Birthday and Christmas Pictures

Happiness comes from family

It's that wonderful time of year, my favorite to be more precise. From Thanksgiving all the way to New Years'. The time that we get to eat what we want, and spend tons of time with loved ones.
This year was no different and I am very thankful for that.
Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Blackfoot, it was a nice relaxing day, except for the fact that the grey cloud of Black Friday was looming over Jeremys' head all day long. This year he was part of a "Response" team and had to go in at 3:30am, needless to say there was an exceptionally early bedtime for him that night.
The day after Thanksgiving the tree went up, Walker and I stayed home while Jeremy went and "played" with all the crazy shoppers. I have been known to attend the crazy Black Friday events, but this year with Jeremy working and no one crazy enough to go with me and lack of childcare I was lucky enough to avoid it all :)
 I love watching Walkers face light up with the joy of Christmas. He loved decorating the tree with all the ornaments that he has made over the last few years, and picked out his "favorite" store bought ones (the blue sparkle ones). For a craft one day we made a Christmas Countdown paper chain and he enjoyed taking a chain off every night and really liked when it was getting closer to his birthday, without any thought of my own the countdown served two purposes!
For Walkers Birthday this year we decided to stay home and just invite a few people over for cake and ice cream, it was so much nicer and quieter than the place that Walker would have chosen, but I prefer it this way.
Christmas Eve was here before we knew it and Walker kept asking every 10 min if it was time to go to Gigi's house for dinner, he was so excited to go spend time with his various family members. Christmas Day was just as neat, we started off the day by opening presents at home and seeing what Santa had brought him, then one of my favorites Breakfast at Kris and Donalees! After stuffing ourselves and having great conversations, we headed down to Blackfoot to round out the day.
I am so thankful to live close to both of our families. They are all amazing people and I am truly blessed to have all of them in my life.

As the year winds down, I start to think back on the events of this past year. So much has happened both good and bad, but we are all happy and healthy and have loved ones close that we can spend time with. For all of you reading this, thank you for all your love and support, we love you so much and look forward to another great year filled with many fun memories!!!

Still Here

For those of you that follow this blog....We have not dropped off the face of the planet. I've been so busy with getting christmas presents made and trying to keep the house in order, I just haven't been able to find those "extra" minutes in the day to post.
Walker was a Ghost for Halloween and he was so neat, he made all the ghostly noises. I have a pic of his finished costume but its still on the camera, so as soon as I get it uploaded I will post it so everyone can see how "cute" he is/was for that great candy day.
Jeremy is still busy busy busy at Wal~Mart getting everything ready for Black Friday and all the Christmas stuff that follows.
I've just been spending my days, sewing, crocheting, and trying to keep the house cleaned. I have decided that I am backwards in my thinking, I don't usually do spring cleaning, I do it all in the fall (I know there is something wrong with me) so on that note, I have been deep cleaning every room and trying to organize it all so when I go looking for something its the first place I look instead of the last.
I'm looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my family, and Christmas with Jeremy's family. I love this time of year, it's my favorite!!!!
Until next time,,,,,,,

Road Trip Pictures

For anyone that didn't already hear, my sister Keri took a job with the Air Force in Alabama. She made all the plans to drive across the country and I went with her so she didn't have to do it alone. It was tons of fun and I thought that I should post some of the pictures that I took along the way.

The Antler Arch in Jackson Hole

An Elk in Yellowstone

The Tetons

taken in Grand Teton National Park

Devils Tower

Bambi at Devils Tower

Another shot of Devils Tower

Mt. Rushmore

Its so majestic

An original Sun Stone from the Nauvoo Temple

The Nauvoo Temple

So amazing!

The Mississippi River

Snake River Youth Jam

The Snake River Youth Jam was this last weekend, it actually ran from Thursday to Saturday but with all our other things that go on we didn't get a chance to make it down there until Saturday

It was a little chilly but we bundled up and Walker had a blast

Here he is painting the big xylophone and then he grabbed a mallet and played it for a little bit too

The graffiti wall, he thought it was really neat that he got to paint on a wall and not get in trouble for it, I had to make sure to stress that wall painting is only ok at the river...lol

This is Junk Jam, they have all sorts of things strung up and there are bats and sticks and tennis rackets to bang on all of it, he had to make sure to hit each and every thing that was up there and told me all about the different noises each one made

He wanted to go to the little overlook thing and see the falls, I couldn't pass up the chance for a cute photo

"The Duck" every year there is a duck race you can adopt a duck and if it is one of the first ones to go over the falls you win a prize. Walker thought this duck was "AMAZING" he told me that he had to have a picture because "its bigger than daddy"

The Fireman Challenge was here this year, we started to watch some of it but as Walker is only 5 he got a little restless, they had this area set up for the kids challenge but it wasnt going on while we were there, the nice people let Walker put on a hemlet and fire jacket so we could take a pic.

