Claire's 6 years old!

 

For some reason it reversed the order of pictures that I selected but because of time, I am going to keep it.

This is the card that Brinley made to greet Maren and David.

Let's say it brought up some interesting conversations.  I can't believe that we are going to have so many babies join our families (Hannah, Lauren with twins, Minnie, and Katie are all pregnant).

Claire's reading is skyrocketing.  She absolutely loves to read and she is reading some big words.  Today she read the word receiving without any help.  It is crazy how fast and how much she is learning just by practicing and reading over and over again,  She is a little bookworm.

Growing up, my mom started a tradition where we would open up one book a day until Christmas and I have continued that tradition with my own kids.  They love it!

Our neighbor Evelyn is so sweet and brings us her newspaper so the kids can read the funnies.  I don't know who enjoys it more, Derek or the kids.

I gave away ALL my baby clothes (0months-3T) to some swet families.  My heart is so fulll of gratitude for all the people that bought and/or dkonated to me their baby clothes.  We had 4 of our girls during dental school and undergradate and oh how thankful I am for those that were so generous during a time of great need.  I am also so grateful for my friend Kristen and Naomi who gave us all their boy clothes for Emmett.

Loading up my car with tears rolling down my face, I am grateful for my beauiful babies growing healthy and strong.  I am grateful for each stage in motherhood and I am embracing this new stage of motherhood!  Yeah for no more diapers and passing along the baby stuff.  My house feels a lot less cluttered!  YEAH!

I am so excited for the next stage adventure!

Coloring the candles

Ashlyn finished the 1st book of 3rd grade math.  The program we are using is coming out with their 4th grade math at the beginning of next year so we decided to just do 3rd grade math so she can really solidify her multiplication and division and we are so glad she did it.

I bought this book for me and I absolutely loved it.  Then as I was reading it, I felt prompted to give it to a friend of mine who has been struggling with a few parenting things.  So I read the book in one day and then that even dropped it off at her car at the gym while she was in a workout class.  I wrote a note to her about how much I loved this book and how I felt like she could benefit from this book and most importantly that I was thinking of her.  It was fun to get my girls involved with this service and dropping it off at the gym was really fun!  

Ashlyn made these at school.  Isn't it so darling!

I love this guy!  I can't remember what we did that day, but I love our walks around the neighborhood, Derek and I holding hands, while our kids ride their bikes.  It is a fun memory that I will always cherish!

Evening teeth checkups with their dentist

Claire reading the night story to the youngers

Desi sipping during the prayer- this was priceless.

I love when I can get the whole body massage from these workers

In Ashlyn's homeschool class they planted a garden and she picked some lettuce and came home to make her own salad.

In class, Claire made Indian vests

Brinley made a cute turkey

Derek and I love our walks on our dates!

Derek counted 56 turtles on that log

Ashlyn planted her potato

This is my drive when I go to the gym in the morning!  Isn't it amazing!

So I was going to the bathroom without the light on and then I stood up to flush the toilet.  Then I saw a dark spot on the seat.  I thought to myself, did Emmett poop on the seat?  Right then the toad moved.  I screamed so loud that Derek thought there was another snake in the house.  I can't believe that I sat on this toad!  I can't believe we have a toad in the house!

Claire finished her Kindergarten workbook in November for English!  She is doing fantastic!

I am so proud of how hard she is working and that she loves it so much!

Ashlyn loves hot sauce as much as her daddy!

This was so much fun!  Ashyn and I checked out the same book from the library and we had a book club discussing the book.  It was so much fun.  It is called I Survived and it was all about 9/11.  It was fun to hear her thoughts and perspective.  We are so blessed to live in America!

SIlly monkeys

For Claire's birthday, I had a training from the stake so Derek took the kids hiking at the state park.  It looked so fun and beautiful!

My boys!

My boys!

I am learning how to french braid.  Good thing I can get lots of practice!

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!

Birthday date!  We loved spending one on one time with Claire.  She make a request that I drive Dad's truck (which this was only my 3 time driving it) and then she was fun to play with and go shop for her birthday.

Another birthday requestion: Breakfast in bed

The girls were so sweet, they wrapped a lot of our toys so Claire could open a lot of presents on her birthday.  It was so cute!

And she got other toys too.

