Because I miss my friend...

I have a friend who has been out-of-town for forever (it has actually only been a month but it seems like forever). I took pictures so that she can see some of the changes around the Dallas house. And since most of my readers live far away, maybe everyone will enjoy this update.

I added Grant's nine month picture to the wall that has Abby's nine month picture:

I hung a 16 X 20 canvas print of my favorite picture on the wall close to the tan chair:

The great rain of July 2010 wrecked some havoc at our house. The biggest problem was that our living room flooded. Here is what the carpet looks like now. Servpro is coming Tuesday to replace the carpet pad, re-tuck the carpet, and clean the carpet throughout the house (thanks Tyson!).

Tim is preparing for his sabatical that starts this Fall. He purchased a new desk chair and a bigger monitor for his home office. I am preparing for his sabatical by remaining in denial that he will be underfoot this Fall.

Zach and Calyn picked out these spiffy backpacks to get ready for kindergarten which starts in 30 days (I can't seem to understand why some of my friends are upset or sad that their children are starting school).

In order to prepare the kids for school and to give them a way to earn money, we have been trying to introduce more structure to our days. If they complete every task, they get fifty cents each day. This was last weeks chart. As you can see, we struggled in the area of scripture memory. We failed to learn a new verse, but continued to work on the verse from the previous week. Even Abby knows it now.

Best day of 2010

May 9, 2010 was an exceptional day. Zach and Calyn were baptized. Grant was dedicated. Moms were appreciated. An uncle visited.


We headed to church bright and early. Grant hung out in the church library with Papou before the service. How handsome is he?

We took the twins upstairs to meet their sweet friends and to get instructions from Mr. Bruce. My friend Stephanie had the best caption for this photo. It was "These Belong to Him." Thank you Jesus that they do.

Mr. Bruce said a special prayer and the video can be seen here. We are thankful to Mr. Bruce and Mrs. Rita for this special service. It was the last 930 of the semester and Bruce agreed to spend a significant portion of his time baptizing our kids (6 total) and dedicating our babies (9 total).

All of the kids were baptized and video of the twins can be seen here.
This picture of Calyn shows her joy.

At the end of the service, we were able to dedicate Grant. At our church, babies are presented before the church. Both the families and the congregation are challenged to pray for and help raise the babies in a manner that honors God. As parents, we pledged to teach Grant to love and follow God.

The service was also very special because the band, Pearl Merchant, played several songs that are special to our family. They sang Blessed be the Name, How Can I Keep from Singing, and Shout to the Lord (our wedding song). As I was upstairs and heard Blessed be the Name, I thought to myself that Abby would enjoy it because it is her favorite song. By the time they got to Shout to the Lord, I realized that Tim had had a hand in the music selection. We love Pearl Merchant and were so very thankful and honored.
After the service, we headed to Dion's to celebrate with pizza. Our LifeGroup also came and we got to feed them one last time before the summer break.
The other Williams' family joined us.

Uncle Jeff came all the way from California.

After lunch we headed home to give Nana and Grandma their Mother's Day presents.
Nana with her masterpiece from Calyn.

Grandma with her masterpiece from Zach.

The twins also made me cement hand prints at school. The best part was their cards.

Calyn's card:

Zach's card:

I know that this post is very late. Thank you for allowing me to share about our special day.

Soccer

Zach and Calyn attended soccer camp at Texas Tech earlier this week. They had a good time and were excited to go each day. The new soccer complex is quite amazing. This was our first time to send them (without us close-by) somewhere that was not church-related. It was for 2.5 hours each day. Overall, it was a good experience.

They also had VBS at the church where they use to go to PDO. The VBS was from 6:30 to 8:45 Sunday-Thursday. This is their third year to attend and they love it every year. The church also serves dinner at 6, so it is nice for the mommas too.

Add in a couple of baseball practices and one Upward soccer evaluation, and we have two very tired children.

Last but not least

I have been lost under a pile of work. Since the middle of May, my part-time job has consumed almost all of my free time. I finished my latest and largest to this date, assignment last Friday. Since Saturday, I have been trying to catch up on all the time-consuming tasks that had been put off. I still have to finish a baby shower present, but otherwise I am pretty much caught up. Now I can get back to blogging. I am actually quite a bit behind on blogging. But to get started, I will tell you a funny story.

Last week, I was changing the sheets on my bed. Zach was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom. All of the sudden he starts shrieking. I hurry to the shower and pull back the shower curtain. He is covered in blood. It is pouring from his mouth and is covering his body. He is so upset that he cannot tell me what happened. I get him cleaned up and Tim calms him down. All the blood was coming from a cut on his lip. We question him repeatedly, he won't tell us what happened. I am thinking that he is just traumatized from the accident. About an hour later Tim overhears him telling Calyn that he was trying to shave with my razor! He is the last of my kids that I would expect to do something like that. Hopefully he learned his lesson.

Have you checked the children lately?

Someone around here has become quite the little mommy. She shuffles her babies from play area to rest area and then back to play area. She even makes sure they have toys, blankets, and snuggle towels.
I would love to say that she is modeling me, but I think she is already a much kinder and patient mommy. Now if I can just teach her to do all the chores that come along with being mommy...