Christmas 2011

What a wonderful Christmas time. It has been so much fun to have Amanda home from college, lighting up our home with her sweet spirit and happy soul. The little girls just adore her and want to hang out with her. They spent time shopping together, wrapping gifts, and just ha

ving fun together. Last night we celebrated Christmas eve with a traditional turkey dinner (Taylor's request, we normally have Argentine food) with Grandma and Grandpa Seely. Dorothy worked hard all day preparing the meal and boy was it great. Most of us had to practically roll away from the table. We then spent time playing some Christmas themed games and read and acted out the Christmas story. It was so good to have Dorothy's parents hear with us. We ended the night with a Christmas video together then tucked the kids in. That is when the work began. I sure have a great wife. She amazes me with the way she addresses the details.

Christmas always feels better when it is on a Sunday. It helps us keep our focus on the day and what it represents. Our kids, fortunately did not wake us up until 7:45 although both Anna and Taylor were awake off and on since 5:00 am. We finally got down stairs and began opening presents at 8:00 am. It was so much fun and from what I could tell, it was a big success. Dorothy and I did not purchase presents for each other because we are going to Hawaii in February with the Craig and Karen Stephens. Amanda's big gift was a ticket to "The Lion King" in Las Vegas with her mom and Grandma Seely. They go next week. Taylor got a ticket to see Jimmer Fredette when the Sacramento Kings come to play the Jazz in January. He will get to go with me. Sarah, as usual, stocked up on Pokemon videos, games and cards. She did get a pay as you go cell phone. We will see how she does with it. Anna got a long board (big hit) and all kinds of minature animals. She was absolutely giddy about the holiday. I sure hate to see her grow up. The other kids are fun but Anna still is excited about everything. After opening gifts we had breakfast as a family then got ready for church.

Our sacrament meeting was the Christmas program and it was just beautiful. The choir performed many numbers as well as Dorothy and some other sisters did a beautiful number. I just love meetings that are filled with mostly music about the Savior. I think the spirit is always the strongest through music. Maybe I can convince Bishop Smith to have a couple other meetings this year of just music. Again, having Christmas on the sabbath really helps me focus on the importance of this day. I love my Savior and I am so blessed to have a testimony of his life and of this gospel. I pray that this coming year will bring our family continued blessings from God and that we can live worthily of those blessings. May God Bless All.

WINDS THAT BIND: DECEMBER 2011

It has been a while since I have posted on this site, but yesterday was a day to remember and I felt I needed to record the events of the day. Last Thursday, Davis County suffered severe damage due to high winds. Winds were recorded as high as 102 miles per hour in the Centerville area and in the 90's in Kaysville. Power was out in many areas and i was not even able to continue to work due to the power outage. Therefore, I was able to go home and spend the day in the neighborhood cleaning up debris from many yards. There were fences and trees down all over the neighborhood with roof damage and siding damage on many homes. Our home sustained roof damage and flashing damage. We fortunately lost no trees. It was amazing how many people came out to help in the clean up. We had tons of people just going house to house chopping up downed trees and making piles of garbage. After hours of work in the neighborhood, we had piles of debris stacked in front of most of the homes in the neighborhood. The hopes was that Kaysville City would come by and clean up the mess. More clean up occured on Friday and Saturday and the piles just got big. Fast forward now to Sunday.

We all know that Sunday is a day of rest, a day to worship our Savior and rest from our labors. As we sat in Bishopric meeting that morning at 8:30, we received an email from our Stake President, Kyle McKay. He informed us that there was to be another severe storm that night that would bring high winds and snow. He felt that we need to mobilize the wards to start cleaning up the debris and haul it to the dumps before the debris was blown all over the neighborhood again and became flying projectiles. He claimed that the Ox was in the Mire. Therefore, our ward which did not start church until 1:00 would start cleaning up then the other wards would do the same after their meetings. What we didn't realize is that this would be full day of work. Our ward meetings were eventually canceled altogether. Well, by 9:30 am we had about 20 people ready to start hauling loads to the dump. We started at one end of the street and began working our way through the neighborhood. Within 30 minutes we had hundreds of people loading trailer after trailer and hauling it away. We would pull up to someones home and load fences that had been blown down, tree branches, siding, shingles and anything else that had been destroyed. We had neighbors out helping that are not members of the church and some that have never even been out socially in the neighborhood. It was absolutely amazing. I don't think there could have been a better Sabbath activity. The unity and love that was felt among all those that were involved was incredible. We finished cleaning up our ward boundries then moved into the next ward and so on until our little community was cleaned up and ready for the storm, which by the way never materialized. Which is okay. The lessons learned and the bonds that were formed were beyond measure. The Lord moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. It was a great day and for that I thank my Heavenly Father.

