A Camping We Will Go!

So every year before Memorial Day we like to go to Cave Lake to fish and camp. The lake is stocked with trout and we always have a great time. Unfortunately, we chose a bad weekend to go. We had checked the weather forecast for the weekend and knew that the high would be in the 60's and the lows would be around the 40's. Thank goodness I packed winter clothes because we FROZE our booties off! Our first day there was okay. The weather was mild, kinda chilly, but we could handle it. I think Paul actually wore shorts all day.
That night we froze! We woke up to wind and clouds high on the mountain top. The high for the entire day was around 30 degrees with 20-25 mph winds. We tried to make the best of it and go fishing. Once it started snowing and hailing on us we realized we weren't going to fish a lot that day. My little ones were having a really hard time with the cold. Hey, they're desert rats! By later afternoon the weather was still cold, but the wind stopped so we all bundled up again and went fishing. All of us caught fish and just enjoyed the rest of the day.
That evening we froze again all night and watched as the tent almost blew away as another storm hit the mountain that evening. We were up by 5:30 that morning packing and getting out of that coldness.




One evening Ranger Steve asked us to join him and watch a cannon go off. I was the lucky one to light the fuse. I'm smiling because hmmmm...Ranger Steve... Nice eye candy!!

We were told that the blast from a cannon would make your clothes shift and you might wet your pants. Which is why I'm running away. The blast was just like a loud firecracker.

Camryn by the cannon and freezing. I think the temp was about 25 degrees!!


Jaxon's first time taking a leak in the trees. I know...important milestone!!

We have a tree that has our name carved into it from last year so we had to go and vandalize the tree again and etch 2010.

Jaxon helping daddy clean the fish that we caught.




Even in cold weather Paul still wears his shorts.

Maddie is a Tween!

Maddie turned 12 in March. Yep, I have a tweenie. Love her...hate the moods, but most of the time Madison is a pretty happy girl. She helps me by entertaining her siblings and always has such a sweet spirit about her. Maddie is very caring and is not afraid to show her emotions. She was extremely excited to go to Young Womens. Love you girl!

 

For her birthday Maddie received her own bedroom with a new bedroom set. I also broke down and let her have a birthday party at Crystal Palace. She had about 20 kids show up, ate pizza, roller skated, had some cake, and pretty much had a great birthday.

Happy Birthday Camryn!

Yes, I've been MIA for the past three months. Life has definitely gone on, but I am celebrating today because it is summertime! Meaning..no school for 3 months!! I'm looking forward to staying at home a lot, enjoying our pool, spending time with family that will come to visit, and cleaning my house. I love it!

Highlights: Camryn turned 6! We celebrated by me taking off that day and going to Build a Bear. We never go there because it's so expensive so this was definitely a treat. Then Camryn got to choose what she wanted to eat for lunch. Of course she chose McDonalds. That evening we went to Red Robin to celebrate her day. The funniest (and saddest) thing occurred. After we ordered our waitress went to the computer to punch in our order. While she was there she started having a seizure and fell banging her head on the computer. They had to call an ambulance to come and take her to the hospital. Pretty sad, but what was funny that immediately after this happened Camryn started crying uncontrollably and we couldn't figure out why. Of course, I thought she was traumatized due to what we just witnessed. Finally, we calmed her down and she said, "Now who's going to sing happy birthday to me?" It was so funny!! Of course, another waitress saved the day and we all sang to Camryn. At home we opened gifts and had some cake. It was a great day for my baby girl.
***6 things that I love about Camryn**
*She carries around a stuffed animal dog that she calls "Little Tiger."
*She doesn't eat meat. Ever.
*Camryn loves to love people. She gives the best hugs ever.
*Camryn loves to swim and will swim in freezing water.
*She refuses to wear pants that have snaps, zippers, or buttons.
*Camryn always carries around a notepad and pencil.

Ho Hum

I feel out of the loop a bit so I thought I'd give a brief rundown on what my family has been up to. Life is busy is all I can say!

Paul- Unfortunately, we have been seeing the signs of the recession. As an electrician in a town, where not many jobs are taking place, finding work is very difficult. He still has a job, yet his hours have been cut. We've been doing okay and learning how to really budget a bit better. Last week his company picked up a bunch of jobs so things are looking a tad bit better.

