Spring Getaway

June 2nd, 2011

Where to, you ask?

To see the new baby, of course! And while we were there, we thought we might as well say hi to Jonathan’s parents and siblings… :)

I think we chose one the hottest days of the year to go to Virginia and see family, but other than the heat and heavy traffic on the way up, our trip was perfect! Mommy and baby are doing very well – baby is never without a pair of loving arms to hold him. It would be the same for you too if you were the youngest of 9 children and had several adoring aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends waiting their turn! Trust me.

As always, pictures can tell a story better than I can, so browse through them and enjoy!

Family is one of the greatest gifts God gives us, and I’m so thankful for mine. Have a blessed day!

~Kasie

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He’s so Cute!

March 30th, 2011

Our newest nephew, Mason Henry, born to my sister Joy and brother-in-law Kenny on March 2nd.

Mom just got back from a visit to meet her 22nd grandbaby and family.

~Katelyn, the big sister.

Isn’t he precious?

This Auntie is blessed indeed. We love you, Mason!

~Kasie

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Merry Christmas 2010!

December 25th, 2010

A very Merry Christmas to all our readers

~From our family to yours. :-)

May your day be blessed!

~TheWilli

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Little David

May 27th, 2010

Here are the promised pictures of David Josiah! My sister-in-law was discharged from the hospital and able to come home today, so we all got to meet little David. Isn’t he precious?

We’ve been trying to keep him awake during the day as much as possible. Here he had his eyes wide open for a long time!

Such a cutey! Children are a blessing from the Lord.

Aunty Kasie gets to hold David her new nephew

Uncle Nate’s turn

Big brother Chris gets a turn too!

Did you know that David is Mom’s 21st grandchild? I love our big family!

-Kasie

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Weekend Snapshots

May 1st, 2010

(from last weekend. Oops! I’m so behind)

Somebody turned the big “1″…

Somebody turned 13 – two special numbers this year!

We saw Emily play the part of Jane Bennett in a Pride and Prejudice musical, and visited with her family afterwards (Angie got into the spirit of things and dressed up for the performance).

We visited with a dear family we hadn’t seen in a long time…

…and got a little silly…

I think Josh took a cue from our examples;

:-D Have a happy weekend!

-Kasie

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Spring Vacation #1: Chloe and Annie

April 2nd, 2010

As many of you have known (or guessed), the week or so long silence on our blog has been due to our week long family vacation! We have a lot of friends we’ve been wanting to visit with in and around the Missouri area, and Mom and Dad decided we had better take a family vacation while we’re still all together and at home (as it is, not all of us can always accompany the rest on road trips). That’s how our trip came about, and last week, early Wednesday morning, we set out for our first destination, Franklin, TN!

Some of you may remember how last year we did a similar thing, driving out to see our friends Lindsey and Chloe. This time however, it was Chloe and her younger sister Annie who we saw (Lindsey was unable to make it). I was excited, because Annie is my penpal and friend, and we finally were able to meet each other!

We picked them up from the Campbells’ house where they were serving with the Above Rubies ministry, and headed out into the Franklin to spend our day together. What fun we had!

Oh yeah, if you’re wondering why all four of us girls are wearing matching skirts, take a look at the comment section here. :-)

Visit the Rubies Girls blog for a view from Chloe’s camera. :-)

It was awesome seeing you girls! Have a wonderful Easter!

-Kasie

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Because it Was Requested…

February 12th, 2010

…by my big bro Jason, a quote from yours truly, while playing some Phase 10. Here you go, Jase!

“That’s why we don’t read directions, because you find out terrible things!”

~a “Kasieism”

If you’re totally confused, don’t worry. You’d have to live with my crazy family to truly understand, but I’ll try and explain. :-)

First of all, one must understand that Willises do not read directions. Don’t ask me why, but we just don’t, and it runs in our family too! So when we played Phase 10 for the first time, we found it remarkably similar (if not the same!) to another card game we’ve known for years, and so applied many of its rules to Phase 10. Why bother reading the directions if you already know how to proceed?

