Halloween 2010

Since Halloween landed on a Sunday this year, our church group decided to do a "Trunk or Treat" in the parking lot. The kids loved it and amazingly enough it wasn't too cold.

Here are Alexa (Audrey's friend & neighbor), Audrey, Isaac, Mira (William's friend & neighbor), and William.


Mom joined in the pic on this one.... :)


Here are Mira & William in the costume parade they did around the church building.

It was a GOOD time....how could it not be with all that CANDY??!! ;)

Daddy (Gene) has a BIRTHDAY!

Its the big #41 for Gene this year. Last year he got a tennis raquet...and this year he got a tennis trainer...the man LOVES tennis (and every other known sport). :)
Here is the man himself with one of his birthday pumpkin pies!


Goofball Gene...Daddy!! He knows better than to put a pie in MY face! ;)


There we go....he CAN be narmal! lol! LOVE you Love!

PS...DON'T mind my messy kitchen!

Isaac's Baptism Oct 9, 2010

This was a very special day for Isaac, and for the rest of the family too. We are so proud of Isaac for choosing to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Here is Isaac with Dad on the left and Mom on the right just before being baptized.


Dad and Isaac

I should mention that Isaac's "Ahlborn cousins" from Indiana also came as well as the Izu family (Rachel Ahlborn Izu is Gene's cousin) but we neglected to take pictures of them.

Isaac's #8 Birthday Party Sept 18 2010

It really is hard to believe that our sweet boy Isaac is 8 yrs old!!! We are SOOOOO glad he is ours though. He is so kind and thoughtfull and a peacemaker...and a good friend...I could go on and on....

Here is Isaac at his birthday party (held at home, mostly in the backyard) with the cake Daddy made, and his buddies Ethan and Blake.


They played MANY party games...this one they had to see who could make a standing structure using marshmellows and toothpicks the fastest.


Isaac has a messy face because they played a game where they had to put their face into a plate of whipped cream to find a piece of gum...and whoever found it the fastest AND blew the first bubble with their gum won! :)






The entire group of Party Animals! ;)

First Day of School Aug 2010

For some reason I just haven't found my groove with the First Day of School pictures. Hopefully my children will forgive me! I got one decent shot of Isaac and Audrey on their way out the door...but not a one of Austin. Alas, I will keep trying.... :)

Lost...but not forgotten Summer 2010 Happenings

So one day this summer Audrey heard on the news that if you dressed up like a cow and went to Chick Fil A you could get a free meal. Then she got it into her head that the whole family should do it. Somehow she made it all happen, even though Austin got a bit shy about actually going into Chick Fil A dressed like a cow, they DID, each and everyone of them, get a FREE meal!! :)


Another "happening"...not to be forgotten...is that our sweet William not only mastered swimming just a few days after turning 4 yrs old...he also mastered jumping off the diving board AND swimming to the side (while Mommy held her breath each and every time)to get out ALL BY HIMSELF! Way 2 Go William!


Its kind of hard to capture a girl doing a back flip off the diving board, but Mom tried her best! Can you tell WHAT girl mastered the back flip this summer??? That would be Audrey!!! She's awesome!


We were SOOO lucky to get a visit from the Fillmore family this summmer!! Boy did we have fun with them! Here are Brock and Trevor hanging out with William and Isaac.


Here are the kids at the tennis match (well a warm up)...they were able to see more VERY well known tennis players play this year. Audrey even won a t-shirt at the event for having the fastest tennis serve in her age bracket!! AND Mom and Dad got to go ALONE to watch Nadal and Sharapova play. Fun Stuff!!

Austin is an Eagle Scout....and Mom should move to CALIFORNIA!

So this past week Austin had his Board of Review in Scouts to see if he was worthy of earning the rank of Eagle. Its a pretty big experience for these young boys. They have to go into a room (no parents allowed)with a panel of 4 adults sitting in front of them, and these 4 adults get to "grill" them on anything they want to regarding their experiences thus far as a Boy Scout and life in general.

But Austin did GREAT! One of the "board members" even asked Austin to expound on his religion and how/why the mormons have a different view of Jesus Christ. He gave a brief explanation and then offered to recite all 13 of our Articles of Faith! The man declined, but was overwhelmed with Austin's ability to articulate and KNOW his faith at the age of 13!

What a boy we have! We are so proud of him and BEYOND HAPPY that he belongs to us! Austin's papers that will allow us to hold his official court of honor will come in about 4 weeks...so we'll get the court of honor planned and post pics of that event after it happens in a month or 2.

Now onto another boy....a sweet, smart little boy who is just full of life and keeps us laughing...even when he is crying...

Let me explain. One evening last week I (Mom) requested that Isaac and William go take a bath. Isaac went and started the bath water, but William refused to take a bath saying, "I don't need a bath, I took one last week!" Again and again and again, Mom asked him nicely to go get into the bath. But William would not. So, Mom resorted to her "Mom tricks." Mom told William he'd better go get into the bathtub or he would loose his "Wii priveledges" for the week. William responded by crying and stomping heavily all the way to the bathtub and yelling to Mom, "You are the meanest Mom ever! I wish you would move to California!!" Then Mom had to hide her laughter...

I did not know that William even knew of California! But grateful he picked such a lovely place to send me off to!!! ;)

"Nobody should actually ever use soap to brush their teeth!"

That's what William said this morning.....

I (Mom) was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when William came in. I told him he needed to go brush his teeth too. So he promptly went to brush in his bathroom.

30 seconds later he comes running into my bathroom with bubbles all around his mouth and a sour expression on his face and said,
"Guess what Mom?!!" ..."Nobody should actually EVER use soap to brush their teeth!"
So Mom said, "Did you use soap to brush your teeth?!"
And William said, "Yes I did! And nobody should do it!"
"Why did you use soap to brush your teeth?," Mom said.
"Because I thought it would get my mouth really extra clean," Willam said.

