Happy Birthday, Spencer!

Tuesday, September 16, at 12:26 p.m., Cashelle and A.J. had their 4th child, a son, named Spencer Ben. He weighed 7.77 pounds (like A.J. said, that's a pretty lucky number) and was 22 inches long. I know a lot of this is a repeat from Cashelle and A.J.'s blog since most of the pictures were from my camera. I got to take videos of the birth and of A.J. cutting the cord. I can't believe Cashelle only had to push ONE time and his head was out. On the SECOND push, he was here! Unbelievable! This is a sign that the kids and I made to put in the window. Madalynn was SO excited to tape it up. She did that herself. She started coloring all the letters but decided it was taking too much time--we had colored paper anyway. Audrey and Thomas helped, too. I tended them after Spencer was born on Tuesday. I stayed until Thursday, making sure Madalynn and Audrey made it to school on time. We had a great couple of days. Congratulations, to you all! Here is cute little Spencer Ben. He has a lot of curly hair.
Mommy and Spencer getting a chance to see each other. Doesn't Cashelle look great after just giving birth!

Spencer and daddy getting to know each other.
No, Madalynn isn't excited at all!
Audrey and Thomas taking a turn. They aren't excited either (ha, ha).
Thomas trying to hold Spencer. Spencer has his eyes wide open on this one.
What a great day. Okay, Lacey and Landon, your turn is next! Watch for pictures around Valentine's Day!

For the Birthday Boy

The date of 9/11 is happy date in our family. It is my sweetheart's birthday. As you can see from the picture below, he loves his grandkids. Yep, that's all of them! (That is, until Spencer makes his arrival next week to Cashelle and A.J., if all goes as planned. And Lacey and Landon will make another addition in February) Curt, I want you to know how much you are loved. Not just by me--but by everyone that knows you. You are a wonderful husband, son, brother, uncle, cousin, grandfather, and friend (did I cover them all?). Here's to another fun-filled year! Here is Curt doing one of his favorite things--fishing at Ferron.
Another fishing picture in Alaska this summer. He caught a very nice silver salmon.
I need to get busy and update my blog at least once a week. I've decided I kind of have addictive tendencies (how I stayed away from the bad stuff, I'll never know!). Through the summer, I spent HOURS and HOURS on the computer. Now, Cashelle has got me entralled in the "Twilight" book series by Stephanie Meyer. So now I'm spending HOURS and HOURS reading. They are wonderful books! I'm now almost halfway through the last one. When I'm finished, I'm going to start the Harry Potter books. Cashelle and A.J. highly recommend them. I guess if you're doing something addictively worthwhile, it is okay. Isn't it?

Catchin' Up

Okay, it's been a while since I last updated my blog. Since our trip to Alaska the first part of August, we had Cody's first birthday party, school has started again (yuck!), the county fair, and my Snow College roommate reunion. I have included a few pictures from all events, except for school starting. I am beginning my 33rd year of teaching this year. I expect to go five or six more before I'm done. Hopefully, Curt will be able to retire from the school after this year (it's about time--he'll be 67 by then!) but he plans on driving school bus for a few more years more. This first picture is of Cody celebrating his 1st birthday. We had so much fun. After a dinner at our house, we rented the Manti Aquatic Center where we all went swimming afterward. We had a good turnout at the party and even more showed up at the swimming pool. We also had a little baby shower for Cashelle. She is expecting Spencer in a just a couple of more weeks. Here's Cody with his birthday hat on. He's so cute! Thomas is getting so big. He is now two years old and saying about every word you ask him to say. He is so cute, too!
Audrey and Madalynn at Cody's party. Audrey starts preschool this year and Madalynn has graduated to the 1st grade! My grandkids are growing up way too fast!
Cody and his mom and dad.
Grandma Kjar and Curt at the party.

Grandma Duncan celebrating Cody's birthday.
Cody could hardly wait to get his hands on his chocolate cake covered with gummy worms!
This is a painting by Gus. He had taken an awesome picture of Grandpa Ben and decided to paint one from it. He received the sweepstakes at the county fair. He did such a great job.
A close up of Grandpa Ben's painting. Isn't it awesome!
On Saturday, August 30, my roommates from Snow College and I had a little reunion (34 years after we had gone to Snow together). From left to right: me, Mardene, Virginia, Bev (behind the sign), Charlotte, Juanita, and Connie. We missed Leila and Dianne. Hopefully they will come next time. We are planning to get together again in the spring. We picked on a student passerby to take our photo. Mardene told her we were new freshmen coming in this year.

Here we are at Polly's Brain Freeze. We had a great time reminiscing, laughing, showing off pictures, etc. Back from left to right: me, Virginia, Bev, Mardene and Juanita. Front left to right: Connie and Charlotte.
Here we are gathered around the table at Polly's Brain Freeze. Next time we get together, we are planning on going to St. George. Go Snow College Badgers!