My corner of the world............

January always means “scrapbooking” for me. Last year, I was scrapbooking two years worth of photos (2007 and 2008). So right now just doing the year 2009 seems like it should be a snap, but January is almost over, and I’m only about half way through the year 2009. So I spend my days tucked away here in my little corner of the world---scrapbooking.

I’ve been scrapbooking all my life---long before it became popular. And even though I enjoy my photos in their neat little electronic files, and have made “books on line,” I still just have to scrapbook a family photo album each year.

Checking with Wiki, here are a few fun facts about scrapbooking:

Did you know that Mark Twain was an avid scrapbooker?? He dedicated Sundays to enjoy his hobby and had 57 different scrapbooks that he sold through Montgomery Ward catalog.

The peak decade for scrapbooking was 1880-1890. Magazines of the times included articles on what to include in your scrapbooks.

I don’t know who said it, but here is one last quote on the subject:

“Scrapbooking today comes in many forms. Traditional books, computer scrapbooks and family web pages. Scrapbooking a fad?? I don’t think so. It has been around for centuries. The popularity comes and goes, but one thing is for sure, scrapbooking is for all generations! Remember that when you're scrapbooking, and think of whom in the future will see your book and how will they scrapbook?!”

Doing the NYC photos - September

Paper, borders, decales, stickers, etc.

I Aim to Please............

Every once in a while I like to have a “blind” giveaway. I call it that because no one can see it coming. It’s a giveaway that no one knows about. To kick off the New Year, I’ve drawn the winner’s name from all those who commented on the Nativity Pageant post. And the winner is: Joel. Your Target gift card will be sent to you within the week. Enjoy!

The Best Ever Christmas Pageant

We started the tradition of the Christmas Nativity Pageant being performed on Christmas Eve almost from the first Christmas that Troy could walk. It’s carried on year after year---even our teenagers participated in our make-shift costumes. Lisa and David blessed us with a grandchild in time to over-lap the last of our children still living at home. So the tradition continued each year without missing a beat. The grandchildren that live in Knoxville now total 13, so we have a most marvelous pageant. I even made some costumes and bought a couple of things to use as costumes, so it’s a more profession-looking cast than when our own children were little. Here’s a look back at pageants past and present.

1972 - Lisa, Julie, Troy

1975 - Troy, Julie, and Lisa

1977 - Troy, Julie, Brad as Baby Jesus, Joel, and Lisa

1987 - Lori & Brad; Russ, the donkey

1998 - Allie & Trey; Russ, the donkey


1999


2002

2003

2004

2004 - New Wisemen costumes were made - Ta Da!

2005 - Grammy narrates from "When Joy Came"

2006

2006 - Jared & Sydney as Jospeh & Mary

2006 ~Troy, Carter, Tanner ~ Wisemen

2007 ~ Angels Emma, Sydney & Claire

2007 ~ Angel Emma approaches the shepherds

2007 ~ Shepherds Conner, Josh, & Tanner

2008 ~ Angel Claire

2008 Angel Lydia

2009 ~ Claire is Mary and Connor is Jospeh (same ugly doll is Baby Jesus)

2009 ~ Allen is donkey for Claire (Mary) & Connor (Jospeh)

2009 - End of Pageant performance

2009 ~ The cast and Grammy & Grandpa

What 70 looks like.............

My sister turned 70, and my sister, Kathy and I are in our 60’s, but who cares, since we’re all about 25 at heart. Russ and I traveled across the country to Seattle, WA to surprise my sister, Tamara, for her 70th birthday. Kathy planned the surprise and coaxed us there. It was a wonderful week. I think “70” looks pretty good! Kathy’s daughter, Kammy, presented Tamara with a special book of tributes, and yes, there are 70 candles on that cake. Now we're home and sugarplums aren't dancing in our heads, but visions of the beautiful Northwest. We love you, Seattle. Happy 70th, Tamara!

Kathy, Tamara, Sharlene

Attending the Nutcracker Ballet in downtown Seattle

Tamara and Kammy's daughter, DeLaney

Book put together by Kammy for Tam's 70th b-day

First snow...........last snow?

I admit, Lori’s latest post inspired me to do this one. For those who have read my personal history, you know that I love, love, love SNOW. I grew up where snow was plentiful. Then we lived in snow-deprived California for 14 years. Finally, moving back to Tennessee meant we could enjoy snow again. But as of late, the snow that sweeps the rest of the country seems to skip right over Knoxville, TN. That’s why we were all beside ourselves when we actually got snow on December 5. Doesn’t matter that it melted by late afternoon. We saw it falling from the sky, we played in it, and some tiny snowmen still stand in the neighborhood. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the snow will come again before spring. Here’s a look back to the kind of snow we used to get in the good ole days here in good ole Knoxville:

Brad, Lori, and Joel -they built this snowfort in 1985

The winter of 1993

Notice in the above picture the car beside the van is totally covered with snow.

The above picture is of our deck.

January of 1996 - Snowmen built late one night by Sharlene, Russ, and Lori

Opps! This was in Alaska in June of 2001--Margerie Glacier

Our mighty "snow" of February 2006

This actually looks like more snow than it was: March, 2008

Ahh! Beatiful snow of December 5, 2009 ~ Welcome snow, welcome!

Visiting the dead

While on our Utah road trip, we visited the gravesites of 45 ancestors. Below are examples of the headstones we photographed and a little about each ancestor.




William Casper – Born in Knox County Ohio in 1784. Family originally from Germany. He was with the Saints when they were driven out of Missouri to Nauvoo. He died in 1846 and buried in the old Nauvoo Cemetery. His headstone is one of the very few that still exist and can be read.
















