I'm so grateful for...

Just the other night Jake and I were watching Sportscenter (the standard at our house) and the news story came on about Andrew Bogut and his contract he just signed for something crazy like $80 million dollars! $80 million dollars - hello?! Just signing that knowing that you are "set for life". So I started asking Jake what is the first thing he would do once he signed the contract and left the building? As I was knitting a blanket I was telling him that I would buy new cars (a white Range Rover), pay off mine and Jake's families homes, buy them cars, take them on trips, buy a new house "not a huge one but like 9000 sq feet" (hello that is HUGE), buy a vacation home in Newport, a loft in NYC, hire a nanny for a few hours a day, put some in savings, and of course SHOP, SHOP, SHOP!! Jake just looked at me and said "pay your tithing." After I listed a few more items he said in a nice way"stop talking about that, be grateful for what we have." How grateful I am for Jake and his ways of thinking. After he said that I have been thinking about it all week. I know that there is like a .0001% chance that either Jake or I would sign any contracts for $80 million dollars. It is fun to dream, but I really need to be grateful for what I have in my life right now. I am so lucky to have a home, family, a car, a job, food in the fridge, and the gospel in my life. I find myself complaining about what I "don't have" and dreaming of all the things I want in the future. I decided that each day I am going to write down 2 items that I am grateful for. So today Sunday July 13 I am grateful for: Extended Family: I love getting together on Sunday's with family to enjoy dinner and hang out with everyone. I am so lucky to have them so close. Walker has the best time crawling around trying to keep up with all the kiddos that can walk. My House: I love living in Sugarhouse. Most of the time I am complaining about how small it is or the fact that I don't have a pantry - but I really need to realize that as times in the world get harder for everyone I am so lucky to even have a house. I am sure everyone has heard this great quote from Sister Hinckley, but it is one I think of often when I get in these "ruts" of "I wish I had this, or why can't I have that"- "I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley I am trying to remind myself everyday how lucky I am and I don't need $80 million dollars to make my life great!

4th of July!

I love the 4th of July! I always look forward to it every year. Usually we have a BBQ in our yard and enjoy watching the fireworks that Sugar House park puts on , but this year it just didn't work out for most of the party so no BBQ- But we still had a great day!

We started off with a parade in our neighborhood. We decorated Walker's wagon and took him out for the ride. He enjoyed it - but we didn't last too long because it was his nap time. It was still fun to see all the kids in our neighborhood and all their decorated bikes.

We enjoyed a realxing day together as a family and then met up with Dan, Mare and Dottie for dinner. After dinner we put Walker down for the night and played the family favorite "Scrabble" with Dan and Mare and waited for the fireworks. At 10:00 we enjoyed the fireworks - Sugarhouse Park does a great job. They had a whole 20 minutes of fireworks! We love watching the fireworks from our yard because there are not any huge trees back there so you have a perfect view of them. Around 9:30 a lot of the neighbors come and "set up" their chairs in our yard to see the fireworks. We don't mind - they have been doing it for years now and that tradition kinda came with the home. We had a great relaxing day and look forward to more fireworks on the 24th.

He never looks at the camera - he is so funny!

Anyone up for fireworks on the 24th - you know where we will be:)

Enjoying the summer weather!

Oh - are you just loving the summer weather or what! Took long enough to get here! I love watching the news and seeing the 7 day forcast - 90 and above all week! Jake isn't too fond of it because it is killing our lawn. But we sure do enjoy being out in it. Here are a few pictures of enjoying the sun! Hope ya'll are doing the same!

I took Walker to Lagoon - first time! I put him on a kiddie ride and he hated it! Thanks to Ellie for sitting with him and holding on. Poor guy. At least he liked the train!! Thanks Alder's for the invite to Lagoon day - we really enjoyed it! I forgot how much I really like Lagoon. I came home and told Jake that we need to go and ride the new rides. Anyone in?

"I'd prefer sitting in the stroller and eating a sucker" No more rides for him!

We decided to do a "pool party" for the kiddos. I got together with some of my friends and we set up the kiddie pool and the slide and let them go to town. They loved it! Ashton loves the slide!

Walker loves that little pool. I highly recommend getting one. He could stay in there all day. I don't mind getting a tan while he is enjoying the water!

And finally - a little visitor from the North Pole came to our neighborhood this week. We pulled into our drive way and our neighbor was out side with her camera and said there was a deer walking down our street. We followed it and got this picture in our neighbors yard. It finally ended up crossing the street to the golf course - stay safe buddy!

One Year Pictures

I was SO excited to get Walker's pictures done. I scheduled the appointment way back in March. I went to this great photographer in Lehi, Skye Johansen. She specializes in babies and kids. She is the best! Here are a few of the pictures we got back. We think he is one handsome guy:) I was so worried all week because Walker was getting a moler and he was so sad. I was hoping he would just smile for the 45 minutes we were there - and HE DID. I was really grateful for that. She has the cutest props (mostly for girls) but there are a lot of really cute things for boys too! She had me bring a cake to have him eat at the end.

I wanted to post a few pictures of when he was born. It is so crazy how they change so fast.

Look how tiny he was. This was his first day home.

He was in the NICU for the first few days - he was so tiny! I remember going in there to feed him and just being so excited that he was ours:)

This was right after he was born! He is so cute:)

Happy Birthday Walker!

I can hardly believe our little guy is officially ONE YEAR OLD! Time went by so fast! I remember right after he was born saying "I wonder what it is going to be like when he is one?" Well here we are - he is so much fun and I love every day I spend with him. His birthday was Sunday June 8. We had a great birthday party for him - baseball themed. We had Big League Chew, Cracker Jacks, baseball cupcakes, mini bags of potato chips, hotdogs and hamburgers. The invites were so cute! Thanks to Kim for putting my idea to paper! The invites looked like a baseball ticket- they were really fun! It turned out so great! We spend most of Saturday getting ready making the cake, cupcakes and getting our house and yard in order. Thanks to Jake for all of his hard work in the yard. We enjoyed the time with friends and family. Here are some pictures from the party Thanks Jackson and Annie for helping open Walker's presents. He didn't really care to do it:) He was so lucky and got some of the best gifts! Thanks so much to everyone who spoils him. Some of the things he got were a wagon, swing for the tree, baby instrument set, Jazz PJ's, a magnet board (that Morgan made) with those cute Leap Frog animals and letters to play with, a basketball hoop, fun books, these really cool markers for tiny kids, and this great kids place mat you take with you to resturants. I was so excited for that! Here he is eating the cake. He would lightly touch it and eat the frosting. He put some in the back of his hair - I was hoping for more of a mess, but he wasn't really into it.

The cake! I am pretty proud of it! I made it all by myself!! It took some time, but I was really pleased with the outcome! I really didn't take that many pictures - sorry. I was too involved in making sure the party went great. One major highlight was the kiddie pool. Well, it was really to hold all the drinks, but the little kiddos LOVED it. They had more fun playing in the ice cold water than anything!! Muranda's little boy, Ashton, kept making the sign for "bath" because he wanted to get in. He was already soaked from head to toe! My little sisters boy, Boston, kept picking up the drinks and throwing them back in and all the kids standing around would laugh! It was so funy. Thanks for everyone who came. It really turned out great!

Here are a few fun facts about Walker at One Year Old:

- he LOVES being outside. Either on a wagon ride, stroller ride, or playing in the dirt.

- He loves fishes and birds. He makes sounds for them when you ask him where they are. Fish = shhhhh and bird = bbbbb.

-He is really ticklish under his arms and on his belly. When Jake gets him ready for a bath and he takes off his onesie he immediatly starts laughing before Jake even gets to his arms - he knows that he is going to get tickled.

- He eats pretty much anything - even though 99% of his food ends up on the floor. I say "no Walker we don't do that" and he looks at me, picks up the food, and throws it on the floor all while he is still looking at me. Jake and I seriously laugh and we try to have straight faces but it is way too hard.

- He LOVES dogs. We don't even have a dog but anytime he see's one he gets all excited and can hardly sit still.

- He waves bye bye - and it is SO cute. He open and shuts his hand. The other day he was outside sitting in the dirt and he was waving at the neighbor and we didn't even know it.

- He likes Watermelon.

We love you so much buddy and don't even know what we would do if you weren't in our lives! You bring so much joy to our house and we are so excited to get you up every morning. Mommy and Daddy love you tons and tons!

What we have been up to lately...

We were able to go on a hike with the Young Men and Young Women from our ward. They are all going on trek this summer so they were getting prepared by hiking. We went to "The Overlook" up Milcreek Canyon. This was Walker's first official hike! Thanks to Jake for carrying him in the backpack the whole way! (thanks Mur and Adam for letting us borrow the pack) The hike was 2 miles each way. When we got to the bottom of the hike we enjoyed breakfast with everyone. Walker did really well! He was sad a little bit on the way down (nap time) but over all he really enjoyed it! This is his new smile - sometimes he won't show his teeth. Cute buddy! Here is what we say at the top of the hike - it overlooks the Salt Lake valley. It was really pretty. I have a crappy camera and I think the picture looks pretty cool. We have been working in our yard a lot lately. Thanks to Jake and his mad skills - I usually just sit and watch or take care of Walker. Walker LOVES to be outside and "helping" daddy when he can. He loves the dirt - we caught him eating some the other day. Oh well - boys will be boys! On Friday Walker got his first haircut! He actually wasn't too sad about it, but the picture kinda looks like it. He wore the shall thing the whole time and didn't even cry! Thanks Ashli for cutting his hair! It really needed it.He loves to play! He has grown so much in the last few weeks! He plays with all his toys by himself, gets into the "toy cabinet" and gets out all his toys. He has finally figured out how to push the button by himself on the ball popping toy. He makes me laugh every day. He is starting to pull up on things and he is crawling like a maniac!

Aprons!

So here they are... the aprons that my mom and I made for Mother's Day gifts. Thanks a BUNCH to my mom for all of her hard work. She is the MASTER sewer and I am her trainee! It was so much fun buying all the fabric and seeing the vision come together. I am planning on selling these - once I can get all the fabric together. They are really fun to wear and make great gifts! If anyone is interested I can make them to your liking - color and fabric pattern. I haven't fully decided on a price yet - I am still researching what the average price aprons are selling for, but I am thinkng somewhere in the neighborhood of $35.00 each?? I seem to always end up loving the most expensive fabrics.

Park City

We headed up to Park City last weekend with my family for some well needed R & R. Thanks to Whitney and Tony for getting the condo and letting us stay up there with them. We had a great time playing the Wii, shopping, swimming, golfing, eating, and enjoying everyone's company. On Saturday morning the guys went golfing at Wasatch Golf Course. While they were there, Marc, my brother-in-law hit a hole in one! Nice work Marc! Jake was so excited for him! Thanks for the good times in Park City!

I couldn't get him to look at me - but he was loving the shallow part of the pool! We took Walker swimming for the first time and he loved it!

Tony, Mike, Marc and Jake after Marc hit the hole in one.

Look for his name in the paper on Sunday:) Nice work Marc.

And he's off...

FINALLY - Walker is crawling! We are so proud of him! He has been trying for a few weeks and he finally picked it up the other day! He is all over the place now, but I love it! Good work Buddy! Lets start walking! just kidding!

We {heart} the Jazz!! Part 2

Oh man! Thanks to a call from Jake's uncle (THANKS BRAD!!) we were able to go to the Jazz-Rockets game 6! WHAT A GAME! We were able to sit in some great seats in the lower bowl and it is a whole different ball game down there! I proudly wore my D-Will jersey, even though for a few days there I was thinking it was the "curse jersey" and I should stop wearing it but after his round of 3's in the 3rd quarter I think the curse was gone. Thanks Meg and Jake for taking Walkie! We really appreicate it!

Here are some highlights from the game:

- Beating T-Mac! The best sign I saw all series was "2nd round virgin"

- Wearing my D-Will Jersey

- Seeing D-Will get pumped up after a great 3rd quarter. I love it when the players get so involved with the crowd.

- watching a conversation between Masha and Andrei Kirilenko. At the end of the 4th we saw her in the crowd talking long distance to Andrei on the bench. We tried to make out what they were saying, but I think they must have been talking in their native tounge:)

- OOO I loved getting the thunder sticks - those things can make some noise (I would like to apoligize to the man in front of me in the Boozer jersey - i hit him on the head with the thunder stick) Sorry!

- I love reading the signs. People are CREATIVE!

- I love seeing people come dressed up. There are a lot of fans who have the old old school stuff. That is SWEET! We saw a guy in a full on rip away outfit that was the old gold and green. NICE! (ok everyone BUT Larry Miller can dress up - wow)

- Last but not least - the WIN! Bring on L.A. (ok even though we lost yesterday - it was still a pretty good game)

The sad part - I went to buy tickets today for Friday's game - $80.00 for 16 row of the UPPER BOWL! thanks, but no thanks! Party at our house Friday 7:00!

One last thought - is it wierd if I wear my jersey to church on Sunday! just kidding!