While you were waiting...

for Vancouver Part Deux, I tried to upload a card trick for your viewing pleasure by Magic Hands Luke and his assistant Captain Disaster. But Aaron said it was too long to work and I couldn't get the thing to upload for the life of me. So, here is my second try. Some very random but funny Jonah babbling. He "talks" all day long but whenever I turn on the camera, he immediately goes shy. But this time he actually kept talking...


...Okay. Never mind. That one was too long as well and would not upload. I guess I've been getting heavy handed with that record button. I haven't followed the cardinal family rule of "no more than 60 seconds of video at a time."


Here's my third attempt. Here's the joy that follows once your child learns a new skill, like climbing up on the table. LOVE it!


...what the what?! None of my videos will upload! Uurgh. I don't get what I am doing wrong!

I guess I will just have to move on and actually blog about our trip.

I love to see the temple

Yep, we traveled up to the Vancouver Temple open house last weekend. My sister and her family came along with Aaron's brother and 2 of his children. (We sure missed my parents, Aunt Shareen and Sean. Plans changed last minute and they weren't able to join us. :)

We met there Friday morning with very little crowds and beautiful sun.   We walked the grounds while we waited for the Friess' and enjoyed the peaceful setting.

Jonah had a difficult time being quiet and reverent :)  Not him, right?   He wanted to run and explore and touch everything.  Aaron and I took turns walking him around while the group listened to our tour guide.  One of the only things that helped keep him quiet was his latest favorite toy...a tube of toothpaste.  Yes I know, we walked around the temple with Jonah gnawing on a tube of toothpaste.   But whatever works...

I love this family!!  They are my favorite people ever.

And I love that we can be together forever!

After the temple, we stayed 2 days to play and have fun in Vancouver BC.  


Travel log to be continued...

Por fin!

This labor of love has taken me so much longer than I thought it would. I found this piece at DI for $35 last November and my sweet hubby lugged this monster home in the back of our CRV. Couldn't believe it fit. But then the holidays hit and I had no time. The going has been slow taking weeks between steps and other projects that took precedent. But I can finally say it's done!

Quick overview...
1. First I to take it all apart and then sand it down, sanding the doors by hand because of the lattices. Took for-ever and left me with hand cramps.
2. I primed it and let cure. One of my favorite things about the piece is that I found the paint in the "Oops" section at Home Depot. LOVE a deal. I gone to the store seeking out a similar color but really didn't know either way so I took a chance and figured I would just be out the $5(!) for the gallon. But I ended up loving it. A little greener, a little darker, than what I had originally wanted but heck, for $5 I am not complaining. I painted two coats, only to take the pieces inside and realized the lighting in my garage was worse than I thought and the doors looked hideous. I had to sand them all down again in order to prime and paint yet again. More hand cramps.
3. I wanted pendant knobs for the drawers because that's what was there to begin with. No one stocks pendant knobs. I know this because I ran all over town to find them. I finally broke down and special ordered some on the internet. Waited two weeks only to find I didn't read the measurements right and the knobs were 3x smaller than I had planned and they didn't come in any bigger sizes. I had to return said knobs and reorder new ones. Of course it takes me a week to decide which ones because I was mad I couldn't have my favorite. And man, knobs are expensive! I paid as much in knobs as I did for the entire piece of furniture.

4. Once we got the new knobs, all the bolts were too long so I had to go out and buy new ones. Of course it took me a week to actually get out and buy the news bolts.
5. Then the hinges for the doors were falling apart and no one carried the same size-anywhere. So after searching and searching, Aaron tells me to buy the closest one I can and he carved out the hinge sockets on the doors and sanded them down to make them fit.

6. To finish it off I had to do a touch up coat everywhere we had dinged it getting the hinges right and the doors hung and where Jonah had already drawn on it with a pen. (Boy, I am going to have to keep an eye on our budding graffiti artist.)


