In case you didn't get enough of New York...

(WARNING: THERE WILL BE AN EXCESSIVE USE OF EXCLAMATION POINTS IN THIS POST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I can finally say I LOVE NY and mean it!!  We had so much fun on our little trip to NYC.  I didn't really want to do these in a slide show but I dont know how to get the pictures off of shutterfly onto my computer. (anyone know how?)  SO I will do it like this and write the comments here all together :-)  We did A LOT of stuff and took a lot of pictures so I decided the best way would be to do 4 seperate posts of the 4 days we were gone.  Really we were gone 5 days but we didn't take pictures of each other being majorly sick on the way home from the horrible turbulence on the flight.  Who wants pictures of the end of a vacation anyway?

1.  Karen waiting to catch our flight to Maryland, where we had a little layover.  We had to be to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, waaaaay to early but so worth it!  We couldn't sleep anyway we were so excited!

2. My memory fails me on this one, big surprise.  I think this is when we were having a little lunch waiting for our flight into NYC!!!  One thing I am sure of, this is definitely Joni and Karen!

3. Unfortunately, mom was on a different flight than us but being the wonderful daughters that we are we waited in the airport for her so we could all ride in together.   I even made her a little sign with her last name on it while we waited!  It seemed like we were there for 9 hours but I'm sure it wasn't really that long.  Anywho, once she got there we went to get a cab, hello massive line!  So we called a driver, it was only ten bucks more but we did have to wait 30 more minutes for him to get there.  Maybe we could have got a cab by then but who cares, WE WERE IN NYC!!!

4.  oh, oopsie, this ones actually out of order.  We hide to ride a bus around the airport to get to the terminal mom was coming in on so we took a picture of it.  It wasn't really all that exciting but it was our first bus in New York!  Oh my goodness, I just realized that is not what this picture is.  Pretend you never saw this one.

5.  Here is our first meal in New York.  I really can't remember what time it was, it felt really late though.  I would guess 9:00 at night, luckily we weren't in St. George or everything would have been closed down by then.  We had some good stirfry and a warm bottle of soda.  While we were eating someone had the brillant idea that we should have a peice of cheesecake everywhere we ate so we could say which one was our favorite.  Wesent Joni up to buy it and we let the guy talk us into trying something called napolean or something like that.  Dissappointment.  We didn't let that happen again.

6. After we ate we headed down to Times Square (or Time Square if you're Codee).  I must confess that when we first walked out of our hotel we did head the wrong way for a couple of blocks, not bad, it only took us a couple of blocks to figure out.  As soon as we could see all the lights we decided to take a picture.   It was raining a little but we did not even care! 

7. A nice gentlemen came and offered to take a picture of all four of us.  We busted a guy getting in the back of our picture and had a good laugh with him and the photographer.  Im still not sure if they were in on it together, it was a little unclear!

8.  Close up!  Remember the rain, thats why our hair looks a little flat!

9-12.  We went into this awesome store there called aeropastle.  Just kidding, I know we have those in SG but we were looking for headbands and hats, we were unprepaired that night!  It did have a kid section and ours doesn't so there!  Anyway, we were a little tired and excited and took these pictures of each other.  Karens is totally my favorite! 

13.  The picture says it all!

14.  The whopper bar, we took this one for Trevor but I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog so whatevs.

15.  Here I am exhausted in our cute, cute, cute hotel room.  No I am not pregnant so you dont need to ask.  The room was small and the bathroom was tiny but look at that adorable wall behind me.  Not that the hotel matters much, we were so tired everynight we could have probably just slept out on the street.  It continued to rain harder and harder that night and considering we had a twenty minute walk back to the hotel, we were pretty wet and freezing when we got back but once again, WHO CARES, WE WERE IN NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!

