Walker Family Christmas

This year we met out at Gpa & Gma Walker's for the yearly Christmas present exchange. I whipped out my camera and tried to snap some pictures before my battery died. So I made sure to get one of my mom and dad, I decided I was going to edit since we don't think to get a nice picture of just the two of them. Sorry I removed your snowmen mom hope you'll forgive me, but I love this one of them. I mostly wanted to post these for Carrie and anyone that forgot or lost their camera (mom). Enjoy. We had a blast, but missed the Wintertons and little Macey.
Mom and Dad did not disappoint nor did anyone else. We loved all our presents this year, THANK YOU. I love my family.

Heslop Christmas

Best Christmas ever this year! Granted Santa got alittle out of control, so mom decided to pull out a few presents to return to the Walmart. Really my kid had her own couch, I swear I had added this all up. Lets a few of the best goods: my new S8100 Coolpix Nikon (compact w/ lots of good specs), Zune for Jon and all the accessories, shadow box for Jon's 100 yr old danish bible, Maddie's CHEAP kitchen set (hand built by yours truley, seriously folks every little peice took me 2 hours to assemble), Maddie's "awesome" scooter (she said it), family's new HP black friday special laptop, family little portable DVD player and movies galore. I just want you to know that last year there was nothing so this year I ended 2010 with a bang. I just finally ordered internet so by next week I should be blogging again. Hope your Christmas was just as merry and bright. I know its not about the presents, we actually got secret Santa"ed" and I decided to pay it forward. I made awesome treat plates complete with white chocolate popcorn, oreo truffles, and Jenica's merigue cookies. I'm still hoping to take a family picture SOON, sorry there was no Christmas card from us this year again. Darn snow, I'm totally over the whole white Christmas thing. Thanks Gpa Vance for all the presents, above Jon is showing off some of his loot.

Jon's best present ever, look at his face. I was really excited to give him one whether he wanted it or not.

Shadow box that I got for half price at Hobby Lobby my new favorite store. Its not just for "crafty" people.

One of the awesome movies we got along with Ice Age, Robots, Over the Hedge, ECLIPSE :), Blindsind, and some movies for Jon. Jammies that I bought over a year ago and have been dying to give her. SO CUTE!

She loves the scooter, now if she could just learn how to make it go on her OWN!

Catch Up

I haven't posted in quite a while, so incase you were starting to lose faith in me, I'm still here! I'm on the verge of getting some wireless access, halelujah. I started this post at least a month ago when the weather was still warm enough for me to go on walks and end at the park so Maddie could play. I since then have chickened out due to cold weather and joined Anytime Fitness. But I just love this picture so I thought I would share.

I have family pictures coming up next week and am feeling so anxious. It could be that its the first time I've ever paid anyone for pictures or it could be that they will be permanent so I need to be VERY careful about my eating this week. So far, I guess I mean since yesterday, so good. Which is a huge feat, my daily diet was starting to always including treats. We found some shirts for Jon last weekend which was so fun, because he hates shopping. I mean like he literally buys a shirt from a department/mall type store maybe once a year. The rest come from the D.I. or freebie type shirts. I let the asian men in the middle of the mall give Jon a 10 min. massage just to get through the rest of this shopping trip.

Other than that I'm still babysitting and enjoying watching Maddie grow closer to her cousin. Oh and I'm getting really eager for Christmas. I've got a good part of my shopping done, but I always go alittle NUTS then have to return quite a bit after Black Friday shopping. More posts to come.

A GRAND!

In case you haven't heard, Jon recently was drawn for $1,000 in Anytime Fitness's drawing this week. Out of 200 some people his name was drawn, not once actually it was 5 times. The owner Janelle's kids were having a mock drawing previous to the official drawing and Jon's named was pulled 4 times. The owner told her daughter if you draw Jon's name I'm going to laugh. I've been laughing the last couple days, we NEVER and I mean NEVER win anything!
Janelle and Jon thought of this together, the leg press is stacked with 1,000+ lbs and the money spread all over. Jon would like you to notice that the weight isn't locked and he is actually doing press. He can actually do much more than this, crazy man. Now before you hit me up with phone calls about how much I owe you, please remember we are still in need of a vehicle, computer, etc and have been experiencing alittle financial stress. The moral of the story is pay your tithing. :) We just paid our tithing on Sunday after getting alittle behind.

