More Freakin' Cute Toenails and a new 'do

I have come to terms with the fact that I have incredibly ugly toes, I hope that you can too! Anyway, don't let that distract you from the cute new toes that I have!!







Now, I wouldn't normally post a picture of my head. Or anything attached to it, but some of you (Merilee) didn't really think that I would cut my hair, and that if I did, I would actually go as short as I said I would. Proof.
If I do say so myself, a dang cute new haircut!! Pretty sassy compared to what I usually do. That is all.

A Sad Day

Well, friends the time has come for me to take my blog private. I don't really want to, just because I think it's a fun way to get in touch with people that find you through other people's blogs. But, I promised Ross that I would. He's a bit more paranoid than the average person. He tends to think that people only use these things for unmentionable reasons. I don't agree, but I told him that I would to make him feel better. I mean he has the best intentions and only wants his family to be safe. So, please leave me a comment with your email address so that I can invite you to read. Please. I feel badly making it harder to read, but I think it will be fine. I just think it's fun to share and waste lots of time looking for people through others blogs. Anywho, just let me know, I'm glad to invite you, just leave me your email address. Thanks.

Funny Kid

This is Cole's new favorite thing. He's so funny he starts hyper-ventilating with excitement when the vaccum comes out. He's just so cute. I could just eat him up!

Oh and yes, that is Ross vaccuming! I guess that is my secret weapon! :)
This is what we do for entertainment. Apparently we don't get out much.

A Little Pioneer Day Fun and a 3-D concert

Our Pioneer Day celebrations were pretty low-key. We spent the morning at the Spanish Fork parade. The kids had fun, and the only bummer was that some stupid lady thought her kids weren't getting their fair share of the candy so she started going up there and taking it out of Kennedy's hand. I was getting so mad, I just wanted to throw her under one of the floats. I mean, I know it's only a piece of taffy. But, don't mess with my kid. Some stupid 30 year old lady taking candy from an 8 year old. Don't you feel cool? Anyway, we still had fun. Then we just came home and relaxed.

That night we went over to Don and Tonya's house for treats and fireworks. None of my nighttime pictures turned out, so these will have to do. Hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend.


Cole waiting for fireworks to start, flirting with the ladies~ That's my boy!!
Kennedy, nursing her injury. She got hit in the face with a tennis ball! Good times.

Ross and Cole waiting for the show!

As I'm sure that anyone with pre-teens knows, tonight was the night of the big Hannah Montana 3-D concert debut on t.v. You had to get the free glasses at Wal-Mart. Good Luck. No one had them. I ended up having to go to the Wally world clear up in Lindon to get them. Anything for you dear!!! Anyway, the kids (and Ross) had a great time watching it. Somehow our entertainment choices have changed a bit over the years. Oh well. Whatever makes the kids happy, right. Ross was really cute to watch it with them. He would probbably be so mad that I posted this picture, but I think it's sweet!

Baby Zoe

Here she is. Zoe Mea Larsen. Her middle name is adorable. She is named after me and my sisters our names are Merilee, Emily, Annalee. How clever and cute is that? I thought it was. Anywho, we saw her last night. She is adorable and sweet and Annalee seems to be doing well. She has the sweetest little round face, I just wanted to bite her cheeks. Gotta love newborns. And the smell....Stop it. She had her all natural. What was she smokin'? I don't know but it sounds like she is feeling great and she looked really good. Go Girl!! One of us has to be tough. I'm fairly sure I remember getting my epidural while I was still signing my check-in papers at the front desk. Pain, who needs it?

Congrats to Chris and Anna, she's beautiful!

Camping...Can you feel the excitement?

We spent this last weekend in Fish Lake. One of our favorite places on earth. The kids had fun, but I think Ross had way more fun than anyone. It is his favorite place to go. He grew up going there with his dad and I think he really enjoys taking his kids there. My computer is being funny for some reason and I can't add captions to the pictures. But, we had fun and I called it quits a few days early, because as you can see in one of the pictures (The one with the bandage) 1 year olds aren't really made for camping. About 35 seconds after we got there, Cole fell out of the trailer, and landed full force forehead to rock. Poor kid. Needless to say, I spent most of the trip saying "NO NO" and holding him so he wouldn't eat dirt and weeds. Good times for mom! So, maybe next year, or the next.....

She's Here!!

My little sister, Annalee finally had her baby girl. She has two adorable little boys and they just added a sister to the family. She has long, hard pregnancies. Her body really doesn't like to be pregnant. She's pretty tough for doing it 3 times. But, she made it here safe and sound. She was 3 weeks early, but she is happy and healthy. She has tons of black curly hair. (wonder where that came from?) She kind of reminds me of Kennedy when she was born. She's beautiful and I'm certain that Annalee is happy that it's over and she's here safely and healthy. Congrats to the Larsen family. Kennedy and I are going over tonight to visit so I'll post pictures later. Oh, by the way, her name is Zoe Mea Larsen. So cute!!!

