Rafe's B-day Celebrations

 Rafe turned the big 5 years old! We celebrated quite a bit too. First he had his friend party. When our boys turn 5 they get one. He has been waiting and counting down the days until his party and until his actual b-day. He would ask for the calendar the last few months to check. So glad it finally came. He is persistent I tell ya. He wanted to have a superhero party.

Jax, Creed, and Bodie were to be my helpers during the party. Greg was working from home and was going to help when he can, but that didn't really happen. And the boys weren't quite as helpful as I wanted. But, thank goodness my mom offered to come help for the party too. She seems to always be there to help during these 5 year old things. :) It went better than I thought. It wasn't too wild or crazy with so many little kids. In fact it seemed kinda quiet and mellow. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the games. We did our usual "fishing for prizes" game, pin the "S" on Superman, opening presents, and we ended with Creed and I doing balloons of puppies, giraffe's, swords, and hats.

 Rafe is a quiet and shy child, well, around other people. And when it came time for all eyes on him while we sang and he blew out candles I don't think he was a fan of that. Ha! You can see his face and the big stare down he had with the candles while blowing. I had to tell him to smile a little. Geesh.

Because Greg was leaving town we celebrated with him before he left. I made another cake, and he opened one present that Greg put together for him before he left. Lots of marble fun. The 9 year old brother might have enjoyed it the most. :)  And then the next day my mom and sis Amy were at our house because babysitting while we were at the hospital with Bodie getting his tonsils out. So we had a "little" party with them as well. And used the same left over cake. :) He opened more presents from them.

 And on his actual birthday, Greg was gone, and we were home bound with poor recovering Bodie. So we did the tradition of opening presents in the morning. (you can see Bodie laying on the couch) and Rafe was happy getting what he wanted. To dress up as his favorite Superman and Master Chief (from Halo- video game) So we've been putting these on and off all day long for days now. He wanted me to take pictures of him in costume to see his cape or see himself. He loves to look at the pictures of him on my phone. He's so funny.

This is a long post, so I'm going to talk about Rafe in the next post!

Our Easter

All week we reviewed day by day the last week of Christ's life and the resurrection. I love it, Rafe knew what day it was and made sure I remembered and stayed on top of it everyday for me to tell them about Christ. 

The Friday before my mom had one of her "tea parties" at her house. It was spring break and we had the other Williamsen cousins in town too! It's nice having Drew & Alecia live in Reno and within driving distance to visit more often. The kids had fun, eating, playing, Easter egg hunt, crafts, Creed and I did balloons, grandma W does it all!  (2 cousins were missing in the picture and 2 adult children joined in. He he.)

Saturday before we went skiing, came home to my sis Amy babysitting Rafe for us and we had dinner and colored our Easter Eggs and then had a little dance party which involved some clothes to be removed.

 Easter morning before church... finding their baskets that the one great female Easter bunny did completely on her own. Rafe's under the sofa table and luckily didn't melt any chocolate being by the heat vent all night (phew) Bodie's in a kitchen cupboard, Jax's hidden in the couch cushions downstairs and the very last with lots of hints and help Creed found his in the lower oven.

 Here's our boys all helping Creed search for his basket. I love the picture of them walking youngest to oldest, single file one after another. So funny. And my traditional Easter morning basket/loot picture. The Easter Bunny cut in half the amount of candy and stuff they got, and nobody seemed to notice. :)

After church Greg and I were standing in the kitchen and Jax was asking something about kissing and asked Greg and I to smooch a good one. So we did and I turned and looked at all of them gathered and looking at us. It was funny, so I told them to freeze and not move and I grabbed the phone to take a picture after re-enacting the kiss again for them. 

Then we had my family over for dinner and had some ham n'stuff. :) It was a nice Easter.

emailing my hubby

While Greg was away last week I sent him some emails...

So I have to tell you. We were all watching home movies of baby Rafe and Bodie seriously started crying. He thought Rafe was SO cute, he couldn't contain himself. After a minute he felt silly for crying so he started laughing and crying at the same time. Then he couldn't control himself.
After he calmed down and we had some good laughing at the funny things the  2yr. old Bo was saying, or trying to say, it went back to Rafe and Bodie started crying again watching Rafe.
It was cute and sweet, I had to go cuddle with Bodie.
I am so glad we have home video footage. Obviously Bo wouldn't remember Rafe as a baby since he was practically a baby too. So he loved seeing him. 

