It has been a beautiful Fall. I feel so happy right now. I think part of it is because I love the Fall. The leaves are almost done falling off the trees and are sprinkling the ground with red, yellow and orange colors. The air is crisp. We have had a couple of snowfalls but they only lasted a few days and there is no snow on the ground now. The Fall holds a lot of important events for us. Let me update you all on the Watters' life this Fall.
Caeleb started grade one at the brand new Copperfield school at the beginning of September. It is a 10 minute walk away on a path going around a beautiful pond. Chris walks him there in the morning (school starts at 8:20) and I take the other kids and pick him up in the afternoon at 3:20. He is doing so well at school. He is starting to read simple books and he loves to write his own simple books that have to do with his favourite things - Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (he doesn't read or watch the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings but he plays some Lego computer games with Chris) and tonight he wrote the Jungle book with pictures and words too. He likes Math and Science as well. When I have taken the kids to the park by the pond, sometimes Caeleb is out with his school class for recess. Kind of fun to see them and have him close during the day.
Elva started preschool. She is going to Mahogany preschool which goes from 9:00 to 11:00 on Tuesday and Thursdays and is run by two Moms in our ward. There are only 9 kids (mostly from our ward) and it is a little more affordable than other preschools which helps when we are on a tight budget ($160 a month as opposed to Caeleb's $200/month preschool). Elva likes to do the crafts and she seems to like her classmates.
At 13 and 1/2 months, Mary is walking! She has been cruising on furniture for a few weeks now. She took her first step by herself a couple of days ago and today she took about 5 steps by herself several times throughout the day. Soon she will be running and there will be no stopping her. She crawls up and down the stairs like a pro and just started opening up cupboards and pulling things out and making big messes so life just got even more busy. She picked up something the other day and pretended it was a phone saying "I...I" (for Hi). She has about 6 teeth and we love her big toothy grin and her cute little giggles. She also likes to put things in her mouth - even more than the other two did if my memory serves me right. And she has had her share of tumbles. She tumbled head first off of Mom and Dad's kitchen couch a few months ago, she somersaulted head first down our stairs a few weeks ago, and yesterday she fell off of our bed. But she is a tough little girl!
Chris is busy busy with school. I feel for him. It has been a rough go and the classes are hard. I have mentally prepared myself that this school journey may take a bit longer than originally anticipated but I still hope that that might not be true and that we will keep on schedule. But we will get there no matter how long it takes. I hope I can be a good support for him as he carries a heavy load.
I started work again on October 3rd and I have felt many prayers come my way. They have helped so much! This time around I was extra anxious to start work again but it is going well so far and while this work, family, school juggling act is stressful, it is definitely doable. I feel so very blessed for my job and I know I can do it!
Chris and I went 'temple hopping' again for Chris' birthday (September 14)/our Anniversary (October 24). We went to Billings Montana September 23 and 24 and did a session at the temple there on the Friday. Mom and Dad have been there before and that is where we got the idea. The temple is central to our Marriage. Chris started us on a temple hopping journey for our Honeymoon and now it has become a special thing for us to do. When life starts to not make sense, the temple helps to bring perspective back to our marriage and family. We are working for something eternal here and the temple helps us remember that when life's stumbling blocks come around.. We used our petro points to stay in a hotel in Billings. We also enjoyed the hot tub at the hotel, eating out, and the beautiful scenic drive 6 hours both ways. Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Mary and Camellia and Doug for watching Elva and Caeleb. We got back Saturday evening in time for me to watch Women's conference in Mountain View and we went to church with Mom and Dad on Sunday in Champion. Chris and I hope to make it to the Regina temple in the next few years as well as several in Utah. (Temples we have been to so far - we were counting them on our drive - Cardston, Calgary, Edmonton, Billings, Vancouver, Spokane, Tri-cities, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake, Provo, Rexburg - just me - Idaho Falls, Nauvoo, Guayaquil, Oakland - just Chris - Toronto, Jordon River, Manila, Palmyra). We hope to add many more temple visits in our lifetime. Our actual 7th anniversary was on Oct 24. We had our traditional Lasagna and Moose Tracks ice cream supper (the meal we had on our first date). It was a simple but great evening.
September Birthdays were good. We had an (attempted) Harry Potter Hogwarts/Lord of the Rings cake for Caeleb and Chris' birthday on the 14th and Caeleb got some generic lego and some pieced together Harry Potter lego figurines done by Elva. He got his Halloween Harry Potter costume from the Nelsons, a cool little Elephant figurine from Grandma and Grandpa Watters that moves when light shines on it and some money from Nana and Papa. Mary had a chocolate cake for her 1st birthday on the 19th which she dug into with her face like it was no ones business. She got the Zoo set that has been passed along in our family and seemed quite satisfied about that. What am I doing going on about gifts. I probably missed mentioning some gifts but I will fill them in when I remember. Thanks to everyone who made these days special. I can not believe I have a 6 year old Caeleb and 1 year old Mary.
Halloween was fun. I worked the 2 evenings before and when I came home at midnight, I worked on my procrastinated project which was cutting 2 scarfs up and piecing/sewing them together to make Caeleb and Elva each Gryffindor scarfs to go with their costumes. They were the most adorable Harry Potter and Hermione and Mary was the cutest little Hedwig owl. It was a fun night trick or treating around the neighborhood - great weather too!
Well, life is great. I am sitting at our table, listening to Chris read Harry Potter to the kids up in their bed (well, the noise has since stopped so I think they may all be asleep). I have been blessed. Until the next post them...
