Latte Love (bad, I know)

I just cannot post without a picture and I'm too lazy to upload my new photos so here is one from a couple of weeks ago. I call it... An Ode to Uncle David. There is NOTHING Olive loves better than a baby latte. We will miss our neighbors(starbucks). Well, moving on, we now have an apartment. You may take the tour here. It will be nice to all be together but I hope we find a house that we love pretty quick. The apartment is close to Petes work, the library and the kids schools so that will be nice. Siobhan is happy/scared that she will actually be going to middle school instead of elementary. Oscar will be on his own for the first time. So three days to go. I am excited to see everybody.

FUN FUN FUN

This moving deal has taken a lot out of us. We had an offer on our house within 12 hours of listing it. After signing all the papers they accepted the counter offer and then pulled it. So we were back to showing it. It is hard with 4 kids to leave at a moments notice. Saturday, when it was about 20 degrees outside we went downtown and rode the train to see the lights at the Temple.
We also went to the very last breakfast with Santa at the Tiffin Room in Macy*s. The kids had a lot of fun. I think the adults faces tell their own story, don't you? Pete is now in Seattle working away and thank goodness we had another offer and they have accepted the counter offer. The first person had bid sight unseen. This lady has been over 3 times so I feel pretty good about it. Please keep good thoughts for us. Also, more importantly, baby Nathan is sick in the hospital with meningitis. Please say a prayer for him.

Baby not included.

Well, our house is now on the market. We have had a really good response so far. Quite a few people want to come see it. You can view the listing here. It is listed at 160,000. My favorite thing is how with the house as empty as it is there we still kind of dominate it. Oscars video game remote is in the picture of the living room. Siobhan and her friends stuff is all over the bedroom floor and Olive is actually IN the picture of our bedroom!! Sleeping on the bed!
So, hopefully this will go quickly and painlessly. I will miss this house but I look forward to what is awaiting us.

Me and my maxi.

I have been trying really hard to still have fun with the babies while we are packing all day. Luckily they are both great at playing together and by themselves. Today while I packed in the bedroom Olive found Siobhans box from her maturation class. She was so happy that there was lipstick in there (her favorite!!) But more importantly there was something that was pink, or pink yellow as she calls it. So this is Olives new most favorite toy, her maxi pad. She carried this with her all day yesterday. At the store she wanted it on the conveyor so that she could pay for it and despite my repeated requests, refused to put it in her pocket. This lasted all day until she accidentally opened the package. After crying for an hour or so she realized there was something inside and that it could stick anywhere. This was even more exciting. So if anyone is still wondering what to get Olive for Christmas, she prefers wings.

On our way

Well, we are packing it up and heading out west. On December 27th we will be on our way to Seattle. We are excited but very nervous and overwhelmed. We are scrambling to get our house ready and sold. SO, I will try to keep posting until we leave but it will probably be sporadic. This picture is for mom. Can you believe how empty this side of the basement is?

Daily Show Tom Waits Performance

For Dad..........

6 Degrees

This morning when Pete left for work he woke me up to say it had snowed so to give myself extra time. Yesterday it had snowed also but just kind of dusted everything. So, I fell back asleep and woke up at the usual time only to see it had REALLY snowed. When we left for school it was six degrees out and the plows hadn't been down our street yet. Siobhan and Oscar are thrilled and I am glad that our backyard looks so nice. I hope it will keep snowing until we sell our house.
I am glad these two can cuddle and enjoy their warm blanklets, as Olive calls them, while I shovel the driveway and scrape the windows.

Adventures in drawing

While I was cleaning today I found these post its stuck to the bookcase hidden by the couch, just barely visible. I don't have a scanner working so I know these are blurry but I had to show them. The first was The Adventures of Hans. He's saying "weeee" and I'm saying "Setal down" The next is The Adventures of Olive, notice she has a halo on her head. She's saying "doo doo doo" and I'm saying "your so good"

The last is The Adventures of Siobhan. She is yelling " I want a cellphone" and I am yelling "NO!!!"
I am going to have to inquire into the adventures of Oscar. Maybe I'll have to draw my own. Oscar and Hans draw ALL day long and go through reams of paper. I have to say though, that for every ten drawings they give to me I'll find a random one hidden like these and they are usually my favorites. On another note, Pete is in Seattle today for his big interview and Alex has an interview at the same exact time so good luck to both of you!

