Congratulations to Wendy and Dave Frey and family on the birth of their new little boy, Luke Jefferies Frey. I am slow putting this up...I believe he was born on the 17th (or 16th? somebody correct me). From what I've heard, everybody is doing great. Yay Wendy!

Here's the last picture we took of Christian (as we left a wild BYU bowl game fiesta) at Uncle Gold's house... It'll be awhile before he has this many girls hugging him! :-)

Murray Family Reunion

Hello Murray Family! Or should i say Hi-dee-Ho!!!! Merry Christmas and every other appropriate salutation.
First of all the Murray Family Christmas Brunch was awesome!!! I will definately be there next year.
I also wanted to ask all of the Aunts and uncles (not necesarily in this order, Norman, Jane, Evan, Kathy, Margaret, Robert, Elaine and Golden) when they could, if they could or wanted to do a Murray Family Reunion this summer. I would like to throw out the suggest of July, and a tour of local Murray Family history sites. For instance, Spanish Fork is where John Murray settled. For those who aren't aware, John Murray came from Scotland in the mid 1800s, married Sarah Bates in Bufalo New York, was baptized in Monroe, Michigan by Jeremiah Hatch (I met one of his descendants in the Temple after participating in some Sealings, that was a sweet experience). Then some how got to Utah and Settled in Spanish Fork and is Barried there. So to cut the story short we could check some stuff out there in Spanish Fork, it could also be centered around the Payson Scottish Festival which will be held that second weekend in July and there is no fee for admittance. So I'll stop blabbing and ask all who read this message to send me an e-mail at elezeta4405@frontiernet.net to let me know what you thoughts are about a Murray Family Reunion this Summer.
Thank you again to Ariana and Elaine for the Brunch. It was so good to meet up with some of the cousins. I hope this message finds all of you in good health and happy times.
Regards,
Michael John Murray

Murray Christmas Brunch

I will never make it as a photojournalist, but here are a few pictures I snapped at the brunch. Hopefully Becky has some better ones -- I missed several people. At any rate, it was wonderful to reconnect with everyone who came! We had a fun time. It is especially fun to see all our little children ...the next generation! My mom has been trying to keep all the family records current. Feel free to e-mail her (kmlobo@verizon.net) and check to see if she's got your family up to date.


I will do my best to label these correctly....I know all the cousins, but I am a little foggy on some of our kids' names. Please correct anything I goof up! :-)


Here is Uncle Norm and ... argh. I didn't catch his name, but he sure is cute! I believe he's Jenny's. :-)

Some wild kid action...That's Christian in the middle. Our soon-to-be-missionary/child wrangler.


Uncle Norman and Aunt Barb, who made beautiful Danish Christmas ornaments! That's Ethan Sharp's head at the bottom.


Missy, Preston, and Katie. Preston loves the ladies...


Aunt Elaine, our gracious host, and beautiful Virginia! She's expecting baby boy #4.


Some of the little boys singing Christmas songs. Cute!


Christian pontificating about something.


More lovely ladies....Aunt Elaine, Jenny, Marci, Katie, Megan, and her husband Jake (obviously not a lady).


Megan and Jake's cute little girl, Gwen.


James, Michael, and Brandon.


Many thanks to Elaine for hosting this event in her home...and for providing delicious waffles! We would definitely like to do this again next year, so HOLD A SPOT ON YOUR 2008 CALENDERS:

Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008 (EIGHT) from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm at our house for the 2nd Murray Christmas Brunch & Ornament exchange.

Mark the day and don’t let anything get in the way! More later. Merry Christmas to all!!

Also: We are looking to organize a 1-day Murray Family Reunion here in UT this coming summer -- Michael, Marci, Missy, and Katie are spearheading it. Please let them know when you would/wouldn't be available.

Just a reminder:

The Murray Family Christmas Brunch will be this Saturday, Dec 22, from 11am to 1pm at Aunt Elaine's house. Bring whatever you like to put on waffles, something you like to drink, and a Christmas ornament to exchange. Email me (Ariana) if you need directions or more details. Thanks to Elaine for hosting! Should be a good time.

I found this picture on Brent and Kate Jefferies' Picasa picture site. So I stole it. Err borrowed it. :) Feel free to post other historical or hysterical pictures.

Thanksgiving 2007


Well, I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving. We got to go to Portland, which was very fun. Gold and Maryann drove up with Missy and Katie, making it even more special! Here we are trying to invent a sugar-free apple dessert. It ended up turning out pretty nicely!

