New Years

This year was no exception on our party of New years eve. Did we make it to midnight? No way. But it was probably the latest we have ever stayed up being a married couple.

That day was full of Kevin being amazing and fixing Shannon's heater, then driving up to Mike and Charity's cabin. We didn't get there until 8 or 8:30 PM maybe. So Camille had already fallen asleep in the car and we had to go into the cabin and warm it up, set up her pack and play, and get her to go back asleep. It was not really the easiest task we have ever done, but we accomplished it. Camille didn't want to go back to sleep, but if I went into the room she would lay on me and be peaceful. It was so so sweet. So we laid like that for a while. She finally fell asleep and not long after Mike and Charity's family showed up.

We just talked with them late into the night. Probably almost until 11 PM. That is crazy late for us. They brought a bottle of sparkling cider, so we had a little drink before we went to bed. We are becoming old. The next day Kevin and Mike went snowmobiling. I am glad that Mike and Charity live here so that Kevin has someone to do his hobbies with. Charity and I just hung out at the cabin with the kids. We watched some movies and played some games with the kids.

Bella took us outside on an adventure. It was so fun. She is so light, so she would walk all around the snow and just stay on top, but when we went through, we sunk down to the bottom. So Bella made us walk through thigh deep snow for a while. It was really fun to play with her.

It was a really nice and fun way to ring in the new year. I love being with family.

A mouse in the house

I can't believe I am writing this post. I am so sad that I am.Today I heard a weird noise. Camille was taking a nap, so I walked over by our stairs and there was a lunch box. I wasn't sure how it was making the noise, but I figured the zipper must be rubbing on something weird. So I moved the lunch box. Another minute went by, and I heard the sound again. I walked over to the stairs and heard a little squeak. I concluded there was a mouse in the house. I don't know how it got in, or how it got into the basement, but I am really sad that it did.

Kevin is gone for the weekend, but I decided that we would probably be fine until tomorrow as long as the mouse stays in the basement. A few minutes later I see a mouse run across the floor and then sneak under the door into the coat closet. I hurry and called Kevin to see if I should try to trap it in there or what I should do. He didn't answer, and by that time the mouse had ran into the bathroom.

I called Kevin back and he answered. I told Kevin what I was going to do. I don't know why I felt like I needed to call him. Maybe because he always protects me, so my first instinct was to call, but I had my plan figured out. I closed the bathroom door and grabbed a towel to stuff under the door. I know that mice can fit through the tiniest of holes, but I figured it would keep the mouse in the bathroom better than just having it open. I ran upstairs, got Camille up from her nap, and we went and bought some mouse traps.

We got home and I put some mouse traps around. Some in the bathroom and some outside the bathroom. Since there were some traps where Camille would have been able to reach them, we headed to Walmart to pick up some pictures we ordered, then we decided to go out to dinner. Not that anyone cares, but we went to Cafe Sabor and it was just alright. Nothing to rave about. I felt really out of place eating there by myself, but that is another story.

We came back home and I went and put Camille down for bed. I came downstairs and checked my traps. Nothing had happened. The traps I bought said you didn't have to put bait on them, so I didn't put any bait down, and since nothing happened I went and got some cheese and added it to the traps. I just hung out for a little while on the couch. I was waiting for my Uncle and cousin to come to my house. They were picking up my other cousin from Rexburg and so they were going to spend the night at my house. It really was the worst day for this mouse to appear.

All of a sudden in the corner of my eye I see a little movement. The mouse had come out of the bathroom. He was just poking his nose around. He missed all the traps. I was so sad. I tried to sneak into the kitchen to get a tupperware so that I could catch the mouse. Unfortunately the mouse saw me and ran back into the bathroom. I sat back down on my couch with the tupperware in case he came back out.

He didn't come back out and my relatives were almost here, so since I knew he was in the bathroom I put the traps in the bathroom and the laundry room and I put towels under each door.

