Monday, September 7, 2009
August 2009
The month started off great because on August 1st we had a birthday party for my mom. We wanted to wait until John came home to have it. It coincided with our Harry Potter party. We all went to see Harry Potter and then had a feast. This is something we have done for the past 3 or 4 Harry Potter movies. I think it was mom's idea to begin with, an it's what she would have wanted. Jenny made a beautiful cake with yellow roses. I think I mentioned last month that Brian got called to the young men's presidency and is also Kalynn's soccer coach. So, his plate went from full to fuller. He has enjoyed both things very much. He went on a scout camp the third weekend on August and so far, the Kalynn's team is undefeated. Brian also spent a week in California for his work. Wendy and I taught an enrichment on canning, which went pretty good. We had the Brown reunion, which was really fun. John's homecoming was on the 16th and it was SO good. It was fun to share the day with the Hancock's as they got ready to leave on their mission. Kalynn took a dance/gymnastics over the summer that finished up in August. Right before school started, she got to spend the weekend with her Grandma Allen, which she loved. She started first grade on the 24th and is adjusting okay. She is not happy about not being in the same school as Matthias, but she seems to like her teachers. The French class is already being taught entirely in French and she is coming home learning new words. I spent a day with my cousin Michelle at Thanksgiving point and another day with my cousin Chantel hanging out with her and her twins. Peter's speech is really improving, he almost always formulates words now. He loves to play outside, take off his shoes and leave them somewhere. He (along with Elyse) are really into watching Finding Nemo right now. Elyse is is also learning words at a rapid rate. Unlike Peter, she loves her shoes and is always bringing my piano students their shoes that they have taken off and left at the door. I think that sums up our month. We hope you have all enjoyed the end of your summer vacation and are adjusting to the new school year.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
July News
Once again, summer is slipping by and July is already over. We started out the month with a fun Sagers' cousins party that my family was in charge of. Fortunately, it wasn't too much work, because my cousin offered to let us have it at her house where we could swim, ride horses, play basketball and other fun things. We did come up with a fun family trivia game that everyone enjoyed. Team Kathryn took home 1st place and Team Norene victoriously scored last place - maybe if Mom were playing along, we could done a little better. It was a lot of fun though. The fourth of July brought Brian's first flag raising on the new pole he got up just in time for the the ward breakfast. It looks fabulous and since the light is not installed yet, he faithfully puts it up and takes it down nearly every day. During July, I took Peter in to get some testing for his speech. While he has improved much over the last few months, he still qualifies for the free preschool in our school district. As a part of this program, he will be able to work with a speech pathologist and a special needs therapist which I'm sure will help to improve some of the areas that he is struggling with. Along that same note, Kalynn will be starting at a new school this year. They are starting a dual language immersion program in our district and there is a French immersion program at a school very near our house. They are only accepting first graders into this program, so we feel lucky that she is able to be a part of this. Half of her day will be taught in English and the other half (math and other subjects) will be taught in French. The idea is to continue this kind of education throughout the entire grade school years and by the time they are in middle school, they are ready to take the AP French test and are ready to take a 3rd language in high school. I guess we'll see how it goes, but Kalynn is excited to start. July 9-11 we went camping up in the Uintahs. We took my parent's trailer and Kyle along with us. We had a lot of fun and Brian and Kyle each caught a couple of fish that we enjoyed eating. On July 13-14, I took my cub scouts to Cub Country which brought back a lot of great memories (as that was the place I met and got to know Brian). The last week of July I was able to help with the band during their music camp. It's always great to use those skills I obtained in college. On the 27th (My mom's birthday) I got to spend the day with two of her sisters and their children at Seven Peaks Water Park. My kids had a great time and Kyle got roasted because he thought that putting sunscreen on the night before would be better as it would have time to soak into the skin. (I just had to put that in there, because it's so funny!) The best thing of the month was that Johnny came home on the 28th. It think it took him about 10 minutes to adjust to normal life. The next day (or maybe even that night) he was texting away and going on dates and such. After the airport, my dad treated us all to a great lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. It is great to have John back, I remember the void in our family that was there after he left. Now, that he is back, I find myself thinking, "I forgot how funny John was!" Everything that comes out of his mouth makes me laugh. On the 31st, I went to Logan (along with others) to help Jenny move (thanks to Aunt Carolyn for watching my kids that day and many other days as well). And on August 1st, we had a birthday part of my mom. As part of that, we went and saw the new Harry Potter and for dinner we had a Harry Potter feast. Jenny made a beautiful cake for my mom. It is exactly the kind of party that my mom would have enjoyed. The following day, Brian got called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Men's Presidency. I think he is excited about it. Brian has also been running faithfully every day, I'm not sure what is motivating him, because I sure can't find anything to motivate me, but he is doing great. I hope you all are doing well and enjoy your last few weeks of summer.
