Clubber Lang

Mohawk and quick hands. Lethal combo. Just remember Clubber Lang.

Katie just days before giving birth

More pictures of Natalie Jane Enniss

Welcome Natalie Jane Enniss!

Natalie Jane Enniss was born on May 22, 2005 at 5:34 am. She weighed 7 pounds, 13.5 ounces. Mother and baby are doing fantastic! Daddy is in love!

Here's a picture of Emily trying to find her own nose. Either that or her lovely mother and grandmother are rubbing off on her!

Pictures from Joe and Bethany

Pink Explosion

I call this pink eruption. Obviously my influence is not upon her yet.

Joe and Bethany Gradjitate (sp?)

Thought I'd help Joe out and post the graduation photos of the babeular Bethany with our very own law grad dude Joe. The graduation ceremony was held in the Provo Tabernacle and was really awesome: great organ music, great speeches, great choir number and a great closing prayer by one Geoff Dietrich, who'd served with Ben in Iraq and the 4th Infantry Division back in 2003 (right, Ben?). Anyway, I didn't realize who he was but tried to get down to thank him for remembering the troops in his prayer and then Nancy told me about his connection with Ben; still didn't get to reach him before the place cleared out, but Joe mentioned how ironic it was that Geoff got rejected twice for the FLEP so just got out of the Army and was 3rd in the class. Sounds pretty typical how we lose so many of the brightest to those darn civilians.

Shama is back

Bro, I am world famous as Dave Shama. Just another illustrious mispronunciation of our last name. So the ring should be ready in another week or two. I'll post some pictures of it and give you a shout out for all of your advice. Have you learned any cool Afghani words? Flown any kites? Party on Ben.

Davah

p.s. i posted this as a response to the last comment but i didn't know if it would ever be found so here it is again. Oh yeah, weezer is coming out with a new album this summer! You can listen to the single at weezer.com .... if you can go there. Steve already bought it on itunes. It's way good.

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Happy Birthday, Katie! It's still your birthday there, but it's the 6th out here already. Do you like the fact that your birthday is Cinco de Mayo? Excited to be a mom? I look forward to meeting Emily's cousin. I love you, Kate!

Oh yeah. Also, Dave I saw your Mundo thing finally. I put a comment on it. Hilarious.

Joe,

Did you notice that you can add comments to somebody's entry. I saw that, but thought that you wouldn't read it unless you see it as a post. Dude, send me a copy of the Kong thing. Sounds hilarious. I thought Bethany already graduated. And you're going to KS? Are you going to a deploying unit? Or are you going to be dealing with stressed out MITT trainees getting ready to deploy? Ft. Riley right? Fag. I was hoping you'd be going back to HI. Yeah, having a little girl is pretty cool. You're the soft one, though. You're the deacons quorum advisor? Ha ha ha (that's pronounced with a Charlie McCoury from "The Searchers" accent). Deacons are killer. Bradley Holterman. I had "discussions about reverence" with him in the hall at church on multiple occasions. He later asked me to ordain him to be a teacher, but he turned 14 right after I left. Deacons are spazzes, but do you remember us in deacons quorum? I guess what goes around comes around. Remember when Matt Barfuss threw something and the plastic lightswitch exploded into a million little plastic shards? Or when we broke the church door? Put some pictures on this blog Joe. I want to see some from you and Bethany's graduation ceremony. Stay cool and have a great summer.

Ben

Hello

I finally figured out how to contribute. I don't have anything erudite to say because I don't know what that word means. Congrats to Ben and Marinda. Who woulda thunk Ben was such a softy? I hope that 4-leaf clover keeps on keeping on.

Glad law school is over. Bar study isn't nearly as bad as I had expected and actually pretty interesting. I had a good friend tell me yesterday that there are two kinds of people in this world he won't trust - I thought he was going to say women and terrorists, but he said "doctors and lawyers." Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. Bethany finishes school 5 June and is anxious for some free time. We hope to have the movers come 8 August and be in Kansas that weekend to go house hunting. I haven't killed any deacons yet, but the calling lasts for a few more months so I've got plenty of time. I hope my own children live past the age of 13 - I'm hopeful, but not confident that they will. If you get the chance, watch King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters - documentary about a bunch of video game geeks fighting over who has the best Donkey Kong score. Hilarious - especially the guy who comments on Donkey Kong's devious nature. Check it out. Hooah.

Here she is with Grandma. She looks too young to be a Grandma right? Emily's totally chilled.

Grandpa. Now not only in the sense that he's old, but literally, too.

She's apparently shocked to be home. Emily, not Marinda. That's the new chair we got, which rocks. Both literally and in the fact that it's awesomely comfortable.

The cigar is from Josh Brandon. Bubble gum "It's a Girl" cigar. Josh takes command pretty soon and goes to Iraq in 2009. His other gifts include a four leaf clover that I wear around my neck with a pic of me and Marinda and a "I listen to Led Zeppelin with my Daddy" onesie for Emily. Marinda's brother mentioned that I should be proud of Emily's hair because she's already prepared to headbang! Rock on.

Emily

Here's my favorite pic of little Emily. She's one day old in it. She had so much hair at first that it looked like a Groucho Marx toupee. Hilarious. She is one good lookin' little girl, in my opinion. The other picture is of me in Kandahar shortly after the birth and knowledge that Mom and baby were okay and healthy. It was a great feeling. I'm a little surprised at how much I long to be there to hold her and see Marinda through this time. I knew it would be hard, but it's more frustrating than I expected. I've charged Marinda to send me at least one pic a day, and I hope to receive some video soon. It was awesome to hear her cry shortly after the birth. It's such an amazing feeling. Can't wait to see her in person! Thank you Mom and Dad for helping Marinda so much. She told me how you, Dad, put the swing together and that Emily loves it already. Mom, you did so much to help Marinda. Thanks so much. It's been great to read all of your nice comments about her. I'm so excited to be a dad. Any recommendations/advice, Dad? Here's what one of my Iraqi friends recommended:

Dear bin

Congratulation for your daughter ;
It is great feeling when the one become father.
before two year I get a boy named Ibrahim the feeling when he born
I can forget it .
There is some gold advice to brout up the daughter :-
a- cover her hair
b-long clothes
c-No toking with boyes

be care
best regards

Pretty good advice I think! This was from Ahmed Shihab who was the Municipality Engineer in Hawijah. I told him and FAwaz and Hadder about how I named Emily after Amal. Anyway, I love you all and finally got my password reset, so maybe I can start contributing a little more.

Ben

More Shots of Emily Jane

Hard to believe she's only hours old in these photos. Marinda does great work!

Latest Shaha Arrival - Emily Jane

Emily Jane Shaha reported for duty 0716 hrs 29 April 2008, weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz and standing tall at 21 inches (she really isn't standing very well just yet). Marinda was tougher than ever, and is already the best new mom on the planet. One of the Lord's tender mercies came as birth events neared culmination and Marinda had not been able to contact Ben in the hospital facility (neither cell nor wi-fi); for some reason when crunch time arrived the cell phone connection was made and the internet connection cooperated as well and Ben attended the birth virtually from Kandahar, Afghanistan via cell phone and minicam. Connectivity was lost soon after Emily's arrival, but another of those little miracles allowed Ben to be there when Marinda needed him most. We all pray their family can be together very soon, but these new technologies sure make the separations more bearable.