HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER BETTY

Today Betty would have been 87. She was born December 1, 1923, exactly 1 year to the day of my parents wedding anniversary. She always felt a little badly about having to share that day but in those days, when the baby was ready, the baby was ready! When I was about 1 1/2 my parents bought a lot in SLC at 1605 So. 8th East in preparation for building their first home. We all took the bus out to the lot (my folks didn't own a car at the time - but busses were very accessable. The big occasion was ground breaking for the new home. Betty loved to take care of me and I think my mother welcomed the respite. I remember Betty always doing kind things for me. One of the things I'm most grateful for is she was the "picture taker" in our family. Without her, I don't think we'd have very many pictures. In this picture she wanted me to also participate in the ground breaking. She's about 15 years old here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RHIANNON

 

Thirty-four years ago we FINALLY welcomed this little girl into the family. Quinton wasn't able to get leave from the Air Force so Dad and I stayed with Carol during the labor. When they finally decided this baby wasn't going to make her presence known without a lot of help, they tried to slow things down until they could get an operating room. That was a long, painful wait. Nevertheless, that sweet baby was finally delivered by C-Section and now you know the rest of the story! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR RHIANNON.

Thanksgiving collage

Here's a little better view of some of the pictures.

I give in!

Okay. I've spent enough time on this (I won't begin to tell you how much). I couldn't do the movie but I ended up being able to post a collage but then I lost the "big" pictures I had posted. You'll have to garner what you can from our Turkey day which turned out to be a turkey posting!!!!

FLAG FOOTBALL

Kristin tried to help me with the blog. I made another movie of the flag football game, and now I can't put ANY pictures in. I think I've fouled it up good. Give me some more time. Please note the beautiful pearls and apron that Kristin got at the Germaine's Emporium. She pulled the 50s look off perfectly!

THE FEAST

THANKSGIVING IN MURRIETA

Mom & Dad went over the "hill" early in the morning to catch a game of flag football. It was the perfect Thanksgiving Day; cool, crisp air, sunny and not a cloud in sight. The game was evenly matched with Ryan, Nathan & Carlos (their dad), Erik, Travis and Linsey (note Lindsey's new haircut!)


After a thrilling game we headed to Erik & Kristin's home where we spent the day pretty much visiting, watching some football (on their new 56" TV- ooh la la), feasting on hors d'oeurves of shrimp, deviled eggs, pickled cucujmbers, and stuffed mushrooms, and leaving just enough room for some turkey, ham, corn bread & sausage stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes with carmel sauce, roasted brussel sprouts and leeks, (yummy), cranberry/apricot chutney, and rolls. We finished off with pumpkin bars and later, pumpkin pie. We pilgrims never had it so good.

SOPHIA ROSE AGLE, age 5

 

Sophie wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving and wants you to know she is glad her Daddy finally got home early this morning at 2:30a. The blizzard affected his travel plans, and for awhile it looked like the plane was not going to fly at all.

She will be eating Thanksgiving Dinner at Uncle Dennis, Aunt Suzanne's home with her cousins Katie, Sashy, Mark Sanders, and of course her Mom, Dad, Mayra, Davis, Steven, Nathan & JP. The weather has prevented Aria from coming home but she will be well taken care of at her college.

ANTONIA

Alexandra was cast to play Antonia, niece of Don Quixote, in Timpview High School's "Man of La Mancha." She did a wonderful job with her part, including the fun high bits in the trio, "I'm Only Thinking of Him." The production was really enjoyable and has garnered standing ovations every night. It closes Monday with a 4 pm show. Then Alexandra has a few days of final prep work before her dance concert, in which she also will perform her senior solo. Plus keeping up on all her school work. She is keeping very busy.

Sounds like Sashy is making the most of her senior year. Way to go girl.

THE MAN OF LA MANCHA'S NIECE, ANTONIA (with Dad)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SISTER AGLE

 

Twenty-three years ago we welcomed one of the sweetest spirits ever sent to earth. Happy birthday Danielle. This picture was taken on her baptism day and now, 15 years later, our dear Danielle is serving the Lord on her mission and has to have one of the most positive attitudes I've ever seen.

Here are a few excerps from the openings and closings of her letters to the family.
The "middles" (too long to include here but are inspiring) are filled with all the events going on in her weekly endeavors. ____________________________________________________________________________
"Dear fantastic, fabulous, amazing, incredible, best Agles EVER of my life!!!

I just love you soooo very much! I hope that are having the best week so far and that things are going well.

I hope you see Heavenly Father's choicest blessings poured out upon you this week! Know that I love you and that I am blessed to have the best family ever! Hoorah for Israel!

Love always,
___________________________________________________________________________
Holy smokes family, I love you so stinking much, it’s not even funny! Mua, mua mua,mua (kisses for each of you!).

Hoorah for Israel! I love you all, I love the work, I love the Lord!

Love always,
____________________________________________________________________________
Hello bestest, best Agles in the world!! I just cannot tell you how much I completely adore you! I love you sooooo very much and know that I think I am the luckiest person alive to have the best family ever! I love it!

This week was a week continuing the miracle streak!

I love you so much, and I truly, truly love the mission. I am so lucky to serve in the best mission with the best areas, the best missionaries and the best people ever!

I love you always!!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENNY!

 

He still has that same cute smile, doesn't he?

Ken has been working long hours especially the last few weeks, and travelling all over the country. Here's a little blurb he sent to me that expressed his thankfulness for a tender mercy.

"Here is a funny thing that happened to me. I got to the airport and went to get my boarding pass. I was about to go on a 4.5 hour flight sitting in the middle seat, which is always a bit of an uncertain event and seldom enjoyable. But, to my luck, I saw that I could change seats. Not just to a non-middle seat, but to an exit row aisle seat. Always nice. I was pretty happy about that. Then, as I was going to my seat I noticed a guy in it and I'm thinking great. The seat is overbooked. I show him my seat assignment and he acknowledges that he is in my seat. He asks me if I want to switch and I'm skeptical, but then he shows me his number, 4A. So, I'm on the flight in First Class with internet access and all."

(The guy's brother was also flying but not in first class and he wanted to sit with him.)

MARATHON MAN

Mark Sanders MAY be the first one in our family to run a marathon! Mark and his Aunt Marie will fly to Hawaii where he plans to participate in the Honolulu Marathon, December 12, 2010.

Mark has completed the P-90X circuit twice and is starting a third round. It's a grueling regime, so be impressed!

To prepare for the marathon Mark has been training faithfully since August and is now up to to 17 miles (about 4 weeks ago). He has been running an average of 25-30 miles per week and running 4 times a week. M,W,Th are shorter 5-8 miles, then Saturdays are the long run of 10-20. It just depends on the week.

However, he has had some knee issues and had to put the training on hold. Let's all hope his knee gets better so all his training can pay off. If not, there's always next year!

Title of Dennis' presentation

 

Recently BYU held its first Mormon Media Symposium. Dennis Agle jr. was a speaker. Using a Power Point presentation and his delightful dry wit and enjoyable humor, I'm sure it was the best presentation of the 2-day symposium. He used a quote from Walt Disney that also fits with Liken's philosophy which is, “When planning a new picture, we don’t think of grown-ups, and we don’t think of children. But just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in everyone of us, that maybe the world has made us forget and that maybe our pictures can help recall.”

x

Guest Speaker

Recently BYU had their first Mormon Media Symposium and Dennis was a speaker.

Dennis jr doing the things he loves to do.

If you haven't checked out Dennnis' blog, you are missing a treat. Here's the link.
http://dennisagle.wordpress.com/

IT"S OVER!

 

WINTER HAS ARRIVED IN I-O-W-A!

OUR WANDERING FAMILY

It seems our family has covered quite a bit of the USA this past week or so. If you throw in Ashlee, it makes it world-wide.

Here's a list:
Ashlee is in Wellington, New Zealand
Danielle is loving living and serving in Bedford, New Hampshire
Adam went with a friend's family to The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota
Ken is in Minneapolis, Minnesota - Next week it's New Jersey
Scott was in Phoenix, Arizona closing up an office for his company. He is driving back with a truck load of computers, desks, etc. Should be home Friday.
Kristin was in Indiana visiting family. (More of that very soon).

MAYRA

 

Some of you may not know that Ken & Coppelia have added another daughter to their family. Mayra (pronounced My-rah) used to live in the house behind theirs. When her parents divorced and moved away, the Agle's wanted to provide a more stable home for Mayra, so they made their home available for her. She is a little younger than Aria but they are good friends. They bunked together in Aria's room until Aria left for college and now Mayra is the keeper of the flame.

Ken says: " Mayra has an amazing flair for style and adds so much of that flair to our home. Without question, the women of the house have much better nails. She is a Junior in High School with Davis going to Springville and Mayra going to Maple Mountain, they have a little rivalry, but the two get along very well. She recently got a pet to add to our small zoo, a turtle."

Welcome to the family, Mayra.

My husband, the Hero. (As told by Suzanne)

Don't mess with a man's family! Before reading the story that Suzanne relates, you must understand that Dennis jr. is not a big dog fan. You also have to know that Abish probably weighs as much or more than Suzanne. Read on:


My husband, the Hero.

Saturday here was a beautiful day and so Dennis and took full advantage and while he mowed our lawn, trimmed edges and generally prepared the sprinklers for the winter months, I sanded and repainted the front door. Abish was outside with us, lying right by our front steps where I was working, on the grass. She doesn't stray far from us. For those of you that know Abish, she loves her family and likes to be close to them.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another dog on our lawn sniffing at Abish, trailing its leash and a little girl about 8 yrs old on the sidewalk calling out to the dog and saying she was sorry she let the dog go. I walked towards the dogs when suddenly this large American Boxer attacked Abish, pinning her on her back and biting her ears! I tried to grab this dogs leash and pull it off but it jerked and I missed. Instinct made me get between them but I was knocked to the ground and this dog was hanging onto Abish's ears. She could not move. Dennis came running and tried to seperate them but this dog was so strong. He threw himself on this dog and wrestled it to the ground while I pried its teeth off of Abish. Dennis hung on with all his might all the time yelling, "Get Abish in the house". I couldn't get her to move. I think she was in shock. Meanwhile Dennis is still trying to keep this dog off of Abish. I rolled Abish onto her tummy and pushed/carried her up our front steps and pushed her though the front door. Dennis then let the other dog go and it ran over to the little girl who was by now, in tears and running home with this dog.

Abish was in shock and Dennis was scratched but ok. A few minutes later, a lady came over to apologize. It was her granddaughter who had been walking the dog and lost control. Usually this woman's big burly husband controls this dog with a wag of the finger and a quick"Hey". Anyway, we established that everyone was ok but that maybe this dog should not be in the hands of a little 8 yr old.

When the woman left I asked Dennis what made him get in there like that and save Abish, knowing that he is not particularly a dog lover. He said," I couldn't bare the thought of how it would break my girls' hearts if anything happened to Abish".

My husband, The Hero

The Ukuladies & One Guy

Five times I've tried to do my pictures as a movie and 5 times I've failed, so here are a few still shots of our last "gig" we did at a retirement home. I think the audience enjoyed it as much as we did

Alexandra Agle's life today.

I've asked our Alexandra (Sashy) to give us an update on what's going on in her life at this time. As you can read, the arts are very important to her. She is now a senior in high school and very involved. She has a blog that is awesome and is well worth a visit. http://sha-sha-speaks.blogspot.com/

Here's a report from her own hand.

I am currently playing 'Antonia' in my school's production of 'Man of La Mancha'. It's a very interesting choice for a high school to do in my opinion, but it's teaching me a lot about theater because I have never done a serious musical at Timpview before. (Though I did do Les Miserables in 6th grade but... let's face it, that was 6th grade.)I am enjoying it because the part has lines and solos but not the degree that it's super stressful. Best of both worlds :) The show runs November 17th-22nd.

I am also preparing for my dance concert this which is only two nights, December 3rd and 4th. Because of the musical's after school rehearsals and dance company's after school rehearsals, I am only in three dances this concert compared to last year's when I was in 8. So it's a bit of a change but a good one. There is a tradition that seniors on the company get to do a solo if they so choose to in the May concert as a last hurrah kind of thing, but since I am not in many dances, my dance teacher is letting me do my senior solo in this concert instead. I am very excited for it and I'm working hard because it's a chance to show the world what I've got! :)

Another thing I am involved in is the music department at Timpview. I am in the A Cappella choir as well as the Madrigal choir. The latter is a group of about 30 singers who are the top level of singers at Timpview. (Im so sorry this is sounding so braggy-- If it helps, I really don't know how I got into Madrigals!) However as Christmas time approaches, we are involved in many concerts for school as well as benefit concerts. We also take a trip to Temple Square and sing in the tabernacle. Something I am looking forward to is this coming February, we are going to Disneyland and perfoming there. The happiest place on Earth plus singing? Fabulous :)

I think I've covered it all, I can't think of anything else at the moment! Thank you for taking an interest Grandma, you're so kind! Also, thank you for your compliments about my blog. I love your blog too!
Love, Sashy

A BEAUTIFUL 9 YEAR OLD BALLERINA

 

One of my favorite pictures.

Ruth's Halloween Decorations

You've got to admire someone who can be this creative with rocks, paper, duct tape and paint! Very clever.