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.

Smartest Baby in the whole world!

Okay, so most of you know of our genius baby. We have actual footage of Caleb feeding himself. He was 10 or 11 days old at this time. Now he didn't make the bottle or anything, but the fact that he held it all by himself at this age is absolutely amazing in my eyes. But then, almost anything he does is amazing to me. He is also a WONDERFUL burper. Like basically, most of the time, all you have to do to burp this kid is sit him up and he will burp loud and clear for you. I love it. I seem to recall someone once said that if you had the choice between a genius baby or a baby that burped good, most people would say a baby that was a genius, but what you really want is a good burper. Then they don't cry forever. Good advice. I love my family. I never thought that being a mom would be this much fun, pain, and stress all at the same time.

Caleb is getting better though. His yellow is gone, so no more jaundice and he is eating about 2 ounces at every feeding. Which is good, that means he will be putting on more weight. His eye is getting better, he had or has a blocked tear duct and the doc gave us some medicine for that. That is really helping. Steve loves being a daddy. You can see it in his face when he is feeding Caleb. Maybe not when he is changing the poopy diapers, but it's all good. He is such a HUGE HELP. Man, I could not imagine doing all of this on my own. I would go insane. Certifiably insane. Rexburg is freezing. It is too cold to snow. Below freezing all the time. Nights are sometimes below 0. I do NOT want to take Caleb out in the cold. But, times call for it sometimes. I will avoid it if I can. That is a brief update on us here in the cold. We love you and will see you soon!

Sara, Steve, and Caleb

Mommy at last....

Okay so WHOOOOO I AM A MOM! I can't believe that I am finally a mom. He is sooooo perfect. He looks like Steve except for all of that long dark hair of his. Which I adore. Caleb Andrew was born on November 24 at 1:22pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz and 19 inches long. He is having a little trouble breastfeeding right now. He has a tongue thrust and he likes to suck on his tongue so we are trying to teach him to open his mouth and put his tongue down. Which is apparently WAY more difficult than I thought it was. Other than that he is absolutely perfect. We are so glad that he is finally here. I don't know if he shares these same feelings, but he is just going to have to deal right now. He will thank me later. Okay so labor is absolutely the WORST thing I have EVER done. I now have a new meaning of the number 10. You know when you go to the hospital and they have you rate you pain 1-10? Yea, what I thought was a 6 or 7 before is now a 3. But the labor only lasted 5 hours total and I was really only in pain for 3 of those hours. I went from a 2 to a 8 in 2 hours. Much pain. I did end up getting an epidural which was bliss for the last hour. YOU DON'T FEEL ANYTHING! I couldn't even get my legs to move hardly. They were basically logs that Steve and the nurse had to hold for me. So was it worth it? Definitely. No doubt about it. I think a perfect world would have the women be the ones who were pregnant and carried the baby for nine months and the dads/men did the labor and delivery part. But if that happened, we would have WAY less babis in this world. I hope you think he is as cute as I think he is. And if not, oh well you don't have to come see him. Love ya!

the new addition

This is Joe posting. So when Cannon was only a couple of months old, Leah told me that when we had two kids, she needed a dishwasher. Period. Thinking at the time that such a situation was far in the future, and a little bit scared of saying "no" to a brand-new sleep deprived mother, I said what every good husband says: "OK honey." However, when we found ourselves expecting again so soon (and unwilling to move before before I graduate in April), it appeared that I had agreed too hastily. Imagine my surprise (and better yet, imagine Leah's surprise) in being able to report that there are currently dishes being done in our apartment and not by me or Leah! We got a dishwasher!!!!!!!!! How could such a miracle occur? I will esplain. No, there is too much; I will sum up. One Tuesday, I had a huge crazy Biochemistry test and studied my pants off. I also had an optics assignment due at 7pm (the same time young men's starts), and had way more to do that day than I could possibly do. I was stressing thinking about what I should do, and maybe I should just skip young men's that night to get some of it done, but decided instead to skip the optics homework and just go to young men's. I felt really at peace about that thought, so that's what I did. Our activity that night was building a wheelchair ramp for a new family in the ward who I had helped move in the previous Saturday. It was fun, and I stayed loooong after young mens was over to help get it finished. It was quite a sight to behold, and it felt really good to be doing some real service again; it seems like it had been quite a while since I had such an opportunity. Then the woman came out and looked it over and thanked us profusely, then asked "Do any of you know someone that needs a dishwasher?" I sheepishly replied that I would love to have a dishwasher. A few days (and several tries at faucet adapters) later, we loaded our first washer-load up and let her fly. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Holy cow. Leah remarked to me that night that besides our wedding day and the day Cannon was born, this was probably the best day of her life. To sum up, I am very grateful that I listened to the guidance of the Holy Ghost as it helped me to make what seemed like a trivial decision regarding my day's schedule. We are so grateful to our heavenly father for this blessing; dishwashing that previously took two or three hours is now taking 20 minutes. The Lord is good to us when we're trying to do what's right.
In other news, Cannon is now walking all over the place! (Videos to be posted soon). 2-3 steps are now becoming full room-lengths (when an unobstructed path is available, or in other words, when we are not home...). It's loads of fun. He is also learning anger. When something isn't going his way, he looks up and shouts, then he's good. It's lots of fun, and different every day.
Anyway, I've got to go to get to family night. I love you guys and hope that you're all doing well. Have a great day :)
Joe

Hey from the Kofoed's

So In case you can't tell, I am pregnant! I am officially full term according to my OB-GYN, but still have another week to full term according to my Perinatologist. So we are close enough that we are counting down the days until Caleb is supposed to come into this world. When he comes is however a totally different matter. That will be up to him. His daddy thinks that he has a say in it and has the exact day and time that he wants him to come. We will see how that turns out. Life here is getting more and more hectic as we plan and prepare for the baby to come. You never really know so its like I have to be ready to go to the hospital tomorrow... and I don't like that. I wish they just came when they are supposed to so we can have a plan for everything. Steve is getting more and more excited. He talks to Caleb a lot more now and plays with him and tells him how excited he is to finally meet him. It is the most adorable thing, I have ever seen. Maybe. Midterms were last week and Steve did excellent! I am so proud of him. Now that those are out of the way he can just finish the semester and have a baby to celebrate with. That will be fun. We are excited to see family for Thanksgiving. As far as I know, we are having it at our house here and stuff. If there are contradictions to that, please let me know so I can plan for it. I love you all and will talk to you soon!

Sara and Steve