Brockin' Around the Christmas Tree

'Tis the Season to be jolly. And I am.

Santa has come and gone, the kids made out like banshees, and I've begun my post-Christmas re-org. Out with the old junk and in with the new junk. Isn't there some island or something where I can drop off all of these misfit toys?

The official Christmas season around our house began, as it always does, the day after Thanksgiving. Known to some as Black Friday, we appropriately call it "Brock's Christmas." If you've ever been around us on this day, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. He buys himself so much stuff on this one day that I can't ever justify buying him anything to open on Christmas morning. Everyone in my family looks forward to gathering around when Brock gets home to watch the delight on his boyish face as he unloads bag after bag of booty. It's all always stuff for him, but we enjoy a vicarious shopper's high. This year we were let down when Brock opted not to do his 4 am spree when he just didn't see enough temptation from the ads in the evening paper. Instead, he and the boys went shooting.

Later that day, we headed back to our house from Preston and Brock decided he'd run in to Al's Sporting Goods to see if there was anything left from the big sale. The three hungry kids and I stayed in the car while he just "ran" in. Fifty-four minutes later...Out walks Brock with a shopping cart overflowing and a satisfied grin. He piles everything in the back and then climbs in the front and looks at me like Karlee looks at me when she's being naughty but also knows she's being cute. Before I can even say anything my eye catches something shiny, I follow it, and to my bewilderment, I find he is wearing an earring in his left ear. We stared blankly at each others faces for a good 10 seconds before I could open my mouth to ask what the heck he was doing. He proceeds to explain that everything was a screamin' deal, and I'm going no, no, why are you wearing an earring?

After feeling his ear, a light clicking on in his eyes, and then some good belly laughing, he explained what happened. I guess when they came home from shooting, my dad found a little link to a key ring chain or something and asked if it was his. Brock told him thanks and put it in his ear to be funny. He just didn't know how funny he was going to be when he forgot it was there. It really put me in the holiday mood.

In fact, Brock has kept me smiling all month long. It's been little things like him wearing his Eagles Santa hat around the house and big things like the 14 foot snowman he built in our yard on Christmas day. His public performance of Mr. Grinch on the Polar Express and staying up with him til 2 playing karaoke revolution on the XBOX. For some reason this holiday season I've enjoyed a heightened awareness of what a fun guy I'm married to and it's been one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Love this guy...

And Now You Know How My Diary Feels

I have a journal in which every entry begins with "Dear Diary, I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote. I promise I'm going to write more. This time I mean it..." I got that journal when I was in the first grade and half its pages are still empty.

But this is not that journal.

This is my blog and I had been without my computer until Saturday. That is not an excuse. That is my reason why.

Another thing I would do in my journal (after apologizing for my sporadic record-keeping) is write a really, really long, yet completely undetailed/unorganized account of everything that happened since I last made an entry. You know--something like "Merry Christmas! Sorry it's been so long. In May, school got out and I had a fun summer..."

What I'm about to do is very similar. But with pictures...

I looked like this at the hospital just before I begat Adric.

Adric was a little sour at the nurses for making us wait for the doctor to come

before they'd let me push him out.

But he got over it and went to sleep.

Karlee had her 3rd Birthday.

She had some of her 'neighbors' over for a little party. (She calls her friends 'my neighbors').

Kade didn't care much for the party, but he thought the cake was good.

We had a week of the most beautiful warm weather fall has ever seen.

We spent most of that time outside...

Then there was Halloween...

Kade thought the whole thing was pretty tasty.

Karlee thought it was all so fun and spooky.

Adric didn't get too excited. He just slept.

They were all happy to take a bath when the whole thing was over.

What? They don't look happy? Well, Adric was happy to take his first bath.

I love cuddling with a clean baby fresh out of the tub and lathered with lotion.

While I was off being a good mom, Karlee burnt her hand on the element of the stove. 5 days later her hand looked like this. It was too gruesome to photograph before that...

Even with going to the doctor day after day and the Eagles losing week after week, she is still as happy as a cheerleader.

And even though Kade has 3 molars breaking at the same time, there ain't nothing gonna stop a little chocolate pudding from putting a smile on his face.

