Cutie pi

Digging his brother's first soccer game of the year

He loves teddy bears, so this was a dream come true.
He keeps asking to go back to this friend,
where they played some Very Noisy tag.

For pi day, we tried to calculate pi by drawing a circle on some cardboard, then measuring how many little blocks it took to trace out the circumference. We were off by about 2%, which isn't too bad, I guess. We also enjoyed chocolate pecan pi (rounded up).

Watching some friends roping, he stole my hat

We start our family scripture study with a hymn.
This Sunday was particularly calm, with everyone dressed and
ready before breakfast; everyone sang along. I wanted to
remember the morning. So ordinary, yet so special.

Some flour had been contaminated, so the
Littles asked if they could play in the "snow"

Some friends brought us a beautifully decorated cake

Princess, building her own Minecraft tower
with blocks made from gym floor foam pads.

Athlete, Mathlete, Creeper, Hi!

Superstar recently read a book about a pair of dissimilar twins, Athlete vs. Mathlete. I thought he might be interested in it because he is both. And more.

He took first place at UIL for Number Sense -
meaning he did a lot of math problems faster than any other
5th grader in several counties

During his first soccer game with the Rampages for this season
They won 10-2.

He got a speaking part in the school play.
He also danced front and center for everyone.

He turned 11, celebrating with Harry Potter,
Minecraft, and Mario

We got to Skype with my parents and my brother's family.
Here is Pop leading everyone in Happy Birthday

Accio Hogwarts letter!

Whaddya know? There it is!

Superstar was sorted into Hufflepuff, where he learned his patronus is a rattlesnake.

A Creeper! Aaaah!

Fun with the kids in Jan 2019

Starting in January 2019, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encouraged families to take a greater responsibility for teaching the gospel in their homes. The new Come, Follow Me manual included several suggestions for how families could get more out of their study together. We discussed them as a family and decided we wanted to add a lot of variety to our family study. One of them included coming up with our own object lessons or drawings of what we were studying. So here is Princess with her gingerbread Captain Moroni and a Title of Liberty reflecting her recent reading.

Our family's favorite game since Christmas has definitely been Sagrada. A large group of dice are rolled and you take turns trying to place one die in your stained glass window. There is a delightful mix of strategy and luck. The only catch is that we have to take pictures of our game boards every few moves because some of us seem particularly prone to knocking over the dice....

Princess and I made some snow and a snowman
out of shampoo and baking soda. It was so ...
fragrant we had to triple bag it and hide it in a
drawer and it was still too potent to keep in the house.

I've also been teaching Princess woodworking.

I made gingerbread houses with each of the kids.
I build em, they decorate.

Nothing is so eagerly enjoyed than wrestling with Daddy

7 Happy Watsons at Christmas 2018

We were greatly blessed this Christmas to have my parents come to our house, instead of us driving to them. Between one thing and another, it was a good arrangement for everyone, though hopefully next year we will also be able to gather with my brother's family.

Pop and Grandma got to sleep in late at the hotel every day, then come to us and be pampered. We had a lot of fun together and are really looking forward to when they come here again for Princess' baptism this summer!

Christmas 2018 - Santa's coming

Inspired by a McDonald's, we decorated our front
door  and left it up until Superstar's birthday.

Our new tree - first large one in 10 years - the stockings,
and the Santa present for each child.

Princess got a fairy princess tent.
It is still set up in her room.

JT's punching bag was ... a big hit </Dadjoke>
He loved the feeling of power.
Sadly he destroyed it in a few weeks.

Superstar can now go fast, but he mostly lets Princess
play with it these days so he can focus on soccer.

Santa didn't bring this, but she's adorably happy
and I think that happened before my parents got here.

One happy Christmas!

Nov-Dec 2018 - End of being a faculty fellow

Time to do some catch up!
JT's school wanted to remind their students at Thanksgiving to be "Thankful 4" by writing the things they were thankful for on a number four.

Enjoying the fall colors

To Light the World, we continued our tradition of inviting the kids to donate
most of their toys. (Why most? Because we've had a hard time keeping them
clean and organized, and they don't play with the vast majority anyway.)

The farewell dinner for Beth and me

This year was my last as a Faculty Fellow at Tarleton. This was a tragically sad thing. I love(d) working with Jim, Kelly, and the other Fellows. Faculty Fellows are involved in teacher development programs to increase faculty's teaching, research, and service abilities. It got me involved in the broader Tarleton community while working with some of the greatest, friendliest, funniest professors anybody could know. Oh, sure, we still see each other now and then; but when Jim, Kelly, and I had "the talk" about how I was about to come to the end of my days, I was depressed. I felt like I'd been to a funeral!

Dec '18 Graduation - the colleges of business and education.

A new tie from one of my seminary students

The sunrise from our home one morning - one the benefits
of teaching seminary.

We had a lot of fun making caramel/chocolate apples
 for my mother for Christmas.

We practiced telling gospel stories with felt pieces
I ... can't tell what story Princess was telling here.

The boys, helping us get ready for Christmas with my parents.

Missionaries can call home on PDay

When I was on my mission in Germany, I wrote to my parents every week and called them at Mother's Day and Christmas. That's what was allowed. More recently, missionaries were given permission to email instead of write letters. That was great. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that missionaries may now text, call home, and/or video chat weekly during their off days, plus on special occasions like Father's Day or birthdays.

As I read that, I remembered fondly a panic I gave my parents. I was sick (again!) and the doctor said he needed to have me checked for Tuberculosis because nothing else seemed to fit. I wrote my parents about that, then a few days later got tested. My tests were just fine - no problems at all - so I forgot about it.

My parents got my letter about TB and started worrying.
A week later, no letter showed up. I had sent it, but mail sometimes doesn't arrive on time. They wrote me and asked me for confirmation that everything was okay.
Two weeks later, no letter showed up from me, and I didn't one from them either. They wrote me again, frantic.
Three weeks later I got both of their letters and wrote them right away. My weekly letters finally showed up, which reassured them I WAS STILL ALIVE but didn't tell them anything about the TB because I hadn't known they were worried yet when I sent those.
A solid month of worry later they finally got a letter from me reassuring them I was okay. I'm not 100% certain, but I feel like they may have called my mission president at some point to hear I was okay, and Pres. Schubert kindly asked me to write my parents and let them know everything was okay. I reassured him that I already had.

On my mission in Neubrandenburg,
recording a radio program about Jesus.

Now, yes, email would have solved most of that. But a quick text would've saved them a lot of grief even faster!

I think about what a relief it would have been to have been able to chat with them while I was in the hospital - once getting nails put in my arm when I broke my arm on black ice, the other time getting the nails taken out.

So glad this is happening!