The Fabulous Four

Erin went to school on Monday, August 15, for her pre-kindergarten meeting. She actually didn't start until the next Monday. Grandma Barbara was there and took a lot of pictures. Erin is sure a little ham. She looked incredibly cute in her red sweater and tartan skirt, just like a schoolgirl should. Erin goes to school from 12:45 until 3 p.m. She is sooooo happy. She loves it.

Donovin is still full of energy and the joy of life. He is so much fun. He talks so well that people think he is older than he is. He also counts really well. You have to remind yourself that he just turned three.

Erin and Donovin spend about three days and up to four nights a week with Grandma Barbara because of work and meeting schedules. The rest are with Mom and Dad. We know you loved having them there in Nephi but we sure missed them.

How was your Labor Day weekend? David and Bree and Erin and Donovin went camping. Barbara went out for the day Sunday. Monday was Bree's birthday. The family went out to Sand Hollow. It wasn't bad. Bree and David decided to go boating, the 5th (Bree’s day), and spent the whole day. Bree is supposed to go out with Barbara on Tuesday for a birthday dinner.

The Butcher, The Baker, and the Mammograph Taker

Amy had surgery on her sinus once again. The growth grew back after the first surgery and she was starting to get awful headaches once again. In addition, she decided to let the doctor’s remove her tonsils. She has had quite a sorethroat and has had difficulty talking. She said, however, that she has lost some pounds so it can’t be all bad. Amy so enjoys making cards that she is going to be one of those who help demonstrate how to do it (in her spare [?] time).

Eric took two weeks off of work on a medical leave so that he could take care of Amy. At first, he was giving her meds every four hours but, as Amy got feeling better, he worked on the basement once again. He has been working to get all of the electric wiring and installation done so that the work could be inspected. Then it is on to insulation and the sheet rock and the actual finishing of the rooms. The boys will move downstairs into their own rooms once the work is done. There will also be a workroom for Amy to do her crafts, scrap booking and card-making. He did take time off to camp overnight with the kids. Amy came up the first day but didn’t stay overnight because she still wasn’t feeling good.

Jason, David and Madilyn started school the end of August. Maddie is excited to be in school. Last Spring she tested in the top of the new kindergarten group to-be. She is happy to be at school but is still a little concerned because she can’t find her classroom without help. All students at the school go to a central spot in the morning where they can do homework, if needed, and congregate until it is time for school to begin. She has help, of course, getting to class from there but she was worried and told Eric that she wanted to figure out how to find her class.

David likes his teacher and school. He also liked playing with his cousins this summer. He liked dressing up in the many costumes the boys devised (Star Wars heroes, mostly) and having sword fights. He also had a great time playing with Megan. He had a fun summer and was especially happy to be baptized and that so many family members came to be part of this special time. He enjoyed camp, the running through the bushes, sleeping in the tent and having a good time. He really liked the Smores.

Jason likes school and really likes his teacher. However, his luck on the playground has not been all that great. He is sporting two casts—one on each arm. He fell from the tricky-bars just at the end of recess. He landed in such a way that he broke his right arm. Amy took him to her hospital so she could be the x-ray tech for him. His arm was broken so badly, just above the wrist that he had to be given anesthetic in order to have it set and cast. Then, after Labor Day, it was discovered that his left arm was also broken and needed to be cast. He celebrated his tenth birthday on Monday, September 5. Part of the day was spent up the canyon on the family campout. Then the family went home for the traditional birthday cake, etc.

A.J. won’t start kindergarten for two more years. He still gets to visit Grammy and Gramps on Wednesday and Thursday while Amy works. He is getting tall (for his age) and loves being active. He is happiest when he is outside and likes to do all sorts of things like ride bikes, play on the swings and just run around. He also thinks cold cereal straight from the box is a treat.

Pumpkin Butter

Eleanor Johnson

"This pumpkin butter is an excellent hostess present, and is a wonderful spread for toast and muffins.

Original recipe yield: 5 - 1/2-pint jars.

Ingredients:

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree

3/4-cup apple juice

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2-teaspoon ground cloves

1 cups white sugar

1/2-cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1-teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugars in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil.Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently. 2. Spoon hot pumpkin mixture into hot jars, filling to within 1/4 inch from top. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. 3. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes

The Old Folks at Home

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” HA! I don’t know if I am just getting older so that it is more difficult to keep up or if I was always like this and have just forgotten. Maybe some of you will remember. Dad, of course, is a pit of neverending energy.

Thanks to the help Dad received from Kirsten and Jim (and the paint sprayer), the house has been painted on the front, sides and back of the great room on the outside. Now we just have all the trim on the old part of the house to complete. I keep thinking that I will help but I just haven’t.

