Today was another snow day at home from school, which at first the kids were pretty upset about because who doesn't love being at school on Valentine's Day (it was always my favorite day of school when I was little!). I told them that they would still have their party when they went back and they were fine after that.
When we were little on every Valentine's Day, my mom would always draw hearts on the bathroom mirror with lipstick and then write our names inside. I still do this with my kids, and Jackson was especially excited when he saw it this morning. He asked what I wrote it with, and I told him lipstick. A little while later I walked into my bathroom to see both mirrors covered in lipstick, and then later noticed in Ansley and Elsie's room a nice portrait made out of lipstick on their window (Ansley evidently wanted to get in on the fun, too.) I now have a lot more mirror/window cleaning than I planned on. :)
We spent all day at home, but daddy took the big kids out sledding when he got home from work which they loved, and Mamaw Di and Aunt Jessica stopped by to visit us. We then cooked a nice meal, got our "mailboxes" we made (out of envelopes) off our doors and read our Valentine's from one another, and as you can see, Vada Belle REALLY enjoyed her Valentine's cupcakes.
Somehow, way too fast, it turned 2014, and before I could even remember that it is no longer 2013 it is already February! Here are a few pics of our January though, which was spent with many snow days out of school and hanging out at home with the kids in their cute little footed jammies (well- the girls... Jackson's now too big for all of his!).
Jackson finally got a new bed, which he needed a long time ago. He still had his blue little race car toddler bed, and his feet were hanging off at the bottom. He had been sleeping in the floor of his sister's room for a couple of weeks (which I think part of that was he just wanted to be in their room with them). We went to Johnson City to look for him a new bed and he had talked a LOT about what he wanted. A bunk bed that is a treehouse and has a slide. The place we went to had a bunk bed with a tree house on top, and they also had this one. I wasn't fond of how this one looked, but Jackson kept going to this one and saying how much he LOVED it. It was much cheaper than the other beds, was higher off the ground (which was all he wanted with the bunk bed) and it has a slide! I said to Eric, "Hey, you're only little once and it's much cheaper than any other bed, let's just get it." Plus- look how excited he is!!!
On the many, many snow days we had in January, Jackson spent a huge majority of that time reading or creating things out of his Lego's.
There was a lot of riding tricycles, bike and scooters around this house, singing and dancing along to Frozen songs, and working on snow day packets.
A few pics of the girls-
We were able to enjoy some time with friends, and especially loved when other people could come over to hang out or go sledding.
Vada Belle has begun telling us here and there when she needs to go potty. We aren't potty training by any means, but when she tells us she's gotta go- we take her! She told Jessica one Sunday at Mamaw's that she had to go, and then she decided that she was just going to hang out there for a while and Jessica snapped these cute pics of her. She's probably going to be mad at me one day for posting these, but aren't they precious.
Here is also a cute little video of Vada Belle... she keeps us laughing!
Even though the kids were suppose to start school after Christmas break on Monday, they have been out all this week because of snow. Jackson and Ansley have loved having the extra time to play with all of their new stuff, and Elsie and Vada Belle have loved having them here to play with. Even with all of their playing, they have still been doing some reading, writing and drawing (on their own free will, too!). Ansley got a "Barbie Secrets" book from Santa, and in it there are all kinds of questions for you to write answers and draw pictures. She has really taken an interest this week in trying to sound out words and write them on her own in this book, and yesterday she sat down at the table with some paper and she said was going to write a book. Here it is, Ansley's first book.... "Cod the Famale" :)
I was so proud of her attempt at sounding out those words! Jackson has already informed her that she needs to switch the t and h in all of her "th" words, and I think he was ready to proofread in detail before I made him be quite and just tell what a good job she did. She's already read it to Vada Belle and Elsie several times. :) Great job, Ansley!
Ten years ago today Eric had told me that he wanted to take me out to eat that night. When he came to pick me up from my house, Eric happened to see my dad running on the road and dad signaled him to pull over and help him. Why... because his cattle had got out and were running up and down 421. It wasn't long before my mom and I (and I think my sisters too) were called to come help run cattle and to help get them back into the field before they ran into a car or caused an accident. Once we got the cows back in, Eric was obviously in a big hurry. I told him I need to run home real fast and change shoes before we left. I ran upstairs to change shoes, and Tiffany later told me that while Eric was standing at the door waiting she said, "Why do you seem nervous.... oh my gosh, you're going to propose!" We left there and Eric said he wanted to go to Hickory, which wasn't common for us to do at all. I had been wanting to go to a sale in one of the stores at the mall, so he said that he would take me by there. I looked at the clock and knew there was no way we could make it there in time to shop. We pulled into the parking lot at 8:50 and he tells me to hurry and run to the store and he was going to run to the bathroom. I thought to myself what in the world can I do in here in less than ten minutes. Little did I know he had already purchased my engagement ring and had it sized, and it had finally arrived back that day and he wanted to pick it up before Zale's closed. I was
January 2004
standing in the store when he walks in just a couple of minutes later, and he said, "Did you find anything?" Then he told me that we would just come back some other time and look, and we then went to Olive Garden to eat. After leaving there we headed back up the mountain and he said he wanted to drive out on the Parkway. He had a certain spot picked out that he wanted to go to, but we were unable to get there because the road was blocked with a helicopter and stretchers. Yikes! So, we went to another overlook, where he said some really sweet things, pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. I of course said, "YES!" but then I said, "But, wait, you didn't get on one knee!" He laughed, got out of the car, and got down on one knee and put the ring on my finger. We drove back to my parent's house and by this time it was around 1:00am. They were leaving early the next morning for a cruise, and there was no way I was going to have to wait until they returned to show them the ring and share our exciting news. I was 21 at the time and we had been dating barely a year, but I can remember telling my sisters one day while we were driving to Bristol that I knew that he was the man I was going to marry, and that was only two weeks after we started dating. We may not have the most romantic proposal with flash mobs and all that, but I know that God picked Eric for my husband, and I think him daily for sending me such an all around amazing guy.
I love you, emc!
2013 was a wonderful year, and we are so excited for many more memories to be made in 2014!
On New Year's Eve we joined several others from our church for a Mexican themed meal, some ping-pong, and lots of other fun games. We got home about 2 minutes before midnight, but by the time we got the kids in the house and sat them on the couch it was 7 seconds until 12:00. Since we don't have cable or satellite, Eric downloaded a countdown app on his phone, and we watched the 7 second countdown there. Exciting, huh?! I asked the kids if they had any goals for the year, and as of midnight on 1/1/2014 Jackson says he really wants to learn to play the banjo, Ansley wants to go to Disney and eat, Elsie wants to go to Dollywood, and Vada Belle just wanted to go to bed. :) Happy 2014!
This year I have heard more than ever different opinions and views on the whole Santa debate. I have been asked several times if in our family we believe in Santa or not. In our family, Santa does come visit our house and brings presents for the kids. I have heard that because Eric and I do "play" Santa, that it will be confusing to our children because if we are "lying" to them about Santa, then how are they going to know that we are not lying to them about Jesus. That question I have thought long and hard about, and I have discussed it with some of my closest friends. A dear true and close friend of mine, Alisha, discussed this with me on the phone one day. She was saying how with our kids we discuss all the princesses (if you know our girls, you know that they are princess obsessed!), talk about them and their stories like they are real, when we go to Disney World we don't tell them it is just someone dressed up in a Belle/Cinderella/Buzz/Woody/Mickey Mouse costume, we just let them use their imagination and pretend, just like we are doing with Santa. Santa pops up in our house maybe a couple of weeks before Christmas, and often he isn't even mentioned every one of those days in those couple of weeks. It might be asked, "What do you want Santa to bring you?" Jesus on the other hand, Jesus is mentioned not only a couple of weeks before Christmas, He is mentioned several times in our house every single day of the year. We pray as a family before meals, we gather together every single night in one of the kids bedrooms to say what we are thankful for that day, and pray and thank Jesus for his blessings and give him any prayer requests we may have, no matter how big or small (and Elsie always prays for Vada's cough to get better- no matter if she hasn't had one in months). ;) We go to church as a family every Sunday and Wednesday. We are discussing Jesus and His grace, His blessings, His forgiveness constantly in our house... and the kids often hear me praying for patience. Even though right now our kids believe in Santa, they know the real and true reason for Christmas and would be more than happy to tell you all about that very first Christmas. One day Santa will be a fun memory, just like Rapunzel and Spiderman I believe, but I pray that Jesus will always be in my kids hearts. I feel that if you choose not to do Santa in your house, that is just fine and I'm glad that we each can make a decision on what we feel like we can do for our own families. My precious husband sent me an email one day with a link to this blog post that was saying (only in a much better way than I can) exactly what I was trying to.
So, on Christmas morning when Jackson, who was so patient and quiet (since all 4 kids were asleep in our bedroom) was given the okay to wake his sleeping sisters up, the first thing we did was to open our last gift to our "What Does God Want For Christmas" book set we have. (This set is a wonderful activity to do with young kids starting a week before Christmas. Each day you read a short story and open one of the gift boxes, which includes an angel, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Shepherd, Wise man, and the seventh day- Christmas Day- is a mirror showing that God wants your heart more than anything else.) We thanked God for sending His son on that very first Christmas Day, Sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and discussed again the importance of this day and how Santa brought some gifts, just like the Wise Men did to Baby Jesus. We then went and opened the gifts that Santa brought.
We then went up to Mamaw Di and Papaw Fred's to have a delicious breakfast, and to open presents from them and Aunt Jessica.
After hanging out there for a while, we came home and packed and headed towards Sparta to celebrate with the Clifton's and Leftwich's.
After a packed and busy day, we spent the night in Sparta. The next day we woke up, opened up gifts from Gramma Winkie, Grandpa David & Uncle Marshall, and then we headed towards Pigeon Forge for the night to see all the beautiful lights at Dollywood. After we left Dollywood we were still driving around Pigeon Forge looking at the Christmas lights at 11:15pm. The kids were loving all the lights! We then went and checked into our hotel and let the kids play in the jacuzzi tub in our room before they passed out for the night.
When we got home Friday night, we walked into a messy home full of unwrapped wrapping paper, new toys galore, and many wonderful Christmas memories from this season.
What a busy, wonderful Christmas we had celebrating the birth of our Savior!
Last Sunday (12/22/2013) we had our Christmas play at church, and all the kids did great!
While we were at the first practice assigning parts, Jackson spoke up and said he wanted what was probably the second biggest part in the play. I told him he had to really practice and memorize his lines, and asked if he was sure he really wanted to do that, and he said yes. One day while we were at home I gave him the play and told him that he needed to read through it and memorize his parts. He read through it, and then handed it back to me. I gave it right back and said, "Read through it again." He did, and laid it back on the table. I said again, "Jackson, you have to memorize all your parts," to which he replied, "I already did." Not believing he had, after reading through it twice, I said, "Fine, let's go through the play." I started reading through it and every time I would get to one of his parts, he would say exactly what he was suppose to. I wish I had his photographic memory! Ansley did wonderful on all of her parts, and was even given another small part right before the play began because one of the girls was out with the stomach bug. Elsie did good at the beginning, but then she decided that she would cross her arms and pooch out those lips about half way through, and not say anything else. My favorite part of the play was when Eric and the kids sang, "Go Tell It On The Mountain." If you watch the video clip, you'll see what I mean about Elsie crossing those arms. That girl!
The next day we went to Mamaw Ollie's to have a fun Christmas party with all of the Phipps family. The kids love hanging out with Abigail, Amelia, Bella and Carter, and if you know Mamaw Ollie, you know there was plenty of delicious food to eat.
All the Phipps great-grandkids, except we were missing Blake
The next day, Christmas Eve, we had the Watson Christmas Party. It was full of laughs, stories, and lots of excitement from all the kids
We came home to give our Elf on the Shelf, Simon, a good-bye hug (it's okay if we touch him on Christmas Eve, because the kids are allowed to give quick hugs and kisses, put him back in his box, and then lay him under the tree for Santa to pick up when he stops by). We then put some cookies and egg nog out for Santa, laid a note from Ansley and Jackson to him, had a quick sip of egg nog for the kids, read Twas the Night Before Christmas, and then kept with our tradition of having a sleepover in mommy and daddy's bedroom.
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