Thursday, December 30, 2010

rockin twinkle twinkle little star

sometimes parents do things they know they shouldn't do. like giving your kid a treat to squelch an untimely tantrum. or buying your kids a drum set for christmas AND putting recorders in their stockings.

it's been kinda loud here at the watson house, but at the very least, it's been very entertaining.

here's lily and topher rocking out to 'twinkle twinkle little star'. you have to have your volume up loud enough to hear lily singing, but not too loud lest you deafen yourself from the instruments.

enjoy! (note: the music lasted about a day and a half. the instruments have been hidden/put away for the time being...)

Saturday, December 25, 2010

white christmas

today it was over 70 degrees (over 20 celsius) here in arizona. ah global warming...
i know if i were in toronto i would be complaining that it's too cold, so i will not complain about anything and just inform you that i had a really really warm christmas that started off in high heel boots, but quickly changed to flip flops.

this morning was so wonderful. the kids woke up, and we had to remind them that it's christmas and that we should check under the tree to see if santa brought them anything. with the craziness of cancun, chris and i agreed not to get each other anything this year, but 'santa' had a giant box wrapped for me under the tree-

a box of my old shoes!!!!! i have not seen these shoes since i packed up the apartment in september. my glorious shoes. thank you santa for finding this box in the black hole, otherwise known as our garage. you're da bomb. and santa even found our stockings and filled them with goodies. the kids had a ton of trinkets from the dollar bin that they liked more than their 'expensive' presents. oh kids... we should have not bothered with their real presents when we saw how excited they were with the balloons and recorders (the flute-like instrument, not something that records stuff) they got in their stockings. we could have returned their presents if they were still in their original packaging.

after our small family time this morning, we packed up for the main event- Watson Christmas. chris' grandparents, and their four kids and spouses, and their kids and spouses and kids, show up to a family member's house and eat, laugh, catch up, and do a white elephant gift exchange that takes over an hour to complete. this morning we had 30 adults and 13 'kids' running all over the place. great times.

then we headed over to wes and kim's for a psychotic lunch and present extravaganza. i got a sewing machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as did all of my sister-in-laws! wowee zowee. i really really wanted a sewing machine and now i have one. so awesome. the kids got spoiled rotten, and christmas isn't even over yet! we still have barb and jerry's to go to tomorrow! lily got her first Barbie from her aunt lindsay on thursday night, and topher has been inundated with paraphernalia from Toy Story 3. which is great cause Topher Hearts Toy Story 3.

even though there is no chance of snow, pretty much ever, for us in the east valley, on christmas, my christmases are always so very 'white' as i am constantly surrounded by about 40 of the best watsons in the world. (and according to some website i just looked at, there are over 256,000 watsons in the USA)




see! watsons all over the place!

our christmas was a very very merry one, and i want to throw out a shout out to my boy- Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world. thanks for being born so that you could die for our sins. our kids know we were celebrating His birthday today, but i just hope and pray that in the near future they are more excited about Jesus than they are about Barbie and Toy Story 3.

from our family to yours- Merry Merry Merry Christmas.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

preschool funtimes

december is not a good blogging month! so much happens that you want to share- but there is no time!

kids are still napping, so here are a few pics from the last few weeks of lily being precious at preschool.

she had her first ever 'concert' before we left for cancun. my parents also happened to be in town, so it was great having 4 out of lily's 6 grandparents at her concert. (and 2 that were missing live in arizona but had to work.) lily was not into the 'rehearsal' that morning, but it's cause she was saving up her voice for the performance at night. she was awesome. more awesome than my camera would allow me to capture. sorry for the darkness.

then when we got back from cancun, lily had her last day of school, and she made a gingerbread house! it was very cute. the kids decorated a pint-size milk carton with graham crackers, vanilla frosting, and a ton of candy. more candy and frosting landed in lily's mouth than on her gingerbread house. but that's ok. one of the many joys of the holidays.

and the last pic (i think it's the last pic) is of lily building a tower while she was waiting for her first parent-teacher conference. i love how she has different toys perched on the different levels of her tower. her teacher said she is doing so great and we could not be prouder of our blossoming lily.




