March Madness!!

Grandpa & Grandma:

Ron & Maud Mary:

Eric & Shannon Family:

Eric got promoted to a supervisor at work. We are really excited about that. He has also been sick and finally went to the doctor and was told he had sinusitis. I'm looking forward to him recovering finally! Everyone else is doing well! We had family come visit from Nebraska (to mourn my 30th birthday with me) and had lots of fun with them.


Dan & Verna:

Hello,
Our family is doing great! Tanya just turned 17 and is getting ready to go to the Jr. Prom. Courtney has tried out for the Emery High School Softball team, Faith and Kara are doing well in Karate. KaRanda has started playing the saxaphone and little Kaden is still a cutie. He gets to go home on the weekends now and we miss him but he is doing well. Cammie is due to come home on Friday, Mar 6. We are all excited for her to come home. Dan is struggling in school. Calculas is not his cup of tea, but he is surviving. Meantime, I am doing fine.

Brandon & Suzanne Family:

Hello Family,
Suzanne continues to trudge along in our final trimester and we are very anxious to see what our baby will be like. Keaton is excited to play peek-a-boo. We are hoping for sleep. Keaton enjoyed receiving and giving valentine's to his friends. We had a healthy December and Keaton and I were sick for January. Keaton had an ear infection and pneumonia, his fever was a high of 106. In February, we attended the Draper Temple open house with our non-member neighbors. Keaton did very well waiting, watching, riding and walking through the Temple. His friends wanted him to play with them but he did not want anything to do with them during the 2 hours. It was a nice time to answer questions from our friends and set their minds more at ease about Mormons. We still serve in the Nursery with an average of about 20 attending each Sunday. Keaton loves Sunbeams and his teachers speak highly of him. Today Keaton was asked, "What calling would you like to have when you are older?". Keaton answered, "I want to make copies in the library?" Each Sunday, Brandon makes copies for the Nursery kids to color on and Keaton helps.
Hope everyone is doing well.

Gary & Bev:

Riley & Tricia Family:

We have been crazy around our house the past few weeks. There has been a lot of sickness going through the family. Keegan was so sick with a stomach virus for almost a week that we had to take him to Primary Childrens Hospital to have IV Therapy because he was so dehydrated. He was tired of throwing up and he had started to refuse to drink anything. I held out hope of a recovery for as long as I could, but it wasn't coming and he was just getting worse. He is much better now, you would never even know he had been so sick. And everyone else in the family has seemed to have a little of this and a little of that, but we are hoping we are on the up and up!
Chelsey is turning 8 years old on Sunday. I can't believe she is that old, or I guess I am that old that I have an 8 year old! She is so excited to be baptised. She has been counting down the days. She will be baptised Easter Weekend, kind of a neat time of year to become a member of the Church! Anyone who wants to come is welcome! Let me know!
School is almost over, and while I am excited about that, I am also wondering what I am going to do to keep everyone busy this summer!


Jeremy & Britany Family:

Where did February go?! Actually, where did January go as well?! We are super busy with holidays during these first months. We have Christmas, New Years, Jer's birthday, our anniversary and Maya's birthday. Fun times, but rough on the bank account! This year we celebrated our anniversary apart because Jeremy has been working down in Yuma for the month. He comes home on the weekends so we cherish that time with him. At times it has been rough on the kids (and me!), but overall, we are surviving and just stay busy while he is gone.

For Maya's birthday we had a little get together with some family and friends. I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She is getting way too mature and blows us away with her humor everyday. Her preschool teacher loves her to pieces and is constantly telling me funny things she says.
Kenyon is still the little terror. That kid loves to tackle and wrestle. I think he needs a brother to fight with, but Jeremy insists we are "done." So we have settled on doing foster care instead. I hope an adoption comes from it, while he hopes we end up with only 2 kids for eternity.
The update on foster care is that we have all of our preliminary paperwork filled out and are just waiting to start the 10 weeks of classes. We were supposed to start several weeks ago, but with all of the budget cuts, they can't start a class unless it is completely full and they don't have enough people yet. It is all very frustrating at this point. Jer says it is a sign that we should not do it so then I told him we should just adopt a newborn instead. He decided we would wait on foster care :).

That is all (and probably more than you wanted to hear!). Hope everyone is doing well. Looking forward to seeing you all this summer!


Dwayne & Patty:

Dwayne and I went to San Francisco for Jacob's 3rd birthday. We had a great time visiting and being able to celebrate his big day with him. Jacob discovered that Grandpa Dwayne gives great horsey rides. Just wish the weather would have been a little nicer. Dwayne is staying busy with work and his church calling. I can't believe that the school year is almost over. I love my job and wish that it was year round. Anyways, I am looking forward to summer and finishing projects around the house. All the kids are doing well in their lives. I am excited though with the news that IN and OUT will finally be coming to Northern Utah. Myself and many others will be counting down till the opening of the Draper IN and OUT!!!! Also don't forget the Family reunion July 18. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.


Hal & Diana:

Well, it's the last day and almost the last hour to send something to this newsletter. For those who are wondering about Hal, he went to the Doctor today and his eye is looking great.For those who don't know what I am talking about, he had an attached retina, but because of surgery seems to be on the mend. He stills see's double sometimes but that is suppose to clear up soon. He will continue to see a Doctor every week for a while just in case.We feel very blessed that his sight is returning. We had a great time on Sunday getting together to see Parker blessed. Thank you to all of our son's and daughter-in-laws for supporting us. It was crazy but really a lot of fun.Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us use your house.We are excited for spring and finally some warmer weather.Mom, hope you had a great birthday on Monday, we love you and appreciate all you do.

Jeremy & Laura Family:

We blessed the baby on Feb. 1st. We nearly had all the Jensen family there. We were all glad to get together one month later this past weekend for Jared and Brit blessing their baby. Family news: Paul is going to preschool once a week for an hour. He loves it. He is talking up a storm these days. Katie is sleeping through the night. Like 10 pm to 6 am. Not bad for a two month old, huh? :) We figure it's just good parenting...or just good luck! Jeremy got a scholarship to pay for his grad program. We bought a GMC Jimmy to replace the old hand me down that has been in the family for years. We are all well.


Josh & Jessica Family:

We have had a pretty quite month. Josh is getting excited to start riding his motorcycle to work. I is not that excited to see him ride it because I doesn't want to see him in the ER! This past weekend I went to Moab and played in a volleyball tournament with my friends and sisters. Josh took the kids to Richfield and he and his dad went fishing. Josh did pretty good and Hal didn't have much luck. Sunday we went to SLC for Parkers baby blessing. It was great to have everyone all together. It reminded me of how much work baby's are but also what a blessing. I am going to run in a 50 mile relay this weekend! I'm not in the greatest shape for it but am really excited. McKendry is doing great and still loving school. Today she brought home some seeds they planted in a cup and had to put it in the freezer for some reason and then told me that if her plant didn't grow that it would be my fault?? Connor is talking up a storm and pouting one up as well if he doesn't get his way. We are doing great and are getting excited for the warmer weather so we can get started working on our yard.

February Fun!

Grandpa & Grandma:
Family:
There were a few noteworthy events in our lives during January. Both of us had teeth work done to the tune of over $1500. Mine is probably done for now but Donna may require more. She'll go see our long-time dentist, David Christensen when we return to Draper in March. (This trip back will be short-- not for the summer.)

Another special event was a short visit to St George by Arlo (Donna's brother). He came to visit for a few days--read 4. He wanted to visit last December but didn't until January. We kept him on the run for two days and I'm sure he was happy to return home for rest.

Last Sunday was our Stake Conference. We didn't have any visits from General Authorities and the proceedings were fairly standard.

The previous Sunday I volunteered to close up the ward building each night at 10:00 pm starting the first of February for the whole month. I suppose you could say I'm the "night-marshal" of the Morningside 2nd Ward building. I use the term "night-marshal" on purpose because of my dad. Did you know that my dad was the "night-marshal" of Bude for a short time when he lived there? You might say he was the Matt Dillon or Chester of Franklin County. Also did you know that his cronies called him "Dough". I don't know why the nickname "Dough" because he didn't have a pot belly. He was a smoker at the time which killed his appetite so he was thin. Thought you might like to know these little gems of history. Back to the closing of our building at 10:00-- Last night the "Young Men" and their leaders were still in the building at closing time and wanted to continue their basketball game till 11:00. They were from another ward in the Stake and attended a different building. Did I kick them out of our building at 10:00 so I could lockup?What would you have done?

Love to all especially at this Valentine Season.
Mom & Dad


Ron & Maud Mary family:
Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!
We are all wishing for spring and summer about right now. We have had enough of the cold. Only 1 1/2 more months until spring.
Otherwise everything is going great.
Not much change for any of us.
We are all still alive and kicking.

Brent, Melissa and kids,

Not too much new going on here! It seems we are settling into chaos which has become normal for us! Kolby is enjoying scouts and anxious to go in to the Bears. Jordan is loving school and reading! He wants to read everything he can get his hands on! They both just started Swimming lessons and are SO EXCITED! Perci will go in later this week and get tubes in her ears. She is doing pretty good, she’s a little mommy to all the kids, even her big brothers which they don’t always appreciate! Braden is almost 18 months and will be going into nursery! He climbs on EVERYTHING and thinks he is just as big as the big kids and he can do whatever they do. He seems to have a sense for when the front door is cracked open because it takes him about two seconds to get out the door (no matter how he is dressed!) Harley is REALLY close to crawling, he scoots really well and is starting to push himself up to sitting on his own. He’s such a happy fun little guy! Brent is still working like crazy! We feel very fortunate that things are going well with his job, scary times right now! We are blessed! We were just released from Cub Scouts, I miss it already, bit it is nice not having the stress of it! Life is good!

Eric & Shannon family:
The Eric Wilkinson family is doing well. Eric has enjoyed being a "horse" (according to Dal-lin) -- he pulled the kids on a sled while we went snow shoeing. Emma is learning how to read and Dallin wants to learn all the ABC's now,too. Liz is a little monkey -- she climbs everything she can. She is also memorizing all the fun rhymes and songs like 5 little monkeys, loves stories, and to play. We have borrowed the neighbors male sheep to mate with our females -- hopefully the kids don't notice any of the action. . . Meanwhile I am in the final trimester and look forward to being done and having a new little girl to add to the crew!


Dan & Verna family:



Gary & Bev family:

January has been a good month. Bev celebrated another birthday. We won't talk about how old, but it was a great day. We have bought a new house. I know everyone has had to start a new page in your address books for all our addresses, but this change will be easy. The phone number will be the same 480-832-1391, address is 3603 N. Boulder Canyon Mesa AZ 85207. We will be moving in on the 7th of Feb. We are excited to move again. We didn't come to Utah for the Super Bowl this year. So we had our own party. With Kellen, Camille, & Livy, Britany, Jeremy, Maya, & Kenyon. Maya turned 4 years old on Feb 3. My how fast time has gone. It is so great to have 7 wonderful grandkids. Our new house is a little bigger to accommodate all of us.


Dwayne & Patty family:

Nothing exciting since the last newsletter. Jacob ( Ben and Alissa's son) will celebrate his 3rd birthday on the 20th.I can't believe that he is 3. He loves to talk to Grandma Patty and Grandpa Dwayne. Everyone else is doing fine.

**The date for the family reunion has been changed. The new date is July 18 from 5:30 to 9:00 pm. It will be at the same place SunRidge Park in Layton.
We will be sending out sign ups later.


Hal & Diana family:

Josh & Jessica Family:

We had a pretty good January. Connor is growing like a weed and talking so much more and getting into so much more. Kendry is still loving preschool and her favorite thing to do is call Josh on his cell phone because we taught her the number. Josh just got called to be the first counselor in the Elders quorum. He also got a turkey tag so he is getting excited for that hunt. Young Women's is going good and we are just busy with activites and getting ready for New Beginnings on Feb 22. We had the chance to go to Katie's baby blessing this past week. She is so adorable. It was great to see Parker as well. I love that we have two babies in the family cause when we get together there is enough baby to go around! Well we hope everyone's Feb. is a good one!

It's a New Year!

First, let me appologize for being so behind on getting this out. It is almost time to do next months and this months is just being done, again, I'm sorry! But here are the updates!

Grandpa & Grandma:

Dear family members, Another year has gone. I am having trouble realizing 2008 is over. The snow messed up out Christmas. The good thing is that everybody is safe and sound. We enjoyed having those family members who came to see us along with those we saw later. just before we left St George, we had a snow storm that closed the schools in St George. Our road was clear. We probably had three inches. It was a good day to shop. This was a Christmas the Jensens won't forget. We added two more little ones to our family. Parker made his appearance on Monday of Christmas week to Jared and Brittany. Jeremy and Laura added Katie to there family. We are thrilled that everything is fine. We now have 9 Great Granddaughters and 18 Great grandsons. We will leave on Jan 5 for St George. We are proud of our family.IN Draper, the big news is that our DRAPER temple will open for "open house " in two weeks. March 22 it will be ready for work. It is small. there will not be a cafeteria nor clothing rental. We are anxious to see it. Happy New Year to everyone. We pray that Everyone will continue to have their job and not suffer from the Economic crisis the country . We enjoy your blogs , continue the good work. John and Elizabeth have added their blog. their blog is "worldofhigbee.blogspot.com. I have rattled around on this newsletter. I will do better next time.

