Davinci Holiday Party

Friday, December 18, 2009

We had a work Holiday Party on Wednesday night and our wonderful owners took us out to Cucina Nassi for some fine Italian fare. The dishes were way different than anything I'm used to, but many of them were quite good! This is the fourth year we have had a holiday party and it is fun to think back to how much we have grown. The first year there were five of us plus Bill Martin, Christie and Coco. FIVE. At the party two nights ago there were 60. SIXTY. That is tremendous growth! For fun I added a picture that I was in each year at the party. HAHA. And then some cute ones from this past Wednesday. Happy Holidays everyone!

Okay, a little background. Davinci Virtual was started in 2006, and myself, Katie and Elan were the first hired. You can see what we do by linking back to one of our websites www.davincivirtual.com and www.davincimeetingrooms.com. It is a really awesome concept and we have the latest technology to compliment that. We have a sister company, Davinci Suites, which does actual "in-house" suites in several buildings across Utah, Nevada and New Mexico. We have in the past always held our holiday party with the Suites teams as well. But this year ourselves alone brought 90 people to the party. So we celebrated separately for the first time. And we needed an entire banquet hall to do it!

Cody was my date for the 2006 party. It was held at a nice restaurant here in Salt Lake.

The original receptionist team - we miss you Elan! (yes, the rest of us are still here!)

The 2007 party - party girls galore this year! The party was held at Bill's gorgeous home.

Here is another one of the party squad!

Josh and I at the 2008 party. We didn't get any pics with other people, silly us! It was before we were married so we could barely be 6 inches apart. HAHA. This year the party was held at Sam Souvall's house. He is the owner of Davinci Suites.

This is this year, 2009. Josh, myself, Katie, Blake, Justin and Coco.

Had to get a pic with our owners Bill and Martin. :)

Don't we look so dang cute? :)

My tall and handsome man!

Here we are with Bubba and Jordan. She is so close to having her little bundle of joy! Only 1 1/2 months Jord!

First Weekend of December

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

This past weekend was full of lots to do. Friday night right after work we grabbed some yummy $5 foot long sandwiches from one of our favorite places, Subway! Then we headed over to the Festival of Trees. There were so many gorgeous trees there, and so much hard work was put into them. For those that don't know, the Festival of Trees is a charity event for Primary Children's Hospital. Volunteers put together a themed tree complete with ornaments, decorations, lights, and items under the tree that go with the theme. The trees are then sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on the size. There were tiny trees and huge trees, upside down trees and wreaths. It was amazing! And most of the trees were already sold I should have taken a picture down the huge banquet hall to give you a good idea, but there had to be like 2000 trees there, plus probably 250 wreaths, a whole section of centerpieces, decorations and quilts. And tons more. We unfortunately couldn't afford to buy a tree, but it was wonderful going. Saturday we got all of our Christmas shopping done (YAY) and went to the Stephen's family Christmas party. I don't know this side of the family much, but I had a great time. I didn't take any pictures there, so hopefully I can steal some of Candy's ??? :) Sunday I woke up not feeling so great, so I tried to keep it mellow at home. Josh helped me decorate our tree and then while he was gone doing visits I wrapped all the gifts we had gotten for the nieces and nephews. I love wrapping presents and imagining how excited the kids will be when they open it. I love giving on Christmas and seeing the joy on people's faces. Its an amazing feeling. Though we couldn't do a lot this year, I made sure we got something for each niece/nephew in our family. For the adults we are doing a craft. NO TELLING! You will have to see once you get yours! HAHA. OH! and we ordered Christmas cards. no worries, you will get that soon too! Oh... and Keoke is our little furry Santa No-Claws this year!

Lord of the Rings Tree !!!! YAY

Harry Potter Tree!! YAY

This is a darling Princess Dreams tree !!

I loved this tree. It was all about family. GORGEOUS!

Go Jazz!

We are so cute!

Keoke - Santa No-Claws.... HAHA

Thanksgiving Weekend

Alright, as promised I am finally posting about Thanksgiving weekend. HAHA. okay, so the day was super fun. We picked the girls up the night before so on Thanksgiving morning we got all dolled up and got our stuff together and headed to Logan. We had planned to take some family pictures, so we made sure we were extra cute. Thanksgiving dinner-lunch was super yummy. We celebrated it with the Stephen's family this year (Josh's mom's side). After we ate and visited and the boys played some basketball, it was time to get some pictures done! We took a bunch right around the church building, and then went down the road to this old shed that had gorgeous peeling paint and old weathered wood. It was beautiful. We took a ton there too. After we left, we stopped at Josh's parents house to upload the pictures and then were on our way down to Bountiful to see my grandparents. My mom, sister, and her kids were all pretty sick and wanted us to steer clear for today. At my grandparents house we had some leftovers and pie and visited with some more family. We stayed about an hour then decided our girls needed to get to bed. Friday I worked just a half day and then we went back up to Josh's parents house. We brought our computer along and Tiffany, Candy and I had a blast designing some pages and Christmas cards. We mostly played games and hung out all day. We stayed over and then woke up super early to go get trees!!! YAY. Everyone in? Lets head to Idaho!! Getting trees was super fun this year, and the hike actually felt great. We had some of Curt's yummy potato soup and bread sticks after to warm us up. We actually got three trees, ours and them my mom and sister's too. We didn't get to deliver them for a few days though, which was sad. But we had a lot of fun. Saturday night we also celebrated Kim's 6th birthday,which was really on December 5th. Below are some pics of the whole weekend!

Family pics - we made a digi scrap page!

We also made this page for Tiff's pics!

The kids kept chasing this remote control snowmoble with a Barbie riding it. HAHA Thanks Tracy!

Camille was super cold, but super cute all bundled up!

Jordan and Shaylee !

Josh cutting down our perfect tree!

Us girls waiting for Daddy to come back with the saw.

Kim and Spencer riding the 4-wheeler with Grandpa!

Turning 6 years old!

Happy 6th Birthday Kimberlee!

Pearl Harbor Day

Monday, December 7, 2009

Yes, I will post about Thanksgiving and my past weekend, both were very notable to talk about. But first, I wanted to pay tribute to the many men and women (about 2000) who lost thier lives on Sunday December 7, 1941. As well as the thousands of men and women who fought bravely and lived to share thier stories of that horrific day. Thank you for all you have done. Below are a few pictures to commemorate this event.

A lucky picture taken during the harbor bombing

Billowing smoke from the anchored ships

USS Arizona memorial. This is the ship my grandfather was stationed on. Thankfully, he was in town when the attack hit. He was not seriously injured during the whole ordeal. I wish he was still alive today, I have so many questions to ask him!

I actually was very impressed with the Hollywood version of the event. I think (love triangle aside) that the movie was very well done and that the depiction of the attack and the anguish/suffering/reality of it all was very realistic.

Here is another "hollywood" depiction of the harbor bombing.