Happy New Year!

We wanted to wish you and yours a Happy and Blessed New Year!~

Love the Walters-

Eric, Tiffany, Mason, Jayden and Oscar!

Bring on 2009!

Here is the kids with their "big" gift from Santa. Oscar got a new hooded sweatshirt- he loves it if we don't put the hood up :)

I don't know about you but I am ready to say "see ya!" to 2008. It hasn't been a horrible year mind you but the economy has everyone in a tailspin! It seems like we are on a roller coaster that none of us really want to be on. 2008 started out pretty good as Tiff got a promotion to work in a new area within the Principal. We moved into our new home in February. It has been a great blessing living here. After the economy nose-dived, job security is a new mounting concern. Eric has had a close call with being laid off. Thankfully as of right now- we are both gainfully employed.

Christmas was a fun time. Tiff performed at church with a girl's group. It was a lot of fun. We traveled to Guttenberg to spend time with the Walter side. All of the siblings were there at once. That was nice. For once in a year we were able to get photos with both sets of siblings.

The kids had a good time opening gifts and spending time with cousins. They get to hang out together during the break. With all of the new gadgets they have, they should have NOTHING to fight about right??!! :)

The Accident

So when we were coming home from church on Sunday another person slid out of their parking lot straight into us. It crunched up the front of the van. None of us were injured at the time but Eric's back began hurting a few hours later. Thank the Lord it wasn't worse. We are now driving around in a nice loner SUV called a Dodge Nitro. It is WONDERFUL to have all wheel drive- I do say! :) It sounds like it will be a while before we get the van back. Possibly sometime early next year.

We enjoyed another basketball tournament for Mason- his team took 2nd. There was some pretty tough competition so it was very fun to watch. Jayden had her church Christmas program. She was a sheep. It was very cute.

We are very blessed this Christmas. We have been able to take time off of work to spend time with the kids and hang out as a family and not have to run any where. We will be taking off for Guttenberg on Christmas day. The kids are excited to see Grandma and Grandpa :)

Here are some photos of the happenings as of late! Have a Merry Christmas!

Sorry!

Yeah I have been a little busy- sorry! I haven't had time to blink let alone get my blog updated. Oh well. What is a gal to do? :)

I have been busy wrapping up my classes for the year. Lots of presentations and papers and I CAN'T WAIT for March- did I mention I can't wait until March???!!!! UH! It is going to be such a relief to graduate. Whether or not it is with honors remains to be seen! :)

Eric had a job scare earlier this week. Principal cut some jobs recently and originally it was believed that Eric's department was one that was affected. We had sent out a prayer request and spent time praying ourselves and amazingly we were ok with the fact God had planned a little something different for Eric. Turns out, God changed His mind-and Eric's job was saved. It is nice to see prayer at work!

So, that is settled for the moment. Enough excitement on that! The kids are busy as usual. Jayde performed a few times for dance and did a terrific job. Mason has played several tournaments and his team has won many of those tournaments. That is a lot of fun. He is having fun and learning a lot as well.

Here are some photos.

My brothers and sisters and Mom at Thanksgiving.

Grandma Judy and all of her grandkids and great granddaughter.

My nephew Caydn and Oscar. He loves that dog!

I finished the Christmas letter and will be sending them out this week. Until then, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Jayden's birthday

We had fun celebrating Jayden's birthday. Mason had a band concert on her actual birthday so we did a dinner and his concert on that day. Here is a photo of Mason carrying his Barisaxophone. His horn is the length from his chin to his knees. It is a HUGE instrument.

Mason had a tournament on Saturday the 8th. His team played really well and won the tournament. Here is an "after" photo in which Mason is very sweaty. ICK! Coach Denny thought that the medals would make good "bling" earrings. :)

Now to Jayde- she was very excited to get her High School Musical East High house. She got that on her birthday.

She also invited two friends (Abbey and Claire) and they went to Build a Bear. Jayde made a High School musical bear. It was a good time. The last photo is a picture of Jayde after her exhausting birthday party :)

So Many Updates

We have a lot of things going on and lots of photos to boot. First on October 12th Oscar had his 3rd birthday. So we made him waffle and put a little frosting on it. Needless to say he LOVED it! :)

Jayden had a concert at school. Here are some photos of that!

Mason had several football games. His team ended up winning the city championship game so that was very exciting! Mason is number 32. Eric is in the white T-shirt.

