Ancestor Stories #04 Chaney's

Just so everyone doesn't think all our ancestors were pilgrims or knights or revolutionary war veterans, many of our ancestors came out of the hill country of southern Missouri and the Arkansas Ozarks.

This is Jack and Betty Chaney enjoying a sunny day on the front porch with the family.  That watermellon looks good.  They lived in Mountain Grove, Missouri where my dad was born.  The sweet little barefoot girl in the front is my Grandma, Lura Chaney.  Not sure, but it looks like a little turkey wandering around loose.

Here are the Chaney's all spruced up for a photograph.  Jack and Betty Chaney seated in the front.  Lura, my grandma, in the middle.  Look at that bow she has on.  Other daughters Myrtle Mae and Viola.  Two sons, John and Jay.  They had another son that died in childbirth named Willie.



Here's the same group a few year later.  My Grandma, Lura, is third from the right. 

Proud Betty Chaney with two grandchildren.  The little baby on the right is my Dad.  The other is his older sister Betty.

This is a beautiful beautiful photograph of my grandmother Lura, the little girl in the other photographs, all grown up now with her first baby Betty, named after her mother.  Her second baby was my Dad, Keith, and then she had one other named Sue.



Ashton's Baptism

We went up to Spokane and got to see our grandson Ashton get baptised.

 He just turned 8 years old.  He was baptised by his father Jim.

 Afterwards Tianna had some refreshments at her house for people. 

 Ashton seemed to be having a good time.

 Ashton with two of his friends playing a little air hockey.

Congratulations Ashton.  We are glad we got to come to your baptism.  We love you.

Mallory's Birthday

We got to go to Mallory's birthday party.  She turned five years old.  Mallory is one of our grandchildren and we love her dearly.

 She had a great time and was the princess of the party.

 Layne and Malachi put together the party at their church building.  There was a lot of people came to celebrate with Mallory.

 Three of Mallory's cousins, Tucker, Scarlett, and Penelope.  There was lots of great food to eat.

 They also had an ice cream machine and lots of delicious toppings to put on. 

 Time to open presents.

Mallory had a wonderful time.  I think she felt very special, and she is.  We love you Mallory.

Valentines Day

I have the best sweetheart in the world.  Jacquelyn got me this huge Valentines Day card.  When I went into the bedroom after work, there it was.

I love it.  Jacquelyn's down in Arizona but got this giant card before she left and made arrangements for someone to put in in my room while I was at work.  I love you Jacquelyn.  Thank you.

I also got some delicious brownies and a card from Talitha.  So I can guess who put the card out for Jacquelyn.  Thank you Talitha, that was very thoughtful.

I didn't have anything to do for Valentines Day but I got an email from Old Country Buffet for children to eat for 99 cents.  I invited Andrew and Mallory to come with me and they wanted to.  I wish some of my other grandchildren live closer but I'm sure they had a good time too with their parents.

There was lots and lots of food and Andrew and Mallory were excited to pick out what they wanted to eat.  Mallory especially ate a lot of chicken and a lot of nachos.  But the biggest attraction for them seemed to be the Icee machine.

 Andrew found it first and they kept going back and going back and going back.

This is one of Mallory's creations.  It has red and yellow icee mixed.  They were also adding orange pop to make it more drinkable.

 Andrew has a triple flavored icee.

 After food and drink it was time for dessert.  Mallory had a chocolate ice cream cone.

 Andrew had chocolate cake and he had ice cream also.

We had a little time so we went to the playground in the mall and they got to climb around for a while.  They refused to leave they were having so much fun.  I had to trick them.

It was a fun Valentines Day.  Although I would rather have had my sweetheart home.

Las Vegas

While we were in Las Vegas for Talitha's wedding we had some time to walk around and see a few of the sights.

The is the welcome sign on the highway into Las Vegas.

 We did a lot of walking around looking at the strip.  It's really a strange city.  No place else in the world so odd I think.

 I did make a new friend in one of the casinos.  He didn't like me telling him he has a gambling problem.

 Since it was cold we tried to sight see inside as much as possible and only got lost from each other a few times.

 This was probably my favorite display.  It was very real to life looking.

 We saw a loving couple on Lover's Lane.

We got kicked out of Caesar's Palace.

 Everyone liked the fountains at the Bellagio.

 Me with two cute daughters.

And we saw a Las Vegas show, the Blue Men, at the Monte Carlo.   It was really good but I thought it was just a bit too loud.  Afterwards I spoke with the head Blue Man an gave him some pointers on how to improve the the performance.

New Blog for Caleb's mission

I started a blog for Caleb's mission.  Don't forget to bookmark it or join it as a follower and we will be posting his emails and pictures as we get them.  It's at:   http://eldercalebwswift.blogspot.com/

Talitha's wedding to David

Talitha and David got married in Las Vegas on Saturday.  We are very happy for them.

They make a really neat couple and seem real happy together.  I think they are a good match.
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The chapel was real pretty but we couldn't take pictures of the inside.  The pastor gave a very good talk and I got to walk Talitha down the aisle.

Congratulations Talitha and David Madsen.  Hope you have a wonderful marriage together.