Christmas Eve

Happy 6oth birthday, G-Mommy! To celebrate your special day, we each opened a present this morning. And here's what we got! New PJs! We miss you. Can't wait to video chat with you tomorrow....

And now for our real Christmas pictures.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Christmas Letter

My printer broke in the middle of printing my family newsletter last night. Most of you already know everything going on in my life if you read my blog, but....here it is! :)

Dear family and friends,
We miss you all especially this time of year. How we wish we had the time and money to travel around to visit all of you!!! That being said, we are thoroughly enjoying Arizona. Here is a little recap on the past year of our lives.
We recently moved out of our apartment into a little rental home, and we quickly settled in and feel much more at home! We each have our own room. We were able to add a pet to our family. We have a cute little back yard with trees and swings that the kids enjoy every day. We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and we are just down the street from Owen’s school. It is really an ideal location and we are glad to have found it.
Nathan graduated from Arizona State with his MBA in August. He took a 12 day trip to China to study and compare the business practices of their country versus the US. While there, he also studied and compared the authentic cuisine there versus the food at Panda Express. He is still working for T-Mobile and recently opened a new store closer to our house. He works hard every day and still comes home and helps with the kids and household chores, not to mention dealing with all the financial stresses that come our way. He is a wonderful father and husband and is very loved.
Lindsey is still a housewife and recently made her 7th move in 8 years of marriage. She did all of the packing and unpacking (again), not to mention attempting to decorate and make a home out of their latest residence! She cleans houses part time and is still enjoying that, although her body is aging and complains quite often about the physical labor. She loves being a mom and thinks she has the two most interesting and precious children on the planet. She has enjoyed getting involved in Owen’s education and spending some one-on-one time with Hazel. She loves when family and friends come to visit and she can play hostess. She was recently lucky to have a 10 day visit with her mother that involved lots of shopping and bonding! J
Owen is in first grade and is about to lose his third tooth! He is still taking piano lessons and has a great ear for music. He likes to point out when Mommy plays a wrong note on
the piano. He has flourished this year in his new school and has great teachers and classmates. He has acquired an impressive rock collection and says his favorite subject is Science. He loves to dress up as different super heroes. He has been known to wear his Spiderman gloves for days at a time. He has become an amazing reader and likes to read books to his little sister. He is turning into such a handsome, intelligent little boy and we love to watch him grow and learn.
Hazel is three and quite a character! She has a darling little voice with a mysterious Boston accent. She loves to follow her big brother and copy everything he does. She loves to play with her Barbie dolls, her lions and her make-up. She is a little movie buff and will quote her favorite movies at appropriate times throughout the day. One of her favorite lines is from Annie where she puts up her dukes and says “NOW- or you’ll have ME to deal with!” She uses this one often when asking Mommy to do something. It is hard to teach her how to be respectful while laughing hysterically. She definitely keeps us all on our toes.
We feel blessed this holiday season to have a healthy family and to be as secure as we are. We are also blessed to have you all in our lives. We would love to have you visit our blog anytime to get caught up on our day to day lives! www.williamsnfm.blogspot.com
Love,
The Williams
Nathan, Lindsey, Owen and Hazel

Today......

For the first time in a couple of weeks, I had a day to just catch up on life! I steam-cleaned my carpet, organized several problem areas in my house, worked on our Christmas family newsletter, took a walk with Hazel, watched a few shows on my DVR, ate a lot of the sugar cookies we made last night, talked to my mom on the phone, took a good long nap.....

It's been great. There is nothing fantastic to report, no funny stories to tell, but it's just been one of those days where I got to set my own pace and I just don't feel like I get very many of those anymore.

To top it all off, I got to talk to my good friend Dani on the phone tonight. It required a little parental neglect on my part (the kids had an hour long bath), but it was so nice to vent and complain and laugh with her. And oh how her sweet accent made me miss Georgia. I love you, Dani.

And now I am going to post a picture of myself, because I am rarely on my own blog. 30 is getting nearer and I look at my face in the mirror and think "Hey! That's neat. I have a wrinkle for each year!" And you know what? I'm ok with that.

