Easter

Easter was a lot of fun this year, and way too rushed for me. I didn't quite get to enjoy it the way I like to, but I guess that happens with more kids right? Throwing a baby shower the day before didn't help either. But it's alright, I think the girls had a great time, and enjoyed their day, so that's all that really matters.

We kicked things off the night before with some egg coloring. I hadn't done it yet this year, and the girls were begging to do it, so we squeezed in some time while Kevin was out showing homes, too bad he missed it all. Peyton thought it was just so fun to drop the eggs in the dye, so she kept doing the same eggs over and over, I guess next year I'll have to boil more eggs, we ran out way too fast this year.

All of the beautifully colored eggs, okay, there were only 12, but look how colorful they are!

Peyton hard at work

They are both so busy, nevermind the fact that all the eggs have already been colored, they just couldn't stop.

Showing off her handiwork.

More handiwork, with the dyed fingers to match.

Easter morning, Happy as can be with the new toys and treats. Again, I can't count how many times we caught this little girl with chocolate in her mouth, and I didn't give her any. Big sisters just love to share, but only when it's things they shouldn't be sharing.

Look at that haul!

You can't beat a peeps at 7am

I had made the girls Easter dresses, so I had to get a picture of them before we left for church. We were already running late, so this is what you get, I don't think it's too bad, luckily Lexie didn't get her headband yet, although I don't think it lasted much longer.

After church we headed to Grandma Williams house for a yummy dinner and an easter egg hunt. The girls all had so much fun. Luckily for us, the weather was WAY nicer in the evening than it had been that morning. The day started out with thunderstorms, so I was worried that our day was gonna be a little wet.

looking everywhere for eggs

Lexie looking cute in her daddy's arms

I love this picture of Peyton, counting her eggs.

Lexie is a little daredevil and loves to be tossed around

Dad and Halli counting her eggs

Grandpa & Lexie, she's going for her headband again. You have no idea how many times I had to put that thing back on her head.

Grandma & Lexie

Grandpa & Peyton, look at her little smile, she loves her grandpa.

Last, another picture of the girls together, I couldn't get one of them all smiling at the camera, but at least they all look happy, right?

More than a little troubling

So, I was at the gym this morning, running my little heart out on the treadmill, and listening to the news, when something came on that troubled me. There is a new nominee for the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius. She's from Kansas, and she's also very pro-choice.

The most troubling thing about this woman is who her supporters are. It seems she forgot to mention about $23,000 that was donated to her by a very controversial abortion doctor, George Tiller, who performs many late-term abortions, on babies that were perfectly healthy.

You can read more about it here:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/13/hhs-nominee-gov-kathleen-sebelius-lowballed-abortion-doctors-donations/ (sorry, my link button doesn't work.), or just google kathleen Sebelius.

As they were talking about the abortions this man has performed, I was nearly in tears in the middle of my workout. As a human being and more importantly, as a mother, this is unfathomable. We cannot let someone who is accepting of this, and even supportive of it, to become the head of health and human services. It's awful enough that our President is accepting of it.

I don't know if there is anything that can really be done at this point, but the senate should be voting, or confirming her nomination on April 20th, so please go here: http://www.all.org/kathleen_sebelius.php, and sign this petition, it's the least we can do.

I'm sorry, this is an unusal post for me, but it's so troubling to me, that in the name of women being able to be in charge of their own bodies, we are rationalizing murder. No happy note to end on here, but if you find anything else that we can do, please leave me a comment and let me know.

"How can it be that the most wondrous and sacred human space - the womb - has become a place of unutterable violence?" - Pope Benedict XVI

McKay Madness

This past weekend, the Williams sister-in-laws all got together to throw our other sister-in-law, Jamie, a baby shower. Actually, it was a co-ed shower, so it was for her and her hubby. Since their having their first boy, we did a basketball theme, and if I do say so myself, I thought it all went quite well.

There were yummy cupcakes, salads, hoagies, fruit, nuggets, and even wings. We had boys there, so we wanted to be prepared with the food. Everything was blue and orange, the blue was in honor of Greg's favorite college team, Duke. We also played a couple of fun games, a diaper toss, and a free throw contest. Luckily, Kevin's parents have a half court basketball court right in their yard, it was the perfect setting.

I think Jamie enjoyed it, and we tried to throw in some fun girlie stuff for her, but I suppose she had better get used to having some of the boy stuff around, right? It was tons of fun to put together, what can I say, I'm a sucker for parties!

Some of the food, and the picture I made for McKay's room. If you can't tell, that's a picture of Jamie's belly, "painted" to look like a basketball.

Here's a close up of the photo, what do ya think? Does the paint look real? I had to work on photoshop for a bit to make it look alright, kinda fun what you can do with a little editing!

Look at these two! Britt and Brett, so excited for their very own tickets to the shower! :) I made tickets that we handed out to everyone, and then we did a drawing. If we drew your number, you got a chance to make a freethrow, and if you did, you won a prize. Now if I had really been on top of it, I would have sent the tickets to them with the invite.

The fun basketball centerpieces for the tables.

Some of the drinks, we removed all the labels and added a customized "McKay" label. We had water and orange and blue gatorade, yum yum!

A close up of the tickets

And some more food, can't beat a great buffet, right?

The McKay pennant.

We had tons of fun doing this, and now we just can't wait to meet the little guy!

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.