FACT!!!

So, once when my family was all together at my parents house and we were getting a little bored or slap-happy or something, we came up with a game called... FACT! The best part of the game is when you say FACT you have to do it with extreme matter-of-factness and swing your index finger up to the sky. You might have to be there, but I'm bringing it to you for your reading enjoyment. So a FACT! can be virtually anything that others might not know about you or others. Yeah, we were a little desperate for some fun, but now it's a tradition.

FACT!: I have a thumb sucker! Last night was her first full-on fist clenched, thumb inserted moment that I've seen. Ahhh gee. Good thing Zach's in an orthodontic residency.

FACT!: Liza is 3 1/2 months old and laughing and smiling like crazy. I thought the hair would fade, but it's not really going anywhere yet. Her blue eyes are adorable.

FACT: when Kaitlyn wakes up she has the GREATEST hair on the planet. The sheer volume is covetous.

FACT: When Kaite speaks she sounds EXACTLY like a Britt. Just try saying Mommy and Daddy in your mind with a Brittish accent and there you go. It is CRACKING me up. She also has impecable spanish accent skills. Any word in spanish sounds fantastic, but in english she's still tough to understand sometimes. Living in a foreign country is apparently rubbing off, even if it is Canada.

FACT!: Siblings are born with an inate ability to create the most work possible for their parents. Example: When Liza is screaming in the car for an hour for no apparent reason, Kaitlyn has knocked off to sleep. Right as Liza's starting to slow and Zach and I are allowing our eyes to uncross, Kaitlyn wakes up crying and proceeds to throw up twice all over herself and the car. That's not an accident, that's a perfectly syncronized performance my friends.

FACT!: In stark contrast to the plane ride to Utah for Christmas, the plane ride home was LOVELY. No tears, no spit-up, no worries. Thank Heaven. This is us STILL SMILING on the last leg of our plane ride to Detoit.

FACT!: This shirt makes me look like Where's Waldo... I kind of wish I had it for a certain dance back in High School. Those who participated will appreciate the look I'm sporting... you kno who you are.

FACT!: (All parental bias aside, ofcourse) This is the cutest 3 month old on the planet! She's just hit the phase when she stops eating to look at me and smile... KILL ME!

FACT!: I would love to hear some exciting FACTS! about my friends. The playing field is WIDE open, there are no rules to what constitutes a FACT! but the wierder the better.

P.S. FACT!: I cannot remember a time when I was able to touch my toes. Seriously. Sad but true.

Family Traditions

Kaitlyn is SERIOUSLY impressed by Duma the waterskiing dog! Who wouldn't be?
Here's the fam, living out our fantasies... yep, this is the level we're on.

Yesterday morning, Mary and I set out determined to uphold a long standing family tradition of attending the annual boat and outdoor recreation show. This year took us to Toronto Canada and I must say that we were not disappointed. Owing to the plentiful and large bodies of water there was an assortment of massive cruisers and also our favorite lines of competition wakeboard and waterski boats. Kaitlyn was like a kid in a candy store with all the lights, color and dauntingly massive yachts that each had their fair share of interesting buttons and spiral stairs to play on. Her favorite trick was to turn off the lights on everyone inside or lock herself in the head (means bathroom for you non-boaters, or washroom if you are in Canada). We enjoyed the indoor wakeboard show that was on a giant hockey rink filled with water like a swimming pool with rails and ramps for the riders to launch from. Lots of Ooo's and claps from Kaitlyn made it all the more enjoyable. Her favorite however was the waterskiing beagle from Chicago who nicely posed for a photo with Kaite on his board. Liza just mostly slept and barfed all day. After 6 1/2 hours of carting around kids all over the show we headed for home. Winter in this part Canada from Toronto to just north of London is brutal due to the snow belt. We ended up driving through a storm on our way home so our 2 hour drive turned into a 4 hour drive. We stopped for dinner only to have one of our children decide that they wanted no more driving in the snow storm and decided to cry to the point of losing the Wendy's dinner she had eaten an hour before all over the car. When she wasn't crying the other one would start in, I think it was just to fill the peaceful silence. So we had dirty pants and pukyface that were tag teaming the parents the last 90 minutes of the drive. All said and done we would do it again for the Boat Show. Sick, but true... it was that fun... and memorable.

Day of Faith

This video link is of a Harvard religion panel that took place last month. 5 students with different religous backgrounds talk openly about their beliefs. I love religious and cultural studies and really enjoyed listening to each of the panelists. This link is for the "Mormon" that was interviewed. If I had the opportunity to express my faith my answers would be right in line with hers. She explains about the temple, sacred garments, Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. ENJOY. http://vimeo.com/2120177

ATTENTION!!!

IF YOUR BLOG LINK ISN'T IN "MY FAVORITE PEOPLE" COLUMN PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT WITH THE ADDRESS. I'D LIKE TO ADD LOTS OF PEOPLE BUT YOUR PRIVACY FEATURES KEEP ME FROM VISITING YOU. SO, IF YOU'D LIKE ME TO "COME OVER AND PLAY" LEAVE ME THE GOODS. :)

Coming back up for air after 6 weeks!

Awe! Little Liza Smiling!
Kaite and Liza with their matching sheep blankets a friend gave them

She looks so big to me!!! I Can't stand it.


I have a picture of Kaitlyn doing this exact same face-go figure!

