Welcome Home Elder Williams the Manly

Hugs from Peanut


Together again after 3 years

This is how my brother Todd distinguished himself from my brother Chad since for a year they were both out on their missions. Two years goes by fast. I'm not sure if it went that fast for my mom, but it did for me. We're excited to have him home. Unfortunately he came home last Thurs. so we weren't able to see him off the plane. But we drove down Sat. afternoon, got In N Out for dinner, and then met my mom, sister, and BIL at the temple to see the lights. We got there just about the time the visitor center was supposed to close, so made a quick trip upstairs to see the Christus statue and downstairs to see some of the displays and check out all of the languages that the Book of Mormon comes in now. It was really cool to see them. Then we walked around and looked at the lights. It was warmer than years past. We pointed out the suns, moons, and stars on the temple building to the kids and explained what they represented. Then we went over to our hotel where my brother Chad and his fiancee Brianna met us. This was our first time meeting her and she's a great girl that fits perfectly with him. The wedding will be in May. Sun. we went to hear Todd speak in sacrament. He bore his testimony in Visayan (the language he learned) and it sounded SO cool! You can hear the Spanish influence in some of it. I can't believe how fluently he speaks it. He has been blessed with the gift of tongues and never once struggled with the language. We had a lunch after at my mom's house and then left in the afternoon to head to see Susan (B's step-mom). We made it around dinner time and opened presents. It was fun to see her and then go next door to see Great Grandma and Grandpa. We got home pretty late, but it was worth it to get to see everyone.


With the boys ALL on his lap. That's Brianna in the background.

Peanut loves piano. His teacher said he's so cute and trying so hard. Bubba learned how to play Jingle Bells this week and has been playing it over and over to practice. It sounds great! I can't believe how quickly he can pick it up and read music as well. He's so good at everything he tries. JP will start swimming in Jan. He's excited to learn all of the strokes and hopefully join the swim team after that. Fri. is the last day of school for two weeks. I think the boys are excited. I'll have to try and think of some Christmas activities. We found out that a local radio station is collecting the gifts for the children at the hospital. Susan had purchased 20 stuffed animals for the kids to give, so we'll try to get over there on Thurs. after school. I'll be making cookies for my visiting teaching ladies and school parties tomorrow. I love school parties. I was in charge of the Halloween one and it was fun, so I'm looking forward to helping out. JP will be celebrating his birthday in class on Fri. They are doing all of the summer birthdays. To change it up, they're having them choose a country and do a little show and tell-really relaxed. So I think I'm going to have him choose Ghana since B went on his mission there and brought home a kente cloth that he can show and he can tell them what his birthday name is. In Ghana there middle names are usually the day of the week they were born on, so JP's is Yaw for Thurs. Fun times this week.



Oh, lastly I made Cashew Chicken Stir Fry for dinner last night. It has a peanut sauce and while my back was turned this little stinker got on his stool and stole the spatula to lick off the peanut butter. At least I was all done with it. :)

So I hate when I don't post in forever because then I have to write a novel to catch up. I'll try to keep it as short as possible and I'm setting a goal right now to at least post twice a week.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor finally for some pain I've been having in my knee and also one of my fingers. It's a finger I jammed or broke in high school, so I assumed it was arthritis. The x-ray confirmed this. JP was happy to know he wasn't alone. The x-rays of my knee didn't show any arthritis, so my doctor wanted me to get an MRI. At first I said no because even with only having to pay 10% that's still a lot of money. Over the weekend though I had a really sharp pain and pop and fell to the floor. I fasted and prayed about it on Sun. and felt like I should get one. I was able to get in on Mon. If you've never had one, it's a strange experience. It's the loudest thing ever. Luckily I was able to go in feet first and didn't have to go all the way in so I was able to listen to music through headphones. It was still really loud, but the funny thing is that I actually drifted off. So I went back to the doctor yesterday for the results. They showed absolutely nothing! I'm seriously upset. He said there's no arthritis and that my cartilage looks great. So then why the heck does my knee hurt so bad and why is the pain getting worse?! So he said to exercise for three months and see if it helps and if not they can go in with a scope and see if they can see anything more. Um no thanks. Plus, the other knee is achy too. And it hurts to go up the stairs. So what the heck is going on? Can you tell I'm seriously frustrated?





We went to get our Christmas tree on Sat. It was freezing and snowy, but we just went to Costco. The bad thing is that all the trees are wrapped up so you take what get. B decided to pick the biggest tree they had. The guy said he hadn't seen a tree that big all year. It's about 8 feet. He realized when we got home and it took three of us to put it up that he may have gotten in over his head. But it's pretty and smells great. There are a lot of branches with two ornaments on them and some of the bottom branches are really sagging, but I love it. They had so much fun putting them up. Dad put a couple of heavy ones up high and I put up my girl ornaments, but the kids did the rest. Coconut really got into it. Almost a little too much. My grandma and mom buy each of the kids their own ornament each year so that they'll have their own collection. My favorites are there first Christmas ornaments. I also have several from when I was growing up. Everyone also insisted on having a village piece in their rooms. That's good because the fireplace is full with the other pieces already. I'm actually excited for Christmas this year for the first time in the last several years. I've been such a grinch the last few years and I'm not sure why-maybe all the commercialism. But I'm excited this year.

Peanut started piano lessons this week. He is SO cute with how excited he is. He came right home and showed me what he learned. Bubba loves to practice everyday. I feel lucky because I know so many kids who were forced to take lessons and hated to practice, and I got TWO boys who actually asked for lessons!

Tues. night Peanut started throwing up around 10 pm. He ran to the bathroom and made it to the floor at least rather than the carpet. Even though it was a huge mess, I was so happy it wasn't the carpet. He told us he was sorry he couldn't make it to the toilet, but we kept telling him how proud we were that he made it to the bathroom. Even after getting the entire floor and part of the counter, he still threw up a ton in the toilet. Poor little boy. We figured it was his turn to get the flu because JP had a bout with it for a day. Until B got up several times in the middle of the night and so did Bubba. I had an upset stomach, but never threw up fortunately. Unfortunately my entire body started to ache. It hurt so bad that it was hard to walk. We're pretty sure it was from our dinner the night before. We had sloppy joes and used some buns from the fridge that had been in there for awhile. They smelled a little off, but we figured they'd be fine since they were in the fridge and there was no mold on them. We were wrong. Luckily Coconut refused to eat dinner that night and JP never got sick. The only thing I could come up with was that his body had built up something strong to fight off his flu the week before. I think it's lame that the flu shot doesn't cover all of the viruses. What's the point in getting one? Peanut made it to school since he has afternoon kindergarten. He was like, whatever, once he got it all out. Bubba had to stay home, though. So we pretty much sat on the couch all day except that I had to gather as much strength as I could so I could get to the doctor. Everyone seems to be better today although still a little weak.

Coconut asked if he could watch "Wall-E" a little while ago. "Memo" as he calls "Finding Nemo" is his new favorite, but he also likes "Robots" and "Wall-E." When he asked me he said, "I like Wall-E. He's funny. I wish he could come to our house. That would be funny if he was driving around our house." Such a funny guy. I can't believe he'll be 3 next month!

And finally, my brother Todd will be home from his mission in the Philippines tonight at 9 pm. His homecoming is in Utah this Sun. so we'll be heading out Sat. to stay the night. I can't believe it's already been two years. It goes by so fast. Maybe it won't feel that way when I have missionaries out, but as a sister it seems to have gone by quickly.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

So we had maybe like 2" of snow on the ground from a few days ago. This morning we woke up to this. We have 8" of snow in our yard. We have no plows here. I swear they have like 4 for this entire ginormous valley and they only do major roads and highways. So we pretty much have to drive over and through it if we want to get out of our neighborhood. It really ticks me off to put it lightly. I got up this morning and came down and made lunches and the kids showed me the snow in the backyard. And it was STILL snowing. They decided to try and shovel enough off the driveway so that we could get out to go to school. I texted B to tell him since he's in New York right now for more classes for work. He texted back asking if the kids had a snow day. Dee dee dee. I didn't even think about checking before that. So I got online and sure enough no school. I went out front to tell the boys and you would've thought it was Christmas. They ditched the driveway to make a mountain of snow to try and sled down and then saw the neighbor and went over there to play. They said to tell dad they were sad he wasn't here because they really wanted rides again. They've only been in the house for a half hour or so all day-including little Coconut. Can I tell you how NOT fun it is to put his snow clothes on and off like 3 times. Ugh! He fell over and couldn't get up again. The snow came up to about his knees so I had to make a path for him. I went out to shovel so we can get to scouts later but gave up about a third of the way through. I didn't even have a coat or snowpants on I was sweating so bad. I'll back out after a little break. It's really pretty, but I really hate snow. I don't remember ever having this much since we've lived here.

Snow Much Fun

We got snow pretty much all day yesterday. It wasn't a ton, but enough to do a sled ride. Dad promised that once we got enough snow on the ground he would take the four wheeler out and tie up the sled and give rides. Our neighbor friend has some cool slick sleds so that worked really well. He, JP, and Bubba all got two rides each. They LOVED it. What a cool dad. The only problems were the mailboxes, and the cars parked on the street. He couldn't go too fast or the rope would fling them around a corner into something. Good thing he's a safe driver. They all have motorcycle helmets that our smart neighbor thought of to put on. *Side story on the four wheeler-We inherited it several months ago from B's dad. It was from the farm and had a good, hard life there doing farm work. It was a little beat up so we had to get a new seat (which AJ's dad found one on the side of the road and sold it to us for $30), new rack (found on ebay for pretty cheap), and a new set of tires (found on craigslist for $100 which included the rims). The tires and rims at a store would be around $400! It still runs just fine so now while dad, Bubba and Jackson ride their motorcycles, I can ride the four wheeler. Now we just need something for Peanut to ride.




Coconut decided that he wanted to shovel the driveway while everyone else was having rides. I opted to stay in the warm house and read my book. Peanut opted to play at the neighbor's house with the little brother, and then Coconut ended up over there too. I did venture out to check on the rides and long enough to get a few pictures.



This last picture is of Coconut that same night (after the little boys all came to our house and played dress up). He had his pirate costume on and opted to keep the pants on along with his boots (notice they're on the wrong feet) while we went to Walmart for more turkey. We love us some fried turkey and didn't really have leftovers because of having two extra people this year. So we just went and got a couple more turkey breasts and had "Thanksgiving 2" as the boys all named it. We had enough leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes and I made 2 more sweet potatoes. I made some cookies (from my Grandma Fronek's recipe) that for some reason are called "Valentine Crunchies." They have chocolate chips, cornflakes, coconut, and oatmeal. That must be the "crunchy" part, but I'm not sure where my Grandma got the "Valentine" part. They're yummy no matter what they're called!

Happy Thanksgiving

My favorite thing about cooking something chocolate when I was little too.


Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. Well, for others I guess, but I was on my feet most of the day. B always deep fries the turkey so at least I never have to worry about that. I made muffins for breakfast. We always have crackers and dip out for lunchtime since we mostly just snack. Then I got started on the sweet potatoes. As we got closer I did the mashed potatoes, which are never ready on time, but this year they were, however they were cold by dinner. I made the chocolate pie earlier in the day (Coconut got to lick the beaters) and the pumpkin the night before. My sister and BIL came over in the late afternoon. The boys all hung out and watched football and played football in the backyard. No snow to play in. So we had turkey (that was absolutely the best), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, jello, olives, stuffing and rolls. JP insists on mixing his jello into his mashed potatoes. My brother did it one year and since then he has carried on this bizarre tradition. He's also the main person I get the olives for. Then pumpkin and chocolate pie for dessert. JP can sure put away the food, hopefully he'll start gaining his weight back.


Getting ready for bed. Sometimes we like to play with the kids and say, "Oh here's your pants" and put their shirt on their legs or something like that. So last night I told Peanut, "Here's your shirt" and we got his arms through his pants. He thought it was pretty hysterical.

I went online and looked at Target's doorbuster ad and decided it was worth going. But I wasn't getting up at 4am after going to bed at midnight, so I got up at 5 am instead. I was literally leaving my neighborhood at 5:08. I got up, threw on my pants and shirt from last night, grabbed my coat, put my boots on in the garage and left. I couldn't believe the lines. I've never been out that early and it was ridiculous. They had one on each side of the store and they wrapped across the back to the opposite side. I found the main thing I wanted, couldn't find the two toys, but found the other stuff. I needed black gloves, so I went up and found some and saw that the jewelry counter line was short. I don't think anyone realized it was there. I went back to look for the toys one more time and found one on an end cap and the other in a worker's cart who was taking unwanted stuff back. I got in the short line and almost to the register realized I had bought the one game on Mon. night when I went. Oops. It was only $1 cheaper so I just gave it back. I stood in line for about 15 min. vs. the other lines that I'm sure were at least an hour wait. It was like Disneyland. I kept wondering if it was really worth it to all of those people, but realized I saved probably close to $50 so it was probably worth it to everyone else. Then I headed home because B had to work a half day.

