Sweet

Reagan told me this morning as we were eating breakfast "Mom, I would love you even if you were made of paper." Then she gave me a big hug and kiss.

Reagan

Reagan and I were playing ball on the driveway the other day.  We were bouncing and rolling and throwing the ball back and forth to each other.  I was being silly and tossing it crazy ways each time I rolled it to her.  She turned around and rolled it to me backwards between her legs.  I sat down and cupped my hands and the ball rolled right into my hands.  She was so impressed with this and said

"Wow Mom, you're really really good at this game!"

I, of course, said my humble thank yous, feeling like an awesome mom.

Then she said "You're not the best though.  Jesus is better than you at everything."

Christmas

Christmas came and went.  I love the Christmas season and the spirit it brings, but this year I was glad to have it over.  I took down my decorations the day after Christmas and it was nice to have my house back to normal and uncluttered.  It made me happy.

Liam got me this book of Christmas carols at his school library book sale.  It was fun to see how thoughtful he was.  

We do take the kids to the store before Christmas and they draw names and buy each other gifts.  I love how excited they are to see their recipient open their gift they picked out just for them.

A steering wheel cover for Cameron.  Wahoo!!  

We got the kids an X-Box 360 and Erin got her own controller.

Liam with his gift from Owen, a giant drawing pad.  

Liam, finally realizing there was an X-Box in the corner.

 

Owen with his marble run.

 

Reagan Roo.

We just kind of lazed around and played with toys and piano and played board games all day.

The boys enjoyed their gaming.

The kids took over the decorating of the tree and the living room this year.  It looked pretty good with the lights off.

With the lights on, however, it looked like the kids decorated it.  I loved it!  I did have Cameron hang a few ornaments on the very top where they couldn't reach.  I love that my kids feel like they are part of the decorating.  

We tried to make it a fun time for everyone.  Each child got to pick something they wanted to do for the Christmas season.  It could be fun, or a service we did or whatever they wanted.  I asked them what they think of when they think of Christmas and we tried to do whatever they wanted.  I think I'd rather have the memories and feeling of Christ's birth be associated with Christmas for them rather than the presents.

Since October...

I pulled the pictures off my phone finally and got some pictures of things we have been doing.

 Yes, this is October.  This is when we went to the pumpkin patch.

 It's a yearly tradition we have.  Reagan was the one who remembered it from last year and decided it would be a fun thing for us to do.

It took some time for the kids to each pick their perfect pumpkin, but they all got there in the end.

Reagan's Halloween program.  She sang four songs and recited some poems.  

Owen's Halloween program.  He sang about 24 songs and had props to go with a lot of them.  I'm a little sad I only have one more chance to see this program.  It is one of my favorites.

We had a Halloween breakfast with the Millers, Traedens and Rhoin and Murphy at Julie's house.  I think that should become a new tradition too.  It was really fun.

The girls and I took Maria and we all had a girls night to see Disney on ice.They had a good time.

We saw Toy Story...

Tinkerbell...

The Little Mermaid...

Cars, here's Lightning McQueen...

and Mater...

and Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  

Cameron and Liam went with our neighbors to a Jazz game.

It was fun for the boys to go.  Ayden was Liam's friend who went with them and I think the boys kind of bonded over the game.

Cameron and Rick having their picture taken unbeknownst to them.

Here's a couple more Thanksgiving photos I took.

Liam fulfilling his dream of eating a whole turkey leg.

The smaller grand kids built a fort in Grandma's living room.  They had the air mattresses up against the doorway and fortified it with pillows.  They hung this sign on the outside.  It says "What is the password!   Barge in and die."

These are pictures of us getting our Christmas tree.  Erin really wanted to have her picture taken.  See?

The 2014 Williamsen Christmas tree.

We went to "A Christmas Carol" at Hale Center Theater with most of the adults in my family.  We had about 31 or so people there.  

It was a really fun way to kick off the Christmas season.

We went to the Conference Center to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing with the Sesame Street Muppets.

Maria and Kyle got in with their family too.  They are way over to the right in this picture.  You can't really see them.  Owen's favorite part was Count Von Count playing with the organist.  Reagan thought it was a little boring and the older kids enjoyed it too.

We went and put luminaries on Lee's grave and sang some Christmas songs for him. 

And that's about it.  

That brings us to Christmas.  That will be my next post.