But after all that, I find it was worth the effort. I love the cabinet and now have place to store a lot of my fabric, paints, crafts junk, etc. It's become the starting point for my dining room and I am ready to take on the rest of the room. As you can see I don't have do-da's, or accessories put together with the cabinet but I some projects in the works for that. I already spray painted my black candle sticks yellow to add color. (Spray paint had become one of my new best friends. LO-OVE it!) And I've already used the same blue cabinet paint, only lightened a little with some white paint, to make the word art. This room WILL come together if it's the last thing I do. Hint: the walls are next on my paint to-do list. I'll keep you posted.

3rd time's a charm?

Here's my third attempt to make my word art project thing. This time I used colored plastic to align all the words better, I used just two font sizes instead of 4-5, and returned to latex paint. I had been looking for a larger canvas with a thicker depth but everywhere I went they were all at least $50. Couldn't see spending $50 on an art project I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But last week I went to Joann's armed with my 40% off coupon ready to just bite the bullet and go for. As luck would have it, the canvases were on clearance, so they were already half priced. I also bought a cheap glue gun since my 15 year old one fell apart on me months ago. I gave the cashier my coupon and the canvas checked out at another 40% off. I got the $50 canvas for $14.99! LO-OVE IT!

I'm going to be hanging it up in our dining room once I get that room together. Yes, the one I started redecorating 6 months ago which basically has consisted of just taking everything down. The color I used on the art-thing is a hint to my cabinet that I has been painstakingly working on these past months. It truly has been a comedy of delays but I can finally say it is done and I love it. Post on that soon.

The lighting in my dining room leaves much to be desired so I had to use a flash. Not so great but you get the idea.

These have been a fun project and I feel I am getting better at it. It always turns out differently than what I think, but still pretty cool, right?

Primary Mode of Transportation

Jonah has finally decided he wanted to walk! At 15 months, it's taken a little while but these last few weeks he has left crawling in the dust. I have to admit it's lots of fun. He's very independent and will not hold my hand while we walk outside and must find his own way. But he is so proud of himself and finds pure joy in his accomplishment. He doesn't get into things any more than before (no less either), I am used to the constant mess and not picking up until he goes to bed. But lately he's into, even more than before, the toilet and runs to it any time a door is left open. I've found brushed, toys and keys all taking a dip these last few weeks. But no matter what I do, it's still a fun game to him and runs away squealing.


I took this video to document when Jonah first started walking a few weeks ago but it's Lucas who makes me smile. This is so typical Lucas. Now I can't say who he really gets this from because his father is, well, Aaron and who couldn't imagine Aaron pulling the dance moves Lucas performs. But then there are little known videos out there of Lucas' mother at 10 years old giving a very detailed and enthusiastic tour of the kitchen highlighting an especially scrumptious brand of cereal and discoursing on the ripeness of the bananas. He was doomed to a life of drama and silliness. Or, on the other hand, he's just a typical 10 year old boy.



Jonah babbles ALL DAY LONG. He IS a Williams. :) Amidst the babbling, Jonah also says quite a few words these days...Mama, Daddy, doggie, baby, poopie, ball, bye-bye, no, yea, "bobby" (for bottle), "kank you", nummy (for food) and shoe. No "Lucas" yet but we're trying hard. When you ask him what a cow says, he goes "Ooo-ooo." Can't quite get the "m" in there yet. I can rarely get him on video because he gets too shy or too interested in the camera itself to actually talk. Can't wait to understand what he is actually saying. Below is a small sample of what I hear every day.




He also still great at giving kisses. He went through a stage where his kisses comprised of one long lick from cheek to cheek but he now is back to just open-mouth. And he also is wonderful at giving "loves." He'll cuddle just the way I like it.



Jonah LOVES outside and I can't wait for the weather to stay nicer. He makes a beeline outdoors if ever he hears a door open. One day when the weather was nicer I let him play and of course he gravitated straight to the dirt.


We went to the park this last beautiful Saturday and it was fun to see the boys play together. It was the first time we had taken Jonah to the park since he could walk and do more things by himself. Loved it!


