Week full of excitement

What a week full of excitement. Last week two big events took place in my family. First, my brother, Denver, got engaged on the 21st of May. What a great day! Denver proposed to Tricia Taylor and of course she said "YES!" They are going to be married on the 13th of September. For all of you who know, I am due on the 11th of September, so let's pray for an early delivery like Indianna. Congratulations both of you! You are perfect for each other.

Second, on the 22nd, McKenzie and Tyler had their baby, Brooklyn. She was born at 9:15 pm. Lucky Kenz only had to push for like 20 minutes. She weighed 7 lbs and 4 oz and was 20 inches long. She is home with her mom and dad and doing great. She does have a bit of jaundice and therefore under a billi blanket. She eats well and loves to be bundled and cuddled. Congratulations! She's beautiful! Indianna loves her cousin Brooklyn and is the best little helper. I think she's going to be a great big sister in September.

Spirit of Elijah

Ok, no surprise on the title, right? Actually, I haven't been doing any genealogy lately and really haven't been in the mood. But, recently the Catholic church has decided not to share their records with members of the LDS church. I don't know if this is for individuals or the church in general. But, it has kind of got me thinking. Have I waited too long to ask for records? One of my lines are from Ireland and they were Catholic. For 66 Euros, I can have them do a search on one name. Do you know how much 66 Euros is?

Second reason I have thought about genealogy lately: a good name for our second daughter. So far, we have come up with basically nothing. I have searched all of my names in my genealogy and thought about doing more genealogy just so I can find a name.

Yesterday, one of my "genealogy email groups" decided to do a roll call. For those of you who don't know what this is, that's when all the people who are in that group send out an email with the surnames they are searching. So, I put out Delahunty and at the last minute, decided to put the name White. I haven't done any research on the White family, but have thought about it. This family was also from Ireland and married into the Delahunty family. What happened? Today I got an email from a guy on the list who has some "letters from 1970" regarding a townland in Ireland that was called the "White Estate." It happens to be very close to where the Whites and Delahunty's lived. So, I emailed the guy back and told him I was interested. Is all this coincidence, or are the White's calling my name? I kind of feeling a tug from the other side or as the gospel teaches, the spirit of Elijah.

Big Girl

Today Indianna and I went to the park before the weather got too hot. Indianna loved every minute of it. She is starting to get the hang of going up the stairs and going down the slide herself. Luckily, we have a playground near our house that is just for toddlers. So, just her size. As she was playing, she sat and observed another child her age. He was probably a two year old. She followed him everywhere. She finally caught up to him and just sat there and smiled at him. She was trying to communicate. When all of sudden, this little boy grabbed her by the shirt and threw her to the ground. It didn't hurt Indie, but she looked at him like, "why did you do that?" and then she started crying. Poor girl. She is now convinced that all little boys are mean. Another little boy, also two years old, came to the playground and he was so nice and friendly and wanted to play with Indianna. Well, I guess she had learned her lesson. She stayed her distance.

Today, Indie and I are also trying something new on the potty training. My mom tells me that when she potty trained her kids, she just let them run around naked. Well, I think Indie knows when she has to go. Earlier today, before the park, I was talking to my mom on the phone and Indie went over to the diapers, pulled one out, and then went and laid down on her blanket where I usually change her diaper. I figured she wanted her diaper changed, so I changed it and it was barely wet. So, we have decided to try the running around naked. It'll make me and her more aware of when she has to go. How's it going you ask? Well so far in the first hour, we have made 5 trips to the bathroom and one accident on the, luckily, kitchen floor. She is now begging me to put her pants back on. What a big girl for trying though.

Talked me into it

Ok. I have friends and family doing blogs and they have all encouraged me to do a blog. I always tell them that I don't have time. But, after these past few weeks, I've had a lot of thoughts and feelings so why not write them down. First things first, I'm not sure how often I will update this or even if this will be the blog I always write in. The true thing that talked me into blogging was of course, genealogy.

In the past couple of weeks, we have had two deaths in the family. Our 6 month old nephew Corbin passed away on the 1st of May and Brad's grandfather passed away on the 4th. We attended grandpa Brimhall's funeral this past weekend. As we were sitting there for the viewing, I challenged Brad and a couple of his cousins to name all of their cousins. Needless to say, they couldn't do so. Brad's grandparent's (the Brimhall's) have 9 children and I think it was 44 grandchildren and I'm sure lots and lots of great grandchildren. The Brimhall family tries to get together at least once a year, but with families living in different states, we rarely see some of the Brimhall cousins. I suggested at the viewing that someone in the family start a Brimhall family blog where everyone can post all of their information. Nobody was up for it and I don't feel it's my responsibility to do it. But, it did get me thinking about how I should do a blog for my side of the genealogy. I did start a genealogy website through geocities about a year ago, but never really got it going all that well. This might be an easier way to get the family tree started and going.

With that said, as I was creating my very first blog I thought about what I should name it. I figured I will blog on 3 different topics. One, what's going on in the Lundell family (Brad, Me, Indianna, and baby sister). Two, family history or getting the family updates from both my family and Brad's family. And three, to post genealogy. Ok, so in reality this is all family history and genealogy. How exciting!!! AND that's what talked me into doing a blog. Nothing is more exciting than genealogy.