OTHERS

OTHERS January 2012

2012-01-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Wadds

We have uprooted and now have planted ourselves in Sacramento. Lucas misses school, Violet misses Nicole and Caralee misses knowing her way around town... And Caralee misses her family a whole lot too!! It's a good thing that Samuel is here to play with us or we'd be miserable! Everyone come up and visit please :)

The Westbroeks (if you don't know who we are... keep reading!)

Well, Tiana and John have just passed their 4 months of marriage mark, and started another semester of college at BYU~Idaho! It is Tiana's last semester -- woo-hoo! She is set to graduate (as a Child Development major) in April! And then she just has her internship! Right now she is also on the hunt for a job. John is taking a full load of online classes, and working 40+ hours a week. He works as a transcriber on campus - in other words he types up classes for deaf and hard of hearing students- so he is their ears!

Other than that, we are busy reading the Eragon series, playing with our new sewing machine - making a quilt, and working on a 1000 piece, ridiculous grayscale puzzle (John bought it- and brought it home excitedly telling me he got me a puzzle of horses! Then I saw the picture on the box...) We had a great Christmas in Utah, bouncing between both of our parents houses, and enjoyed spending time with our family! Well, that's about it! We hope that all of you are doing well!

Love,
John and Tiana

OTHERS December 2011

2011-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Motschiedler Madness

We are getting ready for Christmas at our house and are excited for Deshy's first Holiday Season! The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...and Deshy hasn't figured out how to reach them quite yet.

Desh now has a third tooth in his top front. He has mastered waiving "bye, bye" and pushing around his toy walker. He has good days and bad days when it comes to eating solids and taking baths so his momma tries not to stress too much. He loves bubbles, chasing after balls and playing with anything that makes noise. We go to the Little Gym on Fridays and he loves all the other babies and the fun activities. He had his first visit to the zoo last weekend and loved seeing all of the sights! He especially loved the elephants and giraffes and about broke his neck trying to get a good look at them.

Allyson is loving being a stay at home mom. She is still visiting the school once a month to help with a few things, but other than that, she stays busy chasing after, feeding, cleaning, rocking and playing with Desh. Ken and I closed escrow on some apartments in November so she is also busy with them. She has decorated the house for Christmas (sans tree) and has just about finished her Christmas shopping. Now for the wrapping! Her excitement this month is that she is getting braces (again!). Yay!

Ken is also busy with the new apartment complex and being a landlord. We are preparing to tent the 4 buildings to get rid of termites and then will do work on the exteriors and finish up with new paint and some landscaping. We hope to create a beautiful environment for our tenants. Anyone know of someone that needs an apartment? Check out our website: www.bengstonvillage.com. Ken is also still enjoying his work with Quiring General. We will be attending their Christmas party this evening and Ken is looking forward to winning the trivia game they have planned.

Merry Christmas, everyone! See you at the BCB.

Lots of Love,

The Motschiedler Trio

WARD WIDE WEB

The Wards have been preparing for and enjoying the Christmas Season since mid November. We decided that Christmastime last year was much too stressful and the only way to enjoy the season is to get ready early! Thanksgiving break we put up all of our decorations, outdoor lights, and 2 Christmas trees (one real, one 12 foot artificial). So far this year we've done many of our favorite seasonal traditions:

- Black Friday Shopping

- Made 50 gingerbread ornaments for our Christmas Tree

- Letters to Santa
- watched the latest family Christmas movie at the theater: Arthur Christmas

- Picked out a Christmas Tree

- opened the first gift of Christmas (new ornaments for each kid)

- Started our 25 days of Christmas Advent Calendar

- Relief Society Community Christmas Concert

- Took our annual Christmas Card photo

- Community Band Concert at the Tower Theater - how fun!

- Made Gingerbread Houses

- Clovis Electric Christmas Parade

- Hot Chocolate, Christmas Movies, Cranking up the Christmas music

It has been a busy season so far, but very calm and enjoyable :) We look forward to celebrating our Savior's birth all month. Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

OTHERS November 2011

2011-11-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

MARSHALL NOOSE: By Suzanne

Happy November everyone! John and I are doing well. He is working in Spokane now and is appreciating being able to do his commute on the west coast for a change. I am still working at Roubicek & Thacker Counseling. We have been very busy there and I finally have an assistant to boss around - I mean - to help. Along with the regular family counseling, our office has started a couple of addiction related programs that has increased our clientele tremendously.

At church John is serving as a counselor in the High Priest Quorum, and I am the MiaMaid counselor. I love serving anywhere in the church and am enjoying being with the teenagers again.

This year John and I will be traveling to Oregon for Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to visiting our Oregonion children and their families. Because of that, there will be NO TURKEY BOWL THIS YEAR. We will continue the tradition next year. Gooooooooo Marshalls!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Daily Duran

Clare is doing such a great job getting up on her feet. Sometimes she will take a step or two and we expect her to be walking any day now, following Bella into all sorts of mischievousness. Clare was a cute Tinkerbelle for Halloween. She loved going trick or treating, pulling out the candy every time one was dropped into her bucket only to have to taken away and put in Dad’s pocket.

Bella is a wonderful ball of energy or maybe a ball of enthalpy would be a better way to put it. That is to say that Mom spends a lot of time picking up after Bella. She loves to sing her ABC’s and will randomly point out letters like the “A” in Target™. For Halloween she was Wendy Darling from Peter Pan. She could not believe how easy it was to get candy. You just walk up to a house, ring the doorbell and hold out your pumpkin.

Amy has been busy with her calling at church and the primary program. This year the day of the program happened to fall on her birthday. She held a practice the Friday evening before the program, celebrated her birthday on Saturday evening going out to eat and watching the BYU Dance program, had the program Sunday morning, then was finally able to relax and eat some cake Sunday evening, and got to sleep in on Monday.

Thomas started working at Valley Health Team last month as a clinic manager out in San Joaquin . They serve mostly the people in the community of migrant farm workers which he finds to be very rewarding. He also started working on his last assignment for the MPH program and is ever closer to finishing his project for the MBA program.

OTHERS October 2011

2011-10-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Motschiedler Madness

Ahhh, Autumn is here! And we have been busy enjoying it!

Desh is on the move! He's crawling and climbing and kicking and grabbing and in.to.ever.y.thing! He finds a new place to explore everyday, which keeps his momma on her toes! His two front bottom teeth popped up last week resulting in an even cuter smile than before. No'ne possibile!

Allyson has decided that October will be her last month working at the Preschool so that she can spend her days playing with 'D' rather than coming up with distractions for him while she works. She and Deshy will miss our friends and the kids at Bluff View, but she's excited to be a stay at home mommy. She's thinking about taking a couple online classes, doing some projects around the house and maybe even another little mad mott to join the family...hmmmmm....

Ken has been enjoying his work at Quiring General. He loves working for a company that appreciates its employees and is family oriented.

Last year, he and his bestie decided to start a business and we are now in escrow for an apartment complex in NW Fresno. If everything goes well we will close at the beginning of November and we will become slumlords. Check out our website: theschussing.com (created by his wonderful wife).

For pictures and more on our happy life, check out our family blog: madmott.blogspot.com.

Lots of love,

The Motschiedler Trio

Wadds

We are in school, in church or running around town all week. That pretty much sums our month up.

WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy was released as Ward Mission Leader and called as the Scout Master over Trevor's age group. He is excited to work with the scouts again - especially since his son will be participating. He is busy planning camp outs and fun activities to get these boys on track to earn their merit badges. He also installed a new radiator in our van - which was much needed and much appreciated :) What a mutli-talented guy!

Jennifer is busy with being a mama. She has learned to appreciate the bus (that we no longer have at our convenience). Driving to and from school several times a day is more time consuming than you'd think! She attends many sporting events, cooks delicious crock pot meals, teaches a few piano lessons, and folds a mean load of laundry in her spare time :)

Trevor is enjoying junior high. He is on the 7th grade water polo team and is doing really good! He gets lots of play time and plays hard when he's out there. He has scored 2 goals for his team so far this season. Trevor turned 12 last month and received the priesthood. This Sunday will be his first time passing the sacrament.

Logan is our football star. This is his first year playing football and he made the varsity team. He looks good in his pads and helmet. Logan is also our soccer star. He is a busy busy boy. Logan plays forward for his team. He got a great head bump the first game, "It didn't feel very good," he said. But it looked really cool!

Lizzie is our bubbly 7 year old girl. She is playing soccer this season and is a star player on her team! She also participates in a weekly dance club after school. Lizzie practices her dance moves any chance she gets - especially in the evening - she likes to crank up the music in the kitchen and get us all groovin'. She loves any social experience. Meeting new girls and having fun are Lizzie's specialty.

Jackson is our kindergarten boy. He is in afternoon kindergarten and is finally getting used to his new schedule. It was a rough start for our Jackson. After the 2nd week of school his teacher tells us, "He did really good today... he was only in time out a few times." She was so proud of him for making progress, but how many times was the kid in time out the first week of school?! Jackson is enjoying his first season of soccer and having his daddy for a coach. Go Jackson!

Jordan and Stephanie

The only thing that has happened to us is that Jordan joined the Air Force National Guard! We are so proud of him to have made this decision. He will go to basic training sometime next year which will be hard but we can do it. He loved having his family there to see him get enlisted.

OTHERS September 2011

2011-09-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the Westbroek Happy Couple!! Married Saturday, September 3, 2011.

Congrats to the Snow family! Baby #4: Keegan Michael Snow, born 01 Sep 2011. 8lbs 13oz, 20in long.

Jordan and Stephanie
We have had a fun filled Jam packed year so far. Back in February we bought our annual passes to DisneyLand and have been using them every chance we get! We go about once a month. We also went to Las Vegas with Stephs family for her 21st bday and it was amazing! we cant wait to go back. Also a few months ago Ashley moved in with us and it has been wonderful having her!

Jordan: Jordan has been working a lot and helping take care of the house every chance he gets. He just recently got a calling as a Primary Teacher and he is really excited because Trevor will be in his class! He had a pretty good birthday, he had a small family party at the in-laws house the day before, then went to Japanese Kitchen the day of his birthday (which he loved!) and the finale was when we went to DisneyLand the day after and there was pretty much no wait for any ride! Since then he is just enjoying life working and can’t wait til we go to DisneyLand again!

Stephanie: Well I have been working a lot (like usual). At one point in the year I had 3 jobs then 2 and now after 6 months of that i have only one and am still going to school. Over the summer I took a cake decorating class and cant wait til i can take another one. I have also been getting more into reading, mostly Disney books like secrets of DisneyLand and stuff like that. Other than that I am doing perfectly fine loving life and loving being married. Plus getting to hang out with Ashley makes my life so much more fun! And I am anxiously waiting for the next time we can make a get away to DisneyLand.

OTHERS August 2011

2011-08-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Pismo 2011
There were many OTHERS who came to Pismo this year that are not pictured here.

Daily Duran

We have had a very busy summer and lots of fun from being with all of our family. We got to be with all of our Berry family for a reunion and spent the 4^th of July watching fireworks with them up on top of the mountain looking out over Utah Valley. We also had a great time going to the water park with all of our family and friends in town. We loved getting away to Pismo to have fun with all of the Boggs family and escape the heat.

Clare is 6 months now and can scoot around on her tummy. She yells a lot and sounds like she is roaring. She loves to watch her older sister and follows her around everywhere.

Bella is turning into a fish. She can go under water in the pool to get her dive sticks. She will jump in from the edge and float over to you (if there is still enough momentum from her jump). She is a great big sister and makes Clare laugh when she is sad. Bella still says, “bye Ella,” to Ella McCreary when nobody is even around. She had such a good time with all her cousins.

Amy had fun (she says I don’t know about fun) organizing everything. She planned it all, packed us all up, and did a great job at it. She has been forever busy with primary, but has some good counselors she can rely on.

Thomas has been busy with work, and thought he was going to have the summer off from school, but he got a call from school asking him to do a project for his MBA over the summer. So he has meetings and research to do now. He is excited for his last semester to start in a few weeks.

WARD WIDE WEB
It has been a busy busy summer! Let's see everything we've been up to with a quick photo narrative...

Jackson went to Family Camp for a week, loves to swim in the pool (he is swimming all the way across the pool now - taking breaths and everything!), and has enjoyed going to Wild Water Adventures. We got to spend a day there with the Durans.

Lizzie is in Montana right now on her first ever trip away from home without mom and dad. She took her first airplane ride to get there! Lizzie had fun boogie boarding at Pismo and never wanted to get out of the water. She also got to do a music camp this summer - they performed selections from Mary Poppins and she loved every minute of it!

Logan kicked off the summer by attending his last year of Cub Scout Day Camp. He got to fold the American flag in front of the entire camp! He has also been into air soft guns and drawing comics.

Trevor did water polo camp this summer. He is looking forward to his first season of Jr. High water polo this upcoming school year. Trevor got his fill of fishing this summer. He went fishing with grandpa Louie, at family camp, and at Pismo.

Trevor & Logan got to go to the midnight premier of Harry Potter 7.2, went with Jeremy to Santa Cruz island to kayak, and won a pie eating contest at the Ward Family Reunion.

Jeremy sold his motorcycle and purchased a new mountain bike (we like to call it "daddy's 5th baby"). He has been going mountain biking as often as possible. He even took a 'guys weekend' to Mammoth Mountain just to go mountain biking!

Jeremy & Jennifer got to spend some time together without the children this summer. We did some white water rafting and took a trip to LA to see Les Miserables and the Getty Museum.

Yes! It has been a fun-filled jam-packed summer!

OTHERS May 2011

2011-05-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the newest Boggs Family! We are so happy for Peter and Jordan to begin their new life together.

WARD WIDE WEB

Jeremy was determined to have a nice relaxing Spring Break. He kicked it off with a family date night at Red Robin, [took Jackson to the Urgent Care for stitches], took Jennifer to a Community Band Concert @ the Paul Shagoian Theater, took the family camping to Millerton Lake for 3 days, went mountain biking 3 times, did a bunch of pool maintenance in the backyard, fixed the car door handle, planted a garden with Trevor, and played a mean Nerf gun battle with the kids. Relaxing, eh?

Jennifer was BUSY cooking 1600 servings of rice pilaf for Jeremy's school fundraiser. 3 days and countless hours later... somehow it all got done! Just in case you were wondering, here is the recipe for 100 servings of pilaf:

Rice Pilaf
100 servings

40 oz. cut fideo pasta
1 cube butter
8 c. Uncle Ben's Converted Rice
2 c. white rice
36 c. water

Brown pasta in butter. Bring water to a rolling boil. Mix all ingredients in an 18 qt. roaster oven. Cook at 250 degrees for 90 minutes. (Do not lift lid while cooking.)

Trevor (& Logan) spent much of their precious dollars on plants, soil, and gardening supplies. Trevor took the lead role in mixing the soil and planting the plants. Cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, peas, and carrots. He took grandma's advice on the proper watering techniques. He got more advice from Grandma Elizabeth on how to keep the snails out of the garden. He's been busy and dedicated to making those plants grow! He's out there every evening making sure they are weeded, watered, and snail free.

Logan had a great time camping at Millerton Lake during Spring Break. He got to hang out with his best buddies (Joel, Carter, and Sammy) building sand castles, hiking, burning stuff, and riding bikes.

Lizzie is growing up so fast. We have the "you-are-not-allowed-to-grow-up-any-more-you-must-stay-7-years-old-forever" talk at least once a week. We came across this sweet little video a couple of weeks ago. We were dying Easter eggs when she was about 3 years old. What a cute little girl! And look at how much she's grown since then. Can you not see the adolescent already starting to come out? We sure can!

Jackson turned 5 years old [photo #1]! And then 2 weeks later he busted his forehead open on the trampoline and had to get stitches [photo #2]! The scar will heal, but will always be in that prominent location. It's looking better already [photo #3].

Daily Duran

Clare was blessed in April and looked so pretty in her outfit. She is lots of fun smiling all the time at everyone. Clare loves to coo and watch everything that is going on especially when Bella is making a big mess.

Bella has fun playing a helping Amy all day long. She is started sleeping in her big bed and has realized she can get up and play instead of taking a nap. Bella is learning to sing her alphabet and will hit a few unorganized letters when you sing with her.

Amy reorganized her primary presidency and has been busy getting them all on the right track. She did a great job putting on the luncheon after Clare’s Blessing. Amy has been a great mom balancing between an infant and a 2 year-old.

Thomas is working and finishing up the semester. He spends most evenings at school in the library or at home doing homework. Can’t wait for summer to get here.

Motschiedler Madness
Well, life in the Motschiedler home is sure exciting these days. Desh is 3 months old and babbling and smiling and holding his head up during tummy time. Its all very exciting. We love having him in our family.

Last weekend he and I flew to Oregon with my mom for Macy Marshall's blessing. Desh got to meet the Oregonites for the first time. We had a lot of fun. Check out pictures at madmott.blogspot.com.

I've gone back to work parttime at the preschool and Desh gets to come with me. He's very popular! The kids love to visit him and the teachers love to hold him. We're busy getting ready for Mother's Day and Graduation and summer school. FIve weeks left of this school year!!

Ken got to stay home this weekend and get lots of sleep for the first time in 3 months. He missed us but was able to keep busy by visiting Costco and making our yard beautiful.

That about sums up this month. See ya next month!

OTHRES March 2011

2011-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

MARSHALL NOOSE

We have a new grandson! Desh Edward Motschiedler. Born Feb 9, 2011. 7lbs 8oz. 21 inches.

John and Suzanne

DAILY DURAN

Clare has been a nice little trooper. She has been eating very well and is gaining good weight. She sleeps quite a bit though never at the most desirable times. She still has her beautiful dark hair that is so thick. Sometimes she will smile in her sleep or after much coaxing from mom and dad.

In February Bella had her birthday and turned 2 years old. We went to a park and had a party for her and some of her little friends. They played on the equipment, ate little goodies, got to smack a Spiderman piñata around (thanks for the Spiderman, Mica). Bella got a little tricycle for her birthday for 2 yr olds, but her legs are still too short for the pedals or to touch the ground so she needs someone to push her around.

Amy has been continuing to run the primary for the ward from home. She takes care of her girls all day and tries to get what sleep Clare lets her have at night. She got cleared to start working out again from her doctor so she is recovering from her first time out for a run still.

Thomas is busy with school and work. He has been catching up on all the school work neglected from when Clare was born at the beginning of the semester. This will be his last semester in the MPH program so he is getting ready for his comprehensive exams in March and can not wait for the exams to be over so he can get back to his regular schoolwork again.

WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy had a great victory last month as he enjoyed a first place win coaching Logan's Destination Imagination team! They will move on to compete at State Finals in April.

Jennifer got creative and made the most awesome cake of all time to show at Logan's Blue and Gold Cub Scout Fundraiser. It was a Mexican Fiesta theme. And since we'd just watched Nacho Libre the week before for our family movie night, it seemed only appropriate to make a Nacho Libre cake. The boys loved it!

Trevor & Logan have begun a new hobby. Making movies of their outdoor adventures! Check out their first episode:

Lizzie learned to ski! Check out her first experience here:

Jackson has a funny story... He likes to cook his own chicken nuggets. Even when an adult offers help, he refuses. Jackson likes to be independent and press those microwave buttons on his own. Here's how he does it:
1. place 10 chicken dinosaurs on a plate.
2. climb up on the counter
3. place plate inside microwave
4. SLAM the micro door
5. press "1, 2, 3, 0, start" (That's 12 minutes and 30 seconds on the microwave)
6. get tired of waiting after only about a minute for them to cook (thank heavens for a short attention span!)
7. then scarf the nuggets!

OTHERS February 2011

2011-02-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Waddells

We are back! We're in Clovis again to stay for a long-long time now... Hopefully. Caralee is enrolled in community college currently and is hoping to be at Fresno State next year sometime to work on her Business/Accounting degree. Lucas and Violet are blessed to be at home in their own beds and are loving being watched by their cousin Chelsy twice a week. Lucas is talking and learning more and more everyday as he prepares for preschool in the fall. Violet is taking just a few steps at a time this week and will hopefully be walking unassisted before we all know it. NO MORE DIRTY HANDS from crawling around on the church carpet! Yuck!

See you all around town. :)

Daily Duran

Our big January news is the birth of Clare Elizabeth Duran on January 20. She came in to the world nice and early in the morning weighing 8 lbs. It was quite a day and night of labor for Amy. She ended up not dropping so we chose to do cesarean after all that labor. This would allow Amy to be awake rather than under full sedation which might have happened in the event it went to an emergency cesarean. Bella is loving her new sister and tries to hold her, kiss her, and love her all the time. Amy’s parents have been at our house for the last two weeks helping us with everything. It has been a lot of fun and very tiresome at the same time. Clare is eating well and we can’t wait for her to start sleeping through the night.

WARD WIDE WEB
Jackson has had a great January. He kicked off the year right by participating in our annual Polar Bear Plunge! New Year's Day is the day to find several crazy kids jumping in the pool in our backyard. Jackson decided to join them, but only up to his shins. He's not that crazy. :)

Jackson also got to spend some good quality time with his cousin Bella in January. Bella got a new baby sister this month! Welcome baby Clare to Thomas and Amy's family!! Bella stayed with us for a few days while the new parents were busy at the hospital. Jackson got a taste of what life might be like with a younger sibling.

Lizzie turned the ripe old age of 7! She celebrated with a spa party with some of her girl cousins.
It was all about the Squinkies this year. These teeny tiny toys are all the rage right now. Lizzie scored a bunch of Squinkies to start her collection. She is definitely 7 going on 13! Check out her sassy pose after opening gifts!

Logan is a busy busy boy these days. He is a champion wrestler, participates in Destination Imagination, skis, and goes to cub scouts once a week. This week they got to visit the only Flat Track Racing Museum in the world (it's right here in our city!). Logan had a great time checking out over 100 racing bikes.

Trevor is also a busy boy. He played basketball last season, is on the Destination Imagination team again this year, sings in choir (in the picture below, he's singing at the groundbreaking for a new elementary school - 2nd row from the top, far right), goes to 11 year old scouts, and balances his schoolwork beautifully. He got straight A's for the first time ever! He was so proud of himself - and so was his teacher. Trevor was also honored with the Student of the Quarter Award because of his outstanding performance and progress in his class.

