MISSION CALL!!

I'm posting this for Alan and Julie Dance. Here is an email that Julie sent out reguarding where they will serve as mission president and wife. -H and J
...........

Dear Family,

Alan and I have been called by the first Presidency to preside in the Anchorage, Alaska Mission. We feel at peace that is where the Lord wants us to "teach and preach and work like missionaries do" (To the the tune of "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission".) I love you all and will keep the impact that your lives and testimonies have had on me in my heart to give me strength and courage. We received the assignment letter by FedEx on Monday, Feb 25 at 11 am. I calmly retrieved the envelope, and set it upstairs. No, I did not peek. I only opened the seal to see what was in the envolope, but not read it. Sure enough, there was a letter (no peeky!) and thicker enveolope. We wanted to wait to read it outloud in the presence of our children via a conference call by phone later on that same night. Just as planned, we arranged a call time. Megan was the first one to get through. Then, as she waited, she heard Jared's voice say, "Hi, this Jared. I am here." Then, another voice, "Hi, this is Amanda, I'm here." Then, the voice of Melanie, Brent and Andrea added on. Megan thought that was very cool the way the family gradually added on and she felt a surge of love and support that only family can give. Finally, I got through for Emily, Alan and I. We set up my camera to take a video of me reading the letter. As some of you know, the high level of anticipation just prior to reading your assignment letter is quite exciting and full of emotion. I am greatful for my husband, parents, brothers, brothers-in-law, nephews, neices, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and my own sons and daughter who have answered the call to serve. You all have set in motion an example like non other for me to follow. Without hesitation you answered your call and duty to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you. Like Nephi in I Nephi 15:33 ". . . the Lord hath commanded me and I must obey". More details to follow. Just want to share the news. I am grateful for a such a great family to be a part of.



Eat some blubber for lunch and swim with a seal.

Love, your daughter, sister, and aunt Julie

Graham and Rhandi Are Official Bloggers

Boy do we feel big time!  Right up there with Logan and Heather, Tom and Kim, and Brett and Sommer we too have started a blog.  So, whomever is in charge of the Dance Family's blog please set up our link as well!  It is as follows: theormefam.blogspot.com .  Thanks.  Rhandi and I are most likely going to participate in the Family Relay.  Thanks, John, for putting it together.  It's going to be blast.  Love you all!

Graham & Rhandi & Cayman

Here We Go...

We are in the same boat as many of you, this being our first blogging experience! We are excited to be able to keep up with everyone though and have an outlet for some of the many, many pictures we love taking of our little Janelle! :) We've already enjoyed looking at the posts.

Well, we are doing so well out here in Buffalo. People are really friendly and it truly doesn't always feel as cold as the news always makes it sound! :) We love our ward. There is such a diversity of experience and many wonderful people we are getting to know. John is in the Elder's Quorum presidency and I just got called as the primary girls' activity day leader. It's great being in a family ward. John is loving being a "Sandwich Artist" for now, but he will get to start managing a local Subway restaurant soon; thus you get the picture of "Our Favorite Footlong!" He continues to study for the DAT and will be applying for dental school again in May/June. Meanwhile, I get to stay home with Janelle and absolutely love it. We can't believe how fast she's growing. She now knows how to smile, makes all sorts of sounds and has even started giggling once in a while!

That's us for now. We love you all!!

The Dance, McDonald, Nope and Hamilton Inter Tube Water Polo team is battling along.  We have won 1 game, (it was a forfeit) but we all enjoy the games.  Some highlights...

-Jenna throwing in some fake pass shots in the last game after our practice. (Carson is a tough coach)

-Megan and Amanda joining the ranks of the team!

-Shayne just tapping ever so lightly an already off balance opponent to send him into the drink.

We have another game before the tournament.

(i had to sneak this photo out, hidden on my camera phone.  I guess you are not supposed to take pictures at the pool?)

The Cousin's Soccer team is off to a great start.  We have won all 3 games so far.  8-1, 7-0, and 5-0.  A thanks to everyone who shows up on time!

Grandpa & Janie

It's always fun to have visitors!!! Janie just LOVES grandpa & grandma!