Saturday, December 18, 2010

what's gonna work? teamwork!

that's a line from 'wonder pets'. i would hate to get sued by nickelodeon jr for stealing one of their best lines.

anyway, i am back! and moved in! cancun was awesome. i am not pregnant, but thanks for wondering. my fatehr-in-law picked us up from the airport on wednesday night. he gave me a big hug, patted my back, and said: "yup. i'm pretty sure you're pregnant." my mom called the next day and asked how my trip was. before i could say "amazing!" she asked if i made a baby. good times. my sister also called me to see how my trip and ovaries were doing.

i am definitely glad to know that i am not pregnant cause i was at an all inclusive resort and i drank til... well, i never got drunk, but i think i had three drinks over the course of 6 days. a total of about 12 sips of alcohol ;)

we had dinner at this mexican restaurant at the resort. it was after a long day, we went on an excursion to 'chichen itza' (if you watch 'the backyardigans', also on nick jr. then you may have caught the episode called 'chichen itza pizza'. man, i watch too much tv, and i really should be getting paid by nick jr for mentioning them so much!) i was just going to have some water and lay low, but my waiter mentioned the words 'mango margarita' and i was sold. chris had one too. strawberry. you don't have to be a girl to appreciate a good girly drink.






chris really wanted to get a picture of our two empty margarita glasses/bowls. but it wasn't going to happen without a lot of teamwork.

we had a great great time in mexico and more posts will follow. but for now- i am off to bed. buenos noches my friends.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

nine months...

that's right folks. i know. you've all been waiting with baited breath for this post for years, and here's the big announcement-

WE STILL DON'T HAVE A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow. anticlimactic. i know. you didn't think i was going to tell you that i was pregnant, did you? cause i'm not. (did you have a heart attack/anger attack watsons and harrisons?) and even crazier yet- you didn't think i was going to announce that we actually have bought a house, did you? good.

so, we started our new home search 9 months ago. i could have conceived, baked, and popped out a baby in less time. but much like pregnancy, there has been much anticipation, nausea, exhaustion, and ice cream consumption.

last week we heard back from a house that i REALLY wanted. the location was wonderful, the price was right, the square footage was perfect, the lay-out was a dream, and there was an option to rent it before closing. perfect, right?

until the bank showed up. here's the abbreviated version of what happened with this house:
we put an offer on this house in august. 4 months ago. not too bad. we put an offer on it right away cause i liked it so much. it had previously been listed for $15,00 more than what we are willing to spend on a house right now. but it dropped to a VERY reasonable price, which was below our ceiling, so we put in an offer. they asked for our best offer once they received a handful of offers that weekend, so our best offer was $100 over the asking price of the house. they accepted our offer and we moved forward from there.
things were actually going really well, until we received the counter offer: $35,000 over our offer. exsqueeze me? that was actually $20,000 higher than the originally high asking price for the house. so we offered an additional $3,000. then they came down to the original asking price of the house, you know, the price that was out of the question for us. so then we went up an additional $2,000 and that was all we were willing to pay for the house. all the realtors and even most of the folks at the bank agreed that this was a very fair price for the house. very very fair. but apparently there were investors involved. and they were unconvinced. so our papers got moved around to higher levels of morons, i mean bankers and investors, who said we would have an answer in two weeks. all we got in two weeks was an e-mail saying it would be "any day now, to two weeks". we waited on an answer for about four more weeks. and when we finally got an answer, it was that the investors wanted their original counter offer of $35,000 over our best offer."
now THAT was anticlimactic.
so, here we are. still loitering at our in-laws, who all deserve nobel prizes for generosity and patience. my parents were here from sunday til this morning (a post on that to follow any day now...) and today i am running around like a chicken with my head cut off, in preparation for my honeymoon which begins promptly at 5:20am, when chris and i get in the car to go get greg who will drive us to the airport so we can go to cancun!!!!! yippee!
i will return about 10 lbs heavier- from food, excess of sleep, and a spirit full of good vibes. we get back on wednesday and then we are moving into a month-to-month rental on friday.
if and when we finally move into a house, i am going to start my own business of packing and unpacking suitcases for others. cause at this point- i'm kind of amazing at it. and i've still got at least two moves to go.

Friday, December 3, 2010

trying to get a shot

two weeks ago we got our family pictures taken.
barb, my mom-in-law, is a jack-of-all-trades kind of woman, so she kindly took our pics this year. as she does most years actually.
this works out pretty great cause 1. she's got the talent to take pics AND edit them 2. the kids love hanging out with her, so they act naturally crazy when they are around her.
topher was in a particularly crazy mood, and barb captured a ton of great 'classic topher' shots.
here is one of my favorite set of shots:

we told lily to give topher a kiss on his cheek. topher heard "kiss" so he turned to give lily a kiss.

lily was not happy with topher's inability to pose for a simple shot.

success!

topher is pretty happy that he managed to make us all crack up with his crazy antics.

i will try to post more pics later, but for now, it's past midnight and it's time for bed! good night moon. good night red balloon....