Megan's First Thanksgiving

Megan had her first Thanksgiving - she didn't really care about it! But Rachel made up for Megan's lack of enthusiasm by PIGGING out!! That girl can put down food like no one I've ever seen! And she is such a small little girl - I don't know how she does it. We had a great Thanksgiving at Lori's house (Kasey's sister). And we got up the next morning for Black Friday shopping! This has become Kasey's favorite new tradition. We introduced Kasey's dad and sister to Black Friday at Walmart - what a madhouse! We saw one person taken away in handcuffs and I thought the people behind us in line would be next...we made it out without a scratch and most of what we wanted, and a great laugh about how crazy people are (including us!) A good time was had by all!!

Where's Kasey?

Kasey is in the Stake YM Presidency. They had a "Where's Waldo" activity and they had a bunch of stake leaders disguise themselves and then the kids had to go find them in the stores. This was Kasey's disguise. Rachel wouldn't even go near him until we all convinced her it was OK!!

Let's just say that I sympathized with Rachel, and I was super glad it was just a disguise!! Please don't let this ever become a reality!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year, especially taking Rachel trick-or-treating for the first time. On the Friday before Halloween we went to Kasey's work party after the kids Halloween parade at school. True to form, they had all kinds of crazy things in the building! There was a waterfall, a Legend of Sleepy Hollow bridge (complete with a headless horseman at the end), a slide down the stairs (which Mom and Rachel did together and had a ball!), an Ice World, an Abominable Snowman, and I could go on and on. We look forward to Halloween every year just to see what Adobe will come up with!

This year we had a cowgirl (Hailey), a smurf (Spencer), a cheerleader (Jenna), a cow (Rachel), and a flower (Megan). Mom and Dad were party poopers and didn't dress up.



Here we all are waiting to get into Dad's work. Spencer told us he was feeling a little blue today....funny kid!

I don't know why this picture won't turn the way it is supposed too, but here is Megan in her little flower costume. She wasn't a big fan of the hood, but I think she looks really cute.

Rachel trick-or-treating for the very first time. We went to our good neighbors, the Paulson's, for her very first house. She likes to go knock on their door all the time to say hi anyway, so why not do it on a day when you can get candy?! She had a great time trick-or-treating and we had a great time watching her do it. Too bad it was pouring rain so we only went to a few houses!

Rachel showing off all of her loot! For a few days before Halloween I had been telling her she was going to be a cow, and she was going to look so cute. Then I would ask her what a cow says, she would say "moo", and we both thought it was a lot of fun. Well, when Kasey got her into her costume to go trick-or-treating, he said "Rachel, what are you?" Rachel replied "Cute!" I was laughing so hard! She definitely is cute!!

Jenna the Cheerleader

Jenna has been doing a cheerleading activity with Orem city for the last 6 weeks. She has LOVED it!! She is the quintessential cheerleader - always posing, making up random cheers for anything and everything! It's been fun to watch her have so much fun.

Everyone else is done kicking and cheering - but not Jenna. She kicks and yells and does cartwheels until the bitter end, usually when all of the other girls have left to go get a drink!

This is me sneaking in behind the professional photographer to get my own shot because I'm too cheap to pay for my own!!

Pictures of Megan

Here are a few pictures of Megan when she was about 3 weeks old. It's obvious that I'm an amateur photographer, so they aren't that great - but it's what we have!!




I was trying to get a picture for her birth announcement. I don't think she was in the mood for that, and she wasn't quite sure what she thought about laying on satin!

She liked this minkie blanket a lot better!!




And this is when she was pretty much done with the whole thing!! Not that I can really blame her! I have to say - she is a great baby. She rarely cries, she is very patient even when Rachel is mauling her. I've been very blessed to have easy, great babies! We are loving having Megan in our family. She is so much fun and is adding so much to our happy home.

Stinking Cute Little Girl!

OK, I just have to brag a little bit on Rachel...I think she is seriously so cute and has such a cute personality that has just been busting through lately. She's let me play with her hair lately, so we've done pig tails and even curled it with a curling iron. It's fun to have a little girl that will actually let me do something with her hair!!

The other day I was putting her to bed and I gave her a kiss good night. She said "more" and so I gave her another kiss. She kept saying "more" and started giggling everytime I would give her another kiss. I was laughing too! It was so cute. Since I laughed so much she's been doing it the last few days. She is a lot of fun!