We also went trick or treatings at the Houghs. Hunter joined us as well. Jayde is Hannah Montana. Hunter is Iron Man. Sam is Batman and Lizzy (our friend's little girl) is a witch. Alex is tigger but he wouldn't photograph much :)

Finally we have Mason's tournament this weekend. He and the J-Hawks went undefeated in 4 games to take 1st place in the tournament. That was a lot of fun. The boys played really well together. Mason is #15 (he is right above the ref in one photo).

That is about it for now. It has been crazy to say the least but in a good way. I will keep updating photos as events happen. Jayde has a birthday this Friday so that is exciting. She is taking some friends to Build-a-Bear. We will see how that goes!

Ta ta for now! Don't forget to vote Tuesday! Go McCain/Palin!!! :)

Brrr

It is getting colder out. Yikes. Today was down right chilly here. It is going to get worse in the next few days. It is supposed to rain pretty much non-stop for the next three days. Yippee.

Mason has one more football game left. Thankfully it is supposed to be nice by the weekend. He is playing for the championship. He is pretty excited about it. I will let you all know how it goes.

Jayde had a sleep over last weekend. Her friend Clare stayed over night. The girls had a blast singing and dancing all night. They were back up around 7:30 in the morning and back up playing. She had to go home for us to head to Grandma Judy's birthday party. Surprise mom :) Hope you enjoyed your party!

We are going to try to head to a pumpkin patch this weekend. We haven't done anything like that for the last couple of years so we are over due. I will post some pictures of some recent events when I get a chance.

Talk to you soon!

Ho Hum...

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Actually there isn't much new to report which in this day and age is a GOOD thing!

Mason is still playing football. He made two touchdowns and two fumble recoveries last week, not to mention several carries. That is pretty good! He played full back and linebacker. He likes both so who knows what he will be when he grows up. It is funny to see him catch the ball and stand like 2 feet taller than the kid who is defending him.as 4 kids try to bring him down and he drags the along :) It goes back to the "my kids grow like weeds" thing- guess he still does ;)

Jayde is doing well. Same as ever. She is such an interesting child to say the least. She really can do anything she puts her mind to so it will be so fascinating to watch her grow into an adult. She took a timed math test at the beginning of the year and really struggled (hello-just finished summer- math wasn't a common thing practiced) but since she didn't get very far on the test, she was on a MISSION. She plays the Gold Medal Math CD we have on the computer and tests on it. Eric made math sheets and she times herself on them- ALL ON HER OWN!!! Needless to say they took a test a week or so ago to get into Math Club and Jayde passed with flying colors. Goal achieved.

Jayde wanted her kicks in dance to be better so she has been stretching out so they are perfect. She asked to have her routine music loaded on her Ipod so she can practice her dance routines and she does that several times a day. It is really something. She is a perfectionist by nature so you know she gets that from me right?? NOT!!!!

She is the POLAR OPPOSITE of Mason. He isn't all that motivated unless it involves sports or competition. He is doing terrific on his grades- mostly As-but has a couple high Bs that could be higher with a little effort. Not too bad considering he is in two sports now and has confirmation work to do.

Well, that is all to update now. God Bless.

I want his life!

Oscar has the life. I realized just how good he has it today since I had the day off. He gets to lounge around on the furniture of his choice while enjoying the climate controlled environment in which he lives. It pretty much is about 70 degrees in our house year round. He has taken over the chair as his favorite perch- probably because he can see the front door and the back door all from that spot.

In case you were worried about him being lonely or neglected in any way due to our busy schedules, I have proof that the worry is unfounded. Here are a couple of photos from today showing the "tough" life he leads....

I love Football Season

I love fall. It is my favorite season by far. I love Football season. The air is crisp and the temp is cool (or should be- not lately). My favorite time to decorate the house and the leaves change color. It is exciting!

The kids like the fall. The days seem a little shorter but they aren't as stuffy any more and that is nice. I love the fact that we have NO leaves to rake! Our old house in Ankeny was a nightmare. We spent hours after hours raking those dinner plate size leaves. UH!

Mason's football games are pretty fun. Jayde has been going to her friend Claire's house during the games. The girls have a good time hanging out for an hour or two and Jayde doesn't have to sit through games that she has no interest in watching.

Not much else to report so I will sign off for now.

I love Fall!

I love fall- it is by far my most favorite season. It typically isn't all that rainy, it is cool- not scalding hot. You get to look forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Who wouldn't look forward to a season where you get so many days off from work! :)

Any guesses on what Jayde has decided to be for Halloween?? Drum roll please- a cat. Just kidding she wants to be Hannah Montana. In all fairness she was leaning towards a cat for a while but then saw a Hannah Montana costume in the store and the squealing ensued. I explained that she had a wig and microphone already and just needed to spruce up an outfit and she could do that rather than buying a 30 dollar cheap version of a costume! YUP I am a GREAT mom HA.

Mason is too cool for Halloween you know now that he is in Middle School and all- but 10 bucks says he will convince his sister that she needs to share her candy that she acquires. That will work because the Good Lord knows she doesn't get to eat it all! He isn't stupid!

Jayde made me a lovely portrait out of cut up little squares that I had to share. Yes it looks like I have three chins- which I guess wouldn't be THAT far off- but she clarified to me that it was a smile, my chin and a necklace. I like how my necklace connects to my hair hanging down-that is handy.

What are the things on the side of my head you ask? They are exclamation points silly! As Jayde says- because you are my !Mommy!. I cracked up at that one! Another thing she said is that one off the squares fell off on the top of my head so "Mom- you have a hole in your head- Sorry!". Probably for the best really-I could use a little ventilation! You gotta love her.

God Bless America

First and foremost I want to ask you all to pray for the families who lost relatives during this sad day. I lost my dad almost 3 years ago now but it seems like just yesterday. You don't fully understand that until you lose someone close to you suddenly. I can only imagine how fresh it feels to each of the families when they attend memorials of the family members taken all too quickly in such a horrific way.

It is funny how most people can remember exactly what you were doing that day. Eric had just started a new job and I was at work at Seabury. A gal came in and said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center-it was on the radio" and we were all sitting there thinking- wow- and dismissed it and went on with our work. Then someone said another just hit the other tower. Goosebumps covered your body when you realized this was no accident and the hair started rising on the back of your neck. All work ceased and everyone huddled around the TV watching the horror unfold. Eric and I kept emailing what we knew to each other. My first thought was that I wanted to pick up my kids and to go home!

Here 7 years later the goosebumps are gone but I still looked at the clock this morning around 8:45 and said a prayer. It isn't a coincidence that I looked at the clock at that time.

God Bless America.

Sorry- I have been busy!

So I have gotten notes that you are missing my blog- good to know someone is reading my random thoughts. I have been ill- I had to take a break.

I was trying to load a video of Oscar "talking" to Eric but it is too large. I will have to play with it some more. It is very cute. For those of you who are under a rock-ahem- I mean don't know- Oscar thinks he is human. He doesn't seem to notice he walks differently than us and all but he was raised by a pack of humans- therefore he thinks he is one. :)

He will sit on the edge of the bed or the couch and will talk to us. He will actually talk- not bark, not growl but make noises like he is talking. Then if you respond like you understand him- he gets more excited and keeps going. Very entertaining. Makes you wonder what and the heck he is telling you!

The kids are doing great. Mason's football started last week. Jayde is now in two dance classes now so she is busy. It is more advances so she is excited for the challenge. Mason's teachers confirmed that he is doing amazingly well. You wouldn't believe the positive comments they have given regarding his performance. That is so exciting. Jayden has taken to her school really well and now even is in a running club (Jayde- the girl who doesn't like to sweat because it is yucky) and she does that instead of recess a few times a month. Very cool! They are really branching out in what they are trying.

Well, that is all to report for now. If I get the video figured out, I will get it loaded :) Toodles!

School is going well

The kids are doing really well in school. They made it through the first week in school. They both met some new friends and still look forward to class every day so that is good.

Jayden is getting settled as a second grader. She is liking the independence that comes with being the only sibling in her school. That means the school is HER SCHOOL and not their school. She likes when it is all about her.

Mason is settling into middle school really well. He has several friends in his class that he knew going into school so that was nice. Mason has adjusted to middle school lifestyle and is enjoying his being on his own and learning to manage his lunch budget etc. He is also still in band and the teacher asked him to switch from Alto sax to bari sax. If you haven't seen a bari sax, it is about as long as Mas and plays deep notes- it is actually a beautiful instrument.

So, for now all is well on the homefront for the moment. Guess we will wait and see how week 2 pans out!

