Our New Year celebration!

...So what happen in our New Year? We had my baby sister over for the special day along with her family and her sister in-law with her 3 kids. We play some Wii dance We ate ate ate tons of foods. Carne Asada, Pozole, Tamales, Buniuelos, Frijoles Charros, Homemade chips, Frijoles refritos, fruit deep in chocolate and brownies.

The kids had fun and for my surprise they all got along very well.

 2 hours before midnight we dance and sang in my Karaoke and we woke up Zach so he could receive the New Year with us.

 My little sister and I did alot of silly dances, the kids thought we were so funny and we just couldn't avoid laughing of our silliness

 We of course took some of the last pics of 2011

Close to midnight we all were prepare to receive 2012 with so much energy. We ate the 12 grapes and made the 12 wishes for each one of the grapes. We put our shoes backwards and some money inside the shoes so we could have "money and good luck" this new Year, We ran in and out the house 12 times holding hands with suitcases to make sure we travel during the year, we cheer for a great year and drank sparkling juice, we hugged and kissed oh yea and my sister, her sister -law and me sang a silly song to the moon to have money in our wallet for the whole year. (Glenn has accepted all the silly superstition tradition my family do every end of the year but this one, he normally apologize out loud for being so superstitions lol I think is funny) We of course don't believe in any of this, HOWEVER we think is a fun thing to do and the kids love the running here and there. What I like about all this traditions is that we end up and start the year with so much laughter and that is something positive right?

Happy b-lated New Year to all of you!!

Happy Wisemen Day (or Dia de Los Reyes Magos)!

Briefly, we just celebrated our first annual Walker celebration of the Wisemen Day. It's a much stronger tradition in Hispanic culture, but we're half Mexican in our household so we decided to finally start including it as a celebrated day. It's supposed to be on January 5th, but it worked out better to do it today. For the history on it, feel free to look it up on wikipedia.

 

We had an awesome time with four other families coming over from the ward to our house. Claudia prepared a sumptuous meal and treats (tamales, frijoles charros, rosca de reyes [sweet bread - more on that later], brownies) which were devoured by all present, including the many kids who happily bounced about the house. They got along amazingly well considering the age differences and gender differences (the girls quickly separated into their room to play with the Barbie dolls and accessories and boys subsequently bothered them trying to barge in). But I digress. :) After the kids ate, the adults jumped in and filled up our estomagos, followed by some fun board games (Partini...kind of a grab bag of different games in one...found out our guests had some hidden humming and sculpting talent). :) We all had fun trying to find out who had the plastic dolls hidden in their sweet bread, or "rosca de reyes." It's a circular pastry with frosting and dried fruit (tastes better than description) that gets cut into pieces where 2 little plastic dolls are hidden. If you get one you're supposed to throw another party in a month for all the attendees (we skipped that part today). Ian got one of the kids' ones, Claudia got another (we didn't fix the competition, promise), and the other two were spread out. :)

The tradition says to leave a shoe under the Christmas tree because that is how the 3 Reyes Magos will know there are kids in the house. They will leave a present in the show for the kid who did leave a shoe in the Christmas tree. The next day the kids were super exited that this time the 3 Reyes Magos did leave a present for all of them..

We had a great time, and will definitely repeat it next year. Thanks to all our friends for coming and having a great time! We'll see you next year! Feliz dia de los reyes magos!

Feliz Navidad!!!!

and Merry Christmas to you, too!!! We had a very good Christmas Eve. My friend Celest invited us over to celebrate with some friends on Christmas Eve. For the last three weeks I have been teaching Nicky and four more of her friends a dance routine to perform it that day. Growing up, my sister Monica used to take me and my baby sister Dina to one of her friend's house along with a we other girls around our age they would teach us a dance to performance it in special occasions. We love it! I wanted Nicky to experience that. So Nicky, Samantha, Kylie, Megan, and Sage danced Jingle Bell Rock. They all looked adorable. They worked so hard, even with the mean teacher I can be. I had fun and I think they did, too. I could see their eyes. They felt so important in the party, just the way I used to feel when we were doing a special dance. Celest also made us play some present exchange games, did the nativity were Zach was baby Jesus (of course), and we ended up the day with the Knights playing Mafia (just the adults). I had so much fun. The only sad thing was that Glenn was on call and couldn't come with us HOWEVER he was here with us to celebrate Christmas day!!! I felt so blessed for that.

