Swinging sibling fun

Swinging
Landon had been doing this for several minutes before I thought about recording it.  Arabella was laughing so hard.  I only wish I had gotten a bit more on video. Either way it is super cute!

Love

I love how much my little loves love on each other.

January Happenings

Travels
I felt like all we did was travel in January.  We were in Missouri for almost a week in the beginning. We went to the panhandle for 4 days, a week and a half after getting back from Missouri. We went to Jacksonville. So yes..we traveled...a lot!

We went to the panhandle to celebrate some birthdays.  My mom's birthday was on the 17th and Sally's was on the 21st.

A day of ice cream, park and boardwalk

Mall day- food and carousal 

Hanging around the house- suitcase fun, Legos, brushing teeth, and playing with Uncle Jon

Sally's Birthday celebration

Sweet Siblings

"I wear my sunglasses at night"

Lego Class

Last semester Landon had such a blast at his Lego class, and they weren't offering it in the spring semester I thought I would teach one myself.  We have class Friday mornings for an hour.  I read a story on the topic of the week, show the kids some ideas of Lego creations on that topic, the kids build and then we meet back in a circle to share about the creations they made.  I love it! Landon loves it! I hear every week how the moms and kids love it.  It is so much fun!  I already am planning on teaching another Lego class in the fall and maybe even this summer ;)

First Lego class of the semseter

Cooking
For some school work, I decide Landon and Arabella should make dinner from start to finish. We made from scratch homemade pizza.  We made the crust, sauce and picked our own toppings. It was yummy and we all had fun! Now that is my kind of learning!

Homemade Pizza

Dress up fun!

"Oh I know I am adorable!"

Our Beautiful Lady 

I love the hands in the pockets ;)

It's underwear kids!

In case you were wondering, that bottom middle picture of Landon is him wearing almost every single pair of undies he owns- boxers and briefs!

A few extras I just couldn't leave out :)

Lions, Tigers, and Bears... Oh My!! Jacksonville Zoo with the Bolins

Ashley asked me if I was interested in going to the Jax zoo.  I have been wanting to take the kids to the zoo for such a long time.  At almost $20 just for Landon to go, I had been putting it off.  Apparently in January on Tuesdays this year they had $2 entry fees for everyone 3 and up.  I didn't even hesitate, YES! So we packed up the van, got the Bolins and then headed to Jacksonville.  We had packed a lunch.  We stopped at a gas station about a half hour away out had bathroom breaks and ate lunch.  

It was a great Florida "winter" if you can even fairly called it a winter.  We had so much fun.  The kids were totally worn out by the end of it.  All 5 kids, walked almost the whole time.  We had a double stroller and wagon.  Landon loved the reptile house.  Arabella gets pretty scared of of a very realistic snake that Landon has, so I was pretty surprised at how interested she was in the snakes.

Because we got such a deal on entrance, we bought tickets to go on the train which was also $2 for everyone over 3.  The train was a big hit! 

Reptile house and train ride

My favorite exhibit was the Bonobo apes.  The family had a little 2 year old baby.  It was adorable!  The baby kept bugging mom, dad, and even sometimes big sister to take him down off the wood tower.  It is so amazing to see animals caring for each other, similarly to us.  I love that God has made so many amazing things in their world for us to enjoy, care for and share pleasures such as parenthood.

Florida exhibit and Bonobo apes

Landon giving the big snake some "love."

I love the looks that boys boys have in this picture.  It cracks me up!

The pengiun exhibit was cool.  All the little penguins hanging out on the rocks and then a group would all jump in one right after another race to the other side of the pool and then join the group again.  It was funny and adorable.  But the BEST part was the had this little cave that kids could climb into and one wall was glass...so you could see the the penguins swim by.  Oh my, the giggles and squeals!! The kids sat there for probably 10 minutes!

Penguins were the biggest hit for my little loves.  

Needless to say, we throughly enjoyed ourselves and so did my pocket book ;)

Holidays in Missouri

We spent about a week and half in Missouri.  We had lots of fun.  We did our normal yearly events as usual.  Biggest differences were the addition of our new sister, Sally and wedding planning for Jessica and AmberDee (Josh's cousin's fiancé).  We had a blast and are looking forward to it again next year!

Visiting Grandma

Snow day!!! Landon's first snow man :)

Missouri Christmas- Our 3rd Christmas celebration

Second snow day! We got lots of snow fun in while visiting ;)

We rang in the new year at Grandma Williams house, which is where we general stay when we go to Missouri.  She was in the nursing home the whole time unfortunately.  Sally bought Josh some birthday wine.  The girls drank the Lambrusco (1 of the only 2 red wines I really enjoy) while the boys enjoyed Apothric Red.  We all enjoyed Uncle Mark's annual trumpet playing of Auld Lang Syne.

Happy New Years! Happy Birthday to my Love!

Just as every year, we headed over to the Strattons for some family, food and football time on New Years Day. As always it was lots of fun!

Aunt Christie and Uncle Steve's for our annual seafood New Years Celebration!! 

