Jan. 22 letter

So I had quite the exciting morning this morning. We finally got snow. It snowed most of yesterday, but it was really warm and melted quite a bit. Then overnight we got a few inches, but a sheet of ice was underneath all the snow. Chris and I drove seperately to church because he had to leave early to go to another ward with his Stake Young Men's calling. So I parked the suburban and jumped out of the car (because of course we were late) Except for I had jumped out onto a sheet of ice and my feet went right out from underneath me, and my right arm caught on the driver's door and was yanked upward and my shoulder came out of its socket. So when Chris pulled up alongside to park next to me, he saw my purse had spilled all its contents and I'm sitting on the ice moaning because of the terrible pain in my shoulder. He tried to help me up, but becuase my shoulder was out of its socket, putting pressure underneath my arm was too much. So I felt like an eighty year old lady stuck on the ice because my belly is so big now, I couldn't get up because I was up against the running boards of the suburban on the left and my right arm was unusable. I could feel the ice melting a bit underneath me and wanted to stay dry, so I finally got onto my knees and then pushed up with my good arm. But because the pain was so bad in my shoulder, I felt myself starting to get lightheaded, so I leaned into Chris and bent my knees a little. Next thing I know, I am sitting in the front seat of the Acura, and Chris and Ryan Kirkham are in the car driving out of the church parking lot deciding which hospital to take me to. So, I said, "Did I just pass out?" Chris said yes, and I tried moving my right shoulder, and it was sore and tender but not out of socket anymore, So I told them I didn't think I needed to go to the hospital, because my shoulder felt much better now that it was back in place. I passed out because I was in so much pain, (Ryan Kirkham just happened to be there to stop my fall) somewhere between then and when they carried me to the car it must've gone back into place.

Anyhow, the Bowen's took the kids into Sacrament meeting with them, Arli was crying because she was so worried about me. She told her friend she thought I was going to die because her Dad died when he had to go to the hospital.

Chris and Ryan took me home and gave me a blessing. I was going to ask for a blessing anyway because I've been sick since Dec. 7th, and I still am having chest and sinus congestion that I can't seem to get rid of. So, I convinced Chris I was fine, I just needed to change into dry clothes and dry my tears, and then I could go back to church. Chris was helping in the other ward, and I was afraid nobody would remember to take Emma to the potty(otherwise she in known to have accidents. Didn't want that happening in nursery when neither Chris or I were at the church). So Chris gave me a ride back to church, My shoulder felt pretty good and I had OK range of motion, but now it is very painful with movement. I had Sam and Parker help me cut and peel the potatoes and carrots, and make the jello for dinner. They were such good sports and jumped right in and helped.

Now Chris is speaking at a fireside. It was set up by Sam's 4th grade teacher. She thought it would be good for Sam to tell a little about his experiences. So he typed up a talk and testimony and is giving it now. I wanted so much to be there to hear, but I didn't think I would be able to control Emma with my arm hurting the way it is, It has just gotten progressively worse as the night goes on. I've been icing it. I'm hoping it starts getting feeling better soon.

Sam's teacher never gave us the details about the fireside. She set this up about a year ago, initially she wanted Chris to speak in September, Then she changed the date and asked if January would work out. She told us it would probably be the 3rd Sunday in January, but never confirmed or provided details. On Wednesday, Chris just happened to be talking with someone who was planning to attend the fireside. That is when we figured out they were planning on him speaking, but he didn't know anything about it. Good thing, otherwise there would have been a whole stake full of people and no speaker!

I just finished a family photo book of all our 2011 photos. The only time I am productive in that area is when I'm pregnant because I'm too tired to do anything else. So now I am working on 2010. We hardly have any photos of 2008-2009 because the digital files disappeared with the stolen laptop. So the precious few photos I have were ones I posted on a blog that I kept. It was so fun to go back and read some of the entries from the blog So I figure I will start that again. It was good to remember stuff that happened. My favorite was when sam was at a school carnival where they had face painting, and he asked the lady if she would paint a cigarettte sticking out of his mouth with smoke rings coming out! I would have forgotten if i hadnt written it down. So when I update the blog I will copy and paste so you can know the latest happenings too.

So last time I wrote about Emma wearing as little clothes as possible. Now she has gone to the other extreme. One morning after breakfast she dressed herself and came out with 5 pairs of underwear, 2 pair of leggings, 2 dresses, and two shirts on. And when I tried to take a few layers off of her, she was not happy about that, so of course I let it slide because I'm too tired to deal with the resistance, but all day long I kept finding random items of clothing lying around the kitchen, bathroom, couches, and even in the garbage can. I think she got hot after awhile and started slowly peeling layers off.

We've been having quite warm winter weather, so I sit out on a camp chair in the driveway, while Emma tromps around the snow in her moon boots, or rides her scooter or trike. There was still lots of snow on Tuesday, so I had her dressed from in snowpants, boots, coat, gloves and hat. She would run as fast as she could in the snow and purposely fall down. She loved the soft landing in the snow, and loved that she wasn't getting cold because she was all decked out in snowgear. She would use the tree as a pole and hold on as she went around and around, then try to walk in the snow, but because she was dizzy would topple over and laugh. She climbed to the top of a snowhill the kids had built. It took several attempts. When she finaly got on top, she yelled "Rock On" and "hang loose" then came down and insisted on high fives all around. I think she got a healthy start from loving snow from Michael. I remember one time she was crying about something and it was snowing outside. Michael took her outside and asked, "How can you be sad when it is snowing?" And she stopped crying and let the snowflakes fall on her tongue and face, mesmerized by the new experience.

Jan. 19th letter

I have been really tired lately; my iron levels are still really low despite taking an iron supplement for over 5 months. That combined with being in the later stages of pregnancy makes me not wanting to do any more movement than I absolutely have to. In other words, I’m pretty lazy. So Emma gets away with a lot more than she usually does, and makes tons of messes. She is constantly changing her clothes and sometimes just takes off her clothes. She prefers as little clothing as possible. Then she will run through the house in her underwear and yell “Don’t look at me! Nobody look at me!” and if anyone is looking in her direction, she will go over to you and push your head in another direction.

She is constantly going up to complete strangers and telling them she likes something that they are wearing. She went up to a young mom at the swimming pool, tugged on her bathing suit and said “I like your polka dots”. She went up to Wendy Stein when we were at her house doing visiting teaching. She said, “I like your necklace. Do you like my pink pants?” My favorite Emma story happened this morning; she was watching cartoons while I was biking. The cartoon ended on one station, so I changed the channel trying to find another cartoon for her.




I found one, but it was in Spanish. I left it there, wondering if she would notice. She stood up on the couch with a puzzled expression, and finally said, “I can’t…. I can’t….. “ You could tell she was searching for the right words. “I can’t…. I can’t SEE it.” Then a little while later, “I can’t… I can’t HEAR it.” She kept tugging at her ears like something was wrong with them. Finally, she was so frustrated, she went over and turned off the TV.

Excerpt from a letter to Michael December 4th

As far as what is happening at the Williams' household, you aren't missing out on much. Emma is still as cute as ever. At the ward party last night they were playing Instrumental Christmas music during dinner, and there was an open area right below the stage, and she put on a dance show for everyone, pretending to be a ballerina. She spends a lot of time in her own little world putting on parties for her stuffed animals, and talking with them as if she were the mother.

The kids are getting very excited for Christmas. Parker wears a Santa hat most days to and from school on the bus. Arli has wrapped everyone a Christmas gift (stuff from her room she no longer wants) and put them under the Christmas tree. She has been spending her time decorating the rest of the house with home made Christmas decorations. And lots of Christmas trees that she learned how to make from Bob Ross. She asked if we could start watching Bob Ross again on Sundays, even if you weren't here.
Sam continues to be crazy and loud, constantly trying to be funny and get laughs. I think he really misses being able to make you laugh. He knew he was REALLY funny if you laughed at his performance.

I tried skiing a few weeks ago, but hurt so much from it for the next 2 weeks I decided that pregnancy and skiing don't go together.. . .So maybe next year. I think Emma's world will be rocked when she is no longer the baby of the family, and you won't have to worry about her being babied. But I’ll make an extra effort to talk to her like an adult.

Parker's teeth have been falling out of his head! Good thing he has that sole big front tooth to make it look like he didn't get all his teeth knocked out. One came out as he was pulling his shirt off. This last one is still dangling there by one gummy thread. I thought for sure it would be out by now. Emma just woke up. I'll just add a few more pics

Thought I'd include a picture of everyone since it has been a year and a half. Lets talk about Emma first. What a hoot! If you want to be entertained, just give audience to this girl. In fact, she loved playing the role of lead actress so much in Sacrament meeting, I had people commenting about her performance who were sitting at the opposite end of the chapel. When I say performance, I mean pure, delightful giggling. What a cutie!

About time!! I had so much fun going through older posts as I am convelescing after this surgery. I've regained access after forgetting my password, and look, I'm actually alive. This picture of Arli on Christmas morning is how I feel about being back in the blogging world. No, I am not serious. Perhaps it was the year of having braces and short hair that scared me from ever posting again, but hey, I don't post pictures of myself anyway. It's all about the kids, right!