Speaking at Flex 360 Conference

I just got accepted to speak at the Flex 360 Conference in Indy! I'm very excited to speak there, I've gone before and it is a well put together event, widely recognized in my field. Here is their site (with a mention of my name even!)


Here is my session info:

Session Title: The art of project management in large-scale Flex projects

Session Description: There are many tools and tricks to help project managers develop enterprise level applications. Topics covered will include: Gathering project info, creating the WBS (work breakdown structure), developer accountability for hours worked, centralizing code, project management software, and healthy client communication.

Session Level: Anyone, but will be most beneficial for project managers, team leads, or agency owners.

About me: I'm a project manager at Rain Interactive (mediarain.com) where I am also a senior Flex developer. I've managed many enterprise level, large-scale projects (1000+ man hours) for recognizable companies such as HP, Myfamily.com, and Alfred publishing. I have an MBA from Neumont University. I enjoy taking an active part in the Flex community by contributing to open source projects, and have attended numerous conferences such as MAX and 360.

Lucas 1st birthday

Lucas had his first birthday on February 4th. I took him to Kiddie Kandids to get his free birthday picture.
Then, we went out to eat to celebrate.

The Villanuevas sent Lucas a bunch of cars, a truck and pajamas. Lucas loves them. Thank you!

Family Pictures

These pictures were taken by our friend Mike.

Basketball and the Villanuevas

Now that BYU football is over with, we have to find something to occupy our time before the season starts again in 8 months, so we get mildly into BYU basketball. Here is the Wake forrest game, where BYU lost their incredible home winning streak after 54 straight victories. :(

Francis, Aiyana, and Amaris Villanueva, who I met on my mission came and hung out with us for 2 nights. It was a blast. Most of the time we played "wacky sixes", aka "nerts". Francis was unstopable. She put her bank-teller-quick-hands to use.
Here is Sam in his super hero uniform.

New Years

For New Years eve, we went to the Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake. It was pretty fun. They had some creative exhibits like a bug exhibit, with a wide variety of live insects.
And some dinosaur excavation exhibits.
That night we went to a big New Years party at Tucanos in Salt Lake with a bunch of our Brazilian friends.

Here we are drinking sparkling cider.
And the girls

Christmas 08

For Christmas we went down to Las Vegas, hoping to escape the snow and cold weather. Of course it snowed on the way down and on the way back :P

The highlight of the trip was going to the Cirque du Soleil, Beatles Love show. It was a blast. We got excellent seats, and enjoyed ourselves while a baby sitter took care of the kids. It was probably my favorite of the Cirque du Soleil show I've seen.




There was also a tiny "zoo" in Las vegas that we went and saw. Most of the exibits were closed, with a faded "In loving memory of (insert animal name here)" sign in font. I'm surprised the zoo was still open... At the end we fed the goats, and that was fun.
Christmas day, we spend with our good friends the Runyans. It was fun to see Sam and Josh show off their presents to one another. It was also fun to see that both dads and kids got the same presents from Santa. Sam and Josh both got bikes, Kung fu Panda and the same learning cards. And, Bryce and Jake got Blu-ray players (even the same model).
Then we went sledding in the fresh fallen snow.

Afterwords Jamie made an excellent dinner. All in all, it was a great Christmas.

Thanksgiving 08

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun, we had a huge reunion at my Aunt's house, then we had a smaller dinner at our house.