Shoe Tree

This tree is found somewhere past Ontario, Oregon to the west. Jessica and my guess would be about an hour or so past Vale, Oregon. We have seen it so many times on our trips between Utah and Oregon so I decided to stop and take a picture of it on our move since there's no telling the next time we'll drive by it.

Here is a closer look at a couple of the branches.

Here is even a closer look at a couple of the shoes and how people have been a little creative in the way they attached them to the tree.

Logan Wells Fargo

Here are quite a few of my co-workers at the Logan Wells Fargo branch that I worked at. Pictured from left to right are Jen, Alisha, Alex, Brandon, Whitney, Blake, Megan, and Sarah. Just so they don't feel left out, my other co-workers were Maria, Kim, Carla, Josh, Josh again, Adam, Travis (transferred to another branch), Chase (quit before I transferred), Jamie, Debbie, and Reese. Hopefully I didn't forget anybody.

Bittersweet goodbye

Here is Jake and Brynn on their last day together. They could sure get on each others nerves now and then, but they were great friends and had a lot of fun together.

A little of Kate for you

Kate is about a month and a half in this picture. She's sportin' her pink BYU-Idaho shirt. We find her very adorable and we love her.

This a couple days later. She really likes sleeping on the couches.

Christmas snooze

Kate and I were pretty pooped out (literally and figuratively) from all the excitement of Christmas so we decided to snuggle up and take a nap.

Let it snow!

We finally got a good snow and Jake had a good time playing in it. He is a fan of making snow angels.

Merry Christmas!

Here are some sweet pics of Jake and Kate in their Christmas pajamas. We wish you all the very best this holiday season and we look forward to all that the year of 2007 has in store.

Christmas cookies

Here is Jake with the finished product of all the candy cane and stocking-shaped sugar cookies he and Jessica made.

Peas in a pod

Here is a good example of how much Jake likes Kate. Whenever she is awake he likes to get close to her and rub her fuzzy head, give her kisses, and let her tickle him...at least that's what he thinks she is doing as she randomly flails her arms around. Other times, like in this shot, she doesn't even need to touch him and Jake laughs.

Kate is home!

This is how Kate looked when we brought her home from the hospital.

Jake loves holding Kate and, as you can see, he gets quite the kick out of it.

Just a quick picture of Kate all bundled up and sleeping.

Here's a goofy picture of Kate and her dad and another of Kate in a pretty little pink dress all ready for her first Sunday at church.

NEW ARRIVAL!

So here's the deal. Jessica and I just had another baby. We named her Kate Wendy McLaughlin. She was born on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 10:38 am, weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was about 18 1/2 inches tall/long. Right now her eyes are blue, but we'll see if they change or stay the same. Her hair, what little there is, appears to be blonde. We think she is cute and are very happy to have her here with us. Jessica and Kate are both doing great.

This is right after Kate was born.

Here is Kate all bundled up nice and tight.

Jake was really excited to get to hold his baby sister. Here he is going in for a kiss.

We don't know who this guy is, but he looks like he needs a nap and a shave.

Bipolar haircut boy

Jake started out not liking his haircut too well. He was scared of the clippers as well as his own hair that fell on his arms, legs, and belly.

By the end of the haircut Jake was happy and able to crack a smile.

Jake the helper

Here is the little twirp trying to put the lights up, but he got himself a little tangled up.

As you can see from this picture and the one below, Jake takes very seriously the hanging of ornaments. His concentration and focus are unparalleled.

Here is the finished product, minus the head of the angel on the top of the tree. Jake almost did it all by himself.

Jake in the box

We got a new pak-n-play and Jake wanted to check out the box a little.

Swinging and sliding

Jake loves to 'wing and go down slides when he goes to the park. Here is the evidence.


This was a twisty-tube slide that Jake fell in love with. I helped him to the top the first time and ended up having to push him down the slide since he wouldn't go because he said he was scared. After that though, he was going down, jumping off, running back over to and up the stairs, and sliding down the slide again .... over and over and over all by himself.

The new and improved Bryan

As you can tell, my recent allergic reaction has really gotten to me. My hair grew out pretty long and I got some serious facial hair. Just kidding! This is my younger brother, Mikel. He came down to Logan with Sage (his roommate, friend, lover?) to go to a training event featuring world famous speaker, George Zalucki (georgezalucki.com). It was a great time, but Mikel showed up sporting this mustache thing so we had a little fun with it.

The after-effects of Phobia Factor

There were a few adverse effects from my competition in Phobia Factor. First, I vomited a color I have never vomited before. Even worse though, I had some allergic reaction. We are thinking it had something to do with the pigs feet/legs, but we aren't sure. Regardless, immediately after I was done with the event my eyes were red and swollen and I couldn't talk because my throat and vocal cords were swelling up. After I threw up that got better though. Once we got home I showered (as proof by this picture) to try to wash whatever was on my body off. It didn't work too well though because I had hives from head to toe and was red all over. So we visited the InstaCare and I got a shot of steroids in my right butt-cheek. Additionally I will be on some steroid pills until Thanksgiving. All is good though and my stomach is feeling good and my breath is getting back to normal, or in other words, not so cat-like.

Phobia Factor, Round 3

This was a crazy obstacle course-type event. First I had to bob for pigs feet/legs in this big, deep trough of water. Then I had to go run to the next table and eat a worm hot dog. At the next table I had to drink a milk shake of raw liver and buttermilk, which actually wasn't that bad, although I don't think I'll be substituting it for egg nog during the holidays.

Following that I ate ten live crickets. That's the picture of me with my milk shake still running down my face. Next (not pictured) I had to grind up tripe (cows stomach) and put the grindings in my mouth and transfer them to another bowl. Last, I had to eat a can of the wet Friskies cat food, which was disgusting.

That was it though, and I won! I had the quickest time at 3:38. The closest person to me got 3:42, but other than him nobody else was close. Jessica and I won $5,000, which will be enough to pay off the car and go out to dinner.

Phobia Factor, Round 2

No pictures, just a run-down. This round was like a mini Amazing Race/scavenger hunt. We were given 15 clues about 15 different businesses around the valley. We had to first figure out which businesses the clues were talking about and then go to each of those businesses and get a letter from them. After we got all the letters we had to figure out what they were spelling, which ended up being PUBLIC STUPIDITY. The reason for those words was probably because in going around to each of these businesses we could only have our swimming suits and shoes on, nothing else. Kind of embarrassing, but fun. We could bring people with us and use as many resources as we could think of so I had three of my friends with me. Jason was driving, Reese and Travis were focusing on figuring out what the letters spelled, I was running into businesses like a weirdo, and all of us were calling other friends and family members asking for help with the clues. I came in 5th out of 22, which was good enough for the 10 person cut-off to get to Round 3.

Halloween

Here is the best picture we could find of Jake in his "Dinosaur" costume. It's tough to get a good picture of him sometimes. Also tough, was the fact that Jake was scared of all the other kids that were dressed up and trick-or-treating. We kept telling him that they were just dressed up like he was, but that didn't help. Hopefully next year he will do better because I (Bryan) am not going to carry him around again. The dude is getting heavy. The other picture is his booty of candy. My younger brother, Mikel, and I used to come home after trick-or-treating and separate our candy into piles according to the type, size, etc., and so I did the same thing with Jake's candy. It was fun.