Superhero Birthday

Emilia has been into superheros lately, so she decided she wanted a "Supergirl" birthday party. I broadened it a little to "Superheros," but I don't think she minded. This party was a lot less stressful than the one I did for Mira's one year party and I think it turned out better. Win! Here are the details... When the guests arrived, they were greeted with this sign:

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids got crayons and were able to color on the mural I drew for the occasion:

When the kids got bored of coloring, we moved out to the garage. I was planning on doing this part in the back yard, but there was a 50% chance of rain that day, so it was moved to where the paper and the kids wouldn't get soaked if it did decided to pour on us. There was a sign on the door that said, "Superhero Testing Facility," but apparently I didn't get a picture of it. This was by far the best part of the party. The kids LOVED it and asked to do it over and over again. For the "test," I set up a small obstacle course for the kids to go through. Once they finished and proved they had what it takes to be a superhero, they got a mask that I made out of felt and ribbon. You can see a few of the kids wearing them in pictures later on. The first part of the obstacle course made them "fight" some bad guys. There were six balloons tied to rocks at different heights, three in each column. There was a path through the middle of the two columns for the kids to run through. They were supposed to punch or kick each balloon on their way through.

The next obstacle was balancing through a snake pit.  I just put a 4x4 on two bricks on top of a paper where I had drawn snakes.

Then it was on to pounding the bad guy.  I drew the bad guy on some newsprint (it was supposed to be Lex Luthor, but it just ended up looking like a bald guy in a suit) and hung it up on the door.  The kids got two bean-bag balls to try to hit the bad guy.

Next, they had to crawl under the folded up ping pong table.  Steve was smart enough to think of putting newsprint on the ground, so they didn't hurt their knees crawling on the cement.

And last, but certainly not least, was the brick wall.  They kids had to use their super strength and break through the wall.  For this obstacle, I just called around to shoe stores in the area until I found one that had extra shoe boxes.  I thought I was going to have to drive around to 5 different stores to get enough boxes, but I hit a jackpot at Journeys.  They had about 20 of the exact same boxes that they saved for me after I called.  They were PERFECT. We just stacked them up in a staggered pattern (like a brick wall) after each kid.

After everyone earned their masks, we went inside for dessert.  Megan made this amazing cake for us.  The kids loved the mini cupcakes.

All the kids eating

After eating, we headed back out to the garage where Grandpa and Daddy had hung the pinata.  Emilia and I made this together using homemade paste, lots of newspaper and some paint.  I love how it turned out.

Then the birthday girl got to open presents.  She was really excited about a My Little Pony hot air balloon that she got.

At the end, we lined up all the kids to take a picture.  Unfortunately, the only wall big enough was the one with all the windows, so it's a little hard to see all the kids.  If you look close, they are all doing superhero poses, though.  it was cute.

Mira enjoyed the party, but I think she liked the balloons best. :)

Pictures by Emilia

Emilia took some pictures of her favorite subject lately. I thought she did a pretty good job. :)

House hunting nastiness

As you all know, Steve and I have been looking for a house. In technical terms, that means that the girls and I look at a lot of houses while Steve is at work. By the beginning of July, we probably had about 40 houses under our belt. The girls and I were both sick of driving all over Utah county to see houses. The day these pictures were taken, the girls and I had gone to see a house in Springville (a few towns south of where we are now) and it was nasty. I forgot to bring shoes for Mira and the floors were so gross, I refused to let her walk on them barefoot, which meant carrying her around for 1/2 an hour. So when we went outside, I decided to let her run around on the cement for a minute so my arms could rest and she could get some energy out. Well, it turns out that the cement was at least as dirty as the floors because her feet were black after a few minutes. After we got home, I looked back at my girls and saw this:

I don't know if you can see how dirty she is (or where). But she had been sticking her feet in her mouth! EWWWW!!!! We have amazing bodies, because she didn't even get sick afterward. Silly kid.

Fourth of July

For the 4th of July we were invited to go with the Nelsons and Grandma and Grandpa to the Hogle Zoo.  To start things off right, we went to a bird show and then got on the carousel.  The bird show was really fun. (More than I expected.) Mira was even entertained.  Mira was not such a fan of the carousel, but Emilia enjoyed it thoroughly. 

It is really hard to get this girl to smile AND look at the camera at the same time.

I think Steve and Emilia are looking at otters here.  I love her in pigtails. :)

The family standing in the shade.  It was hot that day.  Who am I kidding.  It's hot every day.  We just purposely went out in it that day. 

Emilia and the tiger.  It didn't try to eat her so she can't become an internet sensation.  Dang.

After the zoo, we went to Nana's house.  LOTS of food, big bubbles, outside fun (in the shade).  Here is all the cousins.  Aren't they cute?

Family Reunion

On the 14th, our official bi-annual (or every two years if that's not what bi-annual means) Watts Family Reunion took place in Colorado, home of Nicole and Tristan Nelson (Steve's sister and brother-in-law). We had an Olympic team and an appropriately-sized cabin in the Colorado National Monument Park. I didn't take very many pictures.  Oops.

