Merry Christmas from our family to Yours!

We rented this cabin outside the east entrance to Zion Park.

Joy & Jason Payne with

Luke, Allie, & Wesley

This is looking from the Living/Great Room to the upstairs. There were three bedrooms and a bunk room upstairs with three bathrooms, and a master bedroom and two baths on the main floor. Wesley, Allie, Jason, & Luke welcoming all upstairs.

This is the Living Room/Great Room Christmas morning.
And as the fun was beginning.

This is all of us after Church. Left to Right, Back Row: Wendy (without Pete), Kristyn (holding Bennett) and Paul, Jason & Joy, Thacker, Wesley, Peter, Luke, McKay, & Samuel; Middle Row, starting behind Marlene: Hailey, Allie, Molly & Vic, Chris & Jenny; Front Row: Peggy, Marlene & Le, Grant, & Jack.

Well, that's all! We had a great time together!

(Sorry we missed you Pete.)

Ever Since I discovered online photo editing by picnik.com it's known I can't be trusted with this software. I think Lodewijk would be to embarressed if he sees this.

Oh well, I just wanted to post this to wish you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2010!

The original picture was actually taken on a beach in Portugal. It's one of our favourite holiday countries and we are thinking about setting up a business there, like a b&b. Unfortunately we couldnt have picked a worse time for such a thing, so it will remain a dream for a while.

Anyway, are you all coming up to Utah for Christmas? That would be so great!

As you might know we have to Christmas days here, which is very practical if you have inlaws! But the first day some friends are coming over for dinner. The second day is divided between both our families. Either way I'm looking forward to it!

I do hope you have a great time and hope to see some pictures here after!

Love always, Mirjam

By the way, Peggy congrats on the job, You go girl!

Finally!!!

Its a Christmas Miracle ya'all! I have been offered and accepted a job at a small law firm in SLC. Well Sandy. Its just a small firm. I'll be doing some office/administrative/paralegal work. I start tomorrow. So thank you to all who have been praying for me these last few months. I surely have felt it and appreciate it. Seeya soon. Last one there is a rotten egg!

The Jacksonians Blog

Have you seen Paul and Kristyn's blog lately? I had to laugh because it took me back to a day many years ago that sent Jason and I rolling with laughter. Just wanted to share. Thanks for joining me on the trip down memory lane!

A Progressive Happy Birthday Story

By Vic, Molly and Peter. And by Jenny, Chris and "the gang". Also by Joy, Jason and kids. And by Wendy & Pete. Also by Paul, Kristyn and the boys. And last but not least... Peggy.


Super Samson and the Birthday Surprise


Mild mannered Sam, the alter ego of Super Samson, relaxed on the couch anticipating his birthday cake--little did he suspect the surprises his super friends held in store.
Suddenly, Sam's super sensitive hearing honed in on the welcomed noise of the bakery truck quickly approaching his super house.
Not only could he hear the truck, he could super-sam-smell-it. Mmm....Sumptuous sultry [white] chocolate satin surprise.

Just before the truck turned into his neighborhood, his nemesis nephew Grant
threw a box of nails under the truck to keep all the scrumptious goodies for himself.
The truck careened out of control and headed for a group of kids crossing the street. The group just happen to be Jack, Allie, Thacker, Peter and all their siblings walking to the park. Jack and the others heard the truck coming but it was too late to move this caravan of cousins in time.

Super Samson could here the children screaming in panic. He sprang into action! Just before the bakery truck was about to smoosh the little ones into strawberry creme filling, Super Samson jumped in front of the truck and stopped it dead in it's tracks.
Nemesis Nephew Grant (or the NNG) was NOT happy! This was not going to be the end of his devious plan to intercept his sweet reward.

All the nieces and nephews cheered for Super Sam! He was their favorite super hero! Except for Grant- his dastardly plan was ruined! Super Sam knew just what to do! He used his super power of tickling to make Nemesis Nephew Grant laugh!
He laughed so hard his sides hurt! He laughed so hard his eyes watered! He laughed so hard, everyone laughed too! No one was mad at Nemesis Nephew Grant anymore cause they were all too happy!

