Don't worry, we're still here

First of all, I have to say thank you to anyone who is still reading our dwindling blog. There hasn't really been much to report lately, and as my twin sister, Monique, so lovingly stated the other day "Your life is pretty boring." Thanks Moey for that awesome reassurance. :-) I love her. Anyway, back to ME! This week was unseasonably nice, so my sister Brittany (who would never make comments like the one above), came over and we let the kids scooter themselves to a park near our house. It was a little slow going with them, but they had a great time getting there.

Dean's pose. Why do they think they need to shut their eyes to smile for the camera?

                               

Check out the sweet static in Evy's hair!

                                                

Dawson has found a new love for slides. He climbs up and goes down the big slides all by himself! (I keep forgetting that in 4 months my little baby will turn 2)

My beautiful sis Brittany and her baby Duke.

Checking out the scenery from the top of the slide

Another new love Dawson has found is getting into my pan drawer under the oven. Even though it's a little annoying and loud, I'm just glad it took him so long to figure out that he could get in there.

And I can't get that mad because most of the time he'll clean up by himself.

It's fun to see Dawson love other people's shoes because Dean went through that stage when he was Dawson's age. Dawson walks around the house in everyone else's shoes. And he loves to wear Dean's beanie.

To celebrate the first day of Spring, Jonathan and I went to Costco and bought some things for our backyard. We got a bin to keep all the backyard stuff in, and the boys had a blast playing in the box.

As we've been digging around our backyard, we've found quite a few frogs and one snake (it really is a jungle out there). I was weeding a while back and started pulling out leaves from in between two rocks when I noticed two small frog eyes staring at me. Creepy. Anyway, now whenever we find new frogs we put them in their little "home" in between the rocks. In this video you can't actually see them because they got too deep in the whole by the time I grabbed my camera, but it's cute anyway.

An Attempt at Family Pictures

Since Jonathan and I are gluttons for punishment, we decided to have my mother take family pictures of us in our backyard last weekend. It was 20 minutes of pure torture (that's how long I lasted). Dean tried really hard to be good because we told him he'd get a surprise, but he just could not keep still. Dawson, on the other hand, was the little devil. Needless to say, neither child got their surprise. Their little cars from the Target dollar aisle are still hiding in my cupboard. This was our best family shot, so you can tell how great the rest of them are.

Now, although we didn't get any good shots of all 4 of us, we did get some precious ones of us with each of the boys. Here's my shot with Dean.

This is my absolute favorite! I think it is purely fantastic.

Don't be fooled! Dean did not just stand there with that smile of his face ready for the picture. My mom had to play peek-a-boo with him and catch him right as he turned his head around. She did a great job!

This is one of maybe 3 pictures that Dawson actually smiled in. 

And last but not least, here is the funniest of them all. Here's to better luck next time! Thanks to my mom for having to witness all of this.

A beautiful day for yard work

Well, it's the middle of February, and instead of having our usual 30 degree weather and lots of rain, we have mild temperatures and sunshine! It has been a beautiful week, and Jonathan and I were able to work on the planters in our front yard. They were covered in moss and rocks, so we had to remove the thick moss covering all our beautiful rocks and rearrange them into a nice planter. Once it really is Spring and we don't have the chance of a frost again, I will probably plant flowers around the trees.

We also worked a little bit in the back, although that is going to take a lot of work. Yesterday we just worked  on ripping moss off the rocks and taking out dead plants.

Dean was a HUGE help, as you can imagine. He wanted his gloves on too just like Daddy, and he pulled plants out that weren't dead. He had a great a time.

Here are the boys after a hard day of working in the yard. We also tried taking family pictures but it was actually quite a disaster so we were pretty wiped out. I put on a movie for the kids and Jonathan sacked out on the chair.

Here's a fun picture. I made this collage of pictures I took while we lived in Little Italy in Cleveland. I got it framed and put it up in our office. I miss our 4 years in Cleveland SO much, and this helps me remember all the fun we had there. To everyone who lived or lives in Cleveland, we miss you!!

Christmas, Moving, and the New House!

What a whirlwind! That last two months have brought much change and excitement to our family. We closed on our house on December 18th and left for Idaho on the 19th. We had a great time with Jonathan's family celebrating Christmas. We had a big family dinner and gift exchange with 3 out of his 4 siblings (Jo, we missed you!!). We actually got Dean to sing Jingle Bells for everyone, with the help of his cousin Whitney, Dawson and me.

Here are most of the Walker grandchildren all wearing their new Christmas pajamas. I can't believe we got almost all of them smiling at the same time.

Dawson had his grandpa pretty much wrapped around his little finger.

We got the fortunate opportunity to have Santa and Mrs. Claus come visit us on Christmas Eve before Santa made his rounds. Dean wasn't too thrilled, but Dawson LOVED the candy canes!

This is the boys on our 10-hour drive home from Twin Falls. It really wasn't that bad, except that the kids never slept at all. It's true! A 10 hour car ride and I think Dawson took a 45 minute nap. That happened on the way to Idaho, too. What in the world is wrong with my children?

Dean got a scooter from my parents for Christmas and he was so excited that he took it to bed with him.

Okay, time for the fun stuff! Here are two "before" pictures of the house. This picture is the living room with some ugly paint on the wall and my sis Shelby helping tape it up.

And this is the office with, again, some ugly color.

The "after" pictures! Here is the finished living room with a beautiful "Biscuit" color. (I think I was hungry when I picked out everything. Listen to these colors: kitchen is Toasted Nutmeg, entry way is Fresco Cream, and our carpet is Muffin. Hmm, someone around here likes to eat...)

This is Jonathan's new "man chair" that his parents brought us.

Here is the finished office with our new desk from craigslist. I love that site!

Dawson's room

Dean's room (of course!) Eventually it will have red trim going around the middle of the room where they gray is.

Toy room

the kitchen, and thanks to Jonathan's grandparents for their table!

The front room

Here is my backyard. I love it!! I will love it even more when we redo a lot of it this summer. It has a large patio area for the kids to ride bikes and a nice area for grass, although right now it is overgrown and ugly.

We're going to plant grass up to the rocks and have landscaping above the rocks, and I will be so happy when we finally rip out that UGLY tree that Jonathan is standing next to. It just looks so sad all droopy like that. :-)

I absolutely love my new house. I love the view of Mt. Rainier and the quiet cul-de-sac and how close it is to everything I need. The other night I took this picture of the sun turning the sky pink. It was beautiful!

Big News! (no, Caprice isn't pregnant)

This is Jonathan here, reporting on some fun news.  The house that we put an offer on 2 months ago has FINALLY been accepted.  We will actually have our own house!  If the closing process goes smoothly, we close on Dec. 22.  It is in a beautiful neighborhood in Puyallup, with a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier.  

Also, my new niece was born this week and totally STOLE my birthday.  I have been the only November birthday in my extended family for a long time...my whole life!  Since she is so flippin cute though, I am happy she is here and glad to share our birthday.  Congrats Jill and Steve.

Yesterday I took Dean to the traveling Train Show that happened to be coming through town.  He was amazed at the hundreds of trains everywhere.  His favorite was the Thomas train display with all the characters.

He made me so proud by deciding to go on the big Thomas train ride.  He NEVER does anything like this.  

Dean was so good at not touching the trains, but couldn't help putting his finger closer and closer.

We need to make this a yearly thing Dean.  I really had a great time with you.