Joseph's many faces

These photos were from a little photo shoot at the dinner table where I would tell Joseph to look mad, surprised, sad or happy. It was fun watching him understand the vocabulary for the different emotions. These are all faces he makes during the day in real life. He does a great face when he is excited. He opens his eyes really wide and raises his eyebrows up high. It is even better than the suprised/happy face he is doing in the picture.

My little sleepyheads

Here are my two little sleepy heads. See how Joseph wraps himself up in his blankets? It was wrapped even tighter the other night, completely around his middle. Joseph calls them his "baby" and recently has been telling me while cuddling his blankey, "Baby happy." I presume he means his blankey makes him happy? Who knows, maybe he has a happy blankey. He also likes to rub his blankey on my cheek once in awhile. He smiles when he does this. I think he feels like he is sharing the joy. I love it.

And here is my sweet Rebecca. I wanted to take this picture to show how hard she is trying to stop sucking her thumb. Since she does it in her sleep she has decided to wear a sock every night so she won't do it. So far so good. I'm really proud of her because this really means a lot to her. Were that we were all so determined to reach our goals.

I'm here

Friday night. Warren and I had just gotten home from a date (or rather a work social obligation event!). My kids were fast asleep in bed. I had to leave home early, 4:00 to get there on time because it was at the Hollywood Bowl and traffic on a Friday night is horrendous.
Every time I leave the kids with a babysitter (no matter how much I like the babysitter or how much fun I know they probably had) once I get home I feel this really strong urge to go in and wake up my kids to tell them: "Mommy's home, everything is okay now." I don't know what it is, the maternal instinct I suppose, but even though they are sleeping I want them to know Mommy is there.
I went in to check on them. Joseph's blanket was wrapped so tightly around his waist I wanted to loosen it. In the process it did wake him up. He was so tired but kept trying to open his eyes to see me. It was as if he wanted to make sure I was real and was going to stay.
I rocked him for a few minutes and put him back down. I resisted the urge to wake Rebecca (of course I never wake them on purpose) but a few minutes later I heard her drinking her water so I knew she was awake and I went in and said goodnight to her.
My kids want to be around me. I have two little shadows much of the day. If they aren't in the same room they at least want to be on the same level of the house. Sometimes Rebecca will just yell out: "Mom?" I answer: "What?" She says: "Nothing, I just wanted to know that you were there."
I'm glad I'm here. It's a lot of work sometimes, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It won't always be this way. Life moves on. Things change. But for now, they want me here.
And here I'll stay.

Family News

Here is the promised announcement. My wonderful in-laws, Fred and Carol Williams have been asked to serve as Temple President and Temple Matron of the Recife, Brazil Temple beginning in November and lasting three years. We are excited for them but will miss them! The official announcement came out in the Church News on the 4th of July. It was perfect timing because we were in the middle of a family reunion and were able to share the joy with everyone together. My children will officially have no immediate grandparents living in the same country, but luckily my grandma lives close by so they have a great-grandma and in addition they are used to using skype and seeing their Luschin Grandparents frequently on the computer. So we will just be adding a little more skype time to our lives.

Oceanside 10th Anniversary

Our plans for a date night to celebrate our 10th anniversary fell through because Rebecca got sick, but we got to have a special weekend the very next week with the kids. We went to Oceanside, which is where we spent our honeymoon and had a wonderful little vacation. It was great to get away for a couple of nights and have some quality time with the kids. We turned Rebecca into a sand mermaid and after I took a picture of her she requested: "I want you to put that picture onto your blog." So take a look at my sandy beauty. Joseph even got brave and enjoyed the water, too. It was a great trip.

Highlights:

-beach time
-Warren getting stung by a sting ray our first morning (almost thought we would have to go home it hurt so badly)
-a walk on the pier, seeing dolphins, pelicans and a star fish
-a family bike ride along the beach
-lots of laughter
-a delicious dinner
-a beautiful sunset

Three great pictures (Utah reunion)

Here are three pictures from the reunion that I thought deserved special attention:


This one shows the places where the posterity of Warren's grandparents Fred and Corraine have served missions or served in the military.

These are the beautiful cherries in front of the Williams home.

Cousins and great friends, Aubrey and Rebecca

Family Reunion part 2 and 4th of July

(click on the picture to enlarge)

The family reunion consisted of descendants of Frederick S. and Corraine Williams, Warren's grandparents. We got reacquainted with people we hadn't seen in a long time and I met many new cousins. Rebecca and her cousin Aubrey planned a party all by themselves. It really was one of the cutest things I have ever seen and the description won't do it justice. Aunt Yvonne had given them some party supplies, but Rebecca and Aubrey took it from there. The night before they had already planned the party game and asked me to keep the supplies safe from Joseph. The next day during lunch they walked around and got all the guests at the reunion to sign their name on a paper. Then they set up the game and ran the game all by themselves-throwing a ball into a basket-if you did it three times you got a prize. I was so impressed by their initiative and order. These kids knew exactly what to do.

The kids swam all afternoon and then we headed off to Thanksgiving Point for volleyball, a picnic and fireworks. It was a great day. Sunday was the final day of the reunion. We went to church and then had an afternoon of singing, and getting to know all of the extended family members. Monday we drove home. It was a whirlwind trip.
I'm sorry to all of our Utah friends that I didn't even contact. Please don't be hurt that we didn't call. We love you but I was sick and trying to just hang in there for all of the family events. Plus, we wanted to spend as much time as possible with Warren's parents because soon we won't be seeing them very much. Announcement to follow....