2014 Snapshot

Last year I wrote a post on where we were in life. I thought I would keep the tradition going and do it again at the start of this year. If you are interested in reading last year's post you can find it here.  I haven't gone back to read it yet, I wanted to try to write this year's as free from bias as possible.

In late July we moved into a new house. We absolutely love it. We have a bedroom for each kid, a six foot fence in the backyard (Taylor built along with many friends who gave up their Saturdays to bless us), tons of storage room, and amazing neighbors. We still look at each other at night and say, "we can't believe it's ours and we get to live here!"

This past year Grayson turned two and it is the first time in almost 7 years, we haven't had a baby or been pregnant. It has been so much fun to really enjoy him at this age and not be hanging over a toilet or parenting from the couch.  We thought we would start trying in fall of last year for another baby and then ended up moving, so we pushed it off to Christmas, then Taylor started a new job, now we are hoping to get to 2015 before we have a baby... the plan is to try sometime this year...we'll see.  We are trying to take the next couple of months to gear up for pregnancy which is notoriously tough on me and our family. So worth it, but a tiring time.

Taylor started a new job working at USAA he loves it so far. He just got his series 7 license and is really excited about the many possibilities he will have their. We had to take a pay-cut for him to move their and pairing that with the recent purchase of our house leaves us looking at a very lean year. We are trusting God to provide for us as he always has and are looking at lots of creative budgeting strategies for the year. 

I am loving decorating the house and am trying to take action on all the things I have pinned on pinterest rather than just pinning.  I am learning to be a mom with a child in school. This is a major-change that I didn't anticipate. After 5 years of doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted to, it is quite an adjustment to have to get kids out the door on time and with everything they need.  I want to eat healthier this year, exercise more, be intentional with my time and more present this year.

Katie is in Kindergarten and thriving. She can read amazingly well (proud mom speaking) and she and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books at night together which is something I always dreamed about doing with my daughter. She is creative, passionate, kind and enthusiastic. She just learned to crochet and desperately wants to take gymnastic lessons. She loves helping her brothers though it often comes across as trying to parent them which they don't love.  I found her in her room reading her Bible the other day and it made my heart swell so much.

Levi is my sweet little buddy. He loves Star Wars and dinosaurs. He has a lava lamp in his room that he has on every night. This week he discovered that he has to close his eyes to go to sleep and has been taking 2 hour naps.  He loves movies and would watch them all day if I let him.  He loves having a Mohawk in his hair and spiking it up himself.  He is an introvert and really comes out of his shell in individual interactions.

Grayson keeps us on our toes. He is always exploring and trying to keep up with Katie and Levi. Taylor and I love getting him up in the morning because he is just so cheerful. He is talking like crazy and says the funniest things.  He likes to do things himself. He wants to eat crackers all day and will refuse food I give him. If we push a bite in his mouth he with then realize he likes it and eat a ton. He is tiny! At his latest check-up he was in the 5th and 6th percentile for height and weight. Which is actually up from the 3rd percentile. What he lacks in size he certainly makes up for in personality.

The kids play together pretty well. Some days better than others. We are trying to instill in them that they are best friends and need to take care of each other. 

Oakley is still plugging along. We thought we were going to have to put him down the other day, but it seems he just has arthritis, fatty tumors, and a tummy-ache.

Thanks for hanging in there for this long haul of a life-summary. We are so blessed by God to be living this crazy, lovely life.

Christmas Morning at Home

Presents from Mom and Dad. I made some fun labels the night before and love how they came out.

 The crew ready to get downstairs and be done with Mom taking pictures.

 And they're off!

 I love that you can see the excitement in this picture. The big two were running around like crazy and Grayson was all about the cookies Santa ate.

 Grayson's present.

 Totally recommend this toy. It's big, but is getting played with all the time. Fisher-Price Loops and Swoops Amusement Park.

 Levi and his Big Wheel.

 Doc McStuffins. She had been asking for it for months and then the night before changed her mind and told me she wanted a skateboard???!!!

 Headlamps from Santa were a big hit.

