Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for all that I have! I am truly blessed with a wonderful family and amazing friends! God bless you all and may you have a wonderful Holiday Season!

So thankful for my beautiful kids!

LOTS of new pictures...

We loaded lots of new pictures on www.walkerfamilyjoy.shutterfly.com. There are several new photo albums from August through October.

Thanks for looking:)

Ann Marie's Cheesecakes...

...Stay tuned for more information about our new company!!

Website should be up and running with information soon!

Available for purchase now!

Little Mommy

Jenna watches, absorbs and repeats everything around her. She asks questions, sometimes annoyingly, about anything and everything...even dissecting the words to a random song on the radio. She wants to know every detail, who they are singing about, why the particular event is happening and so on. She amazes me with her thirst for knowledge and get a kick out of hearing what she has learned as she repeats it in such a natural way. Take for example today, Caden is over and we are enjoying the morning outside. Caden's birthday is tomorrow and he brought cup cakes from home so I decide to let the kids have one as a snack before lunch since it is Friday and Caden's birthday. After finishing Caden is wearing some of his chocolate cup cake around his mouth. Jenna stops Caden before he leaves the deck to join them in the bounce house. She grabs a towel and says "Come here buddy, let me clean you up".
She gets the towel a little damp and proceeds "this will just take a second sweetie and you can go play". She finishes, tosses the towel down and says "there ya go kiddo".
Then later after I had asked repeatedly not to pick up the cats Caden attempts to pick Alexandra up. Jenna promptly reminds him that they aren't supposed to pick them up. Caden responds with "well Ava did it" and Jenna doesn't miss a beat and says "Now Caden just because Ava does it doesn't mean you should and besides you are older and need to show her how to listen".
I was standing a few feet away from them and had to turn around to conceal the smile on my face as I broke into laughter. Why am I always alone when these cute things happen! I so wish I had a camera on them 24/7!

Summertime fun

If I didn't know any better I would swear it wasn't summer, with high temperatures in the 70s and cool breezes making it even chilly. I met up with a friend at a park last weekend to let the kids run around and let us moms catch up and with the breeze I even had Cole wrapped up in a blanket...in JULY! 6 years ago this weekend Eric and I got married. Guests were literally melting away in the heat and our high temperatures this weekend are in the 70s. Not that I am complaining, we have been enjoying the weather! The girls have been bouncing in the bounce house, splashing in the water table and running around the yard with out heat exhaustion. We have found a pool near Eric's restaurant that the girls love. We have made it a few times and even though the water slightly chilly from the lower than normal temperatures the girls played for hours.
We have been enjoying birthday parties, my baby girl is now 2! She repeated "Happy Day" to anyone and everyone. Now on to the 2's...are they over yet?

Happy Birthday, Ava!

My baby girl turned 2 years old on July 5! Every parent always says how fast time flies in regards to your children but really I can't believe she is 2! I recently ran into a former co-worker, it didn't seem that that much time had passed since I had seen her and then I realized I have since had 2 children since I have seen her...WOW! Having Cole this year we decided to keep Ava's 2nd birthday low key. Having 3 children now, we can't do them all big! Her birthday weekend/week has been quite eventful though and the girls have been busy. Saturday the 4th we BBQ'd and swam at my step-sister's and had a blast with her friends. Sunday (Ava's birthday) we had a 1st birthday party to attend of one of our most favorite little guys and finished our day with our neighborhood firework display!

This weekend we had a small family get together for Ava's birthday. Being in the evening Ava did pretty well for her. She had no nap and this week has been whiny and full of explosive tantrums...oh how I enjoy. The tantrums have led me to consider working part time outside of the home. I have talked to a couple restaurants about a server position. Great flexibility, extra cash and a break from the house sounds perfect as my new 2 year old is screaming, spitting and hitting her older sister as we speak. While fighting with her sister Ava continues to love her brother and want to be the one to help take care of him. Her new found independence and "I do it" attitude has her right in the middle of feedings and changing diapers. This has also gotten Ava the expected "spray" from her brother too. She wasn't quite sure what happened and stood stared with most perplexed look on her face while I couldn't help but laugh...I told her to back away from the changing table...of course she didn't listen.




Our little man is continuing to grow and surprisingly is doing quite well surrounded by high energy little girls. I tend to count everyday to confirm he has all limbs and digits as Ava will wildly grab his arms and legs. He has also already played catch, well if catching a beach ball with your face qualifies. He also plays peek-a-boo regularly, although Ava's version is VERY loud! As rough as she can be she also will run to be the first one to tell me he is crying and I need to hold him. It is entertaining to say the least watching them interact and some moments just warm the heart to watch them all care for each other, then they snap out of it and are back to a screaming match.


5 weeks old!

Family of 5

We are now adjusting to being a family of 5 more and more each day. The girls are still completely smitten with their little brother and are both little mommies. Cole is now gaining weight and at his 3 week check up weighed in at 7lbs, 6oz!! The Dr. was just as pleased as I was and after visiting for 3 weeks in a row we decided to take a break and skip a week so next week is the dreaded second Hepatitis shot:( He is growing and changing everyday and really is a good baby. You don't hear him cry much even as Ava is trying to rip his limbs off or tossing a viewfinder or any other toy that is nearby at him for him to enjoy. As rough as she can be she is also so sweet and gentle with her kisses and runs to him as if he fusses to tell him "K Cole, K".

