Still Catching up - pictures from Cousin Brian's house over the 4th of July

Look! The tents that Grandma Williams made are still in good use. There was a serious conference going on in there!

This is Wynn(sp?), Brian's son. He had a huge 3-year-old birthday bash while we were there.

The birthday bash supplied they millions of children there with a Sheriff"s hat, badge, and homemade horse on a stick. Randy, Lindsay's husband also gave them all Cowboy lessons involving lassoing, stick horse-racing, and target practice with water pistols. Lindsay's daughter had no mercy and thought is was hilarious to try to repeatedly squirt me point blank to the face.

There he goes - to go sit and throw dirt behind the barn. I did think this was a cool shot of Jack in his Sheriff's hat against the back drop of Grandma Thompson's old fields full of corn.

Yeehaw!

Megan made these chocolate molds of cowboy hats and put them on the tops of a lot of cupcakes. Jack was a major fan and probably ate half his body weight in chocolate that afternoon - of course a lot of it stayed on his face.

Natalie commandeered both their horse's for this shot. She also named both of them. The one horse is Merida (from "Brave) and the other horse is Adra (a name I still think that Natalie made up, but that is her own version of  "Heartbreath" - the name that I made up and considered the most beautiful in the universe.)

After a few cold ones, this cowboy and cowgirl plan to take the world by storm.

Slow down, cowboy!

I got this book on a whim from the library and we finally had to order it on Amazon my kids like it so much. As I showed some of you, the President of the United States consults the military about what to do about the Tomatoes attack and one of the cartoon generals looks strikingly like Grandpa Shaha. As you can tell by the photo, it's pretty intense.

Somehow this became cool - to put the stickers offered from stores on your forehead. Jack asks me to help him do this now. Natalie is also demonstrating a toy car driving on a swatch of carpet. . . I don't get it either.

Majorly Catching up - These pics are from Joe and Bethany's visit In June!

I added in this picture. It's pretty cool that we can get both Grandmas together, right? Who would have thought that would ever have been plausible in our family.

Sorry - had to add this one too. What makes you think that my child might be spoiled? Please note the Lightning Mcqueen slippers, sequence covered tootoo, and Tinderbell back-pack. She works this biking thing!

Dad, and grandchildren on Cloud 9

Natalie and Lucy looking pretty serious - they were looking at a 3D book about Zoo animals.

If these next few pictures are any indication, the next family picture is going to be a doozy. Jack's trying to be an angry pirate or something.

hit and miss

Way to go Hailey!

Nice one Natalie - her father taught her this expression.

Yay Lucy! Now I just need to train my kids!

Musings of a 5 and 3 year old

Here are a few funny quotes as of late:

I've started reading the illustrated Book of Mormon stories to Em in the mornings.   I was 
reviewing the previous lesson and asked her why Lehi and his family left Jerusalem.

Em:   Because Lehi told Laman and Lemuel they needed to repent.   And if the didn't repent 
Jerusalem would.... (searching for the right words).... blow up.

As I'm pushing Em and Caroline in the stroller:

Em:   Mom, let's play the alphabet game with countries.   A is for Albania.   Your turn Caroline

C:   I know what letter makes the "wuh" sound!  Wuh, wuh, W!   

Em:   No, you have to think of a country.

C:   (Affectionately) I like Botswana.   

Em:   A country that starts with A.   Like Argentina.

C:   No Emily.   It has to be a country in Europe.   I know a letter that makes the "Yuh" sound.   Y!  Yuh, yuh, Ukraine!"

Em:   That's a good try Caroline, but Ukraine starts with U.   Yemen starts with Y.

C:   I don't like Yemen.   I like Hungary.   It starts with H.

Em:   We have to go in order!!!

As you can imagine, Em gave up on Caroline pretty soon after that.

Demotivators Are Here Again

I know it's been a while, so here's the latest offering of Demotivators.  Since it's been so long since I last posted, I'm putting up 12 on this one.  Bon apetite (note: Any commentary I have on the posters will be written after the poster it applies to)..

 I couldn't posting the previous shot of our neighbors to the North, good old Bob and Doug.

 Some things never change.

