First Day on the Job and Lovin' it!

Janelle was such a good sport to pick us up in Chicago after our plane had a 3-hour delay in Orlando, arriving in South Bend at 3 a.m. She didn't even go to bed, but finished last minute details and took the 4 a.m. bus ride back to Chicago, to the O'Hare Airport, for her flight to London to be with Dallin for ten glorious days of sight-seeing together. And do they ever deserve a break! 

It is our joy to be able to be here with the girls until Friday afternoon. We're having so much fun. Norah, especially is bonding to Grandpa. He's such a great help, and all the grandchildren adore him!

Coming home from church. We're glad it didn't start until 11 a.m.

I'm doing "My Favorite Things" being a Grandma! 

Lunch time!

Ruby loves wearing this hat. So cute!

Norah wins your heart, too!

Rudy found her way to Norah's bed during nap time. 

Dorothy was patient while the rest of  us napped! 

On our way to the Community Center. 

Dorothy giving Grandpa a tour of the garden. 

Ruby and the girls having great fun playing. Grandpa is reading in the background. 

They love being goofy! 

Bath time!

Scripture time is over and almost ready for bed.

Norah loves being with Grandpa.

Dorothy enjoying her new "Dot-to-Dot" book. It kept her busy all day.

They delighted in webcamming with their Mommy and Daddy right before bed. What a wonderful day being with these adorable girls!

Fourth of July Parade!

Dearest Family,                                                 July 7, 2013

We’re thinking of our wonderful daughter-in-law, Tiffany, today on her birthday. We love you. We look forward to your family’s arrival in a week!

Tiffany with Jackson on his 11th birthday.

Crismon leaves on Tues. morning to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car and head to Kingman to spend a couple of days with Grandma before attending a Freedom Festival conference in Las Vegas, directed by his friend, Mark Skousen. He will return Sat. evening.

Crismon sent out an email to all our stake members this weekend asking them to join together in a fast for the missionary work in our stake to help with the “hastening” of this work. We know that miracles can happen as we join together in this great work of salvation.

Last Monday evening Crismon and I enjoyed a walk on the Springwater trail for our FHE activity. We are loving these beautiful Oregon summer days. Fortunately, the weather has cooled from the upper-nineties to the mid-eighties.

Tues. I spent a good portion of the day tending the Vance children while Ondalynn & Gary were signing papers for their new home, as well as helping them finish up the packing. Despite a very busy month of preparing to move and then a week vacation in Idaho last week, Ondalynn still looked great.

Ondalynn with Paxton

Wed. late afternoon, Crismon picked up a brand new, bright red, big truck from Gresham Ford for me and the grandchildren to ride in for the Estacada Fourth of July Parade. He is good friends with the owner, Bess Wills, that we hosted at the Portland Visitor’s Center Dedication. They let us borrow the truck for the parade, and we had a big banner on the back advertising Gresham Ford Dealers. After I returned from the temple we worked on the decorations.

We’re grateful for this choice land of America and the freedoms we enjoy. It’s always a good feeling to gather at our Stake Center for a flag raising ceremony, participate in the singing of patriotic songs and hearing a good message as we did this year and as we have done in the past. Then a breakfast was served at the pavillion. Fortunately, the weather was cooler than anticipated. We had to slip away from that event to arrive in Estacada in time to get the truck decorated before the grandchildren arrived.

Julia & Sydney holding the American Mothers Inc. Banner and me with Paxton.

Just before the parade begins.

During the parade, Crismon drove, while I sat in the back with Bryson & Isaac, and Clark & Daisy. Ondalynn & Gary walked while pushing Paxton in the stroller, and Vivi & Brett walked behind as well pushing Kaeley. I told the children that when they saw the people lined up along the street to yell “Happy Fourth of July!” They were very obedient and kept yelling it all along the parade route. It was so cute! Many people responded back to them. Little Julia said that when she was 4-years old she saw a Fourth of July parade and ever since then she wanted to be in one. It was fun that her “dream” came true. She and Sydney held the American Mother’s sign in front of the truck and marched the entire one-hour long parade route. We had a fun event together. I really appreciated their great support to me, in my role as Oregon Mother of the Year.

Ondalynn & Gary on the left, Brett & Vivi with Kaeley, soon they were all running up the hill to keep up with the truck.

Cute Daisy!

Everyone came to our home afterwards for a quick hot dog and hamburger lunch, and then we all headed to the Vance’s to help them move. We loaded up the three vans full of small items and hauled them just 5 minutes away to their new home. They are blessed to get into a lovely home, with a great floor plan, before the cost of houses gets too high. Fortunately, they are in their same ward and same schools. They are just two houses down from a lovely park. It is wonderful location and set up for them. The Vance’s treated us all the pizza for dinner and after a few more loads, we headed home to watch a few fireworks from our bedroom window.

