JEFF

His is the last birthday of the year for our family. He says he's not really into birthdays. But what is he into?

Well, I know he loves Rach. And he loves his children. And he loves the Gospel. And he's good at his work. (Whether he loves it or not, I'm not certain.) I know that he is proud of his home and has helped Rach do a lot of things to make it even more wonderful.

What do I know about him? He was born in Modesto, CA, and grew up there. Served his mission in Brazil and is still chummy with some of his friends from that period in his life. He graduated with a Masters in Accounting from BYU, which is where he met Rach. He has served as Ward Mission leader and served in the Bishopric twice. (That is what he is doing now.) I also know he is a worrier and stresses a lot.

Most of all I know that he is good to his family and provides for them. And I know that they all love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JEFF!

KIM

She is the second in-law. Interesting that our first three in-laws were born in December. They met at the Y, as did all of the first four. But, she lived in Bountiful...so that was nice. I don't know what her most memorable birthday is, but the birthday of hers I remember the most was the first December they were in Guam. The typhoon that left them without power for 28 days hit on her birthday. She was a trooper all through that.

She is the mother of our first granddaughter. And they lived in Bountiful for the first year of Chelsea's life. (That was the first and only time we had a grandchild live that close.) Now she is the mother of three and they are growing up and they are beautiful.

We wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

LUKE

The fifth child, third son. We were pretty certain we were having a boy. He was due in mid November, but of course he wasn't born then. At 2:15am on the morning of Dec. 4, 1975, he was born. He weighed 8lbs 131/2 oz and was 22 inches long. Lucas Nelson Eastman. The Nelson is after Mama's maiden name, carrying on the Family History tradition with our names.

Dad's mother came to help. Some of our friends brought dinner and one of them brought a delicious green jello. That was the beginning of 'slime' for us.

We called him the child of the apartment. We sold our first home in Sept. 1975 and moved to the apartment by the church on 8th West just below 4th North in Oct., and started building this house in Nov. 1975. The apartment had 1 really large bedroom and 1 closet size bedroom, big enough for the crib. Samantha, Matthew and Rach were in the big bedroom. Alex was in the crib. Our water bed was in the living room. So we put Luke in the cradle by us, in the living room. We lived there from Oct. 1975 to July 1976, when we moved into our new house.

Luke always had the most beautiful hair. I could hardly stand to have it cut, but when someone at the park thought he was a girl dressed in boys clothes, I figured it was time to get rid of the curls. He is the only one of our children to have broken a bone. When he was in the third grade he broke his ankle on a trampoline in Cub Scouts.

When he was sixteen he flew to Samantha's in St. Louis to visit for a week. Tyler's effort to say Luke came out Yupp. So that's why we sometimes call him Yupp.

He and the other six have always been what I consider some of the Lord's most 'tender mercies.'

KEN

He was the first in-law. A new experience for us, and one we could have done better with. (Oops! I ended a sentence with a preposition.) He is also the father of our first grandchild. Over the years we have watched him progress. He has always been good to Samantha. Is good to his kids. Loves the gospel and takes every opportunity he can to share it. And he has improved himself from job to job.

Today he is 48 years old! I don't think I'll comment on that. But we do wish him a Happy Birthday!

Look What I Have

A few weeks ago Dad and I went to the Family History library with our neighbors, Mark and Sherrie Mccleery. I was specifically looking for the marriage record of my great grandfather, Richard Brimley and his wife, Ann Southworth. I wanted to see how his father's name was listed, because in our records that is where the name changes start. So Mark helped me look in census records. We found Richard in his father's home until after he got married in 1845. We also saw him with his own family. We found one record that listed him as an agricultural worker and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mark had never seen membership listed like that on a government census. We wondered if Richard worked on a church farm, or something. But we never found a marriage record. Mark had had success sending to England for marriage records for his own ancestors, so he sent for a marriage record for Richard and Ann.