AJ (my BIL) was working for his cousin at his video store this morning and finished up and came over about 9:30 this morning and my sister is on her way as I type this. B will be home around 12:30 to watch football all day with AJ while Alicia and I venture out to the mall. I think it's kinda fun-all this madness. The Body Shop has a deal where you can get any three items for $30. Their body butters are $20 each, so I think I'll head there for some deals. Plus, they gave me a coupon the other day for $10 off so hopefully I can use both deals together. Fun stuff. I've already got quite a bit done. A couple more things and then B's gifts left. Which I have no idea what to get him because he never wants anything specific-unless it's some electronic device that costs a million dollars.

Happy Birthday Big Daddy!

B's birthday was on the 16th. In light of his dad's passing only three days before, we didn't have a huge celebration. But I told him that his dad would want him to at least acknowledge that it was his birthday. So we gave him his presents-a new BSU hat (the same one coach Pete wears), and an itunes giftcard. We went to Famous Dave's for some BBQ for dinner and came home to dad's favorite dessert-strawberry shortcake.
Our camera is pretty much poop now. Everything is always blurry and the lighting is always weird, so hopefully Santa will bring us a new one for Christmas.



The boys went through the Target holiday catalog a couple of weeks ago. They circled what they wanted and put their initial next to it with sharpie. Unfortunately Coconut wanted to do it to, so everything is pretty much scribbled on. They pretty much circled everything that was boy related. I went out last night and got a few things. It's going to be a smallish Christmas because we are planning our annual Disneyland trip for winter break in Feb. However, technichally, we didn't go in the year 2010 since our last trip was last Dec. Bubba suggested that we take some gifts to the hospital to the children's ward where the cancer patients are so I'll be calling this week to see what we can do.



I'm looking forward to the greatest eating day of the year this week! My sister and her husband will be here and hopefully B's step-mom. It's been snowing even more where she lives, so if she can get on the bus, she'll be here. The boys played in the sprinkle of snow we had last Sat. They've been out the few mornings when there's a little on the ground-even though it's not really enough to play in. It's melted by early afternoon every time. I hate driving in snow. We had to drive on the icy hockey rink road this morning to get JP from dad's office. He had an early morning eye doctor's appt. so dad took him down. It went well, but they said he'll need to come in every THREE months rather than six because of how fast swelling can sneak up on their eyes. :( I really wish they had more than like three plows for the valley because NO where in downtown was plowed or sanded. It's so scary to drive on, especially when you have precious cargo in the car.



This last picture is from a primary activity they had a couple of weeks ago. They had all of the young men/women buddy up with one of the kids and they did a bunch of fun activities. So here is Senor JP.

Coconut Says...

A few things he's said in the last couple of days-

-In our house now, rude is a noun and not an adjective. This is what he said about JP-"He's saying me I was a rude." JP was telling him that he was rude because of something Coconut did to him. But Coconut always calls people "a rude." "You're a rude," or "You're a meanie" are his two favorite phrases lately.

-Yesterday a police car drove by us. He remembered when Papa was at our house and an ambulance had to come pick him up.
So he asked, "Is Papa in there?"
Me-"Papa is with Jesus now."
C-"Oh Papa's with Jesus?"
Me-"Yeah."
C-"Was Jesus baptized?"
What the heck? I have no idea where that came from, but it was a great question.

-We also saw a truck yesterday with BSU flags on it. He said, "Raise your hand if you like Boise State!" Brothers do this all the time with "Raise your hand if you like the Yankees." And the others will respond with "Raise your hand if you like the Red Sox." Yes, we are a house divided.

He's also recognizing certain shapes now-heart, star, triangle. He told me at Walmart the other day that the spinning thing that has the bags on it at checkout was a triangle. If you have one of these at your Walmart, check it out next time you go. The top of it is shaped in a triangle. The cashier was very impressed. As Grandma Randall would say-He's very advanced for his age. He's a very unusual child. ;) I hope you don't think I'm trying to boast about how amazingly smart he is, I'm just recording it to remember some of his sayings. It helps that he has three older brothers that teach him things all the time.