The Banana Dance

I really need to get on here and do an update, but for the time being I just wanted to post this funny video of Isaac doing what I call "The Banana Dance"....there's not much to it other than he loves bananas and will do a little dance to get one :)

Christmas Card 2011

Merry Christmas!

(Designed by Mary from marybeachphotography.blogspot.com)

Where Did October Go?

Holy cow! October just flew right on by! I can't believe I went a whole month without updating the blog....that usually doesn't happen. October was a really busy month but so fun too!

Well October is a fun month for me because it is my birthday month! I turned 27 this year...sooo OLD, I know. For my birthday this year we did the annual going out to dinner. I usually like to go to Red Robin but this year I decided to spice it up and go to Olive Garden (yum!). Then we went back to the house to do cake & ice cream. I got a darling new purse from my mom (which I love!) and some gift cards to some of my favorite places! It was a great day!

(I just figured out how to do collages in Picasa, so this blog post is going to have lots of them! I took over 500 pictures in October alone!)


Not only was October busy just because of my birthday, midterms, and all the Halloween festivities, it was also busy because my younger brother Sam got married in the Logan temple on October 20th! My mom and I threw a bridal shower for his sweetheart Taylor at the beginning of the month, which was a lot of fun. We love planning parties :) I also had the privilege of making their wedding video, so that was keeping me busy too. I'm really happy with how it turned out. His wedding was so beautiful!

Taylor's Bridal Shower

Logan Temple 10/20/2011
Congrats Sam & Taylor!

Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays! I love that I have kids now because it gives me a reason to go all out! I'm going to be sad when they grow up and don't want to do all the fun festivities with me.

Here's some pics of all the fun things we did to celebrate Halloween! :)

We went and picked out pumpkins at Jaker's pumpkin patch in Springville


We made lots of different Halloween goodies!


I made my kids take pictures together in their Halloween-themed shirts and jammies (good memories, right?!)


I had a lot of fun decorating! This year I made the "Boo" craft and two different wreaths, as well as the little Halloween tree. Malea liked doing Halloween crafts too :)


I took the kids to Cornbelly's, they had so much fun!
(Keith was working hard at the Nu Skin convention that week so he wasn't able to come)

Pumpkin carving


Malea had pre-school on Halloween, and her teacher made it so fun for the kids! They all got to dress up, they had a party with treats, and then they got to go on a hay ride!


Trick-or-Treating & visiting family
Malea was Rapunzel and Isaac was a "busy" bee (fits his personality :))

Happy Halloween!

Family Pictures (Fall 2011)

Well with Isaac turning 1, I thought it would be a good time to get some family pictures done and pictures of the kids. Isaac was quite difficult but luckily we got some good ones!

Too Much Growing Up!

September 7th was a big day at the Walker home! Not only was it Isaac's 1st Birthday, but it was also Malea's first day of Pre-school! Needless to say, I was quite emotional that day!

Malea's First Day of Pre-school!
Age 3 1/2 years

Malea with Teacher Linda :)

Malea had a great first day :) She was a little apprehensive at first but had a lot of fun. I waited until I got in the car after dropping her off to break down and cry :'(

Isaac's 1st Birthday Party!
September 7th, 2011

Isaac showing us how old he is today :)

We had his party at Heritage Park in Springville (thanks to Grandpa Rick for helping us get the pavilion through his work at the city and for getting the park looking great for the party!)

It was a Sesame Street theme, Isaac's fav!

I made a slide show with pictures from Isaac's first year :) I can't hardly watch it without crying! I can't believe it has been a year!

Isaac's Cake

He didn't hold back!

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac! We love you so much!
XOXO

Graduate School

So guess what?.....I have been accepted to graduate school!!!!

I will be doing a Masters in School Counseling at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.

I've done A LOT of research in to different programs and what the requirements are in Utah to become licensed. I have been looking in to grad school for about 4-5 months. ASC is going to be a good fit for me and my situation. I was also really considering a program at the University of North Dakota that is similar to the one at Adams State, but they didn't have the CACREP accredidation that Utah requires. Don't worry, I won't be uprooting my family to Colorado! Almost the whole program is online. I do have to go there once a summer for a week for what they call a summer intensive. The students in my cohort will all meet there and we will do some face-to-face coursework and practice actual counseling. I will also be evaluated by the professors and be given things to work on. The nice thing about that is my husband has an aunt and uncle who live in Durango, CO which is only 2-3 hours from Alamosa. So we will be able to make a little family trip out of it. :) My last couple of semesters of the program will be an internship at a local school of my choice. I will have to complete 100 practicum hours and 600 internship hours (spread out over two semesters).

I am so excited, but a little nervous too. I have never even taken an online class before, so I'm sure it will be an adjustment. I will have to be very self motivated. :) I just don't think that I could do it any other way, especially being a mom. There is so much flexibility with doing an online program. I am also trying not to give in to my insecurities. I've been out of school for over 4 years, and I have two kids! Ahhh! I just have to keep reminding myself that I can't look at the whole thing at once. My Grandma "M" used to say, "by the inch its a cinch, by the yard its hard."

Wish me luck!

Camping 2011

This year for our annual camping trip we decided to go to Jolley's Ranch up Hobblecreek canyon in Springville. We usually go up American Fork canyon but with Isaac being so young we wanted to be a little closer to home just in case. We had a lot of fun! It was Isaac's first camping trip :)

We always do tin foil dinners the first night :) This has been a tradition of ours since before we had kids!

Sleeping in a tent with all four of us, one being a baby = no one slept very well. Oh well, its all part of the experience I guess! I am always so worried about the kids being warm enough that I ended up sleeping horrible the first night. Then Isaac woke up at like 5:30am so I took him outside of the tent to keep him from waking everyone else up.

So cute, Daddy & Malea snuggling

While we were up there we saw SO many caterpillars! It was really cool. This is one of my favorite pictures, you can just see on her face how proud she is (see the caterpillar on her hand). She ended up putting it in a cup with some leaves and it turned itself in to a caccoon!

Daddy cooking the bacon :) For the record I cooked everything else, but the grease splattering on a gas stove makes the flames roar and it always freaks me out!

Much needed nap time :)

This was so funny....there is a little doggy door on our tent, and when I was walking back from taking Malea to the bathroom Isaac saw me and started crying. I took this cute picture :) This was at the height of his separation anxiety/I-only-want-mommy phase

We took Malea down to a part of the creek that was not as fast and more shallow (most parts of the water were SO fast and really high this year, it was scary). She had fun playing in the water even though it was sooo cold. Isaac didn't like it for very long....I don't know how Malea could stand it!

Muddy Bum :)

Hanging out by the fire....one of my favorite parts of camping

(Malea looks so big in that hiking backpack lol)

After playing at the nearby playground, we went back and roasted 'mallows and then went to bed early that second night....we were pooped!