It was about 3 hours well spent mommy and Walker time. I love the fact that things like this take place along the river, its something different to do and helps break up our semi boring lives

Camping

What a wonderful weekend we just had, spending time with family out in the great outdoors.

The "Family Reunion" Camping trip turned out wonderfully. Tendoy is such a beautiful place, so quiet and peacefull (even with the kids running around crazy)

There was lots of time to chat and catch up with each other and everyone got a chance to ride the 4-wheelers.

Regan and Leah Playing

Sara, Nancy, Grandma, Natalie, and Abi playing cards while waiting for dinner

Uncle Wynn and Uncle Paul hanging out before dinner

Eric

Kris working on the ultimate "Harry Potter Stick" for Tal

Donalee and Tal playing the bean bag game (I can't ever remember the name of it...sorry)

Im sure that Donalee got way more pictures of everyone and better ones as well, I was doing too much "relaxing" I think to take many pictures.

All in all it was the best weekend of the summer. Walker's first camping experience, first 4-wheeler experience and first mosquito bites lol.

I look forward to doing it again next year!!!

Thank you everyone for all the work you put into planning and excuting this fabulous weekend!!!

6 years

I can't believe that it has been 6 years already....where does all the time go?

Jeremy,

I love you, you have made my life so wonderful. Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for us. Thank you so much for being such an amazing husband and father. I am truly blessed to have you in my life.

Road Trip

A couple of days ago I was talking to my sister Keri, she is getting ready to move to Alabama for her job. The best part is that she will be able to come visit before she has to go that far away. I will be going with her on the drive over there so she doesn't have to drive alone. I am so excited! There will be fun stops along the way like Mt. Rushmore, Devils Tower, and Nauvoo. A couple places that I have not been before and one that I have always wanted to go back to. I will be flying home on the 29th of Aug, just a few short days before my baby starts school.

There will be lots of pictures when I get back, but I was just so excited that I needed to blog about it lol.

Sleeplessness

How is it that all daylong while I'm running around, trying to keep up with a 5 year old that only has 1 speed (super fast), barely able to stay awake that when the time comes to go to bed I'm stuck lying there staring at the ceiling?

So, since it's 1 in the morning and I'm wide awake I figured that I should use this time to update.

Summer has hit us (finally) and Walker is enjoying every minute of it, he is almost always outside on his bike or in the "kiddie" pool or playing with the neighbor kids. I'm so grateful for an apartment with a yard, and not to mention the church parking lot across the street that has become the best place to try to teach him how to ride his bike without training wheels. I have to admit that I am so nervous about taking them off his bike, and thought that I had hid it very well. However he is adamently against removing them. He tells me that he can go faster with them on, they are his "power boosters". School will be starting in about a month and I'm dreading and looking forward to him going to kindergarten. I'm still in shock that he is old enough (maybe it's denial), I have waited for this time to come forever it seems, and now I'm not ready to let him go.

I can't wait to see how much more he learns, we have been working on what we call pre-school time (basically me sitting down with him and some printouts of letters numbers and recently started small books) for several years, and he still amazes me with what he has learned. Just tonight he came up and told me what our phone number was, I haven't even really focused on that yet.

Jeremy is still plugging along at Wal~Mart and trying to survive the remodel of the store, he comes home almost everyday with a new story about what department has been torn apart and scattered across the store. I think that he will be so glad when it is done. I do have to admit that I don't like to go in there while they are working on the remodel, its a mess and things are hard to find.

I have hopes to be able to go camping at the end of the month around Jeremy's birthday with the family, I think Walker would really enjoy it since his only outdoor sleeping experience was in our backyard just a couple weeks ago. Being a typical boy I am sure that there will be lots of dirt and mud involved, but the experience is worth it. I spent many wonderful summers camping and I want to be able to share that with him.

I am grateful everyday for everything that I get to share with Walker, I feel like I missed out so much when he was younger and I was working, I value being able to stay home with him and see him grow. Honestly, this is the best job I could ever have, and he reminds me of that every day.