 Santa pancakes for breakfast. The banana nose made Santa look a little "piggish":)

After breakfast we finished baking what we needed to and loaded up to head to the Stejskals...

Christmas Eve at our house

Looking for Santa. Katie came home with a bag of reindeer food to spread for Santa and they were beyond excited.

 Levi is putting the keys under our mat. Santa can magically make any key fit the lock of houses that don't have a fireplace:)

 Milk and cookies out for Santa.

Then off to bed the kiddos went while Mommy and Daddy ran around wrapping gifts, cooking for the next day, and getting everything prepped to leave in the morning.

Christmas Eve with the Walkers

Katie started out the evening by taking some pictures. Quickly cooking some veggies since I mixed up the message that I was supposed to bring them!

 Dad is ready for Christmas.

 And now for the family shots...

 Levi was done with pictures and ready for presents.

 We didn't figure out until later that the camera was focusing on the table.

We went to the candle light Christmas Eve service. Went back to my folks house for dinner. Sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had cake and then opened family gifts up. Then off to our house for Christmas night prep.

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was really fun being in our new house and figuring out where to put everything. We did not have a new baby, a graduation or anything really major going on. We spent the month making snowflakes, watching Christmas movies, putting up our Jesse tree ornaments and celebrating Jesus!

 

Annual pictures before we headed out to look at Christmas lights.

 This picture perfectly captures our goofy family.

 Poor Levi's nose. He face-planted off the swing-set and sported a bit of a Rudolph look through Christmas.

 Pointing at the star! Gray didn't want to wear his matching Jammies that night because he wanted his snowman jammies:)

Levi is 4

Birthdays seem to come so quickly around here. Especially Levi's. Being just one week after Christmas, when everyone is experiencing the Christmas crash is a tough one. I determined to not let his birthday go by without a big party. He has been so excited for months about this. He determined a while back that he wanted a volcano party and we did our best to oblige. It was a really fun day and we had lots of friends come to celebrate this sweet boy.

 

Making his volcano cake.  I realized after I put the cake in the over for 7 minutes I forgot the eggs! I pulled it back out, mixed them in, and thankfully it came out fine!

 Such a classic Levi expression.

 A real smile! I am getting lots of cheesy grins these days.

 Birthday doughnuts! He wore his red shirt and black pants so he would look like a volcano.

 We got him the v-tech switch and go dino he has been wanting and he was so happy!

 Volcano cake.

 Opening gifts early with Grandma and Grandpa Walker. They took Katie back to their house  for the party because she was really sick.

 Excavating Dino bones in the garage. The kids were so excited when they found them! We got a mold set on amazon and made concrete bones.

 Lava decorations. You can see the rope lights under the cloth! My sister helped set up so much. It was such a blessing to have an extra hand to help with everything.

 Dino cookies. Those are supposed to be bones:)

 One more cake shot. The candles were sparklers and I made his name with a glue gun, glitter and toothpicks!

 Shooting off the diet-coke/mentos volcano. The kids faces are all in the window.

 This was Levi's favorite part. It was over pretty quick but we did get some great reactions from the kids.

 Levi was not a fan of the sparklers, but he tried so hard to be polite and not freak out.

 Lots of help with presents as usual at a kid party:)

 

Levi is such a joy to our family. He is kind and empathetic. He always is the first to react to any one in our family being sad. He will run and get Grayson's blanket if he is crying and loves to help Katie. He is the boy that smaller kids attach to and want to play with. He loves them and speaks so kindly and tries to help them out. He gets engrossed in whatever he is doing. Watching a movie, building Lego's, doing a puzzle, throwing a tantrum:)  He is very particular about things, he does not like white puffy foods, like marshmallows, and whipped cream. He has pretty much given up naps. However he is ready for bed by 6:30 on days he doesn't nap.  He is so fast on his balance bike, but not ready for a 2-wheeler yet. He loves having a Mohawk or spiky hair. He is independent and likes his space, but loves to help too. Our lives are all better for having him around us. We love him and can't wait to keep watching him grow.