Happy 12th Anniversary

The Happy Couple - Mr. & Mrs. Will Wright We met in June of 1995. Will says he loved me at first sight....ah isn't that sweet! We got engaged in April 1996 and waited for my sister to get home from military basic training. We wanted to get married on Sept 13th but couldn't book The Wright House until the 20th. We were married in the Mesa, AZ LDS Temple.


Our wedding invitation which we had 350 and sent over 300 out!
This is the course of our wonderful wedding day September 20th, 1996





What a handsom groom!

My grandma Glenna made my wedding dress for me and it was absolutely beautiful! I wish you could see the bead work she did better. McKenna hopes to wear it at her wedding. :o)
My bridesmaids: Jen, Misty, Anissa, me, my sister Brandy, Meagan and Will's sister Creea.

The guys: Toma & Steve Will's brother's, Will, Jack his brother-in-law and Jared.
Out wedding party....including our parents. What a wonderful group of people and we love them all dearly!

We met at the temple at 9:00am and then took a ton of pictures because it was still 98 degrees outside. We got married at 1pm in the Temple and then we took some more pictures outside the temple below. We then separated and Will went with his family and I went with mine (weird I know)....Will wanted to set up our honeymoon suite with rose petals etc. It was very pretty.

This is a picture of The Wright House out front where we met back at 4pm to set up for our ring ceremony and our reception. We had a ring ceremony for all of our non-LDS family and so that was neat to have my Dad walk me down the isle.
The inside before guests arrived.

Outside where the ring ceremony was and then later set up with round tables for guests.

During the ring ceremony.


We had lots of great food catered in by Will's Dad & step Mom...we didn't get any pictures of it but this is one of the punch areas. The punch was really good with floating berries. Will and I were so busy talking to everyone that we didn't get to eat but we did have some punch.

We danced to some of our favorite songs including our special song by Sting "When we dance".

We had a DJ and he played some country music so everyone could line dance and a few of Shania Twain who was my favorite singer back then. :o)

This is Will & I on our honeymoon cruise.


This is Will & I 12 years later. We went to a very nice dinner last night and had a great time. This is us after our evening out and yes we are tired you can see it in our eyes but I had to have Calvin snap a few pictures for this post. :o)


Will I love you more now than I did 13 years ago and for me that is crazy because I thought it was impossible! You are a wonderful man, husband and father. You are the man of my dreams and the ultimate love of my life!!!!! I'm so thankful to be married to you and I look forward to many many more years of wedded bliss babe! xoxoxoxox

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you I love you I love you!!!! Love your girl - Leslie

Any suggestions?

This Saturday is our anniversary...12 big ones and I've been so busy with working full time and life that I've not planned anything. I don't think Will has planned anything either although I would absolutely LOVE that. We will be working Friday and have church obligations Sunday so out of town trips are out of the question. Our friends offerred to babysit Saturday evening for us...So any suggestions?

College Day Pics (Roommates then)

(Anissa you can double click on these top two pictures and they will enlarge. :o)

Last night I was talking to my sister Brandy and we were catching up on our weeks etc. I told her how much fun I had Friday night with my old roommates and she commented that she had seen my blog (story below this one) and she thought that we all looked the same. So I thought I would go through and look at the pictures I had from back then and decided to post them. I thought I had a lot more but these are the best ones I could find. I wish we would have taken more! Anyways it was fun bringing back old memories from the condo & MCC.




Crystal a good friend of ours, Jennie, me, Meagan, Misty and unfortunately only 1/3 of Anissa on my wedding day Sept 20, 1996.

Meagan, Anissa and I had some professional pictures taken in the fall of 1995. Meagan, Misty, Anissa, Me, Linda (Meagan's Mom), friend of Meagan's, Karen at my bridal shower 1996. The picture below it was Dec 1996 at Linda's house from left to right: me, Linda, Meagan, Anissa, Crystal and Jaime (I can't remember if her name was Jessica or Jaime??)

Meagan & Anissa at our condo Will driving his jeep as we were all going camping for the fourth of July in 1995 (like the cornrows) So there you have it some pictures from about 13 years ago.....do we still look the same? I think Anissa and Meagan do but I think I look a little different maybe because it's me...maybe it's because shortly after that I began highlighting my hair and it's lighter now?? :o)

GNO with my best friends from college

(Me, Anissa, Jennie, Meagan and Whitney)

Earlier tonight me and some of my best friends in the world met up at Kona Grill for a birthday celebration (mine a couple of weeks ago and Meagan's birthday is tomorrow). We had such a great time! I had too many Cokes (didn't serve my fav Dr. Pepper) and am still up at 1am in the morning so I thought I might as well blog our evening. :o)

