Chandelier

Mom/Margie and Dad/Lamar have a huge chandelier in the entryway of the Havenhill home.

Over the years, dust and dirt collect, and it's time for a cleaning.

Did you know there is a song called "Chandelier"? It's sung by Sia.

 Did you know that Derek has a Sia-type wig?

 

You Tube - Derek Cleans the Chandelier

Now you know ...

Mom wrote in an email on Feb 8, 2020 "Derek came yesterday and cleaned our big chandelier---the method worked well spraying it with a special cleaner with dropcloth below. Sparkles now!" I don't know if she was aware of the music video until a bit later!

Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

Snow Day in Utah today! School was canceled. 

There was one day last year too ... 

but those are my only memories of school being canceled for snow. 

Frozen, and the now famous "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" song may not have come out until 2013, but the Westra clan had been building snow stuff for quite a while already. Scott became fairly well known for his creative snow sculptures. Click on the pictures to bring them up bigger, and check Dropbox for the originals!

 1967 - Scott, Chris and Dad (Lamar)

1970 - Tall Snowman (how did they do it?)

Neighbors, and Scott, Chris and Wendy

 1972 - Scott and no-coat Chris

Double Trouble!

1978 - All five kids here (Scott, Chris, Wendy, Jen and little Shane) 

Not a snowman, but a cave/horse?

Big Snowball (1979?)

Jeni and Chris

 ... and the finished cave

... and yet another igloo-ish (1980)

Wendy, Jeni and Shane

Chris and Wendy - 1979?

Jen and her special snow friends. 

Mr. Fireman (oh the irony) and Snoopy.

I'm sure Scott made them both.

But his most memorable snowman was ...

Brother Joseph Smith (1980)

.. another 1980 creation ...

Snowman walking a snow dog.

... and back to snow caves

Shane - 1986

... a snow owl?

Derek and Shane - 1987

...and a slope for sledding. Who needs a hill?

This went all the way around the side of the house to the backyard!

Wendy, Shane and Derek - 1991
The pine tree there is likely the old Christmas tree!



... and I guess we can include some snapshots from the next generation.

Grandpa and the Girls ... 2003

 Keaton - 2014

Aaron 2017. Jensens 2018. Cousin Crew 2019.

Cooper 2014

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Family History Fun - Compare a Face

Family history can be fun ... and it can be more than just dates and stories. Ever wonder who you look like? On the FamilySearch website, there is a "compare-a-face" activity you can do. Upload a picture of yourself, and it will compare your facial features to your relatives and give you a percentage # of how close you are. Now ... I don't really consider this an exact science, but it's fun.

Here's a peek at the some of the results for Chris and me ... 

So Chris had a high correlation to Dad ... my highest was 64% and that was to my great-great-great-grandfather Henry Sanderson (more on him later, he has a very interesting history and there's a surprising amount of info available there on Family Search!)  

Chris also got this cool chart ...

I'm not sure if this option was discontinued ... 

Dad and I both tried to find it and couldn't.

For me, it pulled up the top matches, then I could manually scroll through them across the top there to see the percentage. Mom, with a 46% match was still in the third spot on my comparisons. I seemed to favor the Norman side for first several spots, before the Westra side made an appearance. 

I was playing around, hit the + button and got the option to add photos ... so I added a few, of Wendy, Chris,  my kids, even Gray ... and a younger me! Check out the comparisons. 

So again, certainly not a science, and I'm sure different photos would yield different ... but hopefully somewhat similar results. It's fun to look at and learn a little about some ancestors you might not have investigated if they weren't your twin ... or 60% match ;)  

New Years Baby!

Happy New Year! I knew I had to do a post showcasing the Westra Welcome to the new year with the Westra kids their first New Year's Eve ... I searched through the folders on Dropbox and gathered up the pictures, but couldn't find one for Derek. Happily, as the "Westra Family Photos and History" project continues, Chris found and scanned Dunk in the sash and streamers.

Mom had mentioned that they actually waited a year on Scott's official picture, as he was just 15 days old for his first New Year. So instead of being the youngest ... he's the oldest in this particular pose,. Chris and Wendy are on the infamous "white couch" ... as is Shane. While Chris had to be held up, that wasn't even an option for baby Jenny, at less than two months of age. Four babies in hats, two without. Shane is the only one pictured who tried to eat the paper streamers.

It's a little ironic that the more recent pictures seem to have a lower quality than the older ones. Perhaps this is because the first four come from scanned negatives, and the final two were scanned photos? There is another cute picture of Scott, taken with the other camera, in black and white (just as there were two of Jen, color one included above, second shot in black and white below). More mysteries regarding  Old-Fashioned Film ...

When Gray and I got married, I discovered his family had a few similar traditions ... like saying "home again home again jiggidy jig" AND ... New Year's Baby photos. At least for Gray (not sure if the other kids have them). So for our family, we have a Gray/Jen and Landon!

Unfortunately, we didn't keep up the tradition with the other boys. It's hard to remember and make sure these types of photo ops happen! That makes it all the more impressive that Mom and Dad (Lamar & Margie) made it through six siblings and 18 years!

Have any of the other Westra siblings continued this tradition with the next generation?

2019 Christmas Letter

The Annual Update. What's Up with the Westras.
Want a closer look? PDF is here.

Christmas Letter from the Jensens

Angel of Lost Keys

 Mom encouraged the siblings to share a "prayer story" and so here is one from Wendy.

The sharing happened Dec 2020. The memory happened in 2019...

I went to bring Jaiden to tumbling after school, but couldn't find my car keys anywhere. Luckily Rick was home and so I was able to use his spare key temporarily, but I knew that I needed to find mine. 

When I returned I said a prayer that I would find them. The whole family joined in the search but with no success. I was getting nervous because the key fob costs about $200.00 to replace. I checked all of the usual places several times. A few hours later I decided to try again and said another prayer mentioning the cost of replacement and even threw in a reminder of how I had paid extra tithing all last year, ha ha! I explained that I would really love to find my keys and we could really use this little tender mercy! 

Anyway, after dinner I thought that maybe I should check the garbage can. Although, why in the world would they be there, right? I took out a garbage bag and started pulling out the garbage piece by piece, putting it in the bag. I had gone through the entire day's garbage and was moving on to the garbage from the day before. I was about to give up when I saw a round black thing. I pulled it out and sure enough, there were my keys near the bottom of the garbage can! I was so grateful!! I gave several "thank you" prayers expressing gratitude at God's tender mercies! If I hadn't received an impression to check there the keys would have been thrown away and lost forever! 

Rick joked that there was probably an angel in heaven whose sole responsibility was to help people find their lost keys -- in fact maybe there was one specifically assigned to the Jensen family, ha ha! He then shared his own miracle experience of when he had lost his keys at Tuacahn. He had been in the costume room getting a costume together for a seminary assignment. He was nervous because he was in a hurry and only had ten minutes before he had to get to his assignment. He knelt down and said a prayer asking for help to find his keys immediately so that he could get to his appointment on time. He then looked over and there was a basket of boots. He reached into one of the boots and there were his keys! 

I am grateful that God is aware of the tiny details of our lives and blesses us with tender mercies even when it is something as inconsequential as missing keys!

Calder's Baptism

Another eight-year-old Westra grandkid! 

 ... in the "to be scanned and put into family box"  pile, the program from the baptism.