RICHARD & LOUISE - Along with the birth of little Gwen Garner, and the baptism of George Lamb, one of the highlights of 2011 for us was our family trip to Nauvoo. It is something we have dreamed of for years, and the reality of which far surpassed all we had imagined. As we walked the streets of Nauvoo we couldn’t help thinking of those early saints, and especially our ancestors who long ago walked those same streets in faith, served valiantly, and from which they were expelled for the sake of their testimonies and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Among those ancestors were Charles Taysom, James McBride and Ira Nathaniel Hinckley on my side; and Lorenzo Brown, Francis Crosby, and Jesse Wentworth Crosby on Richard’s side.
President Gordon B. Hinckley once said: “It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. Their tremendous example can become a compelling motivation for us all, for each of us is a pioneer in his own life.”
May we always remember and honor the lives of these beloved ancestors, by emulating their examples of righteous commitment to the Gospel for which they sacrificed so much. And as we do so, perhaps future generations will wish to walk in our footsteps.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
– From Longfellow’s Psalm of Life
Among the highlights of that trip were being present to watch our men folk baptize, and confirm our 4 oldest grandchildren for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple and later being able to stand in the Celestial room with our children and their spouses.
On the home front–Richard and I continue to serve as ordinance workers in the St. George Temple, teach Marriage & Family Relations in the ward, and have also been called to teach Temple Preparation classes. Had the economy not tanked a few years back, I think Richard would have been retired by now, but he keeps hanging on valiantly....while I on the other hand thoroughly enjoy being an at home grandma and having the freedom to pursue my art interests.
RACHEL & RICH GARNER - Change is the word for the Garner family in 2011. Miles turned 2 at the end of January (and will be 3 by the time you are reading this) and we celebrated by having a car birthday party. We purchased our first vehicle, a used 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, and are still twitching from having to write the biggest check of our married lives thus far. The best part of this year was welcoming Gwendalyn Louise Garner on March 22. She weighed in at 9 lbs and 3 oz and 21 inches long. She is joy personified and has made our lives richer than we thought possible. It’s wonderful to learn that your heart can hold infinitely more love than you imagined. About 2 weeks after she was born, we were kindly kicked out of our apartment at the storage units and we found an apartment back in Rexburg across the street from a park, which we love (aside from paying rent again). We spent a lot of time outside this summer trying to soak up all the sun Rexburg could give. We especially spent a lot of time in our garden and got a lot of yummy food to put up, both from our efforts and from kind neighbors with too much fruit! We got to vacation with the Crosby side in Nauvoo Illinois which was a huge highlight. We took a major leap of faith when Richie quit his job working construction supply and started his seminary student teaching. It’s been going great so far and Richie is in love with teaching, we just hope we get a full time job out of it. We’ll most likely know in April if we’ll be hired. We potty trained Miles which proved more intense than we thought. He’s doing great now, but I’m pretty sure I’d rather go through labor again before I’d choose to potty train another child. Ugh. Miles also started Joy school and has been enjoying that. Gwen is cruising right along and growing up WAY too fast. We’re hoping that 2012 will be a little less busy, but just as happy. Love to all!
ADRIENNE & CHRIS LAMB – 2011 has been a good and busy year for the Lamb family of St. George.
Chris continues his work managing a sleep lab for a local doctor and working at the hospital on a weekly basis. He spends his nights and weekends working on his Masters in Nurse Management. He will be done with that in March of this year and we are all looking forward to that accomplishment!
Adrienne continues her work with the kids at home. Other than taking care of home and kids she enjoys going to the gym each morning and reading. One of her new favorite authors is Georgette Heyer.
George’s major milestone this year was his eighth birthday and baptism! It was wonderful to see him take that step and share it with the family that could be here with us. He is in 3rd grade. He loves video games and bey blades. He continues to learn the guitar and has enjoyed being on both baseball and basketball teams.
Paris is our 1st grader. He is six and is growing like crazy. This past year he started piano lessons and is enjoying that. He also had fun in sports both in basketball and soccer. He loves to play with his friends especially with his bey blades.
Erma is 4 years old and into everything girly you can imagine. She loves dress ups and now barbies. This past year she began preschool and enjoys that. Some of her accomplishments include pumping herself on the swings, riding her bike without training wheels and loving, helping and driving her brothers crazy.
John is 2 years old... need I say more? He is a fun, energetic and competitive little boy. He loves balls and has recently developed a passion for the Cars movies.
A highlight of this year was a trip with the whole Crosby family to Nauvoo. It was a long trip in the car with 4 little ones, but it was an adventure that we will never forget! Chris and Adrienne also had fun making a quick trip to SLC to see our Hinckley Aunts, Uncles and Cousins - thank you to the Cannon Family - It was awesome! We look forward to 2012 and all the adventures it will bring especially that of the arrival of our 5th baby in July!
BEN & BECCA CROSBY - The Ames, Iowa Crosbys. We have had a productive year, but, thankfully, not as chaotic as years past. Perhaps the biggest news is that we are expecting our fourth baby. We are especially excited this time, because we plan for this one to be our last. So we are trying to enjoy the process more. We won’t learn for another few weeks whether it is a boy or a girl.
Ben is plugging away at a job he loves. Being a professor is everything he hoped it would be. This semester is his busiest for a number of reasons, but mainly because he is in charge of the 700-student introductory course in the speech program. He enjoys it immensely, but he looks forward to a quieter schedule beginning next year. He is still the Teachers Quorum adviser in the ward.
Becca is about to complete her first year as an officially employed RN at the hospital here in Ames. She works on the cardiac floor, dealing with patients who are usually aged and often the victims of bad habits: smoking, bad diet, etc. Now that she has some real-life experience in the field, she is more confident and able to enjoy her work. She only works about two nights per week, so she is grateful that nearly all of her time remains at home where she can enjoy the kids and her rediscovered love for the piano - an instrument we finally bought after years of waiting. She serves as the enrichment coordinator in Relief Society.
Isabel, our 9-year old and third grader, is an tremendous resource to her parents and a voracious reader. We love to watch her devour books. She has also made huge improvements this year in math. After helping her through violin lessons a couple of years ago, we worried when she expressed interest in playing the piano. We thought it would bring more massive battles and floods of tears, but Izzy has taken to it with relative ease and open enjoyment.
Theodore is 5 and will start kindergarten in the fall. He has become enormously competitive, a development we both welcome and resist. He is taking to sports, so we look forward to enrolling him in some official league sports soon. In the meantime, he plays in the backyard with Dad. He is learning to read, and he loves school. We hope it lasts. Overall, we are grateful for Theo, because he is such a good, even mannered kid. He really makes life at home more fun and relaxed for us.
Adeline is approaching 2. This year, she finally decided to walk, and now of course she is climbing up onto everything and everyone. Her job, as she sees it, is to spread noise, mess, and stink - and to look good doing it. But overall she remains such a patient and easy kid (knock on wood). She has developed close relationships with her two siblings, and we love to watch them spend time together.
RUSS & NATALIE CROSBY - I recently turned 38. I am going gray much too quickly. While life is incredibly stressful, I am grateful to be experiencing it. Natalie is 34 and is aging much more gracefully. Her stress comes from a different source; 4 daughters and Josephine is the cherry on top. Jo is 2 years old and is our toughest child by far. It’s no contest. When happy, she is much too cute. I adore her big brown eyes and the imperfect ‘perfect’ gap in her two front teeth. Tess is 5. She is our comedic relief. She is overly emotional, dramatic enough for Hollywood, fiercely protective of her sisters, hates meat, loves animals, future PETA president and cheetah enthusiast. Liesl Jayne is 7 and will be baptized in May! While she has a pension to tease Tess incessantly, she adores her role as big sister and trailblazer. She loves learning how to read and how to play piano then teach her siblings by first ‘showing off’. Truth be told, Liesl is her Dad’s daughter! Zadibug is our oldest at 14...soon to be 15. No, she is not perfect. But, I feel the Lord blessed us with her first to ease us into parenting. Zadi has been given some amazing traits such as patience, love for others, quickness in forgiving, joy in serving, authenticity and testimony of the Savior just to name a few. To her credit, she is cultivating those gifts now. She recently obtained her patriarchal blessing.
Our life revolves around raising this family in turbulent times. It is not easy. We’ve taken refuge in Logandale and have been here for 6 years. We would be fortunate to raise each child here...then move away to a bigger community.
I find employment at Sunwarrior as C.O.O. I work long days then usually give another hour or so to my calling in the bishopric. I thank the heavens for my wonderful wife Natalie who does so much for our family and home. She is our cornerstone.
JENNIFER & MIKE WALLACE - This has been a memorable year in many ways. Moments after Taysom’s high school graduation, the tornado sirens went off. Although there was a little rain and humidity, it didn’t seem like anything serious. The sirens didn’t stay on for long, but as soon as we found Taysom among the masses of high school graduates, we quickly found our cars and headed home. The weather changed dramatically on our short 8 mile ride home. As we pulled into our driveway the sirens were going off again, but this time the wind was whipping, the sky was eerily dark- and rain and hail were pounding the ground. It would be over an hour before finding out that an EF-5 tornado had destroyed 1/3 of Joplin.
Summer came early and was filled with many service projects. Our stake decided to press forward with the Nauvoo youth conference, and we did manage a quick trip to Nauvoo for the Crosby family reunion and loved every minute of it. Taysom and Tucker went and stayed in Iowa (with Ben and Becca) and pollinated corn - first official job for both of them.
Mike and Ilah go to school in a warehouse. Mike is still teaching 8th grade science and coaching 7th/8th football and 7th grade girls basketball and 7th grade boys basketball. Ilah was on his team this year and is now the manager for the boys team. Mike has her practice with the boys team since he needs some extra people. She is a tall, beautiful, athletic young lady. Oh, and she got her braces off! After participating in the musical ‘Annie’ last year, she is looking forward to trying out for East’s school play, ‘Cinderella’ this week.
Tucker goes to school at the mall in the old ShopKo building. He continues to play football and basketball. His football team got to play at Arrowhead Stadium and was featured on ESPN. They didn’t have that great of a season so we’re counting on basketball. He is currently working on his Eagle project which he is doing in conjunction with a service trip he is taking through HEFY to Tonga. He is also serving as VP for his seminary. He keeps all of us laughing and knows how to enjoy life.
Henry is now in middle school - which he loves. He participated in several clubs before trying out for the school play, “Into the Woods”. He is Rupunzel’s prince and gets to sing “Agony”. He has taken over Tucker’s trumpet and is enjoying beginning band.
Taysom finally earned her Young Womanhood Medallion. She spent the fall semester here in Joplin working full time at Chick-Fil-A, teaching the 7 year old primary class, and spending lots of time with her YSA group. She even got to go to Kansas City a few times for some swing dancing weekends. She is now at BYU Idaho and was called as the gospel doctrine teacher. I can hardly believe that we have one in college. I am so thankful that Rachel and Richie are in Rexburg! I don’t know what I would have done without Sara and Aunt Jessie and Uncle Don my one year at BYU.
