Emma Lynn

Mauri took this picture with her new camera on Christmas Day - I love it. Poor Kecia looks like she feels horrid and Glenn is just relaxing with Emma - and Emma is loving it. Good job Mauri!!

Gorgeous gift

Double click on the picture so you can see the detail

Last night was my Nielson family party and it was so fun to sit and visit with my Kelly and Terry and Jeff and my dad and Jill Pill - along with Shawn and Kris and Kelly and Jamie. I had to show off my newest decoration - made by Jeff!! Usually Teresa does a major part of the craft work but since she is in Idaho with Skye and Katie Jo at her parents home, Jeff put this one together for me, which surprisingly enough makes it even more special!! Teresa is so meticulous and makes sure that the lettering etc is done perfectly and she will be proud when she sees what a great job Jeff did with mine.

As you can see it is one of the new type of signs - a steel sign, with the Vinyl lettering. When I realized they had Ed and Susan (us) for Christmas I really really hoped that they would make me one of these gorgeous signs, but I had no idea what I wanted it to say! Jeff says that so far this is the only temple he has but will shortly have a lot more of the different temples. Lets see, I would need an Ogden Temple, a Bountiful Temple and a Mt Timpanogas Temple for the three of my four that were married in a temple. Kelly and Jamie were smart enough to get married in the SL temple in the first place. ;-)

When I opened this gift last night and saw that he had done the Salt Lake Temple for me I could have cried. Ed and I were married there in September of 1967 - 40 years ago...thus the

Willden
Established 1967

I am emailing a copy of this picture to Jeff so he can post it on his web site. You are welcome to go see all the fun stuff they have to offer. They attend ALOT of super saturdays in Northern Utah every fall helping ladies make their own favorite signs. You can be that I will be taking it to the next enrichment planning meeting we have to see if anyone wants to get together for a spring fling instead of a super saturday;...these would make marvelous mother's daygifts! Hey, Kristanne - here is an idea for you to use as Enrichment leader.

http://www.teresascustomcreations.com/

I just figured out how to link that web address to the actual site all by myself!! Amazing. Now if I could only figure out how to add my picture to my 'comments' on someone elses blog sites...

Anyway - this is a favorite gift. Along with all the other special things I received this year for Christmas (like the cute sign Jamie and Kelly gave me, and the pillows from Kecia & Glenn, and the 1 night stay at the Anniversary Inn(!!!) from Shawn and Kris, and the emergency water storage kit and gift card to Barnes and Noble from Dirk and Da. And I am sure I will do a whole blog on Mauri's gift - it is an afternoon for the two of us to go shopping together or to a movie and then out for lunch....FUN!! I AM SOOOO SPOILED!!

Grandkids and the Treehouse

Caleb, Jerod, Joshua and Adrie - precious grandchildren

I mentioned in my last blog about how fun it was to watch my grandkids's faces as they opened their Christmas gifts. Well - Mauri took her kids to spend a few hours at the Treehouse Museum in Ogden where they now had membership for a year (thanks to grandma susan :-) and it looks like they had lots of fun.



This is Caleb - one of Mauri's five year old twins. Looks like he is having tea!\













Here are a couple of WashingtonTerrace's finest firemen hard at work!! (Caleb and mom, Mauri)












And here we have Miss Adrie - the old (hee hee hee) schoolmarm
















and here we have Master Jerod doing the teaching with Joshua as a student.

Kids did you know that your grandma Merritt probably attended a class room much as this? He was telling the story at last nights party about being in the lower grade classroom (It was a two room schoolhouse with grades 1-4 in one class and grades 5-8 in the other classroom!) Grandpa is color blind but no one knew too much about it in those days and his teacher got sooooo mad at him for not coloring his picture with the proper colors. She thought he was just being a smart alecky kid!! Grandpa Merritt says that it wasn't until his induction physical on his 18th birthday that he was told he was color blind and they explained it to him!!!!! WOW!

Christmas is such a Wonderful Time

Adrie the Angel

So many people complain about the Christmas Season and how commercial it has become - and maybe it has but that doesn't need to stop any of us from appreciating it for what it is. It is what is in our hearts that make or break the season.

From putting up the Christmas tree to listening to the Christmas Carols (during all of November and December!!) to buying just the right gift for our loved ones to open and get excited about.

We had a marvelous Christmas eve program with the grandkids doing the Nativity -they acted it out and we all took turns reading it. (Emma made a darling baby Jesus and our one and only wise man bowed at Jesus for five full minutes - hilarious!) We all sang the Christmas Carols and Kris and Jamie sang Breath of Heaven and Glenn sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful and then we ended the program by singing Silent Night in three different languages!!! It was such a special night. We Willdens have just so -so voices (actually a couple of my kids have nice voices - their mother isn't so lucky!) but they have married singers and it adds so much to our special programs.

I seemed to find gifts that everyone wanted in my budget (which I cut this year) and they all seemed pleased - Benji played with his stuffed bear and hugged it and grinned at it - he has the cutest personality - he is so inquisitive and yet such a happy boy - you can tell that he is loved and that his parents are so happy to have him.
This year I got to watch the excitement and thrill on the faces of nine of my ten grandchildren as they opened their gifts. (Emma just wasn't gonna get excited about her new dress or mobile!! Food mom food!!)

The excitement of opening presents started on Christmas Eve - About half of the gifts I gave this year were opened on Christmas eve because of the weather. I didn't think I would get to see the kids and grandkids again on Christmas day so we broke with tradition and exchanged alot of our gifts that night. I had purchased gift cards to Aeropostle for my 12 year old and 13 year old granddaughters (who are both turning 18 this year!!) The squeals of delight from both of them were fantastic. Then I gathered all three of Mauri's boys and handed them each a laminated card with their very own name on each of the cards and explained that it was a one year membership to the Children's Treehouse Museum in Ogden - they were so excited!! They love that place and are always asking Mauri to take them. I will be able to take them too! They each had a small gift to open besides that but they were thrilled and it sent happy chills all through me.

On Christmas Day I watched my other three grandsons open their gifts and each one of them were so spontaneously happy and excited over what I got them. Cade got a Mario game for his WII and Ethan got a fish book plus a shirt, and Jace got a Ben 10 game - thank heavens for moms and their suggestions to grandma - it really helps and it gave me such pleasure to buy and wrap and finally give them their gifts.

When we all get together at grandma's house it is planned pandemonium and Christmas eve was that and more - but the love we share and the joy we have being together makes it wonderful.

I am so thankful for the Christmas Season - for the joy it gives us, the love we feel with friends and family - and for our Savior's birth and the gift he gave to all of us - the atonement - we get awfully busy but there were moments in our Christmas eve program where I felt the love of my Savior and tears came to my eyes. I am so blessed...

Welcome Home

We landed in Salt Lake Thursday night about 11:10 and it was after midnight when we finally pulled into our driveway. The landing was one of the scariest I've ever been on even though the pilot did a fantastic job - the weather didn't cooperate.

Anyway - we were home sweet home and as we walked through the door - ugghh - Ed said - didn't we empty the trash before we left and I said I thought we did but as I got closer to the trash can the worse the smell was.

So I grabbed it and took it outside and dumped. The house was cooollllldddd - we had turned the thermostat down to 50 and it felt like it through and through. But the house was still smelly so Ed propped the back door open to hopefully air it out some. I grabbed a cooking pot and filled it halfway with water and put it on to boil and added cinnamon to help things out. I also got out the aerosole spray and sprayed everything down. We got the luggage inside and turned up the heat and brushed out teeth and went to bed hoping the house would smell better in the morning.

It didn't. Ed opened the fridge (that is only six years old) Friday morning and said - eeewwww - you're going to have to throw out some leftovers.... and then he said - OH NO! EVERYTHING is bad!! The power is off - no, the power isn't off but the fridge is warm.....and so is the freezer.

THAT WAS WHAT SMELLED - I bet the fridge had died a day or so after we left and everything in it sat and 'cooked' for a week. Gross!! I hauled four garbage cans full of rotten food scrubbing as I went. I pulled every shelf and drawer out of the fridge and the freezer - of course all the staples, like mayo, mustard and salad dressings got tossed. Even the pickles were bad! The left over chili and beans from the family party that I had put in the freezer - gone. Chicken, pork, hamburger (I had a pound of the pre-packaged hamburger in the freezer - it had literally ballooned out to TWICE the normal size!!)