 And another email, I updated Greg on what was happening...

So it's funny. I'll go to bed at like 10:30-11pm which is 6:30-7am your time in Berlin. What time are you waking up? Going running?

We could actually talk before I go to sleep. and it's funny that you've already completed your whole nights sleep, all while we were awake in the afternoon evening here.

Rafe may be starting a cough, I put some breathe oil on him. And now Rafe screams whenever I put his eye drops in his eyes for Pink Eye. 2 eyes with 2 drops each, equals 4 little screams. And the older boys and I had an exciting event before bed. A big spider in their room. Lots of screams, and wiggles. I smashed it with your shoe. And made Creed grab the remains with a tissue to flush it. But he was scared and didn't want to. I told him he's my spider killer and Jax is a girly man screaming wimp (the screams came from him - not me - I just squirmed and had heebee jeebees) And Creed was hesitant, it's been a while since he's done spiders, so it was a good refresher for him.

 ha ha ha

And Bodie was puzzled that he thought he pooped out little bright green squirts from his bum into the toilet. He didn't believe me when I told him I had wiped Rafe's blue tooth paste from the sink and dropped it in the toilet because the trash is over flowing and it must have just come off the toilet paper I used and sunk to the bottom of the toilet. It took convincing that blue paste in yellow pee turns it to look green. :)

so that's our fun evening.

Oh and we are thoroughly enjoying watching the new Fuller House show!

And another email was titled VENTING - and I was venting about my children and the fighting, anger, and complaining about all things while single parenting. I'll not share that one. -wink, wink.

 And while we waited forever at the airport to pick up Greg (customs took forever) this is what I saw out my window. :)

Greg's travels

And 4 days after we got home from the Southern Hemisphere, Greg turned around and flew off to Berlin. Some work meetings and a group of people flew in. I had to send him a few emails of what to do and see, but his group went sightseeing together. So he saw it all and more. It was cold still, March ya know. Oh I have to mention the hotel they stayed at. It's called the 25 Hours Bikini Hotel - What? Weirdest name I've ever heard. Oh my, but just another European hotel. And he was so tired the whole time he was in Germany.

And for his flight back it connected in Paris. So since he was flying all that way for just Berlin... figured he'd make a long over night connection and at least see Paris too.

So he did! And I had to send him more emails on what to do and see for his short afternoon/evening in Paris. He loved Paris. Said it was the most ornate beautiful city he's seen or been to. It's a toss up for him between St. Petersburg and Paris. He had a nice taxi tour guide and then walked and walked for miles around the Seine seeing lots of the city.

The first 2 pics are Berlin, the wall and then the Holocaust memorial and museum. The other 3 are Paris! I've always wanted to take my husband to Paris. I was there in 1999. One day we will go together. Sigh...

Australia!

 Greg had the opportunity to travel way down to Australia for work. While he was there several days without me, I insisted he go see Sydney. The tourist spots, Opera House, Bondi Beach, the bridge, etc. He ate lots of local food like the meat pie in the picture. I had one with Indian meat, mmm.

 Then I left my house Tuesday the 16th to join him. Where I had about 20 hours of travel time with getting to L.A. and the layover then the 15 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. This is my view as the sun was rising on my decent into Sydney. Nothing but darkness and ocean for hours of sleeping and watching lots of movies. I landed there on Thursday morning. Wednesday? What Wednesday? ha ha.

When I got there I took a power nap in our awesome hotel overlooking Sydney Harbour. Greg got to stay at the Shangri-La Hotel and of course I joined him. Then I made him meet me for lunch and see the Opera House with me. He went back to work and I did a bus tour of Sydney that afternoon, bought some souvenirs for our children, saw the bridge, had dinner, and totally enjoyed the 1st day. Although Sydney's bus tour wasn't quite as interesting as when I was in Amsterdam. There is just not the same history or architecture obviously and Sydney traffic is HORRIBLE. 2 lanes, always busy, (hashtag) probably makes L.A. look good. (and the bottom left picture is sunset from our room)

 My day 2 - I walked around the Rocks area, finished souvenir shopping, then did the 2nd half of my bus tour out by the beaches and greater Sydney. Greg and I had dinner with Simone (who he works with) and her husband. I loved talking with her, hearing her accent and also her answering all my questions and filling us in all stuff Aussie. There we are (bottom right) all eating dessert from Gelato Messina - some extremely popular place, it was like a night club entrance everyone lined up trying to get in and order. Ha!