 My money's on the boxer to the right, although he may use some questionable techniques...like goring.

 Another reason to only drink milk and water besides the morning Orange Juice.

Grandpa's Memorial Service

Per Dad's (and I imagine other people's) request, I've uploaded the video of Grandpa's memorial service to Youtube.  The links are posted below.  Ben, I'm sure that some of the SCMA alumni you talked to would especially be interested in this.

Graveside Service:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqME6Z-a-UM

Church Service, part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybSm0S31CIo

Church Service, part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybSm0S31CIo

Great Grampa Shaha's Memorial

Mom and I just got home from our drive back to Kansas. What a wonderful week you all provided for us--those who were able to attend my Dad's memorial service and those of you who supported us all getting there. We so much wish you ALL could have been there. I hope these photos will provide a little of what we were able to see and do while together. David and Ben, with technical assistance from Jimmy, were able to record the services at the cemetery and the church house, and I've got a digital copy . . . just need to figure out how to load it on this site so you can access it if you want to--it's pretty long.

So we gathered Saturday morning, 20 July 2013, at the Salt Lake City Cemetery for a short memorial ceremony for Dad. Our crew arrived about the same time as the VFW team and began the setup and rehearsals--what would a military op be without rehearsals, right? As time got closer we had a lot of family and some friends gather. Here is Mom with her boys.

Here is Buffie and me with my old pal Al Conklin--he joined the church when he was a high school senior and I was a junior at Madison High in Vienna, VA; we were Young Men together when Dad was in the YM presidency.

 

 Here is Hannah, Lizzie, Alex and Kate in their finery.

 And Katie with Natalie and Jack.

The VFW gun salute detail,

and bugler for taps.

 We were so fortunate to have Dad's older brother Marvin and his wife Nina attend with us. They have been so good to Dad over the years and especially helping Great Gramma Shaha through some tough times in the recent years. It was great having their support and active participation in the ceremonies. If you look closely in the background you'll see my cousin Vicky and her husband Rick who also came to the ceremonies and festivities.

 And here's the VFW team leader giving Great Gramma Shaha a flag and a memorial ceremony picture after they played taps for Dad.

 And to cap it off, Buffie had arranged for a Scottish piper to come play a medley of Irish and Galic (sp?) tunes for Dad--he closed with the tune to "Goin' Home" as he walked away from the group. It was a great tribute to Dad as he always did like the bagpipes (gaita).

 The Pat Shaha clan members able to attend . . . thanks to all who made it possible for us all to be here! We went to Great Gramma's church for another ceremony and a great lunch by Stacy and her Relief Society friends, and a slide show and some of Dad's old music (and some jodies for old times sake)--we just wish all could have been there with us.

 Once back at Uncle Steve's we got back into the reunion mode. Here is a photo of something new Abbie threw at us--human battleship. We put sheets up on the badmitton net to shield the two teams from each other, each team lies down randomly on their side, and we take turns tossing a water balloon over the sheets--if someone gets hit they're out.

 Well, as usual, at the Shaha reunion things quickly sank into chaos and it just became a water balloon fight with somebody's sheets in the way. Over 150 water balloons don't last that long at our reunions, do they.

Some of us were able to visit with Great Gramma Williams and had a great time sharing memories and stories with Fae.

And while we were there a WHOLE lot of the Williams clan dropped by so we had a makeshift reunion right there in Gramma Fae's room--I think we could have been arrested for overpopulating the room as we had 20 people in there at one time. And Gramma Fae was OK with it--she's the best.

And Natalie and cousin Ava had a good time playing in Gramma Fae's bedroom while the boys and adults were out front--Ava can be dangerous as you can see.

Hope all are doing well and that this post works as my posting skills continue to be challenged . . . just logging on!

Love, Pat/Dad/Mister Gwampa/Cwazy Grampa/etc.

Klaus Wolfgang Shaha: 9lbs 6 oz. 22.4" long born 11:43pm 2 July 2013

Standard misspelling of last name. 4.220 kg = weight (he was actually 4.25 kg). Marinda didn't have an epidural. She was amazingly strong.

Name is actually being finalized...