Precious Artwork

I just had to share my sweet son, Reid's artwork. He was very proud of his picture of a BIG tree with 3 flowers (all for Mommy) and then all the straight lines in the dirt are worms. Such a good little picture for my little 4 yr old. The proud Momma had to share.

Sunday afternoon fun

One of the wonderful things about having church on Saturday night is that we truly get to rest and have a family day on Sunday. We have a leisure breakfast and some quality TV time with the kiddos. It's just a wonderful day for us to slow down, relax, enjoy each other, and just have some good ole family fun.

The boys worked in the yard with Daddy which is their all time favorite thing to do. They move dirt around, try to trim Mommy's bushes, and help wash the cars. They live for being in the yard with their Daddy.

I had to take these pictures of the kids running through the sprinklers. They had so much fun. Never mind the fact it was around 4-ish Sunday afternoon when I took these and notice that they all still have on their jammies. Like I said....it's a leisure day at the Williams' household. We don't get (or take) enough of these, so we fully take advantage of them when we can.

The kids had a ball running through the water....even little Ella. Oh to be a kid again and just run carefree of all the world's problems and just have simple fun. How it reminded me that I need to get back to that in my own life. How I need to slow down and really enjoy the simple things in life and not get caught up in the rat race.

I love these 3 children more than I could ever express in words. And there is no greater feeling than watching them smile, laugh, and play together. They love being together. Even when they fight, at the end of the day, they want to be together. They want to do things together. I love that. I have prayed so heavy that my family will be so close now and always. My life is so full!

Lemmy the Lion

Our family had the privilege of spending this past weekend with Lemmy the Lion. Who is Lemmy the Lion? Well, he is the friendly lion that is a part of Reid's class at school. Each weekend, a different student gets to take Lemmy the Lion home. The students in Reid's class came up with the name (not sure how), but they voted and Lemmy won.

Lemmy came to our house with his favorite book. As you can imagine it was a book on the jungle. Sadly, we only read it to him one time. And can we just say, it was right before we went to school this morning. Reid was horrified that we hadn't read Lemmy his favorite book and Reid told me that Lemmy was going to be sad that we didn't. So, we took the time to do that.

But don't worry, just because we didn't read him his book earlier in the weekend, doesn't mean that we didn't have fun with him.

For starters, on Friday night while I was at the hospital with my dear friend Jeffie (she was having little Sam), Daddy led the crew in a dance party. Then they played the boys favorite game, which ironically enough they have named, lion. Every night, we hear them saying: "Let's play lion daddy!!" I'm sure Lemmy really enjoyed playing this.
On Saturday, Lemmy went with us to both of the boys soccers games. Reid held him while we watched Cole play (and by the way, Cole played the entire game!!! Big step for the 3 yr old). Then Lemmy watched Reid play soccer later that day.


Saturday night, we went to church and then out to dinner. Reid was sure that Lemmy got to drink some Sprite and that he ate chips and chicken. Lemmy did not go hungry!
Our biggest challenge with Lemmy??? Well, the boys actually fought over him. Who was going to hold him? Who got to carry him? and on and on and on. But all in all, they both loved on him tons and tons and tons. They both snuggled with him at night as well when they went to bed. It's a good thing that they sleep in the same bed. I can only imagine the fight of who he would have slept with. Luckily, Reid was super sweet for the most part in letting Cole share in on the fun with Lemmy.
Lastly, on Sunday night, we took the kiddos for ice cream. A special treat for sure. The boys were so excited because they got their own ice cream and they didn't have to share with anyone (a rare treat for sure).
I just had to share Lemmy with my blogger family. It was an eventful weekend. It was really sweet watching Reid scratch Lemmy's ears and rub his back. He would also talk to Lemmy when he thought we weren't listening. It was a good lesson for Reid in many regards. I am looking forward to oh so many more projects with my sweet son.

Women's Retreat

Ok Blogger family, I know...I haven't posted a blog in like forever. I have been totatlly distracted by my Women's retreat with my church and then with my new passion....photography. Therefore, I have a lot of catching up to do.

I had the privilege of working with a phenomenal group of ladies this year to help plan our Women's Retreat for our church. Our theme this year was Friendship. What does it look like to have a healthy friendship with another female? It was a great time of reflection on my own heart and evaluating friendships in my life. And just let me tell you that God has really done amazing things for me over this past year in many of my friendships. He has brought restoration to friendships, He has made strong friendships stronger and more intimate....He has truly blessed me in the area of friendship. There will be more on this in the weeks to come.

Anyway, to the fun stuff of the retreat....the PJ party that we had that night. How can you get a group of women together, talk about friendship, and not have a PJ party?

I just thought I would share some pics from our little Extreme Makeover contest. We put the ladies in groups of 5 (it had to be groups where you didn't know everyone). Then there was 1 volunteer from each group. The other 4 in the group were given various supplies to do the make over. The key was that the 4 ladies were only allowed to use ONE hand and it had to be their non-predominent hand and put the other hand behind there back. And here is what you got.....

The last couple of pictures are of the final contestants, or should I save, brave souls?? If you notice the lady to the very far right....that's the pastor's MOTHER IN LAW! As you can imagine, she definitely got the highest cheers from the crowd. She really took one for the team.

And yes, we did decorate the pregnant girl's belly! How could you not do that???
Much love to you ladies that were there. For those of you that weren't, hope to see you next year!

Love to match

If there's one thing my boys love to do...it's match. Even though many think that I dress them alike for my own pleasure (which I do), they really like to be matching. Especially when they have on cool jammies like these. These jammies came from their cousin Lil' Jon. They LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They actually have started asking to wear them every night.
As you can see from the pics, they love to show them off! Which makes for a fun photo session in our house. Mom loves to take pictures and they love to ham it up for the camera.
I just love seeing PJs on kiddos. It's one of my favorites. They just seem to look so cuddly in them.

So what does Ella do....

during the soccer games??? Well, at this game, she stole a little boys hat and put it on her head. I'm just sure that her little head was hot from the sun beating down on it! Got to admit...she's pretty cute even in a boy's hat!


What makes this the cutest? She knows that she is being cute and stinky all at the same time. Look out Mom and Dad...here comes Ella!

Cole's 2nd game

Well...Cole ended up having 2 soccer games this past weekend. The post about Cole's Debut game took place on Saturday morning. Cole's 2nd game was on Sunday afternoon at 2pm! Yelp, that's right! 2pm is right in the middle of nap for most of these little 3 yr olds...esp for Cole. As you can see in this first picture, he is yawning, the little boy on the right is melting down and the 2 kids in the middle can barely stand up! Poor kids. Let's just say that this game was a COMPLETE DISASTER! We were lucky to get 5 kids on the field to play. Oh wait...there was a point in the game that we only had 2 players on the field. It was at this point that Cole actually decided he was going to play and turn up the heat. He didn't even graze the field until half way through the game. He was so tired, he just wanted to sit in my lap.
But he must have got a second wind or something, because he went out there and finished the game strong. Let me not exagerate too much...he didn't score, but he got several good kicks in. The other team however, scored over and over and over and over (get the picture?). Course this little team of boys were in their 2nd year of playing soccer together with their coach. We didn't stand a chance. Our whole team is completely new...not to mention the coach is completely new at this as well!
But look at that great kick! He was pretty proud of himself with this kick!