Parker's 8th Birthday

My oldest turned 8 on the 1st!! Holy cow! I am getting old! Matt and I are still in shock that we have an 8 year old, we can't even remember what life was like when it was just the two of us before we had kids. We sure love Parker and all the wild and crazy excitement he adds to our family. He is a great kid and we are so proud of him. For his birthday I sent boxed rice crispy treats to school, I was so overwhelmed with his birthday, Halloween, his baptism, and Pieper's blessing that I didn't want to have to worry about getting to his school to drop off treats. And with Halloween being the day before the kids were all probably still on a sugar high anyway. I felt a little guilty for not making him something homemade that he chose, but only for a little while. After he got home from school and Matt got home from working, we met my parents, Grandpa and Grandma Yancey, for Pizza at Mr. Pizza. It was delicious! I love their cheese breadsticks, I could eat them for dinner all by themselves! Parker wanted pizza and at first he chose Little Ceasers, but I convinced him that Mr. Pizza was better and that we needed to go there. It was great and I didn't have to cook!! We came back to the house for cake and gifts. Parker wanted an Army (camouflage) cake this year. It turned out great and he loved it. When he came home from school and saw it, he was so excited and immediately told me how much he loved it. I was glad I could at least do that for him to make his day special. He got a cub scout shirt, neckerchief, and scout book from Matt and I, along with a baptism book and towel. Grandma Yancey made him a quilt for his bed and a scrapbook about his baptism. Grandpa Yancey got him a remote control truck. He was quite excited for a new remote control vehicle. (Grandpa & Grandma Christiansen were out of town on Parker's birthday weekend but they got him a new church outfit with a white shirt, tie, and tie tack and he looked so handsome in his new clothes!). After gifts we had cake and then called it a night. We had a big day to get ready for the next day!

Halloween 2013

Halloween week was a busy one at our house. Lots of school parties and fun. Parker wanted to be a vampire this year. Paige was a witch, Paxten was Superman, and Pieper just wore a cute Halloween onesie. She was too little to fit into a costume this year. They all looked so great in their costumes and loved dressing up for school.

Fair Time

Fair time again this year. We were all able to go together this year despite me being huge and pregnant! First stop of course was the food booths! I had the trout and Matt had an outlaw burger (a bacon cheeseburger on a donut bun) the kids wouldn't eat anything. After lunch we went right to the rides and let the kids get that out of their system. Each ride was at least 3 tickets and the tickets were a dollar a piece! One ride where Parker, Paige, Paxten, and Zander went on cost $12 and it lasted litterally 2 mintues. Such a rip off!! Next year we decided that we need to save to buy the kids wrist bands that were $30, then they could at least ride 10 rides and make it worth it. They for sure would have ridden 10 rides each if we had had enough tickets and time for them to do so! After the rides we continued walking around the circle and Parker and Paige convinced Grandma Yancey into letting them get into these big balls that were in a pool of water. They Loved it and it lasted longer than any ride they rode. After they got out Paige exclaimed that was "the best ride ever" she had a great time and that made both their days! We looked at a few animals, got one last treat and went home. We were there about 3 hours and that seemed to be enough for me. I would have liked to see more, eat more if I hadn't been so pregnant. Walking around sure made me sore!

Heise Fun

This year for our annual Williams family reunion Grant and Zina were in charge and they are going to be hard to beat. We all gatheres at Heise Hot Springs, I think this is our favorite place to have reunions! We met on the 4th of July and as everyone arrived we put up tents and got things settled as we visited and caught up with aunts, uncles, and cousins. SO MUCH FUN!! Grant and Zina ordered pizza from the club house for dinner and then that evening we watched the fireworks at the driving range. All these years of going to Heise, I don't think we have ever actually been there on the 4th and been able to watch fireworks there. So it was fun to be together to celebrate the day of our independance and for the kids to be with their cousins and have so much fun together. The next day, Zina arranged for a company to bring in a huge boucy house for the kids to play on. We had it in our camp site for the entire day and the kids LOVED it. Some adults got in on the fun as well. It was played on in the morning before swimming and later in the afternoon when it started to cool off. The plastic got very hot during the middle of the day, which made it impossible to play in. Our kids, especially Parker went through the obstacle course dozens of times, I think he was in heaven being able to bounce and climb around! All the kids were sad when it was time for the bouncy house to leave, but I am sure it will be something they will remember for a long time. We have such a wonderful family and we enjoy getting together each year, in fact I know that my family and I look forward to it each year and cant wait to spend time with some of our favorite people. I am so grateful for my grand parents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents for starting the tradition of reunions and for keeping that wonderful tradtion so that we have these great memories each and every year!