It wasn’t until we played with our Virginia family that Jason insisted we read the proper instructions concerning skips and wilds (yes, he can be a stickler! :-P ), and the outcome was worse than we had before! Nobody I didn’t like these newfound rules, and that’s when I said that famous line you just read, the one Jason will never let me forget. :-)

Still don’t get it? That’s okay. It’s a family thing…

-Kasie

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Outer Banks #4: T-Shirts and Family Portraits

October 1st, 2009

It was Joy’s Sharon’s idea to surprise Mom with family reunion t-shirts. Over the past months we’d emailed each other sizes, designs, and pictures. What she came up with was perfect, and Mom came into the living room one evening to find us all passing out and wearing our appointed t-shirts! Surprise complete!

Of course, we wanted a family portrait, so we headed out to the beach one morning for the photo shoot. (these pictures are “pre-photoshoot”. for the real family portraits, scroll down).

And now for the official family portraits…

familyportrait

You wouldn’t believe how long it took to get everybody looking and smiling at once (especially with a timer camera and no photographer), but this was my favorite one. Don’t we look great? :-)

sillyportrait

We always do a silly picture too. It’s tradition! This one is my favorite also.

portrait2

Then we did separate family portraits…

portrait1

I love Abby’s expression in that one!

portrait3

Aww!

portrait4

And our famlily portrait. I can see this on a Christmas card…

-Kasie

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Summer Vacation in September

September 28th, 2009

I’ve just returned from a fabulous vacation – one of those vacations that are so good, you never want it to end!  Want to know why it was so wonderful? it was our first ever family reunion!

Since our family is growing so large (I mean, two more babies were added this year!) we decided it was time to begin the tradition of vacationing together every few years. We chose this year, 2009, as a kick off year in honor of Mom’s 60th birthday, and rented a beach house together on the Outer Banks, NC. Not all of us could make it, unfortunately (it’s been 6 years since we were all together at Joy’s wedding), Brian and Tina’s branch of the family were missing. But we still had 29 people in that huge house!

That was one sweet house. :-) 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, three levels, three refrigerators, home theater, heated pool, hot tub, not to mention the ocean side beach was our backyard! Ah! What fun we had.

So, there’s been a lull in the posting lately – expect a lot more to come. I think I took over 400 pictures! Yep, you guys are in for it. :-)

Ta, ta!

-Kasie

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August Trip #7: Around the House/Family

August 31st, 2009

This is going to be the last August Trip post in the series. Whew! What a ride. (you guys are probably relieved!) Can you believe that we took almost 400 pictures during that two week period? This has to be some sort of feat, sorting through all those and organizing them into condensed/blog form all in one week!

Okay, enough about my amazing family journaling skills, let’s turn our attention to this last post.

So in the past 5 or 6 posts you’ve seen us constantly going places, having people over, and running around in general. But some of the most fun, sweetest times we spent was at “home” with Sharon and family. We had bike rides, movie nights (LOTS of those), games, photoshoots, and just pure sweet fellowship. Angie, Nikki, Alyssa and I gathered in the kitchen every afternoon preparing meals for our families, or making desserts. (Alyssa, you’re a great watermelon seed-getter-outer!) John kept us cracking up with his infamous puns and jokes – it was splendid!

So Sharon and John, thank you for your hospitality, a lovely time and visit. We love you guys!

But wait! I’m not done yet. :-) As a sort of last minute decision, we decided to stop by and stay overnight at my brother Brian’s house before returning home. It’s been a year since we’ve seen each other, so we wanted to make sure to squeeze a short visit in, even though it was out of the way.

I didn’t get to challenge Brian to our favorite card game of Spit, but we did have many rousing games of home basketball! (with the kiddie basketball hoop). Nate and Brian did some ninja moves and beat me soundly. :-) We had dinner together, played more games, ate ice cream and watched a movie. It was short, but sweet.

Though we made several stops on the way down, we still made good time on the return journey, and arrived home at Providence Glen at a reasonable time. The next morning we were up and at ‘em again – it was a busy and exciting week for us! But more news on that later.

nateandjeremy

That’s just a little teaser/goofy picture I though I’d add for your amusement.

Ah, it’s good to be back home again! I hope you all have enjoyed this series. God bless!

-Kasie

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