Thanksgiving 2010

Well this Thanksgiving will be one that the Williams family will remember for a long time.

This year my whole family (my dad, brother, Tom, his wife, Dawn, and their daughter, Adeline.  My two sisters Jackie and Joanna and Joanna's husband, Shane.)  came to our house.  This was my second time doing Thanksgiving.  I'm really glad this event wasn't my first years experience. 

I got up at 5 am and prepared the turkey.  Nothing else needed to be started until around noon.

Around 12:30 I went and starting making all the side dishes.  A little while later my sisters, Jackie and Joanna, and my sister-in-law, Dawn, came to help me in the kitchen.  We were busy preparing everything. Everything was running somewhat on time.  As each side finished we would cover it so it wouldn't become cold. (this will come into play later)

At 1:15 I went to take the turkey out of the oven.

As I tried to take the pan out it became really flimsy and I noticed it was dripping grease.  I didn't want to try and pull it out by myself and ruin the main dish so I yelled for Thomas to come help.  He removed it with no problems and we replaced it with the sweet potatoes and biscuits.   My dad starting carving the turkey, Joanna started the gravy and I continued to put things into place.  Within minutes of taking the turkey out of the oven Joanna started coughing and complaining that smoke was bothering her and it was hard for her to breathe.  She has been battling a cold so none of us thought much of it.  (she was standing by the oven vent and was breathing in the smoke from the oven that I was about to discover.)

When the sweet potatoes were done I went to the oven and opened the door.  Black smoke came rolling and I mean rolling out of the oven.  My dad, Joanna and I started coughing and coughing.  My first thought was I had burned the sweet potatoes and they were smoking, but at the exact moment my brain was comprehending that the entire bottom of my oven ignited in flames.  I slammed the door close and went running for the living room where the rest of the family was.  I think I yelled the ovens on fire, but all I remember is people running into the kitchen.  By this time the house was filling with dark smoke and flames were coming out the bottom of the oven.

A few of us grabbed the kids and ran them upstairs to get them away from the smoke, a few of us starting opening windows, doors and anything else that would let smoke out and a few of us grabbed the fire extinguisher, which was in the back of the cupboard wrapped in the box (I mean, who needs a fire extinguisher.) and my brother, Tom, starting putting the fire out. 

It was so scary to see all the smoke.  Everyone was coughing so hard and gasping for air.  When my brother started putting the fire out the combination of him using the extinguisher and the smoke from the flames made my brother completely disappear from sight.  Luckily, we had just finished drying the crystal dishes to use and had left a extremely wet towel laying right next to the stove.  So my brother was able to grab that and throw it over his face.

Once the fire was out we were able to examine the damage... sweet potatoes and biscuits- no hope, the rest of the meal- great, the kitchen and anything in it including people- covered in ash.  (We were able to conclude that the turkey pan had gotten a hole in it, probably when I put it in the oven, and dripped grease the entire 7 hours.  Then at some point the aluminium foil on the bottom of the oven ignited.)

We waited for the smoke to clear, closed all the windows and doors and waited for the heat to return in the house, removed all the covers from the food and had a very nice Thanksgiving.

Hope your Thanksgiving was less eventful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Like father, like son

Last night as Thomas was putting Garrison to bed Garrison was having a small fit.  I couldn't hear much through the monitor so I didn't know exactly what was going on.  All I knew was that Garrison was trying to tell Thomas something and Thomas was acting like are-you-kidding-me.

A few minutes later Thomas came into the bedroom and said, "He wanted his wipes put back in the basket [where it's suppose to always be put back] and not laying out on the floor."  Thomas said this with a slight annoyance in his voice.

I smiled and said, "Ahhh, now you know what it's like to live with you."  The response from Thomas was a grunt and I just laid there and smiled.  Getting a taste of his own medicine. 

Choose words wisely

Sometimes I wish that I had the ability to explain things better, especially to a 2 1/2 year old.  Here's how a conversation went with Garrison yesterday:

Me:  "Garrison, lets race to see who can clean up the legos and mega blocks faster.  You clean up the legos and I'll take the mega blocks.  Ready... set... go."

I start cleaning up.  Garrison starts playing, of course.

Me:  "Garrison, I'm going to kick your butt."

Garrison stands up, turns around, sticks his butt out and says, "Here."  I almost fell over laughing.

Me:  "No, honey, I don't mean I'm actually going to kick your butt.  It means I'm going to beat you."

Garrison looks at me with a puzzled look.

Me:  "I... mean... uh... I'm not going to beat you.  It means I'm going to win."

I did win and Garrison did pick up his legos.

He's walking

Josiah is walking!  I always told people that I knew he was going to just take off walking one day like he'd been doing it his whole life and that's exactly what happened.  He hadn't been taking many steps on his own.  He'd hold our fingers and walk around that way, but didn't really adventure out on his own.  Until the other day...  he just stood up and walked around our dining room table, even making the turns. Now he's a little walking machine.

Let the adventure begin....

another video

Here's another video of Garrison singing his favorite Casting Crowns songs "Until the whole world hears." 

These moments

Yesterday we were in Target when Garrison started singing the alphabet song.  He's so cute when he sings it.  He does really good until he gets to "g" he says "j" and gets all messed up.  Sometimes he'll stop singing and other times he'll say a few letters until xyz and then he sings the end.  Yesterday while we were shopping instead of singing "next time won't you sing with me" he said, "next time won't you sing with your Garrison."  It was so cute.

I love those cute, unexpected moments.  The ones where Garrison comes to me and says, "Mom, missed you" when I've been in another room.  Or when he says, "Mom, me need you."  Or when he squats down, holds his hands out and says, "come here, Babbers" (a name I call Josiah often) as Josiah walks to him.  I love after that when they fall over and both start giggling. 

I love those moments where Garrison and Josiah are on the floor wrestling with each other and are giggling so hard it's hard for them to move.  I love the moments at night when Josiah leans over and Garrison gives him a good night kiss.  I love the moments when the boys will share their food with each other.  I love the moments when Garrison says, "Me like Siah (Josiah)."  I love the moments where Josiah comes up to me whenever I have food and grunts until I give him some.  I love that I am living one of my dreams by staying home and experiencing these moments with my boys.  I love that I get to tell Thomas at night all the fun things the boys did and that it's not someone else telling me all the fun things they did.

I love these moments.  They help me get through the days when Garrison decides he will just walk up to Josiah and push him over when Josiah is trying so hard to walk.  Or when Garrison and Josiah can't seem to be in the same room as each other without fighting.  Or when Josiah decides he'd rather not get a diaper change and I work up a sweat just trying to accomplish the task.  Or when Satan says, "Sarah, you're not doing a very good job.  See your boys aren't even behaving the way you're trying to teach them." 

I love these moments.  There God's way of showing me that I am a good mom. I'm doing what I've been called to do.  I am an imperfect parent trying to raise imperfect children and needing God's help every step of the way.

 I love these moments.  I love these boys.  I love these days.   

New hats

A friend of mine was nice enough to pick up Garrison and Josiah's new winter hats for me.  Aren't they the cutest?  I can't wait for it to get cold out ONLY so they can wear these hats. 

Josiah's hat is on backwards in the photo, but who cares he's not wearing it right when you look so warm, cozy and cute.