Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday! It's so nice to have amazing food and a relaxing day with family. We stayed home this year and had Grandma and Grandpa Williams, Uncle Leroy and a good friend, Brandon over. Grandpa Riley and Douglas cooked a 22 lb. turkey, a 12 lb. glazed ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, braided egg bread, pumpkin and pecan pies. Oh my goodness, we were so full! Oh yeah, and I did my 2% by making spinach salad. We have plenty of leftovers! We of course missed all our family members who are far away. We love all you guys!

Thanksgiving is such a nice holiday to reflect on our blessings and this year we appreciate that we have the gospel and a happy family. Life is a blessing and we are happily living each day.

We sat down as a family and wrote lists of things we are thankful for. It's amazing how much we have when we sit down and really count our blessings. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Grandpa and Grandma Williams

Douglas seasoning the turkey with lemon pepper. Yummy!!

Douglas, Brandon and Leroy chowing down.

Marley was so tired! He threw a huge fit during lunch.

Anita and Douglas

Gracie loved the ham!!!

I tried really hard to get her to laugh for this picture.

The Williams Fam

(Marley was sleeping)

I love my girl!

Nurse Douglas

Douglas is wrapping up his first semester in Nursing school. He has done so well and it's amazing that he's a quarter finished with his RN. He finished his first final yesterday and passed with flying colors and compliments from the instructor. We are really proud of him and appreciate all the hard work he does to get an education.

Marley Man

For Marley's second birthday, we had his pictures taken. I really like how they turned out even with the big bruise on his forehead. Douglas convinced me to have them taken even with the bruise to capture Marley in all his 2 year old glory.

We are so grateful to have such a sweet little boy in our family. He is very thoughtful and energetic. He loves his cars, his grandparents and nursery. He is very good at communicating and saying things that melt your heart. He is a very special boy!

Halloween - Part 2

Halloween is just so much fun!! We were choosy this year and decided to only do the ward trunk or treat and Halloween night door to door trick or treating. The kids had so much fun! Marley really understood it this year and ran as fast as his little legs could go to each house and car. For the trunk or treat, Gracie was Ariel and even wore the red wig! (surprising but great) Marley didn't want to wear any of the costumes but he would wear his skeleton jammies, which he's is love with. He calls them his glowing jammies. Douglas made us some great pirate costumes. He is so creative and spent many hours at the sewing machine. I'm very grateful for him doing so much otherwise I would have worn my $5 target Halloween shirt.

Halloween night Grandma and Grandpa Williams joined us and we took the kids trick or treating. It was perfect weather with just a chill in the air, and the kids had that giddy Halloween spirit that makes it such a fun holiday. Gracie wore a Tigger outfit instead of Ariel and Marley stuck with his jammies.

That night Gracie said the sweetest prayer. She said," Thank you for this beautiful trick-or-treat day with candy and this beautiful life." It was so real and heartfelt. She really does love this season!

We all had a lot of fun, too much sugar and a much needed extra hour of sleep. Now for the next holiday!

Two pirates, a skeleton and a mermaid, I guess they could all be connected to one story, right?

Douglas did a fabulous job on our costumes. He made his shirt and my hat. The rest we found in our closet. Not too bad for not spending any money.

Marley loved all the candy, he started eating most of it with the wrapper on.


Gracie was so happy, she loved seeing all her friends and all the princesses.


Our crooked family picture. We set the camera on the hood of the car. Oh well, it was a fun night and we're happy Grandma and Grandpa Williams came with us.

So happy it's Halloween!!!!!!

Douglas, Gracie and Grandpa Riley walking the streets in search of candy.

Tigger and Pirate

Halloween Fun!!

Halloween is such a fun holiday and Gracie and Marley LOVED it this year! Gracie was very excited to decorate the house and she told me that she would really like some of those big inflatable characters in our front yard. I said no, but we still did lots of fun activities to feel the halloween spirit. The kids loved singing halloween songs, making cookies, carving pumpkins and driving past houses with lots of decorations. There was one particular house the kids loved on the way to school. Every morning they were so excited to see the pumpkins, skull, witch, cat and spider webs. They went all out and the kids enjoyed it very much. I'm going to have to thank those people! Here are some pictures of the kids doing fun halloween activities.

