OTHERS January 2013

Motschiedler Madness

We had such a fun month of Christmas celebrations!

Desh is obsessed with TRAINS and tractors and anything with wheels so of course we had to go to Hillcrest Farms in Reedley and ride their steam train. My parents came with us and we had a lot of fun wandering around, eating funnel cake and riding the train. Deshy even got his first cup of hot chocolate. He loved it, of course. It was a fun Christmas this year because Desh understood (for the most part) what was going on. He met Santa and didn't even cry. We walked Christmas Tree Lane and loved seeing all the lights. He discovered the Polar Express and now I think our household has the movie memorized.

Now that the holidays are over, we are busy getting ready for the arrival of the next little Motschiedler boy due January 30th (although this mama is hoping for a week early arrival). This month will be a busy one for us with the baby coming, along with some visits from some of our favorite people: Ken's best friend and business partner who lives in Australia will be here for a few weeks with his fiancee and their combined children, along with my favorite sister Shelley who will be here for the baby and McKay, Amanda and Macy will make an appearance at the end of the month. We're so excited to see everyone and can't wait to party!

Chelsy's Missionary Email

This week has been a emotional roller coaster. We will start with the good first. We had 3 convert baptisms and 1 child of record baptism on Wed, confirmed Sunday. Nate, Joy and Josh were baptized. It was an amazing event, even though the water was not quite knee deep (on Pres Riner). There was quite the turn out too, 50+ people and a lot were less actives/non members.We have talked with Pres Riner and they are going to see about starting a YM program by the first of the year. We will be starting the new member lessons this week.

Danny, was not able to be baptized this week cause he is still smoking. He was able to give up hard drugs and coffee but smoking is still causing him trouble. We tried to extend a new date on Sunday but it wasnt the right time. He doesnt really think he can give up smoking. Why is smoking harder to give up than drugs? We couldnt get out to see him last week, but not for the lack of trying. He was busy busy this week. We will be going out to see him this week to continue his lessons. He is still making progress, he came to church yesterday with his beard trimmed and cleaned up. Almost didnt recognize him.

Cheryl is doing good. As of Saturday she had been clean for exactly one week. She still has not come to church but is attending ARP. Im not exactly sure what to do with her next. Probably start re-teaching her the lessons.

I have to admit I am extremely nervous for tomorrow. Not quite sure how I feel about getting a new companion. But I will ETTE, i have to. Sad news :,( my SD card decided it wanted to be mean and delete EVERY picture I had taken since I left the Fresno Airport and Sister Miner lost hers. So at this moment the only pictures we have of our 3 transfers together are the ones I have previously sent home and all those taken since wed. :( oh well, its life....

Dont know if I will be able to email again before Christmas so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! and hopefully I will get to email you again before the new year.
--

<3 span="span"> Love always

Sister Boggs

Chelsy and Mr. Snowman

 Chelsy with her new companion, Sister Kalani

Mica's Missionary Email 

Well, it wasn't the most exciting week. About 3 weeks ago we had about 9 progressing investigators and now we have 2. Kinda. We've no idea what's happened. We're working on it. Paciência. Anyway, I'll be skyping home on Christmas at 11am YOUR TIME. It'll be 7pm here and we'll get about 30-40ish minutes. Definitely not long enough. I would suggest that you use Jennifer's or Thomas' computer to do Skype because your computer is a bit stupid with the sound and video chat. I might need their skype usernames too. just tell me who/which username to call and be ready on the receiving end.  =) Yesterday we went to a member's birthday party. His name is Thomas and he's the secretary for the ward. He turned 45. He's super nice and was one of the first people to remember my name. So after church the more active members of the church went over to his house and ate, enjoyed each others company, and ate some more. Foi bom! Someone made a Jesus cake and no one had the heart to cut up nosso Salvador, haha. So we cut all around it, but finally one little girl wanted to eat the hand of Jesus. I'm glad it was the innocence of child that started the cannibalism. =) On Saturday we had a our ward christmas party. It was more of a weird cultural talent show than christmas related. Our ward is awesome, awkward, and very funny. =) The first person was an old woman who has a severe problem with shaking, so it always sounds like she's singing opera, but she can't help it. She read a two page poem! haha! then her husband did some magic tricks that no one could see and he totally could have burned the church down. ha, portuguese people.  =) and the whole time the announcer guy was saying " Fantástico!" It was very fun. After that there was a teenager who played the titanic song on a recorder flute thing. He did a really good job  =). These people are amazing. Well I have to leave. I need to write president. I love you! See you in a week! Work hard! Merry Christmas! 

