March 13th, 50 Years and Counting.

Hoje Eu e o Justino (13/03) completamos 50 anos de Batismo.Somos gratos a vocês por terem
Nos ensinado sobre o Verdadeiro Evangelho e assim pudemos criar nossos filhos dentro de Princípios
Corretos.Nos temos sido muito abençoados.Com todo carinho .Suelena e Justino.

Suelena e Justino,
[Today (3/13) has been for Justino and I 50 years since our baptism.  We are grateful to both of you for having taught us about the true gospel and thus we could raise our children in the correct principles.  We have been very blessed.  With all our carinho, Suelena and Justino.)]

Seus batismos foram para nos un dia maravilhosa  tambem.  Foi un trabalha de muitos--missionarias, Presidente Saul, membros do ramo e especialmente voces.  E mais importante e que voces e tudo de seu familia estao muitos e firme no evangelho restorado.  Os numeros de missionarios seus estao crecendo e o servicio de todos e grande.  Agora Mauricio e Claudia vao servir e dirigir a missao tambem com muitos missionarios como nos.  Este e un ano maravilhosa para todos, 50 anos.  Sou  muito agradecido a Nossa Pai e Jesus Cristo para estes bencaoes muitos. 

Mando meu amor a todos voces,

Mary Etta

[Your baptism day was a marvelous day for us also.  It was an effort of many--missionaries, President Saul [branch president and former Methodist minister], branch members and especially both of you.  It is even more important that you and your family are many and firm in the restored gospel.  The many missionaries you are raising and all your service is great.  Now Maruicio [their son who wrote to me last year] and Claudia [ his wife] will serve and direct a mission also with many missionaries like us.  This is a wonderful year for us also, 50 years.  We are very grateful to Our Father and Jesus Christ for these many blessings.]

With much love to all,
Mary Etta

Their Posterity

Gonzaga Family ca. 2007

Monica, Mauricia, Justino, Suelena, Mauricio, Marcia, the baby when we met them.

Elder Gonzaga currently serving in Brazil.

Sister Gonzaga currently serving in Brazil.

Luigi Gonzaga, youngest son of Mauricio and Claudia, on splits with the Elders.

Suelena, Kath, ME, Kaue (graduating summer 2011 LDS Business College at 19 waiting for his call) Maricia, mom of Kath and Kaue.

Justino, Suelena, ME, summer 2010 in South Jordan, UT

The youngest Gonzaga descendant, 12 days old, the 25th member of their family. Summer 2010.  Maricia's 5th child.

Mauricio G. and Claudia S. Gonzaga
Maurício da Glória Gonzaga, 47, and Claudia Sceppa Gonzaga, three children, Centro Cívico Ward, Maringá Brazil Stake. Brother Gonzaga serves as a counselor in the Brazil Londrina Mission and is a former stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, bishop and missionary in the Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission. Partner, Colline Import & Export. Born in Santos, Brazil, to Justiniano de Freitas and Suelena da Glória Gonzaga.
Sister Gonzaga serves as a ward Relief Society president and is a former stake Relief Society president, counselor in a stake Young Women presidency, ward Primary teacher and seminary and institute teacher. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Rodames and Nair Rodrigues Sceppa.
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60453/New-mission-presidents.html

. . . am I weeping?  Yes.  Never did I imagine our small service in the early months of my mission could mean so much to so many.   

Norma Mills Shiner was one terrific missionary and I was fortunate to be her companion. 

50 Years!

Hello, little brother, Quincy.

Quincy is little in only once sense of the word, third child of three.

P.D. Eastman's "Flap Your Wings" was the book I took to Alice and Myra.  Great wisdom in that book.  "He's in our nest . . . He's our bird," the parents feed the growing alligator.   I love that truism for all children and parents. 

Monkeys seem to be the motif given to this very good natured baby.  Monkeys on shirts, onesies, blankets, etc.  His Chris' stuffed animal I brought is the gray monkey holding a baby monkey she had been given by Grandma Gravy (Diane Colston) years ago. 

Myra holding Bruce's Panda made by Nao when he was a baby.

Alice's tutu from GramME. 

Alice in her trademark purple.

Some favorite past times of the days.

Everyone loves Quincy.

Alice is reading really well in kindergarten.

Alice first holding Quincy.

Mr, Mrs Cardinal showed up in their front yard holly bush.

On a family walk we discovered a trail through a neighborhood woods.  What a delight to find not just one golf ball but many along the path.  I love finding balls Dad used to love finding with the children on the Sourdough Trail.  Its always like a sweet omen.  We find them in the most unusual places.

My favorite end of each day.

Totter's Otterville is about five minutes from the house.  Their membership gives a great place to go a nearby outing with the girls.  Lots of fun stuff outside for warmer weather to come.  Our second time we went with Alice and found some ward friends to play with.  Lots of fun.