Here are the cuties in the car on the way there.  It's only about a 4 hour drive, so not too bad.  They were both tired of their car seats by the end, but they were troopers.  It was a good trip.

Not sure why I took this picture.  This is me in the car on the way there.  I was a trooper, too. :)

For part of the family reunion, Grandma and Grandpa took the older cousins on a "Dinosaur Dig."  They actually went to a site where paleontologists had found dinosaur bones and were taught how to look for and dig out bones.  Only one of the 7 actually found one.  The younger ones (i.e. Meg and Emilia) were really upset they couldn't go, too.  So, Nicole and I took them to the Fruita dinosaur museum to do some of their own digging.  They were perfectly happy with this solution and I learned something new:  apparently, you can grind up walnut shells and it ends up looking like sand, without all the dustiness.  It's softer, too.  This would be awesome for a volleyball court, methinks.  I'll put it on the list for when I'm a millionaire with a big mansion on an even bigger piece of land.

That's it.  That's all I took pictures of.  We also did a rafting trip, a hike and played LOTS of games.  The kiddos loved have a big house and lots of cousins to entertain themselves.  We all came home Monday morning.  Thanks for the great trip, Nelsons!

Living at Grandpa and Grandma's

At the end of May, we moved in with Steve's parents. We were hoping that it would be a very short-term solution, but we (and they) have not been so lucky. We didn't want to rent a new apartment for the fear that we would find a house to buy two weeks later and then not only would we have to move 3 times in a month, but we would have to find someone to take over our contract. But I guess we needn't have feared. Living with another family will always have it's difficulties, but I think we have been putting up with each other fairly well. Here are some fun things we've done so far.

Car washing
Both of our cars desperately needed a cleaning up and cleaning out.  So we got the girls suited up and let them "help" us wash the cars. The cars were grateful, the girls were wet, and we all were hot, but it was good family time.

Grandpa Watts LOVES to go to Golden Corral on Saturday afternoon for a filling meal.  Emilia is a fan, too.  Especially of the chocolate fountain and marshmallows on a stick.  Yes, that's her third one.  I didn't think anything could be tastier (in her mind) than ice cream, but she passed on the ice cream so she could have more of these!

These girls have tons of fun using all the space Grandma and Grandpa's has to offer.  Even if they're squished on a chair together. :)

long overdue update

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here.  Because life has been crazy.

We've known since February that we needed to move out of our apartment by the first of June.  Our landlords wanted the basement of their house.  I tried and tried to convince Steve we should be looking at houses to buy, but made no progress in convincing him until the middle of April.  So, the middle of April we got a realtor and started looking.  Needless to say, we didn't find anything quickly enough to close on a house before the first of June.  In fact, we still aren't in a position to close on a house.  We have 6 offers in on short-sales, but we're not the first offer on any, except maybe the one we put in today.  We haven't heard on that one yet.

I also had a ton of photography jobs come up.  I had ten jobs between the first of March and the end of April--three of which were weddings. I felt like every spare moment of my life was taken up either by processing pictures or looking for houses.

Since we didn't have a house to move into and it would have been just as expensive or more expensive to rent, we decided to move in with Steve's parents until we could find a house to buy.  We moved in about a week and a half ago and things are going pretty well so far.  Hopefully that will continue and we'll be able to get into a house soon so we don't overstay our welcome.

In the last two weeks we also found out about some great opportunities.  Steve applied for and got an interview for a job that he would love to do.  We're still waiting to hear on it.  Wilda also told me about some opportunities to teach distance education courses through her work at BYU Independent Study.  It would be really good pay and I could do it from home, BUT I have to have a current teaching license to do it.  Mine expired last June.  That means I'll be doing some intense teacher training courses this next month in order to bring it current.  Because it will take so long to renew, I might not get any of the classes, but I'm still hoping.  I also found out about some graphic design contract work that would bring in some money a couple times a month.  Since the job was posted the day after we moved in here and a couple days before we moved everything else into storage, it took me a week to get a portfolio together to apply.  It's also a long shot because of that, but I really hope I can get some of that work.  I think it would be incredibly fun and satisfying, as well as a way to get some experience, and bring in a little extra money.

Mira and Emilia are doing pretty well considering the big changes that have happened recently.  Mira is as endearing as ever and finally figured out how to walk by herself last week.  She now has four teeth that she shows off with big smiles regularly.  Emilia was sad to move away from her best friend, Vivian (our landlord's daughter), but she is still a responsible and caring helper.  She is being very brave (for her) lately, too.  She tried out showering, which was a step because she hates the feeling of being splashed or dripped on.  She tried swimming at the pool in the deep part without anyone holding on to her (she was wearing floaties--we haven't put her in swim lessons yet), and she has been willing to try out new foods more often as well.  I'm very proud of her.

If I don't post again for a while, it's because life is still crazy.  But if you don't mind keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, we would very much appreciate the help.  We're hoping for a lot of good things to come our way and I think the Lord will bless us if we keep the faith and continue to pray for the desires of our hearts.  A couple extra voices never hurt though. :)