Camping Trip

This past weekend we went camping and to the lake! It was fun. Perfect weather. We went with our friends that are leaving the country to go be missionaries with Wycliffe. They are going to go camping their whole life! Ha! They are moving to a very different culture and area. It is 100% humidity all the time. Bless their hearts! Anyway, we had good weather and had a lot of fun. Here are a few pics to recap the weekend:

Courtney helping with the tent set up!

Lindsey helping too!
We camped at this same spot last year and thought then that the jeep would be a fun toy to have out there to ride around. We were right...it was fun! However, sharing sometimes is hard! So, it turned out to be a fun/not so fun type of toy for all of us. Here is the beginnings of the fun!

We took Courtney's tricycle as well. It wasn't as big of a hit, but she enjoyed it some.
ously...where do they learn this stuff?

All the girls! Keira, Lindsey, Courtney and Savannah. Their mommy is also pregnant with #3, Due in November! Yes, the missionary mommy....God has a sense of humor too!

The men of the group...who is driving?

Lynne and her girls!

Ryan and Courtney in the "red boat" for a ride!

Here is Lindsey and Keira going for a ride. This is the first time L has riden without an adult with her. Thankfully she is my extrememly cautious child, so I knew it would be safe. Not to mention Ryan obviously drove very carefully with them in it! Keira on the other hand likes to ride with her daddy better because she enjoys the "thrill" of tubing. Unlike Lindsey who just enjoys the ride! She thought riding with Lindsey was boring...but she was sweet to ride.

The water was pretty chilly but of course the kids swam anyway. The dads got in on the first swimming adventure, but sat it out the second time.

Courtney is going to be our "fish" of the family...she would have stayed in all day! Forget the boat, she wanted to be in the water!

Sometimes at the campground, the girls got bored. We were actually by a playground, but it was fairly small. Luckily since our friends have been traveling in the car, they had plenty of entertainment to pull out....coloring while camping! Of course! Notice the table cloth. I sent Ryan to Wal-Mart to get the food we needed and asked him to get a tablecloth. Lindsey went with him so this was the tablecloth they came home with. (If you can't tell, it is Princesses)

Jer was the cook and did a fantastic job!

Of course we had smores! Yummy!

Courtney cooking her marshmallow, although she didn't want to eat it, just cook it and then eat the non-cooked ones!

Lindsey however, enjoyed 2 smores!

We had a good time. You know me fairly well if you are reading this and camping is not really my "style" per say. However, I'm learning to enjoy it. I've only done it 4 times now, but have had a good time doing it. There are plus and minuses to camping with the kids. They enjoy it, but it is so much more work. I want to do these kinds of things with them and make these memories, so I guess that is what makes it worth it in the end.

Camping with these friends was such a blessing. I think I have typed about them on here before, but they are some friends that we met in our Nearly/Newlywed class at FBC Springdale. We met when neither of us had children and were young and fancy free! We became close and though we don't see eachother often, we have stayed close and I'm so thankful!

Like I said they are going to the mission field in August! I'm amazed at their heart and passion for the work they are doing. God is obviously calling them to this or they would not be going. It has really given me a greater undestanding of the great commission God gives us all. It has opened my eyes to mission work in general and I have a whole new level of respect and love for these people that God calls around the world. They aren't weird, they aren't some super spiritual people that are "better" at this than me, but they are just being obedient to what God has called them to do! Wow! What a challenge to just be obedient. (I could really type a lot on this and the comparison after the "meeting" we had with our girls tonight, but I'll stay on track!) If you want to read more about the Paulus family and their mission, you can click here!

Please pray for them. They are working out all the details of their transition, continuing to raise financial support, and live life with 2 daughters whose life is about to turn upside down. I just can't imagine!

Thank you Paulus fam for a fun weekend! We love you and are thankful for your friendship and your obedience to God! I'm so thankful to see his work in you come full circle!

Watts Happenin' 2009

Every Memorial Day Weekend for the past 24 years my family has a tradition of a family reuinon. It is on my dad's side and it is a wonderful tradition that I remember growing up and am excited for my girls to learn to love as well!! It is in south AR so it is usually so hot, humid and muggy that I don't "do" outside well there. However, when we got there at 1:00ish on Sat., there was a cool breeze! First time for everything! It was, dare I say, pleasant outside at Mustin! Some cousins were fishing, so of course our girls wanted to join right in!

Not sure what is going on with Lindsey's "pose" but you will see it in a lot of these pics! Not sure where that came from. She obviously wasn't "posing" for this picture because I'm behind her. I guess that is her "super girly" side coming out without realizing it! Ha!

This is Evan. His mom is my, Katherine, is my cousin! He is only 5 months younger than L so they had a BLAST together! I literally hardly saw L because she was so busy running around with Evan!

Here they are "petting" as Lindsey would say, one of the fish they caught. They actually caught quite a few!

This is our new "tradition" of balloon toss! Last year our theme was the "Watts Olympics" so Katherine and I came up with some traditional games for everyone to compete in. Everyone enjoyed it so we did it again. I see this becoming a tradition! Here are some cousins and of course Lindsey was just as involved! She and Evan were partners. Believe it or not, they lasted a while, but only because the water balloons happen to be good at rolling on the ground!

