pie face

Aimee bought this game with her birthday money.  It turned out to be a great family game!  We have since learned that Pie Face is best when paired with another game, and that getting a chance to be "pied" is a reward, not a punishment.

sick babies

In about February we got hit with a bout of the gombu.  

Sadly, the worst of it was taken by Little Ball.  It turned out that this illness made it hard for Canon to take a bottle.  Similar to Pratt, he had struggled to nurse and I had been pumping for months.  This was the bright spot in this sad illness.  He started to nurse!  Sadly, this also made him stop taking a binkie.  He was one sick little boy, and that was the least of my worries.  We later found out he had RSV.  We knew there was little they could have done for him, so we just made sure to keep him well hydrated and suffer through it. It broke my heart, but he was pretty sweet for being so sick.

building

During the winter months we managed to make it to several of the free kid building workshops at the various "man stores."  Chad also made sure he took some time out in the garage to build something a little more substantial, and make sure the boys knew how to do it right.

Here is the book shelf Chad made to make the upstairs a little more organized.

birthday and baptism

Seriously, if you are going to have an awesome birthday, turn 8 during the holidays!  Aimee's birthday is usually a continuation of the holiday season, but this year, it was the birthday that kept on giving.  On her actual birthday we did balloons and a couple of presents, but mostly we waited for he fun to start once all the family that was coming for her birthday was around.  

It was great to just have them there for the everyday things in our lives like meals and hanging out around the house.

Because we had just had Christmas, we had fun new things to play with.  Both grandpas spend a couple of hours putting together Lego set that said it was for ages 3+.  They only had a couple of pieces left over to injure their pride!

The main event was, of course, Aimee's baptism.  It was pretty special to have family travel 1700 miles to be with her on such an important day.  Grandma Alice played the piano, and the grandpas spoke.  Oh, and the little brothers said the prayers.  While we had a captive audience we also blessed our little Canon ball.  We then had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate before calling it a day.  It was awesome!

Aimee also got to have a friend birthday party.  It was a little tricky finding a day to make it work, but we managed to pull off a Spa party that only cost me $12 dollars and a cake, thanks to the free supplies from the hospital.  Each girl left with flamingo toes, a bottle of nail polish, and smile (Aunt Saundra was instrumental in making it work).

Finally, about four months after her birthday we got around to taking her out.  She wanted Chinese, and it was a hit.  8 year olds are the best!

the brother toy

My mom has lots of pictures of me toting my littlest brother around.  My living Baby Alive.  It would seem that Canon is the Williams family Baby Alive.  And lucky for us, he doesn't mind a bit.

At least most of the time he doesn't mind.

christmas day 2015

There are few things in life as fun as Christmas morning in a house full of kids!  I loved getting my five sweet babies out of bed to first have a short family devotional and remember why the day is so special (yes, we are those mean parents) and then watch the crazy fury of the kids as they go crazy waiting for their turn to find and open a present.

Some of the big winners from the day were all of the books, a shopping cart, and toy vacuum that Santa re gifted from my neighbors house, to ours.  

Porter and Pratt also got an old school NES Nintendo, power pad and Duck Hunt gun.  We had a blast taking turns running the Olympics.  Chad also dropped Dr. Mario in my stocking!

Uncle Macer made and sent 5 crocheted stocking hats with crocheted beards to attach!

It was basically a perfect day!

christmas festivities

Christmas 2015 came with some old traditions and some new.  One new thing we tried was making our own ornaments.  They were made mostly of cinnamon and Elmer's Glue, cut into shapes and baked.  My house smelled awesome!  Once they were cooled, we let the kids go crazy painting them.  We had several ornament casualties, but it was a fun project.

 We made the usual candies and cookies to share with friends.

 Canon was the perfect Baby Jesus in our family Christmas Eve nativity production!

 We had a great time at the Kids Christmas party at the hospital, as well

We had lots of fun at Christmas parties and activities that never even got photographed.  Mostly we just enjoyed the blessings of family and friends at the season when when we celebrate our Savior, Jesus Christ who has filled our hearts and home with peace and love.