We went back to the Vance’s Friday morning to help with the cleaning. That evening we attended the temple with 33 other members of our stake that were going on the Handcart Trek with our youth. What a choice experience to be in the temple session with our friends.

We had quite a surprise on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. when the Zone Leaders arrived at our home. Talk about embarrassing! We had totally forgotten that Crismon had invited them to breakfast to talk about the missionary work in our stake. Then the high councilman arrived, and fortunately the District Leaders came late. That gave us time to whip together a fast breakfast of hot cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs with bacon, and fresh fruit. Whew! Their two hour discussion was beneficial in helping Crismon with ideas of what he can do to improve the work in our stake.

We haven’t been using our hot tub that’s in our home working for several years, but we spent some time on Saturday getting it up and going again. We worked together on other projects around the home and yard.

We send our love,

Mom & Dad

Vivienne & Crismon

Family Letter the end of June

Dear Family,                                                                        June 29, 2013

We’re experiencing a heat wave here as many are in the west. It’s been up to about 95 degrees, which is hot for us. But it sounds cool compared to Meredith’s 117 degrees in Glendale, and 104 degrees in West Jordan for the Johns.

The sister missionaries were just in our home for dinner. We are grateful for faithful sisters who are lighting an excitement and energy in our ward. They are working hard. They reminded us of a few friends were trying to fellowship. Last month we took Lori & Michael Fryar with us to the Portland Ensign Choir & Orchestra, patriotic concert. Although in a Bishopric years ago, he hasn’t been involved in the church for sometime. She is not a member. They live just down the hill from us and we have become good friends over the years. She became especially endeared to Crismon Jr. because on his own went and helped her haul bark dust one day after school when he could see she needed help. It was a fun evening for Michael to see many friends from the Damascus Ward that he hadn’t seen in about 30 years.

My visiting teaching partner, Paula Noel, went through the temple for the first time a couple of months ago. It has been wonderful to see her love for the Gospel grow and her desire to receive her Endowment become a high priority in her life. I think Larry Linton might have been her HT years ago. Each influence for good plays a part in helping one to move forward in the truth. On June 3^rd we invited the Noel family for dinner and FHE. He is not a member, and their 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son are less active. We were pleased to see how much fun the children had in the FHE activity playing Charades.

Crismon put together a letter to be sent out to all the churches in this area, inviting them to participate with us and the other churches for a Day of Service, the same day for service as a stake. The blessing this week, all the pastors that Crismon has been working with to be on his board, all agreed to have their name on the invitation. This was huge. It is not the other churches joining with the LDS, but a community of pastors uniting in a day of service. The members of the congregations will be asked to invite their neighbors to participate in gathering food for the needy in September, the same day as the Church’s worldwide day of service. It has become quite a project, but many doors have been opened for Crismon to see some pastors who wouldn’t let him come visit them before. Truly, the hand of the Lord has gone before him and blessed him with many tender mercies in this endeavor.

A few updates on our ward. Martha & Chuck Allen have been called to serve a mission to Oslo, Norway as office missionaries, leaving Nov. 18^th, for 18 months. They will return just before Connor returns from his mission. This means Crismon will need to replace him as his counselor at that time.

Dad and I tried to beat the heat this morning by working in our yard and garden early in the morning. Our garden plot is way to big for us now to keep up without kids at home to help. It’s a major battle to fight the weeds and the grass. We’re hoping to get things cleared out and bring in some rock to help elevate the problem.

It’s now Sunday, 6/30. Happy Birthday wishes to our lovely daughter-in-law, Janelle. We love you! 

Today will be my last “Special Time with Grandma – I Can’t Wait Until I’m Eight” with Kenna Johns, Julia Vance and Preston Lewis. Kenna will be the first of that group to get baptized, starting in Aug. It’s been so fun for me to meet with them once a month and discuss about baptism and help prepare them for this important step. I’ll have to have another “Google Chat” with my other grandchildren. It has been delightful!

Seth had meetings in London for a week and Tiffany was able to join him. Seth received an outstanding award at the conference. I’ll copy what he posted on his Facebook page: “A bit belated, but I have some surprise news to share from earlier this week at #ica13: One of my 2012 articles was named Outstanding Journal Article of the Year in Journalism Studies.”

“The journal (Information, Communication & Society) has made the article open access: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2012.674150 ... It's been such a wonderful conference week in London, especially because Tiffany Gee Lewis has been here to share it with me!”  Congratulations, Seth! We’re so proud of you!

Their "hotel" for a few days while in London. Seth finds interesting places to stay.

Meredith & Norm and Julie & Joe Jensen were in England at the same time and Tiffany was able to spend a day with them sightseeing. It’s pretty amazing to go to Europe to see your relatives from Utah. Nice you could be together.

