It's in the air...

I swear, if my sniffer ever goes out on me I'll be miserable. So much of what I love about life are the smells, and so many of my memories are smell-linked. Isn't there something about how the olfactory senses are connected to some memory part of the brain? Yeah, something like that.

Anyway, I love the smells that tell me Fall is coming. I'm glad I still live in chile roasting country--that is probably the biggest "Fall is here" smell. And I love it, even though I was up until 11:00 the other night de-seeding and bagging and hating every minute of the aching back-so tired-is this bag of chiles ever going to end-experience. It also seems to me like the air smells a bit colder come September and I feel like I should be going to a football game. The other weekend when I was on my way to visit Jesse, I even welcomed the manure smell from the dairies I was passing, for some reason the stench didn't bother me--it just fit right in with the fall is coming mood I was in. Down in Cruces, I just LOVED when the Cal-Compact company got to packaging their spices because it filled the air. The Chile and Cumin--aaaahhhh, I don't guess many of you know what I'm talking about. I've gotten a bit carried away thinking about the changing of seasons, it just does something to me and I think I'll go have some hot cider and start reading Pride and Prejudice. Seems silly I know, it's only mid September and tomorrow may be blazing hot but I won't mind because it'll just give me the pleasure of the transition into cooler days all over again. I'm weird, I am aware of that, but I also know that there are some people out there (Sunni and Mom to name a few) who know exactly what I am talking about. I guess grouping myself with Su and Mom doesn't make me seem any more normal, does it now? Ha!

This one is for Jesse

I was telling Jesse just how cute it was to watch Lucas adjust to walking in shoes and I thought he'd like to see. There's actually only a second or two where his shoes are in view because he has recently discovered the magic screen behind the camera and would rather see that than perform on the other end. Here ya go, Lovey, you sure do have cute kids!

PS. I was also thinking about the grandmas as I took this video. This is for you too, Granny and Ma. Oh by the way Mom, there is a pause button on the music player (scroll down to your right) so you can hear the audio from the video :)

My Collin

This kid blows me away. Before becoming a Mom, I thought and worried so much about the "how to" stuff and I guess my mind was always on the nurture aspect of the nature/nurture debate. Now more and more, I am realizing that each spirit is different and while, as a parent, I have to nurture and teach things like obedience, self control, and life skills in general, each child is so amazingly unique and there are some things about each child over which I have only a slight influence. I will never have another Collin, neither will anyone else. Why am I so blessed?

It is daunting sometimes to think that as a mom I have a part (a huge part) in shaping this kid's personality, sense of humor, and overall functionality in society. Not to mention the monumental responsibility of teaching him the Gospel and helping him gain a testimony. I'm up for the challenge, though, I've never known anything more difficult but I have also never known anything more rewarding. Just yesterday I sat across the dinner table from Collin while we were eating and out of no where, Collin gets down from his chair and says, "I'm gonna give you a hug". Talk about rewarding. This mom-job is strange like that, I never know when pay day is, but honestly if I'm paying attention, pay day is every day. I could have used this perspective/reminder last week, but anyhoo...

Motivation

I'm always going crazy trying to keep up with baby books, blogging, scrapbooks, journals, and logging the cute stuff the kids do and always falling short. Now I hear tell that these here blogs can be put into book form, or something like that, and I'm thinkin' this may be a good way to kill a few birds with one blog stone. Good news for me and for the few of you that would like to hear/read more (I'm thinkin' probably the Moms, Jesse, and a few select others) for the rest of you that casually check in, it may get boring. Sorry, but I'm thinking about myself here and this just may work for me. We'll see...

There's also the consideration of going private--don't know how annoying that will make things, do you have to log in every time to view our blog? I'm thinking I might try because then I can actually write and not worry about the info. I'm passing on to the world. For example, I was starting to write more details about our current move/work switch for Jesse/living situation, etc. to keep everyone updated, but I didn't like having so much out there for just anyone to read and I hate having to filter through all that I'm writing. It's bad enough that I'm having to think about my poor grammar and sentence structure and how entertaining or boring my ramblings are to my family/friend audience, let alone worry about all the weirdos that stumble along our measly little internet space and read about our life. See what I mean about bad sentence structure? Anyway, might sound a little paranoid but Jesse (and life experience) have taught me well. Besides that, my personal info. is already floating around in the world with my treasured red leather purse that was stolen last March, people know enough about me already. But I'm not bitter.

