Fall Catch up!

Okay, well, I'm going to give you the best updates ever. I'll try and keep them in chronological order, but no guarantees!

Remi's Baby Blessing:

Nate and I flew out to AZ for my beautiful niece Remi's baby blessing. Arizona was really warm, and I loved that. Taylor, Nate, and my dad pretty much played pool around the clock. I had no idea my dad even played, so that was crazy. (oh, obviously mom and dad flew out too, along with Grandma Allie and Cami!). It was really nice. The day of her blessing (they did it at their house) Taylor made some excellent mexican food! Her blessing was beautiful and it was nice to have the family together. There were four generations there on both sides! What a lucky little girl!

My Birthday/Caitlyn and Chaela Visit:

Caitlyn Hair and Chaela came out for my birthday. We had a great time. We made dresses (meaning I ironed and cut while Caitlyn sewed). Chaela went trick or treating and was the cutest little princess on the block. We also went out to Williamsburg and enjoyed window shopping and walking through the streets to see the beautiful colonial williamsburg. I loved having them here, It reminded me how much I miss Caitlyn on a day to day basis

Ohio State VS. Michigan

As always, we had our annual party! We had lots of friends show up to see Nate's team lose (again!). Tons of food fun and buckeyes. I must admit I always enjoy that day, cause the Buckeye's haven't lost yet! (since we've know each other....)

Thanksgiving:

We had an awesome Thanksgiving! We went over to my parents house with my family, the Lovelands, the Jurys, the Diemlers, and the missionaries. We ate tons of food and played games and just had a good time all around. I think I've decided I like the snackies before just as much as the actual dinner! Oh, and I made 8 pies!

Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination:

Nate and I went out with my family to the grand illumination of Williamsburg. We had a great time! We walked around and looked at the shops, listened to a fife and drum core (old school drum core basically) and watched a fantastic fireworks show! I also have to admit that I have fully adjusted to Virginia weather. It was about 25 degrees out and i was FREEZING! I kept making Nate stop by the fires so I could warm up. Crazy, huh?

Christmas Season!!!:

We put up all of our Christmas stuff, and it reminded how much I love the holidays. We have two trees this year. The pretty one in the living room and the family fun one with all of our homemade ornaments and presents under it! We put lights up on the house and everything. I even made Norman a stocking (well made is a stretch, after the disaster last year, I just sewed a stuffed animal on so it would match ours and called it good. If you haven't heard that story, ask me, it's a good one.) We will be staying in VA for actual Christmas Day and then heading up to Michigan. It will be the first year we are in our own place on Christmas day so I'm pretty excited about that! Anyway, I'll add pictures when I get home but this is better than ever.

Merry Christmas! (Oh, and Say Hi, you know I like a fan club!)

For Lil' Johnny

So Johnny asked for more videos of Norman, and so he will get them. Here you go Johnny!



So this is not Norman's best show of listening to us, but she has been better in the past. To be honest, I Think she is tired because I played with her a lot already before this.

If you would like to learn more about Norman, she has her own Blog at Norman the Female Dog.

Update Coming Soon

Well, I did so well for a little while, then fell off of the face of the earth....again. I have taken lots of pictures and I PROMISE to update as soon as I get home today. So this entry is to say, get ready, the exciting details on the Walkers are coming!!!!

Birthday week 08

Now that we have returned from Phoenix, Birthday week has officially started for Diane (although I did start about a week ago by giving her sleeping beauty). So now that it is under way, don't forget to wish Diane a Happy Birthday week!

p.s. we plan to get our pictures from AZ up asap.

No TV and Video games this weekend....

