Birthdays!

Our little girl is 3 years old. Amazing. I thought I had better pass along some choice pics of the Tinkerbell cake, and the birthday festivities. Sherrie did an awesome job making the Tinkerbell cake. Really, it turned out very good. We had some friends over for cake and ice cream and had a good time! Enjoy!

Halloween

Halloween in Iowa is a little different than the rest of the world (at least the world I know). Here they have a "Beggars' Night", which is the night or so before Halloween, where the actual trick-or-treating happens. I think this is to keep the little kids removed from the older kids Halloween parties. I don't know if that really helps any, it just creates confusion as all the towns possibly have trick-or-treating on different days, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, and I think some actually do it on Halloween, but that is the exception.
The other difference is that when kids go to the door, they have to tell a joke before they get candy. You get all types of jokes. Cole for instance is finally getting a sense of what defines humor. Last year he mainly took the first line and the punch line from different jokes and combined them, resulting in a confusing and really un-funny joke. He is doing better this year, and is able to recognize when things don't make sense. Regardless, my princess, cowboy on a horse, and Jedi got away with a good haul of candy. Even more, the weather was great, temps in the low 60s and very pleasant, for a Halloween!

Catching up

I wanted to put a couple of Kell's Soccer pictures up on the web. Here they are. The coach said he was the happiest boy on the team, he never got upset and was just happy to be bouncing around the field. And that is what he did. He didn't really follow the ball to much or really play the game more than he ran around and had fun.

DCG Soccer Fall 2007

Thanks to a mom with a real nice camera, we got some sweet shots of Colito the soccer star in action. This slideshow module is nice to get them all in one place. Sorry I don't have the same for Kell. I hope to get some pics this week and I'll put them on the blog as well.

Aloha and Mahalo

I was hoping to get in some pics of my trip to Puerto Rico, but due to camera issues, I don't have any pictures, yet...So eventually I hope to have something out there for you. Anyway, it has been long enough since I have updated things so I wanted to let you know how my trip to Hawai'i went. It is a beautiful place for sure, even if almost all my daylight hours were spent at work (6:30 - 5:00 days). I went to Kaua'i, and Oahu to work with the research centers there. I did find some time to visit the sites such as Captain Cook's landing in Hawai'i (the first European in Hawai'i), Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawai'i), a little seaside action, and that is about it. I did include some pictures from Oahu including a view of Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Waikiki, and Diamond Head (all in the picture behind me), and an incredible sunset from a resort in Oahu called Ko Olina. Anyway it was a productive trip and I definitely need to go back and take Sherrie!

School Days and a New Do

We have had a lot of excitement the past couple of weeks. We have two boys in school, so here are the requisite 1st day of school pictures. Cole is in the 3rd grade, and really enjoying things.
Kell started the day after with his 3 day a week pre-school. He is really enjoying things there. It is good for him to interact with other kids and get ready to go to kindergarten next year.


And the biggest news. Sherrie finally, after much indecision and debate took Abigail to get her hair cut. Here is the preview of her in braids. She is so cute, but this doesn't show the monster hair she has in the morning as well as the mess she makes with her long hair whenever Sherrie tries to do it up nice.
The picture speaks for itself, she was very reluctant to have anyone cut her hair. This picture was taken as Sherrie was holding her down in the seat.
And the result...Our little 2 year old girl aged almost a year it seems. She looks so much older without the baby hair. She actually likes it, doesn't like to have anything in her hair still, but it stays more in control.

State Fair part 2 - Big Things

I wasn't able to squeeze all the pictures into one post, so here is part two. I thought I should show the biggest participants of the fair. Here is the Shire horse show, the mayor cart division. We got to go in the horse barn and see them getting them washed and groomed for the show. Definitely 'big'. Kell could have sat there all day and watched them, I could have to for that matter. As an aside Cole was ready to see the Butter Cow and get some ice cream.

