The Life and Times of the Watters Family

Happy 1st Birthday Bella!

You, sweet girl have lived up to your name! A beautiful and joyful addition to our family. Love you baby girl!

family fun

We have been having BEAUTIFUL, spring-like weather this February! After working really hard yesterday to do some major deep cleaning and organizing, we decided to get outside today to enjoy the sunshine (and in all honesty, if we aren’t home the house stays clean). The camera and tripod came along for fun :) Check out the rest of the pics from today here.

audrey~ 7 months

It was fun to do this little shoot with Audrey! It had been awhile since I had her in front of the camera. I can’t believe she is 7 months old already! She is such a beautiful and sweet little girl!

2009—Year In Review

Hooray! We actually sent Christmas cards this year—and a letter, too. We were totally lame last year and didn’t send out Christmas cards. So, if you were sad that you didn’t get a card from us, it wasn’t personal. You were all equally Scrooged.

2009 has been a blessed and eventful year. It was so great, the awesomeness started a day early. On New Year’s Eve, 2008, I (Cam) accepted a job at Logos Bible Software. The story behind how the job came to me is one only God could orchestrate. I was originally hired to work on web-based products but was re-assigned to the Windows (desktop) software team in April and, since November I’ve been working on the Mac version of our software. Working at Logos continues to be a fantastic experience as I have the opportunity to work with a variety of incredibly smart, talented people. And, it doesn’t hurt to be working on tools to help people better know and understand the Bible.

Because my job didn’t actually begin until January 15th, and having just finished a heavy-hearted holiday season, we thought it’d be a good idea to get out of town for some good quality time as a family of four. What better place to do this than my grandparents’ cabin on the Oregon coast? Expecting the weather to be rainy and windy, we planned on a week of board games and puzzles watching the rough surf pound the shore. Instead, we were treated to three or four days of sunshine in the low 60s. We spent the days walking along the beach and Sean and I even donned our trunks and played a bit in the surf.

On March 2nd, Caleb celebrated his ninth birthday. Our babies are growing up so fast; fortunately, this one still likes to snuggle. Caleb loves to read all kinds of books and writes fantastical stories about imaginary species and places. He adds so much energy and enthusiasm to our family. On March 9th, Betsy’s sister Heather and her husband Vince welcomed their first baby, Isabella Joy Baldetta, into the world. Bella’s birth was the first time Betsy had been in the room during a delivery since Caleb was born.

In May, I turned thirty-one and celebrated my first anniversary at Jogo (more on that later). Betsy and the boys wrapped up school and we said goodbye (for now) to some wonderful friends who moved to California. On June 22nd, Betsy’s sister Sara and her husband Scott welcomed their second daughter, Audrey Faith Kallin. That’s our third neice (Aliza, Bella and, now, Audrey) in less than two years! Our boys are outnumbered, now, but they love their little cousins dearly.

As many of you know (’cause you live here, too) summer was beautiful in Bellingham this year. For us, this means countless days spent at the lake playing, swimming, laughing, grilling and pirating. Yes, pirating. This year, Sean and Caleb built a raft from old lumber that looks like something straight out of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. They also spent a fair bit of time enjoying the sixty foot (yes, 60 ft) tall tree house that they built with my brother Cory at the end of Summer 2008. As usual, my mom’s folks came to live in Bellingham for the summer, which is always so great. We love having four generations of family all together. When not at the lake or a local park, Sean and Caleb could be found at the end of the block playing with some newly discovered friends from down the street.

In July, Betsy and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. I can honestly say that our marriage has gotten better every year and every year I am more grateful for Betsy and everything she brings to my life. August brought more amazing summer weather, beach parties and Betsy’s 32nd birthday.

September brought summer to a close and a new school year began—Sean started the fifth grade and Caleb is now in fourth. This school year, along with the basics, the boys have been taking art and guitar lessons. They’ve also been supplementing their already active lives with 3 classes a week at Jogo (again, more on that later). Homeschooling continues to be a worthwhile, albeit sometimes daunting, challenge for Betsy but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

In October, Betsy flew (boy, were her arms tired!) to SoCal to spend some time with my newly engaged sister, Kelly, and her good friend, Kim, who had moved away from Bellingham in June. She split her time between hanging out, shopping for wedding stuff and playing photographer. She had a fantastic time, but the boys and I were again reminded just how important she is to all of us. We missed her very much and won’t soon give her up again for such a lengthy stretch (o.k., so it was only 5 days).