Something not so fun...she learned how to say no the other day. Now the answer to everything is "no". Do you want lunch - no. Do you want to take a bath - no. Do you want chocolate - no. Poor girl, she doesn't know what she's saying!!!

The pig tails. They look so cute but never last past nap time!!

The curling iron hairdo. It's always a little scary for me to use the curling iron because she doesn't sit still very long, but it always looks so cute! And I love that smile!

Megan is born!!!

OK, I know I am WAY behind in this, but who knew 2 kids would take up so much time??!! I guess those of you who have two kids or more could have told me that, but whatever! So, here it is, 7 weeks later and I'm finally getting her info on here!

First of all, she came 10 days early, which was a great surprise!! Don't get me wrong, I loved it - but it did catch me off guard. Luckily for me, I had just got home from the store stocking up on the "necessities" so Kasey wouldn't have to go shopping after I had the baby. I just didn't know I was having the baby so soon! I made Rachel's lunch and then realized that my water had broken. I wasn't having any contractions so I called a friend who is a nurse to ask her what she thought I should do. Get to the hospital she said! So I did!!

I called Kasey at work, but told him not to worry about coming then (it was around 1:30 pm) since I wasn't having any contractions. That way he could pick the kids up from school!! Then I got my epidural because I WAS NOT waiting until I was in too much pain to get it. Kasey brought the kids by to say hi after school, then took them home and bought some dinner for them. I told him to take his time since nothing really seemed to be happening - and he did. About 10 minutes after he got back the doctor came in and said "Why don't we have this baby in the next 5 minutes?" WHAT!!!! I haven't even had any pain yet!! Kasey almost missed the delivery, the doctor almost missed the delivery...this was way different than when I had Rachel!! Two minutes later there she was. I got to hold her right after she was born, Kasey got to cut the cord. It was a great experience!

She is a wonderful baby - so good!! I am so blessed with good babies. We love her and think she is beautiful! Even Rachel is good with her, and has only sat on her twice now!!


This is right after she was born. She was born on September 1, 2010 at 7:31 pm (only 7 hours of labor total - it was awesome!) She was 7 lbs 13 oz and 18 1/2 inches long.

Daddy with his new little girl. We do not have a shortage of estrogen in our house!

Mom and her two little girls. Rachel is so cute with Megan, she is always telling her "hi".

The whole family at Megan's blessing on September 26.


This is what happens when we try to get a picture of just the kids. Rachel doesn't want to be more than two feet away from Mom, and we get weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth! Gotta love family pictures!!

Baby Watch

With only two weeks to go until Baby Girl Walker gets here (not that I'm counting or anything!!) we went to the doctor yesterday and everything is looking good! My blood pressure is low, which is surprising considering how hot and uncomfortable and cranky I've been the last few weeks! The baby's heart rate was good. And...I'm only dilated to a one! When this happened with Rachel I would be so disappointed each week, but I was still a one when I went into labor with her and they sent me home from the hospital only so I could go back a few hours later sicker than a dog and be at a seven!! So...experience is everything, my disappointment is in check, and here's hoping Baby Walker gets here SOON!!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

For Spencer's friend party this year he wanted to play night games at Discovery Park. He invited five friends and they played all kinds of games at the park. It was a lot of fun. Spencer has spent the whole summer playing night games, mostly at our house, and has loved every second of it. He will do anything, and I do mean anything!, to stay up later or play a little longer!


All of the kids at the park at Spencer's party.

Spencer only asked for one thing for his birthday - a new scooter that could do tricks. I'm not really sure what tricks he is planning on doing - and not sure I want to know! But he was very happen when he opened his last present and that's what he got!

We've indoctrinated him pretty well on all things BYU. He loves BYU!! You've never seen a kid so happy to get a BYU t-shirt and a BYU street sign on the same birthday!! Of course, this isn't all he got - he got some clothes and some money too. But the smiles weren't nearly as big for those pictures (shocking, I know!!) We love you Spence!! Happy Birthday!

A Bouncing Baby Stone!!

So, back in April Kasey came home one day not feeling well, and we ended up in the hospital where he had his appendix out. While they were figuring out what was wrong with him they found out that he had three kidney stones, so the doctor told us that in about three weeks he should go talk to a Urologist about the stones. Well, two weeks after his surgery he started having lots of pain again, so we went back to the ER and found out that one of the stones (the largest one of course!) had started to pass. After a hospital stay in Chicago, Kasey finally had a procedure done to break up the stone, and this is the largest fragment that he passed. It doesn't look very impressive here, but he reminds me all the time that SOME people think passing a kidney stone is worse than giving birth. I'm still not so sure.....


It's hard to tell in the picture, but a few of these fragments are 3-4 cm. The whole stone was 7 cm long and about 4 or 5 cm wide.

This is on Father's Day. Kasey broke out his "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt just for the occasion. He doesn't like to brag, but he'll wear it if necessary!!

Happy Father's Day to the World's Greatest Dad - at least in our minds!!

Crazy Hair!!

Spencer likes to keep his hair longer, even though we don't like it so much. We give him a hard time about it, and this is usually what we wake up too. This particular morning we woke up to two heads of crazy hair!



Rachel loves her brother! Even if he's not here she'll go into his room and ask about him all the time. It's really cute.

How can you resist this cute little girl???!!!

Random Pictures of Rachel

Just thought I'd put up a few random pictures of Rachel. Lately she likes to make BIG messes. One of her favorite things to do is to pull out all of her clothes from her drawer. Sometimes she tries them on, mostly she just makes a big mess!!



One day I came downstairs to find this mess. She went through Dad's drawers in the desk and pulled out all the paper's she could grab!



She discovered the cupboard in Grandpa Walker's entertainment center and thought it would make a great place to play.

She loves brushing her teeth! I thought I better take a picture of her doing it now to prove that at least at one point in her life she did it regularly!

Yes, we are indoctrinating her early!! I think she looks adorable in BYU blue!!!

Jenna's Baptism

Jenna was baptized on May 1. This is the same day that I was baptized, so we both thought that was pretty neat that we were baptized on the same day - just a few years apart! (We won't say exactly how many years!!) It was a very nice service, and afterwards we had our family over at our house for a light brunch. The best part of all was that Grandma Walker was feeling well enough to come. Jenna was so happy that she was there, and so were the rest of us. Some other people that traveled a long way to be there was Gram Maben (from Arizona) and Aunt Susan and Uncle Terry (from Wyoming). We are lucky to have such a loving and supportive family!!

Here we are with Jenna in front of our house. Grandma Walker gave her a lei from Hawaii - it was beautiful.

Jenna in her baptism dress that her mom made for her. She looked very pretty in it!

Jenna with her grandma's - Grandma Walker above and Gram Maben below. This is one of the last things that Grandma Walker was able to come to before she passed away. We are so glad she could come.

Jenna was also baptized on Gram's birthday, so there are all kinds of neat things about being baptized on May 1!!

Jenna's Birthday Party

Jenna turned 8 this year, and had a "late night" birthday party. She invited a few friends over, and we had a crazy hair contest. These girls know crazy hair! They had a lot of fun, and it was fun to see what they came up with!

This was Jenna's crazy do! She said she wanted to wear it like this for church the next day...too bad she has a mean step-mom that said no way!!

Everyone with their crazy hair-do's! Some were a little more crazy than others. The fact that Spencer's hair was long enough to even be able to give it a crazy do is more scary to me than anything else!! Happy Birthday Jenna!!!

Easter Dresses

I just thought I'd show off the girl's cute Easter outfits!

Rachel is such a Mommy's girl...she wasn't leaving my arms so that's why I'm in this picture!

I love this picture of Rachel in her dress! I think she looks so cute - but I also love her smile!!

Spencer's Space Derby

At the end of March the Scouts had a space derby instead of the usual Pinewood Derby. Both Spencer and Kasey were a little disappointed that they weren't doing a car this year - especially since Spencer took first place last year! But, leave it to my boys, they were bound and determined to find a way to win again. And sure enough, once they figured out how to make them go fast Spencer beat everyone again! We're not very competitive in our house!!

Rachel Turns 1!

Ok, it's a little late I know, but I wanted to put these pictures of Rachel's birthday up. She was SO CUTE with her little cake - she just kind of picked at it at first, but then when she realized it was chocolate and was all for her she was all over it!! It was so fun to watch her devour it!

