Hudson Read Williams has arrived!

We are happy to announce that Meredith and Bryan welcomed their #3, Hudson Read Williams,  tonight at 6:10 p.m. in Glendale, AZ. He is a big baby boy, weighing in at 9 lb. 3 oz., 21 inches long and he is absolutely perfect. We are so happy to have #21 grandchild join our family! What a blessing to have a healthy baby, and to have Meredith doing well.

He is a Reliv baby. Meredith drank the Reliv during the entire pregnancy and she had a terrific pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Meredith was induced as she was 3 days overdue with a big baby. Fortunately, things worked out great as Bryan finished his finals on Friday. Mom Williams is there now tending Evelyn and Christian. I can't wait to go to Arizona next Monday, March 4th, after Stake Conference to help take care of this precious family. 

Proud Dad, Bryan.

Oregon Mother of the Year 2013

On Saturday evening, Feb. 16th, I was chosen as Oregon Mother of the Year for 2013. I am overwhelmed by all of this. I would prefer not to be the center of attention, but I'm grateful for the opportunity before me to stand up for mothers, to reach out to them, to help teach them, and to serve in my community to help mothers in need.

I'm grateful for a wonderful husband who made it possible to be a stay-at-home Mom over these past 38 years.

I really feel this is like a mission I've been called to do. I now need to learn how my Heavenly Father wants me to fulfill this mission. Our lives are already very full, but somehow, we add one more thing, and the Lord will give me the strength to do it.

Vivi, Ondalynn, me, Alice-Anne. I was so thankful to have 3 of the 6 of our beautiful daughters with me.

I'm grateful for the wonderful examples of mothers all around me, especially for all the dear mothers on our Smith and Lewis side of the family. Also, the beautiful mothers our daughters and daughters-in-law are to their children. It brings me great joy to see them all as such good mothers.

It was delightful this past weekend to have Alice-Anne and Julie Jensen (my sister, Meredith's, daughter) come to Portland on Friday from UT. We had a very fun, relaxing, and uplifting weekend together along with Ondalynn & Vivi who joined us for 24 hours on a Sister/Mother Retreat here in our home. It was fun to add Julia and Meredith on Friday evening for a Google Chat, too. 

Julie Jensen & Alice-Anne at Multnomah Falls.

My sister, Meredith, really wanted to come, but couldn't make it, so we are very glad she sent Julie. My sister, Kathi, joined us in Tigard, for the Gala Event. I was very grateful to her for driving all the way from Puyallup to be with us and then turn around and go back those long 3 hours home. It meant so much for me to have her here!

Vivi, Ondalynn, me, Alice-Anne and Julie Jensen.

Crismon was in Austin, TX, for the Reliv Conf. and returned that afternoon in time to join us for the big event. He left on Wed. afternoon for the conference.

Flowers in February

When I was honored as Oregon Mother of the Year, I was showered with some beautiful flowers. I appreciated the kindness of family and friends.

The morning I was preparing to leave for my interview for Mother of the Year, flowers were delivered from my sister-in-law, Duraye Lewis who lives in Arizona.

My good husband gave me flowers on Valentine's Day and as Mother of the Year. Jill McGrath, our friend that Ondalynn introduced us to so that we could help her regain her health through the Reliv product, surprised me at the banquet with flowers.

Tiffany's parents, Preston & Janice Gee sent me a tower of boxes of yummy food from Harry & David's. They are so generous and kind. I received flowers from our children, too.

I visit teach Verla Jeffries. She's another flower in my life, born in November 1920, she has lived a stalwart life and it is a joy to visit her each month.

MTC...Meeting with Religious Leaders...Marking a Goal

Dear Family,                                                                 2/10/13

The highlight of the week was receiving Emily’s first email after one week in the MTC. Her preparation day is Thursday. Then later that day we received a letter in the mail and then pictures by email. It felt like a gold mine of a day! We were so happy to hear that she is doing well and loving her experience.

Hermana Lewis & Hermana Murray visiting the Provo temple.

Crismon Jr. shared this in our “Lewis Family Facebook Group.”
Hey family, you're not going to believe this, but it's true! Emily's teacher in the MTC is a good friend of mine!