Jennifer had a blast planning Lizzie's spa party. The girls were pampered with chocolate masks, foot massages, and made their own bath salts. Our bathroom was transformed into a relaxing spa with music and candles and stacks and stacks of white towels! Jennifer also just finished pulling off her first Relief Society Meeting (formerly known as "Enrichment"). The ladies were treated to a Mexican Cruise complete with hand massages and a fun salsa bar for refreshments.

Jeremy got to play the butler for Lizzie's spa party. He hammed it up real good - "Leland" was his butler name. The girls loved having their own personal servant who delivered goodies, facial supplies, and warm towels.
Jeremy's big project at work this month was planning and carrying out the annual awards ceremony at his school. His school is full of over-achieving students. And to award all the kids that made the honor roll was to essentially throw a party for the ENTIRE school. 600 kids + parents and grandparents = 1500 chairs, a slide show, several big-whig speakers, decorations, and refreshments. It was a set-up and take-down process that spanned several days to complete. The ceremony was a success and Jeremy slept very well when it was all over.

OTHERS January 2011

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no entries

OTHERS December 2010

2010-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

The Fresno B's

Hey Family!!

So... november was interesting-ish. Marching season is over except for the christmas day parade, concert season is started, and my trumpet is freezing whenever i play it. i'm glad more trees are finally getting the memo about it being December and that their leaves are supposed to be falling off. we went to utah over thanksgiving, and had a good time at a family dinner but i missed turkey bowl. *sad face* ...and the cinimon rolls... my grandma on my mom's side was sealed on black friday to her brother-in-law (dont worry, her sister died about 7-10 years ago) so now all of my mom's cousins from that line are now her siblings... i feel sorry for the family history people working on that part of the family... :) our stake choir festival is on the 12th at 6:00 or 6:30 at the fresno stake center on cedar between bullard and barstow. feel free to come and bring a friend. :) i can't wait to see all of you peoples at the Boggs Christmas Breakfast. i hope yo are preparing lots of good food :) i have been hungry all the time lately. i blame it on the way im growing in hight... anyway, the food is alwys good :) See you all soon!

Happy Holidays! I hope you all get your christmas wishes as i wish to get mine.

From fresno,

~David Boggs

Snow Flurry
Elodey (19 months) is the sweetest child ever! She is mostly calm and content and happy with whatever is going on. She is at that age where she gets into everything. She likes to get the cereal out of the cupboard and sit behind the couch and eat it. Then she dumps it out on the floor. After we clean that up she likes to get the pans out of the cupboard and leave them everywhere in the kitchen. Then she enjoys getting games out of the game closet and playing with them ALL at the same time! She also gets a kick out of pulling all the pillows of the couches, taking the CD's out of our 50 disk CD player, writing all over her hands with markers (better than the walls), and trowing all the clothes out of the laundry baskets onto the floor. Since all the Christmas stuff is up now her new favorite is to un-decorate the tree. But she is just so cuddly and cute. Right now she is sitting next to me on the couch, sucking her thumb, and watching what everyone is doing. I think I have to watch out for her.

Charly (3) is LOVING preschool. She is learning to read. She can read a few words, just by sight, like "I", "am", "not", "this", "is", "the", etc. She is the most girly girl ever! When I was pregnant with her I was insistent on NOT having EVERYTHING be pink. She is totally opposite. She LOVES pink, princesses and puppies. She always has to wear something pink. She is always wearing a pink flower in her hair, and if she can, she wears a dress. She loves to play with her sister and is a great helper by re-decorating the tree.

Quinten (5) also loves preschool. He is reading now and thinks it's the most awesome thing. He loves his sisters and just think they are wonderful. He does get jealous that they get to do things like share a room and have a bunk bed. He keeps telling me that I need to have another baby and it needs to be a boy so he can have someone to share a room with. He is taking a kind of music class that he is really enjoying. They learn things like what a major scale looks like, how to hear the different instruments in music, and different cords all by playing and singing. It's really fun. He is really a good helper and will usually jump up and do anything I ask him to. I love his positive attitude.

I am loving taking care of my kidos. My days consist of cleaning up Elodey's messes, taking kids to and from preschool, and the usual cooking and house chores. Now that Christmas is getting close I have several other projects that I would like to complete such as sewing festive pillow covers for the couch pillows, finishing the Christmas Tree Skirt I started making last year, and making and afghan for a special someone for Christmas. And then there is the usually holiday baking and gifts for teachers and neighbors. Any ideas? I am a nursery leader in my ward. We have just started taking the kids to Primary so they can get used to sitting there when the new year rolls around.

Mike is working for Sara Lee. He is a bread vendor. So he gets up early in the morning to deliver all the bread to the stores and restaurants. He really likes his job. He is also the Sunday School president in our ward. He is currently focused on getting the teachers and the classes figured out for next year. He has also started a teacher development class that ALL the teachers in the ward take turns going to. He turned 29 this year and is doing all he can to enjoy "the last year of his youth".

OTHERS November 2010

2010-11-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Fresno B's
I think that the judges at band competitions are paid. Edison has gotten last in everything except the Selma parade in which we got first in our division. Its kinda frustrating especially when the difference in scores is about twenty points 55.95 to 75.75...

I made chocolate chip cookies for the first time on Halloween and i think they actually turned out OK. i made them for my teachers and the first three I gave them to said they would make good bribes. (I have also given them donuts...) School is going OK. It is still as boring as ever. The pumpkin/jack-o-lantern I mentioned last month was a pain in the rear end to make but I finally finished it.

Hope everyone has been doing OK and happy November!!

~David Boggs

Hello Family,
As some of you know there has been a mix up in the Boggs Family genealogy and the Scott family Genealogy. I have been working with the missionaries in the genealogy dept. in Salt Lake for the past two weeks. I or we think the problem has been taken care of. If there is a name in the Boggs ancestry that you know does not belong there, please call or e-mail me.

The case number is 1840763, the missionaries number at Family Search Support is toll free 811-406-1830. The Family Search Support is open 24 hr. a day. Nancy and I are doing just fine. Hunting and fishing is real good. In fact the past two times some one went fishing around here just two fish would be over a hundred pounds. If you all could send Thomas this way I think I could show him how to catch fish.

John Scott

Jordan & Steffy
Well, after 5 years of dating Jordan and I finally got married!!! It was such a great day and it was nice to see everyone there just for us. I think we had between 350 and 400 people there so that made us happy.

Since then everybody asked how married life is and all we can say is that there really is no difference from before except that we live together and that isn't even bad yet lol. Also they ask if we went on a honeymoon but we haven't gone yet, we just couldn't take that much time off from work. So we will be going to DISNEY WORLD! from Dec. 5th-12th

As for what were doing now, we moved into the house that we are renting, Jordan loves having a yard to take care of. He still works at Savemart and has been in the Deli for about a year now. it is kind of slow now but the busy season is almost here! And me, well I still work at Cool Hand Lukes Steakhouse I got promoted to Expo (I take food out to the tables) back in July I don't work as many days but I make more money because I make tips now. :-) I also just started a second job at Lithia motors (where my dad works) I help with filing and cashiering. It is just for some extra money for xmas and to save for the future. And if that isn't enough I am in school also, this semester I took it really easy by only taking 7 units but I will have my associates degree at the end of this semester as long as I pass Philosophy :-/. And next semester I am taking 17 units so I can be at Fresno State by next fall. (I know I'm crazy).

Jordan has been so amazing through all of this. He knows that i love to work and just want to help make a better life for us. He has been doing a lot of house work for me while I am gone at work. He even makes me breakfast almost every morning. He knows how tired I get from working and going to school but I won't stop. He is so great I just hope that in the future when he is going after his dream I can repay him.

Well that is what is going on with us for now. We will try to keep you updated more often if we have the time.

Stephanie Kirby

WARD WIDE WEB
Here is our month in pictures & one video:

Trevor turned 11 and had a Nerf Battle Royale Birthday Party!

Logan ran in the Cross Country District Championship race and placed 9th out of 120 runners!

Lizzie competed in an Art Contest and placed 2nd!

Jackson got his first set of stitches ever! 2 inner and 8 outer = 10 stitches!

Jennifer had a birthday and turned the ripe ol' age of 32!

Jeremy carved his annual "FLAMING PUMPKIN!!" that made a great spectacle on Halloween night!

OTHERS October 2010

2010-10-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

Motschiedler Madness

We've had a very exciting few months. Our biggest news is that we're having a baby boy due on Valentine's Day. At the last ultrasound he measured at being due on February 9th but they don't change my due date at this point, which means either he's going to come earlier than planned or he's going to be a big guy. I started to feel his little kicks and punches last week and now they're almost nonstop. Ken gets to feel them occasionally too. Its finally fun to be pregnant. I had a hard time enjoying this pregnancy at first!! We're busy decorating the baby's room. As I type this we have painters in finishing up the mess we started.

Ken also received some great news this week. He was offered a job with a local company called Quiring General. They are a construction company building things such as hospitals and office buildings, big stuff. He'll be their Contracts Administrator. One of his previous coworkers and good friends has worked there for about 2 years as their Controller and he only has good things to say about it. We're happy that he was able to join their team and just in time for his birthday. (It was his birthday wish to quit his current place of employment.)

All in all things are really great right now. We're happy, healthy and excited for everything to come.

Love,

Allyson, Ken & Baby

Fresno Boggs News (that I know of)

Since I'm probably going to be the only one writing anything, I guess I'll keep it short. I am attending CART and loving it. I'm in the Multimedia Lab and as a group we are currently working on advertising a "new" product , Ciao String Cheese. Its kinda interesting making up info on a fake product and learning how to use different computer programs to edit and make pictures. Other than that, I'm writing up the paper to get an eagle project approved so i can finally get my eagle. (I'm somewhat of a slacker, i could have had it by the time I was 13, but i got lazy). Everyone else seems to be doing alright and tired. the school year is always the busiest. Any who, Happy Halloween!!!!

Boo,

David Boggs

OTHERS September 2010

2010-09-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Waddell's

We're moving again! No it's not a joke... Eric is coming home September 12th and we're supposed to be in Charlotesville, VA by October 12th. It's tiresome, but doable. He'll be doing another deployment soon with this new company (not the military), so Caralee and the kids will be back in Clovis in just a few months to endure that with the company they know and love here. After the deployment (6 months long), we'll all permanently move back to VA for a year at least. Are we adventurous or just plain nuts?? Ask me after the 6 month deployment please...

Lucas is potty trained (mostly). Doing better each week and can literally recognize all the letters in the alphabet and tell you their corresponding sounds too! We're not proud at all, can you tell?? :)

Violet is finally 13 pounds (I think) and is almost 7 months old. She's just as sweet as can be and is enjoying sitting up by herself and trying to crawl now. She's just squishy and cute!

Daily Duran

In August we had a great time doing all the fun summer things. We went to the Beach house in Oxnard with the Berrys . We really enjoyed going to the Watkins to see Johnny give his farewell talk before his mission in the Twin Cities. There were a couple of trips to Wild Waters Park on the days that weren’t too hot. Bella likes to play in the pools at Wild Waters and watch all the other kids and people act crazy. Both Amy and Thomas got new callings at church as well. Amy was called to be the new Primary President. That’s a pretty big calling and they knew she was pregnant. Thomas was called to be the secretary in the Elder’s Quorum. We loved having Amy’s parents stay with us for a week, but would have preferred it if they had been able to spend more time with us rather than at the hospital. We are very glad that Amy’s dad was able to get good care here and quickly resolve his health complications. At the end of August on the very last day we went in to have an ultra sound done on the growing baby. We found out we are having another girl. We are all excited and now debating over names.

OTHERS August 2010

2010-08-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

Marshall Noose,

What a great month it was. First the fireworks! I've never seen Suzanne so mad at me. But she got over it.

We had a great time camping at Pismo. What a surprise to find Shelley, Austin, Marissa, and Elise there. Boy can my family keep a secret. And, it was the first time in 36 years of camping that we actually got kicked out of camp. Whodathunkit?

Our week camping at home was great fun. No major melt downs, same great food. And our own beds. best week ever.

The next weekend Suzanne put on a whizbang 24th of July program for rhe stake. The best ever.

Me? I'm still at work in Rockville. Heat humidity thunder lightning power outages etc etc.

John marshall

OTHERS July 2010

2010-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Marshall Noose
Happy July!! I am still working in Rockville Md. I'll probably be there for two or three more months. I'm converting all the pension data from Oracle to PeopleSoft.

Suzanne is busy getting ready for 4th of July breakfast at rhe church complete with parade, music, color guard, fireworks and dunk tank. She is also incharge if the stake 24th of July celebration. It will be a good old Fashion review. Another big budget church event.

Hope all are healthy and enjoying summer. See you at Pismo.

John Marshall

WARD WIDE WEB
June was full of end of the school year events, activities, and awards ceremonies. It seems like school finished ages ago even though it's only been a few short weeks. We are now in full swing of summer. We kicked off the summer with a trip down to San Luis Obispo to visit Jeremy's sister, a week of cub scout day camp, and then our annual trip to Shaver Lake for a week of Family Camp. We are busy swimming, watching free movies, going to the library, staying up late, playing video games, having sleepovers, and of course daily chores. Check out our family blog at wearethewards.blogspot.com to view pictures of all of our most recent adventures.

OTHERS June 2010

2010-06-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

McKanda Mail

We've been enjoying a very soggy spring. Do you capitalize spring? I guess not when it's been super rainy. So a few weeks ago Amanda and I went to Disneyland for a few days. Amanda's sister Leanne came in from Maui with 2-year old son Isaac who is super adorable and has the energy of an olympic athlete. He was like the energizer bunny– just going and going and going. We decided that 2 years old may be a bit young for Disneyland as Isaac was as interested in the trash cans as he was the rides. We had tons of fun. So much in fact, that half way through the week, I got sick. But it was still fun. Ryan's family was there the Friday before we were, so we decided to test the Penny myth.

The Penny myth states that Disneyland is so well-maintained and thoroughly cleaned each night that if you hide a penny anywhere in the park, it will not be there the next day. So the Friday before Amanda and I got to the park, Ryan hid a small plastic fireman by Thunder Mountain Railroad. And guess what– when we got there 3 days later, it was still there! Myth busted. Well, for the most part– not sure if a plastic fireman counts as a penny. The best part about this story is that I re-hid the fireman. So the next people to go to Disneyland needs to let us know, so we can tell you where to find the penny– er, fireman.

Our house is moving along great with the exception of the builder installing the wrong color cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. We were already right against the tax deadline with our closing date projected to be on 6/23– and this error may push us to 6/28, which really makes us nervous. We'll keep our fingers crossed. It is the builders fault, and they know it. We're just hoping it doesn't turn into a battle in the end for the $8K we could have gotten from the government. Other than that major setback, the house is going just fine– and we'd love to have everyone out sometime in the Summer or Fall to see our new digs! Dad is coming the weekend after July 4th to help with some honey-dos that are stacking up. Stuff like hanging the garage door opener, and doing the kitchen hardware etc. I'll be glad for the guidance as I've never been a home-owner before and could use plenty of instruction.

As far as work, Amanda has about 6 more weeks of being Maria Eitel's personal assistant. Maria Eitel is the President of the Nike Foundation, and she's extremely busy– and, consequently, Amanda is too. She (Amanda) will be glad when this assignment is over; having been working 50+ hour weeks and getting emails and text messages in the middle of the night. Ever seen The Devil Wears Prada? Something like that in terms of workload– not so much in terms of attitude. After that, Amanda plans to whip our new house into shape, work on some Photography, and perhaps take a few classes at PSU.

I'm busy at Clink– we got a new domain (clink.com) which is great. No more explaining "theclink.tv" to people. We're just finishing up some Soccer stuff for the world cup that was supposed to be projected onto the side of a building in Seoul Korea, but that may not happen anymore. We'll be starting another Nike gig in a week (of course), and I'm going after the Nike Foundation with a fun idea. I'll be making custom flip–books with both Clink's, and Nike Foundation's branding on it. I'm hoping to start a new relationship with them. Plus the flip-book idea will be a fun marketing tool for some other potential clients as well. I'll let you all know how it goes, and if it would be worth ordering some for your companies :) .

That's all for now!

The Garzette

Javier has been busy with his 2 (or is it 3?) jobs. He’s enjoying doing programming for the Oregon Child Development Coalition (the agency that runs the Headstart pre-school program). It’s a little stressful at times because he’s still trying to figure things out. He’s taking a class at PCC which is helping. He’s also still doing real estate. He just got called to be the assistant ward clerk.

Austin is getting ready for middle school. He’s going to be a big 6^th grader! He informed me the other day that math, reading, and science are boring because they’re too easy. He had his first court of honor as an 11 year old scout and earned his tenderfoot. He also broke out in hives for the first time after having a bad cough and being given Cherutussin. He ran in the school’s jog-a-thon and went 2.5 miles!

Marissa is ready for school to be out – counting down the days before she can sleep in. She’s taking a sewing class from a lady in McKay’s ward and has made a pillowcase, a pillow, and a quilt. She does a very good job! She ran 1.75 miles in the jog-a-thon. She’s also busy with girl scouts, activity days, a cartoon drawing class and she performed a piano duet with me in the school variety show.

Elise is a very busy 3 year old. She wants me to play with her all the time. We play tea party, monsters, and any other games that she comes up with. She loves music and likes to listen to the same thing over and over whenever we’re in the car (her current favorite is “The 12 Dogs of Christmas” – just as fun as it sounds!).

I also ran in the jog-a-thon. I ran with Marissa and then with Austin for a total of 3.5 miles (I couldn’t keep up with Austin). I just taught the last art lit class of the year – I volunteer in each of my kids’ classes doing this. I teach the Mia Maids and have 6 piano students. I’m also helping Javier with his real estate business, inputting listings and running errands.

We spent Memorial weekend in Lincoln City at the coast. The weather was nice so we spent one day at the beach then went swimming in the hotel pool.

The next day we went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. It would have been really fun and interesting, but the kids were very tired from not sleeping in the hotel the night before so we played at the playground and rode the little airplane ride 3 times and got a few pictures of all the really neat airplanes before Elise finally crashed from exhaustion. Then we went home. Oh, the fun family memories!

OTHERS May 2010

2010-05-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Dear others.

The John Marshalls are doing fine. John is working in Rockville Md and Suzanne is not. Life is good.

John marshall

Sent from my iPhone

WARD WIDE WEB
Jeremy took the boys for the night to the annual Fathers and Sons camp-out/over-nighter. They had a great trip - all 12 hours they were there. They headed up the hill for a slice of pizza before making their way over to the campground. Jeremy set up a tent, sleeping bags, pillows, etc., projector, dvd player, big screen, grill, and whatever else only to take it all down again in the morning. The boys had a great time just being with dad, hanging out, and sleeping in a tent together. Is he the best dad or what?

Jennifer is still just busy with life. No big news. Nothing new happening here. Piano lessons, housework, (no homework this week - one blessing of STAR testing), cooking dinner, blogging, and date nights are the norm around here.

Trevor (in case you haven't heard) WON 1st PLACE AT Destination Imagination STATE FINALS!! His team is now on their way to Tennessee to compete in the Global Finals. We are currently fundraising like crazy to pay for this trip. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please visit our family blog and click the PayPal button on the top right of your screen. Or, you can donate items to our Yard Sale this Saturday, May 8th, at the kids' school. Stop by and buy some treasures for your home and support Trevor's D.I. team!

Logan is busy playing baseball. He has 2 games (3 hours each) + one practice every week (2 hours) = 8 hours of baseball a week! That's a LOT of ball time! He's still working on his catching and throwing. He is doing really well with his batting - first in the line-up - that's my boy! The best part of the season so far was when the coach realized that Logan was related to Grandpa Louie. Coach then relayed a story from his teenage years: he was out T.P.ing with some fellow deacons and got caught and "arrested" by Officer Duran!

Lizzie lost one of her two front teeth! She was so excited to leave her tooth for the tooth fairy, but she was busy that night. All her cousins assured Lizzie that in fact, the tooth fairy can be VERY busy at times and not to worry - she'd be there the next night for sure. (Thank heavens for cousins!) And yes, the tooth fairy did show the next night. All is well in our 6 year old girl's life.

Jackson is finally pooping on the toilet!! Yes, he is 4 years old now. And yes, he has finally mastered the art of going #2. We all feared the poopy chonis would be with us the rest of his life, but no worries - he's good to GO! (all puns intended here... get it? - good to "GO", *wink wink*)

Waddell's

We're all in good health, minus some colds and lots of reflux still, but we can handle all that. Still in Colorado, still looking for another job and still trying to survive crazy weather out here...

What i really want to say is HELP! I found out that a great Dr friend of mine has a son with cancer that needs some blood donated in his name to the California Blood bank and I knew that my family could help me out in my absence... The child's name is Max Hinton and you can just go down and say that it's for him before you donate and they'll set it aside for his use. He's 6 years old and will need lots of transfusions due to cancer near his kidney and spine. Prognosis looks iffy at this point, but they can use all the blood you can spare. Being out of town, i feel helpless, so if you can and want to please go and donate. Thanks so much, I appreciate you all.

OTHERS April 2010

2010-04-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Waddells

Eric is busy interviewing up a storm. Yes, he is looking for another job while he still has his here in Denver. He's interviewing for a job in Germany, Hawaii and we believe one in Barstow... We'll see how it all goes from here; exciting!

Caralee is busy cleaning up pee and spit up all day long. Lucas is potty training and Violet is a great spitter. We may rename her "Camel" as she spits just like one.

Lucas is very funny lately. He is potty training and loves to go on mommy dates. He also says sometimes that Caralee's food is "UGH DISGUSTING" and then keeps eating it... It's the reaction that he loves. He also likes to strip down to nothing in the middle of the night and pee on his bed. Very funny (sarcasm)...