Let me just add a few extra comments that dont have a picture to go with them.  This trip has been a long time coming!  I still cant believe we pulled it off.  I guessI actually do have a picture of Joni jumping in the air right after we bought our tickets back in July.. I think we all shared the same feelings.  Then we had to wait a little while to save up some more funds and get our hotel.  Mom bought her tickets and we had a little meeting at her house one sunday night to pick the hotel.  SO FUN! Soon after we bought our wicked tickets and our rockette tickets.  Then we had one last formal planning meeting, we all went out to dinner and made plans while we ate cupcakes at sweet toothfairy.  We went to the bookstore and bought maps and tried to make plans.  There might have been a few clothes shopping trips mixed in there somewhere.  Anyway I honestly almost cried on several occasions because I was so exited and I really couldn't believe that I was going to be in NYC!!!  These little episodes just got closer and closer the closer the trip got or the closer the plane  got!  I remember the feeling I had in picture 6 when we first recognized Times square.  It was that excitment that makes you feel like your throat has closed off and you almost cant breathe!  It was unbelieveable and I hope I can go there soon with Billy and share all the fun with him.  I am so thankful that I was able to go and especially with some of my favorite people in the whole world!!

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I cant even come up with a title for this

These are some seriously random pictures.  I havn't been a good blogger lately so I had to get a few of these up that I don't want to miss. I dont think I posted this picture of Chloe and Cam yet but I'm not really sure.  It was Campbells first day of preschool.  I mostly wanted to post it to help me remember how close in size and looks these two are.  It's like having another set of twins!  They are also such good friends!  It is so cute, they really miss each other when one is gone.  They play so good together and I love how close they are.  I think it would be fun if they were closer in school but I am not ready for Cam to be in Kindergarten next year so it's ok i guess!

Well, you can pretty much see why I posted this one.  I love this little stink bug, who started crawling today by the way! 

A while ago on a Sunday afternoon we had Eric, Karen, Joni and Codee all over for a big family bikeride!  It was so fun, we didn't get to go very far but it was still fun and I think the kids had lots of fun.  I meant to take more pictures but this is pretty much it!

Here is our crew on Halloween night.  (I just noticed that only half of Chloe made it in the shot)  There was a whole mess of kids there and I wouoldn't have it any other way.

I really didn't want to forget this.  We have been going to this really cute neighborhood to trick or treat for the past few years and it is awesome!  It is a cute neighborhood anyway with big trees lining the streets and little white fences but they are all decorated for halloween too!  One house is always playing loud halloween music and someone usually has a haunted house and there are tons of kids, which I love. This year they had a HEADLESS HORSEMAN!!!!!!  It was so awesome, the kids loved it but not as much as I did! 

These are my cute little bumblebees!

Oh hey, how did they get in here twice?

The weekend before halloween we had a visit from Dylan! Aaron and Abbi were here too but I didn't get any pictures of them!  Its hard to tell by their size but Dylan is actually the younger cousin!  He is such a cute chubby little man and it was fun having them all here for the night!

Happy Birthday Ninja Turtle!

I am a horrible blogger.  I know.  I have a lot of catching up to do but I had to skip ahead and say Happy Birthday to my little happy buddy!  He gladly reused the ninja turtle costume this year.  He was a pretty cute ninja turtle too!  It's hard to compete with a 16 month old little girl being a ninja turtle but he held his own!

I LOVE that Cams birthday is on halloween however, it does cause a few problems.  I don't feel right about doing a pinata or treat bags and really even cake is to much!  This year he wanted pumpkin pie so we went for it, it worked out pretty good,

This is a cute bat he made for preschool but I LOVE this picture of my little funny boy.

Birthday morning!  Billy thought it would  be funny to put his big boy bike on the table and it was, he loved it. We took him for breakfast at McDonalds with his cute friend Mollie, I never take the kids in to play so he loved that.  The best part was that Billy took the day off so he got to be with his best buddy all day!