Happy Birthday Oscar!

The closest Oscar gets to McDonalds in SLC.
Today Oscar is 9. We had a pretty fun day. There was maple donuts for breakfast.There was school and frosted cookies. We'll end the day with pizza and cake. An Oscar kind of day. We also went to the kids museum where he blew all his birthday dollars in the gift shop. I love you Oscar and I am so glad we were together today.

Partytime.

Yesterday was Oscars birthday party and it was quite a success. He had quite a few boys show up and they had a lot of fun. The boy with the serious pose wore his own cape and brought his own selection of light sabers.
Oscar opted to skip the cake and had a mountain of doughnuts instead. All the other boys agreed that doughnuts were the way to go. Behind Oscar is the Darth Vader he drew for pin the helmet on Darth Vader. I'll have to get a better picture of that. Olive was not impressed with all the boys invading her territory but she did enjoy putting the candles on her light saber dog.

Cake

Ever since arriving in Utah, cake and I have not been friends. My cake never rises, or it rises and then falls, and it ALWAYS breaks coming out of the pan. Pete has cut out high altitude recipes for me and offered many words of encouragement. None of this has helped though and lately when I announce that I am going to make a cake Pete instantly says "Don't be stressed." So yesterday when I decided to make a cake I didn't hold much hope and imagine my surprise that this is what I got!!
One more thing. How did I get a redhead???

May the force be with you...

Invitations are out!! Oscar has invited 8 boys over for some Star Wars adventures. I am really excited for him. I was going to make him some invites but he wanted the Darth Vader ones from Toys Arrest (honest, that's what the boys think the name is). I was happy that he made his own stickers for the envelopes. They look awesome, don't they? This was over the weekend and all I can say is that if you ever buy camo makeup at the army navy supply, be sure you have some pissed off remover.

Finally, Halloween

Finally my Halloween pictures are working! Trick or Treating is kind of Petes area so he took the kids out for a bit before dinner and then for quite awhile after. Here they are in front of their haul. Olive actually fell asleep at 5:30 and didn't get up until the next day so she missed out. Hans has eaten away half his mustache by this time.
I'm really happy at how the boys costumes turned out. Hans enjoyed the mustache so much that he puts one on everyday now.
We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Hans really worked at his though and repeatedly asked me to take his picture as he practiced different "working hard" faces. Last but not least is Pippi. This is probably the first picture I've taken in the past 6 months where she is not trying to hide from the camera. Well, onto birthday plans....

Team Williams gains another player

What a week for babies!! Can you believe there is another to add to this mob. My sister Luisa had her baby on October 28th. A healthy baby boy named Malachi. This makes six kids for Luisa and I am so happy for her. I cannot wait to see her and all the kids. I wish we were moving RIGHT NOW!! Soon enough though and then all the cousins can play together, all 10 of them! I love you Luisa and wish you and Malachi and all the Williams our love and good thoughts. I hope I get to hold him soon.

Dress Rehearsal

For the past couple of weeks I have been talking up the next pack meeting to the kids because all of us would be going and wearing our Halloween costumes. Every year the boy scouts do a spook alley and all the cub scouts get to go. So I have been trying to get all the costumes made on time. As of yesterday morning Siobhan still didn't have a costume so I made her a dress for Pippi, finished the petticoat for princess peach and put the last of the snaps on the boys pants. The hats and gloves are waiting until this weekend. Of course Olive was not pleased with her dress and just ran in circles yelling,"It's too small!", Pete had to work late and came home 5 minutes before we had to leave and ate a really quick dinner while we put on the finishing touches. Then it was time to rush out in the first snowfall of the season to be on time. Don't they look great! I was really glad that they were happy with their costumes (except Olive). Too bad that Spook Alley was Tuesday night and not yesterday.

Don't Worry Pete

I want to start off by making it very clear that Pete and I are absolutely done having children. With that having been said I have to say that I LOVE BABIES. If I didn't have an 11 year old to show me the future I probably would have been ready for more. Not only do I love the actual baby but I really enjoy the anticipation leading up to it. This is why it's so good to be part of such a large family. It seems that there is always a baby on the way. My sister alone has 5 and one due in December. My sister in law is due in March as well as one of our close friends. But most exciting right now is Pete's brother and his wife just had their baby this past weekend. SO, welcome to the world Nathan, we all love you very much and cannot wait to meet you!

