Vanilla Joy Black Friday Giveaway

Once again, Kelsey has outdone herself with another great giveaway on her website, vanillajoy.com. You really need to check it out. Go to her site and check out her offers. You can then blog about it and post the following links for more entries. I am not sure how she does it, but Kelsey...you are amazing :) Good luck to everyone!!!

• Link the phrase “craft room organization” to http://www.vanillajoy.com/craft-organization.html
• Link the phrase “creative date ideas” to http://www.vanillajoy.com/creative-date-ideas
• Link the phrase “obaji skin care” or “obaji” or to http://www.vanillajoy.com/obaji-skin-care-products
• Link the phrase “scrapbooking furniture” to http://www.vanillajoy.com/scrapbooking-furniture
• Link the phrase “teaching baby sign language” to http://www.vanillajoy.com/baby-sign-language.html

Thanksgiving 2009

This year for Thanksgiving we drove to Boise to spend the holiday with Dayna, Peter, Pete and my Mom. It probably ranks as one of the top 3 Thanksgivings I can remember having. It was so much fun visiting, eating and relaxing with my family. Mark, Lezlie and three of their children also drove up making even more enjoyable. Tara and Austin decided to join in the family fun and met us in Boise for the holiday. Christopher was on his honeymoon and Jenni chose to stay and spend Thanksgiving with Cordell and his family. It is kind of strange to have family strung from Idaho to Utah, but it was also nice. I love how our family is growing and the changes we are encountering because of it.

We had a feast on Thursday and on Friday morning, Dayna and I left the house to shop for Christmas. We spent the entire day together. I love spending time with my twin. It was great! Greg was very gracious and entertained Josh and Emma so that I could have some "twin time". We came home yesterday and ironically I leave again on Wednesday night to fly back to stay with Mom until early Sunday afternoon. Dayna has a work conference on Thursday and Friday and wanted me to come help Mom during her absence. We actually have had this scheduled for a couple months...long before our trip for Thanksgiving was planned. All in all, it was a great holiday!!!

More Snapshots From The Temple Grounds

Here are a few more snapshots from the temple grounds. I am not sure how long it will take to get the photos back from the photographer, so I decided to add a few more to my blog. Enjoy!!!
Josh, Tara, Samantha, Christopher, Emma and Jenni. Too bad Austin was the photographer...this would have made a cute Christmas card.


I love the expression on Christopher's face!
This is a couple from Christopher's mission in California that drove all the way up here for his wedding. They were not able to go inside, but waited on the grounds during the ceremony and then spent the entire evening with us at the reception. Greg and I were amazed and instantly fell in love with them. How touching that they loved Christopher that much.
Tara and Eliza Blue
Abigail and Emma holding up Samantha's dress

Snapshots from Christopher & Sam's Wedding

Yesterday Christopher and Samantha were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple! Here are a few snapshots from the day. I am sure I will be posting more, but here is a little something to get it started :)

Pictured above: Josh, Tara, Samantha, Christopher, Emma and Jenni
Top Photo: Abigail and Emma waiting outside the temple

Christopher and Sam coming out of the temple.
Skyler and Nancy...family friends who traveled here from Denver. Christopher and Skyler have been friends since they were in Kindergarten.
Some of the grandchildren on the Williamson side of the family.
Christopher, Sam and Skyler

Mr Bezzant

Last year Emma had the most amazing teacher. His name is Mr. Bezzant and she absolutely LOVED him. He was wonderful!!! We recently found out that about a week ago he was working on his roof and fell off and broke his neck. My good friend, Marja, discovered that his family is keeping a blog about his progress and recovery. If you are interested, his blog address is:

brucebezzant.blogspot.com

When Emma came home from school and told me the news my heart stopped. I hope his family knows what a great man he is and that he is in our thoughts and prayers. Emma includes him in her prayers every night :) We love you Mr. Bezzant!!!

First Formal Dance

Josh just left on his first formal dance! It was so fun to see him all decked out in his tux and I think he looks pretty handsome if I do say so myself:) His cute little date, Jandie, was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! This dance was girl's choice and Josh was pretty excited to be asked by such a cute girl. I can't wait to hear the details of the evening when he gets home. They are with a large group of kids so I am sure they will have a great time! Of all my children, I would never have guessed that Josh would be the one going to all the dances. That kid never ceases to amaze me.

Quick Update

I have had a very busy week but still feel like I need to post something to my 'journal". So here goes...

Last night we had a rather large dinner with our extended family as well as Samantha's. Sam's mom thought it would be nice for all of us to get together prior to the wedding and get to know each other. At first this sounded like a reasonable idea, but after last night, I swear I will never host such an evening again. I was exhausted. Sam's mom asked Greg and I to take care of the meal, which does not seem like that big of a deal until I found out that her side alone had 56 people coming-yikes! I had initially thought that we would just have immediate family, but I was mistaken :( In the end around 85 people were invited. My entire day was consumed with this dinner. It was nice to come home and put my pj's on and just relax for the remainder of the evening. The good news is that we only have a few more days of insanity until the wedding. I will be happy to have this day come and go!

Jenni has moved back home. She is trying to save money and Greg and I both feel like this is the right move right now in her life. If anyone can make you smile and entertain you, it is Jenni. She is certainly a free spirit.

Tara and Austin just purchased their first car. They bought a really nice Honda Accord. It will be good for them to have a dependable car that also gets great gas mileage. They are both still working and attending school.

Josh just transferred into an AP History class. He is now taking two college courses in his junior year. It is nice to see him challenged. He also was asked by a cute girl to his first formal dance. They go next weekend and I am excited to see him in a tux! He is also busy volunteering on "youth court" at the police station once a week and in the Latin club-whew! I think that covers him for now.

Emma is in between soccer seasons and wanting to sign up for basketball. I might just give in to that request just to get rid of all her extra energy :) She is also busy creating numerous Christmas lists. Today Greg and I were napping and she slid one under the door-ha! That girl was sent to our family to keep Greg and I young. I just hope we survive.

Hopefully next time I will have something more exciting to post. But for now, this is all I have!

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Emma has a wipe board in her room that she uses to help get herself organized and to write random things on. This morning Jenni discovered this latest entry and told me to come take a look. That girl cracks me up! Lately she has been "driving me crazy" and on my case about every little thing. She has the kind of personality that once she gets an idea in her head, she will nag you to death until it is complete. Last night as I was tucking her into bed I told her that she is "making me insane and that she needs to learn patience." She must have got up and wrote this on the board after I left her room. I guess she took it to heart and I have a little repenting to do.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very relaxed, enjoyable Halloween this year. It is rather nice only have one "legal" trick or treater. Emma was a cute little cheer leader this year and I loved it...cheap costume without any stress :) She went trick-or-treating with her best friend, Kaycee and they had a ball. They brought home quite the haul of candy and seemed very satisfied.
Josh decided to dress up for school at the last minute. He went through Emma' old costumes and came up with this. Jenni was appauled. She told him he was going to get shoved into a locker showing up to school like that. I guess you just have to know Josh. He honestly does not care what people think about him. An admirable trait if you ask me. He just thought it was funny and went with it. And no...he did not see the inside of any lockers while at school.
Jenni and Cordell were invited to a Halloween party and decided to dress up as cows. Cordell was set on having utters for the evening. Not sure what that is all about, but they looked pretty funny. I stayed home and passed out Halloween candy. Greg was in Kaysville working on Jenni's car that broke down, so his Halloween was uneventful. What a good dude to help out his daughter :)