Love, -Irmã Duran  =)

Mica and her companion with Silvino - he was baptized on December 23rd

On Christmas day we gathered at Jennifer and Jeremy's house to skype with Mica who is serving a mission in Portugal. She gets one 40 minute phone call home at Christmas and one phone call on Mother's Day. It was so great to see her looking so well. It took about an hour to troubleshoot her computer issues, we were all worried that it might not work out - skype can be tricky sometimes! And Portugal is one the entire other side of the world! But it all worked out in the end. Jeremy had a great set up for us - surround sound speakers, projector, and laptop. It was sweet. This was the first time our entire family has been "together" since moving Marcos and Melody into their new house last summer!

Mica had a great Christmas dinner with an LDS family - they served a traditional American meal instead of the traditional Portugal meal which is loaded with fish (Mica is not a fan of fish).

OTHERS December 2012

Boggs Christmas Breakfast 
at Fowler and Gettysburg church building 

Saturday, December 22 at 9:00 AM!

Are you coming?

Daily Duran

We can’t really recall anything until Thanksgiving for the month of November. Thomas had his hardest time in the month and Amy was busy taking care of everything else. We know stuff happened, but it was all a blur until Thanksgiving. We had a nice time visiting with everyone at the Turkey Bowl with all of the Boggs family. We spent Thanksgiving at the Wards family celebration and called it an early night when Thomas had had enough.

Clare is sick again with another ear infection this time in both ears. She is usually such a happy girl so when she is cranky, not getting into stuff, and eating less we know she isn’t feeling well. She started a real bad cough that sounds like a seal. She is always so sweet. Anytime she does anything wrong she goes up to Amy and says, “Sorry” and gives a hug.

Bella is learning a lot in Joy School . She has her number song down and can almost count up to 20 (sometimes she forgets the number 4). Her hair has not been cut since she was born and sometimes we ask her if we can cut it like daddy’s and she says, “no, I want it on.” We had some nice warm weather in November and she loved going to park and picking at all the leaves that were barely showing a change in color.

Amy has been doing everything everyday all day long. She takes care of the girls, Thomas, the house, she does primary, teaches Joy School , and even goes out for some 3 and 4 mile runs. She had a blast getting the house decorated for Christmas. She put up the lights outside, setup the tree, and put garland around the house. She will probably do more decorating when there is time.

Thomas had a hard month, but the worst is over. He is doing a lot more now. He is working on getting his energy, stamina, and endurance back up. He smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving and everyone ate it leaving no leftovers so he smoked another one just so he could have some turkey sandwiches. 

Letter from Elder Mathias Boggs

Family!
  Heya!  I am here in the mission!  Woooooo!  Made it safe and sound and am doing well.  Glad to be here that is for sure!  So, I am in a city called Sebalum.  It is a small little town and very nice.  I actually love it here already.  It is in the zone of Antique.  And guess what!  They don't speak Ilonggo!  So I really CAN say that when I got to the mission field they weren't speaking the same language as I learned in the MTC.  haha.  The language is Kinaray-a.  Haha.  But in all reality, it is very close to Ilonggo and if you speak either one everyone can understand you anyway.  Really they just change the pronouns, and then have a few different vocab words. But it is not too different.
  My companion/trainer/dad is Elder Baldwin.  This is his 5th transfer I think.  He has spent all of his time here in Sebalum.  He is really cool and we get along just fine.  I am also in the same house as one of the elders in my batch whose name is Elder Buchanan.  And then (This is for you Myley) Elder Hidalgo is Elder Buchanan's trainer!  So it is us four in the appartment.  I really love this area though.  The philippines are so pretty.  So green and sooooo picturesque.  It is so cool.  And the area I am in is really picturesque. Less city and more spread out.  I like it.
  Traveling was crazy and of course we never got any sleep.  Got about 12 hours of sleep in 3 days if we were lucky.  But two of those days were one hour sleeps during the night.  So it was crazy.  But now I am settling in.  The water here is not safe for us to drink so we have purified bottled water in our house.  Our house in unfinished and apparently they just moved in about a week or two ago so it is pretty un-put-together so far.  Haha.  We sleep in one room and live out of our suitcases.  Yuck.  I Hate living out of a suitcase.  It makes me feel sloppy.
  Transportation here is great.  Tons of public transportation mainly consisting of Jeepneys and Tricicabs.  Jeepneys are loooooong vans pretty much with two long benches inside and you just all pile in and pay the driver and go.  You pretty much fit about 30 people in each one.  Tricicabs are just motorcycles with a little cart on the side that four of us can sit in.  So pretty great.  You can ALWAYS get a ride along the main roads and it is super nice.  I also LOVE  the style of diving here.  In some ways it reminds me of Korea dad.  People just kinda pull into traffic and just weave around.  It is sweet.  But then it is a TON less crowded than Korea.  Everyone just takes public transportation.  Pretty much you go as fast as you want.  You drive pretty much wherever you want.  And you just get to where you are going with as many passengers as you can.  Haha.  But it is super safe too.  Everyone is super careful and let each other into the traffic without problem.  In all honesty it reminds me of how I walk.  Just weaving around people and getting where I have to without running into people.  Haha.  I like it.
  So yeah.  Any other questions or anything?  Lemme know!

Love you all family.  Thank you for everything you do and for the blessing you are to me.  You are the best family in the world. I mean it.  Thanks for your love.  I am doing well and will do all I can to be the best missionary I can be.  Love you.

until next week,

-Elder Boggs.

An email (and photo) from Sister Mica Duran

This is Marcelino! He has been marked for baptism 3 or 4 times and we FINALLY got him! Prayer and fasting....makes miracles happen.  =)

WARD WIDE WEB

JEREMY's extended family cousins from Montana were in town for Thanksgiving. We spent some fun time with them bowling on Thanksgiving Eve and eating Thanksgiving dinner with them. 

JENNIFER planned a quick and easy Relief Society Meeting for December. A Cookie Exchange! It was a fun and yummy night. And the flyer was totally cute too :)

TREVOR is getting into the Christmas spirit! He had a great time creating his gingerbread In N Out out of graham crackers and royal icing. He is also very much enjoying winter water polo. 

LOGAN did his winter program the last week of November. Doesn't he look studly in his tux shirt and bowtie? And the very next week he went to Sonora on his 6th grade trip for 3 days. He's got a great group of buddies - they always have a great time together.

LIZZIE had a very special job at her winter program - playing the xylophone! She was the only one that played several different notes on her instrument and sang at the same time - what talent!

JACKSON just wants his 2 front teeth for Christmas! What a fun thing for our boy to lose his teeth at just the right time of year! He also looked very handsome all dressed up for his winter program performance. He knew every word to every song and loved practicing at home for weeks before the show.

Our family is making an extra effort this year to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. It has been fun to provide small acts of service to others and remember what is most important in our lives. Family, Faith, and Friends. We wish you all much love and a Merry Christmas!

OTHERS November 2012

SCOTT NEWS:
 
We are loving our new house. More space to mess up! Our address is  the same:PO Box 753, Vidor, TX 77670.  John's cousin Sheila and Jim her husband came for a visit.  It was nice to see them.  We are doing the usual...working, painting and refinishing cabinets. We are going to doctors,walking, going to  tennis matches  and football games.  Cat is doing really well at tennis!  She loves walking in the woods, shopping, reading, being with or talking to friends  and  riding a four wheeler.  She is a delight to have around! 