Making Jack-O-Lanterns

They didn't like like the gooey stuff, but they were troopers and still pulled it out.

As a reward for doing well in school, Gracie and I put together this skeleton. She was excited to work towards a reward and she loved using the fasteners to make him move and dance.

Halloween Jammies
I just couldn't turn down these skeleton pajamas!
The kids love them because they glow in the dark.

It just wouldn't be halloween without sugar cookies.
I'm not sure Gracie has enough sprinkles.

cookies, frosting and sprinkles.....makes happy kids

(and a big mess, but it's totally worth it!)

After helping me sweep up the sprinkles, Gracie stood up on her chair and lip synked to Thriller, her favorite song. It was quite a performance and she asked me to play it over and over again.

A few months ago she asked me if we could go to a Michael Jackson and Vincent Price concert and hear Thriller. It was so cute! We had quite a conversation after explaining why that wasn't possible.

Marley's Thriller Pose

Each day when we get in the car he askes me to play Eye of the Tiger and Fridder (Thriller)

He just can't get enough!

Our sweet Gracie

This post is dedicated to our sweet Gracie. This is Gracie's pre-k school picture. I couldn't pass up buying it because it's so classic Gracie with the crazy hair and sweet smile.

Today was Gracie's first Primary program sacrament meeting. She was very excited and jumped up out of her seat when I told her it was time to go sit up front. The moment she got up there she started waving to us and continued throughout most of the program. It was sweet and funny! We were trying to signal to her to sit down and be reverent, but she just couldn't contain her excitement! Our primary is really large and the whole stand was full with lots of extra chairs set up. I think there were 60 to 70 kids. All the 14 sunbeams, including Gracie, were lined up right in the front. Their theme was My Eternal Family and they sang The Family is of God, which is such an amazing song, and of course I start bawling! (This was a really bad day to wear black liquid eyeliner! I was a smudgy mess) The Valiant 9 class got up and said there parts perfectly and then it was the sunbeam classes turn. The kids did so well telling something that they do with a family member that makes them happy. When it was Gracie's turn she froze a little and shook her head like she wasn't going to participate. Then she changed her mind and said, "I like to make cookies with my Mom........and go to McDonald's.........and then I go to bed....... and I love my Mom!" She was definitely improvising, but it was just so heart felt and sincere. She was so excited and I was feeling so blessed. It was one of those great moments when you feel so blessed to be a Mom and have such a wonderful little child to take care of. Gracie was very proud and continued beaming throughout the program. When she came back to sit with us she gave us huge hugs and kisses and said, "I'm so happy!" It was the best sacrament meeting we have had in a long time.

We feel really blessed to have such a curious, happy, vibrant, imaginative, strong little girl in our family. Gracie is such a blessing in our family!

Marley turned 2!!!!

This weekend Marley turned 2!!!! I can't believe how fast these 2 years have gone by! Marley is such a great kid and he always makes us laugh. He loves cars, especially Lightening McQueen, so of course that was a big part of his birthday. He loved having all of his friends around to play with at the park. The weather was beautiful and the temperature was perfect! The only draw back was that the bees liked our food and cake as much as we did. Other than that it was a great day. Marley loved his cake and could hardly wait to pull all the cars off it. The kids all loved the piniata and playing together. Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Williams, Uncle Leroy, Brandon, and the Richardson's, Raney's, Caudle's, Myers, Young's and Tanner's for joining us and making it such fun party!

Marley became very bashful when everybody sang Happy Birthday to him.

He loved his cake and all the cars.

Such a classic dirty face boy picture. SO cute!
He stopped playing long enough to blow out his candles.

Marley, Douglas and Gracie blowing the candles out together.

Marley loved his Lightening McQueen piniata!
Especially when he found out there was candy inside!!

Gracie and all the kids took their turns hitting.

But nobody could break it! It was a pretty solid piniata!

Douglas stepped in and after 3 good hits, the candy finally fell out.

Marley loved opening gifts of course. Who doesn't?!

Grandpa Riley gave him a new tricycle. He was very excited!

On sunday, we sang to him again and ate the rest of the cake.

We blew out the candles together. He's pretty excited to be 2 now.

Gracie was really excited to have cake and ice cream again!

Marley was so sweet and said over and over "Tastes good!!"