Easter Fun....

This year Easter was a little more low key.  It was nice and sad at the same time.  I LOVE holidays and its always so much more fun when the whole family is together, whether its Brandons side or my side.  Always better when everyones together.  (Reminds me of that Jack Johnson song hahah)  Needless to say it was still fun!  Luckily Grandma Judy had a Easter dinner and Egg hunt Saturday night before, which got us all in the Easter spirit! She is Brandons step-grandma and she is so wonderful to us.  It was mainly her side of the family so it was fun to get to know all of them and there were little kids there that Walker got to play with...... So of course that was fun! Sunday we went to church and went over to Brandons parents house for dinner.  His little sister Jenna was down from BYU Idaho so its always fun to see her.  We hung out and ate and just relaxed! I was in charge of deviled eggs, so thanks to pinterest I was able to bring them over very festive like! They were fun to make and looked way cuter than the normal deviled eggs....

Yum! festive right?!?!

Walker with Auntie Jenna

Great Gpa and Gpa and Walker at Easter party!!

let the hunt begin

Walkers pal, Gus man

This picture is hilarious to me!!

He LOVES when Daddy does this to him

LOVE

Walker with GiGi

Brandons step cousin Kassey and her little man Gus

YAY for Easter baskets one from us one from Grammie and Grampie

He loved the swim suit Grammie and grampie got him :)

still early for much expression.....

and of course he likes the cheap stuff :)

Walker dances and dances all day. so in church during the hymns he does this with his hands hahahaha

Grandpa Cal, GiGi, and Auntie Jenna

Walker is Walking!!!!!!!

Two Fridays ago Walker took his first steps!!!!!!  It was actually the night of Kostyns birthday party (March 23rd to be exact).  Couldn't be more perfect right?!?!  He was two hours past bedtime and was actually doing great.  We just didn't want to leave (we were those people hahaha) He was playing with all the kids and all of us adults were sitting on the floor talking in the mix of all them playing and all of a sudden........... Walker just took off.  We all screamed and I wanted to cry I was so happy.  It was the cutest thing and he knew it too.  He still loves his crawling, but he can walk.  We will see how long it takes him to just stick to walking haha. I love him so much and was so excited he did that in front of some of our favorite people! Go Bubba Go!!!!

Here are two videos.... The first night and a couple days later before my parents left. SO happy they were here to see it all in action.

                                            

Surprises and Fun!!

We had such a fun weekend a couple weekends ago.  My parents were planning on coming up for my birthday.  Just a short little trip, but we always look forward to them being here with us and watching all of Walkers new tricks.  Whether we go go go or just sit and do nothing we love having them! Well March is craziness in this family.  SO many birthdays! My niece, Kostyn, her 1st birthday was on the 21st of March.  So I kept trying to tell Kelsey to get on a plane and get out here so we can celebrate.  Her whole family was here, including her husband.  Knowing her too well I knew that wasn't going to fly.  So I would call her with all these bright ideas of someway to get her and her girls out here.  Little did I know she was planning on coming the whole time and I might say she did a dang good job hiding it and keeping me guessing.  I LOVE surprises more than anything, but for some reason I am hard to surprise and I always try to find out all the deets.  I'm too "planned" to let surprises happen.  haha but considering what she had to work with she did a good job!  I was changing Walkers diaper upstairs and heard our house alarm go off......  I started to panic and then......... I KNEW IT!!! nothing like a surprise visit from your bestie! So we had a fun day shopping and going to lunch and getting things ready for Kostyns party!

Yes Walker was happy....he isn't the biggest fan of dogs and the little kiddos were playing with one... haha

She is a DOLL!!!!! We love her so much, her loud voice and her big huge smile....we just want to eat her up! Not to mention watching her and Walker play together is the cutest! Happy Birthday Kostyn! xo

Saturday my parents flew in and we met Brandon for lunch, my mom got her routinely facial in Provo, and they offered to watch Walker while we went to a movie with Cory and Kelsey.  It doesn't happen very often when we can get a sitter for all the kids so we jumped on that! We saw Hunger games.  I never read the books, but let me tell you....... I AM OBSESSED with the movie.  I want to read the next two. I couldn't believe it in the beginning.  I couldn't wrap my head around how this book/movie could be "good" the concept of it all was making me so angry, sad, and sick to my stomach.  But it got me and I am now a Hunger Games junkie.  Let the reading begin (I am not a reader, wish me luck)
Sunday we went to the park and celebrated my Birthday and Grandma Judy's Birthday! They are two days apart so it worked out great.  My mom made a yummy heath bar cake and we had a good time hanging out with family!

they are the best of buds.....melts my heart

HAD to take a pic of our tickets..... duh. SO hungry for these games!

Grammie and Walker

studly duders

One Year Pics/Mommy and Me

I caved and I did it.... I wanted to get his pictures done, but after his parties brandon said "enough babe" (haha don't blame him) He ended up doing a side job for a girl we know who just started doing photography.  He did her backsplash in her kitchen (which looks amazing if I say so myself) and I asked him to see if she would trade for pictures.  She bought her studio from Giovannalou, the same girl that did Walkers newborns.  We loved those and if she got trained form her then she must be great.  I have seen a couple people do Mommy and me and they inspired me to do some with him... I didn't want to take away from the stud muffin he is, but I am glad I took some with him.  We ended up doing them a month after his birthday, but WHO CARES right? We LOVE them and thought she did an amazing job!  She had so many good props and back drops it was hard to choose.... I can't believe how old he looks and I love that all his fun "expressions" are in each picture.  He is the coolest! 

Thanks Jordyn! (JordynAshleephotography.blogspot.com)

Love the chair 

She sold me on this indian backdrop and I LOVE it

I may say this is my favorite, but I really cannot decide

This one is a close second.....that face is totally HIM

Such a fun day and for the most part he did AWESOME!!! very different from his newborn shoot..haha

3 Years Down......

Brandon and I had our 3 year Anniversary yesterday.  I can't believe it has been THREE years!  Crazy.... and now we have the coolest little dude in our lives.  Anyway, We decided to lay low for the upcoming events we have/had (Valentines Day, Anniversary, my birthday, and Brandons birthday) because of our trip to NYC in May! We CANNOT wait for our little getaway in a month and a half.  Much needed and well overdo for a trip with just us two.  So yesterday we went to The Awful Waffle in Provo for Breakfast, we love it there, SO yummy! After breakfast Brandon went to work and I ran around doing a million errands as usual.  I never really know what I did at the the end of the day but I sure was busy....hmmmm. Brandon was so cute yesterday, (let me brag for a minute) we made each other a card and his was too cute......He also,  at every hour on the hour sent me a text of a fun/exciting memory we have had in the past three years.  I loved reading them throughout the day... Nighttime came around and we had a friend watch Walker while we went to Blue Lemon for dinner and a cute little place in Provo called Communal for dessert.  I had been to both places, but Brandon has never been so it was really fun.  And delicious :) It has been a crazy/fun three years getting to know one another, moving three times, having a baby, dealing with Brandons crazy school/work schedule and just life in general.  I wouldn't trade it for anything and one day this will all be a huge blessing to us and a learning experience...I love Brandon so much and appreciate the hard work, dedication, sleepless nights, and busy schedule to provide for us.  Whata guy :) Happy Anniversary to us XO

Cheers to THREE years! (our favorite drink Dr. Pepper and perfect ice) crazy kids :)

 Brandons card he made me... Chevron? he knows me too well :)
And my card I made him..... He is a little better at photoshop then me haha

Walker is ONE!!!!!

I am so on it!!! FOUR BIG blog posts in a week! I am so proud of myself! Now after this one I will be all caught up! What a good feeling.  So the babe turned ONE!!!! holy smokes..... I can't believe it. When people say it goes fast they aint kidding :).  It really is such a happy, sad, fun, and exciting time.  The day of his birthday (I hate to admit this, but I am) I was a little bit of a train wreck.  I nursed him up until the night of his birthday and I felt like that was good enough and a big accomplishment considering what I went through for the first 6 or 7 months of nursing.  I didn't think I would be that sad about it.   Thinking about it now I am NOT sad or miss nursing.  I thought I would.  I feel so FREE now haha.  Having your first you are kinda lazy and can just hang out and feed your baby.  I can't imagine going that long with my second, third ....... You can't just do whatever you want and lay around with your kid, you have other ones to worry about, But who knows :)  What I was most sad/emotional about was the fact that I will never have a first do "first" things ever again and that made me sad.  The first time watching your baby do...well, ANYTHING was so exciting and so cool.  Because its new for them and new for you!  I know it will be fun for the next but just not the same with your very FIRST BABY!! Anyway enough of the depressing stuff Walker is super cool!!! I am OBSESSED!!! over and over again.  He is my little buddy and I love it.  I love taking him places, shopping with him, playing at home, and most of all watching his cute personality come out more and more each day. He is SOOO funny.  Cracks me and Brandon up all the time.  He definitely is a little goofy like his parents and we love it!  He says "hi" (while waving) he says all gone/done, when you say nigh nigh he waves, he pulls himself up and walks along everything and anything, talks talks talks, crawls like a maniac, has 8 teeth, always has a concerned look lol, scrunches his nose and breaths really hard hahaha, eats pretty well, still drinks his bottle morning and night, takes two 1.5 hour naps a day, sleeps about 12 hours a night, loves facing forward now in the car, doesn't care much about his toys just wants to play with the tupperware drawer all day long, and LOVES sweets just like his mama.  That pretty much sums him up! He is awesome! (Brag moment) :)

So, Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family growing up! Both of my brothers had big parties for their daughters first birthday.  I didn't really think we would especially living far away from most of our family.  And definitely not as many people as they did (were not that popular) haha Well when it came down to it Walker was spoiled, We had two parties for him, one at our house in Springville, UT with Brandon's family and some friends and one at my parents house in California with my side of the family,  family friends that we have known forever and of course some of our greatest friends. It was a lot of time spent and a lot of creativity needed to come out of me, but needless to say it was SO FUN planning and it definitely kept me busy (which I LOVE)  I know he is only one and has no idea what the crap is going on, but it was fun anyways and I am glad we did what we did! I went to my friends baby shower in August and it was pirate theme.  It was darling and perfect!  So I copied her and did the same for his birthday party!  It was an easy theme and I found too many fun things to do!  Brandon and myself are learning Photoshop so we made everything on there....His invite, food tags, favor tags, thank you cards, signs, his months banner, etc. I would love to get really good/faster at it and have it be a little side job from home for some extra cash money :) we will see! We had so much help from Brandons mom, my mom, some friends, and some family..... we appreciated it SO much!! The only regret form his birthday that I do have is I didn't take many pictures with Walker and his party guests :( I am usually so good at that too....It is still bugging me!! BUT I do have lots of pictures so here ya go.........

Yummy cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy (my fave)

Our friend Sharlan works there and made his cake, we love

Brandons Grandma Judy.....we love her

Brandons parents (Walkers Grandpa and GiGi)

He wasn't too sure

this is about how messy he got......boring

present time

YAY!!!! a new car seat!!! haha poor kid (good thing he doesn't know)

Brandons parents got Walker a fun swing set for the backyard

his cute little friends

California Party (hence the outside ness)

we made his very own water bottle wrappers :)

I crave cake pops probably everyday!! their a little time consuming but they are GOOOOD!!!

My mom makes the babes their cake every year.... he LOVED it

I just had to because it is just too cute ( Sharlan made this one too)

treat table

favors...... so fun to make, rice krispie pirate heads on a stick

Love these girls....ALL of them and miss them terribly

These cool cats live in SF now and they DROVE down for the weekend, we LOVED it!

cake time round TWO

hahahaha that face

Harlee was so cute and wanted to help and watch

so full but couldn't stop

pit stop, drink time

LOVE him

Our niece Logan and our niece Harlee playing in the pool

his invite we made....i put two per page for printing and now i cant figure out how to just have one. haha so heres two of the same thing lol

my parents with Walker :)