Faye's Dance's Preview

Here is a preview of Faye's Christmas recital dance number.

Halloween pictures

Here are even more pictures from the fall, including Halloween. They are all in the same album as last time so some of the pictures you might have seen before. Fall is going good.

We went to watch the CSU and UNLV game last weekend and met up with Daren. We had a good time with Grandpa Floyd and Jill. We got to hangout with Daren a little. And we got to see a little of LV.

Halloween was fun Faye was a fairy and Lori was a clown. We did the trunk'r treat and did some neighborhood knocking too.

Church has been going well. Lori is still in primary and is also has a stake girls camp calling too. It has been lots of work, but it looks like it will be fun. Hopefully it won't include a Dalley meat mess... or the like. Oh, Bret still hangs out with the teachers.

Bret recently got a promotion at work. He is now the Operations Manager. He also finishes his MBA next week.

I think that is all from us...

Faye loves the blue face girls

I just changed our video. Faye loves this song.

Fall 2011

We have been having a very good Fall so far.

We have been working in the yard alot. In the slide show, check out our new front yard!

We volunteered at the marathon. THANKS DALLEYS! For housing the 4th ward's youth for the night in Pine Valley so we could man the starting line Aid Station. Most Dalleys will really enjoy that a BYU track student won the SG Marathon...

We visited the Corn Maze at Stahli Farms. Faye was so excited to meet Grandpa Stahli. We played in the corn slide, at the petting zoo, watched the pig races (complete with pig nose), we hung out with the witch that lives in the farm's old grainery, we walked around the pumpkin patch... oh, and we did the corn maze.

Some of the photos are garden pictures, we got a watermelon this year! We also have been eating our fair share of squash. We tore out the squash 1/3 of the garden on Saturday. That only leaves the tomatoes and peppers left (oh and the under-performing pumpkins).

Well, other than that we are doing good. I only have 4 more weeks of school left. Lori was in a recital put on by her voice coach. Faye is in dance and swimming right now and loves the two play groups she belongs to. Marley is frustrated by all of the sprinklers that have been running on our lawn during overseeding. She hates the sprinklers and sits far away from them and will whine.

We did do a Jim and Lori Olsen family reunion at the USU homecoming, but more on that later...

here is my star

Faye was the star of her dance recital. (It was Peter Pan, and she danced with the "Second Star to the Right"). She loved dancing, but maybe enjoyed curtain call even more! Her teacher is in one of the pictures as Tiger Lily (the Indians did a Bollywood dance), and hip hop Tinker Bell is in another one.



v

Here's the pictures

Here's the pictures.

-Bret

24th of July words only

Hello world:

I thought I would do a post-Snow Reunion post. We attended the Snow Family reunion from July 20th to the 24th.

We started things off with The Little Mermaid production at Tuacan. Faye loved it. She was engaged the entire 3 hours. The weather was perfect and the show was very good. Faye loved to listen to her favorite songs especially. We went with Al, Nancy, Erica, Joe, Jessica and Tyson.

Afterward we did a meet and greet with some of the cast. Faye would not go anywhere near the Sea Witch or the two eels. She was afraid of the crazy chef at first but they became good friends after a little encouragement. She loved meeting mermaid sisters, Scuttle and Flounder. She was just giddy to take her picture with Eric and Ariel! We had such a great time!

The next morning I got to golf at Sunbrook with Warning and Holland. I really like that course. We met up with everyone (all 87 or so of the Snows) at the Veyo Pool for lunch and swimming. We love the onion rings and pronto pups (huge corn dogs). Faye especially loved borrowing cousin Paige’s pink tube (thanks Paige). We were the last ones out of the pool because the pink tube was so fun.

Friday Faye and I went fishing for a while with Cody and Parker. Jesse, Kelly and Joe were already there and had much better luck than we did. Later we played on the giant waterslide/bounce house combo and had a great lunch from Staheli’s too.

Saturday was the games. Lori and me won the licorice kiss for the 3rd year in a row. We also won at the balloon toss for the first time ever. Faye loved the stick-horse run and her foot race too. She thinks Cracker Jacks are great and wants to compete in more events next time.

