June Birthday Party

It was time for another birthday gathering at Mom and Dad's home. This time it was for the June birthdays. Mom's variety of bright and cheerful table decor is always fun to see when we first arrive. Maggie's always something fun to see as well.


Rebecca surprised us by arriving with a new, cute hair cut.



Mom's delicious roast beef dinner is always a treat and Glen does such a great job carving the meat. But, I think the little kids would agree that blowing out the candles and eating the desserts might be a bigger treat than the meat.


Happy birthday candles for Brooke who turned 3 and Caroline who is now 1.



And look who's turning 40!!! Mark watch out--you're soon to follow...


Glen and Rebecca ate chocolate ice cream pie in honor of Elder Benjamin Thomas because that's his favorite dessert. It looks like Wes prefers vanilla ice cream.



Dad loved the caramel apple pie so much he ate it straight from the pie pan.


Brooke loved to climb up on the big rock in the front entryway and then call for help to get down. Soon her cousins Wes, Maggie and Rachel joined her on the rock for a Kodak moment.



Nani brought some of the costumes she and Jan have been busy making for the upcoming regional dance spectacular. Rachel, Austin and Maggie were good sports modeling the colorful costumes.



Because it was Father's Day, we had the men line up for a picture out by Dad's new flag. Of course, we had to line up all the girls as well.



Too bad Rebecca and Caroline didn't make it in the group picture.


Thanks, Mom and Dad, for all the work you do every month so we can have these birthday celebration dinners!!!

A New Baby In a New Home

Sarah thought it would be so great to have the baby right after they moved into their new apartment so she could sit on the couch, holding the baby and resting, while she told me where to put everything and I could do all the work. That was funny stuff!


Well--it happened almost just like that when Sarah delivered Eli the day after they moved. I definitely did my share of cooking and cleaning to help out the recovering new mother.



Sarah got a little more involved in the setting up of the house than just sitting around all day long.


And we always had a project (or two or three or more) for Jeff each day when he returned home from school. Aside from putting lots of stuff away, fixing the vacuum, hanging pictures, putting up curtains, etc., I think my favorite thing that he did was recruit his brother to help him get their new washer and dryer installed and ready for use.


I wish I had taken pictures of the place when we first arrived, to have the before and then after photos, but I didn't. So, what we have now is the finished product of all our hard work of getting Jeff and Sarah's new apartment turned into a beautiful home for their family to enjoy.










The Excell home is now in order.



And it is definitely more complete with the addition of baby Eli.

The Universal Question Asked of All New Parents

Baby Eli Excell Born

Sarah had her baby. I needed to be taken down to Cedar City to get dropped off for the week. Rebecca and her cute traveling companion decided to go along for the ride.



Here's my cute traveling companion... Yes, he's back to wearing the reflective bug-eye shades because he broke his newer, more stylish sunglasses.


As we were driving, I kept watching the temperature go up and up and up. It was very hot when we arrived at our destination. But, by the end of the week, the temperature made a turn-around and on the day I left, it was very cool. Glen had played in a work golf tournament in Payson before coming back at the end of the week to pick me up and he wished he hadn't worn shorts because it was so chilly that day.


We planned to arrive at Jeff and Sarah's when they were coming home from the hospital. Eli was born 6 days early on June 4th and weighed 7 lbs. 14 ozs. He was on oxygen for a while in the hospital and had an I.V. and then needed to be put under lights for jaundice. When he was released from the hospital, he still needed light treatment, so he slept on a bilibed for a few days at home.



Despite the instructions to keep him on the light bed as much as possible, this new grandma was happy to get to hold him for a few minutes after a feeding so we could do some bonding.


Eli Excell, 3-days-old, at the doctor's office checking his bilirubin count. Not in the right range. Back on the bilibed for another couple of days.



Eli Excell, 5-days-old, back at the doctor's office to check his height, weight, head size and blood count. Good news this time. No more bilibed! That meant he could wear cute clothes instead of just a diaper and we could hold him as much as we wanted.









I think I enjoyed watching Eli have a bath more than Eli enjoyed having his bath.




There probably are no happier people on earth than Eli's proud papa (who said he's going to have to learn to do everything one-handed now that he's a father)... and Eli's adoring mother.



What a lucky baby to be born to such loving parents.