How Did I Forget About This One?

It was a few weeks before Christmas, and Andy and I were helping our younger siblings write their letters to Santa. The kids were dutifully making their lists when I had an idea. An awful idea. I had a wonderful awful idea! I immediately took one of the crayons and a piece of construction paper and started to write this:

Dear Santa,

Jared wants an onion.

Jennifer wants chocolate cheese.

Alex wants a bag of dirt.

Thank you,

The Foree Family

Among screams of protest (“Noooo! Stop it, you stupid it! I DON’T WANT chocolate cheese for Christmas!!!), Andy and I put the letter to Santa in an envelope and ‘mailed’ it.

The weeks went by with questions (“Erin, did you really mail that letter to Santa?) and they’re responding taunts (“Of course! I thought that’s what you really wanted!”).

When Christmas Eve came, Andy and I set our devious plan into action. We created chocolate cheese by melting chocolate chips and pouring it over sticks of cheese. We made a beautifully colored onion with food dye. We went out into our back yard and filled a Ziploc bag with dirt. We went to bed satisfied with our work still cackling our evil laughs.

It was worth it in the morning.

“Why did you tell Santa I wanted this?!?”
“I DID NOT WANT an onion!”
“I want to play with my bag of dirt!”

We did eventually explain that it was us, and not Santa, that had done these things. But not until after Jennifer had tasted the chocolate cheese.

I love Ebay!

We just bought this set off of Ebay for just $50! It's basically everything but the lamp, hamper, and mobile. So cute! It's by JoJo Designs. I looked it up on Amazon and it's selling for $150, and on Overstock it said it originally retailed for $250. Sweet deal right? I love it!

Christmas Memories

As Christmas grows closer and closer, I can’t help but think that this is our last Christmas as a couple. Next year we’ll be a family, with our daughter. I love Christmas; it’s always been my favorite time of year. I love everything about it! I especially love the focus on the family, and the spirit that is in the air. Everyone is in a giving mood, and I just think it brings out the best in people. And while I dream of future Christmases with my family, I got to thinking about some of my favorite memories of this time of year. I have a lot, so I narrowed it down to just 10 for this post.

1. When I was 5 or 6 years old, my family lived in Florida. That year we had a little 3 foot Christmas tree. We had fun decorating that little tree, and Andy and I went to bed on Christmas Eve as excited as any little kid would be. When we woke up the next morning, and our parents had finally given us permission to enter the living room, we turned the corner to find that our little tree had grown! It was now a 6 foot tall Christmas tree fully decorated with ornaments. It wasn’t magic or Santa Claus. My dad went and got the tree the night before (trees are free on Christmas Eve), and my parents had decorated it to surprise us.

2. Every year when we were little we called to talk to Santa on Christmas Eve. I found out years later than it was, in fact, my grandpa we were talking to. I guess my mom couldn’t find Santa’s real number. But he would have been too busy to talk to us on Christmas Eve anyway right?

3. Every year all the kids would sleep in the same room. Even the years we did foster care we would do it. Andy and I would put the kids to bed by singing Christmas songs, then we would leave for a while (kids go to sleep at 7:00 in the Foree household) and then sneak back in later. We would all wake up really early the next morning, but we weren’t allowed out until everyone was dressed and camera-ready.


4. My favorite Christmas of all time would have to be the year that we spent it at Disneyland. We didn’t get gifts that year, just five magical days at the happiest place on earth. We did have stockings on Christmas morning. I guess Santa knew where we would be! That Christmas was the best, not only because it was at Disneyland, but also because it was about being with family and making memories, which last longer than any toy you could get on Christmas. It’s something I’m definitely doing with my own family someday.

5. My senior year I was in a play called “Meet Me in St Louis”. This one didn’t technically happen at Christmas time because we did our plays in spring, but I think of it as a Christmas memory anyway. There’s a scene near the end of the play that’s set on Christmas Eve. I (Esther) had just gotten home from a dance to find my little sister Tootie (played that night by Dayna Penrod [Arnell]) crying and extremely upset because we had to move to New York. I sit her down and comfort her by singing, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. It’s a beautiful moment between sisters. The music ends, we hug, and Tootie goes off to bed as I remain on the couch. I hear a loud bang, and the audience erupts into laughter. I didn’t see it until later when I watched the video, but as Dayna was leaving the set, she walked straight into the 1920’s phone we had hanging on the corner of the set! The poor girl hit her head so hard! I’m hoping to find a clip of it sometime before Christmas, but for now you just have to imagine the hilarity.

