Merry Christmas

Canyon came over to me yesterday all cryptic-like and said:

C: I know what to get papa for Christmas.

me: Oh? What should we get him.

C: Some knew running shoes. (Apparently Canyon doesn't know about Papa's closet)

me: That's a good idea.

C: mom, I know what to get nana, too.

me: What should we get her.

C: A book.

I think he pegged it.  So if any of you aren't sure what to get them, now you know.

Happy Birthday Kate and Christian!

Christian,
Here are a few video clips of the girls. I'm sure you are missing them a lot! Happy Birthday!

December 11, 1978

December 11, 1978; a day that will live in Marty's infancy. I'd like to tell this story from my point of view (which was admittedly fairly painless). It was on a day just like this...Dona drove me to school on that day (remember we lived in Hyrum) because she had a appointment with the doctor. At that time, I taught two periods of English at the beginning of the day. I was finished with my English classes and was headed to the PE office. When I got there, the phone in the office was ringing but someone had jammed a pencil where the key goes. I couldn't get in. Just then, the school secretary ripped open the boys locker door and frantically told me that Dona was having a baby...right now! I dropped everything and ran to the front of the school (by the main office) right past Dona and to the car which was parked out front. I got to the car and paused and thought, who was that pregnant lady I just passed in the hall? Eventually I got everything straightened out. We drove to the hospital which at the time was kitty corner from the Logan Temple. While we waited for Marty to be delivered, we watched David Letterman (who at that time had a day time talk show). He was funny and I remember that Marty was delivered without too much trouble (Dona may have a better point of view on that). That afternoon, I went back to school to coach the wrestling team. When I walked in the wrestling room, everyone stopped and looked at me. I said, "It's a boy!" and they all cheered. We had been saving the name, Joseph Martin Reeder (my Grandfather's name), for our first born son. Emily and Daisy were just not right for the name so we just kept waiting. As you know, I never knew my grandfather because he died from a typhus epidemic in 1923 just weeks before my father was born. From what I do know, he was a good man. I'd say that so far, Marty has done right with his name. Happy Birthday Marty!

Poppa's Little Girl

This seemed to be an appropriate picture after Angie's post. We caught Parly reading this on her last visit to Logan. I don't know if you can read the title, but it's the "Limbaugh Letter."

Daddy's little girl.

The other morning when Angie and I woke up I left her in the living room for a moment while I searched the kitchen for something. When I returned this is how I found her. Although there was never any doubt before, I am even more convinced now that she is definitely her daddy's girl.

Thanksgiving

Lily wrote this poem and didn't want anyone to read it. So here it is.

T hanksgiving is a wonder full time.
H alloween is over lets all make a rime.
A ll come to our house to cellebrate.
N ana Papa is so great.
K aia Dylan come cellebrate.
S o time to cellebrate yes all of you
G iving thanks to all the Pilgrams
I love thanksgiving here it comes
V elvet red and orange and yellow
I love those color yes them all
N ana bring the turkey she's
G iving food to all the family!

By Lily

Sick Christian

The good news is that Christian gets to work from home again. The bad news is that if CAPSA gets a hold of this photo, I might go to prison.

Happy Halloween 2007

Costumes: Clayre- China girl, Shayne- Old Man (yes, he shaved 1/2 his head), Maggie- Halloween Princess, Me- me, Kate- Porcelain doll, or China doll as she calls it, Parly- Bride

Little Coach Reeder

I thought these were some pretty good action shots of Coach Reeder. Don't let them fool you, though. Isaac is as calm and relaxed a coach as we all knew he would be. Still, he's a pretty good coach. In fact, I saw him take the coat of his back (in the rain) and give it to one of his runners. If Marty's team ever comes south a little bit I will get some good ones of him, too.

Article Reveals All!

Papa was featured in today's Herald Journal, with a picture even. Please note the Dean-esque hat. Props to Papa!

http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2007/10/23/sports/sports01.txt

Happy Birthday Clayre-Bees

I still remember the day you were born. I got to come to the hospital and hold you. I can even remember how you looked--sort of like a baby. Hope you have a good day. Ask your daddy to take you bowling.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...You get the idea.

