Happy Birthday to our adventurous Everett! Here's his birth story: I have to admit, after four boys, I was a little disappointed to find out that my 5th baby was going to be a boy but I got over it pretty quickly. People in Maryland where we lived thought we were trying for the girl when they saw our boys and me pregnant. But I wanted a large family so I knew this was not going to be the end.  Our exactly middle child, Everett fit in well with his older brothers and worked hard to keep up with them. And tortured his little sisters with teasing. Such a classic Everett expression even as a baby Everett was due on July 5th but on June 30 I was dilated to 5cm at my doctor appointment. The doctor encouraged me to come in right away if anything started. After my miserable experience with Lincoln, I had changed doctors and had a much smaller practice at a closer hospital. It was a much better experience.  At midnight that night, I began having somewhat regular contractions. At ...

Happy Birthday to our cute Talmage! Talmage was my only baby where my labor was induced and the only one not born in the middle of the night. Here's the story: A few weeks before Talmage was born, people liked to tell me how big I was looking. I was in a craft store, and a woman called to me from about 30 feet away, saying, "You poor woman! Are you having triplets?!!!" It took me a second to realize she was talking to me. About that same time, I had to go in for jury duty. But it didn't take them long to excuse me since they really didn't want me going into labor during the trial.  Talmage was due on June 18 but wasn't born that day. The next day, I had a doctor appointment where the doctor decreed me ready to deliver. He suggested that since my previous delivery with Susanna was so intense and fast that the doctor completely missed it and I had no opportunities for pain relief, maybe we should do an induction. I agreed and they told me to go to the hospital i...

 Scott's mother died on May 30th after a short bout with an aggressive cancer. Her funeral was this last week up in Salt Lake City in the church that she attended. It was a nice funeral followed by her burial in Elysian Burial Gardens.  I entertained Max during the funeral with my phone. Max is fun because he likes to sit on my lap and hang out with me. In the viewing room with Scott's Aunt DeEtta and cousin Lesley. Mindy was wearing her post-surgery contraption Each of the four children spoke and did a good job. Scott told some good stories about his mother; I'll include a transcript of his talk for future reference. I got to play a duet of How Great Thou Art with my sister-in-law Michelle who was nice enough to drive up for it on a very busy day; my mother accompanied on the piano. My sons Everett and Lincoln played the organ with others praying and being pallbearers. Most of the grandchildren attended with just a few missing. I was grateful all my children attended excep...

When I was growing up, we didn't really have traditions for Memorial Day that I remember. When we lived in Indiana, the ward had a picnic that day and I remember that happening in Wisconsin too. Maybe in Maryland as well. But in Utah, we didn't do much. Then in May, 1994, my first grandparent died, William Hansen. Scott and I lived in Wisconsin at the time but at that point my parents and siblings started visiting the Provo Cemetery where he was buried. Sometime later, my father discovered that my 2nd great-grandfather was also buried there.  When Scott and I moved to Utah in 1998, we started going to the cemetery too. We would see my grandfather's grave and then go see the other one for Peter Hansen and his wife. Then later, my sister-in-law Alice, my uncle and grandmother were all buried there. So we would visit all those graves and leave flowers. One of my favorite memories was when we visited the grave for Peter Hansen and Lincoln, age 6 or 7, noticed a stone that said ...