Merry Christmas 2009

For myself to look back on later I am posting my 2009 family Christmas Letter and card. For those of you that didn't get a Christmas card from us this year I either didn't have your address or just plain forgot to send you one. Most likely I didn't have your address in my address book and my brain wasn't working enough to think to ask you for your address. Sorry! We still love you and hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Williams! Hopefully you can click on the crossword puzzle below and have it be bigger. If you want me to have your address to add to my book leave it as a comment.

We finally have an answer

My awesome dad is color-blind and because he is color-blind his daughters are carriers of the color-blind gene. My oldest sister, Jamie, did not have any boys and since boys are typically the ones who get to be color-blind she has no color-blind children. My sister, Tracy, has 2 boys and 2 girls. Both of her boys are color-blind. Then there is me and my sister, Tera, who both started out with girls and now have boys that are old enough to try to figure out if they are color-blind.

It has been a game with us to try to figure out ways to test our boys while they were younger. We would take bright red or orange toys and lose them in the grass or ask if two things looked the same to them. It was hard because they have been learning their colors so you didn't know if they would say the wrong color because they couldn't see it, or because they just got the color name wrong. When we would compare the two boys it looked like TJ was most likely color-blind, but Corban was either a good guesser or I was pretty sure that he wasn't color-blind.

I have wanted to use the color-blind tests for Corban but he doesn't know his numbers very well yet and all the tests I have seen are numbers. Well, my cousin used the following picture on her blog for something and it hit me that Corban would either be able to for sure tell me if he could see a boat or not. So, this morning I called him up and showed him the picture.

He couldn't see anything but a "rectangle full of dots." So, I got online and found the following two pictures that use shapes and asked him what he saw. On the first one he saw a yellow circle and nothing else.
On this one he saw a yellow square and nothing else.
So, there you go. No more wondering and guessing if he can really see the "right" colors or not. My son is definitely color-blind. And it's okay and it's good to know. Tera, now you can use these to test TJ and you can know for sure too!

Gotta love those genes! Thanks Dad!

My Man

I realized that I just kind of mentioned in the last post that it was Bump's birthday on the 30th of last month and left it at that. Well, I can't just leave it at that and thought I would share a few fun pictures of the man I married and tell you a few reasons why I love him so much!

The reason that Brayden's nickname is Bump is because he was supposed to be born in February and decided to be born in November. So, when his dad saw him for the first time he said that Brayden was so small he looked like a little bump on a log. So the family started calling him Bump or Bumper and when I met him in high school that is the only name he went by. Most people didn't even know his real name.

This picture was taken when Bump was a few months old. Don't you love the hat?

This picture was taken in 1979 when Bump was about 4 years old. Isn't he just the cutest thing? His mom made that little suit for him.

Bump's best friend growing up was CJ and they spent many summers up at CJ's family's ranch in Oakley. This picture was taken there.

Bump loves and has always loved basketball. His dad played in high school and college and instilled a love of basketball in each of his boys. Too bad he was such a short kid. . . but that didn't stop him from being fast and a great shooter.
When we met in high school Bump and I were about the same height, seriously! Here is proof - I could never hold him like that now! This was our first high school dance together.
Oh, how styles have changed! This was Homecoming in 1993. I had graduated the year before and this was Bump's senior year.
Bump was called on his mission to the Colombia Bogotá Mission. He left in January 1996. While in Colombia he got Typhoid fever and some other things and got pretty sick. He ended up getting a new call to the Texas McAllen Mission and served most of his 2 years there. He was an awesome missionary!

I was able to be out on my mission at the same time as Bump and what a great way to grow closer through shared mission experiences! Bump got home on December 20th and we were engaged on Christmas, 5 days later. We were married 6 weeks later on February 6th. I thought he looked so dang handsome on our wedding day!

Bump is a huge fly fishing fanatic. When we were first married he would use any excuse to be up fishing. We spent many weekends up in the Uintahs and on other rivers throughout Utah. It is a passion of his and he has had wonderful opportunities teaching others to fly fish and seeing and living in some amazing places because of the talent that he has.

I am pretty sure that I can speak for him when I say that the greatest part of his life now and the thing that he looked forward to the most after we were married was having kids. Bump is the absolute best dad and loves spending as much time as he possibly can with me and the kids. He appreciates them like I never could. I love watching them interact together and to see the kids excitement when their dad walks through the door after work. They know how much he loves them.

