Baby Aunt Carolyn Charlie

I sent some photos of Charlie to the family today and the response from Matt on this one below is that he looks like Aunt Carolyn. Compliments to you Carolyn as everyone in the valley that sees him thinks he's beautiful. I do agree there is quite a likeness there!

Any baby pictures of baby Aunt Carolyn for comparison?

P.S. Baby announcements have been done for weeks, but I am too lazy to address envelopes. Maybe I'll get them out this week!

Katya's PhD in Neuroscience

I am going to try my hand at identifying faces in pictures and hoping the writing ends up anywhere near the pictures. First picture- three generations, LeJeune, Katya and Kristina; second Milanka, Alex, Katya, Peter, Peter's mother, Carol Jane, who lives in Minneapolis, Kristina, Lejeune; third picture, Katya and Crabapple Tree - a very popular spot for picture taking on graduation day; and fourth, Katya's house with Milanka, Alex and LeJeune.

LeJeune and Kristina have recently returned from a trip to Minneapolis where Katya received her PhD in neuroscience from the University o f Minnesota on Friday, May 8th. This visit included seeing Katya's darling home, of which LeJeune said, "It is sprintime there so bright green leaves were popping out and crabapple trees are masses of pink blossoms. Lilacs were coming out and Katya has some in her yard and violets in cracks between concrete squares of the patio and in the lawn. They have lillies of the valley, peonies, raspberry bushes, a veggie garden with lettuce already coming up. Peter loves gardening. He had just bought a bunch of stuff to plant.

Katya fixed mushroom quiche for us for Mother's day and we had sliced straqberries and kiwi fruit attractively displayed plus some unbeatable French pastrires and croissants that are the best I ever tasted. One day we went to Katya's lab and she showed us what she had been doing . She very carefully explained the purpose and work and findings so that we can sort of understand."

Congratulations to beautiful Katya, who I understand from her grandmother, doesn't just look beautiful with a brain to match, but sings beautifully as well! Well done!

Jon's Graduation

I can't remember if I have mentioned Jon and his friends and their summer building. For years they have built tree huts and non tree hut every summer and then taken them all apart after to rebuild the next year. The first one was in two trees with a ramp leading up to the second room in the second tree. It had a zip line for an exit out of the second tree. This Swiss-Family-Robisnon type dwelling and zip line took up two different yards.

In the beginning of the 2008 school year these friends, who went to Granger and Hunter High schools, all signed up for Granite District's home building class. We went to the open house last week. What a great home. It is just east of 3rd East between 33rd an d 39th South; second house in on the south side of the street. What a fabulous opportunity for these kids! Angela was involved in the same thing in high school, only her part was the interior design. Looked great in both cases!

We are proud of Jon for his hard work completing four years of school in three. Jon (with a November birthday) has friends who are three months older but a year ahead in school. He decided in ninth grade that

he wanted to graduate with them, so the second semester of ninth grade he went on A days to junior high and on the B days to high school. He's been to summer school, done on-line classes, and earned work credit to make it possible for him to graduate. He plans on going to Utah State in the fall.

Congratulations to Jon!

1/2 hour before my water broke!

We were out playing in the dirt. Notice Evelyn's hands clenched tightly with dirt, about to be dumped on brother. Look at the sweet innocent face ;) Then I went in the house to finish trimming a job about to ship. And I thought I wet my pants. And I stood up and realized that it was a whole other problem I was dealing with. Utter chaos ensued and now I'm putting the pieces back together 7 days later! I haven't gotten any pics of Charlie that I'm ready to reveal until baby announcements are out but will post some soon!

Baby Charlie!

Born 12:19am, 6#3oz. 20" long.







Adrienne Berry
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Visiting the Grandchildren

We just returned from a visit down south for Bethany's ballet recital as well as Jan's and Stefanie's birthdays. Jan turns 30 today, and Stefanie will be 27 on the 20th. Stefanie, who recently acquired a set of cake decorating supplies, went to a friend's house for instructions on cake decorating, then produced this beautiful cake for Jan. Our whirlwind trip included a visit to Zion National Park, where the cottonwood trees made us feel as if we were in a snowstorm on a hot day. Rebekah was fascinated by it all! I couldn't think of anything better to do while riding in the Ure's 15 passenger van, than snap pictures of my happy newest grandchild, Isaac. The ballet recital was later in the afternoon, followed by a celebratory dinner of Potato Leek Soup, green salad and James' delicious artisan bread. After looking at and smelling and drooling over the beautiful birthday cake throughout dinner the time had finally arrived for singing and cake. Visiting followed with the usual dress ups for Jane and Beth, then a good night's sleep topped it all off. Steve and I promptly returned home Sunday morning to accompany Jon to receive his patriarchal blessing.

Matthew's Blessing

Matthew's blessing was on Sunday May 3, 2009. He wore Scott's blessing outfit made by Grandma Young and he was wrapped in a blanket made by Melissa several years ago. We had such a good time with family and our new little Matthew. Here are some pictures.

Here are two of the three Young Matthews: Matthew Moench and Matthew Eggertsen. We will get one with Matthew Crowder shortly.

This amazing blanket was given to Matthew by Aunt Kath. It is the softest most adorable little blanket.

I'm pretty sure he is the cutest baby I have ever seen! I held him every chance I got.

Any suggestions?

