Names......

We had a baby girl blessed today in our Ward. As her Father held her and she was surrounded by the Priesthood holders in her family I felt the love of her family for her and each other. I was reminded of a talk I listened to at BYU Women's Conference a few weeks ago. I don't remember all the details of the talk or the name of the speaker, but I do remember he talked about the names we would be known by. Our given name, a nickname, changing names, spiritual names etc. And he spoke of this love by which we are surrounded as we are part of a family, and how names are chosen in love etc. I thought about the names we chose and blessed our children with.


First Lesley Ann. I met a family by the name of Ryder who had a little girl by the name of Lesley. I really liked the name and decided my first girl would be Lesley. We then added the Ann so people would know they were dealing with a girl and in honour of your Grandma Elizabeth Ann Blakeley Marsden.






Then Archie. You were named after your Grandfather Archie Marsden. I never met him but your Dad always spoke of him with love and respect. He was a hard worker, had a good singing voice and played a musical instrument in a brass band.




Then came Timothy.

We considered many names and discarded some because of the people we knew with that name, some we discarded because they didn't feel right, we considered biblical names and liked the name of Timothy.





Then Alan, our First Born in the Wilderness. It was a foregone conclusion to name him Alan, I wanted a boy named after his Dad. We have had some laughs about this as we tried to identify which Alan. Senior or Junior? He is a Sophomore. Which one? the one who plays soccer, they both played soccer. The one involved with music, they both were. But we managed it.





Then Lilian, another girl. She was named after my Mother Lily Ann Mullen Ditty. Through the years she became know as Lilian. She was a hard worker and a visionary women, she wanted her family to come live in America. I'm sure she is very happy as she contemplates the realization of this dream and watches her posterity.



David our last born.
We had considered this name several times with previous children but this time it was appropiate. I always felt it was necessary to have a name for the baby before it was born. We are pleased with the names we chose and love the children for who they are.

On the Road Again.........

We don't need much of an excuse to go visit "our Kids" in Rocklin so when Christopher Ditty sent us an invite to his wedding we were on our way :o).


We took a detour just before Wendover to visit one of those places where we always say, "one of these days....." this was the day.


BIG DEAL!!!! but at least we went.

When you are the only car on the road it is a good bet you are in Nevada...and we were. A beautiful day!!!!!


Isn't it great to see the Reno Temple in the middle of the mountains.


A brother was with his sister.


And a sister got to be with her brother


And we all got to be with another brother's family

Here is Lilian with her daughter Erin and Brooke's two daughters



After spending the weekend with Alan and his family we "got" to take Tara to school in San Francisco, an unexpected bonus was to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge.


Then on to Pacific Grove.


The ocean was "wild" and we loved every minute.




We watched this Giant Egret (so we were told) hunt for Lizards for his lunch. As you can see he was successful. Poor Lizard.


Goodnight Sun, say hello to Elder Nielsen in Cambodia for us.....


Then time to go home...California was green in the Spring rains


2000 miles...we were tired....thinking twice about another "road trip" but after a few nights sleeping in my own bed aaahhh!!! we'll see...

Maybe Oregon?

Adventures await.......
"can't wait to get on that road again...."

The Titanic

This month is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
It was built in Belfast and my Grandfather Henry (Harry) Mullen who was a blacksmith helped build it. This is my Grandfather with his daughter Agnes.



He was my mother's father and my mother (Lilian Mullen) watched the ship launched. She was only 6 years old but she was there. :o)



Apparently the shipyard workers on hearing of the sinking said, "she was alright when she left here".

In 1962 when we were planning on coming to America, I knew I would be travelling with 3 children as it was the plan for Alan to come first and get a job etc. I was planning to come by boat but..... 1962 was the 50th anniversary of the sinking and there was a program on the radio about it and I thought, "I can't go by boat!!! suppose something happens?



I have two hands and three children.... so it was settled, we came by plane, which is another whole story.

More Old Pictures

This was at 123 in 1959 I am pregnant with Archie



Uncle Joe's new house



This The Place Monument. Evidently Lilian is the baby.



Do you remember this day? On top of Francis Peak



Our first trip to Zion 1971, I was pregnant with David





I think this was 1972 Remember Sacrament Meeting?



I think this was 1973 but Lesley will remember



David's Blessing Day



Memories. I will have more pictures.

ZION........

We just got back from two days in Zion. I didn't want to leave. We love Zion.

I love Zion in The Springtime



I love Zion in the Fall

I love Zion in the Winter when it drizzles


I love Zion in the Summer when it sizzles

Why do I love Zion?
Because my love is here :o)


And a few other reasons....

We went into the Park in the evening and had spectacular views of the nighttime sky...which included, the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter


The Watchman at sunset. A different angle but the Watchman nevertheless

New Old Pictures :o)

This is me with Michael Ditty in 123 Orby Road. This is the dress I was married in. Not the sweater.


This was also in 123, taken on your Dad's 20th birthday. He was just home from Egypt


I love this dress, I made it for you.


This is a treasure, I haven't seen it before. This was taken at 807 Kensington.


This evidently was a later date look at his mouth full of teeth :o)


This is also I picture I have never seen :o)


Hooray for other people's cameras. :o)

Beauty and the Beast

I have posted before about the Drama dept. at Bountiful High School and what a GREAT job they do. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and this past 2 weeks again they proved their ability. Especially when my favorite Chelsea and favorite Derek are in the production. IN THE PRODUCTION? they MADE the production!!!!!!


Chelsea was cast as Belle and there isn't a better.
She was beautiful and her voice was outstanding.



Her biggest fan club were these beautiful women. We only have beautiful women in our family

Interestingly, Derek had the same strong fan club :o)



What a grand job he did as LeFou. He took a lot of "abuse" from Gaston but was resilient. And when he jumped 6 feet of the stage and kept on running to get away during the village mob scene I was impressed to say the least.



what handsome men to go along with the beautiful women.

This was the best cheering section we could muster on Saturday night. But on Monday night there was over 50 family members to enjoy the show, including Christine's sister and brother-in-law who came all the way from Michigan. I asked Chris how she was able to reserve so many seats, the teacher said she could if she would guarantee a receptive audience. US?????



We look forward to more shows.