Real Cowboys wear boots

Birthday Sneak Peek

Abby's third birthday is three weeks from today.

She will be hosting a tea party on her birthday.

Any guesses as to the theme?

Here are a couple of hints:

the big Z

Today. Can you believe it? I am posting about today!
Today is crazy hair day at school in celebration of the end of the second six weeks of school.
Zach wanted his hair sprayed blue and black.
No problem.

The problem is that everytime we spray his hair it ends up looking like his normal hair only darker. So this time, I suggested something a little more dramatic.

Calyn wanted her hair fixed like Abby's and then sprayed pink.

Calyn kept telling me that her hair was not pink enough. Anyone want to guess how many washings it is going to take to get rid of the "not pink enough" hair?

My 1st STAR

Calyn was recently star of the week.

We made a poster that told all about her:


Dr. Dallas gave a presentation to her class. She was really shy when she introduced her dad:

I read a book to her class and met her for lunch.

On the last day of her stardom, I brought a red star-shaped balloon to her when I picked her up from school. She loved it. We ran a few errands after school and then stopped at Chick-fil-a for dinner. As Zach opened the door to get out, the balloon escaped. I yelled at him to try to alert him, and he immediately started crying. Calyn started crying. Abby started crying. It was sad but oh so funny.

These days are going fast

Grant has been under the weather the last couple of weeks. He has enjoyed (or we have enjoyed) extra snuggle time with mom and dad.

I am definitely going to miss this when my baby is no longer a baby.

Ketchup

Blog world,

I so miss telling you about our adventures as a family. We have kept a hectic pace the last few months. I have been neglectful. I will attempt to play "ketchup." So check back because we have done a lot.

To start-what is better than a naked one year old?

Answer: a naked one year old wearing a crown.

Sports report

Here is a long overdue update on our sports goings-on. I'll start with our current endeavor.
The twins are playing Upward soccer again this year. The twist is that Tim and I somehow agreed to coach their team. We have had three games thus far and the team improves with each game. Zach scored 8 goals in the last game and still really enjoys playing soccer. Calyn scored 1 and struggles to remain aggressive. She does enjoy celebrating each of Zach's goals which is neat to see.



The twins played Fall ball which is actually July/August blazing heat ball. We joined up with our big rival from the Spring season who already had an established Fall ball team called The Rogue Warriors. The kids won every regular season game (10) but lost the tournament championship game. Calyn played first base and did an amazing job. Zach hit the ball extremely well and got on base on most attempts.

The Express Spring season team ended up winning first place in the regular season and the tournament. This was such a special team of kids and families. Most of the families really bonded and it was so fun to have new friends to see at each of the games.

Abby's back to "school" photos

Abby returned to PDO today. She was excited to go to her "school" since the big kids have been going to their school all week. She has a new teacher this year because her old teacher took a full-time job. We are sad to see Ms. Lori leave, but are looking forward to the fresh ideas and attitudes that come with a new teacher.
I took her to meet her new teacher on Monday. Abby had a new mosquito bite on her cheek that made her eye swell almost completely shut. Add to that a split lip and she was such a sight. I'm glad she looked a lot more normal today, although you can still see the bite on her cheek.

Abby received Calyn's old back-pack but was excited that I had her name put on it. We never personalized any of the twins' belongings in hopes that they would be passed down to future siblings. It was fun to have her name put on something for her.

I am loving that both of the girls agreed to wear dresses for their first day of school. If you look closely at Abby's ankle, you can see the stamp she received yesterday at gymnastics. I figured since Zach and Calyn always got to go to gymnastics that it was only fair to let Abby do the same. She did great in her class and paid attention and obeyed much better than 75% of the other kids. It helped that the instructors remembered us and treated her as a favorite. By the end of the class, she was already sitting in the instructor's lap.

I think Abby is by far my greatest challenge. She isn't big enough to be a big kid but also isn't little like Grant. I often expect her behavior to be reasonable like Zach and Calyn even though she is three years younger. Abby likes to push the boundaries with me and even her brothers and sister. She is often very funny and is quite intelligent. She loves to sing and hearing her sing to and about Jesus can bring tears to my eyes. She is such a joy and I am so thankful that I get to be her mom!

They want to go back!!

The title sums up Zach and Calyn's first day of Kindergarten. Both had a fantastic day and are excited to go back tomorrow.

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.