Pumpkin Patch

This picture makes me so happy. I took these with my phone so they aren't very high resolution but I love the pumpkin's background and their textures and her cute face.Cousin Grady and Maddie had alot fun searching for the perfect pumpkin. Thanks Charee for the idea and making it such a fun activity.The most pumpkins I've ever seen in my life. Seriously there was three different types; the regular orange ones, red squashed looking ones and huge white ones.Our attempt to take a group photo. It is pretty impossible for children this age to pose for a group photo.
Happy PUMPKIN picking to all. I can't wait to do something with the pumpkin soon! I didn't get the one Maddie chose since she wanted the ugliest mis-shapen ones (it wouldn't sit up on my doorstep).

Project #1

I should have taken a before and after photo. The table was originally white and dusty. So we moved about a month ago and I have been busy organizing, cleaning, painting, you know all those lovely tasks that come with moving into a new place. We used to have a old Ikea table that we inherited, problem was we painted it all black 3 yrs ago and never put a sealant (sp?) on it. So allllll of the food stuck to the table. When we moved back to WA my sweet mother-in-law gave us this. It came with another chair but I have left it in Maddie's room for the time being. Hooray for a table I can be proud of!

Laguna Beach, CA

Yes, I was there even though I am not in these photos. September 10th-13th Wendy, Macey, and I were able to fly into L.A. and spend time with Carrie and her family in South Pasadena. We had lots of fun shopping, eating, and playing on the beach. Don't let these pictures fool you. I was unprepared and received the worst sunburn of my life on my shoulders, scalp, chest, and back of my neck. It was beautiful and I think I could totally get used to living on the beach. A life guard watch tower, I didn't really think those even existed.
Cute Macey playing on the beach. I haven't had many experiences with coastal beaches, but it was amazing that you drove into the town and the road ended almost where the beach began. It is an experience I can't wait to have again. Oh and I had the best pizza of my life here in Laguna, it is hard to describe but the crust was fry bread like. Amazing.

Elephant

Jon, Maddie, and I rode this elephant last Saturday at the Davis county fair. We forgot our camera in the car so I stole these pictures from my friend Chelsi who rode it. We weren't sure if we should pay the money to do it but I'm glad we did it was sure neat. I even pet it afterwards.

It was amazing to see how well trained the elephants were, yes there were two of them. Not as comfortable as you would think. After we got off Maddie pointed at the little riding horses. I said are you kidding me?

What do you do in the summer time?

Take cute pictures for your mother, because she got new cute clothes for a steal?Eat sandy corn on the cob while playing in the sand box, because no one is watching?Play with your cute friend Liz, because she was so much fun to read with in laundry baskets?Go golfing almost every week and sometimes with the awesome Chuggs, because your dad is obsessed with the sport right now?Get stuck in the washer because you thought you and your beach ball could fit?Play in the bath tub with lots of bubbles and toys and of course your best little friend Selma? Run around the house and play with blocks with your favorite cousin Macey?Or jump on the tramp, because Macey can open the front door and you both can climb onto the tramp?
Play with your new favorite boy cousin Clark, because he was so chill and yet so full of energy?

(NO IDEA WHY THERE ARE LINES????)

Graduation at CRCC

Jon graduated Wednesday 8/11/10 from Core training at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. The first picture is of the pinning where he received his first shiny badge. The third picture is of the Corrections Honor Guard, we learned that at CRCC (prison lingo?) they have over 90 different professions. This was my first experience watching Jon graduate from anything so I was quite proud. I'm even more proud after today when he told me that several people wanted him to be their partner out in the facility. The last picture is of Jon and his cute mom Jeanie, I was so happy she came with me. I think I've always liked a man in uniform.

Potty....training?

So what do you do when your baby is ready to potty train and you are not? Ideas? Maybe I'll just lock my little sister out of the house since she keeps taking Maddie potty and rewarding her.