4th of July Outfits

Once again my friend and neighbor and I decided to make all the kids matching outfits for the 4th.

this is the group minus one

Our friends girls Megan, Katie, Erynn, Melissa's neice Kaycee

Melissa's son Alex, her neice Ashlynn her daughter Gaby and Walker

and our neighbor Chelsea's son Hunter

and ofcourse one of Walker

A day at the river

Walker and I decided since the weather was nice that we would pack a picnic lunch and go to the river and eat and feed the ducks/geese.

He had a blast throwing the bread and he made it all the way around the greenbelt, Im so proud of him!

The gaggle of geese in the flooded area of the greenbelt

The rainbow that Walker saw and made me stop and turn around to see, it is pretty awesome

Walker thought it was really cool to feed the geese and that the baby ones would walk close up to him to get the bread

Some of the greenbelt has flooded and the kids and ducks/geese alike are loving it

Yard Sale Woes

The big day arrived and the weather was beautiful, I couldn't have asked for a nicer day for a yard sale. We had managed to figure out how to turn off the sprinklers so our stuff didn't get soaked over night on Thursday, and we started setting up tables and putting out the items that wouldn't be damaged by the dew. Friday morning was amazing and people started driving up around 6:30, a little early but we had most of it out there for them to look at. Friday was a success and then we looked at the weather for Saturday.....tunderstorms.

Decided to play it by ear and woke up at 5 Saturday morning to cloudy skies but no rain, so the set up process began all over again. It was much slower on Saturday and we had to stop earlier than planned due to the rain (wasn't much but enough that it was getting everything wet).

It was an interesting experience, one that I don't care to relive again anytime soon.

Sayings of a 5 year old

After spending a few greatly needed hours with "the girls" , and talking about our kids and all the crazy things they say and do I remembered something that Walker said to me the other day and I just had to share it.

Walker- "Mom, you have the best job in the world"

Lisa- "Really, whats that?"

Walker- "Taking care of ME!"

What would I do without him????

Waiting for the sun

As ususal the weather here in Idaho has been rather dreary as of late. I keep waking up and hoping that the sun will be out and Walker and I can go to the park or just in the yard and play. I believe that the sun hates me.....ok so not really the case, and I am grateful for the rain (we always need the moisture) but, where are the lazy crazy days of summer???

One of the few nice days we had, we met friends at the park for a picnic lunch and "energy draining" activities.

While at the park they were getting ready to mow the grass and were pulling the picnic tables with a 4-wheeler, Walker thought this was really cool and stood and watched them for a little while

We decided to take advantage of the great special at the portrait studio at Walmart and have some much needed and overdue pictures taken. The quality of this is not the best as I don't have a scanner so, me being the dork that I am took a picture of the picture to upload here.

I can't believe how big he is getting, he can't wait for school to start. I'm not sure that I am ready for him to be old enough to be in school.

Walker is really enjoying the fact that this apartment has a yard, he is almost always asking to go outside to play, and has learned that he can as long as he follows the rules (no going in the street or across to the next building over and checking in every few minutes). He has quite the little farmer tan going already, I can only imagine what it will look like when summer is over.

For anyone that is in the area, we are having a huge multi-family yard sale on the 19th and 20th of June (next weekend YIKES!) Feel free to stop by and chat. I'm excited because maybe I will finally get rid of all that stuff that has been sitting in boxes for almost a year....lol

Rainy Days and Mondays

Ok I realize that it is really Tuesday, however the saying seems to fit the mood. The real Monday was dreary as well but Walker and I spent most of the day out of the house, we went and got his pictures taken and then saw Nana and Daddy at work, he loved it. My little ham is apparently only a true ham with the camera at home. After about 4 picutres he decided that he was done and didnt want to take anymore. I was able to convince him to take a couple more and even managed to get some good ones without the "cheeser" grin. I can't wait until they come in so we can finally get some updated picutres out to all of you very patient family and friends.

This last weekend they finally came over and mowed the lawn, we were so excited beause that meant that we could put up the kiddie pool and let the kids run around without fear of losing them in the tall grass and dandelion field. So Saturday night the pool went up and wouldnt you know it, the weather hasn't been nice enough to play in the water since......figures just my luck. 

We are getting ready for the huge multi family yard sale, the date is set, some of the stuff has been priced, and now Im praying for nice weather on the 19th and 20th of June. If anyone has any stuff that you would like to try to sell just let me know and we can get labels for you.

Walker wants me to go help him build a castle so Im off for now.

Random Picture

Just a random pic that I found

One of my favorites 

I wish he was still this little

I love you Bug

Blustery Day and Memories

Today reminded me of Winnie the Pooh.......

