A Very Merry Christmas

As I was sitting at the computer I heard little feet running to the office and a sweet little voice saying, "It's Christmas morning, it's Christmas morning!"

Funny thing is, she was so excited to give me a little shoe ornament that she completly flew past the couch where Santa had dropped off all of her gifts. After Daddy pointed out that Santa had come, she forgot about the ornament for a bit. "Santa got my letter! He brought 2 skateboards." Ella had written to Santa that she wanted a skateboard for her and one for her daddy. Such a sweet unselfish thing to do.

Then it was time to open the gifts we had gotten for each other. My ornament was the first thing that needed to be opened. She was so excited, because I had pointed it out to her one day and she remembered to go back and get it. Ella got her favorite things...movies, books, and clothes. THEN it was time for the guitar. She knew she was getting it, but had sorta forgotten...out of sight, out of mind! "It is just like Taylor Swift's guitar!" made the whole UPS incident OK. Tucker hates it...the noise scares him. Maybe once she starts lesson, it won't be so bad.

We spent the rest of the day over at Amy's with the Trinkos and the entire Koch clan! It was a good day of wiffle ball, Frisbee golf, and good food.

The Nutcracker

This year Oma decided to take Ella and me to watch The Nutcracker Ballet in Laughlin. This would be Ella's first ballet. The performance was good, and was perfect for her first time. Not too long...but not too short either. Mom had gotten us seats right in the center and up one level, so we could see the entire stage without being blocked. The lady with big Texas hair sort of blocked Ella's view, but I honestly think she just wanted to sit on Mommy's lap. She was in awe of everything happening on the stage. Afterwards, I didn't even bother to tell her to stop dancing. She was just so happy!



Our timer shot taken using Oma's cell phone as a tripod! Not to bad!



Afterwards, the main dancers were outside of the theater (literally outside the door...which caused chaos!) We had no intention of stopping for photos because there were so many people. But, it it just happen that the Prima Ballerina was free as we walked by. So I quick to the opportunity for a shot!

Sosey's Annual Hay Ride

One of our Christmas traditions is the Sosey's Annual Hay Ride. Walt owns an old John Deer tractor which he hooks up to 3 flatbed trailers covered with hay bales each year. They invite friends, family, and friends of friends and family. Hilary makes up some of her homemade chili (which Kevin made me get the recipe for years ago), macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs. The kids eat and play and the adult relax and talk.

Then it is time to take a ride. Adults and children pile on and sign Christmas carols as the hay ride heads down the street to a neighbor's house.

The Eastman family provided cookies, frosting, and sprinkles for all of the kids to decorate...this year there was 54 children.

After cookies, it is time to hit the pinata. Randy Eastman figured out year ago that with so many kids we need more prizes than can fit in the pinata itself. His solution 10 extra boxes of prizes held by different dads to dump when the pinata breaks.

It was funny to watch Ella as she picked up her prizes this year. Since she is allergic to chocolate and we don't really let her have candy, she picked all of the animal toys, pads of paper, bracletts, and pencils she could find and left the rest for the other children. It is all great fun and something that Ella (mom and dad too) looks forward to!

Picture with Santa

Kevin was able to get my scanner to work....so here is the picture of Bean with Santa.

Tis the season...

for SANTA! This is the time of year when being a mom is fun.

A few weeks ago we were in Wal-Mart and Ella kept saying she could hear the reindeer on the roof. Both Kevin and I were trying to ignore it....then they announced that Santa was in the photo department. Ella and I rushed back so she could tell him about the guitar and skateboard she wants. The photo department took a great picture of the two of them, but I can't get the scanner to work to post it.

Next, we went to the Parade of Lights and she kept asking do you think Santa is here. Sure enough he was on the last boat. Campbell Boats decked their boat out to look like Santa's sleigh and reindeer and he was on the back.

And just this week, Santa sent Ella video message. I loved how she crawled up on my lap and crossed her fingers as she watched her message. When it showed how Santa would get to Lake Havasu from the North Pole she was amazed. When the pictures of her playing in the corn and on the soccer field popped up she was in AWE! "Santa sent elves to watch me?" she asked.

Next weekend we have the Sosey Hayride. I can't wait.

A Successful Weekend!

This past weekend I ran the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Since Ella, Mom and I were going to be in Vegas, I decided we would cross #19 off of my list. We went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I was both excited and disappointed...the statues were amazing, but there was not as many as I would have thought there would have been. We also thought that the new Taylor Swift was going to be in Vegas...sadly it wasn't. Ella was sad about that.

Me and the Babe
Ben Affleck, mom and I

Ella said we had to have our pictures taken with Jeff Gordan for daddy. I can't figure out why it keeps going sideways....and it is getting late, so I give up!

