Paul is 3!!!!!!!

We celebrated part of Paul's birthday on Memorial Day, since we got together with my family for a barbecue. Paul is so lucky to have so many aunts and uncles close by to help him celebrate, and we enjoyed all of the birthday calls from grandparents and aunts/uncles! He had an unusual cake for a 3 year old, but it's just what he wanted. Paul is obsessed with Barack Obama, so in jest I proposed the idea of having an American Flag cake with his Barack "action figure" on top, and he loved the idea! It was a delicious cake as well: white cake, cream cheese frosting, and lots of strawberries and blueberries on top.

Paul is so used to saying "Happy Birthday" to everyone else, so when anyone told him "Happy Birthday", he just said it right back. He was so excited to get a Webkin, and of course, Jackson has been helping him care for his pet. A Hotwheels bike helmet was a must, since he has been begging us to let him ride Jackson's "big boy" Spiderman bike. Last year he got a Powerwheels Jeep that needs a new battery, so he got one of those too. But, all that he has asked for the past couple months was a trip to Boondocks!


We had a fun day playing outdoor games with family, and then we had a campfire to roast marshmallows. It was a little chilly outside, so my mom bundled them up in my Dad's large old sweatshirts - they loved it! Paul was too impatient to wait for the marshmallows to roast, he just ate about 5 "raw" ones before we put a nix on that idea!




James enjoyed sharing his marshmallows with Alanna, and of course, she loved eating them. She did not, however, enjoy a thorough bath afterwards in which she had to be scrubbed in order to remove marshmallow from her hair, eyebrows, neck etc. She's lucky she was wearing long sleeves or else it would have been worse!



On Paul's "real" birthday, we finally made the much awaited trip to Boondocks. I hope it was everything he had hoped and dreamed of! It was pretty apparent that Jackson and Paul loved it! They got to do bumper boats and all the video games they could handle. I just can't believe my little Beep is 3 already! He can count to 13, pee in the potty without being reminded, play and comfort his sister like no one else can, and he is so anxious to start preschool.
Alanna loves riding on her dad's shoulders - mostly because she can pull his hair and get funny reaction out of him. I don't think she was too interested in all of the video games like her brothers were!

Nor did Alanna like getting squirted with the water from boat! She was innocently sitting in her stroller when her dad soaked her. I don't know why he thought that would be funny! She was so mad - no tears, just red faced and screaming!

Cousin Kyle

After two girl cousins, and one on the way, our boys finally have boy cousin! Kyle is the son of James's brother, Steven, and his wife, Kathy. He is 7 weeks old, and seems to be a very mild mannered cute little baby. We got to meet him this weekend. I though it was hard getting a decent picture of the three of my kids, until I tried getting 5 of them together!










So far, these are all of the boy Williamson cousins.












It was so cute to watch Alanna holding Kyle's hand and teasing him with his binky!

See Food...

Our family has great table manners!

Preschool Graduation !

I have been so excited for Jackson to move on and start Kindergarten with all of its new challenges and experiences. Preschool has been great for him, but it's only 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours at a time. Okay, I'll just spell it out - I'm anxious to get Jackson out of the house for a longer period of time, he REALLY needs the extra stimulation! But, I unexpectedly found myself fighting back tears the other night as Jackson was handed his graduation certificate! My little baby boy is growing up too quickly! They put on a very entertaining program for us surrounding an alligator theme. After that, they had made a special book full of colorful art projects with each classmate's picture in it, and they actually read us the book! I am so happy to have such a smart little boy who is eager to learn. His teacher, Miss Lisa, told me that she asked each child what made them special. Jackson said he is special because he knows how to read!

The kids still had one more day of school after graduation, and my neighbor Maryann and I walked the boys to preschool for the last time! It was bitter sweet thinking back to when they just started at 3 years old and were so excited to just carry their own backpacks to school. That day we also got to go to the park for a picnic with all of his preschool friends. Paul has already attached himself to Miss Lisa! He talks about her all the time, and when he got slightly hurt at the park, he was more than willing to let her hold and cuddle him!

Triathalon!!!!

Although this past Saturday I ran in a Triathlon, it seemed like a marathon day! It began at 6am when we drove to American Fork for the Women of Steel Triathlon, where my sis-in-law Lauren, her sister Aubrey, and I "competed" in the Triathlon. It was a blast! I never thought in a million years that I might want to do a triathlon all by myself, but it was truly inspiring to see women of all ages, shapes, and sized push themselves to their limit! There was such a supportive atmosphere that made me feel like I really could do the swimming, biking, and running all myself sometime. We did a relay, so Aubrey began her swim and completed with an awesome time of around 7 minutes. Lauren did the biking portion, then I ended with the 3 mile run. I finished in 25 minutes, which isn't great since I used to do 7 minute miles, but I went to the Dr. yesterday and found I have a sinus infection which did make it a little harder to control my breathing!
It wasn't a huge accomplishment for me since at several points of my life (mostly before having kids) I ran that much on a daily basis, and the 1/2 marathon in Moab one year, but it gave me a feel of how exciting it would be to actually complete the whole ordeal by myself. Since having kids I have spent most of my "running" time on my elliptical machine, and I have forgotten how good it feels to run outside. So, I looked up info on the Provo River 1/2 marathon, and was disappointed to find we will be out of town when it takes place. So, if anyone knows of another local 1/2 marathon, let me know! I am still going to start running like I'm going to do one!

