Well, Mom, it’s now closer to happening than ever before. I’m talking about the danger my mom has been worried about ever since we built our house a couple years back. See, Julie and I each had some things that we really wanted in our home. One thing I really wanted was a nice big open family room with a loft above it. Well, it’s kind of been a running joke that sooner or later our boys would figure out that they could actually jump off the balcony. Last Christmas we got a trampoline and when my parents heard about it they were nervous right away that we’d set it up in the family room, thus further enticing the boys to jump. We joked about having little head dents in the ceiling. Well, mom, no worries, they haven’t actually jumped yet.

HOWEVER…Peyton and Soren were in trouble the other day and were sitting on the couch in the family room getting a good talking-to from me. As we were talking something prompted Soren to say, “well, yeah dad, Peyton climbed up over the railing today” and he pointed up toward the loft and looked at Peyton with a look of pure admiration that only a younger brother could have for an older. This stopped me in mid-sentence.

The wall and railing in question

“What?”, I asked.

“Peyton climbed up the wall and over the railing, Dad”, said Soren.

“All the way up and over?”

“uh-huh” they both said, giggling.

My eyes got wide. It was one of those parenting moments when you know you’re supposed to be mad, but the whole situation sure makes it tough. I turned to Julie, who was doing dishes in the kitchen, with a stern look on my face.

“WOW!”, she said, eyes wide.

The boys broke out in laughter as they saw how impressed their mom was with Peyton’s feat. There went my ability to stay stern-faced.

Afterwards of course, I did lecture them on the danger of doing that, but for the first time I realized that just maybe, my mom was right about the possibilities of that balcony.

So with the news that we’re having twins, one of the first things we realized is that we will no longer all fit in our minivan. We’ve had a Grand Caravan for the last few years and it’s been great. Except it only seats 7. So here’s my criteria for a new vehicle:

1. Seats at least 8
2. Leather. I’m sick of cleaning up (or trying unsuccessfully to clean up) soaked in kid stains and spilled food, etc off cloth. (on another topic we’ve now made a rule that only Julie, while pregnant, is allowed to eat in the van. Will this be successful? Stay tuned…)
3. NO big square vans allowed. Sorry, I just can’t do it.
4. DVD system required – With 6 kids, unless I start racking up serious frequent flyer miles (which may be a possibility – I’ll talk about that in a future blog), the only place we’ll be flying is to Hawaii or Italy, whenever we make those trips. Anything else in the continental U.S. we’re probably driving to. So we need a good entertainment system.
5. Good cargo space. See explanation for number 4.

Other than that, I don’t really care too much. So with those criteria in mind, we’ve basically narrowed down the list to 3 options: Chevy Suburban, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Sienna. At first I was leaning heavily toward the minivans, because of the bad gas mileage and pure juggernaut size of the Suburban. But then we drove one and wow. It sure was nice and roomy inside. There’s something to be said for not feeling cramped every time you get in the car. But then we looked at Jared and Jamie’s Odyssey, which they drove from Minnesota a week ago. It’s got a lot more cargo space than our Grand Caravan does and it still seats 8. Plus it’s a Honda, of course, so that’s a bonus over Chevy from a long-term financial and mechanical standpoint. We haven’t driven a Sienna yet, but I’m sure once we do, we’ll have even more questions and be more confused. Fortunately we have 4 or 5 months before we really have to decide, but I’d like to decide what we want sooner so I can have my eyes open for good deals. So does anyone have input?

Well, I did it. I finally caved in to the pressure to get a family blog site. Being the “techie-geek” that I am, you think I would have done this long ago. But I’ve just dragged my feet on giving in to the whole blog craze. However, after a recent project at work forced me to evaluate RSS readers, blog software, and our own content syndication services, I finally conceded that this whole blog thing aint that bad. So this is the inaugural post of 8 Williams. I’ve had numerous family photo and video pages in the past, but was never very good at keeping them up. Hopefully the ease and convenience of using a 3rd-party blog space provider make it a bit easier for me AND Julie to keep up on things.

So why 8 Williams? Why are there only 6 of us in the above photo? Well, the other 2 are on their way. It’s been just about 2 weeks since we found out we’re expecting twins! We’re really thrilled, but scared also. After they’re born, we’re (PRETTY) sure we’re done! SO I feel relatively safe owning the domain 8williams.com and titling this blog that way. Hopefully, Julie and I can share some of what we’re experiencing with our crazy boys, the sweet Princess Eden, and everything else going on in our lives. And if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to share back!