While Daddy's Away

While Daddy's away...the kids will play! 

This past weekend, Bryan was gone for four days on his annual San Francisco mission trip with the youth group kids.  We lost count, but we think this may have been Bryan's 10th San Francisco trip!  We are so proud of him and the work he's doing to show love to the many homeless people there and to build eternal relationships with some of the teenagers on the trip.  Click here to check out the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) website for more info on their amazing ministry.

The kids and I did lots of fun activities together during the four day weekend.  We went to the library and made crafts and played music.  Kaela and Maezie made princess dolls and Graeson made a football doll (he decorated "GO OSU" on the jersey).  And of course we got books!  Maezie's favorite books are about a mouse named Maisy and we found Maisy Goes to the Library.  Graeson's books were Scooby Doo (yes, this makes Mommy feel quite old!) and Kaela chose books about cats, since we have promised she could get one this summer.

After the library, we went to GG's house to visit.  GG had to read every single book the kids got!  But she loved it, of course!

After books, GG and the kids made cookies.  Meanwhile, Mommy enjoyed some nice quiet time while reading a magazine.

The next day we went to the local Winter Wings Festival which was all about birds.  I thought about my friend Becky and her kids, who live in Portland and are bird lovers, and how much they would enjoy this festival!  (Hint Becky:  Come visit us!)  There were tons of fun activities for the kids.  We watched a show on stage with a bird man who self-proclaimed he'd "been studying birds a little too long".  He was quite eccentric!  Graeson even got to stand on stage for part of a name-that-bird game.  We also made our own bird nests with "eggs" (colored rocks), dissected owl pellets--Kaela and Graeson could have stayed at that table for hours!--made bird masks, saw live birds, and even got to pet a live duck.  They also got face paint and a bird painted on their hands.

On another day, we went looking for some local entertainment and found a church who was having a fun day for kids.  It was only for 1st through 6th grade, so Kaela got to enjoy a VBS-style day of activities.  Since the younger two couldn't go, we went to McDonald's play place and had our own fun!

Oh, and I forgot to mention.....MOMMY COOKED!

We are glad Daddy is home, but now it's back to work and back to school.

December

Ah December.  "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"  I love Christmastime!  But....I freely admit I'm happy when it's over and we can REST!  (Refer back to last year's December for all the Williams family events!)

Kaela's was the first Christmas program this year.  She is always in the very back row (with all the tall people, of course!) so she gets her best picture either before or after the program.  Hopefully soon I will figure out how to upload videos because Kaela could not stop yawning during her program!  Any long "Hallelujaaaaaah" and it became a yawn.  It was so funny!

Next came Maezie's very first Christmas program....so stinkin' cute!  She did such a good job and knew all the words and motions!  And she swayed her little hips in time to the music....adorable!

Then came Graeson's program and he also did a great job!  He is so energetic I'm never sure what to expect, but he is perfectly self-controlled at school and I'm always pleasantly surprised.  His teacher says he is very well-behaved and is a model for the other students!  (He gets that from his mother of course...)

Christmas means family time, so we got to see Baby Keira...oh, and her mother too :)  It's so funny for me to see a BALD baby because none of the Williams babies were bald, that's for sure!  But Keira is just like her mommy was in that area!  (Laurel, I'll refrain from posting any of your baby pictures here!)  In addition to all the in-towner's, we also got to visit with Uncle Brad (Jill's brother), and cousin Cassie and her family.  If I'm counting right, we had 26 people on Christmas Day.....and that's not even the entire extended family.  (Thanks Jack and Lisa for hosting!)

Christmas Eve is at GG's house....eating, singing, eating, presents, eating....you get the idea.  And getting our fill of holding Baby Keira too!

On Christmas Day Kaela turned NINE years old!  How did THAT happen?!!?

And then there's the Christmas "after".....ugh.  But we tackled it together and got the house back to normal (actually, better than normal!) pretty quickly this year.