Moving to Calif. and a New Job!

We are now in California living at Leslie's Grandpa Bowen's house; with him and Leslie's Uncle Gary in Woodland Hills. I started my new Job at King, King, Alleman, & Jensen as a Staff Accountant. I'll be working in Burbank. It's a little exciting to be starting a career.


Leslie said we had to take a first day of work picture.

Part of the reason we are living with Grandpa Bowen is to help take care of him. Leslie's grandpa has Alzheimer's so he doesn't remember more than a few seconds. He's not sure who we are, but we love spending time with him. We try to keep him entertained and he keeps us laughing. He does have his moments and it does take a lot of work and patience, but he's a charming man, and is fun to live with.


On our way to California we decided to stop at the Manti Temple for a session. It's a beautiful temple and I have a beautiful wife!

Fun Summer Update

We are really behind on our blog so we'll just have to do a quick update of what's happened.

We spent most of our summer in Medford, OR with Leslie's family. We had a lot of fun except I spent way too much time studying for the CPA exam. It's a four part test and I've taken two of the tests and will be taking the third this Friday. Leslie went to girls camp as a cabin leader and had a blast. I think she enjoyed acting like a teenage girl without all the drama.

We went to Seattle with the Fernandez family to visit Mark and Julie's family and to go sight seeing, but we forgot to steal pictures from the family camera so we don't have any.

We drove back to Utah in July for the Holbrook Family reunion in Park City. We had a blast there. It was good to have so much of our family together. We spent our time hiking, swimming, playing games, and mountain biking.

I had a hard time deciding on what pictures to go with so I just added a ton.


This was a fun family picture. We had everybody, but Zak and Hillary.



This burger was a little big for me.


Our nephews Riley and Damon. Damon has a fat lip because although he is only 6 years old he went mountain biking earlier that day with Michael and I. He was doing great and had already gone down the trail a few times when he wrecked and scraped up his face. But don't worry he was back on his bike later that week doing the trails again. A couple days later he even rode off the trail over a ledge into a stream. He's such a good trooper and loves to mountain bike, and for 6 he's good.
Our cute nephew, Brixton.


I found a new hobby, Mountain Biking! I went with Michael and Damon one day and had so much fun I took Leslie and Emily another day. Later I went on a long bike ride by myself and had tons of fun. We biked at the Canyons Ski resort, so we rode the lifts up and bike back down.


We had lots of fun with our nephew Riley. He wanted to spend every minute he could in the pool.


Brixton and I; we love this picture.


Emily on the trails!

Leslie on the trails too!



We love our family!



Jon Henderson invited us to a Bee's Baseball game. Again, we had a blast.

Hiking with Michael and Damon in the Uinta Mountains

New hair/beard styles

I know our blog may not be quite as entertaining because we don't have so many super cute baby pictures or funny toddler/baby stories (seems like everyone else that has a blog has cute babies), but we have some great pictures of us.

Leslie has always wanted a blue streak in her hair. I've always thought it was a wild idea, but she went through with it this past week. She also wanted a haircut like Hillary Duff so she got that too. I think she is super beautiful!!

The blue streak turned out really cool!


And her hair is beautiful too!

I haven't been shaving as much now that I've graduated from BYU. Since I don't normally have to be anywhere each day, because I study most days, I don't have as much motivation to shave. Oh, and I've grown it out because Leslie likes the facial hair.

This next picture is two weeks worth of growth.


We decided to have fun with it so I gradually shaved off parts to see what it would look like. What do you think?? Should I grow it back like one of the following???


Cool, huh?

The next picture of Leslie is there just because I think she looks super beautiful.


Leslie's mom is an amazing seamstress/quilter and she used to make a lot of clothes. A few weeks ago she pulled out some of the old clothes she had made and Leslie tried on a few outfits. Doesn't she look great?


One of the big events this summer has been taking care of Leslie's Grandpa Bowen. He's now 95 years old and has alzheimer's/dementia so he requires 24/7 supervision and care. We had the opportunity of spending a lot of time taking care of him while he was here. He kept us entertained and busy since he doesn't remember more than 10 seconds most of the time. Following is a picture of us with him.



