This is one happy girl

A quick post on how Liza was very pleasantly surprised 

that Santa brought her a kitchen playset for Christmas.

Walker's birthday part, Pt. 2

The great thing about being a kid is that you can have a birthday party -- not exactly on the day of your birth -- and then celebrate your birthday on YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Mommy made Walker birthday pancakes (sprinkles, chocolate chips and topped with whipped cream) and we all ate together. I took a big, long birthday nap ... and then I took Mom and Dad to Chipotlé for dinner.

Mommy needs help feeding herself.

Yay! Birthday pancakes!

Eatin' breakfast with my main dudes.

Walker's birthday party ...

Even though it was a week early, Walker had his 1st birthday party. Grandma and Papa came up from South Carolina and all my good friends -- and their parents -- came over for the party. Kelsey did a great job with the "Winter ONEderland" theme.

Opening our gifts ...

Getting a little help from my cousins on my cake ...

Santa hat from Grandma Throne just adds to the festivities.

Happy birthday banner!

Thanks, Aunt Erin, for the awesome cakes!

The first of many years of memories.

Papa and Grandma showed up to help us celebrate!

Pastor Jon had his hands full with all the family that came up
for the dedication of Walker Edward Throne -- a year in the making.

This tree needs something ....

Our boy is a bit, well, active ...

When we put the tree up, we didn't put any ornaments within Walker reach. He didn't like that and decided to do a little decorating of his own. We think you'll find he has both creativity and taste. 

A happy boy ...

Busted! 

Block ... check.
Stuffed dolphin ... check.
Stuffed bunny ... check.
This thing is coming together!

Silence: Genius at work

The finished product ...

The tree is up ...

One thing we do -- usually the weekend after Thanksgiving -- is put up the Christmas tree. Luckily for us, we have one more set of hands to help us this year.

And Walker's more than willing to help.

 If there's one thing Walker knows how to do ... it's help. (Well, it's his idea of helping.)

 Mommy and Walker taking a break.

 Grace flashes that big smile of hers.

 Liza got into the spirit with the Santa hat.

Liza adds the final touch to the tree.

Where has the time gone?

Okay so I am really not sure how it is almost Thanksgiving. We had so much stuff to blog about and now it is all old news, but we will have a recap of the last month or so to get everyone caught back up. 

Halloween was awesome. For Walker's first halloween he was a sock monkey, Grace was a farmer, and Liza was a bride. 

We thought we were going to have to send Walker out as Rocky or some other boxer for Halloween because he got a bug bite that caused his eye to swell shut. But we go that taken care, and he is just fine.

Grace has become the master of putting Walker to sleep. He really enjoys crawling up in her lap and letting him fall asleep on her. I must say it is pretty cute too. Liza continues to big a big help in taking care of Walker too. She loves to give him a bath and is pretty good at it. 

Walker has gone from crawling to full out running in a matter of weeks. He is pretty funny now and we definitely have our hands full. At least once or twice a day one of us will leave the room only to return and Walker will be standing on the couch, more specifically on the arm of the couch trying to reach the lamp. 

More to come on what has been happening in the Throne home, soon...really, we won't wait a month this time.

Walker and the lemon

It's sooooooooo sour, yet I can't stop eating it!

Parenting 101

If it's one thing we've learned as parents, it's how to corral the boy. Watch and learn, young parents … watch and learn.

Walker and the Apple Slush

We finally find out if Walker likes the Apple Slush ...

Apple Open House

The family and our big bag'o'apples.

Last weekend was the annual open house at Hirsch's Fruit Farm, a big annual event in Ross County. They have games and horse rides for the kids, as well as tours of the orchard and you can pick your own apples. So, on Sunday, we loaded up the kids and took them out for the fun. It was a great family day!

Walker seems to love picking apples.

Kelsey got into the act.

Liza carried the peck'o'apples that probably weighed as much as she does.

Dad had to get the ones up high in the tree.

More fun with Walker and Daddy

If you have to eat stuff that has the consistency of wallpaper paste and taste sorta like whatever it's supposed to be, you'd better be having fun while you do it.

And we do ...

Walker and Daddy = hilarious

Walker and Daddy playing together. He thinks his dad is funny ... won't be long before that changes.

First day of school

I know, I know, where are the beach pics from Kiawah? I'm working on it, but this one was quick and easy, so ...

Monday was the first day of school for Grace and Liza. They are now going to Southeastern and have to get up a little earlier than last year. But they were pretty chipper on the first day … but let's see how the next seven months or so go before we start celebrating.

The keeper of the coupons

We've nicknamed Walker "the keeper of the coupons", but guardian might be more accurate. He pretty much puts a death grip on them when we put them in the seat with him. He's always ready for a little extreme couponing.

He's also been helping mommy get zipper binders for The Bell Tower's annual Bible School, which will give each child who attends a backpack filled with school supplies. They're both a little excited about finding them at WalMart.

Pancakes

Sorry for the lack of posts. Mike and I have been having some computer trouble and haven't been able to get our pictures off the camera and onto the computer. But I was successful with transferring a few this morning!

Walker loves pancakes ... more specifically BLUEBERRY pancakes. We're are not sure if he likes the mess he can make or the pancakes themselves, but -- as you can see -- he gets the best of both worlds.

Just loungin' around

Kelsey got me a great b-day gift ... along with a homemade card. A book, some snacks and a hammock for the backyard. Monday was the perfect day to test it out ... so I did a few things around the yard, then went out to the hammock.

She crashed my party ...

Then, Walker just had to get a little spin in it, too ...

'Daddy's Big Boy' did too.

I might have to schedule time in my own birthday gift. LOL

Just like dad...

Walker loves to play with the newspaper. Perhaps he will grow up to be a journalist just like his daddy.

Crawling Walker, Hidden Talent

We've not posted for a little while, sorry about that ... Our big boy is getting bigger and starting to discover things (hands, feet, cereal, etc.). He's also becoming more active, but ...

Is it crawling?

Is it the worm?

You be the judge ...

And for more Walker action, check this out (wait for the end) ...

Coloring Easter Eggs

I love to color Easter eggs and it was even more fun getting to see the kids having fun coloring eggs. Ever since I can remember we would each get a dozen eggs and we would decorate all but the few that dad would manage to eat. We didn't have the fancy kits that they have now where you can tye-dye your egg or make it shiny. But we still had lots of fun. It was great to see the girls get so excited about coloring eggs, and Walker seemed to like it too. He kept reaching for the colored eggs.

We had a little accident while coloring eggs. Erin was helping Elliott color and spilled a whole cup of green coloring all over him and all over the floor.

I think Elliott was less than excited about all the mess.

But even though we made a huge mess on mom's floor she just laughed about it. She said in all the years that we have colored Easter eggs (30+) that no one has ever spilled the dye on the carpet.

Elliott's legs and but got stained from the green but I think he was really just trying to get into the spirit.

Mom was trying to clean up the carpet. After we got it mopped up you couldn't really tell that it had happened. Thankfully she has carpet that hides messes well.

Walker is trying to reach for his eggs that I colored for him.

These are Grace's eggs.

And Liza was nice enough to pose with her eggs for a picture.

 

We had lots of fun. I am not really sure what we will do with all the eggs since we won't get to see the girls for Easter (they will be in Memphis, TN visiting their aunt and cousins) but we will figure something out. 

Walker is four months old today, my how time has flown. We has his check up, more on that later in the week.