Just a note about December. Our grandson, Colton (Bruce's son who was only 10 months old when Bruce was killed), came home from his mission for the church in the Brazil Londrina Mission. He is now in Safford attending Eastern Arizona College where Bruce went to school and where he met Robyn. Also in December another of our grandsons, Talon (Richard's son), received his mission call to the Portugal Lisbon Mission and reports to the Provo MTC on April 18th. We are all so excited for both of them and the new steps they are taking in their lives.

Wow! Starting a new year 2012! Will try to keep this updated and maybe a little interesting!

Beautiful Grandbabies We Haven't Met Yet!!

Shawn and Dana's little Ethan was born in October 2007before we came to Ohio and is one of four grandbabies we will have to get to know when we get home! He is running all over now and getting into everything!

Steven and Sara's Conor was born in January 2008 and he knows who we are when he sees our picture. Hope he can understand it when he sees us moving around and not hanging on the refrigerator!

Kevin and Jennifer's Bryson was born in February 2008 and we haven't even held him yet! Kaelia and Caiden have fun with him and tell him about us!

Shawn and Dana's sweet little Brylee was born in August 2008, and she is the youngest! We can hardly wait to hug and kiss on her cute little cheeks! She will still be young enough to let us do that!

Christmas Day was spent in Chillicothe with Bea and her kids and Larry and Ann. It was so fun and Bea made a wonderful dinner for all of us to enjoy. Our day with them made Christmas complete!

Taken in the Fall. We went for a ride to see the beautiful colors around Bea's home.

This is Ron Richardson--and his new truck! He had surgery on his knee a couple of months ago and is doing quite well with his recovery. December 27th, 2008 we had the privilege of going to the Columbus Ohio Temple with Ron Richardson, his first time, and his wife Pam, who had been to the temple several years ago and has returned after several years. Also attending for the first time was Lori Altvater, next to Sister Owens. She is a convert of one year and is a sweet and loving woman who loves the gospel and has a strong testimony of it. What a blessing it was for us to be able to be in the temple with these great people of Ohio. On the right is our Bishop Converse who has taught Ron and Pam and Lori the lessons preparatory to coming to the temple. Ron and Pam will be back next week to be sealed for time and eternity! We will all be there with them for this occasion.

Elder Owens with Lee King who was baptized in November 2008. Elder Owens had the privilege of confirming him on Sunday in the Delaware Ward. What an awesome member he is and he will be such a strength to his family. These pictures are a little out of order but oh well!! We spent Christmas Day with Bea Zufelt and her family in Chillicothe. Larry and Ann, her dear friends, were with us too and we had a wonderful time and a delicious dinner! Bea's teenagers are really sweet and they are so kind to us!

Here they are spelling O H I O . Can you see it!?? They really enjoyed taking crazy pictures. We found out that most of the Elders do the same thing!

We all went to Red Robin for lunch one day to celebrate Elder Pridgen and Elder Brusch's birthday! They are a great bunch of Elders!

Elder Brusch went home December 20, 2008. We look forward to seeing him again when we are in Salt Lake. He is a very humble missionary and we know he will never quit being a missionary.

Elders Brusch and Titensor presented Elder Owens with this beautiful tie before Elder Titensor got transferred. They really enjoyed Elder Owens and his stories and would come to the office and go to Elder Owens little office and sit and visit. They always had a spiritual story to share with him and Elder Owens loved their visits. Elder Pridgen was there often too so they would have a real story sharing time.
We are here with Elders Titensor and Brusch. They were the Zone Leaders in the area where the Mission Office is located so we got to know them quite well. We had some great lunches with them and enjoyed getting to know them--Elder Titensor is from Texas and his dad played for the Dallas Cowboys years ago and Elder Brusch is from Salt Lake City and lives really close to our daughter, Tammy.

These two Assistants are Elders Pridgen and Yablonovsky and they went home in November 2008. We really enjoyed them and miss them here in Ohio. We loved it when they would stop by around 9 PM for ice cream or come over for dinner. They were great leaders and we really grew to love them!

Sunday, October 12, 2008 we went to church and then down to the hotel to visit with John and Sue Potts and Eddy and Lanny Flake who were here with a tour group. They were touring with Rod Meldrum and visiting places that were possible Book of Mormon sites. Brother Meldrum has done extensive studying with DNA and has a DVD out where he tells about his thoughts and discoveries about Book of Mormon lands being here in Ohio, New York and down to Missouri. We had a wonderful visit with our dear friends from Arizona and had a delicious dinner at the Texas Roadhouse! We then sat in on a discussion about DNA and lots of other evidences of the Book of Mormon in this area. It was so interesting and we are going to have to watch his DVD and learn more. Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. and his wife were also with the group so we were able to meet and visit with him for a few minutes. We loved seeing the Potts and Flakes and felt like we had a taste of home for awhile! It was hard to leave them but we know our place is here and we have a lot here to do yet before we do go home. What do you do when you have great friends in two places and the two places are 2000 miles apart? Well, we got back to our apartment about midnight and then laid awake talking about the blessings we have of having such wonderful friends. It made our halfway mark a very happy time!!