Back to work!

Well, on Monday, I started back to work!  I was VERY VERY sad dropping the boys off at daycare, but once I got to work and had the gals I work with around, I felt at home again!  I cried most of the day but, as I already knew, day 2 was MUCH easier!  Parker of course slept great for his daddy!  Ethan did the same thing when I would work, I always said he liked me more ;).  

Ethan had a bit of a hard time with me going back to work too.  He didn't want to stay at daycare after I came in the evening to feed Parker and then head to work. Both nights he cried as I left which made it even harder.  For 3 months, when I came to daycare in the evening, I scooped him up and took him home!  

Between sleeping, cooking dinner, and going to daycare to feed Parker before work, the days FLEW by!  I felt like I was hardly even gone!  

Ethan started gymnastics this week (pictures to follow at a later date)!  He was a bit distracted during the first day, but I think he will get the hang of it and do pretty well.  I'm excited to watch him grow more coordinated and maybe somewhat athletic ;)  

I guess that's all for this week.  Sorry for the lack of pictures but there hasn't been a whole lot of anything going on to take pictures of!  I plan to get a few this weekend.

Until next time,

Crystal <3

Surprise! We're leaving on a jet plane!

What an eventful week we had in May!  On Ethan's birthday, we surprised him by telling him we were going on a big airplane in a few days!!  He was very excited but wasn't totally sure what was going to happen.  


You may be thinking, why were you going on an airplane!??  Well, I am fortunate to have met another part of my family later in life.  I was so excited to introduce and share my boys with them all!  So, before I was done with maternity leave, my mom and I arranged an impromptu and surprise trip to Kansas!  


May 15th at 6:30am we boarded the boys' first ariplane and headed to Kansas City for 8 days!

So without much of a wait, we boarded the plane!  Ethan was downright giddy!  

Parker did fantastic on the plane rides!  We flew into Salt Lake City and had a nice layover and ate some breakfast and then off we flew to Kansas City!  The trip there was flawless!  Only 3 people knew we were coming so it was going to be a very big surprise.  We got our rental car and off we drove to my Aunt Danette's house!  On our arrival, my grandma was there and was shocked to see us!  There were may tears of joy and lots of hugs and kisses!

 Ethan and Grandma Great were the best of friends right away!  He wanted to know where she was all the time and loved to play outside with her.  So very special to me.  

Grandma could not get enough of Parker!  

This is where Grandma spent much of our week, in front of Parker's swing.  Watching him sleep, coo, cry, spit up, and poop!  She just liked to watch him be a baby.

Something about my family, they are puzzle FREAKS!  I was an exception, until this week!  Ethan has always been a puzzle freak so he fit right in ;)  This is my Uncle Brock and Ethan putting an Ethan sized puzzle together.  The minute he met Uncle Brock (and everyone else for that matter) he fell in love and wanted to play!

One of the days we were there, we went to a kid's petting zoo where Ethan got to see cow's, goats, horses, and feed some ducks.

 

 

We bought some bottles of goat milk to feed the baby goats, but as soon as we got in there, the goats went after Ethan's bottle and jumped all over him!  They scared the daylights out of him so he didn't want to feed them anymore!  Until then though, he loved petting them!

There were plenty of beautiful days in Kansas City which left many opportunities for Aunt Danette and Ethan to walk the puppies, Teddy and Oreo.  

Ethan had to walk Oreo because Teddy was a bit too enthusiastic for him to handle.

 Ethan and my cousin Autumn spent a good deal of time together also.  They read lots of books.

                        

 And they played outside a ton! 

While we were on this trip, Ethan began swinging on the big boy swing for the first time!  What a fun thing!  Now we can swing together when we go to the park!

Parker did so wonderful on this trip!  Despite meeting many new people and adjusting to a new routine for the week, he was a great sleeper for the most part and settled right in. 

This is Parker and Uncle Tom.  If you look up "baby hog" in the dictionary, there is a picture of him right there!  He would come in, take Parker when he saw a chance, and they would disappear for a while.  They spent time on the back porch enjoying the beautiful weather and watching TV.  It was very special to see him loving up on my boys :)

These are my last pictures to share.  We went to the park for a bit on one of our last days here.  Ethan ran around with Nana while I hung out with Parker in the van.  There were lots of bugs there and they are BIG!