We had a wonderful opportunity to go to the Portland Temple with Christian, who got his endowments since he leaves on his mission to Portugal in January. We won't be able to go to Oregon at Christmas, so this was the only chance we'd get to all be together. It was a very cool experience!

Well, the Christmas season is upon us! It's a wonderful time of year to remember our Savior and His gift of the Atonement to us. I think it would be fun to share our Christmas traditions here on the blog....or stories, recipes, or whatever you like. Ready, set, go!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Actually, we call those "Aunt Kathy's Butter Crescent Rolls"!! We have them every Thanksgiving and Christmas too!

Here is our tradition.... Pie Night. Because there is always so much good food at Aunt JoEllen's for Thanksgiving, we never had much room to enjoy the delicious pies she and Sheridan always make. We started to have Wednesday Pie Night. The night before Thanksgiving we have pie for dinner! There are generally 12-16 different kinds of pie. We invite family and friends, and when there are non-member friends, we invite our Missionaries too. This year there will be: Apple, Pumpkin Chiffon, Pilgrim Pumpkin, Cherry, Chocolate Peanut Butter, KeyLime, Razzleberry, Pecan, Mincemeat, Lemon-Pineapple Chiffon, and Banana Creme. We are going to try: Grapefruit Chiffon in a toasted coconut pie shell, Pear Crunch Pie and Logan Berry, and possibly Glazed Apricot! Remember it is dinner, so there will be ice cream and Cool Whip to your delight!!! We expect about 20 people this year. Sometimes some of them will bring pies too! Then we enjoy the leftover pie after the bird the next day!

We have had a good time creating a turkey out of vegetables (red cabbage for the body and then let your imagination go! a la Aunt Kathy) to be eaten during "Happy Hour" before the real turkey is ready. We usually have these during the holiday season:

Pumpkin Pancakes
Mix: 1 1/2 c. pancake mix, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 c. milk, 2 T. oil, 1/4 c. sugar
Fold in: 1/2 c. canned pumpkin, 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Serve with butter, syrup, whipped cream (optional), chopped pecans (optional)

Eons ago you asked for Starsi Murray's address in the mission field. Here goes:

Cirkev Jezise Krista SPD
Garen Murray
Milady Horakove 85/95
170 00 Prague 7 - Holesovice
Czech Republic - Europe

We enjoy the blog and wish that sometime we could get together again--if even just for an afternoon in the park. This summer in Zion? The one in Utah, that is.
Enjoy your families and the season, and all of our many, many blessings.
Auntie Jo and Uncle Ev

So much to be thankful for...

With Thanksgiving next week, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm grateful for. I truly feel so blessed, and particularly this week I'm grateful for doctors who have made my kids feel happy and healthy again! (The ophthalmologist, pediatrician, and hopefully in the coming weeks, the otolaryngologist, aka ear nose throat doctor. For more on this, check here and here on our family blog.) I'm grateful for a sound mind, and strong faith. I'm grateful for great parents and in-laws. But I am grateful, most of all, for my sweet husband. We have been married now for just over 6 years, and I can honestly say that I am more in love with John now than the day of our wedding. I am grateful that we have learned and struggled and grown together, through school, moving (we have lived in 3 different states and 6 different apartments or houses over the last 6 years), at least 12 different jobs (between the 2 of us), pregnancy and childbirth, and most importantly, parenthood.

My hope for all of you this Thanksgiving is that you will take a moment to cherish how blessed you are. I know I am better for having known each of you. Thank you for your friendships, examples, support, and love! Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is our favorite pumpkin pie recipe:

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

4 oz soft cream cheese

1 T milk
1 T sugar
1 1/2 C Thawed whipped topping
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 C cold milk
2 C pumpkin
2 packages vanilla instant pudding
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/8-1/4 t cloves (less is more here)

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and the 1 T milk with whisk until smooth. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spread on bottom of crust. Pour 1 C milk, pumpkin, pudding, and spices into a separate bown. Beat with whisk until smooth. Will be thick. Spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Garnish with whipped topping.

Thanksgiving

Since we will probably never be all together for Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to have an online Thanksgiving exchange here on the blog. Please share any special recipes or stories you might have....and we can pretend we are all together. :-) I know there are some funny stories floating around out there! (Mom--post your story that got read on the BBC!)


I'll start. Here's our (famous?) roll recipe that we make every Thanksgiving. They are soooooo good! Be sure to make extra so you have some the next day for little turkey sandwiches.

----------

BUTTER CRESCENTS

yield 24 rolls

1/2 c scalded milk (microwave till it boils)

1/2 c butter

1/3 c sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp yeast softened in 1/2 c warm water

1 egg

4 c all purpose flour (about

Scald milk and pour over butter, sugar, and salt. Cool to Lukewarm. Add egg, dissolved yeast, and 2 cups flour; mix well. Add enough flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead 5-10 minutes. Allow to rise in a greased bowl till almost doubled.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half and allow it to rest 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle. Allow dough to rest 5 minutes. Cut with a pizza cutter into 12 pieces (cut into 4 pieces first, then each big piece gets cut into THIRDS – don’t ask me how many times I messed that up). Roll from wide end to narrow end and pinch. Place on greased cookie sheet and curve ends slightly. Cover and allow to rise. Bake in 365 oven till lightly browned (about 14 minutes in my oven).

Happy Halloween tomorrow!










Feel free to check out our blog (right side of this page) to see our Halloween pumpkins! :)

In case you don't get the previous post....here's what it's in reference to.

"POWERPOINT" -Preston



If you are a fan of The Office and you saw last week's episode, you will find this funny. :)

The Launch...and the Meltdown

During the 1st week of September, our families launched some model rockets that Ethan had fixed up. This started a rocket craze at our house that culminated in our rocket competition which finally happened this past Tuesday. We were supposed to launch on the 24th, the day after Evan turned 3, but we have had a string of excessively windy days that have prevented the competition. So here you are, our rockets "Baby Bertha" (the blue and white one) and "The Wizard" (the green one) just after John finished painting them.




Ethan and Michole getting their rockets ready for launch.







Logan really got in on the action, too. He had a great time watching from his baby bjorn.

However, trouble came just after the 1st rocket launched. Evan became hysterical and didn't want us to launch any more rockets. I think the noise scared him, but really, who can understand the inner workings of the 3-year-old mind? From then on, he screamed bloody murder whenever a rocket was launched, then screamed if we didn't let him chase after the rocket as it came down. Who knew he'd go ballistic after talking about launching rockets nonstop for the last 5 weeks!?


Here, John is helping Evan not watch the launch.















Here is Grandy trying to distract Evan, showing him Grandad's "secret weapon," a resurrected R2D2 rocket from the 1st launch at the beginning of Sept.



This is the face we got every time he was upset. Doesn't it just break your heart? He and I ended up leaving before John launched our rocket the third time because he was so upset.














Sorry for the double vision here, this is just after our first successful launch of the baby bertha. Ours was the only rocket that was able to be launched and retrieved 3 times! We were declared the official winners of the competition, but to be fair, we did run out of daylight before everyone could attempt to launch a 2nd time.

View from the McBee home:

Alex in San Fransisco stumping for daddy's book:

international author daddy:

Alex took the photo.

...and Ol' McBee crabbin':

Yay for Liz Jefferies!

We went to Liz's mission farewell this morning in Draper. She gave a fantastic talk...I think she'll make a wonderful missionary in Ohio!

It was fun to see some of the Jefferies cousins and their families. I think we looked like an invasion to Bruce and Jane's ward! :)

When Liz has an MTC address, please post it on here so we can send her letters.

Come to think of it, let's put any missionary address up on this website -- So Garen's... and I'll put Christian's up when he leaves. Am I forgetting anybody?

Ethan's 4th B-day

Hey everyone! September 15th was Ethan's 4th birthday. He got to have some friends come over to celebrate with us, including our family down in Louisiana via an internet video conference call! I made a yummy chocolate cake (three-layer bittersweet ganache filling with a chocolate glaze on top!!! Ethan's choice, of course. He is a chocoholic like me). And it only took Ethan three tries to blow out all the candles. He received some fun presents including a giant wooden train set from Grandpa and Grandma Sharp, which he LOVES! We already had some wooden tracks that my sister gave me that fit together with the new ones. Now we have endless train track possibilities. Enjoy these pictures from the big day.
Love, Becky Sharp

Ethan's new source of joy...with some assembly required by mommy.

New gazooka bubble blower...watch out daddy!

Super racing ramp

Even Owen got in on the action, until he knocked it all down...

Owen is actually singing here, obviously pleased with his destructive abilities

The cats also had their share of knocking down the train tracks

Update.

