Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Grandpa & Grandma's Update!
Thanksgiving is over. There was much happening this year.
Brit and Jeremy got their new son.
John and Elizabeth had their new son.
Dan's mother died in California.
We went to Mesa for Thanksgiving.
Now its time to seriously think of Christmas. We have fewer decorations than usual, but we have a few. We will be in Draper for Christmas. We will have our regular buffet starting about 2 in the afternoon. We hope to see you there sometime during the day or even later in the week. You are always welcome. My message for you this month is from the Ensign. What all of us long for at Christmastime and always is too feel bound together in love with the sweet assurance that it can last forever. This is the promise of Eternal life.
Hope to see you soon. Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma etc.
Dan & Verna Family:
Thanks to my siblings and mom and dad for the beautiful clock and for the thoughts and prayers that have been said in our behalf at the death of Dan's mom. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and for the knowledge I have that we are a forever family.
Verna
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
November News
Dear family members,
We arrived back in St George today. The weather is great. It was also great in Draper. Our Thanksgiving will be different this year. We hope all of you have a good Thanksgiving. We are going to Gary and Bev's for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing their new house and visiting with them. We appreciate their invitation. We are seeing exciting things happening in your homes. We congratulate John and Elizabeth on their new son today. We wish them well. We met Brent an Melissa'a new little foster child. He is a Cutie. We look forward to seeing Jeremy and Britany's new little child when it arrives.We now have 30 great grand children. We are both doing fine and invite you to come and visit with us.Here is a closing thought. "We often assume that the people around us know how much we love them. We should never assume, but let them know we love them. we will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown.
Lots of love to all of you from Grandma and Grandpa
Ron & Maud Mary:
Our family is doing pretty good this month. Ron finally got a real job and has been working there for a week. He is back to playing on the computer for his job so he is happy. Brent and Melissa have a new foster child. His name is Travis and he is a very very active almost 1 year old. He has only part of his heart working so he is on constant oxygen. We have already grown attached to him. In Eric and Shannon’s house there has been a few things going on. Last week Niki cut their hair and a few days later Lizzy decided to try to cut her own hair. She is now the proud owner of a cute little bob haircut. Also Eric's car died so they are looking to get a new one (a used new one). We will miss seeing all of you this Thanksgiving and hope that everyone has a great holiday. )This year we all have to go by ourselves to the Friday morning sales...Good luck and happy hunting). Have a great Thanksgiving!
Brent, Melissa & Boys
Hi everyone! Things are well with us! We have a new addition, as I am sure most of you know by now. Travis came to us last month (on Jordan’s birthday in fact!) He will be one on Nov 18! He is a very active, curious and fun little guy and has blended well into our family! First term SEPs went well! We are proud of the boys. Jordan turned 7 and had a GREAT birthday. Braden is adjusting to being a big brother again and sharing mommy. Sometimes he struggles and sometimes he does great! He’s 2 what can we expect? Kolby is doing well! We are looking forward to spending the week of Thanksgiving in Park City with Melissa’s family. It will be nice to get away! We hope everyone has a GREAT Thanksgiving! If you want to read more on our family send me your email and I will invite you to our family blog! brownie109@comcast.net
Dan & Verna:
We had an awesome Halloween, lots of treats no tricks just fun, fun. It wasn't until a few days later on November 4 that the real fun began. Liz began to have labor pains at around 7. They came quickly and hard. At around 9 John, yes, my son the OBGYN, delivered a cute 10 lb 5 oz and 23 inch baby boy on the floor of their bathroom. They named him Zachary James Higbee. About five minutes after the delivery, the midwife arrived and finished up the work she, John and Liz had started. Friday night, Liz was up and around, looking chipper and feeling great. What a story to tell their grandchildren!
In other news, we have had our share of the sick and icky flu and colds. Faith and Kara both have had the strep. Tanya and Miguel have had colds.
Dan and Robert took a quick trip to California. Dan's mom broke her hip and had to have a hip replacement. Then she took a turn for the worse and Dan and Robert went to California over the weekend. She is doing better as of now, despite the fact she is still in the hospital and will need a blood transfusion. So, life is good.
Other news of interest, we go to court in January hopefully to terminate the parental rights of Miguel's bio mother and to open up the way for our adoption of him.
Thanksgiving plans include staying home and enjoying a turkey dinner.
