Family Friday: The Cutting Room Floor

During the "Family Friday" series I have published many, many pictures. Thanks to all of you for letting me "lift" pictures from facebook and from your blogs. There were several pictures that I "lifted" that I wasn't able to use (as well as a few of my own) but I wanted to share a few of my favorites here. Enjoy!

Alan, Jeff, and Jeremy at the beach last summer. I can't decide if they're contemplating going out, or if they have had enough.

I love this picture of Granpa and Caitlin, they are walking downtown in SLC between conference sessions on a rainy day in October 1998.

Lesley Ann Marsden Leger, Andy Marsden Leger, Zachary Marsden Leger, and Alan Marsden. Does anybody know what we all have in common?

Granma as a school girl in Ireland. Do you see any family resemblances? I think Mini Embem looks like Granma.

I love this picture of Margie, she looks exactly the same. It seems funny to think of Margie playing with Barbie dolls, but here's the proof.

Jeff, Melissa, and Miss Avery last summer at Tuacahn. "Tomorrow... tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow."

I've always loved this picture of curly-top Chelsea and little Derek. Aren't they adorable?

Three Alan Marsden's. All of them handsome men.

Is this Ammanda Ann or is it Audrey Hepburn?

Okay... it's Ammanda Ann.

Archie and Lesley in Belfast. How cute are they!?! Way cute!!

Our "girly party" during the summer of 2008.

Look at Mike's "trigger finger", he can change the channels in his sleep.

The cousins in 1989: Christopher, Ashleigh, Jeremy, Jeffrey holding Ammanda, Russell, Andy holding Alan, and Melissa.

Twenty years later: an assortment of cousins at the beach house in 2009.

Don't forget to check out the contests on my previous two posts. You have until 10 pm tonight to enter your answers and hopefully win a prize!!

Who Is It?

Who is this handsome little boy sitting in the barber's chair? And who do you think he resembles? You only have to guess who the little boy is to get your name in the drawing, but if you guess who I think he resembles you can have your name in a second time. You can leave your answers in the comment section until Tuesday night at 10 o'clock pm and the winners will be announced in my post on Wednesday.

Ann, Ann, Ann, Ann, Ann....

Throughout the "Family Friday" series I have mentioned several times that we have eight Ann's in the family. All eight are spelled A-N-N. Do you know who they are? Here's your chance to find out. You can leave your answer (multiple choice) in the comment section until Tuesday at 10 o'clock pm. There will be a prize and the winners (I'll draw two) will be announced in my post on Wednesday March 10.


A-Margie, Melissa T., Melissa L., Lesley, Lilian, Kristin, Alyssa, Aubree


B- Caitlin, Megan, Tara, Lesley, Julee, Ammanda, Chelsea, Christine


C- Granma, Emily L., Emily M., Julee, Margie, Rebecca, Marivic, Lesley


D- Lesley, Margie, Julee, Ashleigh, Ammanda, Alyssa, Megan, Aubree


E- Ashleigh, Aubree, Megan, Tara, Jessica, Christine, Melissa L., Caitlin

Family Friday: Featuring My Nephew Alan

It's finally Elder Nielsen's turn! Alan Hugh; named after both of his Grandpa's is this week's "Family Friday" feature. Alan is my sister Lilian's second son and he is currently serving in the Florida, Tallahassee Mission.

I love this picture of little Alan. His life was a miracle before he was even born, and as I look at the photograph of this beautiful, innocent, little boy I feel so grateful for the faith of his parents and that he is here and a part of our family.

Alan is a patient nephew. During his early teenage years before his voice changed, I often mistook him for his mother on the phone. In fact it wasn't often... it was pretty much always. I was so happy when the day finally arrived that I actually called Alan, "Alan" and not "Lilian". Unfortunately I am now doing the same thing with his brother Jacob.

I have mentioned before that our family have a lot of nicknames, one day I'll do a post about them; in the meantime I'll just say that our nicknames have nicknames as well as Jr's., Sr's., mini's, etc. hence... I call Alan, Little Lala and he calls me Auntie Lelu. I love Little Lala. He is a good nephew.

Alan is a very talented young man. Several years ago he decided to create things with... duct tape? I'm not kidding. He has created some amazing things including swords with cartoon characters, a scripture tote, and the most amazing thing of all, a Wonder Bread suit. The neighbor kids wanted his creations so badly that their parents would pay Alan to create things for them. Alan is also the creator of "Clyde". Clyde is an ant. I'm not sure how many "Clyde's" that Alan has drawn, but his mother has featured 100 of them on her blog while he has been on his mission, in a series that she calls "Clyde Friday". I admit that I am probably one of the "Clyde impaired" but as you can see Alan is a very talented and creative artist.

Alan is a big Disney fan, huge Disney fan. His favorite character is Donald Duck and he can do Donald's voice very well. He is also a fan of another Disney character... Hannah Montana, aka Miley Cyrus. Alan has been to Disneyland countless times and will be heading there within weeks of his return from his mission and I get to go with him.

Things to know about Alan: He is a good missionary. He loves his family. He's tenderhearted. He's handsome. He loves movies. He's a good friend. He's a good son to his mother. When Alan was a baby I baby-sat him overnight while his parents and Russell went on a trip, he was a good baby. He was just an infant when he went to the beach house for the first time, he ended up going to the hospital with pneumonia. He loves his family. Prior to leaving on his mission he was able to go and serve as a "missionary" in his brother Russell's mission for a few days. A couple from WB served in the mission office in Tallahassee; while there they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and Alan made sure that they had a cake, they said that Alan is a good missionary. Alan is loyal. Alan has determination. He has a great smile. He is faithful. We all love Alan and are grateful that he is in our family. We're looking forward to seeing him in a couple of months and hearing his report on his mission. Love you Little Lala.

Alan's family: Taylor, Cory, Jacob, Lilian, Michael, Jessica, and Russell

Family Friday: The Count Down

Next week is the final week of "Family Friday". I will be posting something every day starting on Sunday and ending on Friday with the final "Family Friday" feature. Be sure and check in; there will be two blog contests with two winners for each contest!! Here are the prizes: these way cute St. Patrick's Day bubblegum jars. You want one, don't you!?!

Letterman and Marsden

Okay my friends, check this out. My brother the anchorman on the Letterman show. Cool huh!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFsBM6lxLcA&feature=channel

The Eagles Have Landed

Every winter for the past ten years we have driven down Pages Lane to go see the Farmington Bay Eagles. From November through February they come daily to these trees; I refer to the trees as their "timeshares".

When we found our new home we quickly discovered that we had a front row seat to this marvelous scene. One of the first things I've done every morning this winter is to go to my bedroom window to see how many Eagles are in the trees.

Mike set up his spotting scope in the living room so that we could have an even better view of these birds, it really is an amazing sight (I was hoping the neighbors didn't think that we were trying to get a better view of them). Often we see them flying around after they've taken off, or just before they land on the branch of a tree. Our neighbors told us that there have been as many as 60+ Eagles in these trees at one time, recently I saw 19 and that was quite a sight to see. Last Saturday I saw one and that was it, Mike said they are gone until next November.

Those of you who know how I feel about the "feathered variety" may be surprised that I wrote this post. I don't really think of these as birds, but more of a majestic animal; in fact, recently as I looked through the spotting scope and observed an Eagle turning it's head and blinking it's eye I said to Mike, "It is so beautiful, I want to hug it." Mike said to me, "it would claw your eye out." Ouch. At least I had a kind thought for one species of the "feathered variety."

This picture is taken from my house

This is from my corner

Across the street from my corner

This is a "birds-eye" view of my house