Happy 20th Anniversary

20 years ago tomorrow...Nov. 30, 1991. Jeff & Lisa were married in the Salt Lake City Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah for time and all eternity. How grateful I am for having my husband, Jeff, with me for the last 20 years and the hopes of keeping him for the next 20+. He is so amazing and wonderful. He has had to put up with a lot over the last 20 years. He is patient, loving, and kind. Thank you Jeff for being my husband, friend, eternal companion, and so much more! You are AWESOME!!
We first met in Great Falls, MT in Jan. 1991, when Jeff was stationed there in the Air Force. I was living there with my parents, and siblings. I was attending beauty school, and working at Osco Drug. It was NOT love at first sight. I thought of him as some older bald guy. The Lord had different plans for me than those I thought would come to pass. I fell in love with Jeff over time. Our very first date (Aug. 1, 1991), was to the Oak Ridge Boys concert at the Montana state fair. We were not a couple at this time. He had purchased two tickets and was taking different girls to the concerts. It was a double date, if my memory serves me correctly. We had a good time. Our second date, of which I found out later I was the third or fourth phone call, was to see "Pure Luck" at the movies with another couple. On Aug. 19th, we went to a farewell party for a friend with another gal that carpooled with Jeff & I, and ended up holding hands and becoming a couple by the end of the night. On Sept 21st, Jeff asked me to marry him. (Which is a long, but great story of its own). I, of course, said YES!!
We were married just 2 months and 9 days later. My Mom, who is amazing, sewed my dress, her dress and bridesmaids dresses and a flower girl dress during that short time. Made arrangements for wedding breakfast, reception, etc. Thank you Mom for all your hard work and love.
I am so grateful to be the wife of Jeffrey Curtis Stevens. Thank you to Heavenly Father for leading me to him and him to me. I needed him and he is the best thing that ever has come into my life....(and then I got my children, through a special way, which is another story for another time):)
Here is a picture of Jeff & I on our wedding day.

Thank you Jeff for making my life so complete and amazing. I LOVE YOU!!
Forever and ever and ever and ever........

Catch up

There is no way to catch up on all the activities we have done since my last posting.
Some highlights are:

The biggest highlight of the year was in Aug. of this year, my youngest sister, Lynette, was married. She married a wonderful guy, Aaron Abbott. They were married in the SLC Temple on Aug. 13th. They had their wedding reception in our parents backyard in West Jordan. The yard looked amazing, with paper lanterns, parasols, and lovely white lights. My parents and others worked hard at weeding the flower beds, mowing the lawn, etc. to make it the perfect place for Aaron & Lynette. It looked amazing.
Here is the happy couple:


It was such a wonderful, beautiful day of happiness and love. We are so excited for them, and welcome Aaron to the family. We enjoyed our vacation time spending it with family, and being blessed to witness such a great event. :) You can go on my facebook page to see more pictures from the wedding day and other events.

The girls are getting older and more sassy.. :-)
Jolyn is 16, driving, dating, a junior in high school. YIKES!
Jalani is 12, 7th grade, teen mood swings, etc.
We are all keeping busy with life and things happening around us. We are currently blessed to have sister missionaries living in our home with us. They are a joy to have. Sis. Driggs from Provo, UT and Sis. Linn from CA (near Sacramento)

Jeff is working at a new job(since June) at Recovery Innovations as a supervisor for Peer counselors. He is still overwhelmed with work, nothing changed there.
He is the Ward Mission Leader and is loving that calling.
I serve as the Valiant 11 teacher, almost my whole class has turned 12 already, so during our class time I get to still have them, but then during sharing time/singing time i lose them to YW/YM. :( Sad for me.

That is all I can think of currently to say.

DISNEYLAND

We are anxiously waiting for May to come....we are going to Disneyland California. We are all super excited by this adventure.


Jolyn has only been there once, when she was almost 2 yrs. old. Lani has never been to Disneyland.
They have both been to DisneyWorld when Jolyn was around 5 and Lani wasn't quite one.


They have both been to Euro Disney in France, when they were around 7 and 4.




I think they are as excited as Jeff & I. We will be staying at the Travelodge Anaheim which I got for around $55.00/night.



We were able to obtain 3-day Park Hopper Passes for $99.00 each as Disney is celebrating the military this year. What a bargain.


I am way excited to go to California for Disneyland and also for our nephew, Joseph's wedding. He is getting married on May 14th. We will be leaving for CA on May 7th and going to Anaheim by the 9th or so. We hope to travel along HWY 1 or 101 on the coast during that time.




