We've been busy!

We've been busy! I enjoy blogging but I am so far behind. Instead of trying to take the time and energy to catch up I'll do it quick instead!

September

• I took an Institute class for the first time in my life. My old seminary teacher from Cardston was the instructor and I went with my good friend Brooklyn. I was really scared and intimidated to go at first. I was afraid I was going to be the "old" person but in reality there where quite a few people my age and some had children as well. It was a great experience and I wish I could fit it into my schedule to go again this semester!
• We enrolled Wyatt in "Sportball" classes at the Trico. It was a 12 week program and each week the instructor taught them a new sport. It was a parented program meaning that daddy got to go with him and play with him. I can definitely envision sports in his future. I would have to say his favorites were hockey and golf.
• Wendell turned 29! I surprised him by decorating his cubicle at work! I'm already planning his 30th in my mind! I hope it will be great!

October

• Wendell's nephew Derek Redford got married to Maddi. They are both so cute and it was fun to talk to Wyatt about getting married in the Temple. He told me Maddi looked very pretty in her wedding dress.
• We volunteered at the Calgary Temple Open House. Wendell worked in Parking and I was an Usher. It was an early morning and a long day on our feet but so worth it. My parents came up to watch the boys and my sisters family came up as well. The plan was for them to come to the open house after we were done our shift. My dad got really sick and my Grandmother was really ill back in Cardston so my parents left to go back home. Luckily Primrose's were here and able to get the boys dressed and up to the Temple.
• I went to Time Out For Women in Salt Lake City with my mom and 2 of my sisters. We also spent time with my Aunt Brenda and my cousin Chelsey also came to TOFW with us. We left early in the week and spent a few days shopping and touring SLC.
• Jakey turned 18 months and started going to nursery. He did not like it then and does not like it now. They say he is getting better. We've discovered he likes men better than women so luckily there are some men in Nursery and they can usually calm him down.
• For Halloween the boys were a Pirate and a Parrot. I thought long and hard about what I wanted them to be. (it's all about what I want right??) I loved their costumes from last year and felt like I needed something just as great. So Wyatt actually said he wanted to be a Pirate and then I found a cute Parrot costume for Jake. I thought I was so original. But I was Visiting Teacher one night before Halloween and I commented on some pirate swords she had on her stairs. She says, "Ya my girls are going to be Pirates for Halloween and my son a Parrot." My jaw literally hit my chest. So much for being original. The actual night of Halloween was freezing. We bundled them up the best we could and I sent them out with Wendell. Jake was not impressed with is costume. He cried and cried. I kept imagining him saying, "I'm a bird. He gets to be a Pirate and I'm a bird!"

November

• We spent a lot of time sledding and skating. Wyatt is fearless when sledding and will go down practically any hill. Wendell built a skating rink our in our backyard. Wyatt and Jakey like to go out with daddy and skate.

December

• Was your typical busy month. We saw Santa twice.  Once at our ward party and then at our Prete Family Christmas party.
• We went to the live Nativity Pageant with our friends the Wilde's.
• We had a FHE night and invited over the Capps & Wilde families. We made gingerbread houses and ate popcorn & hot chocolate.
• We went to Cardston for Christmas. We had a Prete Christmas Party (my mom's side) at my Aunt Ruby's house. The kids had a lot of fun playing with a few of their cousins and getting spoiled Christmas Day.
• After Christmas my family came to Calgary and we spent 3 days at the water slides. Growing up we went to Medicine Hat for the water slides practically every Christmas. It was fun watching all 20 grand kids go up and down the slides for hours. It definitely brought back memories of going with our cousins when we were little.
• Wendell's niece Tenelle Card got married to Mat Richards in the Calgary Temple. It was the first wedding I had go to at the new temple and it was beautiful. Tenelle looked gorgeous as always!
• We spent New Years Eve home with our good friends Brook & Travis Quinton. We had way too much yummy food and had a nice relaxing New Years with our friends.
• New Years Day was the Walton get together at Wendell's sisters house in Okotoks. They have a skating rink and snow mobiles so most of teenagers/younger kids spent the day outside. Again we had sooo much food! 
• I got called to the Primary Presidency in our ward. I love Primary and the girls I work with. I already somewhat knew all of them and feel comfortable with them. I look forward to the next 3  years!

January

• I started online classes at Red Deer College for my Early Learning and Child Care Diploma. Mount Royal University (here in Calgary) doesn't offer online classes for the 2nd year. So I was easily able to transfer to RDC.  Our textbook is a book by Stephen R. Covey called, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." It's a great read with a lot of useful information. I think everyone needs to read it. It blows my mind that I'm taking classes through RDC and my instructor lives in Vancouver BC. Gotta love technology!
• Wyatt started Sunbeams! The first week was pretty crazy. Wendell was out of town and I had to conduct and teach sharing time. I had to quickly drop Jakey off at Nursery and take Wyatt to Primary with me. I basically threw him in his chair and ran to the back to get things started. He was pretty whiny and kept coming up to the front with me. I feel bad that that was his first experience in Primary but he's doing pretty good now.
• Wendell went to California for 3 days for a work conference. One night him and some people went to Disneyland since they were staying practically next to it. Seriously he went to Disneyland and I was at home with the kids......
• Somebody turned 4!! Mr Wyatt had a Birthday on January 19! I am going to do that in its own post since I'm all caught up!