I've been studying and taking the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam since just after school got out. The exam covers four test and they recommend studying 100 - 200 hours per test. So it will take at least this summer for me to study and pass all the exams. I've already taken one, but still have 3 to go.

Update

So. Life has been busy the last month (a nice change, for me at least). Here's what's been happening:

At the end of April, Daniel graduated from BYU with a Master's Degree in Accounting:

The Graduate!

Shaking Hands with the Dean!

At the beginning of May, Daniel and I moved all of our stuff to Southern California, and spent a few days looking for a place to live:

We didn't decide on anything definite on apartments; but we figure we still have some time.

Then, we came to Medford. We are spending the summer here with my family and we're really excited about it!

And, hopefully, from now on, we'll be better about updating our blog! One can only hope...

Phone Wars: Part 2

The Sons-in-Law get in on the action, adding a further dimension to the Phone Wars: Daniel leaving a message on Mom's cell phone: "Hey, Mom! It's Daniel, your favorite Son-in-Law. I just called to tell you that I love you more than Houston does. Alright? Bye!"

Houston leaving a message on Mom's cell phone: "Hey, Future-Mom-in-Law! This is Houston. Just calling to say that I love you more than Daniel does, because I'm special ... and so are you... Well, see ya!"

Phone Wars

Because of General Conference Weekend, Diane and Houston (sister and future-brother-in-law) drove down from BYU-I to hang out with us. We had a great weekend (minus the fact that I had/still have a nasty cold)! Just after the end of the last session of conference, Diane and I both noticed that we had a missed call and a message from our mother. She just called to see how our weekend was. Well, Diane thought it would be smart to call mom on her cell phone first, just to prove that she loves mom the best. Totally cheap! was what I thought. And the Phone Wars begin!! Let me introduce the two sides of this war:

1st, the EVIL sister!! (I wish, only for the sake of the story, that she was a step-sister, so that I could say the evil step-sister ... or maybe my twin: the evil-twin sister!) ... DIANE

2nd, the GOOD, more loving sister ... LESLIE

(awful picture, I know...but give me a break! I'm sick!)

3rd, some third party observer/distractor of the mother (he made a few phone calls himself, detailing in messages his love for mother, and taking away from our time to leave mesages), ... BRIAN

1. The Battle of "Home Phone vs. Cell Phone":

My mother is not always good with her cell phone. She often forgets to check her messages. So, when the enemy decided to call her cell phone, I took the advantage of home phone! I called the home phone thinking someone may actually answer. Unfortunately for me, no one answered. But Diane was angry that I'd thought of this strategy first, and decided to try that tactic once I was finished. Unfortunately for her, it was busy when she attempted.

2. The Battle of "Leaving Billions of Messages":

While Diane was occupied with calling home phone and getting a busy signal, I called the home phone again ... this time leaving a message for mom, declaring my obviously greater love for her. In retaliation, Diane called the house phone again, and, again, it was busy, giving me the time to advance (call again, and leave another endearing message for mom).

3. The Battle where Diane appears to have the Advantage:

As you may imagine, Diane is becoming more and more furious with the situation, and she makes a different play: she calls the home phone, and actually talks to mom!!! I was incredibly frustrated that Mom would answer when Diane calls, when I called at least 2 times before that! (They tell me my facial expression was hilarious!) But Diane was deceitful: she also got the answering machine and was acting as though Mom had actually answered.

4. The Battle where Leslie takes over Diane's Advantage:

Well, I took that phone away from her and heard that it was only the answering machine ... Mom wasn't actually talking to Diane. I waited a short while, and then I left ANOTHER message for mom, further detailing my love for her. Haha! I said to myself. I've taken from my opponent the chance to fight back!

5. The Battle of Facebook

Diane posted her love all over facebook. A cheap shot, you may say to yourself. But, if you couldn't tell, this post itself is part of the war!!

6. The Battle of the Blog

Dearest Mommy (and may all of the world witness my profound words),

I love you dearly! Even though Diane did technically call you back first, I was the one who left you all those tender messages. I love you EVEN MORE! And I'll be the first to prove it when we arrive in Medford! I'll help you clean out the garage and plan Diane's wedding and anything else you need me to do.

Your Loving Daughter,

Leslie

...Did I leave any important events out, Diane?