Williams family

Friday, January 16, 2009

Christmas Part two: Traveling to Missouri (Landon’s first big trip!)

The day after Christmas we loaded up and headed out to Missouri. It is about a 16 hour drive and we stop in Paducah, KY on the way up and back. Landon did so well. I was very impressed with him. Luckily for us he didn’t sleep the whole time, he did take longer naps that normal but it didn’t mess up his night time sleeping schedule.

Landon got to see snow for the first time. It started snowing about 2 hours after we arrived. Unfortunately, by 2pm the next day almost all of it had melted and there was no snow the rest of the trip.

Well before Landon and I went out and enjoyed the snow (no one else was nearly as excited about the snow as I was). Landon met his Great Grandma and great uncle Mark. After the meet and greet me and my boy got to enjoy the snow falling. So now Landon has seen snow for the first time!

Most of the trip was spent visiting, playing board and video games. Landon met lots of family members- Great Grandma Williams, Great Grandma Monks, Great Grandpa Monks, Great Uncles Kim, Mark, Charles, Steve and Great Aunts Christy and Trish, 2nd cousins Carley and her husband (who are excepting their first little one in May), Caleb, Christopher and Andy. Some of the girls, Aunt Christy, Mom, Jamiie Jo and I, had a girl’s day out. We went shopping and out to lunch. Landon also got to go the girls, but I don’t think he minded too much. He did get some cool new clothes out of the deal. Considering that Landon was in a car seat a good portion of the whole vacation he did really well. I was proud of him. In April, we are flying up to Massachusetts to visit my family and I hope there are many more trips to visit family in his future.

Meeting Great Grandma Williams

Meeting Great Uncle Mark

First snow

Boy am I happy to be out of that car seat!

Hanging out with the family

Meeting Great Uncle Kim

Meeting Great Uncle Charles, Aunt Trish and cousin Andy

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!

New Years Day/Josh's Birthday at Aunt Christy's house

Meeting Great Grandpa and Grandma Monks

Girl's (and Landon's) Day out

Car rides and breaks

Friday, January 9, 2009

Christmas Part One: Niceville and Fort Walton

We got to enjoy a nice long Christmas vacations this year. First we went to Niceville/Fort Walton Beach to spend time with our parents. Most of the time Landon and I spent with my parents. We went shopping, out to lunch, played games with my parents. Unfortunately we didn’t get much time to spend with my brother because he had to work on the day before Christmas. Landon loves playing with his grandparents. They read together, play silly games, play in the mirror and talk.
Josh spent a good portion of the time before Christmas clean his parents loft upstairs. It had become the dumping place for everything that didn’t fit anywhere else. It looks amazing. It was kinda a birthday present to Jeremiah, Josh’s youngest brother, because now it is a gaming room. It worked out great since we had a super nice flat screen plasma TV that someone gave us that for some reason will not pick up cable but you can play games. It really looks great.
Josh, his siblings and I also did a makeover on Josh’s parents’ bedroom. Jessica was the mastermind. Jessica, Jeremiah, Jon and Jamiie Jo cleaned their whole bedroom and throw out and recycled anything that was not used anymore. Jessica and I pick out new bedding, curtains, rugs, and lot of decorations including an awesome mirror. It really looks great. It was our Christmas present to his parents.
Christmas eve we attended Niceville Christmas Eve service. When my brother arrived into town we did the Secret Santa gift exchange. All of Josh’s siblings and my brother and I pick names at Thanksgiving. It is always so much fun to try to guess who has who and see who was right. After the gift swap we opened all the other Christmas presents. Landon attempted to open presents but was not very successful. I can’t wait until nest year and he is excited. He may not have been excited about the wrapped presents but he really has been enjoying all the books. Part of the Williams’ family Christmas tradition is to watch Christmas movies so after presents we watched Miracle on 34th Street (which is one of my favorites). Earlier in the week we also watched Elf which is one of Josh’s favorite.
Christmas day we had the big Christmas morning Williams’ family breakfast feast. Yummy! Bacon, eggs, biscuits, and lots more. After finishing up breakfast Josh, Landon and I went over to my parents’ house for more Christmas celebrating. We opened presents, Grandma read Landon Christmas stories, eat a yummy Christmas turkey dinner, we played Taboo (a family favorite), and relaxed.
Definitely a Christmas to remember!

The pictures are in reverse order of how they happened.

Going for a walk (Landon had gotten his pants dirt so we use my new Christmas socks to keep him warm.