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!!

The Williams are moving.

Yes, you read that right. The Williams family is moving. After 5 1/2 wonderful, unforgettable years in upstate New York, we are packing up and moving a bit more west to Columbus, Ohio. We kind of felt that a change was going to be coming along but if you were to tell me that it would all happen in about 2 months time I would have said "Well, let me think about it a bit more" and added to that "Your crazy!". The adventure all began on May 23rd when J.D. put his resume out to JPMorgan/Chase inquiring about a job listing in their marketing team that sounded very interesting to him. They called him the next day due to how impressed they were with his resume and set up a phone interview for June 1st with a member of the team he would be working with if he got the job. The day J.D. was called from the recruiter about the job position, we both had intense feelings that we needed to start to get our house in order. We hadn't even had the phone interview yet but there was a definate, deep down feeling that something was going to happen and we needed to start to be prepared. J.D. actually went through the house and made a list of all the things we would need to fix, paint, etc., etc.. if we were going to sell our home and we got started on the list. Looking back on the time between May 23 and June 1st, I realize more and more that the Lord was really trying to prepare our hearts for the change that He knew was about to happen in our lives. It's humbling and faith building to see how the Lord's hand is truly in our lives. So June 1st came along and the interview over the phone went very well. So well that they called back that evening and said they wanted to fly J.D. out for an on-sight interview the next week.
That week was incredibly intense. Again, these feelings of "get your house in order" were very prevalent and we did get a ton of things done. J.D. was having a hard time getting sleep at night because he couldn't get his mind to stop thinking of everything there was to think about!! You can only imagine! We started looking for homes in the northern Columbus area and even got a realtor on board out there. JPMorgan was so good as to fly me out too which was vital in being able to really make the decision as to whether or not this was the place for our family.
We flew out on the 9th, with Christine, while our dear friends, the Rubilars, took care of the older four kids. (They ended up helping us 3 times with child care!!) We went house hunting all that day and even had the opportunity to attend the Columbus LDS Temple that night while the mother of my dear friend here in New York watched Christine. Blessings.
The interview, which was an all day process for J.D. went very well. The new job would be a much more fast paced one with longer hours, perhaps higher stress, but J.D. felt confident he would be able to step up to the challenges. Monday afternoon, June 14th, the offer came and it was what J.D. was hoping it would be. I have to say that I have never felt my faith being tested in such a profound way than at that time. To make a very long, emotional story short, J.D. and I took that huge step of faith into the unknown and we are moving to Ohio.
Since then, we have been back to Columbus two more times, solidifying everything on the house that we are going to build. We are very excited about our new home to be! We have also secured a beautiful little home to lease while our house is being built. So now our last huge hurdle is selling our sweet little home here in N.Y.. We are truly exercising our faith that it will sell in a timely manner. Nine families have already come to see it in just 2 ½ weeks so we have great hope.
I can’t even begin to express all the emotions that J.D. and I have been experiencing these past few weeks. There is a lot of excitement that comes with moving to a new a place but at the same time there is great sadness and hesitation for what is being left behind. When I think of the very dear friends I will need to say good-bye to, my gut starts to knot up and I just want to cry. These friends have become our “family” and the memories we have with them all will be ones that we will cherish forever. I really cannot express here in words how I feel about leaving this beautiful area and the people we have come to love so much. Knowing that our decision to move is correct does help to make this huge change and all the good-byes bearable.
J.D. will be starting work on the 19th of this month. I know – so fast!!! I don’t quite know how we are going to get everything done that we would like to do before he leaves but somehow it will all work out. It has so far. I will be staying in N.Y. with the kids until the end of the month. We then will be leaving all together for our long awaited trip to Utah (which has been planned for 6 months). The day we return from our vacation the moving company will be packing us up and we will be heading to Ohio just in time to get the kids settled in to start school on Aug. 25th (two weeks earlier than when they would have started here). Makes your head swim doesn’t it! Again, exercising faith that it will all work out.
I better end this long entry but before I do, just one more thing. I have to thank my parents and J.D.’s parents for their wonderful advice and incredible support during all of this. I will never forget when I called up my parents and told them that J.D. and I had been in Ohio for a job interview that past week. They listened the way I needed them to to the whole, detailed story and were a huge strength to me at a time when I needed that extra strength. Mom and Dad, I love you both so much.
Updates will come along the way!! Our lives are truly amazing journeys.

For those of you interested, here is a link to see pictures of and a virtual tour of the home that we will be building. (Our house will not have the dark wook trim that you see in these pictures). The home is a five level split, a popular floor plan in Columbus. Our house should be all complete right around Christmas!
http://tour.circlepix.com/tour.htm?id=738625&refurl=

Thought I would throw in a few pictures! I can never get enough of pictures :)

Karsen and Camille at their dance concert. They were wonderful!

My little sunshine!

Last day of school. Where did this past year of school go!?!?

Kathleen in Daddy's shoes! Oh, and those are her favorite pants - she wears them with everything!!

I am so grateful that she is mine!!!!