STILL CELEBRATING?

Yes. I am. Actually I have a lot to celebrate. Here I am at lunch today with my birthday buddies. We have a lot of years to rejoice about now, and our annual birthday lunch takes a couple of hours to catch up. We used to live in the same neighborhood, but only Mynon lives there still. We were all born in February of the same year. The other three were born on the 7th and I was born on the 2nd. Interestingly enough their names all start with "M". Kristen was not a popular name then. Here's the beautiful and yummy (actually my only cake this year) that Shawn and Tiffany bought to celebrate while I was in Texas. I'm also celebrating the fact that yesterday I closed on a tri-plex that I have had listed for sale since last June. And I'm celebrating that a couple of my children who got engaged 10 years ago this month, ended up with such amazing wonderful spouses. Our family is truly blessed.

One last thing I'm happy about today--no make that two. I wrote an offer today for a family that has been boggged down in an ugly short sale. I have a feeling that this one just might work out. And last but not least, that ugly bit of stomach flu that I got in Texas has jump started me towards a little weight loss that I've been struggling with. I'm down 4 lbs. Let's hope I can keep it that way.

Steve cleaned his office closet while I was having lunch with my friends. Lucky for him that I brought home most of my skewered shrimp and pilaf.

Abigail is good at putting on a pouty face when she wants to work her dad. He was late in getting home from work and she let him know her displeasure.

Here she snuggles and teases her grandpa.

Nice group photo. Nice chocolate wall with new mirror and valences! Don't you agree?

Goodbye photo with our princess of the day--Abigail. We had a great trip. The flu was only a minor setback. I love being with my girls.

Tons of Fun in Texas!

We always have a great time during our annual visit to Texas! It's great to spend a few days in the warmer weather with Tif, Shawn and ABIGAIL! And we truly love attending the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. The opening ceremonies are refreshingly patriotic. It always starts with the Star Spangled Banner and a prayer. It is so awesome! After a top notch rodeo, there is a concert. We attended the day that Tim McGraw was the featured performer. Wow! What a show! We attended the matinee so that Abigail could go with us. She loved Steve's binoculars. She was really pretty well behaved especially considering we were in our seats for about 4 hours minus a few bathroom breaks.

Steve thoroughly enjoys the animal barns and we always get a kick out of the food concessions. Texans love everything fried including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ice cream, chicken fried bacon and etc. The soccer fields were kind of muddy from rain earlier in the week so Abigail's soccer game was cancelled again. We didn't know that so we showed up anyway. Here she kicks the ball and shows her stuff with her daddy.

Here's Abigail on our drive to the soccer game. Her team is called the Frogs. Earlier in the week, Abigail skinned her nose on the stairs. The bows lasted in her hair for about 15 minutes. That's progress.

Very first thing Sat. morning, Shawn and Abigail had a breakfast date. Off they went to I-HOP for pancakes. While they were gone, Tif, Steve and I painted the burgundy wall in the living room. It is now the color of hot chocolate. It looks good enough to lick!

Here's Abigail after she petted a llama in the petting barn at the Stock Show.

Friday morning we spent about 20 minutes raking leaves in the front yard. It was fun to work in the sunshine together especially since they've had a lot of rain lately. We loved being outside with the 60-70 degree temperatures. Ahh, nice!

Almost Perfect Popcorn!

Here's our bowl of popcorn with only a couple of handfuls missing. Thanks to Hilary and a few practice runs I'm now able to make a darn good bowl of popcorn in about 2 minutes. I take about 2/3 full of a 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels and place them in a brown lunch sack. Put them in the microwave for close to 1 minute 20 seconds. When the poppping slows down, stop the microwave. It is very easy to burn them if you let them pop as long as the microwave bags.
Next I melt 1 T real butter in a cup and pour it over the popcorn. Toss the butter and a shake of salt. Yum! Good old fashioned homemade popcorn. It is not as salty as the microwave kind but it reminds me of yesteryear. And you know how I love popcorn. It makes just enough for Steve and I to have a little snack. I could eat a lot more but this can satisfy. Of course, if Steve's not home, I eat it all myself. Sat. when we drove the pickup back to Hilary's, she suggested that we have a birthday celebration for me just a few days early. So we took the kids and went for pizza. We topped it off with one of those white chocolate macadamia cookies baked in a skillet with ice cream on top. It was downright decadent and delicious but, alas, we couldn't quite eat it all. Too bad!

Yes. I am entering my mature years when I celebrate my birthday tomorrow. I encourage one and all to call and sing if you choose, but request that you not spend any money purchasing gifts. I would love to get the rest of the 2009 Family Summaries. Just a page or two with pictures would be fabulous. I won't mention names, but you know who you are! Thank you, thank you, thank you in advance! I love you all and you are the reason that I prefer to continue having birthdays at all! This will be the first time in years that Steve is actually going to be home for my birthday. That is so odd that we are not sure how to celebrate. We'll figure out something.

Just Catching Up...

It's been three weeks since I've read or posted a blog and I guess I can't remember how to do it. I've got it all backwards, but it's late and I'm tired. Here's Steve and Wyatt replacing the water heater that went out the day he got home from a very hectic trip to Hawaii. No one was feeling too sorry for Steve, but it was a very tiring trip and not fun to come home to this. The three living Williams pose for a photo in their church attire. Steve's Dad is the 4th William.

Cousins meet--William and Quinn.

We had a family dinner like the kind we used to have monthly. Families gathered from afar.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Dustin. Unfortunately he didn't get to choose his favorite food or dessert. He was keeping it quiet, but Heather remembered so we combined our musical talent and let him have it.

Grandma loves big "W"!

