our pumpkin patch

No we didn't grow pumpkins this year. We don't even have a garden yet. Come next spring....

However we do have the cutest little pumpkins in our home who keep us busier, yet happier than ever!

Cal.

What a BIG boy he is turning out to be. He actually fits in the clothes appropriate for his age group, unlike Annie. It took seven months for Annie to grow out of her newborn clothes. However, he is like Annie in that he's moving like she did at this age. Ahhhh! I know. Mark my words, if he crawls with in the next month, his 6th month, I really will break down into tears. I'm trying to keep him on the ground as long as I can so I don't have to fear another 8 month old walker! Although I am holding my breath some he still manages to charm me... over and over and over again. I admit it, I'm smitten... and pathetic.

He's started the solids, much to Will's dismay. "His diapers will never be the same again!"

I wonder why he gets so worried. I typically am the one that changes them. Then again, I don't take out the trash.

Annie does. More on that in a minute.

It didn't take long for Cal to master the spoon and begin devouring his rice. And then it wasn't too long after that we realized that rice alone would not suffice. The child is a machine. I'll be the first to tell you that he is no easy creature to satiate. Hence why I've had Thrush FOUR times to date. I keep telling Will that I don't know when he will fathom the word "gentle". It could be a decade from now. Well, actually he is quite a snuggler. That, I love!

Cal's new favorite hang out spot. There's nothing like a shiny faucet!

Now for the little Miss

She has turned into the ultimate helper. She sets the table, makes the bed, unloads the dishwasher, sorts the laundry, bathes Cal, washes the walls (that she took upon herself), sweeps the floor, and yes helps with the garbage. (SIDE NOTE: imagine what you will as far as how efficient and accurately all of these little chores are done. Just know she always gets an "A" for effort.) She's always followed me around and mimicked what I do, but this month she proved herself a woman in the making.

Dress-ups have been the other dead giveaway. Mommy needs to get better at catching her in the act, but little A has had way to much fun with mommy shoes, daddy's socks and dollar store dress-ups. I never get sick of it.

I just have to figure out how to keep her cleaner than this during and after meals. Any tips anyone. It's kind of out of control. No, I dare say: it's out of control.
Now that we've warmed up to the area after a year we made sure to take advantage of all the fall activities we could get our arms around. Starting with a Fall Festival. Annie and Cal and I ventured off to Greensboro at the start of the month when Will was off to Minnesota for a Career Fair. We enjoyed some great treats, games, face painting, balloons of course, and the best was Annie's debut on stage. I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt half the day. What a brave girl.

Then Will had a little Fall Break so we headed to Ashboro to visit the Zoo.

Let's just say we had an abbreviated stay, but we saw two of Annie's most favorite animals.

The kids were thrilled to have some good time with daddy.

Of course, we had to make a trip to the pumpkin patch. We met Amanda and Annie's friend Luke and were amazed at how pumpkins made our children so happy. Annie picked her little pumpkin herself and made sure to place the money in the right hands.

Annie and Cal prepped our front porch for trick-or-treaters. I was pretty impressed.

Just before Halloween a group of mothers headed down to Mooresville to visit the Lazy 5 Ranch. What a blast! Given, the wagon ride would've been somewhat easier to manage with daddy on board, but nothing beat how happy it made my little girl for the next week. Why? Take a look!

Later that night we headed to a trunk-or-treat and I think Annie felt like she was in seventh heaven by the time her head hit the pillow that night. And finally, October 31st came. We took a great trip to Raleigh to go to the temple and headed back for a night's hang out with the Gee's. Annie loved her costume. And Cal's cow costume was so cozy it was hard to take him out when all was said and done.

Mooving on to Will.

He's still a rock. Still works hard. Still adores our kids. Still spends time with them. Still spends time with me. Still amazes me.

Happy bday in a week!