What will we do when we no longer have a 3/4 yr old living in the house??? :)

PS...maybe after washing his own mouth out with soap, he will no longer have to
use the word FART...??? I'll keep you posted. :)

William's FAVORITE word......

FART!
Yep, he seems to be able to add "fart" to almost any sentence. He sings songs about farting, and tells "jokes" about farting, and apparently even his food farts. All the while Mom is telling him, "enough of THAT little buddy!" And his siblings are constantly saying things (with devilish grins) like, "Ya know William, thats not very appropriate." Oh. My. Goodness. Whats a Mama to do? Well, I'll tell you what I do mostly....I laugh! Wouldn't you?

Here he is...the guilty farty.... ;)

4th of July--Summer 2010

We celebrated July 4th on July 3rd this year...since the 4th landed on a Sunday.
We had the privledge of hanging out with Gene's cousin, Rachel Izu and her 3 ADORABLE boys, who live just an hour north of us. We did a homemade slip n slide and ate a yummy BBQ. Then we headed to Mason in the evening for a fireworks show. It was a fun day! THANKS Izu's for hangin with us! :)
CUTE CUTE BABY!! Jonathan Izu...he loved playin with the big boys!


WATER FIGHT & SLIP N SLIDE!


Daddy getting in on the action!










Rachel & Jonathan


Wait...who's that hunka hunka burnin love in the blue swim-trunks? Oh yeah...thats MY hunka hunka burnin love.... :)

Camping at Winton Woods Summer 2010

Gene found this wonderful campground only 25 mins from our house that has a lake for fishing and paddle boating. It has a splash park with playground and picnic area, a petting zoo, and cute little cabins to stay in...in case it rains! :) The kids had a ball! Two ducks would come waddling over to our campsite several times a day looking for leftovers and the kids thought that was the best thing ever!
William & Isaac talking to the ducks...


Dad (Gene) cooking breakfast!


Fishing!


Petting Zoo....Audrey & William

Audrey, Isaac & William




SPLASH PARK!....which also had a little cafe with the best icecream!

William turns 4! June 14th 2010

My sweet baby boy is growing up. Sometimes we like that fact and other times...not so much. He still likes lots of hugs and loves, and even asks me to "cozy with him" (hold him on my lap on the couch), but one day he'll start resisting all that lovey-dovey stuff, just like the rest of 'em. I can't bare the thoughts of that, but I'll just have to chase him down like I do the rest to make sure they get their daily dose of hugs and loves from Mom.

William is WAY into Star Wars these days. Hasn't even seen the movie. But loves for Austin to read him the Star Wars books from the library. And he asks me on a regular basis "Why would Aniken want to be on the dark-side Mom?" :)

He also loves to play UNO, bowl, swim, play Wii, have light-saber battles, and have someone read him stories, but his favorite thing is usually doing whatever his older brothers and sister are doing!

William can write his name and knows most of his ABC'S & 123's. He memorizes books and can "read" them to you without actually knowing the words. And he LOVES to BOOGIE....the boy can dance. And we all know who he got that from! ;)

We LOVE YOU William!






Daddy make the AMAZING cake...of course!

Pool Days Summer 2010

We LOVE our neighborhood pool! We go everyday except Sunday. What would we do all summer without the pool? ....Mama would probably go a little crazy! ;)
Here is William doing a SUPER JUMP! Go William!


Here is Audrey with her friend Sophia.


Isaac learned how to dive this year! Way 2 Go Isaac!

My SWEET Grandad, William Archibald Steadwell, died today May 12, 2010

I'm just betting there was a sweet reunion for him with my Mom (his daughter) and his wife, my Grandma today. It makes me smile just thinking about it. He was born on March 20, 1920. He served in WWII. And he taught this girl (Sheri) that men DO cry, and its ok. He called it "water on the brain." :) And he didn't go by William or Archibald. Everyone called him Bill.

He and my Grandma would come from Canada to Florida and park their RV in our yard for 6 months out of the year when I was growing up, and oh how I loved that! You could count on getting some kind of treat anytime you went and knocked on their trailer door for a visit. And we watched a lot of Wheel of Fortune together.

When I would get home from school Grandad would say, "Well Hello there Miss Sheri! How was school t'day a?" "Did ja kiss any of those ugly old fellas?" And it always made me blush and grin from ear to ear. Then he'd get to laughing so hard, and tell me he just had to tease me.

When I got a little older he would offer me a beer everytime I went to visit him in the RV. He got a kick outta me saying "No Grandad!" "You know I don't drink beer!" And he told me that if I ever got the itch to try smoking that I'd better let him teach me and no one else. I never got the itch to smoke, and somehow I know he was glad about that.

My Grandad never liked to sit for very long. He liked to stay busy. And if he did sit, he would always fall asleep. Unless, he was talking politics or religion! And he could chop wood like nobody's business, right up until he died.

When I got married he would tease me all the time about having to name one of my kids "Archibald", after him. And when I was pregnant he would always ask me, "So how's that little Archie doing a?" Then he'd laugh. But I showed him, and I DID name one of my children after him, but I chose William, instead of Archibald.

In my mind, my Grandad was nothing but love and kindness. And I cant wait to talk politics and religion with him again on the flip side! :)

I love you Grandad! And I hope by now you have realized that the "other side" isn't so bad after all a? :)

Love your #3 Grandbaby,
Sheri

This is my Grandad and Grandma on their wedding day. Don't they just OOZE love??!


More of Grandad and Grandma




Grandad in his later years


Grandad with my Dad