Violet is getting fat somehow. We wonder how because she spits up almost every ounce that she gets, but she's growing out of her diapers and is getting the cutest rolls! She's now 7 weeks old and can claim only a 4 hour stretch of sleep a night at a time. We're hoping for more by two months! She's so sweet and it's nice to have a sweet baby in comparison to a "funny" two year old. :)

OTHERS March 2010

2010-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Waddell's

Okay, Violet Marilyn Waddell finally graced us with her presence on February 13th weighing in at 5lbs 8oz, 19 inches long; one week early. She is a tiny, sweet thing and we are all excited to have her in our family (Lucas is trying to be happy about her). Labor went well for Caralee and she and baby are doing much better now that a couple weeks have past. If you want all the nitty-gritty details, contact Caralee and ask. We're still in Denver and Eric is actively searching for another job as his is a little boring to him now. Lucas is trying to love his sister, but sometimes finds it hard. He's getting big now and has a rather large vocabulary that he uses to tell us to come play with him and "leave the baby" wherever she is. Silly brother!

VALLEY SCOTTS
Spring is in the air as well as the flu. We have just spent the past few weeks watching the flu pick off each member of the family one by one. We are back on our feet again and grateful to be well.

Mike and Jenn are doing the normal parent routine: Family stuff, school stuff, church stuff, ect.ect.ect... It is so much fun watching the kids get older and move into new adventures and new activities.

Cambria is now a big 12 yr. old. She has enjoyed moving into the Young Womens program, going to her first New Beginnings and is anxiously waiting for Girls Camp. She also spent a week at the Headlands Institute in San Francisco with her 6th grade class. She will be bring alot of fun facts to Pismo this year. At school she is getting ready for the Fresno County History Day competition. She will be performing a play that she wrote on Benjamin Franklin. It will be perfomed on March 20th at Fresno Pacific College. We are all excited for her.

Lydia is on the move again. She has been getting ready for this years track season. She also spends alot of time talking to friends on the phone, listening to music and just having fun.

Brinson has been working on building a robot. He would like this robot to clean his room, but he still is having some trouble getting it to do what he would like it to do. He is also doing well in school and is looking forward to a field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

D.J. is having a great time in pre-school. He can write his name and count to 100. He is also learing to write all of his A,B,C's. In his spare time he is Nacho Libre, the famous wrestler. He runs around the house in his underwear wearing a bright blue cape. He tries to take down anyone and anything that gets in his way.

Devon is happy to be two. He quite often will come up to you, hold up two fingers and say, "I'm two." When you ask him how he is doing he will say, "I'm Devon." Life is one adventure after another for him. He loves to go through the kids rooms and take apart anything he can. He also likes to go through the fridge, Jen's drawer looking for gum and Mike's drawer looking for his wallet. He also likes to ride the dog around the backyard when she will let him.

So life seems to be normal and still a lot of fun.

We look forward to reading about your fun lives as well!

Marshall Noose: by Suzanne

February was a nice month. It wasn't too crazy busy like some months. Over President's Day weekend we drove to Oregon and visited the Oregonians. We had a wonderful visit - saw McKay's new studio that he is developing, went to the Portland Art museum, celebrated Austin and Marissa's birthdays, toured McKay and Amanda's new house that is being built, and generally stayed up too late every night and ate way too much. The perfect weekend!

The next weekend we got to spend with our other grandchildren. The R. Marshall kids stayed with us while Ryan and Kelli went out of town. It was great! Again, we stayed up too late and ate way too much. We have wonderful grandchildren. It is a delight to be with all of them.

Our exciting news is that after over 1 1/2 years "on the bench" (with pay), John has an assignment in Maryland that is starting next week. With the economy downturn, being "on the bench" without an assignment was a scary place to be. It was nice to have him home all that time, but needless to say we are relieved that he was called back to work.

Nancy and I are turning 60 this month and John and I will be celebrating our 38th Wedding Anniversary. Nancy, how did this happen? What happened to the last 20 years? I don't know about you, but I think I am going to have to do something radical to my hair to satisfy my mid-life, old-life? crises. I'm thinking red with blond streaks....

SNOW FLURRY

Hello all you Others. We in Payson, Utah are doing fine. We can hardly believe we are looking forward to a Temple less than 3 blocks from our house. We are trying to be patient, I can't believe how I wish it could hurry up and be built. . .We are all busy, we all have work and school and probably like the majority of people, could use a little more work and more time. Here is a little bit from Tiana: Hello my dear family and friends! Anyway, things have been going pretty well for us here. We are working hard. It is fun.  We got a few new investigators this week- mostly ones that were passed on to us. But that was alright. It is always nice to have lots of investigators. Especially when they can’t meet with you that often. One of the investigators, her name is Olga. She and her son were investigators of the Elders here, and then her son got baptized. The Elders continued teaching her for a while, but they just passed her off to us this week. I am really excited to work with her- I have gotten to know her in the time I’ve been here- she comes to church and English club and all the firesides etc. She is a really awesome lady and her son is making a great member. I hope that we can help her overcome her fears and setback so that she can get baptized soon. She almost got baptized once but… I think there was some fear and doubt etc. She is really good though- reads the BOM regularly etc. As for the weather… sometimes it gets warmer (technically) but as the temperature increases so does the wind.  Haha. Good thing I have chosen to love winter. Last Wednesday we had culture night, and we went to an opera. It was interesting. The opera was not my favorite- but it was fun to be there. Oh guess what! The Opera was in French! Or maybe Italian. And then at the top of the stage they had this little screen where they had it translated into Russian. So it basically required three languages in order to understand that! (the English to make sense of it all in my head). Pretty interesting. Love you all tons! -Sister Tiana Boggs It is great to have families isn't it? We are grateful for good examples, and good friends and loved ones---often coming from FAMILY. Thank you all for your kindness and good examples. We miss you. --those crazy Utah relations (Payson, Ut not Ogden)

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY is busy busy busy with work. He put on a great teacher inservice day this month, went to about 50 principal meetings, and did a presentation at Fresno State for soon-to-be teachers. He also gets to share the gospel with the newest member of our ward. She comes over once a week for a discussion - it has been so wonderful to have this experience for our family.

JENNIFER is rolling with the routine of life. She gets the kids out the door to school, does housework, runs errands, chauffeuring, teaches piano lessons, goes to mutual, does homework with the kids, cooks dinner and all that great stuff.

TREVOR had the biggest news in the family this month. HE WON THE SCIENCE FAIR competition at his school! He is still so elated and feeling good about his win. You can visit our family blog HERE to read more about it.

LOGAN also got some big awards this month. He earned "Student of the Quarter" for his class and was recognized as part of the school's Chess Club. He also started practicing baseball for the first time ever. His team is the Dodgers and will play their first game next week.

LIZZIE is 6 and fabulous. Lizzie loves to do homework and read - she even got to read a level 5 book to the principal! She is still enjoying the mix CD from her birthday party. Lizzie loves to crank up the music, sing, and dance with whoever is over to play.

JACKSON has become a sassy boy over these past few weeks. His spit and vinegar has been dialed up a few notches and is enduring more time-outs because of it. His latest shenanigans include throwing your words back into your face. ex:
Mom: Jackson, if you don't stop ________ then you're going to get a time out!
Jackson: No, YOU get time out!

OTHERS February 2010

2010-02-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Great Scott! The Utah Scotts

What a January we have had here in Utah! Not only did we get to meet the newest McCrary (He is SO cute and SO tiny!) but Nancy came up and visited as well. It was nice to see her, and hear how things are going for them in Texas!

Toni had a death in her family just after Christmas. The bittersweet side to that, was that her sister who also lives in Texas came to visit for almost a week. It was lovely to have her back this January. Toni's loving her job (and glad to have it in this economy!) and for her anniversary present got a Wii, and some fitness games. She's working on this being a healthier year for the whole family.

Ben is settling into his new job as assistant manager at Lumber Liquidators. His boss is super nice, and its something he really enjoys doing. For Ben's anniversary present he got his very first tattoo (and is very excited about that!) and he took Toni to a fun fondue restaurant in Salt Lake City. It was a lovely, romantic evening, and we can't believe it's been 4 years already!

Rebekah is so close to finally being potty trained. We figured out what was slowing her down: a fear of the big potty seat! So a solid weekend of making friends with the big potty seat, and saying "I won't fall in!" over and over, we think she's got it! Hopefully the next newsletter will be a celebration of no more diapers! Bekah is also excited to be in the "big kid" class at her school. She's now upstairs in the preschool and loving it! Circle time, themed parties and counting are some of her favorite things now. Her imagination is just soaring and now she constantly has an imaginary "Grammy" or "Grandpa" in tow.

Hope everyone is as psyched for February as we are!

McKanda Mail

Hello All. This year is off and running for Amanda and me! We're both working long weeks and boarding up the windows on the weekends. Amanda was just promoted at the Nike Foundation's Girl Hub. She's helping adolescent girls in 3rd world countries and making a difference in the world. Last week her passport came in the mail, and next month she may be in London! Wow, really?! Crazy.

I am viciously pushing my new studio forward (www.theclink.tv) and landed some big clients like Adidas and Wacom– which is pretty exciting. I'll be moving into the new space sometime this month after a few more trips to the Apple store, Ikea, and maybe West Elm (Manda get's the credit for the last one... she's got mad interior chops). The studio is in Oregon City and should be pretty fun. Whenever you are in the Portland area, stop by for a visit!

We're busy with church as Priest Quorum and Beehive advisors; I just spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday; Amanda just threw a life-sized game of Candyland for Mutual; Went to a Trailblazers game and watched them get slaughtered by Utah; Helped some friends move; stopped off for some Yo-Cream (highly recommended); Considered taking down the Christmas decor; Played some racquetball; Cooked an Acorn Squash (with minimal success); Consolidated my student loans... That's about it.

Here is a picture of our little guy! Thought you all might want to see what he looks like. A friend of mine took these photos and made up the announcements.

Carolyn

Rabilin & Family
Hello-I guess it is past time for a Loveland-Boggs family newsletter. We are doing well, a few colds maybe but no extraordinary aches or pains.We are all in school, and have a least part time jobs. We have food to eat and a place to live and guess what??? The newest announced Temple is 3 blocks from my house. We are all so very excited. Mathias thinks we should open a "Cold stone Ice Cream Franchise, so that people will have someplace to get their ice cream (a tradition when you go to Provo Temple is to visit BYU Creamery for ice cream) -- anyone want to help us? Or else he said I have to keep the freezer stocked. School is quite challenging for me, and yet it is good :) We wish we could hop over and see all you wonderful people in Fresno Area and other areas too.

I am sending along Tiana's last letter--and reminded of how grateful we are for all the people who have helped support missionaries--unsung heroes, we will not mention any names here. I am very challenged by my computer class--blogs, wiki and etc. Wow. Wish I had time to play on the computer and really learn some of these things. . .Mathias is recovering very well--from a broken collar bone, (playing football with his friends of course). He is having a very hard time staying away from sports and we hope he does not hurt/break it again. Well, other than being grateful for Family I have nothing else to say....except watch out, Mathias is going for his drivers license tomorrow. Stay off the roads and sidewalks!

Feb 03, 2010 12:37 AM

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Hey everybody!

Hows it going? I hope everything is well. I feel like I start my e-mails almost exactly

the same ever week- sorry about that. Kinda lame. Well anyway, maybe if I think all

this week I can come up with some more creative beginning for next week... :)

Well, first off... Tranfers. Dun dun dun. This tranfer I think every sister

companionship in the mission had a change! Kinda crazy. Well, I am staying here in

Novosibirsk- on my nice little (huge) right bank. My companion is also staying in Novo.

But she is going to be serving on Left Bank. (I think this is the first time any sister

in this mission has gotten a transfer but stayed in the same city!) Anyway, she will be

taking Sister Gneiting's place. By the way- I can't believe that they are separating me

and Sister Gneiting! She was my companion in the MTC and we have been

"together" since July! :( Sad day. She will be serving in Irkutsk. My new

companion is Sister Mitchell III (the third sister mitchell to serve here)!! She is two

transfers older than me- goes on our visa trips with us- and is an American. She is also

from Utah- some little farm out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently she doesn't even

live in a town or anything. :) Kinda fun. She got here this morning and we picked her

up from the train station. I am excited to serve with her- although she said her Russian

got worse last transfer because even though she was serving with a Russian they always

spoke english together (kinda like me and my comp maybe). Anyway, it will be

interesting. I have to show her around here... and I just hope she can read Russian maps

better than I can. If not... it'll be a little bit of an adventure. But anyway... I am

excited.

Sometimes I still can't believe I am on a mission (in Russia of all places).

Missionaries are these people that everyone looks up to... and I guess I never really

thought I'd be one. It is interesting.

This past week or two I keep having these experiences that make me go- "man I am

sick of this language barrier! I think I would be a much more effective missionary if I

could understand what this person was saying... or if I could explain the answer to their

question..." etc etc etc. But don't worry- it has been more of a drive to do better

at learning the language than a "i give up I'm never gonna get this." It helps

me want to do better and study better and learn more. I mean, I can understand a lot of

what is going on, but... not enough! I know I have to have patience and keep working at

it- so I will. By the way, did I mention it is hard to make small talk? It is... And I

was thinking about it today... it is hard to know what to study to make small talk. If

you are talking about what they do at work... or what they like to do for fun or

something.. that is a HUGE variety of words! Kinda tricky to know which ones to choose

in advance. Just something I notice. Anyway... Those are some of my random thoughts for

the day.

One of our investigators, Nastia, came back from her "vacation"! It was really

exciting to see her and be able to meet with her again. She is such a sweet girl and we

took her to family night at a member's home. This family, by the way- is awesome! The

mom is pregnant with her fifth child (which is unheard of around here). They are so

strong and just an awesome family. So they are great to take investigators to. It was

good. We did the spiritual though- one that Erin told me about strenthening families- it

is from the war chapters- Alma 50:1-6. They were pretty impresssed- so thanks Erin! :)

Well, have a great week everyone! Thats all for now. Over and out!

-Sister Boggs

WARD WIDE WEB
2010 has begun at the Ward house! We kicked it off with a bang - our annual tradition of the Polar Bear Plunge. (Notice there are no dads there in that line-up. Ahem.)

Trevor and Logan competed in this year's Pinewood Derby and each were so proud of their car designs. Trevor's was the Blue & Gold Truck (Cub Scout colors) and Logan's was a yellow school bus!

Lizzie turned 6 years old! And celebrated with a wing dinger of a birthday party. 25 little kids running crazy through the house for 2 1/2 hours was SO MUCH FUN!

Jackson got a chance to work on his putting skills at the miniature golf place. This boy loves his sports - golf, bowling, driving the car down the street...

Jeremy and Jennifer are back into the full swing of life - routine days full of work, and kids. We do enjoy about 40 minutes of TV together a couple nights a week (yay for PSYCH, White Collar, LOST, and Chuck!) and go out on Saturday nights for some dinner.

OTHERS January 2010

2010-01-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

No entries this month.

OTHERS December 2009

2009-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

MOTSCHIEDLER MADNESS

November was a whirlwind. We filmed a holiday commercial for my school on channel 47 to air through December. Watch for us if you're local.

Ken and I met with a landscaper to design our backyard after some failed attempts at it ourselves. We can't wait to get the project started and then finished!!

For thanksgiving we had a turkey feast with the Motschiedler family and had a cuz and wife stay with us from Utah. We watched football and played Killer Uno til we couldn't think straight.

Ken and I started an intense workout (called P90x for those that have heard of it). We couldn't walk for a couple of days but now we have it down and are enjoying it.

December is here and we're looking forward to all the parties and events it brings.

LA FAMILIA DURAN
Thanksgiving this year was awful! We didn't have any leftovers and thought we were going to die. Jennifer's table was beautiful, the food was delicious, the company and the games we played were very entertaining but, when we got home at the end of the day and didn't have any gravy or turkey or pumpkin pie in the house - AWFUL! Hope yours was the same - just awful like ours.

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY had a week off at Thanksgiving and it was wonderful to have him home. He got all kinds of house and car projects done, put up Christmas lights, helped with all the housework and decorating for Thanksgiving, did some SERIOUS Black Friday shopping with his sweetheart, and got to see 2 movies at the theater.

JENNIFER got to decorate for a fall themed wedding. She worked with her sister-in-law, Kari, and had a great time fussing with everything fall. Cornstalks, pumpkins, pomegranates, persimmons, gold toulle, and gold berries galore!

TREVOR sang in his first choir festival ever! He's the cute brown haired boy in the front row on the left. Check out his mouth wide open and that concentration! His choir did an excellent job with their 2 songs - one of them was in Latin and they scored extra points for it's level of difficulty.

LOGAN's soccer season has come to an end. He had a great season - played hard, had fun, and thought he was on top of the world whenever he scored a goal during a game.

LIZZIE's soccer season has also come to an end. The highlight was having daddy as one of her coaches. She also got to play a game at Chuckchansi Park where she received a "Gold Medal" for playing!

JACKSON loves bowling. He asks at least once a week, "Mommy, we go bowling?" And finally we got to go! The day before Thanksgiving is our traditional bowling night. Jackson was in heaven! He never missed a turn and never once dropped that ball on his foot. Check out his cool bowling shoes!! He was so proud to wear those things.

OTHERS November 2009

2009-11-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

MARSHALL NOOSE

by Suzanne

We have had an eventful October. I went out of town with friends to cabin in Sonora for a weekend Girl's Getaway, then barely escaped having jury duty the next week. We hosted a "Newcomer's Potluck" for all the new people in our ward and also threw a big Halloween Party for 300 in our church parking lot. We had a dunk tank, carnival games, and all the chili and hotdogs you could down. Our little local family got together for a pumpkin carving bash. Mini McKay's pumpkin took 2nd place at their ward party, as did his costume. The Ryan Marshall costumes were wonderful! Garrett was Peter Pan, Kelli was Wendy, Brooklynn was Tiger Lily, Maddy was Tinker Bell, McKay was Captain Hook, and Ryan was the funniest. He was John. Looked real cute in his night shirt, black hat and big round glasses. John wore his wet suit and scuba gear (in anticipation of being in the dunk tank), I was the Cat in the Hat, Allyson was dressed in 80's fashion, and Ken came as himself. He was the scariest!

In the midst of our Halloween festivities we celebrated Ken's Birthday with a delicious birthday dinner at Ken and Allyson's house.

We are gearing up for the holidays! Planning on a trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving, so there will be no Turkey Bowl this year for the first time in about 30 years! I'm just about finished with my Christmas shopping. Are you?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Motschiedler Madness

October was Ken's birthday (the big 4-0!!!) so I surprised him with a long weekend in Yosemite. We had a romantic dinner and then spent the next day hiking. It was a beautiful, sunny day andthe falls were flowing from the recent rainfall. We ended the day with massages back at the spa and drove home to have pizza and a movie. It was perfect.

Allyson had a lot of fun dressing up for halloween on two days at the school. (Check us out onFacebook - search for Bluff View in Fresno.)

She even managed to stay in costume for a pumpkin carving festival at the parental's. Check her out with Snorkel Bob:

Now on to the next month of fun, parties and more food! Peace out.

La Familia Duran

by Elizabeth

Gramma Wars. The “other gramma” wanted to take MY grandkids trick or treating so I devised a plan to sabotage her. I encouraged my grandkids to overload on the candy that they had gotten the night before at the ward social. “Here kids, eat some more of your candy, these ones are really good.” Four kids on a sugar high, that should deter her from encroaching on MY TIME with MY grandkids.

Devious thoughts. Worked too. THEY. WERE. CRAZY. Seems the “other gramma” is better at these Gramma Wars than I am. I know because the “other gramma” bailed at the last minute and so I got to keep the sweet darlings. Hmmmmmm. And a Happy Halloween to you too!Actually it was really fun being with everyone and doing all the Halloween stuff. Even the throw up part was okay cause Louie cleaned it up. Now on to the next activity: SHOPPING! Only 50 more days till Christmas!

WARD WIDE WEB

Jeremy's school won the National Blue Ribbon Award! He got to take a trip to Washington D.C. to collect his award and took Jennifer along for the ride. Check out the family blog to see pictures and watch short video clips from the trip. wearethewards.blogspot.com

Jennifer had a birthday in October! She turned the ripe ol' age of 31 and celebrated with the family. Check out her new birthday present - a new bike!

Trevor and Logan had a blast one Saturday at the bike park out behind Woodward Park. There is a track with lots of hills for bicycles. Check out their moves!

Jackson had a great Halloween. He got to dress up 3 times this year! Once was for preschool when he got to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. And who else would he dress up as than a Thomas the Train character.

Lizzie carved a Jack Skellington jack-o-lantern for Halloween this year. It turned out really cute! She is our sweet girl that loves all things Tim Burton style - her favorite movies are The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride.

OTHERS October 2009

2009-10-05T09:25:00.001-07:00

Samuel was the first one to send in a submission for this month's newsletter and here it is! A picture of him working at his new job - Jamba Juice. Doesn't he look official in his visor and apron washing those dirty dishes?

WARD WIDE WEB

JEREMY took the family down to southern California for a whirlwind fun weekend! He took us to the beach, to the LaBrea Tar Pits and to the LA Temple. Here's a sample of the tar pits in action!

JENNIFER is having a fabulous time working with the Young Women. She works with a great group of ladies that work so hard to make a good experience for the girls.

TREVOR turned 10 in September. He celebrated the same way he did last year - with an awesome party at LASER QUEST!

LOGAN is our soccer superstar. He scored the first goal of the season for his team.

LIZZIE is loving kindergarten! She got to be superstar of the week last week and got to make a poster picture collage to share with her class. Here is her 3 month baby picture that made it onto her poster.

JACKSON finally started his own Joy School! Here he is with some of the boys in his group. They are a fun bunch of kids.

OTHERS September 2009

2009-09-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

McKanda Mail

Summer is ending and Amanda and I are celebrating by working really hard. I'm down in Oregon City helping an investor get a Motion Graphics company off the ground, and Manda is working at the Nike World Campus for the Nike Foundation. To learn more about the Nike Foundation go here, and to learn more about Motion Graphics go here. Amanda is also working weekends shooting and assisting at various weddings around the Portland area. Last week she was privileged to participate in her first lesbian wedding, and we are all so proud of her (and by participate I mean take pictures and stuff... just didn't want you to get the wrong idea). A bit foreign, but the pay is good.