Wow, what a trip!  I left feeling more loved and adored than ever.  I am so thankful for having more family in my life.  Such a great way to spend part of my maternity leave!

Maternity Leave countdown::  1 week

I am very excited to go back to work, but as any mom with a new baby, I'm nervous.  I'm nervous to transition from full time mom to full time nurse AND full time mom.  I know it will be just fine, but I am a little anxious.  Can't wait to get that first day over with and the rest will be a breeze!

Well, hope you all aren't too tired of reading!  I had a lot to share!  Thanks for being a part of our lives!

Until next time,

Crystal <3

Ethan turns the big 3!!

Wow am I far behind on my blogging these days!  After you see my posts, you'll understand why I haven't had time!  


On May 11th, my biggest boy turned 3! 

 He spent the day at home with me and his nana and we went out to lunch at Straw Hat Pizza and played some arcade games.  He also opened some of his presents including those from his nana since she couldn't be at his party the next day.

 He loves cards and this one was a singing card....BONUS!

A portable DVD player (this comes into play in my next blog post ;) )
  






On the 12th, we had his birthday party at Kids Klubhouse!  For those of you that don't know, Kids Klubhouse is an indoor play area.  It has huge slides, a jungle gym, basketball, and a special play area for smaller toddlers.  Great for all ages!  He had LOTS of friends and family there and it was tons of fun. 

  As you can probably tell, his birthday theme was "Hot Wheels!"  The cake was made by our "cake lady" who has done all of our cake for every milestone since our wedding :)  It was half chocolate and half raspberry almond and was DELISH!




We had the room for 2 hours and little did I know that it was going to take 30+ minutes just to open gifts!


We were fortunate also have be able to take this 4 generation picture of the Williams' men before the party got started.  The other two babies in the picture are our nephews for those of you that don't know :)  This is one for the history books!  Who knows when/if everyone will be together like this again.

Left to Right:  Ryan (Parker), Grandpa Bill Williams, Shane (Atlas),  Dad Steve Williams (Silas), and Ethan

As you can imagine, it's never very difficult to find someone to hold Parker when we are out, especially with our family.  My mom stole him first and then Ryan's mom Donna came and promptly stole him from her!  Our boys are so loved.

This is what they call a plasma car.  You put your feet up and use your hands to turn the wheel which makes the car go forward.  Pretty cool but hard to teach to my son....especially when he is so excited!

 He loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" and blew all his candles out on the first try!  

He is such a big boy!  I'm really not sure where the last 3 years have gone.  He has grown so fast right before my eyes.  I love him like I never thought I could love any other boy in the world.  He is the light of my days.  


Thank you to everyone that came and made us all feel very special and loved that day.  You mean the world to us!

Until next time,

Crystal <3

May is here!

May is here!!  I LOVE the month of May!  Montana really starts to blossom in May and this helps me get over the "winter blues!"  Not to mention, almost all our familes "special days" are in May!  

On the 2nd, my amazing hubby turned 26...such a BABY!  Just kidding babe ;)  We went out to dinner with Shelly and Dennis BABY FREE and had a few drinks.  It was a very nice day!  For his birthday, my Ryan got a second fish tank.  For those of you who aren't aware of his passion, he is obsessed with aquariums!  This is a salt water tank and we recently bought a few fish for it!  They are 2 clown fish which I named Jack and Rooster.  They are cute and it's pretty fun to watch Ryan light up when he talks about his fishies.  Ethan also LOVES the tank and wants to take everyone to show them "his" tank!

This is before his new improvements with lighting

This is Jack :)

This is one of the effects with the new lighting

Our next exciting event this May was Ethan's first friend birthday party!  His best friend from daycare had a birthday party and Ethan was more than excited to attend!  We went to buy him a gift and Ethan was overjoyed to get his friend something GREAT!  He had an absolute blast and has thanked me everyday since for taking him to the party!  If only it was that easy to please everyone in life :)

On May 11th, my sweet big boy turns 3.  I just cannot believe that he is so big!  We had his 3 year checkup and the doctor was talking to me about SCHOOL!  OH MY GOSH!  I can't even go there in my brain!  He can't go to school yet, he's still my baby!  He's not much of a baby though, he is 36 pounds, 39 1/8 inches and in the 90th percentile for weight and height in boys his age!  He knows almost all his colors, shapes, and occasionally throws out words like "although" and "actually"!  He is just growing way too fast!  He remembers words to songs and sings lots and has recently been "reading" to daddy at night.  After reading a book once or twice he can go through the pages and tell you the story!  With the books we read often, he reads them word for word from memory!  

