William Videos

Here are some videos of William singing and reading. Enjoy!

A Christmas Visit in Dothan

A few days before Christmas William and I headed up to Dothan to visit my family for Christmas. I wanted to spend some time with my grandparents before Christmas and so off we went! William was soooo excited while we drove up. He and I sang Christmas songs and laughed all the way up.

(to make this video, I held the camera up backwards and just hoped for the best...

I DID NOT take my eyes off the road!!)

Once we arrived at my parents, he went directly to their tree and just oohhed and ahhhed at the lights and ornaments. My parents love decorating their house at Christmas time. It always looks so festive and brings back memories of childhood Christmas moments. I was tickled to snap a few pictures of William in front of my parents tree. We just hung out around the house enjoying the time together. I even made homemade cookies with my little brother...something I've done with him year after year! It's a special Christmas tradition. Holden is growing up so fast, that I cherish these moments with my little brother. Before I know it, he'll be "too old and too cool" for his sister (for a little while)

One night we loaded up in the suburban and drove around town checking out the Christmas decorations around town. William was so excited about all the lights and decorations in everyone's yards. Daddy made it so much fun! He'd get real excited and make a big deal about all the sights. William would say "Wook, Granddaddy, see the lights" until he finally crashed in the car. Daddy just laughed and said "works every time!"

I enjoyed going over to my grandparents houses to visit and let William give them the "big surprise" (details to come) as well as give them their Christmas gifts. This was fun! William helped them open the presents...he really loves pulling the paper off the gifts. Both Poppi and Grannymart were tickled. They were all smiles and soaked up the moments with William. Both of them had a jar of cookies, which somehow William found :) It was very sweet to watch him ask for a cookie and then once they gave it to him, hear him say "thank you" I love watching my child with family. I think it is so special that he gets to have a relationship with his great-grandparents. He adores them, and all our family for that matter. His little heart is just so full of love.

Hunter wasn't going to get to come down this year to see us on Christmas, so I had his gifts ready for him. I mentioned before that at Thanksgiving he really took an interest in the family traditions of cooking, so this Christmas, I started him a recipe collection of some of my favorite family recipes. William was so excited to help Hunter open his presents. I hope Hunter will cherish the handwritten recipes and will add to the collection over the years. Who knows, maybe one day, some of those cards could end up back in William's hands...

Well, it was a very quick trip to Dothan, but full of love! I was very blessed I was able to zip up there to see everyone before Christmas. My parents and little brother would be coming down to our house Christmas afternoon, but I wouldn't get to see my grandparents or Hunter, so I'm glad we went. The best part, only a few more days until our big announcement!! We wanted all our family to hear the "news" in person first, before telling the world :)....

Christmas with Papa and Mimi

Christmas time is so exciting! It's such a special time of the year. We were so excited to spend some time with Papa and Mimi to celebrate Christmas with them this year. They came up to visit the weekend before Christmas. We packed as much fun and excitement into the weekend as we could! It is so rewarding to be with family and to watch William with Grandparents. Time with Papa and Mimi is always fun and relaxing. There is always great food and lots of laughter.

While the guys worked on putting together our new storage shed for the backyard, Mimi and I took William to finish up some Christmas shopping. William had a great time helping us. He and Mimi had fun strolling around the stores while I gathered a few last minute gifts. We had a great morning out while the guys worked. William loved having them here and all the attention. He couldn't get enough of them! He's such a loving child and loves everyone so much and always enjoys our families. He is such a happy child!

At some point during the weekend, we took William to visit Santa!! Our first Santa stop was the Santa at the Bass Pro in Destin. William loves the fish in the fish tank, so I'd been taking him by weekly to see Santa from a far while he enjoyed the fish tank. Well, it worked! That day after checking out the tank for a while, he was ready to get in line to see Santa. He kept waving at him and tried to run to the front of the line :) When it was his turn, he walked up to Santa and let me put him in his lap. He sat there like a big boy!! He smiled for pictures and even told Santa what he wanted: a choo-choo and a "bike-a cycle"!! It was adorable!! He waved bye and gave Santa a hug as his turn ended. We were all so tickled at his reaction!! Bass Pro had a cookie decorating station set up for the kids after visiting Santa, so William and I decorated our cookie together. He seemed so happy! After we finished, we grabbed lunch and headed to the next Santa in Destin Commons. This Santa visit was a little different. When we walked in and William saw Santa, he wanted to go right to him, but there was another child having her pictures made. Well, when the lady said " no, you have to wait" (as if I was going to let him run up there), he became shy and not sure anymore! He would not go to Santa for anything! So, I went up with him and sat beside Santa and held William. William was not all smiles, but more an uncertainty of what was going on...he kept looking at Santa and wouldn't say a word. He finally whispered "choo-choo and bike-a-cycle". It was an adventure to say the least! Ha!!

