Kate's Girls Club

Kate is at a stage where she thinks girls are great and she could just do without boys at all. So she made up a "Girls Club" which means anyone who is a girl can be in the club. She kept going and going with this idea and with the help of her cousin, Brooklyn, and her Auntie Caitlin it became a reality for her.

Toward the end of November we emailed homemade invitations to all the girls on my side of the family for Girls Club at our house. We decorated the house but unfortunately there are no pictures. Just know it was all appropriately very pink and girly.

our invitations

We had everyone bring fun activities and yummy snacks. Auntie Caitlin helped us stamp mini candy cane cards and Brooklyn taught us how to make a box out of a piece of paper and decorate them. They were all very girly.

We also got to try on my mom's old fashioned hat collection and have a hat parade around the house! What fun!

Great Grandma Gallup, Maggie (Rachael's cousin), Auntie Caitlin - and her crew Jessamy, Arwen, Faith, Melanie and Maecyn,

Grandma Williams, Aunt Emily and Brooklyn

(We missed you, Aunt Melanie and AuntMichelle!)

Thanks to all the girls who came. We had a fun girly time!

Oh, and don't worry Chandler girls...Kate is currently planning the Girls Club party for you too!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken yesterday. Once again it was quite an experience. Usually Kate and Sam both freak out and scream and cry. But this time Kate was an angel and did a great job following direction. We finally got Sam to calm down and sit for a second by letting him play with Joe's blackberry. He did just as we expected as you can see from the picture with all 3 kids. We thought it was kind of funny so we just kept it. I mean, honestly, we can't expect to have every picture exactly perfect...especially when you have 3 kids all 3 years old and younger.

Yep. Those are my kids....oh how I love 'em!

Caught Blue-Handed

They told me it was an accident. Yeah right. (sigh) Kids will be kids.

Our Fun-Filled Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. We spent the day over at Grandma and Grandpa Williams' house. Their front yard was covered in leaves so we raked them in a pile for the kids to jump around and play in. Kate loved it....Sammy was a little unsure about it all.

Then we put their costumes on and took them to Downtown Nampa for some trick-or-treating. They really liked seeing all the people and the other kids' costumes.

We followed that up with a quick dinner at home then it was off to Trunk-or-Treating at the church. I made a loop around the parking lot with Kate and Sam while Joe and Alice manned the trunk. Sammy caught on pretty quickly with the idea that when you say, "Trick-or-Treat" you get candy in your bucket. Once we got back to our own trunk Kate and Sam helped Joe pass out candy to the other kids. I think that ended up being their favorite part.

After the church we dropped by CoraLyn's house (Joe's sister). Their kids were having a Halloween party with all their friends over there so we came by to keep Steve and CoraLyn company for a bit. It was nice just to let our kids loose for a few minutes play while we just hung out. Thanks CoraLyn and Steve for letting us come over!

Kate the Ballerina

Our little Punkin Sammy

Cheerleader Alice

Needless to say, the whole day was a lot of fun. Kate loved dressing up in her ballerina costume (which was actually mine when I was little) and Sammy finally warmed up to his pumpkin costume. At first all he would do was pull on it and get frustrated but after a while he gave up and just had to accept it. Alice was a little cheerleader but I put some pjs underneath her little outfit to keep her warm since we were outside quite a bit.

Pumpkin Carving

Now that the kids are getting a little older we did a few more Halloween projects this year besides the traditional pumpkin carving. They have had so much fun with all the Halloween decorations around. Kate used to just scream and cry anytime we'd show her a mask or pretty much anything Halloween-y. But this year she just laughs at all of it and tells us that "the silly and scary things are just for Halloween so that makes them fun." We are sure glad for her change in perspective.

Joe and the kids drew a huge pumpkin sign and colored it and hung on the wall in our family room. We also made a giant black spider out of trash bags and hung it from the ceiling of our front porch.

We've gotten our pumpkin carving tradition down to an art now. First we saran wrap the kitchen table. Then we let Daddy hollow out the pumpkins. This year Sammy kept looking at the pumpkin guts and saying, "Eeeewwwwww!"

Then we let the kids draw the faces on their pumpkins and Daddy carves it out just like they drew them.

Then we put the candles inside and...


take a picture all together with our newly carved pumpkins.

Random Rachael Tag

The Rules:

*Link to the person who tagged you: My sister-in-law, Geri, tagged me.

*Post the rules on your blog.
*Write six random things about yourself.

*Tag six people and let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

*Let your tagger know when your entry is up. (Don't forget to come back and tell me you've completed this tag!)

Okay normally I don't like to do these but Geri caught me on a good day I guess so here it goes...

1) I love to sing. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most of you. But seriously, I’d rather sing than give a talk, read something aloud or pretty much anything. My face gets all red when I have to do those kinds of things. But when I sing, for some reason I’m as cool as a cucumber. I don’t know why. It is what it is.

2) I tend to be over-the-top organized. Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily apply to my house all the time. But if I didn’t have to clean up after little kids making messes all day it would. I love when every paper has its file, every toy has its box and every little thing has its specific place. I love organizing things into bins or totes and I love using a label maker to top it all off. Another part of this is that I’m a list person. I love to have lists whether they’re daily, weekly, monthly or whatever. I just love crossing the things off. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

3) I love to rearrange furniture. I love trying out new ways to place it. This one’s kind of weird because sometimes I can’t help but to sit there even at other people’s houses and picture a more functional way to arrange their furniture. Or I picture that if I lived there for some reason, how I would arrange my own furniture in that space. I know. It’s sick, right? But it gets worse. Sometimes I end up dreaming about it too. Then in the morning I end up having the perfect idea of how it could work.