It was a warm 44 degree Sunday morning, which was 12 degrees warmer than last year. This made me SUPER happy!!! My goal was to finish under 2:15 and I did. I had a course best at 2:13:42. I could have been faster probably, but I was having fun. I sent texts to Mom and Kevin throughout the entire race, so they knew where I was. Kevin couldn't come this time, because he was tearing apart our kitchen...that is another blog entry! Then I had to stop and take a picture of a shoe on Fremont Street at mile 6.5 and upload that to Facebook. It was just too perfect that the halfway point was at a SHOE!!!

Ella and I before my 13.1 mile run.

Ella and I after my run! Still smiling!

Karolynn and I...I love that my best friend will get up early to drive across town, just to see me cross the finish line. Thanks for coming!!

My Cheerleaders!!! Thanks mom for driving me up to Vegas and cheering me on! I love the support.

Parade of Lights

Last night, Kevin, Ella, and I went to watch the Parade of Lights in the channel. This is the first time I have ever seen the Parade of Lights. Kevin took Ella a few years ago, but she was actually too little to remember watching it. I always seem to have something else already scheduled for this weekend and don 't get to see it. I was determined that this was the year I was going to get to see it. I even made Kevin bring home his heater from work so I would be warm. I bundled Ella and I up and packed a blanket and we were off. Only problem....we could not find a parking space at Rotary and it had already started. Kevin whipped through the London Bridge Resort parking lot and happened to find 1 lonely spot in the middle. We snagged it and rushed down to the bridge. Found ourselves a spot on a little hill with a perfect view between 2 trees. The weather was perfect so we did not even need the heater or beanies and just used the blanket to sit on. Ella loved the lights and Santa on the sleigh at the end. Thanks Kevin for taking us!

Mommy & Ella Date Day

I kept my promise to Ms. Ella Bean today....McDonalds and a Megamind. Ella has been wanting to go to the McDonalds since they remodeled...there is a huge playground now. Since we don't do fast food, we have been putting her off. She also has been dying to watch the movie Megamind, but it is in 3D. We really didn't want to do that because she complains about the glasses and it hurting her eyes to watch the movie. BUT mommy gave in and promised her a date day, just the 2 of us. She pretty much started asking if it was time to go as soon as I woke her up this morning. After a stop at my school for some planning and copying we headed for our Happy Meals...with Megamind toys. While I waited in line she headed to the playground. Then we jetted across town for the movie. I was nervous about 3D since I get motion sickness on a swing I was not sure how I would do about 3D. Not bad for me, but half way through the movie Ella said her eyes hurt. Must not have hurt too bad, because she was glued to the screen the entire time. She was happy when Megamind turned out to be a good guy in the end. After picking up ice cream cones we headed home. On the drive home, I got the best thank you....even if it was a little cheesy! "Mommy you are the best mommy in the whole world! We had McDonalds, a movie, and ice cream!"

Dumpster Diving

Ok, so I have NEVER stopped to pick up some one's trash from the side of the road. Well...that is until last week. I was driving home from work and saw this cute little whiteboard/cork board coat rack. So I stopped....happens to be a student's house. Of course....my first dumpster dive is at a student's house. I got over it quickly and asked if I could take it. I had big plans for it. It was going to look great in Ella's room. Well here it is....





Ella loves it! I love it! Maybe I will have to try dumpster diving again.

Typical Busy Saturday

Saturdays seem to be the busiest day of the week for us. This Saturday was no different.

It started with me running the Turkey Trot. Cross #7 of my list of 34 things to do. I RAN THE ENTIRE TURKEY TROT!!!! Which might not seem like much after running an half marathon a few weeks ago, but the hills on the back side of Sara Park are brutal! Not to mention running them into a head wind. I just put my head down and reminded myself that I was going to cross one more thing off my list!!!! I forgot my watch, so I don't know my time, but it was under 30 minutes.

Then from there I rushed (probably broke at least 1/2 dozen traffic laws) to Walt's to pick up Ella. We had Brownie Bowling. Moms and daughters were teamed up on each of the lanes. Amy and Katie were the winners on our lane. Ella and I came in last. It was fun and that really is all that matters. The girls earned another fun patch for their sashes. We like the fun patches!! Are next two are for Christmas caroling and making ice cream.

As soon as we were done with bowling Ella and I headed over to Daytona Middle School for Ella's last soccer game of the season! THEY WON!!!! Ella was a little less aggressive then she has been all season. She was more the girly girl she was last season. She had a few good kicks and a steal. Then she asked to play defense...a lot less action happening in the back field.

