All Creatures Great and Small

"This is the biggest guy I ever caught!"

And here is the tiniest!

Family Tree

"Hundred-year-old photograph stares out from a frame,

If you look real close you'll see our eyes are just the same,

I may not know where I'm going,

but I'm sure where I came from,

They're my Gardian Angels,

and I'm their special one."

Here is most most recently completed project. I remember in my Grandparents basement looking at some of these pictures on the wall, as well as others of my great grandparents. I LOVE looking at old pictures, especially of my own family. I have been dreaming this one up for a lot of years, and it took a long time to find all the pictures, but hopefully it will give my kids a sense of their roots, as it does for me.

MATHEWS/EKLOF ROOTS

MARTINEAU/BRAITHWAITE ROOTS

BRANCHES!!

Berkeley's Baby

Here it is, proof that we did in fact let Berkeley have a puppy.

After doing some serious thinking, talking, and dealing, Berk took out his first loan from the bank of Dad, pledged a lifetime of cheerful service and school work, as well as all his future allowance for a baby shih tzu to have and to hold.

Look, he matches the house!

So this is LUGAU

aka "Lu-i", "Lulu", "Gawie", "Lugau-i", "Lugi" and "Pat, Pat" (that's what Sammy calls him)

The name comes from a dog Great Grandpa Berkeley and his pals adopted while living in a Japanese prison camp durring WWII.

Master Hunter

Although Berkeley is getting some great skills, Jeffrey still manages to be the hero and bring home new creatures that we have yet to encounter!

Jeffrey's Scout Camp

See Jeffrey's blog to see pics of camp

jeffrosadventures.blogspot.com

Friends!!!

Here are a few fun pics. from our visit with the Yadon family!

Thanks for making us a part of your visit to sunny Arizona!

Isaac taught Sammy the right way to ride his new bike. (Sam had been pushing it around). They did a pretty good job with sharing don't you think?

Berkeley and Preston.

"We finally get a turn!"

The ladies soaking up the sun. I think BrookLynn and Sophie really enjoyed their girl time.

Sophie found a new friend, Darcey.

Jacob always wanted to hold the baby Isaac!

GIRL'S CAMP!

I have finally had enough sleep to sit down and post a few more pictures. At the end of May Brooklynn and I were lucky enough to head out to Girl's Camp together! We had such a great time! Here are a few highlights.

We were tied hand to hand for dinner the first night to learn to work together.
Of course there was the hiking...one of my favorites.It also ended up being MUCH colder than we had planned for. Lucky we're girls! There was a lot of snuggling going on this year and I'm ALL for that! Another great thing about girl's camp, which is a little different than what the guys do, is we were in our scriptures a lot durring the days. It was such a great boost and reminder of the peace found there. Once we got quieted down and into the books and journals, those spiritual times always ended too soon.

These pictures are from "Bishop's Night". Our leaders are such great sports. We had SO much fun with them. We had made up a fun song to tease our bishop, and he came right back at us with a RAP of his own!

For morre fun camp pictures, check out THE BARBA FAMILY and BRUCE STEVENS FAMILY blogs.

Some Grape Pictures

Loose Tooth

Ballet Recital

We are so proud of Brooklynn and all of the hard work she has done in Ballet this year! She had a bit of a rough time this fall auditioning a bunch of studios before finding one that was a true ballet academy, but we have been very happy with Miss Chen and her school. She has taken her classes very seriously and has made terrific progress over the season! It was so fun to see her perform.
Studio pictures were done on a Sunday this year, and BrookLynn decided she would "rather listen to the prophet than have class pictures". What a good example she is to us! I was allowed backstage to take these shots for her since she was unable to get a costume photo.
BrookLynn always looks forward to showing off her talents, especially for her Daddy. She was very excited to have Jeffrey there this year as well. Melanie, Alexa, Bruce, Marie, and another family from our ward were all there to suppoert her as well. She really enjoyed that.
Thanks everyone!
http://www.yenlichen.com/

Happy Birthday Sammy!

This is honestly the face he pulled this morning when Jeffrey said, "Sammy! It's your birthday!" We laughed so hard!

BTW..what do you think about this red-brown hair ?

When we're helping we're happy!

Now that Sam is one, he thought it was about time to crawl up onto the toy bench and help out with the lights and music in the kitchen.My final "baby's first" cake. (It's his puppy)We all knew he'd get into it, but leave it to Sam to do the river dance on his birthday cake!"OK, I'm finished"Looking at this picture, it's hard to tell if he loved his bike, or hated the diaper wedgie he got from riding it.



"Busy Day! I'm EXAUSTED!"