Emi is 18

George Williamson and Emi -- Shared birthday

Yes, she's 18!!!!

We just had a party weekend. A few weeks ago, my friend Alicia Williamson and I were chatting about our kids and realized they had their birthdays one day apart. George was born on the 16th and Emi on the 17th, and the idea for a joint birthday party was born. Our neighbors across the street offered to do a combined party at their house. They have a great party house, complete with a pool room, a karaoke room, a large deck with a fire pit and a beautiful backyard. The house was full of teens all evening long and we kept them fed while they entertained themselves.

The following day was Emi's official birthday. It's also St. Patrick's day so we started off the day with green eggs and ham. I actually made better ones than these but this is the one that posed for a picture.

My attempt at green eggs with ham (and bacon and hash browns)

 We also got to visit with my sister Lina and her husband last weekend. Crazy things happen when we're all together.

Crazy girls -- Alyssa, Emi, my sister Lina and me

He's home!

Christian with President and Sister Dyer in front of Cochabamba Temple

Home with the family

We were so blessed while Christian was on his mission and so happy to have him home again!

Christian is almost home

Yup, this Christian

He will be home this next Wednesday, November 7 at 11:30 pm. So late! He will be exhausted. I'm sure a combination of emotions and traveling all day will take their toll on him. And we have to be at the Stake offices at 7 am the next morning for his official release. That is a LONG 24 hours.

I am sitting here pondering on the last two years. So many things happened it feels like ten years. Taking Christian to the MTC was bittersweet. At about the time of his farewell, Dain's station has already closed down and we knew we were headed to Utah. We had to prepare the house for sale, pack up our lives, and move cross country. At the same time, Christian was getting ready to leave for two years. I'm sure his emotions were a mess though I remember him as always happy and cheerful, but then again, that's Christian. He lives a positive life.

While Christian was gone, we went through a lot of changes. Dain's career changed for a while and then came back to radio. We are grateful that he found his place in the world of radio. Emi has been hit with just as many changes. We left Texas in the middle of her sophomore year in high school. She loved Clements HS, was part of a great marching band, and had a lot of friends. We moved into our condo in Murray thinking it would be temporary. She entered Murray High School and excelled there as well. She was part of the percussion ensemble and made many friends (read as "broke many hearts"). Just as she was about to start her senior year, we bought a house in Cottonwood Heights so she moved to Brighton High School. Ironically enough, that's the school she would have attended had we never left Utah for Texas in the first place. What goes around, comes around. The change wasn't as difficult as it could have been because many kids she knew from elementary school recognized her and she had instant friends again. That's three high schools in three years. That's a lot of change. She's a trooper.

In the meantime, my work is doing well. It has grown and taken off. I'm so blessed. We will not move into our new house until mid November, so it seems that Christian will come back to the condo, the same place he helped us move into before his mission.

I'm looking forward to having my kids at home again, even if for a few days. It will be great!! I will hug them and be grateful inside for all that we have. Next time, I hope to post that we moved!! I can't wait to move. It seems to take forever to remodel a house ...

Dain's radio station is doing a "Thankful and Grateful" promotion all month long. I am indeed very thankful and grateful for everything in my life.

Summer, Fall, All

Blogging has obviously fallen by the wayside. I love to log in and see other blogs but I don't take the time to do ours. A lot has happened since Maui. Dain's new job is great and super busy. My work is doing well as well. Emi finished her Junior Year at Murray HS. During the summer, we bought a house in Cottonwood Heights, close to where our old house was before we moved to Texas. Well, it's old and it needs help, so we're remodeling before we move in. This puts Emi in a new school district ... so she started her Senior Year at Brighton HS!! This is the same school were Alyssa went before we moved to Texas so this is not a completely new place for Emi. In fact, she's now going to school with some of her elementary school friends. I think it's been fun for her seeing all her old friends though she missed her Murray friends a lot.

Emi was also called to serve in the special needs mutual. It's a regional mutual for special needs individuals and she's an assistant. She LOVES her calling and I'm so happy she's doing that. It's an amazing experience!

Falls is starting to appear and soon, we'll have cold and snow. I'm excited!!

Maui

A brief overview of our trip .....

I had to take a picture of this!!!!

Parked across the street from the canoe club to pick up huli huli chicken for dinner

Had to eat there ... 

Big Beach! Yes, that's the name. Little Beach, around the corner is a nudist beach. Really.

View from our lanai .. this is a sunrise. We had the best view, plus since it was a bay, we saw whales every day.

Harbor by our condo. I think I should own this.

This trip was much needed. We decided to go and play and relax!!! It was perfect! Of course, I have pictures galore from Hana, Pai'a (my fave town), and a every possible spot on the island. We hiked a ton and found places that were totally deserted. Heaven.

Easter

Saturday was the annual Craig Family Easter Egg Hunt. Emi had to work (boo) so Alyssa went with us. She was SO happy to find out Grandma Shauna included all the older grandkids!! She got so much stuff the Easter Bunny decided to skip our house this year. Hee hee hee

Before Emi left for work

This is good stuff!

