The Jonas & Caleb Movie

ok. the reason this is called The Jonas & Caleb Movie is because Jonas is on the left. if Caleb ws on the left, I would have called it the Caleb & Jonas Movie. . . this starts out dark, but gets better in a minute. the boys are way cute, but the background noise is too funny. we are the weirdest people on the planet sometimes. you can hear Cannon playing with the dog as well as all of us talking. . .and proof that Steve did go & get salt :)

Jonas's blessing

Grandma & Jonas -- isn't he so cute?! and where did he get that cute suit?

Christmas with the frogs--everyone else is playing connect 4 x 4 & I get the frog :)

now, I realize this isn't Jonas' blessing, but what a cute family ! & I didn't get a picture of all of them in texas on sunday :) so here it is.

this is right after Joe gave him his blessing. . .the 2 Joes :)

Grandma & Cannon sharing golfish during the blessings. (& right after) we like eating sideways.

christmas in texas

Cannon's cheesy grin--upside down (since that was the only Bekah could get it on camera)

Cannon got a book about noah's ark & he needs to read it right away.

Here is our teeny christmas tree--sidways--before we started opening presents :)

How cute is this?! Cannon with his suffed friend from ice age who I can't remember his name...

so he can talk on the phone --so much for his dad's super powers (read shirt "my had has super powers")

the dog whisperer has nothing on Cannon. he really speaks dog--and loves doing it :)

mavs game

pregame warmup--Dirk is at the top of the key facing us--some of the players didn't get the white jacket memo :)

Bex & Rachel before the game.

John & Drew are ready to enjoy the show.

the final score--I told you it was a close game :)

John wanted to see a mavs game while he was home, so he watched on on tv & we were able to get tickets to another home game. we had to buy 6 tickets, so we invited Drew Pepper to come with us. it was a fun game & we had good seats. Kevin met us there & had a hard time finding a place to park, so he was late for the game, but not too late. John got a free Dirk poster, but somehow we didn't get home with it. it was raining, & there was an accident on the freeway just as we were driving on, so I tried to go further north to miss it & got lost in downtown dallas. not such a good thing at nite, in the rain, in downtown--but we did see some cool looking clubs, a couple of police cars & got home ok after driving for way too long. we did miss the traffic after the accident, tho :)

john airport pictures & bike ride

John & Mom at the airport--doesn't he look excited?!

picnic in the park by whiterock lake--see the bikes in the background?

Rachel & John at the airport--no tears Rach!! she did ok until we left :)

at home--as you can see, Bex isn't feeling well (nothing to do with John leaving, maybe)

Kevin gave John a father's blessing--this was afterwards :)

a few pictures from idaho

Jonas & Caleb :)

Jonas & Caleb in their white suits--Jonas is sockless, you can't see Caleb's feet.

what a good lookin family!!

4 generations. . . sideways :)





ok. I wanted to be able to show the 2 boys side by side, but I can't figure out how to turn the pictures--so we have lots of sideways shots--sorry. if I can get it figured out (feel free to offer suggestions) I'll fix it :)

John

so, we took John to the airport sat. around noon & just left him there with about a million other troops waiting for their plane to take them overseas. under guard. yes, there were guards outside & inside the area with machine guns & frownie faces. reminded me of europe & brazil. almost. anyway, I wanted to stay with him until he boarded the plane, but Kevin & Rachel were not into that, so I had to leave. they were my ride home. but, I sent him with some fudge & brownies, so I felt a little better. sorry to say, the fudge exploded on the way, so all of his stuff was covered in chocolate :( he's a little mad at me.
he called this am from kwait waiting for a plane to afganastan & then to his base. hurry up & wait. but he's ok & the brownies are fine. :)
we had fun while he was here. not too much since everyone was working or at school. but it was good. we watched movies, played games, went to a Mav's game (it was fun), rode bikes to and around the lake & ate a picnic lunch. my bike tire kept going flat, so every few minutes we had to stop & pump it up. after lunch, Kevin patched it & we started out again only to find that Rachel's front tire had gone flat while we ate lunch. after patching that tire, the brakes did funny things & wouldn't let the tire move, so Bex & Rach took it to the shop on the way home & we rode around the lake. it was a beautiful day & we had lots of fun. friday Kevin & John went to adventure landing (in richardson) & played golf, rode in go carts, played in the archade & hit balls in the batting cages. we showed him off at church & all the girls want to date him now. he wasn't impressed with the single's ward tho. . . but all my friends in primary are ready to fix him up, as well as the peppers in mansfield. we'll see how that goes. life is good.
spring is here & we are all fighting the allergy sickness. just enjoying the weather & looking for tornadoes. the wild flowers will be out soon. ahhh. springtime in texas.
hugs & love to all--mom :)

A growing little boy

Hey everyone!

This is the all famous Kofoed's in Idaho. So life. Life here is cold...ish. I mean, it's been snowing and raining this past week/days. The highs are in the 30s. Which has been kind of warm. It was very sunny and happy today. I love it. Caleb is growing...and fast. I can't believe how big he is. He seems like he is 8 pounds. Or more. I love it. He can smile now. It is the absolutely cutest thing in the world. It doesn't matter what kind of day you've had. If he smiles at you, it melts your heart right away. I think thats why babies are so cute, so that their parents don't hurt them. Today THE coolest thing happened, I was visiting Steve at work and he took off Caleb's blanket to show him off to the office, and Caleb of course woke up. He looked around saw people he didn't know and a place he didn't know and cried a loud, scared kind of cry. I got up immediately and went over there. As soon as he saw me, he stopped crying! How cool is that? He recognizes me! He knows me! He knows my voice! I LOVE IT! Last night, when Steve got up with Caleb, Caleb was apparently being very frustrating and such, and then at the peak of Steve's frustration, Caleb looked at him at smiled. Steve goes, "Don't smile at me, I'm upset at you." But Caleb kept smiling and so Steve smiled and it just melted the daddy one's heart. I love being a mommy.

So Medicaid. We went there to apply for me since Steve's insurance doesn't cover prescriptions and I need prescriptions. Apparently to be on medicaid on a family plan, for 3 people, you must make below $317 a month. SO it doesn't look like we will be doing that. Any other ideas? To be on Steve's insurance, the insurance cost goes from $275 a semester to $975 a semester with me as a dependent. HOLY CRAP! That is a lot of money. Caleb is covered on Medicaid until he is a year old and then... idk. Hopefully we will have a plan by then.

School is going good for Steve. He likes his classes. He doesn't really like his business teacher, but he is giving him another chance, so I hope he will come to like him more and more so that the semester goes smoothly. Work is going good. He got a promotion and now is the Scholarship Specialist. SWEET! Which means a pay raise. WHOO- HOO!!!!

Work is going good. We are busy and a little crammed, but it all works out.

WE love our life here in Idaho and wouldn't have it any other way! LOVE YOU!

Additions

So, it has been requested that I share some additions to the blog. Especially concerning Dad and I's trip back home. Particularly about picking up those guys just outside of Quanah, Texas. (Quanah is about 350 miles outside of Dallas) Well, here goes:

We were driving along and we see this car pulled over on the side of the road. Dad was driving, so he wasted no time in getting over to the side of the road in order to help. I look and I see that there are two men there, no women or small children running around. Dad gets out and goes to see if he can help. I sit there and I'm thinking that if Dad can't help (which it doesn't look like he's doing, he's just standing there, talking) then I definitely can't help. Also, I'm thinking of all the horrible things that people do to people who stop to help on the side of the road. So, I keep checking back to make sure that Dad is still upright and not sprawled on the side of the road with a bullet hole through him somewhere. Another thing going through my mind is that both our phones are dead and so I can't call 911 just in case Dad does get himself shot. I suppose I could have moved to the driver's side in order to make a quick exit, leaving Dad behind to fend for himself. However, if it had come to this, I'm sure Dad would already be bleeding and dying on the side of the road. Then, Dad came back into the car and said that we needed to make room for the two men whose car they were abandoning on the side of the road. This we did, then the men came in. Only one of them could speak English, the other was totally Spanish-speaking. Once they were in the car, all my thoughts of danger vanished. I knew that Dad would not have invited them in if he thought there was even the remote possibility of something bad happening. I felt so comfortable with them there that I fell asleep for most of the way home. This just illustrates my ridiculous nature.

