Emry Blessing

Just as a reminder to those who are in the general area, we will bless Emry next Sunday, May 6, at 11:00 am. Our ward building is close to where we live in Lehi, but you may want to arrive a little early, as word on the streets is that there are several (around 5 or 6) babies being blessed that day.

Overall, Emry is still growing rapidly, which is a shock to me because she seems to spit up most everything she eats (Joi disagrees), but the biggest addition to her repertoire is that she smiles all the time. She also loves her nightly bath time but does NOT like getting out of the tub. Luckily she falls asleep pretty quick most nights, and has set a new sleep record of 9 hours 15 minutes!

Joi and I are doing well. Joi has started cutting hair from our home which has been a help and she enjoys doing keeping up on it. I am still working for The Man at Zions and trying to stay out of trouble. Most of our spare time is spent with Emry or doing church work, so life is pretty good. Love you all!

(Not-So) Monthly Update

January 2007
Eliza has continued her NancyDrewFest into the New Year. Not only did she keep whipping through the books (at least a dozen so far), but also began to put clues together in her four computer games. She got very excited when she made a breakthrough and pretty frustrated when she hit a dead end (until discovering hint sites on the web). Sometimes the whole household gets interested and gathers around the computer screen to offer hints of their own. We went to "Great to Be Eight" night with Abby and the twenty other kids in the ward who are turning eight this year. Dad finished reading Detectives in Togas to the kids, who enjoyed it very much. After one chapter, Abby asked, "Why does he always end it so you want to keep reading?" Sam and Dad had a fun time bowling at Josh’s birthday party, and no one dropped a heavy ball on his little feet. Eliza and Abby went with Mom and Dad to see Oklahoma! at BYU. We had a good time–everyone stayed awake. To cap off the month we celebrated Grace’s first birthday. We couldn’t quite get her to say her name or "one" in honor of the event, but she would kind of wave her hand around when we asked how old she was. She didn’t put her cake on her head, but a lot of it wound up all over her one-year-old face.

February 2007
Almost everyone started out sick this month, and Abby tested the upper limits of our new forehead thermometer (107 once, though we were probably still trying to figure out how to use it right). The illness probably restrained our Valentine-pocket stuffing some, but we still had fun. Sarah turned six and had a "Queen of Hearts" party with her friends during which they played all kinds of queenly games and ate strawberry cake. On her actual birthday the family took her to Mimi’s Café (the bathrooms were the biggest hit for some reason). Eliza was especially happy because she got shrimp, though she also found out that when you order shrimp you get, well, shrimpy amounts. After we stopped at Toy-R-Us to watch Sarah’s eyes get wide when we picked up her new bike. Only when we got home did we realize it was bigger than Abby’s. Mom and Dad got to meet Emry at AF Hospital before she had to spend a few days at Primary Childrens. We're glad she is doing well at home now (parents may be another story). "Slamwich" and "K-9 Capers" were big card games this month. Sam entered the "skeleton, robot, and hunchback" phase in his art career.

Being a Newborn is Tough Work

A few more pictures of Emry. She's got the jaundice, so these are pictures of the difficult life she now leads as a little sun baby...

Emry Nicole Carpenter

Here's a picture of the little nugget. 6 lbs 3 ounces 18 inches

Delivery = arm

Hospital stay = leg

The fact that she looks like her mom = priceless

The above is Flippy's original email, just in case some of you haven't seen the beautiful baby! Just talked to Mom and she said that Emry is still up at Primary Children's because the doctors want to be absolutely sure she is ok. Mom says that hopefully tomorrow she will get to come home. Keep up those prayers!

