swimming to the island

Handed down by: Bennett
I swam to the island when we went camping.

Love You in the Mailbox

Handed down by:Kathy F. Harvey - Mom, Nana

I Love You in the Mailbox

Night time chores and the agony and ecstasy of bedtime rituals often made the evenings at the Harvey Home – noisy, chaotic – many times unmanageable.

What with checking on homework – “Did you do your science homework?” – checking on deadlines – “When is the history report due? Have you started it yet?” checking on clothes for the next day – “Has anyone seen Jack’s other tennis shoe?” It seemed as the end of the day was always the greatest challenge.

The desire was for everyone to be in bed, homework done, prep for the next day finished, baths completed with just enough time for family prayer, a bedtime story or two, and then that last minute of tucking everyone in with a good-night kiss and a call from the hall and bedrooms of “I love you.”

The warm feeling of hearing the calls of “I love you” would lead to echoes of the “I love you” refrain ringing from room to room with “I love you, too.” Which then would lead to “I love you, three,” “I love you, four,” and “I love you, a million.” One child always trying to one up the others until everyone was told, ”Alright, enough is enough – time to go to sleep!”

One night, either to end the proceedings quickly or to be incredibly clever, Jay’s voice rang out from his room with, “I love you, infinity.”

Now, who was going to be able to top that?

And then from the bottom bunk the sweet voice of the youngest, Jeffrey three years old, called out, “I love you in the mailbox!”

He didn’t know where “in finity” was, but he knew that he loved his family loads, so the mailbox must be a great place to love someone.

The house filled with the laughter of love as Jeffrey’s call warmed our whole family. And now, whenever I write a letter to one of my children, “I love you in the mailbox,” is my ending postscript.

What's Important

Handed down by: Kathy F. Harvey aka Mom, Nana

Here's a memory of Jenn, early school, and grades:

Straight “A’s”

When our oldest daughter, Jennifer, was in first grade, she overheard a conversation about grades as she rode home on the school bus. That night at dinner she asked how you got grades.

We explained that the grades she would received would be “E” for excellent, “S” for unsatisfactory, or “U” for unsatisfactory. Since she was a pretty conscientious little student, I told her that she would have nothing to worry about - “Just keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’ll be fine.”

“Well then, what’s the big deal about straight “A’s”?” she asked.

I started to explain how the grading system works trying to answer her question, when she interrupted and said, “But I don’t get it – what’s so bad about a crooked A?”

Ah, through the eyes and heart of a child. This little incident showed us a window into our inquisitive, lovely daughter who always knew and still knows what is important in life.

Beautiful Utah

This picture is on our blog, but just in case you didn't see it I am putting it here. Just to let you all know that Utah is a beautiful place. This last weekend we were just sitting around and here the weather is crazy-totally sunny and warm one second, then rainy and thunderstorms the next. So I got so excited when I saw the beautiful rainbow right out side our house. I love this picture because of all the haze and you can just barely see the mountains in the back ground. So Jeff make fun of Utah all you want. It is an amazingly beautiful state and we are loving it so far.

Handed down by: Berdugo's

Uncle Tony is the Best!

Handed down by: Jack, Anupa, & Chetan

This weekend's family camping trip was awesome! No, wait...it was beyond awesome...it was BE-AWESOME! Now that we feel clean and all rested up, and (most) of the laundry and unpacking is done, we thought we'd leave a little message for Uncle Tony. We know that without his organization and mad camping skillz, we couldn't have had so much fun! Thanks Tony! Here's a little family video of our thanks:

Our new place

Here is a pic of our townhouse. So far we all love it. The girls favorite part is having a park right where they live!



We took the girls to the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday. They loved it, but they loved all the fountains and the water the most.

Afton always loved to go see Jesus in the visitors center in Oakland so she was very excited to see this. She wanted to "hear Jesus talk," but that wasn't happening why we were sitting in there. She also got confused when we were walking out and said-I want to go back to Utah. I guess since seeing Jesus at the temple she assumed you can only do that in California-haha.


Handed down by: Berdugo Family

GOODBYE AFTON & IZZY! WE'LL MISS YOU!

COUSINS ARE THE BEST!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL & FIRST DANCE CLASS

Tyson started Kindergarten this year and is having so much fun. He loves school and is making lots of new friends. His new teachers name is Mr. Brown. Alyson has been told for over a year that when Tyson started school she would be old enough to start Ballet class. Turlock Park & Rec. offered a class during the afternoon and was planning on enrolling her when Tyson was in school. However we moved to Manteca and you have to be 4 to be in dance by yourself. Tyson's first day started Alyson kept asking when will she start Ballet. Lucky, the church offers a FREE Ballet, Jazz & Tap class on Fridays. Yesterday was her first day. She had so much fun and what made it even better was Afton got to join her. THEY HAD A BLAST! (Even Tyson joined in for Ballet)

Handed down by: Cammy Harvey

Sierra Middle School is awesome

Handed down by: Foster Harvey

Sierra is awesome, it's the new middle school that I now go to. It's fun to have a bunch of different teachers and I like my P.E teacher, Mrs. Lewis, the most!