Love

Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Dad

Ron & Maud Mary Family:

Dan & Verna Family:

We had a great holiday. We stayed home for Christmas. It was nice. Dan's mom came to spend Christmas with us. Then we took her to St. George the following Monday to meet her daughter. While in St. George loving the nice weather, our fd KaRanda, visited with her relatives. We also had visits during the week with our friends from Norway, Tamsin, her husband and her parents. Also Suzanne's parents stopped in and visited. It was so fun! It was a good holiday, marred only by Anthony leaving us and going to Minnesota with his grandparents. We missed him terribly. Kaden was with his family as well, so we didn't have any little ones around, but we survived. Cammie, a sister of Courtney and Faith, also joined us. John, Liz and Sara also came to visit. It was a good time. Now we are back in school and can't wait for summer vacation.

John & Liz Family:

John, Liz and Sara
We have had a very busy and fun holiday season. It's always so exciting to have that time of the year come around, but it's also nice to see the chaotic time of the year over as well. In November, we finally jumped on the bandwagon and made a family blog. So instead of getting my long winded version of what we did that month in the family newsletter, you can get the long winded version of what is going on with our family more frequently. With that said, the URL to our family blog is http://www.worldofhigbee.blogspot.com/. For now, it is a public blog so everyone may see it without any special permission. Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Holidays as well!

Gary & Bev Family:

There has been much family together time this Holiday Season! Every one had a great Christmas and we were all together for the ringing in of the New Year! There are many fun and exciting things that we have coming up this year. You can check out all the kids blogs for more info!

Dwayne & Patty Family:

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Stephanie and Heather were able to come and spend the holiday with us. Of course you can't have Christmas without snow and snow it did. We went and had Christmas eve breakfast with my brother's family and then went and saw a couple movies. Todd and Ben stayed home with their families for Christmas this year. Ben and Alissa are doing well and busy with work. Jacob loves to talk on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa. Todd had a nice break from school and is getting ready for his last semister. Jade has recovered from having Ryder, and Ryder is growing like a weed, he now weighs 10 pounds. Todd and Jade blessed Ryder January 18, and we had a great time with them and Jade's family. Stephanie is now in her own place and has started taking classes at Dixie. Heather enjoyed her break from school and did well her first semister of school.

We would like to let everyone know that the Wilkinson family reunion will be held July 11, 2009 from 5:00pm to 9:00pm at the Sunridge Park in Layton.We will have more information as it gets closer to the date along with sign-ups. Hope to see you all there!!!

Ben & Alissa Family:

This was the first Christmas Jacob really understood what it means..PRESENTS!! We had a good time opening gifts and singing songs. Jacob is looking forward to Grandma Patty and Grandpa Dwayne coming soon. Hope everyone has a great 2009!

Hal & Diana Family:

Happy New year from Hal and Diana

We had a great Christmas. As many of you know we added two more babies to our family. Parker was born on Monday Dec 22 to Jared and Brittany, this is their first, Katie was born the day after Christmas to Jeremy and Laura. You can check out some of our boys blogs to see pictures. Both babies are doing great and of course are beautiful and cute and all the stuff that proud grandparents say. (But it's true they are truly beautiful)Babies help you to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Because this is the best time of the year for Ice fishing, we still get to see family members on weekends, so we are happy.We also having a lot of fun at the Wii. We also were lucky enough to get the Wii fit, which I faithfully train on every night.So, those in the family who will be attending Thanksgiving in St.George, beware, we will be ready for you this year.Everyone else in our family is doing great, so far, everyone has a job and is healthy. Our School District is telling us that there will be some major set backs next year but at this time, I think I will still have a job but who knows for sure, I might have 25 preschool children with disabilities and no assistance. (Could happen)Hal thinks his job is still pretty secure also so we feel thankful for that.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Jeremy & Laura Family:

We had a baby girl on December 26th.
Kathryn Claire Jensen
7 lbs 13 oz, 18.5 inches long
We are all doing well, though sleep deprived.

Kelly & Stephanee:

It is still pretty much the same old thing going on here. Kelly is still working at Learnkey and Stephanee is working at a physical therapy place. We are trying to find a house right now. We have put in an offer on one and are considering putting an offer on another one. We are planning a trip to Cali for our 1 year anniversary coming up in April....so excited for that one!! People say that the first year of marriage is the most difficult, we have had our ups and downs, but i would have to say that it has been the best year that i have had so far in my life. I couldn't have picked anyone better to spend eternity with. Other than everything else mentioned above, we are just living life.....finding a home to call our own, start a family, and get a puppy.