New Internet and other unrelated events

Hey all, this is Bekah. Note that I did not say "Y'all", but rather, hey all. Just for my Yankee relatives who happen to read this. :p

So, Dad and I got safely back home to Texas last Friday night/Saturday morning. Let me tell you all about it. So, we left the funeral (Aunt Ardell died) on Wednesday in Preston, ID and went up to Idaho Falls to collect my school stuff that Aunt Bea was gracious enough to store for me. We left her house just after 6pm (maybe 6:30 or closer to 7) and went to Ogden. Then, we loaded up the van that I bought from Gramma and Grampa earlier that morning and got some food from Gramma and then hit the road again. We arrived in Springville just before 1am, and boy was that great! Joe was asleep on the floor directly in front of the door and Leah was asleep in bed. Funny stuff. Then, the next morning (Thursday I believe), while Dad was taking Joe to school and Leah to the grocery store (I was playing with Cannon and Jonas), the check engine light came on. So, we stayed there all morning, and Leah and I actually switched cars, so now Joe and Leah have the van and I have the Taurus. We left Springville at about 1-1:30pm and then Dad got lost trying to get to the canyon that we leave Springville out of. We stopped for directions in Spanish Fork and met some nice people. Then we headed to Denver. We stopped for the night in Longmont, CO at the home of my friend, Vanessa. Longmont is about 45 minutes north of Denver. Friday morning we woke up just before 9, so an early start just didn't happen. we went thru Denver (again) at about 10:30 and headed south on 25. We stopped in a little town called Las Vegas in New Mexico. Dad wanted to make sure that I knew how to do stuff like check tire pressure, oil levels and transmission fluid levels. Then, we got lunch. Then, Dad did a crazy u-turn into oncoming traffic. Scary! Then, outside of Quanah, Texas, there was a car pulled over and so Dad stopped to help. We were there for about 15-20 minutes and then the guys who were in the car got into our car and we drove them to Dallas. We dropped them off at the Jack-in-the-Box right by our house. We finally arrived home just after 2am Saturday morning. Also, our phones all died before we even got to Las Vegas, NM so Gramma was freaking out. But it's all good. Ooh. I have got to get going.

I love you all!!!

Home Safely

Hey everybody, this is John, home safely and loving life in the great state of Texas!

I've been home a couple of days now, but this is the first time we've been able to get internet here, so here it goes.

Not a whole lot going on, watched some Cowboys and Mavs games, hung out with the family, and did a few odds and ends around the house. I'm really sorry about not being able to come up to Utah, just know that I was at least as excited to come up there as you Utah folks were to see me. the good and bad news? I'll be there soon enough, I'm guessing Spring 2010 sometime, probably April-ish. I'm going to post a few pics, and those of you with Facebook can see all of them, but here are a few highlights.

also, any questions you guys have, feel free to ask on here, and I will try to answer them.

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here I am on top of a Mountain overlooking the city of Asadabad.

the Hindu Kush, where the Western edge of the Himalayas comes through

The city of Asadabad

Half way up the mountain.

showing the path we climbed up the moutain.

the climb still to come

The Afghan beard. Ahhh yeah....

The Market in Asadabad

the main road of Asadabad, complete with the mosque and a small herd of sheep.

a farmer's field, as seen from my gun turret.

Die mountain!!

the Kunar River

my gun turret.