3 New People Joined our Family in the Past 9 Days!

¡¡¡Wow!!! What an eventful past couple of weeks this has been!

As most of you have probably heard by now, Tyler Kendell Woodward was born to Mike and Jennifer on June 26 (Kathryn's birthday). He weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and in spite of an arduous labor, he and Jennifer are doing just fine. I saw him for the first time on July 3, and he is definitely a cute little bugger. Congratulations, Mike and Jennifer!!!

Eleven days ago we got a call from Alisha (Adams) telling us that she would be getting married the following Monday (June 29), so two days later we packed up and drove to Utah so we could be there for her wedding. She had a beautiful garden wedding in her uncle's back yard, where she married a tall, handsome young man from Fiji, whose name, if I can remember all of it, is Saimone Talevinikuleka. He goes by Sai (pronounced like "sigh"). Lots of pictures were taken, so hopefully we can post a couple of them on the blog within the next few days. Congratulations, Alisha and Sai!!!

And if that's not enough, Amy (Adams Noyce) called yesterday to say that her water broke and the doctors were keeping her under observation, and a few hours later, we get a call to tell us that her baby was born! He came five weeks early, so he is quite small (4 pounds, 12 ounces) and will have to stay in the NICU for a few days or weeks (depending on his progress), but so far he seems to be quite healthy. His name is Daniel Scott Noyce and is known so far as baby Danny. Here is the first picture I have seen of him:

Congratulations, Amy and Kenny!!! Best of luck for a quick recovery and we hope Danny can come home from the hospital soon!

Also, I hear that we are to expect another wedding and another baby before the end of the year because Sarah Burgess is engaged to be married in December and Beth Burgess is expecting her second baby on New Year's Eve! Congratulations Sarah and Josh and Beth!!!

In addition, I understand that Rod Woodward has accepted a well-paying engineering job where he will be stationed in Bahrain, so he has already moved there, and Angels and Marc are going to join him there while Christina and Michelle hold down the fort back in Spain while they are going to college. Congratulations, Rod!!!

Wow! That's almost too much exciting news for one short period! But there's still more! Our Ken and Marva family reunion will start just 3 weeks from today! I know it doesn't seem very well organized yet, but that's because I was asked to organize it. Hopefully, we can pull everything together in the next 3 weeks. I think we can do it (Shari and some other people have given me some good ideas), and it should be lots of fun! Watch this blog over the next few days to see how you can help! Can't wait to see you all!

Mama Jayne

He got it!

Well, Tony finally got his call and let us know where he'll be going! (We've been anxiously waiting all day.) Shari wins the prize for the best prediction. He's going to the Resistencia, Argentina mission. He enters September 2. Hooray! Congratulations, Tony!!!

Mama Jayne and Pa A

TONY'S MISSION CALL CAME!!!

An official looking envelope from the Office of the First Presidency of the Church addressed to Elder Anthony Ramón Calderón appeared in our mailbox yesterday (obviously, a letter extending him his mission call). Hooray!!! Where is he going, and when? We don't know yet. Tony is in Provo and will be flying today to Atlanta, Georgia, where he will be spending the summer selling home security systems to earn some money for his mission. (He hopes to leave sometime in August, but we'll see what the call says.) Tony gave us strict instructions not to open the envelope and to forward it on to him in Georgia, so we put it in the mail yesterday, and he will be receiving it probably on Monday. Then we'll finally find out where he is going and when.

So that gives everyone about two days to make an entry to this blog and predict where Tony will be going before he opens his mission call envelope. As you can see from comments to his previous post, Julie predicts Chile, her friend Sarah Hudson predicts Spain, and Shari predicts Argentina. I predict Michoacán, México. Send in your predictions, and let's revive this Woodward Family Blog! This will be a suspenseful couple of days for us.

Congratulations, Tony!! You may not be excited about this, but I sure am!

Mom

New York

In April I took a trip to New York City with 3 other women and had a fabulous time! The highlights for me were the art museums (The Met, Frick, Whitney, Guggenheim, and MoMA--so much great art and so many pivotal pieces in art history), Central Park, going to the Manhattan Temple (right across the street from the Metropolitan Opera/Juilliard music school complex), and winning a ticket lottery for front row seats to see the musical WICKED! Also, I got to stay in a friend of a friend's nineteenth-century brownstone apartment right in Manhattan, which was a cultural experience in itself. It was my first trip there and I can't wait to go back. Anyone want to come with me?

love, Sharon

p.s. Linda has expressed an interest in going backpacking in the Tetons with me during the first week of August. Anyone else want to come?

MISSION!!

To All Who Have Been So Concerned:

Hey everyone, this is Tony, and I've got some pretty exciting news, that most of you should have already heard. But if you haven't, here it is: My mission papers are in!! Soon enough, I'll be serving in God knows where (no, seriously, only He knows..), preaching the Word of God. Pretty cool, huh? I've been telling people my call should come within 2-3 weeks, but I'm guessing it might come a bit sooner, maybe even this wednesday.

So, a lot of people tell me how much they are excited for me. But when they ask if I'm excited myself, I can't really say that I am. Even though it's certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will undoubtedly be one of the biggest influential impacts on my life, I'm just not excited to go. I'm just ready. It's a job really. One of the most important jobs I will ever be responsible for, but a job nonetheless. And so, no, I am not excited for this job, but I am certainly ready for it. But in the meantime, I'll just have to make sure I do what I can to prepare for it.

So, I've told you what you need to know, now it's your turn. Sarah and Julie have already given me the pleasure of guessing where I will get sent. Now for the rest of you, start commenting on the blog your predictions for where I will get sent. And make sure you do it quick, before my call comes in the mail!

Tony

http://www.pagat.com/aceten/solo.html

Hey look at this! Lots of versions of SOLO! I found this one that closely resembles the game you Woodwards love to play!

Lary

Nights and Lights

PaA beat MaA in Boggle: 75 to 53.
MaA beat PaA in Speed Scrabble: 6to 5.

We heard on the news that people used to sleep 9 hours at night at the turn of the century and now they only sleep on average 7.5 hours. Thinking it over, we decided that they must have worked really hard, had no TV to watch, and no electric lights. After turning off the lights for a few minutes, we decided we just wouldn't want to live without electric lights. You need light to play these fun word games. Maybe next week when daylight savings time returns. In the meantime, maybe I can still get 9 hours of sleep by sleeping in tomorrow, (only I can't remember the last time I was able to sleep in).