The Life and Times of the Watters Family

Christmas at our house

What Sean’s been up to…

Sean started composing songs on the piano some time before he even had a piano of his own. He started taking lessons a couple months ago and has quite quickly learned to read music. His years of playing the guitar have given him a good foundation musically but he didn’t have any experience reading anything other than guitar tab. Sean spends hours just playing around and coming up with melodies that are sometimes melancholy, haunting and mostly just wonderful. He has learned how to use GarageBand to mix and record his music. This latest one is my favorite:  Sean’s New Song

Additionally, we’ve discovered Sean is a pretty talented photographer. Our friend Em passed along her old Nikon SLR last September and Sean has put it to good use. Here’s a slideshow he created of his favorites:

I have to say I love that he used Best of What’s around- one of my favorite songs! It turns out Sean and I have lots in common :)

our little author

Caleb– May, 2011

Caleb loves to read and Caleb loves to write. The wheels of his imagination are constantly turning! This afternoon he sat down at the computer and cranked out the beginning of a brand new book. This will be the 3rd book he has authored (I’ll have to post some of his earlier stuff too). When Cam got home tonight, Caleb read us what he wrote this afternoon and frankly, I’m super impressed with what he’s got so far. This is exactly as he typed it today, without any editing:

Chapter One

Jake Moneke awoke on a Tuesday morning to the sound of his alarm. He reached for the snooze button but in his attempt fell out of bed. Now fully awake Jake stood up and turned the alarm off. He looked at the clock. 8.00 a.m. He was going to be late. Jake rushed out of the room and into his Kitchen. He looked around franticly then ran back into his bedroom. He went to his closet and opened it. He threw on the first thing he saw, and ran back into the Kitchen. He grabbed a leftover piece of steak from the night before and shoved it into his mouth and ran out of his apartment and into an elevator. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the elevator to reach its destination. Finally he arrived at the bottom of the apartment complex and ran out the door. He leaped the stairway outside and landed on the sidewalk. He whistled for a cab and waited. A couple minutes later a taxi pulled up next to him. He jumped in and gave the taxi driver the directions. “Thirty Sixth Street, please.” Jake said. For the next few minutes they drove in silence then the cab came to a sudden stop. “Thirty Sixth Street” The cab driver said gruffly. “Thank you” Jake said as he stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk. “I owe you a million” Jake then turned and ran into a large building with a large sign on it that read: Archeology and Mythology. Jake stepped inside the building. Inside there was a lobby with chairs and tables, and at the end of the room was an elevator. He walked across the room quickly and into the elevator. He waited only a few seconds and then finally the elevator doors opened. Jake stepped out and walked hurriedly to a desk where a secretary sat “You can go right in” She said. Jake kept walking until he came upon a door. He straitened himself out, and then entered. Inside there was a conference going on “sorry I’m late” he said apologetically as he sat down. “Jake, Can I talk to you.” His boss asked. “let’s go into my office.” They both sat down and his then boss begin to speak “Jake, You’ve been coming in late and not being able to work lately.”  “Only the past few weeks” Jake said.  “But how can I know that it won’t happen forever?” His boss said. “Look, Jake, there are a lot of better workers out there, and I don’t think it’s in the company’s best interest to keep you here.” “You’re firing me?” Jake asked.  “Well…” he waited for a moment then nodded. “Well,” Jake stood up “It’s been good working for you… I’ll go get my things” then Jake stepped out of the room.

. . . . .

Check back for more!

motherhood should come with…

My Jogo buddy, Kamille, has been posting these “Five Minute Friday” posts on her amazing blog. The “Five Minute Friday” idea came from here. I was inspired to give it a try today. Five minutes, stream of consciousness style on Motherhood… Here’s my take on it:

Motherhood should come with… Faith. A great partner. A manual? Lots of patience and an extra measure of grace. Motherhood definitely brings a whole lot of perspective to one’s life. It should come with a good play dough recipe, imagination and creativity. Motherhood should be shared with friends. It should come with a sewing machine and patterns to make her children’s favorite costumes. It should come with a way to save, store and remember all the little everyday sweetness that so quickly fades. Motherhood should come with lots of bins and shelves to organize all the special treasures that her little ones create and store. Motherhood should come with a strong heart to bear all the joy, pain, hope, disappointment, fear, and uncertainty.

1st Broken Bone

My baby (yes I still call him my baby even though he’s 11) just found out he broke his arm when he tried to fly down the stairs like Superman on Monday night. We were waiting to take Caleb in for x-rays because Sean did something similar a couple months ago and it was just sprained. The x-rays showed that he broke the radius bone similarly to the break in this image.

He will see an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to have it set and put in a cast. Hopefully he will be all healed and cast-free before summer starts!

Rock 10,000′s first single!!

Play that Rock’n'Roll

This song was recorded using GarageBand. They wrote all the music and lyrics, recorded each individual track and learned how to burn it onto a CD all on their own. There’s a lot going on in this song and they have lots still to learn but I am such a proud mom!!!

Name That Christmas Tune Game

Here’s a little game I created for our CTK Women’s Christmas, Coffee and Carols night. Feel free to download and play with your friends and family!