Christmas Gift.

This year we were blessed with a wonderful Christmas gift.

My sister, Brandy, delivered a healthy baby boy on December 26th.

Brogan Manual was born at 6 lbs and 14 oz and 20 inches long.

My nephew was wanting to get a good look at me. He wanted to remember the one who helped change his first poopy diaper. Not a pleasant experience!

Since, my sister and her family couldn't make it to the farm for our Christmas celebration.

We took Christmas to her.

Big brother, Maxton, opening his presents.

Grandma Dawn with her 7th grandchild.

Big cousin, Mallory, holding the new baby.

Hannah meeting her new cousin.

Merry Christmas!

Ho!Ho!Ho!

Santa made a trip to our daycare today! Mallory was sooooo excited! Hannah? Not so much.

Next.

This is the next project that we are working on in our new house. The kitchen walls were yellow, the counter tops were cobalt blue, and the floor was white tile. All three have been renewed. I LOVE my kitchen now. The floors were replaced by a contractor. The counter tops replaced by a firefighter friend who does construction work on the side and my mom & I painted the walls. It's beautiful!

In addition to the kitchen, Todd has been working on insulating the attic.

Transformed.

This was the foyer to our new home. Didn't really do anything for me.

Kinda boring.

THIS IS THE FOYER NOW.

The chandelier just "pops" now. You probably didn't even notice it in the "before" picture.

I've always wanted a red room.

We're working on the fireplace. Isn't the mantle just beautiful?

This is Matthew's room.

Before it was a striped gold wall. Not really appealing to a seven year old. He wanted blue walls. So he got them.

Happy Birthday!

My sweet boy celebrated his 7th birthday today.

Seven.

Seven years ago, these boys were brought into the world. December 2002.

Little did their mothers know that their paths would cross that spring and that their sweet boys would soon be inseperable. The best of friends.

Happy Birthday to Matthew (December 2nd) and Casen (December 11th).

Wondering.

Have you been wondering? Wondering why I haven't posted in a while? It's been a little crazy in the Walter household.

This is why.

We bought a house!

More space. A better neighborhood. The kids will have their own bedrooms.

Two blocks from the park and pool.

We're trying to sell our current home. Fortunately, we have been preparing it to sell for a few months. Painting, fixing, and odds & ends.

We've been busy with some updates on the new house and I can't wait to show you!

Final Ride

The weather has turned cold, which means that Mallory is done with therapeutic riding for the year. I have to admit the weekly drive does get old. My attitude changes though, when I see her get on that horse. Horse riding is her thing. She loves it!

Those crazy Frese girls.

I went back home to A.V. for Old Settler's Day.
It was a great day. Lot's of family.
The typical Frese volleyball team playing youngster's young enough to be our children or that we remember babysitting.
It's a wonder that none of us have broken any bones.

Our new feat for this year.
Hay Bale Tossing.

Yes, those old farm girl roots came through.

My aunt Lori, my sister Amber, and I- participated in a Hay Bale Tossing contest. It consisted of tossing a hay bale up onto a pallet.

The contest started at 5 feet. Piece of cake.

At 6 feet? Not too bad.

7 feet? Wow, did I really just toss that bale up there?

8 feet? Holy smokes! That kicked my ___.

I was pretty sore the next day but proud to say I was the Hay Bale Tossing Queen!
Every girl deserves her day of glory, even if it is a little redneck!

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Todd has had the pleasure of volunteering with the Abilene Smoky Valley Railroad- ASVRR. This year in addition to helping with the excursion train, Todd also got to assist with the Steam Engine.

You Scream, I Scream, We ALL Scream for Ice Cream!

There is an ice cream truck that makes the rounds through town. While at church small group with all of our kids, the ice cream truck made a stop. We couldn't resist taking the kids out to order their picks of ice cream.

Flagging the ice cream truck down.

Placing orders.

Checking out the ice cream truck.

Matt and his M&M ice cream treat. Yummo!

My Little Ballerina

Hannah has decided that she really likes dance. She gets excited to go to class and is eager to participate.

We love our Wii.

We set the goal of saving money up starting at Christmas. We wanted a Nintendo Wii, but I told the kids that we would have to save for it. This summer we had enough money saved up and we drove to Wal-Mart and bought it. It was a good lesson for the kids to have to wait for something. We have a had a lot of fun with our Wii.

Soccer

Matthew wanted to try out soccer this fall. Although it is not what he expected, he's going to stick with it. He has games every Saturday. It's fun to watch his team improve on their skills each week.

Hannah with great-grandma Shirley watching the game.

Basement Project

Our basement was your typical basement. Not finished. You only wanted to go their if it was storming. Badly.

We decided to paint the walls and it has made quite the difference. Matt and Hannah had a lot of fun helping paint.

PlayDoh

Alright, I'll admit it. I was pretty grumpy the other evening. We had a busy week and I was feeling like all I did was run- to keep up on house work, get the kids to their events, etc. I was a little stressed and the kids knew it.

Matthew's suggestion- "Mom let's make playdoh".

So we did.

I was not very prepared but we did it anyway. I found a recipe on the internet and we had everything but food coloring. To give our playdoh some color, we added a Kool-Aid pink lemonade packet. Hannah was excited about the pink playdoh. Matthew? Not so much.

We had a lot of fun. Tension and stress? Gone.

Almost finished product. Easy recipe. The kids did most of the work.

Hanging out with mom making playdoh: PRICELESS.