Happy Birthday Candice

Yes, today is my wife’s birthday. She has no idea I am putting this on but I want everyone to know how much she means to me. It would be hard to give a list of all the things I like about her so I will tell what I don’t like.

I don’t like it when we're apart. When I have to go to work or she has to go out I can’t wait till were back at home together. When she leaves, the kids say I act like a little chihuahua looking out the window every two minutes to see if she’s home yet. Then when she pulls in the driveway, which is three tenths of a mile long, I dance around with the four year old shouting “mommy’s home mommy’s home” till she gets in the door.

I don’t like it when I make her sad. I am not the most intelligent person on the earth and I tend to do stupid things. She is kind enough not to point these things out to me in the cliché wife way but lets me see the error of my ways for what it’s done and not just what I did. For this I thank her, because it helps be a better person instead of doing the same stupid thing over and over again just in a different way. In the end I feel what I call wifely sorrow. It truly hurts and makes me lover her even more.

I don’t like it when she feels sick. I know it’s a fact of life that people get sick but after eight children and the nausea that goes with it I wish she could have a free pass card on this one. It would be great if a virus or bacteria would come along with it’s vindictiveness and bad intents and say “dang it, she has a Can’t Get Sick card. Now I need to find someone else. Oh look, we’ll get him.” I feel helpless when she’s sick and I wish I could get sick for her.

I don’t like feeling that I can’t take care of her needs. Her biggest concern in life is her family. As with all of us right now times are tight and she is an expert at saving money. It just hurts when I see the anguish in her face when she has to adjust her already frugal spending to make our lives more comfortable.

Some times when I tell her I love her she says “I don’t see why.” To me it’s obvious. She makes me want to be a better person. She loves me and our children to a fault. I can trust her. I can rely on her. I can believe her. I can lean on her and she will never let go. She takes care of me when I’m broken and helps me keep my feet on the ground. We have been together for twenty four years and it only feels like five minutes. I can’t wait for the eternities. The fact that I was able to get someone so great amazes me. Like The Who I call that a bargain, the best I ever had.

Happy Birthday to Candice
Mother of my children
My anchor
My partner
My wife

My best friend

I LOVE YOU

Too cute to correct

Kirsten has been saying some cute things that are SO grammatically wrong, but they are SO darn cute that I don't have the heart to correct her! I'm sure that I'm not the only mom who has ever done that!!

She is confusing her/she and him/he all the time. The other day when I asked her where Tim was, she said, "Hims in the office". She also says things like 'hims working in the shop' or 'hims on the phone'.

She found a paper of Hayleigh's on the floor and said, "Hers 'gotfer' this paper". Yep - 'gotfer' means 'forgot/forget' in English.

Oh so cute!!!!



Dallin had a funny conversation with a referee at his game on Sunday - the opposing team's goalie came way off his line and ran into one of our players - they both fell and our player got up, but the goalie sat there and waited for the ref to blow the whistle. Dallin turned to the ref and said, "don't you blow that whistle. He's not injured, he's just watching me." Dallin took the ball around the seated goalie and scored. His team won 6-2 after being down 2-1. Dallin got 4 assists and a goal!


Last night was senior night at the high school soccer game. Lyn and I made fleece blankets for the seniors again - all 6 of them! The seniors are 'escorted' from one side of the field by their parents (or whoever) to the other side while a little speech that they have written is read over the loudspeaker. Here is Keenan's speech -

Keenan Watson, escorted by his mom Candice Watson.

"First, I would like to thank God for giving me the opportunities that I have had in my life to play soccer.

I would like to thank my parents for driving me all over the place during the 8 years that I played with Charlotte Soccer club. Thanks also to the many coaches and DOCs that I have had.

I'd also like to thank my 4 brothers Kyle, Tyler, Ethan and Dallin for not holding anything back when we play soccer at home. And thanks to my 3 sisters Brandee, Hayleigh and Kirsten for being my fans.

In the 3 years that I've played school soccer, I have been lucky to have many friends on the team. And I'm really glad that we don't have Arby's anymore for away games.

When I graduate, I am planning to go on a 2-year mission for my church to wherever they send me.

When I return from my mission, I am hoping to attend UTI in Florida."

Hayleigh wanted to read it over and over again because she said it was so sweet!


We are almost done most of the fall sports - Dallin has his last middle school cross country meet today and then they are going to East Coast Wings for dinner. Dallin has done really well at cross country! One week he came in 36th and the next he finished 7th! Even though only 4 boys show up to the meets and none of their runs 'count', Dallin runs for himself to see if he can improve each week.
Keenan and Tyler have 3 more soccer games and Ethan has just 1.
Dallin has about 1 more month for the club soccer season for fall. He will finish with a tournament in Charlotte - probably playing against some of his old teammates!
Hayleigh's GOTR (girls on the run - I know, strange name, isn't it? Makes them sound like a bunch of lost kids!) won't finish til her 5K run in December.

Friday at Disney

On Friday we went to Downtown Disney since our lunch reservations were at a restaurant there. Downtown Disney is a pretty cool place! There was a store called TrenD that had the neatest Disney stuff! I ALMOST talked myself into the cutest Tinkerbell bag, but I have so many bags now......