Here is Courtney throwing her balloon. She and Granddad were partners! They went through several balloons. Courtney would throw it, hard, right into the ground! So funny! Then she would just run and get another one! You can do that when you are 2!

Another new tradition is a badminton tournament. Ryan and my cousin (probably like 3rd cousin twice removed or however you say that) Jordan--his mom and my dad are cousins--are the 2 time champs! Woo Hoo!! There is also a horseshoes tournament too, but I didn't make it over there to get any pics. Ryan and my dad were partners in that one...but didn't fare so well.

One of these days I'm going to video L hula hooping. She's got some skills for sure!!!

Popsicles of course....

I don't know why I didn't include Uncle Mike (my dad's sister's husband) in this picture! He was the best "babysitter" for L and E! Katherine and I told him we needed to pay him! ha! He would just take them fishing whenever they wanted. They were digging for worms (finished before I could get a pic) and everything! So cute! This was a "big one" they brought to show us! So proud!

Courtney and Jordan! He is so sweet and so good with our girls! He plays and plays with them. All of our cousins do. Courtney kept calling them "my friends" so I had to keep saying cousins! We don't have "cousins" per say since Kyle and Taylor don't have kiddos. So, that is a new word and concept for her!

This is Uncle Tommy (my great uncle). He is the patriarch of this reunion. He is my grandmother's brother. He part of the oldest generation here. He was sharing his memories of coming to Mustin Lake when he was a little boy! He had a picture of our past family out there in the 1930's!

This is Chris (Katherine's husband), Evan and Lindsey swinging on the swing at "The Smithsonian." Lindsey was sharing her list of songs she was going to sing at church. All I'm going to say about that is that she didn't sing her songs. She wanted to SOOOO bad, but her shyness took over and couldn't do it. Yet, she still wanted to. Maybe next year!

Here she is NOT singing her list of songs she had ready. Courtney was just standing there! We do our own "church service" with songs and a short "sermon" somehow related to our theme. When we first started doing this reunion, my generation which is about 10 of us, would do a "performance" of songs of some sort. Then we got too old and we didn't have kiddos to do that for a while. NOW...we are starting it again! Just slowly!

Here is Jordan preaching on Noah's Ark. He did a great job!

Behind him is my cousin Daniel, Dad's sister Aunt JoAnne's youngest son! If you know about Taylor and his bands/job...Daniel plays in a band and works at a pizza place! Must be in the blood! Not to mention...look at him. Looks like Taylor with his long hair and beard!

Here is our lovely family picture. Lindsey was still pouting from not singing, even though it was HER choice not to! Cute of the rest of us I thought! Behind us is Aunt Kay--Uncle Tommy's sister.

Some of the cousin's playing dominoes and Lindsey wanting to be right in the middle of it!

Here is Honey and Courtney! Check out those curls in that humidity! (it did get humid late Sat)
Here are the cousins (minus Brooke who is 15 months old) she was running around!

This is our WHOLE group! There were 41 or so of us this year. We always take a group picture. I love this! We all wear our "Watts Happenin" shirts from any year and take a picture!

Watts is our family name. It is my dad's mom's maiden name. So years ago someone came up with that title of "Watts Happenin" and it stuck! Super cute I think!! As I get older and have my own family, I learn to appreciate things like this so much! I'm so thankful for my family! By the grace of God, I have an amazing Christian heritage that I will pass on to my family. This is just a small part. However, as I look at this group and see them living for Jesus, it is a reminder of who I am and who I am supposed to be. This group is amazing. Even though they might be my 3rd cousin 4 times removed, I have known them what feels like my entire life. I can't wait to see what God does as we continue this great tradition of WATTS HAPPENIN!

Big Day

Yesterday was Lindsey's graduation with Mrs. Baker's class! It was super sweet. Mrs. Baker is very "old school" and so this was a very informal, but precious setting. She has been teaching preschool here for literally 30+ years. You can tell she truely loves her job and these kids! Lindsey had a fun time and loved being there! (you can see Courtney in the top left corner being held by here daddy)

They sat at their table where they always sit during school.

Mrs. Baker kept some of their art work that had been on their bulletin board throughout the year. Then they made it into a book and she presented each of them with their book. Lindsey was so proud! I love the look on her face!

Mrs. Baker put their hats on them and they had to give them back. They got to keep their yarn tassel that I'm confident Mrs. Baker made for them. Lindsey's was actually way too big. As she was sitting at the table, I noticed it was falling down. She had a ponytail in so I thought maybe that was making it not stay on good. So I took that out. It kept falling down, but oh well. Then when Mrs. Baker said "Lindsey Lee Scogin" as though we were 13 years down the road at her high school graduation, she walked up and it was falling. Mrs. Baker tried to fix it for a few min (as Lindsey so sweetly stood there and let her try) until she had to get a different one. Just a small, funny story to remember. Here she is getting her diploma. So cute!

