Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary, Jessica and Chris!  I can't believe it's been 11 years!  Hope it was a nice day. :)

All About JJ

JJ picked this picture.  It's a really old one. 
I think I need to get more pictures.

Here are some fun facts about JJ.  He's been visiting us here and we've really enjoyed having him around.  Some things I haven't heard of before, so please forgive spelling errors:).

Favorite color: black
Favorite food: sushi
Favorite sports team: Yankees
Favorite day of the week: Friday
Favorite game: Fallout 3
Favorite song: Blacken by Metallica

Favorite hobby: skateboarding
Favorite tv show: Beavis and Butthead
Favorite candy: Skittles

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Jenny!   

We hope it's a fabulous day!

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Sarah! 

We hope you had lots of fun!

This is an old picture, but it's one of my favorites.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Wade! 



Happy Birthday!



Happy birthday, Jessica and Chris! 

How fun to have both of your birthdays so close together.  I hope you both have had a great day.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to Dad and Mom!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Jenny and Steve!

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kelsie!

You're our favorite teenager! :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jessica! 

We hope you have a fabulous day!

Family Update--Amy

I almost forgot to update you on what I've been doing lately!  I've been pretty busy lately.  I think summer is more crazy for me than the school year.  Ashley and I have been working at the bed & breakfast.  It's been fun to meet so many people.  This is our third summer working there.  They recently added a family room, which has been pretty popular.  If you want to see what the rooms look like, go to this website. It has been updated recently with pictures of the new room and some more recent photos of some of the older rooms.  http://www.lionsgatemanor.com/  My favorite rooms are the Medieval Chamber and Secret Garden.

I've also been having a lot of fun getting my classroom ready for next year.  I'm doing a castle theme next year and I have lots of fun ideas.  Ashley has helped me a lot.  We made an enchanted forest for the kids to sit in when they read.  It turned out really cute.  I'll take pictures next time I go to the school and I'll post them.  I've also been making things for the kids to put their school supplies in.  I took clay pots that I found on sale for 25 cents each and I painted them jewel tones with gold rims.  I glued on fake jewels and they are really fun.  I'll have to take some pictures of those too.

The most exciting thing lately has been that I got a new car a couple of days ago.  The radiator in the van cracked and it was going to be more to fix it than it is worth.  It was costing way too much gas money to have just Dad's truck for transportation so we started looking at our options.  I got a really good deal on the car with low payments.  It's a 2001 Honda Civic.  It has been such a relief to have a reliable car that is in good condition and gets good gas mileage!  I'll post pictures soon.

Family Journal

What's your favorite soda?

Family Update--The Mitchells

Steve and the boys on the Fourth of July

Steve and the girls at a car show for Father's Day.

Party in the Playpen!

Sarah in the BSU car

The Mitchell family is keeping pretty busy this summer.  Here's what they've been doing lately.  Kelsie is going to Camp Pinewood for church camp pretty soon.  Taylor and Ethan are excited for football practice to begin in a couple of weeks.  I asked Sarah what she has been up to and she said she has been coloring Tweety Bird pictures.  How fun!

Dallas and Jasmine are staying with their family right now, which they have all been enjoying. 
I stole these pictures from Jenny's most recent album on Facebook.  I hope she doesn't mind.  I thought they were fun, especially the party in the playpen.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Jenny

Well, maybe you know these things, but I didn't.  Here are ten of her favorite things:

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite Food: Yogurt

Favorite Sports Team: The Rugrats (Taylor's football team), The Broncos, and the Chicago Bears

Favorite Day of the Week: Saturday

Favorite Game: Family Feud

Favorite Song: Life of My Own by Three Doors Down

Favorite Movie: Anne of Green Gables, The Notebook, August Rush

Favorite Hobby: Playing softball and supporting Taylor and Ethan with their football

Favorite TV Show: Army Wives, Big Brother, Cold Case

Favorite Flower: Daisy

This is a picture of Jenny when she was about 3 years old.

Family Update--Dad & Mom

Here's what Dad and Mom have been doing lately:

I definitely need to start taking more pictures!  Here's a fun picture of Mom and Dad from their college days since I don't really have a current one.

Dad spent a few days in June at Girl's Camp.  This was his third year helping with the cooking.  The girls in our ward look forward to his dutch oven meals.  He tried a new recipe for a cake that was requested by the camp leaders.  It was a turtle cake with chocolate cake and caramel and chocolate chips.  He also won the award for camp story teller after sharing the Horrible Howie story about cow twirling.  Fortunately, he edited it a bit.:) 

Kelsie came and visited for a week.  It was a lot of fun to have her around.  Jessica brought her to us and we spent a fun day making crafts with her.  Jessica and Ashley made wooden blocks and I worked on some pots I painted for my students to keep their school supplies in.

Family Update--The Lowders

I didn't have any recent pictures, but I wanted something to go with this post.  I love this picture of Cassidy and KayLee!

Here's what Emily's family is up to:
Emily and Ben just bought a new house.  They've been spending a lot of time fixing it up.  They recently stained their decks and they've been spending a lot of time gardening.  JJ got to go to Camp Bradley for Scouts earlier this month.  I'm sure he had lots of fun.  Cassidy had her birthday party on June 26 and KayLee recently lost her first tooth.  Emily was just called to be a counselor in the Primary presidency in her new ward.  She also recently broke her wrist water skiing.  It sounds like they're having a very busy and fun summer (other than the broken wrist). 

Family Update--Wade & Kelly

Buster and Bella

It's been a couple of weeks since we talked to Wade, but here are some of the things going on with him and Kelly:
They recently got another dog.  Her name is Bella.  She's a chocolate lab and very well behaved.  She and Buster get along well.
They recently got together with Kelly's family for a family reunion.
Wade is still working with T-Mobile and he enjoys his work.
Thanks for sharing with us, Wade!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Emily!  I'm sorry it was a day late.  I was out of town.  I should have done it a day early!  I hope it was a great day!

Just a Note . . .

I've contacted most of you lately to get an update on your family and you're probably wondering why I haven't posted it yet.  I worked six days last week so I haven't had a chance to get caught up.  My goal this week is to get everyone's update done.  Thanks for your patience and have a great day!

Family Journal

What's your favorite kind of sandwich and why?  Please click on the comments link and write your answer there.  Remember to add your name at the bottom. 

Getting to Know You--Chris

I thought it would be fun to get to know each other better so I'll be interviewing all of you and sharing your answers.  Chris was the first one and here are some of his favorite things:

Favorite color: blue
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite sports team: Utah Jazz and Minnesota Vikings
Favorite day of the week: Saturday
Favorite game: Monopoly
Favorite song: Anything by Def Leppard
Favorite movie: Transformers
Favorite book: Harry Potter Series
Favorite hobby: Monster Truck photography
Favorite TV show: The Apprentice

Thanks, Chris!

Family History Spotlight--Wales Everette Aldridge

Here's a story from the life of Grandpa Aldridge that you might find interesting.  I got it from the book Grandma wrote for us for Christmas in 2000.

. . . the Tri-State area of Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri was a very rough place to live.  Many of the miners were on strike or out of work.  Some of the most hated men in the mining towns were the scabs.  They would cross the picket lines of the strikers to work in the mines.  Weekends were pretty violent in these rough mining towns.  Fights were numerous among the miners, scabs, and young men out to have a good time.  As a result, the county jails were often overcrowded on the weekends.  Sometimes, the law officers would keep the young men in jail over Saturday and Sunday just to keep them out of more serious trouble.  They would be released on Monday morning to return to their jobs or go home.