4) My whole life I’ve never had my ears pierced. That is, until about a month ago. I’m 27 years old and I just pierced my ears! I’d wanted to do it for a few years now but never felt the need before. But last month while my sister-in-law was in town, we went and finally had it done. Hey, the rules say random and that’s random.

5) I have a couple of all-time favorite comfort foods. The first is grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and second is scrambled eggs with toast. And I’m pretty particular about how to eat them both too but I won’t go into that or you’ll think I’m an even bigger freak than you already do. But seriously, there really isn’t anything cozier than these two favorites. I could have them every day. I especially love them when I’m pregnant. They’re just feel-good kind of foods.

6) I love flat Sprite…you know, when the crazy fizz is all gone. Mmmm…. so good. The funny thing is, so does Joe. That’s one thing that made me know that he was the man for me. We both like flat Sprite. Kinda silly.

I tag anyone who wants to do this. But to name 6 people:

Michelle, Emily, Sherstine, Jamie, Lacey and Carlie.

Feeding the Ducks

Last night for FHE we went on a walk to feed the ducks on the Greenbelt near our house. The kids love to riding in the wagon. We're trying to teach Sam how to break off pieces of bread instead of just throwing the whole thing. Kate is working on being brave when the ducks get very close. She gets pretty nervous and her reaction is always to throw more bread which just makes the problem worse. It's pretty funny.

After we got home we enjoyed some left over cupcakes from Sammy's birthday for our treats. They loved that too. We had a really good time together and it was nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful world Heavenly Father has blessed us with.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sammy!

Sam turned 2 years old!

He had a great day with only a few minor 2-year-old fits. But that just kind of goes with it. He really enjoyed opening his gifts and playing with his cousins and aunts and uncles. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us!

We sure do love our little monkey!

Sammy not wanting to hold up his birthday sign.

For the last month or two we have been practicing singing the birthday song and then blowing out imaginary candles. But I was still surprised that he did such a great job when it was actually time for the real thing.

Quoting Kate

Here are some great quotes from our 3 1/2 year old daughter, Kate:

AUG. 2008

Kate: Mommy, my waist hurts.

Mommy: Oh, sorry, are you okay?

Kate (as she walks away): Yeah, it comed out as a toot.

SEPT. 2008

Daddy: Kate, who's faster? Mommy or Daddy?

Kate: I am.

OCT. 2008

Kate walked in after playing outside for a while and asked Daddy:

How do you play dress up with a bug?

OCT. 2008

Kate's version of Rock-A-Bye Baby:

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top

When the wind blows the cradle will rock

When the bough breaks the cradle will fall

And down will come baby...

I will catch you!

The kids and I like to watch The Lawrence Welk Show. Last time we had it on, Kate quickly dressed up and started dancing to Moon River with them. It was so sweet. Afterward, Sammy clapped for her and she took a bow.

Apples to Applesauce

Yeah for more free fruit! Only this time it was apples. I remember helping my mom can applesauce when I was younger but couldn't remember the process without her. My mom recently had foot surgery and she wasn't able to help me can it.

So on Thursday my friend, Sheryl, helped me can applesauce! It was like neither one of us had done it before but it was a great experience and a lot of fun to talk and visit while we made it. I borrowed all of my mom's equipment and we were able to do it all in about 4 hours from set up to take down. And, might I add, it tastes great!

Thanks, Sheryl for all your help and thanks, Mom, for letting us use your stuff!

Congratulations and Welcome to the Family!

My brother, Nathan, married Melanie Dixon on September 20th in the Boise LDS Temple. It was so awesome to be there with all my brothers and their spouses. I am so happy for Nathan and Melanie. They are great together. She is so beautiful and sweet and we are all really excited to get to know her better!

Whenever Kate pretends to talk on the phone it's always to Melanie now. She was SO excited for their wedding day so she could see her new Aunt Melanie's Cinderella "up shoes" (high heels) and her "marry dress."

Welcome to the Williams gang, Melanie!

Good News and Bad News

The Good News is...

Sam learned how to open doors!

The Bad News is...

Sam learned how to open doors.

This means we're all in for a whole new world of trouble with our little guy.

(Sorry the video is sideways.)

Hairs Looking At You

Peachy Keen

This year our stake presidency has challenged each person to can at least 1 jar of peaches; the idea being you can't can just 1 jar at a time. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to do it because I missed getting peaches on time. Well, on Tuesday I got a call from an older brother in our ward telling me he had 3 buckets of peaches he gleaned that had my name on them! And he gave them to us for free! What a blessing! So the next day, I took them over to my mom's house and she helped me can them. We canned about 45 quarts. It was great! My mom had to do a lot of the work because I had all my kids there too and needed to keep them entertained and happy. So I owe her a huge

THANKS!

This is the bin full of peaches we started with.

Say cheese...er, I mean, PEACHES!!!!

Joe was so cool. He was working around my parent's house that day and stopped in to see how things were going. He made sure he canned his jar of peaches too! What a great guy!

My Favorite Kind of Surprise

A couple weeks ago, we found some old rolls of film that had never been developed. We were pleasantly surprised to find out they were pictures of Kate when she was a baby! That is my most favorite kind of surprise!

(Pictures taken October 2005)