Birthdays and a Baptism

Dave and Natasha's twins turned one year old July 1st. They invited us to the birthday party, and it was fun watching all the little children. It was especially fun to see the children of a couple of the guys Dave grew up with.

Cute little people, Aniston and Jack.

The following pictures were taken when Cameron (Travis and Andria's son) was baptized and confirmed. Quite a few of the Val Williams family were able to be there.

Cameron

Valerie, Aaron's and Janele's daughter

Grandpa Val and Solomon, Aaron's Son

After the baptism everyone went to Travis and Andria's for lunch. Below is Aaron holding his little Mathew, and Randy

Aaron, Brooke, Aubree, Lindsey, Kyler

Kendall and Lee'sa's Family

Since Kendall and Lee'sa's family hasn't been here for the events I'm posting pictures of, I wanted to include some of their more recent photos from Lee'sa's blog (except for this one of her). We really miss them when the rest of us get together.

Kendall's birthday cake. With Lee'sa being sick from pregnancy, he was very lucky she made him one. A birthday hug from Annie.
A hug from sweet Kylee Sisters and best friends, Kylee and Annie

More Pictures

Brandt was excited about his baptism and confirmation May 2. Here are a few pictures taken that day.

Brandt is Chad and Laura's youngest.

Raina, one of Brandt's sisters.

Aaralyn, Dave and Natasha's oldest child

Girl in white is Aubree, Brandt's sister. Travis and Andria are seated. Daughter Lindsey and son Devan pictured in the front. Chad is standing.

Sitting on the floor is Natasha. The babies are Dave and Natasha's twins, Jack and Aniston. Holding Jack is Chad. Holding Aniston is Nisha, Randy's wife. Kyler,standing, is Nisha and Randy's youngest.

Aaron and Mathew

Laura's parents were there as well as all the Val Williams family except Kendall's bunch. Laura had a nice meal prepared for everyone, and we all had a nice visit.

And More Pictures

These pictures are of Devan's third birthday party back in January. Devan is Travis and Andria's youngest child.

Devan, Cameron, Lindsey

Brooke and Cameron

Mom Andria and Brooke

The next pictures were taken at Chad and Laura's on Easter Sunday when Talon was ordained a Priest and in celebration of his 16th and Brandt's 8th birthdays.

A New Addition

It really isn't new - just new to this house. We've been talking for three years about needing an alternate heat source in here, and we finally did something more than just talk about it. It would have been nice to buy a new, pretty stove, but we couldn't justify the cost when we already had one that would do. Actually, we have three stoves, but the two little, red Jotuls will only burn coal, so we really didn't consider using one of them. The guys will remember that when we moved to Summit in the late 1980's we bought a small black stove and put it in the kitchen. When we made a "bedroom" out in the sage room for a couple of them, we put the stove out there for them. That's where it has been for the past 18 years.

Before Val reshingled the sage room roof, the neglected little stove sat there and rusted pretty badly. It took a lot of work, but he was able to get rid of the rust, and with a new coat of stove paint, it looks pretty good. The guy who installed it and did the tile work was highly recommended, but he is not a tile artist like those we have in our family! It should be serviceable, though, even if it isn't very pretty. It will burn either wood or coal.

Loving Music

Reading Laura's post just now reminded me of something to write on my blog. . .about music. Someone (Laura?) recently forwarded me an e-mail with the singing group Il Divo singing "Amazing Grace." I had never heard them before (never listen to music on the radio or watch TV, so I'm still back in the last century with what is going on in the music world), and I was very impressed. I had to hurry and order a couple of their CDs from Amazon, and I am really enjoying them. I love their musical dynamics - so much expression. Maybe it is a good thing that they sing mostly in other languages so I don't know what they are singing about (it might singe my ears), but I love their voices and the entire sound of their music. Kind of a classical pop, if there is such a thing. Also, Aubree introduced me to the internet radio station at www.pandora.com, which I am enjoying alot. By typing Il Divo as what I wanted to listen to, I've been introduced to other singers whose music I am enjoying. Many of my old favorites accompany me, as well, as I spend time at the computer doing indexing, etc. Thanks!

Who is the Parowan Prophet?

He's an old guy who used to be a member of the Church but was excommunicated for polygamy and preaching apostate doctrine. He has dreams of an atomic holocaust in the U.S. and used to write warnings in the Letters to the Editor of the local paper, even naming the date when it was going to happen. When his prediction didn't come true, he would just set a new date. He pretty much quit writing until just before this past Christmas when he had another dream, in which he saw himself coming out of Wal-Mart, looked towards the southwest and saw a huge mushroom cloud. He predicted that there would be an attack before Christmas. If not then - sometime soon. A reporter from the L.A. Times caught wind of him and came to Parowan for an interview. I looked it up on the internet, and there was quite an article about him which included pictures of his few followers. Our renters were in the picture. They are all caught up in survivalist things - even had a bed down in our old cellar! We've seen the prophet at the old house several times, and once Val saw him coming up out of the cellar. He asked him what he was doing, and he said the Shaffers had asked him to look over their storage stuff. I think he was looking at the cellar to see if it would qualify as a bomb shelter. I don't mean to make fun of them for trying to prepare, but I don't understand how they can look to that old guy as their "prophet," and not realize that if the Lord was going to give that kind of a warning to the world it would be through someone more believable than him!