Our Halloween Tradition

Despite the craziness of life, one tradition has been consistent since the birth of my eldest. A few weeks before Halloween, we meet our dear friends for costume shopping and donuts! This year was no exception. Although much has changed since that first Halloween...

Here are our ladybugs...their first Halloween (unbelievably, 5 years ago)!

And here are our little ladies today!

I am thrilled that our girls are such great buddies because their mommas are old and dear friends! We know each other from days when we both had big hair and rusty old cars! And now that our hair has a few gray strands and our cars are SUVs and minivans, there's something magical in watching our girls pretend, play, and laugh together.

Through the years we've picked out ladybugs, puppy dogs, cows, princesses, clowns, pumpkins, dinosaurs...but this year...the girls had their own ideas about what they wanted to be! You'll have to wait until Halloween to see what we ended up with...but the girls are VERY excited with their selections!

Thanks, guys, for the fun morning, the memories, and your friendship...

oh...and the donuts!!

Birthday Wishes...

...to the first man I ever loved.

I love you, dad!!

Hijacked...

So...i hijacked the blog today for a very important reason. You see...every time I open it up I read the opening statement by MB, "This is my attempt at recording for my girls the parts of their childhood that deserve to be remembered!"

Well, this is your daddies attempt to record the attributes of one amazing lady so that years from now you can look back and remember the sacrifices your mamma made for you!

In the spirit of the Top 20 list...here we go.

1. She serves her family with passion and humility.
2. She is the calendar queen. (She spent weeks searching the Internet for the best calendar to help keep us organized) Our family would be chaos without her.
3. She plays a mean game of backgammon.
4. She is the MacGyver of Crafts...If you have any doubt just refer to the hot wheels and paint post.
5. She is a wife, mother, daughter, sister, business entrepreneur, group leader, housekeeper, chef, and supermodel...but above all she is a child of the king who recognizes that God has done it all and nothing she can do will make Him love her more or less.
6. She recognizes and models Godly womanhood for her daughters.
7. She disciplines her daughters with love, grace and consistency in an effort to cultivate heart change as opposed to behavior modification.
8. She loves her husband unconditionally despite his innumerable faults.
9. She can transform pieces of fabric and ribbon into beautiful works of art.
10. She is sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
11. Despite the craziness of the day, she can often be seen on the floor playing little people or reading books to her girls.
12. She is forever a teacher and she has instilled in her girls a love for learning.
13. She is willing to lug all the kids up to the school on Friday nights just so her girls can see daddy for a few minutes.
14. She is purposeful about identifying and meeting the needs of other people.
15. She is smokin' hot!
16. She is a tireless learner. Books, blogs, magazines...you name it. She wants to know more.
17. She is passionate about being a stay at home mom and despises the question, "do you work or do you stay home?"
18. She is the most unselfish person I have ever met. She gives of her time and energy from the moment she wakes up.
19. She can feed the baby, make dinner, keep the kids occupied, and answer e-mails all at the same time.
20. She earnestly desires that her girls will have a personal, intimate relationship with their heavenly father.

love you baby!

yb

#7

#7 on my favorites list (which is in no particular order, by the way) was, "Jammin'". This is what the girls call singing along to their favorite songs. The current favorite, by far, right now is "Lord I Lift Your Name on High"...by one of our favorite groups: Go Fish! If you've never heard of Go Fish, check them out--they are on our Christmas list every year!

Without further ado: here are Ella Grace and Annabelle jammin'! Sorry the video is wiggly--we were in the car--and, no I wasn't driving!

Thanks, Anna, for the idea for this post!

My Top 20

Tagged by Sarah, so here goes:

1. our new house
2. vacations
3. our church
4. our small group (love you girls...and guys!)
5. blogging (reading & writing)
6. brownie cheesecake ice cream from Hilton Head Ice Cream
7. jammin'
8. my mom's biscuits-n-gravy
9. the color of katie's eyes
10. sitting on the front porch with my sweetheart
11. annabelle's laugh
12. reading to my girls
13. naps
14. ella grace signing "i love you!" at least 100 times a day
15. sweet tea
16. hug-a-bugs
17. the smell of freshly bathed kids
18. snuggles
19. date nights
20. watching the kids play when they don't know i'm watching

That took some thought! Tagging three: Beth, Lissa, and Shana

Funny Kid Words...

