McDonalds

I know there are many people out there who think McDonalds is the worst place EVER.  I am not one of those people.  McDonald's fries are hard to beat.  And they have PlayPlaces.  SO good for moms of little kids on cold, winter days.

Me and Mira hanging out and eating fries.  She's a girl after my own heart.

 Emilia, in the past, has hated all things climbing-and-sliding.  But she's getting braver.  Case in point:

I have such cute girls!

life lately

Here are some very random pictures that depict life for us Watts' lately.

Me, one week before Thanksgiving, eating my first plate of nachos in at least 5 months.  It was heavenly!

Emilia after I got her hair chopped off for the first time.  The lady who cut her hair straightened it afterwards.  I think she looks A LOT like Ariana with straight, short, hair.

One of my favorite fall treats, fried green tomatoes.  Made from the last of my dad's green tomatoes. Mmm!

Emilia playing with the camera on my phone...

The cuteness that is Bubby.  She is such a curious, happy, mischievous, smarty-pants.  Wilda says she's just like Steve that way.  For me it means constantly picking up ALL the Kleenexes that two minutes ago were nicely stacked in the box; restacking diapers; picking up all the papers she just threw on the floor from off the table, the fridge or the shelf; pulling rubber bands, pieces of old food, buttons, dice, pieces of said Kleenexes, and Emilia's rings out of her mouth; putting all the clothes back in the drawer; picking her up and comforting her after she's fallen off, pulled over, or bonked her head against something--AGAIN; removing electrical objects, such as computer cords, remote controls, and cell phones out of her grasp and slobber; and basically being on my guard way more than I ever had to with Emilia.  I don't know...maybe most 10 month-olds are like this, but she is keeping me on my toes!

Emilia walked out of her room carrying all this stuff the other day.  Sorry my phone took such a bad picture (it couldn't have been the user!).  She is carrying three purses, a baby (doll) carrier, a Christmas bag and a lunch cooler.  And yes, she is wearing short sleeves and shorts in January.  I have to fight that girl every day to get her to wear long sleeves.  I've given up on making her wear socks unless we're actually leaving the house.  Crazy kid.  She obviously didn't inherit my cold-blooded genes.

I lied before.  I did take 1 and only 1 picture at Christmas.  Here it is.  You can tell it's Christmas by the chaos, right?

Me and the girls being silly.

Emilia at her first sleepover with her cousins Jane and Meg. They were watching Tangled, of course.

The Bubby Monster!

The monkey hat I crocheted for Cari for Christmas.

The swag I made for my front door.

The view on the ceiling of the elevator at the library.  Only when you have kids do you notice these things.  It's kind of fun. :D

Emilia looked so cute going upstairs to play with Vivian while it was raining the other day, I had to take a picture through the window. My little girl is getting so grown up!

Other notes:
Mira has gotten her first two teeth.  The bottom two in front.
Emilia can now mostly dress and undress herself.  Still has problems with buttons and things that are inside-out.  But otherwise, she does pretty good.
We have to move by the end of May and Steve will probably receive his Master's Degree in April.  Lots of life changes afoot!
I'm making progress on re-vamping my book and I'm feeling very successful.
I'm also enjoying getting to know the amazing spirits that I've been blessed to raise and getting to know myself better because of it.  I'm learning to find joy in the journey.  It's a nice thing to find.

artistic intent

When I redid Emilia's bedroom, one of the things I did was repaint and reupholster a vintage chair to match her room.  The other day, Emilia was quiet for a while back in her room, which is, of course, suspect.  This is what I found when I went back to check on her:

She said she was decorating the chair and she liked it better that way.  How can you argue with that?

Pretty Pretty Princess

Emilia got the game "Pretty Pretty Princess" for Christmas this year.  She loves playing it and Mira loves doing whatever Emilia is doing.  They both make for some pretty princesses, don't you think?

Steve's work party

For Steve's work Christmas party this year, they took us all ice-skating. (They always do their work Christmas party at the end of January so it doesn't conflict with other Christmas activities.) Emilia was SO excited because we had gotten her a Pinkalicious book about going ice skating recently. In the book it talks about how Pinkalicious thought she would be graceful on the ice and she would do twists and turns with ease, but instead she just fell down a lot. Apparently Emilia didn't get the gist of the book, because she was VERY frustrated when she fell down a lot. We even got her one of those walkers with tennis balls on the bottom to help her stay up, but it wasn't much help. I think she just needed to be a little older and a little more courageous. Getting a balloon Ariel made up for a lot, though.

As their "Christmas bonus" Inside Sales always gives away some great prizes, but some of them are underwhelming. Last year we came away with a Sony Blue-ray player; this year--some headphones. Ah, well. At least we got something, right?

from facebook

Emilia has apparently watched Tangled a few too many times. Today I asked her to please finish her lunch. Emi (putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head): No! Me: why not? Emi: Because it's MY decision, mother! Me (laughing): No, because you're not 18, like Rapunzel. When you're 18, you can decide whether you finish your lunch, but you're 3. And Momma says you need to finish your lunch. Emi (with a big grin): OH!! Okay, Momma.