Next, was a stop by the VFW. A former student on mine was being welcomed home after his 2nd tour in Iraq. I decided that stopping and welcoming home would be a good thing. I am glad I did it. It was nice to be part of something as special as that. I admit it...I cried when all the motor cycles came through the parking lot lined with men and women holding flags. It was an honor to be part of it. Sidney was surprised to see me. The hug and thank you was worth it though. The veterans who were there, were all smiles when they heard Ella sing the National Anthem and say the pledge. She sang the anthem and said the pledge in a LOUD clear voice. She was the only little kid there, but you could see how proud the veterans were to have a little girl there. She might not understand what it was all about, but I am glad she was able to be part of it.

Then it was off to Amy and Tom's house for his open house on his custom wood carved projects. I was able to get something really nice for my mother-in-law Lynne for Christmas. HI LYNNE! Since she is now hooked up to the world wide web...that is all the details I can share on that little adventure!

Finally time to head back home. No time for relaxing though. The floors needed to be cleaned and the house needed organizing (it always does and it never gets all the way done) and I needed to make some white chocolate pumpkin spice coffee things. Super yummy and very easy. I will post about those later. But what I can say, it is cheaper than Starbucks and tastes just as yummy!

Alot of stuff!!

We have been super busy in the Williams's House. It seems that school, soccer, birthdays, and races have kept me from blogging. So I will attempt to take care of 3 weeks of stuff in one post.

Ella had her 8th birthday party on Halloween. I love that we are able to do it all in one night. Kids don't really trick or treat here in Havasu anymore. Most everyone goes down McCulloch and fake trick or treats. It is super crazy and not that much fun. So I am happy to throw a big Halloween Birthday Party for Bean and all of her friends. We do it all...pinata, trick or treating, bobbing for apples, haunted house, cake, and presents. This year we had almost 20 kids who came for all the fun. Ella is the blue butterfly fairy on the left hand side. Can't wait for next year.

Since we were going to be in Phoenix on her actual birthday, we celebrated with the family on Friday the 5th. Ella told Papa she wanted Teppanyaki and Yogurt Paradise for family birthday dinner. So Papa and Oma took us all to ShoGun for dinner. If you have never done Teppan Grill you need to. We were luck and our chef had a good sense of humor and kept us all laughing the entire time. He made Ella feel very special by giving her pretty chop sticks in a little bag and having the singer in the bar sing her happy birthday. Dinner was great as always. Nate ordered sushi (which means I can cross of #22 from my list). I don't remember their names. One was spicy and fruit and I did not like that one. The other was deep fried and I really enjoyed that one. Of course it is hard night to enjoy something deep fried. After dinner the chef brought Ella green tea ice cream. I was surprised how good that was. Then Joe decided it was time for Saki Booms...6 of them because Dad was on call. It has been a long time since Mom and I have tried to chug down a beer. Round 2 went easier than round one. Then it was off for some Yogurt Paradise (it is a close replacement for Havasu Frozen Yogurt), but not before we opened presents in the parking lot. It was a good night!

Saturday, Kevin, Ella, my Friend Trish, and I headed down to Phoenix (Scottsdale to be exact). Trish and I ran the Women's Half Marathon from Scottsdale to Tempe. At the expo Kevin and Trish bought these crazy bands. They supposedly line up all the molecules in your body to keep you in order and get rid of pain. I was not sure about it. Kevin tried it out on me and I have to admit if it is not real it is a really good trick. I wore it during the race and did great, so it must have some value.

Trish and I have been training like crazy for this race. Every Saturday we head out for an 8 to 12 mile run. I knew I was ready to finish in under 2:14.....but I killed it. I took 10 minutes of my personal best in Seattle (2:14) and finished in 2:04:10. When I came around the corner and saw that I could finish in under 2:05 I sprinted for the finish line. I was super proud of myself. I only walked at mile 10 and for less than .25 mile. Trish did great too, she finished in 1:59.

So that pretty much covers the last few weeks. Looking forward to Thanksgiving break!

Brownie and Cub Scout

Kevin and I were invited to a Halloween Party last night. We haven't had to dress up in years. it took a bit of thinking, but this is what we finally came up with. The costumes were a hit.

Time to get started on Ella's Halloween Birthday Party!

Trrop #1106

This year i have taken on a new adventure...I am a leader of Ella's Brownie Troop. Kevin and I thought it would be a good things for Ella to become involved with and when we explained what Brownies do she agreed. OF COURSE, mostly because she wants to do the cookie sales. Saturday was Troop #1106's first event, the London Bridge Days Parade. If you notice our sashes are empty. We did not get them until Friday night, and I was not going to sew on patches for everyone. Looking forward to a lot of fun with this little group of ladies.

