Grandma Esther Stinchfield passed away sometime early Saturday morning at her adult living foster home in Vancouver, Washington. She was 97 1/2 years old.

Death was from natural causes following two years of declining health.

Esther was born to Amy Stella Jones Capito and Dassy Roer-Leonidas Capito in Roseville, CA on October 4th, 1910. She attended elementary school in Meridian and High School in Sutter City where she authored the school song.

She married Henry Maurice Stinchfield on November 19, 1927, in Reno, NV. They moved from Meridian to Colusa where Esther worked for J. C. Penney Co. and played the piano for the silent movies at the cinema. Henry's career took the family to Kentucky (Ft. Knox), Sacramento, Nevada City, El Cerrito, Central California, Southern California and finally to West Sacramento in 1956. Esther again worked for J. C. Penney Co. in Sacramento and later for Sacramento Insulation. Esther joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in 1960 and was an active member in the West Sacramento Ward until moving to Vancouver, Washington. She took up crocheting in retirement. In 2004, she crocheted the American Flag and sent it to the President of the United States who recognized her gift by letter of gratitude.

Esther was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Maude Baum and brother, Cecil Capito, her husband, a son, Donald and grandsons, Keith Wecker and Benjamin Stinchfield. She is survived by her four children, Virginia McKay of Salt Lake City, UT, Jenell Wecker of Shingle Springs, Daryl Stinchfield of Rocklin and Dr. Kenneth Stinchfield of Vancouver, Washington. She leaves 25 grandchildren, 61 great grandchildren and 38 great great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 9:00 a.m., Saturday, April 19th at the West Sacramento Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2667 Linden Road, West Sacramento. A graveside service will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the Grand Island Cemetery on Dry Slough Road three minutes north of Grimes off of Hwy 45.

Hi Family,

I wish there was exciting news to share but it has been a long Spring Break with lots of bad weather. Today we finally had a good day. We went over to my friend Ann-Christin's house for lunch and then from there we all went to a little animal park. There are so few rules here for kids, it's so fun. They were having a great time climbing on rocks and up hillsides, throwing rocks in the river, feeding the animals. It was just what they needed after a long week inside. Sadie was so worried because the kids only speak German. I told her it would work. It started out rough but by the time lunch was over there were no barriers, Sadie and Sariah were running around hand in hand. Ellyn also had a great time, she stayed out of her stroller almost the entire time. In fact, she pushed her stroller the last half an hour or so. Mike called soon after we got home. He finally has internet in his room again. It's always so good talk to him and now we can ichat too.

Last night I did my work out at 11:30 because I didn't want to miss, but I know I won't get down there tonight and I already had my rest day.

So...just so you know, we do have a family blog now. I found out that you can make blogs into books and I have now solved my journaling, scrapbooking issues. So, while it could bore you to death and it is really for my kids and grandkids, you can check it out if you want (Barb found it on accident already). The site is www.mikestinchfieldsfamily.blogspot.com. I'm sure many of the entries will be the same but I can ramble longer on there. I know, you are wondering if that is possible.

I have taken advantage of this down time by sleeping in and staying up late. That has been the good part. Every night I have been making calls to EFMP managers in an attempt to find the best place for us to move. Good times, good times.
Well the girls are begging me to come out and watch a movie with them so that is all for now- you can all breath a sigh of relief.

I guess I'll post since the blog is a little slow and I realized that I haven't posted in a while. Things are good here. Not much news from this neck of the woods. Let's see.....

Most of my friends had Spring Break last week so we had a lot of fun hanging out and going to new places. We did a "tour o' Mira Mesa" one night last week and went to a new sushi place, a new yogurt place and a new tea place. The sushi was amazing! Dad - I'll have to take you there next time you come down. It is called Mr. Wasabi. And the yogurt place is awesome - it is called Yogurt World and they have about 25 different flavors of yogurt and you pour the yogurt and your toppings yourself. They just weigh it and that is how they determine what it costs - which can be very dangerous as some toppings are rather heavy.

