Kasper Sabbatical

Our fun started 2 days before Christmas. Some of the family came and we had a snow day. We went sledding about 1 mile from our house and we built a gigantic snowman in our front yard. Ted & Kelly worked really hard to get the bottom of our snowman in place.
Keayen is 8 years old and this is his dog.
Sean's girls worked hard to make their share of the snowman. It takes a lot of rolling to get the snowballs big enough to make this kind of a gigantic SNOWMAN!!!!
Then below you'll see me standing on the snowman's leg and hanging on to him as we build the top. My daughter, Rebecca had to hand me handfuls of snow so i could pack him in.
Also, pay attention to how tall this snowman is. Kelly, (My son in law) is 6 foot 4 inches tall. Rebecca is sitting on his shoulders and the snowman is still taller.....That's one TALL SNOWMAN!

Sean and Chelsea and their kids moved up the road from us. We live on Pole Canyon Road and they live on the South end of that road, so we call it the SOUTH POLE. We keep asking them how they are doing at the South Pole. We want to know if it's as cold their as it is at the North Pole. They say it is!!!!
Sean's whole family dressed up for Halloween. INCLUDING SEAN!!! His cute little wife, Chelsea made these costumes and talked her husband into being part of the fun. Aren't they just cute???


I wondered if I was as funny looking as Chelsea!!! That's why the funny look in this picture. I didn't even need a costume!!!













This is The WHOLE FAMILY!!!
















This is our good friend Melissa with Chelsea.

Tia and I were in Salt Lake City for our girls weekend out!!! Sister Ambika arranged for us to come to her apartment the first night. She fixed an elegant dinner of Chicken Beryani because she knows it is my favorite. She also fixed 6 different kinds of curries. Tia loved her cooking and wanted to take Ambika home with her.
Sister Ambika is promising to spend some time at my home after her mission. We so look forward to her visit.



Another surprise that evening were 2 couples that had served in India. This is the Allens. They served in Hyderabad about 10 years ago. It was fun to visit with them and feel their love for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world.
The next picture is the Finklea's. They lived in our apartment in India before we did. We heard a lot about the Finklea's upon our arrivial in India. Everyone talked about "How wonderful the Finkleas" are. Now we know why. they are as wonderful as we were told. This was our 3rd meeting with the Finklea's and we really do enjoy their company. We look forward to more meetings with them.
Ambika is our dear friend and we appreciate her giving and loving spirit. This meeting at her home made a memorable experience for both Tia and myself. What a great start to a girls weekend out!!

June was a special month. Keayen got baptized. Grandpa Ted was especially happy for this ocassion as he got to baptize and confirm Keayen. We are proud of his decision to take baptism.
There was lots of family at his baptism. Here are some pictures of Keayen and his family and all the people that love him and supported his decision.

This is 2 of our grandsons, Seth (left) and Stuart. Stuart just got his mission call to Everett, Washington. We are so excited for him.
We went to Utah in June so that Grandpa Ted could ordain him an Elder!!!
Way to go Stuart!!!
We love you and are proud of your decision.
Seth is 16 and loves to be on stage. I hear he is a great actor and I hope to see him in person soon!!! We're hoping he will follow in Stuart's footsteps and do the mission in a few years!!!!
These are good boys!!!

My poor little Selah was recently bit by a dog. You can see how close he came to taking her eye out. the doctor didn't put any stiches in her because he didn't want her to have scars....... She was one lucky little girl. I won't even start to tell you how I feel about the dog or people who keep a dog that would harm a child........EVEN IF THE CHILD IS AGGRAVITING THE DOG!!!!!!!
The good news is that she is healing nicely and we are all happy about that!

Ted & I got involved with a group that is interested in promoting "Music Education and Performing Experiences" for youth in our community. I recently started a group, with a friend and we call them "Sha-kon"....They are elementary and middle school aged children. You can go to the following website to see what we are doing and their are lots of pictures from the talent show we just did!
www.tbctrust.org
Enjoy.

