Happy Birthday Grandpa!

 79 Years Old

Gone but never forgotten!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Duncan

 105 Years Old

Thank you Ruth

 

Along with many of the wonderful traditions that Amy has made for her family, this was a special one!  On Christmas morning after the presents are opened, homemade cinnamon rolls go into the overn.  And on Conference Sunday in October and April a tray again goes into the oven for the family to enjoy before the spiritual feast begins.  This evening Ruth sent this picture to her mom!  Tomorrow morning her roommates and anyone else who joins them will enjoy a yummy tradition that started when she was a little girl.  I can't think of any gift Ruth could have given her mom then to value that tradition that she enjoyed growing with those that are around her now!  Between Will's mission call, Owen's beautiful sermons, Lexy's great accomplishment, and Ruth's special gift to Amy, it has made me feel extremely grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the best family ever!

Congratulation to Lexy!

I got an email from Lexy today and wanted to share it with the family!

I'm graduating with a master's degree in Second Language Teaching specializing in French at Brigham Young University! During this program, I wrote a thesis about my research on native French speaker perceptions of non-native French speakers as well as took a comprehensive exam covering the material from these last two years of graduate studies. I successfully passed both and hope to publish my thesis and other articles stemming from it within the next year. I also taught French 101, 102, and 201 courses, worked for professors as their teaching assistant, and presented an original curriculum development project at a prestigious academic conference (SWCOLT). I'm currently looking into PhD programs for instructional psychology/technology and second language studies. I hope to become a professor of pedagogy and/or French in the future.

She will be graduating from BYU on  April 24, 2026

Raise Your Hand If...

...you know who Carl Ben Islison is?  If you don't, listen to Owen's Palm Sunday Sermon.  I had the privilege today and enjoyed two sermons that Owen gave this past week.  One was entitled "The Other Thief" and his other was "Flesh and Stone."  They were excellent and very thought provoking!  With the wonderful technology we enjoy now I realized last week that although I couldn't go hear a sermon given by my grandson (your nephew/cousin) I could still hear him teach.  You can go on his church's website flcnaples.com and listen to them. In Owen's sermon he said something that I wrote down.  I want to remember this thought in the coming days.   "A LIFE LIVED FOR OTHERS" What a perfect reminder this week as we approach Easter Sunday that the Savior and our Heavenly Father set the ultimate example and reminder of our responsibility while we are on this earth.   

The Other Thief

Flesh and Stone

Will's Mission Call!

Will received his mission call today!  He has been called as a Service Missionary in the Utah Saratoga Springs Mission.  His mission will begin on July 22.  As a service missioanry Will  gets to live at home during his mission.   I have had the opportunity to interact with many of the Service Missionaries in the Gilbert area and have been so impressed with all the of the service they give in the community.  Recently in our Sacrament Meeting the whole program was provided by our service missionaries (and there were a lot of them!).  They provided the music, the talks, the enthusiasm, and their testimonies that no matter where you serve you are giving your time and talents to the Lord!  

Easter Week Reminder

 Jesus died for so much more than our sins.  In the Garden of Gethsemane He suffered for our sins, our disappointments, our heartaches, our sorrows.

 “Allow to sink in your heart and to ponder how we could take a little more seriously these events that happened two thousand years ago in our individual lives and in our families lives today so that it can become more real for us.  This wasn’t an event that occurred just so we have nice stories in scriptures.  Jesus did all of this so that we could have hope, so that we could have redemption, so that we could have salvation through Him.  That is what this is all about.” 

I listened to my Come Follow Me podcast this week about the Easter week and loved these thoughts shared by Tyler Griffin and Eric Huntsman

Jane's Pictures

Jane sent me these pictures today.  She wrote, "I was thinking about you today and thought I'd share a few pictures of the beautiful Utah skyline."  I loved the pictures--but even more-- I loved that she was thinking about me today!

Palm Sunday

I was asked to bake a loaf of bread for our Palm Sunday Sacrament meeting.  I hadn't baked bread for many years but was happy to contribute.  I felt honored to participate in remembering the Savior who endured so much for each of us.  The meeting was beautiful with wonderful messages and music.  It was a great way to begin this week culminating in the Savior's atonement for each of us and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross.  But even more the knowledge that "He is Risen!"  For dinner the Whitney's joined me for our Palm Sunday celebration.

Ruth's Field Trip

Ruth stayed in Utah for her field trip.  But she, along with other students who are doing the study abroad program in Spain this summer, went to Salt Lake City.   They visited the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  

Thought for Today

"Whatever your bondage, whatever your struggles may be, just know that God has prepared a way for our deliverance and that way has a name and we know Him—Jesus Christ.  He will bring people into our lives individually as well as collectively, and as a church through prophets, seers, and revelators and others who are called to positions of influence to help guide us forward in these latter days.  But at the end of the day, the struggles, the concerns, the stresses, the anxieties that we face, those external pressures, they can’t even compare in capacity to the goodness and glory and the capacity of our God to save us and deliver us and to redeem us and to one day exalt us if we will move forward in the process, as painful as that process may be at times.  We keep moving forward."  Tyler J. Griffin

AZ Spring Break

Graham, Eden, and Duncan have been enjoying two weeks of "no school."  At the Whitney house that means a Harry Potter party, a tealess Tea party, lots of time for friends, and visits to the library, picnics  and anything else that came along.  Yesterday they went to Canyon Lake and enjoyed so cool water to go along with the hot weather we are having here.

Lincoln's in California

Lincoln went with other students to a field trip at the Getty Museum.  He sent me the following pictures.

CA Duncans

Here are a few photos of things we have done recently. Several are from my trip to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge with a friend from church. We saw tens of thousands of Ross's Geese plus Greater White Fronted Geese and many other birds like the avocet in one of the photos I'm including. 

There is also a photo of Caleb's first performance in the concert season with the wind ensemble.