The most AMAZING man!

So this morning was the baby shower for one of my sister-in-laws, She's having her first boy, and only the second in the Williams family. The rest of us sister-in-laws decided that a co-ed, basketball themed baby shower would be fun, so that's what we did. More on that later.

Now, back to the title of the post, and the most amazing man that helps out with co-ed baby showers! Kevin is seriously awesome, and I'm so lucky that he puts up with me and my addicted-to-throwing-showers self! He didn't complain about having to go out last night to get tables and chairs, he didn't complain that the house was a wreck cause I've been working on shower stuff (and easter stuff), He didn't complain that I've basically been on photoshop all week, and he courteously told me everything looked great when I showed him my creations. Not only that, but he never once, not even for a second, complained about having to go to a baby shower. I know, that's how most guys want to spent their weekend right?

Now, he doesn't love it when I spend money on these things, but hey, he's the guy that coordinates amazing neighborhood spring flings with a $0 budget, who can compete with that? seriously, I'm just lucky if I can keep up with him.

I just feel so blessed to be married to such a supportive man, He helped us set up this morning, and helped clean it all up when we were done. Not only that, but he helped with some of the games too! (Granted, they all had to do with basketball, so of course, he was a little excited.) I just love that man, and am the luckiest girl that he feels the same way about me too!
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Now, here's a little sneak peek at the shower, it was SO much fun to do!

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning, I took Peyton and Lexie to a nearby park for our annual ward Easter Egg Hunt. Peyton was SO excited to go. We've had a couple small easter egg hunts so far, and she's starting to get the hang of it, so she knew there was gonna be some candy involved, and that made her VERY happy. It was so fun to see her excited and running around looking for her eggs, gotta love the enthusiasm of these little kids!

Look at her go! She was having so much fun.

Here she is showing me her loot.

I just had to take this picture, cause this is what you get when you have a child who is potty trained, and doesn't always want assistance. She put her skirt back on all by herself, backwards! I forgot to turn it around, and didn't want to do it at the park, so here she is, gotta love it.

Photoshoot

Yesterday the whole Williams clan got together for a family photoshoot. It had been quite awhile since we had done one, and we've had a few additions to the family since then (about 8 to be exact. ) We had Ginger from my ward come take the pictures, and I'm so excited to see them. Jessica brought her camera, so we have a little sneak peak of what's to come when we get the photos back from Ginger. I think considering the fact that we had 9 children, 5 and under, things went very well. There were a few breakdowns, but that's to be expected. Peyton flat out told me she wouldn't smile. Oh well, at least she was looking at the camera, right? Well, here's a preview of what we'll be getting soon, I'll be sure to post the final product from Ginger. Thanks Jess for letting me steal these from you, and I hope you don't mind that I played with them a little on photoshop.:)

All the kids in all their cuteness! Can you believe how happy they all look, and this was one of the last photos! We have Grandma Williams to thank for this, She was doing a great job crawling on the ground and growling at the kiddos, they LOVED it!

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids. Can you find the lone boy of the bunch? Thankfully he's going to have another boy cousin soon. Can't wait to meet him!

Another one of all the kids, They're not all smiling, but hey, no ones crying, right?


Jessica also took some photos of all the boys together, I can't believe just how much they all look alike. What a handsome bunch!

If you've read previous posts that highlight Kevin's weirdness (which is really quite endearing), now you know where he gets it from! Gotta love that guy. I'm sure glad he has all these guys to hang out with, it's a little escape from his frilly pink world here at home.

Couponing

At the beginning of February, I decided that I needed to figure out this whole new couponing "world". I know many of you may do it, and be totally familiar with it, but not me. I had tried a couple times before to get it down, but to be honest, there is alot of "stuff" out there, and it can get really confusing. This is an example of a saving written out on a blog:

Wheat Thins Artisan Cheese Crackers 8oz $2.00
Use BOGO coupon from SS 03/15/09 (expires 5/31/09)
AND STACK
Use $1/1 coupon from SS 03/15/09 (expires 5/31/09)
Final Price: $0.50 each

If you know what this means, you know more than I did when I started.

