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!


Disney Magic

This is one of the 20 pictures that Bethany took of  herself.  We thought this one was a nice ballet view.  She loves to get into everything...even the camera.

This is Cameron at his Safety Town field trip.  I got to be a chaperone.  His friend Briana was his little shadow all day.

Practicing what to do during a tornado drill.

Right after election day, I organized a luncheon for the teachers at Wesley's Middle School (I am the Teacher Appreciation person on the PTA board).  This is my good friend Rhonda who is always there to help me.  So great to have friends like her :) 

Off to Florida, for our Universal Studios/Disney Adventure.  I made a list for the two older boys of all the things they needed to pack for the trip.  The list included 4 shirts.  You will notice, however, that Wesley has the same shirt on every day.  He brought one shirt (the one he was wearing) and the funny thing is that the saying on the shirt is "ALL DAY LONG."  We almost taped a piece of paper with the word "week" over the word "day" because he wore it ALL WEEK LONG.  Luckily, we had a washer and dryer in the condo we stayed in and we washed it a few times so it wasn't completely disgusting.

Hogwarts express and Hogwarts castle.  "The Flight of the Hippogryph" was a favorite for Cameron and Carter.  Wesley loved the Hogwarts Castle simulator ride and we all liked the Butter Beer.

Inside Hogwarts castle.

There was a Dr. Seuss land that was part of Universal Studios Isle of Adventure.  It was definitely Bethany's favorite.

She was excited to get her picture taken with "the white and yellow Grinch" as she called them.

On the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom.

It was so fun to see Bethany interact with the princesses.   It was precious!  They were so sweet with her and spent quite a bit of time talking with and complimenting her.  Bethany was in heaven.

Cinderella...

Sleeping Beauty and...

Rapunzel!

On the Jungle Cruise Tour.  We thought the tour guide was hilarious.  I think we were the only ones that could hear the jokes because no one else ever laughed.  Maybe we are just easily amused.

A lot of the time, we split up because the boys and Ken wanted to go on completely different rides than Beth and I.  This is Beth at the "Indiana Jones" show at Disney Hollywood Studios and then below on "The Great Movie Ride."

One day, we took the day off from the parks and did things around the resort.  We swam, played mini golf,  played pool and ping-pong, and watched movies.  The condo and the resort really were amazing!

On Sunday, we went to Sacrament Meeting at one of the buildings I served in when I was on my mission 18 years ago (where does the time go?)  I also got to visit with a few of the families that I worked with on my mission.  It was such a treat!  This is Claudia and Eric Parrish.  I was able to teach Claudia the discussions and see her baptized.  She is my "cute baby Claudia"and I was thrilled to be able to see her, reminisce and still feel so connected to her after all these years.

This is Judy and Mal Bowden.  I was the first missionary to invite him to take the discussions (and believe me I was scared, but the spirit was too strong for me not to do it) and he accepted.  His wife and daughter had been members already for several years.  I was only able to teach him a few lessons before I was transferred, but he did end up getting baptized and his son (who I remember as a spunky little 4 year old) is on a mission in Brazil.  So rewarding to catch up with them.

Bethany being cute!

We met at the Hudson family house and these are all their kids with ours.  Their 3rd daughter Natalie (the back middle with the dark hair) was born when I was serving in their ward (I remember holding her as a newborn) and now she is 18 and getting ready to serve a mission herself.  They now have 7 children...wow!

Crazy kids!  Wesley is only wearing a different shirt because they let him borrow one :)

This is Donna and Steve Hudson.  Steve was a new member of about a year and a stake missionary when I was serving there.  He introduced us to Claudia Parrish and Rob Kocol (who both got baptized).  Both him and Donna were such a great support to us missionaries!   It was so great to see them and how their family had grown.  Thanks for having us over :)

Carter and Wes were our dare devils.  They went on all the scary roller coaster type rides as many times as they could.  This one was called, "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster."

The Tower of Terror!

Cameron was brave enough to try a few of the "scary" ones, but not Splash Mountain although we got a picture of him in front of it.  He did, however, go on Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain.

Ready to go on Thunder Mountain...yahoo!!

Just chillin' in Adventure Land...

and Frontier Land!

Riding on the train!

At Disney's Main Street right before heading back to the condo.

Some more crazy dare devil rides at Animal Kingdom.

And at Epcot Center.

Bethany and I also got to meet Mickey,Minnie and Pluto.

Bethany told Minnie that she could see her underwear underneath her dress (you know those little bloomers she wears).  It was really funny!  Minnie doesn't talk, but she did look down at her bloomers and cover her mouth with her hands like she was embarrassed.  Bethany got a kick out of it!

Falling asleep on the couch at the condo after a long, fun-filled day at the parks.  What a cutie!

On our way home, we stopped and ate at a restaurant on the beach in Pensacola, Florida.  The kids loved playing in the sand, but the water was too cold.  Our car was a sandy mess, but it was worth it.

Wesley's tooth was hanging down like that for about two hours one Sunday morning.  He was too scared to pull it out although it was literally hanging on by a thread.  I finally got a hold of it and yanked it out. 

Carter also lost a tooth this month and his two big front teeth grew in more.  He's getting so big!

We are not sure what prompted this getup.  We are just glad she didn't suffocate herself.