Our special visitors and our first ride on a train!

A few weeks ago my Mom, Aunt, and my Grandad (Daddy Jack) came to visit us for a few days.  This was such a special trip.  My grandad is 83 years old.  I haven't seen him since I went home last year in July.  They flew into Portland which is a 2 hour drive and got tickets to ride the train into Eugene.  I had some money someone had given me for my birthday that I was trying to decide what to use it on and decided that Deci and I would take the train up to Portland and ride back with them.

 This was mine and Deci's first time riding a train and it was SOOO much fun!  Deci did great and it was only 30 minutes longer than driving.

My Aunt Mary Ann and Deci

Of course we had to take them to the Oregon coast...

My mom (Dee) and the girls.

We're trying to decide whats wrong with this child...she likes eating sand and chalk! Silly girl!

After my Mom, Aunt and Grandad left they took a plane to California to my cousins house and met up with 2 of my moms other sisters just in time for fathers day with their dad.

Thanks for coming to see us!

To read another post about my grandad click HERE. :)

Breakfast this morning

I've been making pancakes for me and the girls for breakfast lately.  I say "me and the girls" because Q leaves too early (okay, only 7:30) but honestly he would rather have the whole shebang with eggs, biscuits, gravy, sausage, and you get the point.  Who can blame him? And maybe just one day I'll be a really good housewife and wake up early every morning and make these things for him... Oh, I KNOW, maybe in the next year when I'm up early with our newborn baby! ha!  Who am I kidding?

  So, this morning I decided to mix things  up a little and add chocolate chips to the pancake mix.  Journey was still asleep.  Q was about to walk out the door for work.  I was mixing the pancake mix and Deci was sitting on the counter reading me bible stories.  Here is how our conversation goes.

Deci:  "Moma, do you know how to make doughnuts?"

Me:  "Nope."

Deci: "Well, maybe when me and Journey grow up you can get a grown-up job and learn how to make doughnuts for me and Journey."

Me: "Why do you want me to make doughnuts?"

Deci:  "Because they are good and if me and Journey are grownups then you can leave us here and go to work to make doughnuts and then bring us back some after work."

And I thought I was being the cool Mom by adding chocolate chips to the pancake mix!  That settles it then, when I go back to work, I'll work at a doughnut shop and everyone will be happy! :)

Gak

Deci's last day of her speech preschool was last week.  She will start again in the Fall but one of her favorite things about her class is that they get to play with this play-doh(ish) stuff they call Gak.  So we asked for the recipe and I thought I would share it with you guys.  Super easy.

What you will need:

1. 2 cups water

2. 1 Tbs Borax

3. food coloring

4. 1 cup Elmer's White Glue

First Mix: 1 cup water, 1 tbs Borax and food coloring together in a bowl.

Then in another bowl mix: 1 cup water and 1 cup Elmer's glue.

Then, slowly pour the first bowls contents into the 2nd bowl while mixing together.

It will look something like this:

At this point, I thought I had messed something up because it wasn't mixing together.  I then put my hands in the bowl and started kneading it together.  It took a little bit and I still wasn't quite sure I got it right when I passed it to Deci to play with but after a few minutes it turned out perfect!

This was a full hour of entertainment a few nights ago!

AND I'm pretty sure if you store it in an airtight container it will last a while!

May Catch-up AND crossing number 7 off my LIST!

Like I said in the post below, I haven't done great at keeping my blog updated so this is my attempt at getting caught up...well...almost...at least after this post I'll be in JUNE! :) About time right, it's June 20th!

So, after my family left It was my birthday and Q took me out to eat at a pizza place.  We tried someplace new and got to eat outside.  It was perfect!

Top left Pic: Flowers all from our backyard. Bottom left: My birthday Ice cream cake my lovely friends Derrick and Thania brought over!

 My friend, Kylee got us tickets to an Oregon Duck's Baseball game on Mother's day!

 I should mention that a few months back my sister-in-law, Kerrie, told me she found this thing on FB with ZoZobugbaby that they were looking for kid models who could be in the Portland Area one day in May.  At first I didn't want to do it but Q thought it would be fun.  Go figure.  He did win a beauty contest when he was a baby! :)  So we sent in pictures and we got an email back saying that they picked Deci to be one of their models.  We were really excited...well, Deci was a little confused about what a model was but when I told her she gets to try of fun clothes and get her picture made she was really excited.  So, one Saturday in May we traveled up to Vancouver, Washington and had her picture made along with a few other girls.  It was so much fun and seriously I LOVE Zozobugbaby.  If you haven't checked out their website you should go now! :)  I've seen the pictures from that day but I'm not allowed to share them until sometime next Spring.  See, the photo shoot was for Spring/Summer 2013.

I promise to share the photo's when I get the okay.

