We Went to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

One Friday in October, Cole had the day off from school. So, we finally made the journey to the zoo!
We began as always checking out the waterfall and stream out front.
Then, we went and saw an elephant show.
Who knew you could train elephants to shake,
Give showers,
And, bow. They are more obedient than children!
Next we saw the monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, etc. They came up close and tried to give us five!
We of course had to measure ourselves to see, How We Measure Up! We look like we might fit in the ape family!
Addy was pretty brave. She seemed to like most of the animals. Of course, the giant tortoise is pretty non-threatening!
She didn't seem to mind this animal either (I'm not sure what it is for sure!). She was pretty entertained by it running back and forth.
This is the "Can we just look at the animals and not have to take a bunch of pictures" look!
A picture with me, just to prove I was actually there with them!
And no trip to the zoo is complete for our family unless we see the mighty cougar!
Of course seeing the animals is probably trumped by eating pizza and drinking out of animal sippers!
Or riding on the carousel!
Although I'm trying to figure out if I should be concerned that my girlie-girl daughter picked a snake to ride on!
Addy was less sure of the carousel then she was of seeing the live animals I think.
Pretending to be eaten by the lion drinking fountain was also a very popular activity.
This is Addy's "I don't know why we are doing this, but Cole and Emily did it so I will not be left out" look.
They also had a great time pretending to be turtles,
pretending to be eaten by the snake slide,
and pretending to be a spider (or a fly).
There is no pretending here though. Addy was so worn out she had to take a short nap!
She did manage to wake back up in time for the ride on the train.
Finally, before we left, we had to play with the giant water ball on the way out!
What a day. We had lots of fun. And now we get to hear Emily asking every week when we can go back. Apparently our current freezing weather is not a factor for her!

BYU Athletics Promotes Four

PROVO, Utah (Nov. 15, 2010) – BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe recently announced the promotion of four Athletic Department employees, including three as Assistant Athletic Directors. David Almodova has been named Assistant Athletic Director over Marketing, Chad Gwilliam has been named Assistant Athletic Director over Compliance, Matthew Nix has been named Assistant Athletic Director over Events & Facilities and Jennifer Funkhouser has been promoted to Compliance Coordinator.

Almodova was hired at BYU in 2007 as the Director of Athletic Marketing after serving as the Assistant Director of Sports Marketing and Promotions at Duke University. Under his leadership, the Cougar marketing department has won numerous national awards and overseen an increase in attendance across all sports. A native of Laie, Hawaii, Almodova earned a B.S. in public relations and interpersonal communications from Southern Utah University in 2002.

Gwilliam was hired as the Director of Compliance in 2008 after serving the BYU athletic department as an Assistant Compliance Coordinator in 2003. His work with the NCAA and BYU’s student-athletes, coaches, employees and boosters has created an environment of fairness and integrity throughout the department. A resident of Spanish Fork, Utah, Gwilliam graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 2002 with a B.S. in Sports Management and completed his MPA at BYU in August.

Nix began working at BYU in 2000 as an Event Manager overseeing Olympic sport events and facilities. During his tenure, BYU has successfully hosted numerous Mountain West Conference, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and NCAA Championships, including the 2009 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship and the 2006 NCAA Regionals for men’s and women’s track. A native of Howell, N.J., Nix earned his bachelor’s degree from BYU in 1999 before completing his MBA at BYU in 2005.

Funkhouser began working in the BYU Compliance office in 2007 as a Compliance Assistant after working in the Athletic Communications office while earning her undergraduate degree. Her commitment and dedication toward upholding NCAA regulations and educating the Cougar community about those regulations has been instrumental in fostering a culture of compliance at BYU. Funkhouser graduated from BYU in 2008 with a B.S. in Sociology.

Just Because They Are Cute!

Every week, Emily tries to coordinate the girls' dresses. She had just gotten a black dress from cousin Ally and was so excited for Addy to wear her black dress also. So, we just had to take pictures!
We couldn't leave Cole out. He put on Chad's old missionary tag, so he could coordinate also! (Actually I think he was playing with it and it just happened to still be on. But we'll pretend it was on purpose!)
Who can resist this face?
Or this one?
Or the two of them together!
Or all three of them for that matter!
Hopefully in a few years they will still be this good of friends!
I'm very thankful for my cute, loving children!

He is a Shull!

This is Cole's first report card. It clearly shows he does have some Shull genes in him, because he has high marks on everything but neatness and writing!
Oh well, at least it's not an "N" yet!

