Our May Flowers

Here is our May.  Most spent visiting with family since Josh was gone most of the month to Asia.  He had an amazing trip and I plan to share later.  We spent a little less than a week in Gainesville after Josh left.  We finished up our last MOPS meeting of the year. I worked at Corks.  Then we headed to stay with family.  We stayed for a little over a 1.5 weeks in the panhandle splitting our time between the Gorman's and Williams' house.  

CORKS and art project fun

Fun party I taught

Twilight 

Moon, Sun and Stars

My own art project- chore magnets for the kids

Love these two!

Arabella dancing and singing to her Daddy's jams

This is how little boys entertain themselves in the car: Landon and his silly faces

Noah's Pirate Party

Landon's homemade card for Noah

MOPS Splash Day

Mommy and Her Little Loves

Box fun

Once we got to the panhandle it was a little easier for all of us dealing with Josh being gone.  Lots of fun, laughter and smiles being surrounded by friends and family.   We were home to celebrate Jamiie Jo's birthday.  Grandpa and Grandma Williams watched the kids one night so I could go out with Jamiie and celebrate.  We had fun!  I ordered Jamiie and myself special drinks so we would have a souvenir cup to remember the occasion.  :)

And if you are wondering if that is Carter with a pirate eye patch on, the anwser is yes.  I was going with all the young ones, since I was almost 10 years older than most of our birthday celebrating crew, that when you get to be old and a mom you have a bit of everything in your bag.  Well I had a pirate eye patch among other things.  ;)

Happy Birthday Jamiie!

Grandpa and Grandma Williams, the kiddos and I surprised Jamiie at work :)





 I was able to spend Mother's Day with both my mothers and the two reasons why I am a mom.  It was a lovely day!  I did miss Josh a lot this day.  It helped when I received a surprise delivery though.  A beautiful bouquet of flowers.  Even being on the other side of the world 12 hours ahead, he managed to make my day.  

Happy Mother's Day

Beautiful bouquet from Josh

We got a chance to meet up with Jermiah and Sally, who were in town for the day, Mom W. and Jamiie at the beach.  We also ended up by seeing Carter and Kaili there.  We had lots of fun!

Beach Day

Lots and lots of pool time at Grandpa and Grandma's Gormans plus smiles, laughs, story time, and silly antics.  

Grandpa and Grandma Gorman's House

Jamiie took Landon, Arabella and I out on her kayak.  We just went for about an hour because it was the kids first time out and we were sure how they would do.  I think Landon would have been happy out there all day.  Bella enjoyed it but was very ready when we were headed back.  They both did great.  No flipped boats!  We stopped on a little beach cove to eat a snack and check out some gulf animal life.  

Kayaking with Aunt Jamiie

Aunt Jamiie came back to Gainesville after our visit to the panhandle.  She stayed for a day or two less than a week.  It was so nice to have her around to help out and play with the kids.  The first day she was here I drove Sally and Jeremiah to the Orlando airport for their flight to Greece.  They finally got to go on their honeymoon! Jamiie, the little ones and I played outside a lot.  We were all pretty sad when she left.  Landon asked me to take the toys and books that him and Aunt Jamiie played with away because every time he saw them he said it made him too sad.  It was so sweet and so sad.

Morningside Nature Center

Fun with Bendaroos- Gary from Sponge Bob

Arabella creation- I think it was some animal  

Colorful mini pot pies

We did a Corks pottery morning while Jamiie visited.  Landon painted a crab, Jamiie painted measuring spoons and Bella and I did a purple duck(I guess I forgot to take a picture of her duck, but you can check it out in our bathroom any time ;)

Landon's crab- 100% by himself

Jamiie's measuring spoons

Love this picture of my little loves- watching the clouds

Fun outside Corks


Fun with the sprinkler

American Flag by the Williams children

Memorial Day- we missed Daddy a lot this day

We had a week and half after Jamiie left before Josh came home.  It was a big rough but well worth all the amazing things that happened in Asia.  The last day or two of May Josh was home and was mostly spent keeping the kids quiet so Josh could sleep  before needed to go back to work.  The day Josh did go back to work, he took a lunch break and came with us to the dentist.  It was little ones first time and they were champions!!

April

Blueberries!

We were invited to go blueberry picking with our friends, the Bolins.  So we loaded up all 5 kids in our van and headed to Ashley's grandmother's house in Tampa.  It was fun and oh so yummy!!!

Blueberry Picking!

 When we got back from blueberry picking, it was late so our guy joined us and we had dinner at the Bolins.  While Bella was waiting for dinner I found her like this...

And our conversation went like this..

Me: What are you doing Bella?

Bella: Watching Duck.

Me: Why?

Bella: Because... shhh!

She is so funny!

