Our first snow

 
 
 
 


The kids were so excited that we might get snow today, and after they woke up from there nap Josiah heard squealing and found them looking outside there windows to the snowing pouring down and a thick blanket on the ground.

You can see the layers on the fence post at the bottom.

My seat

 

Stringing popcorn

 
 


The first shot was five peices into stringing, after that what happened is found below that. I strang while they ate. I managed to get a string on the tree. But the next day, we all took a nap and I got woken up to "Mama the popcorn is falling off the tree!". I went down stairs to see what was happening and found that the string had big sections with no popcorn on it. They had eaten it right off the tree without moving it one bit.

Miss Vange

 
 

Arwyn-isms

Arwyn hits her elbow on the floor... "Mommy my bones are laughing!"
(can you guess what we talked about recently...funny bones)

Daddy: Arwyn drink your water please
Arwyn: But Daddy, it will ruin my lipgloss!!!
Daddy: What!

Let the decorating begin...

 
 
 
 
This year I am on the ball! Since we are leaving for LA in three weeks I was determined to get Christmas stuff up the day after Thanksgiving (cause J wouldn't let me do it any sooner) so that we could enjoy it at least for three weeks. Not only did the kiddos help me put the lights on the tree but they decorated it themselves. Tomorrow we are going to string popcorn while we watch a movie, hopefully there will be enough for the tree.

When I was growing up the tradition was that the baby of the family got to put the angel/star on the top of the tree. That was always me:) This year Evangeline got to do the honors, although she was much more interested in eating the star. Arwyn took that picture, such a budding photographer.

This is the one!

 
 
 


As we looked at all the possible trees to take home, we decided that one a little bigger that the kiddos would be great:)

Hide and seek

 
We ran around through the trees before we settled on one of our own.

The wagon ride to lot #3

 
 
 
 

look at our pink noses, SO COLD! it was a whopping 38 degrees!

We are Thankful... for life & freedom

 
 
 

My thanksgiving...

It is my first Thanksgiving... well the first one that I have made the whole meal all by myself. I was a bit nervous about the turkey. I have had so many turkeys from family members and they were flavorless and dry. But my dad's is Always wonderfully moist. Since this was my chance to cook one, and probably not again for a long time, I wanted to do something different. I found a recipe I wanted to try that was SO easy but so yummy. Then I got a tip from a friend on how to make sure it was moist. Here it is:
You just mix:
* 8 tablespoons butter, softened
* 1 tablespoon House Seasoning, (garlic powder, pepper and salt)
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
* 2 tablespoons minced shallots
* 2 tablespoons minced garlic cloves
* 1 (15-pound) turkey

I doubled the recipe and shoved it all UNDER the skin and in the cavity, and a little on the outside of the skin. Then bake it at 375 for an hour, cover it and bake it the remaining time. It came out AWESOME. I even got my guests stamp of approval. Our Iraqi friend said that he had tasted lots of turkey before, but they were always dry. He loved mine and was asking about the secret...

I also made a yummy cranberry glaze to pour over the turkey once it was on my plate...mmmmm.

(For the House seasoning you make a batch and then use 1 T of that. The rest you store in an airtight container and use over the next 6 months. I almost always season with these three things so it worked perfect. Mix 1 cup of Salt, 1/4 cup pepper, 1/4 garlic powder.)

What was on the rest of my menu? Cranberry apple stuffing
Cheesy Mashed potatoes(I chose number 2, and added mozzarella, cheddar, and Parmesan, and omitted the S&P) and I served it with the juice from the turkey, corn, rolls and cranberry jelly, complete with fresh local apple cider and mulling spice.

dessert? apple crisp pie, chocolate pudding pie, vanilla ice cream.

well off for an early nap and after that we are off to cut down our christmas tree.

family visiting

Nana and Isaac visited our neck of the states last week. Vange is famous for staring wide eyed, Isaac was getting into the spirit as well.

 
 

a sheep with a shiner

Here is my attempt to "trim" malachis crazy hair. A hairdresser would probably consider it a nightmare, but his curly hair hides it, so far:) He also got this great shiner today screwing around with some toy, we didnt see it but we think that he dove eye first into the bottom rung of a bar stool. OUCH!

 
 

Vange is 3 months old!

 
Now that she is three months she likes to pop her head up in bed and look around when she is supposed to be sleeping. She plays with your hands if you place them in front of her. Her will is showing itself, she screams when I try to burp her in between sides, she screams when you try to put her in the carseat, and she tries her hardest to sit up when you lay her down in your arms, she clearly loves standing and sitting up to see the world. She has starting practicing jumping when you stand her on your lap. She is so easy to make smile. And she LOVES baths, in fact they make her laugh hysterically. She is also a thumb sucker, Our first! What a joy she is to our family, sweat Evangeline.

Malachi- isms

One favorite pastime of his is to play with the “Hula poop”

When talking about something that happened in the past he says "Last day I …"

When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he said "I growed up to be like a daddy"

Little bones

collecting leaves

The Mostest Winner

sisters

 

Five Guys

We found our IN N OUT here in Lancaster. My first thought was "OH NO! When we asked a local friend if there were any and they said "Whats that?". But we were intriqued by the name of this place and stopped in to try it and discovered that it was not only an equivalent but dare I say BETTER?

