Emily warming up!!

Getting ready to take the Field in Championship Competition

Some great friends she met along the way,

what a great experience, Band and Guard Kids are so unique, they are just the

"Cream of the Crop."

Emily and Jessica

I have loved watching Jessie grow, I'm so proud of her!

Jessie just is a beam of light all the time, I have come to love her very much.

Emily has been a great influence as Captain, she owes a lot of her incredible leadership to her great friends too. They are very supportive of Emily and look up to her so much.

Emily and Lupe have been in Guard for 4 years!

They went to Middle School together.

Lupe is an outstanding young woman, she is known on the team as the mediator,

always the Peace maker. She dances so beautifully too.

Emily doing her thing, warming up, it was freezing in Fresno, it makes it such fun though.

It was SO windy in Fresno!

It was hard for the Guard to warm up, the flags were blowing so hard. The girls had a really hard time controlling them, we weren't sure if they would be able to perform. The good thing though was that everyone had the same disadvantage. The bad thing was is that it compromised their show a bit. Once we got into the stadium it seemed to be a bit less windy. Boy, was it a challenge for them all!

Emily had an accident, her flag flew up and the wind caught it forcing it down so hard on her forehead. She got a bruise and bump right away, not much sends her into tears but this really hurt her. I got her some ice which helped, then she got right back into it.
The flags are weighted and can be a real weapon especially when carried by the wind.

She said " I got an instant headache Mom!"

All better now!

Bobby and a few of his crew!

Its amazing how he gets all those instruments out there on the field for a competition! Talk about stress, every minute counts, if they are late they will get marked down. I think he loves this job so much because he gets to drive the golf cart around!!

We take such good care of our kids!

They eat like Kings and Queens, and as well as they should too, they are all incredible kids. Their talents and efforts that they put into each competition is just remarkable.

After the kids perform, they head back to our place in the parking lot where they find all of their most favorite goodies! All the parents are such great people, each and everyone has a place in the Band and Guard, It's been a great 4 years!
We bring signs for our kids!

Our Theme for this trip
Dont stop Believin

Performing at Championships~
We made Finals!!!

I think one of my most favorite pictures of Emily Performing!

Hey!...... Watch out for that Tuba!

I love my Dottie, she is always smiling!

Emily is so good with her Rifle!
How ever does she toss that thing, move with the music, lead her guard and keep in perfect timing too? Its such fun to watch these kids!

Watching her perform is the greatest joy!

We made this one too, Emily has so many favorite pictures from her high school times while in the Color Guard, it was hard to just pick a few

A Collage of Fun times

This is just a little Collage Emily and I put together to send to the BYU Band Director in hopes of Emily being able to join their Color Guard Team next fall. We know how hard it is getting into BYU, but if you dont try, you will never know right? Because Emily is Emily, she has plan "B" in place already. :O)

She just loves Color Guard so much, being with the Band and making music. Its been her goal and hope to perform in the Cougar stadium. We will see,....

"She's a Senior Now!"

I took Emily out for a little photo shoot last Saturday, I couldnt resist

taking the opportunity capturing her in her Letterman's jacket.

She has been in Band and Color Guard for 4 years now, her jacket is all decorated with patches and pins that mean the most to her!

We are so proud of our girl.
love you Emily!

Balboa Beach, bay side

My dad rented a great little beach cottage this summer at Newports back bay.

Its such a beautiful place, seeing the boats go by is so relaxing too.

My Mom and Dad rented beach houses for us kids when we were in high school and would let us take a friend, it was heaven being on the beach for 7 days back then. Its neat how he continued this same tradition years later, My sister Terra and her husband Mike brought their two boys for the week, It was a great time shared by family.

Thanks Dad for inviting us!

We welcome with Love .......

Austin Lee Miller

My Beautiful Sister in Law,....... Anna.

Both my brother and sister in law are Doctors in the Navy. Its just been this past year that they have been close by to family. Its so good to have them here. My brother served in Iraq and had to be away from his family for 6 months. As soon as he got back, they received the good news that Anna would have a new addition to their family. Austin was born!

He is the 2nd son born to them, Zachary is 7 years old.

I was so fortunate to be able to photograph this beautiful time in their lives.

And now to embarrass my Brother!
I just love the look on his face, the smile of joy he has for his son.
Brandon honestly is just the best dad ever!!!
Im so proud of him for the way he treats his wife and is such a great dad to his sons.

Little Cutie Ba Tootie!

We welcome you to our family Austin <3>

My Dottie !

I had a photo shoot today, and when I was done, I couldnt resist photographing my Dottie! Emily has been my assistant since she was 7 years old. She would come to the Temple with me when I photographed weddings, that was when I used film. She would organize everything for me, keeping all the roles together, and then being sure I had the film ready when I ran out. I cant believe that was 10 years ago, and she is still my right hand girl.I love her so much.Thanks Emily for always being there to help me!

