Atwood, Darrington Wedding

Dr. and Mrs. Mike and Marilyn Atwood of Salem are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter, Rebecca, to Levi Jacob Darrington, son of Mr. Larry Darrington of Columbus, Ohio and Ms. Pamela Darrington of Springville. They will be married in the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, July 25, 2009. Grandparents of the bride are Dick and Darlene Atwood, of Spanish Fork. Grandfather of the groom is Cleamon Hively of Rexburg, Idaho.

Rebecca graduated from Spanish Fork High School and has been attending Utah Valley University. She is working towards a degree in nursing. She served a mission for the LDS church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Levi graduated from Bellbrook High School in Ohio and Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He received a bachelor’s degree in aviation and is presently employed as an air traffic controller in the Washington D.C. area. He served a mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Following their marriage, the couple will make their first home in Leesvurg, Virginia.

Dr. and Mrs. Mike and Marilyn Atwood of Salem are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter, Rebecca, to Levi Jacob Darrington, son of Mr. Larry Darrington of Columbus, Ohio and Ms. Pamela Darrington of Springville. They will be married in the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, July 25, 2009. Grandparents of the bride are Dick and Darlene Atwood, of Spanish Fork. Grandfather of the groom is Cleamon Hively of Rexburg, Idaho.

Rebecca graduated from Spanish Fork High School and has been attending Utah Valley University. She is working towards a degree in nursing. She served a mission for the LDS church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Levi graduated from Bellbrook High School in Ohio and Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He received a bachelor’s degree in aviation and is presently employed as an air traffic controller in the Washington D.C. area. He served a mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Following their marriage, the couple will make their first home in Leesvurg, Virginia.

Rachel and Kirk Move to New York

The Johnson family now reside in Tarrytown, New York. Kirk will be getting a degree in oral surgery and Rachel will be busy taking care of her cute little children, Halle and Noah. We will miss Kirk and Rachel who loved to go horseback riding and hanging out with Mike and I.
Here are the 2009 grand babies and their mothers. I call them "twin cousins" since they are only about three months apart. Maranda is holding Kamryn who was born January 16th and Rachel is holding Halle Virginia who was born April 6th, a day before my mother's birthday.
Kirk, Noah and Rachel are pictured here the day we celebrated her February birthday. She has always requested Angel Cake on her birthday served with raspberries and whipped cream. She was "number eight" my angel baby. I'm sure glad I talked Mike into having one more child.
I really miss little Noah who was the 13th grandchild. He loves music and horses so I made up new lyrics to his favorite song "Ghost Riders in the Sky". When we sing his special song to him, he responds by moving back and forth like he was riding a horse. He's our cute little cowboy.

Encore! Chamber Musicians Perform

The “Encore! Chamber Muscians” presented a spring concert on Wednesday, May 6th at the Salem Community Center. These very talented young musicians have been preparing for the concert by taking private lessons as well as orchestra rehearsals each week. The hard work of the students and their directors was worth the effort as they presented a wonderful concert with numbers that included classical music from some of the great composers such as Mozart and Mendelssohn. Other performances this year included concerts at elementary schools in the area and at the Covey Center in Provo. Many of these young children participated in the Utah Valley String Festival placing first or second in their age groups. Some were chosen to play in the Honors Recital and awarded scholarships to several different quality summer orchestra camps.

Junior Orchestra, front row left to right: Legend Carter, David Finley, Joshua Hatton, Madeline Stone, Andrew Hale, Bethany Graham, Johnathan Tanner, Anna Tanner, Isaac Oldham. Back row, left to right: Sven Jamsa, Darby Thomas, Elisabeth Oldham, Andrea Bailey, Callie Peterson, Denise Jamsa, Bethany Davis, Amber Bailey, Rebecca Thompson and Rachel Christensen.

The Junior Orchestra is made up of children ranging in age from 7 to 12. It is under the direction of Denise Jamsa, a free lance violinist and teacher who helped organize the orchestra two years ago. She wanted to help her children and students learn to play together in an orchestra and give them opportunities to share their talents by performing. Another ourstanding teacher and free lance violinist, Andrea Bailey, is her assistant.

