Fun Family Festivities

November has all ready been full o' fun! First of all, to those who may be wondering, my heart procedure went well. I couldn't feel a thing except for the anesthetic needles. The doc says I should never have another palpitaion again! I am slowly healing and getting back up to speed. Ryan has been an angel, especially the first week after. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support!
On Saturday the 15th, a family tradition was kept as it has been done for over 40 years. My great grandma Amanda Irene Cox Watson started Watson's Flowers on Main Street in Mesa in 1927. Each year the shop, and all her decendants who can come, make a parade float out of real flowers! Traditionally it's been for the Mesa Day Parade in March, but since that has been done away with for the past several years, the Gilbert Days Parade is where all the 5 year olds in the family get to ride on the float. This year my sister Elizabeth's Benjamin got to be one of the float riders!
Isn't he cute!? There were 6 other riders this year too. I remember it was one of the greatest things ever when it was my year to ride it! Ryan wasn't able to participate in any of it because he had a Scout overnighter that weekend, but I went with my parents and was able to help glue on the patals at the "float party" the night before. Ryan and I were able to go to Zoo lights on Monday night with most of his siblings. (Thank you Kristy!) We had a great time watching all the little ones enjoy themselves. The best part for us was getting to pet the sting rays! They are just as slimey as any other fish, but still... they were sting rays! That's my brother in law Kevin holding Karter (so cute), with Lara behind him, me, and Ryan with the SRP hat on. It was great!





I helped Bethany and Benjamin make these adoreable turkey pumpkins! All it took was toothpicks, tape, markers, contruction paper and siccors.
I was watching them for a little while a couple weeks ago and figured it was a geat time to do a kid craft!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I love this country! I love democracy. I love how it all came to be and never tire of relearning every detail. I don't like who most of the voters of our nation choose for our next president. I respect the office he will hold, but not his agenda or the constitutional rights he wants to take away.
As I watched the Deacons pass the sacrament on Sunday, a tie worn by one of them caught my attention. It was a patchwork picture of Old Glory. It reminded me once again of just how patriotic of a holiday that we have coming up. Don't get me wrong, thanksgiving is about being thankful for all we have, but we wouldn't have much to be celebrating it if not for those wonderful people who voyaged across the raging Atlantic Ocean to escape horrific religious persecution in hopes of making a better life so many years ago. Today we know them as Pilgrims and I call them Patriots. I can't help but wonder if they really knew how their lives and sacrifices would effect history... us today... my family. The principles drafted in the Mayflower Compact which were carried to, and elaborated on in great detail in, our Constitution, are truly the most basic and essential rights that God has endowed us with. It is to these patriots, and those who fought and died in the great Revolutionary War, and all those who have sought so diligently to preserve these rights, and to our Heavenly Father who grants them to us daily, that we owe a sincerely grateful heart and life. I think it is wonderful that Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day are celebrated during the same month. To me, they both comemorate patriots in very similar ways. I truly hope that we will continue to honor their legacy and the freedoms they insured us by doing all we can to keep those rights established. I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving with those you love!

Birthday & Halloween Fun!

Ryan, like all who are kids at heart, wanted his birthday cake to be special this year. He asked if it could be shaped like his paintball gun. I was kind enough, and clever enough, to figure out just how to make it work. I had Ryan draw a picture of it for me so I would have some kind of pattern go on without the possibility of his real one getting frosted in the process. I think it turned out pretty good, it being the first shaped cake I've ever made.We celebrated his Birthday, his dad's, as well as my parents and my sis Elizabeth's birthdays all during October!

Ryan says he is now 20 with 7 years experience. With all those candles, this picture turned out pretty cool .








We celebrated on the day of with rootbeer floats at my parents house, and on the Sunday after at his parents house.


On Halloween we had fun at our ward's Trunk or Treat dressed up as military comando's as we carried around Ryan's airsoft guns! Since this is what we were last year too I think we should do something different next year.

my heart is finally gettin' fixed!

now, if i only had a brain...
As some of you may know ever since I was a little girl there have been times that my heart would race for no apparent reason. My mom remembers me running up to her when I was as young as 2 years old to tell her my heart was beating too fast. Each heart palpitation lasts about 5-10 minutes. It only happened about once every 6 months or so, but it gradually increased to about once every month when I became a teenager. My parents asked doctors about this, but none of them took me very seriously until I was older and able to explain it better. I had an EKG when I was 17, but since I didn't have a heart palpitation during the test they found nothing wrong. Long story short, I have a heart condition called Supra ventricular Tachycardia, or SVT. Basically I was born with an extra electrical passage in my heart that every once in a while makes my heart go crazy. I'm going to have a procedure called an Ablation on Tuesday Nov. 18th to fix it. The doctors are very surprised that I have never passed out, as most people with this condition routinely do. It's not all that uncommon of a condition or a procedure. If any of you readers have questions just follow the link below, or feel free to ask!

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/tc/supraventricular-tachycardia-overview