Just some more summer fun--this is Spencer modeling the mosquito bite he got on his face--it looked like he got a tooth pulled or something for a couple of days, though his smile blends it in pretty well.





This is a less adorable memory: hard to tell through the window, but it's a MOUSE!! The timing was treacherous (as is any time w/ a mouse!), since I had JUST determined that the unidentifiable little brown dots on our sorely neglected counter (that's what I get for venturing into the kitchen after too many days in bed!) could NOT be mouse droppings--I searched high and low for a continuing trail, laid out 8 traps (well, Brian did that), and found no nesting signs behind the fridge, oven, pantry, cupboards, drawers, or anywhere else nearby. With relief, I cleaned up the traps after 3 days, and went downstairs in a quick burst of energy, only to find this rodent in our window well!!!--our own little terrarium--it was so horrid, and I still have no idea if the 2 incidents are at all related, but again, the timing was a bit unfair to someone in"delicate" state!














There are a lot of shots of Anne's latest hairdos--it's a rite of passage to me, to finally be able to comb the hair back into a ponytail or pigtails, and these actually stayed in for the day!



















This is not only the front view of her ponytail, but the tail end of Anne's "OH!" face





























Anne's pigtails, and holding a plunger--these are the moments I worry about neglect!



















Our glorious growing garden--by far, the best we've ever had!! (Brian's done EVERYthing, so he's nice to share w/ us :)--there's a corner of the slipnslide too















ponytail














Anne's pigtails





























Anne loves dressing herself--this was one shirt (Daddy's) that she could actually get on


































Another Sunday afternoon where I'm not even sure who had the camera(and it's a key, not dripping chocolate in Anne's mouth)

4th of July, 2009
While the children got used to the slip-n-slide, building endless forts in the basement, and eating more cereal than we’ve had the last 12 months put together, I was feeling so sad we wouldn’t be able to do much to celebrate the 4th of July—it’s one of my favorite holidays!! Miraculously though, I found some strength that morning, and reasoned, with some crumb donuts on the way, I’d be able to survive the parade—Sarah and Dean’s boys were marching w/ the high school, so they had their canopy and a great spot already laid out for us last-minuters—it was fun to see G&G Mildenhall there too, and I was so glad we didn’t miss it (poor Brian missed his one chance of missing the parade!). Admittedly, our Syracuse parade had much better candy, and about as much show, but it was still the 4th of July!! Then, still in miracle form, I had the energy to make baked beans and potato salad (which I’d been craving for a couple of weeks) to take to the park after a nap. We joined our friends the Price’s at the park for a picnic supper, and while they stayed for fireworks, we came home to baths and pajamas (our last late night was TOO much), and then joy of joys, found our Merritt neighbors out ready to do some home fireworks like we were, so we enjoyed some not so late fireworks there in the driveway—what a day—I was so glad for every bit of celebration when I thought there might be none!

August 7, 2009
Dear Family,
Before I have 6 months to catch up on, I think I’m finally feeling well enough to share some of our summer. I’ve tried to take pictures so that the kids will remember something besides Mom being in bed all day every day for 6 weeks! We are all so excited for the baby coming in Feb, and we will be that much MORE thrilled after all this “investing.” Everyone’s been ENORMOUS help, and the children don’t even complain about our slow schedule, but it has been a loooooong July!! I’ve lived off of Gatorade (which I normally can’t stand), grits, Ramen noodles, toast, and Sprite for a week at a time, and then dream at night of times when I could enjoy eating. Blessedly, I was able to prepare about 25 freezer meals and the children’s job charts as the sickness was setting in. My plan was to put the news in Brian’s Father’s Day card, but, Saturdy night, as I was getting steak ready to cook, and lamenting on not getting the mail out sooner, Brian said to me, “You do know, Father’s Day isn’t until next week, right?” By this point, I was already fighting off the woozies, and I had no intention of being brave alone for a whole extra week, so, exasperated, I sat down in the kitchen right then and told the whole family. We told our parents on Father’s Day, at least! Poor Spencer keeps saying, “Just 2 more weeks Mom!” or when I correct him, “Just one more month until the baby comes out Mom!” He’s finally learned to just ask, “How much longer??” Emily said the other day after I’d hung up w/ Scott, “Oh, don’t you just wish Rebekah were here to pull that baby out of you?” She’s lately fascinated to realize that’s where Aunt Rebekah’s been working all this time! My strength is now returning though, and I got a beautiful ultrasound of the baby a couple of weeks ago (relieved to see only one!), and we’re trying to pack a whole summer’s worth of activities into the last 3 weeks .

For starters though, we had Nick and Laurie up from Provo for a weekend (the kids keep longing to repeat!), which happened to be our “Syracuse Days”—(I LOVE finally living in a city w/ it’s own “Days”)—we had a Saturday morning parade—at the end of our street w/ TONS of candy, and an impromptu invitation from our hometeacher to go out on his boat at Willard Bay for a few hours. Nick and Laurie were great sports—having had no plans for that, and we had a blast riding the boat and trailing along on his little water rider, and a few even tried the slalom ski, and brought a picnic lunch to eat on the beach. Poor Brent got pretty seasick very fast (remember those canoe rides when he was 2, Dad?) and wanted nothing but to go back to shore a few minutes out, but he was a good sport waiting a while, and even got a chance to drive the boat for a few minutes (what an in tune hometeacher!). He was so generous to take us—he’s got plenty of his own kids and grandkids around too, but we really enjoyed it! I was crashed by that point, but the children had nonstop entertainment w/ their Uncle and (they just kept calling her Aunt, b/c what else do you say?) Laurie, who were AMAZING sports to watch movies, play endless games, and even make our Sunday dinner, while I convalesced. We did make it out to the park that night to watch the fireworks the city does that night—great show, except that it’s a park w/ a big pond, so we could barely see them through the mosquitoes (the first pic is of Laurie and the kids waiting for sundown at the park), and I had not stayed up until dark for a lot of days, so I was pretty spent! They came to church w/ us, where Laurie volunteered to help in nursery! (much to the dismay of everyone waiting to meet her!), and like I mentioned, oversaw the making of the whole meal--Nick even mashed potatoes w/ a pastry blender, burning his knuckles, since he couldn't find our masher! It was a fun weekend though—a lot more fun that we were used to having, thanks to all the outside input . Even Brent now says the boat was pretty fun . This also marked our year for living here!—we vaguely remembered there being a parade on the day we moved in!  And thus, ended our June! Love, The Duncan’s



















Anne got a bandana AND candy!!













Anne at parade


















Anne in her sunhat













Tired Anne, Maddie & Spencer on boat













Brian, Maddie, & Nick on water rider













Nick, Laurie, and Anne in our tailgated van













Nick, Em, and Laurie













Brent trying not to smile while he got to drive the boat













Nick, Em, and Laurie again













Char & Brian (I chose this time to tell our poor hometeacher I was expecting, and to take it easy!)














Bri, Maddie, Nick


















Anne on beach















Spencer, Emily, & Brent on beach

June 7, 2009
Dear Family,
If I haven’t written in a while, it’s probably because I’ve been staying outside trying to soak up the perfect weather, which has nearly been the whole month of May!! We ride bikes to school as often as possible (though I still sent in a letter to the school board contending the 1.5 mile walking rule right after a bad morning when Emily got lost and fell off of her bike on the way to school, and I was late w/ a pedal falling off of my bike, and couldn’t help her soon enough), keep up w/ the weeding, enjoy mowing the lawn (mostly), and generally just love being outdoors!! Last Sunday, we went and walked around our city's newest Jensen Park, where there is a big pond/ bird refuge, and beautiful walkway/biking trails, etc. To add to it though, there was a great lightning storm blowing in, so we had WIND, an otter, tons of birds, and a gorgeous afternoon! Spring and fall always seem so quick to flee, that I try to hold on as long as I can—even indoors, our windows stay open, and the breezes off of our Salt Lake nextdoor almost give you a seaside feel! It’s been SO nice, and best of all, we haven’t had to turn on the A/C yet!! (I think I know now, where Dad got his waiting until June 1st idea, but I sure don’t remember a May in GA being this cool!) We all even woke up freezing this morning, w/ our windows opened to a thorough rainstorm!!
The week before Memorial Day, Brent and Maddie had (and survived!) their first piano recital. Their teacher really loves what she does, so we’re glad---Maddie even had her piece memorized. The next morning, the new bowling alley in town was opening up, and they offered free bowing from 6:30-8:30 AM while they filmed for a local news show. The children, were of course, all game for an early rising, so off we went @ 7AM (Brian and Anne stayed home to sleep), and had a great bowling game in the cleanest bowling shoes we’ll probably ever wear (never yet used!). I only regret that we didn’t get our picture w/ "Big Buddha"—the local announcer that was there—but let’s face it, we were there for the free bowling, not for the limelight.
That Friday, we drove up to Idaho Falls for a great weekend relaxing w/ G&G Duncan. We had a nice visit w/ G& G Stewart, visited the grave of Brian’s mom, fed ducks by the Idaho Falls temple, and enjoyed all of the card playing and visiting. Brian and I even got to see Kimber (sister in-law) w/ her new Emergency Medical plane at the hangar—pretty cool!! The children had a blast playing in the beautiful weather and with cousins, and were ESPECIALLY amazed (Brent commented the most) at how "generous" G&G were!! "Mom, I told Grandpa we usually only get 2 bowls of cereal, but he said I’d need more energy for the trampoline, and that I could have 3 AND he gave me 3 gumballs/ candy/ etc., etc., etc. …you’d never let us do that Mom!" J Needless to say, we weren’t quite ready to come home!!
After a 4 day week, the boys all got to go on the Father and Sons Campout, where Spencer befriended Jon (one of Brian’s asst’s—he’s our age—Spencer is really funny w/ who he gets attached to, but he would NOT leave this guy alone—luckily he is very good w/ kids, and provided the pictures of Spencer and his rocket that he made). They came home happy and worn out! We girls ran around at the mall for a minute, splurged on a Subway dinner, and came home to eat it while we watched High School Musical 3. I can barely express what fond memories I have of Father and Sons Campouts!!
The children enjoyed their last 2 weeks of school, Brian repaired the pipe I mowed over, and has built frames for our vine plants to grow up. I’ve set up the budget, organized our file and desk drawers, finished going through all of the basement boxes, and made mashed cauliflower for the first time—YUMMM. Spencer’s been enjoying the Science Experiment book Gpa M left—we’ve "sprung" dandelion stems, tried scaring ants w/ our breath, and spinning water in a cup w/o spilling it. Anne is adding more and more sounds to her repertoire, can touch her nose (sometimes), and loves to clap (though at the piano recital, she preferred screaming, and being taken out). Everyone seemed to finish out the school year strong, though Emily was almost depressed from early that morning of the last day ("I had tears when I first got up this morning, Mom!") b/c it just wasn’t going to be the same not seeing Miss Hellewell every day! We got ice cream cones after school to celebrate, and they all watched Return to Witch Mountatin that night. They already have their assignments for next year, and Brent is glad to find there are about 4 children from our ward in his class! Spencer got a postcard in the mail about his teacher, and he has carried it around in his pocket ever since—HIS mail, HIS Kindergarten teacher: proof positive that he is getting huge. Yesterday after Institute, we had a ward activity to assemble 100 Hygiene kits—fun that the children could be involved. Brian and I picked up some netting for the garden frames. He was looking at some wooden trellises there at the nursery, not aware that some birds were nesting atop, when the mama flew out, and left some droppings RIGHT on Brian’s shoulder!! I, and all the employees could barely stifle our laughter all day, and Brian was a great sport, saying, "It’s a good thing I have more than one shirt!" We all drove up to Hill Airforce Base (right next to us) to see the Air Show, and got to see some pretty cool planes and neat flying. It was pretty warm, and SWARMING w/ people, and we had to leave just as the Thunderbirds were starting their grand finale, but we were glad to check it out, so we’ll know better for next year. Last night we finally took out the Stevenson’s to dinner to thank him for his help finishing our basement. WE went to The Prairie Schooner, which was quite a hoot—all set up to make you feel like you’re eating on the plains—each table was covered w/ a wagon cover, and we looked out at real fire pits, stuffed bear, cougar, and coon, and for birthdays, they sang, "Yippe I-Ay, it’s your birthday!" We had some good steak though, and yummy fried mushrooms, w/ bread pudding for dessert!! We left all 8 children behind w/ our dream babysitter, and I think we all had fun! Now to summer excitement---we really have relatively FEW plans, so I hope we all still enjoy each other by the end of August! Feel free to add to our excitement and put our spare bedroom to use by visiting!! Love, The Duncan’s
Spencer, aka "Rocket Man" @ Father-n-Son's He came right home, and tried to rig up his own launcher w/ a water bottle and some pvc pipe in our shed :)

Nothing like a little bowling before breakfast!

Brent & Maddie's first piano recital


Our freshly planted garden

Visiting Grandma Duncan's grave in Shelley


G&G Stewart (Anne even let Gpa hold her!!)

playing in G&G's backyard (we have an almost identical shot of Maddie on this slide :)

feeding ducks at park by Idaho Falls temple

G&G Duncan


Anne--smiling after insisting quite strongly that she be fed--no time for high chairs or plates, etc. When she gets demanding like that, I just put her on the counter, and sample a few different foods trying to find what will calm the screaming. Smile= we found it?! (don't notice the knife w/in reach right behind her!) I wonder if her strong will is what curled her hair?

End of School Year awards!! Great overall Student to Em, testing awards to Brent & Maddie, and 3rd highest AR score in 3rd grade for Brent