Tidbits

Maybe I just missed Hazel a lot today, and therefore thought everything she said during our car ride home from the babysitter's (aka Aunt Erin) was extra precious. Either way.....thought I would share some tidbits.

"Mom...when we get home can I play on the computer?"
"I don't know, Hazel.....we'll see."
"What does 'we'll see' mean?"
"It means that I won't say yes or no until we get home"
pause.........
"When we get home, can you please say yes?"

Then a few minutes later I could hear her unwrapping a cough drop and I said,
"Hazel, please don't open another cough drop."
(H) "When I was at Aunt Erin's house I ate my whole cough drop."
(Me) "That's not what I heard! I heard that you spit it out."
(H) in a shocked voice "Did Aunt Erin tell you that?!?!"
(Me) "Yep"
(H) "That was supposed to be a secret!"


Later, while listening to the Lion King soundtrack she said
"Is this the part where grown-up Simba sings with Timone and Pumba?"
(me) "Yes"
(hazel) "I wish I could be in their world."

You be the judge

Which does Hazel like more....

GRAPES...

OR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES?

O Tannenbaum

Our Christmas is destined to be spent amidst piles of boxes and paper. And I don't mean because we have a lot of presents. In fact, we have yet to purchase a single thing! I mean because we pulled out all our decorations and just can't seem to get around to putting them out. We have all been sick and Nathan and I have both been working every day. I don't think I have ever in my life lived in such squalor....and not done a thing about it!

However, we did finally decorate the tree this week. Is anyone else finding it difficult to get into the holiday spirit?

Here's Hazel's section of the tree. So typical...I know. But still precious.

Picture Day

I love my kiddos. They were such good sports for these pics. It only required one good screaming fit from me and we were good to go!

Gross.....

I know I just posted some randomness today, but I forgot this funny story. Okay....I don't know if funny is the appropriate word. You be the judge.

Some of you are already aware of our cat puke situation. So- the cat pretty much always stays outside now.

Anyway- I got up early today and got the kids ready so Nathan could sleep in on his day off. Then I shooed them outside to play until I was ready to leave. After about 30 minutes of them being outside, we jumped in the car to take Owen to school, and I threw them some bagels to eat on the way.

Halfway to school, Owen turned to Hazel and said "Hey, Hazel.....remember how there was that big pile of puke outside from Carly and you put your fingers in it?"

Yep- those we be the same fingers with which she was eating her bagel.

Randomness.....

That's what you get for needing a place to sit.

Asleep in the "nest" in Mom and Dad's room. Looks like she had a rough day!

Owen lost another tooth.

Just a two second video of Nathan making TJ laugh. Would be longer but my camera battery died as soon as I started.

It's Time...

I have been complaining for the past month or so that I keep gaining weight. I have literally gained 10 lbs. over the past couple of months, but I keep telling myself I look great and living in denial.

Then today at church someone called me pregnant.

So I am officially proclaiming to all that I am starting a diet TODAY! And I am crying on the inside.....maybe that will get rid of a little water weight.

:(

Gobble Gobble...

So....we had a pretty typical T-day here. Family...lots of great food....football....falling asleep....and then the night ended with Chris putting his fist through the window. Same ole, same ole. Year after year we all drink a little too much cider and things just get out of hand.


The morning started with my cat puking on the back porch and then eating it. I thought I would spare you all, so I didn't take a picture of that.

Then my kiddos colored pictures to put on the front door.

After that Nathan and Owen headed off to play football with the church folk.

Hazel and I stayed home to be all domesticated. We decorated and cleaned and cooked to prepare for our company.

Then some of the people I am most thankful for gathered around the table to eat lots of good food.

Then we got ready for the game. Go Cowboys!

The game was so good that all the boys fell asleep.

Then we decided to take a walk and work off some of those turkey calories. Being the genius that I am, I locked us all out of the house. :) So we were all trying to find a way in the house, and to make a long story short....Chris tried to slide open a window and his hand went right through it. I can't say I'm surprised since our windows are the crappiest, thinnest, single pane windows in the world, but I have to say it was pretty darn scary. I heard the shatter and went running around the corner expecting to find a bloodied carcass (ok that's a little extreme, but it was scary). So now you know the story. It wasn't Chris' insane temper that caused the break, and he wasn't too bloody. Just a few scratches. What a way to end the evening. :)

A whole lot of nothing..

