Christmas Party 2010

Here are the links to videos of the Christmas Party at Eric and Jenn's house:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597112/Christmas%20video-1.mp4
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597112/Christmas%20video-2.mp4

I will leave the links live until next year. Loves!

J

Snow Angels

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels!



We prefer snow angels!

Ian's soccer schedule

My future SLReal player's game schedule:

9/10 5:30 p.m. 4495 South 4800 West in West Valley
9/11 12:30 p.m. Art Dye park in A.F.--down the hill west of Mt. Timp temple
9/18 10:30 a.m. Art Dye park " " "
9/24 5:30 p.m. Utah School of Deaf & Blind in Provo 1655 East 3300 South
9/25 10:30 a.m. Art Dye park
9/29 5:30 p.m. Art Dye park
10/2 4:30 p.m. West Jordan Complex 4000 West 7800 South in West Jordan
10/8 4:30 p.m. West Jordan Complex " " "
10/9 12:30 p.m. Art Dye park
10/13 5:30 p.m. Orchard Hills complex 955 South Main street in Payson

Any questions, please call me! Ian's team is the AF Extreme team. I think his colors are black and red.

Newlyweds!

Seth and Jessie Rose Thomas

Married August 21st, 2010
Hillsboro Oregon

Seth and Jessie Get Married!

Front row from left: Seth, Grampa, Ivy, Melissa, Sadie

Back row from left: Amanda, Mardi, Jessie, Annie

Seth and Jessie got married on August 21st, 2010. A great time was had by all. Later that weekend, we all journeyed out to the coast and spent the day. What a weekend. Love you lots!

Isaac's game schedule!!

My future NFL right tackle's game schedule:

8/28/10-- 10:30 a.m. @ Lehi High School
9/4/10--10:30 a.m. @ Lone Peak High School
9/11/10--10:30 a.m. @ field 1 Timberline Middle School (500 W. Canyon Crest in Alpine)
9/16/10--9:00 a.m. @ field 2 Timberline Middle School
9/25/10--9:00 a.m.@ field 3 Timberline Middle School
10/2/10--9:00 a.m. @ Lindon (55 South 500 East)
10/9/10--9:00 a.m. @ Westlake High School (99 North 200 West in Saratoga Springs)

Make sure to wear your Viking blue!

Alder stuff

Mom wants this on the blog and I think it's pretty cool. I am going to link to a few items that we have scanned in. The first is a copy of Uncle Matt's scrapbook he put together for his sisters that has Grandpa Alder's theatrical career:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597112/Theatrical%20Career%20of%20Donald%20B.%20Alder-1.pdf

This next link is also what Matt put together about the Salt Lake Theater group of which Grandpa was an integral part:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597112/Salt%20Lake%20Theater%201862%20to%201928.pdf

This last link is a copy of the dream Grandma Alder had about doing Family History work:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597112/Elsie%27s%20dream.pdf

Enjoy!

Johnny

Post today-15 Aug 2010

Just to check and see who is reading this blog, we are announcing the following:

MEG IS PREGNANT!!! This is not a joke, delivery should be around the end of March. Love it!

Johnny, Meg and monkeys

Sliding Rock!

We went to Sliding Rock for the Alder Family Reunion, which everyone begged to do then only a handful showed up! If you didn't come, you missed out! My dog Sheba went down, as did a bunch of us. And yes, I did mean to go down backwards. Here are the videos:

Thacker Life

Just thought you'd all like to know that Brett is doing pretty good. He has interviewed at 3 places and hopefully we'll have some feedback soon. In the meantime, he is going to work part-time back at Consonus while he looks for a new job and goes to school to get an Executive MBA.
And yes, I AM teaching preschool this Fall.
Hope all is well with you!

Stewart Falls

We hiked to Stewart Falls tonight with all the monkeys, had a great time. The kids all have cuts and bruises and loved the hike. Tess fell asleep on my shoulders the last mile back, pretty funny stuff.

Stadium of Fire 2010

Hannah did an outstanding job as a "Stadium of Fire" dancer! The fireworks were awesome and so was Carrie Underwood! It was a great night! Happy Independence Day!

Maine - Timber Tina's Show

Here is Addie and Emmie in a video at the Great Maine Lumberjack Show while we were in Maine. Emmie volunteered to go up for the contest. She wouldn't go without Addie, so they let Addie participate as well.

Enjoy the show -- sorry it's bouncy, it was on my little digital camera.

Vacation in St. George

So we found a little treasure down here near St. George. About 17 miles north is a little town called Veyo. They have a resort for rock climbing, swimming and crawdad catching. The canyon is called Crawdad Canyon and there is a pool, campgrounds, sand volleyball and all kinds of stuff to do. It was awesome. Here are some pictures from it:

Father's Day (June 20th, also Dad's birthday) we are meeting at Mom and Dad's at 7:00 p.m. for dessert.

