My Cute Brother

What a cool kid!

Today is my brother's Eagle Scout Project. He and a group of friends and family are gathering as we speak to pave the grounds of the Santa Clarita Emergency Winter Shelter.

A brief description of Cj's project:

The Santa Clarita Emergency Winter Shelter takes in homeless families during the cold winter months providing food, clothes, and refuge from the harsh outdoor environment. The dirt parking lot for the shelter presents a problem during inclement weather for delivery trucks and volunteer workers. In order to address this problem we will be leveling this section and paving it with gravel.

Here is a picture of the grounds now...

Good luck today lil bro. We wish we could be there! We love you and are so proud of you!!

4 Christmases 2009

This was by far the best Christmas we have ever had! We visited home for just over a week and took advantage of every minute we had.

Christmas Part 1: We started Christmas off right and woke up bright and early, ready to see what goodies Santa brought us! Then we opened gifts, goofed around and took some family pictures.

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil...

Just us girls!

The cutest couple with the cutest puppster

The kids...miss you sibs :(

Christmas Part 2: Auntie Nani, Uncle Dave, Jaymi, Sara, and Lila came over for a delicious Christmas breakfast! We feasted, celebrated Lila's 22nd Birthday, opened presents and watched Cj and my home videos from 1993...oh man, that is some funny stuff!

Christmas Part 3: After visiting with family, we headed up to the Williams house for some more Christmas fun. We visited for a while, snacked on some delicious goodies, and opened presents!

Brandon and Cameron...he's the best :)

Christmas Part 4: After visiting with the Williams, we headed back down for the Norris family extravaganza! We had an amazing dinner, opened more gifts, caught up with our Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and the most wonderful woman...my Great Grandma Carol! Then we attempted to stuff ourselves even more with cheesecake and apple crumble.

Maybe a third of the Norris clan!

The love birds & our handsome lil brother

Brandon & I with our Great Grandma Carol

Brandon & I with our cousin Dom...we miss her lots!

Dre, Adam, Baby Taylor (still in the womb) & me

Taylor Leigh Bergmann (out of the womb).

We just barely missed her, She was born December 30. 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long. We love you baby Taylor!

The Sunday after Christmas, mom and dad hosted yet another party with friends and family. Luckily, we were able to visit with quite a few people before we left to catch our flight.

Uncle Lito, Auntie (beautiful voice) Lani & family.

Then it was back to Utah where we were welcomed home by 10 degree weather, a popped tire on our Xterra, and a looong work week. Here is a little tour of our humble yet festive Christmas decor :)

We had SO much fun at home this year, it was so nice and relaxing. We hit all of our favorite restaurants, got in a little shopping, a lot of family time, and made out good with Christmas gifts :) We got so home sick before we even left for the airport but we're starting to get back into the groove of our day to day. We love you and miss you all and we're so grateful for the time we were able to share with you....until next Christmas <3

Tis The Season

One of my co-workers forwarded this to me so I thought I'd share...

Well, there is good news and bad news about my Christmas decorations this year.

Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.

Kind of feel like I gave in to the man by taking him down but my neighbor did confirm two near miss accidents on the busy street next to my house. I think I made him too real this time.

So it was fun while it lasted! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas <3 The Williams

My Best Friend’s Baby

So my friend Rachel (the one I threw the shower for in Sept) had her baby boy this weekend and I was lucky enough to be there for his birth! It was the first birth I had seen in real life and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced!

Emmitt Cooper Maxwell

Born October 31, 2009 6:44pm. 5 pounds 14 ounces, 18 ½ inches long

Rachi and I after the birth...isn't her Halloween costume so cute?!

Little Emmitt in the NICU

Isn't he the cutest little thing?!? He's gone from spud to stud!

So here's a short version of the day... Rachel invited me to her birth because we are natural birth friends! She wasn't due until November 30th but there were a few complications so her doctor thought it best to induce labor and get little Em out of there. At about 12:30p on saturday they broke Rachi's water and started her on the pet. Around 3:30p Rach was dilated to a four and her contractions were so excruciating that she had to get the epidural. At about 5:30p she started pushing and by 6:44p we welcomed her little angel to the world! It was amazing!! Since Emmitt was so early we didn't really get to hold him that much because he had a bunch of testing to do in the NICU but we did get to spend lots of time with Rach including McDonald's dinner and reenacting the funny things she yelled at the doctor during labor :D Rachel has to stay in the hospital until later tonight and Baby Emmitt is in the NICU until Sunday but he is getting stronger and stronger everyday! We are so excited to play with Em and Brandon is especially looking forward to girls night so that he and Emmitt can watch football games together. We love you so much!

