great humor

 I've seen this around lately. And I love it! It captures so much.

Monkey vs. Worm

Bodie is my little chunky monkey. He is up and down and all over, kinda like a monkey. And that round face, to die for!

Here is a picture when he's just over 1 year, almost the same age as Rafe is now. Don't you want to squeeze him?

 Rafe is my squirmy wormy. He squirms his way all over. In and out of my arms. I have to hold him carefully or else he could fall. Notice the scab on his forehead. That would be from Creed dragging him across the floor and his rug burn. And his red knees and feet from crawling. He is pulling himself up to furniture now. So hopefully by the time it's shorts weather he'll be off his knees.

So there you have it. My 2 little boys and their nick names. My older two said to me that their names are Stavin' Marvin, because Jax is always so hungry, he is a growing boy. And Creed had to think, but came up with Cereal Monster. Like Cookie Monster but with cold cereal because he loves it and I call him my cereal eater. Anyways. I'll enjoy my chunky and squirmy boys while I can.

More Randomness

We did some spring skiing on Saturday at Alta. One last time for the season. Creed was able to get some poles and was so excited. I love the way he held them while skiing. Straight up and down parallel with his body. It was mushy snow, like skiing on a Slurpee. It made for a wobbly time. In the picture is Creed, then me and boys. It was like we had the mountain all to ourselves. And the pretty mountain with us waiting at the top for Greg to tell us we can go down so he can get pictures. Then Jax, he thinks he's a pro now. Maybe a pro of the green runs, ha!

So we started buying another gallon of milk a week. I guess it deserves it's own picture. I hated running out mid-week. So yes, that's 6 gallons in our fridge. I wonder what it's going to be like when the boys are all teenagers! Jax isn't a big fan of milk and Rafe isn't even drinking it yet. Yikes.

I wanted to mention a few cute things. Jax's mind is always thinking and boy does he have thoughts and questions. Long after the boys were in bed, Jax came to the stairs and called out for me, which he does all too often. And his topic of discussion was the devil. It was a long conversation but to sum it up... he was feeling so sorry for the devil. Because the devil doesn't have parents with him in heaven. He's all alone. Jax even got teary eyed wondering if the devil is sad he can't hold hands with a mom and dad. I tried my best to explain things to Jax, and so he won't be feeling too bad and how Christlike his feelings were. I sent him to bed and told him to not worry or think too much about the spirit world and that there is much we don't understand and don't know of, so please just go to sleep and think "happy" thoughts. Creed had climbed the stairs to listen too and at the end said. "Yeah Jax, the devil is spupid".

Jax has a lot of deep thoughts. I just hope I can provide good answers for him and use the teaching opportunities and help him learn and grow. No pressure.

And on a lighter note. We drove by our local McDonald's and told Jax to look. He freaked out and started crying. McDonald's is gone, torn down. He was so upset. I guess he loves the place and has a lot of fond memories of McDonald's? I told him to calm down, they are rebuilding it and it'll be open in the summer. But still freaking out he was wondering what are we going to do until then. When I said there tons of McD's around to go to. No worries. But he's still worried, because this one had the BEST play land around. I have to agree. It was the biggest and best. I guess we'll see.

Buddies

Bodie can go from person to person to find a buddy for the day. After the older 2 boys go to school in the morning, he makes me his buddy. Then when Rafe wakes up he has Rafe be his buddy. When Creed gets home for the afternoon, Creed is his buddy. Here are Creed and Bodie being buddies. Watching TV one day, and watching Creed on the computer the next.

Bodie is funny, lately he will "take" his brother's seats. They have their usual spots on the couch, and when Bodie see's them coming, he'll run over and sit on their spot. I think it's hilarious. And now he can get himself up on the stools so he likes to sit at their spots on the counter too. Jaxon gets quite upset. For years he's had his little spot and now I tell him he has to share with Bodie, first one there gets it. But when Bodie will sit for a loooooooooong time on the stool, Jax doesn't even get a chance. I knew this day would come. Who's going to sit where?