Soon after I finished the run, we dashed off to Jackson's soccer game. James has been the coach this season, and it's been fun to see a softer side of him since he is working with kids! He likes to be very competitive with soccer, but he has realized it's great if you can just get the 3/4 year olds to run towards their own goal! My family came to watch Jackson's game, so that always makes it extra fun for him. After soccer, we had a belated Mother's day brunch for my family at our house, and then t-ball pictures scjeduled. This happened to be the only Saturday in James's career that his manager asked everyone to come in and work a 1/2 day! Ugggh....shhhh, don't tell Jackson, but we skipped t-ball pictures b/c there was just too much going on for me and I couldn't be in two places at once. We ended the evening being able to attend our second Real soccer game this season. We got home at 10:30pm with Slurpee's, and it felt so good to relax and enjoy summertime! I'm looking forward to more weekends like this one!

Break Through!!!

I have much more exciting things to write about from this weekend, but I just have to record an update on potty training. After several weeks of trying to get Paul to use the potty by himself, I think that today it finally clicked. We didn't do anything different, just the same old routine. He peed in the potty all day long without having to be reminded (I mean in the toilet excluding the time we were at the t-ball game this evening and he just pulled down his pants on the side lines and tried to go before James grabbed him to take him to the bathroom. And it had to be on the night when we were playing a team full of kids from our ward. I really hope none of them saw the incident!) Paul did poop in his pull-up, but I was very proud of him for going to the toilet and trying to go 3 times before he had the accident. I guess it's all in their own time! I think I we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this one.

Potty Training!

Oh, the joys of potty training! I don't know if it's me or Paul, but it just isn't catching on! He is approaching his 3rd birthday, and despite promises of treats and toys, he has yet to poop in the potty a single time. The other day when he told me I needed to change him, I asked him, again, "why did you do it in your diaper? " He replied with a simple answer " It just came out with my fart!" How should I respond to that? My friend, Maryann, was there and we just couldn't help but laugh. Paul thought he was pretty funny too. And now, he hasn't been peeing in the potty because, he says, "my wee wee is broken now". I just don't know what to say anymore! Hopefully, when the time comes, Alanna will be easier to potty train!

SLC Real !!!

Last night was the PERFECT night for a soccer game! It was about 74 degrees out when the game started, and it cooled off to about 64 when we were leaving. Jackson is playing his first season of soccer with James as his coach, so we got ticket vouchers from the league. Having grown up in England, James is a huge soccer fan, and although the crowd's enthusiasm didn't compare to what he is used to, we still had so much fun at the game. Paul didn't know what was going on, but he really enjoyed "booing" the refs, and jumping up and down and clapping when a goal was scored. Of course, Jackson watched the game intently, just as he does while at home watching soccer games on TV with his dad! The Real were playing the LA Galaxy, and we had been expecting David Beckham to play since he is on the roster, but he didn't! The game went into overtime and disappointingly was tied at the last minute - of course we think due to bad calls by the refs!




On an unrelated note, we have the happiest and most beautiful baby girl ever - and I'm not bragging, doesn't every parent feel the same about their babies! Having kids is just so much fun!

The Inside Scoop!

Tonight, the boys enjoyed having an ice cream party. We read a book from the library called "The Inside Scoop" that took a tour of an ice cream factory and taught us all of the ice cream making terminology. It included a recipe to make ice cream in a bag, which was so simple and the boys loved it. Paul chose to put jellybeans in his (not as bad as it sounds actually!), and Jackson had chocolate chips in his. It was a good opportunity for Jackson to read the recipe out loud, for Paul to count the measurements, and for all of us to learn (or refresh our memories) about some of the chemistry of ice cream making. James explained that it's an endothermic process, and of course that was way too much information! Anyway, the boys asked if we could make it all summer long! Here is the recipe:

1 cup of milk
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix that all together until the sugar has dissolved, and put it in a zip lock pint size bag. Put 3-4 cups of ice and 6 Tbsp of salt in a gallon size zip lock bag. Take the ice cream mix and place it inside the ice bag and shake it for about 5 minutes. You have ice cream (technically ice milk) It's a semi-healthy treat, it's so fun for the kids, and you can sneak some learning into the activity as well!