 We love reading about all our new missionaries in the family!  Our prayers and thoughts are with the Thomas Duran faimily!  

MARSHALL NOOSE:

We are doing great. John is happy to be working for a company called Cedar Crestone. It is the same kind of consulting work as he was previously doing and includes the mandatory 4-day travel week. He was called to be the Choir Director in our Ward and is really enjoying that. He has built up a good size choir and is planning lots of very nice music for the holidays in the next 2 months. 

I am still working at the Therapist's office and have added additional office staff allowing me more flexibility in my schedule. I was recently called to be Young Women's president. I love serving in the church and am happy to serve wherever I am called. It's nice to be able to work with the girls. We are planning our YW in Excellence program, which is the evening when the girls show their parents what they have accomplished during the year. (It's like Back to School Night.)

We recently had our local family over for the traditional "Mutilating Gourds" party. (That's what Ryan named our pumpkin carving event.) I was impressed with everyone's artistic abilities. We had pumpkins that looked like Elmo, Tinkerbell, Monsters Inc., and others had very scary faces. They were great.  

We are looking forward to the Very Busy Holidays. Hope to see you all at the BCB or at the TURKEY BOWL. The TURKEY BOWL will be on Thanksgiving day at 9:00 a.m. at the church on Armstrong just south of Shaw. Hope to see you there! And be sure to plan on coming back to our house for cinnamon rolls and whatever else people bring to snack on.  The trophy is dusted off and ready to hand to a losing Boggs Dog!

Suzanne

WARD WIDE WEB

JEREMY has been working hard as the scoutmaster in our ward. He takes the boys on an outing every month and takes great care in planning mutual/scout nights to get the boys to progress as fast as possible towards that Eagle Scout award.

JENNIFER started work in the preschool on-site at the kids' elementary school. She is an aide in the special ed class. It has been fun to work in a super structured classroom with lots of energetic students!

TREVOR finished off his water polo season with a 4 game tournament. He is looking forward to winter polo and swimming in the spring. He has grown so much physically and in his knowledge of the game. He's almost as tall as Jennifer these days!

LOGAN finished off his football season and is happy to have his afternoons open again. He had a great time playing varsity and winning all but one game. 

LIZZIE is our shining star! She is in the school production of the all new children's musical - The Grunch. This is her first show and Lizzie is LOVING it! She sings all the words to every song all day and all night.

JACKSON is our soccer animal! He is tearing it up on the field this season. He's had a chance to play all positions but goalie. He is still looking forward to making his first goal - he has 2 games left to accomplish this task.

Daily Duran

Clare is dancing and singing all the time. She loves to sing when Amy is whistling or singing too. She has some pretty good dance moves that we can’t figure out where she learned them. Her vocabulary is ever increasing. She can say Bella, pumpkin, and mine very well. For Halloween she was Cinderella and loved to flaunt in her dress when everyone would ooh and ah.

Bella is going to Joy School two times a week with three other classmates. She is learning shapes, colors, how to write letters and read her name. She really got into the Halloween spirit this year; one day when we were all in the car she was scaring everyone with her loud “Boo!” Realizing she wanted to be scared she said, “mom, Boo me.” She was Belle from Beauty and the Beast for Halloween and got too much candy.

Amy does Joy School one week out of four. She had fun putting on the Joy School Halloween party. She decorated the house and made crafts for the kids to put together. She made mummy hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls for lunch. She had her primary program in October. It was a very good program with really good singing. She is still running several days a week.

Thomas had his last chemo treatment last week and is slowly coming around. After the second round of the whole treatment he has been much more exhausted. He starts off most days okay feeling well, but will be out of energy before lunch or little later depending on what he has been up to. In three weeks he starts the 5 year monitoring process with a CAT scan, labs, and a doctor visit. All should look well and life will resume as close to normal sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We have been having quite the experience. We have been receiving so much support in so many ways from family and friends. We are thankful for everyone and hope to be on the other side of supporting when you all need it too.

