Early Christmas

So we recently got home from our early Christmas in Irvine. I put Brooke in charge of photography, hence I have about 100 photos just from opening presents. Anyway, here were my favorites. Photos of note are: Taylor opening his coat in a Victoria's Secret box, Heather and Brooke being "Super Kawaii" (a quote from Harajuku Girls by Gwen Stefani), dads reaction to his Stanford tree club cover, Taylor biting into his super sized gummy bear, and Heather in her Snuggie. We wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

A Stanford Thanksgiving

Well, now that is almost Christmas I am finally posting our Thanksgiving photos. We stayed in Stanford this year since I had to work the day before and after Thanksgiving.That being said I got SUPER domestic and ordered our entire Thanksgiving dinner from Marie Calendars! (and I have to say, it was SO good that I am tempted to never make my own again!) Mark and Ann flew in Thanksgiving day and spent the weekend with us. As usual it was WONDERFUL to have my in laws visit since they buy food, clean, take us out to eat, and took us Christmas shopping while they were here.

Ann always insists that we pose for her photographs. They normally end up looking something like this since we like to annoy her!


This is Taylor's favorite "artistic structure" on campus


Mark and Ann visiting the Cactus Garden


We drove to Half Moon Bay post turkey and walked around the coast


It feels so funny to me wearing a coat to the beach


The handsome dudes at the Monterey aquarium


Here we have several photos of Ann trying to get into the freezing cold water






This photo is typical Bowen Boy material. Here we have Taylor and Mark mocking the Unstable cliffs warning.

Curiouser, and curiouser...Halloween

Darling baby Claire!


Cute baby Louis


This is my VERY good friend Ashton. Ashton is 6'4" and quite the presence! (she played volleyball for 4 years at the Y) Here she is pulling off the last second missionary costume!


Ok I thought that it was very clever of her to be Victoria from Twilight, since she has the red curly hair



Funniest girls ever! Katie & Jasmine as old folks


Cute Violet...she even got the hair in the face


Me as Alice



Me and Mummy as Austin Powers. Ok so she wasn't going for Austin Powers exactly, but I thought she totally resembled!

Queen Shibby Kathleen!!

Hello all! So my little sister Shelby was just announced the Homecoming Queen @ Rocky Mountain High. Here are cute photos that were in the Idaho Statesman. I have to say that I have NEVER known anybody who deserves this honor more. Shelby is the sweetest, most kind, most friendly girl in the whole world. She makes friends with all types of people and includes everybody in her circle. Congrats Shib...You are awesome!

Go Cardinal!

Hello Everybody! Well, we are finally here in Palo Alto, CA. We have spent the last week riding our bikes ALL OVER Stanford campus and trying to figure out where everything is. Here is a list of interesting things so far...

1.) Nobody is white.

2.) Nobody speaks English unless forced.

3.) An old lady already told Taylor off because he did not fully yield and give a pedestrian the right of way. (it was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time!)

4.) We are too politically correct to have an "official mascot", so instead of offending any minority groups we simple cheer for the color "cardinal" and we have a silly tree that dances around at football games.

5.) Our band is INSANE! I repeat...our band is INSANE! You have never seen anything like them. I don't even know where to begin, but lets just say they are the rebel band nerds of the whole world:)

6.) There are black "killer" squirrels all around campus. Taylor thinks that they have been genetically altered by the labs at Stanford to promote diversity among the squirrel population.

7.) We call our oven the "easy bake oven" because it is about 12" high and 6" wide.

8.) Taylor's new best friends are named Mapolo and Gogurt...you think I am kidding, but I am not!

Ok so I can't think of any others at the time, but I will do more later!

JM/Fray Concert

Since we have been living in different states this summer, Taylor and I have been doing some "extreme dating" on the weekends. Since we only have about 48 hours together every week we cram every activity we can think of into those 2 days. This weekend was a prime example. As soon as Taylor arrived in Logan Friday night we went out to dinner at a new place that we have been wanting to try. Saturday morning we went to the first matinee of the new Harry Potter movie. (which I was a little bit dissapointed with...I dont think it lived up to the hype, but it was still good) Next we had lunch, went out for snowcones and Taylor tutored me on my math homework. Around 5 we went out to dinner and drove to Salt Lake for the Jack's Mannequin/Fray concert. The show was AWESOME! It was like 100 degrees at this outdoor ampitheater when the show started, however this did not seem to phase Andrew one bit. I could not believe how good he was live! For the entire hour that Jack's played he was jumping all over the stage while singing ALL vocals, playing the piano, and at one point playing the piano with one hand and the harmonica with the other in between vocals during "La, la, lie". It was CRAZY- the man wasn't even winded after 12 songs. I have to say that I am now an even bigger fan and Taylor (saint that he is) didn't even question me when I ran to purchase my second JM shirt and wrist band. The Fray was also pretty good- we only stayed for their first 4 songs (since we still had an hour & 45 min drive home) but their stage setup was sweet, the whole place was on their feet and dancing. It was an awesome 48 hours, but I am glad that we only have two weeks left of our current arrangment!

HUSBAND OF THE YEAR AWARD!

I just wanted to take this moment to let everybody know that my husband is AWESOME! I just went to check our mail and was surprised to find tickets to the Jack's Mannequin/Fray concert in two weeks!
In case you couldn't guess by my tunes on the blog, Jack's Mannequin is my FAVORITE band. I pretty much worship Andrew McMahon for everything he has done with Something Corporate & Jack's. I am so excited I can hardly wait!! What a sneaky sweet husband I have- thanks honey, you're my hero!

Brother Bear

Hey, for all of you that know my brother, I thought that I would post the latest photo he sent. He is currently serving in Ashland, OH and loving every minute of his mish. He is such an amazing missionary! He is the most disciplined, serious, hard worker that I know(except for my hus of course...he's also pretty intense!) Maybe I am a little bit biased because he is the only boy in the family, but we are all SO proud of him!

Happy Birthday Shibby!!!

Rachie and Shib while shopping. I bought Shelby the shirt that she is wearing for her prez


Well Hello...



The ladies...do you love how my 17 year old sister is a foot taller than me?

Cake made by Mummy of course

Hooray for Birthday's at Corona Village...sick