6. On Christmas morning we always have sugar cake and hot chocolate. Sugar Cake is basically a sweet roll recipe rolled flat on a cookie sheet. It’s topped with tons of butter and sugar. Delicious.


7. This is the Christmas card we made last year. We never sent it out, because we’re lazy like that, but we had the best time making it. Every year Dustin and I have wanted to do a Christmas card. Those plans always included Sherice, because it’s just random and funnier that way. We finally did one last year, and it’s such a shame they didn’t get mailed. They’re awesome, as you can see. And yes. Christmas is spelled wrong on purpose. That Thanksgiving Uncle Brian had got the whole Welker clan tickets to The Rockettes. It wasn’t their best night. During one of their dances they were rag dolls playing with lettered blocks. At the end they held each of their blocks high in the air not to spell “Merry Christmas” but “Merry Chaistmrs”. Oops.

8. My first Christmas with Dustin. We were poor and bought our tree, ornaments and wrapping paper at Family Dollar. We then proceeded to wrap every empty box in the house to make it look like we had a ton of presents.

9. Last year we bought my family crappy presents. Seriously. We were tight on money, as we always are around Christmas, so we went to the Target dollar bins. Among our favorite gifts were a jar of plastic pickles, a wooden racecar, a planner with cute and fuzzy kittens on it, and an instructional DVD entitled “Learn to Do Magic with Lynn”. It was hilarious and is most definitely one of our favorite memories.

10. I’ll end this list on a more serious note. It was maybe our second Christmas after moving to Joseph City. I was about 9 or 10 years old. We were really poor that year. I don’t remember why, I was still young enough to think that it was awesome that the Bishop brought us food every two weeks. My parents had warned us that it would be a small Christmas that year. But we had others watching out for us. For 12 days before Christmas, we had new presents on our doorstep every evening. My brother and I diligently tried to catch the culprit, but were unsuccessful. Also that same year we came home from church one day to see an enormous box of presents sitting on top of our car. I still don’t know who it was who did these things for our family, but if you happen to be reading this…Thank you!

So there you go….10 of my favorite Christmas memories. You were diligent enough to make it to the end of this really long blog. This wasn’t intended to be a Tag post, but I want to hear everyone else’s memories too! So I tag:
Andy
Alicia
Khristen
Kim
Elaine (if you’re not in labor)
Mom
And…anyone else feeling in the Christmas spirit!

We've moved!

I haven’t updated our blog since Thanksgiving, so here’s what’s been going on.

Thanksgiving morning my dad received some sad news. His cousin, Shelley Conway, had passed away. She had lost a very brief 2 month battle with cancer. My sympathies go out to the Conway family and to all those morning her loss. On Monday night, my father came down to Gilbert to go to the viewing. He brought my sister Jennifer with him and I took her to see Twilight that evening. Which, I have to say, wasn’t that bad. I actually enjoyed it. That’s a lot to say, since I’m the only person I know who isn’t in love with the books. Jennifer and my dad stayed the night in my living room.

The next morning my mom drove down with the rest of my siblings. I took Jen, Alex and Jared to see Bolt. That movie was really good. I laughed a lot, and being pregnant I cried at the end. It’s not sad, it just tugs at your heart the way only Disney movies can. You’re going to watch it and be like “What was she crying about?” I’m even welling up just thinking about it. Dang these pregnancy hormones! After the movie I took everyone for “the best burgers they ever had” at In and Out Burger.

The rest of the week was spent trying to organize and pack up our apartment. I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped.
On Friday, we got the keys. Dustin spent all afternoon moving stuff into the new apartment. Saturday morning Sherice and her boyfriend Scott, and Dustin’s friends Nate and Jason came to help us out. We lived in a third floor apartment, and we moved across the street into another third floor apartment! I’m just grateful anyone showed up at all! We got most everything moved in (once again, Thanks so much guys!) and we went and cleaned out the old apartment on Sunday. That took all day. We didn’t realize how much we had left to do!

Monday morning Dustin called in sick to work. Honestly, I think that move killed us all. We got some more errands done, unpacked a good portion of the boxes, and finally put up our crib!

We also went and bought some stuff for the new apartment. We got some new bath stuff at wal-mart, and a new couch cover at Linens and Things. I have been waiting for one of these for four years now!


I also purchased a bedding set from there as well about a week ago. We're loving the going out of business sale!Then finally we put up our Christmas decorations! Usually they go up the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I had to wait until we were moved in. We bought this tree 4 years ago for our first Christmas at Family Dollar. We’ve kept it ever since. Every year we’ve just added more and more lights and ornaments to distract ourselves from the hideousness of the actual tree. There are 3 strings of lights and about 6 boxes of ornaments on it this year. Also I added a star to the top later.

We love our new apartment so much! We are so grateful that everything has worked out so well. Only 16 days until Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was another short trip. We decided we'd save the rest of Dustin's vacation days and have a short Thanksgiving and a week-long Christmas. We drove up to Snowflake Wednesday night, and left this afternoon after our Thanksgiving naps. Unfortunately, Andy couldn't afford a flight down here for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so he just stayed up at BYU and celebrated with Aunt Sherri.

We played Killer Bunnies this morning, as we awaited the Thanksgiving feast. I love this picture. I told my brothers and sister to pose as if they were the happy family on the game box.

This is my mom's very Martha set up:

She made all of the food from scratch this year and it was really really good. She even had this new way of cooking the turkey. You wrap it up tightly in tinfoil, bake it at 500 degrees for an hour or so, and then it'll finish cooking for the next 6 hours. Sounds crazy, but it turned out great!

Jennifer and I. She's getting so old!

Mmmm.... delicious!

We had each written on slips of paper what we were thankful for. Here is my dad reading them. I am thankful for my awesome husband, for my marriage, and for my baby girl. Dustin is thankful for pizza and milkshakes.

In all seriousness though, we really do have a lot to be thankful for this year.

-Dustin's job. Working for an airline in this economy doesn't exactly say "job security".
-My job. It's still slow...but I'm just so grateful to finally be doing something that I love!
-The Gospel.
-Our marriage. 4 years and we love it!
-Our baby girl. It's not final yet, but we're pretty sure her name is Kate Jordyn Watson.
-Our families.
-Our health. Dustin needs to play basketball!
-Lower gas prices! We filled up for 1.79 today!
-Food and shelter

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

Now let's get ready for Christmas!

SURPRISE!!

And we couldn't be more excited! Dustin and I both really wanted a girl but thought it was a boy, as did most of you. My sister, Jennifer, was the only one that was right. I went into my ultrasound early this morning fully expecting to hear "It's a boy", but instead I heard:

"Oops! I typed irl, but I meant to type girl"
"What?!? Really? Are you sure?"
"Well, yeah... it'd be a pretty funny looking boy"

She then proceeded to show us that it was, in fact, a girl. Then I cried a little as she showed us the little arms, legs, head, face, hands and feet. It's just sooo amazing to see the first little glimpses of your baby. I wish I could describe how I feel right now, but I can't put it into the right words. I'm just....extremely happy. I can't stop smiling!

Thatcher

Today we took a trip to Thatcher. Unfortunately, it was a short trip. We left early morning, and came back tonight, but it was worth it. Dustin and I both went to Eastern Arizona College there in Thatcher (it’s where we met) and it was fun to go back, if only for a short while. We even drove by our old (scorpion infested) house, just for old times sake. But the best part of today (well, maybe not but pretty close!) was that we filled up our car for under $20! Heck yes!

The main reason we took this trip was to see Dustin’s Grandma. Today was Grandma Watson’s birthday/retirement party. She is now 83 and finally retiring. Those of you who lived in Thatcher may remember her as the best Walmart greeter ever! At this extravaganza Carl and Sharon performed for us, all of Grandma’s children had some memories to share, and there was Karaoke. Us Watson’s did an awesome rendition of “Let it Snow”… complete with actions. Jaron and Sherice went one step further and sang “Do Your Ears Hang Low?’ (no really…they did). We basically just had a great time hanging out and being together. And, oh yes….making balloons stick to Maddock.



After the party Dustin and I met up with our good friends Vernon and Tiana Batty at El Charro. I really miss the good Mexican food that Thatcher/Safford has. I still have not found a restaurant here in the valley that compares. Dustin’s family was also there too and Maddock and Vernon’s son Dean became instant best friends. They spent about 20 minutes just giving these 4 straws to each other.


A couple of you have requested that I post some belly pics, so here they are. I’m 19 weeks (about 4 ½ months although according to my book I’m in the 5th month already). I’m really big. It’s okay. You can say it. When I saw Tiana tonight, I realized I’m almost as big as her and she’s due in a couple weeks! Also…we find out the gender on Tuesday!