A Sweet Reunion

So anyone remember Harmonique?

This was Fall of 1994


Great pictures- eh? Sorry they are not the best quality. I had to scan them out of a scrapbook. So this is the best they get.
So for those of you who don't know who I am talking about or have tried to forget us, Harmonique was a group of my girlfriends from high school that decided to form a singing group. It is hard to adequately explain the "awsomeness" of this group. We were good friends, and unlike so many girlfriends, we did not fight, or hold grudges, or be as petty as so many girls are at that age. We got along beautifully. We have a bond that is more like sisters than just friends. We would gather together around Julie's (Alli's mom) piano in her basement and sing for hours (I do not exaggerate when I say hours). We would mostly sing songs that Julie had written (they are amazing songs) or hymns. Because Julie's songs were usually just words on a page we would create our own harmonies and WOW, I hope it is OK to brag a bit, we were really quite amazing with what we could come up with. We ended up singing in many sacrament meetings, parties, weddings, funerals, reunions, our own Seminary graduation (in which we sang a georgeous song titled "Feast upon the words of Christ" that Julie wrote) and we even had the priveledge of recording one of our favorite songs "Let your Light so Shine" (also written by Julie).
Anyway, almost all of us are living back in Utah again (minus Rachelle, she is is Chicago right now). So we decided to gather again for a good ole singing session again. We actually spent the first several hours just talking and laughing and only the last hour singing, but it was perfect. Between the six of us there are 22 1/2 kids with only 5 1/2 of them being girls. We figure we must be raising our own little Army of Heleman. It really is amazing. Looking back on those high school pictures, who would have thought of that kind of posterity.
Here are some current pictures of us girls and half of our children. Some of the kids were in school so they were not pictured.

**Pictured Left to Right:
Heidi(Lunt)Dunkley, Deanne(Stratford)Jacobs, Jessie(Woodbury)Charles, Anna(West)Teeples, and Alli(Earl)Goodworth
We haven't changed that much have we? If so, only for the better- right?

The amazing Julie Earl is on the far right.

The Kids- only 1/2 of them


We had such a wonderful time. I am so grateful for the amazing friendship we developed so many years ago (about 13yrs) and that we still have that special bond. Thank you girls!
***P.S. If you haven't had enough of Harmonique, or would like to see some fun video footage, feel free to visit Jessi's (and Louie Charles) blog or Alli's (and Warren Goodworth) blog. Just click on them under my friend and family blogs.

LEPRACHAUNS and THE EASTER BUNNY (a bit late-sorry)

Ok, so we have not been the best at staying posted lately and we are very sorry. It seems our life just gets busier and crazier and I have a bad feeling it is only going to get worse. Anyway, because we have been so busy, we have much to share. I will try to keep it brief as not to bore our loyal readers. J/K So.... HAPPY ST. PATTRICKS'S DAY!!! Or HAPPY LEPRACHAUN DAY!! (as the boys call it) St. Patty's Day is one of my very favorite holidays. Unfortunately, I don't think we focus on the REAL purpose of the holiday. Hmmm... nope. Don't even know what it is. But we do have loads of fun with leprachauns! We have a few traditions (passed on from my side) that our boys totally soak up. First, we MUST wear GREEN--Duh or else the pinchings run wild. Second, that TRIXY LITTLE LEPRACHAUN always sneaks into the house leaving many GREEN footprints to follow through out the house leading to a "SPECIAL POT OF GOLD" (aka. big green bowl of goodies). Also, the kids must be on the constant lookout for this LITTLE GREEN MAN. They will know where he has been because everything the leprachaun touches turns green. This year he got much of our food. We, as is tradition, had green zuchinni pancakes, green eggs, green buttermilk syrup, green "leprachaun juice", green milk, and green bacon. The boys had so much fun and already have big plans for thier LEPRACHAUN TRAP made of metal (cuz they can't go through metal)that they will build to get him next year. Here is a little video and some more pics. We celebrated at Bruce and Christy's house so their boys and cousin sweet Haylie could join in the fun.
Next... HAPPY EASTER!! This year, we had the priveledge of having Easter at our home.
Of course, the Easter Bunny did come and the boys had fun searching for thier Easter baskets that they had set out the night before. They were thrilled to find them loaded with eggs full of too many goodies and lots of fun little toys (thank you Dollar Store). We then headed to our 9am church meeting which really was wonderful. The speakers were superb and the spirit of the meeting was very strong. The hymns, I am happy to say because I get to choose them, definately added to that spirit. I get the priveledge of being up in front of the congregation leading the hymns each week. Easter was particularly wonderful to feel and see the beautiful spirit that touched our ward when we sang the closing hymn of "I know that my Redeemer Lives". That evening my family all came over for an Easter Feast. It really was a delicious feast of chicken pillows, mormon potatoes, yams, homeade rolls, jello, almond green beans and banana cream and chocolate cream pies for dessert. After dinner we had an egg hunt in our back yard where the kids got more treats (fruit snacks and animal crackers- what a boring Easter Bunny-eh?) We then watched the animated video of He Is Risen. It was a very fun day. We are so grateful for our savior Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice for us.