Or you could just send him outside if you don't want to make pudding.

Oh, and one more picture. The kids were copying Brock when he was doing yoga. Very funny.

Namaste.

Only 2 Weeks Ago

HE'S HERE!!!!!

and has been for a mere 2 weeks. But for a moment, lets pretend that today is October 13th at 5:49 pm. Ready?

1 minute ago, a healthy little baby boy--Adric Ty Williamson-- was born weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz and measuring 20 inches in length.

Alright, that seems a little less anti-climatic than it otherwise would have. We can go back to the present now.

We are all doing very, very well. The reason we haven't sent emails and updated the blog is because on my birthday, we got our identity stolen and the next day our computer crashed from a spy-ware virus. Then a few days later, we had a storm and a power surge and Brock's work computer crashed so he had to send it out to Philly to be fixed. Our home computer is still being fixed so I can't post any pictures.

I'm actually feeling better than I ever have after having a baby. I came home from the hospital the next day and was literally back to business the day after that.

Having 3 kids is not very difficult yet. Adric still sleeps all day. I'm sure it will get crazy once he wakes up long enough to do more than just eat. So far, he's been a great baby. And for ONCE a baby came out of my belly and actually looked like he belonged to me. And like my other kids, he's super CUTE!

I was worried about having 3 kids in diapers, but what I had forgotten is that there would be 4 of us in diapers for a while (me). So last Monday, 4 days after her 3rd birthday, I told Karlee she would never wear a diaper again. We put panties on her and she hasn't had an accident in 5 days! WOOHOO!

Well, it's late here and I have to get sleep while I can. But, if you want pictures and an eye-witness account of the birth, you can check out my sister Missy's blog http://myveryownsoap.blogspot.com/2008/10/awesome.html
(Yes, I said 'eye-witness')

Discovery of Talents

You know the parable of the talents? According to it, we should not bury our talents, but share them so we may gain others. I want my children to have many talents. So, I am going to share, by way of the world wide web, some talents my children possess that I have recently discovered.

I am thinking that Karlee might be a gifted painter. She's pretty creative with her colors, don't you think?

And if she's not really an artist, at least she could play one on TV. She looks pretty artsy-fartsy in that getup she picked out by herself.

And Kade? I am still amazed at his talent. The other day I let him hold a popsicle all by himself, knowing full well I'd have to clean up a huge mess when he was done. But I was wrong--There was no mess. He latched right tight to that thing and sucked it down without making one drip! Isn't that awesome!?! I can't even eat a popsicle without a making a couple drips.

Ya, I'm pretty proud.

Home, Sweet Home

This weekend was our 10 year reunion AND That Famous Preston Night Rodeo, Parade and City of Fun Carnival. I came home so full of nostalgia, salt water taffy and rodeo burgers, that I'm still recovering.

Anyone that knows me, knows of my feelings for my little town of Preston. I'm quite vocal on it's awesomeness. But may I, once again, give accolades to the place I will always call home.

It is THE BEST!!!


Why, you ask? Well, it could be that it's beautiful. Or that it has close access to virtually any kind of outdoor activity you could desire. Maybe it's so darn cool for the mere fact that it is in Idaho, and it is legal to drive 4 wheelers on the streets. The school, the lifestyle, the festiveness. Heck, Rodeo weekend and the Festival of Lights alone puts Preston on the Coolest Towns to Live list. But there are other cool places to live, I know. What sets Preston apart from all other towns and all other places in all of the world is one thing: Preston Pride.


Hmmmm...How do I describe the feeling of Preston Pride? It's not the typical, bad kind of 'pride' you should avoid. It is good. It's spiritual. It's a realization of truth. It is the realization of how blessed you are to be in a place so special. You can't see Preston Pride, but you can feel it. It can give you goosebumps or make you cry. It fills you with love, joy and light. And you know that other people feel it, too.

If you are from Preston, you know what I'm talking about. If you're not from Preston, but you've been to Preston, you might have caught that spirit. If you didn't, it is because of the hardness of your heart and the blindness of your mind. And, if you are from Preston and you don't have that pride, I'd say that is parallel to being born Under the Covenant and never finding a testimony.