We also recently went to the state fair, and before that Ryan came up for a little guy time in the mountains, and before that we bought a VW Passat, and before that I went white water rafting with the venture scouts. You can read all about it on our blog found here.

So there you have it. I'm working, and Amanda is working.

much love,

McKay and Amanda

LA FAMILIA DURAN

We thought we had nothing to do this August cause there was nothing written in on our calendar, so we made plans to scrape all the popcorn off the ceiling in the family room. Thank goodness Jordan stepped up and did it for us cause August hit us like a storm, one big wave after another.

We all helped with the YSA Conference, Louie did security and ushering, (he thought it was way cool that he got to wear his gun at church and guard all the money) the rest of us (ThomasAmyJenniferJeremyMarcosMelodyJordanSamuelTimmyMicaElizabeth) helped with the dance and other activities. Big job. Thanks to John and Suzanne for the assignment and to all for making it such a success. It's just nice to know that you can depend on family.

We added a new member to the "Antonio Club" in our family. (Louie, Marcos, Trevor, and now Mason are members of that club!) Our beautiful Mason Antonio Duran was born August 14, but had to stay in ICU for a few days so we all worried and fretted over this new little guy and his new mama and daddy. Melody had to have an emergency C section and was a wreck, Mason had problems with his lungs working - you do need to be able to breath if you want to live, and Marcos forgot how to sleep. Mason is 3 weeks old now and all seem to be on the mend. Mason is sooooooo cute.

Louie was released from Worker’s Comp and went back to work. Before going back to work though, he took Trevor and Logan fishing a couple of times and out to to eat to the Dam Diner. Hmmmm, the place with all kinds of bad words on the menu, just what every elementary kid needs to learn. Anyway, Louie thinks he has to make up for all the overtime he has missed since October. Think he has worked 60 or so overtime hours in the last two weeks. Really.

Samuel moved to Sacramento to go to school. He downsized everything he owned by selling or giving away all his stuff and then putting as much as would fit in his car and the rest in our garage. He got a job in Sacramento working at Jamba Juice a few hours a week and has been exploring the area - a park on a river with a wharf you can walk onto out over the river - sounds beautiful!

Jordan had a car accident. Backed into someone who backed into him in the parking lot. Not much damage. Just one more thing to add to the "stress level" of the month.

Mica and Elizabeth started school. School is good for both. Mica got all her classes and is liking them. Elizabeth gets to work in math this year. Hallelujah - no more science!

By the way, Jordan did a great job on the ceiling. The popcorn is all gone. Wonder what is going to happen in September?

OTHERS August 2009

2009-08-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Pismo Cousins 2009

Great Scott!
Ben, Toni and Rebekah

It's been a while since we've updated everyone! We've been having a really fun and eventful summer.

Ben recently got a new job at PetSmart as a department manager. He's liking it pretty well, still looking for something a little better, the hours have him out a lot, mandatory overtime and opening and closing shifts. It's nice having him working full time again though.

Rebekah is in Preschool, and loves every day. She always asks if we can go to school, even on the weekends. I'm so glad we have her in a place that she loves so much. Potty training is slow, and as she's passed 2 1/2 now, I'm really starting to get frustrated. Hopefully something will click and it'll happen before the winter.

We also recently moved into a house out in Magna, UT which is where I (Toni) grew up! My mom lives just a couple blocks away, and Rebekah is loving being so close to her Grammy. Our house is wonderful, two bedrooms with a big living room and den. The backyard is the best part, it's huge and we have a huge covered porch off the garage. We've already had a big barbeque and there was plenty of room for all. I've posted pictures on the family blog, you'll probably just have to go back to July to see them, and I put our family picture of the three of
us on our front porch above.

We hope all is well, and hope to see you all at Pismo next year!

Waddell's
Well, I don't know if you all heard the news yet, but we're pregnant with number two, about 12 weeks along and we're moving into a rental house near Denver, CO. Much better than our three story apartment that is small confining! We're calling in all moving favors, so if we've ever helped you move, we expect you to come out here and help us down the three flights of stairs with all of our things. See you all this Saturday!

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY & JENNIFER took a day to go hiking. Just the two of us. We went up to Chilnualna Falls in Yosemite - 4.5 miles in + 4.5 miles out = sore legs for a week. The falls were beautiful, the one on one time was much needed, and it was all worth that soreness.

TREVOR was the fishing KING this summer! He got his fill at Family Camp in Shaver and at Pismo offf the pier. He caught around 15 fish this season!

LOGAN turned into a muscle man mermaid one of the days we were on the beach. That sand felt so warm and cozy that he almost fell asleep while daddy dug the sand all around him, molded, and shaped for about 30 minutes.

LIZZIE was the boogieboard princess at Avila this year. She really got into it! She stayed out there for hours with and without a wetsuit. Does she look like she's having fun?

JACKSON almost got eaten by a pelican! We were hanging out on the pier, this pelican was sitting on the railing, Jackson went over to pick up his candy off the ground - right under where the pelican was sitting, the pelican reached down and wrapped his beak around Jackson's head! Jackson pulled away and the pelican flew off!
Thankfully, Jackson was ok. His mama had a small heart attack, but quickly recovered also.

OTHERS July 2009

2009-07-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

WADDELL's
We're in DENVER now! The expected 16 hour trip turned into a 36 hour trip somehow. We managed to underestimate how slow you drive in a huge truck pulling a trailer through crazy terrain and up to 11000 ft elevation. We all crammed into the cab of the penske and watched countless movies and ate countless snacks. Lucas did remarkably well and the hardest part was coaxing him back into the cab after stops. Luckily bribing him with the keys to the things for a few minutes did the trick. He felt powerful trying to drive it! We're in a small, nice apartment on the THIRD FLOOR and are looking for a nice BIG house to rent with a yard on the ground. Caralee is tired of carrying milk and Lucas up the stairs and the altitude here isn't helping her breathe better after such a feat! Eric likes his job and enjoys being outside all day long. Caralee packs his lunch everyday and thinks that he eats more food than two adults do in an entire day for that one meal! He has a nice neck tan now. We may be coming to Pismo, but may not as well depending on Eric's work schedule. We'll definitely be in town for a few short days at the end of July though. We miss Fresno a ton and can't wait to see you all again!

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY got to ride along with the scouts in our ward for a hike to Half Dome in Yosemite. (He was released from this calling a couple of months ago, but loves hiking - he couldn't pass up this opportunity.)
JENNIFER fell off the face of the internet in June. School got out and we've been busy, Busy, BUSY with activities, chores and outings. (Check out those FREE MOVIES at Regal Theaters on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday if you haven't already.) We are too busy having fun!

TREVOR did Cub Scout Day Camp in June. Logan and Trevor both started water polo last month. They love the sport already and that alone makes their daddy so proud.
LOGAN got baptized the first week of June and is LOVING being 8! EIGHT IS GREAT! Trevor and Logan got to go together to Cub Scout Day Camp and had a blast shooting off rockets, fishing and shooting bows and arrows.
LIZZIE swam like a champ in her swim lessons. She was the smallest kid in the class, but she was also the fastest and strongest swimmer! She beat out all those big kids in every race! Way to go Lizzie!

JACKSON started swim lessons for the summer. He did a 2-week basic beginner course and did not pass. He was the biggest chicken! He had a few more lessons at home with daddy and is finally doing great! He's gotten over his swimming fear and is ready to conquer the pool. Now if only we could convince him to conquer the potty-training....

MCCRARY NEWS
You know that this was Jacob's very first Pinewood Derby. So here are the pictures I took along the way. He had so much fun doing it with his dad and he told me that he wants me to have a baby boy so we can do it even more times. He called his car "THE STINGER". You will see why. He didn't win but he had a ton of fun and won a certificate for "The Best Body Style." He didn't stop moving almost all night long while we were there. He was running back and forth or just standing in place bouncing up and down out of sheer excitement. It was so funny and so cute to see him that excited about something. He LOVES cub scouts.

OTHERS June 2009

2009-06-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Texas Scott News:
We are all doing fine! Its another month???? I (nancy) looked at the Boggs' sibling picture in the newsletter after Michael's funeral and discovered that I am now the shortest one of the siblings? Does that mean I am next? Today, June 1st is the first day of Hurricane season. Nothing has changed except that we had Vidor, TX graduations this last Saturday. I am still working and looking forward to Pismo..... John is still taking care of me so I can work and go to Pismo. Our Boy Scouts are all going to Philmont this month. Not to pismo! John had a cat that adopted him. John now feeds the cat too. It is not going to Pismo. Jody and kids are back from England. Living in Houston. They want to go to Pismo too! Well I guess this is all for now! See you at Pismo. Pismo is after Jacobs baptism which is June 6th. Wow! Another 8 year old! Way to go Jacob!

Waddell's
We're moving, it's been approved! As of June 16th, we'll be Colorado-ite's and no longer Californian's. We're driving the 16 hour trek, so wish our car and our child well. We'll so sad to leave everyone, but just think, when you're in Denver you can always come by for a visit! We can't wait to get out of the heat and into a town with even more stuff to do than Fresno, but I dread the snow! Oh well, it's the price you pay for clean air I suppose.

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took the family for a day trip to Yosemite. We had a great time marveling at the magnificent waterfalls and going for bike rides. This trip satisfied one of the items on Jeremy's "life list" - the family bike ride. Each of us on our own bike. He's waited his whole life for that moment and it finally happened! Jeremy put together a great video of that trip click HERE to watch.
JENNIFER got to tag along on Jeremy's work trip to Anaheim for the California Distinguished School Award. Jeremy and Jennifer went ALONE, with no children, to stay at the Disneyland Hotel and do the theme parks. It was a much needed getaway for both. The grandparents were fabulous, taking the kids, while Jeremy and Jennifer were away. The highlights of the trip were eating at the Blue Bayou cafe (the restaurant in Pirates of the Caribbean) and using those Fast Passes to walk past those long lines right up to the front.
TREVOR ran in 2 track meets this month. He did the shot put at one meet and did the 800 meter run at both. He did great and met his goals to run the whole race and not stop once. Click HERE to read all about it!
LOGAN is EIGHT! He celebrated with an awesome American Gladiators themed birthday party. It was a wild and crazy time with almost 30 kids running amok in the backyard. And, No, those are not gangsters - it was the RED team vs. the BLUE team. [Check your email inbox for Logan's baptism announcement for this weekend.]
LIZZIE finished off a great year of Joy School. Last month she got to do some super fun things - a trip to the zoo and making homemade Green Gage Plum jam for Mother's Day were 2 highlights. She is sooo looking forward to kindergarten. Lizzie loved learning and spending good time with her friends Sarah and Preston.
JACKSON started gymnastics. He has been longing for his very own activity. We found a class for his age group that meets the same time as Lizzie's. It was perfect! Click HERE to read all about it and watch a short video or 2 from his class.

OTHERS May 2009

2009-05-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

============NEWSLETTERS==========

Waddell's
We are all alive and Eric is home! It's been a year year and now he's home to stay and is looking for a civilian job now believe it or not! Lucas is thoroughly enjoying having a permanent playmate and Daddy around to play with and Caralee is glad to have her husband home after all this time. We'll come home from our visit to KY on the 8th of May and after that we'll be out and ready to hang.

TEXAS SCOTTS:
We are doing well in our new home. Jody, kids and dogs have moved to England to a new job. Jody stated it is cold in England and they have a curfew. She is working for KBR. Other then that they are doing well. John is now working in the Houston Temple once a week. He still plays in his band, fishes, is gardening and teaching gardening to members in the ward here in Vidor. He has made 24 pints of strawberry jam and picked and made blackberry jam. We have a pond when the big storms come through but we are still high and dry with all this rain. We have knee boots now! Schools in Houston, Ft Worth and San Antonio are closed for Swine flu. Nancy is working and has most of the house unpacked this month.

John/Nancy Scott

John Marshall Noose - by Suzanne:

We are grateful that our life is fairly uneventful! We have loved visiting with different family members these past few weeks. We've enjoyed company from out of town, seeing family at Michael's funeral and attending different family events and parties. It has been great to see all of you.

John is still at home waiting for a work assignment. He is keeping busy with his woodworking, house painting and of course.... golf. Lots of golf. Lots. Suzanne is working (does that seem fair?!), redecorating, and not playing golf.

We were released from our team-teaching Primary calling, and called to be co-Activities Chairmen. Our first activity is this weekend. If it fails I'm thinking that we will only get a lecture from the Bishop and not get released. We are wondering if our marriage can survive working together on activities (parties) for the ward?!! Our marriage survived the primary team-teaching, but this?! What was the Bishop thinking?!

We love you all, and are looking forward to getting together this summer. Let's have a couple of family reunions!

Hey everyone! (From Tiana)
Last night my family gathered around (in person, or via phone) to witness the opening of my long awaited Mission Call!!

Are you ready to hear? Drum Roll Please...

I have been called to serve as a missionary in the Russia Novosibirsk Mission, Russian speaking! I will report to the MTC on July 15.

I am very excited to be able to teach the gospel, and to learn so many wonderful tings, and meet so many wonderful people.

It is great to know that I have a big family out there who loves me! Thank you for all your love and support!

- Sister Tiana Boggs

OTHERS April 2009

2009-04-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

============NEWSLETTERS==========

McCrary News,

written by Carolyn

John: has been to Utah, Idaho, Montana and Spokane several times. He came home early when the basement flooded, moved all the furniture out of three rooms with the help of friends, tore out what was left of the carpet pad and relayed the new pad in the three rooms and hallway after the carpet and floor dried and was sealed up again, painted two bedrooms, transplanted many of our raspberry vines so they are in a straight row and not so close to the fence, cleaned and reorganized the garage, took out part of the chain link fence, then re-cemented in the posts on the back of the house so we can put a gate there instead of on the middle of the driveway, pulled weeds in the garden that are still alive from last fall, planted two new peach trees and fertilized all our fruit trees, pulled a tooth, helped a friend relay all the carpet and then helped put everything back in the basement in a new location according to my directions. What a great guy!

Katelin: went to achievement days and learned how to ???, I can’t remember right now what she learned, but it was really fun. Got good grades on her 3^rd quarter report card. She also tried out for a few different solos in the school choir and is waiting to hear if she got any of them. She took charge of a lemonade stand and earned $5.00 in which she went to Wal-Mart and bought stick on fingernails. They were French manicure. Oooooh ! Beautiful! She helped paint her bedroom and after the furniture got put back in she cleaned out both her closets in her room which is an amazing feat and the thrift store loves us now. She went shopping with mom and bought new fleece blankets for her room and pretty sheets to match with a soft fuzzy pink pillow. Now all she needs is curtains and wall décor. It’s a great start.

Jacob: lost his first tooth. I told him that if he let daddy pull it out that I would give him $5.00. Well, it took a while, but he let daddy pull it out. It was very stressful. Then he put his tooth under his pillow that night and the tooth fairy brought him four quarters. You need to read our blog about his tooth. http://mccrarylife.blogspot.com/ He doesn’t really know what he wants to do with the money so he is saving it for now. I actually paid up and gave him the five bucks…from John’s wallet. (Not making that kind of deal again.) His other tooth is loose now and he asked me the other day if I would give him $3.00 if he let daddy pull that tooth. I said no. Jacob also got good grades on his 3^rd quarter report card. Woohoo! Jacob had this to say about what he did the other day, “ I was rolling a rock, like, not really a rock, but it looked clear and sparkly, in the bathtub.” Don’t ask. I don’t know what he is really talking about either, but it must have been fun and now everyone knows that he took at least one bath this month.

Ella: dumped pink bubbles on her bedroom carpet, orange jell-o on the carpet in the kitchen, smooshed play dough into the carpet, breathed heavy so she could see her breath and licked the front storm door several times, wore various outfits daily (none of which matched) but she knows she is a princess, climbed up the shelves in her closet and threw all her clothes on the floor, opened up a box of Scooby Doo bandaids and shared them with her friend next door in which they managed to cover their legs and one for each hand, then they took them off and put them on the walls, sofa, floor and bed frame, continuously gets caught using the sofa and loveseat as gymnastic equipment and trampolines, wrote her name backwards on her little tikes table with a pencil, redecorated her yellow and white dresser using a black crayon, pulled too hard on the tape measure and broke it with her friend next door, convinced the same friend next door to use colored sidewalk chalk on her toy wooden kitchen and pantry and then climb on top of them to color the walls (she must have forgotten we have a chalkboard), used a pencil on the inner etching of the panels on her three panel closet doors (it’s still there), had a pretend tea party in her room with the twins down the street but seemed to forget that you don’t really put water in the cups. Ella did a lot of cleaning this month as well.

Carolyn: threw all the bubbles away she could find, hasn’t made anymore jello, keeps the front door locked up high, threatened to throw away all Ella’s clothes, moved what’s left of the bandaids and other medicine to the top of the kitchen cupboard and above the washer and dryer way up high, threatens to put Ella out front in the snow if she jumps on the couches again, has confiscated all pencils, and the crayons and chalk are on top of the fridge. I love my carpet cleaner and my magic erasers. Oh no! I forgot to buy a new box of magic erasers today when I went to Wal-Mart. On top of that helped clean up the flood in the basement, helped paint Jacob and Katelin’s bedrooms, went through all their clothes and toys with them before putting them back in their rooms, reorganize our food storage, made a lot of thank you gifts for all our neighbors that helped when the basement flooded and am learning how to use facebook. I seriously can’t wait for spring break.

Two questions: Am I the last one on earth to get on facebook? AND Does anyone want a cute little princess for a week or so?

Carolyn McCrary

Michael: Son, Brother, Father, Uncle

2009-03-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Michael passed away on February 5, 2009

His funeral services were held on Thursday, February 12th, 2009.

His son, Jamin shared some thoughts at the funeral.*

Thank you all for coming today. Your support in being here means the world to us, and we look forward to swapping stories and memories with you after the service.

Today I would like to share with you the most important thing my father ever taught me. But before we dive into that story let me preface my thoughts by saying this. My father and I often did not see eye to eye, nor did we always understand each other, but we loved each other. I know this is true because he is the only person who ever broke my heart. Now with that said I will return to my story.

I am not going to tell you some quaint anecdote given to me on the end of a pier fishing at dawn, or a stoic statement muttered with his last breath. Instead I offer you a worldview I know to be true. My dad was cursed, cursed to die! You may ask, how can man who spent his life being a missionary, a pastor, and a defender of defenseless children be cursed? Surly a man of so many good works hangs in the positive of universal justice. What could he possibly do to get cursed? His curse is not the result of some horrible crime done in the dark of night, in fact his curse is the result of something outside his control...he was born. Now before you think too ill of me let me say I am cursed just as my father, and so are you. This should not strike us as scandalous, we all know that some day we too will die, and someone else will have to suffer our loss as we suffer dad's today... and why you ask, SIN.

In Romans 5:12, we read;
“sin entered the world through one man, and through sin - death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.”

What hope is there for us cursed sinners, for all of us who are promised death? Simply Christ Jesus alone. Just as God has promised death for all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, He has promised eternal life for all whom, by grace through faith, repent and believe that Christ death propitiates for our sin. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23
The good news is, all that Gods law requires is given by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-10 says,
"For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as result of WORKS, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God PREPARED BEFOREHAND so that we would WALK IN THEM."

Christ offers you eternal life. When one has eternal life, that Christian will live forever, and because of the gift of faith he or she will never die.

In (John 8:51) we read .
Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

(John11:26)and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Eternal death has no hold or authority over such a Christian

(Rev. 20:6) tells us.
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Death has been forever conquered by Christ's death and resurrection

(Is. 25:8)
He will swallow up death forever;  and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,  and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,  for the LORD has spoken.

1 Cor. 15:53-57;
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:   "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(2 Tim. 1:9-10).
God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, Death can now no more touch the believer in Christ than it could touch the exalted Lord Christ in all His heavenly glory.

(Heb. 2:14-15)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

(Heb. 9:26-28).
For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Eternal life now envelops the follower of Christ forever.

Romans 8:38,39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is my heritage. This is the legacy that my father has left me, this is the legacy I hope to pass on to my children. Christ was crucified for sinners like me and the promise of eternal life in Christ. And I hope that some day at my funeral my children will stand in front of a room full of people who took the time to come and remember the man who took time from his life to make theirs better, for Christ sake. And they will say come join us in eternity, please come join us in Christ, I want you to see my father and to meet his father.

The greatest thing my father ever taught me was beautifully summed up by our church fathers like this: I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

In closing I would like to paraphrase a prayer for us that a friend offered up for me. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Lord, comfort us right now. We see and feel the effects of the Fall even now. I thank You that Jesus, our Man of Sorrows, familiar with death and suffering, knows how we feel. I pray that You would grant comfort to us, and to our families. May the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and His conquering of death cause us to look forward to that Great Day of our Lord's Return, when death, the ugly intruder that it is, will be swallowed up by life. Amen.

*If anyone would like to share another story or memory of Michael please feel free to leave it here in the comments or send an email to Jennifer to share with the family.

Michael's Funeral Slideshow

2009-03-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

OTHERS March 2009

2009-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

============NEWSLETTERS==========

FRESNO BOGGS - 2^nd month in a row!

JONATHAN has been working, hiking, working, walking on the treadmill, working, doing church work, working and working some more. He needs to get a life. We spent 3 wonderful days in Monterey celebrating our 21^st anniversary. It was great and relaxing (and I did not work). Thank goodness for free hotel nights from traveling for work.

CLAUDIA: Maybe if I start backwards this month I can remember what I’ve done. Jonathan and I had a very nice stay in Monterey this weekend. We walked around all the shops and enjoy the beautiful bay. We went to the Monarch Butterfly Grove and saw reindeer instead of butterflies. We enjoyed the rain. Went to church-it was amazing the ward members were all on time. As we drove out after Sacrament meeting the cars were parked along the long drive way, double parked in the parking lot and lining the street which was on a steep grade—good reason to be on time. 21 years together and still having a “wonderful” time. I was asked to speak at Enrichment on my relationship with Jonathan and specifically our communication skills; which was nice, reflecting and evaluating our relationship. Seminary and work are going well. I’m glad we had the chance to attend Michael’s funeral and to visit with family. Three stages of his life joined as one. We will miss him.

CHELSY: Well lets see.....Not much has changed since last month. I've been working more hours (thankfully) at work do to the unfortunate loss of our copy and print manager....I think I have done more copy jobs in the last week then I did in all of Jan. and the first half of Feb. I'm sooooo happy now that I can have texting (its coming soon). Other than that everything else is the same. According to my bishopric I have become a little social butterfly. I am spending almost more time out of the house than in it. I spend most of my time with 3 of my best girlfriends watching movies, going to the mall, having hot tub parties, going to dances, and staying out late....expect on Sunday-Thurs. (mom and dad re-instated my curfew :,( i guess i stayed out too late a few too many times). Oh and one last and final thing. I am soooooooooo looking forward to my b-day in just a couple weeks cause i will finally be out of the -teens....Im turning 20!!!!!!!!!! :P

ASHLEY is now especially excited for life. I have it all planned out… well, sorta… at least now I have goals. Well, starting with what’s happening now, I am in a musical for my stake! I am one of four dancers, (two of which have been dancing sense almost diapers, YIKES) and im lovin it! I can now officially drop flat into a perfect split (that’s hard) I am now confident enough to throw my body into the air at crazy speeds (UH OH) I can easily do the vertical splits (takes a lot of balance) and do all that while smiling =) whew… so you should all come to the musical to watch me and david! The performances are on: Saturday March 14, at 5:30 and 7:00 and again on Sunday March 15 at 6:30. so be there! (perfect chance to laugh at me if you want)

So as for my school life, its going pretty cool. And I have officially decided that I want to get my Ph. D. in Nutrition by the time im 32. I think that’s a pretty good goal. One that im going to have to work hard for. So that’s me in a nutshell (literally) Oh, and Caralee, thanks for the FUN day. It definitely was exciting!

DAVID: So... like ashley i'm in the stake musical except i'm not one of the dancers. i'm a premortal. yep a premortal. i'm going to be above stage level with three other people... =D School is ok. today the freshmen at edison registered for their classes and my electives were (in order from most wanted to less wanted) AP Music Theory, French 1 (i'm switching from German), and theater 1. i only get one elective unless i take marching band which takes place of p.e. band is a seventh period so i figured i'd have two elective classes. o boy i'm stuck. c u soon =D *_~

SNOW FLURRY

Things have been absolutely crazy this month. Rabilin is 8 weeks from delivering our third child. It's a girl. We are thinking we are going to name her Elodie, like melody without the m, but can't decide how to spell it AND haven't been able to come up with a middle name yet. She took two trips to Nevada this month. The first one was with Quinten and Charly to Mesquite for Mike's cousin's wedding. Mike came down after a couple of days. Then this last weekend Rabilin and Charly flew to Vegas for Sage's baby blessing. Rabilin is very glad to be home for a while. Now she can get her house cleaned up and ready for another baby.

Mike is loving his job as a Saralee bread vendor. He likes the fact that he can do his job and just go home when he is done. He was just called to be the Sunday School President this month and he is waiting for them to call his counselors, hopefully this Sunday. He and Quinten got to spend a very fun weekend together while Rabilin and Charly were in Vegas. They went to the Dinosaur Museum and to the ice cream parlor and to see "Bolt". Busy busy boys...

Quinten is three and full of energy. His favorite teddybear's head started to come off so he had to go to the doctor to be fixed. He was a brave bear and got a small baseball glove, ball and bat for being to good at the doctor. Quinten loved to spend time with his dad. He kept commenting on the size of the dinosaurs that they saw, whether they were bigger or smaller than he was. He loves being a Sunbeam and going to Primary now and his teachers are really good.

Charly is 19 months and talking up a storm. Rabilin decided that she talks too much after spending 5 days in a car and hotel with her. She is stubborn and knows exactly what she wants and she give up until she gets it. She loves to go to nursery and is content to just sit and sing songs the whole time. All the other mothers who stay in nursery with their children want to know what we have done so she is just fine with us leaving her. Charly loves her brother and wants to do everything that he does. It's kinda fun to watch that bond grow between them.

MERCED BUTLERS

We had made a bet on how long it would be till Jackson (the accident prone one) would wind up in the ER this year. Much to our surprise, it was Jacob who stepped up to the plate and took one for his little brother in a big way. While attending the Merced Criterium (Timmy’s bike race) a cyclist went out of control and plowed through Jacob going about 30 mph. Jacob sustained a broken collar bone, split chin and an assortment of road rash. Mental note; get rid of the sign that says “Don’t Crash”. He will be in a sling for about a month and isn’t allowed to run around or use his arm. Luckily, Jacob is still the smartest kid in his class, but is going to have to write with his left hand until his right arm heals. Maybe we’ll get a south paw out of this. The following is a link to his injury pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbutler01/JacobSBikeRace?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2Jvfr42ZHvYw#

Jackson is as cute as ever. People who are not in our family are finally becoming able to understand him. Jackson has somehow managed to stay out of the hospital this year and for that we are grateful. Hopefully he is not saving up for something big. Otherwise Jackson is enjoying playing at home with Mama while Jacob is at school.

Emily is super busy with her calling in Young Women’s. Emily, as many of you know, has discovered Facebook. She picked it up to be able to get in touch with the young women in the ward, and is now the coolest leader they have ever had. Emily is still tutoring almost every day and is looking forward to the end of the school year.

Chris says that he is getting close to finishing his Thesis on rivers and groundwater and chemical something or other. He is planning on graduating in May and is beginning his job search. We are all excited to see Chris finally be done with school, but not sure what he has been doing or what he will be doing after he is done. Chris is also super excited to be able to use his new sewing machine and tailor some of Jacob’s clothes to make them more functional while he has his collar bone injury.

WARD WIDE WEB

JEREMY had a super busy month at work, but that is for another time. Here's what Jeremy did for fun this month: he took the scouts up to the snow for their annual snow/cabin overnighter and brought home a truck bed full of snow that provided hours of fun for the kids. He also took Jennifer out on Valentine's Day for a fun-filled evening of food, friends and laser tag!

JENNIFER has been happily busy with her new calling in Young Women's. She is the secretary to a busy group of girls! She started up a new blog (click here to check it out) to keep the parents connected with a calendar of planned activities and to record all of the events that take place. She also got to teach the first Sunday lesson to the whole group of girls and leaders. She does a new bulletin board, scrapbook page for the 2 spotlights, puts out a newsletter and sends out letters to less active girls each month all the while attending the weekly activites.

TREVOR just finished his Blue and Gold dinner for cub scouts. It was an All American themed night. The boys planned a potluck pasta meal that was so yummy. Each boy made a cake for dessert and was given a participation award. Trevor got the "Liberty Licious" award for his most awesome cake.

LOGAN is always up for a good time. He tagged along with Jeremy's scout troop on their snow adventure and had a blast rolling around in all that fresh snow. He came home and played for hours in that snow pile in the front yard. Logan lost another tooth this month - he's lookin' a little jack-o-lanternish these days. He has 3 empty spots where he just recently lost teeth and one permanent tooth halfway grown in. Check out his smile if you get a chance - it will make YOU smile.

LIZZIE broke her pinky toe! Can you believe it? The first person in our family to break a bone was our little girl. She was at a birthday party at Pump it Up (a bounce house facility), was coming down a slide, and caught her toe just right to break the bone clean in half. Long story short we ended up at Valley Children's where they put her in a full walking cast for 4 weeks.

JACKSON is a big boy now! He finally climbed out of his crib and into his new big boy bed. This new sleep location has caused a rift in all of our sleep habits. Lizzie now shares a room with him, Jackson refuses to stay in bed, Trevor and Logan get "body slammed" while they are sleeping, and mommy and daddy don't get to go to sleep until Jackson finally passes out. Jackson is no longer allowed to nap during the day, but consistently falls asleep at about 6PM because he is so worn out and then stays up late into the night due to this evening nap.

OTHERS Februrary 2009

2009-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

Say hello to our newest family member!! Sage! Email Lloyd for details...

============NEWSLETTERS==========

McCrary News,

We have had a good month and took MLK Day off and went to a place here called Fat Cat’s. We rode the bumper cars twice and bought a bunch of tokens to play the arcade games. Then we went upstairs and they have a place called I-Fly and we watched people put on their suits and fly in the wind tunnel. Katelin has decided she wants to do this someday very soon. Say it with a whine: “It’s only Fifty Bucks for two minutes mom.” Like that’s going to happen anytime soon. On Friday nights we have a tradition to have Friday Night Movie Night at the McCrary’s. Sometimes we Redbox a movie and other times we check one out from a friendly neighbor. This month we found a new one at Redbox called City of Ember that the kids liked a lot.

John has had a particularly busy month and with his work he has traveled to Boise, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Rexburg, Twin Falls, Meridian, Nampa, Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Kalispell, Butte, Bozeman, Billings, Logan, Layton, Ogden and Bountiful. Actually, this is all his new territory and he just needed to see every part of it in the month of January to then decide what is most important to work in the future. Every time he came home the kids would rush him with the “I love you daddy” hugs and kisses. Thank goodness for cell phones. We talk to him morning and night and sometimes in between.

Carolyn was the family planner, homework helper, go getter and would plan a date every time John got home. We discovered a really nice Japanese restaurant this month that is really small and only open certain hours with reservations. So when you come to visit we will take you there. Then other nights we would either watch a movie after the kids went to bed or hit other restaurants. John and Carolyn went out and bought a Bosch Mixer (such a good idea) a couple of weeks ago and she has made a bunch of stuff. The Kitchen Aids gears were getting stripped trying to knead the dough. (Not a good idea.) The Bosch is mostly for breadmaking and she is quickly gathering bread recipes to try. Everything she has made so far has turned out exceptionally delicious. Katelin even told her one day that that was the best bread she had ever eaten. Next week she is going to try a multigrain bread recipe she just acquired over the weekend. Ella keeps telling her that she is AMAZING this month. What a good daughter.

Katelin did a cool book report this month on a non-fiction book and she had to make a pamphlet. The book she read was on Cheetah’s. So she got to use the internet to get pictures and made the pamphlet on Microsoft word. It turned out really professional looking. She enjoys riding her scooter to school on good days, but doesn’t like “Killer Hill.” It is a steep hill that goes straight up (10 times the height of Heart Attack Hill) and it is so tall that they have to stop and rest halfway up at the designated rest stop tree. The best part is riding home because she gets to ride down Killer Hill. Katelin went on a field trip to a local ski resort and took lessons and then when skiing all afternoon. She had a blast and is determined to make sure the family goes together before the snow melts. Like that’s going to happen anytime soon. She said she went down like 25 times and loves the ski lift.

Jacob is doing really good in school and is one of the best readers in his class. He also really likes math and loves science. He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. He also loves riding his scooter to school and his favorite part is also going DOWN killer hill. Jacob is our families official mail getter after school and loves to have snowball fights with his sister and friends. He also enjoys shoveling snow piles and making huge footprints all around the yard with his snow boots on. Jacob started piano lessons this month. He is very excited about it because if he takes piano lessons for a year then he will be able to take violin/fiddle lessons next year a get a pair of cowboy boots. Then after he learns the violin he wants to learn how to play the banjo like his Grandpa Scott. Then he wants to learn how to play the drums. He likes any song that has a cool new beat that incorporates the fiddle played fast.

Ella oh Ella. We pray for our little Ella daily just so she won’t kill herself. One day she was wearing her socks around the house (it’s cold here) and did a cartwheel off one of our bar stools on accident. She also slipped and fell on the hardwood floor twice and landed flat on her back and head. A few days later she decided to take the office chair on wheels over to the pantry to sneak the chocolate chips and eat them before mommy found out. While she was on her tippy toes the chair moved and down she went. And this was only in a span of three days. This is what we deal with every day every week. it’s scary! The first Sunday of going into Primary she was walking down the hall to go to Primary and she was telling all her friends at the top of her voice that they better be going to Primary because it was time for Primary and they need to go to class so she can see them in Primary. No crying went on there. She was EXCITED and wanted the world to know it. She still thinks the music director is her teacher and her favorite time is singing time. She comes home and stands up on the bench seat we have at the base of our fireplace and wants everyone to listen to her sing. This is what she has started doing now since they won’t let her sing in front of everyone at church. She tried that twice in the last couple of months. No fear, loves to sing and talk, a social butterfly and loves chocolate. What a girl!

Waddell's

Really, another month has gone by?! We are down to about 2 1/2 months remaining until Eric comes home now. YEAH! Eric is super busy with Top Secret missions right now. We can't talk about it, so DON'T ASK!! :) Lucas gave me a scare by choking on a piece of a chicken nugget last month. I gave him the Heilmlich and he survived only to spend 16 hours total in the ER following the incident. Poor guy. No lasting damage done though, except for his newfound hate for nuggets. Hmm... Lucas is now in Nursery officially, thank goodness. I can actually myself as well as the teachers talk in church now. Yippee!!

The Fresno Boggs: We found something to do for Family Home Evening – Write our newsletter!

Jonathan started the year by going to Ft Lauderdale , Florida for a couple of days for a meeting in the 83 degree weather. I arrived at my hotel at 5 pm and went to my room on the 11^th floor. Then I went down to the 5^th floor for a meeting until 11 pm. Then back up to my room on the 11^th floor. The next morning I went back down to the 5^th floor for another day of meetings and then went back up to the 11^th floor. Then finally I was able to go outside to walk the block to the required group dinner. Finally about 9 pm that night, my boss and I slipped out and went for a walk down to the beach two miles away. I stuck my hand in the Atlantic Ocean and we turned around and walked the two miles back to the hotel. The next day at lunch, a group of us scarfed down lunch and went for a walk outside just to get some air. That night the same group went to dinner real far away from the hotel – just outside the door on the patio. The following day after meetings till noon, I flew home. Great trip but don’t ask me anything about Ft Lauderdale.

This is the year that every student from grades 1-8 is supposed to be getting a new Language Arts textbook. Of course I want to sell all the ESL students my book. So, I am swamped contacting all the schools from Stockton to Bakersfield saying “Do you want to buy my book?” Now all we have to do is see if the state is going to have any $$ to pay for all my books.

Claudia: This past year (2008) seems to be a big blur, maybe posting monthly would help. After 4 ½ years serving as the Stake Young Women President I was released. I don’t cry often when I’m released from a call but I did this time; it was difficult leaving the young women and my great counselors. I now teach seminary which is my new love and refiner. I work part time at Cottage Quilts in sales, shipping and receiving; our store is online. I also teach beginning quilt classes. I designed a pattern, a simple receiving blanket using a self mitering technique. Two more new pattern designs are almost completed. My company name: Seamingly Easy Designs, clever-don’t you think? I’m currently designing the floor plan and displays for our booth in 3 quilt shows coming up this spring. I also do most of the displays in the store. My father past away in August, it was a very sad time for me. The joyful part of the loss was the opportunity to have my immediate family in town; it was the first time we were together in many years. (I do have a brother with MS who could not attend.) Over all, the year has been pretty good to us. We have had some challenges (Jonathan getting mugged, Ashley stopped breathing); we have also had very joyful moments. The best was a visit from an unexpected loved one. We have great kids; we love to have them around and do many things with them. One of our trips took us up to Yosemite to go ice skating, the trip was just breath taking; it was so beautifully white, crystal like. Truly a winter wonderland! Pismo was great too! Well many things are coming back to mind...but I’ll stop... I don’t want to be long winded or boring. This year we’ll check in more often with new update and news.

Chelsy: Well lets see if I can sum up what I have been doing this month....Driving my parents crazy and up the wall...Yep that should do it. I have been having a blast hanging out with a group of people from my ward. We do something every weekend. It ranges from girls nights to midnight movie nights to hot tub parties, and not getting home till the wee hours of the morning (5 am i think was the latest i stayed out). I have re-joined choir and am in charge of the music for Relief Society. I help out with Break the Fast and Linger Longer. I do the ward bulletins. I have just joined the Temple prep class. I am currently not in school, so I am just working now. Speaking of which, I am looking for a part time job on tues and thurs mornings, preferably secretarial work. If you know of any can you give me a call? Pls? Other than that I am loving my life and having a blast with my best friends...Peace Out :P

Ashley is up to her usual no good, but then again, what else is new? Other than chasing boys, runnin up the phone bills, not to mention the medical bills, and dancing till I drop (literally), there’s not much to report! =) so that was a lie… my life has been pretty fun! I was doing Color Guard, and had a great time with that, but the drama got a little to crazy, so now im gonna try some new stuff… I did manage to land my self in the hospital (at least I didn’t break any bones this time) because my genius self decided to stop breathing… (actually, it was my revenge at mom for making me turn off my movie and go back to bed =) so that was exciting. I managed to hide my boyfriend from my parents for eight months… but they found out ( of course) and now im grounded till im 85 =)… Im going to be in our stake musical, ONE of FOUR dancers, so im a little nervous, i have never danced ballet, but here I am, doing advanced jumps… YIKES! You should come and watch! Its gonna be on March 14 at 5:30 and 7:00 and again on March 15 at I think 6:30, but we’ll have to check on that. Im loving my foods and nutrition class, and Ive finally decided that that’s what I want to do with my life… so… I don’t know what else to say… but that’s me! oh ya, im looking for a job starting this summer, so if you know any, let me know!

David went to pismo, the channel islands, music camp at lake sequoia, and practically everywhere else this past summer jk jk. Now all I get to do is go to school. BORING!! Any way I did turn 15 last month and woo hoo!!!!! Just a question; any body have a horse I can have because I don’t want to be my own pack mule at philmont in new mexico this summer...??? I do also want to go to music camp again but the first time I asked I was told I had to pay my own way. Anybody need their lawn mowed or windows washed? no wait I still have to get parental permission about that... I’m coming up blank on anything else...

WARD WIDE WEB

JEREMY has been super busy with work. "What does a principal do to keep so busy?" you ask. Well...he's been busy putting together a training meeting for his staff, a presentation for the district's principals, and working on an application for the National Blue Ribbon Award. He's also been coordinating all the scouting activities for the ward - overnighters, court of honor, calendar, and regular activities. He also took Jennifer to the high school musical - Titanic. He loved seeing his nephew star on stage.

JENNIFER hosted a lovely baby shower for Amy. All the Fresno Boggs Girls were there. It was so nice to see everyone, eat yummy food (there will be another post with those salad recipes very soon so stay tuned!), and watch Amy open girly gift after girly gift. That girl, her name is Bella, will the the cutest thing around.

TREVOR was a wrestling fool in January. He did not get to wrestle at one of the matches - an oversight by someone in charge - and that was made up to him at the next match. He wrestled THREE times! Jeremy got to be there to see it and Samuel and Gramma Elizabeth and his other gramma. He did so good - especially when Uncle Samuel yelled out the moves to help him do better. Trevor also did the pine wood derby this month. The best part was choosing a design and making the car.

LOGAN did the Polar Bear Plunge on January 1st. This little tradition began 2 years ago. All the kids jump in the pool on the first day of the year - no matter how cold it is outside. Logan loved it! He did the whole thing with a smile on his face. He also made his first pine wood derby car - he won't officially be a scout until May, but they let him compete this year anyway.

LIZZIE turned 5 years old in January and asked if she could go to kindergarten the next day. She was so disappointed when she found out that she'd have to wait until after the summer before she got to start school! She also started taking gymnastics at the same place that does the dance lessons. No more dance - just gymnastics. She's getting better at that cartwheel every week.

JACKSON is learning how to climb out of his crib. Finally! He's almost 3 years old! We took a family train ride to Hanford inspired by Jackson's love of trains. This boy was in hog heaven the entire ride!

The Boggs Girls Baby Shower for Amy & Baby Bella

2009-01-29T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Boggs girls got together at to shower Amy before little baby Bella arrives. She's due in 2 weeks!!

All the ladies helped out with dinner - we dined on delicious salads, bread, and pink punch! Pink for baby girls!! Amy scored with all kinds of hand made baby blankets, cute bows, diapers galore and cute cute clothes. Now we just need a baby to put all these items to good use.

Here are all the ladies that were there.

Melody & Amy/guest of honor

Ashley & Claudia

Elizabeth & Mica

Suzanne, Caralee & Allyson

Chelsy & Gma Boggs

Lori & Byron

Jenn and her 2 girls Lydia & Cambria

Jennifer with Jackson and Lizzie

The whole group.

It was a great night of family and fun. Thanks everyone for coming and making it such a special time for Amy.

Recipe-of-the-Month

2009-01-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Artichoke Dip

1 15 oz. can un-marinated artichoke hearts
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilis or 1 Tbs. canned chopped jalapenos
½ c. mayonnaise
4 oz. shredded parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix all ingredients together except 1 oz. of parmesan cheese. Heat in oven for 25 minutes or until warm. Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese evenly over warm dip and cook 5 more minutes. Serve warm with pita chips.

OTHERS January 2009

2009-01-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Put these Boggs Family Dates on your new 2009 calendar:

May 10th: Mother's Day Desserts at Gramma Boggs's
6:00 PM Gramma's house. Bring a dessert and sit and visit for awhile.

July 4th: Fireworks at Durans
Bring a chair and some food to share. We start when it starts to get dark or when they just can't wait any longer to blow something up!

July 17th- 24th: Pismo
Crowd in with the Durans in their two campsites if you want to come but didn't make a reservation. We have room for you. (We will expect delicious food items to be paid in exchange for rent.)

July 24th: Gramma Boggs Birthday Dinner
Dinner out with gramma after we all get back from Pismo. Gramma, start thinking of where you want to eat.

November 26th: Turkey Bowl
Same place as usual - on Armstrong between Shaw and Gettysburg Ave. Treats at Marshalls after someone else wins the Trophy. (Not sure how this happened but right now the trophy is at the Duran's !%#)

November 26th: Thanksgiving Dinner
This is the Boggs's ON YEAR. Everyone and their gramma is invited. We will be having dinner at one of the church buildings and will be playing games in the cultural hall (right Jonathan?).

December 19th: Boggs Christmas Breakfast
9:00 AM at Gramma Boggs's Clubhouse. What assignment do you want this year?

Any questions about these calendar items can be emailed to ELIZABETH.