Friday, July 17, 2009
June News
June started out with Elyse having a small surgery.
She has had a clogged tear duct ever since she was
born. Often they clear up on their own, but it didn't.
We tried eye drops and took her to an eye doctor who
tried to clear out her tear duct with a probe. They had
to strap her to a papoose looking thing which she did
not like very well. Unfortunately, that didn't clear it up
either, so we took her to Primary Children's where they
probed her tear duct under general anesthesia. They
also placed a stunt in her tear duct which will remain
there for a few more weeks. Hopefully, after that is
removed, the tear duct will remain unclogged and we
won't have any more problems.
On June 8, our family was able to tour the Oquirrh
Mountain Temple. Since this temple is in our district,
Brian and I have also had the opportunity to volunteer
a few times during June. It has been a great
experience. It has been so neat to take our kids to two
different temples in the same year.
Brian and I were also able to help out with an awards
banquet that his work puts on. It's a pretty high end
affair, called the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the
Year Award and applicants come from all over Utah
and Idaho. It was fun to be there and dress up and eat
really good food.
Emma's blessing was on the 14th, which was
wonderful. It's always difficult to get through special
family events without my mom there, but I'm confident
she was there in spirit. Brian had a family reunion on
the 15th. The kids had swimming lessons, which they
really enjoyed. We took a trip to Tracy Aviary with
Michelle's family. Finally, we celebrated our 8th
anniversary by going to Park City for a night while the
children stayed with Grandma Allen. It was very
relaxing and a needed break and I always enjoy our
trips to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory while
we are there.
She has had a clogged tear duct ever since she was
born. Often they clear up on their own, but it didn't.
We tried eye drops and took her to an eye doctor who
tried to clear out her tear duct with a probe. They had
to strap her to a papoose looking thing which she did
not like very well. Unfortunately, that didn't clear it up
either, so we took her to Primary Children's where they
probed her tear duct under general anesthesia. They
also placed a stunt in her tear duct which will remain
there for a few more weeks. Hopefully, after that is
removed, the tear duct will remain unclogged and we
won't have any more problems.
On June 8, our family was able to tour the Oquirrh
Mountain Temple. Since this temple is in our district,
Brian and I have also had the opportunity to volunteer
a few times during June. It has been a great
experience. It has been so neat to take our kids to two
different temples in the same year.
Brian and I were also able to help out with an awards
banquet that his work puts on. It's a pretty high end
affair, called the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the
Year Award and applicants come from all over Utah
and Idaho. It was fun to be there and dress up and eat
really good food.
Emma's blessing was on the 14th, which was
wonderful. It's always difficult to get through special
family events without my mom there, but I'm confident
she was there in spirit. Brian had a family reunion on
the 15th. The kids had swimming lessons, which they
really enjoyed. We took a trip to Tracy Aviary with
Michelle's family. Finally, we celebrated our 8th
anniversary by going to Park City for a night while the
children stayed with Grandma Allen. It was very
relaxing and a needed break and I always enjoy our
trips to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory while
we are there.
