It's 2009!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. We really didn't do anything extraordinary- just hung out as a family! It was fun though. We all slept in (as much as a 3 month old would allow!) and took it easy. We watched movies and football and played games. It was hard doing anything outside since it was freezing cold and snowing a ton- so most of our activities were indoors. The kids all did well though- thanks to all the new toys and games from Christmas! Here are several pics of our holiday...

Hailey's Alphabet Medley

This just cracks me up. She loves to sing.

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Well, really, it's tomorrow, but I wanted to post this tonight in case I don't have time before Adrian gets up. It's our anniversary! 7 years has gone by in the blink of an eye. So in honor of today, I'll give a brief re-cap of our story...

Did anyone know Adrian and I actually went to elementary school together? Kinda funny, huh? We knew of each other then, but really didn't meet until high school. He was dating a friend of mine and we ended up hanging out a lot. Just after we graduated in 1998, we decided to go on a date and had an amazing time. We dated for the next year, then Adrian left on his mission. We wrote every week...sometimes more! It was hard being apart, but our reunion two years later was so sweet. Adrian proposed on September 29, 2001 and we got married just 2 1/2 months after that!

Now, 7 years later I love him even more. It's amazing how the experiences and challenges of life have brought us so much closer. Four pregnancies, three kids, two degrees, three homes, and many vacations, jobs and callings later, here we are. I am so blessed to be his wife. I love you Adrian, thank you for seven wonderful years...with the promise of an eternity more!

My baby is 2 months old!

Colin is 2 months old already! Can you believe it?! I can't!


This won't come as a surprise to anyone, but Adrian and I have wee little kids. LOL. Colin is following suit as at 2 months old he's a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz (4th %) and 22 1/4" long (9th %). Poor kid. He's very healthy though! He's such a cutie- smiling and cooing. I can tell he's going to start laughing soon too, which is so much fun!


Here's a cute pic. Thomas loves reading to him.

Happy Thanksgiving & Colin's Blessing Day

Whew! What a busy last couple of weeks it has been. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with zero pictures to show for it, so you'll just have to take my word on it! I was kind of sad when I realized we hadn't taken a single picture of Colin's first holiday, but I guess stuff like that happens- we were too busy with our 3 kids to take pictures of our 3 kids! We had a nice time though. We had a great time with Adrian's family who came to stay with us. Hailey was the first grand daughter, but was followed closely by 2 others and so it's really fun to have the girls all together. With them all nearing 2, they're finally starting to interact and it's so funny to watch. The first pic is of all the grandkids on Adrian's side of the family. The last pic is a group shot of most of the family there for Colin's blessing day. Funny part is- Colin's not in it- he was napping (as was his cousin Claire...)

The most wonderful part of the last 2 weeks was Colin's blessing day. Adrian blessed him last Sunday, November 30th. Although the circle was small, the spirit was incredible and we are so thankful for the family members who were able to be there. The neatest part was after Adrian sat down with Colin. He was wide awake and just starting flashing the biggest grins an 8 week old baby can flash. All those in the immediate vicinity saw him smile up at his Dad and it was hard to contain the tears. If I could sum up the moment in a word it would be this: Joy. I am so grateful for my family. We have been so blessed and moments like this just remind me of that.

Here are some pics we got of Colin's Blessing Day.

It's a Sickness...

For all those who don't know this about me- I LOVE to cook. Really. Yes, it's hard when I've got 3 kids and a household to take care of, but really, I still love it! Some people read classic literature... I read cookbooks and cooking magazines! I admit, sometimes I spend hours and hours cooking a Sunday dinner. Like I said before, it's a sickness...

We have a bunch of family coming into town next week and I've been thinking about meals for a good week now. Hmmm....what to make??? I found a recipe for sweet potatoes in the crock pot that sounds yummy. (See recipe HERE) I also just picked up a 17 lb turkey at Albertsons for .38/ lb!! Not bad! No, I'm not hosting the actual Thanksgiving dinner but apparently now, I'm cooking a turkey. No biggie- cooking a turkey is easy. My mother-in-law made this great chili last time she was here, so add that to the list.

But for everything else, I've been scouring my cookbooks and allrecipes.com for anything that sounds GOOD. I'm always on the lookout...so feel free to share!

I'll share one of Adrian's favorites, it's a REALLY easy treat:

Poor Man's Turtles

1 bag of Rollos candy
1 bag of mini pretzels
pecan halves

Put a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap Rollos. Lay out pretzels on parchment paper. Put a Rollo on top. Cook for 4 minutes. Right after you take them out, gently press a pecan halve into each Rollo. Cool and enjoy!

Who does Colin look like??

Who do you think Colin looks like?

Dad?

Mom?

Thomas?

Hailey?

Smile!!

So the past few days Colin has had several "almost" smiles, and finally today (4.5 weeks old), he gave me a super cute gummy grin! I love it! Makes all the challenges that come with the first month of a newborn's life so worth while. Thankfully, I was able to catch a few cute grins on camera...enjoy!

Catching Up!

Sorry I've been MIA...although I do have a good excuse! Adjusting to life with 3 kids has been interesting to say the least! Some things are harder than I anticipated...others easier, but overall, I'd say it's gone pretty well so far. And hey- I've made through the first 4 weeks and everyone is still smiling, that's got to mean something!