So, I sat down and read blogs, (there are TONS with so much information on them), I read the stores circulars, and I started clipping coupons. It's amazing how many coupons are out there, and just how many things I was buying at full price, when it just wasn't necessary.

The first time I went to the store, I saved $7. Not great, but hey, that's $7 in my pocket. From there, things have all gone uphill. At Kroger a couple weeks ago, I did pretty well, and it's helping to keep me motivated to do this. Also, seeing our food storage slowly increase has been a big plus too.

So, at Kroger, my initial price for groceries, before the Kroger card, and coupons, was $111. Not too bad, but our goal is $100 a week for groceries. After the card and coupons, I walked out having spent $55. I was so excited! Since then, I've saved even more too.

Kevin looks forward to my call every week, cause I've gotta have someone to gloat to about how much we saved, and of all people, I know he'll truly appreciate it!

The grocery's I was able to get for $55.

My coupon binder, I'm not the most organized person by any stretch of the imagination, but this is one area where I will always know what I have and where to find it.

My receipt. Look at those savings, woo hoo!

The goal now, is to really work on stockpiling, so that we can build up a great food storage. We're getting there slowly, but surely. I'm also amazed at how many things I buy now that I never would buy before cause they were too expensive, It's great to have some new variety in our diets.

Wow, 9 months already!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this age, and this sweet baby girl! There is just something about these little munchkins that melts your heart. Lexie is the happiest baby, and she amazes me all the time. I don't always realize just how happy she is, and then we're out and people will comment about how happy she is, and they're so right! I'm trying to get her to say mama, which she was doing for awhile, but now, whenever I say it, she just laughs at me. It's hilarious! She sleeps through the night most of the time, she's on table foods, which has made her much happier than baby food, (can't say I blame her!), and today, she crawled for the first time, just a little.

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We had her 9 month check-up today, and she was 18lbs, 4oz, which puts her in the 45th percentile. For her height she was 27in,which is also the 45th percentile. I've never had a baby below 50th for anything, and I would have put money on the fact that she was bigger than Peyton. She's also my latest crawler,(who isn't REALLY crawling yet, she just took a few strides today, so it won't be long till she's everywhere.) I know 9 months isn't really late, but the other two were walking at 9.5 and 10 months, so this feels late. Although she has had a bit of a delay considering she fractured her hip and all, so I think she's doing awesome.

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She has brought so much joy into our lives, and her big sisters adore her so much. there are just too many things to love about this little girl, but just to name a few....

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I love her smile and the ease with which she laughs, it doesn't take much to get this girl to giggle.

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I love her little dimples, and the jabbering she does when she's trying to talk to us.

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I love that right now, she's a momma's girl, and that Halli loves to carry her around. Okay, I don't LOVE that Halli carries her around, but I do think it's cute.

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I love that Peyton calls her "Gexie", and that when they're in the stroller together or in a shopping cart together, Lexie will smother Peyton and pull her hair, and Peyton lets her do it.

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I love that she loves to be thrown in the air, and turned upside down. I know, she's already fractured her hip, I promise we're not abusing our children. :) She loves it though, and it's just so fun to make her laugh, how could we not do it?

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Simply put, I adore being her mom, and I'm so grateful that she came to our family. I just wish I could enjoy this age a little longer. We love you Lexie!

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P.S. She was eating dinner in the above photo, hence the messy face. Gotta admit though, it's still dang cute, even with food all over it!

Sea World - Day 2: Bring on the fun!

Our second day at Sea World went a little bit smoother than the first. We came prepared to get wet, which was a very good thing, since the first ride we went on was Journey to Atlantis. Halli and Kevin made their way to the big boat, and she was so excited to go on it. There weren't really any lines, so she was able to go three times in a row, twice with Kevin and once with me.

On their way to the ride, she was so excited!

Look at 'em go! She said the big hill tickled her tummy lots, I don't think she was too sure if she liked it alot. She must have liked it a little bit to keep going though.

After she got off, she came back to stand at the bottom of the drop. That big boat makes a huge splash, and she loved standing in it. Peyton on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it.

Peyton waiting to see daddy and Halli come by on another water ride.

We made it to all the water rides, and Peyton even got to go on a log ride. Of course, after the first drop, she stood up and wanted off the ride, too bad there were more to go. Weird thing is, she went on it again with Kevin, and didn't like it any better the second time around.

See, I'm in a picture! This was the log ride, and Peyton was beyond ready to be done.

We had to make it back to our favorite ride again.

We also headed back to see Shamu. This time the show went beautifully. I was kinda glad they canceled it the first time so we had to come back. I didn't realize just how much we missed that first day. The whales may have been kinda performing, but it was nowhere near as good as the second day. We sat in the splash zone, but after seeing the first section get splashed and seeing just how far it went, I decided that I should take our sleeping Lexie to higher ground. It's a good thing I did, cause the girls got soaked. Peyton did not like that Shamu got water in her mouth, I guess it was open when they got splashed.

Shamu's tail, right after drenching one of the sections.

Look at that! It was so fun to see these amazing animals and all they can do.

We ended the day with a trip to see the Dolphins. It's great there and the kids can all just lay on their tummies, stick their hands out and wait for the dolphins to come by. It's nice and quiet and was a perfect way to end the day.

Trying to touch the dolphins. Lexie was asleep in the stroller until a dolphin jumped and it splashed her. She wasn't too fond of that very rude awakening, that water is freezing.

I love the dolphins, they're so beautiful!

The two little girls, getting in on the action. They both loved watching them.

back at our hotel they have firepits going at night, so after dinner we headed out to roast some smores. The girls thought it was a blast, but this is the only picture that turned out...doesn't she look so dainty?

Sea world had fun passes this year that are the same price as regular tickets, but you can go back as much as you want for the whole year. We definitely look forward to taking the girls back again. The funniest thing is that during our 2.5 hr drive there and back, Lexie did the best! Heck if she can do that again, who knows how many times we'll make the drive!

Sea World - Day 1: Not the Happiest Place on Earth

I'm a little behind in posting, but we've been a little busy, so here goes. We made it to Sea World during the first weekend of Spring Break. Peyton had never been and Halli was beyond excited to go again. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and there really weren't too many people there, so we were already off to a good start. After eating some sandwiches we smuggled in, it was off to the kiddie rollercoasters. So, at Sea World there are only a couple kiddie rollercoasters. Luckily, Halli liked them a little, and Peyton thought they were a blast, but I think they liked the playground the best and stayed there for quite awhile.

Now, you can't go to Sea World and not see shamu. So we headed over to see "Believe", the show put on by the killer whales. Did you know that sometimes the Killer Whales don't do what they're supposed to do? Yeah, they had to CANCEL the show! When does that ever happen? That's when things started to go a little down hill. (But who are we kidding, it's Sea World, how far down can it really go?) Halli was pretty disappointed, so we headed off to find some good rollercoasters. Unfortunately, she was still a little too short for the big ones, and the ones she could go on were water ones, so she wanted to wait till the next day when she was in a swimsuit.

So, the majority of the first day was spent waiting for mommy and daddy to go on the rollercoaster, each by themselves of course, and playing in the kiddie area. Not all bad, but just look at some of these pictures and you can see just how much fun some of it was for the girls.

Waiting to see Shamu, and full of excitment!

After seeing a little bit of the show, Shamu was done and stayed here until it was canceled.

Someone was all tuckered out.

Waiting for Daddy to get done on the roller coaster.

and waiting,

and waiting,

and waiting some more.

Lexie made up her own Roller coaster ride, she was feeling left out!

Looking cute while her sisters play

Woo Hoo, finally a roller coaster!

Having fun! They loved it and there was no line, so they got to go a bunch.

Waiting again. This time for the shuttle to pick us up for the hotel. If you ever think our kiddos are acting weird, you now know where it comes from!

See...Just like dad!

Waiting some more, and having fun while doing it.

Being weird again. Gotta love that guy!

We all had a blast, and after all this, we got to go back again. Stay tuned for day two!