Sea Monkeys!

Last week Siobhan, or Soybean as the spellcheck calls her, went on a field trip to the Great Salt Lake and came home with a test tube of brine shrimp. Oscar was jealous and I promised I would take him to get his own sea monkeys. So this morning we set out to the lake. Please note binoculars, net and specimen receptacle. Olive had a nice ride on my back and Pete took this picture of us in front of Saltaire. They have shows here and whatnot. As an interesting side note Pete was also a security guard here a couple of times.

It was kind of cold and was probably a great time to go as it didn't really stink all that bad. However we did not find any sea monkeys but did find about a million brine fly larvae. Oh well. The sea monkeys must be back at the bottom of the lake, wearing their crowns and living in their mansions.

Is Nothing Sacred?

When I decided to start this blog my intention was that family could be kept up to date and see pictures of the kids since we live so far apart. It quickly became clear to me however that this is really for me. As Olive gets older I want to record every single moment since we won't be having anymore kids. Not just Olives moments but everyones. I love to take pictures and Pete is always impressed(?) at the amount of pictures I have. Since the blog though I take photos of EVERYTHING. The most mundane tasks are not safe from my camera. Board games, hanging out at the river, getting dressed, sleeping. It is all recorded so that I will always have these moments to remember. Some moments are just to important.

Who's the Boss

We are knee deep in Halloween costume preparations. The scouts have a Spook Alley next week and all the kids will be going. So mostly I've been trying to give them things to do to keep them occupied while I am sewing. Of course Olive's costume has been the most labor intensive and the most elaborate thing I've made. In accordance with Olive's princess type rules she will have nothing to do with it now that it's done. Why does she do this?!?

For Luisa....

Recently my sister advised me that we always look so happy and it seems that we are always doing fun things. This is a sample of how most days really are....

Start off with a little fighting over superhero suits.
Eat marshmallow fluff directly from the jar while mom is getting dressed.
(Go ahead and throw some on for good measure)

This is how I usually see Olive.
Fall asleep 10 minutes before we have to leave to pick the kids up.

Clothes

This is what you get from Olive if you pick an unacceptable outfit for her. This is my first hat of the fall. I was able to start and finish it while we were on our trip so this is the Yellowstone hat.

This shirt I am really proud of. It took forever because I lost one of the pieces I had cut out. Luckily Hans really likes it and I am glad I have a ton more of the flower fabric because I really like it.

Just a few more...

I wanted Mom to know we stayed in a great hotel in Jackson Hole. This can best be summed up in this picture of the curtains.
When I was packing for our trip I used a rubbermaid tub for all the kids clothes. Siobhan threw a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in. Hans and Oscar just wanted their camo outfits. Pete and I wore the same jeans the entire trip. Olive on the other hand pulled about 15 outfits out of her closet and brought three different jackets. If she doesn't like her outfit that I pick she tells me it's too tight. What a fashionista!
Hans loved the cabin so much that he asked Pete if we could get rid of our house and build a cabin like this.
This is the geyser right next to Old Faithful. It goes off once a day and we just happened to be there for it. I loved the rainbow at the top. Thanks for indulging all my vacation pictures. Everything is washed and put away and back to normal. Now it's time to get back to the regular routine. At least until the end of the year when Pete's store closes!

Yellowstone Act ll

I was really bummed that this picture came out blurry. But I was grateful there were nice people around that would take a picture of us all together. Hans is super shy around strangers so he would not look at the camera. Siobhan took this picture of us at the Yellowstone sign. I would have posted the picture of her and Oscar but they were fighting at the time.
There was a huge wildfire in Yellowstone awhile back and it seemed that everywhere there are felled trees. I loved how bare they are at the bottom and that they are so thick and grouped together.
This is on one of the trails we hiked. The steam is so thick in some spots but it smells really bad due to all the minerals. I bet it's good for you though with all the minerals.
These guys are everywhere and HUGE. I think they are the Yellowstone equivalent of seagulls. As I was taking this one two others were making there way t our car to grab a piece of Oscars doughnut.