Jax has a new best friend from school, Graydon. They try and play together every Friday. This last Friday we were going to have some boys over from our new ward to play that are in Jax's class at school. And he told Graydon about it and so we had 3 friends, plus my boys, it made for a fun loud afternoon. I kept trying to find stuff to keep them outside. I even judged a sidewalk chalk drawing contest. I really can't wait for spring to come and stay.

Just Random

So I hate that I've lost the "update the blog" groove. I don't want life to pass by without me mentioning the last few weeks or months. Although I guess that's the problem, nothing has really been happening. I don't have much to say. No excitement. Just some random pictures to share below I guess.

After a bath one day I asked Bodie to please go hang up his towel like his brothers do. And this is how he did it. Silly boy. And all of my children have pushed and played with their feet on the tray of the high chair. They'll just sit the whole time eating with their feet up against the edge like in the picture. So I decided to get a picture of Rafe for all of them.

Um, then we had some great spring weather. It's been windy but I'll take it. We were out with the stroller one day, Bodie loves it. He thinks he can just live outside now.

And it's been nice being able to wave at all these "new" neighbors that live just down the street that I've seen for years, some I've never really seen, but now we're in the same ward and it's like a whole new world has been opened in our neighborhood.

We Are Family

So this picture is from last summer. It was a hot. It is currently on my desktop because it reminds me of summer. My boys are all hot and sweaty, red faces, but it was summer. And on days like a snowy today. I long for summer. Look how little and bald Rafe was. Ooh, my baby is growing up too fast. I'm going to be an old mom raising kids not having babies. OK, back to summer and families. Speaking of family... here is the latest one of my side. The Williamsen's silly picture. This was taken 2 days before x-mas. We had to update our old one. It had a few new babies and a new spouse to add. So there ya go. Enjoy.
And speaking again of families...
I just wanted to mention that our ward family was taken apart. The Olympus 6th Ward was small, but we were tight. We went to church on Sunday expecting a new Bishopric and were blindsided when they announced they are dissolving our ward and splitting it down the middle and sending us to different wards! :( I was so sad. It was a teary Sunday. It's been a weird week. I wish I was able to say goodbye or something, have a little closure ya know. But off to new adventures. And I guess a little blessing in all of this is that we will have a big primary now. But I am still sad.

Rafe Crawls

Rafe is 10 months old and is finally crawling. I shouldn't say finally, Bodie didn't even start to scoot until he was a year old. But then Jax and Creed were walking by 10 months. It goes to show, that each child is different. Rafe has 2 teeth on top and 3 on bottom, more coming. He is also feeding himself finger foods and drinks from his sippy cup. Now if he could just use a spoon and napkin that would be great.

He started crawling by doing a snake/army crawl. Good at using his elbows. Then he figured out getting on his knees. Sometimes he'll fall back into the army crawl. But he's on the move. And my camera battery has been low and apparently it slows the shutter speed. Every picture with a flash I get closed eyes. In the second picture I've trimmed Rafe's hair. If you see him don't look too close because it's a sad trim. I have to do it in steps, laying down first to get around the ears and front. Then as he plays and moves I try and get the back. It's a joke. I want it to grow just a little by his 1 year pictures.

I love this picture below. It's all boy. Playing around with shirts off. I love how Bodie has to copy everything his brothers do. He even sits and holds the video game controller like he's actually playing. He'll jump and yell at the T.V. just like Creed even though his isn't on.

I also love... how Creed came home from church the other day and had a picture he traced of his hand, with 6 fingers. Or how the only thing he can ever remember about what he did in preschool was what he ate for a snack.

or how Bodie refers to himself now as Bobo - that's our nickname for him. And while watching daddy out the window snow blowing the driveway he tells me "daddy is cute."

And how Jax is constantly talking about when he gets baptised. Or who will be there and what friends turn 8 before him or how much longer until his b-day. He's excited.

I also love how I got a little nap everyday over this 3 day weekend. And Greg was able to sleep in everyday. Oh and Greg will tell you that he made lunch and dinners for the last 2 days. It's been nice.

