welcome summer!

it only seemed fitting to 

welcome in the summer....

tomorrow is, after all, the first monday morning we don't have to get up for school!  

so a little hosing off after supper 

was in order tonight...

twinkle toes

all 3 girls have been taking ballet since the fall.  

this is their first ballet class since al & ek 

took a class when they were 2 

(so that really doesn't count...they didn't even have a recital.  

and let's face it...they were 2!)

so despite their many differences in personality 

and *ahem* gracefulness, they all love it.  

they had their first recital this weekend.  

the theme was cinderella. 

 how perfect.  

and even though it may have been the most 

unorganized disaster of a recital, 

they were beautiful and perfect.  

and some very special people even came out 

and sat through a very long recital to support 

and show love for our sweet girls  

and for them we are so very thankful.  

so here are some pictures from their big day. 

getting ready for the recital

  

  

My baby

Last week, this baby graduated from preschool.

I mean, who in their right mind would let 

this baby GO to preschool, much less graduate?

 She is clearly a tiny,sweet, brand new baby.

Wait a minute.

Something's not right.  

Maybe it was this baby....

Yes, it truly breaks my heart to know that my baby has finished preschool 

and is off to Kindergarten next year.

gulp

My sweet Caroline is not in fact a baby.

But a big girl, 5 year old, ready in SO many ways to go off to Kindergarten next year.

deep breaths

But we have a deal.  

She may not be A baby anymore.

But she will always be my baby.

And that makes me happy.  

Even when I am crying because 

I absolutely cannot believe it....

hold on tight....these days do in fact go by entirely too fast

Spring Break in the mountains

We were lucky enough this year that Jason's block leave fell over Spring Break. For you non-Army types, Block Leave is a time period (2 weeks in this case) where the entire unit can be on leave at the same time. Pre-9/11, this used to happen in the summer and over Christmas. Nowadays, it falls shortly before a deployment so everyone can get in a vacation and some down time. So, for Spring Break/Block Leave, we went to one of our favorite places on Earth....the mountains near Bryson City, NC. This is our 3rd visit in less than a year, so you can tell we love it. Although I am a true beach girl, Jason is slowly turning me into a mountain girl. We rented a cabin through Watershed Cabins and met Papa & Gan (Jason's mom and dad) there on Monday. Jason and I ran at the Tsali Trails (single track trails for mountain biking and horseback riding, and awesome for running). We were able to run for 3 days straight and got in 22 miles! Not as many miles as we hoped for, but pretty good nonetheless! In the afternoons, we explored the area, heading into Bryson City for lunch and some shopping, hit the NOC in hopes of seeing some rafting and kayaking (no such luck...little too early in the season) and explored a new favorite town, Sylva, NC where we had maybe the best pizza we've ever had at Mill & Main. It was a wonderful, relaxing week. We had beautiful, cool weather, and thankfully the storms came at night and did not affect our daytime plans. Jason and I escaped with no running injuries and the girls had a blast. When asked about their favorite part, they of course yell, "The Hot Tub!!!" They are so easy to please... So here are a few shots from our wonderful week.

 Hot tub fun!

 At Deep Creek

 NOC

 The Nantahala River

Daddy's Girls

Thankful to be bored

Today Caroline and I went to a birthday party.  It was for her sweet friend Hadley who Caroline met last year at school.  It was a movie birthday party to see Rapunzel.  I was so excited because Gigi had taken the girls to see it in the movies when it came out, so I had not seen it (although we had read the book).  So we went, all the while I was nervous because of the predicted storms coming our way.  When we came out of the theater, it was not raining, but the sky looked so scary and it was so windy.  I started praying and we headed to the car.  I had not heard any reports of tornadoes being spotted yet, so we tried to beat it home.  We made it about 2/3 of the way home until we could go no further. 

The tornado had in fact come through and took down many many trees and blocked our main route home.  Fallen trees were blocking 5 lanes of traffic. 

I admit, I was scared to death.  Here I was, in my car, with my baby.  I just wanted to be home with Jason and the big girls.  Thankfully, they had been there all afternoon and the tornado did no go through our neighborhood.  I continued to pray that God would continue to keep us safe and get us to some shelter as soon as possible. 

So to make a long scary story short, we turned around and headed to my mom's house.  It was in the opposite direction of the storm and thankfully I have a key!  We are waiting here until we hear the roads are open and we can get home since the storm has passed.  There is no power at our house, but no damage either.  And Caroline and I are safe here.  We are praying for all our friends who live in the areas that were struck by the tornado.  It will probably be a long hard cleanup and repair for a lot of people.  I have not heard of many injuries, thankfully, but there will be a lot of property damage.

So even though Caroline is bored and had to eat oatmeal for supper, I told her that we are thankful to be safe, and thankful that Daddy, AL & EK are safe too. 

Early mornings

So, my girls are early risers.   Always have been.  

That's why they still go to bed at 7:30.  

Every night.  Even on the weekends.  

They are a little harder to wake up for school, but nothing terrible.  

This morning, I didn't have to wake them up.  

AL & EK came running into my bathroom at 

6 am (30 minutes before I normally wake them for school).  

They were running.  

They were excited as all get out.  

Guess what they were saying?

"DADDY COMES HOME TODAY!!!!!"

CG jumping into Jason's arms

Happy baby

Our girls love their Daddy so much.  He has to be away a lot.  Sometimes for short bursts of time.  Sometimes longer.  Sometimes really long.  But they always miss him.  And they are always SO excited when it is time for him to return home.  I am so thankful for the relationship they have, despite his frequent absences from us.  Because the time he is here, it's good.  And they know it.  They love him.  They know I love him.  And they know he loves all his girls more than anything.  

So when he does have to be away, 

days like today make it seem ok that he has to be gone.

Catching up

Books before bedtime

Together again....all is right in the Williams house

Here comes the sun (do, do, do)

Today was a welcomed change from the l-o-n-g rainy, icky weekend.  

The sun came out!!  So I proceeded to kick the girls out to the backyard for some much needed play and fresh air.  We opened the screen door and I turned on some country music, their favorite right now.  We ate supper out on the deck, and it was lovely.  As I was cleaning the kitchen, I realized it was a bit too quiet.  If you have kids, you know what this means.  

T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  Here is what I found...

And this...

So they joined forces for the ultimate mudpie making.

And really, the best part was...I didn't get mad.  I grabbed my camera and took pictures.  

32 pictures of my sweet girls making a mess and having the time of their lives. 

 Because that's what it's all about, right?

A great ending to a beautiful day.