Pictures from my Childhood

Here are a few more picture from my childhood. The first one is a picture of all of us for David's 2nd birthday party. The second picture is me standing on one "chicken" leg and the last picture is us sledding down "Pulling" hill by Grandpa Hansen's house. This was our favorite place to go sledding in the wintertime. How do you like the old car? It was really something else.

Alyssa's Baptism

Yesterday, March 21 was a very special day for Alyssa. She decided to be baptized. Dennis and I are so proud of her decision. Alyssa actually planned and orchestrated the entire event - from calling and inviting people and planning the entire program with speakers and songs. She did an exceptional job! Here are a few pictures of the event. Alyssa has some really cute friends that came and supported her. Travis, her uncle baptized her and Dennis, her grandfather confirmed her. The rest of the pictures are just a proud grandma showing off her grandchildren. (nothing get's better than that - we love them all). I am glad that my children are so willing to support their siblings in events such as this. As a parent, it makes us feel like we did something right. Dennis and I are so proud of all of you and appreciate the efforts that you make to support each other. The hair-do is the artistic work of Ryan Loftus on Kaylee's head of hair. What a wonderful talent to get a 3 year old to sit still long enough to do that kind of work. WOW!

House Cleaning

Well it is my Friday off and I decided that I would start spring cleaning out my closets that seem to grow over the winter months. I have about 3 boxes to take to the DI of just junk that has accumulated. I did find a box of Tracy's that my Mom had given to her for Christmas a couple of years ago - the box contained some dishes that my Dad had sent to my Mom in 1945 when he was stationed in Germany in 1945. Mom had also included a letter that he wrote to her that has a 1945 postmark on it. I decided that I would scan the letter and envelope before something happened to it or it became totally illegible. (I hope Tracy doesn't mind) I carefully repackaged all of the dishes. If anyone would like to read the letter, let me know and I will send it to you. Here is a picture of the dishes that are from Czechaslovakia (I probably did not spell that correctly)












While I was on the computer I found some cute pictures that I thought I would share.










This is Blake Wilson and Kaylee Loftus visiting at Grandma's House.










This is Abby Butikofer helping Grandma put away her 2008 Christmas decorations. She loved playing with all of the white peanuts in the box and kept tipping them over so I finally just put her in the box - she loved it. (Notice the tongue sticking out - a Dad's trait of course)












This is Riley, Aftyn, Abby and Kaylee posing for the camera.










This Alyssa and Riley on Mother's day last year measuring if they were tall enough to ride the carnival rides.












Tanner and Chelsey on their honeymoon - the water looks wonderful and relaxing.

8 years old, Stanley Lake and Army

This is me at 8 years old showing off my new dress. How do you like the curtains in the background? How about those shoes and knobby knees?

This is a picture of Stanley Lake. When we were kids we would go fishing all the time here. We literally lived on the fish that we caught and Mom always brought lots of potato's and onions for Dad.

Here is a picture of my dad, Oscar Wilbur Hanft in front of the train station in 1943. I had not ever seen a picture of my dad in his army uniform until Deon sent this picture last week. I love the helmet on his head!

Weather and TV

Oh, it is hard to believe that it is already March and there is still snow on the ground. It was very cold and windy today. Dennis is in Rexburg tonight working with Bishop Cherry. They only have about 1 month left of school and then the students graduate.

I was watching a show last night on TV called "Last Chance" that was so sad. It was about this man that was in the marines and it was his job to escort the bodies back of fallen soldiers. It was amazing to me to see how much respect that each person that he saw had. For example, when they got to Montana a truck driver went by and turned on his lights and every car after that turned their lights on and followed the car hauling the soldier. When they were in the airplane, one of the airline personnel gave him a cross to give to the family and all of the baggage haulers all took off their hats and handled everything with the greatest of care. It was a very emotional and inspiring show that made you realize that people are basically good and caring.

Last week we took Chelsey and Tanner out to lunch for Tanner's Birthday. We went to Texas Roadhouse where Tanner continued to eat dozen's of rolls. I am not sure why he even orders dinner after eating all of those rolls. (They are really good however). Tanner received a birthday brownie from the waitress and put in the backseat of our car not realized that it had ice cream on it. It melted! What a mess. We also went to COSCO which I had never been in. It reminds me of Sams Club but carries different products. There is not much else happening around here. Hope all is well with everyone else.