easiest enchiladas

enough birthday talk. i am going to share with you the best thing since sliced bread. i found this recipe on an enchilada sauce can, so i can't take any real credit for this. but get out your pen and paper and get ready to take some serious notes cause this is an instant classic . are you ready?



buy some frozen burritos. put them in a baking dish. pour enchilada sauce on it. put it in the oven for however long it says on the frozen burrito package. take out of oven. consume.

tada!

amazing!

easy!

FAST!

and best of all CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you want to get fancy, then by all means- do it. add some cheese on top to melt. gotta love melty cheese. shred some lettuce, get some sour cream, salsa, chop up some green onions, throw it all on top of your enchiladas, and now you have a seriously dressed up dinner. this can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be.



i have never been a frozen burrito fan, but drenching the thing in enchilada sauce really works. AND if you are really pressed for time- you can skip the oven and do this in the microwave- still delicious! i have tried every possible method and it is so good.

bueno appetito mi amigos!

my baby is 3

today topher turned 3. yup, my little baby is 3 now. he woke up at about 3am and tried to climb into bed with us. me and my steel will got out of bed and escorted him back to his bed. but then he said: "mom, can you lay down with me for a 'ittle while?" and my steel will shattered like glass. so in i went to the little twin bed. i heard chris getting ready for his sprint triathlon at 5:30ish, and lily woke up at 6ish, and then we were out of bed at 6:30. i actually just had to laugh as this reminded me so much of the day topher was born three years ago.

i love my topher so much and the things that come out of his mouth just make my jaw drop. he has started saying: "stupid head" which makes my jaw drop with shame, but he learned it from Lilo and Stitch, which we have stopped watching. that's a bad example of my jaw dropping though. topher thinks people are beautiful, and when he thinks it- he actually expresses it verbally (you can learn a lot from this little boy men!!!) he tells me i'm beautiful every now and again, and he tells lily often enough too. it's so sweet. today lily told topher she liked his hair cut, and he told her she was beautiful. my sweet kids. i just need to teach him how to make a few decent meals and how to do the dishes and laundry and he will be 'perfect-husband-material' in no-time!

we had a lovely day, filled with donuts, church, lunch with nana (topher's twin. happy birthday barb!!!), more present opening, watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (topher's pic) and hanging out at grandpa's. topher opened the present that chris and i got for him which is a big Ironman action figure. topher's imagination is so great! i love to watch him play. and he got a book in the mail from his Michelle imo in toronto and he LOVES reading it (having it read to him). we read it about 3 times a day, at least. thanks for the great gift Michelle!

just now as we were getting ready for bed, lily and i sang 'happy birthday' to our dear topher one more time, and topher sat on his bed, with feigned embarrassment, and even threw in an 'oh my gosh' for good measure. he is turning into quite the ham.

anyway, there is so much i love about my boy. so much. he is so special, so beautiful, so crazy, so wonderful. thank you Jesus for blessing us with such a superson. we are unworthy and grateful for both of our beautiful march babes.

i have a big big...

i have a big big girl and her name is lily.
today she turned 4. actually, in about 5 minutes she will officially turn 4. fortunately she is sleeping, so i will celebrate the minute of her birth in peace and quiet and solitude!

we had a pretty terrific day today. we went garage sale-ing (that was more for me than lily. but we need some patio furniture!) and i got some wicked-good stuff for dirt cheap. (though none of the stuff i got was actually patio furniture...)
then we went back home, picked up the dog, and went for a walk to the neighborhood playground which is a 2 minute walk from our house. oh how i love our house! then chris woke up (he worked late last night and is working late tonight too) and we really started our day.

lily opened her present from chris and i, and she loved it! we got her a 'Jessie' doll from toy story (which i got on ebay for $2!!!! but shipping was $10... but it's normally $17 at the disney store, so i still saved some moola). we also got her some new underwear cause her 2T/3T undies are quite snug on my new four year old. quite snug. she loved her gifts so much. so much so that she wore all three undies at the same time. on top of one another. special girl.

then we went to this cute new cupcake cafe at gilbert and warner called 'TopIt'. they have a bunch of lovely looking cupcakes, and some plain cupcakes that you can decorate yourself! cute idea. the kids chose the already-beautiful-cupcakes and forewent the option to make something beautiful themselves. will have to go back another time. maybe next week for topher's birthday...


here's lily enjoying her cupcake.

then we went to the mall to go on the train, then meet lily's aunt Katie and uncle Joey for lunch. more crap was consumed, in the form of Mc Donalds, but more funtimes were had, in the form of eating Mc Donalds and hanging out with family. the rest of the day was much more low-key, especially since chris had to go to work. but lily kept saying how much she loves her birthday all day. mission accomplished.

