Don't tell me...

Are we all so busy that none of us can keep up on this blog? I mean it's not like 2 of you didn't just have babies and one of you is homeschooling. So what is my excuse you ask, just plain laziness I suppose. I just blogged on the little berry patch, so if you really want to know what we are up to, you'll have to go there. I hope you all had great Christmas festivities. We sure did. I'm ready for school to start so I can get back into my routine. Okay girls, your turn to tell all, or maybe just some in our cases!

Answering the call...

So, Ranell, I'll post something to help you feel like you're not the only one. Of course, you'll be busy having a baby so you may not get to read it for a bit. Best wishes on that, by the way! We're WAY excited to meet Natalie and we're so glad you're bringing her to us.

Last Sunday was the primary program. TJ sang his heart out and Truman did AWESOME reciting his lines (he had the longest "blurb" of anybody). Today, Esther asked me, "Mommy, is it fast Sunday?" because she likes to bear her testimony. When I said no, she said, "Well, is it at least primary program?" I guess those are her two favorite sundays. When I answered no on that one, too, she just sighed and decided to color.

I'll even throw in a Halloween costume picture, even though its a couple of weeks late. My daughters picked up a little "Ditty" somewhere about "It's halloween night tonight" and they sing it together, sometimes over and over. Funnily enough, the day after halloween, it really annoyed Karina whenever she spotted a house that hadn't removed their halloween decorations yet. She would say, "Don't they know that halloween is over?!"

Ted keeps hoping he can put up Christmas decorations soon. I always think that before Thanksgiving is too soon, but he pointed out that the church "endorses" putting up Christmas decorations early since you can already see bulbs on the bare trees around temple square.

Okay, well, let me upload the picture (I'm still figuring all of that out for myself, too...)



Again, Ranell, our prayers are with you for a safe and healthy delivery of your new daughter! Blessings --

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

Hi family! Someone besides me write something soon, okay?! I'm doing a lot of writing on my other blog so go look! I decided to participate in NaBloPoMo, (National Blog Posting Month) which means I'm posting everyday in November. There is some really great stuff on my blog, I mean seriously life changing! Okay, maybe not, but it's kind of entertaining. If (when?!) you go look, leave me a comment ... it only takes a moment and it really boosts my self esteem.

Shannon has a blog now, too. It is http://www.littleberrypatch.blogspot.com/. I've added a link over on the blog list to the left, so go look at hers, too (but look at mine first!)

Well, no baby yet ... as I'm sure you already guessed. If Natalie had arrivd already, I probably would have mentioned it before now. We will go in Monday morning at 5 am to be induced. We are taking our laptop to the hospital, so we'll be doing a minute-by-minute report of the entire labor and delivery on our blog! (Brian doesn't know this yet, but I'm sure he'll be in favor of it!) Be sure to come join us!

Love you all, even if you're not yet the faithful bloggers I want you to be.
Ranell

Williamson Halloween

Okay, I said by the end of the week, so I guess I'm still okay, depending on if you count Sunday as the end of one week, or the beginning of the next. Anyway, I've been trying to go through all my pictures (1200 of them) and take out red-eye, resize for blogging, and post a few. It takes a long time! Here is our family at Trunk or Treat ... the kids picked out these costumes themselves. I did NOT force them to coordinate (athough that does sound like something I would do, and have done in years passed). Anyway, we had a fun night! You can look at our Williamson family blog for more pictures, but not yet! Give me another day or two to get the pics ready.

Berry Halloween pics

Here we have Abby as Wendy, Elliott as Peter Pan, and Jacob as the young Obi Wan Kanobi. We had a good time trick or treating. Jacob was not able to go to trunk or treat with the others because he was in the hospital (totally fine now) so he was miffed that they had so much more candy than he. We put all the candy together though so anyone can pick from it. We went to a friend's neighborhood that wasn't too big and got done with trick or treat before it got dark!!!

Calling all Halloween Pics!

Hello out there! I've actually posted a few times on my family blog ... for the first time in over a month ... so go check it out! Rachel has also been posting on her family's blog -- with pictures of the babies! There is now a link to both our blogs and Regan's and Tru's blogs over there <----- so it makes it really easy to check in on them often!

Also, I'm less than impressed with the posting on this family blog (self included.) Let's set a manageable goal ... how about some Halloween pictures uploaded here by the end of the week, and I promise to do it too! Come on, people, let's do this thang!

Love to you all!

Baby Update from Ranell

Hi family!

Well, just to let you know, I will be induced on 11/17 if Natalie doesn't come on her own before then. It's about a week before my due date but she's already measuring big and my other babies have come early, so we feel confident that this is a good thing. I really needed to know a date to plan for where the kids will go and when Grami Tami will come out, and Brian's mom, etc. I am feeling big (although I'm sure no where as big as Rachel!) and tired, but otherwise all is well. I am really excited to meet our newest family member!