Anyway, it was a great weekend. It was so good to see so many old friends and familiar faces. I came home with a renewed gratitude for such an awesome upbringing. Never before was there a city so close to perfect. Except for Enoch...and it's gone...

Born in the Latter-days, Under the Covenant AND in Preston...How lucky am I?

Farr West Living

When we could have lived anywhere in Utah, within a reasonable distance to the airport, I'm sure many people wonder why we chose Farr West. Actually, I think everyone just wonders where it even is! In answer to that, it's a small community just west of Pleasant View and north of Ogden. There are cows there and not too many people--which we automatically figured constituted all the makings of a nice, down-to-earth, close-knit community.

We found a house there online for a good deal that looked like it would do. Although we had never actually SEEN the house or Farr West, we bought it--in hopes that it would turn out to be the kind of community we thought it would be. Over the past nine months, the good nature of the town and its people has gradually made itself manifest and we've really started to feel at home. But Sunday afternoon, all our hopes and expectations of Farr West Utah came to fruition.

We had just gotten out of a nice day at church. I had driven separately to go to choir practice earlier that morning, so Brock took the kids to load up with him. When I pull around the parking lot, I see that Brock has Kade in his car seat and Karlee on his lap--smiling and holding the steering wheel. I give him a shake of the head and a tap on the horn, but they both just smile and wave. So they go on ahead of me and pull out onto the main road, speed limit 50 mph, where lo and behold, the very first vehicle coming towards us in the opposite lane happens to be the Sheriff. I immediately plan in my mind the next hours of my life bailing Brock out of jail, explaining his Brittany Spears behavior and fighting the CPA for custody of my kids and then... something wonderful happens! The Sheriff gives them a nice big grin and the old one-finger-off-the-steering-wheel wave and keeps right on going! And that's when we knew, then and there...This was truly the kind of town we could plant some roots in.

Long Lost

If you check blogs a lot AND you have your sound on, you might be ready to strangle me. Mariachi music has that effect on people, I know. All apologies.

But hip-hip hooray for nice weather and actually having places to go and people to see. Here's a quick photo tour of where we've been since we weren't on the blog scene over the past month:

Oh yeah. IT'S A BOY!!!

First, (a month ago) we went to St. George and stayed with the Gunns. We watched Ryan complete his first triathlon and then spent a little catch up time (while hiking around Zions) with our all-time favorite next door neighbors.

We LOVE the GUNNS!!
If you could hie to Kolob, this is what you'd see. It was our favorite part of ZNP...

Next it was birthday time for Kade. He's 1! As you can see, he didn't care much for the presents.

But he dove right into that cake!

We've done tons of yard work over the last month. And I really do mean TONS. We had 17 loads of dirt brought in that we (by we I pretty much mean Brock) moved around with our little shovels and wheelbarrow...
It's sure nice to have a yard for the kiddies to play in though.

Next we got Ya-Ya (Brock's mom) married off. They got married in Park City at Jeffrey's house. It was a nice day. Missy did Karlee's hair in curls for the event.

Here's Kade all spiffed out. (We'll post some real wedding pictures withOUT car seats when we get them.)

Brock hiked the Wellsvilles with his Uncle and some of his family. Although he missed church, he reports he came home "spiritually nourished."Then we were the lucky recipients of a visit from the Milmonts!!! We miss them so much! It was great to see Luke & Em and have Owen and Kade together again to see how much they've grown.

We don't have any pictures but we also had a little reunion with the Chuds and with Chuck & Lindsay before they moved to Alaska. We had a little BBQ and played some nice volleyball in our back yard. It was so great to be hanging out with them again. We miss all of our PA friends, so if you ever come to town, you better call!

We spent last weekend at Bear Lake in Colton's family cabin with Kels and the kids and Missy and Colton. My parents came over for a round of golf on Saturday with us. We golfed, played some volleyball, ate a lot of junk and spent some time at the water. Fun times.
Kade 's favorite part was running around on the deck.

Karlee liked the beach.

Kade...? Kade didn't like the beach so much. (Don't worry, he's red from the tantrum he's throwing, not from sunburn.)