Keynote dinner and I attended for a short amount of time to let another core team member leave the registration desk.

Friday was an early morning again. More registrations, more pictures, and more fun. That evening a group of us (near 50 people if not more) went to Tucanos. YUMMY!

Saturday was the last day and, to tell you the truth, I was glad for that. It ws such a long weekend with so much work that I was excited to be done. I was able to sit in 2 classes – Inkscape and Gimp (both open source graphics programs) and learned a few things I didn’t know as well as had some questions answered.  We also had Family Day on Saturday so we had Smokehouse BBQ for lunch and bouncy houses for any kids who came with their parents. I ended up leaving around 5 when the BoFs and Games started.

Here are a few pictures. The rest are on flickr

I just wanted to upload some random favorites since I’ve been so bad at blogging lately. Enjoy!

We were pleasantly surprised to know that our whole family was going to be here for Gavin’s baby blessing! Matt came out on Thursday, Mom and Dad on Friday, and Brent and Steph on Saturday! Yahoo! Matt, Brent and Steph were only able to stay for a couple/few days but we were still glad to have them around.

After attending my sacrament meeting, we went to Mike and Nicole’s building. Gavin’s blessing was beautiful (given by his daddy) and I teared up being able to be there and see the love that my biggest brother has for his son (such a cool thing!). Afterwards, we headed down to Annette’s for the food and mingling. I brought my camera out half way through so I didn’t get everyone who came.

We also got to see pictures from Stephanie’s trip to Ireland with Vince and his parents. Ireland is gorgeous and really makes me want to extend our (some day) honeymoon to more than just Italy! 🙂 Thanks Steph for sharing with us! It was beautiful and looks like you guys had loads of fun!

I also got to help Brent see what his racecar might look like painted. I never usually get to do anything with Brent so it was really cool to be able to help him (yay for Photoshop!)

We went on a spur of the moment camping trip with Jed, Leona, Reid and William starting on the 15th (back in August). We shopped for food, packed and got the heck out of Dodge. We were heading up to Flaming Gorge…I just wish I knew the Wyoming side was ugly and dead compared to the Utah side! We set up camp around 100 or 130 a.m., hunkered down and slept. It was chilly the first day we were there but it seemed nicer than the heat. Stephen and Jed went fishing for HOURS at a time, leaving us to pass the time playing in the dirt, building a fire pit (which then had to be moved since we didn’t account for flying ashes possibly burning down the tent), feeding the kids, getting the kids to nap (ha!), going on short bike rides around the campsite, and for me, burning. (yah…that sunscreen stuff is around for a reason!) Speaking of burning, poor Evie chose the wrong thing to put her arm on as she was walking…put her arm right on the side of the grill AFTER we got done using it. 🙁 Poor thing. The boys did great the first outing, but not so well on Monday. We watched them prep the fish (gutting, skinning or whatever they do to them). I even got to experience first hand a scene from the movie, Finding Nemo. You know the one…Nemo’s siblings eaten by a barracuda. (insert up-chuck here). Steve had a head cold so the 10 hour fishing outing on Monday was too much…actually, it was too much 4 hours into it. To tell you the truth, Monday was just a big mistake anyway. I’m not a camping girl so 3 nights is too much for me – especially in the heat and dead surroundings. We left Monday after 3 or 4 (can’t remember) and once we got cell reception had a whole new adventure waiting for us.

That’s right…this ‘spur of the moment’ camping trip is not like me and my family got worried – REALLY worried – since I didn’t mention it to them and our cell phones had zero reception there. We realized how much my family loves us – that’s for sure. Again, family, sorry for everything that you went through and to my neighbors, sorry for the phone calls from my family! 😉 love you guys!

Okay, so I’m SUPER UPER behind on my blog. So, here’s my attempt to catch up.

In August, we went to the zoo with Leona, her boys, and most of the kids she babysits. We were gone for a few hours but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be with 8 kids.

Evie was my biggest struggle…Little Miss Independent with short legs.