my lily is so amazing and continues to grow more beautiful and wonderful everyday. she was so great about sharing her precious new Jessie doll with Topher, who was not doing the best job of letting his sister have the limelight today. in fact, she was getting so many phone calls from her friends (thanks cambry and colbie!) and family, that topher started getting pretty jealous. when GG (greatgrandma, chris' grandma) called and spoke with Lily, topher insisted that he talk to GG as well. lily had just finished telling GG that she got a Jessie doll for her birthday. well, we brought topher's Woody doll/figurine/pillowthing that he got for christmas into the car with us, so topher starts telling GG: "well, i have a big, BIG WOODY! i have a big, BIG WOODY!" oh, chris and i are such immature parents. we were dying of laughter. it was hilarious and inapproriate. why would Pixar pick that name?!?!?

anyway, back to my lils. she is all kinds of terrific, even though she is not sleeping that well lately, and still cries very dramatically (and loudly) over things that are not that important. or at least not important to me. but i love her just the same. the best part of her turning four today was that i was sitting in the backseat of the car with her, and she needed to have four kisses- four eye kisses, four lip kisses, four nose kisses, and four cheek kisses. when we are on a longer car ride i will ask for thirty eye kisses, thirty lip kisses, thirty nose kisses, and thirty cheek kisses. but for now- four is just perfect.


happy birthday lily. i have a big BIG LOVE for you in my heart.

quiet time

it's 11:04 am. so great. chris took off with our kids to the gym. he works later tonight. my other two boys are napping. thank you Jesus. and gabe slept over last night, and he went home too. oh the quiet. the solitude. the wonderment of sitting on my butt tending to no one's needs. not even my own (i really need to pee.)

sorry i have been not around here lately. we are pretty much unpacked, but that just means almost all the boxes have been emptied and recycled, but now we have miscellaneous piles of junk in corners of some rooms, notably mine. it helps that we have had some guests over already, cause that really makes me work a little bit harder than if no one was coming around to 'judge' how productive i have or have not been since we moved in almost two weeks ago.

as many times as we have done this, moving continues to be a slightly stressful situation. with each move, the length of time that the stress lasts for decreases. but the constant busyness of packing, unpacking, and putting things away from the time we wake up till the time we pass out is not that fun. it doesn't leave a ton of time for chris and i to just hang out after the kids have gone to bed. and the kids haven't been sleeping the greatest here, as some nights i feel like i have a newborn baby with the amount of times i have to get out of bed. but the good continues to outweigh the bad, so i should just count my blessings and move on.

so, i have no pictures to post, cause the camera is in the kitchen and i am not. i think i heard a child stirring. so i guess i should wrap this post up. my list of future posts continues to grow, especially as both my kids' birthdays are quickly approaching (lily is turning FOUR tomorrow! yowsers.) and my twin brothers turned 28 last saturday so i just wanted to send out a quick Happy Belated Birthday shout out to two of my favorite brothers in the whole wide world. love you Eds.

pug

i've always wanted a pug.

i don't know why. they are so ugly they are beautiful.
pugs are cousins to mastiffs, which works out great since chris loves mastiffs, and we've already had one of those, and, well, that's it. it doesn't matter that they are cousins.

anyhoo, pugs are kind of expensive.
but do you know which dogs aren't expensive? free ones that people leave in other peoples' backyards.

so, our precious dog was left in one of chris' friends' backyards a few weeks ago. these friends of chris's have 4 dogs already, so whoever left the dog there was pretty certain their dog was going to get taken care of. even though they (the original owners) did not seem to be that interested in taking care of the dog themselves. he is very skinny and has abandonment issues (shocking, i know).

so our little dog is of an unknown age, though he seems to be out of the puppy stage. seems to be. i am not into puppies at all except to look at them. that's it. i am not fond of dogs that chew stuff, bark, or go in the house. therefore all puppies are dead to me. the friend of chris' who had the dog for a few weeks said that the dog did not chew or have any accidents in the house...
since we brought the dog home on saturday, the dog has had a few accidents in the house and has chewed barbie's hand to look like a flat nasty pancake. but at least the accidents are not big and, teenytiny compared to when mally, our 160lb mastiff, had accidents in the house.

his major flaw is that he goes through the trash, and has a thing for dirty diapers. major grossness. he doesn't listen when i call him, and he makes trails of messes. basically he fits into our family perfectly.

sometimes i want to kill him. but then i see him with the kids. so cute. and even though it's very annoying to have a dog that acts like a toddler, it's probably way more annoying to have a bunch of toddlers who step on, and pull, your tail and chase after you while some crazy asian lady yells at you to quit peeing on the carpet.
sometimes you just have to be thankful for what the Lord has gifted to you, even if you don't recognize it as the gift you were hoping for just by looking at it.

hot water

so i wrote this gigantically long blog yesterday and it got deleted by the evil internet. dang you internet! or maybe it's just this computer. or maybe it's my brain that is working at 24% (and that's being generous).

