Merry Christmas from the Williams

Since we are going to be on the road for Christmas, we decided to celebrate a little early. On the morning of my birthday, we had our Christmas morning. It was so fun and exciting to watch Hadley. I was thrilled how she was patient and wanted to play with each toy as she opened it. She wasn't racing through to the next. Here is Hadley opening her toys. At first she was a little confused. She was asking if these gifts were for Madelyn, Taylor, or Jacob. It took a minute to sink in that these gifts were for her. Hadley had done a lot of Christmas shopping with me, so she was use to picking out gifts for others. I might have added to her confusion by having her with me while I Christmas shopped. I would buy her a gift and just say that it was for someone else. She has been a very gracious child this year. She has only asked for one toy, a guitar. But she will have to wait until we get to Nana's house for that.

Hadley with her new Miss Kitty (or as she says "Sissy') houseshoes.

Hadley with one of her new videos.

Looking at the puzzels and books with Daddy.

Her new computer and butterfly backpack. She is ready for school!

Music Class Celebration

Ready for her final performance. Hadley in front of one of the Christmas trees on campus.

Hadley has truly enjoyed the TCU music class. On Wednesday night, they had their final performance of all the classes for the entire family. It was up in the grand ballroom. It was a huge open area with a great jazz band. The jazz band had learned all of their little songs from class. They also performed some Christmas carols and other great songs. We had a really great time. Prior to the "performance" they had an instrument petting zoo. Here is our little girl having a "banging" time.

You might want to turn the volume down when you watch this one.

One of her favorite songs.

This was too funny. During the song, she started digging through my purse. I didn't know what she was after, but she did. I guess she thought that this was a pretty cool song, so she needed to be a "cool cat" with her shades.

Christmas Cards and Tea Party

One of my favorite things this time of year is getting and sending Christmas Cards. I like to take pictures, so I always want to take my own picture for the card. A few days ago, Hadley was in a fun mood, so I decided the time was right. She got all dressed up and we took her picture by the tree and fireplace. I asked her to stand with her hand by her side. She replied, "Like a penguin? They go waddle, waddle, waddle." As she waddled away. This might be a little trickier than I had thought. But then she settled down and was ready to start posing for me. I got some really good ones. Then I had to decide which one to choose for the card.

The winner!

Sweet smile

Big Cheese

Eating one of Santa's cookies

One of my friend's, Amanda, invited us to her annual Mother/Daughter Christmas Tea. Hadley and I had a wonderful time. Amanda & her Mom have been hosting this tea for over 20 years. It was fun to visit with Amanda's friends who have been coming since they were 10. Now they are bringing their daughters to enjoy the tradition. Here is a picture of Mommy & Hadley before the tea.

Just another day. . .

Hadley is growing up so quickly. So often I just want to press pause and keep her at this young and innocent age. Everyday she is amazing me or making me laugh with something new. The other day we where out doing a little Christmas shopping. As we pulled up to Stein Mart she starts talking, "are we getting Daddy some pants". Obviously, we have purchased several pairs of pants for Daddy from this store. I told her that no, we were not getting him pants but we were getting him a surprise; so don't tell Daddy. I had been in the store a few days earlier and found a tie that I really liked. So I walked right in, got the tie, and got in line to check out. No discussion about if she liked it, what it looked like or anything that might make this purchase seem significant. I'm sure you may be thinking, Jenn, you are giving the surprise away. What if Brent reads the blog? Oh no, he already knows. At dinner that night, Hadley just tells him. "Daddy, we bought you a tie today. It is orange with stripes on it. Orange stripes like Tigger. We got you a Tigger tie." (Note to self: Hadley is not good with secrets.) "Oh and Daddy, we looked but couldn't find you a chair." Ahh, that was the other gift that I was going to get him! A new office chair.

During the first week of December Mom & Dad came down for a few days. Dad was hunting just south of here and Mom stayed with us. Brent, Hadley, & I were all sick while they were here. Mom spent her birthday taking care of the three of us. Sorry, Mom! But it was nice to have her here to help. All 3 of us were on antibiotics, cough medicines, etc. We had a little trouble with Hadley taking her meds. Instead of tasting them and seeing that they were okay, she would just spit them out. After a few disciplinary moments, she began to see things our way. Here is a video of Hadley being a big girl and taking her medicine by herself.

While Mom was here, she taught Hadley how to make an "H". Down, down, and across. Now Hadley thinks she is big stuff because she can write letters. The other day she was practicing writing some letters (O & H), when I heard her say, "Look, Mom, a lollipop." Sure enough, it did look like a lollipop. It was a circle with a line at the bottom. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I thought that was pretty sharp of the kiddo. Here are some doodles of her lollipops and "Hs".

Music Class

Hadley & Natalie playing Ms. Janice's guitar.

Hadley undercover.

Mommy & Hadley

Hadley loves music. She was always nodded along with a song or clapped a rhythm while we are driving in the car. When Brent started to work, the department secretary mentioned a music class that TCU offered for tots & Moms. I looked into it and we signed up. It has been great. Hadley loves her teachers and all the fun songs. On the last day of class, we got to bring our cameras to capture all of the fun.

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

Picture of Aunt Rhonda playing Christmas Carols with a little help from Hadley. Taylor was too busy eating Marshmellows to join them.

Best of Buds

The girls watching TV in PopPop's lap.

The girls getting ready to eat Thanksgiving lunch. And yes, they wore those hats for nearly 2-3 days straight!

Picture of the dangerous Forrester/Williams Gang. This is my Mom's Christmas card. Too Cute!


It is always fun to spend the holidays with family, especially Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful, food was delicious, and it is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming. Dewey had flown down a few days for before Thanksgiving. He and Brent cleaned out and painted our garage. I didn't know our garage could look that good. We have a great deep sink utility sink in the garage. I rarely used it because it looked like a toxic waste site. After a little work from Dewey, it looks brand new. So a few days before Thanksgiving we all loaded up and headed north. Our first stop was in Walnut Ridge to spend a few days with my family. Then headed to Searcy for a few more days. While we were in Searcy, I had a little trouble with my camera. So I didn't get many pictures of the kiddos.

What a Shoot out!

An attempt at Jingle Bells on the cellar at Nana's

Hadley at Mimi's house. Cheese!

Hadley and Madelyn by Mimi's tree.

Trying to get the kids ready to take a picture for Mimi's Christmas card. This is when my camera stopped working. This is the only one I got with Will.

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Hadley with the tree after it was all decorated.

Hadley & Daddy putting on ornaments.

Mommy & Hadley putting ornaments on the tree.

Hadley being patient before we started decorating the tree.

Before we left for Thanksgiving, we got all of our Christmas decorations out. Hadley & I put up the Christmas tree and lights while Brent was out of town. We waited for him to put the ornaments on the tree. Hadley had a great time. She enjoyed seeing all the ornaments up close before we put them on the tree. She even got to decide where some of them should go. As I had hoped, she has been really great about leaving the decorations alone. By letting her help in the beginning, I think it took away a lot of investigating later. I had forgotten how special putting up the tree can be.

A Good Cowgirl who likes some coke beer

One of the fun things about Fort Worth is all of the cowboys. Hadley thinks she is one of the gang. She doesn't know that her mom is highly allergic and she will probably never be allowed to ride a real horse. But she doesn't need to know that now :)

After a long, hard ride, nothing is a refreshing as a nice cold coke beer. As a special treat, we will give Hadley some rootbeer. She knows it is called rootbeer, but she prefers her name for it, "coke" beer. To the untrained ear, it sounds as if our 2 yr old is asking for a "cold" beer. So when we are out in public, and the waiter asks what she would like to drink, I eagerly suggest milk, water, or Sprite quickly before she has a chance to order "coke"beer.

I'm a little too busy for ABCs

Here is Hadley singing her ABCs. As you can see, she was really too busy coloring with her Daddy to put on a good performance.

Our little Minnie Mouse

Our funny looking Pooh-like pumpkin.

Hadley checking out Mommy's carve job. I thought it would be really special to carve the pumpkin together. I guess sometimes I forget that she is just 2. When I started cleaning out the pumpkin, she started saying, "Mommy, it smells". When I asked what does it smell like, she quickly responded, "it smells yucky". "I not like it". So instead she just drew on the sidewalk while I took on the pumpkin.

Hadley at TCU trick-or-treating.

Hadley showing off her candy.

These next few photos are pretty funny. I was trying to take her picture, but she could not be still. Then I threatened that if she did not be still and let me take her picture, there would be no candy! As you can see, she graciously posed for some shots.

Another one of Hadley being happy for the camera.

Hadley & Daddy getting ready to go.

Hadley was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. She was just too cute. At TCU, the families of TCU employees could go trick-or-treating at one of the dorms. Hadley was way excited about getting candy. There was 3 floors of nothing but candy. Daddy suggested that we just do the first floor. Hadley didn't know that she was missing anything and was totally happy with all of her candy. We finished the night with some cotton candy. The next day, she got to wear her Minnie Mouse dress to music class. Once we put it on, she asked where the candy was. If she had the costume on, she was supposed to get candy. On Halloween night, we just stayed home and passed out candy. The weather was perfect. We pulled the lawn chairs out front and sat by the door. As kids would approach, Hadley would yell "we've got candy". I was delighted that she was excited about sharing.

Game Day

Us enjoying the Hogs game!

While we were in town, my Mom, Sister, & Jackson came up for the weekend. Mom kept Hadley so that I could go to the game. We all had a lot of fun. Somehow, I don't have any pictures of all of our good times. Sometimes I just forget to get out my camera. Some friends of ours from Newport also came up for the game. So we got to tailgate with Shannon, Derek, Whitney, Drew, Kristen & Paul. It was great to spend time with old friends. On Saturday morning, before the game, we went over to Sam & Angie's house. Let me just say that if Angie offers to make you breakfast, GO. Her homemade biscuits and gravy were delicious. I'm wishing I had one of those biscuits right now. Hadley got to play with Morganne, Blaine, and baby Kennedy. She had so much fun with her old friends. Anyway, back to game. The energy at the game was exciting. Everyone wanted to see Ol' Huston go back to Mississippi like a whipped dog. But it just didn't happen. Arkansas is simply terrible this year. I don't know how they beat Auburn. But we did have a great time at the game. It was my first Fayetteville game since Hadley was born. Then on Sunday we went to church at New Heights. It was so great to be back home. We visited with even more friends.

Pumpkin Patch in NWA

Coming down the stairs for their fashion show.

Kids having fun playing dress up. Yes, Jude has on a tutu. I love the hat, Hadley. And Abby's vail is so dramatic.

Pumpkin Patch (Hadley & Mommy)

Hadley riding one of the big ones.

Hadley peeking through.

The little Ranas

Hadley & Jude playing

Hadley and her buddies!

We were in Fayetteville for several days in October. Brent had a training session on Thursday & Friday. Then we were staying for the UA vs. Ole Miss game. While we were in town, we got to see the newest Rana. Baby Gabriel was just 3 weeks old. It was so great to see him. Hadley thought he was very special. She would kiss him and even got to hold him. She was okay with me holding him. This is pretty huge. She usually will cry and through a small fit if I hold another child. She reminds me that I am her Mommy, not the baby's. So it was good to see her growing out of that phase. We met Anne and the kids at a pumpkin patch. They had a great time. Then we went back to Siloam to spend some more time with everyone.