SUU Visit

Dorothy and I had a wonderful weekend in Cedar City with Amanda. We loved seeing her and meeting a lot of her college friends. We were able to go on a beautiful hike above Cedar City and take in the scenery and fall colors. We also were able to go to the last weekend of the Shakesperean festival and see the play "Greater Tuna" It was so much fun to be with Dorothy and with Amanda. As parents, you always seem to worry about your kids and even when they are away from home the worrying never stops. We are blessed with such great kids.

Stuffed Animals (Kids Best Friends)

Today as I watched Dorothy sing as part of the Tabernacle Choir and the spoken word, I noticed sitting next to me was Sarah's best friend and playmate, Cordoroy. Cordoroy is her little brown stuffed bear that she has had since she was a baby. She sleeps with it as a pillow, she carries it from room to room even at age 13 (almost 14). In fact she places her (she calls Cordoroy a girl) on the back of the couch looking out the window whenever she leaves the house for school, church or play. Then upon her return Cordoroy can see her coming in the house. So this morning as I sat on the couch and saw her dear friend proped up watching the broadcast with me, I started to reflect on the comfort and love that these little stuffed animals give our children. Each one of my kids have had a animal that they have named and called their own. Amanda, at age 18, still travels back and forth from college with her stuffed lion "Simba". Simba has had to be washed various times to rid it of the odors that collect over the years. She loves Simba as Sarah loves Cordoroy. Taylor also had a favorite animal that was a dog bought at Eddie Bauers, thus the name Eddie. He loved Eddie and just like the other kids, Eddie went everywhere with him. Unfortunately, we believe that Eddie ended up, accidentally, in a DI pile of stuffed animals and Taylor our 16 year old only has the memories of Eddie, unlike his sisters. Now Anna, our last child also has her favorite stuffed animal. It is a big black dog she calls Blackie. Just like the other kids, she can not go anywhere without it. Blackie has even traveled to the Oregon coast and Hawaii with his good friend Cordoroy. I love these animals and they bring such good memories to me and my family. I only wish we could some how find another Eddie as a keep sake for Taylor.

When I was a college student at BYU, we had a girl in our ward that had a bear that was just like the stuffed animal of my kids. She had had it since she was a baby and it was ragged and beat up but she had it with her at college. One weekend she went home and left her stuffed bear in the appartment. One of my roomates that was studing to be a doctor decided to take the bear an put it in a body cast with IV's. When she returned from home there was an note for her that her bear was sad that she had left him and he went looking for her. Unfortunately he was hit by a car crossing the street. So she needed to be prepared for what she was to see upon entering her appartment. There was her poor bear with a body cast from mid chest to both feet with a spreader bar between the legs. In his arm was a needle with an IV bottle hanging from a pole. It was quite a site and caused us all to laugh so hard. It was not quite as funny to her but in the end it was a great memory.

Funerals Bring Back Floods of Memories

Today I attended the funeral of a Dear old Neighbor, Ella Beth Shelton Moulton. She was the mother of my best childhood friend Grant Moulton. As they talked about Beth and her life, many memories of my childhood came flooding back. I was so lucky to grow up in a small town and in such a close neighborhood. I always felt safe and secure anywhere in our neighborhood. I spent countless hours in the Moulton home, Smith home and Rounds home, all on the same block as my home. We built forts along the creek bed, complete with a pipe to pee in so it would flow into the creek. In theory it was a good idea until the urine in the pipe started to stink up the fort. We played rodeo on Roy Smith's sheltlin pony in our own sandlot next door. We would sit on the pony then someone would slap it in the flanks and the ride was on. Sometimes I wondered how we all survived those days. We were also reminded of the night that Roy Smith stole some apples from the Moulton's tree and while he was making his way back to his sleeping back in his yard, Beth, who had seen us all stealing the apples, beat us to the sleeping bags and climbed in Roys bag to suprise him when we got back. I think we all had to change our shorts that night.