Yesterday he brought over the envelope for me to open. He was as excited as I was. Here are some of the things we learn. Not the bride, groom nor the witnesses could read or write. At the time of the marriage, Richard was living in Farington and he was a servant. His father's name is John BRIMLEY, and he was a weaver as was Ann. (We already knew his father was a weaver.) Ann's father, Sylvester Southworth was a farmer. While at the library Mark and I looked at LDS church records for the time and found that Sylvester was the first baptism listed on the record. His wife, Ann Clitheroe, was second. We also saw the baptism record for Richard and the following year for Ann. All of this research has been done before, but it is exciting to see the names of the people who got us where we are.

I know that Daddy talked and wrote about how much he loved his grandmother. I am grateful to all of these people for listening to the missionaries, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, and recognizing the truth and also for making the effort to travel to this country.

DADDY

Today is his birthday...117yrs. He died when he was 89, as Aunt Carol has already written. I want all to know that he was a good man. And he was a hard worker. He had cataract surgery when I was in my late teens and that is what made him start getting old. His eyes were not much good after that, so he couldn't drive, and he couldn't do close work. So it was hard for him.

He loved to laugh and tell jokes. And I loved to hear him tell jokes. When I was 10 or so Daddy was called into the Presidency of the Calif. Mission. Pres. Bryan L. Bunker was the President of the mission and he used to love to hear Daddy tell jokes, too. One of my favorites was the one about the two drunks walking along the railroad tracks. One of them said, "This is the longest stairway I've ever been on." The other one said, "It's not all the stairs, it's these low banisters that get me." (I was young.)

We had a fox terrier named Sweetie Pie. She loved Daddy and he loved her. Daddy had an office in the front of the house and Sweetie Pie would often be found lying on the floor of the office next to Daddy's chair. She would do anything for him and he taught her lots of great tricks.

Most of all, I want to share some pictures of him. He was 52yrs old when I was born, so I never knew him with a lot of hair. But I always loved him. Aunt Carol says she thinks I was his favorite. I don't know. But we had good times.

JED

He is the seventh and last. Twenty-nine years ago we had our last child. He was due Oct. 1, so I was more than ready. Mama had died on Sept. 23. Soon after that Dr. Brown sent me to bed, threatening toxemia, he said. I had always thought it would be great to have someone tell me to stay in bed, but with six children already, it wasn't that much fun.

So once again it was a Sunday evening. Dad and I drove in to the hospital and left Samantha in charge. On and on through the night and not much happened. Monday morning Dr. Brown told us we were looking at a C-section. He had been asking us with each of the last few children if that wasn't enough. We had just about decided it was, but the C-section news helped us decide for sure. I was nervous. How could they be sure they weren't going to cut the baby. Dumb, huh? Dad held my hand and at 10:23am, Monday morning, Oct. 22, he was born. It's another boy, they said. Five sons and two daughters. Dad wondered what we would name him. I had it all planned. "William Jedediah", I said, "after my father's father. We'll call him 'Jed'." We had always avoided calling the kids by a middle name. That happened to both of us. But this was different.

William Jedediah it was. He weighed 10lbs 6oz. I was done. We stayed in the hospital a day or two longer because of the surgery and then we went home. The first baby my mother would never see. It was hard. I have always said that Jed saved my life. I had a husband and six other children, but this baby needed me 24 hrs. a day. I used to go downstairs to do laundry and cry my heart out, missing my mother so much. Then I would go back upstairs and get to work.

He was the last. That was not easy to accept, either. But the LAST DIAPER made it easier. The last day of Elementary School helped, too. But the last day of JR. HIGH and CAR POOL assured me we had done the right thing.

Daddy didn't know him for long, but he called him 'little Jeddy'. I think he was proud that we named him after his father.

Jed's all grown up, now, as are they all. Has done so many good things in his life and is happy. I have always been grateful to him for saving my life---even if he didn't know that is what he was doing.