And the winner is....

If any of you decide to do a giveaway, this is the way to do it! This was so fun! Thanks, Alicia!

Here are my guesses at everyone: (winner at the end)

1. I got to know you a little better at a few of our ward's book club meetings and then later when we were both part of the "lucky" couples that got to take the marriage Sunday school class at church. We're not in the same ward together anymore, so I miss seeing you now and then. I'm glad to see you're blogging. This is Shayla T. We never did get to finish that class...

2. My first memory of you was your first Sunday in 6th ward - Liah was teeny tiny, just a few months old but the cutest thing ever. In RS we were sitting there and Sister Wohlwend asked if there was anyone who could and would be willing to play the piano. You volunteered saying you could play and were a music major at BYU - but not in piano. We were blown away by your musical talent your first Sunday in our ward! (and now Liah's the oldest of 4! How time flies!) I think this is Tiffani H. Thanks for the compliment! (I guess I guessed this one wrong... it is actually Kim M... sorry!)

3. We went to Preference together (with lots of other people) our freshman year of BYU. You kissed Chuck that year, too. (ha! remember that?) We had a lot of late night craziness in our group of friends and I was one of the first from freshman year to meet Jeremy. You and I also went to Fall Fling sophomore year together. Thank you SOOO much for bringing up Chuck... I believe this is my good friend Christina M., who was my backdoormate at Heritage Halls.

4. This will probably be too easy, but . . . Our kids love to sing together, you were a VT of mine a long time ago and I share your name!! This is Amy O. Our kids do Brook's mininotes playgroup together. I love your RS lessons by the way!

5. We have known each other much of our lives but lost contact after high school until just recently - thanks to facebook I believe it is. We played the same instrument in high school. You came to my sleepover birthday party when we were in elementary school but your dad dropped you off at the wrong house and thankfully it all turned out to be ok! This is Julie J. who was my friend at Pierce Elementary during the 6 weeks I went there, and we lost contact until a few years later when we were in the same session of swimming lessons, then lost contact until we were in high school together in band (which I totally forgot you played clarinet!), and then lost contact again until we found each other on facebook! Maybe we can stay better connected this way?? And just a sidenote to parents: Make sure if you're dropping your kids off at a sleepover, make sure it is the right house and they get in okay!

6. We have known each other as long as I have lived in my house. You were the first to really welcome us to the area. It could be because of my husband "Clark" but it worked to my advantage. Thanks for that by the way! This is my good friend Janna G, who just had the sweetest baby girl. Thanks for being such a great friend!

7. I'm not so good at the anonymous stuff... I'm sure anyone who knows me and reads this will know exactly who I am, but I'm related to you through marriage... you came to my wedding with your 1 year old Liah doll, we held the wedding shortly after you moved away to WA, and I'll get to finally see Addison at Christmas! :) This is my lovely sister-in-law Kristen. I forgot about having Liah with me at your wedding! She was such a cutie! (still is...)
8. Ummmmm, something about the Beatles...? This is definitely my favorite sister, Lorie M. This was a funny story. We were in line at Walmart together and I was telling her something, and she was doing all the normal, uh-huhs and yeahs. It occured to me that she was not even remotely paying attention to what I was saying. So I asked if she was listening to me, and she said yes. So I asked what did I say? Yes, the above was her response. If only it had ended there, but the guy in line behind us had been listening to the whole ordeal, and started laughing when Lorie made her answer.

9. Ravioooooooooli! & late night Papa Johns pizza This is my sister-in-law Jessica L. She said ravioli once when Liah was a baby, and it made Liah laugh, so she started saying it to her all the time to get the reaction. Liah just ate it up (not the ravioli...). Also, Jeremy worked as an assistant manager at Papa Johns, so he would bring home pizza a lot. It was great!

10. We share a love for music! I think our boys will be good friends too! This is Brook B. She does the mini-notes playgroup that Sean goes to. He loves it! By the way, he requests the little dog Jack song. Also, our baby boys are 3 weeks apart.

11. We have known eachother for quite a while now, but we didn't really get to know eachother till a few years ago....and I still wish to get to know you better! :)I always thought Seans outfits at church were the cutest (cowboy boots, missionary tags...too cute)Oh, and usually at church, I usually only get to see the back of your head...lol....can you figure it out? This one actually had me stumped until you mentioned the back of my head! I believe this is Kate S., who is usually sitting somewhere behind us in church!

12. We met at BYU when we were only 14 at YMS and became fast friends. We were pen pals for the next 2-3 years until email become more accessible. My family also randomly met your sister at Great Harvest Bread Co back in '97. Also our last babies were born within a week of eachother. [I've got 3 now, so I'm still a bit behind you]. You're still making me laugh - I love your blog! This is my good friend Heather W. Ah, good times! I wish you had a blog!

13. So how did the spaghetti sauce turn out? This is my sister-in-law Jana. I went out to her mom's house in Othello and canned applesauce. Then Jana made me a ton of spaghetti sauce that I canned in my pressure cooker canner. Thanks Jana! (btw, I'm sure it's great, but I haven't tried any of it yet! I'll let you know...)

