Another Publication?

A good friend of mine had some of her photography work published here (just look for Courtney Price Photography) and it got me thinking about being published.

Ironically enough, Wally and I have been "published" one way or another in every state we have lived in. And I'm not talking about all of Wally's publications for his research in chemistry. Or all my blog publications, does that even count?

It all began when we went to the hospital to have Kelsie. She was born on Father's Day weekend and the paper wanted to do a story about a new dad. I thought it was funny because Kelsie was born in Utah, which to my knowledge, does not have a shortage of "new father's" year round. We just happened to walk in at the right time and were chosen as the couple. The reporter interviewed Wally all about being a new dad and what his expectations were. After a series of questions and pictures taken (while I was in labor, I'd like to add), Sunday morning, Father's Day, Wally's face was on the front page of the Daily Herald with me in the background during a contraction. I don't think we saw it until after my mom, who was driving from CA, called to tell us she saw Wally's picture in the newsstand at the gas station she stopped at and bought all the papers that were left. So, here's Wally in all his glory (doesn't he look young?):


Our next publication was in State College, PA when we participated in the annual Kid's Bike Parade for the 4th of July. This happened to be our last summer there before we moved to Washington and we had been part of the parade for the last 5 years. The photographer must have been impressed with Brandon's (2 almost 3) biking skills and got a picture of him riding with me in the background, again, scooting along behind him.

Our most recent publication was in Richland, WA were we lived before we moved to Chicago. Last spring our family participated in a family bike race put on by the parks and recreation department. Wally and the kids rode 4 miles up the Columbia River and completed tasks along the way. (Caleb was only 2 months old at the time, so I walked the first part and met them at the end.) They earned enough points from the tasks they completed that we ended up winning the whole race (based on points, not who crossed the finish line first). They took our picture and put it in their spring catalog, advertising this year's race. This time we all made it in the picture, even Caleb where you can barely see his little head poking out from the baby bjorn.


3 publications in 3 states without even trying. We must just be the kind of people that attract the media's attention. At least it's fun to think that! We'll see if our publishing streak continues while we're living in Illinois. Once I know, you'll know.

Lake Michigan

We decided to venture out this weekend since the sun was out and the temperature was above 20 degrees (32 to be exact!) We went out for lunch to Wendy's, a family favorite, and then drove the kids over to Lake Michigan. It is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, but I guess that is why it is one of the great lakes. It is so big, in fact, that Brandon decided we should "dig for crabs at the beach" since we were at the ocean! Needless to say, there weren't any crabs but there was plenty of ice and snow all over the beach and all across the lake. We thought it was pretty funny when we saw someone throwing pieces of ice across the lake (just like you would if you were skipping rocks) and it just slid across until it hit some more ice.

There was a really fun park on the other side of the beach which didn't take Brandon and Kelsie very long to find. They had so much fun pretending to be pirates on their pirate ship and fighting off all the "bad guys". Caleb had fun swinging on the swings and it was just nice for all of us to get out of the house and to get some fresh air! We could also see the Chicago skyline from the park. I keep forgetting how close we are to the city, so it was really cool to see it from that angle.


As always, here are some pictures to document our outing. I am having lots of fun with my new camera and (for now) my willing subjects!

Kelsie loves the tire swing, especially when Dad spins her around super fast!

Caleb and Dad enjoying a nice ride on the swing.

Brandon zipping up his coat after deciding that it was still cold outside.

I think I'm in love...

With my NEW camera!

After months and months of saving and waiting (and a little help from our tax return) I finally upgraded our point-and-shoot digital camera to the dSLR Canon Rebel XTi. I have been studying and reading just about everything I can get my hands on about digital photography for the last year and practicing so much that my kids already hate the camera. Too bad for them, because nothing is stopping me now!

Here's one of the first pictures I took with my 50mm lens and am just amazed at how sharp it is! This is straight out of the camera without any editing done except for resizing for the blog. Isn't it so exciting?!?!

Dancing "V" Night Away

While we lived in Pennsylvania, Wally and Kelsie always went to the daddy/daughter dance at the YMCA for Valentine's Day. When we moved to Washington, we tried to find a dance for them to go to without much luck. To complicate things a little more, Caleb was born just two days before Valentine's day so things got a little hectic for us. Wally still managed (with a lot of help from my mom) to put up some decorations and find some music for our own little dance we had at home. Now that we're in Illinios (I know, it's hard to keep up with all our moving around, just stay with me) we tried to find a dance for them to go to, and then just decided that having our own dance at home was a lot more fun! We decorated our basement with streamers and hearts, turned on some good music and had fun dancing! We made some sugar cookies for refreshments which were set up in the corner to decorate complete with pink and purple frosting and tons of sprinkles. Brandon especially enjoyed licking the knives (shh, don't tell anyone!). Our genre of music pretty much covered everything from the Star Wars theme song for Brandon to High School Musical songs for Kelsie. Wally even tried to put on one slow song for us to dance to, but realized it's not as fun when you've got a kid hanging onto your back pockets. We had a really fun time dancing and are already looking forward to next year when we are hopefully going to expand it and make it a real daddy/daughter dance.

Dad and Kelsie dancing to their song, Butterfly Kisses

Caleb's idea of fun during the dance

Brandon's idea of dancing was having a lightsaber fight with Dad

We're gonna party!

Caleb turned one this week and it made me a little sad. I'm just not ready for him to grown up yet! He's been a great baby and such a fun kid to have around! I know that it is only going to get better the older he gets, but the longer he's a baby the longer I can wait before I have to think about another one. Not that I'm thinking about another one now, I just wanted to make that clear.

