WE'RE GOING TO NEW YORK BABY!!!

Congratulations to Pete and his advertising team (Team Synergy) for DOMINATING the L'Oreal Brandstorm competition!

Every year L'Oreal Paris hosts a competition challenging advertising students from around the world to create a new product and marketing plan for one of their subsidiary brands. This year the challenge was coming up with a new men's beauty product for Diesel. BYU students submitted 28 different ideas and marketing plans to L'Oreal, which were narrowed down to five finalists. Last night all five groups presented their product ideas and marketing strategies to a panel of judges from the L'Oreal New York headquarters. It was a stiff competition; all five groups worked really hard and had some great ideas. But in the end Pete's team and their men's skin care line ripped the competition to shreds!

I was so proud. The judges were absolutely beaming and congratulating them on their work. The next step is to present their product in New York in April, competing against seven other schools in the U.S. The winner of the national finals will then proceed to Paris to compete internationally!!

I haven't been to Paris for a very long time. I dare say it's time to pay a return visit. An all expenses paid visit would suit me just fine!

For those of you who have been dying to see Pete's first wedding cake, here it is:





I tend to think he's rather talented.

I helped Pete very little with this cake; I did a few of the polka dots and helped arrange the flowers, but mainly I just ran errands for him and kept people (Amelia) out from under his feet so he could work. It took him about 15 hours total between baking, assembling and decorating.

Oh, and did I mention that all this was on my birthday? So I was really quite sacrificial to allow him to spend all of my birthday sweating in the kitchen and paying me virtually no attention so he could focus on this monumental task. I was really proud of him.

And besides, he took me to dinner that night at one of my fave restaurants--Pizzeria 712, you can read reviews here, and he got me a super chic new touch screen phone that I'll probably never learn how to use to its full potential. So it was a good birthday. Even if he didn't let me put candles on his cake before we delivered it to the reception.

Nine Months Old

Hard to believe this little bug has been out as long as she was in.

And that she likes to eat leaves so much.

More Photos by Lesley

Since I casually mention Lesley's photography more often than I realized, I thought I might as well do a post dedicated to the beautiful work she has done for my family. Here are some of her pics:

Playing at the Pumpkin Patch

Since I was a little girl my family would go to Vineyard Nursery to Pumpkin Land to buy our Halloween pumpkins. Well Pumpkin Land has become much more grand than it used to be; I remember a few greenhouses and a pumpkin patch where we could choose out our own pumpkins. Now there is a corn maze, a little petting zoo, a light show, a pumpkin castle for kids to crawl around in, and lots of other climbing toys. A few mommy friends and I took our kids to Pumpkin Land for a get-together. I snapped a few photos, but of course the pics that Lesley-the-amazing-photography-woman took are better. See if you can tell the difference.

My photos:






Lesley's photos:




Baby's a dollface either way.

Halloween in Retrospect

I suppose I should learn to control myself. But honestly, celebrating holidays is really what convinced me to buy in to this whole having children idea anyway. Besides, I’m still a McKinlay, and McKinlays have a genetic tendency to go over the top in virtually everything they do. Go big or don’t go.

So it should not come as a surprise to any one that Amelia had two separate Halloween costumes this year--one to coordinate with her Dad for Halloween parties, and one for Halloween night that was just so cute I couldn’t resist.

So I spent WAY too much time (to say nothing of money) on Halloween this year. But . . . it also should not surprise anyone to hear that Amelia won first place in the children's costume contest (a $10 gift card to Target!) or that Pete won first place for his Halloween cake; The Great Pumpkin. Happy Halloween all!

Stay Puft Marshmallow Baby



I'm supposed to be the nerdy secretary. Whatever, it's the baby's costume that's cute!



I actually got Pete to dress up this year in a costume that didn't involve sleeve tattoos (he has quite an impressive collection of tattoo sleeves).



This is the babydoll's other costume. She's a hydrangea.





Behold! The Great Pumpkin rising out of the pumpkin patch!

The rain rain rain came down down down . . .

My Amish Baby

A lady in my parents’ ward crocheted a beautiful bonnet for Amelia. Truly, the craftsmanship is stunning. Too bad it’s a bit snug. Next baby I guess.






P.S. For those of you who may be wondering why I take my baby’s picture in the bathroom sink; isn’t it obvious? It’s the best lighting in the house, and if I don’t put her in the sink she tries to crawl away. Silly question.

Amelia's Autumn Adventures