Christmas Party
This Christmas season has been a great one! It started out with D.J. being Santa at the church Christmas party. The first photo says it all...

We begged Maren to keep the secret after she took one look at Santa and said, "Hey, that's my dad." The funniest thing was at the end of the party, when she said, in a loud, dramatic voice, "Its just too bad my dad missed seeing Santa." (Good effort with the acting, Maren!)

Maren & Santa ..................... Christopher & Santa

Making Christmas Cookies with Grandma Annie
Its tradition for the kids to make Christmas sugar cookies with Grandma Annie every year. They have so much fun and she is very patient with them. Katelin decorated all of them by herself though, as Maren and Christopher had lost interest by the time all of the cookies were finally baked and cooled. Kate did a great job, they were so cute!






Christmas Day
D.J. and I were awake at 6:00 am waiting for the kids to wake up-- I think we might have been even more excited than they were to get Christmas Day rolling! Finally at 8:00 am we woke the last child up and headed to the tree.


Casador, the dog, and Maren both give a cheesy grin.



I think we are in BIG trouble-- too many electronic games for the kids. I may have lost them for the next 7-10 years... and no, this was NOT a posed picture.


Christmas Afternoon
D.J.'s sister, Lisa, and her children came over for some munchies and relaxin'. We had fun just hanging out with them for the rest of the night. We have a great time with Lisa and her family. Our kids LOVE being with their older cousins.


Joselyn, Malissa, Deb & Mallory

Mallory gives a great tummy-rub!!



Right before bed...
Yeah, we ARE in trouble. They will forever be "plugged in." (Notice Maren crashed on the Love Sac. She was lulled to sleep by the tummy-rubbin'.)

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas Day!!

Some things to be thankful for...

I really love the Thanksgiving Day holiday. First, I love all of the food. If I'm ever on "Death Row" I will request a Thanksgiving feast for my "last meal." I love the stuffing, sweet potatoes, turkey, ham, pecan pie, homemade rolls, etc...

This year was great because I got to share my kitchen with my mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law and my daughter. It was fun to share the cooking duties as we talked and laughed. I was reminded of doing the same thing with my mother and grandmother. I also got to use some serving dishes of my grandmother's, who passed away last month. She always set a beautiful table, and thanks to her passing on her dishes to me, I will be able to try and do the same. It was fun to see Kate learn some things,too, like how to make fluffy mashed potatoes-- although she also learned how sharp a potato peeler can be! Sorry, Kate, that fingertip should grow back...

This year we had eighteen people to our house for dinner. It was fun to get together with all of these people we love and don't get to see as often as we would like. We had lots of laughs and ate until we could only lay around and moan. It was fantastic!

Some things I am definitely thankful for...

The Pumpkin Patch
Its finally Fall! We always head down to the local pumpkin patch to kick it off.
The kids always have a blast running through the corn and hay mazes
and picking out pumpkins.

Maren was insistent that she was big enough this year to pull the cart. We didn't get very far, but she did it all by herself.

A Trip to Cali

We got a wild hair and headed to California over the school break. We went to San Diego to do the beach and Sea World thing. The kids had a ball. My kids had never been to the beach before. DJ and I have always left them at home and enjoyed tropical location sans kids. So I guess it was time for them to experience it.

Sea World

Christopher is a little scientist. He was much more intrigued with the exhibits than the rides or shows. He loved the Wild Arctic exhibit and could have stayed there all day. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of him there.

Katelin was picked to meet Shamu in the Killer Whale show and she was stoked! Her main goal of the trip was to swim with dolphins, but this had to do instead.

This was cool to have her on the jumbo screen

and the trainer and Shamu rocketing out of the water.

Sand and Surf

This was a highlight for all of us. We stayed until well after dark each day. The locals looked at us like we were crazy, swimming in the cold water with no wet suits. The kids did not care how cold the water was. They were in heaven! It was cool.

Jump in, sit down & hush up cuz here we go...

Ok, it has been a really long time since I've done this. I'm making up for lost time, so you might want to grab something to munch on as you read this novel... or actually its a picture book.

First, there was Sushi and it was good... D.J. is our resident sushi maker. He spends a lot of time on making it and it is AWESOME. My great friend Allison came to visit from Colorado (she brought her daughter Hailey and Hailey's friend, Michaela with her) and they requested a night of D.J.'s rockin' sushi.

So he pulled out all of the stops, making rolls, sashimi, seaweed salad, etc... Everyone ate until we hurt. It was great!!

Allison is one of the coolest people I have ever met (and I've known her since 7th grade). She is very caring and giving but also one of the funnest people to be with. I have spent many days laughing so hard with her I thought I'd pee my pants for sure. I love her to death and I am so glad that we've remained friends for all of these years!

Second was a final trip to Causey Reservoir...a bittersweet parting until next Spring when the ice melts.

We took Kate's friend, Kylee, with us, who is as cute as pie! We camped and kayaked and jumped from the rocks into the warm water. I love some of the pictures I happened to snap of these people that I love so much.

my "Jerry" just relaxing by the river

Kate & Kylee make the leap

Kate making reed jewelry like I made as a kid when my family camped.

What more can I say...

Chris went fishing one night just with Dad while the girls stayed in camp.

Third, was a Sunday afternoon when I was quick enough to get a picture of my cute kids before they ripped off their Sunday clothes for something more comfy. Chris is such a great big brother to Maren. I love how he puts his arm around her. I wasn't quick enough to get Kate-- she'd already made it inside.

Fourth, Fall soccer has started and I finally talked my kids into trying it. They both love it! It helps that their teams are made up entirely of our neighborhood kids. Its so fun to have so many great kids for our kids to be friends with. One funny thing is the size of the uniforms, I'm not sure that someone in charge got the message this was a YOUTH team. It looks a bit like they're from Scotland, with their long socks and kilts... hee hee.

Chris was bit excited about scoring a goal! Rock on, Chris!!

Kate's team is the Red Dynamites
Kate & Kylee are best buds

Kate loves to play forward but will play anywhere

Fifth, SCHOOL STARTED! I can't believe the summer is officially over. I am not quite sure if I am sad or not. We had a fantastic summer and got to do a lot of great things, see great places and spend it with so many of the people we love.

I always take pictures of the kids on the morning of the first day of school and this year ALL 3 kids were going. Maren is in preschool this year!

I have some mixed emotions about that. She loves going to preschool and has no reservations about walking through the door at school and leaving Mom behind. Hmm, a few tears or a frown would've been nice. She's such a big girl.

Kate is in 5th grade and loves her new teacher. She has become such a good student and loves to read. She's good at math, too. This is huge for her, she has come so far and we are really proud of her.

Christopher is in 2nd grade and has decided to jump into the Spanish Immersion program. The other kids in it have been in it since kindergarten, but he was on the waiting list and got in and decided to give it a try this year. I love that about Chris, he didn't stress out at all about it. He was just like, "Yeah, let's try it." He has NO idea what his teacher is saying to him (All in Spanish) but he just goes, "Oh well."

Oh, one more thing. We took in a rodeo at the Davis County Fair. I have warned you all before that I am a closet cowgirl. I have this weakness for cowboys. When I first met D.J. he was wearing Wranglers and lace-up Roper boots. Ohhhhh, give me a minute...

OK, anyway, so we got all dressed up and went to the rodeo. Here are the Williams as you may never have seen them before.

As I've told D.J., I don't want no skinny, pencil-neck boy. I want one of those big, beefy cowboys who can wrestle me a steer if I get hungry!! And I got me one (the cowboy, not the steer.)

This is one of my favorite parts when they race the flag around the arena. It always gives me goose-bumps.

This has been a busy and exciting month. D.J. and I also celebrated our wedding anniversary on August 20th. We've had some really great times the two of us and these kids just keep us laughing and happy, too! Life is pretty good!