Two Thousand Eleven in Review

Dear 2011, 


You've marked the craziest year of our lives. Here's to our top moments of 2011.


January


One class closer to an elementary teaching license for me.  Another hill skied for Justin.

February


Randi and I hosted the first bunco night.  We were too excited/busy that we didn't take a single photo, but here we are prepping for the big night.  Thanks to our new Our Best Bites purchase, we were set for a great Valentine's Day theme.

March


Cat skiing in British Columbia for the original Casperson crew, ski school for the new one.

April


Weekend getaway to the Grand

May


Couples trip to Park City

June


Celebrated our one year anniversary

July


Skied on the fourth of July.

We flew to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for my best friend's wedding.

August


Hall/Casperson reunion in the Sawtooths

September


LOTOJA.  206 miles, 3 states, 10,000 feet gained, 13 hours...check!

We flew to Lubbock, Texas to visit our best friends for my birthday weekend.

October


Ran the Ragnar Relay with friends in Vegas...Riley and Tyson pretty much sum up our feelings on the last leg of the race.

November


Casperson thanksgiving trip to Kauai.

We announced that baby Casperson would be joining us in May!

December


Dallin left on his mission to Salta, Argentina.

2012, you have some pretty big shoes to fill.

Baby Cakes

My 25th birthday was one that I will never forget because on that day we got a big {surprise} that a stork will be delivering us a {very} special present around May 26, 2012. 

That's right,  Grand baby #1 is baking in the oven!

We are all SO excited

nervous/shocked,

and thrilled

for our little baby cakes to join our family.  We are already so in love with that little peach!

Sweater Weather

It's official, the flip flops are now packed up and the boots are out.  Welcome to Logan, autumn.  We thoroughly appreciate your stay with us this year.  We're grateful for your gradual decline in weather so that the trees can show us their colorful glory.  Please stay a little longer.

This weekend we started getting in the mood and drove the apple orchard/pumpkin patch for some classic autumn activities.

Paradise, Utah--truly country paradise

Kate didn't care much about the pumpkins, she was too concentrated on getting as many grasshoppers as she could.

We went home and carved pumpkins, baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, drank hot chocolate, and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Thank you, Fall, for letting us enjoy your glory.

Excitement

I think I was once at this kind of excitement level--12 years old, first concert: N'Sync.  I seriously pray that our future children will become this excited about something because if they do, I will give them whatever they want {within reason} just to see this kind of excitement.  This little girl is SO cute!  

http://tv.yahoo.com/daytime/video/tiny-fans-huge-reaction-meeting-nicki-minaj/26768598/

New Eyes

A few weeks ago I was blessed {again} with the gift of sight.  I had never been more excited to see a doctor than I was this day.  My eyes have been blurry for about four years now...not sure why I waited so long.  When I walked out of the office there were all sorts of things that I could see like:

- Individual leaves on trees
- License plate numbers
- Street numbers
- Store signs {that were up the road}

It seems as though my world had been changed into HD in a matter of minutes.  Now if I could only get these contacts in under 30 minutes...

Quarter

On Thursday I celebrated my 25th birthday. That's right...a quarter of a century.  So i'm old.  I am coming to grips with it.

To ease my aging mind, Justin treated me with my favorite cake, Jere Cake.  This isn't just a cake in a box, it's quite the process--but well worth it!  He went to the store and bought round cake pans and all.  When I walked in from school there it was on a cake stand and looked fabulous!  Friends and neighbors came over to help us eat it.

On my actual birthday, I flew to Lubbock, Texas to spend the weekend with Randi and Tyson.  {Post to come}

My birthday was great and a day that I will never forget!  I so am excited to see what this next year has in store...  Thank you friends, family, and students for making my quarter turn not seem so bad.

So Long Red Hummer

Last week, we went to Utah Carzz hoping to test drive a truck and left owning one!  It was quite a quick process but we've been looking for some time now.  I'm pretty sure that I signed my life away and I'm not going to lie...I was little sad to leave that red Hummer...it was so easy to recognize him on the road.

But man, does he look mighty good in that truck!

I love that Idaho boy of mine.

Chicks

After many attempts, my fourth grade class successfully hatched three eggs!  To say my students the whole school was overjoyed is an understatement.

Last Thursday, during math class, Hershey was born.  All my math students got to see it come out of the egg and they loved it!  Shortly after Hershey was born we saw a pip in another egg, and that night came Snickerdoodle.  We were all very excited to see Snickerdoodle in the incubator the next morning.  I quickly pulled him out and within 15 minutes, Shadow made it's debut. 

Surprisingly enough, I managed to keep the chirping fluff balls as an incentive for good behavior.  It has been pretty successful so far.  On Friday they will go back to the farm, and Mrs. C will end her chore of cleaning the poop twice a day.  Yeah!  

Now that the new additions to the classroom have made their school debut, it's time for them to hit the web.  Enjoy!

She did it!

It's one of the worst feelings in the world when someone tells you that something is wrong.  This past summer one of my best friends received some terrible news.  As a friend, I didn't know how to help her, but she was strong and never complained.  Here's to a girl who I've always admired.  She did it!

Randi Dawn

After some seriously disappointing news...

8 months of treatment

Hundreds of miles traveling

 2 doctors

Many tubes of blood drawn

Plenty of tears

Countless prayers

...beat cancer... 

Good Deals

There is nothing better than checking out at the cash register to find that your item was on sale.  Am I wrong?  Well picture this...you walk into Hobby Lobby after a long days work and the sign on the door says 90% off all Christmas decor!  90% off...have you ever heard of such a thing?  I mean in my head i'm thinking, "I only pay 10%?  Totally do-able."

I LOVE a good deal!  Who honestly doesn't, right?  Good deals make shopping an even MORE enjoyable experience.  Never thought possible.  Perhaps that's why I was succored into so many shops in China?  Ok, ok so it's a fake...but doesn't mean you should pass up a perfectly good rain coat for only $10.

*Back to Hobby Lobby*

I was pretty modest going in...no storage space...the carts were the size of grocery baskets...when I was standing behind a girl who grabbed 3 carts full of Christmas and her total bill was $50...I had to go back!  Luckily Justin was on the same page as me and wasn't too upset when I came home ready to redress our house for Santa.

I saved $300 dollars that day.  The receipt is hanging proudly on our fridge.  Santa will be thrilled to visit the Caspersons next year!

Without the Fine Things in Life

You never know how much you have, until you don't have it anymore.  

This is glimpse of life without a working dryer.  The little things, like a working dryer, make life so much more comfortable.  Thank you, Grandma Hall, for your generous donation.  We will never take a working dryer for granted again.