Nana's birthday. Oh how I wish we were staying in Little America and eating at the Rodigio Grill...To be followed by plenty of thrifty shopping at Gateway. Maybe next year. But anyway, just wanted to wish the most amazing mother a happy of happy birthdays and to say that as I begin my own career as mother...it never ceases to amaze me how mom did it. She always seemed to know what to do and so calm and so not how I feel 95% of the time. I know that Daisy feels confident as the best mom in the world, but I sometimes feel lacking. I do know one thing though, mom has been a great example to me and so many times when I'm in the middle of some parenting crisis I think--what would mom do? And if I can maintain a Dona calmness...it works.

Anyway, thanks for everything you did and do for us. You're not only the best mom ever, but the best grandma ever, too.
Here's some great memories: please add to it:

Valentine's day cookies
A lesson on prayer (otherwise known as "There's a bird in the garage!!")
Not afraid to say "shit"
Reading "The Hobbit" followed by the Redwall series...even up until teenage years and beyond
Christmas mornings
Getting up with us on early morning swim mornings
Coming to every swim meet/track/cross country/marathon....
A GREAT public speaker (her "sport" as dad puts it)
Bringing home milkshakes
Always packing great little toys/activities on long trips
Carrying everyone's jacket/toys/books/everything without ever complaining
Gasping in terror and then sighing with relief any time someone gets near even the tiniest bit of a ledge
Running on the mini-tramp in the basement in Hyrum while listening to Neil Diamond
Always having plenty of food for everyone
Great storytelling and letter writing
Good sport in every FHE when dad gave us the "You're not helping your mother enough" speech
Nice enoughs
Making everything fun
Calling me at school with the answer to the last crossword puzzle word that we just couldn't figure out

Love ya mom.

Good Luck Shayner (and Daisy??)

With the marathon just two short days away, I thought we could all wish Shayne good luck since we'll be sleeping peacefully in bed while he's running. This picture might give you a little inspiration, Shayne. This man is running the St. George marathon. He may be twice your age, but he did qualify for the Boston marathon with a time of 3:33:40. So just look for Russ Barber to pace you to success!

The book that we get at the library EVERY time we go.

Constructions for Canyon’s flying ship:
It has a sail on the point with a cabin, um, with a blue flag, and I’m going to take a port-a-potty, or maybe Jack’s little potty. And I’m going to take my pirate book and some pillows to sleep on. And I’ll wear my pirate clothes: they look like a red jacket and a red striped bandana and barefeet. I’m not going to go anywhere, because I want to keep sailing and I got to get one more thing to take in my sailing ship. I’m going to take a paddle if there’s no wind. Guests: Dylan, Derek, Marty, both papas, Lily, mommy & daddy, and Alice and Jane and Jack…but that’s a lot of people, but my ships tiny it’s only this wide. That’s enough people for my flying ship (sorry if you didn’t make the cut). I’m going to take one more thing—I’m going to take a anchor. We’re going to use lots of people, but we can’t use lots of them in our town. And apples because that’s pirate food—applesauce for baby Jane. I want to bring my legos.

Maybe candles so we can see in the dark and a tv with a movie: that might be fun. And a three-cornered pirate hat. We can bring my magazine too. I think that’s enough.

Quiet Week

It was another quiet week in Cache Valley. Dona and I actually traveled to Eugene Oregon for a Cross Country meet. Both teams were in some very heavy competition and our place wasn't that great but we did pretty good all things considered. We found the apartment I lived in as a missionary and tried to get an image of it.
The ESPN Gameday crew was in town for the Cal/Oregon game. They set up quite a stage and you probably saw me on TV Saturday morning.
We got home on Saturday night and on Sunday the leaves were beautiful. We took some pictures.

Extra, Extra

I just found an awesome new blog. It is so awesome, it'll knock your socks off. www.sadiewest.blogspot.com

Baby Looks Like Daddy

So, we told you guys that yesterday we had our ultrasound and we are so excited. It was kind of hard to get a very good image of the baby because it was wiggling around so much. But, if you look really closely, I think you might agree that it shares a slight resemblance with its father. I couldn't be prouder of the little tyke. At this point, Sadie is just hoping that its not a girl...or else she says she'll try and send it back.

