Malea's 1st Birthday!

On February 12th, 2008, Malea Mary Walker was born in to the world at 11:36 am. Little did anyone know that the world would never be the same! :) When I was pregnant with Malea, everyone told me to enjoy every minute of it because it goes by so fast. I had no idea how fast until I had her! I can't believe it has already been a year! Malea has been such a joy in our family. It has been so fun to see her personality slowly come forth with each new day. Malea is extremely active and has always been very inquisitive. She is very social and is not afraid to make new friends. She is also very independent. Although being a mother definitely has its challenges, it has been the most rewarding experience of my life. I am so happy to have Malea in my life!

For her 1st birthday we had family and friends over for a "Princess" party. I dressed Malea up in an adorable 1st Birthday outfit with a tutu. She wasn't sure what was going on when all the people came and all the attention was on her. We opened presents (which she got lots of so thanks everyone!) and she got her own cake. Much to my surprise, she was very danty about the cake - she wouldn't touch it at first and then slowly started sticking her finger in to eat the frosting. You can tell that I have been drilling it in her head for the last year not to play with her food! Eventually she started shoveling just the frosting in to her mouth. It was so funny!

As part of her gift, I made a little DVD with a slide show of pictures from the last year. If I can figure it out, I will try and post it on here. I got so emotional as I went through pictures of the last year. I can't believe how fast she has grown! It was a really fun project. I'm going to try and do that with all my kids' first birthdays.

Here are some fun pictures from the party:

Family Picture

Our latest family picture (Thanksgiving 2008)

Summer Fun

Malea's first summer was so much fun! This picture on the right is of Malea at her first Art City Days parade (a family tradition). She loved watching all the floats and people go by. After the parade, we walked around the carnival with the family and the grandkids went on rides (Malea was too young of course....maybe next year). We couldn't finish out the day without a snow cone and the Art City Days carnival famous scones. It was a fun day!!



We also had a blast on the 4th of July! We were brave and set off for the Freedom Festival parade in Provo. We had so much fun, and Malea did really well. After the parade, we came home for a little while and then had a picnic up the canyon that afternoon. Because of Malea's bedtime, we weren't able to go to any fireworks shows, but we did definitely hear them that night! I'm surprised Malea slept through it.

Malea with mommy & daddy at the parade!!

Our Pride & Joy

Here is a video of our sweet Malea. I love this video! She was trying to talk to us, and it was the most adorable thing ever! We love you Malea!!

Texas Trip

In May of this year, the whole Walker family took a trip down to Houston, Texas for Keith's cousin Tessa's wedding. It was the first time I had been to Texas, and Malea's first plane ride. I was nervous about how she was going to do on the trip, considering she was only about 3 months old at the time, but she did great. We attended the wedding festivities and got to spend time with Keith's Grandma and Grandpa Walker. I had only met them one other time, so it was fun to see them again. Here is a picture of Great Grandma & Grandpa Walker holding Malea for the first time at their home in Spring, TX.


Here is a picture of us at the reception. The resort was very nice, and the food was delicious. It was fun to spend time with the Walker side of the family, as we are not able to see them very often. There was a DJ and everyone danced afterwards. It was a blast!



After all the wedding festivities, Keith & I decided to take advantage of being so close to the Gulf Coast and took a day trip down to Galveston. The unfortunate thing this that we toured places that now have been destroyed by a hurricane. It was so bizarre watching the news just a few months later only to see that gift shops we bought souvenirs at ripped to shreds.

Malea Mary Walker

We were so happy to have Malea become a member of our family. It was definitely an adjustment at first, but totally worth it. I feel like I really found my purpose in life when she was born. I just couldn't stop staring at her. There is nothing like holding a newborn baby in your arms and knowing that you had a hand in creating him or her.


When I was in labor with Malea and my water broke, I was told by the nurses that I had the meconium stain, which means that she had pooped while in the womb. This is usually not a good sign, as it usually indicates that the baby is experiencing some kind of trauma. The nurse said it was "pretty bad." As a result, we had to have a respiratory therapist there and ready as soon as she came out in order to clean out all of the meconium from her lungs. Gratefully, the respiratory therapist was able to clean out all of it from her lungs, and most of it from her mouth (there were a couple of little episodes where she "choked" on it, which gave me quite a scare as a new mom). As the respiratory therapist was cleaning her out, he made a comment about a little dimple Malea had on her lower back just above her butt crack. I didn't think too much about out, until the word "spina bifida" was spoken. Then I was super anxious. The nurses tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal, but I think they were down playing what a serious thing it could be. The pediatrician we chose for Malea (Dr. Nielsen) came to the hospital in order to check things out. His initial diagnosis was that it was a sacral dimple, which meant that it was not spina bifida. However, he did have us take Malea to get an ultrasound done on her back just to rule out a tethered spine (which at the time I also did not understand the seriousness of). He said that the sacral dimple was the deepest he had ever seen without it going all the way through to the spine. After a very traumatic ultrasound (more for me than for her) where she peed on the table, they also ruled out a tethered spine.

Although Malea started out with a couple of small issues, everything turned out fine. We are so grateful that she is healthy and happy.

Proud Mama

On February 12th, 2008, I went in at 7:00 am to Orem Community Hospital (2 days past my due date) to be induced. By the time I got all the paperwork signed, got in to my hospital gown, and got the IV going, it was about 8:00-8:15 am by the time I started on the Pitocin. Going in to it, especially being my first baby, I expected labor to be at least 8 or 9 hours long. It seems my doctor expected that too. Much to my surprise, I was already dialated to 4 cm by 8:30 am, 7 cm by 9:30 am, and then fully dialated to 10 cm by about 10:45 am. My mom and Keith were the ones in the room with me that day. My mom brought her knitting and Keith was just hanging out chatting with her. Meanwhile, I was quietly going through labor, not really saying much and just going through the contractions as they got more and more strong. When the nurse came in to check me and I was already dialating so fast, my mom commented on how I was just quietly going through the pain. And thank goodness for an epidural! She was so surprised at how quiet I was as I went through the labor. I remember this overwhelming feeling to push, and I kept resisting it because there were no nurses around. I told Keith, and he went in to the hall to tell them. At this point, I didn't expect that she would be born in less than an hour from then. The nurses kind of had the attitude that "oh its her first, its still going to be a while." Meanwhile, my doctor had scheduled himself to do a surgery that morning, probably thinking that I wouldn't have her until later that afternoon or even that evening. The nurses called him, and he rushed over from a different hospital (probably exhausted and wishing he had had a break). He came and watched me push once, and said "suit me up." I started pushing at about 11:15 am and she was born at 11:36 am. She was 7 lb 3 oz and 19.5 inches long. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked at how fast everything happened! I was grateful that the process went well and that we now how our precious little one.