We are so happy Claire is in our family.  She is so sweet, makes us giggle, is a hard worker at reading, tennis, and she is fun to be around.  We love you Claire!

Thanksgiving with Maren and David

We feel so lucky that Maren and David would choose to spend their Thanksgiving Break with us!  They are so much fun to be with.  I was impressed with how much to love and play with our kids.  They are the best Aunt and Uncle to giggle, laugh, chase, and play with.  Thanks for making our holiday great!

When we found out that they were coming for Thanksgiving, we immediately booked a campsite because we know how much David loves the outdoors and we love camping.  Well the weather wasn't looking so good so we had to change our plans.  We were sad about the change, but it actually turned out great.

We spent Thanksgiving Hiking at a local state park.  It was beautiful weather and the fall colors were wonderful.  Hiking with Maren and David was a lot of fun.  They made this ordinary trip in nature extraordinary.

My favorite thing about the hike was watching Maren and David be in the moment with the kids.  Maren was a little behind on one part of the hike and I see her doing karate moves with the kids. ha ha.  Then David is running and chasing the kids.  It was so much fun!  They are great!

There is a trail called Chimney Loop and we never knew why it was called that until we found the random chimney.  

Maren is so playful!

Sweet Aunt Maren reading to us. 

The whole day was my favorite, but that evening topped it off just nicely.  We had an in the dark swim party.  Derek heated the pool and we swam with the lights on and the firepit.  Then we roasted marshmellows and had s'mores.  It was so much fun!  There is something so magical about swimming in the night sky with great company!

David played Christmas music and we all sang along.  He is so talented!

Look at the kids admire him playing. 

Man Maren has so much energy!  I was exhausted watching her chase and play with the kids.  During her stay she said, "Now I know why you go to be at 8:30" ha ha.

Yes Derek and I have been trying to improve our sleep by reading a book about sleep and going to bed early.  We used to go to bed between 9-9:30 and now we are trying to go to bed at 8:30.  We are old folks at heart ;)

One night we were putting the kids to bed with a night story on youtube and there was an ad about Croods 2 in theaters.  We decided that we need to go!  We haven't been to the theater since before covid and so when we told the kids they thought we were kidding.  It was fun!

I saw something on Studio 5 about making pie crust and so I had the kids watch the segment and then we tested it out.  We braided the pie crust for our apple pie!  It turned out great!

I asked Maren before they came out if they had any traditions that they wanted to do while they were here and she suggested a tradition that they do with David's side of the family called Pie Night.  The night before Thanksgiving you eat pie for dinner!  The kids were so excited for it!  The reason why they do it is because on Thanksgving you are stuffed from the meal that you don't have a lot of room for the delicious dessert, so you have it the night before so you can fully enjoy it!  

WE LOVE THIS TRADITION and it will be added to our Williams' Traditions for years to come!

Beautiful couple!

I didn't get a picture of it, but we went on a double date with these two and it was a lot of fun.  We really got to know David more and we feel like it brought us closer to them both.  

We feel lucky that we get to spend individual time with them!

Maren got a few coaching sessions with Derek.  She went to the gym with Derek and he really pushed her.  It was hilarious to see how sore she was the next day.  Then she got a coaching session about goals.  It is neat to see Maren push herself by setting goals and achieving them.

We enjoyed playing tennis with these guys.  It was so much for to see them swing and hit.  Derek and David had a battle and they had a great time. 

We went to a museum and it was right up David's heaven.  It was fun to see how much he knows about geology. 

Maren taught me and the girls how to do a fish tail braid.

The kids and Maren doing Yoga

Thanksgiving Dinner

We made gingerbread houses from our Halloween candy.

Candy Testing...

David is the expert gingerbread maker!

Immediately after David and Maren left for their home, these kids went right for the houses to eat all the candy.

We started a daily ritual where we listen to Christmas piano music and write in our gratitude journals.  It has been so much for to reflect on things we are grateful for.

When I dropped off the kids at homeschooling group, the director asked if I wanted to have the kids go Tuesdays and Thursdays during the month of December without an extra charge because they are doing a lot of fun activities during the month of December.  I said, "Heck yeah!"  I told her that this is a great Christmas gift for me and the kids.  The kids were sad that they were going to miss some of the activities and now they won't.  Today is PJ Day and they will have a pillow fight at school!  They were so excited!