Random Sampler

There have been so many events and thoughts that I have wanted to write about over the last little while, but I simply could not pull things together enough to make the time to sit down and do it. So I will attempt to give a brief summary and throw some random pictures in the mix too.
Some of my thoughts have included the passing of a dear prophet President Gordon B Hinkley, the passing of our sweet Grandma Stratford, and the birth of my sister's little baby boy Kevin Tyler Wangsgard. Each one of these events has created such a wide spectrum of emotions from sadness of loss to the happiness of a reunion to complete joy because of the miracle of life. Its amazing see how life goes full circle. I have sure enjoyed reading so many wonderful thoughts from our family and friends. Blogs are sure wonderful in helping us all keep in touch on a fun yet personal level. Thank you blogging world.

So... yes, we are still alive (barely) and finally healthy. We have been quite ill for what seems like forever. I think we have had something, at least a nasty cough since the beginning of January, but the month of February, especially the last 3 weeks have really rocked our world. We are now happy to report that our home is no longer quaratined and hopefully we can get back to normal life (whatever that is). I think we have all had a bit of the "cabin fever" and are so looking forward to spring. Here are a few pictures of what you do when you are quaratined:

A LITTLE DANCE DANCE?

LOTS OF MOVIES!

AS TYLER SAYS: I THINK I NEED A SHORT NAP.

JUST HANG OUT!

AND JUST CRY...

One event I hesitate to even write about, because then it officially confesses to the world that we truly are bad parents. So all infant toys, seats, beds, anything for your child, has a WARNING LABEL on it that cautions all parents to be sure to do this or don't EVER do that etc.... So we made the horrible mistake of not "following all instructions carefully" and we put Tate in his bouncer seat and placed him up on the island counter top. We have been doing this since, well, always under the theory that he is safer up there out of the way of getting trampled by his older brothers. I was always standing right by him, and never left the room while he was up there, BUT... this time we placed him up there and we all sat down to eat dinner at the table. Unfortunately, Dan and I had our backs turned when we heard a horrible thud on the floor. We turned to find Tate had got his bouncer bouncing so much that he had bounced himself right off the counter and onto the floor. Luckily the bouncer took the brunt of the fall, but our poor little guy did hit his face on the floor. We think his chin hit and then his forehead. He screamed for over an hour. We took him to the Insta Care in Layton where they said he was fine. He ended up with a very sad purple bruise on his chin and a fat lip. I cannot begin to express how horrible Dan and I felt. I'm sure any parent can imagine the sinking, paniky feeling as you see your baby face down on the floor. Such a bad parenting moment. Needles to say, Tate has been grounded to floor at all times and his parents will follow all instructions, cautions, and warnings from here on out.

SOOOOO SAD!

Our boys have had some good times hanging out with their cousins lately. Christy and I, as we often do, got together on Thursday for the boys to play. They had a lot of fun building traps, riding their bikes, making hot chocolate out of the mud and then creating a masterpiece or "special Valentine" for their mommies on our fence. They were covered in mud and our fence... well, look at the picture. They had so much fun. Then Friday night, we got together with Bruce, Christy, Leah and Joel for a fun evening of cards and yummy cookies and the boys got to have a sleep over. On Saturday morning, Tracen and Sammy went to a Primary activity where they "got to make really big snow turtles and then spray them green and blue and then we got hot chocolate and it was so much fun... thanks mom for letting me do that!" (all in one breath) Then Saturday afternoon the clan of boys came to our house for the day and night while Bruce and Christy headed to Provo for the BYU basketball game. The boys are so crazy together and it is definately wild, but they have so much fun. We are so grateful to have cousin living so close so our boys can know them and develop such great relationship with them.





Speaking of cousins and family, we are so excited to head to Bear Lake with my family next week for lots of fun in the snow. We hope to take many pictures so our next blog will actually be cool. Well, that is it for a few of my random thoughts and events. Hopefully we can be more on top of life now. Love to all.

Jacobs Look-alike Meter

We thought this was fun. Now we will all know who is right!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Jacobs Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy software - Vintage photos

Jacobs Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph