Trick or Treating and then some!

Becca went to her first junior high party/dance with her friends. It was sponsored by her school and was on Friday early evening. Becca said that the only time a boy asked her to dance was during the "snowball" and she only danced with him for 6 seconds. I was surprised to learn that there were any boys there. When I dropped them off there was a steady stream of GIRLS!

Apparently, Becca also won some kind of dance contest. We only know this because she has the prize. She will not show us any of her award-winning moves! Maybe it was the hippie costume!

All of her cute friends came to our house for dinner, getting ready and heading out to the dance. We had bone bread sticks with blood dipping sauce, pizza, and bloody guts (fruit salsa) with cinnamon pita chips.

Halloween morning Hannah made green and purple "spider pancakes" for breakfast. She really loves to cook and is always lending a hand and learning new things about cooking. She LOVES to make pancakes!

Cleopatra Hannah

Just before trick or treating.....for the last time!

Next year she will be too old!

Joshua the Vampire!

Hannah and Becca dressed up for the Ward Fall Festival.

Free Burrito - Support JDRF

Hi Everyone!

As you know our family is a huge supporter of JDRF. I just wanted to tell you that today there is a promotion for a free burrito at Mi Amigos here in Arizona if you make a donation of $1 to JDRF.

Hand all your kids a dollar and have each of them buy a sneaker and everyone will get a free burrito. Today only!

Luke's Wedding

Luke and Alyssa.

Alyssa and her Dad walking down the aisle.

Hannah caught the boquet.

Matt and Grandma cutting up the dance floor.

Alyssa and Little Ty

Becca and Uncle Evan dancing

Jake and the kids watching the dancing.

Aunt Allie

Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike

Pat, Hal, Jeanne and Holly

Jeanne and Evan

The three girl cousins

Grandma Jeanne and Jordan

Cassie, Matt, Craig, Shawn, Holly and Mike

Groom and his brothers looking very handsome!

Lunch before the wedding.

The Bridegroom at lunch before the wedding.

Cousins Tyler and Joshua - The oldest and the youngest!

We had a great time in Colorado celebrating the marriage of Luke and Alyssa. It was a wonderful weekend jam-packed with activities. I will post more pictures later from the rest of the weekend.

I Wish I Could Translate the Phrase "Strong Work" into Latin

We got a surprise phone call today from Rebecca's school explaining that there was an awards assembly taking place this evening and that if at all possible they would like for Becca to be in attendance. We were excited to learn that Becca received an award for Best Latin Student of the year (out of all the 7th and 8th graders). Latin is a required course for all 7th and 8th graders. Here is a short video clip of Becca receiving the award. She has worked extremely hard at this new school and has done very well. Many of her teachers speak highly of her and we are certainly proud of her. For her, this was an unexpected category to win an award in. She was very excited. Becca has now gone to bed. As for me, I am left alone with my blog and my downloads and no way to translate the title of this posting into Latin. Maybe tomorrow she can do it for me! She is the Latin student of the year after all.

It was a Spanking!

We went to the Diamondbacks game tonight! It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Hal had to work, but we managed to party without him....somehow.

The Diamondbacks were playing the Dodgers. I love to go to the games when we are playing the Dodgers and I love it even more when we win...and tonight we whooped them! It certainly is a lot more fun when the Diamondbacks run 9 people across home plate. Keeps the game interesting. There are always a lot of Dodger fans in the audience which makes it even more fun. Joshua could hardly contain himself and wanted to stand on his chair and scream...fun for me and everyone else near us!

We had tickets that allowed us to go under the stands to use the restroom and it is also near the visitor's dugout. So Joshua "had" to go to the bathroom a lot. He wanted to boo them in their own dugout. All I can say is thank heaven for security guards.

The only disappointment of the night was the cancellation of the fireworks due to wind. Dang! We like to go on Friday nights because when weather permits they have fireworks.

This is what the Diamondbacks website had to say about the game.

PHOENIX -- The D-backs got five runs in the third inning to support a strong debut by Jon Garland as they beat the Dodgers, 9-4, on Friday night in the first game of a three-game series at Chase Field.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the D-backs, who lost seven of their final eight games against the Dodgers last season.
Garland, signed as a free agent in the off season, allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings of work.
James McDonald started for the Dodgers, and after retiring the first six batters he faced, things fell apart for the right-hander in the third as he walked three and hit a batter during the five-run outburst.
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.c This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

April

Then there was "THAT" April.....