Christian Campus House
Josh was asked to speak at University of Florida's Christian  Campus House.  The kids and I came along.  Arabella and Landon were really excited to be able to go.  We packed up some quiet things to do while we were there in their super cool backpacks from Aunt Sally.  They were so good! Yay!!  We had several people come over and tell them how impressed they were with how they behaved.  Landon was pretty happy with all the compliments he received.  Josh did a great job speaking too :)

Firehouse Day
We went with our MOPS group to a firehouse tour.  The kids were excited.  It was kind of a bummer, because about 10 minutes after we got there, the firemen were called out to help someone.  Thankfully the kids didn't mind.  They thought it was cool.  Rosemary, brought a Curious George book about Firehouses. She read that in hopes the fire truck would return.  No such luck.  So we  decided to head over to the near by play ground.  We hadn't ever gone to the playground.  It was a great day even thought it didn't go as planned.

Firehouse Tour

Playground and Crooked Houses

 Corks and Colors
I am changing our kitchen decor.  So I thought I would add personalized salt and pepper shakers and a butter dish.  I didn't do many painting classes in April, just lots of pottery.  These ladies were here for a bachelorette party and were delightful to teach!

Pottery and painting

Stop Cancer Gala with Corks and Colors

A bit of everyday

Silly boy

Silly Girl

Arabella's first french braid

Silly Family!

A boy and his dog

Landon napping is a rare sight

Cuties and their backsides.  

March

March

March was a strange month for weather.  It was hot and it was cold.  I even woke up one morning to a thick layer of frost on my windshield.  I had to scrap it off before I could drive.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday
We started off the month by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Growing up I never really cared for his books but now I love them and so does the rest of my family.  The week leading up to his birthday, we read lots of Dr. Seuss books, we watched the Lorax (on Netflix)and Horton Hears a Who (which was one of the shared gifts from us to the kids).  On his birthday, we had Carter over for a Dr. Seuss dinner of green eggs and ham (an mashed potatoes).  The kids loved it. I think both, Josh and Carter, thought I was a bit strange. But they both said they enjoyed it by the end of the night.  We finished up by reading all the our Dr. Seuss books (5) plus the 2 we borrowed from the library.

Lego Class
Our Lego class is still going strong.  Landon looks forward to it every week, as well as many of the other kids.  I love teaching it, every week :)

Lego Class

 Everyday life

Fun around the house

 Red Robin
Gainesville now has a Red Robin.  I had never been to one but people around here seemed pretty excited.  Josh and I didn't really have any opinion about it one way or another... Until our friend Michelle told me that they were allowing you to sign up for a free meal.  So... I signed up our family.  Josh met us at the mall for lunch.  We had a lovely, yummy meal that was a little over $55 for free!!  How awesome is that?  The food was really good too!  So now I think I get why everyone was excited about Red Robin.  They have great service and awesome food! Plus they gave us some free food and I am always up for that!

Red Robin Lunch

St Patrick's Day
 I love St Patrick's Day.  I always have.  I am Irish. I had an Irish maiden name.  I always get pretty into St Patrick's Day, well I wear green and since Josh and I have been married we almost always have corned beef and cabbage at least once in March.  I LOVE corned beef and cabbage.  Which is kind of funny because I remember it being a big family tradition things growing up and I hated it!  Oh well, I guess that is why it is always good to keep trying things, because you never know when you will start liking them.

St Patrick's Day fun and crafts

Painting
We have been working on the play area in the back yard.  Arabella and I painted the inside of the playhouse/fort.  We used left over paint that we have collected.  So one great part was the project was free :)
There is now a green, red, blue, and purple wall.  While I was painting, a little bird came to keep me company and sing me a song.  It was such a treat!

More Corks & Colors painting fun :)

Family Fun Day
We had to do some work in Niceville.  It was only going to take an hour or so but we could stay.  So instead of dreading a 8 hour drive to and from Niceville, Josh thought we should just make a family fun day out of it.  We went to the Florida Caverns.  Unfortunately, it was spring break so the tickets for the caverns (which you can not buy in advanced) were sold out by the time we got there.  We still had a lot of fun.  We walked on the nature trails and found caves to explore ourselves.  We will be planning another trip there so we can go in the caverns but for a family fun day it was a perfect outing!

Florida Caverns

Easter
The Saturday before Easter/Resurrection Sunday, we joined many other friends at Mrs Jean's house for a pot luck lunch, games and egg hunt.  She host this every year and it is always a blast.  This year was no different.

Lunch, Dancing with Daddy, and Games at Mrs Jean's

Eggs!!!

Enjoying wide open spaces and the goats.  Especially the mommy with her baby.

Anyone interested in a "Apple" that tastes a lot like a potato?!?

 Sally and Jeremiah came to visit for Easter weekend.  We were glad to have them visit although it was much too short of a visit.  Thank Sally for taking our pictures! :)

Resurection Sunday family pictures :)