I met Meagan in 1993 through some mutual friends Heidi & Lynessa, we hit it off immediately and talked for hours! We became practically inseperable for the next several months. I moved to Utah for about 7 months to be with my Mom & sister until decided that I should go back to AZ. I moved into "the condo" that Meagan's parents owned in Mesa and we all attended college & worked. There were four of us...Jennie & Karen identical twins, Meagan & myself. I shared a room with Jennie downstairs, Meagan & Karen were upstairs. I think we all lived together for a year or year and a half and then Anissa moved in...Jennie & Karen moved out and I shared a room with Anissa for another year I think. Too old to remember all of the dates. Anyways these wonderful roommates became my best friends and have remained all of these years! Oh yeah I met Whitney about 7 years ago at Meagan's wedding and have just loved her ever since! Meagan our social butterfly who knows practically everyone in Arizona constantly introduced us to new people. :o) It's fun because Will and all of his roommates (11 other guys) used to hang out with all of us too so he knows them all well too. We don't get together often enough but when we do it is so much fun just talking! We always say we need to do this like once a month but somehow 4-5 months slip on by. We are planning to get together for a Halloween Party though and Karen will be in town so I'm super excited about that! We had yummy food and just talked and talked. We were going to go to a movie but obviously we needed to chat a little longer. Whitney headed out but the rest of us continued talking until we decided to sit in Jennie's car and talk. After about an hour Anissa headed home and so Jennie, Meagan and I continued talking...about an hour later Jennie left so Meagan and I continued talking for about another 1/2 hour. It was so fun to catch up! (We miss you Karen!)

Each one is amazing in her own right. I'm so blessed to have such great friends who feel like family.

9/11

2 things...first I'm officially full time at Maricopa School District and am looking forward to the benefits I'll receive! I've been there since July 1st, 2008 and like it very much. :o)

Second...Please go to my sister's blog (either by clicking on her link here on my blog page Brandy & Tyson Richardson or by www.therichardsongroup.blogspot.com) and read her new post regarding 9/11. Feel free to leave her a comment whether you know her or not she is interested in your opinion.

Fasting with a purpose

Am I the only one that struggles with fasting? I guess because we never did it growing up? I don't think I even knew you were suppose to fast til I was in High School but still rarely did it. I never realized the importance of a fast until a little over a year ago when both of our kids were border line diabetic and experiencing very high sugar levels. If I would have taken them to the doctor they would have been diagnosed diabetic and put on insulin immediately. We changed our diets, started making them exercise and practically eliminated milk for them as it is a huge culprit in diabetes however until we had a special family fast for them their levels remained higher than normal. I know for certain that the fast basically cured them...we still need to be careful & monitor their blood every now and then but they are basically normal. What a huge blessing for us!!! So since then I've tried to fast and be better example to my kids. McKenna is pretty good at fasting with me. Will tries but being insulin dependant, his diabetes sometimes wins out and he has to eat. Calvin isn't interested in trying it out yet but he is little so I won't force it.

Today I'm fasting for a couple of reasons:
1. Our stake President asked us yesterday to fast for the City of Maricopa to allow our new stake building to go through planning & zoning commission; however there is one lady that is causing a problem so I'm fasting that she will realize the error of her ways and allow the plans to be completed as submitted.

2. For Americans to get out and vote! I know this might seem like a silly reason but I assure you it is not. It is our civil duty to be informed and to participate in elections and not just the presidential elections but our local elections as well. Even our church leaders plead with us to vote. Because this is my blog and I can say what I want it is my hope that every person in America goes and votes this fall. I hope that not everyone is as my sister, Brandy who works in the media puts it "brain washed by the media" when it comes to the two presidential candidates because the media is extremely bias for one particular candidate. I don't love the republican candidate but I believe he would be better for the job then the other person. We live in a crazy world and I truly fear for our country's well being if the other more popular candidate is elected. We need to stand up for what is right in all categories of life. I might go to extremes but I even write radio stations and TV shows when they do things or play things that are offensive to me. I believe with all of my heart that if all of us take a stand and don't blow things off by thinking I'm only one person and no one will care or listen, then we can surely make this world a better place. So I'm fasting that we will all be active, know our candidates and take the time to care and to vote.

Enough said I'm not trying to preach to anyone but felt that it would benefit my fast purpose today if I took some time to write about it and get my mind off of my growling stomach. 6 more hours :o)

(I made it til 5:30pm)

Cheap Thrills...

All you need is bored kids + sleeping bag + stairs = cheap thrills!





So this is one of my kids favorite past times....sliding down the stairs! It can keep them entertained for hours...gotta love the amusement going on at the Wright House. :o)