I called and got a repairman over - Ed and I decided that we would have them give us a bid and if it was $400 or more we would go buy a new refrigerator. I called the place at 9:30 and she said she could get someone there today but wasn't sure how soon . I said give me a half an hour at least so I can run to Wal Mart's and get a gallon of milk so I can eat breakfast. That is exactly what they gave me - the guy was at my door at 10:05!! But I had my milk!! He walked through the door, took one look at my fridge from ACROSS the room and said I know exactly what is wrong with your refrigerator. It is a relay switch in the compressor that has gone bad. Whirlpool had been using the same switch for over 25 years with no problem but all of a sudden about 1999 or 2000 they switched to a different one and that one has given them all sorts of headaches. He told me that he has changed out over 2000 of those himself in the past few years!!! It makes me so angry that Whirlpool would do that and not notify the customers or do a recall ...instead we get the dead appliance and rotten food. It wouldn't have been so bad if we had been home - we wouldn't have lost everything - we would have noticed a problem within 24 hours or so.

About the time the ice cubes started defrosting.

So that was our welcome home. And I can still smell the smell slightly when I open the refrigerator door. I've tried baking soda but it still smells - any ideas out there?

One fun side note - Ed got to bed before I did last night and when I walked into the cold bedroom he's laying there without any covers on. I said "Are you hot? How come you haven't pulled the blankets up over you in this cold house?" He said "Cause the bed is COLD!!!!! This way only ONE side of me is cold - I'm not about to pull those icy blankets over me!!"

I don't think we'll turn the heat down so much next time we leave!!

New York

WE are in Oneonta, New York this week. That is upstate New York!! However, for those of you who know New York, you also know that anyplace that isn't NEW YORK CITY, is considered upstate New York. Oneonta is North and East of the New York Pennsylvania border. It is a lovely little town of about 13000 according to Google and of course it has a .Job Corps Center here - Ed is here to do a records audit. Last time I joined Ed in Oneonta it was 18 degrees - so I figured that at 37 degrees they were having a heat wave this time around. We arrived here late Monday - it made me appreciate Ed's traveling days for what they really are, bless his heart. We left home about 6:30 am, with our flight leaving about 8:50 am and arriving in Cincinnatti Ohio at noon Utah time or 2 pm, Eastern time. Then at 3:25 we took off on another plane to Scranton Wilkesbury Pennsylvania. Landing at 5 pm we picked up the car and headed North for an hour and then East for another hour. We got to our hotel at about 7:30 pm - that makes for a lonnnnggggg day! Tuesday morning I slept through breakfast (Ed got up and headed off to work leaving me sawing logs. I have it really rough when I go on these trips with Ed. I lay around the hotel all day, reading and doing indexing, swimming and hot tubbing. And going out to eat for lunch and dinner - no house work, no cooking, no laundry. Just plain hate it. :-)

So Tuesday was rainy. They kept telling us we were going to get a freezing rain but it never happened. Wednesday was cold - as in COLD - they said it was 34 with a feelslike temp of 10 and I agreed! When I woke up this morning (Thursday) at 8 am it was wet - not icy or snowy - when I looked out the window again at 10 am everything was covered with snow. It snowed all day long - we probably have 8 inches of snow outside now - these pictures were taken through our hotel room window - according to the tv lots and lots of school districts closed school today which is amazing because even though they got alot of snow - driving wasn't that bad. Ed told the people at the job corps that too - seems awfully wimpy to me, and as much snow as the Eastern Seaboard has gotten this year the kids will be going to school until July to make up for missing school days!




One thing I love about Oneonta are the beautiful old homes. Lots and lots of what in Utah we would call pioneer homes - Two and three story homes with porches and turrets and personality. Of course they are probably about the same age as our oldest homes in Utah but that makes them youngsters in New York. It would be so fun to have a beautiful old home like this

We are supposed to be heading North West to Palmyra New York tomorrow morning. The weather is supposed to have cleared and we shouldn't have any trouble getting there. I am worried about Sunday, however, as we head all the way across the state again coming back and driving to Middletown New York which is farther South, but still upstate.