So we have had a really fun weekend! My parents went out of town, so we had Kye all weekend and that means I actually plan activities and cook dinner! Here are some pics (and details of what we did)

These ones are of all of us decorating Sugar Cookies. I had to go super fast because I was the only one making them the way I like (you know, pumpkins and jack'o'lanterns orange, ghosts white, and bats black). This pic is of me and most of the ones I did. (and contrary to popular belief, I am not just OCD, I have proven time and again that the normal looking ones get eaten much better than the "creative kind")
Here are pics over everyone else's "cookies"

Nate's (the green Ghost is Slimer....I actually liked this one)

Kye loved this, he made one of his ghosts purple and then glued wings on it, very creative!


Rachel's were pretty good, the wierd green one is supposed to be a gourd...

Sherise had more fun playing with the icing. Yes, that is black icing on her mouth, not lipstick. She thought it was the funniest thing ever! (I enjoyed that it stained her whole mouth black, teeth and all!) Needless to say we couldn't use the black icing after this.
Norman really liked the icing, and she looks cute with it on her nose!

We also painted Halloween decorations for my house...I love the crafts at Michaels. Rachel and I did some wall hangings. Sherise and I did haunted houses, and Kye and Rachel did masks. Here is a pic of the masks and Sherise's house!

Well, that's all I've got for now, but be proud that I have now successfully posted 2 blogs in a row in one week! Yay for me! (Oh, and if you haven't said hi yet, please leave me a message, I'm vain and will write more if I know I have an audience. Please don't act suprised, you know me :) )

New Habits

Alright, so I hate to admit it, but Nate is the only one who blogs in our family. I pretend like it's me, but up until now, it's not. I've decided that all that is going to change, so here we go.

Yesterday I did something so uncharacteristically Diane, I feel like it's my duty to share it with the rest of you so you can enjoy. Last week I scheduled a French session with my Mom for Tuesday at 7. Great, one more that we can get out of the way! So then my Dad calls on Sunday to ask if the Cub scouts can come to my house for their activity instead of the church (they are learning to cook over fires, and I live 1 minute from the church. By doing it at my house, dad could use is portable fire pit and not have to leave it at the church overnight while it cool, instead it could just sit in my back yard. Plus it's more fun to cook around the woods, and my backyard backs up to the woods, but I'm getting off track). Of course I tell him yes, no problem, I'll be there. Then on Monday our friend calls to invite us to his wife's surprise party the next night, time TBD. We tell him of course, we love JinHee and will definitely be there (by now you should see where this is going). So I'm driving home from the store Tuesday night at about 5 and Nate calls. He asks if 7 will work for the surprise party and I say "Yes, of course, why wouldn't it" he mentions that I have french with mom and I'm like that doesn't matter....not making the connection. It takes a few seconds of his prompting and I realize that I've double booked. Then my dad calls, crap, I've triple booked. That's right, me the very organized control freak has not just double booked, but triple booked WITHOUT REALIZING IT!!! I still can't believe it! I cancel on my parents (dad doesn't need me there) and go to the party, but now I'm doubting myself. I've triple checked my schedule today to make sure I don't do it again. It's driving me crazy! Oh well, it happens to us all. It just re-emphasizes to me how important my calendering is!

Also, if you are reading this, let me know by saying hi. I'm interested to see how many people actually check our blog! (I'm vain, I admit, I will most likely write more if I know people are actually reading about me!) Well, that's it from me. I'll be back soon!

-Diane

PS. Here are some pics with me and the kids I borrow on a regular basis.

She's doing my nails...so cute!

He's out cold, but so adorable!

First No-Hitter since 1972

Last night Carlos Zambrano had his first no hitter of his career. He also ended the cubs drought of no-hitters which lasted 36 years, the longest in the bigs. the only teams who have had longer droughts are the Mets and Padres, which do not really count since niether team has ever had a no hitter. It is nice to see the Cubbies make history, and we give props to Zambrano. Now we can't wait until the next drought is ended in october...

Norman Houdini

here is a fun vid of Norman

Norman Walker

As of Aug 29 2008, the Walker family grew by 1 member. Norman Louisa Walker whose birthday is July 4th joined our family at about 8 weeks old. we rescued her from a local animal shelter. It is also a plus that we wanted a dog, and wanted to start with a puppy. She is a black Labrador Retriever mixed with an Australian Shepard. here are some pictures.