needless to say, i had a pretty crappy day yesterday. i am a little bit having a crappy day today too. and it's all from a lack of hot water. do you know we've been living without hot water since sunday-ish???? and the southwest gas guy came today and we missed him so he isn't coming back til monday?!?!? omg people. that's over a week without hot water. and i know- i shouldn't complain. at least the water i have is CLEAN. but the question is- am i clean?!? and the answer is: yes. thanks to my gym membership. and i plan on using my gym's showers until monday. my kids on the other hand have been taking small baths. small=3 pots of boiling hot water (that i boiled on the stove) with some cold water that is pouring out of our faucets. they don't mind cause they don't know any better. which is so great. i love my ignorant kids.

so we moved in on saturday and it was special. we had tons of help from our friends and family. it was a village-sized effort. some people lifted heavy boxes. some people watched kids so that heavy boxes could be lifted, unpacked, etc. thank you so much village workers. what would we watsons do without you!?!?!? just to name some names- thanks jeff, marybeth, drew, christin, mike, cindy, robert, lindsay, greg, shannon, and eric. you guys are awesomeness personified. there was a moment in the afternoon, in the middle of our chaotic living room, that chris and i were standing around with wes and kim, and barb and jerry, who had arrived around the same time, and we were just talking about how much we all love our landscaper-- who we all use. i am so thankful that chris' parents all get along, and that they were all instrumental in us getting this house- cause they let us live with them for months on end. thanks so much wes, kim, barb and jerry. for so so so so much.
and grandma and grandpa watson who prayed so diligently for us these last many months! and to you too readers- for joining us in the craziness that has been our nomadic journey. it was funny to open boxes that i packed in 2009 (pre-apartment)
and haven't opened until now. you can tell i was really dying without the items in said boxes...

anyway, during all the insanity of our moving in and unpacking and making our house a home, i haven't really taken any pictures. sorry. but i will soon enough. and i need to post pictures of our new family member, Pug, a stray dog who is now part of the watson clan. all this will happen soon enough. probably sooner than my hot water gets turned on...

exciting things

funny things this week

-usually when i am writing out the alphabet, or any serious coloring with the kids, we are sitting at the kitchen table. i sit on one side while the kids sit on the other, therefore i usually write upside down. i have to admit, i still write my 's' and 'z's backwards sometimes. i am not that smart and i didn't go to teacher's college (i hear you learn to write backwards and upside down there... or you used to when people used overhead projectors instead of powerpoint.) anyway, lily was pretending to be me and came up with this: she wrote her name upside down and it came out pretty great! sure her 'L's are backwards, but it's still awesome.

-today lily tried to go #2 this morning before school. she pushed and nothing really happened. she hopped off the pot and looked in. there was a dead fly. i imagine it flew in there in the middle of the night looking for a drink of water and instead met it's demise instead. that's what i, with my 30 year old brain, imagined what happened. lily's almost-4-year-old brain said: "look! i pooped a fly!"

-topher is teething, along with every boy i watch during the week. it's special. topher's been dealing with his new molar pretty well. he noticed it a few days ago, and keeps pointing it out. today in the car, topher said: "look mom! i have a new tooth! santa put it there!"

-here's another picture lily drew: it comes complete with kneecaps, eyebrows, and two hats.

-topher is in the "why? why? why? why? why? why? why? why? why? why? why?" portion of his life. annoying as that may be, it's just a phase. right? i am hoping topher will always think he is a superhero with superpowers:

emma time!

long over due!

finally- i am dedicating this post to my lovely new niece Emma Faith Watson!



this is a picture i stole from facebook. precious! (the pic, not me stealing.)

so, Emma was born on the 17th of february at 7 am and weighed 7lbs 7oz. good job little one! those are all numbers i can remember. that means lindsay went into labor some time in the middle of the night, had barb come over at 4:45am, was in the hospital by 5, had her epidural by 6, and 2 pushes later Emma was born.

Lindsay is a very girly girl, so if anyone deserves a daughter- it's her ;) but admittedly she has done an incredible job being a rough and tumble mom to Gabe and Corban. Lindsay was born to be a mom, and so far being a mom of three under the age of 37 months ;)

Emma is my 4th niece, but only the 2nd one who lives here in arizona. Lily is SO happy to have Emma around, and surprisingly- so is Topher. he has been all about holding her and going over to see her. i love our family and am so blessed to be surrounded by so many precious people who love one another.


all the ladies


the boys and their little girls


Lindsay and i in a picture with all five kids. not easy to orchestrate

anticlimactic

i have been waiting to post this post for so long now, and i have nothing clever or cute or witty. i was going to take a picture of our new house key and just post that, but to be completely honest- i have not seen our new house key, and therefore have not attempted to take a picture of it. oh well. who cares. we have a key. it's in chris' pocket. and it opens the door to our new house!

yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!

and thanks to everyone who lifted this whole ordeal up in prayer at some point during the last 12 months that we have been looking/trying to buy a house.

so this week i will really pack, clean this house, and wait for a ton of people to do a ton of stuff to our house. be looking forward to some awesome posts about awesome entrepeneurs- provided that everything works out well! i am looking forward to having our house and carpets cleaned professionally, and for our cabinets to get a facelift, and for our appliances to get delivered. this is going to be a great week. a great week indeed.