Senior Orchestra, front row left to right: Jacob Searcy, Benjamin Hale, Johnathan Hale and June Curtis. Back row left to right: Jocelyn Baker, Maren Williams, Ambrynn Bowman, Marcel Bowman, Savannah Stone and Taylor Stilson.

Marcel Bowman is the conductor for the Senior Orchestra made up of students attending Junior High school. As a free lance violinist he has experience performing with many symphonies including the Utah Symphony and Ballet West. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in music and teaches orchestra at the American Leadership Academy where the weekly rehearsals are held during the school year. Marcel is assisted by his wife, Monika, a free-lance cellist and teacher.

Auditions for both orchestras will be held in August. If you are interested in your children performing with them, contact Melinda Oldham at 801-423-1976.

Jared, Allison and Makenna Move to Memphis

LDS Linkup brought Allison and Jared Cooper together. They picked a beautiful day and place to get married: May 5, 2008 at Salem Pond. It was a small gathering of a few close friends and family members. They lived in Salem until December while Jared did an internship in Magna. January 2009 they moved to Memphis so he can finish Optometry school and graduate in May.
Where is Makenna? The great grandchildren posed for a picture, but Makenna was running around ignoring our requests for her to come. She was so excited to have her beautiful mother getting married that she couldn't stay in one spot for very long. Here are 7 of the 15 grandchildren with Grandma Darlene and Grandpa Dick.
I captured a candid picture of Makenna getting instructions from Madilyn on how to be a flower girl. Two year old Makenna just loved being the center of attention on such a special day.
We were glad she made the family picture, but we missed the Atwoods of Bellevue and the Taylors of Omaha. Also missing were Jared's cute little boys, Jaxson and Jace who live with their mother in Oregon. Makenna is thrilled to have two big brothers and Daddy Jared in her family.
President Roy Silcox performed the marriage ceremony. Nancy (Allison's second mom) was there bringing her famous macaroni salad and we celebrated the occassion with a picnic. Jared's family came from Burley, Idaho. He is the youngest of eight children. We enjoyed meeting and getting to know the Cooper family.

January Birthday Celebration

What a grand time to celebrate Papa Mike and his 59th birthday. Pictured with him are eight of his sixteen grandchildren: Micah, Elisabeth, Ethan, Gavin, Noah, Emma, Madilyn and Isaac. We miss those who couldn't be here: Maranda, Joel and Kamryn in Omaha, Nebraska; Allison, Jared and Makenna who recently moved to West Memphis, Arkansas; Jared's little boys, Jaxon and Jace, live with their mom in Oregon; Andrew, Melanie, Kambri, Michael, McKayla and Milo live in Clyde Hill, Washington. It will be a while before we are all together again.
How thankful we are to have Mike's parents still able to come for dinner. Richard is a special name carried on by five generations. Pictured is Archie Richard, Michael Richard and Richard Milo. Richard's little boy Gavin Richard is on Mike's lap in the picture just above this. Mike's grandfather was Melvin Richard who passed away in March of 1973.
To celebrate Papa Mike's birthday on January 11th, we had a special Sunday dinner for him and Noah who turned one year old on January 28th. Aaron's wife, Kelli, holds their little boy Ethan (17 months old) and the birthday boy, Noah. I call them the "twin cousins" since they were born only 5 months apart and are close to the same size. It's fun to watch them play together.
Aaron is always good to provide the entertainment. We enjoy the music he plays on the guitar, but even more popular are his comedy presentations. He can quote all the funny lines from the movie"Napoleon Dynamite" as well as some hilarious "redneck" jokes from Jeff Foxworthy. He also introduced us to "Achmed the Dead Terrorist" that you can find on youtube.com. He and Kelli have moved to Las Vegas. We will miss Kelli's cooking and Aaron's quick wit and humor at our Sunday Dinners.
Kelli made an awesome appetizer that we were all so excited to eat it... especially 7 1/2 year old Micah, Aaron's oldest child. Kelli used her great grandma's recipe: You take waterchestnuts wrapped in bacon and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Drain off the grease and pour over a sauce made with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup vinegar and 1 cup ketchup. Bake 25 more minutes. They were delicious. We had a traditional turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, Rachel's pink fruit salad and of course hot homemade dinner rolls. Madilyn donated the turkey she won in the Turkey Gobbling Contest at Salem Elementary school. She was the best out of all the first graders. When she demonstrated her talent to gobble, we were all very impressed! The turkey was delicious.
Mike got his favorite "Cheesecake Supreme" topped with cherries. While the adults enjoyed the rich cheesecake, the children had ice cream cones instead. Noah had his own special cake on his very birthday. Rachel made a four tiered cake frosted with cream cheese frosting and garnished with fresh raspberries and strawberries. To see pictures of his birthday party, visit Kirk and Rachel's blog.
One more reason to celebrate was the return of Devin from his mission to Orlando, Florida. Pictured above are my brother and his three sons: Devin, Uncle Manton, Derick and Daniel. With all three boy serving missions, it was a great reunion to have them all back together again. Derick served in Louisiana at the time of hurricane Katrina and Daniel served in Moscow, Russia.

