Happy Anniversary babe!

7 years ago I got married to the most wonderful man on earth. I don't have enough words to express how much I love him. My best friend and truly one of my heroes. I just wanted to remember a little note of today.

In despite of how I look or how I feel you are here for me. You helped me with the kids and with dinner and ...well with everything actually. I love you my love with all my heart and there is nothing in this world that I want to do more than make you happy forever and ever.

xoxoox

Feliz Aniversario hermoso

your wify

btw that lobster was THE BEST! thank you again for my big present. I can't wait to have it here:)

W for Walkers!

That is right. We are Walkers! We say it with pride. I sent this e-mail to our family and wanted to post it here too for all our friends and memories to keep. Enjoy!

Let's start with one of favorite Christmas: our first Christmas as a married couple, we received some special, nice ornaments. Since then, we decided to buy an ornament each year that indentifies the year's higlights for each one of us. For example, this year, Glenn's special ornament is a tool box because he's become a great handyman helping with little things here and there in the house. He gets excited every time that I ask him to pull out his handyman box. He's doing his second year of anesthesia and loving it. I finally can understand his language about central venous catheters. He was actually complemented last night on call for his skill in placing a big one very quickly in a trauma patient. He is a great dad and husband. He is so supportive and such a hard worker in everything, even in little things that he never thought he was going to be involved in. That that is why he has earned this special ornament. This year has been tough to find the special ornamet for Nicky (6). I wanted something in Spanish and English since she has improved her Spanish so much. My family can finally have a conversation with her, though she does have a thick gringo accent. It's cute. She does love, however, bragging to her friends that she is bilingual. At first her friends didn't believe her, but then they saw her talking to me in Spanish and she became the most popular of the group. For her ornament, we did find something else that she has been doing for 2 years in a row and enjoying so much: a ballerina. She is doing very well once again in her dance classes. She loves them and keeps telling us she wants to be a ballerina and a chef when she grows up. She loves Kindergarten, which she attends from 7:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. She is a very hard worker, just like her daddy. Not being able to go to school would be the worst punishment for her, and her favorite is having pop quizzes at school...well, after lunch time, of course. Ian's (3) ornament this year could have been a toilet since he has improved so much with potty training. He still struggles at night, but is making improvements. I don't even know sometimes if he will grow up out of it. If not, I am already prepared to send him to college in big diapers. :) He is such a boy. He loves bugging his sisters, playing tough with daddy, and playing with cars and super hero toys. He also loves wearing his skull and crossbone rain boots everywhere (they were on sale, and they fit). He loves his cars, and admires policemen since he thinks they are the real superheroes. He is SO into dinosaurs, but seriously, he's really into it. He could watch movies and "read" books or documentaries about dinosarous forever. That is why he deserved a dinasour ornament. It was really tough to find something that fit so well since he likes so many things. Somehow Hanna (1) learned to love Elmo, and I was so glad because she's a momma's girl. It's funny because she is not a tv girl, she loves books! She always asks for have one with her when we put her in her crib to sleep. However, one day she found Elmo very interesting. She won't watch it on tv, but if I put pbs.org on the computer she could be there ALL DAY LONG...not that I have ever done that for the whole day..temptations, temptations...She still our little peach. Her vocabulary has grown so much. The other day I heard her saying, "BOOYAH!" to Ian...we think she picked it up from Nicky who got in from school. She likes playing rough with Ian, then tattle-taling on him to me about being rough. She is a doll when she walks, tiptoeing everywhere she goes. She picks her clothes with me every morning, and is very opinionated about it. I know what she doesn't want something when I pick it out and she tells me, "NO PRETTY GIRL!" and won't let me put the clothes on her. She lets me know she is happy with the outfit by smiling and nodding her head while saying, "OH, MY! PRETTY GIRL!" She also loves to dance and even say it in Spanish ("BAILA!"). She got an Elmo ornament. For this year the family ornament was this big W since we are Walkers of course. My ornament this year was especially tough. Last year I had a cook mitten with kitchen utensil. Everybody knows how much I love cooking and baking. However, due to this year's circumstances, I had to buy a different ornament for this year. Why? Well, you probably know that when I get pregnant I can't cook or get near the kitchen at all. That's right... WE ARE EXPECTING BABY NUMBER 4!! That is why the other ornament for the family is the one with a gingerbread cookie with the number 6! So far my kids think I'm the best cook for making mac & chesse almost everyday. I'm 8 weeks and a few days along, but who's counting? I went to my OB, and we already heard the baby's heartbeat. Nicky was dissapointed that I wasn't expecting twins. I was glad to see just one. :) Nicky is excited about the news, Ian not so sure how he feels, and Hanna couldn't care less. Glenn has been so nice and patient and such a good husband taking care of all of us when he is home.

We hope all of you had a Great Christmas and we wish you all a wonderful New Year!

I'm tired!!!!

It's 7:16 a.m. Nicky just left for school. I could totally go back to bed and wake up later on, but I wanted to write a little bit about Thanksgiving and then start my day. :)

We received a call from our friends the Jaffers to see if they could spend the holidays with us. We were so excited to have them over. Robyn (my friend) planned tons of activties for us to do during that fabulous week. They came on Tuesday so we mostly just visited. On Wednesday we went to Sea World of course. We had fun, but by 6:00 p.m. all of us were super tired. The kids however still had enough energy to keep going. Then Thursday: THANKSGIVING DAY!!! For our feast I made Greek salad (for Robyn's husband who's Greek), green bean casserole, creamy corn, green beans wrapped in bacon (YUMM!), home made rolls, apple/bannana/pumpkin/and pear pie for dessert, turkey, sweet potatoes, funeral potatoes, home made cranberrry sauce, honey butter, whipped cream, and of course fruits and veggies. We all LOVED the feast. Mason kept telling me that the turkey was perfect. I devored like 3 plates of Greek salad, Robyn was so into the pies, Ian and Hanna LOVED the olives (I know, Iknow), Max gave a try at everthing, and Greg and Glenn couldn't decide what was best. They all made me feel special of all the hard work and keept congratulating me on the food. For the first time I had to admit, IT WAS SO GOOD!!!


Glenn and Greg took the kids to a park while Robyn and I took a nice siesta. The kids made Native American hats and we made some turkeys out of cookies. I had planned a football game but MAN WE WERE EXHAUSTED!!! So we relaxed by playing Taboo. We had a blast. The next day we went to their hotel pool. It was great and the kids loved it. After that we decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese's.

However, we came back home hungry again so we ate a little of the left overs we had. We then played more board games and watched 4 Christmases. It was as funny as the first time we watched it. The following day we met with the Jaffers at the Children museum. WE ALL ENJOYED OUR VISIT THERE. It really is like being a kid again

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The Jaffers invited us to eat since it was their last night in San Antonio. They took us to BJ's.

We had so much fun. I know I keep talking about having lots of visitors. We love it!!!! We were starving for visitors and now that we have them we are really having fun. I'm exhausted, BUT we keep inviting everybody over to visit. I'm so thankful for the family that the Lord has given us and for the family that He is letting us have, for our wonderful kids, for the trials and the development of faith that He has let us obtain, for the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, for being part of the Church, for our testimonies, for the love that our Father in Heaven feels for us and proves everyday with the miracle of life. I'm so thankful for so MANY MANY blessing we have.I'm also thankful for having a comfortable bed to go and keep sleeping in for the rest of the hour. :) Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!! Now we are also getting ready for CHRISTMAS!!! Following are some sneak peeks of my next blog.

Ok, I'm not crafty at all, but for being my first time and no intructions whatsoever, it didn't look that bad right? Here is my new centerpiece!!