Mira has learned a fun new game: say, "uh-oh!" And then drop your food on the floor.

Yesterday, my mom was teasing Emilia after she scarfed down her chicken nuggets for dinner.
Nana: Emilia, all your chicken nuggets are gone! Was it magic?
Emilia: No. I ate them.
Nana: So where are they now? Your toes, right?
Emilia (laughing at Nana's silliness): No! My bum!

I walk into Emilia's bedroom to find her and her best friend dressed up and playing in her kitchen. Emi: We're making something special, Mom. Me: I'm sure it's very special. You two look like princesses. Emi: Yes. Princesses who make dinner.

The new bad guy in all of Emilia's stories? "The Bad Everyones."

A commercial for Disneyland came on last night that showed a little boy pulling on the sword-in-the-stone sword and Steve says, "I am so mad that I could never pull the sword out of the stone. I should have been the king of England by right. Damn you, Disneyland!"

I'm not too worried that Emilia has an imaginary friend. What worries me is that she just killed her off.

Growing up, when my mom was not-really-mad, she would shake her fist at us and scold us saying "Boom-bang-garuk!" I understood it as something her German parents would say. The other day Emilia heard me say this and immediately got this "you're a little crazy" look, then asked "Boom bang a duck, Mom?" I guess that does sound a little crazy. :)

My poor baby is going to grow up thinking it is normal and common to have your toes cleaned out by older siblings.

9 month pictures

She wanted the camera so bad, I decided to let her have it for a few shots.

Love my Mirabelle!

 

Child of God

In our church, we believe that every human is one of God's spiritual children. Since he is a King over all things, as his children, we have great value and worth; we also could be considered princes and princesses, which is what Emilia's Sunday School teachers thought to emphasize today. Emilia was totally in her element. :D

I think knowing that we all have divine worth is so important to a healthy and happy life, especially in a day and age where we are constantly told we need to improve our skin, our teeth, our clothing, our appearance (through makeup), our hair, etc. Little girls especially, are given unrealistic standards to live up to.  I hope to teach my little girls that they are special and important no matter what their appearance is...as is every other human being on the planet...and that they will always have my love and the love of an all-knowing and merciful Heavenly Father.

Christmas and all that

So I didn't take any pictures on Christmas. None.  Sadly, part of me didn't want to because I didn't want to have to add them to the blog. Pretty bad, I know.

Emilia received way too many toys.  Which is exactly what we expected.  It lead to a mass clean-out of her toy box and room to make way for all the new stuff.  All of us received a lot of gifts and we felt humbled by how much we have this season.

I made a goal last year--after freaking out pretty much every night in December--that I would not do that to myself again this year.  I am proud to announce, I did it.  I started shopping at the beginning of November, figured out which gifts I wanted to make and paced myself so I could get them done.  It still took me until Christmas Eve to finish everything, but I never felt rushed or overwhelmed by all the things I needed to get done. It was nice to be able to relax and enjoy the season for once.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family.  Steve's parents drove to Colorado to spend time with two of his sisters, so we could spend time with my folks uninterrupted.  It was nice to be surrounded by people we love and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Steve's parents were back by New Year's Eve, and his sister, Nicole, and her family, came to town, so we all played games while the girls played.  It worked out so well, I think we need to do it again soon. :)

I had 3 photo shoots in December.  The first one was on the 17th and was totally for fun.  It was with a photography/model Meetup group that I'm part of and the theme was misfit toys/broken dolls.  I love being able to use photography as an art instead of just a form of documenting the same thing over and over again.  See how the pictures turned out here (I like the ones in the second group better): http://www.sabrinawattsphotography.com/2011_12_17/ and http://www.sabrinawattsphotography.com/2011_12_17_more/

I also had a wedding in Logan on the 29th.  Luckily Steve still had some time off, so he could stay home and watch the girls.  I was gone from 9 am until 11 pm.  It was a long day.  Then on the 31st I did some pictures for some family friends in Provo.  I much prefer not having to drive 2 hours to get to a shoot.

Bubby had her 6 month check up and weighed in at 16 lbs.  She's still only in the 9th percentile, but I think she's growing.  We're pretty sure she's allergic to bananas and she is having reactions to other foods as well.  Not only does that make it difficult to find things for her to eat, but it's making her a picky eater.  She does love freeze-dried strawberries, gluten-free cheerios, corn chex, and grapes.  I keep trying new things with her, so hopefully we'll find more stuff she's willing to/can eat.

Steve also finished his first draft of his thesis recently and is working on revising it now.  We look forward to him graduating in April.  Maybe by then, we'll know what we'll do next. :)

My New Year's resolution? Well, one of them is pretty cliche, but I want to make time to exercise regularly.  I also want to work on revising my book.  As soon as it is revised, all you people who have asked to read it are going to get a copy.  So wish me luck on my resolutions, k?

Thanks to everyone who actually sent out a Christmas card.  It was nice to hear from you.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  And Happy New Year!