BCB 2008 Slideshow

For those of you that were not able to attend our Boggs Family Christmas Breakfast - we missed you! And for everyone that was there - thanks for making it such a nice time. The food was tasty, the crafts and games fun for the kids (and adults), centerpieces and table decor were perfect, gift exchange story new and also quite fun, singing time was rousing, nativity was pulled of nicely - with only 2 angels this year and one Mary, and my favorite, the dancing Marshall boys were a hit! Special thanks to ELIZABETH for organzing and coordinating the whole thing.

(**Do not forget! Mica opened the Turkey Bowl trophy during the gift exchange! Then there won't be any unnecessary searching for the trophy come Thanksgiving next year.**)

Thank you to Stephanie for these 2 excellent videos from our BCB 2008. Enjoy!

The Nativity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG7IsjJzk54

The Marshall's Sleigh Ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Clcs0RqWYc

============NEWSLETTERS==========

WARD WIDE WEB
Holiday traditions take over our lives during the month of December - decorating, school events, shopping, parties and everything else that comes with the season. Here are a few highlights from our busiest month of the year!

We did the BCB.

We did a long overdue 10th anniversary photo shoot.

Trevor started wrestling. Check out that singlet!

Logan lost his 2 front teeth! Just in time for Christmas!

Lizzie performed in her first dance recital.

Jackson continued his obsession with trains until he fell asleep mid-play. (He also got his first black eye that week - look closely and you can see a little purple around his eye.)

Three days before Christmas we went up to the Tenaya Lodge for a quick one night trip. The kids love to swim in their heated pool, go ice skating and play in the snow. We woke up in the morning to a beautiful white scene out our window. The snow was coming down as we were all still warm and toasty in our beds. It's a fun tradition we do each year that relaxes us before all the craziness begins.

Happy New Year!!

Waddell's
Lucas is now 17 months old and December was exciting for him in many realms, one of which was decorating and undecorating any Christmas Tree he came across. There were just too many ornaments that looked like his favorite toy, the "ball." He got a DVD player for those long car rides to Clovis and loves his new magnet farm toy as well. He's easy to please!!

Eric has 3 1/2 months to go. He spent his Christmas at their office/shop/bomb storage, where they had a Pizza party with his men, but unfortunately the pizza was terrible tasting. He is super busy as always, and counting down the days until his return.

Caralee is also counting down the days until her babysitter, I mean Eric returns. She is ever so busy with her calling and is sewing, sewing, sewing up a storm. Spring classes start soon and she's excited about her new classes!

La Familia Duran

We were expecting a somewhat quiet holiday season since our family has dwindled in size, but to our surprise this was one of the most busy and fun Christmas's we have ever had. In two weeks time we attended and participated in 18 extra events, shows, and parties - taking food to each one of course - and when that was all over it was time for a mad wrapping of presents to be ready in time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now, with an additional 5 lbs around the waist, we sit as zombies. Well, only because we are finally out of chocolate - the one item which has sustained us due to its constant supply throughout the past 30 days.

Jordan & Stephanie had a good Christmas and made it to every party that they needed to. As well as working like dogs and trying not to go crazy while doing so. Jordan was expecting to have tons of hours but was glad to see he didn't have as many as he thought he would. Stephanie picked up as many as she could so she wouldn't be bored this holiday time. They are both glad to have the business slow down so they can take it easy for a bit. But that wont last for long.

Mica has discovered life with an ipod. Now that she is connnected she surfaces only for food and water.

OTHERS December 2008

2008-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo (thank you Samuel for this excellent shot) of all this year's hard core Turkey Bowl participants. Stay tuned for a Turkey Bowl slide show to come later on this month. Do we need a Boggs Family Tee or what?!

============NEWSLETTERS===========

Waddell's
November went by quickly for us... Caralee and Lucas spent 10 days on a trip to KY to witness Eric's younger brother's wedding and hang out with his family. It was extremely cold and even snowed one day. Needless to say, they spent all of their time indoors!

LUCAS loved seeing his cousins and Grandparents and they all of course, spoiled him rotten by spiking his sippy cups with juice or even soda when nobody wasn't looking. Shame on them! He hardly drinks water now... They barely survived the flights, but are trying to block them out before their next trip to KY in May, 2009 after Eric comes home.

CARALEE got to see the movie Twilight while she was in KY with her Sister In Law and had a fabulous time being "baby less" for a long evening. That made the trip worth it right there in fact. The movie wasn't nearly as good as the book, so she had to read it again in three days to remind herself why. Yes, she knows she is a big nerd.

ERIC spent his Thanksgiving on the base in Kuwait eating prime rib and abstaining from running the 5K that day due to a long run the previous night. His legs were too sore and he said the t-shirt from the race wasn't worth it. He is now traveling through Afghanistan to Uzbekistan to help do some training for their military forces on bomb disposal. Eric said that Afghanistan looks just like Utah valley and even has trees contrary to popular belief. The men there that perform the same job as he does took good care of him while he stopped by and even gave him a "warm room" to sleep in because they knew he wouldn't be prepared for the cold after coming from hot Kuwait. So nice of them. Eric has 4 1/2 months to go, YEAH!

Ken and Allyson's November:
Our very best friends from Australia came to visit. We had a great time having them over for dinner and going to parties and staying up way past our bedtime. I think we managed to convince them to live here 50 % of the year. Ken's two brothers and two cousins also came to town with their families. We had our very first overnight guests and wrapped up the long weekend with yummy indian food at our favorite restaurant. We had a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving with the Marshalls plus some. We went and visited an old friend of Ken's family's and to see his new bachelor pad. It has live trees planted inside and boulders and lots of steps and levels and weird spaces that you're not really sure what to do with.....very 70's cool. We've just about finished our Christmas shopping and that makes us oh so happy. See ya next month. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took the fam to Disneyland the weekend before Thanksgiving. His favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean - I think we rode it 3 times. He also had the highest score on Buzz Light Year that we've ever seen - almost 600,000!

JENNIFER had a great time organizing our family t-shirts for the trip. It really is so much easier to keep track of everyone if we're all in the same color and we look totally cute all matchy matchy!

TREVOR loves Disneyland. Rollercoasters are not his thing, but these rides are just his speed. He rode whatever he wanted, because he is tall enough finally, and was happy as a clam. He even got to drive his own car in Autopia! (Sorry, no picture of that one. Bummer!)

LOGAN will promise that he loves Indiana Jones - he rode it about 3 times - but, in fact, it terrifies him. The last time we rode it he had his eyes shut tight and head down for the ENTIRE RIDE. (Notice the "I'm-excited-yet-terrified" look on his face just before we got on the first time.)

LIZZIE provided the great finale to our trip. We were about to watch the CA Adventure parade - the last event of our trip - and she PUKES all over. She let it go right in the middle of the walkway. It took those Disney sweeper guys about 30 seconds to come over to where it happened and they were all over that mess. About a minute later Lizzie tossed her cookies again, but behind a garbage can this time so the clean-up crew didn't see the mess. We got to enjoy the smell through the parade and left quickly when it was over.

JACKSON was finally able to let go and enjoy Disneyland. (Last year he had the throw-ups and did not enjoy it very much.) He totally dug the rides and especially the Lightning McQueen car in the parade. He is all about cars. He was literally laying in the street on his belly as the parade started and watched as Lightning slowly made his way towards us. That moment was what the whole trip was about - seeing the magic through our children's eyes.

La Familia Duran
Louie is off of light duty and back in patrol. He loves being in his car again. He is still seeing doctors about his shoulder and will finally have his MRI this next week to see if he qualifies for surgery. We think he qualifies because he is still gimpy and in pain.

Elizabeth has been shopping and putting up Christmas decorations. She put the lights up on the house by herself this year and really enjoyed being up on the roof for the very first time. Getting down was another story. Something about not trusting a ladder on the way down. After sitting up there for a while she had to call Jordan on her cell phone so he could talk her down.

Samuel has been out looking for a job. No fun. So in the mean time he says to tell you all he is sleeping.

Jordan is ENGAGED! He proposed to Stephanie on Thanksgiving and she said yes, but first he had to talk to her dad and ask for his permission to ask her. Jordan and Stephanie will be married in October of 2009 or in November of 2010. Make sure you look at Stephanie's ring. Very pretty!

Mica hates Christmas songs. She has been singing them since October and now is performing them several times a week with her college choirs. Right now she is getting ready for her finals 'cause her very first semester of college is over in two weeks. Well, she will have a final in music fundamentals, and then a final in choir and then another final in the other choir.

Marshall Noose
The Turkey bowl this year was AWSOME!!! The Marshalls pulled to an early lead and the 'graciously' let the Boggs win so that they could have the honor of keeping the trophy this year. We had a swell time visiting with everyone over cinnamon rolls and punch.

The rest of the day was spent with Allyson and Ken and Ryan's family. this year the Darnels also joined us for Turkey and trimmings. It took all day to find room for the scrumptious pies but we managed to fit them in somehow.

This week I am doing the lighting for the Stake Releif Society Christmas Choir. We had the dress rehearsal last night and they sound awsome. The light look great and my legs are sore form all the ladder workout.

Suzanne is gearing up for the Hollidays. She spent 12 hours decorating the tree and another two days doing the rest of the house. It's quite spectacular. Drop by if you can for a visit and a tour.

Have a great Christmas

John and Suzanne

The Garzette
We had a fun visit from my parents in the middle of November. The girls went shopping while the guys played golf. We went out to dinner, played spin the bottle (not like you think) and stayed up too late and ate too much junk food. It was a fun weekend but, as always, too short.

The next weekend, Javier’s parents came. The girls went shopping while the guys built a fence. We had a nice Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, and pie. Everyone pitched in so I didn’t have to make everything myself.

A couple of days ago we found our hamster, Patty, (named after aunt Patti, but with a “y”) in her cage, not breathing. She was in her little ball where she sleeps and we took a pencil and poked her (with the eraser end) and she didn’t move. So we broke the news to the kids. Austin was sad, Marissa drew a picture of a dead hamster (with x’s for eyes) and Elise was oblivious (she probably killed her – she was always picking up and dropping the ball that she ran in). We planned the funeral for the next afternoon. The next day, we were getting ready to bury her and Marissa ran out of the office and said, “Patty’s alive!” and I said, “Marissa, don’t say things like that.” But we all ran in and she was moving and breathing and, sure enough, she’s alive.

BCB 2007

2008-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas OTHERS!

Here's a good one from last year to bring you a little holiday cheer.

Pismo 2008 Slideshow

2008-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Recipe-of-the-month

2008-11-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

Pasta Fagioli Soup
by Suzanne Marshall

Makes 9 quarts of soup:

3 tsp. oil
2 lbs. ground beef
2 cups carrots, slivered
1 ½ cups chopped onions
2 cups diced celery
2 large cans diced tomatoes
2 regular cans red kidney beans
2 regular cans white beans
88 oz beef broth
3 tsp. oregano
2 ½ tsp. pepper
5 tsp. fresh chopped parsley
1 ½ tsp. Tabasco sauce
48 oz spaghetti sauce (I use Hunts)
1 cup dry small pasta

Saute ground beef until it starts to brown. Add onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain and rise beans and add to the pot. Add beef stock, oregano, pepper, Tabasco, spaghetti sauce and pasta. Simmer until celery and carrots are tender, about 45 minutes.

Makes 9 quarts of soup. Cut it in half for about 5 quarts, or cut the recipe into quarters for a smaller family. I cut it in half and have enough for a couple of meals and some to give away, and some to freeze in containers for lunches.

OTHERS November 2008

2008-11-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

What is your favorite color? Orange!

What are your hobbies these days? Walking for a couple of miles, outside in the cool, fresh morning air. I get to see the sun come up, marvel at the miracle of a new day, and to be by myself for a few minutes.

Do you have a childhood memory you'd like to share? One early morning this week as I walked by I heard a sound coming from the open window of a house. Someone was stirring something in a metal bowl. I could tell it was a metal bowl because the sound was a ting ting ting sound. This brought back a flood of memories of the breakfasts that dad would cook for us each morning. We didn't have cold cereal cause it was too expensive for a family of 10 so every morning Grampa Boggs would get up before seminary and start cooking breakfast. If we heard a glop glop glop stirring sound coming from the kitchen downstairs we would know we were having pancakes with dad's homemade syrup that day. If it was a tinny ting ting ting sound we knew dad was stirring up the eggs in the metal bowl and we were having french toast with gobs of melted butter and powdered sugar. If we smelled bacon we knew we were having eggs (the runny kind) and bacon and stacks of toast. If we didn't hear any sound we knew that we where in for it and would be eating the dreaded oatmeal.

Now, when I think back on it, I realize I took it for granted that my breakfasts would be ready and waiting for me. It would be a delicious homemade entree, steaming hot, and ready for me to gobble down before dashing out the door for seminary (to this day I still eat seminary style). Today, my own kids feel lucky if I even bother to cook them dinner a couple of times a week. How lucky we were to have such good breakfasts. How lucky we were to have such a good dad!

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) I want to look down into the mouth of a live volcano and see the steam and the red hot lava bubbling around.

============NEWSLETTERS===========

Waddell's
Eric is coming home in 5 1/2 months now! Yes, I'm going to tell you each month how long he has left, so stop wondering. He's busy and may be able to go to Uzbekistan later on in his deployment to train some of their men. The weather there is finally lightening up and getting cooler, only 90 degrees during the day. Fresno has nothing on Kuwait as far as the heat goes!

Caralee is half way through her semester at school and has planned her spring semester online and is very excited about it. She's trying to juggle her calling, the kid and her many home projects. Thanks to everyone for having us over for parties this month, it's been so much fun!

Lucas is walking finally, though he prefers to crawl still. He started on Eric's birthday to be exact, what a nice present. He spends most of his days moaning about his painful mouth (teething) and pulling on Caralee's leg so she'll pick him up. After 3 tries, he made it through a hour of playing in the gym's kids care section while Caralee worked out. Third time's the charm apparently. YEAH!

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY is the best husband ever! He planned and coordinated the most elaborate 30th birthday celebration for his wife. The day was full of all her favorite things and he even took half the day off to do all her home/house duties. What a guy. What a great great guy.

JENNIFER had a blast working on the musical last month with the youth in our stake. She is sad and happy that it's all over. Suzanne did a great job directing everything and Elizabeth and John also did a great job doing all the things she asked. It was fabulous.

TREVOR finished out his cross country season. He improved his time with each race and felt like he could have kept running even when it was all over. Next he's on to try wrestling!

LOGAN earned Student of the Quarter for his class. He is a great student, always trying hard to please the teacher and do his best. He totally earned it! Logan is also doing great at soccer. He usually plays forward and scored his first goal this month!

LIZZIE is still enjoying her dance class. She is also learning her letters really well at Joy School each week. Her favorite part of the week is the weekend when everyone is home and there are tons of people to play with.

JACKSON has turned into our biting monster. He usually only bites adults. And he usually only does this when he is teasing and playing. Sadly, it does not feel like playing when you are the one that gets bit. He is forever our little ball of energy and we love him to pieces.

A note from David:
I wrote this after Chelsy broke up with David Goodlad.

What is Love?

1 + 1 = 1
2 - 1 = 0
2 = 1
1 = 0

Love is a deadly curse but it is also a living blessing. If misused it will lead to the destruction of your friendly self and hurt those around you. Lock it up and wear the key so no one can steal it or give it to someone in minuscule pieces until the final "Will you marry me?". If that special someone hurts you take back all the love you gave them and keep it only to be seen by the one who truly cares for you and would kill them self if they ever hurt you. That certain someone could be waiting around the corner or right next to you. They will always be waiting even if you don't go and find them. Some say "love can't hurt." but it can. It can hurt more than guilt, hate, jealousy, pride, envy, and disappointment put together and thrown at your stomach. How? Love can be used as a poison to kill people you care for by making them jealous and they might think of you as a proud git. You might then feel disappointment because they aren't happy for and guilt because they hate you. Envy can be thrown in there too. If used in the right way and given the right amount, it can be wonderful.

~David Boggs~

Marshall Noose

Had my foot operated on to forget about my REAL surgery. Then I had my face operated on to forget about my foot. Got the last of the stitches out today. Still have butterflys on. No film at 11:00.

Suzanne's Church musical was a great success. She had over 160 kids in it. I sent a picture to Jennifer for you all to see. Liz and Jennifer were a great help. Next time there's a big production, I'm sure they will be tapped again. To commemorate the end of the show, Suzanne got a big cold. We just stopped by Elizabeth's and she has one too. Notice the trend?

I am still between assiginements. Still getting a paycheck so I suppose someday I will get to go do something. In the mean time I will be doing the lighting for the Christmas womens's concert so that should keep me out of trouble.

John and Suzanne

Recipe-of-the-month

2008-10-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Pigs-in-a-Blanket

By Jennifer Ward

Our traditional Halloween dinner

1 bag frozen dinner rolls, Rhodes or Bridgeford dough

1 package Lil’ Smokies - my family prefers the Beef Smokies

butter

Place package of frozen rolls on the counter to thaw for one hour. When dough is soft, wrap one Lil’ Smokie in each roll. (FYI: The Lil’ Smokie is the pig and the roll is the blanket.) Place wrapped pigs on a greased cookie sheet about one inch apart. Let the rolls rise until double in size (about 5 hours in the winter and 2-3 in the warmer months). To speed up the rising process: place the pan of wrapped pigs on top of your preheated oven – this cuts rising time in half. Preheat oven to 350°. Cook pigs-in-a-blanket for 15 – 18 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven. While they are fresh from the oven spread butter over the tops of the rolls. Serve with ketchup and mustard. Enjoy!

Patti's Memorial Day Slideshow

2008-10-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

OTHERS October 2008

2008-10-05T17:00:00.001-07:00

'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^*SPOTLIGHT*:^'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'

I thought it would be fun to spotlight one family member each month in our newsletter. Hopefully this spotlight section will help us know a little more about each other than we previously knew. Say hello to ... NANCY!

What is your favorite color? my favorite color is yellow or orange. very bright!

What are your hobbies these days? hobbies these days.... reading westerns, exploring different places, learning 1 new thing a year, grandchildren

Do you have a childhood memory you'd like to share? favorite childhood memory... summer time lying on the blanket outside looking at the stars and talking with family, homemade ice cream

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) go scuba diving, go para sailing (don't know the real name), see more of the United States

============NEWSLETTERS===========

Hello from the Utah Boggs clan!
We are all doing well and of course, keeping busy (who isn't). Let's see, all of us are in school. Mathias is in 9th grade and is playing football. Peter is doing electrical work full-time and school part-time. DeeAnn is doing school full time and working part-time, don't ask her what she is going to be when she grows up, she is taking requests. Or in other words, what do you see her doing successfully? Any ideas? Tiana is going to school full-time (at BYUIdaho) and working part-time.

DeeAnn has been helping her mother get enrolled in school and hoping she can start by January.
It is peach season in Utah and apples are starting too. Berries are about done I think, and pears are done. Fresh fruit sure is lovely isn't it, and so very yummy.

We have so many things to be grateful for, family, home, and good food to eat, trees and birds and etc.

Keep smiling and remember to laugh,
DeeAnn

Scott News
Hi All! We are alive and fine. We have learned some things that we would like to pass along for future reference. Always have cash on hand($500.00). Credit cards and debit do not work during a hurricane unless you are about 300 miles away. A lot of stores still take only cash. Carry food,water, and changes of clothes. Have at least 3 five gallon gas cans full of gas as well as a full tank in your vehicle. Always have a rack and chain saw. A generator is a real plus but not just any generator. Coleman is not a good brand. Sam's club carries good generators. Jody and John Paul have been home for the last month. It has been nice visiting and spending time with them. John Paul is back in Afganistan as of last week. It is still beautiful and green here. Ivan and Catherine are back in school. They had a hurricane holiday of two weeks.
We are looking forward to Halloween!

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took Jennifer to UCLA for the Fresno State football game. It was a fun trip with friends and no kids for the day. (Thank you Gramma Elizabeth for watching our kids!) The Bulldogs did not break our hearts that day - they actually won - it was awesome!
JENNIFER has been busy with our upcoming Stake Youth Musical. She gets to work with the alto girls and is very much enjoying her time with them. It is so different to work with teenagers than primary children - surprisingly, it's a breath of fresh air. Suzanne and Elizabeth are the masterminds behind this show and are working themselves to pieces. It's going to be great - come see it on Saturday, October 25th or Sunday the 26th at 7PM @ the East Stake Center.

TREVOR is our cross country boy. He's doing his best running in all his meets. Practice is pretty brutal though. They run 3+ miles every day! And it was in the high 90's last week. He hasn't asked to quit - that's dedication for ya. Trevor turned 9 years old last month and celebrated by taking a few friends to Laser Quest. It was a blast!
LOGAN is our soccer boy. Practices started last month and he loves it. He says, "Coach says I'm the best player on the team." Well...we don't know about "best" as in his skill level, but he really is the best at hustling and doing what coach asks.
LIZZIE started Joy School and Dance in September. She enjoys learning how to write her numbers and letters - more than any of our other kids. She'll just sit down at the table and practice for 30 minutes at a time all on her own. And "Ballerina Class" is the epitome of her existence. She LOVES dressing up in her leotard and tutu.
JACKSON continues to be our busy little body. Click here or here or here to read about his latest shenanigans.

Waddell's
We are almost to countdown mode for Eric's return to Fresno. 6 1/2 months to go from now and 6 months from October 19th to be exact. That's when the countdown begins everyone! ETA April 19th, 2009. Don't tell Al Queda, or we'll have to kill you.

Speaking of Eric, he's doing well and is currently undergoing a change in his routine from boring to crazy. They had six months of uneventfulness and now things are picking up with more incidents and more "soldier specific" issues. Needless to say, his days are going by faster now than ever. That may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you look at it.

Caralee is now the Second counselor in the Relief Society in their ward and is feeling quite busy herself. She's over enrichment and successfully pulled off a dinner for 60 people, which she was in charge of. The food was great and they had exactly the amount of people planned for! Her feet still hurt from standing up and doing dishes all night, but it was worth it.