I played at Ledges later the afternoon. I was teamed with people that I hadn’t every really got to know before and I was glad for it. Dallin, Cory and Jaron were a great group and I hope to hang out with them all more in the future. I collected the most animals, Warning won closest to the pin and longest drive, I think he might have been the best wolf too.

Sunday we went to church. Trevor gave baby Miles a very wonderful blessing. What a great think to do a blessing in the PV chapel like that! Faye loved PV primary too. She cried hard when we had to extract her from the old tithing house to get her to say good buy to Grandma Lori and the Cody Olsens.

Let’s see what else? During down times we played games (Lori and Faye) and talked about the benefits of wooden bats in junior college baseball (Bret). Marley got stung by a bee on the nose and her face swelled up pretty good, but some Benadryl helped her out. Faye and Lori made jewelry, a window hanging, a foam turtle, pipe cleaner crowns and lots of other crafts. Holland and me made pico-de-gallo from my garden’s veggies. We got to play Bean game with Holland, Cody and Kim.

Sunday night we got to hang out with just Charise, Chris, Al, Nancy, Scott, Amie, Scott’s girls, Charise’s girls and Stan. It was fun to just relax and get to catch up with them a little more. Faye thinks Paige and Brynn are the best (they got to feed the horses carrots and play imaginary dance class).

Hopefully I can pull the pictures off of my camera very soon. -Bret

Here is the video promised in the previous post...

Easter Post:

Cody, Kim, Laney and the boys came for an Easter visit. Then Arti came too! Cody got a camping spot out at Sand Hollow Reservoir. We stayed with them for a night. They kids played (miles of sand box!). We had an Easter egg hunt with some of Kim’s extended family. We rolled eggs on the sand dunes (a Wilkinson/Langston tradition). Faye had a tumble in the sand that we caught on video. Of all of the video’s posted on the post this one is my favorite! It is a CAN’T MISS! She had to take a wash in the lake with all of the sand she got on her.

I also got some pictures of the Easter outfits. Notice I even have a matching pocket square. Faye got Grandpa Jim’s ‘we must have matching clothing gene’. Our stake had a big boundary change that weekend, so Bret is now the YM councilor with the teachers. He is pretty excited, but with the MBA-school, work and the house remodel… he has decided not to sleep anymore.

Bret and Cody went golfing at Sand Hollow that weekend. On the last hole (par 4) all Bret had to do was score an 9 or better to post his best score ever! He blew-up and posted a 10 on that hole! Out there somewhere Holland is saying, “What a head case…”

Lori's Birthday and the Kite Festival

Kite Festival & Lori’s Birthday:

We went to the kite festival at Sun River. There was no wind, but there was crazy corn, BBQ pork, potato skins, ice-cream, tamales, and tacos. Faye loved the train rides and all of the singing and dancing entertainment. Uncle Bob: If you have any pull with Dixie Escalante, please let them know the kite festival is a must for our family.

Lori wanted a garden theme for her birthday. Faye and I made a pie with bugs, worms, mud and grass. We also made everyone eat it with Home Depot shovels. Lori got a new Humming bird feeder with juice, an AGGIE shirt (of course), and live Ladybugs. Lori also got grilled fish and a salad. Hey it was her big day, so it was… her choice of dinner. Like it mattered, the next day we hit the buffet in a big way.

The birthday party weekend continued in Mesquite. Bret won a trip to beautiful Mesquite Nevada with his NCAA tournament knowledge (he got lucky on a couple true false questions…). So we went to Mesquite with our friends the Dottsons. Matt and Amy have a couple girls near Faye’s age. Don’t worry no gambling or crazy stuff happened. We went bowling, we flew kites (that whole business about not trying to retrieve a kite from power lines is bogus by the way) we swam, saw Hop, and just wiped out the Buffet. We had a great time. The Dottsons sure know how to party!

We love you Lori! HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!!

garden post

Garden Post:



So on this post I wanted to include some pictures of the Garden. We haven’t had the same success with our squash and zucchini this year, but you can see that we do have some stuff growing. Faye loves to eat the flowers off of the Bok Choy. Lori took a video of her stealing some and running away to her special chair to eat them.

There are some pictures of our strawberries, peaches and the beginning of some sunflowers (Lori is hiding in the background). Lori had a salad that she liked so much she had to take a picture… so that is included in the slide show too.

We enjoy the garden. Lori spent a lot of Sunday on our picnic blanket in the shade of the fruit trees reading a book today while Marley and Faye hunted for sweet peas. Hopefully by the time the snow reunion comes we have some veggies to share… Grandpa Alan style.

I also added some pictures of the Cottonwood fluff on Sunbrook GC when Faye and I went this weekend. Allergy suffers BEWARE! The fluff was about 1/4" thick on some fairways.

Faye's first stiches

On Saturday Bret was in charge of getting Faye to her Dance class. He helped her dress in her leotard and left early with a pre-planned route that avoided the ironman traffic. She got to class a little too early so she and some of her friends in class began to fool around on a trampoline (the small exercise kind). She ended up falling of and hitting her head on the corner of a wall.

The blood started pretty quickly, so Bret took her to the bathroom to sort out her hair and find the cut. Faye was screaming pretty frantically. It was split pretty good so Bret rushed her to the insta-care for stitches.

The doctor didn't want to have to cut her hair and Faye didn't want that either. So They chose staples.

See what happens when Lori leaves Bret and Faye alone for a few hours?

Happy Mothers Day Lori! We love how you keep us out of trouble and out of the hospital.




oh yeah... today I was asked by someone, "who is Cee-Lo Green?"
Well in reponse here is some Gnarles Barkley, that means it is Cee-Lo + Danger Mouse (the guy that produced the Gorillaz beats). Check the awesome videos for a sample. The video is a promotion of the Odd Couple album and that is why Cee-lo is dressed as Darth Vader and Danger Mouse is dressed as Obi Wan.

Heavy Metal Wizard Christmas

So this is another post, yup... two in a week! I just got our photo's off of the camera from Christmas so I thought I would share with you some of them.

Some notes... Yes there is a Christmas picture with a heavy metal wizard telling a Dungeons and Dragons style of story. There is a Christmas elf with a big, live bird. And a Greek, Red-head Mrs. Clause. There are a few of Holland, Arti and Jim. Oh and check out the matching dresses and PJ's that Faye got for herself and her doll/baby. Some snow pics with Marley and some tumbling class pictures also made the cut.

What happened in March

First of all I missed the music player that I used to have on here, but often didn't work and was kind of annoying sometimes... So I have a new section of the blog called Sweet videos. You can find it in the top right corner of your screen. So go check out Jimmy T's "One More Try" and go ahead and steal the dance moves...

Here are some March Pictures. It was Bret's birthday. We had an AGGIE birthday and filled out our final four brackets, played pin the tail on BIG Blue and had Grandma and Grandpa Snow over for ice cream cake.

On the night before St. Patrick’s Day we rigged up a completely-functional trap at the end of a finger-painted rainbow complete with fake gold coins to try and catch a Leprechaun. We missed but he left us some candy in his pot and a pair of green gloves instead.


We've been having fun in the garden too. Faye is great at planting seeds and we are already eating our radishes, mustard greens and bok choy.

Bret bought a wood chipper because Lori wanted wood chips in part of the yard and the chipper would cost less than the chips... Well now he spends a portion of every week chipping wood that he gathers from around the neighborhood. A few pictures are included of him chipping up the neighbors trees.

He also decided that the string on the kite winder was not of good enough quality so he used a drill to remove the old string and replace it with new string. Lori thought this was a crazy idea...

Finally we found a dance class that was right for us. Faye will be a star (she plays a star in the night sky) in the troupe's (is that what it is called?) production of Peter Pan... I can't wait.

Baseball season is HERE!

This week is always one of my favorite. The Masters, Baseball Opening-Day and The Final 4 all happen within 8 days of each other. It is only rivaled with the week where the World series overlaps the beginning of football.

What an Angel's game last night. It was nice to see former SLC Bees really come through (exept for Brandon Wood... what a head case). Bourgos (pete-ie-b) scored the winning run in the 14th! Walden, Bulger and Kohn really came through out of the bull pin too! Check out speedy Pete on his winning run...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13640871

I'm so excited for our great outfield, Wells Hunter and Bourgos might be the best defensively in MLB... If our bull pin can keep the ball in the park we should do okay.