Fast forward to the next morning. My relatives left fairly early, so after they left I checked my traps. Bathroom traps were empty, so I opened the laundry room door and found a murder scene minus weapon and body. It was really disgusting. I was going to take a picture, but before I could, Kevin cleaned it up (thank you Kevin!). You probably didn't want to see it anyway. But let me just tell you, it was enough blood splattered on the wall that I was surprised there was no body. I couldn't see the trap anywhere. So the logical thing to do was to close the door, stick the towel back down in case it was still alive, and wait until Kevin gets home.

Kevin got home and he went and checked in the laundry room. He found the mouse trap under the washer, but still no mouse. I wasn't sure if the mouse had bled to death or was still alive, so I stuck some cheese just on the ground and not in a trap and then we went to church. The cheese was still there when we got home from church so I was hoping that the mouse was dead, but I wasn't sure, so I just kept it on the ground. The next day the cheese was gone. I was so sad. So Kevin set the traps again and we were on a hunt for the mouse.

We set the traps and I was hoping that we would catch the mouse before we left for Christmas, but we didn't. The traps we set and we headed to Kevin's family for Christmas.

We got home from our Christmas vacation, and we checked the laundry room and guess what? We caught the mouse!!!! I am so happy! We have the traps still set around the house in case there are more mice, but at least the one that I saw was caught. We really love our house, and we hope that we never see another mouse ever again.

Walker Christmas

The next day we drove to my parent's house for our second Christmas. We treated it like it was Christmas eve. On our way we stopped at Target in Riverdale. Since it was technically after Christmas everything was 50% off. We picked up some wrapping paper and Kevin found the cutest Santa suit. He had to buy it. It was 50% off. How could we not? Camille looked so cute in it. We arrived at my parents and waited for everyone to show up.

Kevin and really most of the men in the family don't love doing puzzles. But it is a Christmas tradition so we made sure to do one. My mom was so nice though and picked up a puzzle for the men to do. I think it was a whopping ten piece puzzle. They had it solved pretty quickly. It was perfect for them. It even was a glow in the dark puzzle.

After the puzzle we made homemade pizza. I love pizza, especially homemade pizza. It is fun to make it and extra fun to eat it.

That night we pulled all the mattresses out. Ever since I was little we all would sleep in the same room. It was probably so that we wouldn't go up and open presents early. Even Lydia and Camille shared a room. It was really fun.

Christmas morning we woke up and started Christmas. This year we did a new tradition for Christmas stockings. Everyone brought a treat to put in, so my parents didn't have to worry about stockings. It was really fun because it was a big surprise. No one knew what was going to be in the stockings. We ended up getting lotion and body wash and the boys got little nerf guns. We got necklaces and candy and jerky and wonderful treats. It was so fun. It was a little Christmas all in itself.

We opened our presents and everyone seemed to get spoiled. We are so blessed. I was kind of sad because Camille really wasn't interested in opening presents. But it was still fun.  Camille got some toys and dolls and books. She was really spoiled by all of her family.

Later that day we were able to talk to my little brother Jacob who is on a mission for the LDS church. I felt so blessed that he was able to skype on the 27th instead of the 25th like most missionaries. He seemed to be doing awesome. That is probably because he is awesome.

Later in the afternoon we had a friendly competition. We had several games picked out and made a bracket. We played dance dance (which is one of my favorites), and we played Foosball (which is Kevin's favorite). My dad also got a bear that you shoot little balls in the mouth that we played as well. He got it as a joke kind of because when we were growing up we had a rule in our house that we could only shoot bears and chairs. I think this rule came into place once the boys were born. But it was repeated often. I am finding out that as a mom, sometimes you have to make weird rules. Anyway, Kevin and I won. It was awesome. We had a lot of fun with the competition.

Christmas was so wonderful this year. I was so grateful that all of my family came a day later to celebrate Christmas since we could not make it. I really just love spending time with my family. It is my favorite thing to do. Merry Christmas!