OTHERS October 2012

SISTER CHELSY BOGGS' LATEST EMAIL:

This last week has been an interesting one for sure.

The best thing that happened was Ambers baptism and confirmation. The baptism was amazing and very spiritual. There was a really good turn out. All the chairs were full. We were a little worried at the beginning because one of the speakers wasnt there till just in time to give her talk after Amber had been baptized. While Amber was changing we had everyone who was in attendence write a little note to her and then we collected them all and now we are going to print off some pictures of the baptism and put those with the notes in a little book for her to remember.

The most interesting/scary part of our week was Thursday night. We had gone over to a Mandy and Brian's house earlier in the and left the restoration movie with Jeanie. Thursday evening Mandy called us as she and her family were leaving and asked if we could come over cause Jeanie had some questions for us. So we call up Bro Carroll and ask him to come with us. When we got there Jeanie almost didnt let Bro Carroll come in and we could tell something was wrong. Finally she let us in. When we sat done she tossed some paper work at Sis Miner. The paperwork was suicide info. she was thinking of killing herself. I really learned the importance of awkward silences in lessons. As we asked questions and tried to figure out was going on and why she didnt want to live anymore, we learned that she was tired of fighting and not happy. She had stopped praying and reading her scriptures. We tried the best we could to share with her that she was loved by her family and they needed her, especially Tyler and Summer. We told her that she was loved by God and that she was a special daughter. I dont remember exactly all that was said but I know the spirit was strong. Just as we were getting ready to say a closing prayer Mandy and Brian and Tyler got home (they had left Summer at home so Jeanie wouldnt do anything stupid while they were gone). Jeanie tried to run off to give Summer a bath but we called her back and told her she couldnt leave without prayer. So we said the prayer...that was I think the longest prayer I have ever said in public before. She tried to run off without saying good bye letting give her a hug but we called her back and gave her a hug. When she left we talked to Mandy and Brian about what had been going on. Apparently her husband died a few years back in Oct and she gets really depressed this time of year and has tried to kill herself before. She has medication that she is supposed to be taking but she doesnt really take it cause the dr has her taking like 1600mg and according to the paperwork that could be fatal and she doesnt like how it makes her feel. But before we left we made her promise that she would be here on Sat so she could come to an activity with us. She said she would. Then on Sat we invited her to church to come listen to me speak. She said she would. She came to the activity and church on Sunday. She liked both and felt good. She even cried a little at church. Apparently everyone in the family was already for church on Sunday but Mandy (she didnt want to come and she is the member in the family), and since Mandy is the only one who can drive, they didnt come. We ended calling Jeanie and sent a ride for her, so we got her there. Jeanie is doing better now, we saw her this morning. She is now trying to find a better solution than killing herself. She is looking for a new psych dr and a new place to live (she doesnt like the environment at Mandy's house.) She has started reading and praying more. We gave her Mosiah 24 to read.

We have a set weekly appointment with Megan, a LA every Wed. She has come to church all but the first Sunday since we have been here. We are going through PMG with her and teaching her the lessons. So not only does it help her, we get to practice teaching together. She has some pretty good questions, questions I have never thought to ask.

The lesson in Sudnay School was The Lords Law of Health and both Ken and Jeanie were there. We were able to go over the first part of the WOW with them. President Riner was there with us which was nice cause he had to deal with that before he was baptized. We talked about the Addiction Recovery Program the church has and it was perfect because Elder and Sister Smith were there in Sacrament Meeting. Ken and Jeanie both expressed a desire to go. Ken had a long talk with Pres Riner after church.