Lego mummy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make up dream station. 

Clown?

Sweetheart.

This conveyor belt station was a favorite.  Bruce and I filled in as assistants.  As other children joined in, we dropped out.  It was really great to see children, strangers to one another,  filling in where they saw a need.

Shopping favorite.

Alice, Ezra and Myra window sitting.

These kids had a great time playing for about an hour with animal figures in parade, animal figures in houses, animal figures . . . .  Ezra's little sister played the whole time at a little tree house.  I love this photo of Myra in a movement reminiscent of Chris.

Annika

Family photo minus Faith.  Faith had some welcomed recovery and rest time.

My last minutes holding Quincy.  What a darling boy.

Always nice to have a friend. 

A visual that says much.  Tanner, 4-days younger, at the left is a little smaller than my babies.  

Quincy is one big boy! 

The perfect mild third . . . at least for now.

Zella's 7th Wing Ding Birthday

Some birthdays the closest I can get is a delightful phone call.  This was the case with Zella's.  As she told me of her wonderful birthday gift of a ball that she could climb inside and roll around the yard, it all sounded very exciting.  I could not imagine, even with the description of inflating it.  Here it is,  . . .

Doesn't this look fun!

The pictures Heather sent makes me feel like I got to be there with all the fun.  Their neighbor is a graphic artist and provides them with a lot of craft material.  Kids sure love boxes, don't they.

Look who took my place at the table.

Zella is super creative.

Wish I could figure out how to turn this on the blog. 

A very Happy Birthday to Zella!

Fancy Apron

Look what came in the mail from Oakridge the other day.  

All three girls worked on it.

This photo was an advanced teaser of the production line. 

 I've been wearing it every day thinking of my Granny and her daily apron covering her dress.  No wonder she didn't have stains on her clothes.

 

 

If you had a closer look you'd see that the sewing is really, really well done.  The bodice part is double.  The white is rickrack that I never see any more but reminiscent of my childhood.  Thanks to Photo Booth I didn't need to wait for someone to come and take a photo.

Thank you, thank you.

Hardware Ranch in January

Four years in Smithfield years ago but never a ride in a Hardware Ranch sleigh to see the elk.  At last a chance when the Wilson family offered me a seat in their van for their visit to the ranch.  Happy there was enough snow for the sleighs. 

The sleighs drive along a predictable route and the animals aren't spooked.  If there was any deviation or someone hopping out for a better shot they'd likely run off and not come back for dinner for a few days.  Remember when we had about 150-200 hanging out in Graf's hay fields below Henry's one winter.

Hopefully this guy will get a full rack next year. 

This one would have been the size of Dad's.

Loading up the passengers.

Sleigh heading out to the herd of 450 elk.

These wild turkeys are a sampling of what we saw at the side of the road some miles from the ranch.

Thanks to J/ER and boys for the fun day.

A Fav GramME Sunday Afternoon

Skype-camming  is one of my favorite Sunday afternoon pasttimes. 

It started with David, Hannah and Harriet in Minnetonka.  I've had a couple with the Mapleton grans and also with the little girls and their daddy in Taylor Mill.  With Griffin I've enjoyed Club Penguin.  He's been patient coaching me along and letting me know when good stuff is available.  I think he's left that behind now for his Lego online fun.

After Dad those of us left at home had typical Sunday afternoons of board games.  That was the best I could do to still have fun with Dad gone.  What will I do when all the grans have grown out of such things.  Maybe by that time I'll really be old and dottery unable to manage the technology of the day.  Until then here are a few pics from past Sundays . . .

2010

Somehow the photos with David haven't survived.

January 2011

I was delighted that the girls liked hearing a couple of stories President Suhaka had told us at stake conference.  A special thanks to Harriet, David and Hannah for apple/shift/3 the code to take online photos. 

Don't you love Alice's braids and their great expressions and their darling gator jumpers from Aunt Polly.  Looking forward to seeing the wee laddie in his gator suit. 

Sampling of 2010 dumb'n around photos I found from some more "super dumbers".

 . . . ala Salvador Dali I'm thinking.

Often after the grans leave my house I've found little gray plastic soldiers in the oddest places or dog chews hidden in chairs, under bed pillows.  Such finds always tickle my funny bone as a reminder of their visits.  These from CPT and GPT weren't found till months later as I've been looking for ways to unload the too many photo files that slowed my computer this month.  Finding all the Hunter cousins and their photos have really added to the drag.  Hopefully I'll soon have last year's photos archived and some printed for my 2010 album.  Until then its a lot of fun and a bit distracting as is evidenced by this blog entry.  Its also diverting as we wait to hear of Aunt Jan's PET results from today.

Cheerio, the noo.

GramME