So Christian, my brother, made it safely to Utah and got all registered for school. Wait, let me back up. Ok, he got his mission assignment a week ago, and found out that he doesn't go into the Missonary Training Center until January 16th. So he decided to see if he could squeeze in one more semester of school before he goes. He made approximately one million phone calls and got everything figured out. He and my Dad drove down from Oregon on Sunday (all in one day). My dad flies back on Saturday. :-(

Anyways, so we rearranged out house so Christian could live here with us and not have to hassle getting an apartment contract and stuff. We have 3 bedrooms, but we wanted to maintain the 'extra' room with the computer and sewing machine and other fun stuff, so we moved Preston out of his room and into the giant walk-in closet that's off our master bedroom. It's all legal because there is a big window. His crib and changing stuff fits in there perfectly. We set up our air mattress and extra little computer table in the extra bedroom for Christian. He's got a pretty swanky place in there now! My dad got him a little bookshelf from IKEA and I had an extra set of drawers he can use. And since our whole sectional couch doesnt fit in the living room anyway, we put it in Christian's room. So he's got quite the setup.

Christian registered for classes on Monday, which was the LAST DAY to add classes. The semester started 2 weeks ago, so he is quite behind. He is so ambitious though -- he's met with all the professors and made arrangements to get caught up. He is working really hard to get everything done. Once he gets caught up, he'll work part time at Jeff's work.

So everything is settling down and going well. It's been fun having my dad here!

Mission Call!!!

Hey everybody!!!

This is Christian Lobo and I just got my mission call today!

I spent a good 3 or 4 months battling the health care system to get my papers done. I had my wisdom teeth out in May, physical in June, but week after week getting bounced back and forth trying to get somebody to just poke me with a needle for the TB test. I got my papers in a little over 3 weeks ago and finally got my call today!!!

Check it out:



With a reporting date that late, it cuts into the Winter semester at BYU, meaning I will have missed this Fall semester completely. However, I do have the option of signing up for classes RIGHT NOW and then driving down ASAP to take classes at BYU. The only catch to that is that I would have to work out a deal with my job -- leaving with just a day's notice... I work for an online business, however, so maybe it's possible that I could work over the internet. Anyway, my bishop is going to see if I can get leave earlier

Either way, I'm really, really excited. I can't wait to head out and do some good.

Christian

Duke Clan

Here's a picture of Ariana and Preston near Bridal Veil Falls in Utah. It was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk down there.

Coincidentally, they were still conducting a search for a missing BYU student when we got there. You can read about the story on www.ksl.com Anyway, we did our walk, then visited Jeff's parents in Orem, then came home. I looked at the news and saw that they'd found the body of the missing girl near Bridal Veil -- at about the same time we were up there! Weird. It was pretty tragic -- it looks like she went for a little hike alone and slipped off a cliff and fell a couple hundred feet. Tragic!


On a lighter note, this is Preston being silly on Jeff's shoulders. He's quite a ham until you pull out a camera, then he won't do anything you tell him (hold still, look at the camera, stop chewing on his fingers, etc). :-) He is 2 1/2 -- VERY 2 1/2. He is definitely the boss. We just love him and enjoy watching him learn and grow. He's a smarty pants like his Daddy and is currently Curious George's #1 fan.

Anyways, a little about us right now--

We were in Portland, OR, for 3 years and owned a little townhouse about 4 miles from my parents. Jeff's job (well, his boss, who needed some anger management classes) was stressing him beyond his capacity, so he quit and tried to find something else. He looked for 4 months before taking a job in Midvale, UT. I was VERY sad to have to leave my beautiful Oregon, but here we are. We are renting a place in Lehi until we decide what to do with ourselves. We sold our place in Portland (for more on this drama see our personal blog -- click on the link on the right sidebar). We are doing well and Jeff is enjoying his job MUCH more. His boss is a normal guy, so that's an improvement. Jeff is now a product manager for www.MassageNaturals.com which sells supplies for massage therapists (linens, lotions, accessories). It's an exciting job for him since the company is so small-- he gets lots of hands on experience that he wouldn't get at a bigger place. He is learning a lot. He even can carpool with a co-worker who also lives in Lehi, so we like that!! Makes the commute fun since he's got somebody to talk to.

ANYWAYS, I am so excited to have this website to keep in touch with you guys. I think it will be fun. I keep our personal blog pretty updated so click that link to see all the ramblings and details of our silliness. We love you guys!

Oh -- there are still lots of cousins who haven't signed up on here...feel free to spread the word. I don't have everyone's email. I don't want to leave anyone out who wants to participate!

