Storyteller

Kate was "reading" me a story the other day.  Thanks to my iphone, and it's handy "voice memos" app, I was able to record the whole thing. 

Me: What's this story called?

Kate: Jack and the Prince save the Princess, The Prince Kills the Dragon, and the Prince and Princess Of All.

Me: Wow that sounds like a good story! Ok.  Read it to me.

Kate: Once upon a time there was a mean dragon, and it killed everyone.  And he kissed the girl and the princess danced in her beautiful coat.  And the Prince was dancing with her for her birthday last night.  And Sleeping Beauty did NOT like the dragon last night.  And she met the prince and he kissed her and saved her.  Then the witch comed and KILLED her!

Me: (stunned gasp!)

Kate: But the fairies comed and touched Sleeping Beauty, and she comed alive! But the fairies saved her last night.

Me: Is that the end of the story?

Kate:  Nope!

Me: There's more?

Kate: Yeah, and last night she looked up from her map, and Sleeping Beauty lived happily ever after.  The End.

I love this girl and her imagination!

Wordless Wednesday

Wibary Books

Kate loves to read books. We've discovered our local library lately and try to go every other week. We read books everyday. I love that she already has a love of reading.

It's been a lot of fun for me as well!  I'm loving remembering the books I used to read as a kid and checking them out to read to Kate.  Heckedy Peg, Make Way for Ducklings, Tikki Tikki Tembo, The Funny Little Woman, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Jumanji, Where the Wild Things Are...to name a few.

What were some of your favorites as a kid? I'll put them on my list of books we need to check out!

Bubbles!

My kids have been sick for a week and a half.  It started out with high fevers, then an asthma attack (Kate), then teething (Max), then coughs and runny noses.  It was a very long week for me!  When Saturday rolled around we all had some cabin fever.  But were can you take kids that are getting over being sick?  You can't take them anywhere really.  Even though they were a lot better by Saturday, you still didn't want them infecting other kids, or picking up something else!  So we just went to Walmart and bought a new toy for the kids to bring home and play with...a bubble machine!

This was $12 well spent!  The kids LOVE this thing!  We've already gone through half of the bubble solution in 2 days.  It makes lots of small bubbles, and really BIG bubbles!  Needless to say we have a new favorite activity in our house!

A basketball hoop isn't just for basketball...

 It's also a great spot to relax in,

or it could also be used to brush up on balance beam skills,

or also works as a pirate ship, if you are feeling adventurous!

Haha!  I love my kids, they always keep me laughing!

Flashback!

This is my brother and I. Aren't we cute?

Yes, I am rocking a perm.

Have I mentioned before that my brother and I are the same age apart as Kate and Max?  I hope they grow up to be as close as my brother and I are.

If you've ever doubted that my children look like me, the above picture should erase all doubt from your mind. 

Well, you're in for a real treat today folks.  These were my mother's favorite outfits and she's SAVED them all these years.  What are the chances that I would have children in the same order and the same age apart as my mother did?  It's pretty crazy, but it turns out my children fit into those exact clothes that you see above, and I did a mini photo shoot of my children in them.

Ready?

Here's a side by side:

Ha!  I love it! 

Here's a few more for you to enjoy.

 This is her super cheesy "I have to smile for the camera" face!

I was blessed to have my brother be my best friend all growing up, through high school, and still is today.  I hope my kids can have that too!

Natural History Museum

Yesterday I was able to get together with my friend Myke and her cute little girl, Taylor.  I hadn't seen Myke in nearly 10 years. 

10??? 
Yep. 
I'm getting old. 

It was so awesome to see her again!  I'm glad she lives in the valley now and that our girls are the same age.  We need to get together again soon!

We met up at the Natural History Museum in downtown Mesa.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this museum, and it was awesome!!  My kids had a blast!

They had this awesome exhibit outside where you could pan for gold!  If we didn't make the girls go back inside, they would have stayed out here all day!

 It took Kate awhile to warm up to the skeletons.  She kept saying that they were going to come alive! 

It took us about three hours to see the whole museum, and we could have easily stayed longer.  That place is huge.  It was really fun and we can't wait to go back someday!

The Watson Olympics 2012

We are loving the Olympics this year!  I've always loved the olympics, but I think this is the first time I've ever watched them this faithfully.  I don't think we've missed a night of watching them!  So in the spirit of the Olympics, I decided to have an mini Olympics of our own for family home evening last night.  I invited Jaron and Beth's family over and after we ate dinner it was time for the games to begin!


First event: Hammer throw! 

Dustin tied up some heavy blankets and the kids tried to see how far they could throw them.

The weight was too much for Kate,

 and Max just threw a pillow, he was so excited to be involved!

Second event: Volleyball!

(aka "Don't let the balloon touch the ground")

Third event: Racing!

Fourth Event: Long Jump!

The kids got so into this one, we could have just done this all night!

Fifth event: Spinning

We had the kids spin around as long as the could without falling over.  Not based on any Olympic event, but still fun to watch!

Sixth event: Balance Beam!

Seventh event: High Jump! 

These kids are a lot braver than I thought!  They all had so much fun with this event!

Eighth event: Basketball!

After all the games were finally over, it was time for the awards ceremony.  The kids respectfully held their hands over their hearts as Uncle Jaron belted the National Anthem!  It's such a shame that didn't get recorded, because that was a real treat. 

This was the most fun family home evening we've ever done!

Yay for the Olympics!

Pioneer Day

The Saturday after Max's party was Pioneer Day.  It's a holiday celebrated among all Mormons.  It commemorates the day the Mormon pioneers finally made it to the Utah Valley (right? haha, I should know that). And small towns that were founded by pioneers, like Snowflake, throw a big celebration! 

That morning we woke up and went to the parade!  Kate had never been to a parade before and she had lots of fun collecting the candy!

She also had her first taste of cotton candy.  Yum!

It was kind of stormy the rest of the day so we ended up not going to the craft fair and barbeque.  We did have lots of fun playing on the trampline though!

That night we went to Sherice's house to eat.  Kate and Jaylee were in love with Sherice's chickens!  They kept laughing and making chicken noises at them.

After that we took Max home to sleep, and Dustin, Kate and I went to the rodeo!  It was still storming a bit so I opted to not take my nice camera.  So the few pictures I got of the rodeo are not very good.  We went because Grandpa Watson was part of a team that had to chase down a calf and put bloomers on it!  It was hilarious and I'm so sad I couldn't get a picture of it.  Kate ended up falling asleep before the fireworks started, and that's what she was most excited about!

It was a very fun weekend!  We always love it when we visit family!