The Christmas Tree Hunt

Last Saturday (Dec. 6) was St. Nicholas Day, and it has become our tradition to decorate a Christmas tree on this day (or as close to it as possible). We've decided that cutting down a tree ourselves is the way to go. Granted the trees you cut yourselves aren't usually as pretty as the pre-cut ones. And, they're usually a good bit more likely to contain critters of one kind or another. But there's something about going out on a cold day, hiking around the "woods" (i.e. - tree farm), and hacking away at a tree trunk. OK, my husband actually does that part - I attempt to help and usually get in the way. Michael and the girls ventured out on their own this year. It was VERY cold, so Nicholas and I decided that we'd prefer to stay home and get decorations down from the attic - well, he preferred napping. The rest of the crew went to Priddy Farms in Bartlett and found a lovely (although a bit Charlie Brownish) tree.





So now, stockings are hung, tree is decorated, Nativity set is out, and we're well on our way to Bethlehem!

So It's Been 3 Months . . .

Who knew it could take so long to get settled? Especially considering we're still not even close to being settled! But I had to take a few minutes for a brief update of the last few months (while children #1 & 2 are playing "quietly" and child #3 is sleeping).

September: We moved into the new house!!! Here are a few pics for those of you haven't been able to come by . . .










So, I am now declaring the house renovation portion of this blog officially completed (cause, let's face it, things will never be actually FINISHED) and I can begin updates and reflections on daily life in the Williams' household!

October:

Let's see . . . Nicholas learned to walk


And we enjoyed the outdoors on a regular basis



November:

We traveled to Tupelo to celebrate our nephew/cousin Owen's 1st birtday. He and Nicholas are exactly a week apart.





Nicholas celebrated the Big #1 a week later . . .




And the girls started to warm to the idea of watching football with Daddy. If you can't have cartoons . . .



All in all, it's been a wonderful few months! I'm looking forward to things slowing down a bit after the craziness that was home renovation. But, realistically, I guess a nice calm life may have to wait until after the holidays . . . or possibly until after all children are graduated and out of the house . . .

We're Still Alive!

So, I've gotten numerous phone calls/e-mails wanting to know what happened to our blog. Did I give up? Did renovating a house become too overwhelming? Did the farm swallow me up? The latter is by far the closest to the truth! For those of you who need catching up, we moved out of our old home at the end of June. Thanks to my wonderfully generous grandmother, Lottie, we are not living out of the mini-van! She has a farm between Collierville and Holly Springs, and THANKFULLY has 3 houses out here. She lives in one, two of my cousins (Wes and Teddy) live in the other, and Lottie has graciously allowed us to take over the 3rd. So, we are now enjoying the simple life and have been for going on 8 weeks now. If you notice, the 8 weeks corresponds almost exactly with how long it's been since my last blog entry. This is not a coincidence. Internet access is not always easy to come by out here. I have discovered that if I stand (OK, squat) in one corner of the house and hold the laptop just so, I can steal internet from the cousins next door. This is not, however, without complications. I usually lose my connection at very inconvenient times which leads to a great deal of frustration on my part. I'm trying hard to avoid frustrations these days, so I have been limiting my on-line time. All of that to say that blogging has not been a priority. Check out some farm pics:


Cows (obviously)


Lottie's house


our house




Cousin's house





BUT NOW we are ready to move into our home this weekend (YEA!!!), so I want to post some pictures of what has been going on over the past two months. Overall, this has been an unbelievably smooth experience. Our contractor has been great, and I'm pretty sure that's the main reason we haven't had a lot of headaches. Not to mention the fact that we are blessed with WONDERFUL friends who have opened their homes to us, kept children for us, offered excellent design/decorating advice and, in a nutshell, kept us from losing our minds. Here are the most recent pictures . . .


Painted stairs


New light!


painted rooms


Kitchen in progress


Old mailbox . . . if you saw it in person you'll appreciate this!

More updates soon!

We have walls! (and ceilings!)

So it's definitely more fun to watch the progress on the house now. The walls and ceilings have been put back up, mudded, sanded and are about ready to paint. Which means we (i.e.-"I") have had to pick out a BUNCH of paint colors. Not my forte, but thankfully I've got this great friend named Deb (or "Aunt Deb" as my girls call her). Deb has single handedly kept me calm (relatively) and collected through this whole process. My husband is especially thankful for her. And did I mention she is fabulous with colors? Anyway, here are some pictures of the interior house. May not look like much, but they are beautiful to me!

Living room ceiling
Kitchen/den
Master bath


And here's the front steps. Not looking like they should yet, but I'm told that once they are cleaned and sealed the color of the stone will come back out. Suppose to be a dark gray/blue. Here's hoping!




Here are a few recent pictures of the kids, too . . .


lunch outdoors



enjoying Children's Museum


Bored at Children's Museum

Williams on the Road

I'm finally getting around to posting those vacation pictures I promised, oh, 11 days ago! I'm really not sure what I do with all of my free time . . . The girls had SO much fun at the beach, and it was great being with Michael's family. We have a one year old nephew, Sutton, and a nephew that's just a week older than
Nicholas named Owen. Owen was easier to catch on film than Sutton.









Nicholas was pretty ambivalent to the whole beach thing, but he did take a few cozy naps in the sand.




We stayed on Tybee Island, just off the coast of Savannah, GA. This location was chosen because of my mother-in-law's love of Paula Deen. Not having cable, I was unfamiliar with Paula, but I am now well educated!



Turns out she lives on Tybee and, between her and her brother, Uncle Bubba, has several restarants. We checked them all out. Can't go wrong with fried chicken! Here are a few more pictures . . .







Here's a picture of the house, too. It amazes me how much better it looks (remember, everything is relative) with new gutters, new roof and the beginnings of a porch. They start putting the walls back up next week!

House Update

So, it's been a few weeks since I updated . . . lots of work going on, but mostly things that don't make very nice pictures. Plumbing and stuff. I'll tell you, though, a new roof makes a WORLD of difference! They've started framing up the laundry room and the bathroom shower (pictures below). And they tore the front steps out (see left). Had to, because they were collapsed and dangerous. We're still debating on what we want the entry to actually look like when we're done. Unfortunately, they poured the cement for the front steps BEFORE having a definite plan, so there may be a bit of drama there. Here are a few pictures. My favorite is the sign that the "brick guys" put up for advertising. I drove up and thought someone had died in my front yard.













We've been out of town for about a week on vacation, so I'll post some on that later today.