Memorial Day

Uncle Marlin invited us over to his house for a BBQ this year for Memorial Day.  He was excited because he wanted to show us his new smoker and he was planning on making chicken and pork.  HMMMM!!!  Before we headed over to his house we stopped by the Salt Lake City Cemetery to visit some of James' Ancestors.  There we visited  Annie Lenore Simpson and David Smith Anderson (James' Great Grandparents) and Annie Sophie Smith and David Patterson Anderson (James' Great Great Grandparents).

Then we headed over to Marlin's where the kids helps pick some flowers with Auntie Joan to make bouquets for more of our ancestors.  Keith, Neal, and Rachael also joined us.  Joshie got James and Keith going in a mini soccer game.  Neal and Rachael were moving the next day to New Hampshire so we were glad we got to see them one last time before they moved.  We are going to miss them being so close.  

Aubrey Fern is standing in front of her Grandma Fern's Childhood playhouse build by her Father.

Once we had eaten dinner and finished making our bouquets we headed over to two more cemeteries to visit a few more ancestors.  I'm not sure how everyone fits into our family but here we visited  Chloe Oviatt and Joseph Hyrum Jensen, Frank Mel Roscoe Jr, Myrtle B and Ira Oviatt (James' Great Grandparents), and Carmen Hubbard Oviatt Rosco Johnson.

Our last stop of the day was to visit Aunt Margie (Marlin's wife).  She has a perfect view!  From her grave site she can see 3 temples.  Draper, Jordan River, and Oquirr Mountain.  Out of all the people we saw today she was the only one I knew when she was living.  She was a very kind person but not afraid to share her opinion with her.  I'm sad that she was never able to meet my kids.  We tried several times to get together with her but they always managed to fall through.  We miss her but know she is in a happy place!

(May 30, 2011)

Here are the videos from Eliza's Recital.  Sorry my camera was acting really funny and I could not zoom out and the lighting was weird.  She had a lot of fun!  Thanks Grandma Vicky for being her instructor!

Eliza's First Ballet Recital

She has been going to Kinder Ballet at the local Rec Center for a few months now and they had their first recital today.  She was SUPER EXCITED!!!  

Many of the dancers that attend the Rec Center Classes.  

There are three age groups.

The girls were showing off their best ballet poses.

Eliza just before her groups performance.

There are about 12 in Eliza's age group so they were split up

into smaller groups so us parents could see our kido!

Dance Buddies, Eliza & Kate and Eliza with her Instructor Grandma Vicki

 

So Blogger keeps rejecting my videos and won't upload them.  I will post them on Facebook and email them to those who don't have facebook

May 21, 2011

 Visit from 

Great Grandma and 

Great Grandpa Nelson

I was so excited when I got a call from my Grandpa asking if they could stay with us for my Grandma's Mission Reunion here in the area.  They got here on Thursday night and the reunion was Friday night plus they were planning on staying longer to watch general conference with us.  That Friday morning Joshie had his Grandparents Day at school and was really upset that he was not going to have any Grandparents to bring.  When he found out that he got to bring his Great Grandparents he was Thrilled!

 

Joshie has also been asking to learn to play the piano since before Christmas.  Thanks to a person who I am not allowed to say he got a piano for Christmas.   THANKS! I had also been talking with Grandpa Nelson about which books to buy since he knows more about music than anyone I know.  He used to own a music store and has given lesson in many different instruments for as long as I can remember.  He ended up bringing Joshie a few new piano books and even gave Joshie his first piano lesson.  Joshie could not get enough.  Grandpa kept on saying, "Only one more song Joshie."  And then they just kept going.  I don't know who was more excited Joshie or Grandpa.  

We also celebrated my Grandfather's birthday.  It was on the Sunday that he was here.  We made a nice dinner, baked him a Chocolate Cake, and sang Happy Birthday to him.  I doesn't even look his age.  He likes to spend his time working on Family History and has over 28,000 names on his PAF file.  He also works on extractions for Family Search Indexing.  While he was here he showed me how to do a few family history things and got me started helping him out looking for new sources.

We had a wonderful visit with my Grandparents
and I'm already for them to come back!
Okay Grandma and Grandpa Dansby!  
YOUR TURN!!  
(April 1 - April 3)

James Takes a Trip to Washington

J

James has been trying to figure out a time to visit his Grandparents in the Kenewick area for some time.  When he found out his Dad was flying out he decided to go with him.  They had fun catching up, hearing old stories from Grandma and Grandpa Mansius, and helping them with the yard work. His Grandparents are feeling much better and their car accident is being taken car of.

We plan on visiting them  in a couple of months but James said it was nice to have a visit with them without having to worry about his 4 kids getting into something.  The last time we had seen his Grandparents was when Joshie was 1 year old, 6 years ago, and the girls have never meet their Great Grandparents so they are excited for our trip.

Exciting Happenings 

for Joshie & Eliza:

Joshie's School Project

They were asked to create a Human Habitat in a Pizza Box.  After looking through pictures of different types of homes he choose the Syrian Beehive House.

Eliza Starts Ballet
She has wanted to start ballet for at least a year now and we had always told her she could start when she started kindergarten.  Since she was unable to start K this year because of the move we fingured it was time to let her start.  She is so excited and is always coming home and teaching everyone (including James) how to make "Happy Toes" (Pointy Toes) 
 

Game of the Week!

Find the Shortest Kid in the Back Row!  

Oh Wait that's Joshie.  

Joshie was in the News!!!

Actually Joshie's school was Cool School of the Week for Fox 13 News in our area and the first graders got to sing one of their songs.  He is hard to spot because he is way in the back row close to the end.  He was so excited to be in the news though.  You can't see much of him but he is wearing a black shirt.  

 

One of My Current Projects

Lilly's Room

I got a cute Amber Glass lamp from my Aunt Joan last summer and thought it would be cute in Lilly's room but when I went to hang it up it looked out of place.  I thought because of the color so I sent a picture to the GREATEST INTERIOR DESIGNER (One of two), MY GRANDMA DANSBY,  to see what she thought.  She suggested that I run ribbon through the chain to add other colors so that it would blend in with the rest of the room.  I think it came out really cute.  I even attempted to make curtains and added dragonflies to the curtains.  It's a little squished in her room because she shares it with my desk but for now I'm trying to make it all work as best I can.  It's hard to capture how cute it actually looks with a picture but here's my best attempt.

OUR NEWEST SUNBEAM! 

Aubrey gets to go to Primary this year and she was so excited because that meant going to Sharing Time with Joshie and Eliza.  Now she spends most of the week singing primary songs.  Her favorite is Scripture Power! 
(Click here to listen)

Christmas with the 

Mansius Family At 

Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm

For Christmas this year we drove down to California not to meet up with the Fitzgerald side of the family but to spend time with the Mansius'.  (Though I refused to drive all the way and not see my parents but I'll save that part of the trip for another blog.  When I get more pictures.)  We drove down bringing Keith with us and meet up with Mom and Dad Mansius and Susan.  We spent 2 days at Disneyland, including Christmas Day, 1 day at California Adventures, and 1 day at Knotts Berry Farm.  We had a blast and no one was ready to come home but we were so exhausted by the end of the week.  

In the process Lilly decided to get sick and the first day just clung to her Grandpa Mansius.  I think she spend most of the time in his arms.  If I am in the room she refuses to be held by most people but Grandpa Mansius was the exception.  When she started to feel better we discovered that her favorite ride was the Merry Go Round.  I stood outside and every time she would go by she would wave at me. 

While we were there we also got to see some really interesting people and experiences.  Mom, Keith, Susan, and I got to experience snow in Southern California after watching the fireworks.  (Okay so it was not real snow!)  Some of us got to meet Sully from Monster's Ink. Because of miss communication problems we happened to be sitting as he walked by and jumped up to get a picture with him.  Talk about serendipity! (One of Aunt' Joan's favorite words)  And all of us got to meet and take a picture with Pluto!