Do your kids have everyday words that they say wrong every time they say them?

Both Ella Grace and Annabelle pronounce lasagna -- "Basagna" -- and repeat it louder each time you try to correct them.

The other funny one is lemonade -- pronounced -- "Lenomade". One of their favorite movies is Boz, the Green Bear. He sings a song about making lemonade; this is how it sounds at our house: "...making lenomade; we love, we love, we love, making lenomade..." Every time!

So fun!

***Had to add this one that they used tonight and reminded me of: whenever they are saying something "used" to be a certain way they both always say "nused". What is that?***

Seven Month Stats

• Weight: 40%
• Height: 20%
• Head Size: 70%

That's a Williams' baby!

Happy 7 months, Katie Girl!

Remembering 9/11

Do you remember where you were on this day a few years ago, or was it a lifetime ago? Could you ever forget? I was teaching and it took until second period for me to hear that someone had crashed a plane into one of the WTC towers. So much has changed since then both in the world and in my world.

Ella Grace announced upon coming home from school yesterday that "Today is Wednesday, the 10th of September. And tomorrow is Thursday, September 11!" I looked back at her when she said that date to see if she flinched like I did. Of course, she didn't. It's just another day for her, and I love that it is...for now, just another day for my girls. I love the innocence that is theirs in not knowing.

But because I know...I hug a little tighter today. I'm a little more protective. I look at their sweet blue eyes and I see hope. Not hope in the future or in their accomplishments or in the fact that there may one day be a woman in the oval office. The hope that in the midst of this mess we call life, God is still at work! Yes, He's at work in the world at large and in the country we proudly call ours...but more than that He is at work changing my heart to look more like His, rescuing me from me...

I remember where I was September 11th, 2001. Thankfully, I'm not in the same place.

Before & After

Remember this picture from a few days ago?

Ella Grace's school bag this year was supposed to be a plain white canvas bag. Today she came home with this:

See her bag--no longer plain white?! I think now it's become something this momma will save forever! I love it and I'm proud of my little artist!

Do We Shop Too Much?

Ella Grace's version of "She'll be Comin' Around the Mountian":

Oh, we'll all go out to Sears when she comes,
Oh, we'll all go out to Sears when she comes,
Oh, we'll all go out to Sears, We'll all go out to Sears,
We'll all go out to Sears when she comes!

The First Day and Other Things I Want to Remember

Ella Grace started school today! She was a little nervous, but once we got to the classroom door she kissed me, both her sisters, and headed bravely in! You make your momma and daddy proud, Baby Girl! Mrs. Hamilton, take care of our baby...we're praying for you!

On the way to school (we have many of our deepest and most theological discussions in the car; have you noticed this yet?), the girls were talking about Heaven. Their conversation wandered around to what animals would be in Heaven and Ella Grace announced that dinosaurs would be there! That led to making "roaring" sounds and so I asked them what would be different about the animals in Heaven. We talked about how all the animals would be friendly in Heaven and that the lion would lay down with the lamb and wouldn't hurt it and that kids could play with lions and tigers, on and on...here was Annabelle's very serious response:

"Momma, could you carry me when we get there so the lion won't bite my bootie off?"

On another note, about halfway through our morning, Annabelle started missing her big sister and best pal! So she said, "Mom, let's pray for Ella Grace." Mmmmm! My heart was blessed! One of our prayers for our girls is that they will grow up the best of friends! You, also, sweet, funny Annabelle, make your momma and daddy so proud!

A Favorite Painting Activity!

In case you, like me, are always looking for something fun, educational and...well...time consuming to do with your kids, I thought I'd share one of our favorite ways to paint--with cars!

It's easy! Just squirt some paint on paper and let the kids roll their cars through the paint.

Their favorite part is creating a carwash when we're finished! Today we used the water table, but the sink works great too!

The result? A masterpiece & happy (fairly clean) kids!

Baby Parts

Baby Face

Baby Belly Button

Baby Feet

Baby Bootie

Baby Ears

Baby Profile

Baby Mine!