-Bret

Oh and did I mention it is always fun to rub it in Holland's mug when the Red Sox are doing HORRIBLE!

Lori is the Best

I just wanted everyone to know how Awesome Lori is. She created the best birthday party ever. Faye was always asking what kind of birthday I wanted. She had a princess party and, so of course, all other birthday parties should have a theme. Well, off hand I would tell her that I wanted an AGGIE birthday, mostly because every year for my birthday candle wish I ask for an Aggie win in the NCAA tournament.

When I got home from work I was greeted with AGGIE signs in the windows, pictures of Coach Stew on the walls and even a scattering of “Wild Bill” photo’s in the living room! We had a “GO AGGIES” ice cream cake and played a game of pin-the-tail-on-Big Blue! She invited over Grandma and Grandpa Snow and we all filled out our NCAA brackets. Even the dog Marley did a bracket (picked all the ‘dog’ mascots and picked against all the ‘cat’ mascots). I got an AGGIE shirt and wore it later in the week when watched the Aggie game at Floyd’s.

The party it took some planning and some careful thought. I think that she is the greatest! She even puts up with me for the few days that I pout after the Aggies lose!

Spring time post

So I thought I would do a quick update.

Faye is researching dance classes; she has tried one out already. She is trying to find a balance between the rigid snooty schools where the moms all wear matching track suits and the crazy go nuts schools with the teacher wearing a grateful dead t-shirt and leading the little girls in a modern interpretation of David Bowie’s Labyrinth and Lady Ga-Ga’s poker face mash-up. So if you have suggestions for a class that is organized, but not stuffy we are taking them…

She also is a great helper. She has been learning how to make toast, how to plant peas and sunflowers, how to feed Marley and does a great job at cleaning her room.

Lori got notice not to cut her hair from the church’s media department. She is being considered for some of the New Testament speaking roles in the new seminary videos that will be filmed in June. She auditioned a couple months ago and made the casting director cry a little during the women at the well scene, so hopefully she gets another call back soon. Anyway to be considered out of the 3000 people that auditioned for 6 spots isn’t too shabby.

In other news, she is working on toning-up and enjoying Zumba and Yoga lately. Until Bret began the newest sprinkler and landscape project she had paid off all the credit cards!

Beautiful, Talented and Smart!

She finally got the planter boxes that Bret has been working on for over 6 months and enjoyed this weekend’s sun pulling weeds and singing songs with Faye outside in the garden.

Bret just finished his Stats class. He struggled, but it’s over. He is looking forward to the NCAA tournament, especially since his Aggies just beat LA Tech 72 to 30! They seem to be warming-up at exactly the right time.

His garden is one-third in with the rest to follow on Tuesday. He purchased a wood chipper once he saw that wood chips were about $6 a bag. He chipped most of Saturday and accounting for labor, gas and cost of Dr Pepper he should break-even sometime in 2014.

He is looking forward to his Birthday which, much like Uncle Al’s birthday, will be a week long event. It starts with Golf on Thursday, new tenny-runners on Friday, The WAC tourney on ESPN 2 on Saturday, and Red Robin with Lori and Faye on Tuesday (with homework, baseboards and wood-chipping sprinkled in).

Speaking of sprinklers... it’s that time of year again when Bret hand digs trenches and does advanced trig calculations to figure out how to install a sprinkler system. Did you know you will void your home owners insurance policy if you install a backflow preventer on the inside of your coat closet? Even though it seems like a logical location to keep it from freezing. I don’t know, there’s something in the policy about flooding the entire house if the line looses pressure…

Marley had her pen moved. It is much larger now and not as close to the noisy ‘white dogs”. She has been sunbathing on the top of her dog house Snoopy style. She still hates sprinklers, black labs and noisy implements like wood-chippers. This spring she is looking forward to a dog-run surrounded by sunflowers and cosmos.

Happy Spring time everyone!

Bird fest house

Not much to report but we did have a good time at the winter bird festival. We made this cool bird house! Faye did the glue and paint, she is almost ready for the nail gun...

She also is practicing for tumbling class, she loves tumbling class.