Jen practicing with the Moby wrap in preparation for the return trip.Do these two look alike to you? Or do they look just like a couple of Budda's?

One happy Bud.

A visit to Grandpa K and Ann. This shows 4 generations on my side.

I can't believe that it's been three weeks since I've read or posted a blog. We thoroughly enjoyed Jen, Tay and Will during their USA visit. After they left, I've spent some time helping Grandma Ann & Dad as she continues recovering from her back surgery. I think that she is getting stronger every day and doing quite well since she'll be 80 in June. I took a RE class in Idaho to renew my license there and I've been to Logan twice--once to deliver Taylor and once to deliver the pickup and labels.

Steve has spent the past 3 weeks traveling---first to Wisconsin, then Hawaii-his very first time. That weekend he came home to a broken garage door opener and a flooded furnace room due to a leaky water heater. The next day he was back on a plane to California. I can't blame him on that one.

Smile Awhile

Here's one of the best parts of a busy week! Getting to hold, rock, bathe, and cuddle Big Will. He just made his first trip to the good old US of A. Here he is off to church with his maternal grandparents. We are trying to share and be nice, but it's hard. The visit is so short and Steve flies out to Wisconsin at 5 a.m. Monday. Big Will with his Dad, Little Will.

Big Will with his fiance, Sage. If their parents have their way, these two will be married someday. Now just how often does that turn out? Do you actually know anyone who married the person their parents picked out for them? Do you think being born in China will make a difference?
Getting reacquainted with Grandma P. I don't think he remembers our Oct. visit.

Grandpa P. greets Will, Jen and Tay at the airport on Friday. How fun for us that Taylor had to make a quick business trip to the US. It was a challenging 24 hours with an almost 4-month baby but somehow they survived. We love it!

Earlier in the week we tried to help out Hilary, The Gimp. She did really well while we were there and was able to help the kids with their reading, homework and Spanish-(Korinne) while she iced her leg.

I actually tried to keep Korinne somewhat occupied so Adam could get some work done. She helped me with the shopping and she did well at her gymnastics lesson. As you can see I was only partially successful.

I also went to Mapleton to help while Ann recuperates from her back surgery. The siblings are taking turns staying overnight and helping with Ann's care, fixing meals, etc. She has had a few challenges but overall is doing quite well. Grandpa is very thoughtful and tender and is doing his best to make sure his sweetheart is comfortable. It's been a good opportunity to take turns helping our parents who have always done so much for our big family! It's been a busy but rewarding week.

Time to Count Some Blessings!

2009 will certainly be a memorable year for our country with its challenges. Every time I read the Book of Mormon I almost feel like I'm reading a current news report. Corruption can be seen at all levels. But for today, I want to focus on our blessings. I want to thank my benevolent and loving Heavenly Father for the beauties that surround me every day and I want to acknowledge His tender mercies in my life.

I'm thankful ....
For 16 adorable, intelligent, healthy grandchildren
That their parents have all been sealed in the temple with the opportunity to be Forever Families
That my children are striving to keep their temple covenants and live righteous, honorable lives
For my wonderful children and their incredible spouses
For Temples and the ordinances performed therein
That Tanner was ordained a deacon and Britton was baptized
That Steve still has a job
That we are healthy and energetic
I've had the opportunity to assist many families with their real estate needs throughout the year
That Steve and I have been able to travel and visit all of our children & grandchildren this
year
We live in a warm, comfortable home surrounded by nice neighbors
I'm still learning new things and I'm able to implement some of them--ie texting, blogging
I have a thoughtful, hardworking husband who is a terrific father and grandfather and I'm
especially grateful that he honors his Priesthood and uses it to bless our family
That I can hear music, see the beauties of nature, and read the wisdom of others
For Dad and Ann and their relatively good health
For my brothers and sisters who do much to enrich my life
For friends who encourage and support me
For the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gift of the atonement
For a living prophet, for the scriptures and counsel of former prophets
For the peace, comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit
For our exceptional students in our Sunday School class
That I can walk on the treadmill and out in the sunshine on nicer days
For yummy food--you know I love food
That I'm an American citizen - May God bless America

You Won't Believe It!

But I've already achieved one of my most challenging goals for 2010. That's right. I cleaned and organized my office. I've worked on it for the past two days but it took me 7 months to get 2 days off to work on it. Steve has been working for about 4 days on the Good Neighbor and KKP taxes. He emailed them to the accountant today. Both of these tasks were a ton of work. Hooray for both of us! We feel pretty good about our accomplishments. I commented that I should have taken before and after pictures of the office so that you could appreciate the new look. Steve said not to worry. We can take another picture next week. Ha! Ha! I hope it will take longer than a week to mess it up that much.

Steve is very happy to get all of my plaques out of the box and up on the walls. He likes plaques and he was unhappy that some of them got scratched.

Now that the pictures and plaques are on the walls, he has a sense of satisfaction. We're finally getting settled.

With Taylor's help, we got each other a treadmill for Christmas. Here Steve demonstrates his walking technique. It gives me an excuse to watch my conservative talk hosts and it better put a stop to our expansion program (both the government's and mine).

About 7 a.m. on the 31st, the most gorgeous moon was setting on the western horizon. I was on my way to the temple but I turned back to get my camera. I really wanted to share it with all of you. It is the bright dot right in the middle but this picture is a flop. It was huge and bright and had a halo around it. They said it was a "blue moon" because it was the second time in a single month that there was a full moon. I'm sorry that I couldn't capture its magnificence.

Here is a picture I took of Quinn just before we left Idaho. I really get a kick out of the way he gets up on all fours like this.

Thanks to Brinley who played so beautifully on her violin for us just before we headed for home. She's really getting good and we just love to hear her play.