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Grace Birth Annoucement

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Welcome to the World... Grace Anne

Our last family of five picture

Our family welcomed baby Grace on Sunday, November 28th at 11:48 am. She decided to come on her own time frame (and mess up Mommy's perfectly planned birthday). I woke up early Sunday morning to my water breaking. For those of you who know me well then you know that all of my babies have been planned C-Sections and that I have never experienced a single labor pain...not even one.

Grace was scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday, December 1st. Her birthday would have been 12/01/10. For those of you who know me well...then you also know I have a "thing" about dates. You also know that I've tried with ALL of my kids to give them a cool birthday and NOT EVEN one time did that work out. Ethan's was supposed to be 02/02/02 and he was 01/21/02. Ryan was supposed to be 02/03/04 and he was 02/02/04. Molly was born on Friday the 13th (which honestly I think is kind of cool). But still not the day I had "planned".

So, of course, Grace decided to come on her own time frame! It was an "interesting" experience to have my water break. Especially since that is not something I've ever had happen with any of the other kids. It's a story we'll save for a more private conversation. Needless to say my "scheduled" c-section got moved up 3 days. There are a few bright parts to this story. My mom was in town for Thanksgiving weekend. She was able to be here and spend the first night in the hospital with Grace and I. She was tickled pink to be able to be here for Grace's birth. Thankfully, she'll be back around Christmas to help us out some more. The other great thing was Sam was in town! He was not scheduled to arrive home from Iraq until Monday or even Tuesday. However, the stars all aligned and he was home on Thanksgiving night. (I secretly think it was all his fault she came early because she sensed he was sitting around anxious. He mentioned the night before "ok, let's get this over with" and I think she was listening. Another daddy's girl!) I was super scared and nervous because my doctor was on vacation in Utah and so I was left for whomever was on call at the hospital. Thankfully it all went well and baby Grace was born healthy. My time in the hospital was mostly uncomplicated and now everyone is home recuperating.

Grace was born with a head full of blonde hair. Our son Ethan, who also has blonde hair, had been praying for months that his sister be born with blonde hair. He always says "Ryan has a sister that looks like him and so I want one that looks like me". I was pretty sure that Ethan was a freak of nature and that all the praying in the world wouldn't give us another blonde baby. Oh the faith of a child! He's so proud of his little sister that looks like him. He was also determined to have her name be Emily. He thought if she had blonde hair then she should also have a name that starts with "E". Thankfully, he handled it well when we told him her name would be Grace.

I'm just so happy knowing that (God willing) I will never be pregnant again!! I could almost drink to that!

Grace Anne

8 lb 13 ounces

21 inches

11/28/2010

For Time and All Eternity

After 11 years of marriage, Sam and I finally made it to the Temple to be sealed together with our children. There really are not many words to describe the day. It was a blessed event. My heart was full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for my wonderful family. Here are just a few pictures from our special day.

It's a Girl!

What you didn't know we were having another baby? ☺ I know, I know....I can't seem to keep up on this blogging thing. I've been meaning to post about the new baby for a long time but haven't got around to it. We had our ultrasound tonight and found out we're having another little girl. She is due December 2nd! I'm super excited for Molly to have a sister, now here's hoping they're friends instead of mortal enemies. ☺

Another tooth gone...

Well we've lost tooth number 3! And it was not without a lot of drama, as is typical in our house. This thing has been loose for 3 months! Finally we got in there and loosened it enough that he was ready for it to come out. Of course, he had to say a prayer...twice, and then do some deep breathing, and some calming counting. All the while his dad's standing there with the needle nose pliers ready to get busy! Extremely entertaining!
It seems that each time Ethan has lost a tooth Molly has gained one! How strange is that! She's up to 5 teeth and working on number 6 now.

Ethan's Baptism

WoW! My little tubby rolly polly blonde haired blue eyed baby is 8! Ethan was beyond excited to be baptized! His baptism got pushed all the way to April 24th. We were waiting for daddy to get home from Iraq, then we went on vacation for Spring Break, then we wanted Mrs. Linda to be there...and before you know it....it was April. He was very patient with all of this stuff. Just occasionally asking "when am I going to be baptized?". He was so happy to see "Ethan's Baptism" on our kitchen calendar.

We had a wonderful turn out of kids in his class, and family friends. I was especially grateful for the support that was shown to Ethan and our family. We had some great talks and the baptism was extra special. It's hard to believe but I almost started to get teary!! (Some of my friends will appreciate that comment ;-) Thank you everyone for being in Ethan's life and teaching him the gospel and setting a good example for him. He's a wonderful kid and our family is blessed to have him!

Molly's 1st Birthday

What an exciting time in the Walker house! How fun it is to have a one year old. We all love being here and seeing all of her new accomplishments. I was much to caught up in being a "mom" with the boys to really appreciate the things we do with Molly. It's a big deal in our house when Molly walks, talks, burps, cries, laughs...you get the idea. Her birthday was no exception.

We were soooo excited that Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Ma Julie were able to come out to help us celebrate. I am beyond appreciation when family is able to come to big celebrations. That's one thing about being in the military that is truly difficult. The extended family misses out on lots of things. I'm grateful for my new Flip video camera so we can send them videos.

For Molly's birthday we took her down to Canon City to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad. It was the first train of the season. So there was some excitement for the crew which added to the fun. It was Molly's first train ride, Sam's first through the Gorge, and g-pa is a big train enthusiast. It was a good time. We got some really great pictures on the train.

We got home pretty late in the afternoon. Just in time for dinner and cake. Isn't it fun to watch a one year old eat cake? Molly was no exception. She was bushed after dinner! There would be no opening of presents for Molly. She was in bed by 6:30. I guess all that partying pooped her out. There was a benefit to that though because the next day, Sunday, we had invited people over for dinner and everyone got to be there while Molly opened presents.

It's hard to believe that a year passed by so quickly. That also means that Ethan is another year older, Ryan is another year older, Sam is another year older, and I'm another year younger!

Of course, Molly is actually 13 and 1/2 months old now. But nobody's paying attention.....right?

Recent Pictures

Sometimes it's just easier to do a photo journal. As I recently heard...you can either live your life or you can blog about it. :-)

Believe it or not...Molly is now 11 months old! This is her on the morning of her "celebration".

This is a perfect picture to capture her personality. A picture is worth a thousand words!

I've been busy with a few birthdays. Ethan and Ryan both celebrated their birthdays in the last few weeks. We went with a dinner and a movie theme this year. Since I was home alone (Sam was still gone) then we kept it small. They each had a few friends over on a weekend night for pizza, popcorn, cake, ice cream, and fun!

Ryan with his Bakugan. He loves these little round balls. I would guess that at least 80% of the time he is carrying one somewhere on his personage.

The party goers...

Ryan and Ryan on his actual birthday. Ryan was going to be out of town on party night so we invited him over for a playdate and our annual b-day dinner at Red Robin. Ryan loves chillaxin with Ryan (I know confusing huh)

Ethan had his party on a Saturday so I actually had time to put towards a fun cake. I love the way the cake turned out. That's a giant platter of spagetti and meatballs in the background. Bet you can't guess the movie the boys picked out...

The party goers... That's Molly picking up popcorn crumbs.

Did I mention that my wonderful husband made it home safely? Wow what a difference one more person makes in our house!!

Let the Party Begin...

Our Ethan is 8!

Can it really be true? Have 8 years passed by since we welcomed this beautiful blonde haired baby boy? What an amazing 8 years it has been! Ethan is full of life. He was given so many gifts from his Heavenly Father. He has the gift of kindness, consideration of others, respect for his teachers, empathy, music, and many others. He is the best big brother! It is extremely funny to just sit and listen to him talk. From the time that he started talking then we would talk about Ethan's "Ethanisms", meaning funny things he would say that just made us chuckle. Of course, he's usually very serious when he says these things and isn't try to get a giggle at all. That's what makes it cute. Here are some fun pictures of Ethan's life (so far ;o)

When Ethan was born (via C-section) the very first words that came out of Sam's mouth were: "He has blonde hair!". That was a shocker. Neither one of us expected a blonde haired baby. On top of that he had TONS of blonde hair. It was fun to have all of the nurses on the unit coming into the room to touch and rub his hair. Everyone was amazed by the little blonde boy.

We had a lot of fun with his hair! I gave him SEVEN haircuts before his first birthday!

Before we knew it he was ready to eat. Of course the chair was a little big for him (but that didn't last long)

Some favorite pictures as a 1 year old

Two Years Old

Shortly after he turned two he became a big brother. A role he usually cherishes.

3 years

4 years (shortly after moving to Colorado Springs)

5th year

6th year. He loves art and his awards he got in 1st grade really helped him have even more interest.

7th birthday helping to make his birthday pizza

Shortly after his 7th birthday he became a big brother again. He most definitely takes the role of big brother to Molly seriously.

and now he's EIGHT and 8 is great!

Happy Birthday Ethan, we love you and cherish you so much!