Haderlie Christmas

This year we were so blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas twice. We started out at Kevin's parents house. I love being there with his family. They are all so nice and welcoming. We headed over to their house early in the morning on Christmas Eve. We hung out with them most of the day. Kevin's brother Steven was visiting from Washington DC. He is studying to be a lawyer out there. He is a really amazing man (and he is single for all you ladies). It was nice to see him though. I hope that someday we can get out there to visit him.

Kevin, Steven, and Dad all went out shopping when we first got there. Apparently Dad had not got Mom anything for Christmas yet. He said that he was doing great this year since he left to do his shopping at 11 AM, instead of 6 PM. He is such a funny man.

Mom and I just hung around the house with Camille and started making lunch. We had lunch and talked and then started getting ready for dinner. Camille did so good at their house. They live in a split level home, so there are stairs everywhere. By the end of our trip, she had totally mastered stairs.

Later that night Kevin's Sister Diane and her family showed up. Diane, Steve, and Hannah were all there. They came from Minnesota. I feel like such a slacker. This is their second time this year driving to Idaho from Minnesota. Kevin and I would never be so brave.

I was so excited for Christmas Eve because in the past Kevin's family always sits around a piano and sings Christmas songs for their Christmas Eve tradition. But we never got around to it. With babies going down early and having chores to get done, it just didn't work out. I was so sad.

Christmas was so wonderful though. I have never seen so many Christmas presents around the tree. We all took turns opening up gifts. They were so thoughtful. I received a sudoku book, Scattergories, new gloves, and many other gifts. I loved all of my gifts. I love doing sudoku puzzles, I probably do one every night at least. And Scattergories is currently my favorite game. I made everyone play it with me all Christmas.  Kevin received some new very needed pants, some nice treats, a big family pictures, and again many other gifts.

After opening presents we ate breakfast and enjoyed everyone's company. We played a fun game called Tapple with my niece Hannah. Later in the day we were able to see more family. Gary and Sarah's family came over and played for a while. All of their children are so fun. They make me laugh.

We just played games and ate delicious food for the rest of the day, which is my favorite thing to do. If I could do something everyday for my life, it would be eat delicious food and play games with the people I love.

This Christmas was such a wonderful time. It was the first time I  have ever spent Christmas day away from my family, but I was so grateful to be able to spend it with Kevin's family (and now my family). I always feel bad because when I write posts about Kevin's family I never have any pictures. That is because I don't take any pictures. And when I write posts about my family I always have pictures because I steal them from my sisters who are awesome at taking pictures.

Anyway, Merry Christmas.

Camille- 11 months

Next month it will be a year. I don't know how it went so fast. This last month has been my favorite month so far. I say that every month, but this one has been extremely fun. Camille is starting to play with us and understand us a little better. We will play the "I'm gonna get you" game and it is so funny. She will start running away, and she will try to run faster then her little legs can go, then she falls over and she tries to get back up but she just keeps falling down because she is so excited. It is so so cute.

Another game we have been playing recently is "where is your...?" game. I will say, where is your pacifier? And then she will go and find it. The item has to be in the room, where if she turns around then she can see it, but it is still so fun. She can find her pacifier, dog, bear, ball, and hat. It is so funny. When I ask her where something is, she puts her hand up like she is saying,"I dunno", but then she starts looking for the item.

Another couple things that Camille is really great at doing is clapping her hands, sticking out her tongue, give a high five, waving hello and goodbye, blowing through her mouth and scrunching her nose. All of them are so cute. Camille just started clapping her hands this month. Now when she is really excited she has a way to express it and she claps her hands. Every night when Kevin comes home from work she hears the door open and she starts clapping her hands and running towards the door. It is too cute.

She give high fives now. Not always, but fairly consistently. It is fun to see her learn and grow. She has been waving hello and goodbye for a little while. She is really good at doing it to Kevin, but when we are out and about I will tell her to say hello or goodbye and she doesn't do it until we have already left. She has a delayed reaction. I feel like she is trying to decide if that person is coming with us, or if they are leaving. Then once they are actually gone, then she will wave goodbye to them. It makes me laugh.