"Santa" had a broken sleigh this year and "sent" one of his elves to leave a letter to the kids, promising them to leave their presents later on that same Christmas Day. To do that, he asked us to leave the house for "an hour or so" so he could come and leave everything. We decided to go to earlier meetings at church for another ward (that way we could come back early, too, and Glenn could go back to sleep). Church was great and the special music was excellent, but there was one speaker that took too long and the other one didn't get the memo that sacrament meetings are supposed to last just for one hour. That being said, sacrament lasted for 1 hr and 30 minutes. Glenn and I were laughing at the situation. We felt so smart on going early so we could have a break and there we were. Glenn kept saying that he could just imagine Heavenly Father pointing and laughing about us "trying to be so smart" and he told me, "I'm sure our ward will be in sacrament meeting for 40 minutes." I talked to my friend Celest and she told me that Glenn's prediction was true. More to laugh at us anyway.
The kids were super excited to see their presents from Santa when they walked in the house after meetings were over. It was so fun to see them get what they asked for. Nicky asked for a Barbie dream house. The house was so heavy that Santa left it upstairs. :) Nicky walked in and was a little sad that she didn't see her big present in the living room, then she checked Santa's note telling her to look upstairs, letting her know that her gift was too big so he left it where she was probably going to play with it. Clever Santa.
Ian got a "General Grievous" (Star Wars) sword. Hanna got her interactive "puppy dog" and Zach got a robot that has lots of lights and rolls around. I got a vintage popcorn maker and Glenn got a cotton candy maker. Tons of movies, Wii games, and candy were in the stockings and boxes, and the kids and us got more fun stuff (collection of Junie B. Jones books, Polly Pocket toys, dolls, Barbies, Tv.'s, camera, boots, robes, clothes, shoes, crocks, collection of Star Wars toys, Transformers, cars, potty training barbies, pet shop toys, princess accessories, a tripod for my special camera, and a HUGE mask of Optimus Prime). We had a great Christmas. Yeah the gifts were great but the best of all is that we were all together. My house is a mess and we are extra exhausted, but we are enjoying this time together. I'm so grateful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for so much love that He feels for all of us. I really think He wants to see us all happy. I'm grateful for the wonderful family we are forming and for living in this crazy time. I truly feel the love of my Savior every day when I see the love of my kids in their eyes. Or the gentleman and wonderful husband I have. Nicky told me yesterday that she felt warm in her heart every time she hugs me. I can still see Ian's, Hanna's, and Zach's eyes sparkle with love when they see me. I'm not proud of what kind of mom I am, and every day I see an opportunity to become better. I probably fail in most of my attempts but I will keep trying my best to raise good future grown ups. I feel that I don't deserve the wonderful husband that I have and yet I feel blessed every day for having him with me, holding my hand so patiently. I try hard to be a good wife, but I know I can do better. I'm still trying.
I'm grateful for my family which by the way keeps growing every time we move. I have made so many wonderful friends, and I feel really blessed to have them.
Anyway pics and video will be posted LATERRRR!!

Feliz 2012! Resolutions, anyone? (a rare Glenn post)

I haven't posted here in forever and apologize for it, but I think our "large" following will forgive me. :)

It has been an incredibly busy, but wonderful year. I thought I'd give my highlights and some resolutions. Shall we?

1. Arrival of Zach Russell Walker. We were ecstatic to receive our fourth child into our family on 8/3/11. He wasn't just the biggest of the four (8 lb 7 oz), didn't just take the longest to arrive (1 day before 40 complete weeks which Claudia had never gotten to), and hasn't been the only one to somehow pull out the blue eyes from his parents' very brown eyes...but he is a very special addition to a very special family full of great kids. His older siblings have been great and have received him with love and open arms. He's a chunk and a half (18 lbs at 4 months), but he's full of smiles (along with some grunts).