May News
The following information is the family newsletter for
the Allen Family. This newsletter is based on actual
historical events.
Last month seemed really busy for us. I suppose part
of that has to do with the fact that we had a lot of things
to do. The other part of it is probably that the days are
now shorter due to the upcoming apocalypse.
Kalynn completed her spring soccer games. She was
extremely awesome. So much so that at the last game
she received a trophy indicating that she was the
“MVP”. I think her MVP status was cemented when
she learned how to slide tackle. Slide tackling is
generally not allowed at her level of soccer – but they
made an exception for Kalynn because she was so
good at it. She could literally take-out two or three
players on the opposing team when she would slide in
for the ball – not to mention a couple of player’s on her
own team.
Peter finished up his preschool classes during the
month. I think the reason he finished is that Kara and
Wendy decided they were tired of doing preschool. I
would therefore call his first year of preschool a
success.
Our other daughter, Elyse (she’s the short one), is
learning how to communicate. In fact she has
developed an extensive vocabulary and the two of us
enjoy taking long walks around our circle and
discussing deep philosophical issues. She is also in a
very inquisitive stage of her life. She spends most of
her time trying to figure out what is in each of the
cupboards, cabinets, dressers, etc. in our house.
Luckily she has figured out how to open everything and
she loves to take everything out and examine the
contents.
Our family did a lot of fun stuff this month. Some of the
highlights were going to Kyle’s concert (they had
cookies), attending Brian’s band banquet
(cheesecake), celebrating Adalyn’s birthday (cake),
helping with Brian’s Eagle-project dinner (brownies,
cake, ice-cream). Kara and I also helped out with the
new Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house
(sandwiches and various desserts). I should make a
note that we were not supposed to partake of the
refreshments since we were just the hired help and not
dignitaries – however, I convinced Kara that we should
do it anyway. On a related note – we both have
disciplinary hearings next week. We also spent some
time up at a Cabin near Heber City (I ate a huge bag of
peanut M&Ms I found up there which Kara said had
gone rancid).
We also celebrated my 30th birthday this past month.
I’m sure to some of you that sounds really, really old. It
sure sounds old to me. I was even reminded of how
old I was on my birthday because I sprained my ankle
playing soccer and couldn’t walk for a week. Although,
I’m also sure there’s many of you that think that 30
sounds really young and that’s just sad.
Well – we hope you all are doing well and we hope to
see you all at the next Southwick Reunion which will be
held in our backyard sometime this month. (More
details to follow next month.)
the Allen Family. This newsletter is based on actual
historical events.
Last month seemed really busy for us. I suppose part
of that has to do with the fact that we had a lot of things
to do. The other part of it is probably that the days are
now shorter due to the upcoming apocalypse.
Kalynn completed her spring soccer games. She was
extremely awesome. So much so that at the last game
she received a trophy indicating that she was the
“MVP”. I think her MVP status was cemented when
she learned how to slide tackle. Slide tackling is
generally not allowed at her level of soccer – but they
made an exception for Kalynn because she was so
good at it. She could literally take-out two or three
players on the opposing team when she would slide in
for the ball – not to mention a couple of player’s on her
own team.
Peter finished up his preschool classes during the
month. I think the reason he finished is that Kara and
Wendy decided they were tired of doing preschool. I
would therefore call his first year of preschool a
success.
Our other daughter, Elyse (she’s the short one), is
learning how to communicate. In fact she has
developed an extensive vocabulary and the two of us
enjoy taking long walks around our circle and
discussing deep philosophical issues. She is also in a
very inquisitive stage of her life. She spends most of
her time trying to figure out what is in each of the
cupboards, cabinets, dressers, etc. in our house.
Luckily she has figured out how to open everything and
she loves to take everything out and examine the
contents.
Our family did a lot of fun stuff this month. Some of the
highlights were going to Kyle’s concert (they had
cookies), attending Brian’s band banquet
(cheesecake), celebrating Adalyn’s birthday (cake),
helping with Brian’s Eagle-project dinner (brownies,
cake, ice-cream). Kara and I also helped out with the
new Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house
(sandwiches and various desserts). I should make a
note that we were not supposed to partake of the
refreshments since we were just the hired help and not
dignitaries – however, I convinced Kara that we should
do it anyway. On a related note – we both have
disciplinary hearings next week. We also spent some
time up at a Cabin near Heber City (I ate a huge bag of
peanut M&Ms I found up there which Kara said had
gone rancid).
We also celebrated my 30th birthday this past month.
I’m sure to some of you that sounds really, really old. It
sure sounds old to me. I was even reminded of how
old I was on my birthday because I sprained my ankle
playing soccer and couldn’t walk for a week. Although,
I’m also sure there’s many of you that think that 30
sounds really young and that’s just sad.
Well – we hope you all are doing well and we hope to
see you all at the next Southwick Reunion which will be
held in our backyard sometime this month. (More
details to follow next month.)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
April News
Dear Family,
On April 3rd, my dear mother passed peacefully to the next life. I miss her constantly and there is a void in my heart that I know will never be filled. I was grateful that we had a nice conference right after passing. It was uplifting to listen to and quite frankly, it was nice not to have to go to church so we could stay home and get things ready. Saturday we went to the mortuary, Sunday I spent the entire day working on arranging "Where Can I Turn for Peace?". This song brought much comfort to my mom while she was sick. I had hoped to arrange and sing it for her before she died, but I spent all of my extra time being with her, which I have no regrets about. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting everything else ready for the viewing and funeral. Brian spent much time getting videos ready for the funeral and they turned out wonderful. Jenny and I worked on getting things ready for a display and on the life sketch that we read at the funeral. We really didn't know how it would all come together, but it did and it was very nice. We had a lot of compliments on both the viewing and the funeral. And it was beautiful. Everything turned out perfect. The flowers, music and spoken word were beautiful. It was so nice to have all the family and friends that were able to attend. It was comforting to us and a great tribute to my mom to have so many people there that loved her.
The rest of the month seemed to be busy just catching up on many of things that were put off the last few months. We had a fun and nice Easter with both the Allen's and Southwick's. We went on a quick vacation to Cayonlands National Park. We stayed for two nights - we were planning on staying for longer, but it was extremely windy and sandy and it was impossible to go hiking. So, we came home early, which was okay because we were anxious to see our new little niece, Emma Norene. On Friday the 24th, we got to help out with Brian's prom dinner, which was fun. On May 2nd we went to Jenny and Diana's (Brian's sister) graduation from Utah State. It was good, but emotional day. It was also very rainy. The rest of the month was filled with doctor's appointments, visiting teaching appointments, and picture taking appointments.
Kalynn was off track the whole month, which was very nice. I love to have her home, she is a great helper. Peter's speech seems to be improving. We are working on helping him put the ending consanants on words which is very funny because then words become two syllables - such as shee-p and bir-d and fla-g. It's cute. Elyse is darling and all over the house. She has mastered going up and down the stairs and she loves being outside playing with her older siblings. She is also anxious to feed herself and does pretty well at it.
I suppose that is quite enough for this month. Hope you are all well.
The Allen Family
On April 3rd, my dear mother passed peacefully to the next life. I miss her constantly and there is a void in my heart that I know will never be filled. I was grateful that we had a nice conference right after passing. It was uplifting to listen to and quite frankly, it was nice not to have to go to church so we could stay home and get things ready. Saturday we went to the mortuary, Sunday I spent the entire day working on arranging "Where Can I Turn for Peace?". This song brought much comfort to my mom while she was sick. I had hoped to arrange and sing it for her before she died, but I spent all of my extra time being with her, which I have no regrets about. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting everything else ready for the viewing and funeral. Brian spent much time getting videos ready for the funeral and they turned out wonderful. Jenny and I worked on getting things ready for a display and on the life sketch that we read at the funeral. We really didn't know how it would all come together, but it did and it was very nice. We had a lot of compliments on both the viewing and the funeral. And it was beautiful. Everything turned out perfect. The flowers, music and spoken word were beautiful. It was so nice to have all the family and friends that were able to attend. It was comforting to us and a great tribute to my mom to have so many people there that loved her.
