She's gonna be ONE tomorrow!

YES.

THAT IS RIGHT!!!

Addison turns ONE tomorrow!

i can't believe it.
last year, i went to bed thinking i was gonna have to wait who knows how much longer for my baby girl to arrive. i was three days late and THAT was NOT what i was used to. :) the boys both came 7 days early. needless to say, i wasn't excited about having to wait....

BUT, she was SO worth the wait! there was a little part of me nervous and cautious about whether she really would be a girl. i know it must sound silly but they mess up on those "girl" predictions sometimes and by the time you get to the end of your pregnancy your mind is doing a number on you anyway! we had prayed that God would give us a baby girl and we were SO excited about meeting her.

this year has been amazing. it has been much easier to transition to three children than i thought it would be. we've had our moments...still having moments. i'm a little late most everywhere i go. but, we're still doing all we did before if not more. we haven't slowed down a bit. i guess once you get to this point life just keeps going and you have to go along too.

words cannot express how much FUN it has been to have Addison join our family. the boys bring me such joy and i cannot imagine a life without little boys. truly. BUT, this has been the time of my life being able to enjoy PINK and girlie things and accessories and clothes and hair bows and bloomers and i am having the time of my life!

she is SO sweet. she is so lovable. she is so smiley. she is so happy. she's an awesome sleeper. she's a incredible eater...you would not believe what she can put into that tiny petite body. i love her dearly.

so her party is tomorrow. i have gone way over board in my opinion. i never focused on decorations for the boy's parties. there are so many balloons around here you would not believe. streamers. banners. PINK. PINK. PINK. Anthony thinks i've gone completely nuts! :) we are going to have SO MUCH FUN! my Nanny is bringing the most adorable cakes and we can't wait to start celebrating!

most of all...i thank the Lord for these precious children he's given us. oh, how we love them. what a wonderful day tomorrow will be...celebrating our sweet Addison Grace. this year has FLOWN by and i've never wanted life to slow down more than right now. i'm trying to take it all in. Enjoy. Watch. Love. Hug. Kiss. Play. Laugh. Slow down.

my baby girl is almost 1. i can hardly believe it. what fun we are gonna have tomorrow!!!!

Introducing...."Lady"

we found this little cutie puppy on Craigslist


the pickup


the boys were SO excited!


Harrison and Lady


the drive home...

this look on his face says it all! Harrison has been dreaming of owning his own dog for about a year and a half. up until now it just didn't seem like it was time. while i have to honestly admit this is a COMPLETE and TOTAL self sacrifice for me, Lady seemed to be the perfect dog for our family and it seems to be the "right" time.

she's a sweet puppy. pretty much house trained and is used to her crate. she's playful but not too hyper. the boys are having a blast and Harrison is learning that he has a lot of responsibility when it comes to taking care of Lady. we're trying to give him every part he can handle. :)

Kelsi, the girl we adopted her from, did a GREAT job of getting her trained and ready for a home. we seriously had been praying for God to direct us to the right dog for our family. we took Lady to the vet on Tuesday to get all checked out and they said she looks GREAT! what a relief! :)

she has to adhere to my strict rules. i don't want her playing in the house. if she wants to play she has to go outside. she is not allowed on our furniture and if she's hanging out in the house she has to be on her blanket, in her crate or at my feet. no wandering allowed! aren't i terrible! :) i'm not a natural lover of animals but i'm trying...and hopefully one day my children will thank me! ha! this IS for them!!! we would NOT have a dog for ANY other reason! ha! :)

seriously though, we are thrilled to do this for the boys and i think Harrison was starting to wonder if "one day" would ever come. you don't want to keep saying it and never come through for your children. i wanted Him to be able to have hope in knowing that when mom and dad felt the time was right for ALL the family members then we would come through...so....