We had Erin and Donovin for a visit the last of August. We are having withdrawal pangs now that Erin has started school and doesn’t get to visit anymore. In fact, it will be very quiet around here since all of our summer visitors have gone back to school.

Kirsten and girls were a joy to have visit. We really had a good time. I got to read lots of stories and I like that. Plus, it was good to get to have the girls learn to know us better. Grandpa, as he is with all the grandkids, is the hands down favorite. Whitney learned to ride a two-wheel bike while she was here. She is quite proud of that. Kirsten told her that she learned to ride a bike on the same street that her mother (Kirsten) did. They left on Monday and the house is too quiet. We are used to the sounds of kids and now there aren’t any. What a bummer!

It was fun helping AnnMarie and Rachel and all the siblings, and of course, Brandon out this past couple of weeks. Kirsten, Julie and I took turns going to Provo to do what we could to help, such as fix a few meals (her ward members brought in a lot of food), wash a few clothes, do light housework and drive kids from point A to point

B. Rachel has pretty red hair and fits in with the real redheads: Whitney, Emaree and Donovin (and the other family members who are “just strawberry blondes”).

We had fun at the annual family camp. We watched a video or two (on the little television Kimberly and Shawn gave us) during some unexpected rainstorms and the kids played around camp (as usual). They went on hikes, collected rocks and flowers, and we all ate and ate (as usual). All of the cousins blew bubbles. The little ones rode big wheels. Everyone enjoyed visiting and hiking (and eating, as usual). Jim and Jared tried to listen to the Utah football game on Friday and Jim tried to listen to the BYU game on Saturday. (The Waites went to the game.) The canyon was beautiful and green and, though it was filled to capacity, our campground seemed secluded. There had been a brown bear sighting the day before we arrived so we were a little nervous. Dad thought up a fun activity for the kids for Sunday evening. The parents stood at key locations around a rope. The kids, by age, and one at a time, followed the rope from parent to parent. They had a lot of fun and learned a few things as well.

We missed those who were not there. Alyssa and Brigitta missed their compatriot in camp—Michael. All of us, kids and adults, missed having Grandpa Pitts, the Boltons, the David Trauntveins and the Todd Trauntveins (cousins, Aunts and Uncles) there. We invited Siovhan but she was too busy to come. (She did get to spend a fun day with Auntie Kirsten and girls a few days before camp. They even went to Brick Oven.) We enjoyed having Auntie Helen at camp. She is a lot of fun and brought her red and black licorice to share. Unfortunately, Mary got ill (Roseola) on Saturday so she had to go to the doctor and then had to go home and miss the rest of the camp. She is doing OK now.

Ask Jim how long it takes to blanch and freeze 150 bags of corn. He had himself, Dad, Whitney, Julie and me shucking corn, blanching corn, cutting it off the ears and bagging it. It was quite an accomplishment. We got it done it one day but it took more than two hours. He picked it all and filled the whole trunk and back seat of his car with corn, some in gunny sacks. On another day Julie and I also made apricot jam and, recently, froze peaches for future use.

Dad has been called to another position in the temple. He is now the coordinator over training for the Friday evening shift. It is another two year calling.

The Buzz’n Joneses

Dear Family,

We hope you are all doing well. We are doing well here in Nephi.!

This past month has been a good one. We are enjoying our garden. It sure is growing fast. It is fun to see the watermelons and the cantaloupes coming on. They are getting ready to be harvested. (In fact, we called Mom and Dad to come and enjoy our first watermelon today. It was sweet and crisp.) It leaves us a little "meloncholy" though, because we know that it means summer is over.

Jim has been busy "jerking" honey the last week. We are hoping for a good crop. We are excited to also announce that the insurance company finally forked over $50,000 to pay for the loss of our bees in Vegas. Now we have enough to pay for the bees we were buying to replace them. On the 23rd of August, Jim had a very productive birthday fishing with Grandpa T. at Fairview Lakes. They had to call it quits early because of rain, but not before they pulled in 8-10 large trouts. They both had large grins on their faces.

Over Labor Day weekend, Mary got the stomach flu and Roseola. She got over the stomach flu in a day, but it took a week for the roseola to go away. (Nice rhyme.) Mary is growing like a weed. She is learning new words every day. Two new words are "Bampa" and "belbow." That translates to Grandpa and elbow, respectively. She will be 18 months old in 13 days. My! Time sure does pass quickly!

Thanks for all of you love and support.! We sure do appreciate you all!

Love,

The Tres Nephites

Stand by My Servant Joseph: The Story of the Joseph Knight Family and the Restoration

Author: William G. Hartley and the Smith Institute, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University and Deseret Book, 2003, 6.25x9.25" hardbound, 590 pages. (The book is still available from Desert Book. The suggested Retail Price is $37.95 but it can be obtained less expensively from some retailers.).

In April 1829 the Lord instructed Oliver Cowdery, “Stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be” (D&C 6:18). Oliver stood for a while but then faltered. By contrast, Father Joseph Knight, acquainted with Joseph Smith before he received the plates, stood by the Prophet through every circumstance. So did almost all of Father Knight’s married children, their spouses, and dozens more in the extended family. In this volume, historian William G. Hartley tells the extraordinary story of these ordinary members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

He explores the family’s intimate role in obtaining the gold plates, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the experiences of the Colesville Branch, the gathering to Kirtland, the sufferings in Jackson County, the building of Nauvoo, and the journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

This fascinating account is drawn from important original documents that detail mobbings and losses, spiritual experiences, miraculous healings, and contacts with Joseph Smith. These writings are given context and corroboration by other early documents, contemporary records, and the best scholarship about Mormonism’s early years.

More than sixty Knight relatives who were acquainted with Joseph Smith from the beginning of his ministry “stood” by him and his mission until their deaths. Though none of them was among the Three Witnesses or the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, the Knight family itself furnishes an unequaled collective witness of the Restoration through their actions of loyalty and sacrifice for the man they knew to be a prophet of God.

Review Excerpts:

Winner of the Mormon History Association 2004 Thomas Rice King Best Family or Community History Award

“This is a true story of one of the earliest families of the Church who witnessed the events of the Restoration from an independent point of view. They consitute a strong family witness that Joseph Smith Jr. was a true prophet.” --Darrell Knight, 2004.

William Hartley has published in BYU Studies and is the author of multiple books including “My Best for the Kingdom”: The History and Autobiography of John Lowe Butler, a Mormon Frontiersman, The Iowa Mormon Trail: Legacy of Faith and Courage and The Everything Family Tree Book: Finding, Charting, and Preserving Your Family History.

Smith Family Research

Dear Family,

I went to the Family History Center this week and looked a little bit at the film I had ordered in. Surprise!!! Ann Wollage Bartington, the aunt Sarah Bean Shearring had lived with, was an LDS member, too. I had to go to Salt Lake today and spent a few minutes at the Family History Library and found that the records telling of Ann Bartington’s baptism must have been lost. So I haven't found her baptism date but she was a member when she died. Sarah Bean (Shearring) was "Cut off" - which means! she was excommunicated - They cut them off the church for trivial things then. And the Cousin, William Bartington, Ann Wollage Bartington’s son, was baptized and emigrated.

SLFHL film 087,037

Record of Baptisms & Ordinations London Conference

The new style register adopted Jan 1853 [Minnie Margetts, the secretary in the Church Offices who indexed these old records, called this Bk 425] from 1843 to 1855 Walworth Branch

Line 17 Ann Bartington, widow, Wilds Rents,

Rec'd 23 Apr 1852 from Southwark

Line 81 Sarah Bean, age 12, single, Smith Bldgs,

rec'd from Limehouse, 9 Oct 1853, cut off 1855

Line 82 William Bartington, age 15, single,

Smith Bldgs, born 9 Apr 1838 Lambeth, Surrey,

bapt 10 Oct 1853 at Finsbury

emigrated 23 Jul 1855

Another book - Walworth

Line 57 Ann Bartington, widow, Smith Buildings, bapt by Kemp, confirmed by Penrose, recd 6 Dec 1857 from Lambeth, dead

Another book: Ann Bartington, died 23 Sept 1866

William Bartington emigrated to the US. I found him on the Mormon Immigration Index CD crossing the ocean in 1855. But I haven’t been able to find him in any US records. He wasn’t on the records of those LDS companies who crossed the plains. And he wasn’t anywhere in the US in the 1860 Census. There were several diaries on the CD of people who were on that ship and while they mentioned several babies dying on the trip, they didn’t say anything about adults dying.

