Valentine's Day photos

Valentine's Day seemed as good an excuse as any to schedule long-overdue photos for the kiddos. (And I'm posting all of my favorites because I can.  Also so that my mom and Marsha can tell me which ones they want me to print for them.)

Ben was an absolute turd during this photo shoot, which is why I'm amazed these pictures turned out as good as they did.  I will have to Photoshop that sucker out of his hand when I order prints for the wall, though. 

Here's our little GQ junior model... 

Seriously, how could anyone stay mad at that face?

 And here's Miss Kaiya!  She is growing up WAY too fast for my liking.

This one is my favorite!

So... once Ben finally cheered up, Kaiya acted up, and our attempts at getting a decent sibling photo were kinda' thwarted...

This one will have to do :)

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve

We attempted to teach the Walker grandkids the nativity story by having them act it out.  Ben was uncooperative and the costumes need some work (my fault), but the kids were pretty cute nonetheless.

 Ben cheered up when he got to play with this super friendly golden retriever puppy that my in-laws were babysitting/hiding (he was to be a Christmas surprise for some friends).  What is it about this breed that is so stinkin' cute!?  

 Kaiya decorated some cookies for Santa by emptying two jars of sprinkles.

Christmas Day 

Since we video taped the whole procession, we neglected to take too many pictures Christmas morning.  But here are a couple shots of the magic.  Among other things, Santa gave Kaiya a puppy... as real a puppy as she'll ever get, anyway :) 

 Santa also brought Ben his own little car which he's been driving around the basement for three days (alongside Kaiya on her new birthday bike).  We have about 16" of snow outside, so we just might keep all the new outside toys downstairs 'til spring.

 Santa immediately regretted giving both kids harmonicas in their stockings.  It sounds like Alcatraz up in here.

Kaiya is FOUR!!

Kaiya wanted a Barbie birthday this year, and I spent way too long making this box for all the little guests to pose in for pictures.  It was broken within five minutes. This is the only picture I have and the box is already in shambles. Oh well. 

My camera was out of whack so I only have a couple pictures worth sharing...  Here's the birthday girl on her new big girl bike....

Luckily, I managed to get a photo of the pretty cake.  It turned out perfectly and I still feel super guilty about pawning off this huge task on my big sister.  Thanks Laurel!!

Remember Halloween?

Our little Cowardly Lion and Dorothy rocked the trick-or-treating this year. 

and... the hood remained off the rest of the night

 And for some reason, I'm including this random picture of three kids "helping" me make bread :)

Benjamin is TWO!

Ben is obsessed with Disney's Cars and Thomas the Tank Engine, so after looking at some ideas online (and not wanting to compete with this), I decided on a Cars themed birthday party this year.  It turned out pretty cute and was surprisingly easy to put together.  I am a little proud of the invitation.

Alicia and Blaine couldn't make it to the party, so they came to visit earlier in the day to deliver Ben's gift.  He is pretty excited to have his own Thomas, but not nearly as excited as Jake was while giving it to him. It was like he was initiating him into his club. The whole scene was seriously adorable.

 Ben was moving around so fast during the party that most of my pictures are blurry or just plain awkward.  But the food table held still :)

 Here's one of several shots of Ben getting plenty of "help" opening gifts from his cousins.

Brad and I gave him a train table for his room (we were kind of sick of tripping over the tracks he puts together around the house) and it is a total hit.  I love this picture of all the kids getting in on the action.  Kaiya helped me put it together and was so proud to help us carry it up the stairs for the reveal.

Laurel and Alicia did most of the work on this racetrack cake.  It turned out SO well and only looked like boobs a little bit :)

I can't believe how old Ben is looking and acting. He's talking so well and tries so hard to be one of the big kids. He remains a total sweetheart and I don't know what we'd do without him.  Happy birthday little man!!

Long Time, No Write

I have neglected this blog for far too long.  Sorry 'bout that.

The last couple months have been busy. Good busy.

School began in August for Kaiya and me.  My job is the same crazy, exhausting, loud, sometimes embarrassing song and dance it always was.  I love teaching.  I don't love grading and parents and the occasional inappropriate haiku read aloud in Creative Writing, but I love teaching.

Little Miss Kaiya is going to preschool two days a week and loving it. And I love picking her up and hearing about who played with whom and the entire plot line of the story book "Miss Amy" read that day.  She is so excited to be learning her letters and it's cute to see how proud she is when she recognizes them.  She's obsessed with rhymes and always asks me which words rhyme with which.  We may have a little poet in the making :)  She also brings home the cutest little projects; it's hard to determine which Elmer's glue/sparkles/construction paper gems to hold on to, especially considering that we still have a whole other year (or 15 years) of this.

Once school was a few weeks underway, Brad and I took advantage of a freeish trip offer to Cancun. (Brad is a stud and makes friends with the right people, I guess!) It was kind of bad timing, but we couldn't refuse. We invited Brad's parents and ended up spending a week at a posh resort and touring four nearby Mayan ruins: Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, Tulum, and Coba. The trip was absolutely amazing and I ought to write about each sight in more detail but it would take way too long. Hopefully this slideshow will suffice...

We booked our tours with LDS guides and it was well worth it. It really is fascinating to compare Book of Mormon stories to Mayan legends/ceremonies. Again, I should be giving discussion of this vacation more time and effort. Oh well.

Hmm... what else? We spent an evening in Payson Canyon a couple weeks ago to see the pretty leaves changing colors.

These two (Tahsha and Kyle) got married last week...

accompanied by these two...

We couldn't be happier for the whole Wilson family.  Kyle has been like a brother to Brad for over twenty years and it's so good to see him happy.  And Tahsha is a freakin' rock star, by the way. 

And here's a random shot of Ben sleeping in his favorite place. Under his bed. It totally freaked us out the first time we couldn't find him at midnight.