Philip Dunlap

I was going through old things, with the holidays here, and found a photo of Philip Dunlap when he was 2.4 years old. The image was taken in 1906 in Waukesha Wisconsin (I know those details would delight our resident genealogists Richard and Linda). The woman is his Aunt Frances. (All these details are on the back side of the photo.) Quite a handsome couple!!! So the question is which grandchild has the most resemblance to Philip at age 2.4?

Love you all!!! Happy New Year!!

Elephantitis anyone?

On Thursday night Dave went and played basketball with Matt and Sam Bennion. It was all fun and games till someone got hurt. Dave calls me half way through the game, "i think i broke my ankle." He is walking on it though so we are going with it is a good sprain. But he had much to do today and the ankle was kind of forgotten about. We got home tonight and he put his ankle on ice. When he moved positions i was surprised by what i saw and thought you might enjoy some of the pictures.

Double the size so double the fun, right?

Amy's Christmas Pageant

Family-
Thought you might want to have a look at some pics from the rehearsals for the concert that Amy will be in at the Temple this Christmas. She will be singing a duet "Pie Jesu" and a solo "This is the Christ" for the grand finale. Doesn't she look great!
Click Here
Don

In the Wake of Football Season.....

I saw this video while reading news online. I like "human interest" stories and especially enjoyed this one (aside from it being USC--sorry Rob). Talk about perspective. And the end with the commentators....it's a good 9 mins. :) And so thankful to be reminded. Maybe this is why he has a twin, to be his eyes.

Dear Santa

William's letter to Santa. Anyone think they can crack the code? It does make perfect sense if you can follow it!

William's face is so funny when he colors, cuts, or writes.

This is my favorite thing Soren does. I ask these kind of questions often. Who wants to go to the store? Who likes hamburgers? Etc. I love that Soren already has learned the response by watching his brothers. The "mmmm" is "me"!

Soren is into playing peek-a-boo, and his newest word is "boo". It's so cute.

Sam, Jessica & Skyla

A few weeks back I visited Cleveland and got to spend some time with my mom. We had a great time! On the Saturday we drove out to Sam's new house and spent the day with him and Jessica and her darling daughter Skyla. They live out in nature, atop 30 acres of land, pretty incredible. They are fairly close to Amish country and while driving up to Sam's house we saw a few horse drawn carridges. Sam has a fireplace in his house, and we had a toasty night of telling stories, dancing to Elmo's songs, and eating cookies. The next day Jessica had a great idea to go out on a hayride at one of the nearby farms. We fed the goats, picked pumpkins and all around had a fabulous day. The picture here, is of Sam, Jessica and Skyla playing in a huge pit of dried corn at the farm. The other picture is of Skyla with her special stuffed animal (reminded me of my own attachment to my teddy bear). Really happy to have Jessica and Skyla as part of the family.

Life is Good.

William's 3rd Birthday. Life is good.

Don't forget to post on Don's B-Day post below.

Happy Birthday, dear Donald ...

Hey!!! It's Uncle Burke's 55th Birthday....

Happy Birthday to the best brother! I love Burke because
He is the most generous person I know
He is easy to approach and he is willing to listen
He is interested in the world, in politics, in great thoughts
He "reads" a ton on CD....he has really enriched our audio book collection
He is willing to admit he has made a mistake and earnestly seeks to be a good person
He is a great story teller
He is the hardest worker I know
He is meticulous in his work
He is gifted in the work that he does
He is a true artist with an eye and a heart for all things beautiful
He has an infectious laugh that our children love to imitate because it is so real and so full of
raw joy in something funny
He is a great gift giver....loves to find something that will be meaningful to the person to whom
he is giving the gift
He is a loyal brother and a loving son
He gave Robin and me the joy of having a real live "baby doll" when we were 5 and 6 and he was
a newborn (well, I guess you would say Mom and Dad gave us the baby :)....all I can say
is that we ADORED him!
He is dear to me and to Rich and to all of his nephews and his niece. We feel so lucky to have
Uncle Burke in our lives!

Joe's Halloween 2009

This Halloween my Stake had a Trunk or Treat, and I had the opportunity to Dress up. I decided an "easy" costume would be, the Grim Reaper or Death.

I started the Costume by finding a Robe. I found a cheap Costume that fit me that was from the movie Scream. All I had to do was throw away the mask. I then bought some cheap Cotton Gloves.

I then had to find a Scythe. I found a bunch of cheap ones but they were cheap and small (no more than 3' in length) Obviously I wanted something better. I went to Home Depot and found myself a rake handle, Poster Board, and some spray paint. I then took two days to paint and assemble the Scythe.

One of the Rules for the Trunk or treat was that we couldn't use masks. I instead chose to paint my face as a skull. I got some Red, Black, white, and Ivory face paint. I had a rough guide I got online, and I painted my whole face with my fingers. Lastly I took a small brush and painted individual teeth causing the face paint to really look like a skull. I then put some red on my face to make myself a little scarier. I also colored my hair black with black Hairspray, just in case.

I then went to the Party. While most of us were young adults, there was also a few little kids. I noticed one of these kids (he was about the age of Burke, or William) staring at me. I noticed him and Smiled. He instantly turned away from me and was generally scared of me for the rest of the night.

The Party had a Costume Contest, which was judged by the Stake Presidency. I won the Category of Scariest Male Costume, and for a prize I got a huge bag of candy. I think David was happy with the candy.