Family party - 14 Jun 2010

Due to a lot of people in the family wanting the story Rachel read for our Family Home Evening/birthday party, I've included it here:

Do We Really Know What We Have?

As written by Scott Anderson in his journal. Confirmed by Tim J.
Dyches (Mission President of the Portland Oregon Mission 2008-2011)

We had an unexpected moment in the mission field. We knocked on a
door and a lady said something to us we had never heard, "Come in".
Now remember, I was a German missionary. This never happened to us,
not even the members would say that to us. At this point suddenly
this dear lady invited us in. My companion said, "Do you know who we
are?" "You want to talk religion, don't you?" she said. "Yes we do"
explained my companion.


"Oh, come in. I've watching you walk around the neighbourhood. I'm so
excited to have you here. Please come into my study." We went in and
seated ourselves and she sat down behind the desk.


She looked at us with a smile, then pointed to three PhD's hanging
over her head. one in theology, the study of religion, one in
Philosophy, the study of ideas, and one in European History
specializing in Christianity. She then kind of rubbed her hands
together and said, "Do you see this row of books here?" We looked at
a well arranged row of books. She then said, "I wrote them all. I'm
the Theology professor at the University of Munich. I've been doing
this for 41 years. I love to talk about religion. What would you like
to discuss?" My inspired companion said, " we'd like to talk about
the Book of Mormon." She said,

"I don't know anything about the Book of Mormon." He said, "I know".
Twenty minutes later we walked out of the room. We had handed her a
Book of Mormon and this trade off that we had been on was over. I
didn't see this lady for another 8 1/2 weeks.

It was a small room filled with people, {when I saw her again}, as
she was standing in the front dressed in white. This Theology
professor at the University of Munich, Frau Gertrude Specht, was well
known throughout Southern Germany. She stood up in front of this
small congregation of people and said, "Before I'm baptized I'd like
to tell you of my feelings. In Amos 8:11 it says, there will be a
famine in the work of God. I've been in that famine for 76 years. Why
do you think I have three PhD's? I've been hungering for the truth
and have been unable to find it. Then 8 1/2 weeks ago, two boys
walked into my home. I want you to know these boys are very nice and
wonderful young men, but they didn't convert me. They couldn't; they
don't know enough." And then she smiled and said, "but since the day
they walked in my door I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine
and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of Talmage's great
writings, Evidence and Reconciliations by John A. Widtsoe and 22
other volumes of Church Doctrine." She then said something which I
think is a challenge for everyone of us here. She said, 'I don't
think you members know what you have."


Then in her quiet, powerful way, she said, "After those years of
studying philosophy, I picked up the D & C and read a few little
verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and
Socrates! When I read those verses, I wept for 4 hours." Then she
said again, "I don't think you members know what you have. Don't you
understand the world is in a famine? Don't you know we are starving
for what you have? I am like a starving person being led to a feast.
And over these 8 1/2 weeks I have been able to feast in a way I have
never known possible."

Her powerful message and her challenging question was then ended with
her favourite scripture, "For you don't see the truth can make you
free."


She said, "these missionaries don't just carry membership in the
church in their hands, they carry within their hands the power to
make the atonement of Jesus Christ full force in my life. Today I'm
going into the water and I'm going to make a covenant with Christ for
the first time with proper authority. I've wanted to do this all my
life." None of us will forget the day she was baptized. When she got
finished being baptized, she got back out and before she received the
Holy Ghost , she stood and said, "Now I would like to talk about the
Holy Ghost for awhile." She then gave a wonderful talk about the gift
of the Holy Ghost.

{Later in Elder Anderson's journal}

Two young missionaries, both relatively new, {one had been out about
5 months, the other 3 weeks}, accidentally knocked of the door of the
seminary in Regensburg. 125 wonderful men were studying to become
priests inside. They didn't realize this was the door they had
knocked on because it looked like any other door. They were invited
in. In somewhat of a panic, the man said, "I am sorry we just don't
have time right now." The 2 missionaries were relieved, but then he
said, "Would you come back next Tuesday and spend 2 hours addressing
all 125 of us and answer questions about your church?" They agreed
that they would, and ran down the road screaming. They made a phone
call to their mission president and cried for help. The mission
president called us and said, "Do you think that dear lady that you
have just brought into the church would like to come help these 2
missionaries with this assignment?" I called her to explain what was
to happen, and she said, "more than I would like to eat, more than I
would like to sleep, more than..." I said, "Fine, you don't have to
explain."