Canyon's very expensive children's shoe

Canyon: These shoes are getting tiny!
Me: No, your feet are growing.
Canyon: (with enthusiasm and a little jump on the chair) My feet are growing!
Me: Yep.
Canyon: Well, these shoes are still squeezy anyway.

Quiet Week

Fall in my little home town is a thing of beauty. We had our first fall storm over the weekend and the mountains have a dusting of snow. We had the privilege of hosting Sadie and Christian for a couple of days. They are starting out nicely and are excited about the near and far future. Marty and Isaac got the beds out of our basement and now were are setting up our "workout" room. It will be state of the art with a treadmill, stationary bike, and heavy things designed to lift so that old people can be healthy and strong. I've limited myself to mowing the lawn just twice a week and I'm stunned at the spare time I have. Unfortunately, I can't listen to all the podcasts that I've downloaded from this thing called the world wide web. Canyon called on Saturday to see if it had snowed yet. At the time it was just rain but as I aforementioned, there is snow now. Next weekend Dona and I are going to Eugene Oregon to celebrate the 36th year anniversary of my transfer there as a missionary. Coincidently (thank goodness for spell check), there happens to be a cross country meet at the same time. I'm really glad that Dona can go because she's fun and she cares for me! Last weekend we attended a sacrament meeting that Justin Reeder happened to be the speaker. He's going on a mission to Everett Washington. Since he's going to the northwest, I thought I should go and help him understand the language and people. We had a great visit with the Clark Reeders plus Julene and Linda. That's the news.

How to Bake a Chocolate Cake before 11:00 a.m.

7:00 Wake up
7:30 Take a shower
7:52 Drive to Smith’s. Buy Hershey’s cocoa and a bag of sugar ($5.00)
8:10 Preheat oven
8:12 Mix ingredients in Kitchen Aid and ignore the recipe’s directions to use two cake pans. Instead use one bundt pan.
8:14 Put cake in the oven
8:45 Smell burning in the kitchen and find the cake overflowing
8:46 Call Emily and ask her what to do—start the kitchen on fire or ruin the cake. Decide to leave the cake in the oven (ignore the smells of smoke) until the timer goes off
8:48 Smell burning
8:52 Put a knife in the cake…it comes out soggy, not clean.
9:02 Watch a smoking piece of cake start on fire
9:03 Turn off oven and remove half-burnt/half-raw cake
9:04 Call Daisy and tell her about the cake and then talk to her on the phone about other things
10:20 Scrape some of the cake crumbles into a pile on a plate
10:22 Try some of the pile and burn tongue
10:30 Drive to Smith’s and buy “Triple Fudge Chocolate Cake” ($3.00)
10:45 Go to Christian’s work and present chocolate cake to him and his coworker
11:00 Enjoy

Cell No!

Alright. It's like an awkward silence having no one post something for a while, so fine ... I'll break the ice. So ... uh ... how's the weather?

But seriously ... this year's student body officers have, for some reason, really tackled the issue of cell phones in class. Not only that, but they emphatically support their complete eradication! What kind of student hopes that cell phones won't be allowed in school? Either the direly unpopular (which we can assume they are not, due to the fact that they were elected into office), or those that have had a profound, anti-cell phone influence earlier on in their life. I would submit that, having taught six out of the eight of them, I was the influence behind it all. I mean, we cannot dismiss the fact that I confiscated about one hundred of the blasted thing the year before (I didn't start keeping track until the middle of the first trimester). For their campaign against cell phones, the student body officers have come up with a couple different slogans and catch phrases, one of which was the aforementioned title to this post, "Cell No!", and the other is "Weapons of Mass Distraction." I was given the honor of being the first teacher to witness the t-shirt design for "Weapons of Mass Distraction"---a cell phone with a skull and crossbones and a mushroom cloud behind it. Wow. To say that I am flattered is an understatement. It seems as if the whole school is bending to my will. The minute they take out hallways and replace them with canals, issuing everyone a small sailboat to get around the school, then I'll know that I have entirely won over the community.

No Words

Happy Birthday Poppa!

