Well apparently I have been gone for a long time, and in the interim they have changed the whole layout of this blogging website. So for today, I am doing a short "trial" post to make sure I am not missing out on anything. I think I was terribly overdue for a post anyway, as it has been almost 2 months!! We have been super busy here in the Williams household. We have fully trasnsformed into spring mode. The girls are both playing ball, we are slowly tackling projects in the yard, and we are spending much more time outdoors (when it is not raining anyway). We are looking forward to upcoming events such as the girls dance recital, Regan's graduation from preschool, and the end of the school year.
Since the last time we connected, we celebrated a very wonderful Easter. Instead of the traditional sit down dinner, we decided to use the nice weather to start our season of barbecues by having what we called an Easter-que! The kids all had fun, and so did all of the adults! Everyone was pleasantly tuckered by the end of the day. I was able to capture some nice shots of my Easter beauties as well!
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| Regan's Easter party at preschool |
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| Egg coloring at Tia's |
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| Outdoor Egg Hunt |
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| Bunny Cake |
The rest of April was relatively uneventful, so there is not much to report on that front.
Erinn: This year Erinn gets to play Rookie ball, which means no more hitting off of a tee, and 3 outs per inning! It is much more exciting to watch, a little less monotonous than T-ball, and we are enjoying watching how well she is doing. She is a pretty good hitter, and of course has a nice long and fast stride on the base path. Her fielding needs the most work, but Daddy is ever vigilant about working with her at home as often as she wants to (which is actually quite a bit). She holds her own for being one of only 2 girls on the team, but I secretly think she will like it better when she is on a team of all girls. She has also gotten 100 on a few spelling tests, continues to progress with leaps and bounds on her reading, and remains very efficient at math. She will be bridging from a Daisy Girl Scout to a Brownie Girl Scout in the beginning of June, and is VERY excited for her upcoming dance recital. This year she has graduated from combo classes to Ballet I and Tap I, which means dancing with the "bigger" girls and learning more about each of those forms of dance. She will be in a beautiful Victorian looking costume for her ballet number, which is to a score from the Tangled soundtrack, and for tap, she will be "taking flight" in a number to the theme song from "Catch Me if You Can." She has completed her first year of faith formation (CCD), and recently saw many of the young boys and girls receive their first communion, which she is excited for (of course, at this moment it is because she will get to wear a pretty white dress). My diva.
Regan: Regan is also involved in ball this year, playing T-ball. It is her first season being eligible to play, and she LOVES it. She already is very skilled on the field and at the plate, definitely a natural. Daddy gets to head coach this team, so she is super happy about that as well. She, unlike Erinn, barely notices that she too is only one of two girls on the team. That's my "boy"! I personally think she hits better off pitching than off of the tee, but alas, she has to wait to graduate to that level. She has also been taking a library class every Tuesday that she loves. As a Mommy, I love these classes too. They are free, and I like that the girls will learn what a great community resource the library is (even in this technologically advanced age). She gets read to, and then follows it up with a craft that is often themed to the books they had just read. She also goes on Wednesday afternoons to read with a book buddy for a half hour. Her reading is coming along nicely. Not only is she cruising along with the Bob books, she has now been reading some easy reader books to Daddy at night, and is able to identify many sight words. She knows her doubles facts up to 5+5, and recently had her Kindergarten registration, where she correctly identified all capital and lower case letters for the reading specialist, as well as telling the specialist all of the letter sounds. I think she is ready...and I know she can't wait! She continues to have some urological issues and sporadic accidents, but with constant reminders, and possibly restarting her medication, we think we can nip it in the bud before school starts. She is also excited about her recital. She dances her first dance to "Splish Splash", and her second dance is tap and to the tune of "Bare Necessities" from the Jungle Book. I think I secretly get more excited than they do about it though. I love seeing my girls on the stage!
Mattelyn: I can sum it up in one word...CRAZY. Crazy that my baby is already 8 months old, crazy that she has learned to do so much in what seems to have just been the last month, and crazy as in she IS crazy!! She is truly mobile at this point, doing the "worm" everywhere. Which means she is getting into so much more. She is a reminder of when I need to vacuum, because she loves to high-tail it across the room to pick up that little bit of food left over on the floor and eat it! You can lure her across a room with a cracker (not that I have tried), she certainly loves her food. She is still eating baby food, but is expressing a clear disinterest in it if we have our dinner on the table at the same time. She just wants to eat what we are eating, so often these days we cut our food into little pieces and let her sample it. Soon she will graduate to milk, and before you know it, no more bottles. Thinking about it saddens me, even if I am so proud of the strides she has made. She can wave bye-bye and says "Buh-Buh" when she does it. She does "so big", shakes her head no, signs more and all done, and just the other day went from a crawl to a sit position. She will crawl over to your lap and is starting to pull herself up to a stand. It is only a matter of time! She has also graduated from the baby tub and now sits in the big girl bath. Again, another milestone that makes me teary. I know I am biased, but she truly is a great baby. She is a good sleeper, a great eater, and generally very happy. And boy is she funny!! Makes us laugh ALL of the time. She is getting out of her Mommy monster days (for a bit, seperation from Mommy made her very unhappy), and loves when Daddy throws her around like the big sisters!
All in all, I am blessed. I have had several tearful moments as of late, not the sad kind, but the thankful, "wow this is my life" kind. My girls are so wonderful, and I am enjoying all of the stages they are going through. Don't get me wrong, I want to often put them at the end of the driveway with a free sign on them, but at the end of those days, I still look at them sleeping and think, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Rob and I are also doing well, staying healthy by being active and trying to eat right. Rob plays basketball and has started his baseball season as well. I always look forward to watching him play, still to this day. I have lost another 2 pounds recently, for a total of a 15 pound weight loss! Feeling really good and with a lot more energy.
Wow!! I guess maybe I should be better about this blog. A lot more has gone on than even I thought! It is hard at the end of the night. I hunker down with my laundry to fold and watch my Dancing with the Stars or American Idol, and then I am pooped. I will try to find more time to blog. I know I certainly have thought of more thought provoking subjects to blog about. Now I just have to put them on "paper". I want to make sure I am not boring my followers with mundane Mommy pride blogs!!
I hope this finds you all well, and I will write again....sooner than later. : )