It is supposed to be really nice here this weekend so I think a few of my friends and I are going to take our first trip of the year to the beach. Should be fun. Yay for picnics and frisbee! :)

Other than that, it has mostly just been work stuff. Nothing too exciting. I think our website will finally be done by the end of next week which would be AMAZING! Such a relief. Otherwise it is just really busy with little projects. We may be getting some of our books translated into Vietnamese for the first time which would be great.

I am very excited for The Office to be back tonight as well as 30 Rock which is one of my favorites. And only two more weeks till LOST is back!! :)

Ok, 30 Rock is on now so I gotta go!

I am done with all my classes for Winter Semester. I got all A's except one B. Treven still has his anatomy final and chemistry final so he is studying like crazy right now. He got a 100 percent on his last test for Lab which is perfect because he was at like a 90 percent!
Anyway, we have to get packing. We are leaving for Washington tomorrow morning and just driving the whole way through!!! We are so excited to come home! Can't wait to see some of you and be in warmer weather.

Kimberly

And, who would this be?

Photo off the USS Carl Vinson in about 1991 with Dave, Brent and Tom on for the Tiger Cruise. I suspect Mark Carlile took this photo. Dad

Okay, so I know I am cutting it close to the start of this challenge but most of you are planning to work out tomorrow anyway so what I say won't make a difference. After much deliberation we have set the perimeters for the next "running challenge" and want to invite EVERYONE to participate! The goal is to become a member of the elite, exceptional and extraordinary "5X CLUB". That's 5 and then the letter x, symbolizing the idea of 5 times a week. That is how often you have to work out to be in this club. So take off Sunday and pick a rest day but kick it gear every other day! You can choose what you want to do for your routine but it is proposed that you run three of the days and cross train the other two. For those who can't or don't run pick something else cardio, keep your heart rate up and feel the burn!!! To become a member of this club you must workout 5 days a week for four weeks. Now the flexible part comes in the fact that you can pick your own 4 weeks to do this. For instance, Tom is still on oral surgery for 1 more week and can't start tomorrow, I am going to Utah for a week in three weeks and it if I don't do all 5 days that week I will have to add another week in order to get to my 4. Does that make sense? So, once you commit to do this you need to put in daily reports to the running challenge group to track your progress. In the end you get the satisfaction of knowing you are part of such a elite group, maybe I'll even make t-shirts!

I'm hoping that by joining this challenge I will be motivated to make sure that I make time to work out everyday. I can set my own pace or distance but I can't skip a day because that means I have to start over again the next week! Once I have done it for 4 weeks, I win! Plus, by then I will hopefully be in a good habit of making the time each day. I hope this is helpful for some of you as well. If you are new to the family challenge go and register on the google group and join in the fun! If you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know! I'm not set in stone with any of my ideas, I'm just trying to come up with something! Happy running! Here's the google group!!

So let's see, what have we been up to... we had one of Hayden’s class pets last weekend. I was skeptical when he and Tom wanted to sign up to bring the snake home but everyone ended up having a really fun time with it. Danica just couldn’t get enough of her and all day would run in and say “I see a nake!” “Look at the nake mommy!” And then she would laugh and laugh. I’ll try to add the video of her holding the snake, it’s pretty funny. She was very brave, or maybe just doesn’t know better. Alyssa wanted to hold the snake as well but she wanted to put it in her mouth so I had to say no!

As for April Fool’s day, Hayden had a lot of fun with it this year. He loves to play tricks on me and this gave him license to do it all day. Most of the jokes were simple things like “Hey, there’s a spider on you” or putting a fake snake near my feet. But at one point he called to me and said “Hey mom, Crossing Jordan is on so I set it to record!” He thinks I am addicted to the show and loves to tease me about it. Then I was trying to trick him and he picked something up and I said “Wait, there’s a spider on that” and he quickly dropped it. He started laughing and said “That was a pretty good one mom, if you had been better I might have even fell for it!” What a punk he is!

