Thankfulness Jar

One of our favorite family traditions is filling up our thankfulness jar in the month of November.  Every night after dinner we would clear the table and then all write something we were thankful for, read it, and then put it in the jar.  

One night after I finished clearing the table I took this picture of my favorite people writing down things they were thankful for.  

Claire is talking a lot these days, but she wasn't quite able to articulate what she was thankful for this year.  But you better believe she had fun writing on her slip of paper each night and putting it in the jar.  If we tried to help her by putting it in the jar for her she'd say "I do it."  

We have about 20 other slips of paper just like these in the picture below and I think they are precious.  Every night after Claire finished "writing" she was always so proud.:)  

Emily was able to write out her own this year, which was fun.  Sometimes she would ask us how to spell certain words and sometimes she would just spell it the way it sounds.  

Hannah usually started out writing her own.  Since H is her favorite letter there would always be several H's mixed in with a few other letters.  Then we would flip it over and write out whatever she told us she was thankful for that day. Most every day she either said "I'm thankful for the new baby" or "I'm thankful for Della."  We had lots of both of these slips of paper.  Della is a friend in her class at school and apparently Hannah is veeeery thankful for her.:)  I think it's so sweet that she's also thankful for her new sister on the way.  We all are!

Here are just a few others from the month that I thought were sweet.  

• "I'm thankful for my friends and my school and my family and my home." -Emily
• "I am thankful for my teachers." -Emily
• "I am thankful that Mommy is going to have a baby Abby!!!!  I love mom." Emily
• "I am thankful for my 100 friends...Bella, Bryce, Cohen, Bella, Ella, Shaelynn, Jacob and Ressie." -Emily
• "That we get to go to Mimi's house a long time ago. A lot." -Hannah
• "I am thankful for Uncle Bud because he is a Veteran." - Emily
• "I am thankful for Bella and all my fiends at God and Jesus."  -Emily

We feel like it's so important to work to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness in our hearts and in theirs.  It really starts with us though.  When Bert and I are thankful for all of God's many blessings and talk to our kids about those things I think having a thankful heart will come more naturally to them.  We trust in God's forgiveness for when we act entitled and that we would be overflowing with thankfulness for His many, many gifts. 

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."  Psalm 107:1

Decorating the Tree

I think I was as excited about decorating this year as the girls.  I feel like each year as they get a little older decorating for Christmas gets more fun!  

Picking out our tree:

Emily and Hannah were really big helpers this year in putting the ornaments on the tree.  Every other year they've lost interest at some point and started doing something else, but this year they wanted to help until the end.  Emily was nervous about putting some of the ornaments on and kept asking if we would help find a strong branch.  Hannah had no reservations and was happy to put any and all ornaments where ever (and usually over and over in the same spot!). 

Also, Hannah loves to be a ballerina these days.  It's her dress-up clothes of choice. We have several different leotards and most days you will find her in one of them.  She also asks me at least 3 times a week when she gets to take dance.  My answer is always the same...."next fall, when you are 4", but I'm not sure she gets that because she just keeps right on asking.:)   

Claire was interested in putting ornaments on the tree for all of about 2 seconds.  I'm actually impressed Bert got this picture in that 2 second time span because I'm not exaggerating.  Right after this picture, she got busy playing and couldn't have cared less about what were were doing with the tree.:)  

We still have a few finishing touches, a topper and a tree skirt, but it is mostly done and we love it!  

Merry Christmas from the Watts! 

Bert's 33rd

Bert's birthday fell on the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year.  We celebrated with my family on Friday night just before we headed back to Greenville.  We had a yummy Mexican meal and then enjoyed a great red velvet cake.  Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Kathy, Mike and Allie were still in town so we were excited they got to join in the celebration too! 

On Saturday (his actual birthday) we spent the day getting a Christmas tree, watching the GA and Clemson games, decorating for Christmas, and finished it off with dinner, cards and presents.  

I'm so thankful for this man and the way that he loves and serves and leads our family.  Happy birthday, Bert!  I love you!  

Babyland General

I've been wanting to take the girls to "Babyland General" - home of the Cabbage Patch Kids - for a couple of years now.   I went when I was kid and had great memories.  It's located in Cleveland, GA, about 40 minutes from Toccoa.  The day after Thanksgiving we decided it would be a fun time to go.  

This Santa was sitting right at the entrance and the girls thought it was fun to get to sit on his lap.  

The girls had so much fun playing at some of the different stations they had set up.  They had a kitchen area, bedroom area, hair salon, etc.  

Can you find my little cabbage patch doll? :) 

We got to see a "live birth" of a Cabbage Patch doll while we were there.:)  It only took about 5 minutes and was cute.  The girls were very excited about this part.  

As we were leaving Santa had arrived so they got to go tell him what they wanted for Christmas and have a picture made with him.  

No tears here...

It was a little different than I remembered, but it was free to get in and the girls had a fun morning!  We'll have to come back in a couple years when Claire is a little older and Abby can enjoy it too!  

Thanksgiving 2015

We rotate Thanksgiving and this year was our year to spend it in Toccoa.  We had such a great visit.  It was relaxing and fun!  

We were thankful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with most of the Thompsons (we missed Kristi and fam as well as all the Thrashers)!  Uncle Jimmy took this picture just as we were about to dig in!  Miles, Ressie and Claire were napping upstairs, but the older 3 couldn't have slept if they had tried.  They were too excited about all the action!  

Cousins picture.  Hannah was striking a pose and Ressie was checking out her crazy cousin Emily.  