After the morning of taking pictures we took the girls to the Oregon Zoo in Portland, which just so happens to be #7 on my LIST!  I made a List back in January of a few things I would like to do/visit in 2012 and The Oregon Zoo was on that list!

The Zoo was so much fun....and no, I honestly didn't mean to match the girls.  I didn't even notice until someone at the zoo commented on how cute they looked matching! haha!  I'm so not observant!

Last, but not least, baby Williams #3 is growing.  This was a picture from our 8 week appointment and the picture on the left is at about 9 weeks....I think.  I keep forgetting to keep track of when I take these pictures.  I'm trying to get better.  With the girls I never did the belly shot every few weeks and I regret that now so why not start with baby #3?  From what I hear, they have less pictures of themselves anyways so maybe if I start early...who knows...  Plus with family out of town this will be a way of letting them see the progress.  I'm showing a lot more now by the way!  pictures to come soon! :)

Whew, now we're out of May.  I feel better.

Our May Visitors

Yep, you read that right, our MAY visitors.  I know, I know...It's June 19th.  BUT If you don't know, I'm pregnant (in other words, I'm tired, sick, and exhausted.), plus my insane choice of editing (picnik) no longer exist forcing me to find another photo editing program.  If you know me you know I love change but not when it comes to technical stuff. (as if I haven't complained enough about that lately.)  ANYWAYS,  I'm 13...or is it 14...(I've lost count) weeks pregnant and feeling sooo much better! Thank you LORD! So, I'm going to try and play catch-up and do a few catch-up post about the month of May and June.  I know, I know, I really probably should just skip it all together but for my sake (and isn't this why I really blog anyways?? ha!) I'm going to bore some of you to death.  Hang in there with me. :)

Enough rambling...time for some PICTURES!  My Dad, his wife Debbie, and my brother came to visit the week before my birthday!

We decided to hike Spencer's Butte

 We also went to the Coast and they road the Dune Buggies!

My Dad also helped us plant our garden while he was here.  Everything's doing great so far except for the okra which I think is more of a southern vegetable....maybe it doesn't get warm enough here..or something...  Our 86 year old widow neighbor asked us what okra was the other day.  She had no clue.  I hope ours comes in so I we can cook her some fried okra! :)

We took them to 2 of our favorite Winery's.

We also got to spend the evening in Portland for my birthday before they left.  They took me to eat and we got to meet up with my dad's cousin that lives in Vancouver, Washington.  So nice to meet family that lives close by.

Such a fun week!  We really missed these guys after they left!  Come back soon, please!!!

(Are my visitor pictures starting to get repetitive?? haha!  I guess I should start finding new places to take visitors!)

One Last thing:  Today over at The Williams' Post, my most amazing sister-in-law is having a giveaway So go check it out!  I am in love with the new wallets she made.  That's right, she made all of them herself and if you buy one, 100% of the money goes to help her and her husband go on a Mission trip to India!  Go check in out! :)

Cork Stamps

I've recently found a new blog that I'm following (Blessed to be a Blessing) and I found this really cute idea on her blog (from her post Simple, Sweet Cards)...she found it on Pinterest (Source)! I LOVE Pinterest!  If only I had more time to spend on there.

CORK STAMPS!! :)  Now, why didn't I think of that?

So, while my two crafty friends (Britni and Holleigh) sewed themselves a dress...(seriously, sewed a dress in 2 hours and I'm jealous and will be begging them soon to walk me step-by-step through making myself one!) I needed the girl time so I sat mesmerized watching them and making these FUN and EASY cork stamps!

forgive my lack of editing with this pic from my phone...I'm having editing issues STILL.

All you have to do is get some corks, sharpie, and box cutter/knife and get to work.  :)  So much FUN!

The start of it all...

Today, I'm linking up over at The Williams Post

It is a linkup about our very first blog post. YIKES! Mine was pretty horrible.

I've been missing for a while like I forewarned in my last post.

The past week 1/2 I've actually started feeling better but I still don't have a lot of energy so most days during Journey's nap I also nap instead of blogging.  Also, I'm still struggling with Photobucket.com and how to make collages easily.  In my mind I'm stuck back in early May when my dad, step-mom and my brother came out to visit.  I so badly want to post pictures but would LOVE To be able to make a collage out of them.  man, honestly I think the pictures make the blog but if I were a writer for real, this blog thing would be a little easier.  Instead I have to make it hard and someone told me about editing pictures! GEEZ! WHO TOLD ME ABOUT EDITING PICTURES??  It's changed my life and now It's hard to post and not edit.

ANYWAYS...

Back to my wonderful Sister-in-law whose blog I'm linking up with today.

Did you know her and her husband are going to India and need your help?

Here is how you can help:

 Go buy a clutch from her at  http://missionarykerrie.storenvy.com/  I bought one from her and I LOVE
it!