please welcome Lady...the newest member of the Williams Family! :)

change

ok.
i know i change my blog a ton.
i just can never get it just right.
i think i like it a lot right now.
maybe it'll stay this way for a while.
don't you love the suspense...you never know what it'll look like when you come by to read it. :)
i guess maybe i like change more than i think.
it's sort of like rearranging furniture. i just can't help myself.

personlization

like my new signature??? :)

practice run

went to the lake today. our first time. went to beaver dam. wanted to go to Sandling Beach but there is some e-coli issue.
nice.
our church has a baptismal service at a Lake each summer.
we talked about this with Harrison but he was a little concerned about alligators and such. :)
today we headed to the lake for some playing at the beach and practice run.
to see that the Lake is safe and to see that there were no alligators.
Anthony did a practice "dunk". Harrison liked it and wanted to do it again. he was quite comfortable! :)
we went with the Barbours and Cailey asked "Mr. Williams can you baptize me too?" hilarious!
her daddy made sure she knew it wasn't the "real" thing.

it worked. not only did they have a BLAST playing in the water and sand...he is no longer opposed to a baptism at the lake.

i do have to say. the lake made me miss the REAL beach. being a beach girl and all. it just wasn't quite the same...

looking forward to a trip to VA soon and Hilton Head in August!

a visit with the Conrod Family

Jackson, Anthony, Beth, Addison, Harrison, Nandry, Boaz, Nathan, Asher, & Laurel
isn't this a GREAT picture!

last Saturday & Sunday (May 16-17) we got to spend some precious time with this sweet family...the Conrod family! Anthony and Nathan grew up in the same youth group. they are missionaries to Cameroon, Africa and have been home this past year. we were so excited when they told us they would be coming back from FL and would love to pop in and visit! what a great time we had. the kids LOVED their kids! the boys were so excited to have two other boys to play rough with them! ; i think Nandry felt like she had 4 brothers instead of 2...poor girl! :) Addison loved giving all her smiles and making everyone giggle. she's such a social girl!

what a blessing this family is! we were able to sit up after the kids were in bed on Saturday night and Nathan and Laurel were able to just chat with us about their ministry and it was SO neat to here a little bit about what life is like for them in Africa. i loved hearing from them on such a personal level! they will leave again July 4th, Lord willing, for another term and we look forward to hearing all that God is going to do through them! our boys are already asking when we can go to Africa to visit their friends! wouldn't that be fun! :)

Anthony now has 4 good friends serving the Lord through missions and it's been such a blessing to us to be able to see God working in their lives! we feel such a connetion to them because we "know" them and love their sweet families!

pray for Nathan, Laural, Nandry, Boaz, & Asher as they prepare to head back to Cameroon, Africa and work with the Baka. pray for their continued financial support, safety, health, relationships with their team members, schooling and possible tutor for the kids, and most of all for them to start to see some of the fruit of their labor. Nathan put it best when i asked him if they feel like they are seeing "results". they are tilling the fields. they are making them ready for the seeds to be planted and hopeful for the harvest! they have many years of work ahead of them but they are excited about where God has put them and they have a heart for the Baka people! God is doing GREAT things through this family! we love them very much!

monkey joe's

(we didn't have a "real" party where you get a party room, etc... so we opened gifts in the car. it felt a little strange but the boys thought it was kind of fun. i love these little guys and i LOVE how Addison is peeking over her car seat in both pictures. she is so nosy! can you blame her??? hilarious! :))

for Jackson's birthday, i told him he could take a couple of his best buds to Monkey Joe's. Jack and Caden joined for tons of jumping fun!!! these little guys are friends of his from church and we love them so much...and their families! :) it was a GREAT morning together jumping, jumping, jumping, eating pizza, and more jumping! Sonja, Jack's mommy, was able to bring little Sammy and he had a good time too! Kelly, Caden's mommy, is pregnant right now so we gave her the morning off to spend with her little Caroline. :)

on the way home, i was so zoned out i almost forgot to drop Caden off and then when i realized and got him home Jackson slept through the entire drop off...he was zoned out! we had so much fun and were tired! :) i'm so glad that Jackson has the sweet friends to grow up with! we are blessed! Happy 4th Birthday Jackson!

sometimes it's good to wait

i got a new swim suit today! WOO HOO!!! have needed one since i lost the weight.