After our lunch, we went over to the Earl of Sandwich to use up some more of our Disney dining plan (WOW - that is such a great deal!!!) and got sandwiches for our ride home.

We left for home around 1:30 and walked in the door around 9 PM. i think it took until Sunday for us to cool off though - It was HOT in Florida!!!

What a great week!! We are hoping to go again at the same time of year (and really hoping Disney has the same vacation deal that we had this time!).

Thursday at Disney

We started the day at Animal Kingdom and rode Expedition Everest again. We took the camera with us and got a picture of a really pretty bird - an Asian pheasant. It was very hot on Thursday!

After we got the pictures we wanted, we headed back over to Epcot since we didn't get to all of the countries - there's so much to see at Epcot!! I took pictures of the little train set near Germany.

We had a very yummy dinner in Biergarten! It's so interesting to look through each countries' areas.

I spent some time smelling all of the French perfumes and we got some fantastic smelling soap for Tim's mom to thank her for driving Dallin all over the place while we were gone.

We also got some Japanese candy for all of the kids and 2 really cute bracelets for the girls. Tim and I bought a Mickey Mouse jack-o-lantern. It's kind of like this big one that is in front of Mickey's house.

I forgot to mention that I found a hidden Mickey in the ride in the ball (spaceship earth)!

Wednesday at Disney

On Wednesday we spent the day at Epcot. The weather was horribly hot, so we spent lots of time at each country watching their presentations. Canada's was very good with Martin Short as the narrator.

AND --- to make it an awesome day - turns out that it was the International Food and Wine Festival! Our snacks that we were allowed per the Disney meal plan included yummy things like lamb chops from Australia, Paprika Beef Stew from Austria, a cheese plate with apple chutney and brown bread from Ireland and a seared sea scallop with lemon oil from New Zealand.

AND ---- we saw Better Than Ezra who was there playing for the concert series that Epcot has - what a great show!!

We also went to a place called Club Cool where we tasted sodas from around the world. Some were really good, but I gotta tell you that Italy's was DISGUSTING!!! It says that they drink something bitter to stimulate their appetites before a meal. I think it's because after you drink it, you want to shove anything else in your mouth to get rid of the taste!!

Epcot had their 'extra magic hours' on Wednesday night, so we stayed til about 11:30 and walked right up to some of the rides without waiting in line at all. (not that there were many lines to begin with - it's a great time of year to go!) I was surprised that I actually liked the Soarin' ride! We also loved just looking at all the aquariums at the Seas attraction. There was some kind of hairy black legged thing that hid under the rocks that we never saw more than just the legs of.

While I was waiting for Tim to use the bathroom, a little boy (probably around 4) got out of line and ran for the bathroom holding his mom's hand. A couple of minutes later he came out and announced to all of us "I made it!" and high-fived a couple of people. We were all laughing about that!

We ate a mid-afternoon meal at San Angel Inn in the Mexican Pavillion. Great food and atmosphere!

Tuesday at Disney

Tuesday was one of my favorite Disney days! We spent the day (and the evening!) in the Magic Kingdom. I remember so many of the rides from when I visited years ago - Peter Pan's, the Haunted Mansion, Dumbo - and many of the rides are either new or updated. Pirates of the Caribbean was AWESOME!!! We went on that twice. The Magic Kingdom was decorated for Halloween - so many jack-o-lanterns which I LOVE!

Tuesday night we had tickets to stay for the Not-so-scary Halloween Party. Halloween is so much fun! It was a celebration for all the Disney villains - they put on a great show at the Castle.


On a different note - Hayleigh gave our Family Home Evening lesson last night. She told a story about a little girl named Alicia who got a new dress. Her little brother cut up the dress thinking it was scrap fabric and Alicia forgave him. Hayleigh asked all of us what we would do if we were Alicia. When it was Kirsten's turn to answer she said, "I would get the duct tape and fix it." Smart kid!

Monday at Disney

On Monday, we spent the day in Animal Kingdom. Tim loves Animal Kingdom! I'm usually not fond of nature things and I absolutely HATED all the stupid little brown lizard things that were all over in the park, but I liked Animal Kingdom. We went on most of the rides - even Expedition Everest - and walked through Asia. While we were eating lunch from the bbq place (Flame Tree), a duck (not part of an exhibit - she was just a park crasher!) tried to beg food from us. There are signs everywhere telling people to PLEASE DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS, so we didn't feed her. It was hard having her stand between us and look pitifully back and forth at us!

The Finding Nemo Musical was fantastic!!

Monday night, we ate dinner at Cape May Cafe where they had a buffet. Tim's favorite from the buffet was the steamed clams. He must've eaten about 75 or so of them! I had the 'fun' experience of having the wait staff sing Happy Birthday to me.....

Back from Disney!

Tim and I went to Disney World for a whole week!!! By ourselves!!!

We left last Sunday morning and got there around 3 PM. After checking into our hotel room, we hopped on the bus and went to Hollywood Studios. We went on everything and saw all the shows - I even went on the Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n Roller Coaster. (which I didn't really like....)

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid show was neat! I knew all of the words to the songs that they were singing because of how many thousands of times Brandee watched that movie! We also saw the show Fantasmic - it was very good!

We went to Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney for dinner and then called it a night.