This past weekend, we celebrated Sean’s eleventh birthday (he’ll turn eleven on Christmas Eve). They grow up so fast! He’s already beginning his journey through the awkward stage between childhood and adulthood and wavers between trying to delay the transition and wanting it to happen overnight. Sean is a thoughtful and talented kid who loves playing his guitar and all manner of art, drawing and painting in particular.

While it isn’t tied to any one particular event, if I had to identify the family theme for the year, it would be health—physical, mental and spiritual. In May 2008 I made a decision that, at the time, I assumed would be fairly minor and probably temporary. Instead, it turned out to be pivotal, not only for me, but for my entire family. I joined Jogo, a local CrossFit gym. How can joining a gym be that big of a deal? For most people and most gyms, I’d say it’s not that big of a deal. But for me, and my family, this gym, and more importantly, because of the people there—it’s kindof a big deal.

For me, it has been about so much more than weight loss (50 lbs so far) or fitness. It’s been about learning to do things that I’m not very good at while other people, who are good at them, watch and encourage me as I struggle through the process. I’m leaner and stronger now, at age 31, than I’ve ever been. I’ve also learned a ton about being a part of a healthy community of friends who genuinely want to support you and see you succeed. I’ve learned many things that I was too proud to learn before, often for fear of looking foolish.

For Betsy, it has been about believing God to heal her back. Despite a second back surgery in 2005, back, and later hip issues continued to significantly affect her quality of life by limiting her mobility and strength. However, this May, after much prayer she became convinced that she needed to pursue a strength and conditioning program and trust God to heal her back. While we don’t have an MRI that shows fully restored discs in her back, God has, as always, proven himself faithful. Betsy is the strongest and least limited by her back problems that I have seen her in the 15 years that we’ve been together. Since September, Betsy (and the boys) have been coming to Jogo with me and we’ve all benefited hugely from the support that the community and friendships provide. So while the gym may seem an odd topic for our Christmas letter, it has been a major component of what God is doing in our lives this past year, especially with the healing that Betsy has experienced.

We are incredibly grateful for this year and everything that God has granted us and taught us. We look forward to 2010 eager to learn more and serve God more.

Whether this season finds you feeling abundantly blessed or unsettled and uncertain (as we were last year) we pray that God’s presence would be your peace and that you would have a truly blessed Christmas and a very joyful New Year.

Merry Christmas,

Cameron, Betsy, Sean and Caleb

by the glow of the tree

Some of my favorite moments of this season have been the times spent together as a family, in the living room, by the light of the Christmas tree. The times we have spent together praying through our advent prayer chain and reading through the “Adornaments” has been a blessing (although not as consistent as we’d like). Each year the boys get older I feel these days are numbered. I am trying to appreciate and enjoy each and every family tradition with them as long as they last.

Who does that?

Yesterday FedEx showed up with a delivery of some Christmas gifts we ordered online that came in their original boxes! This time of year in particular you would think they would put them in more subtle packaging for shipping. Seriously! Sean opened the door and saw the gifts and was really upset because he was afraid that it would wreck Christmas! So sad. Cam and I both spent some time reassuring him that there are not consequences for accidentally finding out about a gift before Christmas. I’m bummed though and feel sad for him. I guess there is downside to shopping online. Okay, that’s the end of my little venting session. Here’s a cute picture of Miss Aliza from last Christmas season- because posts without pictures are no fun.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

We began our Christmas movie marathon yesterday with three great ones:  Miracle on 34th St., The Grinch and It’s a Wonderful Life. We watched Elf a couple weeks ago but I’m sure it will play a few more times throughout the season. We seem to be starting early this year with just about everything. We did the majority of our Christmas shopping online on Black Friday. I like to get all the shopping and planning done early so that there is more time to relax and enjoy a peaceful season. The boys and I will be making our annual advent chain this afternoon as well as compiling a list of our favorite traditions and putting them on the calendar to ensure we don’t miss anything important to us.

Every year we work to be intentional, not to get sucked into the commercialism and to focus on what truly matters. Overall, I feel like we have created a good balance but there is much room for improvement. I love that my boys don’t make Christmas “wish lists” a mile long! They typically only mention 2 or 3 things they would like to have and their requests are quite reasonable. Both boys focus much more on what they want to get for each other and how to bless other family members.

One of our goals this season is to focus on God’s graciousness and His very apparent blessings in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for and are blessed beyond measure. What more could we want or need?