There was a RS activity on Sat. It was amazing. There were more less actives and nonmembers there than there were active members. We got to talk to a lot of people and get to know the sisters in the branch better. No one went away with a frownie face or grumpy attitude. We had jewelery making, I made 4 sets of earrings; there were gifts from the kitchen and we got a bunch of recipes, I sent a copy of them home; and there were the board things (see picture). Most everyone elses said like "families forever" or "Grandkids make life grand" but we got to do "Serve the Lord"

We got to teach Rex on Thurs at the church, we taught the Plan of Salvation. We used Sis Miner's visuals. He is a really, really smart kid. We gave him a BoM story book, the one one with pictures and he started to read it before he left. He has such a wonderful spirit and is literally eating up all the information we give him and is eager to learn more.

I had the oppertunity to speak yesterday at church...I miss not being able to use a computer to type up my talks. My topic was on the atonement and I think it went very well. We also got to sing in Sacrament. Bro Carroll came up to us just before and said "Im gonna ask you gals to sing during my talk. I hope thats ok" So we got to sing "How Great Thou Art".

Last night was fun and a new experience. One of Sister Anderson's workers, Rip, is a preacher at the Church of Christ in town. When we had dinner with S. Anderson and he was there we said that if he preached on a Sunday night we would come and listen. Well he preached last night and we got to go. It was really good but you could tell the spirit wasnt there. We got invited to a lunch with Rip's dad, and two other preachers from there this coming Tuesday at the Sweet Tooth. So that should be interesting....pray for us? please?

Today we are going to Kingsport to hang out with our Elders and go to the mall...cant wait...kinda scared...going into civilization, not country civilization for the first time in 2months...

~Sis Boggs

Timpsons not Simpsons

Lucas is loving kindergarten. He is going on a field trip about twice a month and is a very good little homework doer.  He loves his Teacher who has them all trained and plays the piano for them all the time. His class shares 7 I pads with the other kindergarten class at the school and that makes him very happy! 

Violet is talking more than ever and will not be outdone by her brother in any respect. She counts, sings, climbs like him, but somehow can't decipher red from blue yet. She is busy busy still and we are beginning to wonder if she'll ever slow down. 

Nick is working on painting a backdrop for Lucas' class' French cafe. He's accruing lots of volunteer hours for Lucas this way. We are selling his '65 VW Bug if anyone is interested. Turns out that it's pretty hard to squeeze carseats and groceries in that car at one time. Very cute and good running though.  (plug)

Caralee is juggling...  Between everyone else's schedules and my own 5 classes I'm very busy, but somehow I seem more relaxed than last semester when I only had 3 classes.  My prayers have been answered. :)

JORDAN AND STEPHANIE

Hello! It has been a while since we have written on here and thought we should let everyone know what is going on these days.

We are having a baby!!!

Yes after 7 years together we are finally having a baby. We found out on Sept 24^th that we are having ourselves a little boy. No names picked out yet. He is due somewhere between Feb. 26^th and March 1st

Our 2 year wedding anniversary is coming up soon, wow how time flies!

Jordan

He is currently in Ventura, CA doing some more military training. He is training to be a mechanic who works on Fire Trucks. He loves it so far and is meeting a lot of new people. He should be home no later than Jan 31^st. So yes he should  be here for the baby to be born.

Stephanie

She is working her full time job at Lithia Nissan and being pregnant. She is already getting swollen feet and cant eat candy bars L. It gets tough sometimes and tiring but she loves being busy, especially since jordan is not here it helps keep her mind off things.

Baby

He doesn’t move much yet. He kicked Stephanie’s organs the other day after eating In-N-Out, we think he liked it lol. At the ultrasound he was asleep at first but then woke up and kept moving. We noticed he is pretty long already. So far he is fine and healthy with a very healthy appetite. Stephanie has not eaten this much ever! But it’s what he wants!

OTHERS September 2012

Sister Chelsy Boggs' latest email to Claudia:

thank you soooooooooo much for the package. when the assistants brought it over they wanted to know what was in it, they thought it was full of goodies...i am doing wonderful. sister irion said that we are the allergy capitol of the us but my allergies have not bothered me much. mondays are now my pday, and i dont exactly have a limit on time, unless there is a line for the computers. then i only have an hr.

