BiRtHdAy BoY!

We celebrated Stockton's 1st birtday a couple weeks ago...I know I can't believe it either.

On his actual birthday he started out the morning getting into bed with Mom & Dad where he was greeted by his new puppy that he absolutely loves.

I made him scrambled eggs for breakfast, but that didnt seem to make him think the day was any different than any other day.

Later on in the day he got to open his presents from Mom & Dad.

Which, of course, was followed by a birthday cupcake. He got a little embarrassed when we sang Happy Birthday to him, but the smile on his face priceless.

More birthday blogging to come. To be continued....

From 3 to 4

That's right, you guessed it. We were surprised to find out a few weeks ago that our family will be growing from 3 to 4. We are expecting a little brother or sister for Stockton around the middle of August. We are really excited to be almost finished with the first trimester and moving into the "safe zone" of the pregnancy so I dont have to worry anymore. :) We can't wait to see how our lives will change again soon!

Spaghetti for dinner has never been so much fun

I hope these moments never get old...

Stockton's first Christmas

Stockton was big enough to enjoy Christmas this year more than I thought he would. I think mostly because everything was a mess that he could play in. It was fun watching him putter around and get into everything.

His gift from "Santa" was this Whinnie the Pooh tractor. Even though his little legs arent log enough to push yet, he still loves sitting on it and honking the horn.

I think we got the most excited reaction from him when he opened up his little tractor. He would just hold it up in the air and give the biggest grin.

He really liked his jack in the box. He knows how to turn the crank VERY SLOWLY, but he has discoverd it is alot easier if he just pushes the latch with his finger. What a smart kid.

His first tooth brush. I guess that means I have to start brushing his teeth now???

I left Troy in charge of taking a picture of him with all of his Christmas presents and these are the 2 pictures I got. Nice try sweetie, I think I will be in charge of this next year. :)

I am excited to have kids during Christmas now. It definately brings the excitement and magic back into it!

I found my camera!!

It was hiding in Stockton's closet. I won't speculate how it got there, but I am guessing it might have been the same person that keeps unrolling the toilet paper and pulling all the DVDs off the shelves. Your guess is as good as mine.

I need to catch up on things, so prepare yourself for a really long post...

Stockton went on his first trip to the zoo. My friend had free passes so Stockton got to go with his little girlfriend, Liv. It was a beautiful day. I didnt realize it when we went, but Stockton was sick so he didnt enjoy himself as much as I think he normally would have. We will have to go again when it warms up a little. We had a very low key Thanksgiving this year. It was an "in-law" year so both of my sisters were spending the holiday with their husbands' families, but Troy had to work so we couldnt go to Idaho. So it was just the 3 of us with Troy's dad. It was a very relaxing day, but it didnt really feel like Thanksgiving without all of the normal chaos. I guess we will have to make up for it on Christmas.

We had the biggest scare of our life the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My sister's husband, Pete, went into severe cardiac arrest in the middle of the night. My sister had to do CPR until the ambulance arrived. He was on life support for 3 days and they gave him a 2-5% chance of survival. That was the longest 3 days of my life trying to cope with how my sister, who is 5 months pregnant with their 3rd child, would survive without Pete. It is truely a miracle that he is still with us today and expected to make an almost full recovery. All of his doctors at IMC have said there is no medical explanation why he rocovered like he did. Whatever the reason, we are so glad you are still around, Peter. Please dont scare us like that again!! If you would like to read their full story you can check out their blog at www.vanderlindenclan.blogspot.com.

Troy and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We were planning on spending a night at the Alaskan Inn, but due to Pete's accident, that was put on hold. He had just woken up and was still suffering from severe short term memory loss. My sister needed some sleep so I spent the day with him. Yes, Pete, that's how much I love you, I spent my anniversary explaining to you over and over again where Jenni was and why you were in the hospital. :) After I got home, the 3 of us went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate. While Troy and I were talking, Stockton managed to sneak Troy's leftover steak off his plate. I think he liked it, dont you?

