"In 1961, we added Valerie...."

Valerie is actually the first sibing that I have a faint memory of being born. I can remember my mom kissing me good-bye as she left the house with dad in the morning and later that day learning we had a new baby sister. Her name was Valerie Kaye. Other names in the running at the time were Stephanie and Melanie as I remember. Not sure about her middle name, I think there was a change in the spelling of it at some point. Valerie will have to provide more details. Mom reported that Valerie arrived here the easiest and quickest of all of us kids....and it was a beautiful April day in Washington. Of course she was the middle of the famous "three little girls".

She currently lives with her husband of 30 years, three of their eight children and two turtles in Mesa. They are actually in the process of moving...not far however just to a home with an acre lot for Lance to garden (not sure if he has noticed all the rocks in Mesa....I think they put rocks instead of a yard for some reason, but that is for another blog.)

Valerie with Megan during visit last spring to Utah

This is Valerie showing off her walking skills in the side yard of our house on Longfitt. As you might not know, our small house had a huge yard mostly on the side which was a corner lot. There is the swing set and I remember a cement pad with a basketball hoop although I am not sure if that was on our property or not. I can remember Dad shooting basketballs there once. But this is about Valerie and I doubt she remembers anything about this house as she was less than two when we moved to our Agnes house.

This must be about Kindergarten.

Other than that her best friend was Molly, I don't know much about Valerie in the younger years. However nowadays, she likes:

Color: Yellow
Food: Mexican
Movie: no one favorite, but enjoyed Tangled recently
TV Show: The Amazing Race Sport: Volleyball (to play)
Professional Sport Teams: Jazz, Diamondbacks
College Teams: BYU
Snack Food: chocolate
Vacation Spot: I want to go to England, Italy, New York, the Oregon Coast and Israel again
Game- Rage, and too many others
Pets: No, thank you (we do have two tortoises) Something she is planning to do this year (before her next birthday): Continue loving life and maybe find an agent for my book.

Current Church Calling: Young Women's President
Job: What's this? (Sometimes I write for the Beehive Newspaper and sell vinyl lettering)
Interests and Hobbies: Reading, Writing, Family History, Blogging
Favorite Authors: I enjoy Shannon Hale (Goose Girl!) and too many others. She is currently reading "Characters and Viewpoint" by Orson Scott Card (No, it is not a new fantasy book but a non-fiction one, I asked.)

I also know that she loves to have visits from her siblings and to come to visit them (at least that is what she tells me!)

One of her favorite Giberson memories is the Family Nite Phantom. The Family Nite Phantom made treats and delivered them to different families' home on Monday night. This started in Amarillo, Texas, when I was at BYU. It became quite a event in the Amarillo Ward with people trying to guess and others making deliveries on Monday night as well. There was even the thank you note which was left on the bulletin board at Church. Dad had keys to the Church so he got it and brought it home to share and then put it back. Valerie wrote a story that was published in the Friend based on some of the events.

Rick is the baby in this picture.

Technical problems with the family picture....coming soon.

Happy 50th birthday, Valerie!!!

Valerie playing Pin the Tail on the Giraffe at her 50th Birthday Party.

Meet Aunt Lynette!

This month, Lynette is celebrating her birthday. She is number six of the eight. Her full name is Lynette Rae. I remember discussing her name before she was born (this was back before people knew the sex of their child so names had to be prepared for both a boy or a girl) Mom wanted to use Lynn in some fashion and she suggested Lynette Rae or Jamie Lynn. At the time, I had never heard of Jamie for a girls name so I led the campaign for Lynette. As she grew, she let us know that she liked Jamie Lynn better. However, I think Lynette works as well. At her birth, she became part of "the three little girls". I think we called them that until they were adults. To Todd, Mike and I, they are "the three little girls".

Lynette has been a nanny and worked in Day care and also at Wal-Mart. She is currently babysitting. She lists her hobbies and interests as: babysitting (big surprise--little kids like her); reading (She is currently reading the seventh book in the Harry Potter series); She said that she likes series of books—some examples are Children of the Promise and Nancy Drew sets; She likes collecting coins. (She had a set of mint condition uncirculated nickels of the recently changed nickels); She is hoping to start a collection of the Presidential gold dollars—in mint conditions; She has a collection of pictures from the Postal Commemorative society; Her biggest collection is Winnie the Pooh collectibles; Recently she has started doing photo albums and framing some of her favorites for display (hint to all Gibersons--she would like updated pictures of families and especially the younger generation.)

Favorites:

color--navy blue

food-home Rogo

eating out Bennigan’s An Irish place that served her favorite nachos They had a dessert called Death by Chocolate

Movie- anything Winnie the Poo, "Winnie Pooh and Tigger, too"

TV show--CSI

Sport. Kickball (to play),professional football (to watch on TV), basketball (to watch in person)

Professional/college sport teams Dallas Cowboys BYU

Snack food--Ruffles potato chips

Vacation spot either the Oregon coast or Chesapeake Bay area (Atlantic coast). She would like to go Sacramento and Knotts Berry Farm CA or Australia/

Game--Boom-o (card game), Scattergories (There are really so many, she said.)

Pets--She is loved by her niece pet—Olevia (Robin’s dog) She is thinking about getting a cat.

The three "little girls" all grown up

Something she is planning to do this year (before her next birthday)--" lose weight ". She said as part of that and to help her headaches, she has stopped drinking coke.

Her current Church calling .visiting teaching supervisor

A Giberson memory--Lynette remember our yearly trips to Grandma Owen's house in Portland, Oregon and also to Aunt Lois's house. She remembers that Grandma kept a canister of candy bars in her refrigerator and always let us have one (I actually don't remember that at all.) She remembers playing with the cap guns and that they were always safe and didn't hurt each other. At one house that Grandma lived, there were some girls that ran a candy stand nearby and Grandma would give them money to go buy candy. (again I don't remember

that either, perhaps I missed out on the candy connection.)



In Richland, WA--I think I took this picture.

Can you name the aunts and uncles in this picture? Lynette is the youngest of the 3 girls. Boys were even silly in pictures back then.



 This picture was taken last April when we had a sisters reunion in Utah. We spent a morning with Dad and Karla at their home in Midvale, UT. This was right after Dad was in the hospital and he still had to have oxygen all of the time.

Happy Birthday, Lynette. We are glad to share more about you with our family.