On one occasion, this happened to Mick (Grandpa Aldridge went by Mick).  His cell mates were a very mean, rough looking group of men.  One of them was actually a member of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde Gang.  Coffeeville, Kansas was just a few miles away.  This is the town where Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death by law officers.  Two large cockroaches were found in the cell so two of the men decided they would race to see which roach was the fastest.  Mick was sleeping on one of the bunks when these events transpired so knew nothing about the race of the cockroaches.  The cheering of the men for their favorite entry woke Mick with a start.  The first thing he saw as he jumped from his bunk was a large cockroach and he immediately stomped on and killed the bug.  Pandemonium broke out among the men and Mick was the object of their anger.  The man whose roach Mick had killed started to fight him with a vengeance.  Mick had no chance at all against this heavier, older man and was really taking a beating.  He really thought that man was going to kill him.

Lo and behold--the Bonnie and Clyde gang member stepped in and saved Mick from further harm.  The tables were turned and and the owner of the cockroach was defeated.  Mick never knew the name of the man who saved him that night.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Kelly!  We're so glad you're a part of our family!

Family Fun Idea--Show and Tell Night!

My students at school love show and tell. They each have a day to share and they look forward to it all week. Why not bring this idea home for a night of family fun? Here's what you can do:

• Give each person in the family a bag that will hide the object to be shown. It might be fun to use gift bags. Have each family member put something in it he or she would like to share.


• Sit down together and give each person an opportunity to show his or her object and tell three things about it.


• Allow some time for questions or comments and end each person's turn with applause.

Have treats after everyone is done and enjoy your time spent together.

Have a fabulous Monday!

Special Update- Grandma

Sometime in the first week of July Grandma is scheduled to have knee surgery. We will let you know the exact date tomorrow when we can talk to Dad. We ask that everyone please keep Grandma in their prayers. And if you're in town a visit would be much appreciated!

Family Update - Mom and Dad

As you all know today was Mom's birthday and she had a great one. One of the sisters in our ward happens to share the same birthday. For quite a few weeks now she has been asking us questions about what kind of cake Mom likes. So today she brought her one. It sure brought a smile to Mom's face. Especially since that meant Mom got two cakes. Since there are only four of us at home she is going to take one of them to work to share. Other than that Mom has just been staying busy with work and her Primary calling
Dad got the privilege of going to girls' camp, which he thoroughly enjoyed. It didn't take long for news of his storytelling capabilities to spread. Soon he was telling all of the stake stories of Horrible Howie and cow-twirling, leaving out the grosser details, of course. They must have enjoyed the stories because both the stake and the ward gave him an award for storytelling. I think the best reward though was hearing from the girls in sacrament meeting how much they enjoyed hearing his stories and eating his yummy food.

Another Birthday!

Happy birthday, Mom! We hope you enjoy it!

It's a Big Birthday Week!

Happy Birthday, Steve! Thanks for all you do.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Cassidy! We hope you have lots of fun!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men in our lives!

Family Update--The Mitchells

The Mitchell family has been keeping busy lately. Here are some of the things they are doing:
Steve recently had knee surgery. He is recovering well, but it looks like he won't be able to go to Iraq later this year. I also hear that he was promoted to a sergeant. Congratulations, Steve!
Jenny is busy at church. She and Kelsie are playing softball this summer and are very excited to get started.
Kelsie got all A's and B's on her report card. She is excited to visit family in Heyburn and Salt Lake this summer. (I hope she's planning on coming to Downey, too.)
Taylor is getting excited to play football in a few months. (Ethan is pretty excited, too.)
Ethan won an award at school for the most improved out of his whole class. Way to go, Bubba!
Sarah just finished soccer, which she enjoyed very much.

Birthday Boy

Happy birthday, Ethan. You're the best!

Family Memories

I realized that I had a few pictures of the snowy day that Jessica talked about in her comments. I thought you might all like to see them. Have a great day!

Memorial Day

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Steve for his service to our country and also all those who have given their time and their lives to preserve our freedom. Let's do all we can to hold onto it!

Happy birthday, KayLee! We love you!

Family Journal

Every once in a while I want to post a question that everyone can answer if they want to. My hope is that we can all get to know each other a little better. You can put the answer in the comments section. Make sure to sign the comment with your name so we know who made the comment. Here's the first question:

What's your favorite family memory?