Nicky's b-day and first day at kindergarten

Nicky started her first day in kindergarten a while ago, but her lazy Mom couldn't find the right time to post about it. I think this is the right time since she is now 6 YEARS OLD!
She started kindergarten in September like most of the kids. She has loved it so far. She won a certificate to eat hamburgers in a restaurant. She wasn't happy since she doesn't like hamburgers. She told me I can have it if I want it. Her teacher (Ms. Newman) asked us (the parents) to take pictures of our kids trying on their first day's clothes so she could give us an album of the class at the end of the year. I was surprised that Nicky wanted to be called CLAUDIA at school (I guess because that name is not as common as Nicky).

As you can see she was wearing purpule shoes with NO SOCKS! I told her it wasn't a good idea. Oh, well. I let her make her decisions. Right after getting in the classroom she told me what all mom's like to hear, "MOM, YOU WERE RIGHT! MY FEET HURT." Luckily for her I was prepared with socks and tennis shoes in my purse to offer her. That way her first day wouldn't end up being painful. That just proved to her again that Mommy knows best lol.
November 2nd: MY BABY IS 6 YRS OLD!!! I told her we were going to have cake and ice cream and open her family presents. That the following week I was going to throw her a b-day party. She told me she wanted her friends to come the same day as her b-day. I tried explaining it so many ways. So I thought like a child telling her, "THEY MIGHT NOT BRING PRESENTS. LET'S LET THEM SAVE MONEY FOR THEM TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING AT THE PARTY." (I forgot Nicky is not a regular child) She said, "MOM, I DON'T CARE. I JUST WANT THEIR COMPANY!" It melted my heart so I told her I was just inviting 2 of her girlfriends over for her real day because even though she was so sweet they might be expecting a big party and I wasn't prepared for that. So I made a heart chocolate cake for her on her real b-day.

She loved it, and asked me to save some for luch the next day at school. :)

Here are my other two-some. What took Nicky by surprise was the arrival of my Mom. I knew she was coming because my sister told me she wanted to surprise us all. Nicky thought that her coming by surprise on her real b-day was AWESOME.
(Here is Nicky with her siblings and two of her friends)

My mom made us her famous GORDITAS. It is sugar tortillas. We all are big fans of them. Also, of course, of her Yummy tamales. She left uncooked tamales for Thanksgiving and Christmas already so I have that part covered. I'm so selfish, I wish I could just cook them for ME! She bonded with Nicky at nights playing the Wii (since it was Nicky's special week she got to play a lot).

November 11th: My Mom couldn't be here for her b-day party. However, for the first time I played solo baking her a castle cake. I'm not crafty and I'M NOT PROUD OF THE RESULT. Nicky and her friends, however thought it was AWESOME. At 2:00a.m my icing thing to decorate the windows BROKE. I was trying to fix them with a toohpick and my finger. Not very smart. :S Oh, well. I'm glad at least the judges' verdict was good. :)

This year for Nicky we had a treasure hunt. Princess vs Pirates. Glenn made a map of the house leaving clues for the kids to find that were going to lead them to the lost treasue. I couldn't take a lot of pics. However, the treasures were tiaras, necklesses, fake money, patches for the pirates, rings with super big diamonds and the pinata. It is actually was the first time we have had a pinata (we the Walkers). I know, shame on me.

Nicky loved her b-day party and all her presents, too. She told me her favorite present was the camera that Glenn bought for her. I warned her that if she breaks it she won't have another one until she is like 25 years old or something. She uses it all the time and is very careful with it. She also loved the 2 pairs of make up set that she got. She mostly used them to put make up on her dolls or if she has family or friends over to dress up her new make up set is always in her plans. :) Ian is already planning his b-day party next year. He was so happy for his sister. Hanna just wants ice cream all the time so she doesn't care who's party it is as long as it includes ice cream.

I love you, sweet sugar plum! I love you with all my heart. Now that you are making some decisions by yourself I'm a little scared. However, I'm glad you always turn to look at me to see if it's a good idea or not. I love you and I want to see you happy, ALWAYS. I want you to reach all your goals and never give up. I love being your mom and I love how you like me to sing to you everynight before going to bed. Happy b-day my sweet sugar plum.

Love, your Mommy