All Work and No Play

Quite the contary. Sometimes if you want something bad enough you find a way to make it happen. I had to admit that our "homeownership to do list" is still rather lengthy, but we put that part of our life on hold and managed to squeeze in some good times. Now that sounds more like the Watsons. We pawned off the kids to Aunt Lyss and Janelle. YEAH!! It looks like they had a way too much fun. Aunt Lyss let them swim for hours, taught them to pee pee in the bushes, made wishes blowing dandilions, met fun college kids (Yes it's true my children met Alyssa's latest fling before me), took over Janelle's treats all while Little Lady just stayed afloat. Basically Aunt Lyss did what all great Aunties do. . . .spoiled them rotten. No wonder they love her. Thanks Aunt Lyss and Janelle.

Tim and I headed up the Canyon for a great ride. I was enjoying my uphill climb when an older, "huskier" lady passed me. She appeared to be much more experienced on the bike. My logic dosen't really make sense but I came to that conclusion as a result of her great calve muscles. . .You better believe that I stepped it up a knotch. What was a leisure bike ride all the sudden turned into quite a work out. After being passed up I peddled my heart out. Hopefully that will be the last time I'm passed up on the trail. :) I can't tell you much about Tim's ride . . . only that he looked pretty beat by the time we met at the bottom. He was a bit more ambitous than I was and conquered the mountain. At the end of the day there is still plenty of "to do's" to accomplish. I'm pretty sure it will all be sitting there for me in the morning. All work*NO play*NO WAY!

Home Ownership

When we purchased our first home we were clueless as to all the work that goes into owning a home. One of my parents strong points was raising children that have an excellent work ethic. I remember every Saturday morning we were up early. . . .early working. . . we played hard, but the playing went on well after our inside/outside jobs were completed. At the time I thought my parents had a bundle of children so they could have 5 little slaves to do all the work. Their job was to sit around, drink lemonade and crack the whip. Now that I have 4 little slaves of my own, I am pretty sure it is easier to do all the work myself than it is to prompt them continually to pick up just a few toys. Did I say prompt. . . I meant spank some bum bums! So good job mom and Dad getting us to work~work~work! That takes a lot of work in and of itself and even with 5 little slaves I'm pretty sure that there was plenty left over work for you!

Now that Tim and I own our 2nd home it feels a bit overwhelming. The list of to do's is endless. . . .cut the grass. . . weed the flower beds. . . rake the lawn. . . . Yeah, you read that right, rake the lawn??. .. . I had never heard of that one before. . . the Park City Johnson tell me it's necessary for a beautiful lawn. I'm still a Barrett women at heart. . .I've got to have the most beautiful lawn on the block. . . . aerate. . . .kill that clover. . . . clean the garage. . . plant flowers, wash cars, clean the inside. . . .keep Tim from napping. . .the list goes on and on. . . . My Saturday is about gone just thinking about this never ending list. . .To be honest with you I'd much rather pawn the kids off to Auntie Lyss and go biking. For all you homeowners out there. . .Don't work toooo hard! And for all you renters if you're in the market to purchase call and I'll give you mine! :) OK. . Tim will even get you a great loan to go with it...but you may have to change a few diapers as payment. :) Happy Saturday!

Bye-Bye Diapers!

It's time! We have officially thrown out all the Alexander and Barrett Diapers and moved onto the dreaded task of potty training. There is definitely no turning back. NO diapers during the day! NO diapers while we are out! NO diapers during Nap! And NO diapers at night! Good-Bye Diapers! So far Alexander's potty record is 5 for 6 and Barrett is 5 for 5. Not bad for a bunch of trouble makers. :) Max had preschool this morning, I farmed Jacq out, and I literally pumped the two full of liquid this morning. We have been hovered around the potty all day. Hopefully they can keep up the good work. Any one have potty training ideas?? I need a back up plan. This mom is done with Big Boy Diapers. :)

A Picture Says A Thousand Words ~ Las Vegas, NV

VEGAS! YEAH! We decided to take a little drive down to "family friendly" Las Vegas. :) What a vacation it has been with our little ones. Below are our Vegas highlights. :)

*Jacqulynn Grace found a new form of Independence. She was as free as a little fish in a big ocean. No large round flotation devices for her, no mommies to save her from swallowing too much water, just Little Lady with her water wings in the pool. More times than not she had her cute hot pink crocks on. Who doesn't go swimming with their shoes on?? When she was not floating freely, she was running around the pool throwing everyone elses shoes in. . . I guess she thinks everyone should go swimming with their shoes on.

*Shoes on or shoes off Max has only one thing on his mind...getting back to Utah! We took the little guy to the Circus and what did he ask, "When do we go back to Utah?". To the Shark Tank "when do we go back.. . ". To the strip, "when...". To say the least, little Max has a one track mind. We love you Max, even outside of Utah.

*If Alexander and Barrett spoke anything other than twin-speak I'm certain one of the them would love being in NV and the other dislike it. This trip has reaffirmed that these boys are complete opposites. Xander wakes up begging to swim, jump, and be thrown in the pool. While Barrett refuses to go any deeper than what his little toes can touch and sometimes that is asking too much. Xman loved the fast racing roller coasters. . . .the same roller coasters that Barrett was clinching onto the bar for his dear life. Alexander had a thrill pushing the "roaring" button to the mechanic dinosaur. Barrett high tailed it out of the room in a fright with his ears covered, "I scared!". If they weren't so bloody cute (like their daddy) I'd swear there was a mix up at the hospital. Despite all their differences they love each other very much! Everytime I turned around they were plotting together to find a way to drive me crazy.

*I have not determined whether Las Vegas is the multi-level marketing capital of the world or if Tim has the words "I'm a sucker" written all over his face. He was approached by at least 3 different Network Marketers all pushing a different product. We even had a lady track us down and bring us some goods. One good thing from all of these salespeople was one had a T-shirt that summed up the essence of Sin city. It said something about liquor and poker... but I think it is best if we don't get into too much detail.

*Shauna takes at least 10 pictures of everything and everyone at every single attraction. Our poor children . . they are probably blind from the camera flash. We created a little Watson's in Vegas slide show. There are at least 100 pictures (OK not 100, but alot) and that is just a small portion from our trip. Check it out! When you get tired of seeing the Watson's in Vegas you can just close the window ~ We'll never know. :) Enjoy!

Bringing down the house

Watch out world. . . these Watson boys really have some fancy foot work in store for you. They didn't get it from their momma and I'm pretty sure that their dad has two left feet. :) They ran into some generic IPOD's, caught some dancing grooves, and haven't stopped moving. You don't want to miss these boys in action.

Max can really Bring down the house! I would consider him the dancing ring leader.


Xander is still working on his moves. He watched Happy Feet once and now has little penguins running around in his head.


Barrett Boy is foot loose and fancy free and takes all this dancing pretty seriously! You go Barrett Boy!

Hard Lesson = Big Pay Off!

There is one bedroom at the Watson house that represents a boys dormitory, 3 beds all lined up for my 3 favorite little boys. The other day I walked in and noticed that they had pulled every last book from off their bookshelf onto the floor. Over the years they have collect more than a few books so it was quite a mess. I thought to myself what will be the most productive way to teach them to take care of their "things". Some days it seems like I go from mess to mess, room to room, picking up after the family so I was feeling pretty frustrated. I calmly walked upstairs grapped 3 large plastic sacks and bagged every last book. I am pretty sure as they get their books back 3 by 3 (one for each boy) that they will be returned to the shelf a little more promptly and they will take a little better care for them. It was a pretty dramatic lesson for them and not very fun for me as a parent to enforce, but I believe in the long run it will have a big pay off. . . . at least I hope so! No more books on the floor!

*Love them*Love them growning up*Love their stage*

I have to admit that I have my mommy moments. I'm pretty sure that just about every mom can relate. . . . These are the moments when I wish my children into the next stage of life and then the next, and next. The days were I think if only Max could do this or the Twins could do that (Potty Train) and maybe Jacqualynn could communicate her needs instead me playing the guessing game. I'm getting quite good at troubleshooting her needs but it would be so much easier if she could say, "Mother whom I love and cherish because you are so wonderful and sacrifice so very much for me- may I please have a glass of milk?" I have to remind myself that someday I am really going to miss this scene in the Watson movie. A couple years back I was having a particularly stressful day when my dad gave me a little piece of advice. I'll never forget what he said to me and continues to remind me of regularly, "Enjoy this time with your little ones. . . . just think. . . . you know where they are, who they are with and what they are doing." I know part of advice surfaces because he is a wise old man :) and the other is because he still has a teenager at home. I am grateful that the children are usually home, with me, playing fun childish games. Anyway, once I really put his advice into perspective I had a new appreciation for my little ones and taking the time to enjoy every stage they are in. Even the stages that might be a little more frustrating (potty training).
Whenever I think about how my children are growing up too fast I say to them, "You need to stop growing up . . . I want you to be my little boys forever!" All three of my boys proceed to crawl up to the highest peice of furniture they can place their eyes on, up on their tip toes, both hands straight up in the air to show me how big they are and how they are going to keep growing up. They let me know that they are going to be bigger than me someday. It's kind of a fun game. Every single time I tell them "stop growing up" in the back of my mind I am reminded to enjoy every stage. Before I know it they will be big boys with families of their own. I'm sure that when that day comes I will be hoping for a weekly phone call and please please can it be my year for Christmas! :) Love them*Love them growning up*Love their stage*

TRI Harder

Race season is underway! Saturday had the Watsons in Lehi for a little splash and dash. Tim worked hard and improved dramatically since last year. Lucky thing for him Shauna wasn't competing. :) The swim went by fast, he took a few wrong turns on the bike, but made up for it with a pretty quick run. Racing triathlon is awesome because not only is it good exercise, but with warm up clothes that advertise Tim's business (http://www.YourUtahLender.com/) it is also a tax deduction. Good Deal! You ask well. . . . How fast was he? Tim likes to say, "Faster than yesterday but not as fast as tomorrow". The clock, however, said an hour and change. Placing him in the top ten in over 400 participants. How far was today's race? Well at the end of the event all Tim could say was..."TOO FAR!" . Everyone else said 400 meter swim, 13 mile bike and 3 mile run... but Tim was adamant about the correct answer being "TOO FAR!" Our little family started triathlon training a year ago to get out of our comfort zone and to Tri Something new. When was the last time you 'TRI-ed' something new? We'd love to hear about it.

