Monday, August 25, 2008

BACK TO WORK!

Have I actually gone this long without blogging? Wow! Well...obviously my vacation was so busy I couldn't blog, that is a good thing! Here is what we did for the rest of our vacation:

1) James and I went to Brian Regan show (he is a comedian) at Thanksgiving Point in Utah, it was funny(duh)! Then we stayed at the Little America hotel in a HUGE corner tower room! It was so much fun. Of course I forgot my camera (because that's my trademark) for the show, but I got great room pictures. Oh, and I did get my apples from the Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory! It was also our 12Th Anniversary! I just have to say that I love being married to James... he's the bomb!

2) It was my birthday! I turned thirty something and had such a fun time with my family! I got a Kitchen Aid! Yahoo! Now maybe I can try to cook something, or at least mix something to cook. I asked for a butler or chef but they were too expensive, so I got the tools to do it myself. I have wanted a Kitchen Aid for a long time, so it was really sweet of James and the kids to get me one! I love them!

3) Went river swimming to the St. Anthony Sand bar with Travis and Amanda (James' brother) and their kids. We all had tons of fun. What kind of Idaho hicks would we be if we didn't teach our kids to swim in the river or canal? This is no ordinary river swimming though, it has a water slide and everything. It's nothin' like the canal with a dead cow floating by that I grew up with! What a little gem! I thought it was cool. There were little fish swimming all around the kids feet, it was funny! The kids were all so cute!



4) We ate and ate and ate and ate and ate! We ate our body weight in ice cream alone. Needless to say I am on a strict diet and exercise regimen now! This makes me postal too, so watch out!


5) THE KIDS WENT BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! This has brought back a little peace and friendliness to our home! The good thing is they are at a free babysitter and they aren't getting any dumber (I hope)! They are happy too-well, sort of! Here are their reactions to returning to school! My reaction was cartwheels and fireworks!





Oh yeah, we watched the Olympics a lot too. I know rules to swimming and gymnastics scoring now, what the heck? I mostly liked it though, and not because of the guys in tights or speedos either!
Hasta La Vista Baby!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Day 2 vacation

These are pictures from the camp out the other night. It went surprisingly well! James slept on the ground on an old mattress. He didn't want to get kicked all night. I opted out this time!



This may be too exciting for some people to handle: consider yourself warned!!!!

Day 2:
*cleaned the very messy house
*James went to work for 2 hrs.
*went to Perkins for dinner-saw my Grandma there
*went to Iona park for a little while
*drove to the top of the little hill by our house
*watched Averi jump on the trampoline
*ate ice cream
*watched Olympics
*went to bed
This is the "hill" that we conquered!

This is my favorite tree-it is next to our patio and it gives me great shade when I am sitting and watching the kids jump. I love it, and it loves me too!
Averi loves the trampoline!

Monday, August 11, 2008

VACATION SMACATION!

James is taking off 2 weeks vacation. Some of you may be very jealous right now, but wait...we aren't actually going on vacation, we are staying home! To him this is good, he can be home instead of at work. To me it is better than being the only parent home all day, but it is still my workplace if ya know what I mean! Anyway, I want to keep everyone posted on what to do on "home vacations" just in case we inspire you to take one! YEAH RIGHT!

Oh yeah, I am already finished with Breaking Dawn, so now I have nothing to read! It was great though. I read it in 4 days.
DAY 1:
First, I was serenaded by Averi:
(don't forget to pause my tunes first)

This is one of the reasons we like her so much!

(I decided after viewing this video that I am going to make periodic posts about Averi's versions of songs. You know how sometimes you get song lyrics totally wrong and you laugh at what you thought it said? Well...this is how every song is to Averi- ie: Hankey Doodle. I crack up all of the time when I hear them.)

Next came our adventure to the zoo! It was so nice out, not too hot, but for some reason all of the animals were being lazy. It made me want a nap too. I was especially fascinated with the ostrich eggs because quite frankly; they are big eggs and they are cool-James made fun of me for it! The monkeys were so cute, I think they thought they are the observers and we are the animals at the zoo. We got a sno-cone on the way home-this made my day, I love sno-cones so much (especially with ice cream in them)! Not too bad of a day I guess!


Lazy animals! These pelicans were like statues.


We love to groom goats in our spare time! Have you ever noticed that goats have rectangle eye thingies? Weird! Cats eyes go vertical, goats go horizontal (I know that doesn't even probably make sense, but humor me!)! James says they are evil! I think they are like cute little puppies-that reak!!!!


I liked the ostrich eggs they are freakin' huge!

We got to bring home our own hatch lings!



Averi bonding with the little poo flinging monkey! They have a lot in common.
*Tonight might be back yard camping! Uh Oh! I can already tell how this is gonna go! I'll keep you posted!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Ave!