Lydia Knight – Born in New England in 1812. Her first husband abandoned her. She married Newel Knight in 1835. Their marriage was the first performed by Joseph Smith. She was also with the Saints when they were driven out of Missouri to Nauvoo and with the Saints when driven out of Nauvoo. Her husband Newel died in Nebraska leaving her a widow with seven children and pregnant with an eighth. She spent three years in the Winter Quarters area before finally being able to come to Salt Lake in 1850. After an unhappy marriage of five years with John Dalton, Lydia married James McClellan and moved with him to Santa Clara Utah. After his death, she moved to St. George where she worked in the temple for several years until her death in 1884. Her headstone in the St. George Cemetery is very unique, being a round granite ball.








Alexander Dawson – Born in Scotland in 1838. At age 13 he went to sea as a cabin boy and lived the life of seaman until age 21. He jumped ship in South Africa and was thrown in jail. Here he met his wife when she brought food to the prisoners. After his release from jail Alexander and Elizabeth married in 1860 and sailed to America to join with the other Saints. They settled in present day East Layton and became quite prosperous, owning over 700 acres of land. He died in 1918 and was buried in the Kaysville Cemetery.


Eliza Briggs Stratton – Born in England in 1836. Emigrated with her family at the age of 18 to the United States to join the Saints in Utah. Her family were members of the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company that was caught in the early snow and freezing temperatures in Wyoming in 1856. Her father and one brother died near Martin’s Cove and a sister died before reaching the valley. Her feet were badly frozen and she walked in pain the rest of her life. She became the plural wife of James Stratton and in about 1870 went with him to the Muddy Mission is Southern Nevada. Here she died and was buried in 1871, after giving birth to her 8th child. James came back later to what is now Overton Nevada to place the headstone on her grave.



Joseph Egbert – Born in 1818 in Sullivan County, Indiana. Was with the Saints driven from Missouri to Nauvoo. Worked for three years on the Nauvoo Temple. Left with the other Saints in 1846 and drove the first wagon into the Salt Lake Valley as part of the advance party of the Vanguard Company that entered the valley on July 23, 1847. He married Louisa Taylor Warrick as a plural wife in 1852. Her husband had gone to the California gold fields in 1849 and died there. The Egberts settled in Kaysville and became very prosperous. Joseph died in 1898 and was buried in the Kaysville Cemetery.



William Wallace Casper – Born in 1821 in Richland County Ohio. He was with his parents when they were driven out of Missouri to Nauvoo. In Nauvoo he married Elizabeth Bean and fled with the other Saints in 1846. He volunteered for the Mormon Battalion in Winter Quarters and left his wife and baby daughter in the care of his 16-year-old brother in law. After walking 2000 miles with the Battalion to California, he was released and joined his wife and child in the Salt Lake Valley in October 1847. He settled in the Mill Creek area south of the main city. In 1854 he married our ancestor, Anne Ericson (also known as Elizabeth Ann Erickson but that’s another story). She was a recent immigrant from Sweden. She became the mother of nine children, including our ancestor, Luella Victoria. William died at the age of 87 in 1908 and was buried in the Mill Creek Cemetery (now known as the Elysian Burial Gardens).

Posted by Russ

Road Trip

We had a wonderful trip to Utah, driving 5,190 miles through 14 states and visiting the graves of 45 ancestors in 11 cemeteries along the way. We left for our marathon driving trip to Utah to attend the baptism of Silas and to see our newest grandson and Cara’s baby. We drove instead of flying primarily so we could take all of Brad’s “stuff” to him. Since we were driving, we determined to do some sightseeing both coming and going. We traveled to Utah basically following the pioneer trail from Iowa City to Winter Quarters to Wyoming to Salt Lake City after a quick stop in Nauvoo to attend the temple. We had a wonderful experience at Martin’s Cove near Devil’s Gate Wyoming as we remembered the experiences of Eliza Briggs and her family who were part of that handcart company. In Utah we enjoyed our time with Brad and Joel and their families. We enjoyed being pampered as we stayed in the Joel and Jenica’s new home in Lehi. It was great to have time with our Utah grandsons. We especially enjoyed the alone time we had with Hale and Andrew and it was very special to participate in Silas’ baptism and see baby Samuel. While we didn’t get to see Cara’s baby since he had already left for the Stanford Medical Center (see her blog for details), we did enjoy spending time with Cara. We also got to visit other family members and friends, including Sue and Ramon Sanft in Provo who again provided us with their free bed and breakfast and the Godfreys in Logan, as we delivered the three-generation histories and visited cemeteries. We enjoyed being with Brad and Joel at the BYU football game but didn’t enjoy the game. But by going out earlier than originally planned so we could see the game, we did avoid getting stranded on I-80 which was closed by huge snow storms a couple of days after we passed through. Before leaving Utah, we were able to walk through Brad and Susan’s partially-constructed house. The highlights of our trip back to Tennessee were our visit to the Grand Canyon (truly amazing to view) and a quick stop to see the Oklahoma City memorial to the Federal Building bombing. Seventeen days after leaving we finally arrived home, exhausted but grateful for the wonderful trip and visit with our Utah families and friends. Below are photos of a few of the highlights of our trip.

Nauvoo Temple

Martin's Cove Wyoming


Joel, Russ, Brad, and Sharlene at BYU football game

Brad holding Samuel Zion Krueger Barber

A proud Grammy with 19th grandchild



Andrew, Brad, Sam, Sharlene, Russ



With Silas right before his baptism



Barber families after Silas' baptism



Brad and Susan's home after four days of framing



Sharlene at grave of Eliza Briggs Stratton in Overton Nevada

Russ and Sharlene at Grand Canyon

View from walk along the South Rim