Trick-Or-Treat

On Halloween night (Ok, the Utah version of Halloween night, so Saturday night!), we went to a friend's house for a pre-trick-or-treating meal. A nice way to try to get some real food into the kids before they load up on junk!
After that, we got all dressed up in our trick-or-treating attire so we could head out and gather up some candy!
The football player. (Not very original! But, very easy!)
And with his game face showing!
Sleeping Beauty (Her hair was a little out of whack in this picture!)
And one of her fairy godmothers, Merryweather.
Unfortunately, as soon as we were all dressed up and ready to go out, it started to rain.
So we stood on the porch for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. Pretty soon that rain turned into hail and our decision was made for us! The girls went right back inside and started watching a movie until the bad weather passed!
Cole, Mason, and some of Mason's friends escaped and went trick-or-treating in the crazy weather anyway. Thankfully, Cole had on his helmet to protect him from the rain and hail!
Eventually the rain and hail subsided and the girls got dressed back up and headed out, again!
Addy had a ball. Every time we got to a new house, she would say, "More candy!" and rush to the front. She did not let the bigger kids get in her way. When she saw the candy come out, she was pushing her way in to make sure she didn't get forgotten!
At the first few houses, Addy couldn't figure out how to get her candy from her hand into her bucket. The problem was, she was holding the candy in the hand of the arm that had the bucket resting on it. She couldn't quite bend her elbow enough to drop it in the bucket. After she got tired of me laughing at her, she finally figured out she either had to put her bucket down first or put her candy in the other hand. At least she figured it out eventually!
The fun didn't last very long however, after about 5 houses, Emily decided she was cold and Addy decided she needed to be carried! (Addy's was probably necessary because her dress was a little big and a little long!) So, in the end the girls didn't end up trick-or-treating to too many houses. But, they did have a good time and got plenty of candy!
After we had hit all of the necessary houses, and frozen Emily out, we headed home to sample some of our treats,
and for a nice cuddle with Daddy!
Long after the girls had fallen asleep (trick-or-treating does wear you out!), Cole finally made it back to our house with Mason and his buddies. I'm pretty sure trick-or-treating with the little kids will never suffice for him any more. They went to more houses than I can count, came home with more candy than one child needs, and made Cole feel like a million bucks because he got to hang out with the big boys! They even taught him how to trade candy when they were all done.
Cole had so much candy that he had to sort it all out so he could see what he actually came home with!
Chad and I did not want to be left out, so Chad tracked down these costumes for us! Thankfully Colton wasn't there to see me wear the outfit of their rivals!
See, I'm still flexible in my old age!
Hope you all had a Happy Halloween too!

Pumpkin Carving

We decided that the Monday before Halloween was the perfect time for the annual pumpkin carving with the Olson cousins.
So we loaded up our pumpkins and headed over, so I could once again clean all of the pumpkins out and then carve them. (Why do we do this again? Oh yeah, TRADITION!! They will like it...some day!)
Morgan and Mason did a pretty good job on cleaning out and carving their pumpkins, thus giving my hope for the future!
Cole supervised, with his pants hiked up so he didn't get pumpkin guts on them!
Cole did enjoy designing his face. He knew exactly what he wanted it to look like. No one could persuade him to change it!
After he perfected it on the newspaper, I copied it onto the pumpkin. As you can tell from the extra lines, it took me a few times to satisfy him!
He did actually use a pumpkin carver this year and tried to carve out the eyes, so I suppose that is at least some progress, right?!
In the end, it looked pretty good. In fact, it was missing a few teeth, just like Cole! (We were trying to show the tooth that he lost earlier that day.)
Emily tried to help clean her pumpkin out, keeping her arm as far away as possible.
Then, she tried again from the same distance, but a little bit different angle!
Her spoon finally made it in the pumpkin, but the way she was holding it, there was no way she was going to be able to scoop!
Although, she couldn't quite bring herself to clean the pumpkin out, Emily did also help carve her pumpkin's eyes.
Emily and her finished product.
We managed to get Addy to at least touch the pumpkin stem. She quickly dropped it when she realized what was attached to the stem though!
She was just fine sitting on my lap as I carved! So maybe the third child is the charm and I will finally have a child who likes to help carve pumpkins! (Or she could have just been happy sitting on her Mom's lap. But, we'll pretend it was the pumpkin!)
Addy was least excited about this picture, for some reason. She did not want to sit by her pumpkin. (So, maybe it was her Mom's lap that made her happy in the previous shot!)
My kids have taught Kira well. She does not want to look at, touch, or be anywhere near the pumpkins and their insides!
We did finally find something to make them all smile. Donuts and hot chocolate to celebrate our finished products!
Even if I am more into it then they are, we did end up with some good jack-o-lanterns, and they at least tried a little more this year. So, I guess we will try again next year. After all, how can I resist these faces!!