This is my most favorite picture from today! I am so proud! She's a very smart, very sweet little girl that will do great at her "5 year old school" that she's going to next year. Because she isn't going to kindergarten next year I was not too teary eyed. Just excited for her to be so proud and so thrilled with having us there at her school.

Lindsey, I love you so much. You are growing up into a very sweet young lady. I love that you try very hard to follow the rules. You are learning Bible verses and talk about loving Jesus all the time. My prayer as your mom is that you will always do this. That you will follow the rules and love Jesus all of your life! I'm excited for you to learn and grow even more next year!

Mrs. Baker gave them all these hilarious sunglasses! They of course thought they were so cool!

We gave Mrs. Baker a Thank you card and small gift. We got her a candle, Lindsey picked out strawberry scent. I'm guessing because it was pink. We made her cookies and Lindsey made her a card. She wrote it herself.

It was a great day! Mrs. Baker was a great teacher and Lindsey enjoyed having her.

Family Trip

Friday afternoon, Ryan text me and asked me if I wanted to take the girls to Tulsa for the night. I wasn't sure what he had in mind, but just a quick family getaway was a great idea!

I asked my friend Erin who went at spring break where we should stay. We wanted something with a good pool so the girls could swim. She had the BEST hotel for us! (thanks Erin!) It is the Raddison. This slide is just one of the fun water things they had for the girls to play in. It was ALL inside too! WOW! This is the frog slide which was a BIG hit with Lindsey! She wasn't sure at first, but quickly found out she liked it! Here she is in action!

There were these fountain things that I thought they would love (considering when you read my post below) but didn't seem to mess with much at all. Too many other things I guess!

This is the "big red slide" that took A LOT of convincing and bribing (money finally worked) to get Lindsey to go down! Once she went down....guess what...we couldn't get her off of it! Ryan had to "catch" her the first few times, but after that she just did it all by herself! She's really getting brave! She's great at trying new things, even amongst her fears. I'm really impressed wtih her growing and learning that she can trust us!

These were the other thing that she loved, but not near as much as the slide. She had to hold onto the ropes and walk across thsese things that moved with the water. She had a little more trouble with these, but she did great! She only did these a couple of times.

This is Courtney being forced onto the slide. She would climb up the stairs, then go right back down. She did this about 20 times, seriously. Finally Ryan just put her on there and pulled her down. You can see she was NOT a big fan! She never did it.

This is what she spent most of her time doing. Crawling through the water on her belly--ruining her swimsuit. Luckily it was almost too small (yes new) so it was ok with me.

This is what she spent some other time doing. I think she was overwhlemed. There were lots of kiddos there. Even though Courtney is our loud child, when she is in a loud room or situation, she does not like it. Therefore with an indoor waterpark with lots of kiddos at times, she wasn't so sure about hanging out in the pool part. She kept wanting to go outside to the other, regular pool. However, it was not hot outside and the pool was not heated. It did make me excited that she wanted to go out there, so we should have a fun summer.

EWe swam Friday night and Sat. morning. Then we checked out and headed to Incredible Pizza. This is like a "big kid" Chuck E Cheese. The girls had fun. They had a few kid games and they enjoyed doing those. Lindsey walked around with Ryan, so I don't have a picture of her. This was Courtney's favorite thing...riding this train. She rode it 3 or 4 times!

After lunch we headed to the zoo! It was supposed to rain, but turned out to be a perfect day for the zoo. Not hot, not cold, just right! :) This picture is for my cousin Wendi who lives in Doha, Qatar! They have camel rides like we have pony rides! When we saw these camels, I had to take a picture! Love you Wen! We did not ride them, sorry! :) I did tell Lindsey that Brooks had riden one before!

This is Courtney in the kids petting zoo. Lindsey was freaking out (standing on Ryan's feet anytime she saw a walking animal, even if it was across the yard) therefore I didn't get a picture of her! Courtney was so cute and so soft petting the animals. She loved it!

I had to take this picture, of the pig! No, we did not go to the farm, but the zoo! The most funny part of this is of course a story about Courtney. We were walking into the zoo and talking about all the animals we were going to see. Naming the typical zoo animals. Then Courtney says she wants to see the pigs! What?!?! Lindsey quickly corrects her and tells her that pigs don't live at the zoo, but on the farm. Well.....little did we know, there was a pig at this zoo! Ha!

This is us waiting on the train ride at the zoo. You moms know how it is, there are a lot of pictures of a lot of things but very few (at least most moms I talk to) pictures that I am actually in. The only proof that I was actually part of an event is because there are pictures of it! :) So I was trying to put myself in a picture with my girls at the zoo...Courtney was tired, laid her head down and would not look up. At least my sweet Lindsey would take a picture with me!

We had a great time. The girls loved it. We had very few melt downs and tons of fun! I'm thankful for a husband that wants to take his family places and spend time with us! I am so lucky. The girls are beyond blessed and don't even know it. One day they will!

Several times during that 24 hours I was thinking about what we would do if Tres was here. I would notice babies and think...there we are. I know that these "vacations" will be harder at times with a baby in tow. However, the joy and excitement we have about adding a little one to our family out weighs them all!