Witchcraft Weekend

Not so much witch but definitely craft!

I spent the majority of this weekend crafting. Here's a sneak peek!

I had to read the entire Kenmore Sewing Machine User Guide first but...my very first pillows!

I didn't use pillow forms so they might look a little lumpy, I like to think it gives them personality :)

it's kind of blurry but those are the awesome damask buttons that Brandon found

some fresh and fruity pictures that I made for the kitchen

this was in our last place but I just barely got around to hanging them

now I know this isn't a craft but Brandon surprised me with these boots and I thought they were way too cute not to share!!!

and last but certainly not least!! In-N-Out Orem opening November 1st, WE CANNOT WAIT!

Birthdays!!

This week was my little sister Amber's birthday.

She is one of the sweetest, most genuine, creative, intelligent, spunky girls I know!

And on Thursday she turned 12!

Happy Birthday AM BAM!!! We love you so much and are so proud of all of your accomplishments. Wish we could have celebrated with you...maybe next year ;)

This week was also my birthday! On Wednesday I turned 21!! I'm a big kid now :)

The morning started off with me going through the many fb messages, texts, voice mails of my siblings and friends trying to be the 'first' to say happy birthday! Then I went to work and we had a little birthday bash. My co-workers decorated my desk and we celebrated with cake and ice cream!

After work Brandon and I went to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen and then we walked over to the mall to pick out my birthday present. Oddly enough I was in a weird mood and could not find anything I was in love with...then right as we were leaving Brandon found this awesome skirt...

Cute huh? After a little shopping we went home to open my gifts!

I got this beautiful graduation plaque from my parents. I have no idea how they got that picture but isn't it awesome?!

I also got clothes from Victoria's Secret!

(I got this bathing suit in black)

Steve & Shelly also sent me a package with a huge jar of candy that is already a third gone because I take everywhere with me :) They also got me this sweater and a little tank to go under it...

and this perfume from VS that I am IN LOVE with!

After we opened presents I went into the bedroom to put some stuff away and I found this wonderful surprise!!! I have wanted this bedding FOREVER...see Brandon took me shopping at the mall to make me think he didn't get me anything when really he had already come home and set up this wonderful surprise <3

We also got Season 2 of Prison Break!! I already had the 1st season and I begged Brandon to watch it with me and now he's hooked! We finished the 1st season in about a week and we've already made a good dent in the 2nd season :)

I also got a bunch of cards and gift cards from Great Grandma Carol, Grandma and Grandpa, Hermana Anderson, Auntie Nani, Uncle Dave, Jaymi, Sara & Lila. What a happy birthday!!! Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts. I love you lots!!

Moving on moving on from town to town...

Not really town to town, just 1.91 miles away (according to mapquest).

So you may have heard that Brandon and I have moved! It's kind of a funny story and we're both a little shocked that it happened but it happened!

So here's the story....

We had been talking about moving for the last few months but we never really

acted on it. Friday morning as we were driving to work we thought we might call our landlord and see if we could look at some apartments. He told us that he had two places just like ours and one that was newly renovated. We asked if we could look at the newly renovated one after work around 7:00p. Our landlord said "Sure! But I'm showing the apartment to another couple at 3:30p." Brandon jumped right in and said he'd meet at 12:30p. Brandon walked in the apartment and told him we wanted it so we signed the contract, got the keys, rented a Uhal, and started moving right after work! Our old apartment was emptied by 2:00p on Saturday and our new apartment was completely set up by 5:00p on Sunday. We even watched both sessions of conference! It all happened so fast but we absolutely love our new place!

Here are some pictures...they don't really do our home justice but it will have to do. All we have left to do is hang the mirror in our bedroom and the pictures in the living room and kitchen.

the living room

brandon's favorite spot in the house

our living room (with a box of pictures waiting to be hung)

the bedroom (with our huge mirror waiting to be hung)

renee's favorite spot in the house

the potty

the kitchen

Home sweet home! What do you think?

Now that you've seen our new place you'll have to go back and compare what our old place was like =/