OH BROTHER!

The Watson home would like to start up a three on three basketball league. Abby will be the cheerleader, dad will be the coach and the THREE little boys will take anyone on. Granted we need to teach Walker what a ball is, Talmage how to share a ball and the new little guy to get here in April.

We took all the kids to the ultrasound today to see the new baby. Abby was intrigued, Walker was scared of what it looked like and Talmage was nervouse that mom was laying on a bed in the dark. We got in the car and showed the kids the pictures to see if they could figure it out on their own. I showed them the two leggs, the bum and then asked if they knew what babies have in between their legs. Abby didn't know but Walker blurted out "a peanut". So he got it that it was a boy. We told Abby and she just slowly moved to the back of the car in tears. She is not happy at all. So now I'm a mother of three boys! Who would have ever thought. Growing up one of four girls and only one boy in the family I thought I could handle a house full of girls. Boys, I have no clue what to do with them. Other than trying my best to teach them to aim correctly into the toilet bowl I can only imagine the challenges or joys that boys will bring. My two boys are pretty entertaining as it is so we'll see what a third does to us.

Now what to name this one? We have no clue. Any suggestions?

Shave and a Hair Cut.....

We finally got Talmage's first hair cut. Mind you he's now 18 months old but that just shows how little hair he had. I will give it to him that he had quite the rat tale going and some crazy patch of comb over just on the top of his head. He did look quite homely so a haircut was in order. I'm not sure who reacted more over the hair cut, Talmage or his two siblings looking on and taking pictures with the cel phone thinking this was the best day ever for their little brother. When Talmage got done he smiled and with that baby talk of his said "Ahh good boy".

Oh what a night....

This week we had a Relief Society Enrichment night to help us prepare for those holiday dinner parties that we all wish we had time to put on. I was asked to put together some ideas how to decorate a dinner table for the Fall and for Christmas. My friend Patti was in charge of the menu which included a fruit appetizer, two different side salads, delicious sweet potato bisque, and two desserts. I split the table in half to do one side in a Fall theme and the other side in a Christmas theme. It turned out really pretty and I think everyone had a good time. Some were taking pictures with their cel phones and even commented that I open a store doing decorating and other services like this. This may just be another side job for Patti and I. I'll decorate and she'll prepare a menu. For those of you that were there, I hope we were able to inspire you in some way and give you simple ideas of what you could do for your home. For those that weren't able to attend we missed you greatly!

Trick or Treat

So we made a trip out to Utah the weekend of Halloween and it was so much fun. We had a party at my sister Caralee's house in Saratoga Springs. They had it all decorated to the hilt and it was awesome. Had the traditional sloppy joe's, chips, vegi's and soda. Couldn't have been better except for when her husband came out and freaked the kids out with his costume. Oh, and it freaked me out too!!

The kids had a lot of fun being with their cousins. It's the first time in 6 years that they were able to be together and as Abby said "this is the best Halloween I've ever had in my whole life".

Thanks family for making this happen! Miss you all!

Mouth of Babes

So it was my turn to carpool to Preschool today. I take Walker and two other little girls in the morning. They all get a long pretty well and enjoy the ride together to school. I on the other hand enjoy the conversations that take place in the back seat. Here's todays script:

Walker: Don't say mean things. I'm the boss now!
Jacey: You're not the boss!
Walker: Ya' my mom's the boss!
Jacey: She's not the boss! My mom is the boss of me!
Alyssa: Guys, Jesus is the boss!
Walker: No he's not, he just makes babies and puts them in your tummy.
Jacey and Alyssa: Ohhhh.

Ouch!

So while we were at the park the other day Talmage managed to fall down (that's not the unusual part) hitting his head. Although this time his head landed square on the water cover in the grass. Once I picked him up and wiped off the grass I saw the craziest marking ever. What is even more crazy is that is has stayed like this for three days now. I thought it would blend into his skin and just leave a big red mark or even a bruise. Nope, the grid mark stayed! So if you have seen him lately just know that it was an accident and I nor Walker branded him in any way.

