I am four months old and I have the bandaids to prove it...

Ava went in for her four month check up on 11/25/08.

Doctor says she is doing well and is on schedule developmentally, except for rolling over. Well there is no mystery why she is not! This turkey butt is spoiled rotten and won't lay and play, sit or swing more than 10 minutes before she screams for attention. Of course it could also be that she is end to end in her bassinet with no room to move and Daddy won't buy her a mattress for her crib because he doesn't want her in the other room! Again, spoiled. So her and mommy now have to practice rolling over during the day.

4 month stats:
I weigh 13 lb, 8 oz (50th-75th percentile)
I am 24 1/2 inches long (75th percentile)
Not bad for a tiny 5 lb 14 oz, 3 weeks and 2 days early baby, huh?

Fountain Hills Park

On Saturday, November 22 2008, we went to Fountain Hills Park and walked around. It was so beautiful. The fountain goes off every hour, and we happenrd to get there at sunset adding to the beauty of the water on the lake.

Ava 3 months, Katrena 7 years

Random photos of Ava at 3 months...

Random things about me from 10/24-11/24
1. I can hold toys
2. Just me in a cute outfit. Guess what though, I can sit up really good, I am very strong, I fall over or forward eventually though. I always want to sit up and look at the world, I don't want to miss anything!
3. In a dress that belonged to my Aunt Kayleigh (who is 19)
4. I still love Raggy, and I control her by grabbing her hair bun.
5. I really love my soft blanket toys. They are easy for me to grab and cuddle.
6. Don't I look cute in Karey the dogs sunglasses?
7. This dress was my sisters, Mom says I look beautiful in blue, especially with my Daddy's blue eyes.
8. Me and mom in my mom's favorite pajamas. My Great Grandma Watts sent it to me and it has little tiny elephants all over it, its even the same colors as the bedding in my crib.
9. My sister and I have matching dresses, Daddy thought it would be funny to put the bottoms on my head. Now I look like a chef!

Katrena is learning to cook...

Katrena has had some difficulty lately with finishing her food. Something we did not have a problem with in the past. Some nights she will sit at the table for 2 hours, just willing me to give up and give in. I don't. So then we tried the whole, if you have not finished eating in 30 minutes you have to go to bed rule, didn't work. She kept asking if it had been 30 minutes and if she could just go to bed.

I have had talks with her about the fact that she is lucky that she has a mom who is willing and able to cook her a good wholesome meal every night. I am not tooting my own horn, it just seems to be becoming more and more of a rarety. And I want to teach respect for adults, myself included. Sorry back to my story. So I finally decided that maybe if she had to take the time to prepare the meal once a week, she would appreciate the time and effort that goes in to her dinner a little more.

So here she is preparing her first meal on 11/11/08, (no worries family, I was right there the whole time, no cut fingers, no burns). She made taco pizza's. They were fun and yummy too. She cut up veggies, cooked the meat, and made beans with tomatoes and cilantro. She then loaded meat, veggies and cheese onto tostado's and slid them into the oven to bake. She was a little to nervous to pull them out and so was I, so mom took over that part.

Here she is cutting the tomatoes.


and cooking the ground turkey.

She's up again saturday night.

8 favorite things...

So I was tagged twice in two days, lucky me it was the same Tag "8 things", so here we go...

8 Favorite TV Shows

1. The Biggest Loser

2. The Practice

3. Grey's Anatomy

4. Samantha Who?

5. John and Kate plus 8

6. America's Next Top Model

7. Rachel Ray

8. Ellen

*I have to make a note here, I don't actually watch any of these shows on the day or time they come on. I don't even turn my TV on. So if by some crazy chance the TV is on these are the shows I would hope to see. Now also on that note, most of these shows are not shows that I would have on with Katrena in the room, so 2,3,4, and 6 are only ever watched online after the kids are in bed. Katrena loves to watch 1 and 5 with me though.