Brandon & Suzanne:
Dear Family,
Brandt is now almost 7months old and has started to scoot his body to get places. Picture a snail and that might give you a good idea of how it looks. It works nicely with his rolling. Keaton has been enjoying Preschool and Joy-school. Suzanne loves that both schools are very close to home. Keaton and a classmate named Ada have become quite inseparable. For Halloween, Keaton went as Super Why. Suzanne and his Grandma Stemmons did a great job on the costume. Suzanne also enjoys taking the boys to discovery gateway on the off days. September, Brandon dusted off his coaching whistle and made the tiny-tots into a championship team. Keaton loved kicking the soccer ball around with his team and can't wait for the spring season. Brandon still works for Wells Fargo as an Analyst in their Life Insurance & Annuities group.Suzanne now holds the highly sought after calling of Visiting teaching supervisor. Brandon continues to be the ward employment specialist. Let him know if you know of anyone hiring. Just today, our ward became a part of a brand new Stake and we are excited for the change. We hope that everyone will have a great thanksgiving and say congrats to those with new babies.
Gary & Bev:
Exciting changes have been happening in our family! Britany and Jeremy have a new baby boy! See their blog for more info on that! We are all really happy for them and are looking forward to meeting him!
Riley, Tricia and kids vacationed in Arizona over Halloween, they ended up staying longer then planned, but the kids could not have been happier about it! There was a whole lot of swimming going on during the visit, it was a lot of fun!
Kellen, Camille and Liv are all surviving while Kellen is in school! Lots of hard hours are being put in so he can argue with the best of them!!!!
Now, we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Dwayne & Patty:
We spent October going to the U of Utah football games. We went to Las Vegas for a weekend to visit Todd, Jade and Ryder. They are in their new home and doing well. We went to watch the Utes play UNLV while we were there, and we also saw Gary and Bev there. Ryder is walking around like crazy, even trying to escape through the doggie door. Jacob was Darth Vader for Halloween much to his father's delight. He is consumed with all Star Wars stuff. We are all looking for the holidays because we will all be here together.
Hal & Diana:
All is well in Richfield. We just wanted to wish Dad a very happy Birthday. We love you Dad and appreciate all you do.Some of the members of our family were in a little accident yesterday Tonight, everyone is safe and sound and at home. Our family was really protected yesterday.Life is good. We love the Holidays. Hope the rest of you are all well.
Jeremy & Laura:
We really don't have much to share with everyone. We had a good Halloween in Richfield. Paul was very excited to go trick-or-treating. The kids looked really cute in their costumes. Pictures are on our blog. Our landlady painted our house. So, instead of a pale peach color, it can now be best described as Wendy's chocolate frosty. Other than that, we have raked leaves, done laundry, washed dishes and children, winterized our windows, and watched Bob the Builder about a hundred times. Katie has a new tooth on bottom bringing her total teeth count to 5.
We are excited for the upcoming holidays.
David Archuleta, we really like your Christmas album.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
October News
Grandpa & Grandma:
Hi Family, We just got back from St George where we saw the shows. We saw Annie and Adida. we had to wear coats. It wasn't as cold as the Nativity but it was cold for St George. We also had snow and rain for the first time this year.
Does anyone know if they are coming to St George for Thanksgiving? It is time to make plans. We will go along with your plans.
We hope everything is going well with all of you out there.
How about writing to the newsletter and letting us know how you are doing. I am impressed with The communications going on with My Space and blogs. This keeps us in touch.
I want you to know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Is Heavenly Fathers church on the earth today. It is by these ordinances we can be a "forever family" We don't want any empty seats when we get back to Heavenly Father.
We are interested in your lives and what is going on.
We love each of you and pray for you each day.
Grandma and Grandpa
Ron & Maud Mary family:
Hi everyone!
Summer is over and now we are settling into fall and winter. We had a greatsummer up at the Ranch. We got a lot accomplished and had fun too.Everyone is back to work and back to school. We've all been busy canning.We got all the peaches we wanted for free so we bottled 157 bottles ofpeaches, about 40 jars of jam, and we froze 9 extra large bags of peaches.They make great smoothies. We wish you all a very Spooky Halloween.
Brent, Melissa & Boys,
Things are going well in our home! Perci and Harley went home in August; we miss them, but are happy for their family! Kolby started 4th grade and Jordan started 1st grade in August. They are both LOVING school! Braden loves having mommy to himself during the day, but is also excited when the boys come home! We are enjoying the cooler weather and getting excited for upcoming holidays! Kolby is still enjoying scouts; he recently received his Bear badge and is now working towards more arrow points. Jordan is count downing the days until his birthday later this month, he is VERY excited, and he wanted to make sure I got him a size 7 Halloween costume as he will be 7 by Halloween, not 6! Braden turned 2 in August and keeps us on our toes! He thinks he is just as big as his brothers and tries daily to prove it! He is sure a fun little guy! As for Brent and I not much has changed! Work is going well for Brent and I am trying to get caught up after Perci and Harley and get prepared for the next little one(s) to come! Life is good!