Calgon...take me away!

So when I said I’d post soon I really meant it. Who know life would throw me so many curve balls all at once. I’ve been preoccupied with two recent deaths of friends I hold very dear in my heart. A family chaos resulting in a lot of sad outcomes. Keeping busy with business ventures and being pregnant with a lot of emotions and my head in the clouds the past two weeks. My ears are numb from spending so much time on the phone only trying to help people, my fingers are bleeding from typing so many emails and chats and my nerves are shot resulting in a two week major headache.

So among all that I happened to embarrasses my 6 yr old daughter the past two days at school. We had been looking forward to red ribbon week ever since she brought home the schedule of what they get to dress up in all week. This week has been Parent Teacher Conference with early dismissal dates. My friends have kids in other schools and are participating in the same thing. So naturally I thought it was taking place this week until a cute boy that I carpool with told me it was next week. I thought for sure he was wrong and how sad it is that he isn’t participating. Then I get home and check the schedule again….IT’S NEXT WEEK!

I’ve had my daughter dress all in red from head to toe on Monday for Red Spirit day. Can you guess what today was? Crazy shoes and socks day! I let my child out of the house like this only because we thought it was a dress up day at school. I had to break it to her that mom made a HUGE mistake and it’s really next week. Does she look impressed with me? When will it get back to normal? Does anyone have an extra hole I can crawl in for a while?

Where's My Mind?

So for some of you committed followers of my blog (which may only be a handful) it is to you that I say I'm sorry I have been missing for so long. We can look back and think that either nothing noteworthy has happened in Watsonville the past few months or know the truth that too much has happened to even find time to take a moment to blog about it. I wondered when and how I would start up again. What story do I start with? What picture do I pull out of my phone that has been in there just waiting to be shared. When to find time to do it all? So instead of starting at the beginning where I left off and fill you in on some of the most memorable moments like say the first day of school for two of my kids, Cordell's birthday, a family trip to Catalina, the announcement of our new pregnancy and other funny things said and done along the way, I'll just start where we're at now.

If you live in Kern County you may have seen a familiar face or two around town on the cover of our local magazine. Abby and Walker had the opportunity to pose for this months cover in their Halloween costumes. Finally a photo op for Abby to show off what she loves doing best, playing dress up and this one in her Alice in Wonderland costume. Secondly, the proof Walker will have when he's 16 to show his friends that his mom really is crazy for letting her little boy dress up like a white rabbit and be shown all over town.

It was fun and the article in the magazine was flattering. I love doing crafty things for my kids and anyone that will let me. I'll post later about the recent making done for my sister Kristy. I say that now and I promise...I WILL post again! I've missed you all.

Wow, that wasn't so bad after all!

You've got to be kidding me

So I haven't posted in a while because life is so busy and nothing much has happened until today. All I can say was did this really happen? Do you remember the scene on Meet the Parents when he tries to board the plane? Specifically when she makes him wait until she calls his row out and there is nobody else around. That was me at JoAnn's today. Our store has recently been through some renovation to update things including the cutting table. Some of you may be familiar with the ol "take a number" idea. We all know how it works. So there I was, 5 minutes after they had opened, not another customer in site. There was a girl at the cutting table so I walked up and asked if she could cut some fabric for me that I had just pulled from the shelf. She just looked at me then looks up at the red digital counter that tells her who's next in line and looks at me again with a small smile. "Am I supposed to take a number?" I ask. She says yes. So I grab a number...number 81 none the less. Then she looks around, picks up the speaker phone and uses it as the intercom as says over the loud speaker "81, now serving number 81." I slowly slide my little piece of paper her way, she looks at the winning number and asks "81, how can I help you today?" OH MY GOSH! Where do I start? She must have been new or something because the whole thing was totally ridiculous. On the way out Abby asked why I had to pull out a number to get help and my reply was "I don't know Abby, I just don't know." As Seinfeld puts it "people, they're the worst."

