One Busy Weekend

For those of our family friends who aren't aware yet, my brother, Orlin was just married this past weekend to the sweetest gal, Rachel! They were married in the Bountiful Temple on May 17th. It was a wonderful ceremony, reception, and family get-together. Jason and I were able to fly from Chicago to Salt Lake to attend.
The night before the wedding, some of our extended family went together to the temple with some family names to do sealings. (Before her death, Grandmother Clements had done MOUNTAINS upon MOUNTAINS of geneology and left the names to be done by family). We were even able to seal a family of 8 all at one time. It was a short little vacation. I left Thursday, Jason left Friday, the Wedding was Saturday, we left shortly after the reception that night to drive my car back to Chicago and we arrived back in Chicago Sunday night. Here are a few pictures.

I was also able to do the flowers for Orlin and Rachel:

Many Thanks!

Well, we've finally reached our destination...Chicagoland! We certainly wouln't have made it here without the help of many of our friends.
Thank you all (you know who you are) for the dinners be it leftovers or not, free babysitting, packing help, moving help, social brakes to keep our sanity, soccer games...have I mentioned free babysitting? Everything on this list and so much more helped us out during our move. Thank you all.
We are loving it here in our new area. We are sharing an apartment with a great family which has two kids, 3 and 5. We are living in downtown Geneva close to all the shops, malls, library, parks, and river. There is so much to do. I love all the old architecture in our neighborhood, it has so much character.
Our ward is amazing. We are already becoming active in any service opportunity available. All our friends from last year remember us and are so excited for us to be there.
All in all this is a great place to be right now, but we miss all our friends. Keep in touch!

I just thought this was funny

Walker thinks he is just SOOOOOO funny sometimes. Sometimes he is right. (as those of you with children already know, kids will be cute, funny, or smart, until you bring out the camera/camcorder.
Oh, and I saw the "picture face, double picture face" from somebody else's video. I don't remember who it was. maybe somebody remembers?

Happy Birthday Walker!!

My Little Boy is all grown up! We celebrated his 2nd birthday today!
We had a lovely time listening to General Conference both here and over at Jason's parents' house. During the morning session of conference, Walker lead the music for each song. Every week he watches me lead the music in sacrament meeting and likes to imitate. I caught a glimpse of it on video:

He knows that when the song is done that it's prayer time. I think that's why he folded his arms when he knew I was watching. After the first session, we headed over to Gramma and Pumpa's house to have a barbeque and to watch the second session. Walker slept through the majority of the session and was ready to play the second he got up. He loved the "Diego" tricycle Gramma got him, and squeeled like a pig with laughter while on the trampoline.
We sang "Happy Birthday" with most of Jason's extended family there, and as you can tell, he really liked the balloons made out of frosting! After coming home and sitting down to write this, I realize that I haven't even given him OUR presents to him! Aaaah! Aren't I such a horrible Mom? Well, tomorrow he will have an activity book with crayons and also a Cars Magic coloring book.

Sshockxs!

For a while now, Walker has known his letters, and has been using more words lately. Once he finds out the connection of a word to what it is, he uses that word to no end. One thing I don't get though, is the way he says "socks".
"Walker what does the 's' say?"
"Ssssss"
"What does the 'o' say?
"Aaah" (for those of you who don't have 'Letter Factory' memorized, they use an open O.)
"Walker what does the 'k' say?"
"K"
"Walker, say 'socks'."
"Sshockxs"


To follow up on the previous blog, my other surprises have been: a picture frame, cookies galore, an Easter balloon, strawberries with a can of whip cream, a bottle of lotion with a coupon to the Jasonbury Spa that entitles me to 3 hours of massage, fresh tulips, and an Easter basket full of goodies. My sweetie gets home tonight and I am sooo excited to see him! We've done the week or so without each other before, but not with no communication. (Remember, Jason was in the middle of the Costa Rican wilderness.)
So our next step this week is to sit anxiously by the phone and wait to hear about the house. No news yet, but hopefully this week we will have word.

Is it Birthday Week Again?

No. But it sure feels like it. Jason, as you all must know by now is in Costa Rica, but before he left I think he arranged to have some friends, on different days, bring me a surprise of some kind. So the other night, Shae and Wes brought over some teeny Ben & Jerry's ice cream. They had turned over all the top labels to wright out a message that said " I - Miss- You". On Saturday, Shae, Wes, Brady and Katie show up with a symphony candy bar, chocolate coins and gerber daisies. They kept me company for the evening.......THE FRIENDS, not the chocolates. And yesterday, I went out to Jason's parents house for dinner. Heather just got back from Ecuador and brought back a few things for our family. Here is where Jason doesn't find out what she got for him until he gets back! Mua ha ha! So on my way back home I was parking the car in the parking lot and I noticed my friend, Kristin, waiting for me. She had brought for me a yummy pear green candle wrapped in tissue paper and raffia. I love it! No surprises yet today, but I do have dinner at a friends, card making on Tuesday, and Enrichment on Thursday to keep me busy. I guess life does drudge on without the ones we love.
I couldn't let the week go by without posting Walker's "cute thing" he just learned. The story goes way back when we got our Roomba. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is my slave. It is our robot vacuum, and I love using it. With Walker afraid of the loud vacuum, it is so much easier to clean up and not have to hold Walker while I use it. At first the Roomba startled him, but we tried to show him that it couldn't hurt Walker. As we moved the Roomba toward us with the remote, we would pat our legs and say "here Roomba". (Like a dog). So the other day, I was sitting on the floor and Walker wanted to go outside. He grabbed my hand and dropped it a couple times but then he looked at me bent half way over and started patting his legs! I could just imagine him saying, "here Mama, come here!"

Little news lately

So there has been very little to update on the past couple of weeks. Just more of Sarah going to work, me playing with Walker, etc. etc. However, I decided that since I will be gone for the next couple weeks, I would write a little something on here. I will be in Costa Rica for a Biology class, counting and identifying migratory raptors. (hawks, eagles, turkey vultures, etc.) Didn't know that raptors migrated did you? So, to top it off, I will leave little picture for you.
I will be on the southeast side, near bribr'i. It is called the kekoldi watchsite.
Anyway, Sarah may be updating you all on her little surprise that I have waiting for her while she is gone - you all should call or email her, to say hi. (Heaven knows she won't know what to do with her time, since she won't be cleaning up after me.)