April

Well, here it is April. April Fool’s Day no less. April has always been a BIG month in the Walker Family. Obviously, some of this joy has been spread around through the years…other times it tag-teamed us in an April of the same year!

April 1

Hal and Kellie decide to give their relationship another try (many years ago).

Kellie thought several times during that phone conversation…is this just an April Fool’s joke?

April 1 (different year)

Becca was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes

***Saddest April Day***

April 5

Kellie dislocates her ankle, breaks her leg, breaks her ankle, and breaks her foot in the process… and she is nine months pregnant!

April 6 (early a.m.)

Kellie has surgery to repair said breakage and gains 9 pins and a plate in her leg. Also gets the privilege of having dinner brought in from her loving ward for nearly 6 months and gets to be pushed around in a wheel chair for same amount of time.

April 13

(tag-team from April 5th same year)
Hannah is born.

April 13

Same day as her birth, Hannah breaks her collar bone during delivery.

She didn't want her Mommy to be the only one broken.

Also, her delivery day shatters record at the local hospital for most babies delivered in one day at that hospital.

April 14

Hannah makes her TV debut on the morning show to discuss the delivery record for the previous day for the hospital.

April 15

Hal and Kellie get engaged at the Lincoln Memorial. (Tag-team with #1)

From hence forth they strive diligently to have their taxes done so they don’t have to celebrate their engagement date in line at the post office! Of course they don't really celebrate this event. But, it never goes without mention. And the way things are going this year we may be celebrating at the post office.

We end the month by celebrating the following birthdays:

Barbara

and then

Hal!

April is eventful and I am always holding my breath when it arrives and breathing a sigh of relief when it goes…..hang on…let’s hope it is NOT a wild ride this year!

cRAzY wEEk! Oompa Loompa Style

It has been "crazy" week around here. Becca's school has been having a "crazy" week. There was CrAzy HaIR daY, for which she donned a green wig! Crazy "Polo Shirt" day which is a very big deal if you go to a school that requires uniforms in NOT your favorite colors. This was a favorite day among students because you didn't have to tuck in your shirt...or where a belt! There was also crazy fEEt day. This was also a treat because your shoes did not have to be 100 percent white or black. It has been very amusing to me that something so very "normal" at any other junior high or high schools could be so inspiring and cRaZY when you go to a uniform school. They even have fundraisers at the school where they sell regular T-shirts and if the kids buy them, then on test days they can wear them. These are very popular fundraisers.

The week was capped off with Armageddon!

The school is divided into legions and the different legions compete to see who is the best legion. Becca's legion took first place out of fourteen! Of course this required her to compete in the "five minutes of pain" category for which she and her good friends dressed as an OOMPA LOOMPA (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and sang for the judge...the most painful performance won. There were other categories as well....like volleyball, dodge ball, extreme trivia, and an eating contest that curled my stomach when it was explained to me. I think the OOMPA LOOMPA painful performance may have tipped the scales in favor of Becca's legion! Hence the first place. Becca originally signed up to be in the eating contest, but then thought better of it since she would have no control over the number of carbs she would have to consume in a five minute limit. Thankfully she made this wise choice because after what I heard about what was consumed I believe she would still be in the hospital had she competed.

How Much Pop in a Kilowatt?

Popcorn Anyone????

I know many of you are waiting with baited breath to see Becca's science fair project. She turned it in on Friday and Monday when I picked her up from school I was able to go and see all the projects.

I found her project in the cafeteria, before I found her and was delighted to see that she had won a blue ribbon. She won first place in Physics out of all the 7th and 8th graders. Everything at her school was divided into categories such as physics, chemistry etc. Each category has a first, second and third place winner who will be able to go on to the ASU science fair. She is very excited.

For her project she tested microwave oven wattage. She selected four microwave ovens with varying watts, two we owned and one from each of our next door neighbors. She then popped microwave popcorn from the same case of popcorn (thanks Tonya and Brent for the fabulous Christmas present) for exactly two minutes. She popped three bags in each of the four microwaves. After two minutes she opened the bags and counted the remaining unpopped kernels. Her predictions were correct and the microwave with the highest wattage cooked the most kernels.

Her entire project was to be done anonymously and her name was only on the back. Thankfully it occurred to us, at 10 p.m. the night before it was due, to remove the photos on her project and replace them with Becca cropped out!

Congrats on First Place!

Go Becca!

Our Ski Team

Somehow Joshua was absent from our other ski photos earlier this week. Here is a picture of him and then another of all the crew at the end of the day!