Allen Family Newsletter: July 2007

Love your country. Your country is the land where your parents sleep, where is spoken that language in which the chosen of your heart, blushing, whispered the first word of love; it is the home that God has given you that by striving to perfect yourselves therein you may prepare to ascend to him. ~Giuseppe Mazzini

Jeanne & Sid Stephenson

The beginning of June we were honored to have Shelly and Dave here for a couple of days. We surely enjoyed their company and help. Seems like we lean on our children more and more to help us do things we aren’t able to do. Dave spent a few prime hours setting up my new computer which has been “hair-raising” for me to even attempt. Many thanks!!!

Sid had his last eye cataract surgery in early June. He is glad to have the procedures behind him. Now he is waiting for new glasses so he can really be back to normal.

The latter part of June found us in SLC again…attending a wedding reception of the Barr’s daughter and a missionary who served in Latvia. We were able to see so many old friends from our missionary days. Wonderful!

Stephanie, Dave and their boys arrived the last of June to spend a few days here with us. We enjoyed them so much and we were able to get better acquainted with the kids. They are adorable…just like all our grandchildren are. The time went by much too fast. While they were here, we had a dinner party and Ron and Dawn, Shauna and Troy joined with us. Sandie just ‘happened to be here too…it was so nice to have family around.

We are still doing the Stake Baptisms and enjoy that calling very much. Sid carries the majority of the work and I just ‘assist’. Just want to close by telling ALL my children and grandchildren how much we love each of you and we are proud of the choices you are making with your lives.

Sandie & Neil Taft

June has been a wonderful month for our family. So many blessings – we are so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father. Meela went to a new doctor to have her cancer checked again. He cut more out and had another biopsy. It came back cancer free!!! We know that our many prayers have been answered. She is doing great and working hard and enjoying all of her spare hours with Ben Tippets.

Kris is still working long and hard hours. He is the evening supervisor of Cottonwood Youth Academy and is really making a difference with the youth. His family is doing great. The children went to Tayler horseback riding camp and Brenton went scout camp and earned 6 merit badges, he also starts foot ball. Weslie is taking fencing lessons. Clayton is just busy being cute and getting ready for preschool. Everyone is growing so quickly – wish we could have been there to see their big recital. All four Brenton, Tayler, Weslie and Clayton were in Peter Pan. I heard from reliable sources (Meela and Kari) that they each did fantastic. Allison stays busy with classes, teaching preschool and also ballet.

Kari and Jeremy are doing great. Jeremy is working at Discovery and Kari is working at Express. They juggle their schedules to care for little Curtis. He is going so quickly and will soon be walking all over. Kari and Curtis were able to come and visit us the last week of June. We loved every minute although their visit went by too fast!!

Neil and I are still working hard at our jobs and our Church assignments. On the side, we garden, help in the community, visiting teach and home teach 8 families (we are companions), go to the Temple and just plain have fun together.

It was great to be able to seem Mom and Sid, Stephanie and Dave and their boys and Shauna and Troy when we went to the valley last weekend.

Can’t wait to see all of you at the reunion!!!!

Shelly & Dave Senior

The long awaited summer finally dawned and the well earned rest never materialized as each Senior departed in his or her own summer travel marathon. Among the highlights include Ryan's travels to Sonora, Mexico where he learned first hand the blessings of humanitarian service. His basketball team is unique in that it uses basketball as a sort of good-will ambassodor with a team in Mexico. Once a year the team travels to Hermosillo and the surrounding areas and works in orphanages and elderly homes. Language barriers are broken down with smiles, friendship, service and open hearts. He worked all day and then played basketball into the late hours of the night. He returned home exhausted but a better man.

Scott became an official High School graduate!! This was a day that Scott (and at times his parents) thought would never come but it is a significant milestone. Before Scott is off to BYU with his brother in the fall, he was lucky enough to enjoy a trip to the Bahamas at the Atlantis resort. He returned home in time to spend a week in Santa Barbara at EFY. He had a marvelous experience and a strengthening of testimony which is a refesher of the soul. He had a great time and I had to tell him all my stories of being at UCSB with Dad while he was working on his PHD. Dad would drop me at the beach, go to class, and pick me up when he was done. It is one of the many good memories I have of Dad!

Dave and I made our semi-annual pilgrimage to Hawaii for the Student Appreciation Dinner at BYUH. We were able to meet the new BYUH President, Steven Wheelwright. But the most enjoyable part of the trip was, as always, spending time with Craig and Linda. It was a special treat this time because Dawn and Emily and their kids were there, and even Steph made some cameo appearances. They are always so much fun to be with and it was so fun to be there. We always leave feeling grateful for Craig and Linda and their family and the association we enjoy with them. We have spent time with them in Hawaii and London and regardless of the exotic locations, just being with them seems to be the highlight of our travels.