We finally got our passport applications completed last Saturday so that is one huge item off my list. I also got the Odyssey all cleaned out and photographed in preparation for selling it. That’s definitely a big stressor for me, we obviously had no intention of selling it when we bought it and just hate to lose money on it. Hopefully we will find a buyer who can wait until June. Brooke if you are really interested let me know and I"ll send you a copy of the add we are running so you can check it out. I’m not going to worry about selling anything else until May and then we will just start getting things ready! There are a number things we are selling and quite a few things we will put in storage. We have put in our travel request in hopes that we can get movers at the end of June and fly out to Hawaii on July 1st and then arrive in Okinawa on July 6th. Hopefully we will get the dates we want and will be able to secure lodging and such. We need to hear back with official word from Okinawa before we can arrange for temporary lodging there. I’ve been told a new housing development is set to open up this summer so I am really praying we will get a nice new place and not have to wait long!

Alyssa was sick all last week with high fevers, something that seems to be going around. However, when all was said and done we discovered she cut her bottom teeth!!! Her fevers were pretty high to be due to teething but either way I am excited they are on their way! She continues to be such a silly, giggly baby. She is so quick to smile and would laugh all day if I had the time to sit and tickle her. She is just so cute!

Danica has been trying to be a “mommy” all week to her little baby doll. She has insisted on taking her baby to the park where she pushed her in the swing and kept saying “Go higher baby” and sent her down the slide saying “Go baby, Weee!” The she had to bring him to pick up Hayden at school and everywhere around the house. She tried feeding her some strawberry applesauce, making a huge mess! She tried to nurse her baby, I was so proud of her for even using a burp cloth! Today when I got her ready to go to Hayden’s t-ball practice she ran over to her baby and said “You ready to go baby?” “You coming too, baby!” We have an extra car seat in the Odyssey because I carpool so she always buckles her baby in one of the seats.

Hayden built a really big block tower this week and was so proud of it he had to write a book about it. He drew all the pictures to document his creation and then dictated the words for me to write. He was really sad when the tower finally had to come down! He enjoyed t-ball practice today, they are now doing coach pitch and Hayden did really well with it. Next week is spring break so we are trying to set up some fun playtime with his friends who are usually at school all day!

Well that is all for today...Happy Spring! We really enjoyed watching conference and seeing President Monson. Some years it doesn't go so well with the kids but it actually worked out okay this year and we heard most of the talks. Today after conference we went to a friends house for dinner, it's exactly a mile away (we know because we run past it). We decided to walk there since the kids were cooped up all day. On the way home Danica didn't want to ride in the stroller and she wanted to try to keep up with Hayden on his scooter. She actually ran all the way home, the entire mile! We asked her if she wanted back in the stroller at one point and she just kept running and yelled back "No, I running!" I guess we'll have to enter her into the next family challenge!

at blog writing. I want to be able to use the excuse that I have been so busy with volleyball and juggling two kids but really, I have been so lazy. For some reason lately, my laziness seems to be a little increased yet I still manage to have a clean house. Weird I know, I guess I just feel I am lazy but I am so much more productive than before.

Okay I have some funny stories...

Andrew has a little truck that he rides around the house. So that he wouldn't bug me every two seconds for a snack, I taped on a little sandwich bag with goldfish on to it. The other day I was in doing the dishes and I happened to see him running back and forth from the truck to the family room, where by the way I had left Beck in his bouncy chair. I finish up a couple of minutes later with the dishes and come out to see what Andrew is up to. I go over to Beck only to find a goldfish cracker stuffed in his mouth with a couple other goldfish on his chest. Apparently Andrew felt Beck needed a snack too.

