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...

Ginjahbread!

What up, what up homies? As promised, here are a few photos (courtesy of Mom) proving the existence of the afore-mentioned gingerbread house. Tiff came through like a champ, and it turned out beautifully.

The holidays came, we celebrated them, but mostly we got ourselves unpacked. We're liking Nevada, except that it is pretty far to the West. The drive time is considerable. Now I know what it was like for those people at American Hotel who commuted from Kenosha. The area we live in, though, is peaceful (on the days we don't let the boys outside), and we love the views.

I'm back to grading papers. More to come.
















Josh considers the fine craftsmanship that went into
the roof.

December 2007 from American Fork

The Crowd Sizes Up the Pinata:

What a fine month we had! We went to a great performance of Elijah at Abravanel Hall with Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone was very busy getting ready for Christmas. We were reminded how nice we had it when we did part of a "Sub for Santa" and the families requested things like diapers and laundry detergent for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa gave us a huge wrapped box which sat in our family room for a few weeks. Sam said it smelled like Grandpa, and he thought Grandpa was in it. We had a very nice Christmas Eve with tacos and juarez and Uncle Joey’s and Aunt Tiffany's pinata and new pajamas. Christmas Day was great, but we had it in the basement this year. That’s where we set up the tree to keep it away from Gracie, who keeps taking down all the CDs in the office when she gets half a chance (she also toddles around now and says words like "burp"). For Christmas Grace got a water baby, Sarah got twinner Cabbage Patches, Abby got a Molly doll, Eliza got roller blades and bedroom stuff, Mom got an MP3 player and a camera, and Dad got a new office (the big box turned out to be an office chair–Sam already saw Grandpa out of the box on Christmas Eve, so he wasn’t too disappointed). Mom made a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and apple rolls. Eventually we made it to Salt Lake City for egg nog and cookies. The week after Christmas we went sledding with the Fongs (he teaches with me at MVHS) at Tibble Fork. We had a great time even though Sarah got rubbed out once by Eliza and Abby (her Strawberry Shortcake hat went flying), Sam wrapped himself around a pipe, and the hot chocolate spilled on Dad. Everyone but Grace stayed up for "Happy New Years." We watched 2006 family movies, played games, and ate a lot of good food. See you in 2007.

Joey the Pinata Creator is also the Pinata Slayer (taken straight from Hindu myth):

Sweet Pinata Plunder:

New Crowns from the Pinata:

The Wise Men (or Weisenheimers):

The Holy Family: