Luke & Kaitlynn... Senior Prom

As Luke's Senior Year comes to a close we had fun getting him ready for Senior Prom with his girlfriend Kaitlynn. She chose a beautiful mint color gown which was perfect with her fair skin and dark hair. For him we went with a slim cut Dove Gray Calvin Klein suit with black accents and just a bit of mint green in the tie. There's nothing I hate worse than a colored vest, tie, and handkerchief. Can you say sherbert???

He might be nearly 18, but he still needs Dad's help with a tie...

And just because your dressed up doesn't mean you can't be sporting some rad socks under there...

Smiling big after successfully navigating the cuff links...

Outside the school before Promenade... Yes I'm that mean Mom that insists my kids do Promenade. It's all you get when your the Mom of boys!

An absolutely horrid pic of Promenade, but you get the jist...

Lovers on their way to a magical night.

 They went to dinner at the Country Club with a group of 12 friends, then Prom was at Sundance! A great night was had by all they reported. Sad that this is Luke's last dance and I have 3 long years to wait until Jake is old enough. I'm gonna have to find a neighbor to pick on.

Graduation Photo Shoot

Way back in the fall, when the school sent home the Jostens packet, full of a bunch of nonsense they wanted us to buy, with a sample of the hideous Graduation Announcement they had designed for us, I had a moment of panic. Was this what I was stuck with? This very simple and ugly tri-fold announcement with absolutely no good options for personalization? All that and the whopping cost of $3-4 per announcement! Whoa Whoa Whoa... back to the drawing board. Time to find someone to bail me out of this non option. In walks Angie Clayson. Gifted photographer that just happens to specialize in bailing people out of this exact thing. Scheduled the photo shoot, 2 weeks later I am blessed and very grateful to have these adorable 2 sided announcements to send out! Yay me!

Here is the rest of the amazing work she did. I can't believe how grown up he is all of a sudden. Hopefully I have done an adequate job of preparing him to go out into the world on his own in 3 months!

On to Graduation week which is sure to be very emotional in a good way for me. Let's hope I don't overload my blog with too much nostalgic nonsense!

Easter...Walker style

 Easter is officially done, and on the books. Here's how we roll...

 Easter party at the Reeces including dinner, a tower of sugar, and the now famous 'color coded' Easter egg hunt. I am Chartreuse... don't touch my frigging eggs. (they have $ in them)

Easter morning Wade and I opted for brunch at the Country Club after the boys successfully hunted down their Easter Baskets at home.  It was another well done affair. The Easter Bunny even made an appearance! As you may be able to tell from this photo op, the 'suit' either needs to be retired or dry cleaned. Poor Zac has it written all over his face.

After brunch we strapped on the clubs and went golfing as a family. This was apparently a novel idea because I don't think we saw another soul the whole 9 holes. Fine by us! Jake refuses to golf (might mess up his baseball swing) so he was free to huck golfballs all over the place without ticking anyone off.

Love this pic of my soldiers all in a row...

Still love to watch this kid golf. His competitive days may be over, but I will always enjoy hitting the links with him.

Jake was our photographer here stating "I can't be seen with a golf club in my hand"

That afternoon we had another fun party at the Rawlings with more yummy food and hanging out with family while the kids fought over candy. It may be our last family party at their house, which is on the market, so it was a little bittersweet! Since it was Spring Break the next week and the forecast said rain, we parents got together and made a plan to meet at Lowes Extreme Air Sports later in the week for more fun cousin time. Here's the result!

 They ran and jumped and played and climbed and swung and threw foam balls to their hearts content. You must understand how hard it was to get these 6 to hold still for one tiny pic. There was no way we were going to get Kole and Brody in there without a fight. It used to be Jett that was the stubborn one... the baton has been passed, and they stubbornly clench their fists around it together (while taking sucker punches at one another). Gotta love boys! On to warmer weather, baseball, Prom, school getting out which involves a Graduation (eek), and summer Sundays on the lake. Bring it on... We're ready.

March Mayhem! (and a bit of madness)

March has been a flurry of activity and trips to warmer climates. I started out the month with an impromptu trip to Vegas with some girlfriends. We did some shopping, some much needed pool time, and typical Vegas things like going to a show and watching the freaks on the strip. It was a ton of fun!

Yes we are professionals...

All dressed up for a night on the town!

 Me and one of my besties Megan

 Another bestie Tehra

Had to search for the sun but we finally found a good pool! Heaven...

Two weekends later it was back in the car we go for March Madness baseball tournament in St George. This time was a bit trickier because Wade was coaching Jake & Zacs teams! He is amazing, and the absolute best Dad I know. Zacs team was very new, only having practiced a few times in doors but managed to win a game. Zac loved having his dad involved & was a beast on the mound and behind the plate nearly the whole tournament. When your the MVP on the team you have a lot of responsibility!

Jake's team has been together for so long now that it was truly like watching a well oiled machine on that field. They were scary good, anticipating each others moves and playing flawless baseball. Jake was asked to pitch in the championship game and he did 5 incredible innings with a mad curve ball sitting even their best hitters down. I was a nervous wreck and so proud. They won all 7 games. Scored 74 runs against their opponents. Only allowed 7 runs in. They are the champions out of 48 12U teams. It has been a great beginning of this season with only great things to come for the Rebels.

The boys had a wonderful crowd cheering them on that weekend. Luke was there with his best friend Lewis. Grandma Lynn & Grandpa Bryce were there. Jodi & Rory and the kids came down for final day of play. And Keely and her family were troopers and watched 3 games on championship day. My only regret from this trip is not getting a big group photo of all the wonderful people that were there to support my boys. It was truly amazing the amount of love and fun we had.

On the last day of our trip Wade, Luke & Lewis went golfing for the day so the boys and I met Jodi and Rory and the kids for a bit of hiking and some lunch. It was so fun watching the kids scamper around the red rocks together, climb the narrows, and watching baby Kole drag Lexi around on the leash saying "let's go... come on".

Jake & Zac Waaaay up there!

Cute cousins

Group photo!

March was also the month that Zac met the baseball... in the nose. Here was the result.

4 hours post injury

18 hours post injury

4 days post injury

Poor little guy couldn't breathe out of his nose, had to wear an ice bag for a few days, missed a day of school, and had some serious headaches. A testament of his sweetness is that he was showered by gifts and well wishes by his friends, neighbors, and teammates. His teacher also let him wear sunglasses to school for 2 days to lessen the blow of how strange he felt. A few days in he decided it was funny to chase people around like a zombie since that's what he looked like anyways. Play with your strengths!

We woke up this morning, March 23rd, to 5 inches of new snow. Blech. That's why I'm sitting here pretending it's still a beautiful spring day outside. Let's hope April brings us some warmer temps!

i heart valentines day

 Ask anyone. February is my month. I love it. I love my birthday being in February, Wades being 2 days later, and Valentines 12 days later! Most people hate this month because the winter blahs are making them suicidal. Not me! I love everything about it. The color red has always been a weakness for me. I truly believe in the power of love and celebrating that! What's not to love? I decided to brighten (in the shade of red) your day with my version of Valentine happiness.


Entryway table (with a photo bomb by Lexi). Quilt courtesy of my fabulous mother in law.

Even my bedroom must have a pop of red.

Kitchen counter gracing my favorite bottle of wine ever. It has a Lexi-like dog on it and a little red heart! Found it at Wine-fest in Colorado last summer. Flowers in it are from Zac's art class (swoon).

Glass table in office. (free printable.. thanks Pinterest)

My project this year! I have a new found crafty addiction called 'Crafty Wood Cutouts'. It's in Orem and they have tons of fun holiday projects! Just finished this one on Sunday. It was my first Mod-Podge experience... won't be my last!

My dining table light's are adorned with these adorable photo hearts that my Mom made for me when she was watching my kids last year while we were away in Belize. Love them.

And the best part this year was helping Luke prepare for Sweethearts Dance. It's girls choice so all we had to do was matching outfit and corsage! Easy Peasy. She chose this adorable pink sequined dress. We all went shopping together and chose for him a pink matchy shirt, charcoal gray cashmere sweater, and black tie with white polka dots for a little whimsy. Their flowers had coordinating polka dot ribbon, and she had a ribbon in her hair. Can you say AH...DOR...ABLE! Such a handsome couple. This is Kaitlin btw...she is now part of our family so to speak.

 
Well, I'm off to make 4-5 dozen heart shaped, pink frosted, giant sized sugar cookies which is tradition in our family. At 3:00 Wade and I are off to celebrate V-day(cuz I have to work on Thursday) with a little spa time. Don't hate me because my day is perfect...

xoxoxoxox