Grandma Jenkins

Grandma Jenkins (known to our kids as "GG") passed away Monday afternoon, Sept 22nd. She was one incredible woman who we will all miss dearly. She lived a long (102 years) and happy life - one that definitely needs to be documented for all our children to always remember. I felt it appropriate to include her obituary here for our children to come back and read to remember their great grandma (GG). 

Obituary for Norma Jenkins
A spry 102 year old Norma Bailey Jenkins passed away September 22, 2014 in North Logan, Utah due to an overdose of life.
Norma was born June 22, 1912 in Revere, Massachusetts to Fredrick Joseph Bailey and Norma Fay Amazeen. She was raised in Kittery Point, Maine and lived all over the West, although she always considered Kittery Pt. her home.
She married Howard J. Jenkins on August 12, 1948 in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. They raised their two children in San Bernardino, CA, and then retired to Crescent City, CA where she loved to paint scenes of the rugged coastline and redwoods that reminded her so much of her childhood home. She and Howard enjoyed camping and traveled all around the US and Canada every summer where Norma would paint and Howard would fish. They especially loved their trips to Banff, Alberta, Canada. After 15 years in Crescent City, she and Howard moved to St. George, Utah. After Howard’s passing, she moved to live near her son Allen in Camarillo, CA and later near her daughter Fay in Half Moon Bay, CA and finally to North Logan, UT.
Norma was an accomplished painter in both watercolor and oil and many family members and friends are the recipients of her beautiful paintings. She was a voracious reader, loved poetry, pottery and music, learning to play the organ and later in life, the drums. She authored several books: autobiographic, philosophic and original poetry. During World War II she worked as a welder fabricating submarine components at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.
Norma was very proud of her New England heritage and never lost her accent or mannerisms. Some may have called her stubborn but those who knew her well have described her as “independent, witty, and a firecracker”. She was interested in current events and enjoyed a spirited debate, sometimes adopting an opposing viewpoint just for the sake of a good argument.
Norma was a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, joining the church in Maine as a young woman. She was the first convert of the Portsmouth, NH branch and she remained faithful to her beliefs throughout her life.
Norma was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers Richard and Frederick, and her husband Howard. She is survived by her son Allen (Nancy), daughter Fay (Robert), five grandchildren, and fourteen great grandchildren.
Services will be held at the LDS Church located at 2540 N 400 E, North Logan, UT with a viewing at 9:30 am and funeral at 10:00 am on Saturday September 27, 2014. Norma will be laid to rest in the Freedom, Wyoming cemetery that afternoon at 3:00 pm. 

Spencer and Grandma had a very close and unique relationship - one that I always admired. Every Sunday evening for the past 10+ years Spencer would give Grandma a call and they'd talk about anything and everything - politics, books, philosophy, the gospel, family, work, weather, etc.  Spencer's last phone call to Grandma was Sunday evening, September 21st. She wasn't able to talk that night but we knew she could hear us. Madi sang her a couple verses of "I am a Child of God" and then we all told her we loved her. Lucky for us, we had just seen Grandma 2 months earlier. We were able to take lots of pictures and even have video of her giving all of us advice - a video we'll always treasure. 

After Grandma's passing on Monday, we knew the funeral would be that weekend. My original thoughts were for Spencer just to go. I wanted him to have an enjoyable weekend with his siblings and parents- reminiscing and celebrating Grandma's life. But when I realized everyone in the family was going to be there, including all the family from New Hampshire, I knew we needed to make it a family affair. How grateful I was to be there to honor Grandma. The funeral was beautiful with such a sweet spirit. Aunt Fay and Spencer shared memories about Grandma's life, all 14 great-grandkids sang "I am a Child of God", Grandpa Al gave a great talk on the purpose of life and the plan of salvation, and Madi sang a solo of "Teach Me About the Temple" at the end of Grandpa Al's talk. It was wonderful. 

After the funeral, we all headed onto Freedom, WY for the burial. The Freedom cemetery is such a beautiful and peaceful place!

Boppi gave a beautiful talk at the graveside on the plan of salvation. Then she had Madi sing "I lived in Heaven", which I so wish I'd recorded. Jeremy then dedicated the grave.

All of the flower arrangements were made by Corinne. She did an incredible job!

Love all these cute cousins who had so much fun running around finding all the "Jenkins" headstones-there are a lot!

All of GG's 14 great grandchildren!

They all got to choose a flower from Aunt Corinne's beautiful arrangement. 

How awesome it was to be able to have everyone there and get a picture with the entire family:

And all the extended family:

Soccer

Elle started her first season of AYSO this year and is absolutely loving it!

She has practice once a week . . . 

 . . . and a game every Saturday. We all look forward to her games every week! For a sport that neither Spencer or I played, I'm shocked at how much we all love it!

After getting creamed, 0-10 their first game, Elle went on to score the first goal of their second game! 

Sure loving watching our girl in action!

Family spotlight

The theme for Primary this year has been Families are Forever. So as part of our opening exercises in junior and senior primary we've been spotlighting one family every week. My family was spotlighted back in June. Each family just fills out this cute little sheet and then shares the info on it. I need to remember to go back and take a better picture of our spotlight sheet, but I wanted to make sure the info on our sheet got documented on the blog!

I wonder if our "favorite activites" or games we play will change as the kids get older. I hope climbing the sandhill will always be a favorite for our family, but I'm sure we'll add other favorite games to the list.  Our Sunday afternoon family meetings have become few and far between which I'm hoping will change as the kids get older - I look forward to great discussions that don't end with kids freaking out or crawling under or on top of the table.

Sure love this family of mine and all the traditions we're creating together! I found this cute little book Madi created the other day and thought it perfect to share on this post! She drew pictures of each member of our family and then wrote a "hint" about the person - something to help you distinguish who they are without giving away their identity. She also included a "fact" about each person! This book is definitely a keeper!

Dad

Hint: Trying to play with everyone before he leaves.

Talent: Drawing

Mom

Hint: Always hard working even when the room is clean.

Talent: Helping other people

Pretty great picture of me vacumning!

Madi

Hint: Wants to learn more science.

Talent: Playing the piano and singing

Elle

Hint: Loving and looking-out for other people.

Talent: cartwheels

Cal

Hint: He likes to chase birds. He is so sweet too!

Talent: Somersaults

Some things we like to do as a family:

* Go swimming

* Play UNO

* Go to a park

* Sandhill

* Beach

* Kisses on hand (girls can't go to bed or leave for school until they get one)

* Travel

* Family home evening

This sweet little book summed up our family perfectly! Thanks Madi for documenting for us!

Calvin and joyschool

Cal had his first day of joy school last week and totally loved it! 

I had two different groups of friends wanting to do a preschool co-op this year, so Cal actually goes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9:15-11:15am. When we first started planning I was worried that maybe this was too much to pack into Cal's week, or maybe I'd just want "down days" to hang out with my little buddy. I also worried about how he'd do with leaving me, but it has seriously been so awesome!! Cal is super social and loves being with friends! And he loves feeling like such a big boy! Seriously, what a treat to get to pack up his back pack and go off to "school" like his sisters!

I taught the first Tuesday (just cause I was worried) and it really couldn't have gone any better. I was so amazed at how well these 2 year olds did during circle time. We sang songs, read stories, identified different letters and numbers, and they all sat there, totally enthralled! There were a couple incidents with Cal not wanting to share his toys, but he's pretty easy to reason with and we quickly got it all worked out. In both groups, the kids are all second, third, or fourth kids so they all know how to clean up really well. All I had to say was, "it's time to clean up" and they all went into action and cleaned the entire room! Awesome! 

Cal's become such a big boy lately! It's killing me how fast he's growing up. He has something to say about everything and our daily conversations constantly have me cracking up. Cal's super obsessed with chewing gum (if he's not eating, drinking, or sucking on his binky, he wants gum in his mouth), and lately he's been having a little too much fun with that gum of his. While we're out running errands he'll tell me to take out my gum. Then he takes out his and has his gum talk to my gum - "Hi gum! How are you gum? I'm a little gum." His gum is usually named penguin though so while holding his gum he'll tell me, "Hi! I'm penguin!"And said in his little munchkin voice always makes it so much cuter!

I actually prefer taking Cal on my errands with me because he's so entertaining. While in the shopping cart, and usually totally out of the blue, he'll say, "I'm cold... hug me, hug me mom!" Then he'll wrap his arms around me and give me giant hugs around my neck while I maneuver our cart around the store, loving every second of it!

He's super quick to say sorry and give hugs and kisses. I've found that certain things get easier to teach with the more kids you have and this is one of them. He's also really great about saying thank you- and for little things. He'll thank me for buckling him in his car seat, for getting him out of his car seat, for getting him a snack, for reading him a story, for getting him out of the bath, and even for changing his diaper. Sometimes it totally takes me by surprise for the little things he'll thank me for. It's a great reminder- to be grateful in all things, especially the little things.

A couple of other things about Calvin I don't want to forget: 

* Whenever I'm changing one of his stinky diapers he always tells me, "Say EW mom, say ewww!" Which I do and then he laughs and laughs and tells me to say ew again.

* He makes really tight fists before he gets ready to run fast.

* Cal loves to sing and always tells me to clap after he finishes his song.

* He's very sensitive and gets spooked really easily. For instance, doesn't like loud scary noises, especially growls - he gets freaked out just looking at the lions in the zoo. The other night he requested I read, "The Scardy Cat" (a Usborne book we'd checked out at the library), and halfway though the book he got really freaked out, started crying, and then didn't want to go to bed. I had to read a dozen or so nursery rhymes before even trying to lay him down again.

* He's very empathetic and if someone gets hurt he's always the first to ask, "are you ok?" Then he makes sure they get a hug. He's such a sweet little guy!

One other funny story . . .
The other night, while Spencer was out of town for work, Cal woke up in the middle of the night. I went in to check on him and he hysterically insisted that we "snuggle in daddy's bed". At 2 am I wasn't gonna go there so I layed him back down and told him it was night time and to go back to sleep. That didn't work, so I found myself back in there 5 minutes later rocking him in his chair. I was exhausted and only lasted maybe 5 minutes before laying him down again. He was quiet for a bit. I think I even escaped into dreamland when all of a sudden Cal starts crying super hard again. Ug! I took my time getting out of bed, trying to listen to see if he was going to calm down. Then all of a sudden, after a really loud cry, he yells out, "Once upon a time there was a little fly... and mommy shooed the fly out of the home." Between cries he keeps repeating the same story, adding more details each time. I got back into bed, totally laughing, and wrote down his awesome story on my phone. I fell asleep listening to him telling stories. What a funny kid!

Elle's Hair

Up until one year ago, Sept 2013, Elle wore her hair down on a regular basis.

Then one day, for some reason, she refused to ever wear it down. Everyday was the same hairstyle - a ponytail with a headband! 

Near the end of the year she started to get a little more adventurous - but it always had to be pulled back and almost always with a headband.

Then right before school started, she agreed to go in for a trim. The trim turned into a cut (her request) . . .

And Elle nows wear her hair down again!! Even though she still always has to have a headband on, I'm thrilled that she lets me flat iron it and will wear it down! Sure love my stubborn little girl and her cute new hairdo!