Yesterday I heard a gift idea that I liked and wanted to share, confident that we could come up with a lot of good suggestions on this blog.
A friend of mine mentioned that from the time their children turned 12 they began to give them "kits" for Christmas that would be useful in their homes. One sounds like the great shower gift that LeJeune gave to Stefanie and Angela. It was a sewing kit, with a good pair of scissors, pins, a tape measure, thimble, a few spools of thread, all in a sewing basket. Then they would make sure their kids knew how to use the tools in the kit. The boys received a tool box with a good hammer and tape measure, then each Christmas might find a wrench or a pair of pliers in their stocking, so by the time they leave home they have a complete took kit.
This seems to go along with a suggestion made last week at Women's Conference in the class, "She looketh well to the ways of her household". The presentor mentioned that she likes to give her children gifts that develop skills, such as a wheat grinder.
So. . . I have a few questions: What tools do you think ought to be in a tool chest? Can you think of other "kits" that would be useful? What should go in them? What kinds of skills did (do) you want your children to know before they left (leave) home?

Solo Flight

Nate had his first solo flight this week. He's only allowed to tell me these things after the fact!

Baby Eggertsen!

Matthew Thomas Eggertsen arrived this morning at 5:40. Grandma Eggertsen wanted some pictures posted as soon as possible so everyone can see her handsome grandson. Grandma and Grandpa took over a beautiful arrangement of flowers in a little blue bootie that has been given to 3 generations of Eggertsen women who have delivered boys: Beth Eggertsen for Tommy, Mimi for Scott and now Melissa for baby Matthew. We are thrilled he is here! Mother and baby are doing great.

Jazz Games

Just thought I'd add this picture. Jazz might be hurting a bit right now but we have had some fun times this year going to a few of the games as a family! Dawson LOVES the games. Carter LOVES halftime and the snowcones!!!

Any news yet? Aren't Scott and Melissa close to having their baby? Have I just not heard yet?

Julie

Carolyn spent the week of St. Patrick's Day with Derek and Andrea, Lorelei and Charlotte. Unfortunately, we could not get Derek's photo here, but we had fun on his birthday at Joe's Crab Shack.

Thank you Kath for teaching me how to sew!

This fabric was purchased at Britex two summers ago when Evelyn was a baby. I can't believe I waited so long to use it. It's this fabulous Japanese brocade that is reversible, so Happy Easter Evelyn! This is the purple side. None of the white side pics turned out too well.

I have to say, although I am nowhere close to comparing to Aunt Kath, and I don't use patterns (cringe) it's so mind-releasing to get out my sewing machine and make something. The ironic thing is that usually it comes out when I already have too many things on my plate and shouldn't start another project. However for some reason it always clears my mind!

Thanks Kath for giving me sewing lessons in Kindergarten, altering dance dresses, and to mom for letting me go at it on your amazing Phaff for all those years! You both put a lot of trust in my crazy creative ideas!

Big boys

It seems so weird to me that when we first got these jammies from Sharon when the babies were born, I had Cash wearing a pair of the smaller ones - and I can't believe these boys fit in them already! I took them to the doctor for their one year check-up last week and when I walked in the nurse said, "Wow, they're big for twins!" I said I was pretty sure they were big for non-twins. Yep. Ashton is 26lbs and Phoenix is 25 and they're both 32". Basically 90-95th percentile for everything.

And yes, our house is over-run with high chairs. Along with about a million other baby items.

Pre-diagnosis, Post-diagnosis

I was cleaning out my hard drive today and found these three photos of Dave. One you'll notice from the Christmas card. They were taken in order from Left-Right:

Age, turned 4 on September 13th.

Left Dave - July, shirt size 2-3T

Middle Dave - September, shirt size 2T, short size 2-3T

We have only bought 2 pairs of 4T pants in the last 18 months and they had to be cinched with a belt to fit.

Right Dave - January, shirt size 5 BOYS (bigger than 5T) and pant size 5 Boys. He now measures in the 50% for weight, and 65% for height. This is the largest margin he's ever had since birth, with the exception of 75% height when he was 12 months old. 

Since he's been on insulin he's gained 7 lbs, putting him right at 40 lbs, which means he can graduate from a car seat to a booster seat.

 

He has grown 5" totaling 42" in hieght, which means by his birthday, maybe, he'll be tall enough to ride the big rides at Disneyland (48"), which means we better get saving our cash.

And he's a much happier boy (except when he has to have injections, but he's trying his best).

I feel so stupid that I didn't notice the signs sooner, or didn't trust my motherly instinct and request to have him tested sooner. I've been considering it since the end of the summer, but didn't pursue my suspicions until it was almost too late. Thanks to everyone who helped out in December with flowers, notes, phone calls and just being supportive. We have such a great family and I wanted to thank everyone for all of their love. 

Howdy!

I was shooting some product this morning for my new wholesale catalogue and Evelyn came over and wanted her picture taken. Every time I told her to "smile" this is what we ended up with. Excuse the runny nose, we're getting over colds at our house! Linda, thanks for the adorable turtle neck, this one gets worn about once a week!

Rebekah's First Year in Review

Mostly I just wanted to share, through some priceless photos, the fun year that we have had with Rebekah, and specifically how much Jane has embraced her role as the big sister. These pictures are in chronological order.Just a few days old.Jane is initiating Rebekah into her life by letting her snuggle with her animals and blanket. I think this is in the first two weeks.Rebekah slept through this adventure of Jane discovering the postage stamps and attempting to ship her new sister off somewhere. I can't remember what I was doing...Sisters.Halloween. Jane is a rabbit (thanks to Grandma Stott) and Rebekah is a strawberry.
Jane's 3rd birthday, a signature Hugh Yancey photo

I had Rebekah safely strapped into her seat and Sleeping Beauty playing and thought I was safe to take a shower, but when I came out I realized it's not a good idea to leave Jane unattended with the water colors.Rebekah didn't seem to mind. Future partner in crime?...
What a sweet girl! We are so grateful she is a part of our family! We are equally grateful Jane is a part of our family. We love them both so very much!