But Sam was so caught up in the excitement that he almost forgot it was his birthday. There were only a few minutes left before his birthday came to an end and he still didn't have a cake with sparkly candles on top. How could he reach his full super strength without his super birthday cake? He knew he needed that cake, and pronto! He walked over to the mangled truck, and hoping to find a salvaged piece of his scrumptious cake, he opened the door and ...


And there it was. Tipped over on its side, but still intact, was the most decadent 23 1/2 tiered cake.
The cake would go down in history as the biggest and best cake the world had ever seen. Past, present, and future. Then suddenly something jumped out from behind the cake! It was all of Super Sams close friends and family. "Surprise!!!!" They all yelled.
Sam realized it had all been planned! NNG was in on the surprise! Sam was so happy to see all the people he loved there for him! They all proceeded to eat the cake with their hands (cause its more fun that way) and dance and sing long into the night.

Sam would remember it as the best birthday he ever had.

THE END

My pride and JOY

Hey, couldn't get on yesterday, but I wanted to wish Joy a happy birthday, too!
a very intelligent, thoughtful, fun and playful and kind sister.

Happy Birthday Sister

My favorite memory of Joy is when we created the J/P quadrathalon when she was staying with us one summer. We made shirts and mapped out the course. It was a lot of fun, and I still remember how much fun it was to spend so much time with her. That's probably my favorite memory of Joy. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Joy!

One of my favorite memories about Joy is the time we lived with Candice. We were driving home real late one night and were sooo tired! We drove past a sign all lit up with flashing lights and it said "Exotic". Exotic dancers? Exotic women? No- exotic BIRDS! We laughed so hard! "You liiike? You Buuyyy? wraaa wraaa!" shaking our shoulders like exotic birds might. My sides hurt so bad! We were laughing so hard! We still laugh each time we remember that joke!

Joy's Joys

Wonderful Aunt
Great Lips
Great Legs
Great hair
Beautiful
Strong
Home Builder
Great Conversationalist
Strong Testimony
Natural Birther
Cook Extraordinaire
Spanish Speaking Fool
Thoughtful
Frugal Mugal
Knows how to have fun
Great Seester
Hard Worker



Undeserving Gingerbread House Wiener

Now go celebrate your birth! And thank ya mutha. We love you.

Happy birthday Joy

That picture made a blog appearance two years ago, but I love it so I'm posting it again. Joy, you are spunky, intelligent, sympathetic, creative, insightful, down to earth, a great mom, easy to talk to, are amazing at home construction projects, you grow your own tomatoes (and make killer roasted tomato soup), support your husband in a demanding calling and job, are inspiringly frugal (totally made up a word), athletic (and make up your own mini triathlons), AND have awesome non-seaweed hair. We love you to pieces and are SO glad we're in the same family!

Hope you have a great day Joy!

To the Joyster

Happy birthday to Joy! You've always been a great sister and I loved that people thought we were twins growing up. I hope you have a fantastic birthday, and in celebration of your big day I'm taking my kids to Legoland. They say thanks for having a birthday. :)

Love, Jenny

Good Grief

I'm so glad it's finally here! I would love your feedback. I would love if any of you would want to contribute an article. I hope you put the button on your blog. Tell your friends. I'm so excited about the potential to help. We've already received several donations.

www.agoodgrief.com

Yay!

Yep, he's a Jackson!

Yes, folks, he's actually asleep. (At least he hasn't clogged our toilet yet.)

Look what I found in my back yard!

Can you see her? She's a beaut.

She was just sitting there looking at me in the kitchen today.

Who WOULDN'T do this?

I tried to upload this video, it didn't work. So just click here.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMg3zesVdhSY%26feature%3Dchannel&h=84f728190b972a0ccaf0ccce4b59f7fc