Needed Vacation

It is not often that we've been able to pull together a large vacation and very rare to be vacationing with my Sister and her husband.  What I know about this is that this upcoming vacation is very needed for a variety of reasons.  This will be our first family vacation with Ty that requires a flight that is more that a puddle jumper to Seattle.  Though he is super excited there I am sure is some nervous energy around getting on the plane again.  I am so thrilled to be taking Ty to a destination where we can play on the beach or in the swimming pools all day long if needed.  I am elated to be able to relax and enjoy new things and just get out of the very mundane days that all flow together.  But truly I am happy to document this final milestone for Byron, Ty and Myself as a threesome.  Soon we will become four.  This is special time for Ty.

This upcoming Sunday Byron and I will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary.  Can't believe that 7  years of marriage is here already! WOW is all I can say.  It certainly is not easy work but truly work to communicate, to plan, to constantly check with each other and be on the same page, to parent and to listen to each other.  This will be the second of 7 anniversary's that we are spending in Hawaii.  I am not sure if this is a trend we will continue but it just so happens that we will be on an island. I am not sure what the traditional "gift" for seven years is so I guess I had better get to looking.  I truly have been caught up in getting things together for this trip.  It will be nice to celebrate soon. 

Finally, the vacation comes at a nice time for myself as a mom, though I won't be able to go on a zip line or enjoy certain hikes, I am aiming to relax.  Not fold laundry (too much), not transport to play dates, or juggle day care needs, but to just RELAX.  Knowing that in a short few months our second son will arrive, I want to spend a tremendous amount of time with Ty making special memories and documenting our whole experience.  I don't want to have a care in the world.  Ever had that need?  Ever fulfilled it?  Maybe I will hit a spa one day, or have a fabulous dinner (with a virgin drink at this time).  Maybe I will just sit by the beach listening to the waves roll in and out.  Or maybe I will play in the pool.  Either way my main mission is to relax.  Life is too short to schedule yourself and pin yourself to dates and times.  I will be on island time...

I am sure that I will not be ready to come back, or needless to say ready to begin work two days after we arrive home.  That is okay though nothing is going to beat this time away.  I hope to be refreshed and ready to go for August weeks and weekends are already packed with other mini vacations, chores around the house, and other events to attend.  Then the preparation for Ty to begin preschool.  (That is a whole other blog posting coming soon to a blog near you!) 

With that being said, I will leave you all with a picture of relaxation!

Parenting of two same or different?

I was out and about today running a few errands before our family vacation this upcoming Friday, when I noticed mom's with more than one child.  I watched intently and thought about how this new child will add another level to our lives.  I wondered how these women juggled it, wondered how their first borns handled it, and wondered how Byron and I will do both juggle it all and how Ty will handle it.  I was certainly in awe at how these women maneuvered shopping, the day to day activities, dealt with melt downs and moved right along.  What will I be like? 

I have an idea but of course I have lots of ideas of what things might be like and in reality they come close or not so close to those pictures I have in my head.  Only time will tell.  Will parenting become easier, more difficult or somewhere in between?  Will time feel shorter with more on our plate to juggle or will it be the same?  What will shift for us?  Though I have a million questions and continue to paint the picture of what it will be like I am smiling. I am excited about this change, our new addition to our family! I am blessed to have been a mom once but twice, I am twice blessed!  Life is only getting better. 
So it really won't matter what will change or if it will be the same or different having two children.  They are loved both tremendously already and we are so blessed to have them in our lives to be able to nurture and provide for them that we will embrace any changes, differences or similarities that may  come.

What to name your child.

With our first born Byron and I were meticulous about what to name our child.  We both came to the table with differing ideas and rationale for what NOT to name our son.  Byron came to the table with a list of names that would have horrible nick names for others to call him and we crossed those off the list.  I came to the table with names of students I previously had experience teaching and those names were stricken from the list.  We then looked through books and created a list of potential names for our first born son and had serious discussion crossing those off the list that we liked but that friends or families had already named their children with.  WHEW what an arduous process.  We decided very easily on a girls name, (unfortunately at that time we were not having a girl) we thought we'd save for later.  Little did we know we would be having a second boy and so the girl name will be archived until further notice. 

We are faced with the same process again but I must say this time it feels a bit easier and a bit faster. I wonder why that is? Well I have a few theories.  We know what we like, what sounds good with our family name, and have already completed the arduous process of naming our first.  We want a good solid name, a name that brings character, and a name that our little guy will identify with creating his own personality.  I am sure you are all wondering what or if we have decided.  Well, that will be shared soon enough!:-)

Until then my friends.  Here is a sneak peak of our little guy!  This was from our first ultrasound.

Summer 2011 or bust!