In this First one, she was wandering around our Kitchen and found this cubby and climbed in! So CUTE!!!

In this one she is sleeping with her favorite toy, her, Leopard. It's about the same size as her now but that will change.....

This is her at the vet. She was skiddish when we first went, but once she had met the vet she went right to sleep, happy and healthy.


Finally, here is a video of her playing. I'll try and get some better shots but this is what you have in the meantime! Enjoy!

The Summer

So this summer has been a blast we have done a lot of different things. We started the summer off by getting our own place, which happens to also be our first house.



Our first trip of the summer was the 1st annual Walker family reunion at Cedar point. it was a lot of fun, and we took kye with us. we went on a few rides, and since we were there on the fourth we also watched the fire works on the beach outside the park.



We also took a family picture of the walker clan while we were there, since it was the first time in a while that the enitre family was together, especially after a few weddings and births.


Later on this summer We were able to chaperon the youth conference trip to Palmyra. it was a lot of fun. we enjoyed our family that we had, and loved seeing all of the church historical sites, along with the pageant. Diane even met Nephi (see picture below)!!!!!!


We also took and impromptu trip to the beach where we stayed at a family friend's beach house. Most of the Nuffers were already there, so we kept Kye and Sherise for the extra days that we stayed. we went miniature golfing and to the beach a lot so it was a blast.


To end our summer break we went to Water Country USA, although we didn't get any pictures of this because we were all too wet to try and take them. We took Kye and Rachel and it was a lot of fun going to a themed water park with all of us. As it turns out, Diane does not like pitch black water slides. We heard her screaming the whole way down. We are thinking of getting season passes for it next year, thats how much fun we had.

So all in all it has been a pretty good summer break from school for Nate and just summer fun for Diane from work.

home

so here is a vid of our new home. enjoy

Spring Break!!!

OK, so I know that Diane doesn't really have a spring break, and that it doesn't look like we went to the brightest warmest place, but Diane and I really enjoyed ourselves at the Outer Banks in NC. We arrived late Saturday/ early Sunday at a beach house a friend of the family let us use. They called it a "belated wedding gift" for us to take a honeymoon of sorts. It actually was really nice in this way, because it was the first time Diane and I have been able to take a trip with just us, with no real obligations.
So on Sunday we just got the lay of the land, and hung out together all day. It was nice we drove down the road that was along the beach and we also just spent some quiet time together. Monday we basically went shopping ad got a couple of post cards to send to our family. Tuesday we visited the lighthouses that were around. it was a lot of fun and we really thought they were beautiful. Wednesday, our last full day there we went to the wright bothers memorial. It was neat and informative.
I guess the underlying theme of our time spent hanging out, was spent on Lost season 3. (we caught up on the episode we had not seen) That was fun. we really did have a good time there and we enjoyed being together with no real worries, but each other. Hope you all get to spend time like ths with someone you hold dear.
peace

Nate (and Diane)

An Update, Finally!

So I realize that a ton has changed since we last wrote, so here's what's new with us. We have moved to Richmond Virginia where Nate is going to school at Virginia Commonwealth University to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am working at Bonefish Grill at night just waiting tables waiting for a bigger better job to come along. Many things are in the works, but nothing is official yet.

WE love the area, it is so much warmer and sunnier than Provo in the winter, and our ward is wonderful. I got called to be the YW basketball coach, so I've been trying to learn more about it and I'm really enjoying it. Nate does most of the work, but I like it. I'm also teaching sunbeams and loving it. Nate is teaching Sunday school and does a good job there, so we are content.

Okay, so I have no idea how to post pictures, so when Nate gets home I will have him do it so you guys can see what we look like (because apparently Caitlyn forgot). Hope everyone is doing well! When life gets more exciting I'll write more!

Diane