Hand quilt and Autumn's felt name book

This is what took all of my December days and nights before Christmas.....
The 2010 Watkins Family "Hand" quilt AND Autumn's felt name book

Due to the fire that destroyed my parent's stuff on July 1, 2010, a new and updated hand quilt was REQUIRED. Knowing how much it meant to Grandma and Grandpa Watkins on their Canadian mission and away from home. It had to be remade.

It was a major challenge but a work of love. With my non-working sewing machine that needed repair, moving from my house large enough to have a quilt up for an extended amount of time to a little 12' trailer with NO extra space, and only a few months to collect all of the squares from 57 individual family members, I agreed to this daunting task. I pleaded with the family to get their squares to me by October. By the middle of November, they finally all arrived. It took me about two weeks to embroider all of the names and dates on the squares. Then to sew it together........with the thought of no sewing machine?????


Luckily, our new ward - Price 6th Ward - came to the rescue. It was a very nice machine. I quickly get it all together. Now to quilt it.....


I asked the principal at a local elementary school (my dear sweet husband) if I could set up the quilt on their stage and work my fingers to bones. On Monday December 6 at 9:00 pm, we got the quilt on. I had to purchase new frame boards, tacks, and needles (all the others were packed away somewhere).  I didn't have my quilting stands so we rounded up four student desks and rigged as "stands". What a pain!

It took exactly 10 days to finish quilting and another day to bind it. We wrapped it up and took it to Moapa. The plan "A" was to open it at the Watkins family Christmas party at Kirk and Paula's home surrounded by the family. 

To make a very long story short, it was left in the trunk of a car at the Las Vegas McCarron Airport during the party and was finally delivered the following afternoon. We gathered as many family members as we could as Grandma and Grandpa Watkins opened it. 


What a wonderful surprise!

AND 


Autumn's felt Name Book

Front Page of

Autumn Bonnie Cozzens

Name Book

Each rectangle is open on top to place an item in.

A is for Apples

U is for Ukulele

T is for toes and toenail polish.        U is for umbrella.           (April showers bring May flowers)

 M is for M&Ms.

N is for numbers.

B is for bees and beehive.

O is for octopus.

N is for necklace.

N is for nest and nurturing.

I is for ice cream. Yum!

(Flavors from top to bottom: mint chocolate chip, strawberry chunks, vanilla, double chocolate with chocolate chips)

E is for eyes. 

(Note that two of the eyes are blue and one is brown. All of the Cozzens have blue eyes except Mommy [aka Marcie] therefore it has to have both.)

Back Page Signature:

Made 2010 with love

by Grandma Thomas

Thanks Jennifer - a very talented creative artist in her own right - from The Craft Patch for the felt name book idea. There are no patterns just ideas used as inspiration from web clipart. Everything is free-handed created and hand sewn. Don't worry about the beads falling off the necklace. It is sewn five different ways to secure it to the page. The umbrella handle is made from aluminum foil folded and shaped, then sewn to the felt page.

I had a lot of fun creating and making this book. It has inspired me to make it a tradition for each of my grandchildren to have an personalized felt name book. 

Both the quilt and book were made with tons of loves!!!

2010 Christmas with the Cozzens

What a delightful Christmas!!
 (A huge thanks to my brother Tim, the best pilot for Allegiant Air)

 

 We decided to fly to Washington to spend Christmas break with the Cozzens family. And it was fun. On our way home from the airport, we stopped in Everett at Lucky Buffet (a Chinese restaurant) for a very good meal, great atmosphere and lots of entertainment. They had a live band playing Christmas music so Grandpa and Melanie danced a few songs. How fun!  Duncan was dared to eat salmon sushi. He ate it all. Five minutes later, he went to the bathroom and threw up. What a goof!
  





The Cozzens family sporting their new matching pajama pants on Christmas eve.

Melanie and Grandpa showing off their silly monster puppets that Melanie got from great-Grandma/Grandpa Thomas for Christmas. They were a lot of fun mixing and matching the different features. Grandma and Autumn are watching them.