If you could pray for these people it would be wonderful:

Darren Stone, investigator

Amber Lambert, getting baptized on the 8th

Rex Meecham, investigator

Ken Chesser, investigator

Sister Boggs

Sister Miner

The Branch as a whole

any packages need to be sent by way of the post office so that i can get them, there is no forwarding cost (from mission office). 

[photos included in recent emails from Chelsy]

sister soresen and bingham, my room mates

me and sister cady

  

my mtc district

TEXAS SCOTTS
What a busy time it has been.  We meant to go to Pismo and ended up at the Hospital.  John is doing well now.  We tried to go to the water park and it rained and rained with lightning and thunder.  We tried to go again and  Issac hurricane  threatened us  and we stayed home...that means Issac the hurricane did not land at Vidor.  What  a blessing!  So other then that --we have moved to North Vidor into a house and are loving it!  We are still unpacking and cleaning.  Our address is the same.   Cat is a Junior this year and school has started.  She is excited about it. She and her family really loved Pismo....  Seminary starts this week.  Cat got her permit and is driving often.  Not doing too bad either!  She so enjoys that too!

We love and miss you all and look forward to hearing about you all.

love, the Texas Scotts




WARD WIDE WEB

We said goodbye to Mica on August 22n. She reported to the MTC the very same day Chelsy left the MTC for Tennessee. It was an early morning, but Mica was READY to go! She was greeted in Utah by some good friends and Samuel. What a treat for her to be surrounded by so many loved ones all the way to the curb at the MTC.

Here she is on the airport monitors after passing through security. She walked the looooong walk down to the gates and we watched her almost the entire way.

JEREMY is back into the swing of school life as a principal. He's finished up teacher training days, the first 2 weeks of school, and participated in messy chocolate syrup marshmallow lunch time relays. He has been working hard in his calling also, trying very hard to stay organized with the hundreds of merit badges the boys have earned over the summer and is just about ready for a HUGE court of honor - happening tonight!

JENNIFER is learning how to find a balance between carpooling, housework, starting a new job, piano lessons, homework time, finding time to eat dinner as a family, soccer practice, church events, school events, helping Jeremy at work, etc. It's amazing to feel the difference between lazy summer days and ultra scheduled life.

TREVOR has big news! He is a starter on his water polo team at school. He is the sprinter and the hole set. This is a huge responsibility on a water polo team. He also began his 8th grade year, grew about 4 inches this summer, dropped a few octaves in his voice, and is happily surrounded by a great group of friends.

LOGAN is #1! That's what his football jersey tells us anyway ;) He will be playing an offensive position when the games begin. Logan is the big man on campus this year - 6th grade. He is excited to have a cool teacher who is also his football coach. Logan is looking forward to his 6th grade Sonora field trip where all the students go up to the dorms and spend 2 nights away from home.

LIZZIE also has big news! She tried out for her first drama production ever and got a call back! She will have a speaking part in this year's production of "The Grunch" (an all new children's musical written by Uncle Samuel's old high school buddy - Denver Casado). Lizzie started her 4th season of soccer last week and can't wait for the games to begin!

JACKSON got 2 wart frozen off last week. He laughed his head off during the first freezing...then cried like a baby through the second. He must've thought Dr. Jones was joking when he said, "Jackson, this is really going to hurt." Now the warts are gone and we are treating the wounds from the burns. Jackson also started soccer practice and loves his team already.




Here are some of the photos from Marcy. You should have received these photos in your email inbox. If not, please email Jennifer.

Jonathan said this was the last time all the Boggs siblings were gathered together. What a great moment captured forever.

 

Mott Quad (a.k.a. Motschiedler Madness)

We've had a fun-filled summer with lots of swimming and outdoor play when it wasn't too hot. Desh is becoming such a big boy and talking more and more. He loves to be outside and play with other kids. He loves driving his toy cars around and pushing anything with wheels.