The rest of the month seemed to be busy just catching up on many of things that were put off the last few months. We had a fun and nice Easter with both the Allen's and Southwick's. We went on a quick vacation to Cayonlands National Park. We stayed for two nights - we were planning on staying for longer, but it was extremely windy and sandy and it was impossible to go hiking. So, we came home early, which was okay because we were anxious to see our new little niece, Emma Norene. On Friday the 24th, we got to help out with Brian's prom dinner, which was fun. On May 2nd we went to Jenny and Diana's (Brian's sister) graduation from Utah State. It was good, but emotional day. It was also very rainy. The rest of the month was filled with doctor's appointments, visiting teaching appointments, and picture taking appointments.
Kalynn was off track the whole month, which was very nice. I love to have her home, she is a great helper. Peter's speech seems to be improving. We are working on helping him put the ending consanants on words which is very funny because then words become two syllables - such as shee-p and bir-d and fla-g. It's cute. Elyse is darling and all over the house. She has mastered going up and down the stairs and she loves being outside playing with her older siblings. She is also anxious to feed herself and does pretty well at it.
I suppose that is quite enough for this month. Hope you are all well.
The Allen Family
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Obituary
Norene Sagers Southwick
7/27/1954 - 4/3/2009
Norene passed away peacefully at age 54 surrounded by her family after being diagnosed with lung cancer five weeks earlier.
She was born in Tooele, Utah to Willard and Geraldine Sagers, and was married to Wayne Southwick August 23, 1974 in the Salt Lake Temple.
Norene was dedicated to her family. She taught her children and others to live the gospel, love music and learning, and enjoy life. She exemplified charity and compassion as she served at home, at school, and in the Relief Society and Primary.
Her legacy will continue through her loving husband, Wayne; children, Nathan (Wendy), Kara (Brian) Allen, Jenny (Bryce) Lake, John, Brian, and Kyle; six grandchildren; five siblings; and mother. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Melynn; father; and brother, Kenneth. Services: L.D.S. Chapel 1899 W. 7600 S. West Jordan, Utah. Viewing: 4/8 6:00-8:00 pm and 4/9 10:00-11:30 am. Funeral: 4/9 12:00 pm. Internment: Tooele Cemetery.
7/27/1954 - 4/3/2009
Norene passed away peacefully at age 54 surrounded by her family after being diagnosed with lung cancer five weeks earlier.
She was born in Tooele, Utah to Willard and Geraldine Sagers, and was married to Wayne Southwick August 23, 1974 in the Salt Lake Temple.
Norene was dedicated to her family. She taught her children and others to live the gospel, love music and learning, and enjoy life. She exemplified charity and compassion as she served at home, at school, and in the Relief Society and Primary.
Her legacy will continue through her loving husband, Wayne; children, Nathan (Wendy), Kara (Brian) Allen, Jenny (Bryce) Lake, John, Brian, and Kyle; six grandchildren; five siblings; and mother. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Melynn; father; and brother, Kenneth. Services: L.D.S. Chapel 1899 W. 7600 S. West Jordan, Utah. Viewing: 4/8 6:00-8:00 pm and 4/9 10:00-11:30 am. Funeral: 4/9 12:00 pm. Internment: Tooele Cemetery.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
After many friends have asked me about my own blog, I decided to finally hop on the blog band wagon. Kalynn has been off track for the past few weeks, so we have tried to get some fun things in before she goes back to school. We have made a couple of visits to the Discovery Gateway and gone swimming at the rec center. We spent a night in Provo at a hotel with dad and then got to visit some cousins and go to the BYU Natural History Museum.
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