We drove her to the seminary, and as we went in, she grabbed the 2
missionaries that had originally been invited, put her arms around
them and said, "you are wonderful young men. Would each of you spend
about 2 minutes bearing your testimony and then sit down and be quiet
please?"


They were grateful for their assignment. they bore their testimony
and then seated themselves. Then she got up and said, "For the next
30 minutes I would like to talk to you about historical apostasy."
She knew every date and fact. She had a PhD in this. She talked abut
everything that had been taken away from the great teachings the
Saviour had given, mostly organizational, in the first part of her
talk. the next 45 minutes were doctrinal.

She gave every point of doctrinal changes, when it happened and what
had changed. By the time she was done, she looked at them and said,
"In 1820 a boy walked into a grove of trees. He had been in a famine
just like I have been. He knelt to pray, because he was hungry just
like I have been. He saw God the Father and His Son. I know this is
hard for you to believe that they could be two separate beings, but I
know they are." she shared scriptures that showed that they were and
then said, "I would like to talk about historical restoration of
truth." she then, point by point, date by date, from the Doctrine and
Covenants, put back the organizational structure of Christ's church.
The last 20 minutes of her talk were absolutely brilliant. For the
first time we realized that she had been their Theology professor.
She continued by saying, "Last year when I was teaching you, I told
you that I was still in a famine.

I have been led to a feast. I invite you to come." she finished with
her testimony and sat down. What happened next was hard for me to
understand. These 125 sincere, wonderful men stood and for the next 7
minutes, gave her a standing ovation. By the time 4 minutes had gone
by I was crying. I remember standing and looking into their eyes and
seeing the tears in their eyes too. I wondered why they were
applauding after the message she had given. I asked many of them
later. They said, "to hear someone so unashamed of the truth, to hear
someone teaching with such power, to hear someone who finally has
conviction."

The truth is what can set us free...Do we really know what we have?
--
Andrew G. Knaupp
801-787-4466

Last treatment!!!

Here are some pictures of dad's last treatment. As we came out of there dad was smiling from ear to ear and had tears in his eyes. They are extremely happy to be done, although this place was awesome for them. We are very blessed that dad could come here as this was world class treatment. WAHOO!!! Utah, here we come!

Stupid Cracker

That title is not referring to me, it's to my black lab, Cracker. I took my dogs, Sheba and Cracker, over to play with Mace at my parents' house last night. I left them for a few hours, and when Meg and I came back to pick them up they were gone. Mace was still there, and Riley and Kole had seen my dogs an hour and a half before, but my dogs were gone, somehow. We drove around looking for them, whistling my whistle they recognize just hoping they were still around. As I was driving Meg told me she was saying a prayer. We had driven up and down mom and dad's street and as I came up past their house to the top of the street, I was going to turn right and check down in the Ivory Homes behind their house but something told me to go left instead. I went up past the old white church to the new secondary water pond, showed it to Meg and turned around. Coming back down the road just past the blue silos a car was pulled over and I saw Cracker sitting funny on the side of the road and the lady driving the car told us she had hit him pretty hard with her car.

Meg was crying and scared but he wasn't acting like a dog who dies from a car crash; I have seen those kind of dogs in my life. Apparently there is a pet Urgent Care in Orem so I scooped him up and put him in my back seat, as he was in a lot of pain. Sheba had showed up so she was in the back of my truck and we took off. I got to the Urgent Care and they ended up sedating him and taking some X-rays and found 3 fractures in his hips. My options were to pay $2500 to put in screws and a plate or to let him heal. Guess which one I took? They say he'll probably be fine in 4-5 days and gave me some pain meds and antibiotics/anti-inflammatories for him and we'll have to monitor. Man, I am attached to this little idiot; he has hiked all over these mountains with me and the kids adore him. I hope he pulls through, tough little bugger.

Fun things to do in the house

So last night we heard our kids having too much fun, and this is what we found them doing:



So, I decided they couldn't have all the fun so I tried it:



Meg was laughing at me for being an idiot, so I talked her into doing it. Good stuff!:

Space Derby

Apparently in this day and age we can't do a Pinewood Derby anymore, so here is Ethan's Space Derby. He won "Most Original Use of Material"! I guess we are the only parents who allowed their kid to work on the rocket and decorate it himself. The rest of the kids were like Irwin from Brian Regan who can't zip up his pants but he can make a volcano for a science project (obviously, the parents did it!). Ethan worked hard on his, although his mechanically challenged father couldn't make it work well. However, several other slick, perfectly painted and designed rockets didn't go either, so pooh on them. Good times!

Videos from Mike Thomas' fun cancer vacation

I am going to post a bunch of videos and pictures from Mike and Adrienne's prostate vacation in Loma Linda. I was extremely impressed with the facilities and they seem to be doing well.

Johnny