Back in the summer of 2011, I worked early morning custodial, and was paired with a guy from Colonial Juarez, Mexico, and who spoke very good English (Julian Barrio). We became fast friends, and Danielle and I have gone on a couple of double dates with him and his wife. Well, I was chatting with him via Gmail tonight, and he told me that Emily is in his district!!! This is what he said to me:


"She is awesome. Her and her companion are awesome. They are very nice and very focused on the work. She is doing great with her Spanish and teaching skills."

Anyhow, small world! It's wonderful to have someone you know get to teach your own sister in the MTC. It was like when I was in the same zone as the missionaries Bryan taught.

That was fun to hear how she was doing from her teacher. Emily's room is only 6 doors down from cousin Myreel. She loved the chance to see her.

Hermana Murray & Hermana Lewis having lots of fun together.

Recently Crismon has met with some religious leaders in Damascus. This small town just south of Gresham has had some internal conflicts among city members and also negative feelings towards the Mormons. Marlo Dean (works at C-Tech) opened some doors for Crismon to visit with other church leaders and the two of them had some good visits. He felt there was some softening toward the church.

We had a good month in our Reliv business in January. We reached a goal that we had been working towards for a number of years. We advanced to the Senior Director level. That won’t mean anything to anyone else, but it was an important step in our business and we felt the hand of the Lord blessing us and helping it to come together.

I’ve enjoyed sharing Reliv with several of Ondalynn’s friends. One who last Nov. was in tremendous pain from a bad fall that occurred a year ago. It was so wonderful to see her begin to change over a week, then month, and now able to go back to work. Another friend that lives around the corner from Ondalynn was a good friend with Ardene back in Minnesota. She happened to be in the same ward as the Daem’s and Ardene was her RS President. Ardene helped her tremendously during a difficult time. The way that Ondalynn connected that she knew Ardene was kind of comical. One day when she was at the Vance’s, Ondalynn said to her children, “You need to hurry and do your “Big-5.” Her friend said, “I know about Big-5.” She had heard that from Ardene to her children. Oh…the Lewis traditions live on and connect us together around the world! We use to say, it’s a small world in the church, but now I think we can say, “It’s a small world in the Lewis Family.”

Friday afternoon I babysat Bryson, Isaac, and Paxton while Ondalynn taught an Art Class at the school for Sydney and Julia’s classes. It’s a nice break for me to be “Grandma.” I love it! It was also nice to have her friend come by and hear her share that she feels better just after a few days on Reliv. We love sharing hope!

Bryson dusting to surprise his Mom. Notice the stacks of items to try to get up higher.

Last Friday night with the temple closed for a month, we had an open night. We visited Vaughan and Suzi Lewis in our ward. She has cancer, but is doing well on treatments. It was so nice to visit with them and get better acquainted with their family. We are blessed with many good friends.

Last Sunday while Visiting Teaching, Melissa, McMullen, one of the sister’s I visit, she gave me some yummy soup. Her kindness was enjoyed many times throughout the week.

Our weather has been mild compared to the huge snowstorms in UT and back East. Our prayers are with you. We’re grateful that Durelle and Oscar’s family is safe and they have power.

Happy Birthday wishes to our beautiful daughter, Meredith, on Feb. 1st, who turned 26. Then birthday wishes to her husband, Bryan, today, Feb. 10th. Her baby is due in less than two weeks, and Evelyn's birthday is in a couple of weeks. Little Christian's birthday is the first part of March. So, yes, all five in their family will have birthdays within 5 weeks of each other! Good luck, Meredith, keeping up with all those celebrations over the years! We love you!

Highlights from January

Dear Family, (written Feb. 3, 2013)

With Emily on her mission, I may need to change my updates to more of a letter form. We were so excited to receive her first letter yesterday! It reminded me of the anticipation I would feel as I walked to the mailbox when our other children were on their missions. The mail lady becomes a dear friend! Emily is doing well…at least the first day…and we look forward to hearing more soon.

This past month has been a whirlwind getting her ready to leave. I kind of put her preparation on hold until I could get through Julia’s wedding. Fortunately, Emily was very proactive in processing everything that needed to be done for her passport, visa, and other important paper work.

