Happy Birthday, Ryan and Rachel!

Sunday night dinners are always great at our house. Always good food, good people and good conversations. Celebrating birthdays or other special events adds to the fun.

Tonight, we celebrated Ryan's and Rachel's birthdays which had occurred during last week.

Ryan got a real kick out of a T-shirt with an "inside joke" on the front.

Rachel emphasized the value of a cash birthday gift. She is saving up for a pair of prescription sunglasses.

Devlin coached Ryan on how to blow out the candle on the chocolate pie Granny made.

Chloe modeled her new outfit for us. Isn't she pretty?

Eve eyes sparkled for Grandpa ... and melted his heart.

Thanks for celebrating with us. A bit more "joy and rejoicing" in our posterity. You can see more photos on Mark's Flickr page.

Good night and God Bless!

Angela Johnson, Sculptor of Christ

Our good friend Angela Johnson just launched a new website to exhibit her sculptures of the Savior Jesus Christ. We thought you would enjoy taking a look.

Claudia and Mark met Angela and her husband Kenneth while we were at BYU. Mark and Kenneth took many classes together and graduated together with Electrical Engineering degrees in 1978. When we moved to Mesa in 1990, the Johnsons were the only family we knew in Arizona. They helped us find the home we still live in today.

Angela is a classically trained operatic soprano, but put changed her artistic emphasis to sculpture several years ago. We are now beneficiaries of her extraordinary talent and tender spirituality.

Her sculptures have been featured in the Newport Beach Temple open house, the Museum of Church History and Art and the Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors Center. They are currently scheduled for display in other temple visitors centers.

Thank you Angela and Kenneth for this wonderful contribution to our lives.

Busy, Busy Dixons

Our family is busy and happy, doing many good things. Here is just a taste of the action ...

Holly is immersed in practicing for the Taylor Junior High stage performance of Music Man scheduled for production in the last week of February. Besides shuttling her to and from practices, Claudia has been painting sets and sewing one of Holly's costumes. Saturday, a group of women gathered around our kitchen table to decorate hats the girls will wear. Just think what this hat will look like with flowers and other decorations!

Eric is working full time at Bank of America and is attending a full load of classes at Mesa Community College before and after work. One time this week he returned home to find everyone gone and nothing but V-8 juice for dinner!

Ryan turned 19 years old this week. He is attending Arizona State University (Go Sun Devils!) and working part time in the ASU bookstore. Can you believe our little boy is old enough to serve a mission!

Mark has been traveling out of town every week in the new year. This week, he missed Ryan's birthday, Rachel's birthday and Valentine's day. So, we will celebrate the birthdays later today. Claudia surprised Mark with a CD, DVD and Valentine's treat he discovered in his suitcase when he arrived in California. Mark and Claudia celebrated Valentine's Day together late Saturday by eating a salad at Baja Fresh and going together to the grocery store. Somehow, roses atop the groceries in a Fry's shopping cart aren't terribly romantic, but they do look nice in the vase atop our kitchen table!

So, are you as breathless as we are? It's all good. Oh, by the way, I didn't mention Claudia's house shopping and dress shopping with Amy, or tending the grandkids or ...

Please visit Mark's Flickr page for more family photos ... and smile! Life is an adventure.

Good night, and God Bless.

Cousins Week!

It has been great this week to have Heidi and her boys visiting us from Oregon. It gave the cousins a chance to get to know each other and have little adventures together. This photo op was one adventure too many for Chloe. She definitely didn't want to get her picture taken!





On a memorable adventure to the mall, Granny bought matching Cars shirts for the boys. The shirts seemed to inspire goofiness in Zach and Tyler as the boys played in the back yard together.





It looks like Chloe may inherit Granny's love of gardening!





Eve discovered the pleasures of hitting a baseball!





Last Sunday night, we all accompanied Eric to the church, where he gave a fireside about his experiences in Mongolia. Claudia and Mark wore the Mongolian dels we got for Christmas. Eric brought other outfits so the youth could get a photo taken wearing Mongolian clothing. Our favorite photo was Gavin in a Mongolian hat. Proud warrior in miniature!





We posted several more photos on Mark's Flickr page.

Thanks for stopping by. Good night, and God bless.

Thank You, President Hinckley

Today, we bid farewell and Godspeed to our beloved prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. In a world filled with much turmoil and despair, I am grateful to know that God has loved us enough to share with us a prophet, his spokesman on earth, a man with authority to say, "Thus saith the Lord."

Of all the tributes I have seen or read about President Hinckley, these are my favorites:

A blog post by my daughter, Angie:





A video tribute narrated by excerpts from President Hinckley's own statements:

A personal tribute by Glenn Beck:

To these I add my personal witness that Gordon B. Hinckley is indeed a prophet of the living God, as real a prophet as Abraham and Moses and Paul. This world is a better place, my family is a better family and I am a better man because of what he taught us by word and example. May we all strive to follow in the righteous footsteps of this wonderful man.