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Family Christmas Party

Our family pictures from the Christmas party. I'm not sure why this happens, but everytime I want to have good pictures, my camera has to have problems. These are the best pictures that I had. Family members, if yours turned out better than mine, e-mail to me. Thanks.

Russell and family
Shelly and family

Wayde Brown Family
Charlie and Emma out for the night. They had a busy day.

Sharon and her family

Tanya and her family

Mom with seven of her children. Michael and Tasha were not able to attend.
We missed you guys.

Leslie and family

Brett and family

Callie, Kaylee, and Shelbie

Our family Christmas party was held on December 27th, at the Central Valley Community Center. I decided to have Lacey's shower on the same day. At the beginning of the evening, everyone was given a clothespin. If you heard anyone say the word,"party" you got to take their pin. We started the evening with our meal. The food was so great. After the meal, we shared some of the families' New Year's resolutions. It was quite hilarious at times.

After the resolutions, we watched the family video. Sharon put the video together. She has become an expert in this area. Anyway, the night before the party, Sharon gets on her computer and the video has disappeared. Cedar City had a power outage, the night before and she thinks that had something to do with the disappearing act of the video. Anyway, being the wonderful sister that she is she worked all night trying to put another video together. The previous video she had spent over a month on trying to make perfect. The video that she shared with us was truly amazing. She just happened to have snapshots when many of us were at our best. You know what I mean. She added captions that made it even funnier. We all had a great laugh and decided that we were just as dysfuntional as other families.

The highlight of the evening came when we gave my brother, Wayde, a Happy 50th Honor. We gave him some great gag gifts. The last gift was a a pair of boxer shorts saying, "King of the Hills, Get er' done." I think he handled it very well. If I get any pictures, I will add them for the family that wasn't able to attend. Our family had such a great time. I'm so grateful for all of them. I love the saying, "Like branches on a tree, we may grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one." However, I also love the saying, "Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall." Family members, Thanks for making our Christmas party one of my highlights for 2008.

Lacey's Baby Shower

I had Lacey's baby shower on Saturday, December 27th, at the Central Valley Community Center. We played a few games, had refreshments, and watched Lacey open her presents.

Madeline and Audrey helping Lacey open her presents. In the background, on the makeshift clothesline, is a camoflauge outfit that I bought for Landon to put on the baby.

This is Cashelle seeing if she estimated Lacey's waist measurement. Cashelle guessed correctly.

Advice given to Landon and Lacey using names of candy bars. The advice given was so cute.

Lacey's gift table. I had Lacey bring her own props to the shower. They were so cute, that I thought they would be perfect.

The cake that was served. This turned out much better than I had planned. My intentions were to make pumpkin cake roll and serve with ice cream. Anyway, to make a long story short, I gave up on the pumpkin roll after three tries. I believe that I operate on a pea-sized brain some days. It's a good thing that my family understands.

The baby shower went well. Lacey's mom, sister, and nieces were able to attend. Denise and Cassie came from Las Vegas. Ashley and Paula from Kearns, Tanya and Courtney from Spanish Fork, Vicki and Victoria from Orem, Grandma Twitchell and Brown, Donna Twitchell and Sharon Gricius from Cedar City, Sharon Hanks and her daughters, Peggy Twitchell and her daughters, my niece, Michelle, and Lyndsay, my daughter. Lacey received some wonderful gifts. I can't get over how many cute things that have for babies these days. All of the little gadgets are amazing. I think Landon and Lacey are definitely prepared for this baby. Only 6 weeks to go!!

Holiday Update!

This year, Landon and Lacey were able to spent Christmas with our family. I cooked turkey dinner for Christmas Eve. I invited my mom to join us. After dinner, we drove around and looked at the Christmas lights. It seems like there is less lights to look at every year.
Christmas morning, we got up about 8 a.m to open our presents. My kids and spouses bought me a digital photo frame. That was exciting, because I wouldn't have bought one for myself. Also, I got several books on Joseph Smith. Volume 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, was on backorder. They called on December 24, and said they were in. I'm excited to read that book.

Jerry got insulated coveralls and a knife from the kids. I bought him bib overalls, so he could feel old. Actually, he owned a pair before, but they were too small. He believes that they shrunk in the wash. I doubt that!

Lacey got a picture frame that I had made with Jayleigh's name. Logan got Lacey a Scentsy warmer. We were really hoping that Lacey wouldn't buy one before Christmas. She kept hinting at Landon, but he told her she couldn't buy one. So we lucked out.

I gave Landon some money to buy him a trail cam for Christmas. I also put together a 5 X 7 photo book of his elk hunt. I've decided that digital scrapbooks are the way to go. They work up in a flash.

I gave Logan money for Christmas and he bought a car stereo. He is also going to have one of his duck taxidermied (I wonder if that is right).

Later in the morning, we traveled to Grandma Twitchell's for lunch. Also, Lyndsay and Dusten were able to come. Landon and Lacey headed for Cedar City because Lacey needed to work on Friday. We were worried about them traveling over Bear Valley, because it was getting stormy, but they did fine. We have been so blessed, that they have been protected with all of the time they spend traveling.

Young Women

Do you notice anything different about the Young Women's theme?

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:
Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability,Good Works, Integrity, and virtue (new). We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

You have probably heard, but if you haven't I thought I would share the newest addition to the Young Women's theme. The church added a new value. The value is virtue. I definitely feel that it was inspired. Our Young Women need to learn this principle especially with the trials and temptations they are faced with everyday. We don't know what color it will be, but they will have to complete projects for this value.

Last night, I asked to be released from my Young Women calling. I feel sad, but I felt good about my decision. I have been pondering and praying about this decision for several weeks. My health has been crazy for the past couple of weeks and I have felt like it was such a burden for my counselor to carry the load when I didn't feel well. I will miss the girls. I have worked with the Young Women program for two years. This was my second opportunity to be involved with the Young Women program. It's a wonderful program.