Breaking News!

No one who knows the Watkins boys thought it possible, but indeed folks, this baby is undeniably a BOY!

For The Madie-Starved

Ya know what keeps me up at night? Writing. Sometimes it's so bad, I can't fall asleep at all until I've written something down, even if it's just a list of things. If I don't write, ideas keep coming into my head and just as soon as I get rid of one another comes. (You'd think I'd have a novel published by now, wouldn't you?!?) This is how it was last night. I have been so good about writing during the day--even if it's just a journal entry--except these past few. And I'm angry at myself because I realize now that it's the writing that has helped me sleep so well lately. So here I am, back at it. I'm just glad I have something to write about. 

Mike told me yesterday he wanted to record some specific things from right now in Madie's life so we can look back on them and (mostly) laugh. Ironically, I can't remember any of the specific things he mentioned. Anyway, this'll have to do.

Madie has been a paaaaaaaain lately. I mean, really. She screams at me when I'm not paying attention to her, she screams when I pick her up, she screams when I put her down, she screams when I read the "wrong" page of a book to her, she screams when I don't read to her at all, she screams when I read a book without looking at the pages (as I type: "The shape of you, the shape of me, the shape of everything I see..."). I mean, the girl has developed some serious attitude. So bad, in fact, that I have been looking for an answer from God to the question, "What can I do? Anything. I will do anything you tell me to."

Yesterday, the answer came.

We happened to have a full day scheduled (sort of, as far as my scheduling abilities take me). After getting the girls I nanny to school, we came home and got ready for a brunch to celebrate a friend's birthday (my friend's, not hers), then we went and there were kids galore to keep Madie distracted. Immediately after the brunch we went grocery shopping, which wiped her out so she took a nice, loooong nap. The second she was up we went to go pick up Calli, and when we got back, a friend called to see if we wanted to play at the park in our complex. Why, yes we would! We were outside straight from about 3:30 to 5 pm. So here's the answer to the problem: (1) let her socialize, and (2) whenever possible, do it outside.

Here's some outside time we enjoyed just this morning, in fact:

That rock kept her busy for a solid 15 minutes. The girl is not particularly good at entertaining herself when she's indoors. She is a social queen bee. (Gee. I wonder where she gets that from.) Of course I get worn out when I'm the only one she has to play with, but when she's with the horde of kids at the brunch or at the playground with four other kids, she is happy as can be! Same with the outdoors. She loves to be outside and to observe things; the noise of the rock hitting the cement, in this case.

Another new trend (which also wears me out) is clothes changing. I knew it would come someday though, so I guess I can't say I'm surprised. The girl is obsessed with clothes, especially pajamas, jackets, and shoes. She cries when you try to take any of those items off her without another at the immediate ready. 

Madie eats her peanut butter sandwich in a velvet and satin holiday dress. Very chic.

The day this picture was taken, she had been changed from her pajamas into day clothes, from day clothes back into pajamas, from those into this dress she saw in her closet, and from this dress (after a bath) into a onesie (no bottoms)--all at her request/approval. Oh, and by the way, she really likes to eat "like a big person" now--holding on to the main part of the food item and taking bites out of it. That's a big hit.

These are for Mum and Karen. Mum bought these matching aprons for us months ago, and one day Mike brought mine out and strapped Madie's onto her (despite me telling him it probably doesn't fit still and me already in one). It's still a little big, but she loves to "help" in the kitchen. Oven mitts are a particular favorite. Karen, I just knew you'd freak over the matchi-ness of them!

This isn't anything new, I just think the picture's cute. We all know how much Madie loves Mike over anyone else--including the woman who went through excruciating pain for twelve hours, not to mention weeks of recovery, to bring her into the world (hey, no bitterness here!). I don't know that Mike could be much happier either: he's holding his sweetie while watching a Nat'l Geo. documentary on Yellowstone. (The last of three, actually.)

She'd give you her heart...

if she wasn't so busy licking it.

This year for Valentine's we made lobster tails (like last year) 'cause Mike saw them on sale again and just couldn't get them out of his mind. We also had lemon-garlic asparagus, which is always delicious! And in the back there are some jumbo pasta shells stuffed with a spinach filling. So so good!

We washed it all down with our favorite sparkling juice--Kristian Regale. We love to try different kinds. This year we had black currant. It was excellent.

And as dessert we had panna cotta with lemon curd and honey. I've never made lemon curd or panna cotta, and I've never had this combination, but it sounded good. It wasn't bad, but the panna cotta is much better with berries. Plus the lemon curd is too close in texture to the panna cotta. (I must say though, this lemon curd came out SPECTACULAR! I looked around for a recipe, and this one said there would be no lumps, which is a common problem. They were right! Smooth as could be!)

Happy Valentine's Day! We love you all!

The Rocker

We finally got the rocker! (I say finally, but it's actually about five or six days earlier than I was expecting it. We were just anxious, especially since we weren't going to be here the days it was supposed to be delivered.) We ran out to do some quick errands--walk around the farmer's market and run to the store for a wedding card for a friend--we weren't gone longer than 40 minutes. When we got back there was a note on our door about a UPS package that needed our signature so they couldn't just leave it for us. WHAT?! It was after 5:30 pm and we were gone for such a short amount of time! They wouldn't be doing business again until Monday, and they marked that they would try again between 2 and 5 pm that day--again, not gonna be here. Lame. So Mike jumped online and called the dispatcher and she said it was at the terminal which closed at 5:30 (ten minutes away) so we called the dispatcher and he said we could come pick it up. So Mike ran over there and brought it back and immediately started putting it together.

I was glad he was so enthusiastic to put it together--I thought he might want to wait until we moved in three weeks, although the chair is easier to move than that box! I had to stop him part-way through though because dinner was ready.

Mike fitting the base onto the seat, lining up holes and all that.

Just dusting off the packaging residue. I love the color! I'm so glad I was able to find it in such a dark wood!

My belly shot for the week. Not a great one I know, but that's it.

Me in about a month.

Daddy tries it out.

Thanks so much, Mum and Dad (and Grammy and Grampy Conner, since Madeleine will like it too)! Now for the really big task: making a seat cushion. Luckily I know talented women. In fact, that is my talent: knowing talented women. It really comes in a lot more useful than people think.

4th of July REDEMPTION!

Our 4th of July turned out to be a great success. We ended up going down to Utah to visit family and stay at the Watkins family cabin. It was so green up by the cabin! Mal even said, and I quote "This really reminds me of Maine." Now that says a lot! I think that was the most green and lush I had seen it for a while. We had a really good spring. We spent a lot of time with Grandma Clark too, which was really fun. She is always so nice to host us for sporadic weekend trips. We also got to catch up with some cousins. It was a very successful trip.

We did some sealings at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple on Friday morning. The Jordan River Temple was closed for maintenance, and so was the Provo Temple. Needless to say, it was REALLY busy. We were glad we got to go though.

Alright, here is your belly shot! She's getting bigger! =)

Up along the Alpine Loop road, about 50 yards away from the Watkins Cabin are some horses. We had some fun visiting them and petting them.

This was taken from where the horses were. This is the back side of Mt. Timpanogos, probably one of the most picturesque views.

Quiz: What kind of flower is this?

The morning of the 4th of July, we decided to take a hike to Stewart Falls, above Sundance. Our friends Jo-Nathan and Rachael came to hang out with us for a little bit.

I must say, Mal is quite the trooper. She hiked the 3 miles NO PROBLEM! Pretty good considering she is due in 6 weeks.

Very beautiful grove on the way back from Stewart Falls.

Mal and Rachael prepping the fire pit for the BBQ lunch.

For some reason, Jo went off yonder to drag a dead tree near the fire pit, and ended up stepping in some deep mud. A few minutes later, he stepped into the icy cold river to clean up.

That was my "I'm so hungry" face.

After lunch, we stopped by Sundance Resort on the way down to Orem. They have a glass-making business near the Art Shack. It was cool to watch, I had never seen it before.

Putting the ice-cream maker to the test. It was dang good!

Before we headed back to Rexburg, Grandma Clark gave us our first baby blanket! She made it herself, isn't it awesome? Thanks for the great weekend Grandma!