As For Me And My House We Will Serve the Lord.
Joshua
24:15


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Showing posts with label Fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fun. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2013

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 fiancĂ©).  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.  

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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









Sunday, February 17, 2013

Gainesville December

Half of our December was spent in Gainesville.  It was filled with lots of Christmas cheer, giggles, outdoor explorations, and enjoying friends.  The kids and I were only in Gainesville for 2 weeks and then we packed up and headed to Niceville/ Fort Walton Beach and later Missouri for a month.

Build and Grow Gingerbread House/ Day Out with Mommy
See that little smile, see that little smily girl looking up at the at the top of the monkey bars? She climbed up to the top and back down to the other side all by her self.  I am officially afraid of heights.... now! SO scary and proud of my brave little adventure who has almost no fear.  Oh, I love both those cute kids a lot!

LEAVES! PILES OF LEAVES!  LOTS OF FUN!





This was a sad day despite all those handsome and silly smiles.  Mike, Vernine, Kayla, and Zach moved to Texas.  Although we are so happy for them and their new adventures. Their absences has left a hole in our hearts.  We will miss then all dearly.  Thank you Blaszczyk family for being great friends who have stood by us and shown us over and over again God's love and compassion.



Books- this little lady loves books!



We made life-size "gingerbread men" our of some butcher paper.  The kids loved it!








MOPS Christmas Party- the cookie decorating was my kids favorite part I think.

This little man of mine loves to tell stories, and I love watching him tell them to me.  This particular story lasted almost 15 minutes and it was about robots.  

It is beginning to look at lot like Christmas....

everywhere you go.....




Merry Christmas!!! Love the Williams Family



Stockings for our little loves




Landon's Christmas



Arabella's Christmas 




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

November and our busy lives

Backlog-November 2012

Hope you enjoy reading about just a few of the things we were doing in November.  



My super awesome, super cute, little nephew turned 1!  And of course being the self titled "best" aunt and uncle we had to go to Owen's birthday.  You can see all the awesomeness of his birthday here at Owen's mommy's blog. 
I crafted a super hero mask and super hero cape for my super Owen.  I was a new craft adventure and I really had a lot of fun making it.  I think I added some black on the mask after the picture was taken.


Landon and Arabella had a blast at Owen's birthday.  They always have a great time with him.  They loved their dinosaur hats that Aunt Merry made them for party favors.  What an awesome party favor?!? A handmade hat made just for you that is super cute!
Big Boy Owen turns 1!
While visiting Josh and I got a chance to catch up with one of our old college roomies. The kids had fun after they got over being shy of each other.  Niceville's community park is awesome.


College roomies and their little loves

I joined Merry and Owen on a trip to Mobile, AL for the Marine Ball which celebrates the Marine Corps birthday.  I had the well sought after joy of watching my little nephew so mommy and daddy could go to the ball.  It was Owen's first time with a babysitter.  We had a lot of fun.  We danced, explored the hotel we stayed in for the night, sang, and played with toys.  We also attempted to sleep.  Owen did miss his mommy but she is pretty awesome mommy so I don't blame him. I had a lots of fun.  I was really nice getting to hang out with Jon and Merry.  They took great care of me and paid me well with lots of yummy food ;)
Marine family

After dropping off Merry and Owen, I had lunch with my parents.  Being grandparents, they of course had to spend some presents to "spoil" their grandchildren.  Arabella got Dora sneakers and they both got blankets.  Arabella's is an owl and Landon's is a monster.  They were both vert excited for their gifts, Bella especially!







 FINALLY!!!! After living here for 11 years I finally made it to UF Homecoming Parade.  It was a really nice day out for the parade, cool and sunny but not hot.  The kids had fun but didn't last to the very end.  It was a good time to leave because I think we basically just barely beat the rush of people leaving.  We also got to see Landon's friend Noah, since he was in the parade with his grandfather.
UF Homecoming Parade
 Our favorite  this month was dinosaurs.
We did lots of dinosaur activities.  Landon and my favorite was without a doubt the dino dig.  I found these dinosaur skeletons at an online store for relatively expensive price.  To make it a little extra exciting i froze the skeletons in ice so Landon had to pick at them to free them.  This was well over an hour worth of fun.
Dino Dig

Lego class
As shout out to Jesse Strode for showing us how to us the flat legos vertically.  If you look at the green 12x12 board the white and yellow Legos are vertical.



A few of our activities for school







Arabella was able to balance her creation. She was so proud. But wouldn't hold still for the picture.
Landon's tower and handsome man pose ;)
Reesie trying to get in on the Lego action... or stop it.

So I have to share a little photo collage of my cute little lady bug.  She is quite the helper/ housemaid.  She is always helping me with my chores, sometimes the help is more productive than others but she always has good intentions ;)




Look at that long hair with those curls!


Cleaning the van
She was such a great helper!

It was  beautiful outside so many days in November, we tried to spend lots of time out enjoying the weather.

What a boy he is, loves dig in dirt.

She loves to swing!

A spiky little caterpillar hid in Josh's flip flop.  I found it when I went to borrow Josh's shoes. Ow!



I think they were waiting on Daddy
and having fun while they were waiting.




Love those eyes!















Yes my little loves are full of giggles, silly antics, and frequent comic relief!!

Super warrior just add safety googles? YES!

Undies as hats? YES!

Legos as face accessories? YES!


BIg huge bite? YES!
Copy my brother? YES!
 





My part job that I love- teaching art at Corks and Colors!




We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. we have so many, many blessings to be thankful.  A huge blessing is spending time with our wonderful family.  We were only missing one family member, Jessica, but we did Skype with her.  We had a delicious Thanksgiving breakfast at Jon and Merry's with the whole family.  Merry made so many yummy foods! Then it was back to Mom and Dad Williams' house to make the big lunch/dinner.  Dinner as always was amazing.  We all did our normal dishes.  I think almost everyone has one or more of their own.  Sally added to all our yummy traditions her own pumpkin cheesecake.  It was a big hit, as was the whole dinner itself.  The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying family, playing games, taking walks,goofing off and just having fun while enjoying each other.

Thanksgiving 2012




Documenting a record.  Kiddo passed out at 4:30 and stayed asleep until the next morning.  Even though we all had dinner and played games in the room with him.









ONe of the best parts of the holidays? Meeting up with college or high school friends.  Such as Ashlee!





Silly Grandpa
Silly Bella kisses
I love how she looks like she is praying
Boy, do I love those little smily kids!