We had a fun party planned for him and everyone was so excited for the big day! Kelsie made him a special sign and we blew up balloons and decorated with streamers (which, as it turns out, when you have high ceilings and short legs like we do, it makes hanging decorations a little more challenging!) . Kelsie even tried to stay home from school since it was his birthday! Brandon could hardly wait for Caleb to wake up in the morning, in fact I'm pretty sure he helped him wake up a little earlier than usual, and showed him all the balloons and decorations when he did get up. We'd like to think that Caleb was surprised with all the decorations just for him, but it was a lot easier to play with the balloons on the ground than to look up. He must have known that it was a special day though because each time we sang Happy Birthday to him he would smile and laugh!

We had his party after dinner when Dad could be home and we (mainly Kelsie and Brandon) had lots of fun opening presents. Caleb loves balls and really loved the O-ball (which we found at Target for a lot less $$) and the roll-a-round balls from fisher price. The Little People Airport was fun too, but mostly for his older brother. He'll have to wait a few more months to really enjoy that one!

To make his party a little more exciting, we decided to have Baby Olympics. We had a crawling race, roll the ball contest, walking race, and finally a cake-eating contest. All the games had a little twist on them to make it a little more challenging for Kelsie and Brandon. (Wally, Kelsie, and Brandon couldn't use their hands for the cake-eating contest which is why there is frosting all over their faces in the picture above.) All in all, we had a really fun time and Caleb at least enjoyed the attention all on him.

Just to show how much fun we had, here's a little video clip of our walking race. I love the part when Kelsie runs Brandon's face into the ground. Don't you wish you could have been here?!

All you ever wanted to know...

Riding shotgun on our Hummer Safari ride in Moab, Utah

I was tagged again, but this time I get to write about Wally!

What is his name? Walter Fred Paxton, although he prefers to be called Wally. I must admit that I prefer it too.

How long have you been married? 8 1/2 years

How long did you date? 5 months before we got engaged, and then another 9 months before we were married.

How old is he? 32

Who eats more sweets? Usually me. Every once in a while he gets a sweet tooth that is pretty strong and we usually don't have anything around the house to satisfy his craving.

Who said I love you first? Wally did. "I'm a chicken!" (Ha, ha!)

Who is taller? Wally, but not by very much.

Who can sing better? Have you ever sat next to Wally at church? You can be the judge on that one.

Who is smarter? Considering that he is a Doctor of Chemistry and looking to lead his own academic group someday, I'd have to say him. He may be smarter but I am always right.

Who does the laundry? I do. Wally likes to help by getting a load started in the washer and then going to work.

Who pays the bills? We both do.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right now, Wally is. We switch when we need to.

Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn mower anymore. It was a casualty of the move.

Who cooks dinner? I do mostly, but Wally cooks breakfast every morning (I know, I'm so spoiled!) and homemade pizza every Saturday night.

Who drives? Wally does. I'm the navigator.

Who is more stubborn? Anyone who knows us knows the answer to that one. Easily.

Who kissed who first? Wally kissed me first, I wasn't bold enough to make the first move.

Who asked who out first? Wally asked me out first and I turned him down. There was some unfinished business I needed to take care of before I would go out with him.

Who proposed? Wally proposed at Temple Square, just after Thanksgiving when they turned on all the lights. It was sweet, but we did a redo a couple weeks later (after he got the ring resized) since there were so many people on the temple grounds.

Who has more siblings? Wally has 9 siblings, I have 6.

Who wears the pants? Wally definitely wears the pants, after I pick them out.

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!

We have lived in a lot of snowy places: Idaho, Utah, and Pennsylvania to name a few. It did snow a few times in Washington, but I haven't decided if the snow we got there really deserves to be put in the same category. In the one winter we were there, we probably got 3 inches of snow. Total. But, I guess, snow is snow. Come to find out that in Illinois, snow is here too and LOTS of it! We got dumped on the last day and a half with over 10 inches of snow and although that means lots of shoveling, unless you have a handy snow blower or a husband who isn't lazy, and a lot of fun for a couple of kids to play in. We are just glad that it finally warmed up from the frigid temperatures we were having so it could snow!

I took Caleb out this morning to give him the wonderful experience of snow. He wasn't quite sure of how he felt about it. I sat him down in it and he just sat there. I'm sure it's hard to move around in a huge snow suit anyway, but he just didn't know what else to do. When he fell over and laid down, he didn't like that at all. That was the only thing he was absolutely sure of.

Brandon, on the other hand, can't get enough of the white stuff! All suited up, he charged on out to see just how deep the snow really was. He was amazed to find that it was knee-deep (to him, it came up to my calves) and that he had to push his way through it. He helped me shovel for a little while, deciding that the grass, trees, and bushes also needed to be cleared off. He finally decided that jumping off the "mountains" of snow we made could be a lot more fun and rolling around was even better.

Kelsie had pajama day at school, so she trudged off into the winter wonderland with Wally this morning in her pj's and boots (no, we didn't forget the coat, hat, and gloves). She appeared to have been fine when we picked her up from school this afternoon in the same get-up and walked through the unplowed streets to get home. What a trooper!

Wally, unfortunately, was unable to bike into work today and since our car was covered with snow, ended up walking. He has yet to come home, but since he has such a special person in his life (who is NOT lazy I might add) shovel the sidewalk, at least he will have an easy walk once he gets close to home.

I really don't mind the snow. I love it when it snows a lot and it just seems peaceful outside. It really is a beautiful thing. The best part after a cold day out in the elements is coming inside to a nice warm cup of hot chocolate that really hits the spot.



Unless you don't have any.





And you can't go anywhere because there is 10 inches of snow outside.