2016 Christmas Letter

The original 2016 PDF is available in Dropbox.

Jenna's Baptism

Wendy is very good at keeping up her family's blog, The Jensen Journal. There, promptly posted, are Jenna's Baptism Photoshoot  and  Jenna's Baptism.  Checking out old emails, there was some additional information in a Jensen Family Update (included below). 

Thanks to Mom and Dad (Margie/Lamar) for always saving programs. 

Grandma and Grandpa (Margie/LaMar) and Chris and Kim made it down to support.

Wendy later wrote (October 9, 2016): 

Everything went smoothly for the baptism. The talks were short and sweet and the musical number was really nice. It was nice having mom and dad and Chris and Kim there. Jenna's primary teachers came, which was nice, and the other members of my primary presidency came. We also had a couple from the deaf branch come with their son who is Jenna's age and so I had arranged for an interpreter to come interpret for them. Several of Jenna's friends came. Rick gave a beautiful confirmation blessing. We had ice-cream sundaes over at our house after. Chris made some gluten free muffins which the kids enjoyed and he and Kim played Rummikub with Mom and Dad and the kids. They loved it! I worked on journal and pictures from the baptism.

Sunday morning it was busy, curling Jenna's hair and getting a turkey dinner prepared and ready for after church. The Bishop called Jenna up to give her a Book of Mormon and have her share her testimony. 

Wendy had Jenna record her thoughts about her baptism:

When the Bishop interviewed me last week he was asking me some questions and I was answering them. He said, "Are you going to bear your testimony?" And I said, "Yes." That night Sister Potter and Sister Williams and Sister Steel came over to talk to me about my baptism and gave me a baptism towel. Before my baptism we went to Chuck-A-Rama with Grandma and Grandpa and our family and Uncle Chris and Kim. We got our food and I got a slurpee with cherry and banana in it and then I got another slurpee with cherry, banana, and blue raspberry and I mixed the banana and blue raspberry together and it made a green slurpee.

At the Baptism they talked about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. Adria Guerisoli was getting baptized too. When I got into the water the baptism clothes just stuck to me and Dad and me put our arms in the place and then he said the stuff and then he dunked me into the water and then I kinda felt the spirit and then I went to the bathroom and mom said, "We need to re-do your hair," and me and Jaiden and Janelle were like, "It doesn't matter, mom!"

We went and did the blessing and Brother Cloward shaked my hand and then Grandpa hugged me and I was like, "Who is that?" And then I looked and thought "Whew, it's Grandpa!" My ears were really itchy when they were saying it. Clarissa gave me a lot of gummy bears and it said "Bear the name of Jesus Christ, Bear One Another's Burdens, and Bear Testimony." Sister Broberg (her primary teacher) gave me a letter and a pen that said, "I promise" on it. Then we went outside and took pictures and then we came over to our house and had ice-cream. Grandma Westra gave me a baptism book that you could write in.

Father's Day 2016

 Father's Day ...

Ah, the annual Westra gathering at Scott and Amy's house. This year ... sans Scott and Amy, who were in Switzerland for a work trip! Their kids stepped up and hosted though.  The Blackham bunch, was almost missing, as it was the scheduled Seattle vacation. But Grayson decided to pull the plug on it as his Meniere's has been acting up, and he's had so much pinched nerve pain. 

Grayson pulled out a slackline kit. He had purchased it months ago (maybe even a year or two?) and we'd never gotten around to putting it up. There were two trees in the backyard that were perfect. It was a hit with the kids!

It was fun to visit ... Shane and Alicia were even in town from California, and Jensens had made the trip (they usually do, but not always). So other than our missing missionaries, Callahan working, Mckenna and Spencer back East ... and of course Scott and Amy, we had a pretty full house.

 There was some frog kissing 

(okay, it's a toad from under the tramp).

... and some baby throwing.

(There MAY have been some photoshopping of this photo). 

Easter 2016

Easter was early ... March 27

 There was a Westra Party but was small this year!
Just compare it to the crowd from last year (Easter 2015). 

(There's a cute picture of Derek's family in ears then too ... with one less little one.)

Not sure why we didn't get pictures of more people in the ears.

Here is Jen's journal entry about the day ...

Saturday morning I finished up some easter prep; filling eggs (I'd had the boys work on it yesterday, and we don't need that many this year so it was pretty easy) and made some chex mix. Hubs left early, jogging, and we picked him up on the way to my folks, which we did. He got about five miles in and said he felt pretty good. Only my oldest and youngest brother and their families were able to attend this year, my three other siblings didn't make it. Mom's Wii had gone out. I brought an extra power cord we had, and luckily that was the problem, so it was a fix. It was a nice afternoon, although a little chilly. Got to meet my new little niece for the first time too. The older kids hid the eggs and the two little girls found them. When they were done we had to send out the 10 and two 12-year olds to gather the rest (as there were too many for just the two little ones).  

Shane's family was in California. Jensens didn't make it up from St. George, and Chris and kids were helping Cassandra with a move, which was nice of them! So a small gathering, even though Mom and Dad invited Uncle Merrill and Aunt Lori out, and Kemery brought her significant other.

Here's some additional Easter pictures from this year ...

Welcome 2016 - Grandparents and Games

Jen and Gray have hosted New Years for several years - back in 2010,  the whole Westra clan came out (Dancing in the New Year). This year it was just the folks. There was some Speed RummyKube and Tapple, a new game Blackhams got for Christmas. It's a bit like Scattergories, thinking of things to fit a topic that begin with a certain letter. It was fun (silly Grandma ... something green that starts with K ... "kangaroo"? Then the grownups moved onto Progressive Rummy, which was a little too slow-moving and complex for the little boys. We actually played all seven hands (usually we skip the 5th/6th ones), and although Gray won the final hand, Jen won the game! 

The two littles fell asleep before midnight. As we giggled and gathered to take a picture around the sleeping boys, Cooper woke up (even though Grandma tried to get him to close his eyes again). We surrounded sleeping Colton and even put a little "Happy New Year" tiara on his head for the photo. Grandma couldn't stop giggling (she'd gotten a little silly during rummy too, with "three legs" and "multiple possibilities" and "it's just a little 2". I think it was past her bed time!)

Last year, Grandma/LaMar brought out a big box of "New Year" stuff. Hats, tiarias, horns, etc. Then he gifted the Blackham family with said box. Jen stored it for the year,  brought it out ...  and gave it back to him this year!

2015 Christmas Letter

The PDF of the letter is in Dropbox (2015)

Christmas 2015

Christmas Eve 2015 was on a Thursday. All the families met at Grandma and Grandpa's house per usual. There were several soups, breadsticks and treats. Grandpa had the idea to put santa hats upside-down in the big vases, with poinsetta flowers. It was a fun and unique decor idea. 

After eating, everyone gathered for the candy bar game ...

... and then there was the annual slideshow.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!