Now do you understand why I didn't want to start blogging since I was so far behind! I'm pretty sure I missed a ton but now that I'm caught up I can just start from here!

Walton Family Idaho Vacation

We were able to go on another vacation this summer but with Wendell's family this time to Idaho. On the way there we had to stop in Sparwood for a diaper change and since we were already stopped we had to get a picture with "The World's Largest Truck." Not gonna lie it was pretty big!

 

This picture is funny to me because I told Wendell to back up so I could get a picture of Wyatt with the truck and that''s as far as he went! Hmmm??

 

                          My cute boys

The house we rented in Idaho was A-MA-ZING! I totally give props to Wendell's sister Talauna for finding this place because it was perfect for our 36+ family members. It's located between Sandpoint and Coeur d'alene Idaho and about 10 minutes from Silverwood amusement park.

This is the view from the back yard and that's barely half of the house

The backyard. There was this great play structure for the little kids to play on and then 2 play houses. One was a little girls cottage and the other was a fire house with a pole and everything.

This was our cabin. There were 3 cabins that a few of us stayed in but the majority of the family slept inside the main house.

 This was our home for 5 days. Being in one of the cabins worked so great for us because we could put the boys to bed and then go to the main house for playing games. There was even a fridge so we could have milk for Jakey's bottle on hand. There was a fireplace, tv with satelite and dvd player, fridge, and of course A/C!

This house had everything you could ever need in it. I wish I had taken pictures of the kitchen because it was huge. It had every appliance you could want/need and an industrial dishwasher that put a load through in like 2 minutes. I think there was something like 3 fridges and a massive stand up freezer. There was  also an arcade room and a pool table. Wyatt's favorite game was the hunting game. By the end of the week Jakey would go to this game and cry until someone gave him the gun and he would pretend to shoot at it.

 

There was a hot tub....

 

and of course there was KARAOKE. They have a recording studio there as well and so the owners provide one hour of free karaoke for their guests.This is most of the family getting ready to sing!

 

 

So that's just the house! On one of the days we went to a beach in Coeur d'alene. Wendell's bro-in-law brought their boat down so the teenagers did a bit of tubing while the rest of us relaxed at the beach.

 

It was hard to capture this but Jakey was having a blast chasing the birds. Wendell would throw crackers on the ground and the birds would circle around Jakey. He chased them over and over again with a big grin on his face everytime.

Wyatt wanted to be burried in the sand so cousin Ciara started......

and then daddy, Uncle Paul, and Jakey joined in!

So the next shots are continuous shots again. I was trying to get a picture of both the boys but Wyatt was being stubborn...

 

and decided to hide his face until.....

 

I told him Jakey was winning! (He's all about winning and being first) Don't you love the foot to Jakey's tummy! Poor boy is going to have to learn how to defend himself.

 

The next day we went to SILVERWOOD! This was our first time and we loved it! If you haven't been just imagine Calaway Park, Heritage Park, and Big Sky x3 all in one. Wyatt was in heaven all day.

 

Starting the day with his Nadeau cousins. He adores them. They are so great with him and will play with him. All of his Walton cousins are great with both of the boys!

Eventually we split up with the Nadeau's and did our own rides. Their kids are a lot taller than Wyatt so they could go on more rides than he could. Instead of boring you with pictures of all the rides I'll post my favorite one. Wyatt isn't tall enough to go on this ride at Calaway so he was so happy he could go on it with daddy and Wendell was pretty happy too!

 

This was part of the waterpark! A-MA-ZING! We could have spent 2 days at Silverwood because we had very little time to spend at the waterpark. They had like 2 waves pools, a splash park, 2 group rides, 4-5 waterslides, and of course the lazy river. And that's just the parts that I saw!

 

Part of the Walton Family enjoying the lazy river. Jakey cried the whole time. He had just woken up and the water was pretty cold. Cousin Ryan kept trying to talk to him and make him smile. (Like I said their cousins are soo good to them!)

On Saturday I joined my s-i-l's and did some wedding shopping for my niece Tenelle's wedding. (minus Tenelle who couldn't make it down) My family and Wendell's family are at completely different stages of life. Wendell's nieces and nephews are starting to gradute from high school, going to University, and getting married. He has one nephew married and then 2 more are getting married this year. We got to meet Derek's fiance Maddi and Coleton's girlfriend Janeen. It's kindof fun to have more people closer to my age to hang out with!

 

On Sunday we went to church in Sandpoint. Wendell's aunt and uncle live there and we happened to go to their ward. Some of their children live there and some were visiting as well so we got to visit for a bit.After church we spent the afternoon playing games and had a big family dinner. Our favorite game to play was "Werewolf" which was basically another version of "Mafia."