O-O-O Ice cold milk and an.....

You guessed it! Look who enjoyed his first OREO cookie! But why did I let him eat it while sitting in his car seat to make even a bigger mess. Oh, ya it's because I picked them up at Target while we were running errand, he was crying and that's all I was able to throw at him. Looks like he wants seconds! Mmmm Oreo's!

Walk on!

So guess who is finally walking....and apparently throwing a ball at the same time. About two weeks ago he started walking and life is grand. He loves to be able to play with the Abby and Walker. Now it's time to teach those two how to play with him. For years it's just been those two playing together and to learn how to play with a third sibling is always challenging (am I right Cara and Kristy?). The best part about him walking is now I don't have to carry him all over town. My neck and back thank him for that! Now off to teach him how to ride a bike.

Happy 1st Birthday Talmage!

I still can't believe he's one year old. Time goes by so fast when you have other kids. I used to watch ever minute of my kids and capture every milestone. It's sad and true when they say the third child doesn't have a lot of pictures because sure we've seen it before with the other kids and we're just too busy to pull out the camera for every little thing like first time with solids, first time walking, first date, college graduation....darn, he doesn't have a chance!

I did capture pictures of his first birthday celebration we had at Grandma and Grandpa Watson's home with all the Aunts and Uncles and cousins here. We had a good time, but not as good as Talmage did!

Aspirations of a child

Have you ever asked your kids what they want to do when they grow up? What profession they will chose, what skills they will bring to the world or how they will leave their mark? The thought of all this hard work as a mother only to wonder how your legacy will continue on through your children. Well today I was given a small glimpse of what lies ahead. It came while walking around the store when this conversation took place:

Abby: "Mom, when I grow up I want to work at the Mall".
Mom: "The mall huh?"
Abby: "Ya' that or the grocery store."
Walker: "Work?"
Abby: "Yes, you have to work when you grow up."
Walker: "I'm going to work at the cookie store."

And there you have it!

Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar

Well you'll never guess where I found Walker this morning. Actually if you knew this kid you would have guessed by now. The little sneak! I guess he gets it from his dad! Then again who can't resist a bucket of Nestle cookie dough from Costco?!

Picture This

Guess what I found on my phone..........
If you missed one of my earlier blogs you may not know how much Abby likes to use my phone to take all sorts of random pictures of things around the house, the mall and mostly herself. Usually it isn't until days or weeks later that I find them hidden in the phone among other pictures I have taken. So here is her latest masterpiece.

Quick, be asleep!

Just for the record I do have another kid. I didn't realize Talmage is not mentioned much. Then again he's almost 1 yr old and doesn't do much by way of major entertainment. That was until this week during some recent feedings. So after days of doing this I figured out what he was doing. When feeding him his food I'd get about three bites left and he'd close his eyes and drop his head. I thought man, this kid gets tuckered out from eating. It's not that complicated. Or wow, was that his last bite....ever? Then when he'd look up and laugh then drop his head and close his eyes again I thought this guys playing me for a fool. This son of mine is playing "be asleep" so that he doesn't have to finish his food. Now that's a first. If only I could pull that off, anyone for that matter it would be hilarious to see.

So next time you are out eating with some friends and you just can't finish that last bite, think of Talmage and play asleep. Someone may pick up your check for you too. And your wallet!

Spring time, the only pretty ring time...

So the Spring Carnival came and went for Abby's school. We enjoyed a game of cake walk, the fishing pond, ring toss, tick-tac-toe and football throw. Downed some Mexican food (we are in California after all), some more cupcakes, snow cone, and cotton candy. Boy were we sick. "One last game" they begged. We were running out of tickets but fortunately had enough for the air slide. I guess they had a good time after all.

Brain Freeze

So I guess summer is officially here. Not only has it hit 94 degrees and were are cranking the AC like nobody's business (except the utility company's), last night for FHE we all went and got snow cones! Mmmm! They are so good. Thanks to the Snow Shack on the corner it looks like we'll be spending many nights and days there. Favorite flavor of all time is still TIGER'S BLOOD! Am I right Tam? So who's with me? My treat!

Come see how good looking I am

So I guess Bakersfield is really starting to grow. Hopefully soon we'll get on the map and have some real cool stores here. The latest to open is Williams-Sanoma and I am stoked. Next is Pottery Barn and Claim Jumper. Lucky just opened at the mall and so did Abby's new favorite store...LIBBY LU! No longer do I have to play beauty shop at home with her. I'll just drive her down to the mall and she can get all the hair and make-up done a little girl can handle. She was on cloud nine and got so many oohs and aahs. Just take a look.


Then I look over and wonder what Walker could be doing while waiting for his sister to finish getting all fancied up and I find him in the corner receiving his own oohs and aahs. Now he's asleep on the couch. All tuckered out from his afternoon performance.


Got to love that kid!

Time to catch some zzz's

I'd like to take a moment to give a well deserved shout out to my mom. It hit me at about 3:00 a.m. how many sleepless nights my mother had to endure while raising 5 kids. It was during the simple whisper of a child by my bedside when I realized what I had put my mother through. Flashbacks of me as a little 5 yr old girl standing by her parents bed in the dark and quietly saying "mom, I'm scared. I had a bad dream".

What do I do when it's Abby standing at my bedside? Tell her it's nothing and go back to bed so I can get back to sleep? Carry her in her room and convince her that nothing is wrong and we're just in the other room? I did what my mom did. I placed her in my bed until she was able to fall asleep then slowly carried her back to her room. Then laid there hoping I can fall asleep sometime soon. Is this the joy of motherhood? I hoped to find it in other places than my bedroom in the middle of the night. I'm just so tired and I love sleep too much. Only 18 more years of bad dreams, sick kids and sleep walking that can wake me up as early as the "got to make the doughnuts" guy.

So here's to you mom. Get a good nights sleep while the rest of us only dream of it.

No bagel, no bagel, no bagel

Yesterday was Sunday and if you have early morning church mixed with young children you know you have a long day ahead of you. What to do to fill the time? You can only color for so long, place dress up and do beauty shop so many times and tell your kids “go find something to do” over again. What to do. Hmmm, I know let’s play bagel store.

Yep, yesterday we made home made bagels. Now if you haven’t done this before as I have never done, it takes skill and precision just to get the dough the way it needs to be before molding into bagels.

The first batch (by saying that I guess you already know that one didn’t turn out) was interesting. Did the usual by starting with yeast. Letting it sit in water to “activate”. Then threw in the rest of the ingredients and mixed with the Kitchen aid mixer for 10 minutes like they said. But something just didn’t look right. It was very hard and flakey. Cordell said it might need more kneading so he took it out and kneaded it on the counter for another 5 minutes. Still no good. It didn’t look like regular “dough”. We decided maybe it just needed to sit and rise for a little while. After 20 min and still nothing and wondering where it went wrong it hit me. I had flash backs of foods class at Francis Howell and that’s where it dawns on me. The entire process went bad during the first five minutes.

You see yeast is a living organism. It feeds on the flour in the cough and multiplies, it releases carbon dioxide. It’s this gas that causes the dough to rise. I had not allowed the yeast to activate long enough in water 110-115 degrees. Then by adding too much flour all at once and mixing to high the activating ingredients had been halted. The dough became too hard and dry too fast and I had killed the yeast.

So to make a long story short, always refer to your three foods classes to remind you of the science of cooking. Who needs Alton Brown?

The second batch came out a winner. It was beautiful and we all ate the 8 bagels it made in about 5 minutes flat. We made plain, poppy seed and sesame seed. If the entire process didn’t take over an hour I would have made them again this morning for breakfast.