Kris- I've still been dealing with gosh darn stomach issues which is hugely depressing and pretty crappy. After many tests I was finally diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I'm on a strict diet of no dairy, caffeine, spicy foods, chocolate, and the list goes on of all foods that I love. Plus, pills I have to take 4 times a day for a total of 14 pills a day. It's been a good three days so I'm hoping the medicine is helping and my choice of foods is working. Who would've have thought that food would be my enemy!

Tanner- Thinks he's going to play football in high school next year so he goes to weight training every evening. He's put his guitar playing on hold. Crazy to think that he will be a senior next year.

Madison- Competition season has begun! Dancing every day to prepare for competitions. She's doing a solo this year and has been working hard. She's turning 12 this week and is looking forward to going to Young Women's.

Camryn- Still feisty and bubbly. She lost one of her front teeth and tries daily to pull the other one out. Loves kindergarten and is doing her best learning her letters and sounds

Jaxon- Still can't believe he's 3! I had him tested for speech back in December and he qualified so he will be attending speech at Heckethorn starting soon. I was hoping for Early Childhood, but he didn't qualify for that. Nothing like free preschool.
That's us in a nutshell. Hope everyone is doing well and I'll post pictures soon. Because YES!!!! I'M GETTING AN AWESOME NEW CAMERA!!!! YEA ME!!!

Love Day!!

Yes, I'm a loser and don't take my camera everywhere I go.

What a great Valentine's Day weekend! We were all busy the week leading up to the day of love with school parties galore. So our house was filled with tons of boxes of chocolate which is what we always need.
On Saturday night we had plans to go to dinner at Hugo's Cellar with Pam and Ray. This place is our all time favorite place to go and eat at. It's in the Four Queens hotel and totally old school, yet the ambiance about the place is superb and we love it. After dinner Paul and I went and checked into the Imperial Palace hotel and stayed the night in a room that we happened to stay in 18 years ago on our wedding night. Such a ghetto hotel, yet we had a great time just kicking back and not dealing with kids. The hotel room had mirrors over the bed and above the huge bathtub.
After we checked into the hotel we walked the strip a bit and watched in amazement at all of the crazy people that were also out walking. We had to dodge people puking at least twice and had a great time laughing at the girls dressed up to go clubbing. Need I say more about that? I'm sure you can see the visual.
After sleeping in we went and had breakfast at Hash Hash a Go Go. Not a place I would want to go to again since it wasn't that great. It was featured on Man vs. Food so we had to try it.
To top off Valentine's Day I took my mom to dinner at The Outback while Paul ordered pizza for everyone else. We ended our day with sugar cookies, strawberry-lemon cake and cherry limeades. I love Valentine's Day and enjoy watching the kids get all excited about this fun day.

Jaxon's Three!

I wanted to do a nice picture montage of my baby, but my computer crashed. Luckily, I was able to save the thousands of pictures onto an online account but I can't figure out how to copy and paste them so all I have are pictures of Jaxon's birthday. We got him a jump house and celebrated with a Thomas the Train cake which he loved. He received lots of fun toys including a toy horse, lots of trains, puzzles, and cars. I think he had a great day!







My baby is three...such a sad day for mom...yet it should be such a joyous time. I've realized that when your last child is growing up the reality is there that you will never experience these moments again and these are things I'm really struggling with. My hubby says I'm selfish for wanting more. God gave us 4 perfect, normal and beautiful kids. We really are happy with what we have and I think that longing for another child will always be there. Nope, we will never have another child...we knew we had our family complete after Jaxon was born and I accept that. One day I'll have grandchildren to love, but not too soon. My top favorite things about Jaxon:
* We call you Boo and have been since you were a baby. No reason why, yet it fits you. Aunt Pam calls you "Bootsie" which you still respond to.
* Breaking you from your pacifiers was the easiest thing I've ever had to do and I thought it would be a nightmare. You had to have 2-4 "baabaa's" with you every time you went to bed. You loved them. At one time you had at least 10 and they slowly started to disappear which wasn't from mom, but from you setting them down or burying them in your toys. Eventually they all disappeared and you were fine with me telling you they were all gone. You never cried, nor every asked for them and just went on with your happy life.
*Thomas the Train is by the far your best friend. You will stand at your train set for hours lining up all of the trains, playing with the track or fixing up the parts that go with the train. You're not very kind to Camryn who always wants to play with the trains too.
*I love that you're still in a crib and never try to climb out of it. One day you'll get a big boy bed!
* I love that when you want chocolate milk you ask for "numb". Even though you can say milk you still call it numb.
*Riding your scooter daily is a must for you. Thanks goodness for all the tile in our house that allows you to ride it daily.
*Potty training you was a breeze!
*Maddie is still sissy and Tanner is still bubba.
*You LOVE Camryn and does everything that she does. She's your best friend and you do everything that she does.
*Why oh why aren't you a Disney lover? Maybe one day.
*I love the big hugs you like to give and always laugh when I ask you for a kiss and you bend your head down for me to only kiss the top of your head.
*I love the sweet spirit you have while at church and the prayers you attempt to give before we eat.