My new favorite thing that she does is blows through her mouth. I was whistling one day, and she started blowing through her mouth. She looks so cute while she is doing it. It makes me just want to hug and kiss her. It is so cute.

I found Camille like this one morning. I have no idea how it happened. 

She is just so active. She loves to walk and run everywhere and she is into everything. The other day I came into Kevin's office and somehow she had opened the pen drawer in Kevin's desk and pulled out the paper clips and had them all over the floor. I don't even know how she reached them. She has also learned how to open Kevin's desk drawers. She loves to open them, and throw all the papers and cords everywhere. Kevin really loves all of his stuff thrown everywhere.

Camille loves to read. We read books all day long. Unfortunately for Camille,her favorite books don't really have words,so I just make up what is going on. I am sure it can't be too interesting. She loves to pull all the books off the book case and look at all the pictures.

She is an amazing little girl and she makes us so happy Love you Camille.

Thanksgiving

We were so blessed this year to have two Thanksgivings. My parents hosted Thanksgiving a week early so that we would all be able to come. I am so grateful for my parents doing this. They sacrifice so much for us, but we all love being together so much that we would rather celebrate holidays not on the real day and be able to be together for as much time as possible.

Kevin was able to come down with us this time. That doesn't happen very often. We went down on Friday so that we would be able to help with the cooking on Saturday before everyone got there. Saturday came around and we made dinner and had such a wonderful time.  

After dinner we started playing games. We ended up making it into a big tournament. It was really fun. We played dance dance, and wii bowling and other things. It was so so fun. I remembered how much I love dance dance. In fact, this is one of the reasons I am excited to go back home for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, family is what I am most excited about, but dance dance comes next. 

We also celebrated my mom's birthday. My mom is the most amazing lady ever.I wish everyone could know her. My mom wanted something cherry for her birthday dessert, so my sister made the most delicious chocolate cherry bunt cake. It was beautiful. We got her a big picture of the family to hang in the living room. Shantel actually did all the work on getting the gift all together, so when my mom opened it, Kevin decided he really wanted one as well.

After celebrating my mom's birthday we set up some Christmas decorations. I love Christmas. We put the tree up and set out some nice decorations.

It was such a wonderful couple of days. Family is what life is about. I am so grateful that our family is so close and all gets along. I know there are so many families out there that have drama and hate, but ours is not one of them, and I am so so grateful for that. 

The next week we went to Kevin's parent's house for Thanksgiving again. We headed over early in the morning so we could spend as much time with family as possible.

Shannon and Collen were already there and making Thanksgiving dinner. We came in and started helping with getting everything ready. We just chatted and watched Camille run around. That is probably one of my favorite things to do.

All of the family showed up and we had a delicious dinner. I really love thanksgiving dinner. Kevin and I are very much down home, meat and potatoes kind of people. So Thanksgiving dinner is right up our ally.

After dinner we played some games and talked and enjoyed being with the family.  

Camille- 10 months

Wow, I feel like I just wrote one of these. Camille is growing too fast. She really is the sweetest thing. She will melt anyone's heart that she meets. She is just a busy busy baby. The biggest change from last month is that she is totally walking now. Sometimes she will fall down and crawl for a minute, but she is walking way more than she is crawling.  It is the cutest walk. It is like she is keeping her legs straight and waddling. It is really cute.

She has been so happy recently. It has been so fun for me. When she wakes up in the morning, I will walk into her room and she laughs and gets so excited. It makes me so happy. 

Camille is sleeping through the night. She sometimes wakes up at 6, and I make her lay in bed until at least 6:45. I wonder if I just need to keep her up later or something. We don't feed at 10 PM anymore, and that is when she started waking up earlier. She used to sleep until 7 or 7:30. Oh well, it is just really nice to get a full night sleep. I love it. Kevin and I eventually want to have another baby, but I am still remembering the first couple months too well to jump into that. I love my sleep.

