Snow Day

We had snow on Christmas Day. It was absolutely beautiful and we were so excited for our White Christmas. The next day, we played in the snow. Here are some pics of my absolutely adorable child that I was able to capture while the boys were making snow balls.

Graduation!

4 years ago, we started a journey. Jeff was miserable in his job and was not fulfilled with his current career. He spent about 3 months doing some soul-searching and decided that becoming a nurse would fulfill his need to help people along with his desire for schedule flexibility. So, in December of 2008, he left his job in home sales and started school the next month. We worked very hard to figure out how we could live without his income. He was not able to work at all for the first year and only small amounts the rest of the time. He was in class full time and studying even more than that. He had several classes he needed to retake along with nursing school prerequisites. It would be 2 years of school before he would start the 2 year nursing school program.

Jeff's First Day of Nursing School

It was one of the hardest things we had to go through. It was rough on our marriage and rough on our pocketbook.  It was rough on him being in his late 30's and a college student. It was rough having to miss tons of time with his kiddo as well as with his friends because he had to study. But, he did not quit, did not take a break, did not hold off on finishing. No matter what - it remained the goal. We agreed to that and we would not back down on that mission.

As of December 14, 2012 - Jeffrey Lee Walker is a college graduate! He graduated with his nursing degree and will be working at Baylor Plano as an RN immediately. Holy Cow!!

Jeff's Graduation Ceremony

 He adores his job. He is thrilled to go to work and has a passion for his career that I wish I could find. It was the hardest and the best decision that he has ever made. Yet, this decision and his ability to finish the program will change the entire course of our lives - especially Andrew's.

We are thrilled!

3 Years Old!

My baby boy is 3 years old. I have no clue where the time has gone but it's been such a wonderful and fun experience. I am so excited to continue to watch him grow in to the person he is going to be.

My heart belongs to this little guy. He brings so much joy and balance to my life. He is as sweet as he looks and laughs all the time. He is an amazing little guy and I don't know what I did to deserve him, but I'm not letting him go.

 Granny and Pappy were in town for Thanksgiving and stayed a few days longer to celebrate his birthday with us. On the morning of his birthday, we let Andrew choose his breakfast. He, of course, chose McDonald's - not for the breakfast but for the huge indoor play area. He had a wonderful time. 

We decided to have a very small gathering for his birthday. Family and his best friend from school, Carter. His friendship with Carter is so unique and they are the best of buddies. We knew that having Carter at his birthday would make it perfect.

We had a small celebration at the house with cookie cake and presents. Then, the group piled in to cars and headed over to the Indoor Safari Park. Andrew and Carter ran around like crazy kids jumping from one event to the next. The adults watched patiently as these two wore themselves out.

Dad's and Boys Playing Air Hockey

He had the best time for his birthday. He was able to spend the day with Mommy, Daddy, Granny, Pappy, Mamaw, Aunt Jennifer and Mr. Brad along with Carter, Mr. Tim and Mrs. Ashley (Carter's parents).

Happy Birthday Andrew!

The Lawn Mower

Andrew made his desires quite clear when we arrived to my parent's house.

Yep, I'm riding this lawn mower. Start it now, let's do this!

 So, when the time came for my dad to cut the grass, Andrew was not taking kindly to being on the sidelines.

Pappy knew that Andrew wanted to ride on the lawn mower with him. And, as a good grandfather - he made sure that happened.

But, my parent's have a big yard and Pappy was getting worn out with Andrew on his lap. So he came up with a better idea...

Rough life.

My sweet boy

One of my new favorites...

Sprinkler Park

The first three days of our vacation were to my parent's house. While we were there, my mom and I took Andrew to the Sprinkler Park right by their house. He wanted nothing to do with the sprinklers and insisted we play on the playground instead. It takes him a while to get comfortable with new things and this was absolutely no exception. We were there for an hour and it took almost 30 minutes (and my mom getting drenched) before he embraced the sprinklers. The story can be seen through the pictures.

Swimsuit - Check. Water Shoes - Check. Cool Sunglasses - Check. Sprinkler - No way dude. Safe here in the playground.

I'm looking toward the sprinklers - but I don't want to go near them. I'm perfectly content burning rubber on this grasshopper.

Granny has decided that even though Andrew won't play in the sprinklers - she will.