The heat has been unbearable so the girls have gotten outside for just little spurts to enjoy the water while their brother is sleeping. They have had a blast washing bikes and cars and playing with the hose while they patiently wait for the part for their pool to arrive. They have enjoyed outdoors as much as possible and it gets them out of the house to avoid the screaming fights that sometimes occur.

June 1, 2009

Our little man arrived!


After going to the Dr. Monday morning, June 1 we scheduled an induction for Wednesday, June 3rd. The Dr. was strongly recommending I schedule induction ASAP while I had a million things to still do since my due date wasn't until the 23rd, I was not expecting to deliver the first week of June. I decided to run some errands and leave the girls at my Grandma's just in case something happened before and Eric and I could make the drive directly to the hospital. After leaving the Dr. the contractions started, mild but I was able to time them and feel them peak. At 2:30 Eric and I went to our pre-registration appointment at the hospital. I mentioned to the RN at the appointment that I was thinking about staying and she convinced me that I was not in labor. I decided to visit the girls since they would be staying overnight and I wouldn't see them for a few days. After about an hour of two very excited little girls the contractions started getting a bit stronger. I had two really strong ones back to back and then I started bleeding. I immediately called Eric and drove myself to the hospital, by then contractions were really strong and I was terrified. I made it to Anderson Hospital at 6:30pm and Cole Stevan Walker was born at 7:35pm! He was in a hurry! He was 3 weeks early, sunny side up and the delivery was so fast we have had a rough transition. Cole was under an oxygen hood for 14 hours, IV antibiotic and phototherapy before we were discharged from Anderson.

Finally we were home and the girls were in love!

Unfortunately we had to go to the NICU at Cardinal Glennon for more aggressive phototherapy treatment due to hyperbilirubinemia (Jaundice) for two nights.


The hospital is amazing and the staff are some of the nicest people! We are finally home again and hoping to stay. Cole's levels are low but have rebounded so we are watching him closely and threatening the light box again...he doesn't seem to like it and when referred to as a wimpy white boy he usually starts fighting harder. He is a snuggler and so loving and I can't wait to watch him grow more!

Our Day at the Zoo

We had a great time! It was warm and sunny...almost too warm and sunny for this Momma by the end of the day! I could have lived in the penguin habitat yesterday for awhile. That will be the end of my extravagant walking adventures until our little one arrives!

Happy Mother's Day!

The girls and I started our weekend out enjoying our new found freedom with having a second vehicle again! Saturday we spent the afternoon in history visiting Robert Wadlow's statue and Haskell Playhouse. After they were cooperative and allowed me to take pictures at each sight I took them for ice cream and then the park.



Haskell Playhouse



I am not sure if they have official tour hours, they had a luncheon that day and some ladies were cleaning up so we got to go in for a look. It is filled with some pictures of the little girl, Lucy, antique furniture and babies. Ava was memorized with all the babies...we have to go back for pictures of her inside:)

This morning we went to a new church to check and and the girls were pretty good. Ava got lots of looks because of her giggles at just the right time. The Pastor was discussing mothers and at one point made a joke about referencing how the children feel blessed by their mothers...the Pastor said something along the line of how they obviously weren't teenagers. Ava burst out in laughter and our entire section turned around to giggle at her. Always putting on a show!

The girls and I Mother's Day

Special Moments

Morning book time...


My little Mommy practicing to be my little helper...

Almost Ready!

We are just down to painting and bedding for our little guy! I had a wonderful surprise diaper dash/shower Sunday and Cole's closet is FULL of diapers and adorable clothes! It is so strange for me to see tiny clothes in the closet that aren't all girly with pink and frills but we are loving it and the girls love to look at all the tiny clothes too. Sunday was such a nice day, other than the weather, we had a great time at Eric's restaurant and it was such a unexpected and nice surprise and really great timing with the last month I have had. Now it seems even more real that my due date is approaching, as if my bulging belling didn't clue me in daily:)

1st Bike Ride to the Park!

Have I mentioned I LOVE Spring!?

Easter Weekend

We started the Holiday weekend out with a little neighborhood fun, a local church put on a block party for our neighborhood complete with good company, BBQ and bounce houses. All the girls had to hear was bounce and they were putting their shoes on! Mostly it was people from the church as I think the Holiday weekend had many people celebrating with family but we met some great people and a church to add to my list of those we are checking out to attend on a regular basis.

Jenna and I talked a lot about the meaning of Easter and its history along with the fun of the Easter bunny. She was so sweet listening and we separated our day into Easter Bunny fun Sunday morning where the girls were each left a basket of goodies and a T-Ball set for Ava and a new bike for Jenna. Then it was on to my cousin's church for a beautiful service! Jenna and I spend Saturday talking about Resurrection Day...which she keeps calling "Correction Day" and the real meaning of Easter's celebration. Both girls were so proud of their birthstone cross necklaces they recieved The rest of the day was centered on fun with the kids, Easter baskets, Egg hunts and family.