 
 My new favorite part of going to amusement parks is watching the excitement of my kids.  Joshie could ride every single ride at Disneyland including Indiana Jones and Eliza could almost ride all of them.  Joshie could not decide which was his favorite ride between Indiana Jones and the Tower of Terror.  Neither one of them surprise me because they were both the biggest and fastest rides that he could go on and he was so excited to ride the big rides.  He was really mad when he was not tall enough to ride the rides at Knotts Berry Farm.  Eliza's favorite was Space Mountain!  She even got to go on the Tower of Terror.  She was a funny kid.  After most of the rides she always looked like she was going to cry and said she would never get on again.  After a few minutes she was ready to go again and then after the second time would be just bouncing for joy.  We decided that she just like knowing what to expect.  It was not the ride that scared her it was just not knowing what was going to happen. My favorite ride continues to be the Tea Cup rides mostly because it brings back fun memories of riding them with my Dad and trying to go as fast as we could.  Then we would try and go as fast as  we could the opposite direction.  This time around it was fun watching James, Dad Mansius, and Joshie trying to go as fast as they could.  If only I could have gotten a picture of their faces.  They were so focused!

That's right!  That would be Joshie and Eliza on the Tower of Terror.  I spend the whole time making sure that Eliza was okay but she loved it.  In this picture from our family is Joshie, Mark, Eliza, Nichole (Me), Lois, and Keith's arm.

What an adventure we had!  It's not easy trying to take 4 kids to amusement parks and trading off so everyone who could ride all the rides but definitely worth it to see their excitement.  I love riding all the rides but if I had to give it all up just to see my kids faces as they rode them I would!

 This last picture was my favorite!  As we were waiting for the train at Knotts Berry Farm to leave one of the cowboys was walking by and scaring people on the train.  He stopped to talk to Joshie and Joshie just started to giggle and giggle and would not stop.  When I pulled out my camera to take a picture this guy pulled out his gun super fast and aimed it at Joshie.  Joshie just continued to giggle.  

After the train started going the same cowboys decided to rob the train.  When they got to Joshie they said, "Oh!  It's the Giggler!"  As they walked on by deminding money Joshie stood up and yelled at them, "My Mom is not going to give you any of her money!"  They turned around so fast and threatened to throw him out of the window.  Luckily they didn't throw him out.  

When we got to the station and off the train we ran into the train robbers once again.  Joshie then went on to tell them how stealing was wrong and that they should get a real job to make money.  That was the right way!  I was so proud of him not only for recognizing when something was wrong because he is not shy like his Mommy.  That would have been unthinkable for little me and I'm shocked that at least one of my kids is not shy in the least bit.

I hope everyone had as much excitement and fun for their Christmas.  It was not your typically Christmas that's for sure but it was a blast spending time with family and watching excited children!!

(Dec 22 -25)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was really simple this year.  We didn't have a lot of family over because there were not too many close enough.  Neal and Rachael were able to come up from Provo and since Keith lives in our basement it was a long walk for him.  James and his brothers can get really goofy when they get together and they love to talk about sports.  So we definitely were not lacking on the Thanksgiving football talk this year.  I do miss having a lot of family around and I especially miss having my niece and nephew nearby.  The kids asked several times when their cousins were coming.  They are so used to having holidays with cousins.  Well I was all for attempting to cook a turkey on my own this year but everyone coming voted on a ham so we had a basic Thanksgiving meal.  Ham, Potatoes, Veggies and Pie.  

The day after Thanksgiving is when our family traditionally decorates the tree.  We had to wait until the next Sunday when James had a day off and we surprised the kids by putting up the tree with lights without them knowing.  Lilly though the whole things was just great and would just sit there and point at it forever. 

Silly Girl!!

FAMILY PHOTOS 

Taken & Edited by

Steele The Moment Photography