Lucas is ever increasing in his report-oi of words. New editions are "thank you" and "bite." He has successfully broken into two baby-proofed drawers in the bathroom and almost all the baby-proofed cabinets in the kitchen thus far. It's really scary actually. The other day, Caralee found him rolling around on her bed while she was in the bathroom. You turn your back for one second...

Motschiedler Madness

Hung drapes and shutters. Planted trees. Went on many walks around the neighborhood. Bought a bbq and had a few dinner parties. Discovered Lowes as home owners. Took out the table leaves, put them back in. Took them out again. Ken moved his first tenant into their new 4 story office building behind GB3. Had Marshall September boys birthday dinner. Got everyone electric fly swatters. Ken took his apart to better zap the flies.

See ya next month!

Marshall Noose,

Nothing new. Same-o, same-o. Oh, yeah. Suzanne has started working on the Stake Youth Musical. After months of preparation she is excited to start the rehearsals finally. She is so excited to see that all the help that she has recruited is paying off so well. The music is coming together and all the soloists and speaking parts have been assigned. It's going to be GREAT. She is especially excited to have Jennifer as one of the group choir leaders. She says the kids love her and respond well to her. Who wouldn't? She also asked Elizabeth to be the assistant director and on a personal note, she has been phenomenal. Suzanne comes home after every rehearsal and comments that Liz practically reads her mind. Everything is done and ready before she even needs to ask. Thanks, Liz!

Other than that, nothing new..... and I'm recovering from my surgery just fine.

John and Suzanne

La Familia Duran
Louie has been working nights like crazy and sometimes he doesn’t get home till 6 or 7am. A lot of the time that’s all it seems like he does is work and sleep and that's it. Sometimes he goes 2 or 3 days with out seeing his children that still live at home.

Elizabeth has been working and getting stressed out over the musical a lot of time she will go to bed and then get up and get up just as Jordan comes walking in the door from work or Stephanie’s and every time that happens they both get scared bad, but its funny. Jordan even teases her that she is Suzanne’s reggi and boy does she hate it because all the times she called him that just blew up in her face.

Jordan has been working and going to school he doesn’t like either one of them but hey if he wants to get a better job he better stick with it. He and Stephanie have been together for 3 years now and to celebrate the two of them went to The Cheese Cake Factory and then to the Fresno Fair and bet on a couple Mule and Horse races and won $4.20 total but it was worth it. But hey he has always been the kind to place bets on things like that.

Mica has been going to all kinds of choir rehearsals and thinks she the best at singing. That all she does, even if she gets told to do some thing by her parents doesn’t do that because she is always doing that and that’s all she thinks she has time for. Her older brothers and sister think she need to get a job but her mom and dad don’t make her because she says she’s to busy with her choir stuff.

Daily Duran
For those of you who still don’t know we are please to announce that there is a little girl inside of Amy. Not that her inner child is coming out (but it is), but we are having a baby girl. Since our finding out this news Amy has been taking Thomas to register for every girly baby item she can find. What’s a boppy? Do we really need one? We are both excited and can’t wait for our little girl to join the outside world. Amy found a nice old lady to carpool with to her school that is 45 minutes away. Amy says, “she smells like cats.” And the lady is also LDS. Amy continues to enjoy her job out in San Joaquin with the little migrant school children. The students still call her “Maestra” or “Cheecher”. One day Amy decided to take role by calling out the students’ full names (she usually does something really creative to take role; she is always far from the norm). The students had never heard an Anglo pronounce these fully Mexican names and they giggled every time she said a name. By the time she made it through the roster the kids were laughing hysterically. Thomas has been having the time of his life with everything going on with work, school, a budding business, a budding wife, and church. Thomas anxiously awaits Amy’s arrival home everyday with a wide variety of foods in an attempt to feed her. Although after listing all of dishes prepared Amy will usually opt for a bowl of cereal. Thomas has also been enjoying his classes about public health. One of his teachers is an old hippie that went to Berkley during the 60’s and is very outspoken about the current state of health care. Have a good Halloween!!

Recipe-of-the-Month

2008-09-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Sopapilla Cheesecake
By Jennifer Ward

2 cans refrigerated Crescent rolls
1 ½ c. sugar
1 stick butter, melted
½ c. granulated sugar
2 8oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Open one can crescent rolls and lay triangle pieces across bottom of pan to form a crust. Press triangle pieces together. Beat cream cheese until fluffy, add 1 ½ c. sugar and vanilla. Spread over crescent rolls. Unroll 2nd can of rolls over cream cheese mixture, pour butter over top. Mix cinnamon with ½ c. sugar and sprinkle over butter. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool then chill in refrigerator.

Serves 12

OTHERS September 2008

2008-09-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

=================NEWSLETTERS================

A thought from John M....

I thought that some of you may not know why we call our newsletter OTHERS. This will show you something about the humor that was always present in the family.

When the original Gang of Eight (the Boggs children of Ralph and Arba) met to chose the name of the news letter, many ideas were suggested. We finally pared down the list of suggestions to a small list of finalist names and then, just in case we might have missed a suggestion, we added a catagory of Other, suggesting that it wasn't too late for additional ideas.

When the votes were tallied, the overwhelming winner was.... you guessed it, Other. Suzanne then remembers it was her mother who suggested that we add '....Because that's who this newsletter is about.' to the title.

As I look back at some of the early editions, I see that I (John) designed the original logo letters (written in Uncial font) and then later on, Suzanne redid the logo in her caligraphy. And to this day, she still has to get in the last word.

Do not. Do to. Do not. Do to.

Do not.

Greetings from MERCED.

We have been very busy as school is starting for many of us. CHRIS is in his final year (thank goodness) of his Masters program at UC Merced, and will graduate this May. He is taking a light load so he can focus on his thesis, which has something to do with groundwater moving into the Merced River, and chemistry. Other than that it all comes out as “blah blah blah…”.Chris assures us that it should be able to bring about world peace. Chris has enjoyed walking the town for Prop 8 on the weekends, and unlike many other people in our ward has not been yelled at once.

EMILY is busy as ever getting the boys ready for school, working out, keeping the house, tutoring math in the evening, and doing her calling as first counselor in Young Womens. Emily has joined a “boot camp” class at the gym that works her over three times a week. Make sure you buy your tickets to her “gun show”; it is impressive.

JACOB has started kindergarten and loves it. Jacob is a standout student and going to be the first kid to earn a reward by knowing his letters, counting and behaving kindly to others. Thanks to Emily, Jacob will be able to pass off his kindergarten requirements in about a month and will begin his 1st grade curriculum. Jacob has also been working on his bike riding in the afternoon, and can’t wait to ride to school with daddy. 

JACKSON is as cute/bruised as ever. He has a new found hobby; potty training. Jackson is well on his way to becoming an official “big boy”. We are proud to announce that Jackson has made it through all of summer vacation free of any major accidents or trips to the hospital.

Motschiedler Madness

The move into our new house wasn't so bad. We had my brother and a few friends and it took about 3 hours. We only managed to ding one place, so that wasn't so bad. These week was also our Back to School Night at the school. We decided to hold it on 2 different nights because we have a lot of people this year, which meant working til 8:30 two nights in a row. So between unpacking and B2SN, I was pretty tired come Friday. This weekend we bought and planted some stuff for the yard. Check out our blog for pictures of that fun event and of our new house: http://web.me.com/kenmott/Site/Welcome/Welcome.html

WADDELL'S

LUCAS is the man of many tricks. He's trying to whistle, can throw kisses, play peek-a-boo and loves to wave at oncoming strangers in the store. He's still not walking, but perhaps that's a good thing now that I recognize what exactly he could be getting into if he were.

ERIC is busy busy in Kuwait. There was a humorous incident on their base with a suspicious box locked inside a bathroom stall which they had to disarm a few weeks ago... X-raying it was a challenge from most angles, so they just disrupted it's circuits. Turns out it was two oscillating fans in a giant cardboard box. He was called all day from Generals on the base wondering why he blew up the bathrooms stall.

CARALEE got a day off on Labor Day! YEAH! Marcy was kind enough to babysit while she, Timmy and Emily Butler went to Timmy's race in San Francisco for the day. They enjoyed the weather, the race, the food and the shopping all in 12 hours. It's nice to get out! She is learning to sew from patterns lately, making baby items for her pregnant friends.

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY began his new job at Computech and is surviving the first month quite well. He is getting to know the staff and enjoys spending more time with his dad, who is the librarian at his school, every day. He alternates between driving his "new principal truck" and his eco-friendly motorcycle to school each day. Did your principal ride a motorcycle to school?

JENNIFER has been busy reading some good books this month. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaleed Hosseni was splendid reading. She also managed to read 3 of the 4 Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. Did the house stay clean, you ask? Why of course, but the kids may have been a little stinky...

TREVOR is the big 4th grader on campus. He loves school! This year has started off better than any other year for our Trevor. He has a great teacher, a solid group of friends and he chose to do Cross Country for his extra-curricular activity. He has the best attitude for homework and reading - he even picked up a book just for fun!

LOGAN has Mrs. Logan for his 2nd grade teacher. Homework and reading time are not as easy as Trevor's, but he does have a good attitude about it all. The little incentive program we came up with is working wonders! He is all signed up for soccer and has all his gear. Practice starts next week.

LIZZIE is the lone cousin around our compound. All the cousins her age have started school and she no longer has a built in playmate every second of the day. She and Mommy have been playing school, dress up, games, reading, watching Super Why! and doing chores together all day long.

JACKSON (A.K.A bruiser) got a couple of good ones this week. He got slammed in the face with a door and fell off the golf cart smack onto his forehead - all within a day of the other. He looked like "camouflage kid" the way the bruises turned black, purple and green. He also had his first visit to the dentist. He was not a happy camper until the dentist declared, "All Done!" He was quite proud of his super clean teeth.

DAILY DURAN:

THOMAS has been very busy with his new calling and working on getting a new business started. Our current business will be feeding into the new one, which will be along the same lines as what he used to do with air conditioners and duct systems. He just got his H-vac contractor’s license which was the first and biggest hurdle. He had been studying hard and passed on the first try! This is a difficult test that many guys have trouble passing after taking months of classes. Thomas is also getting ready to start his 2 masters programs at Fresno State . Last Sunday the Lundines (Amy's Sister and Family) stopped by for a quick visit and Thomas made a really yummy Mediterranean chicken lunch for them.

The last couple of weeks I have been preparing for and starting my first week of school as a Kindergarten teacher. I decided to take the job in San Joaquin . It’s a 45 minute commute but it has been fun so far, and interesting. I have a class FULL of ELL (English language learners) students and quite a few of my students don’t speak any English at all. It’s a good thing Kindergarteners are fast learners. The school is the only elementary in a very small town surrounded by fields. 100% of the school is on free lunch. Most of the poorest schools I've seen in Fresno have high percentages of free OR reduced lunch but this is the first I have seen where the entire school is on the FREE lunch program (not even reduced). Very different but they are good kids. I had a blast at the Whiting Reunion last month! It was fun to have all sorts of activities and sporting events to choose from all day long. My favorite were the dances, going out to the cave, seeing all the kids rolll down the hill in the pipe and swinging on the rope swing, and just being with everyone.

Amy

September 2008 Recipe-of-the-month

2008-09-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Monkey Bread
from Caralee
10-12 servings
Preheat oven 325º

1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbs Cinnamon Divided
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 12oz tubes refrigerated biscuits but into quarters

Instructions:
Melt Butter, brown sugar and one Tbs cinnamon in a small pan. Heat until bubbly. Set aside. Blend white sugar and remaining cinnamon in small bowl. Roll biscuits in white sugar mixture; then arrange in a greased bundt pan. Pour brown sugar mixture over top of biscuits. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for several minutes to set before turning bread out. Serve warm.

**Add thinly sliced Granny Smith apples for added zip!

Here is a recipe that we should have used last month at Pismo:

Raccoon Kabobs
(Also known as "Ringtail Surprise")

from Jonathan

Two pounds, reasonably fresh raccoon, cut into one-inch cubes; one-half cup homemade French dressing; two green peppers, cut into squares; one large onion, cut into one-inch pieces; one-third pound mushroom caps.

Place raccoon cubes in a ceramic bowl and pour dressing over cubes. Let marinate two or more hours. Remove cubes, reserving marinade. Alternate raccoon cubes with pepper squares, onion pieces and mushroom caps on skewers. Brush all with reserved marinade and broil over hot coals until done to desired degree. Turn frequently and baste with marinade as needed.

Serves six.

OTHERS August 2008

2008-08-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) I want to paint the picture that I started (and am too afraid to finish because I'm not sure I can actually paint it) of my grandchildren at the beach at Avila.

=================NEWSLETTERS================

GREAT SCOTT! The Utah Scotts
Toni got a promotion at work this month, and its going wonderfully! She's just passed her year marker at WesTech, and loves what she's doing.

Ben is enjoying being a stay-at-home dad during the days, and a plant-man by night. Our little apartment is sure shaping up cute, and we've decided to stay another year, so we can garden again next year.

Rebekah is working on potty training, after a little incident with a loaded diaper... :) She's doing very well, and shows a lot of interest, so here's hoping! She's starting to talk a lot, and she's finally gaining a little bit of chub, though her height is still over the 90th percentile.

We're surviving the crazy Utah heat with no A/C, and I for one can't wait for Fall. Hope everyone is having a happy and safe summer!

Love-Ben, Toni and Rebekah.

MOTSCHIEDLER MADNESS

Another month has come and gone. And this month we decided to buy a house. We move in 3 weeks. It's in Harlan Ranch in Clovis; 3 bedroom, 2 bath. It's a beautiful new house with wood floors and lots of windows. We're really excited. We've been shopping for a refrigerator, chandelier, shutters and furniture. Our wish list is growing longer every day.

We had a great 4th of July in Visalia with the Ryan Marshal family, parentals and Kelli's sisters, parents and familias. We begin by watching the kids do a great, wet obstacle course planned out by Ryan and company. We ate yummy bbq and then ended the night watching the neighbors do some crazy illegal fireworks. Who needs to pay big bucks to see a big show, anyway??? Oh yeah, we had our own fireworks too. It was a fun night.

Pismo was great. We did just the right amount of sitting around doing nothing, shopping at the Atascadero Fruit Stand, pizza eating and bike racing watching in SLO (courtesy of Timmy). Ken and I even managed to walk to the beach and watch the sun set. On our way home, we stopped at our favorite b&b for lunch in Paso Robles.

Last night was Ken's mom's 60th birthday party. They held a big shin-dig with lots of food, beverages and music over looking the lake. The band's lead singer was a friend that we hadn't seen in a while. She sings "standard" hits. I learned why they called them Standards. Does anyone else know???? Two of Ken's brothers are in town for her bday. Anthony Augustus Tobias Pizza (Pee-zah) is here from LA and is currently asleep in our guest room (it's about 1pm right now) and David and his 3 year old son Ian are staying with Ken's parents. We're going to have a family dinner tonight and then tomorrow we're meeting some friends at the lake to ride around in a boat and have dinner. It should be fun.

I think that's about it. Oh, we finished our 1st year of summer camp at the school, it was a hit. I'm glad it's over. Okay, now I think that's it. See ya next month from our new Casa De Montoya.
Ciao!

WADDELLS
LUCAS is now 1 year old. We celebrated his Birthday with a family dinner at my Dad's house. He loved, yes loved his presents! We also celebrated with a fish pinata which he didn't care for really. It was a long Sunday! He's not walking yet, but we all have high hopes for the month of August still. His new favorite word is "wow," which is repeated over and over when he's excited about anything!

CARALEE is finished with her summer class and is ready for a whole 9 units online this fall. Wish her luck, it's hard finding a ton of time for homework with a 1 year old tugging on your leg all day!

ERIC is still sweatin' it out in Kuwait. The temperature has reached 127 degrees already and isn't relenting much. He's super busy, but always finds time to go to the gym to sweat out the stress. His address is:

CPT Eric Waddell
217th OD (EOD)
APO-AE 09366

LA FAMILIA DURAN
We loved being at Pismo and are sad to be back. It was nice to be able to enjoy the ocean with its rejuvenating activities and also to spend time with those in the family that came and went and with those that stayed. It was all very restful except for the rousing birds that wake up at 6:30 AM every morning singing at the top of their lungs, dismissing any dreams of sleeping in.

Louie started working the swing shift last week and seems to be doing okay. He says the calls are different from what he has been seeing in the daytime even though he is working the same beat. Not as many paper crimes. And he was offered the “Golden Handshake” and was asked to retire by next month so the city could save some money by not having to pay his salary, something about a budget crisis and all with the bad economy. So we have been daydreaming of what we could do, like move to Hawaii, move to Montana, move to the beach. Yeah, he can’t retire yet unless he can find another job with good benefits. Anyone know of any?

Mica had her wisdom teeth pulled yesterday and thinks she is dying. (This is why we still need benefits.) I keep trying to give her more Vicodin but she won’t take it. Must take more drugs! Must be out of your head. Her FCYC (Fresno County Youth Choir) performed the day we got home from Pismo. It was an outstanding concert with many funny and entertaining opera and show tune pieces. One of the best concerts we’ve ever been to.

Jordan is geared up and ready to take a few classes at the new Clovis campus up on International and Willow. Even though it is in Clovis it takes about 20 minutes to drive there from our house. He is trying to get into the same classes that Stephanie has so they can drive together and do homework together. He still looks good driving his fancy red car.

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY had a quick, but full summer vacation. Shaver Lake for a week, Pismo for a week, scout camp for a week, Knott's Berry farm for a day and now he begins a new job. He's starting this year as Principal at Computech Middle School. (David just missed him by one year!) He's anxious to get started and see what pricipalship is all about.

JENNIFER has been busy cleaning up after all our vacations. The laundry is all-consuming after a week of camping! She has also been collecting ideas for redecorating the downstairs in the house. We have a new chocolate brown sectional coming and it is throwing off our color scheme! It will be a whole new house when she's done with it.

TREVOR and LOGAN have been in kid heaven since summer school ended. Video games all day, swimming in the pool, playing with cousins, camping, camping, and a quick trip down to Knott's Berry Farm and the Kids' Discovery Museum. What more could a kid want?

LIZZIE loves to sing. She sings all the words to all the songs in primary and she's the only one in her Sunbeam class that does! It's fun to hear her come home with new songs she's learned from next door like She'll be com'n round the mountan and Lou Lou Skip to my Lou. Love it!

JACKSON is still as busy as ever. He is always into everything and when he gets tired he gets worse! He, of all the kids, loved the rides at Knott's. He would have gone on everything, but he was just not tall enough.

OTHERS July 2008

2008-07-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^:'*SPOTLIGHT*:^'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^

I thought it would be fun to spotlight one family member each month in our newsletter. Hopefully this spotlight section will help us know a little more about each other than we previously knew. Say hello to JONATHAN BOGGS...

What is your favorite color? Blue and Red

What are your hobbies these days? Yard work, bicycling, photography

Do you have a childhood memory you'd like to share? How about an "adulthood" memory: Many years ago, I had a janitorial service and specialized in cleaning small offices. I cleaned one particular office every night. In the bathroom, there was a curved brush on the back of the toilet. I thought it would be a good brush to use to clean the toilet. I used it every night for several weeks and after using it would put it back on the back of the toilet. One day, I was in a store and thought I would see if I could find a brush like that to use. I search the brush section until I finally found it. It was labeled "Coffee Pot Brush". And no, I never told them in the office that I had used their brush.

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) I want to purchase a sailboat and go sailing.

=================NEWSLETTERS================

Motschiedler Madness
June was a rush of excitement.

It was the last month of my school's first year. We had 3 nights of graduations. The kids were adorable in their caps and gowns. We finally got our Trolley Train and it was a huge hit! It consists of two life-sized cars, one of which is a convertible for the adults. The train follows a track around our private park over looking the San Joaquin River. It's a lot of fun. Come by for a ride if you're ever in the area.

Friday was our 1st year wedding anniversary. We can't believe how the year flew by. We celebrated by going to Flemmings Steakhouse and reminisced about our week long wedding adventure in Hawaii. We had a great time but our stomachs were full long before we were done eating. We love that place. That was the end of a very busy week so we were tired and made it an early night.

We said our good-byes to Patti that week. Her funeral was very nice and it was great to see so much of our family. It's too bad we all don't get together more often. Patti's old ward was amazing and did a wonderful job providing lots of great food, a nursery for the kids and support. I found out later that one of the girls I work with was in the kitchen and is friends of the Binford/Butler clan.

At the beginning of the month, we went down to L.A. for the weekend to visit Ken's brother. We stayed in the W Hotel which is a pretty cool place. We had a great room with a fabulous view. On Saturday, Ken and I went to the Getty Museum. That place is pretty amazing. We saw lots of beautiful old art and some not so beautiful old art. It was a great day. We met up with Ken's brother and his friends and Ken's parents for dinner. The following morning we all went to a Petanque tournament, played a little Petanque, all had lunch together, and then hit the road. It was great to see Tony and we were sad to leave him.

Ken and I are planning to go to Pismo for the weekend of the 18th through the 20th. Who else is going???????

Until then...ciao!

WARD WIDE WEB
We will be at Pismo from Friday to Wednesday. We just can't resist that Splash Cafe!

JEREMY has BIG news this month - we're talking HUGELY BIG news. His team - the Fresno State Bulldogs - WON the college world series! He went to the parade, he bought the official t-shirt and he made 2 posts on our family blog about this championship game. The line he kept repeating all week was, "This is a once in a lifetime event." And it really was - who knows if the Bulldogs will ever pull this off again.

JENNIFER was happy to visit with so many Boggs' "out-of-towners" at Patti's funeral, wake, bbq/swim party. It was such an emotional day. It was so hard to say goodbye and feel only a bit of what her kids were feeling that day. There was so much love to feel too. You can't help but feel good when you are surrounded by so many good people.

TREVOR enjoyed a trip to San Francisco to see a Giants baseball game. He was stoked to be in the AT&T ballbark for his first professional baseball game.

LOGAN started swim club this month. His coach was a little skeptical when she saw his size, but warmed up to him pretty quick after she saw him in the water that first day.

LIZZIE has been our little fish. She swims all day every day and can't get enough pool time. Her tan lines are beyond good.

