Senior Carlie

Isn't she beautiful.
Josh, a friend of Carlie's who graduated last year offered to take her senior pictures and he did an awesome job. We met him at the University of Redlands and he worked his magic. I'll show you more of "senior" Carlie later. This is the one that will be in the year book.

Tah Tah for now.

Blog Master

Julie is my blog master and helps me with blog things. Apparently she also makes comments on my other daughters blogs in my name....and I wish it didn't make me laugh so much. So here's to ONE of my favorite daughters.

M & M Party

Welcome to the M&M Party.
What does M&M stand for? Marshall Miner...and he's turning 16.
There was lots to do for the big event, starting with the M&M invitations.


First thing - we're off for a fancy shopping trip at the .99 store.


After lots of silliness the girls found the perfect presents and had a great time doing it. Notice Shelley is holding a Mr. Incredible pez dispenser...I think it was totally fun that Shelley joined us for our M&M weekend. She even made M&M cookies to help celebrate the big day.


After the fun shopping trip the girls got down to business and started writing a different girls name on each of the 150 hearts, then the hearts were taped onto skewer. Shelley brought her baby name book so we could use some of the crazy girl names from it.


After our 2AM heart attacking and sidewalk chalking we went to kidnap Marshall for breakfast at 7AM. I think the front yard looks awesome. We found out later that Brother Miner watched us do the whole thing and was so impressed with how quickly and quietly we worked our magic. The whole process took all of 8 minutes!


About a month ago I called Sister Miner and told her I had a weird question to ask her..."what time do your automatic sprinklers go off?" Then like school girls we giggled as I described the plans. So when we got to the door at 7AM on the dot, Sister Miner seemed to be as excited as the girls were.


The next set of plans was to go in Marshall's room (which his mom spent the day before cleaning) and shake his bed and say, "happy 16 birthday!!!!" They worked the plan exactly but he didn't move. So they said it again and this time he recognized the voices. The reason he didn't move the first time was because he thought it was his sister's friends being silly. So when he finally rolled over he was surprised, shocked and happy. We found out later that his alarm was set to go off any minute. What perfect timing.


The girls didn't want him to see the heart attacking stuff yet so they blind folded him and we were off to IHop for birthday breakfast.


The girls had all their presents wrapped so cute and he seemed surprised that there was more to the morning. He was such a great sport and posed with each gift.


Kellie got him some special presents and she was all giggly when he opened them. He got 2 ties, a John Deere ornament (a story about that later) and some "Curve" need I say more!!!!


The waitress was silly and gave him ice cream 'cause he was the birthday boy.


After our yummy breakfast we were off to the park. I can't believe they went on the spinny thing right after they had eaten. I could barely take the picture.


Kellie was showing us her old circus moves. Totally awesome!!


Of course when you get girls together you always need to take the classic chearleader pose. The funniest part of this picture was the set up. A little bit of pain but lots of laughter. These girls are all so much fun and super cute!


Marshall was so good at being willing to take lots of pictures. This was the poster the girls made and it says, "We're all so glad you are finally 16!"


This GQ pose was Shelley's idea. And let me say again, he was such a good sport.



After we dropped Marshall off Kellie went to a marching band compitition. She did well going on about 2 hours of sleep. After the band performed she got ready for more Birthday celebration. His mom had planned a surprise party for him before the stake dance. So this is him coming home to more surprises...and he thought the day was going to be a bit dull.


Happy 16 Birthday!


I love this picture of Emily and Kellie. They are so beautiful.



To conclude this totally fun day (I had so much fun helping plan and execute the day) the kids were off to the stake dance...which I hear was the best dance ever!!

Tagged 8 things...

Caleb, my son-in-law tagged me about an "8 Things" Survery. I don't have time to finish all the aswers, I'll get back to it soon.

8 Favorite TV Shows--
Grey's Anatomy
Life
Sesame Street (when the girls were younger)
The Wonderful World of Disney (when it is on regular tv)
American Idol

8 Resturants--
IHop
BK Subs
Old Spaghetti Factory

Things that happened yesterday--
I saw lots of marching bands.
I saw an electrical pole that had fallen on a street due to a heavy rain down pour.
I took Kellie to a party.
I read from The Last Lecture book.
Ate a delicious funnel cake at the band compitition.
Laughing and being silly with the other band parents.
Having the band kids get together and buy all us parents pins that say,
"Band Boosters are better then Athletic supporters."
Did some laundry, dishes, and general house pick up .

Things I'm Looking Forward to--
Grandbabies
Seeing Holly, Caleb and Julie in December.
Kellie turning 16.
The weekend of the 15th...a little heart attacking going on and b-day fun.

Things I love about Fall--
The leaves changing colors.
The crispness in the air.
Carmel hot chocolate.
Taking my girls to Oak Glen.
Raking leaves and having the girls jump in the pile.
Making apple pie.
Perfect weather for cuddling.
The anticipation of Christmas.

Things on my wish list--

Takin' a walk down Kellie lane...

Meet Kellie...she is in band. She marches with a Baritone.

She gets to play pep music during the football games.
I like the saying...Why is the football team on the marching band field.

It is super great seeing Kellie do her thing during compititions. We were at one all day today and there will be one every Saturday in November. I love helping and I love getting to know the great kids in the band.

Kellie was deamed Freshman of the year for being the over all most wonderful freshman.

Kellie plays in the marching band, wind ensemble and also the advanced jazz band. In most of the groups she's in she plays the trumpet.

The wind ensemble did a concert outside last week. The setting was wonderful and I think Kellie looked beautiful.

So thank you for walking down the Kellie music lane.
I thought I would wrap things up with a beautiful picture of our great town of Redlands and grateful that is has great programs for my girls to be involved in.

Happy Sunday

Last Sunday Carlie and Kellie totally rocked. Carlie gave a talk in Sacrament meeting that she had been asked the night before to give. She did a great job. She also gave a talk that same night at Stake Standards night and hit a home run. She spoke on modesty and included the "almost" and "sometimes" of modesty. She was happy that after the meeting people came up to her and asked for a copy of her talk. Kellie was asked at the last minute to conduct the music. She looked super cute and did a great job. Her face was pretty serious for awhile, but a certain someone in the audience did something to get her to smile. I love her smiling face...it is so sunshiny.

So what made it a happy Sunday you ask? That my little girls could share their talents, that those talents were appreciated and that they enjoyed doing it. So girls, thanks for not hiding your totally awesome lights under that bushel.

Kellie's Incredible Adventure

Kellie and her friend Kaya went on an incrediable adventure to Disneyland in September.

Check out these babes they picked up at the park.

The new Toy Story Mania is super great and so much fun.

Sweet faces and sweet treats!

Thanks Kellie for letting me share in your incredible day.

Welcome to a Magical Fall

Shelley and I went to a place that was magical...and boo-tiful!

This trip was an early Christmas present for Shelley.

She'll be too busy for a trip like this at Christmas,

'cause she'll have a cute baby boy.

I love this little baby dumbo, he is so soft and his ears are so floppy.

We had a hopper pass so we got to go to California Adventure.

Creativity is a gift...candy corns in a palm tree, HOW MUCH FUN IS THAT!

Candy corn cactus - I LOVE IT!!!

There was also candy corn corn stalks, candy corn grape vines,

candy corn signs, workshop area and so much more.

Totally SWEET!

Shelley is a super cute model for one of the many cute halloween hats.

Of course the costmes are super cute too.

This is a shout-out for baby Jett.

We made a wish at Snow White wishing well.

I know I'm not supposed to tell you my wish so I'll just give you a hint,

it has something to do with 5 cute girls.

We had a magical day

and how lucky I am that I got to spend it with Shelley.

What's new...Nascar!

Say "hi" to team Nascar.

We all went on a RHS band fundraising adventure.

We even got fancy new outfits.

It was the Pepsi 500 held at the Auto Club Speedway

and the place is HUGE!

Our fancy outfits included ear plugs and for good reason,
it was so stickin' loud.
Before the race a jet engine vacuum drives around the 2 1/2 mile track.
Then the cars start doing their qualifing laps one at a time.
Both of these things are really loud.
Nothing compared to all the cars going at the same time.
It was soooo SUPER, STINKIN' LOUD!!!

We all had different jobs.
Rick's was to keep the security people in line.
Mine and Paul's job was to watch the people in the stands, answer questions, etc.
Shelley and Kellie were a van shuttle team.
They got to take people from the RV parking to the raceway.
(people actually stay the whole week to watch the cars drive around the track...)
Many of the people wondered why the younger girl (Shelley) was driving and lots of people thought Kellie was super cute. And boy did they get a Nascar education.
They even got a tip...for dealing with a man's drunk wife.

I learned that this is the position post.
The numbers on the left are the starting positions and the numbers on the right are the car numbers. I knew nothing about Nascar.
After working this race for 2 days I got quit the education.
For example, driving 160 mph is slow.
I really like the name Jimmie Johnson and guess who won the Pepsi 500,
oh it would be #48...JIMMIE JOHNSON!!!
The fastest he drove was 180 MPH.

The Auto Club Speedway is so huge.

The asphalt they used to build the speedway would pave a 2 lane highway

between here and Las Vegas. Wow.

This is definitly an adventure I wouldn't have gone on with out Kellie and the band,

but one I am super glad I went on.

Shelley and Rick are Here, But...

Julie is still my favorite daughter in the whole wide world!!!

She is my blog master, and you should see the fees! But you know what, every single M&M is worth it. She and I are going to take a secret trip to a far away land, and no one will ever know when or where accept Julie and myself. It could be to Lego land, it could be to Djibouti, or it could be to YOUR HOUSE!!! Guess you'll just have to wait and see.

Anyways, the main point is, Julie Rocks!!!