He would hate that I included this picture of him, but it's just so him. This is my man. He's the guy that loves video games and goofy t-shirts and can make even the grouchiest person smile. He is patient with me and loves me even with all of my faults. He is happy and good and is such a great example. Happy Birthday, sweetie! Thanks for all the fun!

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

I have been terrible about posting and now that I am finally taking the time to sit down and post I can't find my camera. . . grrrr. Oh well.

We had such a great weekend! Thanksgiving was spent this year with the Wright side of the family and we met at my brother, Lee's, house in Centerville. For pictures of the day you can look here at my sister's blog. It's always a fun and relaxing day when we get together with my brothers and sisters. We had less than half of the family there because everyone lives so far apart, but it was still fun to be with Lee and Trish, Tracy and Steve and Jared and Casi. We missed you Mom and Dad (in Washington), Jamie and Marty (in Nauvoo, IL), Dave and Julie (in California), Tera and Erick (in Germany), and Thad and Kim (in Boston [is that where you are now, Thad?] and Georgia)!

My brother, Dave and his family were supposed to come in from California, but at the very last minute their 2nd daughter had a fever. They took her in to get things checked out, just in case, and found out she had H1N1. Dang it! They couldn't come and then when we called to wish them a happy Thanksgiving we found out that Dave was also sick! Hopefully nobody else in the family gets it!

On Friday we woke up and put up our Christmas decorations! A little early? No, we do it on this day every year. When else would we find the time? We didn't get our Dicken's Village up yet, but got our tree, outside wreaths and window candles up along with all the other inside things. I will post pictures another time (when I find my camera). We had a good day and got a lot accomplished.

Saturday we woke up and got the kids dressed and ready then headed to Bump's parents house. We dropped the kids off there for the day and headed to the BYU/Utah football game in Provo. My little brother, Jared, was able to get a few extra tickets and it was so fun to have a day away from the kids cheering for our favorite team! We went down early and did some tailgating in the east parking lot of the stadium. I say we went down early, but not as early as my little brother. He was there at 7 am with a few other guys. We had some great BBQ'd bratwurst and watched some other football games with the provided tv and satellite dish. It was a bit cold, but we had a great time! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for watching the rugrats for us!!

So, how was the game??? Well, if you are a true fan you would already know and be glad of the outcome! BYU should have won by a few touchdowns, but they decided to keep it close and exciting so they let it go into overtime before they took the win! Hooray! We were definitely on the edge of our seats through most of the game and couldn't have guessed what the outcome would be at any point. I am just glad that we came out with a victory in the end!

Sunday Quincy woke up with a fever and so Bump and I had to do a little switcheroo since I was teaching Gospel Doctrine. He was in meetings early, then conducted Priesthood and then came home. I went and got a few things from the library and taught my class then met Bump outside where he had the kids in the car so he could be there for the start of Sacrament Meeting. It worked well and it is something we have done before. Bump spent the rest of the day at the church doing tithing settlement and I had a pretty relaxing day.

Monday was Bump's 34th birthday so he took the day off and we just hung out at home. He got to relax and play some Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. It was a great ending to a fun, fun weekend!

I can dream

I haven't been anywhere like this before, but right now. . . I want to be there.

Or there. . .
Or there. . .

. . . anywhere without screaming kids, laundry, phones or responsibilities. Where the sun is shining and you have nothing to do but relax. Not to stay forever, but just to have a little break. Doesn't that sound nice?

Ancestors

This past Monday night for Family Home Evening we talked to our kids about family history and our ancestors. I got out my scrapbook and showed our kids pictures of their grandparents (who they know and love), great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents (on my side).

We had a really great discussion explaining to our kids who these people are to them, and why it's important to know about our ancestors. I also made copies of a family coloring book I made for all of my nieces and nephews for a reunion before I had kids of my own. I couldn't believe what a hit it was, especially for Gabby, who loves to color and absolutely absorbed the lesson about her ancestors.

As we were showing pictures of people, I started out with pictures of their grandparents. They thought is was fun to see old pictures of them when they were kids. When I got to their great-grandparents I showed the kids the above picture of my mom's parents who are still living and who the kids know. I wondered if they would recognize them from their wedding photo. I asked the kids if they knew who these people were.

Gabby answered just as serious as could be. . ."Adam and Eve?"

We got a good laugh at that. What a wonderful Family Home Evening!

Halloween

So, here are the pictures that I promised. First, Corban's preschool Halloween parade. Here is the group coming toward us with his teacher, Mrs. Baird leading the group.

And there is our scary skeleton, Corb. He had a perma-grin on his face the whole time! So cute.
Halloween was fun because my parents came into town and got to spend the evening with us. Well, my mom did - my dad went to the UofU football game with my brother instead (that is just so wrong in so many ways!!!) My mom came out trick-or-treating with me and the kids while Bump stayed home to give out treats. The kids had such a fun time and were so excited to have Grandma with them. Sorry I didn't get any pictures with them! Dang it.

Here are pictures from Halloween. Quincy was a penguin and stayed toasty warm (almost a little too warm with all the walking we did).

Corb the skeleton. He has asked since last Halloween if he could be a skeleton and loved putting on his costume any time he had a chance.

Gabby asked if she could be a butterfly. We created this costume for her and she loved it. She didn't want people to think she was a fairy and let everyone know that she was a "beautiful butterfly."
On Friday at work Bump and his friend, Jay, dressed up like H1N1 detectors and destroyers. (???) They had a friend crochet those pig surgical masks for them and went from there. Bump used equipment (a stud finder and flashlight) to "detect" H1N1 particles and then Jay would spray them away (with pressurized air). Bump said that not only did they go all around the office, but also went into some of the surrounding businesses and eradicated H1N1 from the whole area. They had a great time with it, like they always do!

Pre-Halloween Fun

I will post costume pictures later, but I just had to tell you about the week leading up to Halloween.

When I was growing up my parents would take us out the week or two before Halloween to go Reverse Trick-or-Treating. What is Reverse Trick-or-Treating you ask? Well, we got to get in our Halloween costumes and take treats around to our neighbors instead of asking them for treats. It was usually a Family Home Evening activity and any time we got to dress up was an awesome time!

Well, my kids are now old enough to start this awesome tradition. It's actually something that I had forgotten about and when I was thinking about what to do for FHE last weekend I suddenly remembered that great activity. So, I got some treats together and didn't tell the kids what we were doing until the last minute when I told them to go and get their costumes on.

What a great service activity for young kids! The kids learned an important lesson about giving instead of receiving and it was a hoot to see the faces of people that came to the door. Some had a look of sheer panic thinking we were asking for treats and others just wondered what in the heck we were doing in costumes on their front porch. We visited some elderly people and widows, the bishopric and neighbors. We made sure that we didn't stay and interrupt their Family Home Evenings. It usually took a little bit of explaining that we were giving them treats not asking for them and it was nice to let them know how much we love and appreciate them.

I am so grateful for parents that taught me the value of service at a young age. I hope this is a tradition that our kids will look forward to every year at Halloween. It was a really special experience for me this year.

So, that was what we did on Monday night. Tuesday Corban had his preschool Halloween party and parade down Main Street. Lucky for us the preschool is right across the street so we didn't have to go far to watch their little parade.

Corb's teacher sent home a note saying that if it was raining that they wouldn't do the parade. Well, I was just sure they wouldn't do it because that was the day that the temperature totally dropped and it didn't rain - it SNOWED!! And it was really, really cold outside. Well, great lady that she is, when the time came it was not raining or snowing and she braved the cold along with a ton of kids (all 4 of her classes were combined for the actual parade) all bundled up and excited about their costumes. Corban had a great time and loved having yet another excuse to put on his skeleton costume. He LOVES being a skeleton!

On Wednesday I dropped off the two youngest kids at a neighbor's house and went with Gabby to kindergarten to help with her Halloween party. It's kind of a bummer that they don't have the kids dress up at school out here and have a parade through the school or anything like that. I think the PTA does one separately outside of school time. I think this year they are having a children's parade on Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, it was short day, so school was only about 2 hours and they just did some fun Halloween centers and fun activities. I was in charge of making necklaces. The kids strung beads on glow-in-the-dark plastic "thread." They also decorated sugar cookies and ate them with a glass of milk, played Halloween Bingo with M&M's and played some matching games. It was short and fun and I was glad to get to help out. Now the kids are out of school for 2 days because of the end of the term.

Nothing else too exciting happened this week. Bump is dressing up tomorrow at work (along with a co-worker) as a Bio-hazard type of guy with a H1N1 eradication/office sterilization sign on his bio-suit. I will be dressed similarly tomorrow as I scrub my house to get ready for my parents visit this weekend from Washington. What an awesome Halloween! Can't wait for Saturday.

My Halloween House 2009

Wow, we are only about a week away from Halloween and I haven't posted my house decorations for this year yet. What is wrong with me?