I'm back! We haven't had internet for a while. It's crazy how much of my life revolves around the computer. Thankfully I was at least able to check my email on my phone....otherwise I would have gone completely crazy.

Anyway- like I said. I'm back.....with absolutely nothing interesting to say. So- here are some of the non-interesting things I can share:

We've been doing a lot of yard work lately in preparation for the bulk trash pickup in our area. I'm really trying to find ways to improve our yard and our house's curb appeal without spending any money.

I realize you can't see it, but there is a huge flowering bush that was taking over our front porch, so I put up this lattice (that I found behind the shed). It still needs to be boarded up on one side so that it stands up straight, but at least we can get in the front door now, and I think it will look much prettier to train it to grow up something.

We finally got our palm trees trimmed!!! We have been complaining since we moved in about how hideous and trashy they looked, but weren't willing to pay $100 per tree to have them trimmed. We literally had someone stop by every day and ask if they could trim them. Or if we weren't home they would leave a card on our door. I just kept saying "Sure- for $20 each!" and they would laugh and drive away. I guess someone came by that was desperate enough and he agreed to my lowball price! I wish I had taken a before picture, but maybe the huge pile at the curb will give you some idea of how bad they were! We have two other smaller palm trees that I trimmed myself with a little hand saw....it was very time consuming.

I took the kids to a park on Saturday that we had never been to. We fed the ducks our leftover McDonald's. I had no idea ducks ate meat, but they devoured Hazel's cheeseburger!

Hazel was literally just a few inches from this duck and he just sat there. Creepy.


They were having some kind of old timey car convention thingy. I thought these cars were cute.

Just a sweet moment. I love when they pretend to love each other.

I know this slide doesn't look like much, but it was REALLY fast and Owen and Hazel each went down it about 25 times. They acted like it was an awesome roller coaster or something.

JUST KIDDING

Just in case you didn't see my facebook post....I love Judy Grimes

Danger to your Derriere

We have a piece of crap chair that the seat falls out if you move the wrong way.

We have a daughter that throws crazy almost epileptic fits about just about everything. In this case, she was sitting in said chair playing on the computer and I told her it was time to turn it off.

This is the result:

A little dirt never hurt...

This post is for all you who claim that my house is always spotless. Owen apparently got hold of my camera and took a few pictures of our family room. I decided I will swallow my pride and show these pictures just to prove that I am not as clean as you all think.

Fingerprints and dust all over the TV

stained pillow case

dusty candles

cluttered desk

And if you are wondering....yes- I did immediately go clean all of these things because I was mortified to see how gross it all looked! :)

Loose... Looser...Lost!

You know how you have a brand new jar of (pickles, spaghetti sauce, jelly, jalapenos, whatever else comes in a jar...) and you are twisting and tapping and shaking and banging and panting and straining and screaming but you just CAN'T GET IT OPEN?!?!?! Then so and so saunters into the room and pops it right open without even flinching. Doen't that make you furious? I don't know if this is really the best analogy, but that's kind of how I feel about Owen's tooth. I have been wiggling it for WEEKS hoping to get it out, and then in the extremely rare moment that I am gone for an hour while Nathan is home with the kids, it pops right out while he is brushing Owen's teeth. *sigh*

Oh well. At least I got to play tooth fairy. :(

He's on the phone with Aunt Meredith telling her that the tooth fairy only brought him "one buck!"

G-Mommy brings us an early Christmas!

This is my third post today, so scroll down if you care to (that doesn't include you, Claire)!

G-Mommy wanted to go ahead and get the kids their Christmas presents while she was here so she wouldn't have to deal with shipping. And we definitely didn't hear any complaints from Hazel and Owen. She did end up having to order Owen's online, which was a portable DVD player, so he opened a piece of paper, but he was still pretty thrilled when he realized what it was...and even more thrilled when it arrived!



Santa

A new Dora bike!!!

Thank you G-Mommy!!!

What is this?!

Looking at a picture of the DVD player

We were sad to see you leave, too! :(