Welcome Home Elder Williams the Manly

Hugs from Peanut


Together again after 3 years

This is how my brother Todd distinguished himself from my brother Chad since for a year they were both out on their missions. Two years goes by fast. I'm not sure if it went that fast for my mom, but it did for me. We're excited to have him home. Unfortunately he came home last Thurs. so we weren't able to see him off the plane. But we drove down Sat. afternoon, got In N Out for dinner, and then met my mom, sister, and BIL at the temple to see the lights. We got there just about the time the visitor center was supposed to close, so made a quick trip upstairs to see the Christus statue and downstairs to see some of the displays and check out all of the languages that the Book of Mormon comes in now. It was really cool to see them. Then we walked around and looked at the lights. It was warmer than years past. We pointed out the suns, moons, and stars on the temple building to the kids and explained what they represented. Then we went over to our hotel where my brother Chad and his fiancee Brianna met us. This was our first time meeting her and she's a great girl that fits perfectly with him. The wedding will be in May. Sun. we went to hear Todd speak in sacrament. He bore his testimony in Visayan (the language he learned) and it sounded SO cool! You can hear the Spanish influence in some of it. I can't believe how fluently he speaks it. He has been blessed with the gift of tongues and never once struggled with the language. We had a lunch after at my mom's house and then left in the afternoon to head to see Susan (B's step-mom). We made it around dinner time and opened presents. It was fun to see her and then go next door to see Great Grandma and Grandpa. We got home pretty late, but it was worth it to get to see everyone.


With the boys ALL on his lap. That's Brianna in the background.

Peanut loves piano. His teacher said he's so cute and trying so hard. Bubba learned how to play Jingle Bells this week and has been playing it over and over to practice. It sounds great! I can't believe how quickly he can pick it up and read music as well. He's so good at everything he tries. JP will start swimming in Jan. He's excited to learn all of the strokes and hopefully join the swim team after that. Fri. is the last day of school for two weeks. I think the boys are excited. I'll have to try and think of some Christmas activities. We found out that a local radio station is collecting the gifts for the children at the hospital. Susan had purchased 20 stuffed animals for the kids to give, so we'll try to get over there on Thurs. after school. I'll be making cookies for my visiting teaching ladies and school parties tomorrow. I love school parties. I was in charge of the Halloween one and it was fun, so I'm looking forward to helping out. JP will be celebrating his birthday in class on Fri. They are doing all of the summer birthdays. To change it up, they're having them choose a country and do a little show and tell-really relaxed. So I think I'm going to have him choose Ghana since B went on his mission there and brought home a kente cloth that he can show and he can tell them what his birthday name is. In Ghana there middle names are usually the day of the week they were born on, so JP's is Yaw for Thurs. Fun times this week.



Oh, lastly I made Cashew Chicken Stir Fry for dinner last night. It has a peanut sauce and while my back was turned this little stinker got on his stool and stole the spatula to lick off the peanut butter. At least I was all done with it. :)