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Cafe Rio (technically not a restaurant, but who cares)

2. Costa Vida (same)

3. PF Changs or Pei Wei

4. any Mexican or Italian restaurant, and I really like seafood especially crab cakes.

5. Tony Roma's

6. Rumbi Island Grill (same)

7. Tempanyaki

8. Brent and I just went to My Thai and it was really yummy.

* I am so easy to please when it comes to eating out, I really don't care as long as its good. I love all types of food.

8 Books You'd Recommend

1. Gone with the Wind

2. Pretty much anything by Jane Austin

3. Twilight series

4. The Host

5. Jane Eyre

6. Work and the Glory series

7. Wuthering Heights

8. I really like the LDS author Michelle Ashman Bell, yes she is romantic fiction, but sometimes you just need good cheese.

8 Things that happened yesterday

1. Let Ava sleep in my arms for 3 hours straight.

2. Worked on a baby present.

3. Cooked dinner.

4. Helped Trena with homework.

5. Cleaned up the kitchen.

6. Got asked to speak in church on Sunday :(

7. Blogged.

8. Read a book.

8 Things to look forward to

1. Christmas in Utah.

2. Ava's blessing.

3. Katrena's baptism.

4. Going to see Twilight.

5. Spending quality time with my little family.

6. Brent's graduation!!!

7. Being settled and having our own home.

8. Watching my girls learn and grow and discover new things.

8 Things on my wish list

1. Lose 48 lbs.

2. A happy, healthy family.

3. A craft room (Ok, I'll just take a bigger place!)

4. To get my hair done

5. A family vacation (not counting visiting family; however I am really looking forward to that).

6. To watch my children grow up and become mom's, and to be someone they want to call everyday just to chat with.

7. To grow old with Brent by my side and for us to always remember the love we felt for one another on the uncharacteristically sunny day in December that we were married.

8. I could find a hobby I really loved (Amanda, I really like this one)

8 Things I love about Fall

1. leaves crunching on the ground

2. The smell

3. Pumpkins.

4. Kids in snuggly jammies.

5. Hot chocolate.

6. Family.

7. Jackets and sweaters.

8. Remembering all I have to be thankful for.

8 People I tag

1. Sara

2. Krystal

3. Ashley

4. Karey

5. Carla

6. Annie

7. Melinda (I know I haven't gotten around to your tag yet, but I will I promise)

8. Amber

New cousin to love...

I am so excited my families newest little miracle has arrived. My Dad's brother and his wife welcomed their third baby today, I hope they don't mind me posting the pictures. I am posting totally and completely out of love for my family. I wish I could be there with them to share in this happy occasion. I love you guys, congratulations!!!

Preston Wade

Born: November 12th
Weight: 8 lbs 2oz
Height: 20 inches

Isn't he just beautiful.


With proud mama

Proud Daddy

And adorable brother and sister, Tyler and Megan.


Welcome baby Preston we can't wait to hold you in December.

Our Hallowen Photo shoot 11/1/08 (and I promise the last Halloween post of the year)

Ava

Ava



Our beautiful girls.

Katrena

Katrena

Random Halloween "Horse"ing around

Dad

Angel Horse



Mom on the computer

And here you should find Dad in the horsehead with Ava on his back riding the Horse, it is adorable, but knowing that it is likely to be deleted, scribbled on or something else, I will refrain from posting the picture.

Halloween Party at MWU 10/31/08

Brent's school had a fun little party for the families of the students for Halloween there were games and bounce house and slide. You could also go Trick or Treating to some of the teachers classrooms and the offices, unfortunately by the time Brent got home from his rotation, we had missed the Trick or Treating. We did let Trena go Trick or Treating at a few houses in a neighborhood in our ward.
And then we went to dinner at Chili's. We had a fun Halloween overall, and one of the best parts about the party at Brent's school was although our ward is so spread out so you don't get to see all the cute kids in their costumes out Trick or Treating, a lot of ward members are students so we got to see them and their cute kids there. Katrena enjoyed doing the cake walk and bean bag toss with Janessa, playing on the slide with multiple friends from the ward, Brighton, Janessa and Lauryn and then racing across the volley ball court with Lauryn.

playing games


our family farm animals

bounce slide with Brighton

racing with Lauryn

Katrena's school party 10/31/08

Unfortunately I didn't get many photos, to busy with activities and the baby, but we had a lot of fun. I was worried that we would run out of things to do, but it was the opposite we only had time to for one and half games and eating. We didn't get to the craft or the other game at all. This was due to the fact that Ms. Viterbo made an appearance in the class dressed as a pirate and the kids just wanted to play with her. It was ok though. I now know to have the kids eat at the end of the party and not the beginning, they take way to long to eat. I went back the following Tuesday and we did the craft, we made cute foam pumpkins.

We had cookies, popcorn and carrots with dip and punch. We played pin the nose on the teachers face (which was the face on a pumpkin), and then the kids guessed the amount of candy in two candy jars, we were also supposed to do a bean bag toss. As the kids left we had fun goody bags with pencils, erasers, stamps, spider rings, bugs and some candy.

The kids all seemed to have a fun time, and so did I, it was just fun to be there and be a part of everything.

Ms. Viterbo and some of the kids from Trena's class.



Katrena and Ava

Countdown to Halloween- Thursday 10/30 (Repost as my Husband deleted his photo)

MMM, Pumpkin Brains!!!
A family tradition growing up in the Watts home was Halloween dinner. My Granddad lived with us and he didn't want to eat it if it had been in the pumpkin, to weird, so my Mom always had to fix his plate first. My Dad was always such a good sport and although he would roll his eyes and think my Mom was kooky, he always joined in on the fun. It was always a big event and we had so much fun trying to gross each other out. I downsized a little this year due to the fact that there are only three of us and I didn't want left overs for a month. As we began our family meal we all share a "Ghost" instead of a toast, this was started by my Brother when we were little, anyways in all the hustle and bustle last night and with out life long "Ghosters" this was forgotten and I was quite sad. On the other hand dinner was yummy!


Our Main Dish:
Pumpkin Brains(whole wheat spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, ground turkey, fresh veggies cut up)




Chilled Bats Blood (cherry crystal light),Seaweed (salad), Puss (ranch dressing), witches teeth (corn), Baked Witches Skin (french bread)and for dessert (not pictured) Swamp Mud (Chocolate fudge brownie ice cream with chocolate syrup).

Hmmm, can you tell which one is just humoring his wife...Well if you make an ugly face, you know where its going to end up...

Dinner was fun, and I love, love, love traditions and am so thankful that my mom had a tradition for everything! Well, maybe not everything but pretty close. There were other meal items we used to do as well and there are so many more that I know of that you could do. The plus with this meal is it looks normal, so kids aren't freaked but yet you are calling it all sorts of funny things, which they love!!!I found this recipe last night, to late for me to use, but maybe someone could use it as a snack for today. It was on www.craftpad.com

Monster Munch Recipe
pretzels (bones)
mini marshmallows (monster toes)
Reeses Pieces (frog eyes)
raisins (dead flies)

The Girls at 3 months...

I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of the girls at 3 months. They are obviously wearing the same dress, and are both 3 months and just a few days old.

The picture I have of Katrena is one of my absolute favorites it still sits on my dresser and is full body so I wanted to compare it to a full body one of Ava, but this first picture was so cute I had to post it too.

Ava at 3 months
(10/26/08)




Ava

Katrena at 3 months
(04/2001)

According to Dad, Ava is quite the chunk compared to Katrena, you can just see the difference in the way the clothes fit. Katrena weighed 11 lbs at her 4 month appointment and Ava weighed 12 lbs 6 oz at 3 months. Their height is pretty much the same.

Aren't they just so cute, it made me smile and cry to see these photos together.