At 2

My Kade is two. I'm not surprised.

Time moves before my very eyes.

Little things--squeals and splashes

Teasing grins, and tip-toe dances

spinning, dizzy, lap collapses

Fill my days and heart.

The way he whisper-shouts Hey Mom!

The way he cries when Daddy's gone.

Listen! watch for garbage truck!

Drink from the tub, but not a cup?

climb on up when head gets bumped.

Little Things make Love big.

Happy Birthday Kade. I love you!

Excuses, Excuses

There's a certain saying about excuses; They're like a certain place on the body...everyone has one...they smell... You know the one.

I hate that saying. I always have, too. And not just since I grew up and stopped laughing at potty talk. I hate it because people get it in their heads that excuses are bad, and then there's no reasoning with them after that. Like one time, for instance, we were traveling to Wyoming for a volleyball tournament and we needed to be at the school and on the bus at 6 in the morning. About the time we were ready to leave, we called a girl on our team that lived by us to see if she needed a ride. She said she didn't but that instead she would pick us up since we were on her way. So my sister and I walked outside to wait at the corner for her.

Well, she forgot about us. By the time we figured that out, woke my parents up to get dressed and give us a ride, we ended up about 20 minutes late. We ran onto the bus and tried to explain what had happened to the coach, but she wouldn't hear it. "I don't want any excuses!!" she said. And that was the end of it. For the rest of the day we were demoted to 2nd string ball managers. And it's still a mystery as to why the girl didn't come forward to stand up for us...

Since that fateful day, I don't share the capitalist society's common malcontent for excuses, I love excuses. I embrace them. I have given myself blanket permission to make them any time it allows me to do something I want to do.

So when Emily, Lil Mil and Nano find an excuse to come to Utah and visit us, I applaud.

And although my sisters and I normally don't need an excuse for making fools of ourselves, we recently had one. My mom was on the committee for the Gold and Green Ball. The theme was 'Blockbuster Moves' and you were supposed to go as a character from a movie...

Meet the 3 Amigos, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Lane Frost, and Indiana Jones.

The Jazz being in the playoffs is a good enough excuse to go to a game.

Why were we sitting on the very top row?

Either we don't want people spilling beer on us, or we like to take in a game with a bird's eye view...Take your pick of excuses here.

For Brock's Grandpa Carlisle's 80th Birthday, Jana planned a family fishing vacation on the Green River. That was the perfect excuse to:

1. Leave the kids with Aunt Missy for a long weekend.

2. Take in some beautiful scenery.

3. Spend time with the Carlisle crew.

4. and Learn how to fly fish.

Hey, Brock! My fish is bigger than yours. What's your excuse?

AND

Since Brock's college football days are fast becoming a thing of the past, he thought he needed a new excuse for getting into shape (or an excuse to wear spandex)...

SO he went and got himself into LOTOJA!!

I'll be there with him the whole 206 miles, too. Only, I'll ride in an air-conditioned car and unroll my window to hand him water and Goo at the check points...

Fly Eagles Fly

Well, Eagles are out. (Insert frowny face).

I was hoping for a Superbowl appearance, but they can't score in the red zone and they only brought the blitz for the 3rd quarter. I guess that means no party at the Milmonts with the Valley Forge 1st Ward projector, no Colony Cookbook sampler, and no colorful language in front of the children from Rich Heidemen.

I suppose we wouldn't have had any of that anyway. But it would have been nice...

I just realized that the last time the Birds were in the Superbowl, I wasn't even pregnant with Karlee. (Actually, just days away, I believe.) 4 years and 3 kids later...

4 years? Are you kidding me?!!!

4 years ago I felt like a newlywed
and now I wear mom-jeans. Sheesh, I've aged 10 years in 4!

No, don't call the fashion police and don't think I'm having a mid-life crisis. I was just visiting the land nostalgia for a moment. And, gosh, I HOPE my jeans don't look like mom-jeans!! I love being the mom, I just hate the mom-jeans.

Now that I've been off on a mind-wandering venture, I'll get back to the real reason behind the post. That would be the kids.

I really haven't posted much about Adric. That's probably because I have been busy holding him. Not because he's a 'difficult' baby but because he's such a GOOD baby. Honestly, you pick the kid up and he smiles. You pretend to pick the kid up and he smiles. You kiss his little balding head and he smiles. You LOOK at the kid and he smiles. And his smile lights up the whole room!

OHHHHHHH!!! He is the sweetest little stink on the planet!!! I can't get enough of him!!

Now my other kids... Slightly different story. SLIGHTLY.

Kader Tot is at the cutest age where he jib-jabbers all day long in his own tongue. I can make out milk and touchdown but that's about it. I also can't get enough of him, but he doesn't want me. He would rather have Aunt Missy. It's actually kind of embarrassing. We all have a theory that the reason Missy dyed her hair red was so everyone would think she is his mom. (Or maybe...Maybe her plan is just to get HIM to think she is his mom...) Regardless, Kade loves his Missy and usually prefers her over me. (For now, Missy. For now.)

And Karlee? Really, I can't get enough of her either. But in the spirit of full disclosure I admit I could do without the whine. There's a little bit of drama queen in that one that I really hope gets left behind as she grows. But, then again, I'd rather she stayed 3 forever...

Don't think I can count on that.

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.