I had a lot of fun this Halloween, and I hope to see pictures of more Halloweens posted here.

Greg's First Basketball Game

He loved it!

Off to School!

Typical Henry Face

Happy to see ya!

Greg's 6th Birthday Party

Back to School

First day of 4th and 2nd Grade. Whoa.

Dubya

Cuz You've Got....

PERSONALITY!

Henry

1st Day of School

Go G!

Strega Katie

Self Designed...of course

The dialogue was as follows:

Dad: Can I take your picture?

Katie: Nooooo!

Dad: Really?

Katie: OK. But don't post it on the blog.

Dad: Really?

Katie: OK. You can post it.

Happy Birthday, John

I have no pictures in my computer, so I will leave it to someone else to post a great picture of John. My favorite comment on John's birthday comes from David. When I reminded him to call John for his birthday and told him that John was 34!, he said, "Yeah, but he is in the best shape of his life....DITTO...Happy Birthday to a spectacular Son!

Mervyn S. Bennion

As I was looking for David's present on his birthday, I turned to Jocelyn for help. She told me that David was looking for the whole story of Capt. Mervyn S. Bennion of the USS West Virginia. I was intrigued to see what I could find out.

I found that almost every book on Pearl Harbor, Captain Bennion is mentioned, but there is very little told about the man, other than that he was heroic. So, I turned to the internet and looked for more information. This is what I found;

Mervyn S. Bennion's commendation

A Biography written by Mervyn's Brother Howard.

History of the USS West Virginia

History of the USS West Virginia in photos

and the USS Bennion

Happy Birthday Gregory!

Happy 6th Birthday Gregory! Greg's birth was a rush - in every sense. It was a totally exhilirating experience. We had to speed to the hospital, and arrived too late for an epidural. When Greg arrived, he came out with bellow telling us how hungry he was. He was a bundle of activity even down to his quivering chin. He immediately calmed down when he was handed to Wendy, and has been a wonderful part of our family since then.

I like Gregory because:

He is funny, and has a good sense of humor.
He is curious and asks good questions.
He is very handsome-with model-esque good looks
He is kind and treats others kindly.
He is a great brother to his older and younger siblings-no one is more patient with William than Greg.
He is a great bike rider.
He is strong.
He is very creative and can build great Lego ships.
He is very smart and especially good at math questions.
He chooses the right and sets a good example for his friends.
He brings out the best in other people and makes them comfortable.
He has a great imagination.
He is a great playmate-he was the first of our kids to play dead when he got shot during play gun fights.

And I like him a lot.

Greg is a great boy who gets better and better every day. I am impressed with how grown up you are what a great example you set for us. Mommy and I are very proud of you.

Happy Birthday David!

Video Updates

Soren is walking!!!

You all saw the extroverted side of William when he was dancing at David and Jocelyn's reception. He may be a bit more shy about his singing than his dancing...

Burke was singing this song non-stop last week!

Hood to Coast 2009

I should start this post by saying I love the picture of Max. The pure joy and adulation of a victory with arms raised in the air was fittingly caught by that photo. I may have felt a piece of that a few times in my life although I don’t think it has ever been captured to that degree. You will see no such emotion in the following photos.

Each year in Oregon there is a relay race called Hood to Coast which takes relay teams from Mt Hood to Seaside, Oregon over 197 miles. Teams are made up of 12 people who each run 3 legs ranging from 3.5 to 7.5 miles (My three legs were about 16 miles total distance).

This first photo is of my first leg where I was covering about 4.75 miles at a pace around 7:20 per mile. I’m feeling good here, not Max good, but good.



Here is a shot of the end of my last leg. Not feeling nearly as good as I roll in the final few hundred yards of my 7.5 mile leg. My calves were like to solid knots that didn’t go away for a few days.



This at the finish line in Seaside, Oregon were I am either expressing my pain or my admiration at Nick's sub 7 minute miles during his first leg the previous day. I thought everyone would enjoy a good laugh at seeing the gigantic lips at their finest. Peter would be proud.

my monsters, villains, and freaks classes

hi fam! i've just started teaching two sections of my new themed composition course and we're studying film adaptations of Victorian novels featuring monsters, villains, or freaks. i've made two class blogs where my students will be answering discussion questions if you want to check them out.

english101section29.blogspot.com
english101section36.blogspot.com

good times!

Max Wins!

Aunt Chantel sent this priceless picture of Max after he had won a race at a swim meet. Max has had his disappointments with other sports, but he hasn't given up....bless his heart....this picture just does me in! Isn't family the best?

Happy Birthday, Amy

Amy and Don are getting set up in their new place in Sydney, but we don't want to miss the chance to say Happy Birthday to Amy. We hope you had a great day....we thought of you all day long!

what I have been up to

So the first issue of the magazine I have been working on is out. here is a taste of what I have been up to... Has been very interesting to be on the inside of the magazine, helping develop the pages, etc. etc.

The story with the boat, we shot in Sanibel Resort in Florida. Amazing birds in Florida. They have such an odd look to them. They remind me of Disney cartoon characters. Anyway, wanted to share with you what I have been up to. Tomorrow I leave for St. Vincent & the Grenadines for another 4 shoots.

Love you all!!!

Katherina Ballerina

What a beauty!