My mother-in-law has been here for the past 2 and she's been such a tremendous help. The kids already miss her. She left early this afternoon and already Thomas has asked 3 times, "How many weeks until Grammie comes back?" I take that as a good sign though. It was fun having her here.

So I'm on my own (again) come Monday and am feeling pretty confident about it. At least now I have a huge bowl of Halloween candy to help me feel better if I have a bad day! Tee hee!

Here are tons of pics from the last few weeks!! I'll try to give some descriptions...

These first few are from the snow storm we got a few weeks ago. Adrian and the kids built a Halloween snowman. Too bad my husband is a Mechanical Engineer and not a Civil Engineer. The snowman only lasted an hour until he face planted into the grass...hahahahahha!

Impressive wingspan!

Colin all ready for church on Sunday. Isn't the outfit so cute? Courtesy of Grammie of course!

Colin's first bath!

Going to the pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins!

It's pretty bad when your husband busts out the power tools to carve his pumpkin...

Hailey dressed in her Princess costume. A princess costume isn't complete without the cell phone!
Williams kids' Halloween pics- Thomas the Spiderman, Hailey the princess and Colin the pumpkin. Super cute! We had a fun time Trick-or-treating.

Skinny Legs & SNOW!

Colin is 1 week old today- time sure flies when you're... sleep deprived! Hahaha- no really, this past week has been pretty great. The kids LOVE Colin and are so willing to help. Colin is a fantastic nurser and with all I'm feeding him, I'm sure he's growing, although it's not very apparent yet! He has the skinniest legs! And the tiniest little feet! They're so cute. So far, I'd have to say that going from 2 to 3 kids is a lot easier than going from 1 to 2. Granted, it's only been a week, but Thomas and Hailey play so well together, when Colin is sleeping (which is all the time!) I find I have a lot of time to rest, clean up the house, etc. It's surprising to me since I felt like a complete mess for at least a couple weeks after Hailey came!! Colin just seems to fit right in to our family. And, in celebration of Colin's first week, we all decided it should SNOW! Ha! As if we have a say in that! This is what we woke up to this morning. Since we're somewhat close to the Great Salt Lake, we get a lot of lake effect snow. We decided we should add 2" to whatever the weatherman says we're going to get! The kids and I love it... Adrian, well, not so much! At least it didn't stick to the pavement- no shoveling this morning! My poor garden though- zuchinni plants do not like snow! We tried to cover up the peppers, we'll see if they make it.

COLIN IS HERE!!!!

We'd like to introduce our newest member of the family to you all- Colin Keoki Williams arrived early Sunday morning weighing in at 5 lbs 14 oz and 19.5" long. Another tiny baby- I guess we just don't make linebackers!

I had false labor the night before, so when contractions started late Saturday evening, I was convinced it wasn't the real thing. An hour later (around midnight), although still sporadic, the contractions had gotten VERY intense. I hopped in the tub- which felt much better...but the contractions were still very intense. At 1am, I called my midwife. She advised that I wait another 15-20 minutes, then come in. Knowing we had a 15 minute drive, we decided to get ready and go!

Kory came over to stay with the kids and we got in the car at about 1:30am. At this point, contractions were about 8-9 minutes apart. The next contraction came 6 minutes later...then the next 5 minutes later...then 3 minutes later...thank heavens we arrived at the hospital then! We didn't even park- we just pulled right up to the door and left the car there. I requested a room with a tub as I was planning on going all natural and it had helped so much at home. So we had to walk around Labor & Delivery a few minutes before finding one with a tub. Finally got to my room at 1:47am. Immediately had to go to the bathroom...and when I did my water broke...and I felt the most insane urge to push...so I did! I couldn't help it! At that point the room flooded with nurses and 2 scooped me up and brought me to the bed. I pushed once more and Colin crowned. The midwife came running in just in time- I pushed again and Colin was born! He arrived at 1:51 am- less than 10 minutes after we arrived at the hospital and only 4 minutes after we got to our room!! It was an incredible experience- Adrian and I still can't believe how it all happened. I am so happy I got my natural childbirth experience...although I would have had one regardless being as I didn't have time to put on a hospital gown, much less get medication!
We came home today and are doing great. Colin is a fantastic nurser and the kids are so in love with him! Here are some pics...

39 weeks- only 7 days until my due date!

Wow- can you believe I made it this far?! I can't! Having never made it past 38 weeks, I thought I'd feel incredibly anxious and pretty frustrated by now...but I don't! I think having 2 kids at home really takes your mind off things. We've just been going about the usual weekly business and every so often, throughout the day, I stop and remember- I could have a baby at any moment- YIKES! I'm pleased to have made it to October- now all our kids have different birth months. All things aside- I'm doing pretty well. The last few days I've had lots of contractions and cramping- and I did find out this morning that I'm now dilated to a 2- so I guess that's progress from last week! Baby Colin is doing great- obviously very cozy in there! The midwife said he still feels small, so even though the ultrasound from 2 weeks ago said 6 lbs 14 oz...I seriously doubt this baby will break 7 lbs!

So the waiting continues! We do have a cold front moving in on Friday, so maybe that will put me into labor?!

Here's my belly...I'm measuring small...but feel big!