Some great things about dad:
1. He tells stories about the kid with no legs (or a wooden leg, or prosthetic leg, or some sort of leg problem).
2. He mows the lawn two maybe three times a day.
3. He loves to "hate" JD (sorry Brooke).
4. He put up with three grown college kids living at home for what seemed like forever.
5. He drives to St. George or Livermore (or Farmington) at the drop of a hat.
6. He plays with the grandkids.
7. He takes us to Angie's, buys us running shoes, and allows mom to take her girls on shopping sprees.
8. He would buy pants at Nordstrom's because Glenn Beck says so.
9. He knows everything.
10. Everything.
11. He runs every day.
12. He goes on walks with mom.
13. He reads a lot.
14. He tortured his children by making them exercise.
15. He gives good advice.

Feel free to add some more highlights. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Dad!

Parly's Baptism

Parly is going to be baptized on Sept. 1st. Everyone is invited to come. The baptism is at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. We will also be having a dinner party (as Parly likes to call it) afterwards at our house....so come and enjoy!


Parly is very excited and would love to share this day with all of you.

Being Pregnant Stinks....Literally

It's not that I haven't enjoyed these ten weeks so far. They've actually been alright for the most part especially because I get to do a lot of things I wouldn't normally do--such as buying the "expensive" cereal and craving things like chicken fajitas from Chilis and Country Time strawberry lemonade (good stuff). Besides which, pregnancy is a really great excuse to fall behind on little things like laundry, cleaning, and cooking. So for the most part I have no complaints, but there is the smell thing. Everything stinks. Well, not everything. In fact, it's mostly the normal, good smells that get to me like toothpaste, mouthwash, Christian's deodorant, Christian's shampoo, Christian's shaving cream and aftershave (that's a killer), Christian's cologne, and Christian's soap. Other smells like BO and bad breath don't really get to me, which is why I have stopped using deodorant, lotion, and toothpaste altogether (fun for Christian). But I knew it was really bad when Christian passed by me the other day, and I said, "Your breath is killing me!" Ironic because he teeth smelled exactly like minty fresh crest. Sorry, Christian. Hopefully we can kiss again in nine months, but until then, everything just sort of stinks.

the Parly's b-day blog

Parly Sue have the happiest bestest wonderfulest awesomest birthday... !!!!!

the neighborhood scan

So ... Papa and I were invited to the elite neighborhood potluck supper party at the Sweetens. I was dang excited, until Papa got the flyer from Brother Sweeten at church. I was suppose to bring a casserole!!!! Brother... have I ever!!!! made a casserole in my life?! I wanted to get Bonnie's famous lasagna recipe, but I never got around to it. Sadie suggested the rice, chicken and broccoli dish... all of your chicken enchiladas sounded good. Well... Monday was a long day at school, getting ready for the Freshman day (over assembly and junk and other junk) and so at 5:10... I panicked --- even frozen lasagna was out because it takes two hours. (Party at 6:00)... so I called Olive Garden... do you have something yummy, fast, and unique... why sure for a lot of $$$... no problem!! I ordered a pan of "Braised beef & Tortelloni"... whatever. So picked it up at 5:51... called Dad from the take out line telling him I was on my way. Got home... opened the tin dinner pans... threw the stuff into one of my glass 9 x 12... put tin foil on the top and there we went. ... Whew! Made it at 6:07... placed it on the table and blended into the crowd. Success!... Well, not exactly... everyone wants the recipe!!! Usually I'm good to say... they're frozen rolls from Rhodes... but everytime anyone asked Steve would start laughing... and so would I. So it became worst! We left without letting on. (Did I just end that sentence with a preposition?) Having great confidence in Google and entered "Recipes that you don't want to own up on the fact that you cheated and bought them from Olive Garden after serving them in the neighborhood"... and ola! We got something close enough. Now I just have to make it in my leisure time and see if it is at all similar... Oh the life of the almost retired... lov nana dona

Big Canyon...Little Canyon

Bear Claw Canyon

Captain Canyon

You guys asked for it!

There you have it. Kate with 4 staples in the back of her head.