Some of the older Craig/Glover cousins (and Jodi)

Emi's birthday weekend

It seems like I'm always posting about Emi lately .. Can you tell she's the only kid left at home? :) It was Emi's birthday Saturday. She spent the WHOLE day at a band/percussion competition. I stopped by for one of her pieces:

Then Alyssa came over (to see Emi) but since she came over early, we got to hang out for a while. We went to grab lunch and then to the mall to find a present for Emi.

 Later that night, we went to dinner at Bohemian Brewery (they have yummy German food and Emi's choice) and them home for cake (which was an ice cream cake) and presents. Long day but wonderful!

Sunday, Emi got her patriarchal blessing. It was a beautiful blessing--full of amazing things!!! That girl has the world promised to her .... I was very touched.

Perfect Weekend.

Junior Prom

It seems that the only reason I write in this blog in the last few months is to highlight one of Emi's dances. Well, here's another one. She's a junior this year, so Junior Prom was SO important to her. She dreaded not getting asked and finally, John (who is a senior) came to the rescue. Here are some pictures!

Emi hates to pin on the boy's flower ....

Dad, can you help me?

Finally! Corsages are so much easier

Ready for Jr Prom!

Emi's latest dance

Emi pinning Tyler's boutonniere 

Ready for the dance

Really, I can't believe how little I have blogged lately.

I'm swamped at work which makes it hard to keep up with stuff outside of the office. Emi went on yet one more date. This was a girl's choice dance. She asked her friend Tyler. I love how she's found a way to have fun without having a boyfriend.... ha ha ha SO much easier! Emi and I found a cute dress but it needed to be adapted. So I found some material that matched the dress and made wide straps. The dress is a pretty brown with sparkles (you can't tell very well in my picture). The sparkles are a pretty coral pink, so she pulled that color and put a ribbon in her hair. Her date wore brown pants and brought her a gorgeous corsage. Just beautiful. It had a beaded wristlet. She had fun and Dain and I had a night to ourselves!

Thanksgiving is this week. Alyssa will be here to spend a few days with us. I love being close to her again. I missed having her home the years we were in Texas. Traveling during that period for just a few days and a month before Christmas made it so hard for her to come. So being close to her, I've loved seeing her often. Yay!

Christian has been sending great letters every week. You can check out his blog here. He's definitely showing growth and I'm so happy he's doing well. We've been very blessed this year. I couldn't ask for more!

First Snow

I thought I would pop in here for a quick hello. We had our first snow of the season last week. Just a tiny little bit but enough to freak everyone out. Ha ha It's funny to see people having a heart attack. We all know that the first snow happens and then disappears. In fact, we're back close to 70 this week. Autumn is alive and well folks. No, winter didn't start last week. But I did get some really cool pictures.

On Saturday, we went to the local farmer's market. I love shopping there! I couldn't believe they didn't have good markets in the Houston area. We tried--we really did. We went searching for fresh produce and hardly found any. Granted, the supermarkets had great variety, but we wanted to buy directly from the farmers. We have a wonderful market in Murray. We came home with a bounty of fruits and veggies:

And made this amazing apples and dulce de leche pie which is to die for:

It's sinful.

Then Saturday, Emi was invited to my brother's house for his youngest son's 16th birthday. Dain said we can't call it sweet 16, so I'm calling it "cool 16". We got him his first date:

Marcos and his first dates

Alyssa doesn't think it's funny, but he cracked up and ran around showing everyone. It was a great weekend!

Emi's Homecoming

Here she is with her date. I failed to get a picture of her dress ... but they went to his grandma's house for pictures as she's a professional photographer so I'm hoping to have more later! She had a lot of fun.

Time ...

Wow, how long has it been since I've posted??!!! Crazy how time got away from me this summer and now into fall. We're doing well.  Emi is back in school (hooray) at Murray High School and loves it. I think they boys love her, because she hasn't had a boring weekend yet, though she may say otherwise. She is also working at Rumbi's which has been a good place for her to be. She gets paid and it's close to home. Plus they give her easy times that work with her schedule. Really works well.

Dain has been bored, trying to figure out the new business of radio. No one is calling, so he's doing other things. He has been doing a TV show on Park City TV. He's on every morning and if you ask me, he's awesome! He's so good on TV. His personality comes through. He's so talented. The bad part is that it's part time, so nothing on which to build a career. But that's been fun. And he took a job with a local sports company where he's working temporarily during their big ski sale. He's one of their ski experts. That's ending in a week or so but it really has been a good for him to do. This has certainly been a trial in our lives. On the good side, my business is doing well and growing. We're moving into bigger digs in about a month. I'm so excited! We've needed more room for so long. This will be great.

I'm off to Boston in a week for a medical interpreting conference. Love Boston. I'm excited about that too! Then in a month, I'm off to Dallas to see if I can finally do the Nascar driving I've tried to do twice already. Both times it was canceled due to rain.