******

Mormon Immigration Index CD

BARTINGTON, William [born] 1838>

[ship] Cynosure [sailed] 1855

Gender: M

Age:17

Origin: London

Occ: Laborer

Note: BMR, p.213

Ship: Cynosure

Date of Departure: 29 Jul 1855

Port of Departure: Liverpool, England

LDS Immigrants: 159

Church Leader: George Seager

Date of Arrival: 5 Sep 1855

Port of Arrival: New York, New York

Source(s): BMR, Book #1040, pp. 204-

214 (FHL #025,690); Customs (FHL#175,512)

Notes: "DEPARTURE. -- The ship Cynosure,

Captain Pray, sailed on Sunday the 29th ultimo for New York, with 159 souls of the Saints on board, under the presidency of Elder George Seager, with Elder William Rogers and William J. Silver as counselors. It is impossible for us to determine at present when our next vessel will sail, but it will be as soon as a ship's complement of passengers can be made up.! In the meantime we would say to those who have determined to emigrate the first opportunity, do not delay sending in your deposits."

*******

Well - It is strange that all these years we have thought that Sarah Bean had no contact with the church after she went to live with her aunt. Now we find that the aunt was LDS all the time!!! The aunt, Ann Wollage Bartington died 5 years after Sarah was married.

Big mysteries - but fun to research.

Donnette

Kimberly's Fruit Dip and LaRae Kendall's Fruit Salad

Fruit Dip

1 pkg 8 oz cream cheese

1-cup brown sugar

2 tbsp Carmel (like the ice cream kind)

1 tsp vanilla

Blend it up. If too thick add a little more Carmel or milk

Green Salad and Mix

Lettuce

Green onion

Almonds

Sunflower seeds/and or sesame seeds

Wontons or Chinese dry noodles

Dressing (add right before serving)

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp sugar

1⁄2 c oil

2 tsp accent (or soy sauce—accent is better, if you use soy sauce, add salt and pepper to taste)

LaRae Kendall’s Fruit Salad

1 11-oz can mandarin oranges

1 25-oz can fruit cocktail

1 20-oz can chunk pineapple

2 apples

2 bananas

1 pg. instant lemon pudding

Drain mandarin oranges and set aside. Put fruit cocktail in a bowl that will hold at least 2-quarts. Cut cherry halves into smaller pieces to distribute red color. Add pineapple chunks, then instant pudding. Stir until the pudding is dissolved. Peel and cut apples into small wedges and add fruit mixture and then add the drained

orange segments. Refrigerate several hours. Slice bananas and add to salad shortly before serving. Use liquid drained from oranges however you like. You may want to thin the salad a bit with it.

From Charlotte

Hi Myrna, We will be down for Dad on his birthday Saturday and then Wally has an appointment for his regular biopsy and etc. on Monday at LDS Hospital. Think our Brenda will come along with us. How about a more intimate

gathering for us all and we can better visit our loved ones and either take Dad out to brunch, lunch or a picnic with all of us and then go back to the house for ice cream and cake? This will be good to do on his BD and also it won't interfere with the baptism. We will try to come for that, but will now have to work around Brenda and her work schedule, Thanks so much. 

I love you both, Char

Patriarch Pitts

The news for Grandpa was good. It doesn’t appear that he has cancer. In about five minutes, the doctor told him that he thinks he has pneumonia. Uncle Bob (his youngest brother) drove him to Provo. Dad and I met them there and went to the doctor with them. He is a pulmonary specialist. He looked at the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) Grandpa had brought with him from Price. He then listened to his lungs. (Pneumonia may be suspected when the doctor examines the patient and hears coarse breathing or crackling sounds when listening to the chest with a stethoscope. There may be wheezing, or the sounds of breathing may be faint in a particular area of the chest.) He then showed us the area of pneumonia in the lung and prescribed antibiotics for him which should last for 22 days. He then goes back to the doctor (Oct. 20) to see if the lung is clear. He also wants to see the MRI done six months ago and one year ago. He said he then could see the changes that had taken place in that time. Most people who develop pneumonia initially have symptoms of a cold which are then followed by a high fever, and a cough with sometimes bloody sputum production. In other cases of pneumonia (we used to call it “walking pneumonia), there can be a slow onset of symptoms. A cough, headaches, and muscle aches may be the only symptoms. In some people with pneumonia, coughing is not a major symptom because the infection is located in areas of the lung away from the larger airways. Elderly people, children and babies who develop pneumonia may have few symptoms. The doctor also wants him to see an endocrinologist because he suspects he has a nontoxic nodular goiter. Those occur when the thyroid gland is unable to meet the metabolic demands of the body with sufficient hormone production. The thyroid gland compensates by enlarging, which usually overcomes mild deficiencies of thyroid hormone. Grandpa told the doctor that he has had the problem show up before and has been tested in the past. The previous doctors told him that the nodule was a birth defect and was not dangerous.

AnnMarie, Matthew and Rachel came to Chuck-A-Rama and ate with us all. Grandpa got to see new little Rachel and we all had a nice visit.