Hurry and get here May. We are ready for leaving. :-)

Christmas

We had many Christmases this year. It started on Sun. 12/20 when Cory, Robyn, and Gma Walle came over from Spokane to celebrate Christmas with us. Thanks Cory & Robyn for sacrificing your time to come and be with us. It was great to be together. Thanks Gma for coming to stay with us for the holiday. We had Christmas morning with them on Monday 12/21, opened our gifts, enjoyed a Christmas dinner together (Ham, Au Gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry salad, and more),and enjoyed visiting and laughing with one another. Cory had to go back to work, so he and Robyn left Tues. afternoon to head back to Spokane. Gma stayed with us till Sunday, so we were able to have Christmas with her.

Friday, Christmas Eve, Gma Vi, Jim, & his sister, Donna, came over from Yakima to spend the afternoon with us. We opened gifts from them, and theirs from us. Ate another Christmas dinner. (Ham, Cheesy Potato casserole, green beans, rolls, cranberry salad, and more.)
We enjoyed our time with them very much. Thanks for coming and spending time with us.
We love all of our family and are very glad we have them close by to see often.

Christmas morning we opened presents and enjoyed time together. We played our new WII games, laughed, ate, and spent time together as family.
Here are some pictures from Christmas.































So there are our Christmases. Hope you and your enjoyed the season of remembering the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving 2010

We traveled 14 hours to Utah to be with my family for Thanksgiving. We arrived late Wed. night. It was fun to see everyone. Layne, Jayme, Payce & Tayo came up from Vegas. Lynette traveled in from Boise, and us from Wenatchee. It was fun to all be together. Lori & Hank & klan came up from Orem. We had 27 of us for Thanksgiving dinner. (Lynette had brought 2 friend with her). We had a very enjoyable time being together. If you can't tell I enjoy being together with my family. :-)
We had great food, fun, and laughter. The next day we had our family pictures taken outside my parents home in the snow. It was cold!! The photographer did a great job. Here are some examples of his work:












It was fun. After pictures, we went bowling. Had a lot of fun!! Later that night we had our friends the Wilkinson's and their families over for pizza and soda. We enjoyed visiting and meeting new parts of the family. We had a tradition in Great Falls, MT. Where we would have Thanksgiving or Christmas with the Wilkinson's, so it was great to reunite and do it again.
Santa & Mrs. Claus came and surprised us all. It was fun. The kids and some of the adults sat on his lap and received a present from Santa. Just like old times.
Thanks Santa & Mrs. Claus for coming to visit us. :-)

Sat. --Just spent time together and played games and enjoyed each other.
Sun. --Went to church and had dinner together.
Monday-We made the long trek back to home, took 16 hours. We had an almost 2 hour delay at the Utah/Idaho border, they had closed the road.
We brought our friend, Jamie Kershner home with us, and she was there for her grandpa's funeral and was looking for a ride home. Glad we were there and able to help her. We had fun visiting on the way home.
That was our vacation to Utah for Thanksgiving. Thanks Mom & Dad for hosting us in your home, and for all the food and fun! You are the bestest parents ever!!

Girls and School

This year Jolyn is a sophmore in High School. Can you believe how fast time flies? I can't. She is doing well in her classes. Liking most of her teachers........
Her school picture this year is one taken by my sister Lynette, while in Utah this summer. She liked it better than the school ones. I think that it turned out really good. Thanks, Nettie!! :-)


Jalani is in 6th grade at the Middle school this year. Wow!! My baby is all grown-up! :-( I am not ready for two teenagers in the house...but, ready or not here she comes!! She id doing well in school, too!! Also, some classes or teachers she may not like, but all in all doing well.

Garth Brooks

The Thursday before leaving on our annual camping trip, my brother calls and says "Guess what?" I had no idea, so I let him continue. He tells me he finally was able to get tickets for us for Garth Brooks. Wow!! I could hardly believe it, then he tells me it is short notice and can we come to Vegas the next weekend to go see him on the 11th of September in Vegas. Oh my, what do I say or do? My mind was whirling just with the thought of being able to go see him, finally.
Long story made short....my brother was getting married about 12 years ago and Jeff & I had tickets to see Garth. We sold them so we could go to the wedding. When his marriage didn't work out, he felt bad that we had missed seeing Garth. We told him it was no big deal, and we were happy to do it.
He has felt bad about that for a long time, so it was nice for him to ease his conscience by taking us to the concert. ;-)

Layne & Jayme, his wife, flew us down to Vegas, bought the tickets for Garth, paid for our lodging in a hotel, fed us food, and spoiled us rotten. We were able to pay for Luv-its Ice Cream one night. (http://luvitfrozencustard.com/)It was fun!! We had such a great time being with them and Payce and Tayo, their boys.
We were able to watch Payce play his first soccer game, ever. So cute!! We had fun playing with Tayo and eating those chunky cheeks of his.
Thank you so much Layne & Jayme. We appreciate you and all you did for us!! someday we hope we can repay you in some way!! It meant so much to spend that time with you and your family.