10 Reasons why I love Sassafrass

10 Reasons why I love Sassafrass:



10: She is Sass, whats not to love about her

9: She doubled the size of her family overnight

8: She is coming to Winston-Salem to spend Thanksgiving, even if she has to leave Matt at home.

7: She goes as low as plotting with my mother on how to sabatoge me. (PILLOW THEIF!!!)

6: She and her siblings crawl like hyheenas screaching and wailing, even in front of perfect strangers. (Will's first experience in the Sudbury home)

5: Late at night, you may find She and Matt cruising down state street in their double stoller. Yes, they sit in it, not their children.

4: She alone keeps the dairy industry in Mass. alive. (18 Gallons of milk a week)

3: She invented scrabble, or so she thinks

2: She has an evil giggle. In fact, she is probably giggling right now as she contemplates how she will get me back.

1: Whenever I forget to update my blog, she reminds me.



Love you Sass!!!

When it gets late, the funniest things happen!

So it is 11:30 at night and Wendy is confiding in me that she wants to go to an addiction rehab class at the church. This perked my curiosity so I entertained the idea to understand what she was talking about and if she was secretly on drugs. She prefaced it with “I really want to know what my problem is.” I thought to myself, hum…. I wonder where this is going. She looked at me and half asleep said, “Will, I really want you to tell me what my problem is so I can go to this addiction meeting to help me get over my problem.” She continued, “Will, am I a work aholic?” I could not help but laugh out loud. I thought, what in the world is going on right now? “Will, I am completely serious!” She continued trying to persuade me to tell her what “her problem was, or what she was addicted to.” I told her, “Wendy, it is good that it is 11:30 at night, because otherwise you might be able to trick me into talking about this.” Just now she asks, “Will, what are you typing about me? Do YOU have an addiction? Is there something that you are extreme in, or that I am extreme in?” Until now she was lying down on the carpet alternating between giggleing and almost crying. And all of a sudden, she looked at what I am typing right now, and fell to the floor and said, “I know what it is, I think I am addicted to hobbys because I want to learn to do everything. Or maybe it is that I am allergic, or addicted to (pause and a perplexed face) doing everything, being involved. Come on honey, give me some guidance, I need some help.” I replied, “I love you, but no.” Luckily, we laughed about the conversation and I promised her that we could talk about this another time when it is not so late at night. I LOVE MY WIFE. SHE IS THE MOST COMMITTED PERSON TO BECOMING THE BEST PERSON SHE CAN I HAVE EVER MET. I love you Wendy.

like the leaves

What a crazy and yet wonderful early fall it's been. It's been interesting to see how we've all grown: Will, as he's started MBA school; me, since I joined the RS Presidency in my ward (I never imagined myself in one of those with kids!); and of course our two beautiful children who seem to change every day. It reminds me of the beautiful leaves out here. (They haven't turned yet, but before we know it they'll be more gorgeous than ever.) Despite how hectic everything has become we've been so happy and have had some truly memorable times.

Everything Annie does is very easy to remember. And what she says is even more memorable.

Take this for example.

Scenario: Annie has Will's phone charger cord and is playing jump rope with it. She keeps stepping and pulling on it, of course, bringing us closer to the day when we have to buy a new one.

Me: "Annie, please hand that to mommy, let's find something else to play with."

Annie: "NO!"

Me: "Please sweetie, that's daddy's and we don't want to ruin it. That will make daddy sad."

Annie: "NO!"

Me: "Annie, do you want to hand that to me, or do you want to go to time out?"

Annie (with a mean and bitter face.): "TIME OUT!!!"

After which she stomps inside our bedroom bathroom and shuts the door then proceeds cry.

What do you say to that?

I can't help but wonder if we're implementing time-out too much. Annie brings it up so much on her own. She's been really good about taking on the mommy role all together. Wrapping Elmo up and dropping him into Cal's crib on his head. Or putting him in the carseat, bouncer or stroller, then giving him one (or all) of Cal's binkies. And then the other day we had this conversation.