August 15 1974

That's right. It was on a day just like this 33 years ago that "our" family began. It was quite a day and if you'd asked me then what it would be like 33 years later there is no way I'd have figured it could have been so good. I know that as a couple, we had hopes of children but by the time I realized the cause, we had five. As I watch the next generation grow I marvel at the process. I often ask myself, "When did that happen?" I'm talking about things like crawling, walking, toilet training, talking, and so on. It all seems a blur. I'm thinking that grand parenting is a way to watch kids grow up in slow motion as compared to the speed of light that children grow. I suppose most of the reasons my memory suffers is because I wasn't as involved in the nurturing process as fathers are now days. At any rate, I look forward to many more experiences with my sweetheart. Once while we were courting, I played Dona the Beatles song with the line, "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four." So far, so good! As I write this I imagine that I'm writing to our children. I'd like them to know that I'm proud of each of you. I'm especially proud of your choices, particularly your spouses. It's also very comforting that you are all, in many ways, like your Mother. I've said before, I'll never be as giving as her, but she did choose me and that has made all the difference.

Anxiously Waiting...

...to see Kate's head with staples. It might gross me out, but I still want to see it.

Starring Parly and Lily

Utah State vs. BYU

Just wanted to point out that Alice and her little friend, Amy, are already fightin' that battle.
p.s. Alice can kick Amy's butt.

Harry Potter anyone?

In the spirit of Harry Potter, Book 7, which I will not discuss...unless everyone else has finished it--I'm posting a pic of cousin Jared Anderson and his wife, Tonks (I mean Jessica) and their clever costumes. They're son Isaac is a mandrake and daughter is a seeker for griffindor. I guess they won every costume contest they could... Check out their blog for details Jaredandjessica.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Sadie!

Happy Happy Birthday Sadie Dear.
Happy Days will come to you all year.
If we had one wish, then it would be.
A Happy Happy Birthday to You from me...us.
We love you Sadie!!!!

Fourth of July Lamb chops anyone?

Oh the possiblilties of seeing the man down the street about a sheep!

Happy Birthday Little Shayner

Hey, go golfing on us big guy. Happy Birthday!

Fun times in Logan

Here is Clayre playing in Bear Lake. She did not want to get out of the water, what a fish!

We had such a great time in Logan. The girls enjoyed: Ryan's Park, running home from Ryan's Park, running and diving in Nana and Papa's pool in the back yard, hitting balls into the neighbor's backyard for $5, buying a bracelet, little purses and pens from vendors at the Gardener's Market, watching lots of Masterpiece Theater movies, playing with Christian and Sadie and Marty and Bonnie and Isaac and Elise, swimming in Bear Lake, having La Beau's Too shakes and fries, watching fireworks in the streets two nights, eating lots of yummy yummy food, going to church and listening to Nana speak, and most especially being with Nana and Papa in Logan for 5 days!

A Nana Day

Lily came home from swimming the other day, exhausted, and said that she wanted a sugar cookie or a cinnamon roll and a story. And I said, "it sounds like you just need Nana." Yep. Sometimes we just need a Nana day.

another coach reeder

check out HJnews.com.... for today (Friday)... another Reeder coach article in the sports section!

Bear Claw Canyon

Just wanted to inform everyone that Papa's plan to turn Canyon into a mountain man WORKED!! Yes, no more pirates...however, I must admit, mountain men are clearly pirates that live in the mountains. Seriously, though, we have now watched "Jeremiah Johnson" about 22 times.
Canyon only plays Mountain Man outside and when asked if Alice could play with him...he responded, "of course, she can be the crazy lady," in reference to the crazy lady on JJ. We also kept the Livermore librarians on their toes as they attempted to find all books in the children's lit section on mountain men (a formidable task as we had to first figure out who some great mountain men are, does Daniel Boone count?).
Canyon is now looking for a rifle and a bear coat to complete his costume…we have a leathery shirt and hat, also…he wants to know when he can expect facial hair.

Anyway…we had a fabulous time with Nana and Papa and Nana’s cookies are now legend in Livermore. We went to the aquarium and they watched Lily at swim team (mom cried the whole time because she couldn’t get over how little Lily looks trying to swim across the whole pool). Alice was in heaven and Jane had a great time to, I think.
We can’t wait to see everyone…Marty, Bonnie, Angie…it’s your turn to come to California. We wouldn’t mind seeing Isaac and Elise too. The Livermore farmer’s market is calling your name…kettlecorn and all.