 Some stuff about Campbell at 4. 
He is so funny, like adult funny.
 He talks to EVERYONE, the walmart greeters LOVE him!
 He squeals, alot.  When Billy gets home he squeals Da-dy, he squeals for Claire and he just squeals for no reason.
 He rides his bike with no training wheels like he's been doing it for years. He learned on the tiny bike and was awesome on it. I was hesitant to get him a bigger one then 2 days before his birthday I ran over the tiny one so it made the decision pretty easy.
 He loves charleston chews and wants Billy to bring him some everyday.
 He goes to preschool and really loves it.
 He sleeps on bear bear (a fake bear skin thing) and uses his cozy everynight. (a halloween blanket he got last year from gramma loni)
 He still loves to get in bed with me and Billy in the middle of the night and he moves around like crazy.  He is pretty stubborn in his sleep too, I push him away from me and he instantly moves back to where he was.
 He has a great imagination and plays more make believe type games than any of my other kids.
 He loves to block you in the closet or whereever and make you guess the password (usually kitty or waddles waddles waddles).
 He really wants the baby alive doll that drinks a sippy cup and goes poo.(?)
 He is really into firecops, I'm not sure if he knows it's actually two seperate things but either way he loves them.
My most favorite, he gives me a big hug EVERY morning when he gets out of bed!! Chloe told me one time he didn't want to get out of bed because he didn't want to give me a hug but I dont believe it.
 I know there are tons more things, I'll add them when I think of them.
 I love these sweet little boy with all my heart, he makes me laugh and smile everyday. He is a genuinely happy kid and I love that about him! 

Oh Sophie, you little cutie.

SAY CHEEEEEEEEEEESE!

I love this little girl, she is hilarious.  I have been trying to capture her little "say cheese" face for a week or so now and this weekend provided a great opportunity!  We had Sophie and Jackson for a double sleepover.  It was fun for all.  We were stranded at home bceause we cant fit all these kids in our car so we played outside alot.  Soph and Campbell go along surprisingly well, bonus.  Anyway, what a ham, I love it!!

Kindergarten here I come!

Chloe on her first day of real school. I want to point out that she picked out about 4 new outfits that are all this same style, long shirt or dress with leggings. She was also attracted to glitter, sequins, peace signs, butterflys and sparkles. She looks like such a big girl in her school clothes

She literally ran to her class, she couldn't hold back her excitement!

Slowing down just a little so she doesn'tcollide with anyone.

She found her seat with her name tag at the blue table. Chloe really wanted to ride the bus home so I let her. I tried to get her picture coming off the bus but it didn't work out. She is only supposed to be on the bus for about 10 minutes but that first day they forgot to send a bus to pick up the kindergarteners so she was about 20 minutes late. I knew there would be some confusion the first day so I wasn't to worried. The second day of school something went really wrong and she was on the bus for 1.5 hours. Holy canoli, her face was bright red when she finally did get home. Poor girl, we took the next day off of riding the bus but by Thursday she was begging to ride again so I agreed. Thursday and Friday were much better, she was home within 10 minutes!

Later that day we headed to Jonis house, Owen was there so I took a picture of the two Kindergarteners together. Something doesn't look quite right though, they don't look like they should be in the same grade do they?

The preschoolers didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot.

Now this little one DOES NOT get to go to school just yet but I just threw this one in so you could see what she looks like when we take her piggys out. A little clown like if you ask me!

First (or possibly second) day of school 2011

The first day of school is hectic enough without trying to add pictures into the mix so we went with second day of school pics this year. If you want to get technical is was like a week before school for Chloe. This was the morning of her kindergarten assesment so she was up and ready in her new school clothes. Campbell might have been standing to the left of these guys thinking he was in the picture but I cut him out because I really wanted one of just the kids going to school, does that make me a bad mom?

Here is Carter,all ready to go. He and Cooper have different teachers for the first time this year. They seem to be fine with it, it's kind of a pain for me having two different SEP's and different homework but I think it will be really good for both of them.

Here's Cooper looking all big. I wish I had done pics the first day because they wore these really funny koolaid shirts, I will have to get them the next time they wear those. In case there was any doubt, that is not coffee in Coopers cup, I promise. They found these cups from last winter and started drinking water out of them. This also explains the water all down the front of his shirt,well the next picture does.

He was practicing his "waterfalling" skills. He got pretty good at it to.

Chloe Grace, so cute and excited. She at least had the sense to hide her cup, she knew it would take away from her cuteness. I love my kiddos so much and I miss them when they are gone. I drop them off in the mornings and feel a little sad that they are old enough to be at school. Not sad enough to try homeschool or anything, just enough sad to make me feel like I am a good mom because I do miss them when they are gone.

The Williams turn 9!!