Memory Lane

I thought this was a fun game and decided to play along...here are the rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.

It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you (and if this isn't on there...I'll assume you're a procrastinator like me and will check back later!)

This past month while Ross' brother Russ and his wife Traci and their family was visiting, we got together and had a family picture taken. This will probbably be the last one for a while. We're the only ones living in Utah. So, it was fun and they actually turned out great. No funny faces, no crying an actual picture. And I am glad that we got a good one of my family. The last one we got was in December, and well, let's just say, it wasn't good. I look like the goodyear blimp. Not that this one's any better, but it'll do. Enjoy!

Sunday Festivities

Our Sunday started off with the blessing of Devin and Andrea's baby girl, Julia. She is so sweet and getting cuter every day. We went over to Linda's afterward for lunch and visiting. Andrea's family is in town from California, so we got the chance to visit with them. They are truly some of the best people I know. It is fun to be realted through marriage to really cool people.

After that, it was off to Ross' aunt Carol's 70th birthday party. It was held at his aunt Linda's house in Heber. All of the family that we never get to see were there. It is always fun for me to visit with family. I have come to realize that we are related to some really cool people. I think when I was younger, I was not as worried about it or probbably just more self-absorbed. But as I get older, I realize how important family is and how important it is to have realtionships with them. We're pretty lucky.

As I do every 4-6 weeks or so, I had a chance to go over to my Grandma Olsen's house and perm and cut her hair. I don't really think that I appreciated this experience very much in my past. (see above) But on Saturday, I had a chance to sit down with my grandma and grandpa, which is a rarity. They told me all about how they met and fell in love and how my grandpa would take her home from dates on his bike. How sweet. They will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this fall. Amazing. Let's be honest, they have a funny relationship. But, can you imagine living with the same person for 60 years. I think it is fabulous. It was kind of interesting, because in her old age, my grandma has gotten, how do you say, snippy.?. But on Saturday, she seemed content to have a conversation with us and let my grandpa talk and share details about their lives. It seems kind of silly and petty. But it was pretty special to me. She is going in for surgery on Wednesday, and she's no spring chicken, so this experience was really special to me. I hope that all goes well for her and that she comes away feeling better than she has in years. Even though I know there's no way they would ever read this, I want to thank them for that memory. Sorry for the rambling, I have just been feeling very sentimental about my family relationships latley. Hope you all take the opportunity to appreciate yours! Peace.

More Summer Fun

Saturday night after I got off work, the kids and I went up to Deer Creek with my parents and Greg and Whitney for a quick boat ride and tubing!

The kids had a blast (as always). Thanks Mike and Deb for a good time!

Bubba and Sissy getting ready to rumble Grandma Deb being a good sport and rockin' the tube!

Cole, just being cute!

Kennedy swimming with Greg and Whitney.

How Cute Am I?

Hi, I'm Cole Williams. I am basically the cutest baby in the whole universe!

I entered Cole in the Santaquin "Orchard Days" baby contest. These are the pictures that they took for it. They turned out so cute. He was in such a cute mood when they did it. We have a long standing tradition in the Williams household of basically "out-cuteing" everyone else. Kennedy and Louis both won first place in the baby contests when I entered them. I just thought we would polish off the trophy case with a third win. ( I hope that you can sense my sarcasm. Although they did win, I'm totally being sarcastic!!!) So, I went to pick up the pictures that I ordered and find out the details about the contest, when they would announce the winners, etc. they told me that it was just a baby show. They are displaying the pictures for a week and everyone gets a prize. What the crap? Do they not understand my need for validation. For someone else to tell me how cute my child is? Obviously they weren't thinking about the mothers when they made this decision. My hopes for a third baby contest title were dashed....Oh well, there's always next year. I'm off to coach Kennedy through her lines and spray-tan her for her upcoming pageant.

I'm totally kidding. Kind of. There is a reason Kennedy doesn't do pageants. I entered her in one when she was 4. She didn't win and I almost slit the judges throat. I'm slightly competitive. Who knew!

Red, White and Lovin' It

Our 4th of July celebrations began at 6:00 in the morning. I decided to take the kids to the Provo parade this year. When I was growing up my dad HATED parades!!!! I'm pretty sure that statement still applies! So, since I grew up parade deprived, I decided to let my children revel in the sweatiness and nasty candy throwing. I had heard that if you don't save a place early, you don't get a good spot. So, I thought 2 hours early was sufficent enough. WRONG! Holy crap! Was I ever wrong. We looked all over and decided to park it on the corner in the middle of the sidewalk. Oh well. They just walked around us. Maybe it was the fact that everyone around us, who had been there for probbably weeks staking out their spots, no one had a child under the age of 12. Yeah, fairly annoyed! Oh well, the kids snuck their way up front anyway and had a great view!