There is a cute slideshow of her at the bottom of this page!


Today is our sweet little miracle girl Averi's Birthday! I can't believe she is 6 years old already, it is crazy! We can't imagine our family without her. Since it is her birthday I thought I would let her do a few of her favorite naughty things like:

1) flush the toilet a few times
2) feel my neck while I am singing
3) watch the same episode of Gerald McBoing Boing over and over and over again
4) play the piano full volume without the headphones on
5) walk on her tip toes without reminding her not to do it
6) listen to only her songs in the car
7) jump on my bed and the couch
8) take as long of a bath as she wants and keep refilling it with warm water for her
9) lick the t.v. screen while she watches Gerald McBoing Boing
10) run around the house for a few minutes in the buff

FUN TIMES AT THE WILLIAMS RESIDENCE!

These are simple things that give her so much pleasure, it could be a lot worse! She is excited to turn 6. I will add pictures later, but since it's her birthday, I will show off her sweet piano skills (not one day of lessons either) with this little video ( I had to tell her to play regular happy birthday because she has many different Averi versions)! remember to push pause on the music player first
Honestly...what could be more fun than ice cream
cones and amusement parks for your 6th birthday?






Monday, August 4, 2008

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES! YIKES

O.K., this will be short, I promise! I just have a funny story to share. Yesterday at church our Bishop talked about dangers of pornography and stuff similar to it for children. We have also been told to talk to our kids about the "birds and the bees" close to the age of baptism, so that they hear it from you and not on t.v. or from friends. Well, last night we did that with our kids (yes at the same time). It was so funny:

1) James drew pictures of everything, and I mean everything! What an artist!

2) Christian and Taylor kept looking at us like we were totally crazy!

3) When James explained to them how to make a baby I busted up laughing so hard! I couldn't help it!

4) We kept it very "matter of fact" and "medical", but it was still freaking me out that we were talking to our kids about that stuff. I kept covering my mouth from being in shock and from trying to not go into laughing seizures.

5) I feel like we corrupted our kids, but I want them to feel comfortable coming to us, and not learning things from the wrong people.

6) How else do you explain to kids what pornography is?

7) And lastly this was the only way to answer their question of why it was o.k. for us to see each other without our clothes on, because they thought we were being bad changing in the same room! I guess they got their questions answered! (and then some)








Friday, August 1, 2008

More incoherent food obsessive thoughts by Amber

Sorry, this is longer than I meant it to be! I tend to ramble!
I am so excited because in about 2 weeks James and I are going to go to SLC for our 12TH ANNIVERSARY Woohoo! We are going to go stay in the Little America Tower hotel because the Grand America was 299.00/night-ouch! And...we are going to go see Brian Regan the comedian do a show. I am so excited (did I already say that?)! We are going to go to the Tuscany Restaurant, and then we are going to just relax for a couple of days. I need some time without Averi's toilet water hands on my mouth or neck making me repeat stuff 1000 times a day, and my ears need a break from the constant "that's not fair" contest!

Don't get me wrong! I love my little kiddos, but they are really making me nuts. And of course I will miss them a ton. (P.S.-special thanks to my mom for having the courage to take them on for a couple of days!) I have had the toilet terror summer from H-E-double hockey sticks, and I have not been able to get Averi past stage 3 baby foods yet. Oh well, I just hope she isn't 21 and still having to have her college room mates or her husband feed her by hand and then change her diaper! Ewww! That is wrong on so many levels huh? GROSS!

Speaking of nuts, I forgot to mention one of my most favorite parts of our trip that actually came to me in a dream while I was at the cabin. I think it was the fresh mountain air. I had a dream about the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel apples. I have never been there but a friend of mine brought some back and shared them with me one day and I have wanted one ever since. I totally forgot about them until my very realistic dream. I woke up and I was so excited I told everyone at the cabin and I promised them I would bring back the treasures and share them. So if anyone has had them and has a favorite kind, let me know.

These are not regular caramel apples that you bite into and you are afraid your teeth will get stuck in and fall out, these are special! YUMMY FOR MY TUMMY!

However, they are not figure friendly, so it looks like I need to start exercising again! I took the summer off-smart huh? Now when I go back I will be a blubbering idiot crawling on the ground in agony trying to keep up. I think I am the oldest girl in my class, so that will be my excuse. Exercise Smexercise! I probably gained 5 lbs. just talking about caramel apples, that is the funny joke my body likes to play on me! I have lost and gained the same 10 lbs. at least 100 times. So I guess you could say I have lost 100 lbs.! Cool! That's not even counting the pregnancy weight I have gained and lost. I have probably set world records and don't even know it!

Oh well, it gives me something to obsess over. I can't even imagine waking up and thinking I don't have to lose 30 lbs., so now what I am going to think about! Who knows what new obsessions I would come up with! Scary!