Autumn Fun

Sunday we headed to Phoenix for some autumn fun. For the last few years Kevin and I have talked about taking Ella to a pumpkin farm and corn maze. After doing some searches on the Internet, I found 3 of them in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Glendale area. Tolmachoff Farms seemed to be the one for us. Who would have thought it would have been 108 degrees the day we decided to go. It doesn't matter Ella had fun and that was the entire reason for us going.

A water pump??? Ella was completely baffled by this. Good thing Daddy knew what to do. Once she got the hang of how of it, she didn't want to leave. She just kept sending the rubber ducks down the ramps.

Ella loves animals, so she was in 7th heaven at the farm. The baby cow was her favorite.

Heading into the Mini Corn Maze. We started with this one because we were not 100% sure what we were getting ourselves into.

The Mini Maze was too easy, so we decided to head to the big maze. They give you a puzzle paper and send you into the maze and basically say good luck. As you walk through the make you find puzzle pieces for the map. Me...I would have rather had the map to start with. We found 2 of the puzzle pieces and then Daddy headed us back out of the maze. It took us 20 minutes to find those 2 pieces and it was well over 100 degrees inside the corn maze. SOOOO before Ella and I got to frustrated, decided it was best to head out. GOOD THINKING!! Maybe next time we will try and make 4 out of the 6 stops for puzzle pieces.

This might have been one of Ella's favorite stops at the farm. At first she was not too sure about "playing" in the corn, but once Daddy said he use to do it when he was little, she was in. I was surprised at how neat it felt to run your hands through all the corn kernels. She had a blast crawling around and making "corn angels". Once she was completely covered in corn dust we decided it was time to leave and find a snack for lunch.

This was a fun family outing. Can't wait to try one of the other farms another day.

Help Mom!

Help Mom! Mom, I am stuck.

Really....sure enough she is. This just made me laugh.

Highest Bidder!

The other night Kevin told me he wanted to own something from 1965, the year he was born. Ok, what will that be, I thought. He showed me a motorcycle on ebay (I will admit, I wasn't as thrilled as he was). Then came the hook...an adorable yellow scooter from 1960, for me! What a great hubby. The auction ended Monday night at 6:30 and he had to be at a meeting, so the finally bidding was up to me. So as he is sitting at the meeting, clicking refresh on his phone, I am at home trying to be the highest bidder. WELL....I won! So here are some pictures of our latest toys. We won't see them until December, because they are going to be in Seattle till then.

Sucess on #8

Number 8 on my list of 34 things to complete this year was a YUMMY SUCCESS! Even though making homemade tamales was not easy, it was so much fun. It took me ALL day....literally...I started the pork at 6 am, added the onions and peppers at 10:00am, shredded the pork at 1:oo pm, started soaking the husks and making the masa at 2:00, rolled them and had them in the steamer by 3:00, and by 5:00 we were eating. Since this was my first time making tamales, I searched the Internet for video tutorials on how to make them. I found a few that seemed pretty good, so I followed their directions. All of them said if you do it right, you will see the lines from the corn husks when you peel them off. I actually squealed when I unwrapped the first one and the lines were there. Amy and Mom had to help me plate up all the dishes...you would have thought we did this on a pretty regular basis, with as quickly as we got the dishes done. Everyone agreed they were YUMMY...SPICY, but YUMMY! I might have to make them again sometime.

Not only did I try my hand at tamales, but I made homemade tomatilla dip, flan, cheros!

Great family dinner. HUMMMM, wonder what will be my next cooking experiment. Hopefully it will get cold soon, because I have a recipe for Cheddar Beer Potato Soup that is just waiting to be made.

8 items out of my list of 34 finished...I better get cracking! Wonder how my girlfriends are doing on their lists????? I bet the thought I forgot that they too made lists....BEWARE ladies I am checking up on you!

I am bored

I was just sitting on the couch thinking how bored I was. I told Kevin I wanted to make something. It was too close to dinner to get the sewing machine out. I did a scrapbook/paper project yesterday. I really did not want to grade the test I brought home or enter the grades into Power School (that seemed too much like work). I wanted to bake something. The only problem, was that I really did not have the stuff to make much. I did have the stuff for apple pie!

These adorable pies were made in the jumbo muffin pan. Can't wait to top it with some vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

I caught a quail!

Ok, so it is 6:40 and I am rushing to get the last of my stuff together and eat something before I head out the door to work. What do I hear???? "Mommy, Daddy, I caught a quail!" My first thought is "You can't be serious." Which is followed by "God, let it be alive!" when I notice she is actually holding something in her little hands. IT MOVED! Thank God it is alive. When I ask how she caught a quail (and not a baby one or a really old one), she tells me it was just starring at Tucker. So I walked up behind it quiet and picked it up. Of course she says this in that "geez Mom, don't you know anything" tone. Life is never dull or quiet with Ella in it!