2. 8th Anniversary. Yeah, this happens every year, but it's a wonderful time to remember the greatest day of my life: when I got married and sealed to my gorgeous, awesome wife Claudia in the snow-coated Salt Lake City Temple. Still don't know how I am so blessed to have her. I luckily had the day off from work and after the kids went to sleep I made a fancy dinner for the both of us which turned out pretty tasty. :)

3. Nick's Progress. She's a great reader and is making out to be a great writer...maybe someday like her Grandpa Jim. She's doing excellently in first grade and in spite of some girl-relationship drama (really? this early? who would've thought), has made some good friends and is a darling at home. She helps her little siblings out all the time (great big sister for Hanna, especially in what I'll describe below) and is full of love for her family and others.

4. Ian's Progress. He started pre-K without a hitch, and was happy to be going to his big sister's school. It's only for a few hours a day, but he loves the environment and getting to come home on the bus (which drops him off right in front of the house...nice work, babe). He's learned those essential basics from school (he already knew most of it) and continues to be his chatter-box self. :) He has a best friend at school with whom he exchanges stories about Transformers, Star Wars, and varying super heroes. He might've gotten those interests from me. :) He's a great son, and though he struggles with being consistently obedient, he is a sweet brother and son and is doing better every day.

5. Hanna's Progress. She has officially surpassed that last, insufferable barrier of toddlerhood: potty-training. My incredible wife, while still adjusting to Zach's recent arrival, put the proverbial foot down and fought through the tears and accidents and marathan bathroom days (at least she liked reading in the bathroom). I haven't been much more than a slightly involved bystander in that step in all 3 of them, so my wife gets another trophy. :) It's such a huge step. I'm always telling people that you can finally breathe a little easier (figuratively and literally) when they're potty-trained. She is a doll and our toddler princess...and a diva. :) We love all of them so much, they're all very special and we feel so blessed to have them.

6. Grandma and Grandpa's Visit. After a long abscence (we had been to Utah before starting residency when Hanna was still a newborn), we got to reunite with my parents here in San Antonio. It was more of a relaxed visit, we only briefly went to a [closed] Alamo where they treated us to a Subway dinner, but the connecting with the grandkids was fantastic. Grandpa got taught the art of the Star Wars Legos Wii game from Ian ("are you listening to me, grandpa?") and learned the importance of General Grievous (of said series) to our little Ian (great job, Dad). My dad and I got to commiserate over 2 BYU losses on t.v. (painful to even bring up), and my mom got to snuggle with newborn Zach. Having them here for Zach's blessing made a memorable day even more special.

7. Primos and tios (cousins and aunts/uncles). We had many great visits during the year for different occasions from Claudia's side of the family and were always happy to have them in our home and see our kids play well together. Birthdays, holidays, and long weekends were even more eventful thanks to their visits. Our kids are slowly picking up some Spanish along the way with this (they understand it but won't speak much). We're happy to have all North America in the family (Canada, U.S., Mexico) and the thorough and deep culture they all bring.

We had many other special events, but those were the most salient. Yes, I just used "salient."

Resolutions (mine). Gotta write them down somewhere to make them count, right (measurable and specific,as well if I remember correctly)? I've put some thought into them and hope to define them much better. Though a great year, as most, there were many things I'd love to improve this year and into the next. I'm not trying to impress, and some of these might be obvious or already part of your routine. I just want them to be part of mine (in many aspects, again). Here goes:

1. Temple attendance once a month.
2. 100% home teaching every month.
3. FHE every week.
4. Date night or "talk night" once a week with my wife. Get out of house for one of these at least 2x/month.
5. Night out with one of my children once a month (rotating basis)
6. Pass my mock oral and written boards for anesthesiology (did it last year, but it's supposed to get harder)
7. Study 30 minutes every day for work.
8. Go to gym 3 times a week. Regain abdominal anatomy of yester year. :)
9. Write in journal once a week.
10. Finish D&C and Book of Mormon this year.
11. Travel somewhere as a family this year that requires us to stay there at least for a few nights.
12. Be more patient and understanding (no road rage, yelling, arguing). It doesn't happen often but I want it to be pretty much never.

There you go. 12 for 2012.

Happy New Year and Feliz Año Nuevo!