Jared & Paige

We miss you guys! These photos were taken back in Provo, almost two years ago. Now, Jared and Paige have a little boy of their own. We had so much fun with them. Paige helped me with Lincoln when he had colic with holding and nurturing him. She was such a natural mother. Jon was just talking about Jared the other day and all the great one-liners he would come up with. Our favorite ones to say are, "blah blah blah just biffed it!" (Paige, you were the origin of that one from your gymnastics class) and "that was clutch!". Jon and Jared were great organic chemistry study partners. Oh, the days when studying seemed so hard. Little did we realize how much dental school would kick Jon's butt. Anyway, shots out to Jared and Paige. We miss you guys! Hope we can see you soon. Oh California, how I miss you, too!

Christmas (at our home)

Kinda the same expression, no? 'Sa-prise'! (Lincoln lingo)

Super boots! For the month of December, Lincoln was on a fettish with his super boots. He absolutely loved them. He would squeal with excitement when he saw them, and would run to put them on. They were so convenient to have on the road trip. Just slip 'em on and Lincoln was ready to go! His favorite stop: McDonald's playland. It had been since June since he had been to a McDonald's playland with all those tubes. Back then I had to go inside and help him climb up through them. Not this time! Man, for some reason I was so touched to me my little guy just climb all over those things. He reminded me so much of my childhood. Like mother, like son, his favorite part was climbing up the tube slide. Su-eet (as Lincoln puts it)!

My mom hooked me up with some new knives. My girl Giada always uses this Japanese-style chefs knife in her cooking show, and I had been dying to have one for a while. I was so excited to start using them. I just made a stew tonight (one of Terrie's recipes :0) and it was soooo easy cutting through everything. Now I want 12 more! They're awesome. I highly recommend them.

Christmas came early this year at our house. Since we we're leaving two weeks before Christmas for our road trip down South, we decided to open all the presents we had already at our house with my Mom one Sunday. Lincoln got so many great books: a bunch of fun Dr. Seuss books and some of my childhood favorites, like Corduroy and Goodnight Moon. They were perfect presents to bring with us in our long car ride. My mom was super excited to get the lastest sonicare. I think she loves teeth just as much as we do!

Girl Par-tay!

This my favorite friend to hang out with. Claire is a second year dental student, like Jon. Her husband, Jason, is a second year, as well. Jason and Jon look super similar--tall, thin, and curly hair, plus, they both love the same sports. Lincoln's even mistaken Jason for 'Dadly' (as Squeekers says it). We like to get together with them whenever the three of them have a breather from school. They are not LDS, but are super strong Christians and share a lot of the same values as us. We're so glad that they like to hang out with us because they are a lot of fun. I even convinced Claire to take some kind of hobby class with me this summer, when Jon can play daddy and mommy for a night (finally!). Yea, only one semester left of craziness!

I felt very privileged to be invited to this exclusive end-of-the-semester party. Reason being: I was the only one there that was not a dental student. Luckily, I've got some connections. lol. Anyway, it was the first time that I met most of those ladies, and boy did I have a blast. We stayed up so late just chatting and being girls. I really enjoyed it. The conversations were quite refreshing, and a little risque.

What a Ham!

My mom's life-long friend, Barrie, knitted this sweater for Lincoln. I've known her since I was around Lincoln's age. She wanted me to take some photos of Lincoln wearing her work of art so that she could enter a knitting contest. Here are the results of our photo shoot... Pretty cute. Thank you, Barrie, for this handmade sweater. I love the color and the style. It's super cute!

Halloween Time

We had a really nice & easy Halloween. There weren't any church activities for our ward, so we just stuck around our neighborhood. I wore my costume from last year (which barely fit around my baby belly), Jon dressed up as himself (dental student), and Lincoln was a three-eyed monster. His costume had the cutest pot belly. It was adorable. It was a 3T and barely fit in the torso, though. Isn't that crazy? I think he takes after me and my dad with the long torso. Poor kid. At least he'll sit tall. Oh, have I mentioned that Lincoln is off the charts on his height? That definitely comes from the Willison side! He's past the 100 percentile. I'm so proud. That'd be so cool if he stayed that way. I might not make him a runt after all! Back to Halloween... Lincoln went trick or treating for the first time. He did a great job knocking on all the doors and saying thank you. It was fun to see all of our neighbors and catch up a bit.

Reactions to Prop 8

SALT LAKE CITY
7 November 2008
cited from http://www.lds.org/

The Church issued the following statement today:

"It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election.
Members of the Church in California and millions of others from every faith, ethnicity and political affiliation who voted for Proposition 8 exercised the most sacrosanct and individual rights in the United States — that of free expression and voting.
While those who disagree with our position on Proposition 8 have the right to make their feelings known, it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.
Once again, we call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information."

SACRAMENTO
7 November 2008
(This news release was issued by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento)

The following statement was released today by Bishop William Weigand, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and former Bishop of Salt Lake City, in response to attacks on (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) for supporting California’s Proposition 8, defending the traditional definition of marriage:

“Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support of traditional marriage — the union of one man and one woman — that has been the major building block of Western Civilization for millennia.
“The ProtectMarriage coalition, which led the successful campaign to pass Proposition 8, was an historic alliance of people from every faith and ethnicity. LDS were included — but so were Catholics and Jews, Evangelicals and Orthodox, African-Americans and Latinos, Asians and Anglos.
“Bigoted attacks on Mormons for the part they played in our coalition are shameful and ignore the reality that Mormon voters were only a small part of the groundswell that supported Proposition 8.
“As the former bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, I can attest to the fact that followers of the Mormon faith are a good and generous people with a long history of commitment to family and giving to community causes.
“I personally decry the bigotry recently exhibited towards the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — coming from the opponents of Proposition 8, who ironically, have called those of us supporting traditional marriage intolerant.
“I call upon the supporters of same-sex marriage to live by their own words — and to refrain from discrimination against religion and to exercise tolerance for those who differ from them. I call upon them to accept the will of the people of California in the passage of Proposition 8.”

This is a really tough issue for both sides. It's understandable that homosexuals are feeling wronged and are hurt that California, and other states, voted to not let them have the same rights to marry as heterosexuals. This is such a sensitive issue and can invoke a lot of hurt feelings. I like what the Church pointed out, though, in its statement. We as Americans have the right to vote according to our religious views, just as others are free to vote in opposition of those views. And it's okay. It's part of the democratic process. Gays may not understand our position. That's fine. But to target Mormons in such a hateful way is not the answer. We are not going around hating on gays. We are trying to protect the sanctity of marriage in the way that God organized it in the beginning with Adam and Eve. We all need to be tolerable that other people will have different views than us without being hateful to them. It's part of our right as Americans to have our own opinion and speak openly about it. Like I said, it's such a tough issue that invokes a lot of painful feelings. I hope that the situation in California gets better soon. Right now, it seems kinda scary to be a Mormon there with so many hateful protests going on.

Jon & Lincoln