How cute are these kids? Louis looked awesome! He has the funny personality to totally pull this off. He got comments on it all day. In fact a few people in the parade went out of their way to point it out. Ronald McDonald stopped right in front of us and was talking just to Louis about how they kind of looked alike. He thought it was pretty cool! The pretty ladies on the Provo City float were pointing at him telling him how cool he looked! Fun!
Cole was so adorable. He was waving all morning. He thought all the people in the parade were waving at him. It was the cutest thing ever!

The kids sitting on the asphalt and getting a great view!
After the parade, we went to "Grandma's Pool" a.k.a. Scera pool. The kids were having so much fun. They are at a really fun age. They can swim in the shallow pool and don't need me standing over babysitting them. Kennedy especially appreciates this! She actually branched out and went on the diving boards and slides all by herself. She had a blast . Louis was content to just put on his floaties and play by himself. Cole played for a little while in the pool and then took a much needed nap in his stroller! It was quite relaxing for me. Although, it was hot as crap they had a good time.

Louis playing in the water toys

Kennedy playing in the poolKennedy and I at Stadum of Fire. After swimming, we got some dinner and took the boys over to Grandma Linda's house where Uncle Devin and Aunt Andrea were kind enough to watch them so that the girls could have a night out! Notice the lobsteresque color of my skin. It's a 4th of July tradition, to fry myself. I'm going for skin cancer by age 40. So far so good.

KK rocking out to the music. She was cute to watch. It brought back some pretty killer NKOTB memories. I'm just saying. Where was Ross during all of this? If you're asking this, then you obviously don't know Ross very well. Work of course. It's time and a half. Holiday pay :)

It's The End Of The World As I Knew It

I'm a dork, I always forget to put the pictures in first. So, these pictures will make sense after you read the post.
This is my best friend Jamie and I dressed up for Halloween at McD's in probbably 1993 or 4. I was a hippie and she was Dolly Pardon. We looked hilarious, but I'd give anything to be that thin again. And I thought I was huge!!!
Ross and I at OHS Prom. I know, we look hot. Just be glad this was pre-mullet. Love ya' babe!

Standing in front of what's left of OHS! :(

I totally forgot! Hello, they are tearing down OHS. For some people this may not be a big deal. But, for me it is an institution. This is where Ross and I basically met and fell in love. (Technically we met in jr. high, but we weren't legal to date then:)) So, for me the hallways of this school, the "lounge", the bookstore, the football field, all of these things hold so many memories for me. I know that I'm extremley sentimental, but come on. Are they tearing down the place you met your husband? Cut me a little slack. Seriously, I can't explain how many fond memories I have of this place. Keyboarding class, Walker's runs for chocolate donuts and dr. pepper, coasting into "Stanco" on gas fumes and having old ladies push my car to the pump, Miss Shaw's math class, science class with Big Bad Bitchin' Bob, I could go on for hours. I'm getting a little choked up.... It also goes way back with my family. Almost every member of my family, including my father, attended OHS. The only one that did not is my mom. And we will forgive her, she didn't know any better. Poor red devil. Anywho, now do you see why I'm a little upset by this? Oh yeah, by the way, they are tearing down "my" McDonald's too. I worked at the Mickey D's on Center and State for 3 years, during high school and I put myself through beauty school working there. It was so much fun. It was greasy and nasty and the customers sucked most of the time. But I also have so many great memories working there. I met some wonderful and some questionable people there. I definitley wouldn't recommend anyone letting their 16 year old daughters working there, I'm surprised I survived. But I learned some valueable lessons, and a few four letter words and I definitley left less sheltered than I began, but still.....I'm gonna miss the smelly decreped place. It too is part of my history that I am sad to see go. Oh well, what's next? Tearing down my beauty school? Oops, already done. And rebuilt and renamed. I give up.

Things that make me smile

The smell of freshly bathed children
This new face that Cole learned how to pull!
My lilies
and my hollyhocks!
And of course, cute toes always make me smile!

Girls Night

Girls Nights are the best! Especially when you end up with cute toes! We all gathered at Carey's house and she had dinner for us, Hello can you say Lion House Pantry rolls and chicken salad. I'm in love! Then we went in shifts, three to do nails and three to stay and scrapbook. By the time I busted out the camera, we were the only ones left. But a good time was had by all. Missing in the pictures are Annalee, Whitney and mom. Thanks Carey for a good time. Thanks for introducing us to Meg. Hope that's okay, I'm offically obsessed!
Merilee, Jessi and CArey
How freakin' cute are our nails, I mean really! I don't know if you can see the detail, but she rocks!
Mer and Jessi making cards!
This is usally the only way you get a picture of Carey. She hides from the camera or takes it and throws it away! Ha.