We spent this past weekend in Boise celebrating Christmas with Troy's family. (Lori, you will have to send me the pics you took) We decorated gingerbread houses and exchanged gifts with everyone. It was a very fun and relaxing weekend. Stockton really cleaned house in the gifts department. He got 2 new trucks, the cutest John Deere camo boots, some new PJs, and bath toys. Seeing him having fun opening gifts is more fun than me getting gifts has ever been.

Those are the main things that have been going on with us. Tonight my family is spending the night at the Marriott downtown to go see the Christmas lights, have dinner, and SWIM!! It should be fun spending some time together. I have tons of pictures of Stockton that I have taken the last couple months. I will try and post some of those soon. Until next time...

Family Pics 09

I am sure all of my faithful readers (Thanks, Ganny) have been dying for a new post the last month and a half. There has been alot going on and I assure there will be new posts sometime in the future. My lack of posts was initially triggered by my lack of motivation, but now it is supplemented by the loss of my camera. I was hoping I would just stumble on it one day, but now it looks like I am going to have to initiate a full fledged Search and Rescue Mission. What would I do without it once Christmas is here???

Anyways, I thought I could post our family pictures that we had taken last month. A friend of mine is just starting out doing photography and is charging next to nothing so we thought we would take advantage of such an amazing oppurtunity. I thought they turned out GREAT! :)

If any of you are interested in having your own pictures done, let me know I will get you her info. :)

Happy Halloween

I think this picture pretty much sums up how Stockton felt about Halloween this year. Anytime we put his costume on him he went from a happy baby boy to a sad, pathetic tiger. We thought a tiger would be perfect for him because he likes to growl so much. Maybe he actually wanted to be a lion and was mad at us for getting the animal wrong so he refused to smile or growl in protest.
We hosted a Halloween party at our house the weekend before Halloween so all the cousins could get together and celebrate. The day of the party we decided that we should try and dress up too. Troy put on his army camo and was a GI Joe. The best I could do was a farmer. Boring, I know.

The food turned out really good. We wanted everything to have a Halloween theme. I thought we did a great job not having only sweet, sugary treats.

I made Witches Fingers

And Eyeballs.

Stockton was bored all night long...

It looks like he ALMOST smiled for WeeMa. That's the best he could do.

The weekend of Halloween I surprised Troy with a trip to Idaho to see his family. Can you believe I actually kept it a secret until the day before left??? I am getting good, i know. Our niece's boyfried surprised us with AWESOME seats to the Boise State game. It was alot of fun even though it was a blow out. It was nice to have a day out together without having to worry about Stockton.We had a Halloween party at Scott and Lori's house with yummy chili, carmel apples, homeade rootbeer, and pumkin carving.

Matt and Chantal thought surfing the internet was more fun that carving pumpkins. Boy were they wrong.

Last year I did the Batman logo, so this year I opted for Superman. I figured it was a double whammy since the 'S' could also stand for Stockton. :)

Looking forward to another fun-filled trip to Idaho this weekend! :)

Yes, we are still alive

Here is the Stockton update for the last few months.

Troy's brother gave Stockton this chair. It is the same chair that all of them grew up sitting in at their grandparents house. I thought it was a pretty cool thing for him to have now. He absolutely loves it. He will just sit in it with the biggest grin on his face and rock back and forth and then turn around and smile at the bear's face. The eyes kind of freak me out when I go into his room at night because they reflect the light from his night light and that's the first thing I see when I walk in.

He still loves taking baths. I think he would stay in the tub all day if I let him.

He has always sported the "hand in the light socket" hair style, but it started to get a little out of control.So, we decided to give him his first haircut. The sides and back are little more controled now, but I dont think there is anything we can do to keep the top from sticking up.
He loves playing in his crib before and after his naptime. It is nice because even after he wakes up, I know that I still have a good 15 minutes before he is ready for me to get him.
He has learned how to pull himself up on the sides. We need to lower his mattress down, but havent gotten around to it yet.

He has 5 teeth now with the 6th starting to poke through. This isnt the best picture but it turns out it isnt very easy to get a picture of all of this teeth at the same time. It was impossible to include his bottom ones, too.
One of his other favorite things is the vacuum cleaner. I think one of his favorite activities is vacuuming the floor. It takes me twice as long to do it now that he likes to chase the vacuum cleaner.
He is starting to go through a Mommy phase. He gets really clingy to me when we are around new people. I wish he wouldnt be so shy, but at the same time I love being his source of comfort.
He is really turning into a Daddy's boy, too. He loves spending time with Dad which is nice for me because then I can get more stuff done. I am lucky to have Troy to give me so much extra time for myself.
Dad's been taking him to car shows.

Teaching him how to work in the garage.

And, teaching him how to ride the skateboard just like him.

The latest development is that Stockton has learned how to crawl this past week!!! Every day he gets faster and faster! This video is from the early stages, he is now a pro!

It wasn't John Stockton, but definitely the next best thing.

I know I already blogged about our trip to Oklahoma, but I thought this deserved it's own post. While we were at the airport we ran into Jeff Hornacek. It is definately in my top 5 coolest things to ever happen to me list. I walked up to the seats that Troy and my family had chosen to sit in and immediately spotted him no more than 10 feet away from us. He was sitting alone reading the newspaper with no one even staring at him star struck like I was. I debated whether or not to talk to him because I did not want to bother him, but I convinced myself that maybe he has been retired long enough that it would just be an ego boost for him. So I got up the nerve and walked over. I dont remember exactly what was said, but I know it consisted of me telling him how big of a fan I was when he played, that my baby's name was Stockton, and him laughing, probably thinking what a crazy person I was for naming my son Stockton. He was so nice, in fact, I think nice is probably an understatement. Stockton was being a little stinker and wasnt cooperating for the picture, so he played with him and tried to make him happy. In hindsight I wish I would have talked to him more because I know he wouldnt have minded. I was just so nervous and I really didnt want to bother him. But if I ever get the chance again, I will tell him that he was one of the best 3 point shooters in the league, that I loved the way he would wipe his face when he would shoot free throws to say hi to his kids, and that players like him and Stockton are a dying a breed and that I was lucky to grow up having them as role models and teachers of the true game of basketball.

I can't look at these pictures without just smiling from ear to ear. If I didnt know any different, I would think we were just a happy little family sitting at the airport waiting to catch a plane.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!

For those of you who dont know, I grew up in Oklahoma. We just got back from a recent visit and had a great time. There is nothing like going home and remembering who you are and where you came from. We didnt do a whole lot other than hang out at Ganny's house and play at the corn maze that my stepdad has on his farm. Now that we are home, I have to lose the 5 lbs I gained from all the good food we ate while we were there!!

On the airplane.

Worlds Best BBQ. :)

Hangin out with Gramps on the tractor.

We gave him a glow stick while we were at The Maize and he would NOT let anyone take it away from him!

We spent a day in OKC visiting the bombing memorial and the Botanical Gardens. It was fun visiting some places I hadnt been since I was a kid.

See what happens when Mom gets distracted and looks away for a second.

Going for a walk at Ganny's house.

He wasnt so sure about climbing hay bails.

Cute Stockton with his crazy Dad in the Maize. It was funny because with the humidity in the air, Stockton's hair laid down pretty much the whole time. He looked so different without it sticking up everywhere.

Going through the maize.

I got to visit a good friend from high school and her family. It was nice to catch up.

Stockton and Gramps on another tractor.

Stockton loved taking a bath in the same tub that I bathed in hundreds of times.

Stockton and his Ganny.

We saw this salon and had to take a picture because it reminded us of Troy's mom. We thought it was so funny.