Grandpa helping Autumn ride Melanie's new trike from Santa.

The day after Christmas was Sunday. We were privileged to attend Autumn's baby blessing. She looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing dress made by Grandma Thomas. It has thousands of beads crocheted into the shirt. What a doll!

At the end of our visit, our adventures began. 

All seven of us (Cozzens family and Thomas family) left at 5 am from Marcie's home driving through a snow storm and snow packed roads in hopes to catch a 10 am flight from the Bellingham airport on Allegiant Air with standby tickets.  The Cozzens family then safely drove back home minus Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Duncan.

Duncan had a pocket knife found in his bag which was confiscated. Great?! Somehow it made it through Las Vegas' security! Scary.

Being on standby creates all sorts of stress. There were three seats available on the 10 am flight and two people ahead of us were on standby also.

It worked out that there was ONE seat left which I took alone and left John and Duncan for the next flight at 5:00 pm. Yep. Waiting in the Bellingham airport for the next 7 hours. Tim and Grandpa Watkins picked me up at the Las Vegas airport without any hitches. And I was able to attend the Watkins family Christmas party at Kirk and Paula's home that night. 

Meanwhile.......
John and Duncan waited patiently until 5pm to find out there was only one seat available so they gave it to a young lady. They staywed overnight at a local motel and arrived at the airport early the next morning to get on a 10:00 am flight. 


What an adventure!!


Christmas turned out to be a great time, wonderful memories and plenty of love for our family.

The Mormon Handcart Pageant

Oh what a treasure!

As part of our Ray and Jen Watkins Family reunion on Friday, June 25, we attended The Mormon Handcart Pageant in Nephi, UT.

It is an excellent pageant outlining the stories and sacrifices of the Willie and Martin Handcart companies.

The story was well-written and re-enacted in a touching spiritual way. Not a dry eye in the place!



From their website:
"For reasons I do not completely understand, when you walk through the gates of Rock Creek Hollow along the Mormon Trail in Wyoming, you seem to naturally know to sweep your hat from your head. As you make your way forward, you come to a tiny fenced-in area with two stone markers, one large and the other small, but both built and dedicated to a people who lived and died a long time ago. Who were those people and what is their story? What exactly happened here that makes this place feel as if you are walking on sacred ground? 


It was these types of feelings and questions that became the foundation of what is now called The Mormon Handcart Pageant. As we prayerfully prepared for our first season, we secretly wondered if anyone would really come! Well, two nights and over sixty-three hundred people later we knew that we were on our way. With the Lord's blessings, we were able to capture the "spirit of the trail" and literally bring it to Nephi.

And now, at the end of season five the pageant has been performed for an estimated seventy-two thousand souls.

We invite each of you to come to the pageant and feel what is there to be felt, then gather the rest of your friends and family and come again."

- Brent Boswell, Author/Director

http://www.handcartpageant.com/index.shtml

Recent personal discovery

I recently had a personal discovery. Maybe a little tender mercy sent my way. I know it seems simple but it was quite a pause-and-ponder the impact it has on our family peace and happiness.

My personal level of patience either increases or disperses the contention in our home. Even though the other members of our family may be upset or over-the-top, my approach of the situation with patience or lack thereof determines the outcome. Everyone still has their agency how to react and must take responsibility of their own actions but I must recognize my important role as the mother.

Unfortunately, I have not always known that. Unfortunately due to my PCOS (fluctuations of hormones and pain), I have not, and currently do not, always have control of my level emotions and patience. I am trying harder to recognize the times and triggers of my emotional outbursts. I have not appreciated that Duncan has forced me to focus on this recognition but has been good for me. Thanks to my new endocrinologist who has prescribed medicines to level my hormones as close to "normal" as possible. I wish I could turn back time with the knowledge I have now about PCOS and change things. I don't guarantee I will conquer this but, at least, I am trying harder.