I will forever be blessed to have this awesome child in our household and look forward to many more fun times with this happy boy. Love you Boo!

December Wrap Up

The month of December was tons of fun and went very quick. Maybe because I had two weeks off which always makes time fly by. Christmas was awesome. Paul and I were extremely spoiled as were all of my kids. Christmas Eve our tradition is to eat Chinese food with Aunt Pam and Uncle Ray, go look at holiday lights, exchange gifts with our aunt and uncle then open pj's. Of course, I wasn't that great with the camera....I actually didn't take any photos.....yet, we all had a great time spending time with the family.
We didn't go and look at lights since we had gone a couple days before to the Gift of Lights which is a drive thru of sparkling lights. I wasn't very impressed and won't do it again, but the kids loved it.


We had a great time decorating cookies. Love the mess!



Santa always brings one big gift (unwrapped for the little ones and wrapped for the older ones.) Here's the loot my family received:

Tanner- Very excited to get an Ipod touch, a new cell phone, Rock Band, cologne, Itunes cards, clothes, shoes, and lots of game stuff.

Maddie- Santa brought her a new laptop, lots of clothes, boots, shoes, Pink perfume, games, and Tanner's old cell phone.

Camryn- Santa brought her a new dollhouse with all the different rooms to go with it, a DS lite, games, clothes, and a karoake machine that will soon say hello to the trash.

Jaxon- Santa brought a huge train set for Jaxon with lots of different trains. We had to bribe him to unwrap gifts since he didn't want to leave his new toy. Literally all day on Christmas Jaxon was attached to this train set...still is. He also received clothes, trucks, a leap tag reader, trains, and lots of books.

Momma and daddy were very spoiled by Santa. My favorite gift being a nice day at the spa. Loves! Santa also brought our family a ping pong table. Mom and Dad especially enjoy that gift.



Notice Jaxon in the other room while we open gifts. He couldn't bare to be away from his brand new train set.




Aren't the kiddos cute with their Christmas clothes?



Maddie also had a Christmas dance spectacular that we attended. Loads of fun.



Camryn has a new job in the house. She sets the table for dinner every night. As soon as I start making dinner she begins to set the table. I loved how she had to include her favorite animals at the table also. I wish I would've taken a picture of the size of napkins she set out. She literally took one paper towel and tore it into 6 pieces. Love her. Also love her toothless mouth since losing a top tooth.

Watkins' Family Photos 2009

When we went to SLC for Thanksgiving my beautiful and talented niece graciously took my kids' photos for me. She did an awesome job considering my little ones were HORRIBLE!! It was a great day with many memories to laugh about later in life about this silly photo shoot. Thanks Heid!


Trying to get everyone to smile in a family photo is a joke. This one we used for our Christmas card.


Madison....my 11 1/2 year old child who thinks she's 21. 6th grade...Dances 4 nights a week...Sings in the school choir...Loves life.


Camryn...my 5 year old child who is full of life. Goes to kindergarten...Dances too...loves her hamsters....the most precocious child I've ever had.


Jaxon...will be 3 in two weeks...potty trained and no pacifiers in one week...loves Thomas the Train...will always be our baby.


Tanner...my 16 year old who is still not driving (YAHOO)...plays the electric guitar..has tried hard to find a job...Good kid!

Notice the dirt on Tanner's sweater? We weren't even at the park for 10 minutes and he biffed it on the dirt while chasing ducks. I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard.