Belated Merry Christmas

So honestly, yesterday was the best Christmas ever. For the first time in history we stayed home for the whole day! No running around to different parties and such. We decided early on and gave everyone notice that we were staying put this year. The kids loved it and so did we. We were still up at 6 AM but the rest of the day was spent programming Ipod touches and Nano's, building lego cars, playing Guess Who, and PSP, and eating. The grandparents all came to visit us at different times of the day and we fed them for their effort. Wade and I even caught a nap in the afternoon. A 2 hour nap!!! (Now that's a long winters nap) We were woken up by the kids trying to kill each other with their new boxing gloves. Might have been a lapse in Santa's judgement. Oh well, at least they got some exercise! I hope all of you had an equally lovely Holiday. I'm still in bed now watching the snow fall (another 6 inches to add to our 12) after having to take Wade to work at 7:30 (stupid girly car). It is quiet and beautiful and the madness will begin shortly. Love you all. PS to Mom, Dad, Josh and Lynsey - Have fun in Hawaii!

RIP BYU

We are gathered in cyber space this day to mourn the passing of our good friend and neighbor, Brigham Young University and their beloved grid iron giants. They were taken from us last night while visiting the great state of Nevada in a horrific accident. There were many witnesses to this terrible night, but none who will make any statements at this time. Among the flashes of consciousness that people can remember are fumbles-a-plenty, absentee field goals, and a lackluster defense. Viewing will not take place due to the red faces beheld on all who were involved. Please send condolences care of Ryan Falkner at this blog. We will forward them to him on your behalf. Survivors include 60,000 fans who trudged home on a cold Sunday afternoon just in time to make it to church services. Last wishes of all those tough young players who managed to walk out alive were that we could "all just get along" and that everyone would turn their support to the clearly superior team that currently resides on the U of U campus. GO UTES!!!!!!!!!

SNOW DOG!!!

One kid, two colors

Yesterday was a busy one for me. Up at 7:00 AM to get Jake weighed in for his tournament, and home at 11:00 PM from the Nutcracker. Just wanted to share some of the joy that I had yesterday. Jake had a wrestling tournament in which he took first place. He had two pretty tough matches, then one in which he pinned the boy in about 20 seconds. Way to go buddy! Here he is, skinny little turd.
After that was over we ran home to get gussied up. He was my date for our annual Nutcracker outing at Capitol Theater. This was his first time seeing it so I was very curious to see his reaction. Needless to say the art support at our house pretty much starts and ends with me so it was fun to share this with him. We went with Gma and Gpa Reece and Lynsey Lou. Nick was there too but busy putting out fires and dealing with work issues.

We had a great time. When asked what his favorite part was he responded "the smoke, the cannons, guns and pirates" so basically he enjoyed the pyrotechnics and the Russians, I think. Big surprise. He is still a boy. Ballet West has a new female lead, and little tiny asian girl from Hawaii that is absolutely fabulous! If you have a chance to catch a performance I would highly recommend it. She is so graceful, yet strong and uber-confident. Jason Linsley performed a very solid duet also. (Hope I spelled that right) We were very proud of him. Great job everyone!

Today I am posting on the incredible season that the Utes have had this year. They are on their way to the Sugar Bowl which will be played in New Orleans on January 2, 2009. They will be playing the #4 ranked team Alabama on that day. Hoo - Ah Utes.Throughout this season I have had to defend my team at my place of work because I am surrounded by zoobie lovers. One most outspoken young man was Bradley, who even when things looked bad, claimed that BYU was going to beat Utah this year in the Holy War. So in the spirit of good humiliating fun, we made a bet that whoever's team lost must wear some apparel from the opposing team to work. We we all know who won so here is a pic of innocent little Bradley in his U of U beanie.

Oh how sweet. In keeping with the same theme, Wade found this great little Diddy in the SL Tribune yesterday. It is a fun little article poking fun at how lame the Bowl game is that BYU gets the privilege to attend (once again). And I quote...

Location: Las Vegas; Expected opponent:
UCLA; Tickets: Still available
What makes game fun: Knowing Utah is still on quest for perfection
What makes location fun: For free, you can watch the Pirate of the Caribbean boat rise out of the water
Besides the game: You get to travel on Christmas Eve
Travel package: Stay at a friend's 3rd cousin once removed's house and sleep on air mattress for free. Bring a cooler full of peanut butter and jam. Don't forget your oversized man bag and faded blue blanket to sneak licorice into the stadium.
Getting there: Rent a 16-passenger van and split the cost between 20 people.
Total cost: $78.00."
HA HA. That is all so true. BYU fans come with $100 dollar bill in their pocket and they leave with it still there! Sorry to all my friends and family who happen to like BYU but ninner ninner suckas.

Festival of Trees Opening Night

Ok, double posting today because last night was one of my favorite nights of the year. Opening night of the Festival of Trees where we get to dress up, scope out the best tree, and push over Donald Trump look alikes to get the winning bid. Honestly I just like the festive atmosphere, getting to wear something pretty, and spending time with my parents and sis. We got a very cute tree courtesy of Dad's work who foots the bill for our entertainment. The best tree of the night was undoubtedly a tree with about a hundred blown glass discs with lights shimmering behind them. The winning bid was $26,000.00. Holy Crow! Someone hasn't felt the hit of the bad economy! Here's a few pix of us in all our formal glory.

Lindsay Night!

Once a month Haley and I get together with our gal pal and fellow Twilight addict Lindsay, who hails from the great city of Bountiful, Utah. This month we met for dinner and a repeat showing of what else... Twilight! We had alot of fun at dinner chatting (once Lindsay found her way, she is notorious for getting lost). I know this might be blasphemy, but honestly, I'm Twilighted out. If I have to watch that movie one more time I might bite myself. Please don't egg my house out of retaliation ladies. Come on, admit it, it's not that great of a movie. It's like watching glue dry. Sorry, but you know I'm a brutally honest individual, I call it like I see it. Anyways, here's a cute pix of our GNO. Don't I look thrilled to be in a theater again?

Happy Birthday Lexi Lou!!!

Today we celebrated the first birthday of our little lady. She got all gussied up in her party dress, ate some birthday cake (the K9 variety made of peanut butter and carrots), and opened presents. The only moment of clarity that told me I may be out of my mind is when I asked Wade to hold her still for a photo op and he replied "I don't want any one on that blog to know I had anything to do with this." Ok, so I may be putting a little pressure on her to fulfill that female offspring need in my life. She doesn't seem to mind, as long as there is treats involved. Happy Birthday baby girl. (I promise I won't make you wear that dress again for a long time)

A poem from: Heureux Mercis Donnant ~ Happy Thanksgiving!

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, family, and fellow bloggers!

Twilight Midnight Movie Madness!!!!!!

Here's the first of many 'Twilight' related posts you will have to endure from many of us this week. Last night was the big premiere and the girl's got together to go to the midnight showing.
We started out with dinner at Red Robin (we're lucky we got to eat, Haley was wanting to skip it and get right in line!)

We then got in line sitting on the floor of the theater's foyer and played Phase 10 for about 2 hours. It was fun to just chat and hang out. Amberlie was to amped to play cards. She wanted to take pictures and get in to find a seat! Simmer down crazy girl. Alli joined us after finishing up with work. Good timing!

They finally let us into the theater at 10:30 (which was pretty good I thought, a lot better than sitting on the floor) and that's when the madness started. People were sprinting to find seats together, throwing their crap over rows of seats. We managed to find 10 seats in pairs on the top right side of the theater.

Once we had seats we relaxed and played Twilight Hangman, and did a Twilight quiz which Haley so kindly made up for us. What a party planner. It was a super fun night. We met some new friends including Sam, Heather and some of Heidi's extended family and friends. They were laid back enough to put up with all of our craziness.
Here we are in all of our red, black, and white glory posing in front of the big movie poster. What a bunch of grown-up nerds. We look hot though right? (please just say yes, we can't handle the truth)
Oh yeah, about the movie. I honestly would give it a 7 on a scale of 1 - 10. That being said I am seeing it again in about 5 hours with much more realistic expectations, so my rating may go up a bit. I have always been on Team Jacob and there was not nearly enough of that action going on. (There will be no Oscar nominations for these performances)

Tagged Twice

Ok, now for the photo tag:
This is a picture of Jake on his 8th Birthday. He was in love with the Celtics, so we ordered him a custom Jersey with his name printed on the back. Notice the early morning hair and puffy eyes!

So here's how it works. You upload the 4th picture from the 4th file on your computer and tell what it's about. Then you have to tag 4 friends.
I tag: Haley, Heidi, Leslie, and Luke.

Tagged Twice

Ok it's time to respond to some friendly tagging. First the husband tag:

Full Name: L. Wade Walker (He won't let me put his fulll name)
How long we've been married: 17 years this January
How long did we date: 3 years before marriage
Who eats the sweets: He eats the candy, and I eat all the desserts.
Who said I love you first: He says I did, but I can't really remember. It was a long time ago!
Who is taller: He is by 4 inches
Who sings better: Definitely me (He does a really good William Hung impression)
Who is smarter: Wade
Who does the laundry: Me, Wade would probably just shove it all in together and hope for the best.
Who pays the bills: We take turns, but currently he is. I tend to pay bills even if there is no money just so that they won't be late. It's my OCD coming out.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed: It depends which way you look at the bed. If you're in it then I'm on the right, if you're standing at the foot then he is on the right.
Who mows the lawn: I usually do our lawn, and he and Luke mow the neighborhood commons area lawn that we are voluntarily in charge of because if we don't it always looks like sh*t.
Who cooks dinner: Wade cooks on Thursday's and Sunday's when I'm at work, and I cook the rest of the week.
Who drives: It's 2008, we both drive, but when together he usually does.
Who admits they are wrong: Neither of us, but if I had to choose it would be him.
Who asked who out first: He asked me out, we went Jet skiing at Utah Lake. Pretty brave to be in a swimsuit on a first date. All 95 pounds of me were very nervous (no boobies yet).
Who wears the pants: I do!!!!!
What does he do that surprises you: He is the best gift buyer in the whole world. I went to a purse party one year right before Mother's Day, bought a purse, brought it home and told him I had bought my own present. He just smiled and said OK, great! On Mother's Day I got my purse all right and when I opened it there was an envelope with plane tickets and hotel info for a trip to Aruba. Boy did I feel like an ass. He had been planning and paying for it for months and I nearly stole his thunder.
My favorite features on him: His green eyes, his calves, and his broad shoulders. (super sexy)
Does he have a nickname for you: Babe or Woman
His favorite food: Outback Steak and Potatoes.
His favorite sport: to watch is probably Football, to play is Soccer or Skiing.
Our favorite thing to do as a couple: Anniversary trips to a B & B in Midway when there's 5 feet of snow, a roaring fireplace and nowhere to go but bed!!!
Does he have any hidden talents: He is a computer genius! He can build them, program them, trouble shoot them, and do all sorts of illegal stuff on them.
What do you admire most about him: What an incredible father he is. He's the yin to my yang. I tend to freak out with discipline issues, and he is the voice of calm, so we balance each other out perfectly.
His favorite color: Red, Go Utes!!!
How did he propose: He took me for a sunset walk on the golf course. There was a cute little bench that he walked me over to and that's where he asked me. We live about 300 yards from that exact spot now.

Family Pix

Ok, we finally did it. Wade hate's getting family pictures done because he has a tendency to squint, but I bullied him into it and these are our results.

Fabulous right! We had a great local photographer names MacKenzie Scott do our shoot for us. If you love them as much as I do I will give you her info. She was really great at taking my vision of a more alternative style and going with it. There wasn't a whole lot of 'posing' going on. I highly recommend her.

The Challenge

Ok siblings. My 13 year old just started his own blog, by himself I might add. Just remember that next time you say it's too hard, or too time consuming. He did it in 30 minutes one night. Check it out but don't look too closely at spelling, verbage, or sentence structure. We're still working on that. It's called 'Luke is da bomb'. What's it about you say? Why Luke and only Luke of course. What else would a cocky teenager blog about.

Hollow-Weanie Parties!

It's every kids favorite time of year. Candy by the bucketfuls, pretending your someone you've always wanted to be, and parties parties parties! We had our fill this weekend. We started out on Friday night at Grandma Lynn's annual Halloween bash. Here is our family as Rasta Dude, JFK and Marilyn, Boba Fett, and Pimp Daddy.


Here is the cutest little pirate and butterfly ever. (Those costumes totally match their personalities also).


Then we have momma witch, baby bear, Little Mermaid, and Officer Pancho. It's nice to see you with such a full head of hair Rory! (Don't worry Wade's right behind you)

We were also visited by the clown couple and their friend the wench. (I won't tell if these are personality matchers).


We had so much fun playing Bingo, breaking the Pinata, and eating yummy food. Thanks Grandma! We always have so much fun at this party and we hope grandma continues to do it for us.


This is little Saigey cleaning up the candy the bigger kids neglected to pick up. She's happy as a clam surrounded by forgotten Smarties.





On Saturday we headed to the big city to Aunt Jill's party. She is truly a Halloween nut. Her house is always fully decorated, tons of food, activities, lots of people, and lots of fun!


Here's Aunt Jill as Cruela DeVille with Luke.


Here's our little Boba Fett (for those who have no idea who that is it's a Star Wars character).

And our Pimp Daddy Gangsta complete with gold 'grill'.

This is our family photo for the day with Grandma Black front and center. I think she's a tea party lady, but I forgot to ask.


Believe it or not this is Josh dressed as Billy Idol.(He could also be a very scary woman).((This photo has been deleted due to the extreme anxiety it caused the subject.))

Mom and Dad even got in on the fun as Dracula and the classy version of a witch.

It was a fun day, Jill even invited a magician this year. That was definitely the highlight. The kids thought he was amazing and he made them really laugh hard. It was a beautiful day, thank goodness, and we were exhausted all the way home. It was also really nice to see some of the cousins and catch up. Until next year, Trick or Treat!

Lexi's playdate

Lexi had a special playdate with her boyfriend Jack today. I was taking her for a walk and he followed us home so I called his family and got permission for him to stay over for a while and play.


They have so much fun together, chasing and kissing. Here is a little video of their escapades. She tries to get the other animals in the neighborhood to play also, but no one knows how to play like Jack Jack.

The musings of a beachsick girl

I have been feeling very beachsick this week because this is usually the week my family spends in California. I guess you really take something for granted when you get to do it every year, and then suddenly one year it's gone. No big reason we didn't go, just busy, and mom and dad have had a lot of other trips this year. Hopefully next year we'll get back.

I needed a way to purge my sad feelings so I thought reminiscing with some old photo's and memories on my blog would be a good way to do it. The first pic is of us group reading a book out on the back porch watching the surf. The second is a sunset pic of our sandcastle efforts for that day.

This is the day that we bullied Lyndsey into making her famous guacamole and we ate it for lunch in the sand. It's a tradition and an oh-so-good one. Don't ask me how a girl can stay that skinny when she's such a good cook. Some other traditions are dinner at Fisherman's Wharf, morning walks and bike rides to the coffee shop for muffins and mocha's, smore's and bonfires on the beach, falling asleep to the sound of the crashing waves, having friends over for dinner who live in Cali, and just enjoying each other's company.

This is a pic of my boys and uncle Josh stacking rocks at Dana Point. Grandpa is there too but he had to take the picture. There's so many things that I love about this vacation that I couldn't possibly tell them all. I think the crux of it though is beach and family. My long time goal in life is to someday have a little beach cottage somewhere in the world to call my own. I will take my boys and their wives and children there and we will try to reenact all the beautiful memories that my parents have created for me. If ever get a terminal disease my family better know me well enough to take me to live out my days there. (Yes, just like 'Beaches' with Bette Midler) Thanks for reading.

I've been tagged!

The 8 things tag.

8 TV shows I watch:
1. The Hills
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Survivor
4. Gray's Anatomy
5. Any Ute's game
6. 90210 (I know it's bad, but I'm still watching)
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Brothers & Sisters
As you can see, my Tivo gets quite a workout.

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Took Wade shopping for 'skinny jeans' (he dropped 20 lbs.)
2. Ate my favorite lunch at 'Kneaders'
3. Took Lexi for a bike-run
4. Yelled at Luke for grades, again.
5. Froze my butt off at PM baseball games
6. had a political debate with my brother about Prop 8 (Vote NO people!)
7. Took Zac to dinner at YuckDonalds
8. blogged

8 Favorite places to eat:
1. Fisherman's Wharf in San Clemente, CA
2. PF Changs
3. Outback
4. Beehive Tea Room
5. Market Street Grill
6. Iggy's
7. Red Iguana
8. Kneaders

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. The election being over
2. Twilight movie
3. Selling my house
4. watching my nieces on Friday
5. The Holidays
6. seeing Wade in his skinny jeans (hubba hubba)
7. another vacation
8. bedtime

8 Things on my wishlist:
1. That my Bro's and Sis would get a blog
2. That my Bro's and Sis would learn to leave comments on my blog
3. Ugg's
4. to drop 20 lbs so I can look hot like Wade
5. a bigger house
6. my first BMW (wow I'm really shallow)
7. laser hair removal
8. World Peace (OK so I threw that in for points)

8 People I tag:
1. Mandy
2. Kelly B.
3. Jen B.
4. Lindsay M.
5. Leslie
6. Jodi
7. Tiffany
8. my Bro's and Sis ( oh wait, that would require a blog)

Bright Lights, Big City

So, you all know how busy our lives are with sports hopping. Last night we had the chance to fulfill a childhood dream for one of our boys. One of Jake's double header Saturday afternoon games got rained out last month, so last night we had the make-up games. They were in Lehi at 5:30 and 7:30 so mostly in the dark. Jake was so excited to play under the 'big lights' that you would have thought it was the World Series.


It was freezing cold, about 40 degrees, so we really had to bundle up. He didn't even notice the cold. He was so serious and macho about the whole thing. Apparently those lights erase a multitude of senses.


Zac and I toughed it out as long as we could, but finally ended up in the car for the last game. (Don't judge me, I know all about toughing out the elements for the sake of your child. I'm fighting a 2 week old cold, OK.)