Sunday, January 13, 2013

Wedding and Christmas

Our little curly haired girl enjoying our Christmas decorations.  She was so cute when we got them out.  Every time I brought a new decoration out, she would squeal with delight and say, "Oh, thank you mother."

A few nights before the wedding, Jon and Whitney were singing and playing the guitar for us and Bethany wanted a turn.  Jon accompanied her while she made up the cutest songs about libraries, losing your glasses, and snapping alligators.  We all got a kick out of them and were quite impressed with her creativity.
At a restaurant after Whitney went through the temple for the first time!

Bethany was in awe of Whitney in her beautiful wedding dress and was so excited to see her come out of the temple.  She told me, "Mom, Whitney looks like a princess."  She was pretty much stuck to Jon or Whitney's side the whole day.

Dick and Rhonda with all their children.  It was a beautiful day in December with the temperatures in the 60's and the bride and groom were just about as happy as anyone could ever be.


Our family just outside the temple waiting for Whitney and Jon to come out!

Our boys enjoying their newest cousin...Lily Walker.  They had three new cousins born in a matter of six days.

Bethany loves her new uncle Jon.
The kids and I all enjoyed dancing the night away at the reception.  Ken mostly watched us and not quite sure what Whitney is doing.  Yelling at her husband for the first time? :)



Having some more bonding time with sweet little Lily, just look at that Tutu!

Christmas Eve, all the cousins acted out the nativity as we read it from Luke 2.  This is our extra buff shepherd and...
our sweet little angels.  Here is the whole group...Ken was happy that David took the roll of donkey this year.


Christmas morning we all got up, got dressed, had breakfast and didn't start opening presents until around 10:00 a.m., keeping with the Walton tradition.  Wesley with the latest Percy Jackson book.

I got a new soft blanky!

Carter was totally stoked with his awesome remote control car that can go 30 miles per hour.  Take note of Carter's bruise under his nose.  He sucked on a juice bottle too hard and actually got a bruise just in time for Christmas pictures.

Cameron was in heaven with his Pokémon DS that he has been wanting for years.

Bethany got lots of princess things: books, slippers, barbies and coloring books.
Nanny sent us her normal hard to open packages with lots of extra tape and packing.  She made a book with a poem created by her for each member of our whole family (all my siblings and their children) and pictures of each of us as well.  She also included several favorite family recipes and Christmas poems that she has written over the years.  It is a true treasure to have...it brought tears to my eyes.
We invited Henry over from our ward to have breakfast with us and watch us open presents.  He is from Iran and doesn't have any family here in the U.S.A.  He was one of Bethany's nursery leaders for a long time.  It was fun to have him join us for the festivities.


It actually snowed on Christmas day...a rare occurrence in Dallas.  I enjoyed the beauty from the window and was grateful it melted a few days later, but the kids had a great time throwing snowballs and making forts.


Wesley got a Kindle Fire for Christmas this year, his first electronic device.  We are so proud of him for working hard to earn half of the money to buy it. 
We visited the Putnams even though some of us were still getting over sicknesses and were unable to visit with the Beams.  We didn't want to put Nikolas or Zachary in the hospital.  On New Year's Eve, we celebrated at the Cheney's house with an adults vs. children nerf gun war.  Here we all are in our gear...we look pretty fierce!