Mom and Dad News from Feb 2nd

Well, I have arrived! Since I was recently invited by Orrin Hatch to be a member of the Senior's Advisory Committeethat must make me a . . . Senior ~ so watch out! In actuality, this means I went to a meeting where approximatelytwenty five of us met and conversed with the Senator by television conference then exchanged ideas for key notespeakers and workshops for an upcoming 'Conference for Seniors' to be held in April. I felt a little like the 'new kidon the block' but did offer some comments and suggestions.Your Dad had a great experience yesterday. So here in his own words: " The rehabilitated Zions Bank Building was dedicated yesterday. The senior management of the Bank hosted a lunch in connection with the dedication. It was held on the top floor (18th) of the building. It was like being closeup in general conference. President Hinckley was there and offered the dedicatory prayer. Elders Packer, Ballard, and Uchdorf were there, and I had the opportunity to visit with them briefly, plus the entire Presiding Bishopric came. I hosted one of the tables and the Treasurer of the Church sat with me. To me, the feeling was strong that the Brethren are the Lord's anointed whether in a religious environment or not, and it was a great and uplifting experience!! Governor Huntsman came and made some very good remarks. For example, he said that anyone could be the Governor, but only one person could be Scott Anderson ( the President of the Bank). Lavell Edwards, who has been a spokesman for the Bank in advertisements, was also there. Everything went off very well, but it took a real push to get all the remodeling done on time for the dedication. (Just a day before, they were feverishly working to get the interiors of the elevators done!) The building is now very beautiful, and I 'm in a large corner office overlooking the food court of the ZCMI Mall. When In my office I look at a large original painting of the front side of Mt. Timpanogos covered with snow, but with cherry blossoms on trees in the valley."When the downtown redo is complete Dad's office will overlook the garden creek. I am somewhat fearful that will give him an excuse to hang around the bank a few years longer just to see how it all turns out. Thanks to a bank colleague we had a unique opportunity last week to hear the Assistant Concert Master of the Utah Symphony, David Park play selections alternating between Stradivarius and Guarneri violins ~ it was a delightful evening.We heard Swan Lake last night which was wonderful too though your Dad snoozed thru Prokofiev and some of Mozart. I was entranced with the tambourine techniques myself.Chicago connections continue to occur at the Care Source Hospice: Paul Haglund (father), Chris Haynes (mother) was in NSI in the early 70s. ,Michael Varley (whose father,Ray from our ward is a resident) is in the Bishopric of the same ward as Russ Raddon and Bob & Dorene Taylor. You turn around and there you are.We are very happy to have clear blue skys and sunshine after our awful inversion for weeeeeks! It has not been good walking weather so we were happy to get out and about this morning. Now we are looking forward to a fun Chicago connection tomorrow as we gather to watch da Bears win the Super Bowl. It really is just a good excuse to eat Malnauti's Pizza.So There it is ... Love to All ~ Always Mom & Dad

Mom's News

One week late...sorry!

More back yard snow .... can't see the flakes falling but here are our Spelman Girls who survived and even enjoyed one of the coldest weekends in Utah on record. Due to your Uncle David's vision, the Spelman College Glee club was here Friday afternoon thru Monday afternoon performing at various venues to commemorate Martin Luther King. They really are an outstanding vocal group. David invited Cathy Stokes, formerly of Hyde Park, Chicago now retired to Salt Lake city, to help him with this endeavor. She worked on locating host homes and itinerary items. The girls sang at a luncheon in the Multi Cultural Center, in Park City, at the Presbyterian Church and Calvary Baptist Church. The LDS Church hosted a very nice dinner at the Joseph Smith Building/Empire room were they had a presentation on prospects for doing African family history. Rachel came with me to the program at the Calvary Baptist Church and was very impressed with their singing. She and our girls, Maria and Ashlei, enjoyed the evening till about midnight when she decided to 'sleep over' as she did not have class on Monday. After brief tours of the Church History/Art Museum and the Family HistoryCenter on West Temple we went to Gateway for some serious sale shopping before their departure.They enjoyed stores, BeBe and Wet Seal, I've never heard of and lunch at Tai Phoon. We hope they can return and sing with the Tabernacle Choir, who knows? they did love the beds down stairs! So now we are back to 'normal' and January is half over, unbelievable or is that inconceivable! Love to All ~ Always Mom

Anybody Want Some Wocks?

Hmmm... Blog you say? I wish I had some pictures to post, but until we use some Christmas bucks to purchase one of them newfangled digital type cameras, I got nothing. Sorry. Besides, taking a picture of Joi at this point in her pregnancy is a risky business...

Christmas and the New Year were enjoyably spent pinging back and forth between Joi's family in Riverton, Utah and ours. I am pleased that Mom and Dad provided the egg-nogg and German twists along with the other traditional Christmas fare. We also received some very thoughtful gifts, but the best one won't get here until March.

We haven't decided on a name yet for the impending bundle of joy (slight pun intended), but we are considering Brooklyn and Emry (I can't even decide which spelling to use: Brooklynn, Emrey, Emrie, BrooklQ9nn, decisions, decisions...) as possibilities since my choices of Michelle Jordan (homage to the great #23) and Addison (a name I liked anyway regardless of the fact that the Cubs happen to play on W. Addison St) were shot down. Joi is being a good trooper through all the odd things that seem to happen to a woman's body the last trimester of pregnancy, and we have the nursery more or less ready to go.

Other than that, I am still plugging away in the ATM Department at Zions and trying not to mess up the elder's quorum in our ward. I am pleased to have started our own Saturday morning "priesthood meeting" (a.k.a - basketball games) at the church, which over the last couple weeks has grown large enough to where we might have to move it to the stake center.

Anywho, I hope everyone is well, and know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers despite distance and time constraints on visiting more often. Until next time...