Museum Monday

Happy Memorial Day.

It was such a nice experience to have a day off from school and work for us to spend time together as a family. Jeff and I talked about lots of options for our day off and we decided on the Children's Museum. Well, it's really only worth it if you become a member... so we are now members and get to go back all year long! I'm excited - as are the kids... and probably Jeff too :). We have been in need of getting out and doing things together so this should help out with that!

Here goes all of the picture craziness of our day!

We started in the Dino section. Hard to resist all of the great dino stuff!

Talmage and Grant learning about fossils.

Mhari using the microscope :)

The huge dino footprint. Jeff decided to get in with the girls. Too cute :)

I thought Clark would like it too. It also gives some perspective on how huge the dino footprint is - now that you can see it ;).

Girls putting a puzzle together.

Boys doing the dino puzzle on the computer

Outside at the dino dig. The kids all loved that they got to find their own fossils! I didn't love the heat, or the sand, but the kids had a blast!

Talmage and Grant very intent on their fossil finding!

Sandra and Mommy uncovering the fossil.

Mhari working hard digging out the fossil.

Next we ended up at the children's play area. There was a baby section... Yay! Jeff hung out with Clark and the other babies (and mommies). I tried to keep track of the other 4 as the ran between tons of cool stuff!

Mhari's favorite was the huge train area! It was way cool!

Sandra hung out in the baby section - she enjoyed taking care of the baby dolls and driving the ambulance ;).

This nice giraffe would tell you your height... very cool :)
The boys liked everything... it was hard to keep track of everyone - I didn't get any pics of the grocery shopping area, but Talmage was having a great time in there!

Outside in the water section:

Sandra found a little water section with duckies. She really liked the rubber ducks :)

The kids had a great time shooting the water at the pedals to make them move. Most of the outside time was spent on this activity :)

Clark even got to play in the water. There was a circle table with little baby chairs stuck all around it. I put him in and there was water dripping in the middle so he could splash in it. I'm sure he would have loved it if there was more water... he loves splashing!

The last thing we ended up seeing was the cattle section. It went over all of the different cattle trails, fun games for the kids - like how to round up the cattle, lots of displays - stirrups, barbed wire, etc, and tons of information. The kids watched about the hard times for the cattle ranchers movie while Clark napped and Mhari was sad.

On our way out I saw a Temple Grandin display/movie - about her help to the cattle industry and that she had been inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame (right next door)! - Way cool!

We almost went and watched a show in the planetarium, but with the baby napping and Mhari on the verge of melt down (she fell asleep in the car on the way home) we decided we would come for a movie on our next Museum visit.

I'm very excited that we are members and get to go often and do such cool things! It was also great to see that there was something for all of my kids - even down to my 11 month old! It should be a very fun filled summer with lots of trips to the museum! Yay for family time!!

11 Months!

I've decided that my baby is growing up too fast! He's already 11 months old... just keeps growing and growing!

weight: 25 lbs 6 oz

height: 31 1/2 inches

Clark is still such a sweet baby! He has really been enjoying the freedom of crawling - everywhere. His newest thing is crawling into the bathrooms and unrolling the toilet paper! Such fun, sorry no photos yet. He is also talking more... but nothing too exciting. He does ba ba (and it meant ball once for sure). He also says ma ma and da da.

He's still figuring out the stairs and is thinking more and more about walking. He still has time to work on these things :) - no rush!

OK, so here are the fun pictures I took of him for his update:

cute stare

smile :)

close up!

I love his laugh face and his teeth! They remind me of my dad's - gapped ;)

Another of his favorite activities is peek-a-boo:

He does it all by himself and will wait for someone to say, "Where's the Baby?"

Then (sometimes after a while) he'll pull of the blanket!
He really is a great baby! We just love our Clark!

Hail, Glasses, and Tarantula... Oh My!

Today was an eventful day...

It started out with a good thunderstorm in the morning, which included some pea size hail. It was very nice and dark outside. There has been a lot of rain this month which has been very welcomed since we have been so dry!

I tried to get a picture of the rain/hail, but it's hard to see.

Saturday night Grant broke his glasses :(. I guess I wasn't surprised, he can be very active! He had actually broken off a nose piece Friday so I guess it was good I hadn't gotten them fixed yet.