JACKSON is a thriving two-year-old boy. He is beyond busy. Here's what he did in one week: popped every key off of Jeremy's work laptop, emptied an entire economy size bottle of maple syrup in the living room and kitchen, and killed off another fish pouring bacon flavored mints in to the tank. He does have his cute moments though, when he likes to wear Lizzie's dress-up shoes and walk around the house sweeping and doing his "housework". It's all priceless, we know.

Patti was in the Bee!

2008-06-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Click here to view the article at FresnoBee.com.

An advocate of women, schoolchildren
LDS ward leader also was president of elementary PTA.

By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
06/25/08 23:28:44

More information
Patti M. Binford
Born: Sept. 10, 1948

Died: June 20

Occupation: Legal Document Assistant, co-owner

Survivors: husband, Tom Binford; children and stepchildren, Marcy Butler, Tim Butler Jr., Matt Butler, Chris Butler, Caralee Waddell, Tom Binford Jr., Rick Binford, Travis Binford, Tambra Pickford, Jared Binford, Andy Binford and Craig Binford; mother, Arba Boggs

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Patti M. Binford was well-known for her compassion and the ability to translate it into action.
Mrs. Binford, 59, of Fresno had suffered pulmonary fibrosis, and died Friday.

She was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and had served as president of her ward's relief society, concentrating on the needs of women.

Earlier, she had been a leader among a small group of parents in Fresno Unified School District who challenged administrators and eventually prevailed on them to find more than $13 million to air-condition district schools. She and the ad-hoc group challenged the status quo that had forced tens of thousands of small children and older students routinely to sit in classrooms with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees for hours each day. They returned home literally red-faced on hot days.

Mrs. Binford was born in Lynwood and moved with her family to Fresno, where her father had found a printing job, said her husband, Tom Binford.

She attended Fresno schools, and worked for a telephone company until she graduated from Fresno High School.

She continued at Fresno City College, married and became increasingly involved in her children's schools, serving with the PTA and as president of the Del Mar Elementary School PTA.

That warmed her to schoolchildren's plight inside hot classrooms, Tom Binford said: "When I got here from the Bay Area, I was just blown away. I thought, 'How could anybody in this Valley not have air conditioning?' Administrators had it in their offices."

Mrs. Binford's work with her LDS church deserves at least as much praise, said her husband, mother, Arba Boggs, and close friend, Ellen Thomas.

"Patti was very organized," her mother said. "She was given basic responsibility from our bishop for the care of women in our ward," a geographic and administrative division of the church. "I guess Patti was called to do this."

Mrs. Binford maintained a notebook of all women in her congregation, or ward, and directions to each woman's home, her mother said. She kept track of the ward's "visiting teachers."

"She was born to it," her mother said. "We believe they come with these gifts. She helped a lot of families."

Thomas called Mrs. Binford "a master of organization," a talent she handled "with such dignity and grace."

Mrs. Binford also was an accomplished musician, particularly on piano and organ, teaching music in her ward along with organizational skills and preparedness.

"The compassionate service is something she did so well," Thomas said.

A memorial "graduation service" was held Wednesday in the LDS church on East Alluvial Avenue.

The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6311.

Mother, Daughter, Sister, Wife, Aunt, Friend

2008-06-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Patti lived a full life full of love, humor and music. We are all sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful person. Each of our lives has been changed for the better because we knew her. Patti's "Graduation Service" will be Wednesday, June 25th at noon.

If anyone would like to share a Patti story or memory - humorous, serious or otherwise - please leave it in the comments or email it to me and I will post it here.

Patti's Eulogy
by Jonathan and family members

The Poet Andrew Morton said:
"The eulogy is the moment at which the deceased is brought close, and a time when he or she steps away. It is at once a greeting and a letting go."

He went on to say:…"the eulogy will start to heal us too. It will help us get things in perspective, and to understand that we cope with loss not by forgetting whomever has been taken from us, but by finding out how we can best live with our memories of them."

I am grateful for this opportunity to talk about Patti and her life in this short section of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of happiness.

I have always said I would not give a talk at the funeral of a family member, but I must have had a lapse of judgment when Tom asked me if I would speak today.

At a family get together Sunday night, someone mentioned that this service today is no longer being called a Memorial Service for Patti, but it is being called a graduation. So I am grateful to speak at Patti’s graduation.

Much of what I say today comes from Patti’s life history that she was writing using a laptop while she was in bed. I enjoyed reading and studying it to see what was important to her. A few points that stood out to me were that Patti loved to serve; she loved music; and she loved being in charge. I also realized how many times we do not know how much of an effect we have on people around us.

Patti Marilyn Boggs was born on September 9th, 1948 in Lynwood, California to Ralph and Arbalee Boggs. She is oldest of 8 children. She wrote that "Her birth certificate indicates that her father’s occupation was rabbitry. Where my father did raise rabbits, his real occupation was that he was a bookie. This being illegal, and because he collected lots of money, they would hide the money in cheese jars in the freezer. In today’s world, that would have been a bad place to hide money! The story goes that my father had a friend at the police department who tipped him off that they were going to raid the organization, and Dad got out and never went back. He started looking for a job at various newspapers as a printer and got a job at the Fresno Bee. So they moved to Fresno when Patti was around 2 years old. A little while after moving to Fresno, her parents joined the church in the old First Ward - in the Fresno Stake which at that time went from Merced to Visalia/Hanford.

Patti remembered that Sister Thompson was the organist and Brother Thompson was the chorister. I think that was an indication of things to come as music was an important part of Patti’s life.

Patti remembered a couple of years after the family joined the church that Donald J Hill was our bishop and he loaned his station wagon to us to drive to St George to the temple so we could be sealed as a family. Patti wrote : "That was quite a trip. There were six of us kids then. All the back seats were put down for the trip and boxes of our belongings were lined around the outside of the laid down seats. We sat at the boxes and used them for desks and did our homework because the trip took a week and we were missing school. (this was before the seatbelt law) This was quite fun! We stayed at the house of one of our ward member’s mother and I had to sleep with her. Her back yard was up against a mountain and we knew the mountain was full of Indians!"

One of Patti’s favorite childhood memories was the summer Mom and Dad made homemade root beer. They bottled it and stored it on shelves in the garage to age. The garage got so hot that the bottles exploded and root beer went all over the bicycles. Patti said: "I’m sure it was all over everything else in the garage, I just remember the sticky bicycles."

The summer between fifth and sixth grades, the family moved to the Tower District and lived in a big house on Englewood. Patti was very disappointed to move then because she was supposed to be the Traffic Patrol Captain that next year and was really looking forward to it! She wrote: "The power and prestige - all lost in one move!" She did get accepted into the traffic patrol at the new school, and was real embarrassed when she realized that she didn’t know the name of the streets on either side of the school. She said she learned real fast!

Patti said that "The Englewood house was perfect for our large family. There were four boys and four girls and she being the oldest had to babysit often. She wrote that the three kids directly under her were the hardest to manage. Let’s see, Suzanne, Nancy & Jonathan. Hmmm… She said the trick that worked the most often was if she would get upset and go to her room crying, they would eventually come around, apologize and then do as she had directed.

A couple of stories that were shared the other night as the family got together
The four girls (Patti & her sisters) shared a big room in the house as we were growing up. Every night, Patti would use one of those big Vaseline jars to put Vaseline on her lips before going to bed. Many nights, Suzanne would already be in bed and ask Patti if she would bring the Vaseline over to her so she could use it too. Every time, as Suzanne put her finger in the jar to get Vaseline, Patti would shove the jar up and jam Suzanne’s hand into the Vaseline.

Another time as Patti came in late from a date, Suzanne was already asleep. Patti turned on the light and was getting undressed to go to bed when Suzanne woke up. Patti told her it was time to go to seminary and she had better hurry up and get dressed. Suzanne got up and got dressed and ready to go to seminary.

Patti said her parents were always faithful in their church service and a good example to us children. Because of this we actively serve. She said she has always loved serving in the church.
My first calling was to play for primary. I attended Fresno High School which was just across the street from the Echo Building. This was before the block, so primary was on Wednesday afternoon. I just walked across the street for primary. Janice Parker was the primary president. I am continually grateful to her for her faith in my abilities. I had never accompanied anyone and was terribly nervous. This is a most common problem. For probably my first six months, my playing was terrible with lots of wrong notes and many times no notes. Because of my fear, the pages seemed to go blank . When I was finally getting a handle on myself, she then encouraged me to play the organ for prelude and postlude. She gave me a few basic organ lessons and had me start. Because of her, I have spent many years in the church playing the organ which I loved.
I had one more lesson to learn on the organ. I guess my name got out because I was called to substitute for Sacrament Meeting on the organ. The sad part was that it was always last minute, so I had no time to practice or prepare. I usually had a boy friend attending church with me, so would have to leave him to sit with my family. (darn!) To make matters worse, I usually botched up the opening hymn real bad while I was trying to get control of my nerves. I was so embarrassed that I would usually cry during the opening prayer hoping no one was looking.
I did after a couple of years get control of my nerves and have happily played the piano and organ in church. I love the power of the organ. It seems that in some wards the person who can play is abused and overused. I understand that this is sometimes a matter of supply and demand. It has been my motto to be happy in my service and be glad for my talent and ability. It’s been hard to do. In my later years, when I didn’t have children to worry about, it was easier.
I learned another big lesson from Janice Parker. One day during primary, I was sitting in the foyer of the church waiting for singing time. A very handsome young man came into the foyer from the school across the street. He asked me what I was doing there and I said, "I have to play the piano for primary." Sister Parker heard my answer and after the young man left, she very kindly instructed me that we "get" to do things in the church, not "have" to. I never forgot that lesson.

When Patti was in high school, she and her friends went to lake and took a 6 pack of beer to bleach their hair. Asked about it later, she said she was never tempted to drink it.
One of Patti’s first jobs was an operator with the phone company. It is interesting that one of Patti’s supervisors at the phone company is the landlord of the house Patti and Tom and just moved into.

Lloyd (Patti’s youngest brother) tells of how he used to dial "O" and ask for Patti. The operator would say "Which Patti?". One time Patti finally answered and Lloyd got scared and hung up. When Patti got home that night, she asked Lloyd if he had called. He of course denied it.
In July of 1969 Patti married Tim Butler and they had 5 children: Marcy, Tim, Mathew, Christopher, and Caralee.

In talking abut service, Patti said "my favorite service was as a mother. I love my children and loved being a stay at home mom. I love the challenges of organization and learning all the skills involved".

Her children said that "Mom was always cool. She was ready for a party anytime. One of their favorite dinners was Popcorn and smoothies.

Every year for many years, our family has gone camping for a week at Pismo. Louie reminded us of the time that he and Tim were down on the beach watching all the kids and were kind of bored. So they asked kids if they wanted to make money? They instructed the kids to dig a big hole in the roadway on the beach and cars would go around. Of course as the cars went around they would get stuck in the sand. The kids would offer to dig them out for $5., So a little later, (after the kids had already mde 35 dollars) the mothers came down to the beach and there were their little kids under the cars digging tem out of the sand.. Patty said to Tim and Louie: "are you guys out of your mind? You’ve been the sun to long already! Get away from there. That stopped the money making adventure but they did go out and buy pizza afterwards.

I don’t think our yearly camping trip will be the same without Patti’s scones and popcorn she always fixed for us.

Patti made jeans quilts for each of her children and some of the kids said they keep the quilt in the car, because it is great for everything. It took her about six months to make each one and she would make them while watching TV at night..

Caralee: told us that thy always loved it when Patti would play Bohemian Rhapsody on the piano and she would always play it. The children would always sing along and would ask her to play it faster, faster while they tried to keep up.

One thing I recently learned is that Patti used to play laser tag with her kids and she would always win. She would position herself in a corner where she could not be seen and wait for someone to pass by. He kids said she would always sniper you from across the room. She would kill at laser tag. .Patti’s nickname was always mother goose. After the game as they were walking down the hall, the kids said "You could always hear mom cackle and say, you don’t mess with mother goose. She was so cocky and it was perfect."

When Marcy started school I became involved in PTA. In the second year I was chairing the carnival committee and a couple years later became PTA president. I was so surprised at what the women on the board could not do. It was then I realized how many skills I had learned just through my service in the church. For this I was and am grateful, I was able to train the women on the board. It was at this time that I also became an activist! The school board was threatening to cut all the music programs in the district, so I started a letter writing campaign using the PTA as the vehicle. I contacted each PTA President and then mailed him/her a sample letter to use. I collected packages of letters from all the schools and presented them to the school board in one bankers box. I don’t know how much this helped save the program, but it was not cut.

A year later I noticed a first grader being sent home from our school who had a heat rash from his chin to his ankles. It was exceptionally hot that year before school was out and there was no air conditioning in the school. I thought about it. We have in our homes, stores, cars, but not in our schools and we expect our children to learn something? So she started a campaign with a friend Jamie Stienberg. They went to a school board meeting and got on the docket to speak. She said that after we both spoke to the board about our concerns of having no air conditioning in our school, the board president very ungraciously asked us why we should have air over some other school. Who did we think we were? So Jamie and I went home with our tails between our legs and talked about it. Of course all the schools needed air conditioning. We also did some research and came up with some real good arguments about the benefits to learning, etc. We went back the next month and spoke to the board again, this time better prepared and this time with written support from all the schools. This time the board president laughed and asked where we expected them to get the money to afford it. Each month we went back with more homework done and each month she shot us down, but we didn’t quit. We took our shots as a challenge. There was a Keith Chin (who owned Gongs Market) a board member who had been silently watching us. He approached us and said he had an idea as to how the air conditioning might be paid for. He talked with the district financial officer and they came up with a plan. Eventually a plan was made and the all the students in Fresno can thank Patti and Jamie for the air conditioning in their classes.

In July of 1991 Patti married Tom Binford and welcomed his children as her own. I don’t think Patti and Tom ever lived alone – there always seemed to be someone staying with them.

Patti leaves behind a legacy of service. She wrote: One of the saddest things of my terminal disease, was that my service abilities were lessoned as time went on. I held callings as homemaking leader,several times. This calling was quite big in that there was no manual and very little direction. I had a committee to work with me, usually women who were new in the gospel or needed fellowshipping. My motto in this calling was that on homemaking/enrichment night, my job was to provide as much information, hands on, education, ideas, etc on the subject we were covering. I always had displays of other information, handouts, etc as well as the usual classes or lectures. This meant lots of planning and usually hauling lots of "stuff" to the church each month. I loved big productions as well as felt it was my duty!

Around the same time I was also primary music director. I loved this calling because it was a "creative" job. There was no direction on how to teach a new song, only what song to teach. I was leading music in primary when the hymn, "I love to see the Temple" was new. I was so touched by its message.

My two most favorite jobs were RS President (two times) and working in the temple. I also served as RS Chorister, Ward Music Chairman, Sacrament Meeting Chorister, Organist, Pianist for all auxillaries, Choir Director, Primary President, Primary Counselor, YW personal progress leader, and MiaMaid Leader. I substituted as a teacher in primary and really loved teaching the 10-11 year old girls. That was my dream job. A job with a teachers manual!

Even after Patti thought she was unable to serve, she served others by allowing them to serve her.

Caralee her daughter wrote" She (Patti) served everyone so much. She always felt like she didn't have anything left to give others in the end, but by allowing me time to come over each day and be with her, she served me best. I needed a place to get out of the house to go to and a person to help me raise Lucas, being that Eric was gone so much. She was my refuge and my confidant and ultimately my best friend.

Suzanne her sister sent me the following: The thing that I keep hearing about Patti from everyone is how gracious she always was. Even when she was sooooo sick, and felt terrible, and didn't look her best, she was gracious and kind about everything. She delighted in anything that was done for her. Her face would light up and she would look so pleased at any little act of service or any little gift. I was so impressed with her. She did not complain, ever. She was independent to the end, until she absolutely could not do for herself. And then she handled it all with such dignity and grace.

Patti was a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grandmother, a sister, and a friend to many.
I am grateful to know and understand that Patti lives on and look forward to the day when we will all be together again.

OTHERS June 2008

2008-06-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^:'*SPOTLIGHT*:^'*:^*:'*^:'**:^'*:^*:'*^

I thought it would be fun to spotlight one family member each month in our newsletter. Hopefully this spotlight section will help us know a little more about each other than we previously knew. Gramma Boggs graciously agreed to be our first spotlight ever. Thanks for answering Gramma! Enjoy her comments below.

What is your favorite color? I'm not sure I have a favorite unless its yellow. ButI like blue greens and corals equally both pastel and brights.

What are your hobbies these days? Right now I read a lot and I like to be with people especially little ones-children. I think they are just marvelous.

Do you have a childhood memory you'd like to share? When I was 10 or 11 I roller-skated a lot. There was a Scandanavian ice skater, probably an olympic person and I would pretend I was her. Her name was Sonja Heine (pronounced henny).

What is something on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to experience during your lifetime.) My bucket list takes me to the east coast, DC, and up the California coast.

=================NEWSLETTERS================

WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took the boys to Father's and Son's on Mother's Day weekend. He also took his scouts to the shooting range and had a great time there. These are the moments this outdoorsman looks forward to the most.

JENNIFER had a lovely Mother's Day. She was pampered and treated so well - here's a picture of the delicious breakfast Jeremy cooked up that morning... and yes, it is on a PLATTER - not a plate.

TREVOR had a blast at Fathers and Sons. He mostly enjoyed the water activities: water balloons, super-soaker squirt gun fight, and the boat. He loves to be dragged behind the boat in this raft (that's him on the right).

LOGAN turned 7 last month. He had an awesome birthday week full of parties, gifts, Indiana Jones and french fry cakes. Oh yes, and he's been playing Mario Kart Wii every day... thank you Gramma Elizabeth.

LIZZIE finished her Joy School year. She had a fun party to celebrate their graduation complete with grad caps and ice-cream treats.

JACKSON is our talking boy! He has picked up so many words this month. Our favorites are Grink! (drink), mooey (more), bah-tye (bath time), bah-boo (bubbles), and see-ya (cereal).

MOTSCHIEDLER MADNESS

Ken and I kicked off the month by going to an event at a beautiful estate on the San Joaquin River. We went with another couple and dressed in our best summer clothes. There was a lot to eat, drink and see. We ran into old friends, put a bid on some items in the auction and had a great time. It was fun to run into people we do not see very often.

The following weekend I threw a baby shower for one of my teachers at our school. We did it in the jungle theme. We went a little overboard (as we always do) but it turned out really cute. Check out pictures on our blog: http://web.mac.com/kenmott/Site/Welcome/Entries/2008/5/10_It’s_A_Jungle_Out_There.html

We celebrated mother's day by first meeting Ken's parents at a park for a game of Petanque. They do this every Sunday morning and have been trying to get us to come. It's a French game played by Fresno locals from France (of course). They have a French club who is currently working on doing a Sister City between Fresno and a city in France. The game consists of throwing a metal ball at a designated spot. The team whose balls are the closest wins. It was surprisingly a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind going again. The players are pretty serious about it; they even play in tournaments up and down California. They are working with the park where they play on building a Petanque court. Following the game, the 4 of us headed over to Ken's parent's house for a yummy brunch with fresh fruit, quiche, and potato pancakes.

In the afternoon we headed to my mom's house where we had yummy deserts, opened presents and play Wii. We spent the entire time setting up each of our characters. It was so funny and kind of amazing how much we could make the characters look like ourselves. Isn't it interesting to see what other people think of us?

Ken's big news is that he finally got a much needed haircut. Unfortunately, the hairdresser cut off the last of his brown hair and he now has a head of silver. Where did it come from? I think maybe his boss may have had something to do with it.

Other than that, we're happy, healthy and still in love. We will celebrate our first year wedding anniversary next month. My, does the time fly when you're having fun!

See ya lata!

Great Scott!

Our little Scott family is doing wonderfully! Spring has sprung, and our garden in growing like mad. The picture is of our Peruvian daffodils.

They are by far the most impressive of our little seedlings! Bekah is walking really well now (and running...) and she's started babbling whole sentences. She's such a mimic. She's repeat what you say to her all the time. Now we have to be super careful what we say around her!! Work is going well for us both. And we're excited to find that we can afford for ben to go part time this summer and stay home with Bekah during the days!

Don't forget to check out our blog, we've got lots of pictures up, recipes and updates. http://www.greatscottfamily.blogspot.com/ -Utah Scotts

LA FAMILIA DURAN
Louie caught the bad guy who was hiding in the tree. The rookie officer wanted to run and chase the guy. Louie just got in his car and followed him till he cornered him.

Elizabeth has been ditching school because the teachers are through teaching and the kids act weird when they are bored.

Samuel is in summer school at Fresno State and is loving it. Not really. Summer school is hard.

Jordan bought a new car. Paid cash for it. He says, "Its a red Chevy Camero. It's fast and a cop magnet."

Mica graduated from high school. Yippee! She also had her birthday and is 18 years old. Now she is looking for a job and is registering for college.

Joke-of-the-week

2008-05-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

by Erin B.

Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly Mother.

The first said, "I built a big house for our Mother." The second said, "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver." The third smiled and said, "I've got you both beat. You remember how Mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can't see very well any more. I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took Elders in the church 12 years to teach him. He's one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it."

Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Milton," she wrote one son, "the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."

"Gerald," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel any more. My eyesight isn't what it used to be. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"

"Dearest Donald," she wrote to her third son, "you have the good sense to know what your Mother likes. The chicken was delicious!"

Joke-of-the-week

2008-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

by Amy D.

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her name plate that the teller's name is Patricia Whack.

So, he says, "Mrs. Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a long vacation." Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow.The frog says "$30,000." The teller asks his name and the frog says that his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it is OK, he knows the bank manager.Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he will need to secure some collateral against the loan. She asks if he has anything he can use as collateral.The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny pink porcelain pig, about half an inch tall. Bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult with the manager and disappears into a back office.She finds the manager and says: "There is a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. And he wants to use this as collateral."She holds up the tiny pink pig. "I mean, what the heck is this?"

(are you ready?)

(are you sure?)

(here it comes!!!)

The bank manager looks back at her and says,"It's a knick knack, Patti Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

Joke-of-the-week

2008-05-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?" She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world did I do today?" "Yes," was his incredulous reply. She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."