He loves to play his guitar and started using a toy for a pick!  He also LOVES grandpa's drums and hopped up on the stool last time we were there for his own impromptu jam session!  He is a musical one...I think I'd rather the guitar than the drums but grandpa says he can do both ;)

Ryan and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary on the 25th.  So hard to believe we've been married that long!  In August, we will have been together 10 years!  Seems like forever (in a good way!). Here's a few pictures over the years for your laughing pleasure...

Our younger and THINNER days-2002

Our first ski trip...can you see the terror in my eyes?-2002

Our 3 year dating anniversary-2005

Our awesome wedding!-2007

Our first camping trip-2010

Ski day away-2010 


Looking back, I can't imagine my life ANY different!  Soon I will have more pictures of us to put up...We don't take enough pictures of ourselves together!


Well, I haven't even told you about my peanut!  Parker had his 2 month checkup this week too and besides those nasty shots, we have some stats!  He is 12 pounds 1 oz and 23 inches!  So he has grown 3 pounds 2 oz and 2 inches in 5 weeks!  What a growing boy!  He is in the 75th percentile for his age!  Besides still using some medicine for that reflux, things here are GREAT!  He is a great baby!  A good sleeper, sleeping about 6 hours in a row at night already and smiling lots!

Just love his sweet little smiles and coos!

Ethan asks me all the time to take pictures of him and Parker...he's quite fond of the little guy!

This was last night after his shots....poor guy, he was feeling pretty terrible!

Maternity Leave Countdown....4 more weeks!  I am so grateful to be able to stay at home with my boys for the full 12 weeks but MAN am I missing those little pumpkins at work too!  Oh, by the way, it's Nurses' Week!  Kiss the nurses' in your life!


Until next time,


Crystal <3

Life n stuff....

Hello all!


It's been a little while since I posted.  Life has been quite busy here actually!  Being a mommy to two little boys can be very hectic!  Ethan has been very busy and wanting mommy time so there is not much time left to blog!  Our evenings seem nonexistent these days between dinner, dishes, baths, bedtime and a few minutes to visit with Ryan about his day!  


Parker is doing fabulous!  He is growing fast and becoming more alert everyday!  He is cooing lots and starting to smile some :)  Very heartwarming for me to watch him grow.  

Makes me realize though that time is FLYING by!  He already looks huge compared to his newborn pictures!  He was having some trouble with reflux and we started some medication that seems to have made a big difference.  He is happier and sleeping better which is so nice for mommy!  He usually sleeps 4-5 hours at the beginning of the night and then eats another 3 hours later.  So, we are only eating twice in the night!  Ethan had me up every 3 hours forever it seemed like!  


We have been busy here but somehow we haven't been doing a whole lot at the same time!  Funny how that works.  Last Sunday we went for a walk together. 

It was 80+ degrees in Billings and we just needed to get outside and soak up some sun!  We walked to our friends' Shelly and Dennis's house and kidnapped them for a walk to the park!

Ethan had a good time running around and playing with his Uncle Dennis and Daddy on the playground while....

Auntie Shelly, Mommy, and Parker hung out on the grass and watched the boys!










Sunday night we found out that our bowling team is in first place for the season and that we are the League Champions!  We still have to go to playoffs but no matter what, we are #1!!  So exciting for us!  Most of it is thanks to Dennis and Brandon for joining the team and improving SO SO much over the season!  We have enjoyed bowling this season even through my pregnancy with Parker and welcoming him into the world during the season.  It was hard sometimes but we made it!


Maternity leave countdown:  5 1/2 weeks remaining


While I am excited to go back to work, I am sort of sad that my leave is more than half over!  I do have a baby shower this weekend that the lovely ladies I work with are throwing for me so that should be fun!


Think that's it for now!  Until next time....

<3,

Crystal