Oh, and it was a non-repairable break ;).

After school we went to they glasses store and got new frames (I knew it was a good idea to have breakage coverage :)). He's happy and hopefully these glasses (same style) will last a little longer.

Once we got home from the glasses store we had a snack and I started on dinner (if that makes sense?). Sandra was over at the window and started talking about a spider in the grass. The boys were interested and went to check it out too. They started saying it was a tarantula. I was a bit surprised and had to stop to go check it out. Yup...

There he was:
Crawling through our tall grass!
A bit creepy if I do say so myself!

He stayed in the tall grass until Jeff came home from work (an hour later) and got a shovel to dispose of him.

Now you have some size perspective:

Seriously creepy!
So, if you couldn't tell we aren't spider lovers! Jeff tried drowning him and eventually the shovel ended up through his back. I'm glad I don't have to wonder if there's a tarantula outside in my grass (as long as he doesn't have friends), but he really wasn't dangerous so it's sad to have to kill him. I think they should stay in the wild, not my backyard! In case you're curious he was a Texas Tarantula.

I think this is extra motivation to mow the grass!

Hard Workers!

Today was the day to clear out the backyard. Bulk trash is getting picked up next week and we wanted to clear out our old garden...

We need to tell Punkin not to drink downstream...

All the big boys working! Love the cowboy hats ;)

Almost done clearing out the garden.

Maybe we should have had a pitch fork for this picture :). Such a hard working couple!

Our Williams working family. Maybe we should own a farm.

As a treat Jeff took us out to ice cream for all of the hard work that we did in the yard. The kids really enjoyed that. Sometimes it's the memories of working that will be good memories for our children.

We want to give them a good foundation of work to build on for their future!

Butterfly wrap skirt

***Update****

The pattern is ready! Go get it and enjoy!!!

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My friend is finishing up her adorable skirt pattern. I was lucky enough to test it for her. I must say it works great! They wore them to church today. I didn't get pictures until after church, but the girls are still cute ;).

Here is the finished product:

Sandra in her blue skirt... turquoise is her favorite color ;)

side view

Mhari with her knee length yellow wrap skirt :)

close up of front
Side view
My 2 beautiful girls!
P.S. another fabulous part of this pattern is the wrap skirt is reversible, and can be tied up to 10 different ways (as a shirt, or dress too!!!).

I love it when I can make something with the material I have and it doesn't take long, but turns out looking great. I think this pattern will be a huge hit! Seriously she explains everything so well and has great pictures to help you along too!

I'm planning on doing more sewing... maybe make Mhari a mid-calf length one next. I also think I need a mommy size one... I just love them!

I may even start a sewing business... would you buy my skirts?

and there was light!

For mother's day Jeff got me this awesome lamp :)

I really love it!

We had seen the lamp in a little light store and it was just what I wanted. Thanks to my hunny for the lamp! It's already getting great use ;)

luvu

If ye are prepared...

ye shall not fear.

In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have been counselled to keep a year supply of food (among other things) to be prepared in case of emergencies. I found a good article that covers all sorts of ways we should be prepared.

Here is just a quote about food storage :).

"President Harold B. Lee has wisely counseled that “perhaps if we think not in terms of a year’s supply of what we ordinarily would use, and think more in terms of what it would take to keep us alive in case we didn’t have anything else to eat, that last would be very easy to put in storage for a year … just enough to keep us alive if we didn’t have anything else to eat. We wouldn’t get fat on it, but we would live; and if you think in terms of that kind of annual storage rather than a whole year’s supply of everything that you are accustomed to eat which, in most cases, is utterly impossible for the average family, I think we will come nearer to what President Clark advised us way back in 1937.”

Over the years Jeff and I have tried many different forms of storage. This time we have a whole room (small room) dedicated to our food storage. It is filled with lots of shelves so we can see our food and keep it rotating. We are also trying to keep food on hand that we eat often and can keep rotating through our meals so the food doesn't go bad.

Here are some pics of our room.

All of the orange buckets are filled with noodles, rice, flour, sugar, and oats :)

I'm excited to keep up on this and have our food ready in case of emergencies :). I'm grateful for our prophets to help us be prepared so that we won't fear.