NY Trip July 2015 Continued

 Nate & Amy

 Amy & Autumn

 Amy, Aubrie, Nate, Autumn

 Aubrie 

 Laura, Brant, Mom, Dad

 Laura & Mom

 Laura & Dad

 Laura & Valerie Ball (Serfas)

Michelle Serfas & Lisa

Ryan & Mom at our Harris Hill picnic

Laura & Brant

 Alice & Spencer 

This little series is Spencer and his reaction after getting a kiss from his Mommy:

 Emily, Hanna, Spencer, Alice at the Dairy Barn

 Katie & Lisa

 Julia & Lisa

Sheldon and Karen Hallstrom Family 2015

Our family had the opportunity to fly to New York and gather with all of these beautiful people, my family.  

Jenny, Seth, and her family and my younger brother, Mark were unable to come.

We live all over the country, PA, MN, UT, MA, CO, so it's a big deal when we gather.

 Things can get a little crazy having 21 people under one roof for a few days.  

 My parents with 8 of their 12 grandkids.

Thank you, Mom and Dad for having all of us come over and bombard your house.

Thanks for feeding us so well and planning fun activities to do as a family.

Thank you for letting us borrow your vehicles.

Thank you for watching your grandkids so Sam and I could go out.

I love and admire my parents so much.  They brought 8 children into the world.

They raised their children to love one another, to be service oriented, 

to be self reliant, and much more. 

After practically 35 years of parenting, my parents are now empty nesters.

My youngest brother, Ryan is now at the MTC learning Russian and preparing to serve as a missionary in Russia.  Mom and Dad are beginning a new chapter in their lives.

I am excited for them.

Meeting Mika

Laura and Brant came to visit us the day before my birthday.  They brought the newest member of their family with them... an adorable puppy named Mika!  We all loved getting to know Mika and instantly feel in love with her.  Mika chased the kids around the yard, played a little tug of war, and let the kids pet her.  We can't wait to see the Mika (and Laura and Brant) again.

meetmika from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.


meetmika-2 from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.

1st Annual Shirley Hallstrom Family Reunion

Yesterday, Grandma and I hosted the 1st Annual Shirley Hallstrom Family Reunion in Logan, Utah. 

Family came from the Salt Lake area as well as from Lake Tahoe and southern California.

Grandma had no idea the out of state visitors were coming.  She was so excited to see everyone!

I reserved my ward building and we enjoyed a great lunch together. 

 

Grandma is really into family history and brought so much family history to display.  

The old family photos of the grandkids growing up were a big hit.  

 All of those spiral bound notebooks in the middle of this table 

were written and illustrated by Grandma.

 I started up a family reunion scrapbook.  We had everyone sign their name in the front cover 

and we'll fill the book with reunion pictures from this year and the years to come.

 A few years ago, I surprised Grandma with that big black picture collage frame.  

There are pictures of her posterity in the frames.  She hangs this proudly in her home.  

We even played cassette tapes filled with piano music played by my uncle, Eric Kristjanson.

After our delicious lunch, we went to the Relief Society room for Grandma's special presentation.  

She told us bits of her history and the stories behind some of her poems.  

Grandma's friend, Joyce Jacobs played the piano and we sang to the music written to her poetry.

We also took turns getting up front and telling a little bit about ourselves.  

Some shared their talents with everyone.  

Laura sang a song for us and Scott showed off his unicycle skills in the parking lot.   

Following that, most everyone came to our home for dessert and more catching up.

Tyler showed off his awesome flips on the trampoline.

I feel so blessed to be a part of this family.

Looks like we had 23 people in attendance.

I bet we'll be able to gather even more family next year.  

Grandma has a HUGE posterity! 

Brian's Baptism Day

Brian is the newest member of our ward!!!  Sam baptized Brian on Saturday, March 2nd, our Stake's baptism day.  Nine kiddos were baptized.  The chapel and about 6 rows in the overflow area were filled.  It sure was a neat experience to watch MY BOY be baptized and get confirmed.  I'm so proud of him.  The people that came to support Brian were, me, Sam, Tyler, Katie, mom, Laura, Brant, Great Grandma Hallstrom, Uncle Calvin, Sam's parents, Sam's sister, Laura, and Brian's 2nd grade teacher.

Oh, a couple details from the baptism.  So, we all get to the font room and take our seats.  

I'm sitting on the floor close to the font with Katie and Tyler.  

It was time for Brian and Sam to get into the font.  Brian just gasps and says, 

"Oh!  I've gotta take off my socks!"  and he throws me his wadded up pair of socks.  

Everyone got a good chuckle out of that!  

And then, Sam immersed Brian REALLY far down into the water (and held him down there a couple extra seconds) just to make sure that Brian was fully immersed.  

We were watching and wondering when Sam would Brian him up and out of the water.  

It was a great day.  

Katie, Lisa, Brian, Sam

Katie, Lisa, Brian, Sam, Tyler

Everyone came over to our house for some lunch.  We had homemade potato soup, fruit salad, Oreo truffles, and the best homemade strawberry ice cream cake topped with whipped cream and Oreo crumbs.  Laura, Brant, and Mom stayed and came to church with us today and had dinner with us.  

 Oreo Truffles made by Lisa and Brian

Everyone came over to our house for some lunch.  We had homemade potato soup, fruit salad, Oreo truffles, candied pretzels, and the best homemade strawberry ice cream cake topped with whipped cream and Oreo crumbs.  Brian opened up some nice cards and a new set of scriptures and a scripture case from Sam and me.

Laura, Brant, and Mom stayed and came to church with us the following day and had dinner with us.  

Random Sidenote: Sam was asked to sub in Tyler's Primary class and Brant helped him out.  

Tyler LOVES his Uncle Brant and always wants to sit by him.  

Oreo truffles served at family celebration on Saturday #baptismday#oreotruffles #8yearsold

We sure are proud parents! We got a good chuckle out of his skip walk shuffle steps to and from the podium at church. And some random visitor dude gave Brian a high 5 on the way back to us. 

Great moment!

"Uncle Brant is SO Cool!" - Tyler

MVI 0768 from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.

Uncle Brant helped Tyler make a slam dunk!

Brigham City Temple Open House

Thanks for taking pictures, Grandma!