You know the Blustery Day story where Piglet becomes a living kite and Pooh is holding on to a string from his sweater....one of my favorites.  :)

My grand plans for going out and getting the rest of the leaves from last fall raked up and finding a place for my little plants to grow, were shoved to the back burner yet again thanks to the wonderful wind storm. I think its safe to say that I HATE the wind. Walker wanted to go out and ride his bike today and play outside, and even though I felt like crap (stupid head cold) I had planned on going out with him, but thanks to the wind it was not possible. I think that if he had gone outside he would have blown right over.

So once again the windows got closed and Walker and I spent a nice quiet day inside. He is so good and entertaining himself, he colored, played with his toys, painted, played with play-doh, and did some school time (although he thinks that he doesn't need school time anymore because he starts school this fall). 

I had made some chocolate chip cookies after Walker went to bed last night ( I had a horrible craving) he was so excited to see them this morning when he woke up, that it took quite a bit of convincing that they were not breakfast food. I was finally able to talk him out of having one for breakfast and he had one for snack after lunch, that kid will eat anything for breakfast....lol.

My love for facebook has grown, over the last little while I have been able to get in touch with friends from school that I had lost contact with over the years, but the past couple days were the best yet. As some of you know I was a nanny on the east coast for several years. I found my  long lost friend on facebook, and through her I have found other friends. Oh the memories that came rushing back, I just for a moment wished that I could go back to that time, just for a day and relive all those fun times and see everyone again. It is so hard to believe that it has been so long, everyone is all grown up with families and children of thier own, my how time flies.

Ready to Read

We took Walker over to the school today for his Ready to Read testing. Ready to Read is a program that the school promotes along with its Parents as Teachers program. Walker flew through it and only missed one question. The lady performing the test commented on how he got ones that most kids miss, I'm so proud of him. He is so ready for school to start!

Jeremy has been home on vacation this week and he and Walker have been able to spend some good quality time together that is usually missed because of work. Walker has loved every minute of it and all the fun things that they have done. They have gone to lunch and went to see Monsters vs Aliens, I guess Walkers' favorite monster is Bob.

I wish that the weather would be a little bit better so we could all go bike riding, I'm trying to be patient for summer, but there is so much that I want to do. Jeremy bought me flower seeds that Im starting in the house, and some lettuce, tomato, and sweet peppper plants, Im so excited to see if I can actually grow them, as I'm notorious for killing plants.

Hope all who read this are doing well

Excitment in the eyes of Walker

Life lately has been a wirlwind of excitment for Walker. A couple of weeks ago I went over the the school and registered him for kindergarten, and yesterday he and I went to Kindergarten Round-up. Some good information for me about the school and got the chance to meet the principal and the kindergarten teachers. Walker got to go down to one of the classrooms and sit and play and color with the other kids. On the walk home (we just live across the street and through the church parking lot, so very nice) all he could talk about was "seeing HIS school" and how he can't wait for summer to be over so he can start. Im not sure that I'm ready for him to be so grown up. I miss the days of my little bug snuggling.

Lazy Days and begging for summer

Quite awhile since I posted last, and since Im no longer working I have no excuse other than I have been extremely lazy.

Apparently I am not a good salesperson, I discovered this a couple of weeks ago when I was let go from Qwest because I wasnt selling enough. So Im back to the stay-at-home mom thing for now, and loving every minute of it.

I always seem to forget how much fun it is to stay home and play and teach Walker. He is growing so fast and can't wait for school to start.  

I have re-discovered my sewing machine, and have been making pajamas and summer clothes and having a blast. I have tons of ideas and projects planned out I just need to sit down and make them. 

Short blog today, gotta go play catch up on laundry lol

What a week this has been. As I was coming home from work on Tuesday I saw this bright blue flash coming from behind my apartment building, my first thought was "Who is crazy enough to be lighting fireworks in February". Imagine my surprise when I pull in the driveway and find out that its not fireworks but the Transformer blowing up. It cut power to the building next to ours instantly, and we figured that it would just be a few hours and everything would be taken care of. Flash forward about 20 minutes......there are atleast 6 firetrucks, several cop cars, and 1 truck from Idaho Falls Power. We let them know that there was a horrible humming noise coming from the meters on the back of the building, the guy from the power company, rushed to the back and came back upfront and told us that they were cutting power to our building as well. No biggie we think and that it will be just a little while and everything would be back to normal. After about another 20 minutes we find out that there is lots of heat coming from the walls in our apartment and there is smoke in the apartment as well. They told us that we would have to evacuate for the night, so we went back into the house packed up what we needed for a night away from home and took off to Rigby (thank you Jana!). 