Group date: Steak and siblings

It has been a dream come true to live in the same town as most of my siblings (all but one, actually). We have regular Sunday dinner get-togethers at each other's house, swap babysitting, go tag-team errand running, and celebrate birthdays and most holidays together. It is the best set up! The other weekend while we sat in Cliff and Lisa's garage eating popsicles and watching over our precious yard sale items that weren't selling we started calendaring. Among other things, we planned our first group date. Like I said earlier, we usually just swap babysitting for our dates. We decided Outback was the place and all found babysitters. You can't imagine how excited I was for the date--great food, the best company, and NO KIDS!!!!!! When we showed up and were being seated, the hostess asked if we'd be needing high-chairs or kids menus and we practically burst out laughing from glee. It's not that we don't love our kids, but when we ALL get together, an uninterrupted conversation is not possible--there's just too many little people with all kinds of different needs. A break every now-and-then is the most refreshing and wonderful thing.
So here we all are at Outback in early August. Sunni, Josh, Lisa, Cliff, Samia (Joe had to work), Me and Jesse.

Guess who's walkin' now?

15 Month old Lucas !
You can see my hand in the pic with a toy trying to coax the little guy to walk over so I could snap a pic. Jesse wasn't around for the very first steps and I wanted to document every little bit for him. Lucas was a good little boy and waited until he saw his "Papi" to take more than two steps together. In fact, he took his longest walk across the room in Artesia when we were up to visit Jesse over the weekend.


He is a 'late walker' compared to most, except Collin who waited until 16 months to start. Fine with me--I don't mind my kids waiting a while to get mobile. And to me, there's nothing cuter than the wagging diaper behind of a crawling baby. Although, the first clumsy steps are a close second to that.

The 4th of July

Hey, not bad, only a month late on this one. :) We took a trip down to Carlsbad for the 4th, there was a big Williams shin-dig reunion sort of thing and we booked a hotel and were totally excited to see everyone. For some reason, I was particularly looking forward to a road trip with my little fam. I always forget the annoyances of handing toys to boys who've dropped them, singing songs till I'm hoarse, and answering a bazillion questions of what this or that is that we're passing. Collin got a little sick on the day we were planning to leave and we thought our trip was going to be no-go, but the next day he perked up a bit and we hit the road.

By leaving a day late we missed most of the reunion but got some good immediate-family chatting. We all went to Gaga's (Jesse's Grandma) and then to the river to watch fireworks. It was one of those experiences I'd like to create over and over again. To sit on the green grass with almost all the fam. together and watch a spectacular show. It was bliss. Perfect weather, perfect company, and it felt great to reflect on the amazing blessing of living in the good ole' USA and all that was sacrificed so that it would be such a great nation. I am blessed and grateful.

Another fun reflection of this trip was that it was the first time Jesse and our little family have stayed in a hotel. I liked to walk into our room as if I were housekeeping and notice that it must be a little family staying in the room--a pack-n-play in the corner by the bathroom, a little bed-pad on the floor made of beach towels and the parents on the bed. I may be sounding really silly, but I just loved our short stay and our little trip.

We got to look around Artesia some more and went to Jobe's (Jesse's cousin) house for a fish-fry and anniversary celebration for the grandparents. All I have to say is--GOOD PEOPLE. I love the Williams bunch. From the parents, the brothers and sisters, to the aunts and uncles, to the cousins. I just felt surrounded by wonderful folks.

After the party simmered down, we got in the pool with the boys and had a grand old time. I sure am feeling better about moving down to Artesia after such a pleasant time with all those Artesians--mostly Jesse's cousins and their families.





Tired little boys--we did a lot of driving.