Season's Greetings!

Seasons Greetings from the Williams Family! Our greeting card is found at the smilebox link here:

Greeting Card Link

We truly hope that the new year brings you peace, joy and wonderful new memories.

Summer fun - We are back!!

Hello to the Blogger world. Just as you thought Gina and J.D. must have fallen off the face of the earth, we are back and with much to share! How about 120 picutres to share!! Yeah!! I have to be honest that blogging isn't something that I have any kind of strength in. Suprise. Suprise. But I sure would like to be better. So here is to the start of new blogging updates that will be much more frequent with of course many fun pictures since to me, what is blogging without tons of pictures. We are loving Ohio and feel so blessed to be here, getting to know the people we are, experiencing what we are. The pictures will tell much so enjoy. Hope everyone is having a happy summer!!

Click here for slideshow

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Please enjoy our holiday Smilebox slideshow at the following link:

http://smilebox.com/play/4d6a41334e5451304d6a46384d544d784e4455324e54513d0d0a&sb=1

At this time of the year we always miss our family and friends even more. We look forward to another year of sharing family events and stories and keeping in touch. How grateful we are for our Savior's life and example that we ponder even more at this time of the year. We love Him and are so grateful for His perfect example. We wish you a merry Christmas and a joyful New Year!

Christine

Kathleen

Camille

Kimball

Karsen

Kimball's baptism

I can't believe my little boy is now eight years old. I wish time didn't go by so quickly. It just doesn't seem fair. And with turning eight, he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We decided to have him baptized on Nov. 6th, the same day as his little sister Christine's 1st birthday! We had a busy, fun, memorable day. It was extra fun being able to have J.D.'s parents - Grandma and Grandpa Williams - here to join in the special occasions. I think one of the things we will always remember most from Kimball's baptism was when he came up out of the water. Kimball truly has a fear of putting his head down in water thus I was a bit worried about how he would do being completely submerged. Well, he must have opened his mouth on the way up out of the water because as soon as he came up, he started sputtering/coughing for air. Amidst his gasping he said loud enough for everyone to hear, "I'll alright!" We all got a really good chuckle out of that. I am so proud of my son. He is a sweetheart of a young man with great desires to do what is right in all aspects of his life. He says his pleases and thank you's in a very consistent manner than really show his gratefulness. During the blessing Kimball recieved when given the gift of the Holy Ghost, he was counseled to be a friend to the friendless, and blessed with the ability to see others in need and to reach out to them. That touched me deeply as I have already seen this and was even told during my parent teacher conf. this past week with Kimball's school teacher of something she saw during recess of Kimball reaching out to another boy in his class with some disabilites. Tonight while my kiddies were watching a church video they enjoy, I just looked at him, at his handsome little face, and wondered who he really is and what he will become. How humbling it is to be a mother of such noble spirit children of God. It really is amazing how drastic your perspective changes when you think in terms of eternity and not just here and now. I'm so grateful I was given Kimball to love and in turn be loved. I have a lot to learn from him.








Future missionary!

Grandma showing Kimball some things in his new scriptures.

The house is on it's way up!!!

I have to say that one of my most looked forward to parts of the day is when I pick up the kids from school and we go to see what new improvements have been made on our house. It has been so exciting to see this home of ours go up!!! Every step along the way is fascinating to see - starting from when the digger actually dug out the hole, and cement was brought in for the basement, and the sides of the foundation set, and then the framing!! There were four gentlemen from Mexico that did the entire framing on the house and boy were they fast and efficient. We were impressed!! We had fun talking with them a bit in Spanish here and there. They got the entire home framed in just about a week and a half. Roof and all!! After they were done for the day we loved getting inside the home and seeing what they had done. The roofers have since put on the shingles, the furnace has been put it, plumbing is in, airducts are in, hey - we even have our bathtub in place. The kids love getting into the house as often as they can and the first thing they all do, is go up to their rooms. Kimball is very proud about the fact that he doesn't have to share. His room is the highest point of the house and has an awesome view of the forested area in our backyard. This really is an amazing adventure that we are loving. It looks like we will be closing on the home a couple of days before the new year. Awesome! So, here are a few pictures of only the hundreds that J.D. has taken, of some of the progress. Oh and once we are in and settled, visitors are welcome!!

My little cookie monster!

I made some of my favorite chocolate chip cookies the other day and decided to see what my little sweety Christine would do if I gave her a whole one, just for her. She has two teeth in on the bottom and 4, yes, 4 more coming in. We have been giving her lots of different table foods and she loves everything we give her so I thought a cookie would be a big hit. Well, it was!! When I handed it to her, her eyes got all big and she just started to smile her huge, wrinkle the nose smile that makes you smile just as big right back because you can't help yourself!! She was in heaven! I was doing the dishes by her while she was eating and everytime I looked over at her, I would get a smile. The cookie disappeared quite quickly - my little cookie monster! This little one is medicine for my soul. The love she gives me through her full on hugs, smiles, babling, laughter, curiosity of all around her, oh the list goes on and on, is pure joy and happiness. I love my Christine soooooooo much. Oh I love her.

Here we are in Ohio!

We are here! It's hard to believe that it has been nearly a month since we arrived to our new home in Columbus, Ohio. Time has been in turbo speed these past couple of months. Since I last wrote here on our blog, I informed everyone that we were going to be moving and that the house hunting was under way. Well, let me catch you up a bit on the happenings.
I first have to say that I have been very humbled by how prevalent the Lord's hand has been in my life, guiding my thoughts and actions in this entire move. He truly knows our needs and is so lovingly present. About the house hunting - we weren't having the warm fuzzies with any of the 15 plus homes that we looked at in Columbus so we decided to go the build from ground up route. That all amazingly fell into place and we now have the foundation layed for our new home that should be ready the first couple of weeks of December. The kids, esp. J.D., are really enjoying watching all the different steps occur in the building of our new home.
While the house is being built, we are living in a very nice rental home that we miraculously found. It is a good ten minutes away from our build home and elementary school so I have become the kids daily bus as I transport then to and from school everyday. This has actually been quite enjoyable for me as it has given me more time with the kids to talk and has also gotten me up and out the door bright and early.
We have been out making friends with the neighbors at both homes and are enjoying all the new friendships.
About our wonderful home in N.Y. - miracles truly have NOT ceased. When we first put our home up for sale, there was a lot of initial interest in it, but no bites. After one particular showing that was a bit discouraging (we were doing for sale by owner) J.D. felt very prompted to call back a family that had called us some 2 weeks earlier asking if we would consider leasing our home to them. They were thrilled to hear back from us and very excited to come and see the home. Two days later, they came over and after shaking hands with them, J.D. and I both knew this was the family that needed to be in our home. We sat and talked as if we were all old friends. The father has been in the army for some time and is now getting his masters in math at a local school where he will then go and teach at Westpoint. Awesome for them! So in a matter of 5 days we went from "What are we going to do with our home?" to lease signed and set. We moved out on Aug.30th and they moved in the next day. I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who truly does hear and answer our prayers. He may not answer them in the way we would have thought, but He does answer them.
So here we are now in Columbus, settled in and enjoying getting to know the new area. We are enjoying our new church ward and have felt very welcomed there. The kids are making lots of new friends at church and school and have all seemed to adjust to the new surrounding quite well. There is a lot to do and see here in Columbus and we look forward to all the adventures ahead. This isn't to say that we don't miss our friends in N.Y. A LOT!!! All of us have had our moments of sadness and "We miss N.Y.". Yet, knowing that this is where we need to be at this point of our lives makes all the new changes doable. To all our friends in N.Y. - WE LOVE and MISS YOU!!
Our month of Aug. was spent in Utah on vacation with all our family (we flew from N.Y. to SLC then from SLC to Columbus - crazy!) so here are a bunch of pictures of our time there. It is so nice to be on my blog again! Please continue to come back to our blog as I will be putting up regular updates of all the Williams's happenings. Happy Fall to everyone!!
Having ice cream cones on the front porch (N.Y.)


This was a very sad sight. I loved my home in N.Y.. There are soooo many memories to remember!


The moving guys loved moving all our food storage :)


This picture was taken the morning we left N.Y. Off and ready for the adventure!


We LOVE our time with Grandpa Christensen. He is like a magnet for my kids!


Hiking up in Logan Canyon.


My Kimball!!


I love this one of Grandma Williams!! Being in Logan with family was wonderful!


J.D. and his parents at Tony Grove. This is heaven!


My Great Grandma Christensen. We spent an afternoon with her in Idaho. She is a remarkable woman.


The Salt Lake City temple. I love this place!! Temple Square was amazing.


We had our first Ellis and Estela Christensen (my parents) reunion at Snowbird! It was more fun than I can say! We had the funnest evening walk our first night together. Here is me, sis-in-law Megan, sisters Edlyn and Cynthia.


My amazing sister and her equally amazing husband Nate with their beautiful family consisting of big brother James and his triplet brothers! Isn't this amazing!?


My wonderful parents!!!


My bro Clinton and I going up the tram! 1 mile to the top!


I just had to put this one in :)


I love this picture. Kimball loves being in the mountains.


The Williams gang on the top of the mountains!


Here is the famous tram of Snowbird that we took up.


J.D. and Kathleen coming down the Alpine slide. This was too fun for words. I think Kathleen enjoyed it :)


A day hike up Little Cottonwood canyon. I will never tire of the mountains in Utah.


Edlyn, Clinton and I! I love family time!!


Cutest cousins picture! These guys have so much fun together!


Picture of our build sight! The foundation is set!!