Miracle Grow?

Anyone with kids knows that it is crazy from one year to the other when you are trying to figure out what clothes still fit your kids. Now people tell me all of the time that they can't believe how much Mason and Jayden have grown. I don't pay that much attention since-let's face it- my kids are freakishly tall and have grown like weeds since they were born :)

Today, however I had a firm realization that my children have grown a LOT in the last year. We cleared out Jayden's closet and weeded out the clothing she wasn't going to wear or couldn't any longer. Then on to Mason. I had him try on the clothes that he wore to church etc at the end of winter. Needless to say they didn't fit. Here are a couple of photos of what used to be his favorite pants. Can boys wear capris??? :)

Cleaning Day

It's cleaning day! The kids LOVE this day about as much as root canals and vaccinations. Our house is in need of a deep clean. Plus we are going over next door to clean that out for the builder cuz I want to get that baby sold and then we can have some neighbors.

The kids are troopers. They usually acknowledge that they have to do their part since they need to earn their keep. They can run a broom and a vacuum so that helps :)

I will let you know how well it goes. Oscar isn't much help. Maybe if I hooked a swiffer to his tail he could finally help a bit- HA!

On a serious note- my sister Angie had back surgery on her birthday yesterday from an injury from work. Lucky her! She had a ruptured disk in her back and is recovering nicely but could definitely use some prayers to ease her pain and for a quick recovery. Lucky her gets to recoup at her lake house so there is definitely an up-side! Stay strong Ang!

A note from Oscar

Hey- Oscar here. Mom doesn't know that I am savvy enough to sneak onto the computer while she is gone doing who-knows-what. All I know is that these so called family members of mine wake up at an ungodly early time when it is still dark out and make me go out on wet grass to tinkle. Who can tinkle right away when getting up from a dead sleep and standing on cold water filled grass?? They actually have the nerve to tell me to hurry up once and a while. I only do it because I get a treat after......mmmmmm......treats.

Where was I? Oh right- my blog. So what is the deal with these people? They wake up in the morning and stumble around and switch their clothing around (why they don't stick to one or two simple sweaters like me is beyond me) and fumble through their morning. They consume some very good smelling food- do they share it??- NO. They give me my kibble. They pour red stuff or syrupy stuff on their food- do I get any- NO. What can a dog do to get some stuff poured on my food? I like Heinz. Dad says it tastes great on everything so why don't I get some? I think its because I have fur. They tend to discriminate against people with fur. Like we are "less" than them or something. I should call someone about that....

Anyhoo, I am bored. My kids were home with me all summer and I had all the kisses and attention I could want all day long and now they pack up in the morning and tell me to "be good" and kiss me and leave. How RUDE! Be good my butt. I will be good but not because they tell me to. I just don't want to have a timeout when they get home if I do something bad!! I am in charge here people- I run a tight patrol from the front door window to the back door while they are gone and will growl and bark at anything that passes. Just try to mess with my family. GRRR.

Anyway- still bored. My bones can only keep me entertained for so long. That is why I figured out how to use the computer. Well, guess I better get my nap in. The kids will be home in a little while and there is no resting then! I can't wait! Toodles for now!

Oscar- the wonder-circus dog

First Day of School

First day of school! First day of school! Wake up wake up wake up!!!

Anyone who has seen Finding Nemo knows that you are supposed to say this to your kids on the first day of school! The kids started their first day of school on Monday. They were SO excited- for real. Jayden is in 2nd grade and Mason is now in Middle school. WOA! Here are some photos of the kids. Yes Jayde is in Hannah Montana clothes- and Mason's shirt has a Wii remote on it. Pretty fitting huh???

Adventureland

Sorry- had a little lag there- we have been busy-Ha. So we had a lot of things happening over the weekend. Friday night Mason had an "end of summer" swim party that we all went to. The kids swam and the adults chatted. Gotta love those parties. Of course the night started off in a typical dramatic fashion. Mason jumped off the diving board with his goggles on. Now, there is a reason that divers NEVER wear goggles- you see, when you hit the water, the goggles smash into your nose therefore causing a lovely bloody nose. Yep- first jump in the water and my child has a bloody nose. Yippee. Thankfully he clots quick and was back in the water in a jiffy!