I got a phone call Wednesday morning from my landlord letting me know that the grounding wire that runs through our house smoldered and almost caught fire, she needed us to come move all the stuff out of the living room and the kitchen so they could cut into the ceiling and replace the grounding wire. Much thanks to Brooke for keeping an eye on Walker while I rushed back into town to begin moving all of our stuff. 

Wednesday was a blur of moving things and watching them rip into the ceiling in several places in the living room, kitchen, pantry, and the closet in our bedroom. We have managed to get most of the stuff back in place, but getting rid of the smoke smell has proven to be impossible, especially since there are still holes in the drywall and the burnt 2x4. Hopefully it wont take too long to get it all repaired and repainted so our lives can go back to some sort of normality.

I am grateful that it wasnt worse than it was, and that my family was safe. There were no major injuries and out of the 8 families that were evacuated no one was hurt. We are very lucky, the 4 families in the other building are still out of thier apartment, a fire broke out there because of the grounding wire as well, but it burnt up into the upstairs apartment, so there is a lot more damage and repairs that need to be done there.

So thats the big news from this Meek family for now....lets hope its not this "exciting" again for awhile.

Life at the Meek House

I rush home from work only to remember as I am walking in the door that Jeremy has to go back to work tonight to help get ready for inventory.......ewwww

So now that its almost 9 I have Walker in bed and refusing to sleep until "Daddy" gets home so he can have goodnight hugs and kisses, even though Jeremy gave him hugs and kisses before he left to go to work. I made me realize just how grateful I am that he is not working the overnight shift anymore. Life was rather crazy and family time was non-existant when he had that schedule. Walker and I spent most days trying to be as quiet as possible so Jeremy could sleep. Trying to fit family time in when schedules are completely opposite of each other was so hard. Ive decided that day time jobs are almost manditory when you have small children (atleast for us).

Its also that time of year when I get to sit back and think about what Ive accomplished in the last year as I get closer and closer to yet another birthday...ughhh.  My big birthday present to myself this year is rather lame but I will sure enjoy it....I managed to get 3 days off of work so I will get to have a really nice long weekend and bonus time to spend with Walker.

Life here for the most part is the same as usual, nothing exciting or extraordinary, its the same basic routine every day, we get up get ready for the day, Walker and I do some school time before I have to leave and then he heads next door to play and Im off to work. I do know that Walker LOVES when its time for Jeremy to come home. That is thier "special" time together...I have no clue what they do but they have fun doing it.

I do wish there were more hours in the day so I could get more done, my house is always in some sort of disarray and I am always behind on something. I just have to keep in mind that everyone here is healthy and happy and that is what is most important.

 

Well lets see, last time I managed to post was in November................where the heck does time go?

There are never enough hours in the day.

Everything around here is still pretty much the same as usual, Jeremy and I drag ourselves to work everyday and Walker gets to play all day long (where is the fairness in that?). 

I have decided that the life of a 5 year old is never ending laughter for his/her parents. The other day I got an email from my friend that watches Walker during the day telling me what happened when Walker threw a pencil at her daughter (groan) here is what followed when she asked him why he threw the pencil....

 Walker threw a pencil at Gaby and hit just below her eye :( He got a time out.
Although the throwing wasn't funny his response on why was:

M: Why did you throw the pencil
W: My body wanted to play
M: Is throwing pencils playing
W: no
M: So why did you throw the pencil?
W: My body was in freak out

I have to admit that when I got the email I was rolling with laughter, true the situation was NOT in any way funny and I am very sad to admit that my child throws things at other kids, but with that response I couldnt help myself. I do have to be grateful that my friend was able to hold it together long enough to put him in time out (well deserved I might add) .  

He does still manage to amaze me with the things that he learns, he can now write the entire alphabet (more or less copy the letters you write for him, but does really good), and wants to play store or resturant all the time.  A couple of weeks ago he walked up to me and said "mom today Im gonna pretend to be a teenager.....(pause and gasp from me)" (UM......NO). I managed to breathe after a few seconds and asked him why he wanted to pretend to be a teenager, his reply was priceless "Because teenagers can help cook and clean better". Lets just hope he keeps that mind set when he is really a teenager.

Some day I will have to sit down and figure out how to add pictures to my blog but until then anyone can go to picasa.google.com/jdmeek and check out all the pictures there that Jeremy has uploaded from the camera (thank you honey)