Emi is off to Homecoming this weekend. She's excited. We still haven't definitely decided on a dress .. she has the option to wear a black dress she borrowed but it's not super dressy. We're still trying to find a dressier one for her to wear. Of course, she told her date that she's wearing black, so that might be what she had to stick with. Either way, it will be fun as this is her first formal/semi formal dance.

We're happy with how things are going in spite of the job situation. We're enjoying hiking and seeing family. It really has been nice.

Alyssa's College Graduation

Here she is walking to the spectrum on the graduate campus parade:

Here she is getting her diploma:

 

Dain's Birthday

So Dain had a birthday yesterday ... and he absolutely doesn't like any attention on his birthday, which means parties are out. So I didn't plan anything other than going out to dinner. He was Texas homesick so he chose to eat at Texas Roadhouse. While there I motioned to our server that it was Dain's birthday ... and sure enough, they brought the saddle over to our table. Much to my surprise, Dain got right on it. Saddle up, cowboy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! YEE HAW!

Logan and Preston

This weekend, I had the chance to go up to northern Utah twice. On Saturday, Dain, Emi and I drove up to Preston (Idaho) to a funeral. Dain's best friend from high school's dad died of colon cancer. It was an interesting funeral with great talks by both sons about their dad's life. His dad was a WWII vet and served in the Korean War. It's amazing how people from these historic events are dying ... Heroes from another generation who gave us so much by giving of themselves.

After the funeral, military honors, and mandatory Relief Society luncheon (no funeral potatoes ... what??!!), we drove back to Logan. On the way, we stopped at the Pepperidge Farms factory store and loaded up on gold fish crackers, cookies, and other treats. We bought some treats for Alyssa too. Then we went into Logan, picked her up and went out to lunch. It was nice to spend time with her and she's one of the reasons I'm glad to be back in Utah. We missed seeing her for three plus years, so this is great for us. Emi had packed a bag and she got to spend the night with Alyssa and her roommates. Dain and I headed back to SLC but not before stopping by his brother's house to say hello. His brother Jon and his wife Angie have lived in their "new" house for 8 years and we had never been there. It's a beautiful house. It was great to see them. We then came back to our condo. I was exhausted. lol It was nice to have a quiet evening at home.

Sunday, I headed back up to Logan, this time to go to church with Alyssa for family day. One Sunday a year, families are invited to church with the students and then they serve lunch. I got to see many of her friends, meet the ones I had only seen on Facebook and meet their families. Emi got to sit thru Sunday School and RS. The lunch was yummy and it was complete with plenty of Aggie ice cream. YUM, YUM, YUM. I loved spending that time with my two girls. Dain had to be up at Brighton to sub for someone so he couldn't go. Then Emi and I drove home.

It was a great weekend. I'm grateful for the time I spent with my family, with extended family, with friends and eating ice cream. :-)

Emi is now Sweet Sixteen

Yes, my baby is 16 (yesterday, March 17)!!!!!

 And she still shows her food ...

She asked for Hawaiian food for dinner and then met a bunch of friends at Leatherby's. It was a lot of fun for her. Happy birthday Emi!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dallas!

Three or four years ago, Dain gave me a gift certificate to drive Nascar. I chose to set it up in Dallas because we were living in Houston at the time. We went to Dallas a couple of years ago and my driving was canceled due to weather. So we went to the State Fair instead. We tried again over Valentine's weekend. We flew to Dallas only to have the event canceled again due to weather. And because I set it up there, I can't transfer it to another track. Soooo, we will be back.

We decided to make the most of the weekend. We went out to dinner at some of our favorite Texas restaurants, went to the Zoo, to the House of Blues, and even just drove around and found a beautiful lake. It was a slow and simple weekend. We enjoyed the time together and we enjoyed being back in Texas.

Three birthday! My dad's, Alyssa, and Mine

Alyssa, my dad and I share the same birthday: January 25th. I was born on my dad's 25th birthday and Alyssa was born on my 24th. So when I turned 25, my dad turned 50 and Alyssa turned 1! It was a great party. It's been a few years since then, but we were lucky to be together this year for our birthday. Here are some pictures.

Cake time!

with my dad and Aly

May parents with some of the grandkids

With my mom and sis-in-law Jenn

No party's complete without empanadas

Christian is in Bolivia!

Christian made it to Bolivia. He arrived in Cochabamba on the 4th. He spent a few weeks at the MTC in Lima, Peru. He's doing well, learning to bathe with buckets, and hopefully losing a few of the lbs he gained at the MTC. :-)

Christian with Sister and Elder Tenorio, Mission Pres.

Christmas on the Slopes

We ski every Christmas. We get up early and open presents while the cinnamon rolls are baking. Then we have a yummy breakfast and head up the canyon. This year, as we have the last few years, we went to Brighton Ski Resort. We got there early, beat the crowds, and enjoyed a beautiful day. I haven't downloaded the family pictures I took but here are a couple taken by Dain on our way back to our car. Unfortunately, Christian wasn't able to call because he's in the MTC in Peru and you can't call from the MTC. He was missed.