It's Official...I am a Mother

Stockton has been sick. He puked all over the place several times yesterday evening. Two of those times required baths. Not only for the mess, but the bath tub seemed to be the only place he was happy. He was happily splashing when I noticed a log floating in the water and when I looked for its source, I noticed another one on its way out. This I could have handled with only a minor freak out. But when the solid logs turned to chunky, mucusy diarrhea, I lost it. Troy was out working in the garage and when I called him freaking out to come in, of course he told me I could handle it on my own. So as I am standing there frantic with a panic attack on the verge of puking, Stockton is staring at me wondering what all the fuss is about. I wont go into all the details, but I did survive. The toys, tub, and Stockton all came out clean and sanitary. I have always said I would much rather deal with the teenage years than having to clean up vomit, poop, and pee for years and years and last night reaffirmed that for me. Thank you Stockton for my Official Motherhood Initiation.

This is what happens...

...when you take Stockton to the Farmer's Market and give him a sweet, juicy peach......let him suck the life out of it......and then take it away from him.

Such a sad, sad story.

Like Mother, Like Son

Me and Stockton couldnt have posed for these pictures any better if we would have been trying.

What do you think? Does he look like his mother?

My two cents

I couldnt have said it better myself so I will just let my sister say it for me. Although, I do have to add my own sidenote that I am completely baffled that people are already getting so irate over a speech they havent even heard yet!!! At least give him the chance to succeed at being the role model that his position needs him to be rather than set him up to fail.

http://vanderlindenclan.blogspot.com/2009/09/im-troubled-by-this.html

Disclaimer: Not for the easily offended.

Random thoughts

I recently had a conversation with a neighbor that led to our age when becoming parents. She is 31 with a 3 year old and a baby Stockton's age. She mentioned that some people have been critical of her for waiting until 27 to have her first baby. She then started telling me about her sisters and some of her friends that got married and started having kids right after high school and have left their husbands so they can experience a fun, single life that they never got to live. She was saying how happy she was that she waited because now everyday with her kids feels like Christmas.

I didnt say much in the conversation, but I knew that I agreed with her. It wasnt until thinking about it later that night that my random thoughts could correctly communicate what I was thinking. This is what I came up with: I am 27 with a young marriage and a new baby and I can honestly say that I dont feel like I am missing out on anything. Obviously there are times that I wish I could just go out to dinner and movies with my friends at the drop of a hat. And go shopping for new clothes without thinking twice. Or even go run errands without having to plan my day around feedings and nap schedules. But when I think about me and Troy as a couple and as parents I realize that we have both experienced alot that life has to offer, not as much as everyone, but more than most, at least in the culture that we live in. We have both experienced love and heartache on a mature level, we have both acheived financial independence that allowed us to experience living on our own and being solely responsible for ourselves, we have both dabbled in a life that all of us are curious about, but most of us are either too disiplined to try or too embarrassed to allow themselves to admit it. We have been able to travel and see parts of the world and country that has opened our eyes to how others live, we have been able to enjoy ample amounts of free time that we could selfishly enjoy however we wanted to, we have both been able to enjoy dating and being single, making good friends and being able to have many fun times with them; while at the same time also experiencing feelings of lonlieness and fear.

Through these experiences and life in general, we have learned the importance of family and a solid support structure, we have figured out who we were and what we wanted in a spouse and what values in life we wanted to live by. We have both ached so badly for the family that at times we never thought we would ever have. So now that we are here, we can both finally exhale and just enjoy it. There hasnt been a day since I have had Stockton that I have felt like I was missing out on life. Am I naive to believe that day will never come? Maybe. But for now, like my neighbor, I will enjoy waking up to Christmas morning everyday.

Hunter's wife? You decide.

Does this family picture officially make me a hunter's wife?

If so, I guess I can live with that.

Does that mean I want this precious baby boy to grow up being a hunter?

That is still debatable.

Do I really have a choice in the matter?

Doubtful.