I am super excited to enter into the summer months... one because of the crazy winter/spring that we recentely had, and two because I am on vacation.  I only get one month off but my vacation began with  a conference at Seaside, Oregon with Byron and Ty tagging along.  We had incredible weather that is rare for the Oregon Coast. We were greeted with summer like warm weather, little to no wind, and minor sprinkles in the morning.   I was able to work and play in the evenings with my boys. 

One day of work later and then officially summer break started! I only have two weeks of time to spend with Ty prior to our family departure to Kaua'i.  During this time we have play dates set up for Ty, and a  to do list for me.  This consists of cleaning, unpacking, playing, packing for the trip, shopping and decorating rooms. 

The Fourth of July was super fun! Ty attended his first Rodeo with Jeff (a friend of ours), Byron and I.  He stayed awake for the 7 pm to 11 pm showing which also included fire works.  He was able to use his phrase... come on bullseye, and yehaw cowboy! .. This was also a milestone for him in that during the fireworks display he loved each one saying, "mom I love that one!" This was a much different reaction than in the past several celebrations where he hid, didn't like and wanted to go home to go to bed.  So we are certainly growing up.

While in Kaua'i we are planning to enjoy many relaxing activities! Mostly swimming at the pools in the resort, and sight seeing many beaches.  Ty is excited to ride on an airplane for 5 hours. We are excited to get away.  During this time Byron and I will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. It is amazing to me how time flies. We are blessed to be welcoming our second son in Novemeber.

The rest of the summer is packed with each weekend booked in August and September.  We intentionally did this because Byron and I work and we want to spend as much time as a family engaging in family summer activities as well as completing chores and attending a few weddings. It seems like this summer will fly by quickly.  But we are excited to enjoy it!

O.M.G. Time Flies...

Things have become a bit hectic since the last time I blogged! Since the last post on Feb 22nd, 2011 my family has sold our home, purchased a new home, found out we were expecting, turned down job offers and have been settling into our new digs. What a crazy hectic life.  We have had many visitors (namely family) which keep our weekends fairly busy, we have been continuuing to unpack and move in, as well as refine how and what we have.  Byron and I continue to work and try to plan some family fun time and prepare for our upcoming summer adventures. 

A Ty update... He is no longer attending day care for the remainder of the June month as his day care provider had a job literally fall into her lap with the Church in Mt. Angel.  Though he asks daily about going to Meg's because he built wonderful realtionships with his friends there we are thankful to make the change early.  He is getting bigger now. He is funny still, loves to laugh and loves to push his boundaries as most kiddos do.  It certainly keeps Byron and I learning patience and supporting him.  He is certainly an outdoorsman.  He would live outside if he could.  His favorite things currently are to go to the "New" park as much as he can, rid his bike with training wheels, dig and clean and do yard work with his father and myself which is great because we have tons of that to go around. He is super excited to have a baby coming into our lives.  His tender side shines through when he speaks to the baby in my belly, kisses my belly and says I love you baby.  He is certain tha twe will have a girl however, we don't know yet.  So I hope he enjoys just being a big brother.  I know he will be great!

Byron and I are super excited to have another young person come into our lives.  We have been blessed with one and now a second.  We couldn't ask for anything accept another happy, healthy baby.  Baby Williams is due November 14th, 2011 just in time for the holidays and break.  Makes leave options that much better.  We are healthy so far.  17 weeks along today! Healthy heartbeat twice heard now. We will have an ultra sound later this month or in early July.  Just depends on schedules.  Again we are super excited and now we have a larger home to share with our new little addition!

The move was crazy and hectic and now mostly complete.  We had to be out of our old home by April 17th palm Sunday at 12:00 (Noon). Which really meant we needed to be able to get into our new home on Friday teh 15th for a whirl winde move!~  We were not sure if we were going to be able to do it all.  Thankfully we were prepacking for a week or two earlier into a storage unit and were moving essentials that evening.  We also were blessed to have many family members from both sides of our family helping us out as well as friends.  We were so blessed that we MOVED EVERYTHING into or new home by Saturday night!.  The storage unit was cleared out and cleaned up! The old home was cleaned and waiting for the new owners. And the job of unpacking and settling in became a reality.  

The first night was awful staying here. Not because Ty woke up or that he was missing the old home and old familiarity of things.  Quite the opposite. It was because of our cat who meowed all evening and kept Byron and I up.  That being said everyoned is settled into the new home and we all love the space.  It is much quieter now. We have space. We have enough bedrooms for the new little one and for a guest bedroom as well as an additional office space.  We have a wonderful play room equiped with pool table, ping pong table and kitchenette as well as projector and screen.  We are a tad bit spoiled but are feeling like this is the place for us for sure!  We do miss our old spot a little bceause we had our dogs with us and they have been out of our lives for a short period.  They will make their guest appearance soon once our fence is completed. 