Day 3 -We flew up to Hamilton Island. Hot and humid, gorgeous paradise. Curly frizzy hair, and my swimsuit never dried. Our room wasn't ready so we took our backpacks to the pool/ocean -in the picture there and changed for our boat excursion to the south end of Whitehaven Beach (this is all part of the Whitsunday Islands) Greg really wanted to see the white famous beaches that you see in travel magazines. And some years they have the bad stinging jelly fish. And because of a recent encounter everyone wore these really cool wet suits if we ever got in the water. You can see my happy face putting that on. Ha! The water was warm, the beach was fantastic (just like the Caribbean) We totally enjoyed ourselves.

Day 4 -  Our amazing sunrise from our hotel on Hamilton Island. No filter. We thought our hotel was great, awesome warm pools and right on the beach.

 We took a 2 hour boat ride out, the waters were choppy and it was Chinese New Year, so there were lots of vacationing Chinese people on our same boat and all seasick throwing up! It was hilarious. All over people are barfing in the bags. Oh, and me included. -That part sucked. The workers were great, they were on it helping everyone. We arrived at our pontoon and then I felt a little better.

Greg checked off another on his bucket list. His dream to SCUBA the Great Barrier Reef came true.

While he dived and saw this...

 I stayed and hung out and saw this...

 It was pretty neat, the big pontoon (Reef World) we were at had an underwater aquarium viewing room, so I got to see the fish all the snorkelers were seeing. And then when Greg got back we did their submarine ride out over the reef as well so I got to see some of the coral. And I relaxed and read my book, we had a big lunch - hoping I didn't up-chuck that later on while we had to head back. (he he.) I didn't thank goodness. :)  And I snorkeled with Greg for a few minutes. Literally just a few minutes. Now I can say I snorkeled the reef at least.

Let's have another look at the Great Barrier Reef behind us. In the afternoon it was low tide so you can really see it. A few birds were even able to land on a few pieces. It was pretty cool to be there and see it. You can also see a boat out behind my shoulder where Greg dived from. He was working his way back 40 feet under. And of course all the snorkelers in the water too.

 Day 5 - We took a half day trip to the Whitehaven Hill Inlet and beach. The amazing coolness is during low tide. But for some reason all the tour companies take everyone out there and it was high tide, so we couldn't see all the cool swirly sand bars and stuff. But it was still pretty. We hiked to the hill overlook and then hurried down to the beach and walked out over a sandbar. The picture with Greg laying shows the waves coming from both sides, I guess kinda hard to see. Oh well. Pretty blue water.

Day 6 - We walked down the road to go have breakfast with the Koala's. We sat and ate 2 feet from our little guy. He ate his leaves and looked at us while we ate our yummy food. I could have paid money to hold and snuggle him. But I was good not too.

So easy to get around Hamilton Island. We could just walk or use the free shuttle or everyone drives golf cars all over. Fun little place. Yummy restaurants, little shops, and lots of Macaw birds everywhere. In the afternoons their loud squawks were pleasant for our ears. Ha ha. We also saw some Wallaby's around. A small Kangaroo.

The 2 beach pictures below are that afternoon we flew back to Sydney and stayed the evening down in Coogee Beach.

I also finished my book! First novel I have read in years. I usually just read parenting books or church stuff or skim through something. Greg teased me and said I shouldn't read it, I kept crying. Seriously. It was The Confession by John Grisham. I have read many of his and always enjoy them. I like this, but man, it sure made me tear up often.