HEIDI- HO!!!!!!! (sic)

Yikes! It is so great to be it touch with all of you through this super-keen blog, and to see your nice pixelated faces looking back at us! Here we are:

Kate and Brent with Bruce and Jane Jefferies at Brent's graduation in May 2007. The goofy-looking person in the white shirt behind Jane is not a relative. Brent graduated from that gentile university in Salt Lake with a PharmD. Of course, he did go to BYU for a good while. Wymount was a great place to live ;)









Here's Toby the 2-yr-old (almost looks like Vince, when he has a beard):

And here's Joshy-the 5-yr-old:

We are currently living in Oregon City, Oregon. We moved here from Draper, Utah a few days after Brent graduated. Brent finally took his licensing exams (and actually passed), and so he will be a real live Oregon pharmacist by the end of the week! We are all excited to have that behind us. Joshy is just starting Kindergarten, and is super-enthusiastic about riding the bus. Toby continues to cultivate a taste for fine sands and dirts (er...soils, right Grandad?). And the magnificent Kate is ambitiously seeking to sand and re-stain a wooden bunkbed she found on Craigs's List for the boys. What a girl!

A parting shot until next time:

Presenting...

King Jer and Queen Margie Ann...

Back on the throne again after weathering storms of great magnitude, and challenges of every sort! But always grateful for a loving family that is always there to support them! We share our love with all the extended family--and yes, we did wonder what happened to John and Sarah! Keep close...more later! Love, Marg p.s. Heidi ho!

"Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn" Murray

We have adventure genes! On the left is Boyd Murray floating on the canal in Altonah. Uncle Lee is on the right. Note the fine workmanship on the boy-built raft. This is such a classic photo of our patriarch. We can only imagine the adventures he had as a boy on the family homestead in the Altonah Indian country. There was lots of hard work, but we can see there were times of great fun. The canal was dug by their father, James Beck Murray, and the other bench pioneers working together to divert water from the river to their fields. James Beck Murray was the first person to file after the Indian reservation was opened for homesteading.

Hello from the Dustin Sharp Family

Hi everyone! This is a great idea to help us all keep in touch. It's especially good for people like me, who married in to the Murray clan. I have to say, it's been hard for me to keep all the aunts, uncles and cousins straight. So make sure you all post pictures so I know who you are!

Anyway, here's the latest on us. I'm the wife of Dustin Sharp, who is Margaret (Murray) Sharp's son, in case anyone is confused. We've been living in Springville, Utah now for about four years. Dustin has been going to BYU this whole time. After exploring Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, he finally settled on Manufacturing Engineering. He is enjoying all the hands on classes and projects he gets to participate in; everything from plastic injection molding to metal machining. He will finally graduate next August!!! It's been a long haul, that's for sure.

We have our two boys, Ethan -4 years old, and Owen -16 months. They are very cute and make us laugh quite a bit. You have to have a sense of humor when you have young ones. We couldn't have asked for better kids, though. Ethan actually turns four on Sept. 15th. He's on a waiting list to get in to the local preschool. We are a little disappointed about that. He was excited to go to school. And since he is a September birthday, he won't get to go to Kindergarten until two years from now. He will get priority placement for preschool next year, though. Owen, on the other hand, is a momma's boy who won't ever let me out of his sight. Hopefully, the transition to nursery in two months won't be a nightmare for him, or me!

As for me, I attended some years of school before moving out here. I decided to transfer to BYU when Ethan was about six months old. I finally graduated in April 2006, just three weeks before Owen was born. I have a degree in Visual Arts. Currently, I am working at home on my new business. I make stained glass jewelry and hand-bound books. I even built an e-commerce website which I am very proud of, having no prior experience. With a great deal of help from Mitch, who is a computer genius, I did it! You can take a look at: http://www.beckysharpdesigns.com. Any comments or feedback would be appreciated, since I'm constantly modifying the site, trying to make it better.

That's enough about me. We bought a house two years ago and really love it here in Springville. Dustin hopes to find a job locally when he graduates so we can stick around for awhile. Otherwise, who knows where we'll end up a year from now. Wherever a job takes us, I suppose. I will post a family picture as soon as we take one! I cut the kids hair today, which is a start, but Owen has a giant bruise in the middle of his forehead, so that won't work. But I do have some cute pics of the kids on the trampoline from a couple of weeks ago.

Hope to hear more from all of you soon! And I hope you are all doing well.
-Becky, Dustin, Ethan & Owen