S,

No.

R

We Want a Dog!

R, We want a dog! Can we keep it at your house? S

The Williams Report!

Events in the Williams Family:

This week is spring break for us in Canada... they should rename it midwinter recess. You may have heard that the four seasons here are; Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Construction. Living here for almost 2 years now has gone so fast. The graduating class will have commencement the week we return and I will be entering my third and final year of Ortho School. We are celebrating by going to Niagara Falls to an indoor water park for 2 days to try and forget that it is Still Winter here. Evidently indoor water parks are a common thing here, as is visiting Cuba. We will go to the water park.

We have been role playing for a little over 2 weeks now with Kaitlyn. We each have been assigned new names from the Little Einsteins. Kaitlyn is Leo, Mary is June and Liza is Annie and I unfortunately was given the name of Queen Quincy. We are starting to wonder how long this will persist. At least we have convinced her to recognize that if we use those names outside of our home people won't recognize who we are talking about. Thankfully now I no longer have to explain to other people why my daughter calls me Queen Quincy.

Liza had recently become ticklish and her laugh is very contagious in our home. She like Kaitlyn has also become very fond of "the flippies." We are currently working on a move that is going to make the panchanko look like child's play.

I will be taking my board exams at the end of April and then begin working on writing my thesis, the research for which I have recently completed. I am not sure what I will do with all my time when those two tasks are completed, hopefully by the end of the summer.

Mary is as you might expect very popular with our young women here. There are a number of people who are trying to convince us to stay here so they can keep Mary. The truth is that we still don't know at this point where we will end up. At any given day of the week we seem to be interested in a new place. We recently upgraded our family map and one of us can often be found at the computer researching areas. We are currently making contacts in many places, including Utah and hope that one of them will provide an opportunity for us. It is a big decision and we are confident that as we prayerfully study out our options that one will be made clear to us that it is the right one.

Congrats Jim and Mandy for the arrival of Olive. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Zach, Mary, Kate and Liza

Hello,

I thought I would help support Mom by adding to BB even though it feels like there isn't much to say. It is kind of tricky to get back into writing every month, but I miss hearing from everybody on a regular basis. Hopefully Mom can return to her former role of creating an environment of guilt which builds and builds until one finally writes. -If not we are just going to have to suck it up and make it happen on our own.

Everything is going well in CO. I don't think that Marisa or I have anything to report, but here are some updates on the kids:

Kate- has been a pretty easy kid which has made the transition nice. For those that don't know, we will be in Utah for Spring Break next week. We are planning on blessing Kate next Sunday, probably at the Thompsons. Hopefully that will work for all of the Utah clan.
Cora- Is now on point shoes in ballet. She got major roles in the "Firebird" ballet to be performed in June. I watched her the other day, and couldn't believe how pretty and graceful she looked. (Of course I am somewhat biased)
Linc- is really in a growth spurt. He now weighs more than Cora. He has started to get certain jokes which seems like a big step forward. It's really fun to get him laughing.
Brig- Is testing for Yellow belt in Karate this week. I have made him promise that he will only use his new powers for good.
Lydia- Has started taking ballet. She comes home and shows me/teaches me her moves after every class. I find her butterfly impression to be very cute, and also very hard to replicate as a man.

Aspen the dog- When we first got her, we talked about letting her have one litter of puppies to give the kids a fun experience. After she had her first period during the week of kate's birth, we swore on all that's holy that we were going to get her "fixed". When we told Cora, she took on all dog responsibilities including poop clean up in an effort to keep the dog fertile. That has kept the door of future puppies minimally ajar. Out of curiosity, how many family members would be interrested in a Golden Retriever puppy in the next 6-12months?

We love you guys. Congratulations Jim and Mandy. That is one cute little kid.

love,

RMCLBLK and dog.