Land's End. GREAT quality. and good price.

went over to Sears this afternoon and they were having a sale and i was able to get TWO!!! totally wasn't expecting that! they were 40% off!!! i couldn't pass it up!

thought about buying it full price a couple of months ago but forced myself to wait.

tried to order one online a couple of weeks ago but it was on back order until the middle of June.

HELLO! i couldn't wait that long! :)

went this afternoon and got TWO!!! WOO HOO!!! i'm so excited!

love the colors, love the new sizes, LOVED the price!

sometimes if you wait for something like a swimsuit they don't have your size by the time the sale comes along. only size 2 or size big. this time it worked out! they had my size AND at the good price!

looking forward to many days at the pool this summer and probably many years in these suits! :)

good day

today has started off splendidly!

Jackson has played outside all morning with his friend Aidan and there have been hardly any "issues". :)

i have worked, worked, worked on laundry, straightening up, laundry, picking up, laundry...you get the picture.

i'm now showered and ready to spend some time with a friend i'll be teaching SSA. we've got to get our ducks in a row.

then a dear friend is coming over for dinner...well she is BRINGING dinner and her precious children!

oh and Anthony is getting the oil changed today so i don't have to do it!

GREAT DAY!!! and i fully expect it to stay this way! thank you Lord for the gorgeous weather and this very perfect day! :)

the bonnet

my nanny made this bonnet for Addison. yes, i totally know it's fru fru but isn't she the cutest?!?! :) even the way she is standing and smiling at the camera...she is such a ham! :)

my mom has a picture of me in a white bonnet like this and i can just picture it in my mind. this little girl knows she something else, doesn't she! :)

go karts and putt putt

Janet and the kids had to go home on Monday afternoon so we spent the morning doing some fun stuff. we headed over to Adventure Landing for a little go kart riding and some putt putt golf. it's just a little place close to where we live but it's GREAT. we had so much fun!

look at Emma waving to us! what a sweetie!


Emma LOVED the go kart...can you tell????

Harrison and Mommy! he wanted to go as fast as possible...i tried not to disappoint!

Austin was watching Grant, Emma, and Addison in case you were wondering why both Janet and I were riding the go karts at the same time. Harrison wanted to ride with me and Jackson wanted to ride with Aunt Janet. :)

I love that little hand!

Austin refused to smile for me. He was too focused!

Grant looks focused too! :)

what a smile!

I love this little guy...he's getting to be SO BIG!

hey sweet girl! :)

Mommy & Harrison

After we finished riding the go karts, we headed over to the putt putt area. I thought Jackson would get very frustrated...he tends to do that when he feels like he's not doing a good job. He did great. He didn't care how many times it took to get the ball in the hole. He just kept hitting until he made it. He never got mad! I was so proud of him. All the cousins enjoyed being together! :)




these two guy love each other so much. and they are SO much alike it's not even funny. when I look at Grant, I imagine that will be Jackson just a few years from now.

every time we would try to get Emma's picture, she'd give us this look. can you tell we were bothering her? :)

Addison just lounged and enjoyed her Puffs


my sister!

Emma was the only one to make a whole in one. and she promised if she made a whole in one she would smile for the camera. that's why we got such a cute picture! :)

love this one!

Addison (10 mo), Jackson (4), Emma (5), Harrison (7), Grant(9), & Austin (12)

We had to fight with them to get the last picture but I'm so glad we did! It turned our GREAT! If only Baylee and Savannah and Grace could have been with us! :) I love that the cousin are so close to each other. They really do love each other and I love that! It was such a wonderful time together!

playing at the mall

while Janet and the kids were here, we stopped at the mall for lunch and a little playtime. Addison LOVES crawling all over...she feels like she is big stuff! the boys liked entertaining her too. :)