In other news, we leave in two days (on Tuesday, July 10, but whose counting!!) to pick up Derek in Spain!. We are so looking forward to seeing where he served his mission, but mostly are excited to see HIM! He has had a marvelous experience serving as a missionary and I'm certain his live will be altered for good. He sent a letter home this week that he fractured his radius so we will take care of that when we return. More to follow when we have had a chance to get the download from Derek. FYI, he will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting in our Ward in Highland on July 29th at 9:30a. If any of you are in town, we would love to have you and will even provide a lunch afterwards!

Other than that, the boys and Dave just really sit around like slugs and play Guitar Hero. The only time they move is when they hear the garage door open when I come home. At least they get some exercise with that! It has been hot in Utah this summer but we jump in the pool and try not to think about it. Can't wait to catch up with everyone next month when we are all together. I am so excited to see everyone at the reunion. It will be here before we know it. Sorry this is short, but we are alive and sometimes well.

Love you all,

Shelly

Stacy & Greg Hansen

June was a fun month for our family. Towards the beginning of June Emma
had her end of year dance performance & Madelyn performed in the ballet
Copellia. Madelyn also had a fun month of softball. She is a great player
& her team loved her because she was the only one who hit a home run!
Madelyn & Emma are both taking swimming lessons & ballet during the summer.
Koby is busy with his new job at Rockwell on the cleanup crew. He loves
working with the Mexican's because he is learning more Spanish. He got to
take off a couple weeks for our family vacation & EFY. We went on a fun
family vacation last month. We started at Shelly & Dave's & had a fun day
of swimming & a BBQ. We also got to attend my high school dinner group
because we were in town. It was so much fun seeing my friends from high
school. It had been years. On Father's Day we headed down to Saint George
to surprize Greg's dad (they are on their mission there). We had a slight
delay because our car broke down. We did make it, but it wasn't a surprize.
We spent a couple extra days in St. George waiting to find out about our
car & ended up buying a new one because it was $8,000 to fix the Durango.
We were able to make the last couple days of our vacation & we went to
Rosarito beach in Mexico. It was a lot of fun. The children were good
sports because we didn't make it to Disneyland. It is interesting how
even when you have a major change of plans how you can still enjoy yourself
in different ways. The guy who sold us our car in St. George is taking the
missionary discussions because of Greg. His parents are working with him.
Also, as we were sitting along the freeway with our car broken down & it was
95 outside and we had been there several hours, kids fighting, some of us
not having the best attitude, I had been thinking we are stuck out here in
the middle of nowhere & noboby even knows where we are! Almost immediately
I had a strong impression come over me that the Lord always knows where we
are. It helped to know that the Lord really knows all of us & that He is
always there for all of us & always knows where we are. The church is true
& at least that can be a constant in our lives! I love you all! Greg,
Stacy, Koby, Madelyn, & Emma

Shauna & Troy

Well, it sure has been a fun June, since we were gone for most of it, diving in the waters of Cozumel and Cancun. Troy and I went with

2 other couples from my ward and spent 8 days diving and exploring the ruins of Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum. This was our first dive, out of getting certified. We were so excited to go to one of the top dive sites in the world to do our first dive. The visibility was about 150 ft. We saw stingrays, eagle rays, puffer fish, toad fish, a SHARK (it was a nurse shark…not real interested in swimming with anything that considers me a snack). We did a ship wreck, and a bunch of coral reefs down to ab

out 90 ft in the water.

We were able to bring back a leather copy of the “Tree of Life” or Lehi’s dream for Mom and Sid. Pretty awesome.

Work is going really well. I am working on a pu

blication on one of the procedures we do here in the office from a marketing standpoint, so needless to say, I may be famous one

day…Ha ha…a legend in my own mind.