If any of you reading this are more confident in your bread making abilities than I was then you really need to give this recipe a try. It’s so fun to see how bagels are made and the kids will love it! Did I mention that they are so darn good? Mmmmm!!!

Picture perfect

So here is what happens when your 5 yr old learns how to take pictures on her own with the phone. Can't wait to see what else I'm going to find.

Dirty knees, look at these........

So who can't resist showing off their new digs especially ones as cool as the recent purchase we made for Walker. He loves them so much and that is all he can talk about. He wants to wear them "every day and never take them off". It's cute until we catch him showing his new digs to his Aunt at the Bank. Did I happen to mention the item was this killer pair of new underwear! Yep, I leave him a lone for a second and look over and he has dropped his pants entirely to show off his new underwear. They have little hearts tattoo's with mom in the middle all over. Hope the security camera caught that little guy exposing himself to an older lady in public. Is it too early to start a criminal record? Will he have to start introducing himself to our neighbors every time we move? By the way, who taught him this stuff....was it the "little pink handstand"?
Check out his other pair he put on when we were finally able to get his other pair off! They are his "monkey" undies.

Sick perve doing the undie dance!

If your not cheating, you're not my daughter

So who doesn’t enjoy the classic game of Candy Land? Who can’t withstand the hopes of landing in Gumdrop Mountains and taking advantage of the Gumdrop Pass.? Or picking the coveted card that takes you to Lollipop Woods being able to see the Candy Castle in sight? Who doesn’t love to win over and over again?

This was today’s adventures as I watched Abby and Walker playing Candy Land and Walker consistently saying “I want to win, is it my turn to win?” To which Abby replies, “You just have to pick the right card and you will.” I thought to myself, how does she keep winning? Then I sat and watched it all unfold. So watching the first round she had set up the board, plastic colored pieces in their place, a pile of cards for her and a pile of cards for Walker to pick from. The game went on and there she goes, moving each colored space at a time, two colored spaces at a time and eventually passing other candy lands right to Princes Frostine at Snow Flake Lake (that should have been my first clue). Walker just kept trucking along holding out hope that he might just catch up. What I couldn’t figure out is how she won by pulling the last card and landing on the exact color to win the game.

Round two is about to begin. She tells Walker she will clean it up and set up the game again and this is when it all happens. She stacks her cards, placing each candy land in the pile where she wants them. Then she gets the last few cards in order to strategically hit every color with the least amount of cards until she reaches the end. Then she takes the rest of the stack and piles them up for Walker and announces “ready to play again? Maybe you’ll win this time”.

So it isn’t about the luck of the draw. It isn’t a simple child’s game anymore but a great way to display her talents of dishonestly and cheating simply to bask in her winning glory and to see her poor opponent holding out hope that he just might win.

From now on she's on my team!

Now I just have to figure out how she keeps beating me at the game of Memory.

Isn't she lovely...

So this is what happens when we have nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon and mom is too tired to play another round of "beauty shop makeover" with Abby. Walker steps in, mom takes a picture and dad freaks out. And Cara thought Andrew was gay!

Bracketology

Who knew that knowing so little about College Basketball could get you so far. A few close friends all joined a group on ESPN and chose our own brackets all the way to the finals. After the first week this is where we all stand. There are a range of participants from people in their 60's to kids under 9 yrs old. I really should have put money on the game!

Proof of Life

So here it is, finally a blog to prove to the world out there that my family is as weird as the stories I share. Proof that Abby is a drama queen. Proof that Walker really lives in his own world. Proof that my sanity is something I am still looking for. Proof that after reading this you will be glad you have the life you do. Proof that when you read a self help book in 20 yrs by a girl named Abigail Watson titled "The day my mom told me I'm really not a Princess" you 'll know where it all stems from...this crazy life in Watsonville!