Tiffany & Aunt Meredith while in Bath, England.

Yesterday we enjoyed being at the sealing of Caitlin Caudle & Ryan Jones, and to do Initiatory.  I’m grateful for unexpected opportunities to serve. Today I was asked to substitute in Primary, just minutes before it was to start. I loved being with those cute 4-year-olds.

Last Sunday, the Church worldwide broadcast “The Work of Salvation” was tremendous! So very inspiring! It was especially touching for me having a daughter serving as a full-time missionary in Argentina. I do feel motivated to go forth and try harder and be more involved in this great missionary work. It’s interesting how the missionaries will spend more time on the computers, even on Facebook, interacting with members and contacting people, through texting, etc.

This photo was taken by Crismon Jr. while he and Danielle were attending the broadcast as the Marriott Center.

I look forward to Monday's when we hear from our dedicated missionary, Emily!

Love to all our family near and far.

Mom & Dad

Vivienne & Crismon

Fun with the Williams' Family

Written June 16th, updated June 30th. I had such a fun week with this darling family. Bryan took his Boards for Medical School on June 17th and then his DO Boards (Osteopathic Dr.) the following week, June 24th. This has been a pretty intense time for this family. Bryan worked hard studying 6 days a week from 7 a.m. until 11 pm. for over a month, (along with the past 2 years) while Meredith carried quite a load at home with her three little ones. We are proud of both of them for their many sacrifices to get this far. Many wives usually pack up and head home while their husbands study for boards as it's such a crazy time, but not realistic with 3 small children. Then the Williams' took a much needed vacation to San Diego last week.

Evelyn showing off her new swimming suit.

Christian happy that Grandma gave him a Captain America figure.

Baby Hudson hanging out at the pool in a 109 degree weather!

Meredith is such a good Mommy, making everyday a great day for these kids. I was glad I could be there for a week to give her an extra hand.

Cute Mommy Meredith with Christian & Evelyn.

Evelyn, 4-years old, about to show off how she can ride without training wheels.

While I was there, Bryan was called as the Ward Executive Secretary. I was privileged to sit in on his setting apart. He was released as a counselor in the Elders Quorum.

Babysitting the kids while Bryan & Meredith are meeting with the High Councilman.  Help!

Active Mommy having fun with Christian. 

Stacy Brown, Meredith's good friend and their children go on a 2 hour bike ride in 90+ weather.

Adorable Hudson and his pretty Mommy.

Mommy time with Evelyn. Guess who painted whose toenails?

Making cookies! Meredith is so patient.

On our way to church. Guess who sat in the back without a seat?

Hudson (nearly 4 months old) was blessed the Sunday I was there in their home with some of their close friends. His Aunt Kelsie teased that he was so big he could have crawled up to be blessed. He is a special little one who will be a great example to others and a comfort to his mother.

Blessing day for Hudson

I love being a Mom and a Grandma!

Hudson is the best baby! And so very, very cute!!!

Glamorous Meredith enjoying the fan I bought for their kitchen.

Our for a Sunday walk in 106 degree weather!

Many fun times swimming in their beautiful pool.

Christian has the strongest arm muscles, although he is so skinny. While playing Hide-and-Seek, he had boosted himself up on top of the washer and shut the sliding door. What a kid!

Hudson looks like a little doll. He reminded me of Meredith as a baby with those cute features, just like a doll you'd pick up off a shelf in a store.  

Hudson, nearly 4 months old.

I was glad I could be there for Meredith & Bryan to take a quick get-away to Scottsdale after Bryan's first Boards. I had fun having special time with Evelyn & Christian. We had FHE. As I started the lesson talking about Baptism, Evelyn quickly said, "We don't talk about Baptism. We talk about being nice and being mean." Christian quickly agreed. Such cute...and funny kids! I loved being with them and I always go through withdrawals when I leave.

Portland Temple Visitors Center Dedication

 Our prayers have been with Grandma Lewis who has not been feeling well as of late. She has a sincere desire to finish her history, and she has been faithfully working on it for years. We are so grateful for her example. We hope and pray she can receive added energy to keep working at her computer and blessing our lives by her faithful example and love.

Emily with Grandma, June 2012

The highlight of the week was talking with Emily on Monday as she had a 4-hour lay over at the SLC airport on her way to Argentina. It was wonderful to visit with her and she had a chance to talk with nearly all her siblings, which she absolutely loved, too. It was a delight to hear that she arrived safely and to receive her first letter.

Emily and other missionaries on their way to Buenos Aires.

We have been enjoying beautiful sunshine, warm, pleasant, gorgeous days. Along with the green and the abundance of flowers everywhere, Oregon is spectacular this time of year.