Number Eight Grandchild Ross Milo Atwood

Michael Andrew and Melanie Whitney Atwood welcomed their fourth child, Ross Milo Atwood, on Monday, September 15, 2003. He was born in Iowa City Mercy Hospital, a cute little guy with red hair, blue eyes and weighing 7 lbs. 11 ozs. Andrew was in his last year of dental school at the University of Iowa. I enjoyed going back to help Melanie with her new baby and spending time with my special grandchildren (pictured above) Michael (5), Kambri (7) Milo (4 weeks) and McKayla (3) I was thrilled that they chose to call him Milo after my father, Milo C. Moody. He reminds me of my dad with his bright blue eyes, happy smile and cheerful disposition. I sometimes call Milo my "All American Boy" because he has RED hair, WHITE fair skin and BLUE eyes. Because of his fair skin, he is the one who suffers the worst sunburns on our Lake Powell vacations.
I had a wonderful visit with the Atwoods in Iowa City. We visited an amazing children's museum that had so many fun things to do and see. Since it was in October, Michael and Kambri helped their mom make Halloween sugar cookies. We had so much fun frosting and decorating the cookies and even more fun eating them.

Now the Atwood family lives in Bellevue, Washington. Mike and I visited them again in October. This time McKayla and Milo helped their mom make Chocolate Chip Cookies. Milo (5) has grown up now and is playing the violin and piano. McKayla (8) is a little performer who loves to sing and play the piano whenever she is asked. Michael (10) is active in sports like soccer and baseball. Kambri (12) is almost a teenager who loves to read and talk on her cell phoneAtwoods of Salem with the Andrew and Melanie Atwood family at Lake Washington, Oct. 2008. Back row: Kambri, Milo, Andrew and Melanie. Front row: Mike, McKayla, Michael and Marilyn.

Mike & Marilyn Welcome Sixteenth Grandchild

Mary Maranda, my sixth child, gave birth to my sixteenth grandchild on Friday the 16th of January 2009. Maranda arrived at the Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska at 3:30 AM on Thursday the 15th and was induced shortly after that. Her labor was long and intense. It was 24 hours later that the baby finally arrived. I was happy to have her come on Friday since according to the song "Friday's child is loving and giving". I was NOT happy that Maranda's first experience with giving birth was so long and difficult for her to endure. Maranda's husband, Joel Douglas Taylor, was there by her side to support and encourage her through this long ordeal. He is a law student at Creighton University and now he is a proud father. It was a joyous moment when Kamryn came into the world at 3:38 AM. She was almost 8 pounds (7 lbs. 15.8 ozs.) and was 20.75 inches long. She is a darling little girl with lots of light brown hair that will probably turn blonde as she gets older. Mike and I flew in Friday afternoon to spend a week with Joel and Maranda and to help welcome little Kamryn into our family.