Waterbaby

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Happy New Year!

2011 is here.  While I thoroughly enjoyed 2010, I love the notion of a new year, a new start, looking at potential, setting goals, and evaluating past failures and celebrating the success.  It is all very refreshing for me.  And while sometimes I think my goals are unrealistic (i.e. how a new shelf or decision will change my whole life, like this is the one thing I have been missing), I do like to think any goal can be a catalyst for change, large or small.  Now I must figure out the path, plan the steps, prepare for obstacles and set forth.  Each year I strive to be a better person than I was the year before.  And although I may stumble at times (and yell at my husband for not putting his things away), I will get up and keep moving forward.

So 2011, you are going to be even better than 2010.  We are going to laugh more, love more, enjoy what we have more, be thankful for the people in our lives, smile often, sing loudly (when no one is listening), and help others. Every year forward is made to be as good or better than the last.  This is my goal (along with a few of the other less than altruistic ones).  Happy New Year!

Taking cues from Ferris Bueller

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."  Ferris Bueller

This line has been rattling around in my head for a few days weeks months (?!?!).  Some how the following has happened:

• Braden is 8 months old
• We have lived in California for 5 years
• Doug and I are married almost 5 years
• Zachary is no longer a "baby" boy, barely a "little" boy, almost just boy.
• My hair is brown
• 2010 is almost gone (but thankfully we are entering some of the best months!)

I am not sure how most of this happened.  I still feel like I "just" had a baby ( I also feel like I should have a good excuse for carrying the baby weight).  Yet my baby is crawling, laughing, clapping, growing, getting teeth and being overall the best darn baby he can possibly be.  And he is 8 (EIGHT!!!) months old.  Just to prove how great he is, here are some pictures.

 He currently has 2 teeth and is working on possibly 4 more.  Yet he is pretty pleasant about the whole thing. 

And Zachary is keeping busy too.  He is attending pre-school 3 days a week, swim class 2 days a week and pretending he is Dino Dan, Pablo, a Blue Power Ranger or Spiderman every other minute of the day.  The imagination of a 3.5 year old is so much fun to witness.  We are often fending off dinosaurs (Spinosaurus', T-Rex, Tricerotops, Pteradactyl, Pterosaurs, Brachiasaurus' and a few others that he knows and I can't even remember right now), making "rad moves"on our surf boards, snowboarding the himalayas, riding horses on the range, "going to jail", or hiding from ghosts and monsters.  There is a lot of laughter in this house, as Zach likes to say, "We are funny!". 

Since we can't slow things down maybe we can at least take some time to appreciate how great everything is for this Walker Family and take some time to add it to this blog so we remember it all. 

Time flies when you are having fun and we are definately having a lot of fun.
Life is good.
 

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  It was just us Walker's this year.  We went to a festival at our favorite babysitter's church, then went door to door in the neighborhood and spent the remainder of the evening passing out candy. 

Some highlights were Zach playing games at the festival and passing out candy later on.  "Hey Kids, we have candy", "Come over here guys", "Hey, guys, come over here, we have candy"

This was how Zachary called the trick or treaters to our door as he ran up and down the sidewalk.

Here is a video of Zach "Boom-Tackling" on the jolly jump.

Silly Hat Parade

Zachary's pre-school held a "Silly Hat Parade" instead of Halloween Costume parade.  We went to the school, helped him design a hat, then cheered during the parade.  It is always fun to see Zach in his school environment.  I secretly wish it was a Halloween Costume parade but this was still fun to do with him.

Zachary's Big Debut

Here is Zachary's big debut!
Despite his practicing for weeks, he didn't sing a single word of the song.
But he looked cute and we are still very proud!

Bueller? Bueller?

Umm...hello...anyone out there?  I have lots of great things to share about Zach and Brady but I have not had the energy at the end of the day to share it all on the blog.  I keep thinking I only want to do the blog if I can do it perfectly, but that is not realistic for this time in my life.  So my perfect is now going to be measured on the perfectly acceptable scale.

So the answer to the eternal question are two kids more to handle than just one......YES, YES and YES.  I crash hard after they go to bed, (ahhh bedtime!).....for two or three minutes that I get back up and start doing housework.  I don't think I was fully prepared for the amount of work is involved when you have three other people in your life who you are taking care of.  And the Laundry: WHAT!  and then you have to put it all away!  That, my friend, is the worst part of laundry.  Sometimes it all just feels like Groundhogs day.  Do all the work, then wake up the next day and start it all over again the next day.  BUT I wouldn't have it any other way.  Just maybe add a few more closets....and a maid.  And Wha-Lah! 

But two is even more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.  These two boys make me laugh and smile everyday.  Even when I am not with them, I think about them, then laugh and smile.  They are wonderful.  I love so many things in my life, but I think one of the things that tops the list is being the mother of two little boys.