2025 Is Here!

We began 2025 on a rather sad note - Missy's father-in-law passed away. Though he has been ailing for a long time, it was still really hard for Jedd to lose his dad. And now he is the only remaining member of his immediate family. His only sibling, Dustin, died this summer and he lost his mom about 3 years ago. We all adore Jedd, and he certainly has lots of loving family in all of us.

We attended a beautiful funeral for Wendell in Malad and drove to the Malad cemetery, where he was laid to rest. Stacy was so sweet to fly in from Arizona and Mindy and Jeff came from Alpine. We drove up to Rick's the day before and Jodie rode up with us to the funeral. Rick went to the viewing the night before because he had an important business meeting the next day and couldn't come to the funeral.

A lovely luncheon was held afterwards. Roger is talking to this gal who knew his sister, Chyrrl, really well.

Next trip up north was so I could attend a wonderful baby shower for our granddaughter, Sadie, who is due February 11, and is expecting a baby girl. She and Joe are so excited to be parents!

Three generations here and Aunt Emily was able to come because she drove Ben from Arizona to BYU and stayed a few days with friends.

Sadie was tickled to have Stratford cousins, Becca, Ben and Maddy(also, Addie and Fiona) and her sisters, Katie, and Abby, who is home from her Church mission.

Grandma Pam, daughter, Mindy, and granddaughter, Addie

And we can't leave out cute Fiona!

Roger's sisters, Chyrrl and Susie (from Warren and West Haven), are so supportive of all of our family events and we love to get to see them!

Mother and daughters scooting around in Rick and Jodie's indoor gym

This woman, Dr. Nancy Allred Wright, is so amazing! She and her new husband, Steve, moved into our ward about a year ago, and how delighted and lucky we are! She is THE pianist, director and accompanist of St. George with many credentials and tittles, including professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Utah Tech Univerisity and Artitistic Director for Lieto Voices and so many other things. She is the music director for our ward and she arranges for a musical number in our Sacrament meeting every single week. And she is delightful and humble! She performed a mini-concert, all from memory, for the arts club at Sunbrook on January 13. Marvelous!

Roger and I took a day-trip to Las Vegas to do some shopping and to enjoy a delicious Christmas gift lunch from Ryan and Emily at our favorite restaurant.

As always, they provided a complimentary profiterole for my early birthday celebration.

Dane Graham from USU called and invited us to dinner the night before the Utah Music Educator's Conference and USU Sear's College dinner for alumni and musicians. We enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner at Cappelletti's.

At the dinner before the concert, we sat by these three USU student musicians who were attending the conference. All three were returned missionaries and one played the French horn and two, the clarinet. They were sweethearts and we so enjoyed talking with them.

We enjoyed wonderful performances by a middle school choir, a high school choir and the USU American Heritage A Capella Choir. There is so much musical talent in the youth coming up in our state. We were thoroughly entertained!

For being my least-favorite month of the year - it always seems so long and cold and dreary - we still managed to enjoy some gratifying and special events.

And now on to my favorite month . . .