Welcome Back, Anziano Lowe!

Last week Matt returned from his mission. Everyone was so excited as they waited at the airport! Then we saw him coming through security--and a wonderful reunion followed.

Welcome Back!

Emily Christiansen's Wedding

Today Roger and Wendy Christiansen's daughter Emily was married to David Hogg in the Manti Temple. It was wonderful to be in the temple with so much of our extended family!Roger and Wendy and their family.
Emily was a beautiful bride.
How about this good looking group!

The happy parents of the bride.
The Manti temple is so pretty. It was built by the pioneers in the days of their poverty. It was a beautiful setting for Emily and David's sealing.

Visit to St. Louis

Brent and I just had a great visit in St. Louis and Chicago! Here are a few pictures. I'll post the rest on Facebook. It was so fun to see Mom and Dad, Lisa and Kurt, Dave and Lizzie, Dan and Stephanie, and all the cousins.

We stopped at Lisa and Kurt's to see their family. Uncle Brent helped the kids get rid of the monster downstairs with his lightsaber on the iphone. Too bad, no picture of that, but here's a picture of Lisa and me!We took a day to drive to Chicago to see Dan and Stephanieand their family. Here are Corinne, Amanda and Emily...Amanda reminded us that she's the oldest, if not the tallest!
Ryan was making magic wands to take to the Harry Potter movie...
Back in St. Louis, Dillon showed us the impressive hole he dug...
Max was happy to see everyone and liked wrestling with Uncle Brent. (Sorry, no picture of that either. Where was I?)
(Out of order again...why can't I figure out how to change the order of my pictures when I'm posting them?) At Dan and Stephanie's we sat around the kitchen counter and visited for hours! We loved it!
Alex played the cello for us and Annie read us a story.
Mom and Dad took us all over town, including Shaw's Gardens and Forest Park. Thanks for spending so much time with us!
Brady helped Grandpa feed the fish at the Botanical Gardens.
Lisa, Kurt, and all the kids! So fun to see everyone. We love you!

Past*a House Pasta Con Broccoli Recipe

I just found this online and haven't tried it, but I can't wait to see if it's as good as the real thing!

Ingredients:
14 ounces noodles
8 ounces half & half
1 ounce butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1 ounce tomato sauce
1 ounce broccoli
1 ounce fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook the noodles until half done (not quite al dente). Drain the water. Add the half & half, butter, garlic, tomato sauce, and broccoli; bring to a hard boil. When noodles are fully cooked, add the mushrooms.

Remove from heat; add the parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

This recipe from CDKitchen for Pasta House's Pasta Con Broccoli serves/makes 4

Print this recipe

Reunion Suggestion

This is the link to the website for the house we stayed at last week for Josh's family reunion. I am thinking of looking into more places like this so we can all stay together and have more time to chat after kids to go bed - or don't. They book well in advance, that's why I'm already exploring next summer. I need some serious family time! You're all too far away.

Questions, comments, suggestions please!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Oscarson

Today I've been thinking of Grandma Oscarson on her 100th Birthday.  In honor of the occasion, I got out the audiocassette tape I recorded at their home on Devondale Lane in August, 1981.  Grandma was reading a history of her mother, Maud Knight Brown.  I have wanted to convert it to a digital format to preserve it, and today Brent was nice enough to find a way to do that.  It's in MP3 format.  I don't have the software to post it here on the blog, but I can email the file.  The tape ended kind of abruptly and I can only guess that we had left the topic and I just turned the tape off at that point.  Still, it's fun to hear Grandma's voice.  I can still see myself in her living room, sitting on the little footstool and holding the tape recorder while Grandma sat in the chair by the fireplace and shared her memories of her mother.  Her voice was younger and stronger than in later years, and it just makes me smile to hear it.  I hope you enjoy it, too.  


Vera Brown Oscarson

Christmas in May

What can you do with your Spritz cookie press? I made these for a baby shower yesterday and loved the Christmas smell in the house. I made yellow butterflies with orange and purple sugar, pink roses, and purple hearts. Who knew they could make more than poinsettias and Christmas trees?

They tasted great, as always, and the boys were snitching them.

Dan and Stephanie Visit Utah

Dan and Stephanie and Family in Utah

Dan and Stephanie came to Utah for their kids' spring break.  We had so much fun together!  They went skiing, visited friends, and spent time with Amanda.  We were so happy to have them stay with us and loved being with them.  

Ryan, Emily, and Corinne were glad to see Amanda again!
On Sunday after General Conference, we had a family dinner with Steve and Laura and their family, Bonnie and Paul, who just received their mission call to Hong Kong, and Andrew and Erica and John and Katharine.  It was great to see everyone!
Ryan is 16...and a little taller than Amanda!
After dinner, Uncle Paul shared some of the family history he has been working on for a long time, almost full time for over a year.  We each chose a family line to work on while they are on their mission.  Thank you, Uncle Paul!  
It was great to see the Newlyweds and to visit with them.  You guys are great!  Thanks for all your help...Andrew and Erica scrubbed and cut potatoes for 23 people and John and Katharine made delicious rolls.  The kids loved playing games with you, too.  We love you and were so glad you could come!  It makes us happy just to be around you.    
It was nice to visit together.  Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul are so gracious to everyone in every circumstance.  We're excited about their mission call.  Dan had some funny stories to tell about China and presented a gift for their mission:  chopsticks and kiddie chopstick trainers from Pei Wei.  Brent and Julie did a lot of dishes so I could stay at the table and visit.  
I had such fun visiting with Amanda, Ryan, Emily and Corinne.  They're all so friendly, cheerful, positive, and personable.  It was nice having cousins around!
Between the sessions of Conference Brent pulled out the crackers, cheese and sparkling fruit juices for a tasting event!  Pear and black currant were the favorites.  Lindt bittersweet chocolate was the winner in the gourmet chocolate bar division.   
Ryan got to snowboard a couple of days...go Ryan!  He even braved a blizzard at Snowbird.  

Uncle Paul and Aunt Bonnie's News

If you haven't seen this link on Aunt Bonnie's blog, click here and read Uncle Paul's latest post about Grandpa. Then click here and read about their exciting mission call to Hong Kong!

Poppy Drive, Burlingame, CA

Mom and Dad are visiting us from St. Louis and yesterday we got to drive down to Burlingame, California to show Dad the house he lived in with his family the year before they moved to St. Louis. Dad took some better pictures but I can't download them to my computer.
They lived there in 1942- August 1943 during World War II and had many experiences involving the War. From the house they could look one way and see San Francisco Bay. Not far away was a Japanese Internment Camp they drove by occasionally. Dad thought they were in there having picnics, but that wasn't quite the case.

They rented this house and were thinking about building one nearby when the call came one Sunday morning asking Grandpa to move to St. Louis to be the General Sales Manager for Edison Brothers Stores, Inc. Dad was 8 and Uncle Don was 11 when they lived there. Because he has so many vivid memories of that home and neighborhood, Dad thought they had lived there for two or three years, but it was only one and a half.
The neighborhood is off of a 4-lane road lined with tall, fragrant eucalyptus trees. Burlingame is called "The City of Trees." It has great schools and is an exclusive area. It's about 15 minutes south of downtown San Francisco and still has it's own "downtown" Broadway street with an ice cream store, restaurants and old drug stores. Dad remembers getting ice cream there with his mom. She got a vanilla cone and asked him to hold it for her for a minute (maybe to pay for the ice cream?). Dad took a bite of it and the gap between his front teeth left a tell-tale line of evidence down the scoop. That's his first memory of vanilla ice cream!
Dad had to wear dog tags with his name and address on them to school in case of a Japanese attack. They had bomb raid drills at school and once their family had to stop the car and turn off the headlights on their way home from his baptism.
When we got out of the car yesterday there was a little girl outside at the house next door. I told her that Dad used to live in that house and that we brought him back to see it. Her mom came outside and I told her the reason for our visit. To my surprise she asked me if we would like to go inside! She said they owned that house and that it's been vacant for a while but we were welcome to go in! She showed us around. It has a huge fireplace in the front room with the three arched windows and the back bedroom has a beautiful view of the neighborhood. The backyard drops off and has a lemon tree. We were able to pick some lemons and bring them home with us!
The home was built in 1928 and has been added on to. The price of the home now is not much since it has fallen into some disrepair and because it has not been updated. The additions are strangely configured and it will most likely be town down when it is sold. The price of the LOT alone is 1 million dollars, down considerably from what it was about 6 months ago. We were so glad we got to see it before it's torn down!
It brought back some good memories for Dad and I feel like I have some family nearby after all, even if they haven't lived there for over 65 years.

Michael Sings "Ja, må du leva"

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

John and Katharine 11-20-08

A few more pictures from John and Katharine's wedding day...

Lisa and Kristina are leaving me in the dust where creating a post is concerned.  I thought I had my pictures in order but evidently I still have a lot to learn about this.  Anyway, here are a few more pictures from John and Katharine's wedding.  It was such a wonderful day.  The temple ceremony was sweet and full of the love of family and love of the Lord.  We love Katharine and are so thankful to have her in our family. We're grateful that she and John have found each other and have chosen to marry one another.  We appreciate the loving kindness they show to everyone and the fun they bring to our family!

The reception hall was so pretty.  Katharine's family had decorated with candles and greenery.  The brick fireplace made it seem so inviting.  Time for family pictures...is this really us?  Where did our family of little kids go?   
  I can't help smiling when I see this picture of our grown-up children!

This is one of my favorites of John and Katharine.

Kristina, Dad, and Mom at the temple 

Linda, Evan, Angie, Julie, and Derick found a nice 

window seat overlooking the temple after the wedding dinner.

John and Katharine were beaming with happiness when they came out of the temple to greet everyone who had gathered to congratulate them.   There were lots of hugs, smiles, and pictures.  They are a great couple and we're all so happy for them!