Sure has been fun hanging out with everyone who comes and visits Mom and Sid. They surely love it…

I miss my sisters and brothers dearly, and wish I could see your lives instead of just hearing about them…Love

you all to pieces…

Sherri & Spencer Plummer

This has been a great month for our family. We have had a clean bill of health for everyone in our family! Who could ask for anything more? The kids have been making new friends, and getting to be better swimmers all the time. Spencer and I went on a trip to Boston and Chicago. We went to Wrigley Field, and to Fennway Park. What an experience that was. It was so much fun. We took Sydney on the trip and she did fabulous! Spencer and I are getting ready for Africa and the family reunion. We are so excited to see everyone! Sydney's Baby Blessing will be on August 5, 2007 at 10:30 in the morning, for all those that want to leave after that, we would love to have you there!! Spencer is just getting better at Gymnastics, doing 6 backhandsrpings into a back flip. Pretty scarry to watch, but he is really good. Sabrina is now riding her bike again without training wheels, and had her first major crash, with major road rash on her knee and face. She is now proud of her "trophies." Sammy is making new friends and getting ready for school in September. She is such a great babysitter for Sydney. Sydney is sleeping between 5-7 hours per night. I love it. We are all doing wonderful and can't wait to see all of you next month. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers during our struggling times! You are all the best!

Love,

Spencer, Sherri, Spencer IV, Sabrina, Sammantha and Sydney (i guess that I could include Max too)

Stephanie & Dave Farnsworth

June was a busy and wonderful month for our family. Our Summer has been full. In Texas is started raining the first week of June and literally has not stopped since!

Dave spent the 1rst week end of June in Austin at a conference. He had a wonderful time (and doesn't mind too much being wined and dined by the reps). He spent most of the other Saturdays working at the dental office in Plano. He has really enjoyed his time there and has made some good new friends. He loves letting the kids know he is "the boss" at work. They think it is pretty cool. We had a great Father's Day this month and are so grateful for Dave. We cooked up his favorite meal and the boys made him a gigantic paper tie that he wore to church. He really is an amazing father. Dave took me to the play "Chicago" this month. It was somewhat entertaining. Although it was basically a bunch of scantily clad women walking around the stage singing. Dave is always so good to make sure we get our date nights in. We were so happy to have him during his break and are sad to see him return to school Monday!

I have stayed busy this month with mommy school, dentist & doctor appointments, summer movies, camps, primary, book club, play dates, swim lessons, you get the idea. We certainly have had full days. The boys are still LOVING mommy school and I have enjoyed interacting with them so much. I feel like we have all learned a little something. Planet Earth week, Detective week, Information and Communication week, and Money week were all huge successes. Crafts, lessons, activities, you name it have filled our rainy days. It has been great to have the kids to myself all day. We have had some great snuggle time and have built some of the biggest forts you have ever seen out of all of the pillow and cushions in our house! I really love being a mommy and playing with the kids. Book club was at my house this month and we read "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. It was a great book and a fun discussion. I had a couple of mindless reads this month as well "Twilight" and "New Moon". They were great for a light, pleasure read! I was able to almost catch completely up on scrapbooking this month while Dave was out of town. There is nothing like staying up late and finishing a project. I really do love to scrapbook....I just wish there were more time in the day to do it more often. For primary I am getting ready for our upcoming Pioneer Day activity that I am in charge of. We will have breakfast, a short program and a parade. It has been fun to coordinate and should turn out great. I was able to take my sister Sue to "Spamelot" this month too. It was such a fun time and I really laughed hard. It was great to hear other adults laugh out loud and just relax. I still am loving having my blog and connecting with friends near and far. I have been able to write a "Grateful Sunday" post each Sunday to help express gratitude for the many blessings in my life. There are so many. We flew to Arizona the 28th of June. The boys were great on the flight and we were so happy to not have to drive. It was so great to be there (but I will write about our AZ trip for July's update). We already miss everyone there!

Austin had a busy month. Besides doing mommy school with me and Chase, he does his reading lesson, math lesson and practices his piano songs everyday. He has such an innate desire to learn. I love that about him. He spent the first week of June in Soccer camp that was coached by professional soccer players from all over Europe. He loved his camp and told me he definitely wants to go back next year. He has enjoyed lots of play dates. He loves his friends.

Chase turned 3 this month! He feels really big now and says "I'm big now" all of the time. He had a pirate cake and a small little party with his two closest friends. Chase has had fun with mommy school too. I am so surprised at what he can pick up on as such a young age. Chase has also enjoyed lots of play dates this Summer. Chase took his first swimming lessons the second week of June. He did so well and can swim without a life jacket in the deep end. We are really proud of him. Although he can be a little stinker he is so sweet.

Blakey turned 1 this month! He is the smiliest and sweetest little boy. He is walking everywhere and enjoys being the shadow of his two older brothers. He is always content and is always willing to give up a hug and a kiss. He really is a little sunshine. We can't wait to watch his personality unfold even more during these next two months.

Love and miss you,

Dave, Steph, Austin, Chase & Blake Farnsworth

Happy Birthday Chase!