Another Girls Day Out

Jennifer, Cynthia and I were signed up for a cooking class at Orson Gygi today at noon. When we arrived, they told us it had been canceled and would let us know when they might reschedule it. We waited for Cynthia. And unfortunately, there was a mix-up in the time so she didn't make it. (We missed her!) As we were waiting for Cynthia, Jennifer and I decided to do something fun since we were planning on doing something so we did! We had a few ideas but settled on visiting Gardner Village. Oh, bubba. What a great time!



We dreamed as we walked through the different shops, discussed/investigated HOW to make certain things, and gathered many ideas.


The highlight of the day was at Sweet Afton's. I have a really good fudge recipe that I've been making for decades but this shop expanded my vision and, more importantly, my taste buds. Oh my! It was divine. They only allow one sample (I didn't see the sign) but I asked for two. I tried Caramel Coconut Fudge and Boston Creme fudge. Jennifer tried cookie dough. Soooooo good! I loved the Boston Cream. It was Amarillo, maraschino cherries, and chocolate fudge. Yummy! The cookie dough was white chocolate with real chunks of cookie dough. Yummy! But the best, most divine, was the Caramel Coconut Fudge. I bought enough to bring home to figure it out. Oh, bubba! I MUST try to duplicate it so everyone can try it.

Thanks Jennifer for making my day!!

My Uncle, Ken Watkins

Uncle Ken is my dad's oldest brother of nine children. He is twelve years older than dad. My dad's three oldest siblings have passed away now (Ken - the oldest, Shirley -oldest sister, Beverly -2nd sister) which makes Uncle Dick the oldest living sibling. Amazing!
FYI: Sibling order with birth year. Ken (1922), Shirley (1924), Beverly (1926), Dick (1928), Jenae (1930), Leila (1932), Grant -my dad (1934), Carol (1936) and Jim (1938).

I love my heritage and extended family. What a wonderful reunion at the funeral to visit with cousins I had not seen or visited with for many years.

The following is the obituary which appeared in the Provo Daily Herald on March 18, 2010.

Kenneth S. Watkins

1922 ~ 2010

Kenneth Snyder Watkins, our husband, father, brother, and friend quietly and peacefully passed away on March 15, 2010. Ken was born June 11, 1922 in Provo, Utah, son of Ira Oray and Ida Jane Snyder Watkins. He enjoyed growing up in Provo, graduating from Provo High School. He joined and served in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific fleet aboard the USS Colahan. After his return from the service, he attended BYU. Ken married Fern Peterson on May 23, 1951 in the Salt Lake Temple. He worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, and then at Geneva Steel, retiring in 1984.

Ken loved to be in the company of his family. He enjoyed the mountains, camping, and hunting with his sons and brothers. He loved to fish and was an avid fly fisherman. He enjoyed ice skating and playing softball when he was younger. Ken was a big BYU sports fan. He loved to garden and share his vegetables with everyone. He served many years in the Boy Scouts. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served in many callings.

Ken is survived by his wife, Fern; his children Connie Watkins, Midvale; David (Sheila) Watkins, Spanish Fork; Ralph Watkins, American Fork; Diane (Michael) Foerster, Provo; and Craig (Leisa) Watkins, Magna and by 12 Grandchildren and 10 Great-Grandchildren. Also survived by his siblings, Richard (Frances) Watkins, Orem; Janae Parker, Provo; Leila (Bruce) Hill, Provo; Grant (Marcia) Watkins, Moapa, NV; Carol (Myron Leon) Prestwich, Orem; Jim Watkins, Provo; and brother-in-law Cecil Carroll, Tacoma WA. He was preceded in death by his parents, and sisters Beverly Carroll and Shirley Kallies.

Thank you to all the family and friends during this difficult time, and a special thank you to all the wonderful employees at Applegate Hospice.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, March 20, 2010 at the Bonneville 5th Ward Chapel, 85 South 900 East, Provo, Utah. Friends may call at Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 E. Center, Friday evening from 6 until 8 and at the church Saturday one hour prior to services. Interment will be in the Provo City Cemetery. Condolences may be emailed to info@bergmortuary.com.