Short History of My Family

This afternoon the photos told a story.
In 1974 I had a darling baby in Baytown named Davy.

Ben and I took a whole roll of film to get this one picture.
And Ben's head was cut off...

By 1983 we lived in NJ and had 5 kids.
Baby Cor was 2 days old.
Tommy loved his baby sister.
Mary made Tommy's lion.
The next year we celebrated Cori's birthday.

That fall we took more pictures.
Please notice Tommy's pucker.

In 1985 we moved to Houston.
During our time there, Ben took several scout troops to Philmont.
They stopped at some Air Force base on the way each time.
We dealt with a lot of critters when we lived in Clear Lake.
Ducks hatched in our yard all the time, and we learned
we could play with them and then send them off to their mommy.
Unfortunately, the ducks attracted snakes.
The boys became adept at killing them.
I sewed a lot in those days.
I made Tom's shirt and Cori's outfit.
Sewing was good therapy.
I guess that's an editorial comment.
Just before Dave left on his mission and Sam left for college,
we had this photo taken.
Sam's wisdom teeth had been removed 2 days earlier.
Dave returned from his mission after we moved back to NJ.
I will admit I about fell over in the airport when I saw how much weight he had lost.
Jeff and Steve have always been close.
They spent a lot of time together before Jeff left on his mission.

Jeff is hugging Corinne before he leaves for Germany.

Then Ben, Corinne and I moved to Tokyo.
This left these three guys at BYU.
Sam and Jeff were home from their missions and
16 year-old-Steve lived with them.
Dad sent me this photo after one of their visits to him.

One of the happiest times in my life
was when Jeff, Sam and Steve visited us in Tokyo.
Here is Jeff on the losing end of a stick.

Ben took us to a fancy dinner up in the mountains.
I can still remember how happy I was that day.
During their visit, we bought our first digital camera,
so I won't scan much for the last decade.

Christmas Cards, Giggles & Bangs

I asked Mary Elizabeth for help with a date on this photo.
She told me it was 1974.
This is the only picture I have of Mary with her namesake,
Grandma Mary.
Mary said to me, "What a kind, kind person Grandma Mary is."
Is.
It's Easter, remember.
Oh, we loved her so much. My heart aches when I see her pictures.

I don't want to make this blog about me,
but I'm obsessed with something right now: my bangs.
I'm trying to grow them out.
Name one thing as trivial that is more agonizing.
I'm dying here.
So, I was amused to see the progress of my bangs through the years.
The above picture was taken in 1973.
I'm six months pregnant, not that it's not obvious.

This was taken in 1976.

This was taken about 1987.
Isn't my darling daughter adorable?
I made both our dresses.
That is, btw, my natural hair color. Or, was.

Of course, I'm not the only one who has changed
the hair around my face.

In 1989 Ben and I flew to Mexico City to visit
Uncle Bill and Aunt Marilyn who were serving a mission there.
This photo brought back wonderful memories of them,
especially since Marilyn is near death today.
I thought about her as the photo scanned in,
and then I saw the bangs.
Ya, I know. This is sweet.

This photo from 1997 was taken at Dave and Carolyn's wedding luncheon.
This is pretty much what my hair looked like
a few weeks ago when I decided to grown my bangs out again.

In addition to bangs, legs grow.
Maybe Sam's pride grew a little that day, too.

This photo was taken a few months later.
After doing time in the MTC, Sam flew to Italy via JFK.
Steev, Cori and I drove out to meet him.
Obviously these were pre-9/11 days and we waited in the terminal with him.

This was our Christmas card in 1975.
The next decade I sent out this one.
I'm pretty sure this was the following year.
I'm going through old photos Dad gave me,
and he saved all this stuff.
Of course, it was about this time Dave started growing out his bangs.

This was Easter Sunday 19 or 20 years ago.
Dave's bangs are now so long that he has combed them straight back.
Same with Jeff's. And Sam's...well...
Of course you recognize our visitors -- Douglas and Scott.
I'm not even going to comment on this photo.

I scanned in other random photos this morning.
Our family went to Disneyworld in 1988.
I can still remember how much fun we had.
I wasn't not smiling as much as I was waiting for Ben to take the picture.

This is one of my all time favorite photos.

In the totally random category,
this is Corinne at a Monkey Park in Tokyo in 1999.