No More He-Man

We love the new haircut, Bryan!

A Welcome Site

Especially after seeing a lot of this:

Ten Year Reunion, Round 2

Kevin had his 10 year high school reunion for Banana, I mean Bonanza High School on October 24. This thing was planned so quickly that three weeks before the 24th at my reunion we were talking about how Kevin probably wouldn't even have a reunion. And I hope Stephanie doesn't read my blog because I would have to say that this reunion was better than Chaparral's.

Kevin's reunion was not only planned in less than three weeks - it was cheaper than my reunion, it was held at the Turnberry Towers Stirling Room which was gorgeous, it offered an awesome three course dinner that was served to us, and the organizers got tons of free stuff donated for raffles and table games which were a lot of fun. I think the drinks were more expensive at Kevin's reunion, but that didn't bother me because I don't drink. I actually think even this made his reunion better because people didn't seem as drunk at his reunion as they did at mine.

I forgot my camera, so I stole some pictures from Carrie's blog (thanks, Carrie).

Kevin still sees most of his friends from high school quite a bit. They are a fun group of guys.

The girl in the black dress planned this event, and she did an amazing job.

Amy, Carrie, and I were the only wives that came. Dave's wife just had a baby the week before, so she had an excuse for not coming, but I really would have liked to have seen the other wives.

We had a great night, and I'm glad that someone finally stepped up and planned this.

Halloween Week

I love Halloween. I think it is starting to take Thanksgiving's place as my favorite holiday.

Our Halloween week started on Monday with Rebecca's Dance or Treat party with Mrs. Stephanie.

The girls got to dress up in their costumes for dance class, and they had to dance to get their treats from Mrs. Stephanie. Rebecca loved this last year, and she was so excited to do it again this year.

Then Friday was our Trunk or Treat. I didn't get any pictures from it, but it was a great party. Kevin and I dressed up, but no one could tell. We were trying to be these two:

I wore a headband and earphones, but people just thought I was being anti-social. Kevin only spiked his hair for his costume. I guess that's what we get for being lazy dresser-uppers. I kept thinking all week, "I should go buy a long brown wig for my costume." I never did, and hence no one was aware we were even in costume. Maybe we'll try harder next year.

To celebrate Fall, Rebecca's preschool class went on a field trip to the Gilcrease Orchard in North Las Vegas. She got to pick out a pumpkin to take home from the trip. On Halloween morning, Kevin helped her carve it for our Halloween party that night.

We had this Black Cat pumpkin stencil, and Kevin let her do most of the hole-poking so that he could carve it.

We took her pumpkin to my brother Travis's annual Halloween party. The cousins always have cute costumes for this fun event:

As always, my brother put hay bales on his trailer for trick or treating:

The kids love this because they can climb on whenever they get tired of walking, and the adults love this because they don't have to walk at all. We just send the kids up to the doors and watch from the trailer.

And now we have plenty of candy to eat for a while. What a great holiday!

Seven Months Old

Braden is seven months old, and he has grown up so much in the past couple of months that I really shouldn't have skipped his six month post.

• He has two new teeth on the bottom that both came in at the same time. I've never seen that before, but I'm not complaining. Two new teeth in half the teething time works for me.
  
  
• He likes to do this fake laugh whenever he gets excited:

He especially likes to fake laugh at his brother and sister.

• He is by far the earliest of my kids to attempt any kind of crawl.
  
  

  

The other two weren't mobile like this until about ten months. He'll pull himself from my bedroom to the playroom, so I already have to keep an eye on him around the top of the stairs.

• He's finally eating solids. He eats one pack of fruit or vegetables a day. We tried rice cereal at four months, and he kept throwing it up, so we gave up on solids for a little bit. I tried straight bananas with him at six months, and he didn't throw them up, so we just don't give him cereal.
  
  
• He's almost completely a bottle baby now. I'll probably only nurse him two or three more times until I totally run out of milk.
  
  
• He's sleeping in his room that he shares with William. About a week ago, I put them both in the room for a nap at the same time, and they both went to sleep, so now they nap together and go to bed together.
  
  

I can't believe my baby is already seven months old. He is still a dream baby, and I'm so happy that he's here.

Ten Years Ago...

...I graduated from high school. This past weekend was my high school reunion, and even though there were a few people I wanted to see who weren't there, I still had a blast.

Here we are - Chaparral High School class of '99 (those of us who showed up anyway). I was cool enough to hold the the sign for the picture. I feel like everyone got better looking in ten years. As people were walking in, I kept thinking, "Wow, he/she looks great!"

After I got there I realized my camera was dead, so I stole these pictures from Julie's blog (thanks, Julie). I was a little horrified to see that they decided to put our senior picture on each of our name tags, but at least the picture was small. And I was disappointed that Brandon Flowers the lead singer of The Killers didn't show up. He graduated with us, but to be honest, I don't remember him in high school. It was after someone told me he went to Chaparral that I went and found a picture of him in my senior yearbook.

Our graduating class really was a lot of fun. I was reminded of that at the reunion. It was so great to see the people who came, and I hope it's not ten years before I see them again.

Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Shane Black

Now I'm the only Emily Bowman that I know. Congratulations, Shane and Emily!