I left on Tues. June 11th to fly to Phoenix to help Meredith with her 3 busy children while Bryan is in his last week of studying for his Boards. As you know, it is extremely intensive, and Meredith has been a trooper to be a supportive, good wife, and give Bryan the time he needs to study, while she manages everything at home without any breaks. More on my visit with them later.

We had a most interesting and wonderful experience last Sunday evening. We hosted Bess Wills and her husband, Bob Avila at the Portland, OR Temple Visitors Center Dedication. Each stake president was asked to invite a prominent person in their community to come to the dedication. Many mayors, civic leaders, political leaders, and religious leaders were present. Bess is the President of the Gresham Chamber of Commerce (that Crismon belongs to), and is the General Manager of Gresham Ford, referred to as a “The Dealer with a Heart.” She is amazing women, donating all the time to organizations for people in need. Her husband is retired, but is the Pres. of the Rotary Club in Gresham.

Presiding Bishop Gary Stevenson was here to give the Dedicatory Prayer. Before doing so, explained about our Humanitarian efforts, about temples, about missionaries and our sharing of testimonies. It was excellent, and then gave a beautiful dedicatory prayer. We then showed our guest around our small, but very nice Visitors Center, and walked around the temple grounds. We had a lovely evening with them. We got to speak personally for a few minutes with Bishop Stevenson and he asked where I was from in Cache Valley. He knew Geoff and Peggy very well, as Peggy use to work at his company. Then he was thrilled to hear that Crismon was Malin & Myreel’s son, as he had heard about them all his life. He said, I’ll go home and email my father tonight and tell him. He’ll be so thrilled. He is now 85 years old. His father, Evan Stevenson, was a missionary in Ajo years ago and had a great love for the Lewis’s.

Bob Avila & Bess Wills with Crismon

Temple grounds with Bess Wills & Bob Avila

Other events have been helping Ondalynn at their home so she could get some much needed projects done and attending Sydney’s music concert where all the 4^th grade classes played the recorder and the marimbas. They were fantastic! What a terrific music program in their school.

Cute Sydney Vance with Grandma Lewis, 4th grade concert.

Friday afternoon, June 7th we attended a temple endowment session and sealing for a couple in our stake, Jim & Rita Dunnihoo. She joined the church about a year ago and he became reactivated by Pres. & Sister Watts when they returned from their mission while they served as their Home Teachers. A special highlight was walking down the temple hallway and seeing Elder Quentin L. Cook. He was gracious to stop briefly to shake our hands. What a treat! He was there to perform a sealing.

Crismon met with the Pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist in Pleasant Valley last week. He originally was only going to give him 15 minutes, but visited for an hour with him, walked him out to his car and shook his hand about 3 different times. Crismon has had some good experiences becoming acquainted with many pastors and leaders of other denominations in the area. His association in the Chamber of Commerce as well as reaching out to these churches in an effort to join together in a Day of Service in September has opened many doors in further relationships with other faiths. Some have shown an interest, and others say they already do their own service activities, but it has been a great experience for Crismon to get to know these good people in the community.

Sat. afternoon, June 8th we attended the Retirement Party for Koni Riedel. She taught all our children music (except Ondalynn & Seth) at West Gresham Elementary School. She is another remarkable person.

Then we had the fun of having Clark, Daisy, and Kaeley here in the evening while their parents had a night together. We love having some of our grandchildren close to enjoy.

Bedtime stories with Caudle grandchildren.

Mother's Day speech at the Grotto

A unique opportunity that I had on Mother's Day was to speak at the Grotto in Portland. I was the main speaker at this Catholic Mass, speaking for about 7 minutes. Each year the Catholic Church honors mothers by having the "Oregon Mother of the Year" speak at the mass. I also handed the holy communion wine to the Priest, which meant I truly was part of the mass. When he presented us the communion if we chose not to have it, we were to cross our arms over our chest and he then gave us a blessing.

I was given instructions by a Pauline, a nun, who told me never to pass the altar without bowing to it. I was pretty nervous about making sure I didn't do anything to offend them. It seemed to go well for which I was grateful for. The weather cooperated, too. It was an outdoor mass and it started to sprinkle just as it ended.

Other members of the American Mothers Board and organization came to support me. They had us all sit up in front on the side. Crismon and daughter, Vivi, were there, too. Ondalynn couldn't come at the last minute as baby Paxton was running a fever and needed his Mommy.

It was wonderful to see many good people gather together singing praises to God and worshipping in the way they feel is right. Naturally, you don't feel the spirit like we feel in our meetings, but they were sincere in their devotion.

Our children who have been in the Concert Choir have performed at the Grotto, usually at Christmas time. Crismon and I attended our Sacrament Meeting first and then made it in time to meet for instructions and a light snack before the mass started.