Johnny's Play try out

/Users/juliennedance/Desktop/MVI_1237.AVI

new background

So I just took my renal pathophysiology final (all about kidney diseases) and decided I've got time to figure out how to make this blog look a little more like a family website. Tell me what you think. I just grabbed this off a person's blog who does backgrounds (Kim you'll like this): http://www.cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com/
I can customize it (make my own version or whatever) but might not get around to it. I'm going to add header and footer photos sometime. If you have one you think will work good send it to me.

A comic shared in our urinalysis lecture today

birthday!

Happy birthday to everyone! my birthday is tomorrow, Feb. 5th!
-hannah

Blogging Options - Please Comment

Fam,

I've offered to help out a bit with this blog and would like some feedback on what level of privacy you all would like. Please share your preference regarding the following options:

1. Allow only invited people to view the blog. This would remove our blog from the public domain, and only blog authors and those who are invited to the blog can actually view it. Your Gmail account password would be required to view the blog. Exchange of more sensitive information would be safer.

2. Allow anonymous viewers, but restrict commenting to blog members only. As you can see, we have already received a few spam comments. I changed the settings to this option for now, so we shouldn't get any more spam.

3. Other options? There are a lot of little settings and content options you can customize. Those of you with blogs, let me know if you have an idea of something to fix or add (i.e. sidebar content) and I will add it.

FYI-- Why is this blog free? It's part of your Gmail account. (A lot of people actually earn money with their blogs by hosting Google Adsense on their blog.) Where is everything stored? Any photos you upload to this site are added to an album automatically created for you in your online Google Photos (Picasa) account. They're "stored" there and you get 1000Mb of storage on that account for free. So! Start sharing your memories.

Happy Birthday to Kari!!!!!

Tomorrow (Feb. 4th) is the big day.

My first offical...

Blog and Engagement!

I guess we all have our own timing in life and perhaps mine has been a little behind the norm (most of us have been blogging for years now and we'll skip how long most of us have been married!)

But I have to say... its so worth it. From what I can see, this blogging thing will be awesome. And as for this engagement thing --- best decision I've made in my life.

In response to Jared and Hannah... here's a little update. If you've heard this all, feel free to skip it.

Paul Tanner and I have been dating for ~ 13 months. Yes, again, I take my time. The joy of dating this long however is that we know each other so well. We've had our ups and downs and seen all sides of each other and learned how to communicate in so many different types of situations. He asked me to marry him last friday (in a very romantic - up in the mountains - tricking me into not expecting it- way) and I could hardly let him finish talking so I could say yes. He is my best friend, my biggest support, I admire him, respect him and am madly in love with him. In short, March 22nd (the day of our sealing in Seattle) just can't come fast enough.
I feel so much gratitude to my Heavenly Father. I have had such a blessed life with so many incredible experiences - and now to have the opportunity to be sealed to Paul... the Lord is so good to us.

Thanks for all of your excitement and support. It has been so fun to talk with the few of you I have - and look forward to talking to (or seeing) the rest of you. Thanks Kimmy for putting this together. I love you all - JeVonne :)

Graham and Rhandi Orme Family Are Signed On!!

Hello Family,

Congrats to JeVonne!  We are so pumped for the furious party going down on March 22nd!  And we're grateful for the love of you all.  May Mitt WIN!

Love,

The Ormes

Did I miss anyone?

If you didn't get an invite to join the blog (which gives you access to make posts), please email me and I will send you an invite. my email is kimdance@gmail.com
Spread the news of the blog. Like the family website, it is way more fun to check it if people actually get on and post. Plus we need to know how everyone is doing as we are all in different parts of the country!
I missed the wedding in December. Can someone post a slideshow or some pictures of Heather in her beautiful white dress?

to mcdonald family

apparently we have been lost here in rexburg. JV's getting married? yay! when's the wedding? what else have we missed? i feel so lost.
-hannah dance

ps: congratualations! we would love to hear all about it!

Example

Thanks Kim for setting this up! I'm excited to get this going. Heather and I have been doing blogs for awhile, it serves as our family 'journal' and keeps us connected with all of our friends. Notice that the newest post always shows up at the top of the page (see Kim's welcome post below). You can subscribe to feeds from this blog so that each time a new post is created, you know about it.

Here's an example of how you can share things:

1. Post a video (just click on the video button to upload it from your computer)


2. Post photos (just click on the photo button)

3. Post a slideshow from Picasa Web Albums (embedded html)