Here is the biggest bull. All 3300 pounds of him. In each of the livestock barns they have a pen with the 'biggest' animal. They are easy to find, it is the pen with all the people crowding around it.
Here is the swine barn's biggest boar. over 1200(?) pound duroc cross. This guy doesn't get up and perform very often, in fact I think he just lies around. I mean what can you do when you weigh more than many small cars? Again, you have to be patient to even get close, there is always a crowd.
Last but not least, the big shot farmers. We can't help but go to the little hands on the farm activity, sponsored by none other than Pioneer Hi-Bred, note the super cool bright green Pioneer hats. (Consequently, I was too old to participate, but I could really use a new hat). Sterling, our friend's little guy was also helping out and going though with the kids. This is at the beginning of the little tour, passing in from of corn and soybeans. Then they get to plant seeds, harvest plastic vegetables, and go through little vingnettes of dairy barns, egg-production and such. At the end they all got a popsicle or something from the store by spending the money they earn from working on the farm.

Fun at the Fair, not Cassia, but Iowa State Part 1

Late post, but here are a few select pics of the family at the Iowa State Fair. First the boys got a picture with BIGFOOT, and it is big.
We went through Iowa's version of the commercial building and Kell got to see Curious George, a PBS favorite. Abigail was a little nervous and admired from Dad's arms.
In the swine barn there was a big corn 'sandbox'. Mom and Dad got to rest while the kids got to play in the corn.
Now for the ever popular butter sculptures. Harry Potter is immortalized in butter, along with his faithful sidekick Hedwig the owl.
And here is the most popular of them all, the butter cow. Apparently this has been going on for >40 years, and Iowa still can't get enough of this. I mean it is pretty cool to see a life size cow made out of butter. Cole is obviously entranced. I didn't show the line behind us to see the cow, really it is a big attraction.

Iowa Straw Poll Survivors

We braved the Iowa heat and humidity this weekend and went to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames. It is essentially a GOP fundraiser, and a chance for the presidential candidates to mobilize their supporters. Below are a couple of pics. If you want the scoop on the whole thing, let us know.

Kell's New Smile

Well, Kell has been nursing a loose tooth for the past couple of weeks, and it finally came out. He is only four, but the dentist has found that he has an extra front tooth coming in, and it pushed out this one. I think he'll have a goofy grin for the next little while.
Sherrie was helping him with some things and he found he had a bloody mouth. Sherrie pulled out the tooth, and now Kell is pretty excited to show off the new smile.

I can't wait until I'm 8 - Baptism Day

We took a little trip with our visitors from the west to Winterset for a picnic on Saturday. We didn't get to go to Fons and Porters or the John Wayne Museum, but had fun at the park with the hedgemaze and the tower, where the following picture was taken.

Here is the family before Cole's Baptism. He was a little nervous, but was so excited and happy after the baptism. It was a very nice program. Grandpa Bowen spoke, as well as Brother Braden Cannon and Bishop Pence. There was a nice spirit there and it was great to be with friends and family. Although not all our family was able to be there, we could feel that they wanted to be here and their love for us.

Baptism is a wonderful expression of our willlingness to follow Christ. It is the time when we really become part of the family of Christ and take upon ourselves His name, and that of Christian. I am so proud of Cole to take this step and I pray we all have a better understanding of these covenants.

Baseball Birthday

Cole is turning 8 next Saturday and we had a few of his buddies over for a little party. Cole wanted a baseball party so we played some baseball (wiffle ball) had a baseball pinata, and everyone got some baseball cards. Here are a few of the best pics of the crew.

Final Paper published!

For what it is worth, I have my gene expression paper published in The Plant Genome, a supplemental publication in the Crops Science journal. It is some real cool reading if you have any time to check it out. I know I'm probably the only one that really cares about this, so you'll just have to let me revel in this. If you want the full text, let me know!

A Low Phytic Acid Barley Mutation Alters Seed Gene Expression
David E. Bowen, Edward J. Souza, Mary J. Guttieri, Victor Raboy, and Jianming Fu
Crop Sci 2007;47 S-149-S-159
http://crop.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/S2/S-149?etoc

Little Farmers

Here are the two 'workers' on their tractors, in front of Dad's Farmall 100. Kell and Brogan think this is the coolest tractor around. There ready anytime Grandpa is ready to fire it up. Here are Sherrie, Abigail, Cole, and myself on a ride in the 'Grandpa' Trailer.

I thought I should at least post one picture of the kids. I'll try to get more in so you can see how they are doing.

Welcome

Well we are finally entering the realm of the blogosphere. We thought it might be the most efficient way to keep everyone updated on all the happenings in corn country. No promised that there will be fregquent updates, but there will be a few things come up and I'll try to keep the tiny world of those interested in our life somewhat updated to the happenings here in our world.