New Years Day Fun

Brother and Sister 

Silly faces! Silly couple!

Sally, Jamiie and I decorated Cody (and in April- Jessica's) apartment.  Jessica was sick so she missed out on helping :(.  After Aunt Christie's we all went to Cody's for a little surprise party for Josh.  He was quite surprised.  Thanks Cody for letting us use your apartment!!  Thanks sister for your help getting everything ready!!

Surprise!!!! Happy Birthday Josh!!  

 AmberDee and Christopher (One of Josh's cousins) recently were engaged.  The sisters were able to join her for some wedding dress shopping. What fun!! She is going to be a beautiful bride!  Thanks AmberDee for including us in the celebrating!!

Sisters!

Sally had dyed her hair before Thanksgiving.  She brought her dyes, pink, purple, green and blue with her so Jamiie, Sally and I all dyed our hair.  It was fun!

Tie Dye hair adventure.  Thanks Sally for dying Jamiie and my hair!

Visiting with Grandma.  They had a cool castle play house at the Nursing home.  Landon is showing Grandma his tricks :)

I thought this was a "must have" picture.  ;) 

On the way to and from Missouri we got lots of indoor swimming time.  The hotel we always stay at has a indoor swimming pool.  Landon and Arabella love it.  Landon even remembers now, so when we talk about visiting Aunt Jessica he asks if we will be swimming.  He was very excited this year weeks before we left Gainesville.  

On the way home.  My travel packs for the kiddos were quite the hit, thankfully. Plus I have great little travelers!  Once back at the Williams, Arabella and Landon were quite tucked out from 2 days of traveling.  

Niceville/ Fort Walton Beach December

The second half of December was spent in Niceville/ Fort Walton Beach for the kids and me.  Josh came with us for the weekend.  Josh painted his parents downstairs with the help of Jamiie, Jon and Carter.  Then he headed back.. He has this things called work that sometimes keeps him from spending all his time with us.  The kids and I spent the week mostly with my family.  On Friday, Jamiie Jo picked the kids and I up from my parents house right after their naps.  We headed up to Niceville to get ready for Jeremiah’s birthday celebrations.  The young adults and maybe almost getting close to mid age adults, that would be Josh and I, were going swing dancing in Pensacola.  Josh would be meeting us up there.  The last time all of us had gone together was when I apparently was 2-4 day pregnant with Landon and Josh and I met Sally for the first time.   I am pretty sure it was also for Jeremiah’s birthday too.  What a lifetime ago!  We made it a little later than the plan was to the Swing dance place.  We are Williams, and I have come to the realization that our family is awesome but just always late.  I started being late as soon as I became a Williams, I mean like the VERY next day.  I promise you I was almost never late before hand.  I have people who knew me then, they can tell you!  

We all had a great time dancing the night away.  Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Williams to watching the little ones!

The next night we did some birthday pie and gift giving to the birthday boy.  Jessica joined in, via Skype.

Swing Dancing

Happy Birthday Jeremiah!!

Christmas eve was spent with my family, giving our traditional Christmas eve gift and driving around looking at Christmas lights.  The next morning we woke up opened more presents and then headed to the Williams, kids in their Christmas pjs, to help with Christmas dinner.  We opened gifts and then my parents and Adam came over for some yummy food and family socialization.  Jessica again joined us for some family love over Skpye.  I love that our family all get together so often.  Big family gatherings is the big dream I have always had since I can remember. I love that I am so blessed to have that dream come true!

Christmas at the Gormans

Christmas at the Williams

The day after christmas was basically spent saying good bye to the Gorman's and Jon, Merry, and Owen and packing everything.  We are really sad that Jon and Merry are moving.  Boy, are we going to miss them.  Jon is being stationed in Germany for 9 months.  And BIG NEWS (which we actually didn't find out until after Christmas) Merry and Jon are going to have another baby!!!  Merry is going to Connecticut the first week in January.  She will be there until June, when she will be moving back.  Thankfully for us.  We want her, that little man, and that sweet baby bump! We will get to see her and Owen for Jessica’s wedding in April though.  

The day after the day after Christmas we loaded up first thing, and started our 10 hour drive.  Our Trip to Missouri was quite different than past years.  We finally out grew traveling in one van.  With the addition of our new sister, Sally :) we were one too many.  Thankfully my awesome husband bought me a van for my birthday.  Whoohoo! So we caravanned.  It was a lot of fun and really a better way to travel.  So much more room! I quite enjoyed my entitled place of passenger next to my man in front!  On the way up, Landon, Sally and J rode with the Grandparents.  Jamiie and Arabella rode with Josh and me.  No cramped quarters for us!  We did our normal drive, which I really don’t know but I do know we stop in Paduka, TN. Our second day of travel is a couple hours short and we arrive in Missouri in time for visiting and dinner ;)

Arrived at the Hotel in Paduka, TN

ARABELLA'S FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH SNOW!!!

SNOW!!! Lots of Snow on the way up to Missouri