Basketball and bubbles

Ok, so not much new happening but life is still fun here. Kate is nearing the end of her basketball season, which will be a bummer for her. She really enjoys playing on a team. She can still get a bit silly with the other girls at practice, but come game time--its all business, baby! Their team has done really well playing together this year and even won all of their games, except two.
As a mom its so incredibly fun watching her play. I really had no idea how much I'd love it. I have a hard time staying in my seat and not screaming at the top of my lungs. I would be embarrassed about this if I was the only parent doing it but I have a lot of company. Basketball may be near an end but baseball starts for Christopher in 3 weeks. So I'm keeping the pom-poms handy.

Maren and I are enjoying our "just us" time while Dad's at work and the other kids are at school. We blow a lot of bubbles and eat just a little bit of candy. (Much more than the other two kids ever got--Mom's parenting is getting much more relaxed.) We got the chance to hang out with our friend, Baby Jack, today. He is six-months old and the cutest thing! It was fun to see Maren take care of him. She hovered over him the whole time, playing peek-a-boo and covering his lap with toys. Its odd to think that she will never get the chance to be an older sister. She is used to being "mothered" by Chris & Kate that it was fun for her to be the "older" kid. She was so sweet and gentle with him. Cute!
Another cute thing is Maren on the potty. I only have limited time to get these kind of pictures. I will need them for her dating years and photo montage at her wedding. This picture was of Maren this last Sunday, after she stripped down and jumped up on the potty. I was only present after she yelled, "Mom, come look at all of this poop!" She was asking to be photographed!
I love it!

Williams Winter Fun

Ok so we had to find a good way to enjoy the piles of snow we've received this winter so we rented a 4-wheeler with snow cat tracks on it. That was fun!! We took turns on it and tried not to break all the H.O.A. rules around here. Then D.J. took it on an elk hunt with my brother (D.J.'s best friend), Chris. They broke it in really well together.

PARENTAL ADVISORY:

some gruesome photos ahead...

Here is a photo of Chris- topher getting to help with his first

"skinning" of an elk. (His knife was fairly dull...) He had even done his hair into a "faux-hawk" for the occasion. He had a ball but my garage will never be the same. It looked like a movie set for C.S.I.

I thought I'd include some pix of D.J. doing some of the things he does best. D.J. works hard so we try and let him play hard, too. He has a 5 year old chocolate Lab named Casador (meaning "hunter" in Spanish) and each year this dog averages around 100 retrieves of ducks, geese, etc. Not all of those being D.J.'s shots. He hunts with a lot of different guys.

I have really enjoyed all of the comments from everyone! Come again, soon!

So here we go...

Ok so this will be our maiden voyage in blogging. I have now been sent too many friends' blogs to not be interested in joining in! This should be a fun way to keep in touch with our friends and family.

We are a busy family of five with Kate being our oldest child at 10 years old. She is our basketball star, songwriter and horse lover. She is the tallest girl in the entire 4th grade. We keep telling her that "big is beautiful!" She has a fantastic sense of humor and keeps us laughing. Kate has already entered the "tween" stage and loves doing her hair and shopping for clothes. She is fun to hang out with.




Chris- topher (6 years old) is our resident "nerd",
whose Christmas wish list included a microscope and metal detector. He is an avid bug collector with over 59 bugs attached to his foam board. He is a real good sport, hanging out in the duck blind with his dad, even in blizzard conditions. He rarely complains about anything and is very mellow. He is a self-confessed "rocker", enjoying only music from the 80's hair-bands. His dad is quite amused by this. His favorite things are his 2 lizards, Speedy and Lightning.


Maren is a ball of fire and at 3 years old has already aquired some definate opinions. She is not afraid to let them be heard. She and Mom love hanging out together during the day. Even though Maren is spunky, she is so much fun to be with. She is the "Princess of Lipgloss", always having access to a tube or two. Maren is madly in love with her Daddy and loves to snuggle him. They are often found napping together on the Love Sac.


Deb is loving being a mom to these three and wife to D.J. Can you believe its almost been 15 years since we got hitched?? It seems like only 14! :)Deb has recently taken up snowboarding again after MANY, many years. It keeps her young, if she stays on top of the Tylenol. She is also kept busy being in the young womens' organization at church. Lots of crazy teenage girls to laugh and cry with!!




D.J. is keeping plenty busy with work but does get some free time to play a bit. His passion is duck hunting and often spends Saturday out at "The Club". I wish we were as passionate about eating the ducks he brings home. He wants to start doing Adventure racing again this summer. He and a friend from work do these triatholons including mountain biking, kayaking and trekking. He says that he enjoys it because he doesn't need to be in quite as good of shape as a "real" triathlete, which is hard to do sitting behind a desk 5 days a week. :)

So that's it for now...