I'm feeling pretty good approaching my 5th month of pregnancy. We were excited to find out last week that we're having another boy! We've already planned for bunkbeds and have been busy converting our office/guest room into a No Girlz Allowed playroom (we're willing to make exceptions, of course). I made the decision this month to spend a little more time at the school and I now go in for a full day once a week while Deshy goes to his Grammy's. Its great for both of us to get a little away time. 

Ken is busy working on purchasing another apartment complex for our business, this one twice the size as our current one. Its a little scary but very exciting to watch our business grow. Ken loves rough housing with Desh and playing "Dad's a human jungle gym". He's loving being a dad and can't wait for the next little guy to join our family. 

OTHERS August 2012

The Daily Duran

Wow what a month July was. We got back from the Berry Family Reunion and have been busy ever since.   

 

Clare has finally started going to nursery on Sundays and mom and dad are glad. She loves to wrestle with Bella and will often be the one instigate the situations by pulling hair or biting. She is definitely much more of a handful than Bella. When shopping in the store with her she says hi to everyone she passes by while sitting in her perch in the shopping cart. If you take her too close to the shelves at the store she will start pulling whatever she can get her hands on into the cart.

 

Bella has become an astronomer. She looks for the moon and stars all day long. Sometimes the moon is out early and she loves to point it out first. She has names for all the different moons like the ‘nana (banana) moon or the O moon.

 

Amy has been a good sport going to doctor appointments, filling odd food orders, and handling the kids by herself aside from the lots of help we have been so thankful for. She has been working on a baby shower for a friend, taking the girls out to the water park, keeping the house up all including picking up after Clare who just reaches up to any counter or table and knocks over whatever she can.

 

Thomas is in good spirits and has recovered well from his surgery so far. He has gone back to work and is okay to do anything he wants as long as it is not to strenuous like doing dishes or changing diapers. Lots of tests and maybe chemo still to come. We have not decided if we want to keep watching and testing or do chemo. There are a few scans and tests that need to be done before we have to decide which treatment to pursue. 

 

 

 

THE WARD WIDE WEB

The month of July was packed with many family events... in chronological order...

 

(Jeremy & Trevor spent a week at Boy Scout Camp the week before July - we like to include that week in with all of the July/summer madness as well.)

 

We celebrated the 4th of July at our house (the first time in YEARS!) with Jennifer's dad's side of the family. It was fun to see relatives that had traveled all the way from Texas to be there with us.

 

We spent a week up at Shaver Lake for family camp. Boating, kayaking, campfire, soda bottle rockets, card games, good food and friends.

 

Thomas made his announcement about his diagnosis and surgery. We hoped to help with his recovery and taking care of the kids. Our helpful plan did not work out so well (see next paragraph)...

 

The next week we had planned to help Thomas & Amy and/or go to Pismo, but got sidetracked and went to Reno, Nevada instead. Jeremy's brother and his family were in a horrible rollover car accident - everyone survived, thank heavens. We spent the week there as they were admitted, had surgery, and were released from the hospital. Mom (Aimee) will be doing rehab at home to learn how to maneuver with her broken hip and both mom and daughter (Emma) will be in a neck brace for 6 months. Everyone is home now and is recovering nicely.

Marcos and Melody had their baby! We are so excited to have new baby Max join the family and can't wait to meet him.

Jeremy took the Boy Scouts (Trevor & Logan included) on a 2 night backpacking trip.

 

We got some news about Jennifer's Grandma Dee Dee (Louie's mom) - Grandma fell at home and was taken to the hospital. She is in rehab now and will be learning how to use a walker to prevent any falls in the future.

We are home now and have done some fun things with the kids since they were such good troopers living at a hotel and hospital for a week ... Skywalk trampoline arena, Brazilian Buffet, $3 movie to see Men in Black 3, Wild Water Adventure Park, and Jeremy took ALL the kids camping for one night at Millerton Lake.

Whew! It has been a month of fun times and scary times, including much fasting and prayer. We will do our best to enjoy the last 2 weeks of summer vacation before the routine of life sets in.