Day 7 -  We flew home. We left at 11:30am in Sydney on Wednesday and got home at 1:30pm on Wed. Salt Lake time. But that 2 hours difference took us 20 hours. And the Pacific Ocean flight was ruined by a stink'n toddler. Not a crying baby (I would have welcomed that, like white noise) and not an upset every now and then toddler. It was an awful loud obnoxious little girl. Sorry to say, not sorry. Hate her parents, she never napped. Poor thing.

That about wraps up our amazing trip to the land down under! We were so lucky and glad it worked out for us to go to Australia. I've always dreamed of going there someday. And we used our points and got my ticket, Greg's was paid for from eBay so we were set up for an opportunity. Next time, New Zealand! If there is a next time.

And it was all made possible by Greg's mom for a few days, then my mom and sister Amy for the rest of the time. So glad we have our boys grandma's around!! Best babysitters! I'm truly grateful for their willingness to help.

We Skyped with our boys everyday and texted them all. Rafe had a cough while we were gone and Creed threw up one night. Bodie was super homesick for his mom and cried, a lot and was sad here and there. Jax missed us a lot this time too. Normally when we leave, the boys are fine and don't think twice about us. In fact just 6 months ago when we left them for Amsterdam they were totally fine. So this was different, hopefully a one time thing.

Quick Feb.

So February is going by nice and quickly. Tomorrow is Valentine's day already! And my Valentine is 8,000 miles away. I will be joining Greg in just a few days and I am just a little excited. And after this long holiday weekend with out Greg and dealing with the fighting, loud, & rowdy boys, I WILL be ready to leave my children and go! Ha!

So far this month... we went to cousin Owen's baptism, had to capture the boys crowding around Aunt Amy and mobbing her before it started. Then a picture of me enjoying our evening watching my favorite Denver Bronco's WIN Superbowl #50! I liked my view, the screen and Bodie playing with his super hero's.

I was happy that I got to help in all 3 of the boys classroom parties. They were timed one after another, so Rafe and I (and Bodie after his) went from party to party, fun way to spend our Thursday. And a last minute valentine's box for Jax ended up with Star Wars with his BFF Graydon. Neither knew what the other was doing. Great minds think alike! Vader and Chewy, so fun.  And what a great mom I am to make it for him. And on Friday, before Greg got on a plane, we went to the Provo Temple Open House. It was nice, and so glad we did it and that the boys got to see inside a temple. We've managed to miss all the other many open houses around we could have gone to in recent years so we made sure to do this one. And now I get to say good bye to icky February cold Utah inversion weather and hello sunny Australia!

13 Frickin' Awesome Years!!!

Greg here: Laurie is the family historian - as is evidenced by all the pictures, videos, and this very blog.  But, for once Greg gets a voice in this effort.  And with that voice I proclaim my everlasting love for the girl in this photo that I married 13 years ago today!  We have had a life filled with fun and adventure (like this picture from Amsterdam in 2015).  Most importantly, we have each other, our family, and our faith.  Life couldn't be better.  That's not to say that everything has been 100% sunshine and roses.  But those moments where we have slogged through challenges have always been easier with my Lali.  She is the patient one, and has been the voice of reason and calm many times when I lack those attributes.  She loves our children and ME!  I love her back and MORE.  My sweet Poochie/Super-Pooch.  Happy Anniversary! 

Aw, thanks Honey Bunny, ask and I received. Now it's my turn. I've talked about our wedding day on our anniversary on this blog every year, and I am out of ideas this year. So we'll just recognize our anniversary of the lucky number of 13 years! 

Look at us, (Oct. 2002) we were so young and so cool. Ha!

 I'm glad I met Greg, I'm glad our story went the perfect way for us to end up together all those years ago. And that we made the best decision ever! We got married! 

One September day we decided to get married while on the phone 2000 miles apart from each other. I had to wait 2 weeks later to see him in person when he flew out for Oct. Gen. Conf.

That's when I met his family and he met mine and we started the planning process. And he was living in Baltimore going to law school, while I was working in SLC planning our wedding. We spent a gazillion hours on the phone talking and falling more in love. It was so hard to be with out him while we were engaged. It made our hearts grow fonder I suppose. Now we are together - forever!

All of January

  Here's a catch up of all of January...

Jax and Creed are modeling a pair of extremely tight jeans someone gave us. It was squeezing their legs and cutting off circulation. So we took some pics to have a laugh of tight pants! They have pretty skinny legs, so I don't know what the Gap was thinking, who would wear them?

I had a birthday. Greg bought me a cake and balloons. Yum. I can't believe that I am now really in my late 30's! How can this be? Bodie and Rafe sure look happy I'm blowing out my candles. Good thing there wasn't 38 of them.

Jaxon on occasion asks for a bed-time story. Sometimes if I'm not angry at them for taking forever to get into bed I might oblige and read something. And I had to document this night. Greg was reading to the older 2 boys! (rare moment) It was kinda cute. It was one of our favorite series, the Little Critter books.

 Creed learned how to tie animal balloons at scouts one evening (See the awesome red/pink sky out the window? - wowza) Then at school he was the super star last week and he had to present something in front of this class. So I freak'n blew up over 35 balloons, with a pump, but my arms and hands were dying, and getting blisters from tying. And he taught them how to do puppy dogs and swords. It was fun for them. I was there to help of course. And Bodie was proud of the bunny ears and hats he made up all by himself.

 Jaxon already received his Arrow of Light award in December when he left cub scouts, and they finally had a little ceremony for it. And then the older boys and I volunteered for a donation drive thing for families in need and refugees. So I gathered bags of clothes and some baby toys we never use anymore. In the picture you can see how Rafe felt about giving stuff away. And Jax and Creed helped set up and organize stuff. Good for them to see and help for people who are in need. And the last picture is Bodie's poor beat up face. He had a battle with a rolling desk and some hymn books all falling on his face. I'm just glad he didn't slice his eye, just all around it. Saturday night were eating at our Russian night (at our church this time) and the kids playing in the gym and Bo was rolling around on the desk/podium and it tipped over on him.

Greg came home from work one evening and took a picture of what he saw, the boys all laughing and having a good time playing Halo. Creed and Jax have been playing Jr. Jazz Basketball. Jax loves it, Creed claims he doesn't. But then he's one of the best on his team. So I'm hoping he'll realize that and want to keep playing. Then we keep checking Bodie's tonsils. They are huge. They are always enlarged, but when he got sick at New Years he couldn't swallow very well because of their size. And so we will probably have to get them removed. And g-ma/pa Lorenzon came to watch some b-ball games with us. Our Saturdays our running around to 2 games. I'm amazed most of their games over-lap so we have to split up sometimes.

Lots of snow this month. Bodie and Rafe claimed they haven't ever built a snowman. And the last few years hasn't provided much snow so they probably haven't. Oops. Here's how Greg builds a snowman with them. They roll around and play, while Greg builds it up. Ta da!

Sunday afternoon the boys went out twice to finish their tunnels and forts. Snow play is always so fun. So cold, someone always cries. Rafe comes up to the door to get his gloves or sleeves fixed or someone gets hit hard with a snowball - how dare they?! ha ha. So glad they have each other to play with.

Good Riddance to January!

4 favorite things

 Here's a few of my favorite things...

I had to capture all 4 boys a couple weeks ago. Sleeping peacefully. I loved doing it when they were babies and I still do sometimes. We check on them every night. The best part was how quiet and still they were. (he he) as opposed to being awake and loud boys. :) 

The boys got a kick out of these pics I took. They asked if I would do it again. Sometime.

Aw, Jax

I loved this moment and want to remember it: 
So Jax and I went to a scout meeting to learn and hear about the winter Klondike camp that's coming up and the 11 yr olds get to join the boy scouts if they want. I was the only female in the room full of 11-13 yr. old boys and dads and leaders. They were going over and reciting all the scout motto's and oaths. When they got to the outdoor one and recited it, after a leader yelled out something like " I thought it was to pee on a tree". ha ha. others laughed, and Jax glanced at me and then said loud for others to hear near us "Hey, there's a lady present". I told him it was ok and smiled. ( I do have 4 boys, 2 brothers, and 1 Greg after all). 
 

Then after the meeting when I was thinking about him doing that in that room full of his peers and leaders and strangers I was really feeling so proud and happy for him recognizing the situation, and being brave to stick up and say something. I am impressed. It was one of those mother moments feeling something profound about my son and seeing his good character.