We want to do a temple session in Palmyra and then tour the visitors center at Hill Cumorah. We stopped there in 2005 but had so little time we missed out on both of those spots.

Ed will spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Delaware Valley Job Corps Center doing a records audit there and then we will fly back home to Utah. Some day I want to come out here when the weather is good...hey wait a minute...I did, last April and spent five days in the hospital. I will be happy with the snow!!

54 years of love

We were eating lunch at a nice restaurant in Oneanta New York today and there was a whole group of leaders and kids from a school for the handicapped. There was a cute little girl - probably about 12 years old that was Downs and as I watched her I started to cry!! Ed looked at the tears quietly streaming down my face and said one word "Jill".

I said "yes".

It was amazing to me how in that few seconds I so deeply mourned my sister. For those of you who read this blog that don't know, I have an almost 54 year old (she will turn 54 in February) sister, named Jill, with Down's syndrome that is now in a nursing home suffering what is called Down's inhanced dementia. It is like Alzheimers only moving so much faster. My father and I starting noticing it less than a year ago. Dad and I started looking at a group home in March. By the time we got an okay from her State case worker, she was no longer capable to handle a group home. So we put her in the Beehive Home Assisted Living Center in July. She loved it and we thought we were set until they said - no, she has to go into a nursing home for 90 days first. So we put her in the Rocky Mountain Care Center in August, figuring that after 90 days we would move her back to the assisted living center after the 90 days. That 90 days is now up and she has digressed to the point that she wouldn't qualify for that level of care now. She NEEDS the nursing home. In July we were concerned about finding a place that would take a pet because she adored her cat, Molly - we made sure that she had a phone so she could call her best friends Andrea and Robyn. We insisted on a private room so she could live much like she always has, with her tv and puzzles. I don't think she has touched a puzzle in 60 days - she hasn't made a phone call in 90 days. She can't remember the names of her two best friends. She could care less about seeing Molly - she has a stuffed black and white cat on her bed that has replaced the real thing. She can't even play bingo by herself anymore - she will recognize a number ...but forgets immediately that she needs to cover up the numbers that she has got. She still remembers me and dad but is losing her memory of all the other family nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews. It will be interesting at Christmas time to see who she remembers and who she doesn't. She realizes that she should know someone but just can't remember why.

I was six and a half years old when Jill was born. We had just barely moved to Kaysville in January of 1954 - mom and dad had no idea that there were any problems until Jill was born. Jill only weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces and the doctors immediately knew there was a problem. In 'those days' Downs was something to be ashamed of and the doctors told mom and dad that they should not even take Jill home from the hospital but put her in the state hospital in Utah County. Mom and Dad refused. They told the doctors that this was their baby and they were going to take her home and love her. The doctors even argued with that, saying that because of her disabilities, her older sisters would never marry!! People would shun our family.

I don't remember any of this argument. I do remember grandma Viola coming and staying with Merrilee and Bruce and I while mom was in the hospital. I would imagine she stayed longer than that so mom and dad could run back and forth to the Dee Hospital in Ogden for the month that Jill had to stay until she weighed enough to be able to come home. I have always lived in my own little world and I guess this was no exception - I simply remember having to be really really careful with this newest sister. I loved grandma Viola and am forever thankful for that special time with her as she died less than nine months later at a young age of 54 of a ruptured appendix.

Growing up with Jill was a joyful experience. Anyone that has been around Downs finds an overwhelming abundance of love. Jill was no exception. She added so much love and sweetness to our whole family. We cannot begin to pick out where she influenced us and how she helped us except to know that we were blessed to have her.

I can remember when she was about eight years old she decided we needed to bless the food before we ate it. My parents were not active in the church at all at this time - mom would send us kids to church and my folks would attend maybe at Easter and Christmas. So having a prayer over our food was totally unknown. Jill changed that!! This little girl, who loved to eat, would sit at her place and not eat anything until we finally would realize that she was waiting for us to bless the food. And so, slowly but surely, our whole family got in the habit of praying at each and every meal...if we didn't, Jill just plain wouldn't eat! She started a spirituality in our family that was badly needed.