I think we had more fun watching her eat her cake than anything else. She sure is a joy in our lives!!

Hailey as Miss Hannigan

In February Hailey starred in her school play - Annie Jr. - as Miss Hannigan. She stole the show!! Even we were amazed by her, and we are her parents! She did a great job both singing and acting. We are so proud of her! Here are a few pictures of her before the play started.



Giving her best "Miss Hannigan" look for the camera! When she yelled "shut-up" to the orphans Kasey and I looked at each other and thought "Wow, we've heard that before...."

Here we are backstage after Hailey had her hair and makeup done. Jenna was just there for the picture!!

Catch Up Time!

It's been a long time since I've put anything on here, so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do! I'll see if I can fit everything on here - and remember everything that should go on here!

I'll start with Rachel's one year appointment. Everything went fine. She weight 16 lbs 2.5 oz at her appointment in March. She is still in the 0.6% percentile for her age! She certainly didn't inherit her small frame from her mother!! :) She is doing great - still trying to get brave enough to walk on her own. Her cute little personality is showing through more and more lately. She really is so much fun to be around!

We found out in April that we are expecting another girl! Kasey and Spencer were (bitterly!) disappointed, but I think we've all come to accept that there will be way more estrogen in our house than we really need! Everything in the ultrasound looked good and they said she looks healthy. I'm not sure how exactly they can tell, but I guess that's what they go to school for! We're excited to have another cute little baby in our home, and here's hoping that this one will come on time or early rather than a week late like her big sister!!

Pictures from the Trip!

I guess I messed up and published my post before I added pictures. Ooops!! Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip.


This pretty much sums up our experience at the beach...Rachel hated the ocean, hated the sand, and pretty much didn't want to be there. It didn't help that her dad put her down in the sand and then left her alone while a big wave washed up and knocked her over! He keeps telling her that he saved her life, so she's feeling pretty lucky....

This is us and the Williams' family who we got to visit with while we were there. Todd and Kasey work together. It was fun to hang out with them and also our good friends the Bennion's. Here we are in the Blue Mountains, standing in front of the Three Sisters.

Everywhere we go Rachel is the center of attention. Strangers will ask if they can take her picture because they think she's so cute. (So do we!!) This was no exception - all of the little kids wanted to play with her!

Rachel and Daddy petting some kangaroos. Rachel didn't mind looking, but she didn't really like touching!!

I don't know if you can tell, but those are bats in the tree. They were huge!! And when they flew around at night it was so disgusting! Kasey was freaking out and I was laughing. The ranger said there are 20,000 in the park. Nasty!!

Rachel and Daddy on the ferry to Manly. This was Rachel's first boat ride, and she loved it!

Rachel and Mommy with a koala bear. Again, Rachel liked to look, but not necessarily touch! The koala bears were surprisingly soft.

Here we are in front of the Sydney temple. It is a pretty temple, even though it's small.

Rachel swimming for the first time. The pool was 4 feet deep through the whole pool, so Mom had to hold her the whole time. She loved the pool, so I'm not sure why she hated the ocean...but we had fun anyway!

This is at the Syndey Aquarium. They had one crocodile, and luckily it was right by the glass. You could also go up above it to look at it. There was a sign that said "Don't jump in the crocodile's home. If the fall doesn't kill you the crocodile will." I thought it was kind of funny.

Here we are in front of the Opera House. We thought the Opera House is prettier in pictures than it is in person, but we saw it!

At Circular Quay we saw an Aboriginal man playing the digeree-doo (probably not the correct spelling but you get the idea!). It was pretty cool to listen too.

Rachel's first plane ride!! She did great, even though it was a really, really long plane ride. She may have even done better than her Mom!!

The one thing we didn't get a picture of was our rental car. When we got there they gave us our car, which was a Toyota Camry. Forget the fact that there was just a giant recall on Toyota's because they are killing people, but the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and you drive on the left side of the road there. This spelled nothing but death trap to me!! Kasey drove like a champ but I was a nervous wreck any time we got into the car. That is until we took a cab ride with an insane cabbie, who was all over the road and had nothing to say whatsoever! After that crazy ride I didn't complain about Kasey's driving again!

We had a great time and are so grateful for the opportunity we had to go see a land that we never thought we'd get a chance to see!