Oh yeah, Canyon prefers to be called Bear Claw Canyon…or simply, Johnson.

... the last invited entry

Papa and I just got back from Girls' Camp and Papa entertained the girls the entire time with stories! He is now an official member of Young Women... voted in last night. What are we doing now? Well, Papa is mowing the lawn, and I'm pretending to clean the garage...
love you all... nana

I've been invited!

It is an exciting day. I'm now a blogger. I wish I knew what blog meant. Could you use it in a sentence like this? "It was blogging cats and dogs." Or this? "What the blog is she doing here." Or how about this? "You'd better get your blogging car out of way." Anyway, I'm sure in time I'll learn how it all works. By the way, we sure had a great week last week. We got to see all the grandchildren. On Monday it was Angie. Monday night thru Thursday night we were with the Prusso kids. Friday noon thru Sunday afternoon it was the Scotts in St. George. Whirlwind is the word that comes to mind. I wish we had more time but then on the other hand old people can wear out their welcome. If I was savvy enough, I would add pictures but that will have to wait for my tutorial which I'm sure will come later. Do you realize how trepiditious it is to have your writing perused by English majors. Oh well, I can't let that hinder my effort. Later...

Not to Steal from Little Ikey

Christian's site just had an article written in the Wall Street Journal. Pretty exciting stuff. If you're interested, you should check it out. Here's the link, but it's only good for today...so hurry and check it out: http://solution.allthingsd.com . Can you believe that this guy has a successful website? Seems unlikely, but it's true.

Little Ikey

Mom's probably showed this to everyone. But here's our special little guy in the newspaper. Feel free to write a comment at the end. I'll bet Isaac would love it if the whole family wrote something.
http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2007/06/20/sports/sports02.txt

The star of The Paper Dragon...our Clayre-bee

Well, Clayre did an amazing job preforming in "The Paper Dragon". She was so cute. Her dancing was fantastic. Here are a few pictures. Isn't her costume great?

Ode to Seven

I think I was born wanting a dog. But Mom and Dad always had one excuse or another: Camp Hunt or Jones. It wasn't until Emily got married that they agreed to get one (or what turned out to be two). Maybe they were feeling a pre-empty nest syndrome, but anyway we got seven and dandy. I still remember how furry they were when we first got them. I think even Dad thought they were cute. We've had some good times with them, I think. We've taken them on some crazy hikes and ski trips. They may have limped for three days after, but they always loved it. And remember, Isaac, when we took them on "training runs"? We'd take them in the civic and let them out on the backroad of 2nd east and then drive 25 miles per hour while they ran as fast as they could behind. Sort of mean, I guess. But they loved it. Anyway, Seven. I know you weren't everyone's favorite the way Dandy is, but you were a good dog, and you were always my favorite.

Hip and with it...

Marty tells me I'll be "hip and with it" if I post my regular ol' family letter on the blog. Ok, he didn't really tell me that, but I think that's what he was thinking. So, here's the letter I wrote to my family incase anyone wants the nity grity updates on our family. :)


Dear Family,

I think it's been almost twice as long since I have written as mom but I doubt I did half as much in that same amount of time! What a busy month for you mom!! Things for us have been going well. As mom mentioned, Angie has yet another ear infection (her 7th) so the doctors recommended getting tubes. We hope that they will keep her from so many ear infections and such terrible pain. Besides that though, she has been cute as ever. She thinks she's such a little grown-up lately. She is always pulling up to things and tries to stand on her own. Unfortunately this makes for bruises on her forehead and cut lips more often than not. Regardless, she is still set on learning to stand.

Marty is approaching the end of the shool year and is working hard to finish grading in time. In fact, we can thank him and a late night grading stint for providing me with lots of time to finally get this family letter written. Besides that, scouts is going well. They are getting ready for scout camp which is in a few more weeks. We've also enjoyed a few weeks off of graduate school and are bracing ourselves for the summer semester. We are still working on securing a summer job that will pay for grad school but we'll figure it all out soon enough I'm sure.

