Favorite Things!

My buddy Ahmad packing cord around my tooth. (I'm just glad I had recently trimmed my nose hairs.) We have done plenty on each other as students the last few months: rubber dam, 10 different injections, Nitrous (laughing gas), cleanings, and more. I posted this picture because this week was actually my first full blown patient that I had. They had a cavity and I did everything to restore the tooth. One more month and I'll be in the clinic everyday doing stuff! I'm nervous but excited. I also scheduled to take Part I Boards on July 9 just a couple days before heading to the Dominican Republic. I will take boards on Wednesday, drive to Utah with Jenny on Friday, and then fly out to the DR on Saturday. 

Ashlyn enjoys doing things that Brinley comes up with as seen here.

A Williams family tradition for generations now has been "The Animal Game" where we act like an animal and the rest have to guess. Try and guess the animal played out here. 

Making Brinley earn her food during Sunday School.

 It was finally nice enough this weekend to be outside! YAY! We went to Fontanelle Forest with some friends from my class and their kids.

Today was a fifth Sunday at Church so I was with the Young Men in nursery with Ashlyn. I took Brinley with me and set her in the corner. Within seconds, she had plenty of attention. It was quite eventful. We had kids throwing toys out the window, trying to climb out the window, a boy threw up so we transferred to another room. My hat goes off to the Nursery Leaders! 

 Ashlyn had so much fun running and pulling the kite behind her.

 Brinley, like any other baby primate, puts anything she can find in her mouth. She especially loves anything made primarily of cellulose (paper, plants).

 Mom putting her kite-flying skills on the grid. Brinley was following her and the kite around wherever they went.

This lovely lady was called into the Primary Presidency today! She will do a great job and we are excited for her. She definitely gets plenty of experience with children!

 Ashlyn had fun playing under a tree fort!

 What a cutie!

But such a scary monster!

Happy birthday Jenny!

Jenny was spoiled with gifts this morning! Sure love this girl.

Picture messaging!

Jenny, Ashlyn, and I like to have fun sending pictures to each other.

Moving!

This girl is MOVING! She is really enjoying being able to get herself from one side of the room to the other. We have to be more cognizant of the stairs now though. I went downstairs to help Ashlyn find some markers. I knew that Brinley was in the kitchen but didn't think she would find her way to the stairs and if she did she definitely wouldn't try and go down them! Well I was wrong. Luckily I was at the bottom of the stairs when she started so I caught her by the time she rolled down the third stair. Sometimes she gets up on all fours and walks like Mowgli!

Check out those BLUE eyes! We sure love our Brin-brin!

Jenny is always doing fun things with these girls. They decorated in February for Valentines and decorated this month for St. Patricks Day. The girls were so proud of their work. Ashlyn couldn't stop asking me if I saw it through the window when I was outside.

This is old news but I liked the picture and wanted to put it up. Jenny made the most amazing cake for my birthday. It was chocolate and very moist! (Jenny's birthday is on Tuesday Mar. 25 so everyone give her a shout out!)

Lemonade Stand

My friend and neighbor Mindy (who is the best mom ever) had a fun idea to make this adorable lemonade stand with her kids and have the money go towards charity to help kids around the world (LDS Humanitarian Fund.) Of course Ashlyn wanted to join in on the fun! As people or cars passed by, the kids would yell, "Lemonade for charity!!!".  Who could resist these cute faces?! Many people stopped by and enjoyed the lemonade.  It was a fun afternoon! 

Field Trip in Preschool

Yesterday for preschool, we took a field trip to the grocery store Hy-Vee.  The kids

loved smelling the flowers, eating delicious cookies, meeting really nice workers, and taking home red bananas.  The girls that took us on the store tour made it a lot of fun!  Ashlyn loves preschool!!!

Ashlyn baptizing Brinley

This morning, I walked into the living room finding Ashlyn baptizing Brinley.

The Joy of Balloons

Nice day for the Park!

Ashlyn, Brinley, and Mommy went to the park today for 5 hours straight.  We were enjoying the nice weather, playing with all the neighbor kids, and enjoying the swings!  We had so much fun!!

 Ashlyn lasted on the swings for maybe 10 minutes, then she was off with some friends pretending to be Anna and Elsa from Frozen.

