Sibling Chronicles: Chapter Three

Chapter Three of my Sibling Chronicles is devoted to a trio of brothers all born in the month of September.

First, my sibling number four is Christopher Shawn Fleming, born September 12, 1972:

I remember waiting and waiting for Chris to be born.

I was with my cousin Lisa at her house. It was getting very

late and Aunt Babe (George's sister) made us go to sleep.

We made her promise she would wake us up the minute the

baby was born. Chris was born some time in the middle of the

night and Aunt Babe did NOT wake us up. We were pretty

mad in the morning, but well rested. Even though my Mom

had had me and my sister before Chris, she was in serious

labor, he was breach and somehow she managed to

deliver him without a C-Section. When I went to the hospital

to visit my new baby brother, all I remember was that he

was a cone head--a major cone head!

Obviously the cone head part went away and

he turned into a pretty cute kid.

How classic is this 1976 picture with the

Bicentennial backdrop. Chris was 4 years old.

Chris really was about the sweetest little

kid. I honestly cannot remember him doing

anything naughty when he was little.

It was really great having a much younger brother

on Halloween because even though I was way too

old to go trick-or-treating, it was fun going out with

Chris and he was very generous with sharing his candy.

Vintage Chris in elementary school...

already the preppie with the Izod Sweater

and turned up collar

Our family at Timberline. This would be the

summer after my freshman year at ASU. George

kind of reminds me of Chevy Chase in this picture.

I threw this one in because it is at my first apartment

away from home and away from the dorms at ASU.

The apartment complex was called Palm Tree Village

and my blue Toyota Celica is visible in the parking lot

below. Chris came to visit the summer of 1984.

I ended up selling that Celica to Chris when he was a 

senior in High School.

Senior Picture

Chris & Akiko on their wedding day, obviously.

I had to get really creative here because I asked

for some wedding photos, but Chris has not sent

them to me yet. Thanks to Byron and Michael, I know

how to take a snapshot of anything on my screen and Chris and

Akiko's wedding photographer was kind enough

to still have their photos up on his website

over a year later... Akiko got married in

a traditional western style dress (below) and then

changed into traditional Japanese Kimono for the

evening reception (above).

Wedding Day, May 1, 2007

(no point in feeling guilty, Chris, about not

sending me the pictures... although I would

like to have a better quality version of these

two photos to put in frames--I guess I could just

order them from your photographer :-) 

Chris & Akiko, last month at the top of Mt. Fuji

Chris is a pretty great brother and brother-in-law and Uncle

and we miss him lots when he is at his home in Japan. We

really look forward to his visits and hope, some day, he will

choose to live in the US. But if he doesn't, we understand and

we still love him anyway.

And... then there were twins....

My youngest siblings, siblings number nine and ten, were born September 15, 1981. So, since I am not doing these Chronicles in order, this is not the last post about my siblings, but these are, indeed, my last siblings:

The whole Loy and Karen Godsey bunch:

clockwise from baby on the left... Benjamin Scott,

Kimberly, Byron Gene, Jill Marie, Andrew James,

Sarah Jane and Elizabeth Lynn.

I believe the story goes that the doctors were calling the babies:

Baby A and Baby B. Baby A was born first and then Baby B eventually

followed his brother. The ironic part was that Baby "A" was named

Ben and Baby "B" was named Andy. Not sure why...

Ben on the left and Andy on the right

(on the kitchen counter in Grandmother and Grandads

little rental house that the Godsey Bunch lived in for a short

period of time before moving to Caballero Circle... the house that Betsy

doesn't have any pictures of and that had something called

a "Swamp Cooler" which didn't keep things very cool)

again, Ben on the left and Andy on the right

this time Andy is on the left and Ben on the right

(the caption on the back from Karen reads: "must not

have been going too fast--still had one hand free

to suck thumbs.")

Still love the bathtub photos... I took this one

myself on their first birthday after they made huge

messes of themselves with their cakes. This is a personality

picture to me... Ben's personality "I don't care if you are six

times bigger than me, you can't keep me in this bathtub if I

don't want to be in this bathtub!" Andy's personality "Poor me,

poor me, poor me... come on Kari, don't I look pathetic enough for you!"

Benjamin Scott Godsey, born September 15, 1981

Ah, one of my all time favorite

"dirty kid" pictures and who doesn't love

ET, a classic, just like Ben.

There really wasn't another Godsey kid

like him. Ben always had a very assertive personality.

He had a little temper for a while and liked to chase

his siblings around and throw things through windows,

but when he wasn't doing all that, he was very very sweet.

By this point, 2nd grade, Ben had developed

a much more focused outlook and I really thought

he was going to be a policeman.

Ben didn't become a policeman, but

he did marry the girl of his dreams, Nicole.

And they have a beautiful little family:

Ben, Nicole, Tyler & Madison Godsey

and two great jobs, a beautiful house they built themselves and

a pretty impressive life for a couple of "kids" still in their twenties.

Good job Ben!

Andrew James Godsey, also born September 15, 1981

Andy... so quiet, so sweet, so gentle....

so thoughtful

just always looking to have a little fun....

okay, a lot of fun (he and Byron have

this in common, I think... ). So what happened to

that sweet little kid, well, he became a pretty sweet

big kid and even though he is just in Salt Lake City, we

miss him a lot too. 

but he has Lindsay to keep him company, so

we don't feel too sorry for poor big Andy... (sorry

Lindsay, I had to "steal" your photo too, but it is so

gorgeous so I hope you don't mind sharing just one

with my friends too!)

So, I must say, I feel pretty proud of all my brothers...

They turned out real good!

(Don't worry Byron... you will probably get a sibling

blog all to yourself because you are the "special" child... well,

maybe that is not the right word... "golden" child--something like that).