Not sure what to think about Granny playing in the sprinklers. Still hanging on the sides being safe.

Granny is officially drenched. But, Andrew is definitely intrigued.

He decides that he should join her.

Then he decides he does not need her. He can take on this sprinkler all by himself.

Getting more and more brave.

Totally soaking it in. I'm the Sprinkler King.

Up, Up & Away!

We returned yesterday from a fantastic family/friends vacation. And, the start of the trip was another first for my kiddo. It was his first airplane ride. We prepared for this for months. Talking about it, going through the steps of what would happen, learning how to un-pop our ears, etc... Andrew was so excited for his first airplane trip and we were hoping we had done enough prep to avoid any crazy kid breakdowns in a crowded tube 30,000 feet above the ground.

The one major disconnect that we could not seem to fix was that Andrew was under the impression that we were going to have to take a rocket ship to get up to the airplane. He informed us that airplanes are too high in the air so we needed to board a rocket ship to bring us up that high and then we would get on the plane. We decided that we liked that scenario and gave up trying to explain the details.

Andrew in the cockpit with the pilot. After the picture, he informed the pilot that he was going to drive the plane.

 

 

 

 

As usual, we were one of the last people on the plane. Being that it was Southwest, we were going to be separated. In fact, the entire plane only had middle seats available. We were trying to figure out what to do when I mentioned to several rows that I was completely ok with anyone who wanted to babysit my 2 year old for an entire flight while I relaxed in the back. That scary thought apparently crossed through multiple people's minds and people started moving so fast. Next thing we knew, we were in a row all to ourselves. Shocking the power of a baby on a plane. It was so nice and so awesome of those great people - no matter what their motivations may have been.

Both going and coming home were great. He was so entertained by clouds, free apple juice and games on daddy's phone that the hour long flight flew by...pardon the pun. Definitely a great first and one that we will be doing again. This beats 14 hours in a car with a high energy, extremely talkative child - any.day.of.the.week.

Teddy had a great time too and a pretty cool window seat.

New Camera

I've been experiencing camera frustration for several years now. I'll go through the ups and downs of reviews and feedback and finally breakdown and buy a camera. Then, within 30 days, I realize I don't like it. For one reason or another, it does not fit my needs. Usually I just keep the camera and gripe about it until I get bored with even using it. However, at Christmas I bought a camera and was so unhappy with the picture quality that I actually returned it. I went for months putting off the process of buying another camera. So many memory-making-photo-capturing moments slipped away because we had no camera to record the moments. The blog went by the wayside because I had no camera to get good shots. Well, that has changed. I FINALLY broke down and moved away from the point-and-shoot cameras to the SLR style. And, like the day after I got my king-sized bed... I said, what the heck took me so long to do this!?!

It is as wonderful as people say. It's addicting and fun. The "professional photographer" comes out in everyone who picks up the camera and starts to play around with it. And, we did not even go top of the line. We bought what I consider to be a great starter camera for us. The Nikon D3100 was our choice and I am thrilled! So, get ready for some great pics. Here are just a few from the first day.

Granny In Town

Andrew really enjoys climbing all over playing with Granny because, for the most part, she does not act like a granny. She crawls on the ground, goes down the slides, rides on his "bike" and has as much fun as he does with his toys. It's fascinating to watch how they interact and the hours they can spend together playing games and just enjoying each other.

The unfortunate part is that Granny is only in town once every few months. So, they try to pile all the fun of 2 months in to 3 days. They do a pretty good job of it. Here are some pics from the latest visit
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 By the time my mom leaves - she is absolutely worn out...and so is he.

=

Andrew's Bike

We bought the most awesome bike attachment for Andrew and he absolutely loves it. We ride bikes almost 4 times a week and he gets so excited. I can't recommend this enough. Because we live so close to his school, Jeff and I ride our bikes to pick him up several days a week.

Jeff is much more brave than I am with the bike so he will go much faster, jump over curbs and ride across fields. I'm more boring and basically ride straight at a slower pace. Needless to say, Andrew much prefers riding the bike with daddy. Boys...

Andrew and His ABC's

Ok, I'm that proud mommy that posts a half way decent attempt at ABC's. I think he did fantastic and I'm so proud of my kiddo.