We keep our dirty diapers in the laundry room and I was changing over the laundry. I had left the washer open and had gone to get the clothes to fill it with. Andrew was playing in the laundry room while I was gone and I came back in to him throwing the diapers at the washer and dryer. I didn't think anything of it and loaded the clothes and sent Andrew out of the laundry room. I came back in a little later to change over the laundry again. I opened the washer and found that Andrew was actually playing basketball with the diapers and had managed to get 2 dirty diapers into the washer. Luckily the diapers hadn't opened but I had to run that load again to get the nastiness off of the clothes.

All is well here in Boise. I probably should cut this short as Beck has just started crying and Andrew is bugging me to let him watch Finding Nemo. We love you all and hope to see some of you sooner than later. I will get pics posted later when I have the time.

Love,
Anne

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!! I swear we just did your baptism. We love you so much. You are one of the coolest kids I know. I love your creativity and the way your mind works. I hope you had a great birthday.

Brent and Buffy, that is awesome. What a fun little group of boys we're going to have- Beck, Sawyer, and baby. Can't wait for all the family reunions! Congratulations!!

Everything is going well here. I need to copy and paste from Beech Tree. Short of it, they have hired and early education/counselor to be Ellyn's personal aide till the end of the school year. We still don't have any news on next year. Hopefully after spring break. We are THRILLED that this aide was put in place. Her teacher has also come up with a curriculum specific to Ellyn for the rest of the school year.

The girls have spring break this week. We were going to take a hop to the east coast and go visit Geof and Darla but now that they have hired this teacher for Ellie I don't want to risk not getting back in time. So...we are here with rain and snow in the forecast for the next several days. Good thing daddy just brought the wii home and bought us Rock Band. My mom and Meagan are coming out the 28th of April. I'm sooo excited!!

Sawyer had some shots the day before yesterday and he had a fever all day yesterday. He kept throwing up his tylenol, he would get so angry and gag. So he was held pretty much all day long.

Well I have to go feed my kids. I am going to try to put a video on here later.

Just a quick HUGE announcement...WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!! No name yet but we will be working on it and are very excited. B&B

I hope you have a great one!! :) 10 years old? Is that right? Wow.

We made this silly video about a week ago, one night while Tom was on duty we had a picnic in the backyard. It's nothing amazing, just the kind of thing that the kids and I enjoy and will laugh at when they are older. However, since we don't live near everyone I figure we might as well post it, at least the grandparents will probably get a chuckle out of it.. it's about 2 1/2 minutes long... so I am not saying everyone should watch this, but if you're bored go ahead, it's something to do and of course I think my kids are hilarious!

Well, I called out sick today for work. Still not feeling good since I started geting a chest cold late last week and up nights coughing and not sleeping much. I hate calling in sick (though I never do) for a couple of reasons... 1) vacation time has turned into a hot commodity since I will be using it all up for maternity leave, 2) the front desk has to call all my patients and cancel the appointments which is a ton of work for them or scramble to put them on someone elses empty slots. I just hope I wake up tomorrow feeling fabulous so staying home paid off and I won't be coughing in my patient's faces while I work on their neck or something.
Good news... Brent had his first day off yesterday for the first time in 29 days!!! So we both were complete lazy people all day which was nice. One good thing about my OB appointments in the last 2 months is that it forces Brent to get off at a decent hour like this Thursday with our ultrasound appointment at 4. By the way, we TOTALLY can't wait to find out. I think I will need to celebrate by driving to Brent's old work (gap outlet) and buy a couple baby items (pink or blue???). I will probably get completely into planning how to decorate the baby's room... good thing work is slowing down for Brent since he will be the painter!
And yesterday I signed into craigslist for the first time to list some things for sale. It is totally just like others have said before that you get responses within the hour of posting. We have some office things that need to go since they are cramping the nursery's style and the extra cash will help. I feel like I am playing it safe enough by arranging for people to pick up ONLY when Brent is home too. Still no hits on our extra clothes dryer though. If you remember that story from when we first moved into the house, we ended up buying a new dryer thinking it was broken only to later find that the builder accidentally left the exterior vent closed.
Well, I guess that's it. We love you guys.
Buffy