Come one, Come all...

We just welcomed our very first visitor so I thought I would post too many pictures of our villa. For those who read both Watkins Sister blogs you get way more information and pictures than what you want. Moving across the world causes us to share more than necessary. Nick's mom, Kathy just arrived in Doha and we are on cloud nine! Having a visitor from home will get you seriously motivated to clean house and get organized. Honestly, I moved a couple boxes to take these pictures but for the most part we're settled in so here's a little tour of our new home.

Entry


Looking back at our front door - living and playroom to the left, kitchen and laundry to the right

Playroom (just got this furniture, so it looks a little less romper room)


Living room looking from the playroom


Backyard

Hallway to Laundry Room, Storage Room and Bathroom

Laundry Room and Kennel Room

Storage room aka maid room

1/2 bath

Kitchen



Beautiful arrangement of appliances

Upstairs Living


Hallway that leads to Master

Master Bedroom



Master Bath

Stairs

Opposite side upstairs (bedrooms and bar, of course)

Medicine Station aka Bar

Guest Bedroom


Guest Bath


Barrett's Room/Nursery




Little hallway to Brooks' Quaters

Boys' Bath (they've learned to shower, no bathtub)

Brooks Room


Thanks for touring A-34. Home sweet home...well home is in Texas but this is where we live :) We are enjoying it and want you to come visit FOR REAL!!!
We are so so thrilled to have Kathy here to visit. Here are few pics from her arrival. The flight landed at 9:30pm so the boys were showered and in their pj's. They were so excited to see her. They waited patiently and with so much anticipation in the airport. It was crowded and the blond headed boys weren't hard miss. The timing of Tatty's visit must have been God's, because we're a little (ok, maybe more than a little) homesick and it was so sweet to see her face actually here in Doha, Qatar!! Even sweeter were the cowboy hats she brought the boys from the Houston Rodeo. We all got a little treat from the Rodeo which was the perfect gift. I'm not sure who was welcoming who when we saw Tatty. I'm hear to tell you, you can take us out of Texas but you can't take Texas out of us. We miss it all and especially our sweet peeps!!

First Sleepover

One of Brooks' best friends, Macie spent the night on Friday night. First time we've ever had a sleepover and its the first time Brooks has shared his room with someone other than Mommy or Daddy! Macie's mom and dad celebrated their anniversary on Friday night so we got a chance to host Macie at our house. She is exactly a year older than Brooks and all girl! Wow are girls different! Macie came prepared with 2 pair of shoes, clothes, swimwear, coloring sets, books, jewelry, more toys and a fully loaded purse. She was prepared to entertain and she did! We'll have to put up some good 'ol fashion boundaries some day with these "boy/girl" sleepovers but until then, Macie's welcome anytime. She's super sweet and the boys just follow her around.






Macie and Brooks are both used to a bedtime routine that usually involves one parent hanging out in the room for a while. Well, not when there are sleepovers involved. We read books, said prayers and these 2 jumped in their beds, rolled over and conked out! Bedtime's never been so easy at our house! And the following morning, Nick woke up to find both of them fully dressed and ready to play at 7:30am. Apparently Macie is a good influence on our independence. We had a great time and look forward to the next!

Going Away!

Since moving onto the "sac" (cul-de-sac), we've quickly been introduced to the bummer of friends and neighbors moving away. Which definitely falls into the category of "Doha Days". We live on the only cul-de-sac in our compound and its truly a blessing. First of all we have awesome neighbors who are like family, plus its the place for all the kids in our compound to play. Our next door neighbors moved to Indonesia last month and 2 more "sac" families are now moving. The Guinn's leave Qatar this weekend headed to Houston and the Granmayeh's will move to Russia in the next few months. We are so sad to see them go! We've only a had a short time to get to know them but as you can imagine people connect easily here when they are so far from home. Both the Guinn's and Granmayeh's have been so generous and welcoming to us. We will miss them, their kids and pets :) We will be praying for these friends and their new lives in new places! We also pray that the Lord will continue to bless us with new great neighbors!

Thursday night we had a going away party in the "sac". Lots of friends and neighbors came for one last farewell.

Stacy and Lynnett (the honorees)



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**I promise we really were at the party. We were either chasing little boys around or taking pictures!

Barrett Turns 2!!!

Happy Birthday Barrett! We had a great day today, celebrating Bear's birthday. Brooks enjoyed the day as much as Barrett.
We started with a bed balloon party.

Barrett has recently learned how to blow but he can't figure out where to aim his blowing, plus he's a little nervous about the hot flame.
He tried so hard all day when we gave him the opportunity. The harder he tried the tighter he closed his eyes. Finally Brooks helped a brother out.


Birthday Boy ready for school.

He's showing his "2" but can't quite get the #2 finger up. He certainly knows how old he is..."teeuu"

Birthday party at school with his Apple Tree friends. His teachers had hats, balloons, and a banner especially for him!

Prepping his napkin for the cookies we made.






Barrett absolutely loves his teachers. Every day when I pick him up, he routinely hugs each one of them before we leave. They are the sweetest ladies and they take such good care of Bear!

What else is a boy to do on his 2nd birthday...hang out with Hummers! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to check them out on our way to birthday dinner.

Johnny Rockets...best burger in town! Barrett wanted "shrench shries"





A few birthday presents. I'm so glad we weren't shopping for anything specific. Doha isn't the place for specifics.

Thank goodness the birthday boy is easy to please.

And a very loud, crazy, light-up spiderman gun. What was I thinking? I bought 2 spiderman water bottles but so far the gun has cause a bit of tension between 2 boys.

We had a great day with this little birthday bundle of sweetness! We're looking forward to a birthday party and more celebrating next week when Tatty (Nick's mom) comes to visit! Thank you for all the calls and emails!