So, this year the "theme" for outside was spiders. I created some spider webs out of nylon rope and white yarn and they turned out surprisingly good and were super easy. The spider webs might have to become a tradition since the kids love the big spiders so much. We also hung our scary skeleton guy up above the porch in front of Corb's windows (which we replaced and haven't painted the trim yet. . .) so that he would be more noticeable. His dress/robe things get blown all over during storms, but he has stayed up there really well.

We also have our tombstones out front again, but this year added a few skulls and have them lit at night with the spotlights that we bought for our flags for the 4th of July. The lights are great and light the tombstones and also shine up and light up the spider webs above them so you can see everything at night.

The legs sticking out the dirt is the kids favorite decoration. This year we threw a few extra bones out around the legs also.

Inside we have a few cute things scattered around the house. At the front door I have a cute witch that my sister gave me before she moved and I bought the cute stuffed witches boot from her mother-in-law. It's so much cuter in person!
In the parlor I have hung some creepy cloth over the lamps and added some fall decor to the mantle and put out my cute witches hat that I made at a Relief Society activity.
My neighbor was getting rid of these cute ghosts so I took them and hung them in the dining room for the kids.
The grocery store, across the street, had this fun 2-in-1 Halloween picture. When you look at it one way it is Whistler's Mother.
Then you look at it from another direction it is a spooky Whistler's Mother's Skeleton. I love little surprises like this around the house.
I haven't taken pictures at night, but it looks really cool. Not only are the tombstones and spider webs lit from the small spotlights, but I replaced the front porch light with an orange light bulb. I also put up candles in each window like we do for Christmas, but we used the orange flicker bulbs that make them look old and haunted. Also lining the front walk I have 8 little black iron jack-o-lanterns hanging that hold tea lights, they are in the picture at the top of the post, but they are small and you can't see them very well.

We love Halloween and it is fun to add and change things each year to make it spooky, fun and something to look forward to. Happy Halloween!

Our New Trees

I forgot to post about our new trees! So this is going back to last month, but I just have to tell you about them!

When we bought our house there were these funky bushes on the east side of the house between the house and the road. I say that they were funky bushes because they were actually trees at one time that had been cut down and then started sprouting out of the stumps again. The previous owners trimmed them into "bushes" and that is what we have had. We call them our tree-bushes and had to trim them at least monthly or they would get overly bushy and funny looking. I have been determined to remove them since we moved in. The stumps were rotting and we had problems with wasps trying to live in them - not cool!

Here is a picture of them last summer right after we put our fence in. They were in need of a trim, obviously.

Well, this spring Bump took out one of them pretty easily and we patched the hole with sod - no problem. Then we got busy and didn't get around to the other one until last month.

J&J garden center in Layton had an amazing sale on trees in September and we went one Saturday to check it out. We ended up finding these amazing maple trees for 70% off. We got $140.00 trees for about $40.oo. Woo hoo! So, we finally tore out the other tree-bush and replaced them with 2 gorgeous trees!

They are called Autumn Blaze or Autumn Glory, something like that. The turn a fiery red color in the fall and are absolutely beautiful! I got out and took a picture one day before we lost all the leaves. The one turned color quicker than the other one, but both of them ended up turning that beautiful red color and now have lost most of their leaves. They will get about 40 to 50 feet tall and will shade the house beautifully as well as add privacy between us and the grocery store across the street. It always bothered me that we had an almost 100 year old house, but didn't have large old trees to go with it. I think the house just needs some great old trees! So, even though it will take awhile for them to grow, someday they will be amazing just like our house! I love trees!! Happy fall!

A Bewitching Good Time

Today after I picked up Gabby from school (it was early out day) we went and picked up Grandma Williams and headed out to Gardener Village for a fun afternoon. We haven't had a chance to really enjoy fall yet because we have been sick and Grandma and Grandpa have been sick, so we decided it was time to get out and do something! Luckily Grandma could come with us - Grandpa had another obligation.

Grandma surprised the kids with pony rides first. They each got to pick out their favorite one to ride. And I am sure by their smiles you can tell how much they loved riding the ponies.

Then we spent the rest of the time just walking around and seeing all of their cute witches on display for Halloween. I took this picture for Grandma! :) We got a kick out of her in the outhouse!
Gabby thought that this was a very beautiful witch and really wanted a picture by her. I didn't get pictures of all of the witches because there are just so many really cute ones! The kids loved every one of them.
Grandma also took the kids into the candy shop and let them each pick out 2 things. What a great, sticky treat! After leaving she also bought us dinner at Wendy's. It was so fun to get to spend some time with Grandma! It seems like since school has started that we rarely get to go for a visit. The kids had such a great time and so did I. Thanks for a fun afternoon, Grandma!