Keller Egg Hunt

Easter Sunday was a day full of great fun. The Easter Bunny visited and then we got to go to Grandpa and Grandma C's house and have another egg hunt with the entire Keller family. They hide so many eggs, that usually the kids baskets are overflowing with eggs. This year was no exception, the kids got our year supply of candy and had a great time racing to find eggs.

Easter Sunday Dressed

I try to take a picture every year on Easter Sunday. My kids all looked so cute on this Sunday morning and I couldn't help but take a few pictures. Paige of course posed for the camera! I love these three so much!!

Easter Morning

The kids were once again spoiled by the Easter Bunny. They each got an assortment of candy and prizes in their baskets and were eager to play with them and eat the treats.

Easter Party at Aunt Marilyn's

It has become a tradition that our family looks forward to every year, Easter party at Aunt Marilyn's. The kids were all excited to go and play with cousins and go on an Easter egg hunt. It was beautiful weather that day and we all enjoyed being outside in the sunshine. The kids were egg hunting pros and all filled their baskets with goodies and they each got a prize out of Marilyn's prize basket. I'd say the day with a success and so much fun. I have the greatest family and I an so lucky to have so much fun when we get together!

Grandpa's 80th Birthday Party

This year was a special one in our family, our wonderful Grandpa turned 80 years old. His kids planned a party in celebration of him and his wonderful life and the poseterity that he has raised. It was so much fun to get together and to see family that I haven't seen for a long time. Grandpa has 10 kids and 9 of them were able to make it. Roseanne (Gus), Grant (Gwen), Serena (Paul), Marilyn (Val), Zina (Kyle), Sarah (Tim), Kyle (Katie), Krystel (Kevin), and Rebecca (Travis). Most of the grandkids were there as well. We were only missing Garrett (Arial), Chad (Ashlee), Carrie (Erick), Courtney (Paul), Lauren (Rhett), Lyndsay (Brenden), Mandy, Jacob, & Cody. We missed Loretta, who is living in Michigan and couldn't get away with it being the Holiday weekend. There were 91 people that attended and about 75 were from grandpa's line, the others were Sharon's kids. It was so fun to let the kids play and the adults visited and caught up with each other. I have great memories with all of my cousins and I feel like we have had great opportunities growing up to be able to spend time with our cousins and to get to know them and for them to become some of my greatest friends as well. I am glad that our family is so close and that we love to get together and spend time together. I seriously could spend weeks with all of these people and never tire of them. I love them all and I am so grateful to be a part of this truly wonderful family. I am also very grateful to call Richard Williams my grandpa!

Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving this year my Parents had dinner at their house with just my sister and I, and our families, attending. So it was a smaller bunch, but we had a fun time together. My mom made the turkey, potatoes, gravy, and rolls. Charyn made a relish tray with the very important pimento stuffed celery, and pumpkin pies. I made the stuffing and the sweet potatoe casserole. All of the food was so delicious and we were all so full afterwards. It made it very easy to all contribute to the meal and not at all stressful. We played a few games together and then Matt and I went to visit his mom who is staying with his brother Jared right now because of a knee surgery. While we were there visiting Josh and Lydia came to visit and Brad and his boys. So we were able to see 3 of his brothers in one visit. We had good intentions of making it out to Moreland to see the Keller clan, but time got away from us and we didn't make it out there. It is getting hard to split the day into thirds and I am sure we are going to have to start rotating holidays soon, but how do you choose. We have such wonderful families, that we are lucky to get to spend time with all of them.

Family Photos

I like to take a few family snapshots at Thanksgiving time each year. These are the ones that I was able to get in the short amount of time the kids would cooperate. Notice there isn't an individual of Paxten, because he would not stand by himself to let me take a picture. He is at that age, and I didn't want to fight him for a bad picture of him crying. It was freezing cold, so Parker and Paige didn't last long outside either. Nevertheless, we got a few good ones! Matt 30, Erika 30, Parker 7, Paige 4.5, Paxten 20 months.

Pumpkin Carving

We have to keep to our tradition of carving pumpkins. Our next door neighbors, the Cooks gave the kids each a pumpkin this year and so we didn't even have to go our and buy some. Matt and I decided that we would end up carving them anyways, so we didn't get one for ourselves this year. We decided that it would be a fun family home evening on Monday, the 22nd. The kids invited Claire, Avery, and Brittany over to join us and we had a good time cleaning out the pumpkins. The kids ended up playing and the adults did the carving, but it was still a fun tradition to keep. Parker wanted the grim reaper, Paige chose a mummy, Paxten got a traditional jack-o-lantern, and Claire chose a bat. They all turned out great and look awesome all lit up in the dark. Now we just have to keep the squirrels aways for a few days so we can enjoy them!

Fair Time

We love it when the fair comes around. And the kids are getting old enough to remember the years past, so there is no escaping it now! We went to the parade on Saturday morning with those that were here for the reunion. It was just like every other year as far as parades go, but it has become tradition. Then we went over to the fair for lunch and rides. The kids had pizza, Matt and I had Mammoth burgers, and they were so good. Parker was in kind of a crabby mood and all he wanted to do was "have a fun day" meaning he wanted to ride the rides, and get a toy and do only what he wanted to do. I kept telling him if he would change his attitude and decide that he was going to have fun no matter what, then he would. Well after we finally made it over to the rides, he seemed to have more of a fun time. My sunburn from the previous day, really made my day miserable, but I tried not to let it affect the fun the kids had. They loved the rides and could have gone on them all day if we had let them. Thank you Grandma Yancey for the ride tickets. After the rides, we let the kids each pick a grab bag to take home and open. We were only there for a few hours, but that was enough pushing 2 kids in a stroller and another to try and keep track of on the side. Matt and I may go back again by ourselves tomorrow and call it "date night." After we left the fair, about 1/2 hour later, it began to pour rain and it rained hard for about 2 hours. Glad we left when we did!!!

July 2nd??

Matt drew the short straw and had to work a double on the 4th of July this year. Bummer! So we decided that we would do our little 4th of July celebration on the 2nd, when Matt was home. Parker was so excited to do fireworks this year, in fact I thought he was a little too excited about fire and the fireworks! I decided to wait and buy fireworks right before we were going to do them, so they wouldn't be a temptation to Parker, he could hardly stand waiting the few hours between when I bought them and when we were going to light them. I ended up spending about $50 and got a pretty good variety of fireworks for our little family. The kids loved the snaps and sparklers. Even Paxten was able to get the snaps to pop and he did do a few sparklers with the help of me and Matt. Parker's favorite are the little bombs that snap, crackle, and pop. I love the spinning flowers and the last one that we watched that was called a fish bowl. Anyways we waited as long as Parker would let us, about 9:00 before we started lighting them. It was still light outside. The kids had a great time and loved every second of watching the fireworks. They sure don't last as long as you think they will and $50 didn't seem to go that far once we were done, but I refuse to spend any more than that!!

Easter Morning

Easter Morning!! The kids woke up to see that the Easter bunny found them. They got some outside toys including a frisbee, chalk, and bubbles. Parker also got a Finn McMissile from Cars2 and Paige got sunglasses and a small toy baby. Paxten got some new sandals and a bucket and shovel. Along with the new toys they got Peeps (can't have Easter without Peeps!!), fruit roll ups, cadbury eggs, and some other chocolates. The excitement of being a kid!!

 

Easter Get Together

For about the last 4-5 years Marilyn has started a little tradition of hosting a get together right before Easter. We usually have a nice lunch, an egg hunt for the kids, and the last few years she has done a race for the kids and a 5k walk/run for the adults. Parker and Paige both did the kids run and they did awesome. Every kids got a medal! The kids were very excited about that part. Paige said, "I'm so excited, I never had a medal before!!!" she was thrilled to wear it the rest of the day. The kids also got to participate in their 3rd egg hunt of the season. This time if they found an egg with a number on it or an egg with the word "prize" inside they got an extra prize. Parker picked a yard game that you throw a dart into a circle. Paige picked a little girls play cell phone and she was soooooo excited about it!! Paxten got a little baby toy. They were all thrilled about their new toys and candy. We all had a fun time enjoying the weather and spending time with family that we don't get to see very often. We can't wait until the reunion at Heise this year, when we get to spend the whole weekend together!!
 

Dying Eggs

We had out friends the Mauger's over to dye eggs with us before Easter. My kids were so excited to get started coloring eggs, that I let them do 1 before their friends got there. Well they got carried away and before I knew it my kids had dyed 18 eggs before their friends had arrived. Good thing Valeigha brought another 36 eggs for the kids to dye. And yes, they colored them all. We are going to be eating egg salad, deviled, egg, and potato salad for the next 2 weeks!! They had a fun time and some of the eggs turned out reall fun. My kids look forward to this tradition each year. Afterward we had another egg hunt, so #2 for the season. It was very windy and cold out this particular day, so the kids found the eggs and then came inside where it was warm to play. We sure love having good friends to do fun things with. Thank you Mauger's for coming over and having fun with us!!!
 

Birthday Dinner

 

When Paxten turned 1, and since we weren't having his birthday party until Saturday, Matt and I decided to take the kids to dinner to celebrate. Of course Paxten didn't really understand why, but Parker and Paige sure loved the idea. We took them to McDonald's, every kids favorite, and ours are no exception. Paxten enjoyed some french fries and a bit or two of a chicken nugget. He wasn't really in a very good mood and seemed ready for a nap, but oh well. Any chance Parker and Paige have to eat at McDonalds, they will take it. They usually eat pretty good and I am usually suprised at how quickly their food is eaten. I am sure as Paxten gets bigger, he too will eat all his chicken nuggets!