The Williams Family: December

We love the Christmas season! These cute kiddos had pajama day at homeschool group and they were all so excited!

For homeschool group, the kids only go on Tuesdays, but they asked me if I wanted the kids to go on Tuesdays and Thursday for no extra charge. The director told me that they are practicing for their program and have a lot of the fun activities on Thursdays so they should come both days. I laughed and asked her if she is giving me an extra Christmas gift;).

The kids loved it and so did I!

I jumped on the bandwagon with laundry stripping. You put items that you want cleaned in hot water, baking soda, borax, and tide laundry detergent. You stir it every hour for 8 hours. I was so impressed with how clean things turned out. I wish I would have done a before and after picture.

We went to a birthday party for a girl in our ward and it was a gymnastic gym and they had delicious hispanic food and tamales. It was so fun and delicious. The kids had an absolute blast!

The host told everyone that I am learning Spanish and I laughed out loud because 95% of the people there were Hispanic. ha ha.

Derek made banana bread with the kids. Yum!

We love it when the weather is so nice and we can go on hikes. We went and found trees to climb and play at the college sports field.

Claire was determined to write the letter X along the edge of the sand pile and she did it. It probably took her about 20 minutes. She was so proud of herself when she was done.

Emmett enjoys his new dinner job!

Emmett's preschool project

More family hiking in the cooler weather.

This is the best house in Lufkin that we have found that decorates so fun for Christmas. We love to park and play I-Spy. I wanted to write a letter and drop it off at the door to tell them how much we love their decorations, but I forgot until I saw this picture as I am writing this.

This is a fun to talk and get ready for bed. I love hearing and watching the conversation happen during this time. It kind of reminds me of the book Little Women.

How cute is this guy! All ready for school!

Sweet Desi works so hard on all her artwork at school.

Ashlyn's projects at school

Tamala Making

This has been something that as been on my to-do list for about 3 years now and I decided to finally make it happen. I ran into the Ruiz family (they are in our ward) at Walmart last year and she offered to teach me. Well I finally asked her this year and we made it happen.

It was so much fun! Making tamalas is a lot of work and Ofleia made it look so easy, but it really was hard work. She knows very little English and I know not very much Spanish so we communicated through some of my young women. It was a fun evening and we laughed and talked a lot. I am so grateful for her generosity to teach our family and we had a delicious meal together (and many more in the future).

It was so funny because she broke Derek's heart when she shared that any local restaurant doesn't serve fresh meals (like Chili relleno). That is why you don't see a lot of Hispanics at Mexican restaurants because they know how to make the real deal.

We probably made 8-10 dozen

Dinner is served.

This is another lady from our ward that joined our tamala making. She always tells the kids to call her grandma. She when she left, Emmett would go around and call, "Grandma, where are you?" It was so sweet.

Another hike in the beautiful fall/winter weather.

The kids could spend all day at this park

Fun in the Rain

Ashlyn's selfie

Us attempting a Christmas message for Sable and it turned out that it was a picture. Haha

Hiking again. We love this maze which is called a Labyrinth Maze. I took a picture of the definition because it had a beautiful metaphor for life and mindfulness. It was part of our journey that Derek and I are on in being more present, mindful, and purposeful in our lives.

Love this colors. This day was particularly beautiful with the vibrant reds.

It was hilarious when we got to this spot and from my view the red was way, way vibrant. I was so excited and shared with the family how impressed I am with the colors and I was confused that they weren't reacting as enthusiastically as me. Then I realized that I had my sunglasses on and so I took them off and they weren't as vibrant. ha ha.

Behind the scenes

Claire was so excited that she found Mercy Watson (the book that Nana and Grandpa gave Claire for Christmas).

Our realtor emailed me and said that she had 5 extra tickets to the Christmas Program of the Lufkin High School and so we decided to make it a girls night and Derek and Emmett had a boys night.

It was a lot of fun. They girls really wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner and then we went to the concert. The girls laughed at the funny parts of the show. It was a really cute.

During the show, I reminisced on my drill and cheer days and the fun of being on a team and preforming on stage. I am so grateful for those precious years. Then it got me thinking about the girls and I wonder what they will choose to do when they get to high school. I am excited to see their interests and talents during those high school years.

Emmett wanted Chick-fil-A for dinner. They went on a walk and then made a delicious shake. They started to watch a movie, but Emmett tells Derek, "I am tired, I want to go to bed Dad."

They had a great night as well. Derek said that this is one of many to come! He finally has a buddy!