Mimi and Papa jumped in for a picture, but as you can see the kids really weren't in the "picture taking mood."  I went 0 for 5 with kids looking at the camera in the picture below, but I still liked it.  I loved Jacob and Emily's expression...they thought something was hilarious.:)  

Brett brought a game called Spike Ball and they had fun playing it a lot of the afternoon!  I have no idea how to play, but it looked intense.  

Papa and Ressie Roo.  I thought this was a sweet picture of my dad.  He loves his grandbabies!  

Claire Bear is growing up on me.  Grandmama found this cute Thanksgiving outfit at a yardsale and it was perfect for Claire this year.  

Our babies.  Can't wait for Abigail to be in the sisters picture with them.  I can hardly believe that next year at Thanksgiving she'll be 9 months old.  Crazy!  

For years and years we had a family tradition of hiking Currahee Mountain after our Thanksgiving lunch, but this year we were proud of our walk through the neighborhood. (Funny how six little kids change things!) Uncle Jimmy was pushing Miles, Mom was pushing Ressie and Daddy was pushing Claire.  

Emily was sticking close by Aunt Kathy and Aunt Katherine.  

Cousins picture. We were super excited that the newly weds, David and Alyson, were able to join us this year!  

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thankful for so much!  

Children's Museum

My friend, Dawnielle, had a few free passes to the Greenville Children's museum that were expiring at the end of the week, so she asked if we'd like to go.  Bert was going to be at out of town at a conference and my mom was coming to town to spend the weekend with us, so I told Dawnielle we'd love to.  I'm almost positive Claire has never been and Hannah was a baby the last time we went.  Don't quote me on that, but I do know it's been awhile.  

When we got there (right when it was opening) their computers were not working and since we already had 3 free passes they just let us go on in with out paying for the other two.  So our trip was completely free!  Any trip to the children's museum is fun, but a FREE trip is even more fun!    

Our first stop was the grocery store.  It's so cute to see them loading up their grocery carts and pushing them around.  

It was difficult for the little one in the picture below to understand why we needed to move on to another exhibit.  I had to literally pry her hands off the handle.:)  

Sweet thing.  

Another favorite is Grandma Betty's Farm.  This exhibit is just for kids 5 and under so Emily just made it by a few months.  

All three loved the slide in Grandma Betty's Farm.  As soon as Claire got to the bottom she'd say "I do 'gin." 

They have this really cool two story climbing thing in the middle of the museum.  Our kids haven't ever done it before because they've been too young, but this trip Emily and Hannah got to do it.  It's actually just for kids 4 and up, but Hannah really wanted to do it and I decided to be wild and break the rules and let her. Thankfully she did awesome--it would have been very unfortunate if her pregnant Mama had to climb up to the top and get her down!  

They made it to the tip top!  Later that night they declared that this was their favorite thing at the museum.  I was proud of both of them!  

The water tables are always so fun!

We finished out the morning with some arts and crafts.  They painted using apples slices.  

We had a great time!  Thanks so much to Dawnielle for the free passes!!  

25 Weeks

I had my 24 week check up last week and it went really well!  It was just a heartbeat check, so I didn't get any pictures of my sweet girl, but I just love hearing her little heartbeat, so that's fun too!  Her heart was beating 144 beats per minute, my blood pressure was good, so we both got a thumbs up.

I'm actually 25 weeks 2 days by the time I'm getting around to posting this.  In just a few short weeks I'll be 30 weeks and we all know it FLIES by at that point (until you get to that last week or so, then I feel like she's never going to come.)

I was telling another friend that is pregnant the other day that if I think about delivery and the pain of it all I'm still super nervous.  This is how I've been with every pregnancy. By about 33 weeks or so I'll start getting more and more mentally and physically ready to deliver (not at that exact moment, but close to her due date). You just get so big and so uncomfortable at the end of the pregnancy that you're ready to go through whatever pain is necessary to have your baby out of you and in your arms.  There is absolutely no more room in the inn.  I just think it is so fascinating how God designed the process.  The months of being pregnant and delivery are hard and wonderful at the same time.

I got to go to my cousin's wedding a couple weekends ago and I had someone there ask me how my pregnancy was going.  I smiled and said it was going really well.  She gave me a surprised look and said "Really?!  So no nausea or pain??" I responded with "Oh whoa...that's not what I meant.:)" and had to let her know what I meant by "going really well." She hasn't ever been pregnant before, so maybe I need to be a little more clear when I'm responding to that often asked question.:)  By "going really well" I mean that I've had no major complications with the pregnancy, all Abigail's check-ups have gone really smoothly, and I'm not on bed rest (PTL).  BUT, just to be clear, I've decided pregnancy is super hard on the body.  I had plenty of nausea and tiredness during the first trimester and the second trimester, although much better than the first, has brought its own aches and pains.  I've had a good bit of heart burn (which I feel like started earlier than with my others), leg pain, trouble with my sciatic nerve, etc.  Honestly most days I have something that is hurting at least for part of the day and then it goes away and tomorrow it will be something else.  For about an hour this morning I was literally limping around the house because I had a sharp shooting pain on the top part of my right leg.  That pain seems to be gone now though, thankfully.  I guess after 5 pregnancies you just get used to the normalcy of pains coming and going.  And it's all SO worth it and passes so quickly that it's hardly worth mentioning.

I've been able to feel Abby kicking more in the last 3 weeks or so, which I'm super thankful for.  I love that part of pregnancy! Sometimes when I lay my arm across my stomach she'll just kept kicking it over and over.  It makes me smile.

Here is my 25 week picture....

Abby, you are precious blessing.  We're praying for you and love you!