As for me, things have been keeping busy at home. I've been helping babysit for a couple of my neighbors which ends up taking a lot of my energy but it will only be until the end of the month. A couple weeks ago (over mother's day) we had Strep but we are happily over that now. Unfortunately I think we passed our sickness on to our dryer though because as soon as we got better the dryer stopped working. Lucklily we have a clothes line and I really enjoy the natural-down-to-earth feel of drying our clothes out on the line----it's only a problem when we get bouts of rain. Besides that, my work at the nursery is going well. Our nursery contract will be changing in July which means we will no longer be open on weekends. They also have to start having two people in the nursery at all times so they are offering me 20 hours a week in the nursery in exchange for my one weekend a month. I will probably end up doing it through the summer and then try to cut back come fall.

Well, lets see....other than that....we had a really great time last weekend with the Reeder's all in town for Sadie's wedding. It's always fun to see all of Angie's cute little cousins. The wedding, open-house, and luncheon were all spectacular. It was fun to realize through talking to people that we weren't the only one's who are really impressed with what a good match Sadie and Christian are.

Well, Angie is calling for some comfort so I best go. I don't have any new pictures with me so I'll have to send some later. I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you have fun in Korea Joseph, April, Jacob, and little girl!!

Love always,
Bonnie

Sadie & Christian's Big Day

The Girls

We had such a good time at Sadie's wedding. The West's were great and the Aggie ice-cream open house was the best! I don't know who made the tablecloths for the dinner, but all I can say is WOW! and that must've taken hours. Also the flowers, by Elise were, as usual, incredible. Anyway...we did it. We are all now officially married and so I think we should have a family reunion every year now, since we won't be going to anymore weddings. I propose that the first be at "our cabin." Waddya think? Anyway, hope Sadie and Christian are having a great time in Hawaii.

Happy Mother's Day Dona

There are many things we can learn from this video. Here are some highlights:

• You can call each other fat and ugly but never make fun of another person's mudda (mother).
• Mother is spelled M-O-T-H-E-R
• You may never know when you need it so it is always good to carry a microphone; I want to say in your back pocket is a good place but it looks more like Mr T had it stashed in his pants near the small of his back for some reason.
• We should treat our mother's right.

Happy Mother's Day

Nana Dona: Mom, Grandma, Teacher, Wife, and Person Extraordinaire

Happy Mother’s Day Nana Dona! Today as I struggled through bits and pieces of motherhood myself, I reflected a little on my own mother and what amazing things she did for us. I see, now that I’m a mother, that mom devoted herself entirely to us. It’s pretty amazing, actually, and with the approaching marriage of her youngest baby…she must be pretty amazed. I myself dream of this day…in eager anticipation of “washing my hands” of my children. But mom, thanks for all the things you did for us and taught us and as I reflected today…one thing that really effected me was all of your selfless acts. The one that tops the charts (in my book) is the Valentine’s Cookies for the widows. I tell so many people this story and it has become such a part of our family history…it’s something that my kids will certainly know about…and perhaps their kids too. I hope that my own family can have experiences like that (and others) and that they will remember growing up with as happy memories as I have. Thanks again for everything you did and still do for us…what would we be without you. Love ya.

I thought it was just Marty

Does anyone remember how Marty used to read encyclopedias? I always thought that it was a little strange. Well, I have a child who does the same thing....only she can't read yet, so she must just be studying the pictures. She has been known to sneak them to bed every now and then. Little miss Clayre-bees.

This morning I went upstairs. The T.V wasn't working so while Clayre and Kate were waiting for me to come up and fix it, they got out all the World Book Encyclopedias (good gift, mom) and were going through them. Clayre said to me, "I didn't know train had two O's in it." I'm not sure what that means. Maybe she was "reading" about Choo Choo trains?

Anyway, the T.V. is back working so after they but all the books back (Clayre sang the alpha-bet song to know the order to put them back, right. Genious!) ....it's off to learning how to count to 10 in Spanish from who better than, Dora the Explorer!

Graduation=Cool Things

Now that I have graduated from college, I have noticed that I have a lot of things that I didn't have before I graduated from college. Like a new camera. Actually, that's the only thing, but it's pretty nice.