Explored everything…

Watched the elephant show…poor little Evie got the mini fan stuck in her hair…

Drank out of the lion’s head…

The carousel was up and running…

We had fun at the monkey house…

Saw the white alligator…

Got a long look at the giraffe and her baby…

Touched a centipede…

Got ice cream to cool off…

And rode the train…

I know that’s a lot of pictures but what can I say? We have some cute kids!

Wow…I feel like we’ve been one busy family lately! I love spending time together and doing fun activities and I can’t wait to scrapbook them! Here’s a recap:

We went MINI-GOLFING with Mike, Nicole and Natalie:

Evie & Spencer got a shiny GOLF ball to take home…

So did Aunt Coley

We went to the LLAMA FEST with our neighbors, the Sterziks:

This is the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork

Sydney pretending to play the piano

Spencer and Taylor looking at the alter

Spencer and Evie checking out the displays

Neat chairs

Shana and Bailey

No, my children aren’t in trouble….they were looking through the holes

Steve and Evie

Woman making thread from llama wool

The llama show…like a dog show…but with llamas! 😉

4 month old baby llama

Evie and her pink cheeks. It was hot.

“Where go?” – Evie looking for the baby llama

Feeding the llama

That’s Evie feeding the llama.

Taylor and Sydney giving the llama a snack

Sydney and the llama

Bailey (with big Spencer’s nose)

Evie

Spencer

Sydney

Taylor

We also went to dinner and the Spanish Fork Rodeo with our friends, Curtis and Camille:

Sky divers bringing in the American Flag

Mommy and Evie

We had seats on the east side so we had the sun in our eyes. It wasn’t too bad.

Spencer waiting (very oddly) for the “horsies” to come out.

Curtis and Camille

One rider jumps off to tackle the calf. The other helps “steer” the calf straight.

The tackling cowboy wrestles the calf to the ground.

One cowboy ropes the head, the other the legs.

The Clown decided to take the stunt bike for a ride while waiting for the rider. The Clown called the rider a

“SHIM” (She + Him) and the rider stormed off. So, the Clown decided to try the jump himself…

Not a huge surprise, but the Clown is actually the stunt rider. Spencer said this was his favorite part.

Evie stole daddy’s hat and looks oh-so-cute!

The Bull Riding was neat, but I was SO worried that someone was going to get a horn up the tush…you know, like on that reality tv show they always show you the guy who got it up the rear and got flung around. OUCH! I didn’t want to see anything like that first hand!

I think that about covers it for our family outings lately. Well, that is, until tonight is over. We’re heading to Lagoon on Novell’s tab! I’ll post pics later.

Here are a few pics of baby Gavin from yesterday. He had his eyes open and oh my goodness! He’s even more cute! I turned the flash off so I didn’t blind the sweet thing, and then lightened the pics, so the quality really isn’t very good…but enjoy them anyway!

Saturday got us all really excited when Nicole asked questions about the ‘real contractions.’ Of course, I really was only able to tell her what happened with Evie since I had an epidural before the real contractions hit with Spencer (water broke early). It sounded like the same thing so we figured she was in labor. Annette and I (plus my kids) went to dinner with Coley on Saturday night to talk and hang out before she had him. Sunday morning before church I got a text on my phone that they were checked in to the hospital…yay! At 2:50, Mike and Nicole welcomed their beautiful baby boy to this world. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches Here are a few pics:

Baby Gavin

Doesn’t she look beautiful! And he is SO cute and sweet!

Gavin placed his hand on Nicole’s – what a sweet moment!

Family Picture

Gavin’s fingers on Mike’s

Proud Papa

Evie loved her new cousin! Kept trying to take him out of my arms so she could hold him herself

Spencer is so excited about Gavin – he really wants to teach him to play soccer…until then, Spencer says Gavin can watch him play until he gets bigger.

We are so excited about this little boy joining our family and we can’t wait to see him grow up! Mike and Nicole are already such great parents and I know they’ll do great! I can’t wait to see what surprises they’re going to get! (Just make sure you don’t put your Oreo bag anywhere near him when you’re changing his diaper! He just might pee in it!) 😉 Love you guys!