Celebrating ...

Band Camp Officially Over!!!!

I love this picture of Emily! So candid but showing her loving her life as Color Guard Captain and celebrating her last day of Band Camp! This has been a great program for our girl and we are so thankful for the things she has learned while being a leader for the girls. She is quiet and soft spoken as a Captain but she says she is like that because "once you raise your voice, you have lost your audience."

(We are so proud of the choices she has made and continues to make)

gosh being a mom is the best!!
The 1st Offical Team Picture of the 2009-2010 Color Guard!
(We are missing one girl, sorry Lupe!) This years show is titled "Heartbreak" I hope all our near by friends and family will come to see their show if possible, its Emily's last year.

Girls celebrating their opener on Friday,......right before the SENIORS got to eat First!

The Pre-Show

&
Band BBQ

The Band and Color Guard got to perform their Opener for us parents last Friday evening, followed by a great BBQ put on by the Booster parents. Here is our new band director, 3rd one for Emily in 4 years. Needless to say its been an experience with all that has gone on with our Band Directors. Mr. Ames comes with a lot of experience, we welcomed him whole heartedly.

While at the 1st performance, Emily recognized one of her guard girls as most outstanding Gardo-O of Band Camp. She got up in front of all the parents and her peers and gave the sweetest emotional compliments to a new freshman girl named Celia. She gave her a Happy Faced Balloon and a candy bar (1,000 Grand) and said her smile and attitude is worth a thousand grand. Celia's dad started crying, it was so touching.

The pre show for the parents. Although they worked all summer long, not taking a break at all, here at band camp they begin to learn their show, and their work.

Yeah for Band Camp!

A New Begining!

Emily's new band director Mr. Ames. Celebrating the final day of Band Camp!

You can see how they need to "Clean" their work as Emily says. She is really good at timming, I think playing the piano has helped her with this, Its a challenge to get 15 girls to be at the same place at the same time, especially when spinning a rifle or sabre.This is the pre show only, still in the 1st stages of thier Field Show for 2009

Here are just a "Few" kids in Band and Guard eating after they showed their parents some of their new Field Show. I must say, we do spoil our kids in Band and Guard! The parents really do a great job in feeding our kids. They love the Dessert Table! (so does Bobby!)

Its finally her turn!

One of the Band and Guard's traditions is, the SENIORS get to eat first!!!!

and all the underclass has to wait! too funny how they get so excited to be the 1st ones in line!

Emily spent the entire summer with her Guard Team,

the last 2 weeks of summer was their "Official BAND CAMP!"

I gotta tell you, its rigorous!!!10 Long hours a day for 2 weeks!

The last day is spent in Team Building fun!

Here she is with her best friend Antone with the Balloon Toss.

BAND CAMP 2009 !

Traditional Dunking the Band Director

You can Run,...........But you can not hide!

The New Band Director kinda knew the traditional water thing was coming....Us Booster Parents warned him : )

Evan is wonderful with animals. Over the 4th of July weekend we went to my sisters house down in Carlsbad. She has her own Dog walking/pet care service. We went to one of her houses where she was taking care of this cute corgy! He just jumped into Evan's arms and gave him some love, it was so cute. He has always been very sensitive to animals which to me says a lot about a person. Ever since he was a little boy, he always worried about the animals, if they got enough to eat, or if they had shelter when it was cold or hot. I admire that so much in him.
He taught me a lot. Animals depend on us so much for their comfort and all their needs. When he was little, he wouldnt eat dinner until our dogs had food in their bowls. If they would cry at night when they slept in the laundry room, he would get up to comfort them.
Evan is so special, I call him my Lil Evan from Heaven.
He is the cream of the crop!

Tiffany was Emily's Color Guard Captain when Emily started in her Freshman year. They quickly became best friends, like sisters. Being the only "Mormon" on the team seemed to always spark interest in the girls. Emily would share her Testimony as much and as often she needed and wanted too. A few of the girls were very receptive, Tiffany being one of them.

Emily and Tiffany had so many talks about the Gospel.

After Tiffany graduated she went to Boot Camp and joined the Air Force.

Little did we know that all those talks they were having was impacting Tiffany's life so much.

Tiffany was soon baptized and her Testimony continues to grow and blossom. When she was out here in July, the one thing she wanted most was to go to the San Diego Temple, so we did. It was such an incredible, loving feeling being there on the Temple Grounds with such beautiful young women. I am so proud of them, for their strong testimonies, and for their high standards. They both wanted to wear white to the temple, i was so touched. Xo xo Xo

The Beautiful San Diego Temple!

A Mother's Joy~ Thank you Karen for allowing me to capture the very essense of Motherhood.