Shelly's Bridal Shower

This weekend we had my sister Shelly's Bridal shower! It was extra fun because we had all 6 sisters in my family there, and we haven't all been together at thte same time since I got married. Here's a pic of all of us with mom. It was really fun to all be together.

We had lots of other people at the shower too! Shelly's favorite part was the food (yummy Cafe Rio style salads). We played lots of games. The funniest by far was the toilet paper wedding dresses. We broke everyone into groups of 3 or 4, gave them a bunch of toilet paper, and tasked them with making a dress. Here is a pic of the winning dress (please note they used a pillow to make the bussell, my favorite part!)

After all the games were done we had Shelly open her presents. This one was my favorite. I guess I better explain. When we were growing up my mom used the chip beef jars as glasses because they were a great size for little kids and practically indestructable. Plus they have cute stars across the top. Yep, so this is a pic of Cami giving Shelly 8 of those glasses (aka jars of chip beef!). Needless to say Shelly thought it was funny!

This last one is just too stinking cute not to post!

As always, thanks for following the life of the Walkers!

Pay it Forward

So I think this is a really great idea! I saw it on both Caitlyn and Maya's blogs and now I'm copying it. It took me a while to post because I had to come up with something I could home make that people would want but now I have it! Also, I really like the philosopy behind this idea, that we can do two things: 1) Find Value in the Homemade again and 2) Send something to people without need reward. I would like to think I can do both of these things, so here's one way I am practicing.

Here's the deal. The first 5 people to leave a comment here will get a homemade gift from me. It doesn't matter if I don't know you. If you're just randomly blog stalking (c'mon, we all do it) and you come across this post and want to be one of the first 5 to leave a comment, go for it! The only catch is that you have to pay the gift forward by reposting this on your blog/Facebook/Myspace. I will check to make sure you've done so. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be homemade. I'll get it to you sometime this year (but probably sooner than later so I don't have it looming over my head). I don't promise you'll love it, but I'm not going to make you something I think you'll hate, either, because that would be like an un-gift and defeat the entire purpose.

To be fair, I am planning on having this sent out to you by the end of the week, so hurry up and claim it so I can do so! And no worries on not liking it, it's me, I know you will love it!!!

Garden

So this year we are going to attempt a garden. I am hoping that it will successful (not like last year where it looked like the place all plants go to die!!). In April we set up our herb garden in baskets off of the deck, and because they are doing so well I've decided to try a little more. We are trying lettuce, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and tomatoes. We also have a bunch of herbs (basil, oregano, dill, parsley, chives, mint, thyme, rosemary, and cilantro). I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Nate, being the wonderful guy that he is, cleared the ground, put in the bricks and potting soil, and then the fence. He's also helping me remember to water everything (This may have been my problem last year....). Try not to be too shocked, but I actually have some pictures of our new little garden. Keep in mind that is does not include most of the herbs.These one's I'm attempting to grow from seeds....we'll see how that works.

Here's a shot of thw whole garden. I just planted flower seed in the far left corner. Hopefully they will grow and be lovely!

Well, if you have any helpful hints or suggestions that will make me a better gardner I would really appreciate them!!! -Diane

Picking Strawberries

Yep, so we (and by we I mean Nate, Cami, Sherise, Kye and I) went to the Chesterfield Berry Farm's annual Strawberry Celebration! It was super fun! We got to ride a hay ride out to the strawberry fields and then pick (and of course sample) all of the delicious berries. I forgot how absolutely fantastic a sun-warmed strawberry is fresh off the plant! Plus with all of the rain we've been getting, they were especially juicy! As you can imagine, Sherise was incredibly picky about her strawberries and picked about 10 the whole time, but I have to admit that her 10 berries looked incredible! We also got to see some really cute lambs, goats, rabbits (who live in a little village called bunnyville), and even a turkey with it's feather spread. Overall it was an awesome trip, plus it meant that we spend the rest of the weekend eating chocolate covered strawberries, drinking strawberry smoothies, making strawberry shortcake, and just eating them in general! Of course I don't have pictures because that would mean I brought my camera, which I didn't, but we had a fabulous time none the less!

Spring 2009!

Well, as always, Nate and I have had a very busy spring! Too many details to share it all, but I'll tell you about some of the best highlights!

In April we held the 3rd annual Walker Easter Egg Hunt! This is the first time we have had any children participate, so it was extra fun. We had planned on doing it outside at my parents house, but the gross weather forced us indoors, so the kids had theirs up on the third floor. I'm sure we have pictures somewhere, but there were eggs literally EVERYWHERE! I've accumulated several hundred eggs at this point, so I think the kids had a good time. Then the adults hunted for the 2 dozen or so Nate had hidden on the first floor. I forgot I had put the Easter erasers in the glitter eggs, so most of the adults found silly erasers rather than dove chocolate! Nate hid the golden egg in the flour jar UNDER the flour. Needless to say Sherise found that one, not any of our friends, as they were all way too polite to stick their hands in someone else's flour. It was a blast!

Also, my friend Shannon and I made Easter skirts (again, I'm at work, so any post, even without pictures, is better than no post at all). We bought a pattern but when we opened it it turned out that someone had switched it for a little girls dress! We ended up just using one of Shannon's skirts as our pattern, and I'm pleased to say that they turned out pretty darn cute! Yep, so that's that.

Then the biggie....In March I was called to be the Ward Camp Specialist (but not released as primary chorister to my relief, I love that calling!). The big job of the camp specialist (apart from actually going to girls camp) is planning and executing a fundraiser to raise money for the girls to go to camp. Camp is $125.00 a girl, and our ward has around 20 girls going to camp, so this is a HUGE undertaking. We decided to host a dinner/dance. We served a 4-course dinner, had a the local high school Jazz band play, and had the church decorated beautifully (if I do say so myself). I must admit I'm a little crazy, I went as far as getting up on one of those giant 2 story ladders 8 or 10 times as we moved it around so I could place all the track lights right where I wanted them! We had twinkle lights all around the perimeter and twinkle lights wrapped in tulle coming down from the center of the ceiling to the sides of the gym. The tables were set very formally with cloths, centerpieces, favors, and the full formal place settings (clear plastic to my dismay, as the building did not have enough forks to feed 100 with a salad AND dinner fork). I am ashamed to admit that I didn't take any pictures, the only ones I have are of the food (and even those are from the photo shoot, not the actual night, although what we served looked just like it). I think I'll put some of those up just so you can see. Half of the girls spent the night in the nursery watching the 41 children who showed up! The others worked their tails off in the kitchen and serving dinner to the 100 adults who came to support them and it was awesome. My favorite part was the Jazz band. They were awesome and made it truly spectacular. In the end we were able to raise over half of what the girls need for camp, more than I could have ever expected!

This was the first course, a Tomato Basil Bruschetta served on a Garlic Crustini!

Course #2, less exciting, was a tossed salad with a homemade Citrus Vinaigrette.

Course #3, the Entree, was a Pesto Pasta and Italian Chicken topped with Fresh Parmesan!

Course #4 and my personal favorite, awesome ice cream with butter cookies! The only difference between this picture and that night is that we had raspberry sauce instead of fresh raspberries. Still just as yummy!

Yep, so besides that I'm keeping busy with work, Shelly's Bridal Shower (yes,our little Shelly is getting married!! Hooray!), and life! And a special thanks to Maya for giving me the push to actually update! Oh, and on a totally different note, go see Star Trek. Yes, it's worth the ridiculous theatre prices. I had never seen any of Star Trek and I LOVED it, so go see it!

Alrighty, have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!!