So all in all we cannot complain.  We are happy, healthy, with jobs, enjoying family, welcoming new family into our lives and are in preparation for that!  We are blessed to have a newer home with many ammenities that we are enjoying and are making it our own! 

I am hoping to make more regular postings on both blogs and that is more of my comittement these days as I am trying to get back into a more regular schedule. 
Take care & God Bless.

A New Year never too late!

Hello all my fellow followers...

It has been relatively a long time since my last posting.  A lot has taken place.. We helped Ty to celebrate his 3rd birthday with a snow party for friends, and a family party the day after. Ty has been potty trained with an accident from random time to time. Such an accomplishment.  We have listed our house on the  market and the opportunities are endless as to where we might land.  We have paid our property off and are  making plans for our next big project.

First off Ty had a wonderful time celebrating his 3rd birthday.. yes I said 3rd birthday.. Oh how the time flies. I spent a couple weeks in preparation for the big day.  I worked with a few friends on securing a snow machine which we ended up not needing. I shopped some closing Party Depot sales and gathered up many snowflake decorations. I made cupcakes, and homemade hot chocolate, and put together little snow treat bags. But really the major focus of the party was the actual SNOW! Yes I mean SNOW.  Byron and a few guys pulled off the biggest task.... they brought back two truck beds full of snow from the mountain and unloaded it in our back yard.  The kids loved it..

This was the easiest birthday party for me. The kids entertained themselves! They played with sleds, threw snowballs, dug with Tonka Trucks and rolled in the snow! Cupcakes and Hot Chocolate were a hit as well. Happy Birthday for sure!

It is amazing. A light switch turned on once Ty turned 3.  We have been potty training for over a year. Ty decided that is what he wanted to do and so we followed his lead.  It wasn't until he turned three that we really didn't put a pull up on. Now we have too many pull ups.  It is amazing.  He even wanted to wear big boy undies to bed.  I think I was more worried about the accidents than he was. In fact we have only had 3 night time accidents since he has begun wearing big boy undies to bed.  WOW so proud.  Ty has even decided to tell us when he needs to go and demonstrates his independence by telling us to stay where we are at while he goes into the bathroom.  It seems so easy.  But in hind sight it has been a journey.  Potty training is not really training children but more like training the adults.

After many bids from 5 different professional builders two of whom we would love to work with in the future some time..but certainly not anytime soon, Byron and I decided to list our home on the market with a realtor. Byron and I spent Ty's birthday weekend remodeling a bathroom, entertaining two birthday parties and purging items from our home to get ready for a showing with many agents the following Tuesday.  WHEW we made it.  Now we have spent the past few weeks keeping the house clean, and ready for a showing at anytime.  We have had a few bits and are hopeful but realistic to.  Where are we going you might ask?  Well that is up in the air.  Byron and I are cautiously planning our next location. So to be determined at a later date.

So that brings us up to speed. We are enjoying watching Ty continue to show us amazing new things, be rowdy, and demonstrating his dramatic side.  Sometimes that includes three year old fits.. Boy I tell you.. two was a walk in the park but three is worse.  We are optimistic though that this too shall pass.. and that we will all be the better for this part of the journey. Until next time.

Welcome 2011

As we celebrated Christmas and the New Year our Williams family reflected on 2010. Though all agreed 2010 flew by rather quickly we enjoyed many things. We enjoyed spending time with each other, watching each other grow, appreciated what we have, and the many extra curricular things we have engaged in. We ave been thankful for our health (though lately has been a rough road with the never ending cold!).

With that and the many memories captured in pictures, video, blogs,and in our brains we have closed the year 2010! WELCOME 2011! We are super excited about what opportunities you bring to our Williams family!

What we hope to accomplish in the year 2011 is a rather tall order but one that we are ready to address head on and we are already making progress.  Byron and I have many HUGE decisions in front of us. We have been working with several building contractors in looking at bids, home plans etc. to take this current house down to almost 4 walls and rebuild to our specifications main floor and adding a floor. Though we haven't finished with this process we are excited and realistic about this process as well as comparing that to selling the house with a Realtor. Where would we go.. we are open to the mid-Willamette valley (which covers the current area we live in among many others) that decision is one to be made once we have all the information we need. We finally own our 23+ acres outright! A burden lifted yesterday as we made the final payment. We are super excited! Now on to other things...

Ty turns three at the end of this month and we are busy with plans for his kid party and then for a family party. This is helpful because our family is so incredibly large and Ty has many friends that he wants to include this year.  He walks around saying that he will be tree. :-) He loves riding his new bike that he received for Christmas and still is full of lots of energy.  We love watching and listening to all the new things he talks about and does for us.  Byron and I are deciding where Ty will be attending preschool in the fall. So much fun to know that he is excited for school too! All exciting times.

So as we get into 2011 we are optimistic, excited and open to the many opportunities there are ahead of our Williams family!