14. You saved me from potential embarrassment by pointing out that a sign I was holding in front of the entire primary was musically incorrect. (Thank goodness my sister had made the sign, not me.) This is Alicia L, who I got this idea from. Thanks! Um, sorry about the sign. I totally forgot about that. Look at me opening my mouth when I should just be quiet... sometimes a music nerd sees a musical emergency...

15. Salt Lake City Loves you SOOOOO much that we wanted for you a riddle...Jehovah is God = ? (Hebrew)Friend = ? (French)Who is like unto God = ? (Hebrew)Know who this is yet? We're in the contest anyway, right? This is my sister-in-law Amy M. I so got your riddle: Joel, ami, Michael.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

here is my lovely assistant, Emily Meredithand the winner is.... (drum roll, please)

Jessica L!

Congratulations!

1000th hit giveaway!

This girl's giveaway 1 month ago is what inspired me to start a blog! (Thanks Tiffani! This is so fun!) So I decided if my blog ever got to 1000 hits on my hit counter, I wanted to do a giveaway in honor of that. I can't believe that only 1 month later, it has happened! (and they're not even just all me uploading my page... someone must actually be reading this!) So, you have the chance to be the proud owner of this little cutie, just in time for the holidays. After this girl's giveaway of last week, I have decided to follow her example. All you have to do is leave me a comment, but make it anonymous with some clue as to who you are (a hint, a memory, whatever). I will pick the winner at random. (You still win even if I don't guess right). Giveaway ends Halloween night at midnight. Time to see who actually reads this! Anybody???

p.s. To my friends and family who are far away, if you win, I will send it to you!

Brabins coming home!

Liah LOVES to write. She is also incredibly excited that Uncle Brandon (she always called him "my brambin") is coming home from his mission on Halloween (even though we probably won't see him until Christmas). I have a calendar that my aunt gave me a few years ago that you use year after year for birthdays and anniversaries. I have some markers that I was required to get for a religion class at BYU. I just found them the other day and had them out. These happen to be the same markers I used to write all of the events on this calendar. 2 years ago. Liah saw them out and remembered, these are the markers Mom uses to write on this calendar. I don't know how she remembers stuff! Since she loves to write so much, and is so excited about Brandon coming home, she decided it would be a great idea to write this on my calendar. While I was out of the room. So apparently, Brabin will now be coming home every year on Halloween.

Random acts of Merediths

This post is dedicated to my favorite sister Lorie who has threatened me with one bee if I didn't fulfill her demands of more pictures and posts.

1. On Tuesday, we had an awesome enrichment meeting where we did an exchange where everyone brings their stuff that they want to get rid of, and then everyone takes from it what they want and the rest gets taken to Goodwill. So I was in charge of refreshments and we decided that hot chocolate was a fun idea, so I made a bunch of hot chocolate (which hardly anybody drank, but it was good!). Jeremy was out of town, so I had to take the kids with me. While I was setting it up, there was no nursery yet, so the kids followed me back and forth from the kitchen to the gym while I was carrying all this hot chocolate, and they were all singing "Hot chocolate! Hot chocolate!" over and over again. Super big nerds. It felt like straight out of Peter Pan, following the leader.

2. After this spectacular enrichment meeting, Liah says "Mommy, that was like a yard sale." Yes, it was. "But we didn't pay for anything" No, we didn't. "Mom, that's called stealing". So apparently, in my daughter's eyes, I am a thief.

3. One of the things I legally took without paying for were these awesome candle holder thingies. (Yes, I believe that is the technical term). So in honor of my new acquisition (there's my big word for the day), I thought I would light some candles. You can tell how often we burn candles around here. The moment I lit the first one, Sean starts singing: "Happy Birthday to you..."

4. You know it is going to be a fantastic evening when you think you're just going to make something easy for dinner, and you get the pot of water boiling, then dump in the entire box of macaroni and cheese, cheese sauce included. (not one word, Lorie... )

5. Liah and Emily both went to the pumpkin patch with their schools. They were both SOOO excited about their pumpkins. However, only Liah has personified hers the way she did. She seriously has been introducing her pumpkin to everyone who comes over.

6. Moira was over here playing with Sean while the girls were at ballet. It was so cute watching them playing in the Jeep together. Sean was helping her with the radio, but my favorite part was when he got out of the Jeep and lifted up the hood to run a diagnostic (or just to see why it wasn't running... no battery, does it everytime)

7. Addison has the cutest little bath towels. Here are a couple of my favorites:

8. Finally, here is the quote that inspired my sister's threat in the first place. We used to be obsessed with these "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey: "Whenever anyone says "I can't," it makes me wish he'd get stung to death by about ten thousand bees. When he says "I'll try," five thousand bees. ("I can," one bee.) " Here's one bee to you Lorie....

By the power of greyskull!!!

Melt my heart...

Sean knows how to talk, a lot, but most people can't understand a word he says, myself included. This morning however, he says to me, clear as day: "You pretty, Mama!" Oh my goodness! Can I keep you??

The best of intentions....