Here they are, my big 9 year olds! This was the morning of their birthday, it was the week before school started and they were really used to sleeping in. I had to wake them up early for a cub scouts field trip to the national guard armory, thats why they look a little sleepy. A few days before their birthday I took them to pick out some heeleys for thier present, it was one of the best presents we have ever bought them, they LOVE them and they are getting exercise while they play! On this morning I made them a blueberry pancake breakfast at Coopers request. Then on Saturday Billy and Codee took them, Campbell, Jackson, Spencer, Owen, and Jacoby to play lasertag! I guess we kind of spread it out over the whole week for them this year but they enjoyed it!

MEGA SLEEPOVER!!

That's right I said MEGA SLEEPOVER!  All the children (and 2 extra adults) seen here had a big ol' sleepover at my house last week.  It was so fun, I LOVE that my kids have so many cousins on both sides of the family it makes for lots of partying.  There were 17 of us total and if you have been in my house you know it doesn't really accomodate that many people, it barely accomodates the 7 that actually live here!  Another thing that doesn't accomodate 17 people is mine and Jonis vehicles but we made it work.

Brandi and her kids moved to California about 7 months ago and this was the first time we had seen them since.  They were here for 2 weeks and we made the most out of every second of it!  We had all the kids over at Matt and Shenelles the night they got here to surprise them and we didn't leave there until about 1 in the morning.  That was pretty much how the next two weeks went, staying up way to late then meeting up again the next day way to early!  I think most of the kids are still trying to catch up:-)

More July parties!

Joni, Karen and I tried really hard to have every day packed with things to do so we didn't go crazy this summer.  This particular day we took the kids to Springdale for a picnic lunch and some ice cream.  Jackson was with his grandparents so Joni and Karen each had 1 child with them and I looked like the crazy lady with 5!  I guess the truth is I am the crazy lady with 5-haha!  Luckily I have awesome sisters (like sister sisters- not sister wives) who help me out however they can; chasing someone, holding someones hand across the street, wiping someones face, you get the idea. 

Heres Carter Sophia and Chloe cooling off with some fro-yo.  Carter and Sophie have been little buddies lately and its pretty cute!  I think it all started at the gym daycare, he thought she was really funny and she liked all the attention so they really hit it off!  Cooper has been trying to form a similar relationship with Carson but its still a work in progress.

Claire is getting cutier (get it?) by the day, as you can clearly see here.  I got her one of the these fruit thingys and she seemed to really enjoy this frozen peach.  The week after I bought this we were in Marysvale for the 24th for 4 days, when I came home I found this thing hidden in the box of ramen noodles with a moldy banana in it.  I threw it away and have yet to buy her a new one, but I will someday.

Oh yes and Claire also got her first bath time mohawk!

And we have arrived at the 24th of July pictures!  As I said we were in Marysvale which is always a blast for everyone, especially the kids!  The boys got a few shooting lessons from Uncle Cory,

and Billy got a lesson (and an injury) in archery from TJ.  Thanks for sharing your weapons guys!

Campbell and Luke pushed each other in this little car for so long, it was so cute but they wouldn't hold still for one second for me to get a picture of them.  Those two are so funny together!

The best part of all, the kids got to be in the parade!  They had a seventies theme float (grandpas truck) decorated with balloons, signs, streamers and an awesome disco ball!  The sign says* peace love popsicles* and the kids all threw otter pops, they were by far the cutest float in the parade!

We just watched!

Taking turns holding our cute little Claire Bear

After the parade they had games and booths in the park, the kids loved every second of it, Chloe got an awesome feather in her hair from Aunt Emilee!

I might have lied when I said the parade was the best part because after the games they had FISH RODEO!!  We were a little late but the kids still got in on a little fish catching.  I am not a big fan of fish in any form, in a bowl, in the ocean, on my plate but especially not in my childrens bare hands!  It was a struggle for me but I put a smile on my face and let them have their fun!

I think if you get there on time the fish are alive and swimming and thats kind of like the rodeo part of it but im pretty sure these guys were just floating when they were caught but whatever, a catch is a catch.

Claire turned 6 months in July and has been practicing sitting up all by herself!  I love her a whole bunch, she is the happiest baby ever and so fun to be around!