The Gehring BB Entry

Dear Family:

We hope all of you are doing well especially all those who have had surgeries. We too have had or are planning our own hospital visits for the coming weeks. Eliza visited the ER both in January and February. She went in January because she was trying to enter the bathroom when her brother needed privacy. He kicked the door and the doorknob cut her left eyelid open. Three weeks later the exact same thing happened, same door, same brother, same doorknob, just the right eyelid - only much deeper and perpendicular rather than lateral. It was a little hard to explain why we were there for the same reasons. She also knew exactly what was coming and anticipated all the pain and discomfort she felt. Since then, every time she has run into something she says, "Do I have to go to the doctor?"

I have 3 weeks before my C-Section (April 2). Every time I go to a doctor's appointment Peter asks if the doctor is going to "cut me" The kids are really excited for Jacob's arrival. Matt is also excited, but is frantically trying to finish painting, tiling, and getting our house ready before the baby comes. We plan on moving the last weekend of April now as we found some renters for Dad and Mom's house that need to move in May 1.

Anyway, it makes life a little crazy around here, but it is fun to have so much going on. Good luck to Jim and Mandi. We hope you are welcoming little Olive into the world as I write.

Love, Sharon and Family

MARCH

Birthdays and Anniversaries for March

1st Mary and Zach

4th Samuel Bentley Gehring turns 6

10th the due date for Olive Analeigh

22nd Dad and Mom

25th James Edwin turns 27

25th Dan and Rachel

31th Cecelia Ruth turns 7

Dear Family,

Okay I’m repenting of picking up the phone and talking rather than being faithful to write a BBB article (not that the phone isn’t a wonderful blessing and way of communicating, but we need both). It seems everyone has eased off on the articles and Dad and I really miss them. It is good to have a written history of what has happened month by month in the family and I’d like to see us get back in the habit of writing.

With that said. I will begin: After having overdone it last week, I am trying to keep off my feet as much as possible this week and not “bustle”. I’ve had a little setback in my recovery and so I’m trying to be good. Dad has been really helpful around the house, and all the sisters at the temple are treating me gently and not letting me do the laundry.

It is a new month (notice the birthdays and anniversaries). I’ve also started a new project that I can do while sitting when I’m at home. I brought 4 Bibles and Triple Combinations with me (large print (which I need now to see, but is heavy to carry around), tiny print ( that you all gave me when we left for Mexico City, and I love because it is light weight) medium print (that you gave me when we left for BsAs) and Spanish which I take to church and conferences here and have used on our missions so I’ve lots of notes from general authorities in). Anyway I have different notes in all of them depending on which I pick up to use. I began today to go through them each and make sure they have the same cross references and notes. Let me share something that I had noted at one time in one of them. I was reading about Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and how he withstood one of the worst trials anyone has to endure (no I’m not referring to resisting Potifer’s wife (after all maybe she was ugly), but the trial I speak of is being RICH and ADORED!

It took him 20 years of captivity to prepare him to overcome that trial. You will recall that as a boy he wasn’t very wise. He probably even gave in to boasting as he shared his dreams with his brothers and father about how they would one day bow down to him. However, through the years as a slave and prisoner he learned humility and to serve others, so that when he became second in command of the most powerful nation on earth he did not take the credit unto himself, but gave it to God (Genesis 41:16).

Isn’t it wonderful that even the trials of our lives can become blessings to prepare us for the future, if we will remain true and faithful to the Lord. I love you, Mom and Grandma

March Madness

NO, it's not about basketball. Sorry all you hopeful boys out there. Actually things are nice and boring here, which is why we haven't updated lately, but...seeing as how it's been a while. I thought we should.

Steve's job is going well. The kids are doing well in school. (Elijah particularly seems to be having a much easier time this semester. He is on Concerta now and it seems to be making a fairly significant difference in his ability to handle school). Levi just finished a science fair project and Israel does weird things in his classes like carving a statue of some Shakespeare character from wood. (He even got permission to bring a pocket knife and an exacto knife to school for this...HUH???) Cecelia is just SOOOOO excited about her birthday this month. Francesca got a short haircut, now she looks like a cute little Vulcan...or something. (I don't have pictures of this yet, but will soon.) And Maggie got one of her big front top teeth in; she's working on the other one.

That's about it.

Really.