We just returned from a successful, week long camping/hunting trip with Troy's brother's family and his Mom and step dad. The hunting aspect was alot more....fun than I thought it would be?....no, I wouldnt say that, but it was definately more exciting than I anticipated. I was happy that Troy was able to get his buck that he has been dreaming about for so long. Him and Scott worked hard and they were successful. Good job boys! :) The camping was definately relaxing even if Stockton did spend most of the week grumpy getting new teeth. I was able to spend some quality time with my niece, sister in law, and mother in law. Time with them is always too short. Here are some pics of the week. Everytime I look at them I just can't believe how much bigger and cuter Stockton gets everyday.

Sidenote to all of Stockton's uncles: You guys really need to step your game. I think Stockton has officially declared Scott his favorite uncle. He is just mesmerized by him everytime we see him.

2nd Annual Walker Family Camp out

For the second year my entire family spent a few nights at a really Campground in Provo. It was alot of fun again and we look forward to making it a yearly Walker Family tradition. Stockton was a little scared at first, fearing he would be mauled by all of his cousins...

But it didnt take him long to embrace it and become part of the pack...
All of the kids had fun hanging out with each other and spending time with their Aunties and their Weema.

We spent alot of time swimming...

On the drive home we decided to have a picnic and take a short walk up to Bridal Veil Falls since none of us had ever been before. It was the perfect little adventure for a pack of kids...

Of course it didnt take Emily long to go from sweet little girl...

...to adventurous little tomboy....
...by the end of the week, we all felt like this!

6 months old

Can you believe that I am already 6 months old? Let me tell you about how big I am getting.

I am getting very big and strong. I learned how to sit up all by myself. Sometimes I fall over, but its fun when I am on my mom and dad's soft bed.
Now that I can sit up, playing with my toys is alot more fun.


But sometimes it can be alot of work, so I like to stick out my tongue and concentrate really hard.

When I'm not sitting up, I like to bounce in my Johnny Jump Up. Spinning around is my favorite.

My most favorite thing to do is eat! When my Dad feeds me, he lets it get all over me.

But that's OK, because then I get to take a bath. I love touching the water with my fingers when my Mom pours it on my tummy.

I still love my glow worm, but I have another best friend now. His name is Jazz Bear, my dad won him for me at Lagoon. Everytime I see him, he makes me laugh.

My Mom is still my most favorite person in the whole wide world, but Dad is definitely a close 2nd. I get to spend every morning with him while my Mommy is busy working.

Everyone still tells me all of the time how much I look like him. I tell my Mom that it's OK because I have her big blue eyes....

....and that makes her SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!

Summer Fun

We have been having alot of fun this summer even though we have been spending too much time working in the yard. We took Stockton to the lake with some friends and his little girlfriend, Mya. He is already protective of her.
We went to Boise for the 4th of July. We couldnt have asked for a better 4th. From the time I was a kid, it has always been my favorite holiday, but living in Utah it has been more of headache for me rather than a celebration. Every year that I have lived here, anything you try and do is SO CROWDED and just pure CHAOS! This year we went to a little Idaho farm town, Melba, and finally got to experience the classic 4th of July for a change! Small town parade, followed by shopping at little booths and YUMMY carnival food! And, guess what, we got there 15 minutes before the parade started and got PRIME seats in the SHADE and all the candy thrown at us that we could possibly eat! We didnt have to go down there the night before and put out chairs to save our spot and still show up 6 hours before the parade! Anyways, sorry for the rant....I think we are going to have to make Melba a yearly tradition for our family, it was perfect. Thank you Scott and Lori for letting us tag along!

My new hobby is SEW much fun!!

Yes, I do think that is possibly the cheesiest thing I have ever said, but how else was I supposed to start this post??? Thanks to the help of my super talented sister, Jen, and friend, Cami, I have tapped into a crafty side of my brain that I never even knew existed. I have been putting my sewing machine to use and have made some fun stuff so far...

A pillow case to match Stockton's new quilt:

A cute little ball for Stockton to play with:

And a precious little dress for my niece, Emily:

I really have been having fun with it even though I never thought it would have been in my personality. Next on my list: new curtains and plastic bag holder for the trailer. Stay tuned...