That night, Philip prepared a fabulous dinner (I'll get him to give details) for everyone...which had to cook all day...and was so full of aroma that I suffered all day!! I was so so sick that afternoon and evening! My dinner was a small bowl of the most wonderful homemade plain mashed potatoes! (details to come later) Bless his heart, his love of cooking, we discovered was going to have to take a MAJOR break!! My sensitive stomach simply could not take the aromas of certain things, nor the taste! I felt awful b/c he had gone to so much trouble to prepare this dish and all I could do was whimper and moan about how sick it was making me! Papa and Mimi to the rescue!! They helped me with William soooo much when I would get sick. William was not sure what was going on, but was happy to have them there.

We celebrated Christmas that evening as we exchanged gifts. It was priceless watching William open his gifts...as well as everyone else's! He would get so excited about everything he unwrapped! My favorites from Papa and Mimi were the mega blocks, the puzzles, his big boy pillow and the apron!! When I tell you William loves to be in the kitchen with us, that is an understatement! I was tickled when I saw he now had his very own little apron! He was so excited! The best was the basketball goal!! My little boy loves to be outdoors and needed some outside things! He was beyond excited when the basketball goal appeared!! He couldn't stop playing with it and squealing!! He would keep trying to make a goal and would jump around and clap when the ball would finally make it's way in the goal! He has certainly enjoyed his gifts!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Papa and Mimi! Thanks for all the memories!

Thanks for all the help! We are so blessed! We love you!

Trip to the Tree Farm

Boy was our December busy!! We started the month off with our annual family trip up to the Strickland-Davis Tree Farm in Defuniak Springs. We were on a mission to find the perfect Christmas tree! Did we pick the coldest morning to have a fun family morning out?? It was freezing, but somehow that was perfect! We were all bundled up and ready to go! Philip and I enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate as we began our search. William just loved all the trees! He kept saying "Mommy look at that tree" or "Daddy, it's a big tree" He was so cute going up to all the short trees saying "This is my tree". We had so much fun walking around and deciding on our perfect tree. I somehow always fall in love with the biggest tree out there and my wonderful husband just smiles at me and ends up cutting it down :) He is so good to me...

My brother, Hunter, met us that morning with Drake. My parents and brothers had been taking care of Drake for a week or so for us and it was the perfect opportunity to meet to pick him up. It worked out great b/c Hunter could take a family picture for us and actually have Drake with us!! Somehow Hunter managed to take the best picture of us with Drake actually looking straight at the camera. Back to our tree... William loved watching and attempting to help his Daddy cut down the tree. He kept saying "we take it home with us". William and I sang Christmas songs and danced around while Philip cut the tree. It was just a priceless morning!! I knew our Christmas season was off to a great start! I love our family outings and all the memories we create. I love the joy I see in William's eyes as we discover life together. I knew it was going to be a fantastic Christmas full of many wonderful memories as our family of 3...

Mommy and Me Fall Art Class

William just loves his art class! I love Mommy and Me art class! It's such a wonderful program. Every week he will ask me if we have "awt" today. He loves the days when we paint the best. Each week we go to our Mommy and Me artclass with Abrakadoodle and have a blast. I love the little masterpieces that are created each week. I love watching his face light up as he paints with different materials. He loves the projects with the glue stick. It's so cute to watch him glue something and then stick it to the project and say "look, it sticks" I love listening to him as he names off the colors and shapes we are using each week. We work on using the paintbrush to make strokes either "top to bottom" or "side to side". We also work on stamping "up and down" and making patterns. Some days he'll look up at me and say "paint with me, I'll hold your hand Moma" and it just melts my heart. Somehow he ends up with paint all over his hands and arms..and sometimes face, but that's one of the fun parts of the class! I love how each class ends with "gallery" where each child gets to present his/her artwork to the class. The teacher is amazing. She is so sweet and kind and puts a smile on your face. She loves to ask the kids questions to get them talking about the art (as best they can given their age) He especially loves it when we stop by to see Daddy after class to show off our project. We have every project displayed somehow here at home. (yes, my house is decorated with my child's artwork and I love it)

Here are pictures from our Fall Mommy and Me art Class! Enjoy

November Videos of William

Just some videos of William from November. The first 2 are at home and the rest are from a mini vacation at the lake. William loves to paint, so we spend a lot of time painting and drawing pictures. Hope you enjoy! I love the moments caught on video!