I haven't blogged in awhile but I was thinking I should touch on some of the highlights of the summer.
This is Keelee and Tiana. I wrapped their hair (and mine) up in a scarf so we could go four wheeling.

































They were so excited to be able to go with us.
















We packed a picnic lunch and rode into the mountains. It was a really fun day.

Easter Weekend we went to Utah for a wonderful missionary reunion.

I just read a great book. It's book #4 of reaching my goals. The book is by Orson Scott Card (famous LDS author) and the title is "Rebekah" Women of Genesis. I really enjoyed the book and now want to study the bible and the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Esau. I know he added a lot of his own thoughts but some of the things he said I need to verify that's how it really happened.

Tia and Jared brought Porter & Selah up on Saturday. We took them and Keelee and Tiana to the Wizard of Oz play in Jackson, Wyoming. It was lots of fun watching the kids get excited when they killed the wicked witch. They were clapping and singing "Ding Dong the witch is dead." Miss Keelee sang through the whole thing. At one point Selah and Tiana both poked her and told her to "Shhsh!!!" People around us were laughing at Keelee being so cute witht the songs. After the play we came back to our house and Porter played Games on the computer.


Selah, her mom and I put this puzzle of Aladdin together. I thought Porter would want to do the puzzle, but Selah was the one interested in helping.
You see underneath Alladin is another puzzle that I have finished this year. I'll take a better picture of it later.

Many of you have asked how Elder Kasper is and what is he doing. I decided to share with you his work. Everyone knows he spends a lot of time on the river fishing. Yesterday he said he caught 21 fish. But only 9 of them were keepers. Wrong kind of fish or the wrong size...He spends a lot of time in his work shop mending and repairing things. He's always got a project going.
He has spent a lot of time building also. This table is something he just finished yesterday. I think he does a great job and really liked the table when he finished it.
Before the table he did a headboard for our bed. You can see it in the next picture. He didn't let me see it until it was completed. It looks very nice in our bedroom. I told him, "Now I want head boards for all the beds!!!"
I guess these are the kind of things you can do when you are retired. I think I am liking him being retired and having time to do some fun things for us!!!

My goals are being fulfilled. I just finished puzzle #3. This was a great puzzle to do. It was so much fun. Kent and JaNell came for Sunday dinner and we started it....Then I finished it throughout the week.
I also finished Book #3, "Agent Bishop." It was interesting. It was about a man who was in the FBI and served as a bishop 4 times while in the FBI.
My other goals are coming along. I am even exercising better. That's probably my week point right now. It seems to be warming up outside so I hope I will be more inclined to keep up with my goals.

I had so many people remember me on my birthday this year. Thank you everyone. I feel as though I was well taken care of this year! You are all the greatest. My kids were great too. Some of them came to visit the weekend before my birthday. We enjoyed their visit and had fun playing some games. Then on my birthday, Tia and I went cross country skiing. I wish I had taken some pictures. We had so much fun and it was so beautiful.
Friday, after my birthday, Chelsea and the 2 little girls (Keelee and Tiana) took me to Idaho Falls for a girls day out. We had such a good time. Well......mostly a good time. As you see by this picture, Tiana was pretty upset at the mall. We all had pedicures at the mall, then we went into some stores. Tiana was not doing as her mother instructed so she got in trouble for a few minutes.... Isn't that just the sweetest unhappy face you ever saw!!! I had to take a picture and that only made the crying more dramatic!!!






Chelsea was trying to get her settled back down here!! Cute daughter-in-law and cute granddaughter!!



















Oh now she has the happy face. These little rides are in the mall and the girls were trying them all out!



















Besides the pedicure and shopping, the girls also took me to lunch. It really was a nice day. Thanks Chelsea, Keelee and Tiana. Also, Miss Keelee said, "We can do it again for your Birthday next year Grandma!" Isn't that sweet?