Also, we've decided to come to Utah for Christmas so we can meet Benjamin and Lucy, and everyone out there can meet Natalie. We'll be blessing her while we're out there, too, and I'm happy to be able to have some family around for that. We'll be in Utah from 12/25 thru 1/5! Wish me luck travelling with 3 kids (although shockingly, Brian will be there for the entire trip, so I won't be trying to do it alone.) I'm thankful for that.

I need to be better at writing on here and on my own personal blog, but I'm barely getting by doing the minimum necessities of life right now. I'm hoping to do better once this baby is out!

Love to you all!
Ranell

Rachel's blog

I created my family blog today. The title is howeslifewith5.blogspot.com. I think that's it. There's not much there yet, but I'm going to take some photos and post before I go into the hospital on Saturday (I needed that pressure of the last minute to get me to actually get this done!).

Food for thought...

Wow, this was incredibly fascinating for me to read...

http://www.un.org/ga/63/generaldebate/pdf/iran_en.pdf

It's Achmadinajad's speech to the U.N.

It just really made me think...

The pregnancy's over

We just came back from our first midwife appointment and after two ultrasounds and even a transvaginal one, we determined that the fetus is not alive. It's at about 6 weeks growth when I'm at about 11 weeks of pregnancy. The placenta kept growing and is at 9 weeks but has probably stopped. I think I'm taking it pretty well, and would like to thank my sisters for their good example in handling this sort of sadness. I guess you can remove the widget, Ranell!

Fun with GT

Well, we had a great time with GT!! Thanks for sending her to us. We tried not wear here out, but as my kids noticed, she wasn't around much. Something about going out with friends all the time. We did manage to go to the Art museum, have a nice quiet breakfast of cheese souffle, hear the symphony and see fireworks, she went to a Colts game, out to lunch with friends and visited the Urbann's castle. GT was there to take both Abby and Elliott to their first day of preschool.We visited with Kay, had a late lunch with an old friend, celebrated #60 with 60 balloons above her bed and cake, and of course we stopped by some dollar stores and the Flower Factory to get some goodies to bring home to you all. Don't worry, it wasn't all fun and games. GT did do laundry and the dishes and she watched the kids for me! Anyway, we will miss you GT. Come back soon!

Hi fam! I found this cool baby ticker on a blog and I thought it'd be fun to post it here. Crazy how many new babies will join us soon! Regan & Rachel, I took a fairly random guess on your due dates, so email me (or leave a comment here) what they really are and I'll adjust the baby tickers to be more accurate.

Aren't all the little babies floating around so cute?

Primary Program Assisstance Requested

The Primary program is coming up as you well know and Jacob has been asked to give a one minute talk on the President Monson as the Prophet of our church. We thought it would be cool to have each of you give your impressions and feelings of the new prophet. Then Jacob could base his talk on this. I know some of you (Uncle Ted) may have had the opportunity to speak with this great man in a more personal setting. I hope you all can help make Jacob's talk great! Thanks

TJ and Truman have voted to go to public school.

I am still a homeschooling mom at heart and in principle -- I'm just letting them have a "trial run" and hoping they'll choose to hang out with me instead.

I always thought I was giving them a "gift" by not making them go to school... but right now they don't see it that way.

I feel confident that they'll excel no matter where they are -- I just think maybe they need a little "opposition" to realize how good they have it at home...

We're trying to get them into a couple of different charter schools -- I put in applications, but so far haven't heard anything definite. It's based on a lottery system rather than credentials or else we *know* they would get in. (the little smarties)

I made up this little agreement and made them each sign it!

I __________________ hereby declare that I have personally chosen to attend public school, starting in August 2008.

By signing this piece of paper, I agree to:

• Have a good attitude at and about school (things like getting ready in time, doing homework, being friendly to everyone, and so on)
• Stay in school until Christmas 2008 OR
• If I want to leave school BEFORE Christmas 2008, I understand that this will be a permanent decision and I can’t KEEP changing my mind.

This is out of respect to myself, my mom, and my teacher, all of whom need my consistency and cooperation in the ongoing efforts to help me gain an education.

_____________________________ _______________
signature date

_____________________________
printed name


I, mother of above signor, accept this agreement and will do my part to help him keep his agreement.

_____________________________ _______________
mom’s signature date


As far as the "opposition in all things" phrase that keeps going through my head, it started when Truman was running around with some kids on the playground -- he ran over to me and grumbled, "I'm not going to play with THAT kid anymore." I said, "That's fine! You get to pick who you want to hang out with!" But my curiosity got to me and I HAD to ask... "So, what did he do?" Truman reported: "He said that if I run after that girl, my penis will stick up. Kids shouldn't talk about penises on the playground!" I assured him that he was right and I was glad he knew how to handle it. This kid wasn't older than 6 or 7. Crazy.

Back to School

Are we the only ones who send our kids to public school now? Jacob is off to second grade and Abby and Elliott are playing nicely, so I thought I would try the blog thing. This summer has been a whirl wind of stuff! At this point I can't even review all that we did, I'm just ready to move on! So we are back to a schedule, finally. I get up three days a week at 4:45 to go work out, come home, shower and get ready for my day. Jacob gets up and gets ready for the bus which picks him up at 8:10. Then Abby, Elliott, and I will hit the road to go to work and Preschool. Abby will go every day from 9-11:30. I am still trying to get Elliott in, but he is on a waiting list. On Tuesdays I will teach a parent and child art class for 18 to 36 month kids, then go to my home school P.E. class from 1-2:30. Other than that, I am in a child care area. So far Jacob loves school! So it has only been one day, but I think I'm going to love this teacher as well. She is very neat and tidy (something I find that I love a bit too much sometimes). Last night when Jacob was going to bed he said, "Mom, I know Mrs. Davis-Huff is going to like me because she smiles at me all the time and always talks really nice to me." That kid is so cute! I am happy to be back on schedule that's for sure.
We are loving the new (used) house. It is much bigger and has lots of character, which we love. I am really hoping to buy it, but we'll see how that all pans out for us. Richard's job is going well. He is really busy and gets really stressed sometimes, but I think that what he likes, well being busy anyway. The new ward is fun as well. We are with the Futrell family and Kim Roache. Some of you may know those names. Well, dishes are calling, Gotta get back to reality.

Camping Time!

TJ, Daddy, and me went camping. We had a fun time! I saw bulls, cows, and horses. It was a very, very long drive. We ate dinner and breakfast. On the way home, we went to Wendys for lunch. I'll put pictures on later!

Ranell's Other Blog ... Part 2

Okay, I guess I probably should give you the blog address if I really want you to be able to look at it! Here it is: www.willfamtales.blogspot.com. Have fun!

Ranell's Other Blog ...

Hey family, we have a family blog just for our little family, too. So check it out! I love love love it when people comment, so try to do so for my sake!

Taking Polls

TJ is very interested in having people answer questions so he can learn more about them, kind of like taking a poll. Here goes the first one:
Who is your Favorite Superhero(es)?
TJ's answer is: Sonic, Shadow, and Silver.
We even have a dog named Silver!
So, to answer this question, leave a comment!
Here are some choices, but you can also leave your own:

Transformers
Speedy Gonzales
Roadrunner
Superman
Spiderman
Wonder Woman
Wolverine
Incredible Hulk
Fox
Zelda
Link
Toon Link
Falco
Wolf
Young Link
Pikachu
Inuyasha
Jigglypuff
Megaman
Lloyd
Mr. Game and Watch
Captain Falcon
Samus
Pichu
Peach
Mario and Luigi and Yoshi
D.K.
Baby Mario
Baby Peach
Kirby
Sonic, Shadow, and Silver
Knuckles
Tails
Blade
Espio
Mighty
Amy
Cream
Metal
Vader
Rouge

Our children were in a parade up at Brighton along with their friend Seneca (and Daddy, the designated wagon puller).
Here's TJ on his scooter getting some air! (Mommy caught this on her first try)

Special News: Your Reward for Coming to the Family Website!

Please read this for yourself and DON'T TELL anyone else (you can tell them to come to the website, but don't tell them why)...

This is your special reward for coming!!!

On Thursday night, July 31st, almost a week late, I decided to take (another) pregnancy test and very slowly the magical "positive" line appeared!!!

So... barring any issues like my sweet sisters have had to deal with (miscarriage), we're hoping to have a baby (though we'll take more than one) next April.

I just barely decided to tell you, because if we were to miscarry I wouldn't want to go looking for sympathy where I hadn't chosen to share my joy.

However, as you may remember from previous pregnancies, I don't really like to talk about how crappy I feel, so kindly refrain from asking.

I also would NOT like anyone else to know until I am showing. And no, I'm not showing right now, I've been purposely gaining weight because I read that women who are overweight are more likely to have twins and I decided that I'd "risk" the delight of two babies for the price of one pregnancy!!! But I just did natural things like eating yams and more dairy/meat -- no Clomid or anything crazy like that!!!

Just as a side note, it was at the last general conference that I felt a very strong impression to attempt to add to our family and I think it's kind of cool that I end up being due right around general conference the following year!

Thanks for reading. Remember, if you want to share this news with immediate family, have them come to the website themselves.

We're not telling our two younger children right now, either, as we're not really sure they understand the concept of not telling...

We love you guys and feel blessed to have such a great family -- you're awesome!!!!