Dan & Verna Family:
Hello,
Things in Ferron, Utah are going well. Kara started dance lessons, Faith is playing socceer, Tanya is just finishing up with Tennis, Courtney is working to pay for a car, Cammie is anxious to get her birth certificate so she can get her learners permit and Miguel has just learned to spell his name. Life can't get any better than that!! John and Liz are due to have a baby this month. She looks like she is going to pop, so we hope it doesn't go too much longer. Verna went to St George a couple of weeks ago to watch Tanya play tennis and let KaRanda visit her family in ST. George and then last week went to a baby shower for Liz. While I was there, I got to see my newest grandchild, Brandt, who is absolutely adorable. In fact, I just bought him a Christmas present. My other cute grandson was off on outing so I didn't get to see him, so I will just assume he is doing well. So, busy busy. Dan is doing really well in school. Robert and Jamie are doing school online and Tristan had a birthday Saturday; he turned 7. Will played football for the Ferron League. He is quite a remarkable player. Davey seems to pick up every illness that comes around, but he is doing so much better than before. Life is good.
Gary & Bev Family:
Gary and Bev had a good month of September but a great start to the month of October. On labor day we had friends come and visit from San Diego so we spent time in the pool and visited with friends. Later in the week we went to San Diego for a day to say goodby to our old friend Lulu. She is a friend of ours that works for the same company as Gary. With her mother in her 90's they spend many holidays with us when we lived in California. Lulu had decided to return to the Philipines to spend her retirement years with her family. The rest of the month we spent planning for our vacation to the north eastern US. Saturday the 3rd we flew to Cleveland and traveled to the Kirtland area. We had the experience of listening to the first session of conference sunday morning in the Kirtland stake center. Then for two hours we toured with two sister missionaries the Historic Kirtland area that the church has restored. This day and for the whole week the crowds were not so we had private tours with the missionary workers. After the tour we heard the sunday second session at the Visitors center. What a wonderful day. On monday we went to Palmyra and for the next two days had a wonderful and spiritual feast at the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Palmyra Temple and all the historic sites of the area. Next it was off to the Peter Whitmore farm and again a one on one tour with the current missionaries then to Sharon Vermont the birthplace of the prophet. For most the trip and especially on our way to Boston the trees were turning and the area was in full color. We got lost and spend many extra hours in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Totally worth being lost and seeing the old towns and landscapes. Finally we are in Boston and toured the American History sites along the Freedom Trail with more fresh fish than was healthy. So what a month and we recommend it to anyone.
Jeremy & Britany Family:
We have an announcement! No, we are not pregnant, but are expecting another child in our family. Kenyon's birthmom is pregnant and has contacted us to adopt her baby due the first of December. I know what you are all thinking - will it work out this time or turn into the legal battle of last time? We are moving forward with faith knowing that she has the right to choose, but are very hopeful that we will have this sweet baby boy/girl in our home very soon. She is getting an ultrasound soon and we will know the gender. Until then, we still have baby Jasmine (our foster baby) in our home and it looks like she will stay for a while. She is a sweet baby and the kids adore her to pieces. Maya is loving preschool and soccer. Kenyon had a successful eye surgery to correct his drifting eyes. We are all loving the cooler weather - only in the 80s! Come visit!
Happy October!
Dwayne & Patty Family:
Not much is going on for our family this month. Just the same routine work, school and so forth. Todd and Jade have been getting settled in their new home. Heather is busy with school and work, and also coming home to visit a couple times. Steph started a new job this week. Ben and Alissa are doing well. We are looking forward to the Christmas holidays when hopefully all our kids and grandkids will be here!
Hal & Diana Family:
Not much to say. Hal was released from the Bishopric, Fall has come to Richfield, School is busy and crazy, My family seems to be doing great. No one is pregnant, not one died, no one is getting married and no one has the swine flu. What else can I say?
Jeremy & Laura Family:
We have been sick. The whole family had sniffles, and clogged noses, and yuckie coughes. We missed the opportunity to go to Saint George and watch the play Aida. We heard the rest of the family had a good time. I am continuing in school. Between figuring out Validity Coefficients and why most theorists were frustrated with Freud, I have been busy. Only a year left, yeah. I need to get an internship site next summer and we are good to go.
Laura has been picking apples and on monday will be making apple sauce.
The kids are growing well. We are planning on visiting the pumpkin patch soon and Paul is so excited.
We had a great conference weekend. It rained. It was perfect to stay inside and drink hot chocolate.
We had the oil changed in our car.
We turned on our heater for the first time.
Laura continues to go to the Gym, losing six pounds since the beginning of August. She has started a great new fad called eat better and exercise more.
We have put up our Halloween decorations. Laura sewed them this year. Paul is going to be a scary pumpkin and Kathryn is going to be a pumpkin, but not a nerdy kind of pumpkin. You can check it out on our blog after Halloween.
Life is a good. Have a nice month.