Near the register is a sign that tells you where todays potatoes came from, today was Idaho somewhere. The wall is stacked with bags of potatoes which they make there fries fresh with just like IN N OUT. But these fries are bigger. And the trend here is to eat them with Malt Vinegar on them. Which I had the courage today to try but promptly was reminded of Easter eggs, and to me that is just wrong while eating fries.>

The burgers are also bigger and a normal size is actually a double stack. If you want just a single patty you have to order "the little burger". There menu is limited just like IN N OUT but they have hot dogs too. And included in the cheap price of the burger are ANY toppings that you want from a list of 15. My special burger is the cheeseburger with: grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms, ketchup, and mayo.

The kids always get hot dogs which they slice longways and grill.

While you are waiting for your order you can help yourself to a basket of unsalted shelled peanuts. The kids have gotten better each time at cracking them open.By a sign on the door, they ask that you do not bring the peanuts outside the restaurant because of peanut allergies.
  

  

First day of Preschool

 

 

This last monday Arwyn and Malachi started preschool. It was long awaited. They are in the same class and only have one other class mate on wednesdays and two on mondays. I feel kinda bad for this cause the main reason we were having them in school was to let them get out and be social. But they dont have many kids to play with. But it worked with our timing and budget and was one of the few that were still enrolling students. This is Malachi's first time at preschool and he knows nothing else. But Arwyn keeps comparing it tothe school in CA. She doesnt seem completely satisfied though she is happy to be out of the house. I am praying meanwhile that more students enroll.

pink little bear, a dino rider and sleeping beauty

 

Charlotte

 

This spider lives outside our bedroom window, well right in the jam. but we have no screen, so i cant open the window. and i haven't gathered up the courage to open it and kill him. so i named him charlotte and that somehow makes me feel a little better toward him.

3 more

I don't have any new pics to post but I wanted to post some to this update. So here are 3 more from Tina Harrisons photo shoot that I enjoyed. I love the second one, she looks so fed up with us trying to photograpgh her every move! And the the third symbolizes the closing of a chapter in her life. She has officially grown out of her first two sized diaper covers, they were the cutest ones she had, green polka dots and this flower one below. She is talking to much and gives her smiles away benevolently. She also had hit a fussy time, but its not at a specific time, its more all trhoughout the day when she is not being held or just wants to "grump" before falling asleep. I'm thinking she is a mommas girl! I wonder if it has anything to do with all teh skin to skin comtact I had with her early on and all teh bonding time I got with her. I didn't have that as much with the older two and they definately favor daddy over me.

Last night and today were big for me. I finally got me PA driver license and drove for teh first time to pick up my friend Marleen, who I will have to post a pic of soon, to a craft night that I taught a craft at. It was only my second time going to the craft night and I taught 14 ladies how to do a mini scrap album out of lunch bags (credit to melissa shetler for teaching me. I successfully got there in back in the dark!

I also drove today to pick up the kids after a meeting and get to another meeting, in the BIG maroon boat in the rain! I was a bit nervous drivong back to the city from so far away, navigating the ,many freeways and entering into the tiny one way streets in the city, but I did it! And now I am ready to drive all over!

well, enjoy the picks!

 

 

 

2 months

 

our new ride

 

 

I Caught a smile, she talks alot these days! and the rest of the time she gives us teh "Bug Eye look" above.

 
 
 

More from the petting zoo

 
 
 
 

The Petting Zoo, Kitchen Kettle Village

 
 
 

Read the sign

 
 
 

Yes, that is the name of the town we went to today, Fertility is on the agenda next.Yes, that is also a town here as well. In Intercourse are lots of Amish folk and some fun shopping villages. This is one we visited since Jessica, Josiah's sister is visiting. We fancied the petting zoo (pictures above), kettle corn, The Roasted Rooster coffee, local Art, live music, and the crisp fall air that blew leaves around us. I would have taken a pic of the Amish but they ask that you don't, to them pictures are idols, so believe it or not I was respectful;)

Birthday boy! Malachi is 3!

 
 
 
 

a scooter, a train set, a football, lots of little jungle animals... OH! and Monkey bread, how could we forget he has been anticipating monkey bread for months.

Purple princesses

 
 
 


I almost captured her smile on camera, were getting more and more of those these days:)

Our boy!

I put his plain white tee on and he looked down at his belly and said
" there is nothing there!"
so i gave him a clip on tie...
that seemed better:)



 
 

"were twins!"

 
 


This post is for Jeni Maxson, she made dresses.

pj sibs

 

For my mom

and here is the third to make the set complete!
Malachi Josiah Watters,
Arwyn Lisa Jane Watters,
Evangeline Rose Watters

 
 
 

The neighborhood watch system

 
at our temporary apartment here in Lancaster, PA.

A look back

 
 

So these are pictures from Vanges two week photo shoot with Tina Harrison. I have a pic on our camera that was a funny moment but it didnt get loaded on my computer yet, these days the camera needs to load itself or it wont get done. So instead I will release two more pics from Tina.