Jill was fun to grow up with - always happy, she loved her dollies and she loved the bouncy horsey that she and Kelly (my brother who was four years younger than Jill) got for Christmas the year he was 2 1/2. I can remember her running over to the horsey and pulling Kelly off so she could ride it again and again. Amazingly enough, Kelly would let her. He was the perfect brother for her - endless patience!

Jill had her own language until Kelly learned to talk - then as he learned the correct words so did she - up until then she managed with words like I-I for icecream, and O-O for popcorn and Be-ba-ka for peanut butter - Merrilee and I were sisters - bahja!! Where that word came from I have no idea. Even after she learned to speak correctly it was difficult for people outside our family to understand. One of the signs of Downs Syndrome is an overlarge tongue for the mouth and so it made it hard to understand her. We did pretty good with her - other people would just love her.

Jill and I shared a room and a bed for a number of years - until I went away to college. I was allowed to ride the bus to the High School when I was in Jr High so that I could accompany Jill to where her bus would pick her up to go to Monte Vista in Farmington. I would then walk from the High School to the Jr High for my own classes and then return to the High School immediately after school to meet Jill and ride the bus back to Burton Elementary every day. I always felt I was closer to Jill than my other siblings because of this. However, when I grew up I went away to college and got married and Jill continued on with the family as our special girl.
I have been blessed to have Jill for a sister. Her willingness to love anyone and her total lack of guile was always amazing to me. She didn't cheat or lie or make snide comments. She abhorred any argumentiveness which caused her to break out in tears. Let me tell you - that stopped a lot of fights between Merrilee and I who were 18 months apart age wise and very prone to arguing.

For years my mom felt that Jill had been sent to our family as a test. And then one day a wonderful sister in the ward told mom that the Lord would not have sent Jill to a mother that may not love her or understand her - but rather that the Lord KNEW my parents had the strength of soul to love and teach and guide and provide for one of his special spirits with all of their heart.

I am glad that mom didn't have to watch the loss of our Jill here on earth. It has been sad to lose the sparkle and glow that was Jill. She is now a shell of what she used to be. But she still radiates love. The people at Rocky Mountain love and watch out for her. She still has to have her hugs from everyone. And she still cares very much that Jesus Loves Her!!

I am excited to meet Jill again on the other side of the veil when she is whole and beautiful. I know her soul will not of have changed but I look forward to meeting her true self - with all the intelligence and beauty of a special child of God - this time without the disabilities.

27 years and counting

It's been 27 years ago - wow!! My twins are 27. We were living in Texas and I had known for just six weeks that there were two babies!! Shawn was 11, Dirk was 9 and Mauri had just turned 6. We had said we didn't care whether the baby was male or female but as I headed off to the hospital Mauri told me I better bring a sister home!! Dirk wanted a brother and Shawn was like his dad and I - either one would do. They were supposed to be born on Tuesday December 9 - they weren't due until December 24, but they had given me gestastional diabetes and it was dangerous for the babies to go full term. When I went in to the doctor that morning they found that Kelly had turned and both babies were now breach. They didn't dare do normal delivery with both of them bass-ackward. (They didn't mind planning on delivering the bigger baby normally and then the breach baby (Kecia). So they decided to do an amniocentisis on me on Wednesday - I remember seeing the needle for it !! It was at least six inches long!!! But it didn't hurt and by Wednesday afternoon we knew that Kecia's lungs were developed enough for birth and so they scheduled a C-section for Thursday morning.

I was awake during the birth and can remember as the doctor delivered Kelly how excited I was but at the same time thinking - oh let the next one be a girl...and it was. The doctor told me afterwards that he didn't want my six year old giving him a bad time for not giving her a sister!!

The main thing I remember with those two babies (besides the around the clock care they took) was the joy of being a mother. The fun of having TWO babies at a time and how people - total strangers would react to seeing twins.

I wrote in a letter to my sister when they were several months old how I would grumble at being woken in the middle of the night with their cries - but as soon as I picked up which ever one it was that had woken me, what a thrill of love I had go through me. They were precious babies and even more so because Ed and I got to see their advancements through the eyes of their siblings who were old enough to be excited when we saw their first smile, or they sat up all alone the first time, or they crawled. I always said they didn't walk until they were 15 months old because they didn't need to - their adoring older siblings were always fighting over who got to hold whom.

Shawn and Dirk and Mauri loved those babies - amazingly enough Mauri never showed jealousy or animosity for being kicked out of the #1 baby spot - and she had been the 'baby' for six years. She just loved them. Dirk was our #1 diaper changer - and he and Shawn both were so careful of taking good care of these two. It really was a good thing that there were two of them because they had 4 moms!!! Me and Mauri and Shawn and Dirk!!

Kecia and Kelly were very close siblings. As newborns they loved being near each other. They shared a crib - we had the two cribs right next to each other but they didn't like being separated. Lots of the pictures we have of the two of them as newborns show them holding hands. It was amazing how they needed to touch each other in their sleep!

A baby brings such joy and twins double it!! They finished off our family just perfectly - All of my children are wonderfully choice beautiful people. I have been blessed.

Dear Santa

This came to me through the email and I thought I would post it for all of you moms who wonder if there is light at the end of the laundry basket!!


DEAR SANTA LETTER FOR MOMS!!!


I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor,
sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree
on the school playground.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases,
since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back
of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple,
which I already have) .....and arms that don't hurt or flap in the
breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the
candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint
resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television
that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals;
and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes,
Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fightand three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning , or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the
house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an
organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave
crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, a MOM...!

A day with Emma

Friday morning I got up and colored my hair and chased the dog down the street (first time he has disappeared on me!!) and then headed to Provo via my dad's house (to borrow his camera), then to Farmington to pay our taxes, and then to Centerville to get some gas, and finally I headed South to Provo. I waved through the window as I went past Benji's house feeling guilty for not stopping but I was already late.

When I got to Kecia's she came to the door in her robe, barely awake - I guess with the week of flu that Kecia has suffered from Emma had gotten her days mixed up with her nights and she wanted to lay awake and smile and play with mommy all night long. I came in loaded down with a clothes basket full of baby clothes - NO! I had not gotten carried away again but Aunt Teresa had been going through all of her girls's clothes and offered to give them to Kecia. They were so cute and all of them in almost perfect condition. Kecia was so excited. We even went through all of the clothes and oohed and ahhed for 25 minutes BEFORE I went in to say hi to Emma!! Amazing. She slowly woke up and I got to hold her without sharing for a good 30 minutes before she got hungry! Fun!! We talked about how much she had grown in just two weeks!! After she finished nursing Kecia handed her back to me and I held her and loved her and enjoyed her. Then I decided it was time to get her dressed - So I headed into the bedroom and found the cute outfit that Adrie Anna and I had picked out for her when Adrie and I went birthday shopping for her 13th birthday in September. We found some cute sockies to match the outfit and then I asked Kecia where the head bands (or brain squeezers as I have heard them called before :-) were. I found one to match and proceeded to make Emma look even more adorable. For the next half hour while mommy was showering Emma smiled and cried and slept and laughed. I had a wonderful day with Kecia and Emma - Kecia was perfectly happy to let me hold Ems all I wanted. I came home fulfilled. I had headed South figuring that I would be cleaning house all day but that wonderful husband of Kecia's had already cleaned it for us!! He was at work so I didn't even have to share Emma with him. After Glenn got home we all ate and I scooted for home because I had told Ed I would be home by 8 and I was just leaving Provo at 7:45!! But that 's okay - it was a wonderful marvelous day and I got to play with the sweetest softest little girl around. She is going to be a very mellow personality with a stubborn streak in her (according to Kecia) but the pictures do not do her justice.

She simply glows. What more can a proud grandma say?

This is the baby announcement we created in 1980 for Kelly and Kecia - we were tax counselors and that was the first year they made the 1040's in pink and blue. It worked perfectly. I got this out though to compare Kecia and Emma - Kecia weighed 4 lbs 13 oz and was 17 inches long. Emma was 8 lbs 1 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Emma at two weeks was 9 lbs 4 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. I think Kecia was probably 3 months old before she was that big!! WOW!