Grant was also known as the one with the hard head. He proved it one day as we all stood on the hatch to one of our club houses, with him inside. Not to be determined to get out, he rose us all up by pushing his head against the hatch. Our own sandlot, now with a home on it built by the Beckstrands (curse them, but we ended up loving them), was the locale for many a ball games. I even received my first mouth full of stitches after not seeing a line drive hit by Roy Smith right in line with the setting sun. We played ball in that field almost every day. Life was grand in Heber Utah.

Summers were always filled with sleeping out. I would bet that less than half of my nights as a child were spent in my bed during the summer. In fact my mother and fathers greatest fears were who I might bring home for a sleep over. Little did they know that we usually would raid a garden or two ( Call's, Young's and yes even the Moulton's if Grant wasn't sleeping out with us), followed by a trip to the Gril for a late night plate of french fries served by our dear friend Sarge Jensen. I would ground my kids for life if they tried something like that today. In fact, if they sleep out, I am right there with them. Come to think of it, it is usually my idea to sleep out even now. The big difference is I need multiple pads under my sleeping back in order to sleep. Life was grand at 36 NORTH 200 WEST. I had two of the greatest parents in the world that allowed us to be children and to have the time of our lives with our friends and neighbors. One of the yearly rituals, before the death of our neighbor across the street, Jeff Horrocks, was to gather for the crab apple (often turned into apple) fight. We would gather crab apples from the Horrocks tree then we would divide and conquer, covering our whole block. There were so many places to hide. We usually ended up in Bonnie and Bill Colemans apple trees and the pain became greater when you were hit. We would run through Freda Zulfelts back yard and across the bridge in to the Moulton's garden spot. We would sneak up the creek bed coming out at Maurine Thomas' house (Grants Aunt). The best place to be on the whole block was in the climbing tree behind my house in Francis Moulton's back yard. It is still there today and calls my name every time I visit my old home.

On our block we played with Roy and Lynda Smith, Grant Moulton, and Mark Rounds. We often would venture over to the Seiter/Call/Young block to play night games. Boy was that fun playing; eggs and bacon, kick the can, and ante-i-over. We also often played pick up games of base ball in the Seiters back yard with the back yard fire place as the home run. We often ended up looking for balls in the tall grass between the Seiter's yard and My Grandmother Moulton's yard. The kids we played with on that block included: Dwight Seiter, Brian, Randy and Keith Call, Lynette, Jim, Brian and Brent Young, Darren, Jill and Jason Ivie, and any others that gravitated to the place of ultimate fun.

Thanks For The Memories Beth. We love you and will truly miss those CINNAMON ROLLS.

Well my daughter Amanda has moved away to school and is now living in Cedar City Utah. She has started her own blog called "lifeofatheatrestudent". After reading it I decided that I needed to get back to my own blog and record some of my own feelings and thoughts. It has been difficult having our oldest child move out. I know that that is what is supposed to happen but we do miss our little curly headed daughter. She is having a riot at school and meeting a lot of new people and friends. She has always been a great daughter and I know she will succeed in school.

Water Tastes Better in The old Tin Ladle

Remember the old tin ladle that hung next the the kitchen sink in Granpa's house. Oh how I loved to go to his house so I could go straight to the kitchen sink and get a drink of the heavenly Heber water out of that ladle. I still love to drink out of tin cups or mixing bowls, there is something about it that makes the water so much better. Even Mom placed a small metal mixing bowl by the kitchen sink to mimic granpa's ladle. I am not sure if it was the tin that made it so tasty or whether it was the fact that it never went through dishsoap, that I ever saw anyway.