Brinley was enjoying the first time on the swing since Fall.  She really enjoyed it!

I just wanted to write a little about how I have been feeling since Spring Break. I learned first hand how hard Jenny really works. She had five kids in our home (tending the 3 girls) and still managed to get so many things done (preschool projects, cleaning the house, making food, etc.). She is always looking for ways that she can improve as a mother. She often commends me for being patient with Ashlyn. I think that she is the more patient one though because I only have to be patient for an hour or two a day; she has to be patient all day long. I am fairly certain that if I were the stay-at-home mom I would be nowhere even close as productive and loving as she is. I am thankful for her and the great support she shows to me in times of need.

SPRING BREAK!!!

It was a much needed break! School has been tough with lots of tests and practicals lately.  It has also been busy for Jenny.  The two girls that she has been babysitting this school year, had a baby sister born over Christmas break so now when she watches the girls twice a week, it is now three girls plus the two that are permanently ours; that is five girls! And she still manages to take them all to the Children's Museum and do fun things with them. Needless to say, we all had a break together and had a lot of fun.

Ashlyn loves helping with meals! Especially breakfast!

We spent part of our Saturday at Scheel's.  We were especially excited when we found out there was a ferris wheel that you could ride for $1.  Ashlyn got to ride it twice, once with mom, and once with dad.

 Ashlyn enjoys drawing faces on gloves that I bring home from the clinic.

 The picture's a little blurry but we finally caught Brinley doing funny things like a fish face with her lips.  She cracks us up.

 Family Movie Night! Every once in a while we pull out the mattress and watch a movie together!

We decided to get away for a couple days in Kansas City, MO/KS. We had a really great time. Our first stop was Liberty, MO where Joseph Smith endured a difficult trial in the Liberty Jail.

 It was humbling to learn about the circumstances in the jail. I can't imagine how cold it must have been.  There were windows with bars on each side that would have let light in, but also kept the temperature inside, fairly close to the temperature outside. If I remember right, they were here for over three months, right after the extermination order was given by Governor Boggs.  I really enjoy stories or parts of history that show people or groups of people being discriminated against for one reason or another, and seeing them keep persistent and eventually thrive. I often forget that I am in one of those groups as a Mormon.  Its very interesting that if our family would have been members of the Church living in this area in the 1800's our lives would be very different, even endangered because of it.

Next stop: Oklahoma Joe's. Yeah, doesn't look like much; it's a restaurant in a gas station. We were told by several people that we just had to go here. We went at 2pm on a Wednesday and the place was still packed. Jenny and I shared a pulled pork sandwich with fries and really enjoyed it.

Then we headed off to the Great Wolf Lodge! We had been telling Ashlyn for days that we were going to go swimming in a waterpark.  She was so excited and could barely stand waiting that long!

 We arrived and didn't waste any time getting to the water park.

Ashlyn loved having a lifejacket. She never hesitated to just go jump in the pool by herself!

 There were a couple of kid slides that Ashlyn loved going down. 

 For the first couple hours we were in the park, Brinley was not happy to be there. The water was too cold for her and she sure let us know with the distraught look on her face and crying. She eventually warmed up to the idea and began to really enjoy the water.

They had a big bucket of water (1,000 gallons) that would fill up and dump out every five minutes.

 We all really enjoyed going down the big slides on the tubes.

Ashlyn got pretty good at going across these log sections. She went across several times and I never once had to actually help her.

Hot pockets for dinner! Ashlyn found the Gideon's Bible and was so excited about it!

 Listening to a bedtime story with Wiley Bear!

Left: our cute little prognath





 Below: Sometimes Brinley enjoys Ashlyn's shoes more than Ashlyn does.

 Family pic with Wiley Bear!

 Popcorn for breakfast!

High flying Ashlyn!

We went back to the water park and played the rest of the day before leaving for home around 4pm. Needless to say, the girls were pretty worn out from such a fun trip.

My (Derek) birthday is actually today (March 9) but Jenny threw me a family glow in the dark party last night! We had a lot of fun and played different games and enjoyed some friendly competition.

 Party decorations and all!

(Most of these pictures were actually taken in the dark. The camera just increased the exposure but it made for some cool images.)

Ring Toss:

Bean Bag Toss:

 Bowling: