Baby Quilts

During the past months I have been busy making quilts for all the new babies that have come to our family. Now the last one is completed and Jonathan, Alexis, and Daniel have taken possession of the quilts made by their Grandma Johnson and paid for in part by Great-grandma Kirkham, with lots of love from both.
Daniel's quilt:
Animal Junction

Alexis' quilt:
Slide Show

Jonathan's quilt:
Monkey in the Middle

July 2010

Some of the people we've spent a lot of time with in July:
First of all, the cast of Seussical the Musical. Jim, Jenny, the new grandbabies, and I all got to participate in the show. For once I got to be IN it and I had a blast. We adults all played "Whos" and Jim was also "Yertle the Turtle". The babies played the baby elephant bird that hatches from Horton's egg. What a terrific, talented cast and we were ably led by our equally terrific, talented directors. Thanks to Kristin and Jessica.

We've spent a lot of time with the family at barbecues, parties, and parades. These photos come from the Kaysville and Farmington parades. Love those patriotic specs, Emily and Adam!

James and Emily don't exactly love the sirens.

We spent a fabulous, almost three hours with Paul McCartney in concert. What a great and gracious entertainer. He sounds and looks wonderful. Some of the songs made me tear up a little and for a few hours Jim and I felt young again.

Another trip down memory lane was my 40th high school reunion last weekend. This photo, used for the invitation, is from the cover of my senior year yearbook. (I was one of the editors.) I am the skinny girl toward the bottom of the steps, going up, with my hand on the railing, in case you were wondering. I had a great time renewing friendships and "remembering when". Jim was a good sport to attend with me, but he knew a fair share of these people as he graduated from the same high school a year earlier. Dear old Davis High School...

Reasons to Celebrate

We had many reasons to celebrate last weekend. First reason:
Jonathan Abbott, son of Melissa and Kyle, made a safe entrance into this world. Another darling baby to hold!

Reason #2:

We finally got around to celebrating our May and June birthdays, Emilee, Bonnie, and Stephanie (Ben's celebration took place in early May) and the graduations of Emilee and Danny. It was a perfect evening for a bonfire in the orchard, with just a little rain to help put out the fire at the end of the party.

Reason #3:

The blessing of Daniel Nathan on Sunday. Nate gave him a beautiful blessing and then he and Sam hosted a barbecue in their backyard after church.

We are so blessed in many ways. I love my family and am grateful for each one of them.

May Memo

I have a lot of news to catch up on. The last weeks have been very busy ones. I have to back up to April to announce the arrival of Daniel Nathan, son of Sam and Nate. He is a sweet, calm, and perfect baby.

Our next new little one surprised us with an early arrival a few days ago. Alexis Pepper, daughter of Valerie and Jeremy, is just beautiful and another perfect baby. Now we're anxious for the next one (Melissa and Kyle's) to arrive. It should be soon!

Jenny and I hosted our book club closing social at my parents' home in May. We had a potluck luncheon out on the deck and then reviewed the cookbooks we made our recipes from. We had a small, but nice group attend

We had several family members who were graduates this year. James (in the blue shirt)graduated from his first year of preschool. He has grown in many ways through this experience, but still didn't want to wear his cap or hold his diploma.

Danny received his MBA from the University of Utah. We are so proud of him! Congratulations!

Emilee received her Master's Degree in Organizational Development from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Such a great achievement--congratulations to her as well! We took a little vacation to Spokane for the occasion.

We spent a few great hours exploring the Riverwalk Park in Spokane. We viewed the falls, took a gondola ride, saw a parade with so many marching bands that we lost count, and rode on the fastest carousel I've ever been on in my life. Emilee's parents, grandparents, her sister Erin, and of course, Joel, joined Jim, Jenny, and I on our trip. We were able to find Jim's childhood home while we were there and then came home through Boise to visit with his Aunt Glennis and my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Bill.

April So Far

General Conference, wonderful as always, got the month off to a great start. We gathered together with the extended family for dinner to commemorate Easter after the last session. I'm posting some of the pictures from the egg hunt that followed dinner. Good times!

April brings more birthdays and we celebrated tonight with our monthly birthday dinner. Happy birthday to Melissa, James, Valerie, and Adam. Also, happy anniversary wishes go out this month to Valerie and Jeremy.

With the imminent birth of Sam and Nate's new baby boy, there will be still another reason to celebrate.

The Guests of Honor Are...

Today we celebrated all of the special occasions for March with a spaghetti dinner and all the trimmings. Happy birthday to Nate, Emily Lanae, Tate, and me! This is a month that many in the family have a day with a reason to celebrate, including Sam and Nate's anniversary, my parents' anniversary, Jim's mother's birthday, his sister Trudy's birthday. and also several nieces and nephews with birthdays and anniversaries. You wouldn't believe how many of these fall on March 17th! Anyway, best wishes to all!

The Latest

We've had two baptisms in the family in the past few months. Melissa's stepson, Brennan, was baptized in December and her son, Brandon, was baptized in February. The above photo is Brennan with his Dad, Kyle and the following photo is of Brandon on his baptism day.

Our family is getting big enough now that we celebrate birthdays one Sunday dinner a month. It's noisy and crazy when all 25 of us are crammed into our house, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Sam is our only January birthday, so she had her own celebration. We won't mention what the three candles stand for.

February's birthday celebration honored Danny, Joel, Brandon, and Kyle. What a handsome and great bunch of guys!

Jeremy was chosen as West Bountiful's employee of the month for January. Quoting an article from the Standard-Examiner (Ogden) on February 18th, "(Brown) feels a tremendous responsibility to always act from a place of integrity in his dealings with the public and other officers. He treats people as he'd like to be treated and administers his duties with fairness and a kind heart." The article calls him an exemplary employee with a great attitude and a pleasant demeanor and goes on to tell more about some of the things he has accomplished. Way to go Jeremy!