Holloween was obviously a HUGE production (note the sarcasm). Notice how Kaitlyn has bunny ears on her hat, I had to slip them on with out her knowing because she REFUSED to wear her costume. I on the other hand was glad to sport my favorite wig because when you haven't showered, this look is quite a nice change. :)

Hello All, I am back among the living... atleast the majority of the time, woo hoo! Week 3 was the low point for me, lots of crying and very little accomplished, but then I learned to embrace my lack of productivity and now we all in a much healthier place. It also helps that both girls aren't sick anymore. Since Liza's been born we've gone to the doctor 8 times. Yuck! We've been doctor free for a couple weeks now so I'm back to my HAPPY PLACE!

O.K. here's my best story TO DATE:

After visiting the DR. 3 times for Liza's mysterious diaper rash problem, we were told a treatment to try. this was NO ordinary diaper rash. It was much closer to a 2nd degree burn, like I'd dipped Liza's tush in a pot of boiling water. I had been given 2 diferent diagnosis, done the treatment for both and after 2 weeks was back into the dr's office to ask what next. The poor kid would bleed when I changed her diaper, wipes were too harsh and she would just shake and cry! (This was probably the biggest contributer to the 3 week meltdown.) So, a nurse had told me it DEFINATLY sounded like a yeast infection that was being passed back and forth between us when I fed her-even though I had no symptoms and Liza had no oral symptoms. Gentian Violet was the treatment recommendation. This stuff is a dark purple/blue solution that dye's EVERYTHING it touches. I was desparate and would try anything. I put it on myself and when Liza eats, she gets it in her system as well and it kills all yeast. Sounds like a good plan. So I strip down and strip Liza down and put towels around me to catch any spit-up. I was only going to put a little on but Zach wanted his moneys worth and said not to be stingy... great plan Zach. We quickly realized the flaw in our plan... The 1st law of parenting: it is absolutely impossible to keep a baby from getting messy when you want them to stay clean. In the process of latching on, Liza successfully rubbed the violet dye ALL over her face. REMEMBER: IT DOESN'T COME OFF. After she got on, things went better until Kaitlyn strolled into the room. She doesn't pay too much attention to Liza, but thinks the milk thing is pretty cool and likes to comment on it when Liza's eating. With this in mind, she stolls over to give me her play-by-play commentary about how Liza's drinking milk-not noticing the blue part yet. At that moment, Liza chokes and pulls off to cough exposing her blue face. Kaitlyn looks at Liza, then looks at me and... starts to dry heave. I wasn't ready for her reaction and started to laugh but was still trying to get her to STOP so she didn't puke all over. Luckily Zach was close and removed her from the scene. I was still laughing while she left thinking about what must be going through her head. A few minutes later, I was burping Liza and Kaitlyn wandered back into the room cautiously. She stopped at the door and I was explaining that it was blue medicine and this was good for Liza. Kaite looked like she processed it well and was "keeping it down" fine. Then without notice, Liza spit up tons of milk... BLUE MILK. Poor Kaitlyn was glued to her spot in the doorway staring with wide eyes when the dry heaving started again. This time I didn't have anyone around to get Kaitlyn to leave and it was like she couldn't take her eyes off what was making her so sick. I couldn't get up bacause I was covered in spit up and worse then that, I was laughing so hard I couldn't call loud enough to get help. I finally composed myself to tell Kaite to turn around and leave which she thankfully did. My 2 year old dry heaving was just too funny. To this day, 3 weeks later, she still comes over everytime I feel Liza to shake her finger and say "No more blue", still traumatized by the experience. FYI: in the end, there was no yeast infection afterall. Liza, can't tolerate desitin diaper ointment, which I was ofcourse smothering all over her. After I stopped the desitin, she healed right up. Yikes! But, as a reminder of our experience had a blue mouth for 5 days. :)

Liza's 2 weeks old

Well, 2 weeks later, we are all still surviving. My mother-in-law just left us this morning and I haven't found out yet if we'll make it on our own because sesame street has been on the whole time. :) We'll see! The last 2 weeks haven't been without adventure. We've already endured really bad yeast infections on both girls and Kaitlyn was diagnosed with hand/foot/mouth yesterday. FANTASTIC. Lots of hand washing and hopefully Liza won't have to get it too. I still promise that I'll add the labor and delivery experience when I get a chance for your entertainment and enjoyment. But for now the peace has left us and I should help these girls.

picking a pumkin last week

Elizabeth Ivie Williams has Arrived!!!

Liza came Sunday Night, October 5th at 11:42 pm after 7 hours of labor. That is a 17 hour improvement over Kaitlyn's delivery!!! HURRAY! There is another whole blog regarding my delivery experience but I don't have tons of time, so we're skipping details for now.

WEIGHT: 6 lb 14 oz, LENGTH: 18 in. She has been so sweet and it feels like she's been around for so much more than 1 week. She can wake the dead with her crying when she wants to but it actually just cracks me up because Kaitlyn was very quiet. Kaitlyn looks so much like Zach and suprise, surprise I looked a lot like this when I was born. Brown hair and all. She's a Bentley! Here's some pics.

Home for 2 days and she looks so old already!!!
Dad is VERY proud
Kaitlyn's first time seeing Liza at the hospital... "I'm not so sure Mom"
This is right after Kaityn kissed her on the head... So cute!
What she looks like RIGHT NOW, let's hope it sticks long enough for a shower. Love you all and I'll do more later!