Jayde stayed in the shallow end away from the boys. There were several- probably about 30 11-12 year old boys in all. Of course the public pool is huge in Urbandale and when you have it all to yourselves, there is plenty of room to stretch out! Mason has been into the Olympics so spent his time doing laps (after the diving didn't work out so well) and focused on trying to do the butterfly and the breast stroke. He even had a couple of races going. Too cute. Maybe someday he will beat Michael Phelps' record. HA!

Saturday we went to adventureland with some friends of ours named Dennis and Shawnda and their two boys Spencer and Nate. Spencer is in Mason's class in Urbandale and Nate is 8 years old and goes to Jayde's new school. It was a blast! Denny brought his handy dandy backpack-too funny! He had EVERYTHING in there!

The crew accessing the "backpack" for snacks.

Jayde striking a pose in line for the Falling Star. Mason and Spencer are with her. I really don't know where she gets it- HA!

Mason actually rode this ride about 3 or 4 times and LOVED it. Yes-they are upside down!

Dad and Jayde in line for a ride.

Back to school!

So yesterday was a fun day. Not a "hey let's go to adventureland fun". Nope. A gee going to the doctor is so fun-fun. That is what I spent my day "off" doing. I had to take Mason to the pulmonolgist (Mom put the dictionary away- it is a lung doctor). He had to get tested to see if he had exersize induced asthma. The test wasn't that easy. He had to climb stairs for 7 minutes straight. He was pretty tired. His tests came back poor so they had to give him a breathing treatment. They gave us an inhalor to use when he plays basketball. Beyond that his lungs are great- chest xrays were fine etc. Praise the Lord.

Now on to Jayde. I made the mistake (ahem I mean an appointment) for her to have a well child visit before school. I think it is like taking your car in for an oil change- you think everything is hunky dory but then they say hey your engine is falling off. Jadye's doctor checked her over and found that her thyroid is rather large and she was pretty concerned about it. They sent us the next day to get an ultrasound on her throat. She thought that was pretty cool. What she didn't like is that she needed two booster shots and had to get blood drawn. She is pretty strong when she resists :)

FYI Jayde is now 55 1/2 inches tall. And yes- she is still seven years old :)

All of that got us ready for school at least. The kids are down to their final days of summer. SWEET :) They are so excited about school. Jayden had her open house at her new school today and met her teacher etc. That was great. Mason has a back to school swimming party tomorrow and has a friend sleeping over tomorrow night. Too fun. Saturday is off to Adventureland (thanks again Principal) I am excited about that one.

I will keep you posted on how the first day of school goes :) God Bless

Olympics

If anyone went to bed last night before the men's 4 x 100 relay- they missed out! That was one of the most amazing races I have ever watched. Eric and I were on the edge of our seats holding our breath as the Americans gained on the French. UNBELIEVABLE!!! What a way to win a gold medal!!!!!

For whatever reason, our family totally gets into the olympics. All four of us. If the olympics come on, everything comes to a stand-still at our house. We all sit zoned at the TV watching it. It sucks us in. Normally Eric and I don't even watch TV for the most part but we do this. We find ourselves staying up until all hours of the night watching sports we would normally never watch!

Mason finished his last summer basketball league game last weekend. He is really into basketball more and more. He used to split his love for sports evenly but I am seeing basketball as being his favorite. He still plays baseball and football-heaven forbid he actually have a season off! Jayde still could care less about basketball. With her height it is like a huge injustice! She says she plays softball and dances. Now I have tried to explain to her that if she played basketball, it would in NO WAY interfere with dance or softball but nope- nada- zip. She will be one of the few 6 ft woman who can't dribble a ball. JEESH!

Our Feet Hurt!!

We made it through a day at the fair. The weather was beautiful for the first half of the day but then got pretty warm due to lack of breeze in the afternoon.

Jayden did a terrific job on her dance performance. She wasn't even phased by the many many people that were there to watch.

Then we went on to gorge ourselves on food. As much as I love the corndogs- I think my favorite is the fresh watermelon that is in the shop next to the giant slide. I could eat about 10 of them!

Of course we went through most of the fair- varied industries building was packed, there were tons of animals. We even got to see the Budweiser Clydesdale team. That was great!

We ended up so worn out we couldn't even get to see the butter cow or anything. It was just too much to see. Let me tell you- there are a lot of people at the fair on the first Friday of the fair! UH! Special thanks to our employer- The Principal for the free food, rides and entrance. That was awesome! :)