Me: "Annie, where did baby Elmo go? You've been taking such good care of him."

Annie: "Time out."

Me: "Oh really, he did something naughty? That's too bad."

Annie : "Yeah, Elmo time out. Elmo crying, Elmo sad."

(a small pause, then an excited gasp and smile) "All done!"

Then she ran around the corner, opened the bathroom door and brought baby Elmo back into the play room. It was too cute for words, but I got a little worried. Then again, her behavior changes instantaneously after 15 seconds behind a closed door.

I do love that Annie can convey her thoughts and feelings though. It often puts me in my place, helps me understand what I should improve, and even inspires me. Times like tonight. A mother of one of my guitar students came over for her daughter's lesson. This woman, Roe, is a very Christian woman and is seeking some spiritual direction in her life. As she's come over she's noticed that our little family is Christian also. She's had health problems and not to long ago Will gave her a blessing. The missionaries taught her a lesson afterwards, but she hasn't done much since. We've offered to save a seat for her in church and she hasn't been coming, but she still is open and friendly. We've discussed how we should wait for her to let us know of further interest. However Annie's taught us a lesson. Annie loves this woman. Just before Roe and her daughter came over tonight I got Annie all ready for bed and decided to let her stay up while I taught my lesson. I knew she'd want to see Roe and Roe always loves to see her. As we went downstairs Annie said to me "Jesus movie!" I made sure she wanted to watch "Finding Faith in Christ" more than Elmo or anything else and sure enough, that's all she wanted. Of course weak and worried me was thinking 'Will she think I'm staging this?' Then I thought to myself 'How silly! This is who we are, this is what my child wants, and this is when she wants it. How wonderful!' Five minutes later Roe and her daughter, Emoni, walked in. Annie was thrilled to see them both and before I knew it she was motioning to Roe to follow her. Then she said "Come on Roe! Come sit by me! Jesus movie, come sit by me! Come on!" Roe gladly sat with little Annie and watched the whole movie. When it was done Annie wanted to watch it again. Roe was so impressed the movie and by Annie's excitement to see it again. Will was at Cub Scouts at the time and I was eager to tell him afterwards. How humbled we both were to be taught by our little angel. I can't help but think that I need to be mimicking her more than she should be mimicking me.

Now that Annie is talking so much I'll be sure to post our conversations on the side of the blog.

I wouldn't want you to miss out on the goods.

In addition to talking a lot. Annie continues to be our walking music box. This girl loves to sing. Not only that, but she's taking great interest in my guitar and piano again. Especially since I've been teaching a bit more. We have time at the piano everyday and just sing songs. That is one thing I can count on everyday to brings me so much joy.

Another thing is seeing this little man smile and continuously flirt with me. He is truly addicting. He's getting better at going down for naps without so much holding. Don't get me wrong, I love holding him, but he's growing and my back was getting sore. He loves it when Annie plays with him and holds him. He's a sucker for a girls attention. He's rolling over in his bouncer now, laughing out loud (who doesn't love that?!), and loves to be tickled, especially on his slightly chunky thighs. I love it! His latest trademark now is sucking on his toes and licking the bottoms of his feet. Yes, hilarious! As is watching my kids play and react to each other. How I love life as a mom.

And certainly, this man continues to make me laugh and tease me daily which, despite his worries, makes me happiest of all. As I watch him play with our children and love them with his whole heart, even after a long hard day, I feel so blessed. I hope we both can keep it up when they're teenagers! YIKES!

Well I best get back to the guitar, another joy in my life. Let me know what your latest favorite acoustic songs are. I'm needing some newbies in my repertoire.

In the meantime enjoy pics of some our best moments the past little bit.

Annie with her new friend in the ward, Ragan.

Waiting for daddy to come home after a good time with sidewalk chalk.

Annie insisted we all wear our hats on our walk. Cal's thrilled, don't you think?

Annie at our block party. Couldn't get enough of the sweets!

Yummy toes!

Ahh...A trip to the Raleigh Temple.

Having a great time at the Marbles Children's Museum in Raleigh.

Cal's loving looking on from the double stroller. I'm loving that I have a double stroller to put him in.

On our way back from Raleigh. For the record: traveling with kids doesn't phase us. Not one bit.

to the mountains

Before I continue with other posts I have to post the fun pics we got from our last trip to the Rockies. It felt so good to be surrounded by those Wasatch peaks again, followed by serenity in Cache Valley and then ultimately head up to Big Sky Montana.  

All us Wilson's had a two-day retreat at Cove and it was gorgeous, as always!  Playing water games, swiming, horseback riding, go-karting, making field games, playing field games, admiring the new addition: dad's great treehouse, and a visit to Willow Park zoo; we did it all and loved every minute of it . It really was one of the most memorable times we've had with our Wilson side of the family.  We love you guys!

 Grandpa and Nat were even great enough to share their birthday parties with Annie and see to it that she got her share of attention.

 And of course they met our newest addition little Cal which was so fun for the kids.  

Then we headed up to Montana to join the Richards. Great grandpa was so kind to let us stay  nearly a week at Hebgen and we loved it. Everyone on that side got to meet Calvin as well and the kids had the time of their lives! We even witnessed cousin Luke's first step! We were so happy to see everyone there! ( Eric and Lindsay some how, some way, we have to meet up with your little family soon!)

 There's nothing like sitting on that beach and loving the time with the family, even the sand does resemble gravel.

And of course we loved our time on the boat and behind it.  Will ceases to amaze me.  Since we're out here in NC he gets to wakeboard maybe once a year and yet he still can pull off great tricks.  What a man! 

And one last time, Annie was spotlighted again with a Richards family birthday party. What good sports they all were.  Good food and good toys and great family; she had the party of a lifetime! It's hard to find her unhappy ever really though.  How we love her and her cheery attitude!

And you can believe we were pooped by the time we got back to Winston-Salem.

Thanks for having us in Utah yet again everyone!  We look forward to having you out here sometime, hopefully sooner than later.  And yes we will go to the beach.  Oh yes....we will!

it's friday, i'm in love

Can you blame me?

Happy three months little Cal. 

double the pleasure, double the fun

So it's true. It's been a while since the blogging world has seen us. But, hey can you blame us? We've been living up the beautiful NC summer weather as well as seriously fun family visits and events.   Plus the only blogging time I've had was while on vacation.  So hold your horses Sass! (Note: Sass, is my dear friend who commented on my last post clearly expressing some impatience with my lack of recent posts.) Now for the goods.

First of all our dear little Willard Calvin was blessed at the beginning of June. What a sacred, special day. As if the nature of the event wasn't meaningful enough, both of our parents and Aunt Nattie bit the bullet and came out here for a brief weekend stay. Moving here, I had a hard time imagining that my mother with her limited physical capacities and diminished strength would ever get to see her grandchildren on this side of the country.

Natalie was able to help, but only to a certain degree seeing as she was recovering from two carpal tunnel surgeries. Dad braved it out though and brought mom out despite how inconvenient it was for him. Thank you so much dad!

And Liz.....she had just been here! How sweet it was for her to endure the long flights once again, this time with her hunny, for little Cal's blessing.

It was great to have our families over in our home, our community, our world. Selfish, I know. But it was so fun to give them a taste of the South. We took them around good old Winston-Salem, a city built off of tobacco money. Sad, but true. We visited Wake Forest Campus, the Business and Law Schools, swam for hours and even had a picnic out at Salem Lake.

What wonderful weather we had! And we just had to take them to Sweet Potatoes so they could enjoy their share of grits, fried green tomatoes and okra, any other southern dish you can imagine and the weekend music festivals they hold all summer long.

Most of all, it was indescribably meaningful to have them there on the blessing day.

Among all the wonderful things Cal was blessed with, he was told that he would appreciate and live up to the names he had been given. He was named after two Willards. Willard Richards, Joseph Smith's scribe and most loyal friend; and his daddy, my husband who is also loyal. Loyal to me, to any friend he gains, and most importantly to God. He also was named, and will be called by Calvin. Here's a drawing my incredible sister-in-law Anna did of him and his love Nadine in their younger years. Isn't she amazing? (click here to check out her portraits website.)

Calvin Cook is Will's grandpa he never got to meet, but has always felt his influence very strong throughout his life. His legacy is that of an incredible missionary, a devout member and institute teacher of Christ's restored church with a great love for the Book of Mormon and his family. He died considerably young from cancer just three months before Will was born. Learning more about these men, as we considered what we should name our son, has been nothing but inspiring as the qualities they possessed (or what even seems they mastered) is everything we would want him to emulate.

So a warm and heartfelt thank you to our families for making such great efforts to participate in and be present for Cal's special day.

As for our "little Miss A".... just over a month ago she doubled her age. And by golly she knew it. There we were at the grocery store on her special day, just as Cal started crying, giving me the cue to go home, Annie started jumping up and down in the cart while screaming, and insisted that I hold her. What? Hold her? Annie? Since when has she wanted to be held? It blew me away. She went from being "miss independent" to wanting to cling to me and get my approval on everything. It actually has been a pleasant change, just very surprising.

And sure she's a little bit more needy, but I'm learning that the "two's" aren't as terrible as everyone makes them out to be. Annie's waved her diapers goodbye and now tells us (in time mind you) when she needs to go potty. Her vocabulary is growing exponentially it seems, closing the gap on communication barriers and allowing her to feel of our love and encouragement all the more.

She treats Cal as if he was her very own by singing to him and teaching him her a-b-c's and 1-2-3's. She's even got the bottle feeding down. He adores her. Anytime she's around he grins from ear to ear. The other day as we were eating at the table Annie was talking to Cal from her chair and said "I love you Cal." Our hearts just about melted. We love seeing such a pure love develop between our children. Anyhow, among all the changes we had to throw her a fun little birthday party, a bubble birthday party at that, with her friends. 

The turnout was wonderful (thank heavens Will was around!) and we had the best bubble swim party I'd ever been to. If there's one child that loves her bubbles it's Annie. So a bubble party's what she got! Happy Birthday Annie! We love and adore you more than you could ever imagine!

Other good times?  Oh just a SWEET Fourth of July day at the beach with the Gees and then a killer firework show at our friends the McDonald's later.  

We did just get back from our little trip to Utah and Montana. More to come on that.  

And lastly.

GREAT COMPUTER + RELIABLE INTERNET= HAPPY WIFE

Thanks love!

year four

Crazy, I know.  It's been four years.  Four years of sharing toothpaste, sharing a closet (so to speak), sharing families, sharing cars, sharing milk, sharing a bench at church, eating meals (whether they be cereal or Gazpacho), Family Home Evenings, debating how much space each person in entitled to in bed, snuggling, kissing, hugging, holding, opening each other's mail, depositing each other's checks, ironing each other's clothes, reading each other's books, answering each other's phones, packing each other's bags, working, budgeting, bill paying, sharing joys, sharing trials, sharing responsibilities, comforting, compromising, listening, explaining, making memories, making fun, laughing, crying, playing, praying, thanking, confessing fears, sharing dreams, living them, loving them and loving you.  

Will I LOVE YOU!   I couldn't ask for a better man to walk with on this rocky road we call life.  I know you do all you can to make sure my smiles get bigger as time goes on.  I smile just thinking of you, the man you are and the man you will become.  Nothing means more to me than the peace and love I have with you.  You're an incredible husband and a remarkable father!  Here's to eternity!  

Happy Anniversary love.