Aaron had gone for a 10 mile run that morning and then taken the kids (we were watching some good friend's 3 children) on a hike and ended up with a 3 year old on his shoulders most of the time. He is such a great daddy!


Rare sunny spring day in Seattle.


PS I know, I give the Williams a hard time for being such talkers. When Aaron and I first got married we would go over to his parents house every Sunday for pork chops and ice cream. His parents are wonderful so I LOVED it and truly enjoyed our time together. But the first few times I came home with a head ache and would ask Aaron NOT to talk for just a little while. After hours of discussing how long you could live on a desert island with just Tic Tacs, I needed some quiet. :) Joking aside, they are great conversationalists and I truly miss our Sunday night dinners together. I also love that Aaron is the talker in our relationship and helps me not clam up when I get frustrated. His parents taught him well!

Super Crab

Jonah has been so sad these last few days. Just fussy and needy and not his happy-go-lucky usual self. He had a diaper rash but once that cleared up he still seemed sad. This afternoon we thought to check his mouth to see if he was teething. Yep, the kid's got 6 teeth coming in! S-I-X at once. I would be a little fussy too.

Easter In Vancouver

As part of our trip down south, we spent Easter Sunday with the other Washington Williams. We watched afternoon Conference together and had such a fun visit. They fed us a scrumptious Easter dinner with their great friends and I felt guilty not contributing anything other than my stomach.


Uncle Brant with his boy Sean and our boy JB.

I call this one "Left Behind." All the other kids had gone to keep Cotton company in our car and these two had to stay in the house.

Lucas and his cutie cousins. They played the piano together, entertained the dog and had fun at the kids table. (I love that Luke actually smiled normally in this one.)

They worked and worked on Lucas' shark puzzle but gave up after even the parents couldn't figure out the pieces were supposed to stay together. Thanks a lot, Mom. I mean, Easter Bunny.

Uncle Hoobie (have I ever told people all the nieces and nephews call him Uncle Hoobie?) and Sean.

I hope sometime we can get all the Williams together in one place. It's hard with every family living in a different city. And the more kids that come, the harder it is to travel. Love these guys and can't wait to play again! Maybe we can meet at Wolf Lodge again sometime...

Weekend in Portland

We took off last weekend for Portland. Since we moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2001, we have always traveled (mostly to Portland) to watch Conference. No one comes here 'cause we ain't got no cable and though the internet is good, the tradition has started and we almost always make the trek.


All the grand kids (minus Katherine) early Friday morning. The kids really get along well and have a ball. Bennett was quite into Lucas this trip and did everything Lucas did. I think Luke enjoyed being idolized but didn't let it go to his head. (Too much) I saw him trying hard to be an example and trying to teach him things, like how to calm down when angry and how to be reverent during the prayer. Love the cousins!
Here is cousin Pax. Another gorgeous blue-eyed boy after two sweet brown-eyed kids. So calm and cuddly. He has changed so much in the last 6 months! Now, do all baby's heads go so round, or is it just our babies? Pax reminded me so much of Jonah and his Globe-Head Stage. :) I mean that with all love and tenderness towards both Charlie Brown-esque babies. But luckily the bodies tend to catch up with the heads and everything evens outs nicely. Isn't Pax a cutie?! Want to gobble those jowls!


Boys had a sweet set up for maximum Conference-listening experience.


Lucas and Jack are into reading and would stay up late with their headlamps tearing through their books.


Saturday morning before Conference we had an Easter basket/egg hunt. We were going to go out to a park between sessions but due to inclement weather, we made the best of it. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Finished scorpion puzzle delivered from the Easter bunny.


Mr. B had an awesome idea to make confetti cupcakes with sprinkles and peeps. We got great auntie/nephew time as we made them together. So sweet... the cupcakes were too.

I have a terrible feeling Jonah is going to be a climber. He had already started in on his toy bucket and the dish washer but it was taken to new heights with his new found love of the stairs and this step stool. Every time I turned around he was up the ladder or down the stairs...but not one fall...knock on wood.
Great weekend and we seemed to narrowly miss the stomach virus that was going around. Hallelujah.