Fair Weather Soccer

It is soccer time again. I was sure that after a few months of growth our little Max would be ready to rule the field. . . Quite the contrary . . . Max told me today that soccer is not his “favorite thing” and that he actually prefers school. Once I coerced Max into heading down to the soccer field we realized that the freezing cold wind had forced even the polar bears to huddle together to stay warm. Little Max ran around the field with his hands in his sweat shirt pocket- pretty sure he didn’t touch the ball- looking adorable… 10 feet behind all the action (running with your hands in your pocket makes you a bit slower than the other boys). With 5 minutes left in the game I realized that I am a fair weather soccer mom and little Max is really only there for the half time treats. Needless to say we headed to the car where we could blast the heater and make up stories about how great the game was.

Happy Easter!

To View the Watson Easter weekend Click Here

All Kids go to Heaven

I'm pretty sure all my children died and went to Heaven. At least a really great visit to DisneyLand in the Water. We found a little indoor water park in Lehi, Utah called Legacy. You could tell by the squeal in their voice, the twinkle in their little eyes and the permanent grin plastered on their faces that there was no other place that they would rather be. Pretty sure in their little child world that it looked like Heaven on earth.

I like to call Max "The Rat." He really is quite the water rat. I'm sure he would have stayed and played all day if I would have let him. I had to keep a close eye on MJ. He thinks that he is a little more advanced in the pool than he really is. Every time I turned around he was face down sometimes gasping for air and other times actually swimming. My job as the mom was to predict accurately whether he was drowning or not. More than once I guessed wrong and he barked out that he was "Swimming."

I'm pretty sure that Alexander Eat, Sleeps, and Dreams "Wa~Wa." Our little guy of few words woke up this morning and said,"Waterpark!" Meaning he was ready to go back to the waterpark. If he had his choice he would live in the water. He is definitely our little fish. I'm going to see if we can get him in swim lessons this summer. His dreams would come true. . . .swimming in the pool is about all his little mind a can fatham right now.

I thought Barrett Boy was never going to warm up to the water. Typically our Bathing beauty huddles around the steps. Yesterday he sure came alive. He couldn't stand under enough water spouts or go down enough slides. Not only was he going down slides unprompted and by himself, but he was going head first. :) I guess Bathing Beauty decided to get out from under the umbrella and play for awhile.
Jacqualynn Grace is never too far behind her brothers. She may be our fairy princess, but she can sure hold her own. She loved bouncing in the swings, chasing after her brothers and being spoiled by her Aunt Lyss. By the end of our little adventure she was a true prune, but she managed to smile from cheek to cheek and even kept the bow in her hair. I'd have to say that she is our rugged Princess and we kind of like her that way. ;)

All I have to say is Thank Goodness for McDonald's. Once the children were raisins and disrupting the 'Adult only' hot tub I bribed the them to leave their heaven on earth with a Happy Meal at McDonald's. They knew they were in Heaven because they never get a happy meal. ;) Aunt Lyss and the boys had a competition to see who could eat their food the fastest. I had to chuckle when Aunt Lyss shoved the last bite of food in her mouth claiming her victory and Max Said, "No Aunt Lyss, you have to 'chew chew swallow.'" Maybe we didn't have Mickey or Minny but we had Aunt Lyss and Ma Deb and the children couldn't have been happier. It was a great outing and by far the best $25 I spent in a long time. Disneyland can wait yet another year. We found the Watson's Happiest Place on earth. I guess maybe it isn't the big round ears as much as it is the people that make a place special.

Icy Hot

What do you get when you mix a Pretty Little Lady's bare bum and Icy hot??? I don't think I have to answer that. Yep, I was in a hurry and mistook Icy Hot for Desitin. Poor Little Lady. I felt like a bad mom for about a second. It only took a second for me to realize even the best mom's make mistakes. :) Don't worry I didn't stop to take a picture . . . I rushed the Little Lady to the bathtub. Afterall, in her little 18 month world water makes the world go round. Although my Lady had to pay a big price I did learn a valuable lesson. . .slow down a little bit in the future. Life really is to short to cry over Icy Hot.

What makes you smile?

Did you know that it takes over 30 muscles to frown and only about 16 muscles to smile! Some days it's not easy to smile. We all have days like these. Every once in awhile. The days where nothing seems to go right. It starts from the second that you step out of bed. It has been proven somewhere by someone that the physical act of smiling brings about physiological changes that will make you feel happy. :) I believe it! I think to myself, "How can it not?" I have had this transformation many times. In fact, when Max plays his "I see your happy smile" game, I can not help but to feel happiness. The second I start to smile I instantaneously feel happy. It works like a charm every time. Sitting here typing this blog, I have had so many happy thoughts that have created lots of smiles. It's those times when we feel a little grumpy that it is a bit more difficult to dig out that "Happy Smile." What makes you smile?