T time

My mom will host her grandchildren in a little tea party every-so-often. My boys LOVE it! She has a little collection of little china tea cups and Jax and Creed love to go pick which one they get to use. So they get to sit with some of their cousins (they missed the Oklahoma Williamsens) and have hot cocoa or chocolate milk in their little cups and have a nice spread of finger food to choose from. I'm sure my mom figured she'd do this fun tradition with some granddaughters but with a ratio of 8 boys to 3 girls she's hoping the boys won't mind. Last week they sure didn't. And then Greg and I were able to go to the temple on Valentines day while they "partied". Fun stuff at grandma and grandpa's house.

Gone Skiing

We love going up to Alta. We love it because it's free! They open a run after 3pm for free. Although, they recently announced it will no longer be free. But a minor charge. At least we've been able to take our boys and myself and teach for free while we could. I can't believe how much lift passes are these days.

Creed started this year. He has been 3 times so far. The second time we were able to enroll him in ski school at the Canyons. It was great. Greg put a harness on him to be able to slow him down a little. He probably doesn't need it anymore. He is doing great.

Here is Jax saying hi. It's official, he goes faster than I do now. He loves just zipping around down the mountain. I prefer to take it easy. I don't mind the speed, but I am also a chicken when going too fast down a steep hill. Call me crazy. Call me old. But I'd prefer to not wipe out and injure myself. It is pretty crowded at parts on the free run.

This Saturday we met up with Greg's sister Laura & Brett and family and she took our group picture. It was like 10 degrees at the top with the wind chill. The boys all stayed warm. I thought I was going to lose my fingers. Ouchy cold.

Jax is already talking about he and Creed going off by themselves while mom and dad teach Bodie and Rafe. We can wave at each other while on the lift. He is so funny. But it's true. Going skiing will be a fun family thing to do. A family that plays together...

Feb. 1st

I originally had January 25th scheduled for our wedding day. Then a few months before and before it was too late to reschedule some events, like the temple or confirm the location for the reception. I decided I just didn't like the "sound" of the date 1/25. And I actually really didn't want my anniversary to be in January. My birthday is in January, that is enough. And when I realized the next Saturday would be February 1st. I liked it so I called and changed it and then notified people, including Greg - ha! And I am so glad I did. It was a great wedding day weather wise and we had a better anniversary date. According to my opinion. :)

Years before I was in Las Vegas with my mom and we drove out to the LV Temple grounds one night. And the view of the city lights and strip was so pretty. I took a few pictures and then was inspired to do my engagement photo at night time, someday, with city lights in the back ground. Fast forward several years later. I was getting married, Greg was in law school in Baltimore and flew back to Utah for Thanksgiving and so we had to do all that we could while he would be in town. So the day after the holiday, we had our pictures taken. It was an insanely busy night in downtown SL, you know the lighting of Temple Sq. x-mas lights, concerts, back then the malls were still open so for Black Friday shopping. There were thousands of people. And there was a bad inversion going on. So it was not great visibility. Bummer! But I knew what I wanted. So we went to the base of Ensign Peak and used the foggy city lights as our back drop. And then headed to Temple Sq. to get some shots there as well. Too bad Greg was going in phases making his hair shorter and shorter. So for the pics it is kinda long, even he didn't like it. Oh well.

So this is us in November 2002. We were engaged and excited to be in love and all that fun stuff. This is the picture we used in our invitations.

I was so worried getting married in the winter. I wanted my pictures to be great and not ruined by my red cold nose or purple hands. And we got lucky and had the warmest record day. Didn't even "need" a jacket. I wanted one, but not needed :) Anyways, for the picture below when our photographer posed us with my veil "making a tent" I totally didn't want to do it. I thought it was cheesy and in the picture Greg and I are laughing at how stupid we thought it was. I remember muttering something to Greg. Towards the end of our reception we did the usual and cut the cake and gave each other a bite. Sweet and clean. In the picture Greg is giving a "Wahoo!" or something, and I guess I'm cleaning frosting off?
Since we hid our cars they weren't able to be decorated with "Just Married" or anything. So a few of Greg's friends took some TP and "wrapped" us. I have it on video but this was the only picture I have of it.

It was a fun day. I love going back and watching the wedding video. Greg and I just sit and smile. Happy Nine Years! Goodness where has the time gone? I have a great husband and 4 great children. I'm so glad we met, dated, realized we were falling in love, decided to get married, planned it, and did it!