Friday, Jan 4th, Emily and I had been called to have an appointment with Pres. Campbell of the Portland OR Temple Presidency. I was so excited to be called as a temple worker, and Emily was called to do volunteer work in the cafeteria. We were assigned every Wed. 11 a.m-5 p.m. It was a treat for us to go together and since I would often be assigned to be a patron in the 3 p.m. session, Emily joined me on her last Wed. for an Endowment Session. I love to see how tender mercies happen in the temple. Just as I finished being a proxy in Initatories, and preparing to do a session, I ran into Janice Gee (Tiffany’s Mom) and her sisters. Their brother had just passed away several days before. I felt this was a gift from my Heavenly Father to see Janice and be blessed by being in the same session together.

Then on Fri., Jan. 25th Crismon and I attended the funeral for Tiffany’s Uncle Terry Arvidson. As I walked into the chapel that morning, I felt the power of the spirit immediately. The sweetness of heaven was evident and it was hard to hold back the tears. He came back from inactivity in the later years of his life. After moving on to the property of his sister’s home, they invited him to join them for family scripture study and family prayer by sending him a text each night that said: “TFSS & P” (Time for scripture study and prayers). Reading the Book of Mormon with his sister’s family had a powerful impact on his life and changed his heart. If was a beautiful funeral, and Tiffany’s sister Katherine sang a most touching song at the end called, “Oh Lord, Let This Be Heaven.” Written by Harrison Merrill, (Tiffany’s great uncle), and the music written by Tiffany’s Dad, Preston Gee. Tiffany recently wrote an article for the Deseret News about the parable of the workers in the Lord’s Vineyard and about her uncle coming back to the church. It is well written. You can read it here.

Our lives this past month have been working on our business, attending the temple each week, attending wedding receptions (we’re invited to many!) :) We had the treat of having Ondalynn’s boys in our home while she took Emily out to lunch several days before she left. It had been three weeks since we had seen them and you would have thought it had been 3 months! We thrive on seeing grandchildren!

One Friday I drove to Beaverton for an interview for the American Mothers nomination as a candidate for OR Mother of the Year. I felt a calm spirit with me and the love from those wonderful mothers who were interviewing me enveloped me with a feeling of peace. It was a sweet experience.

I stopped by Vivi’s on the way home to take cute Clark out for ice cream on his birthday. He is such a sweet boy! Everytime I walk in the door he immediately goes and gets something of his to share with me, a piece of candy or fruit snacks that were a birthday gift. He has a giving spirit.

We were excited to hear the following news from Tiffany’s recent family letter:
“The big news for us this week was Seth’s offer by Cornell to come out for a job interview next week! Cornell is pretty much the dream job, and he threw his hat in the ring knowing it would be a long-shot, so he feels honored to have made it this far. He’s in negotiations with Minnesota right now, as they would rather him not go, so we’ll see what happens.”

Parting Pictures with Hermana Lewis

The Vance's and Caudle's came for dinner on Jan. 29th, Monday for our farewell dinner with Emily. Afterwards, Dad led us in a good FHE discussion on missionaries and taught us from the scriptures. Then, as her Stake President, he set her apart as a full-time missionary. What a choice experience it was for Crismon to have that privilege. Emily is the first and last of our children to be set apart by her Dad. I'm grateful for a good husband who honors his Priesthood to bless our children through that power on earth. I love the feeling of heaven in our home at these special occasions. I wanted to record some of the pictures of our FHE with Emily before she left and the goodbye hugs.

Julia Vance loves her Aunt Emily.

All the grandchildren love Aunt Emily!

Bryson Vance all smiles with Aunt Emily.

Cute sisters! Ondalynn & Emily

Sydney hugs her Aunt Emily.

Aunt Emily & cute Clark

Sweet sisters! Vivienne & Emily

One last good-bye to darling Daisy.

We were also celebrating Clark's 6th birthday with an Argentina Flag cake that Emily made.

Grandma Lewis with Clark.

Wed., Jan. 31st, Emily flew to SLC. There were smiles among the tears, but so grateful she has this opportunity to serve the Lord.

Emily is blessed with many gifts like her Dad.

It's especially hard for Mom's to say good-bye.

Go forth to Serve! Hurrah for Israel!