 

We had a great 5 days in Idaho with the Walton Family. We are hoping to go on a cruise in about 2 years with all of them! I can't imagine how many more of us there is going to be as the "grandchildren" start having babies!

Fall into October

October has been a busy month with all the Thanksgiving and Halloween festivities.

• We started off the month by celebrating Thanksgiving with the Bevans' in Cardston and the Walton's in Okotoks. That weekend my sisters and I made some festive crafts. We made these Scarecrow sitters that go outside our front doors and then these Halloween ghosts.

I also had to get a picture of all the grandchildren. 20 grandbabies 12 (almost 13) and under!

Then we headed to Okotoks to Wendell's sisters house for dinner.

Wyatt loves playing with his older cousins and of course the dogs and cats that they have there!

We got a picture of most of the grandchildren minus the Redford boys!

• We went to the Calgary Corn Maze for the first time. It was a little chilly but Wyatt has a blast playing on the slides and bouncy pillow.
  


That's it for now! I can't wait to do a Halloween post! The boys' costumes are soooo cute!

O Christmas Tree!

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and finally doing a Christmas post! We went down to Cardston on the 23rd and spent a few days there. We enjoyed our yearly traditions of a sleigh ride around town with my extended Bevans Family and Chinese Food on Christmas Eve with my parents and a few siblings. This year was the "away" year so my siblings spent Christmas Eve at their in-laws houses. It was just us and my sis's family there for Christmas Eve and it was WAY too quiet!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas pj's

Reading stories with Grandma & Malia

Putting out food for Santa & his reindeer with Malia & Casen

CHRISTMAS DAY

On Christmas Day we got up around 8am and opened presents. Wyatt was a little dazed and out of it. He was up most of the night!!

What did Santa bring?

A new lego truck!

A shake n' go Thomas Train!

A Buzz Lightyear Sleeping Bag!

A tool bench from Grandma & Grandpa!

and of course Toy Story 3!

FAIRMONT

That afternoon we drove out to Fairmont Hot Springs and stayed there for a week with most of my family members. We slept in, ate way too much, went swimming, played games and did some activities with the kids.

Having "naps" in Grandma & Grandpa's bed

with Addie, Malia, & Shayde

Making a gingerbread man with mommy

Making playdough with daddy

and swimming at the pool!

We came home on the 1st and spent the afternoon with the Walton family in Okotoks. One thing I need to add to my list on my previous post is to TAKE MORE PICTURES this year! I didn't get my camera out once at dinner so I have no pictures to show for the fun afternoon of visiting and games!!

Now that Christmas is over I can start focusing on BABY!! This last Saturday we spent the day switching rooms around, organizing, and de-junking! I want it all done as soon as possible so I don't have to worry about it later on!

And just for your enjoyment......

Baby Walton @ 23 weeks!

For the record this picture is deceiving! I'm still barely even showing!

I think it's just bloating from all the food I ate at Christmas!!

One of THOSE posts!

I normally don't do posts like this. I usually talk about Wyatt & Wendell and our trips or special occasions. I don't know if its the hormones or the upcoming Christmas season that's making me even more emotional than normal or what. I just feel like I can never articulate how I truly feel but I am going to try because I feel like I have a lot to be thankful for and want to share it.

It's sad that sometimes it takes an accident or illness to make you realize what's really important. My brother Brett recently got into a dirt biking accident. We were able to go down to Lethbridge on Friday night after he got out of the hospital. While it was fun to laugh at his memory loss it was still scary to think about what could have happened.

This experience and also the experience of watching loved ones go through illnesses has truly made me realize what is important and what I am thankful for!

I am thankful for our parents.

I know with all my heart they love us and would do anything for us. I just wish I could repay them for all they've done for me and my family.

I am thankful for our siblings.

(I couldn't find my pictures!)

Even though we don't get to see them as often as I would like I know they would do anything for me and vice versa.

I am thankful for best friends.

I love these girls so much. They have always been there when I've needed a shoulder to cry or someone to go get a pedicure with.

I am thankful for amazing cousins!

I have many more cousins that I love too but these girls were the closest to me growing up. I will never forget our cousin sleepovers and riding bikes singing "Peanut, Peanut Butter & Jelly!!"

I am thankful for my husband.

He is not perfect (don't tell him I said that!) but I love him anyways. We have been together for 5 years this month. (Another post to come about our story) He has been there by my side through the ups and downs of marriage and is an amazing daddy to Wyatt.

I am thankful for my little man!

I never thought I could fall for someone as quickly as I fell in love with him. He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, and he makes me very thankful for bed time!

I am thankful for eternal families.

I have never been so grateful for the knowledge that I can be with my family forever as I have been lately.

Like I said it's sad that it takes an accident or illness for me to truly appreciate and be thankful for the important people in my life. It makes me want to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend to those around me. I guess I've learned that life is too short to not be thankful especially to those that really deserve our thanks!