Camille can wave hello and goodbye. It has been really fun. It is almost like reflex. I will say hello, and she automatically waves. That happens probably 80% of the time. It is really cute when she waves. When she is really really excited she will wave both hands like crazy. It just melts my heart. 

It is really nice because she is content most of the time. We went to Texas Roadhouse last night, and she was just happy to eat bread and talk with us and hang out. Last time we went to Texas Roadhouse she screamed the whole time, and I had to go out and not eat while kevin and his family was eating. It was so lame. So we were so happy that she was happy. She is the best.

Camille started sticking her tongue out. It was so funny. One day she just started sticking it out, but it didn't come out straight. It came out the side of her mouth. It was so so cute. When I would stick my tongue out, she would have to think really hard. it was like she was telling her brain to stick her tongue out, then it would slowly come out. It is so cute.

She also has started scrunching her nose and blowing air through it. It is the most adorable thing ever. Kevin and I love it when she does it.

We really love her so much. She bring so much joy to our lives. We love you Camille! 

Harry Potter Party

I love Harry Potter. I think the books are amazing. Right before Camille was born, and a little after she was born, I had Kevin listen to all of the books while he was driving semi truck and I was reading the books at home. When we both finished a book, we would watch the movie. It was really fun. Then on Pinterest I saw an awesome blog that someone made where they had an awesome Harry Potter Party. At that moment I knew I wanted to have a Harry Potter Party as well. So I told Kevin I wanted to do this, and he said, "that sounds like fun. Just know I don't want to make any decorations. If you need help putting something up, I will help." And ya know what? I didn't even need any help!! It was really fun for me. I read a million blogs (no exaggeration), and made a plan. After the plan was made, I started making the decorations. I had a lot of fun with this. When Camille was asleep, and Kevin was out driving truck, I would sit and make things.

I will walk you through each decoration as you saw it when entering the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

I sent out acceptance letters for invitations and put in platform 9 3/4 train tickets. They looked so great. I should have sent myself one.

When you entered the house I made a brick wall for platform 9 3/4. So you could run through the wall to enter the great hall.

Once you entered the great hall the first thing you saw was the floating candles. They looked really awesome, especially at night.

Next you were sorted by the sorting hat. I wanted to make a real looking sorting hat, but I didn't have the time or motivation, so we just had a little witch hat. I made house badges, so after you put the sorting hat on then you could reach in the cauldron and pick a badge to decide what house you were in.

After being sorted you went to Ollivanders where they could pick their wand, or should I say so that wand could pick the wizard.  Here are the wands I made. I used some chopsticks that I had bought several years ago because I wanted to be cool, but we used them once, then never again. They were too slippery for us to use. I took the chopsticks then covered the bottom with glue and I put one bead on the end of it. After the glue had dried, I spray painted them brown. They actually turned out awesome. My little sister Melissa would say, "They just feel good in your hand." Which they do.

 As you entered the kitchen there was a sign for the three broomstick. So we had dinner in the three broomsticks. I made soup (way way way too much soup) and bread wands (sticks) and Herbology house salad.

In the kitchen I had put up Education Decrees that Professor Umbridge put in place at Hogwarts.

After dinner we ventured over to Honeydukes for some delicious treats. There was so much candy, as you can see in the pictures.

After dessert we turned on Harry Potter and the Chamber of  Secrets for the little kids to watch, and we played some fun games.

Here are some of the other really fun decorations that were up around the house.

This says, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir beware."

This says, "This ways to the Ministry of Magic."

It is always so fun to play with family, and I was so happy that so many people dressed up and were able to come. It was really fun, and I am glad it all went well. Now that it is over I have nothing to do, so I might need to be planning something else soon.

Dr. Who graced us with his presence 

Hedwig even came!