I loved it!!!!

I had a great time at the Taylor Swift concert. I don't listen to country music much anymore, but I don't consider her just country. Anyway, it was refreshing, energetic, and fun to sing along to all her songs. It also didn't hurt that we could reach out and touch her. Kellie Pickler opened for her (she had some great shoes by the-all sparkly). Check out the tattoo on the inside of her wrist-it says Pray. Guess that's one way to be reminded!

She did about 6 songs and then an encore performance with TS.
TS had a great set, lots of costume changes and great effects! She also had lots of hair flinging and arm flailing. She was all over the place!

No sparkly shoes-she was a boot girl-but she did have this fabulous sparkly guitar!

She sang almost every song off 2 albums. She got all my favorites in and then some!

Had a great time hanging with Vonda and Jenni (sorry no pic of her though!). It really was a great show and I'm glad I pushed those screaming teenagers out of the way to get some great closeup pictures!!

Easter Rewind

Ok, so I'm a little out of order here and backing up to get some sweet Easter pictures in. We actually hunted Easter eggs outside on Saturday because it was supposed to be raining on Sunday (and did, so glad we got that in!). We took pictures of the grandkids out at mom and dad's by the irises-they turned out sweet.

Then it was egg hunting time. After Houston dropped the 4th one in his bucket, it came open. He decided eating the candy in his four was much more exciting than collecting a part of the other 70+ that were available, so he sat down, ate his candy and waved when all of his cousins ran by scooping up the eggs. Oh, well. That was just less candy I had to hide from him.
Easter morning.......what's up with those real-life-close-to-looking-like-a-bunny teeth??

We had several great pictures outside.....one of my favorites.

Sharing some smiles with momma. He kept saying, "Momma, pretty." He is the sweetest thing ever!!

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

Mohawk Mini-fro

This is Arkansas Children's Week and Houston's school is celebrating with a different way to dress up each day. Today was crazy hair day. At first, I thought a picked out mini-fro would do the trick, but then I got brave and went for a Mohawk Mini-fro. He did not like the gel, the spray, the mousse, or the hairdryer that was necessary to create said hair design, but the end result is pretty priceless in my book. I don't think the pictures really do it justice. It did, however, look like a flock of seagulls (Chandler Bing) by the end of the day!! Oh, and the scratch. Don't worry. You should see the other kid :)

I love the zoo!

I consider myself a zoo connoisseur in that if we are in a new town and a zoo is close by, I'm there. My favorite ever is the St. Louis Zoo and my biggest disappointment is the San Diego Zoo-it didn't live up to the hype. On Saturday afternoon, we made a spur of the minute trip to the Memphis Zoo (Hugh had to cover a ballgame at 7:00). This trip now ranks up there as one of the best ever. And it was because Houston was SO into it. He pointed and jabbered at all the animals, he tried to name them, he stomped and ran and jumped. It was sunny but cool out so all the animals were active. It wasn't very crowded. We were all happy. It was a perfect day. We rode the train, got some great pictures, and just enjoyed each other.

Watching the tigers.

Houston is really in to trains right now, right down to the arm up and the air and a loud attempt at "choo-choo"!

I love how this picture catches his reflection. He is actually watching the Giant Pandas eat their bamboo snack.

A kind passerby took this family shot for us. (Hugh hates when I ask people to do that.)

A great way to end the day-my two favorite guys!

Spring Break Update and My Baby's Growing Up

I haven't been able to post any pictures from spring break because I left my camera at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater, OK. That's a story all by itself, but it ended well. I actually got my camera back 2 weeks later when Hugh went back through to pick it up!! But, when we were traveling with Hugh for Spring Break,we hit several stops. We went to Branson, Springfield, some little town in Kansas, and in Oklahoma we went to Stillwater and Oklahoma City. We had lots of fun and fair weather. We were on our way to the zoo on Tuesday of that week and it was pretty windy and chilly so we went to the OKC Science Museum instead. We had a blast and there was actually lots there for Houston to do.

This tunnel simulates a Category 1 hurricane with winds over 70mph. Mom and I couldn't stop laughing. Hugh took Houston in it but they didn't make it through the whole thing. Houston couldn't hang, but at least he gave it a shot.

We ended our day with a tour of a pirate shipwreck. Good times!

When I got home Saturday afternoon (4.4.09) from our women's ministry meeting, Hugh and Houston were out playing. A wave of sadness and joy rushed over me when Houston walked up to me with his first bag of rocks he had collected. It was sort of his rite of passage into toddler/boyhood and away from being a baby. It was neat watching him explore and gather his treasures stating "Waaa" each time he put a new one into his bag.

This little guy is the best! I hope he always loves to explore and learn!

March Snow

Around here, you take a good snow when you can get it. The best one for us this year happened about a week and a half ago on March 1st. We got four inches of fluffy white goodness. Last year, Houston wasn't so sure about it, but this year he loved stomping through the yard in it and kicking his boots yelling, "Snow!".

Okay, he loved it until he fell face-first in it. He picked himself up, looked at me, turned to the snow, and started waving saying, "Bye-bye, snow." That was my cue that 20 minutes was enough. (Hard to believe it was in the mid-70s today by the way).

For all you snowman and ASU fans, this is the best snow built creature I have ever seen. The owners of the Design Shoppe live down the street from us and they made Howl, the new ASU logo, out of snow. It was featured on the news, but I had to get a glimpse for myself. Love it!!

I swear we don't encourage this behavior like Jake Hillis does :), but our little man found these little hand weights at my mom and dad's house the other night. Without ANY prodding, he began his own workout of sorts, ending up with them dropped to the floor with a loud thump! Hugh is proud of the shoulder muscle action you see going on. A proud poppa indeed!

And last but not least, I leave you with just a bit of the attitude the youngest Walker has been displaying around the house the last few days. I posted an offer on facebook to trade him, but my only options of trade were a teething 18 month old and 2 cats. I decided we would keep him!!

Okay, here goes....

There has been lots going on around the Walker household lately, in addition to all that comes with keeping up with a very active 18 month old. We are still trying to get caught up on yard work after the ice storm, celebrate Hugh's birthday (Happy 39th), enjoy some family time, and get Hugh back on the road again. Here are a few favorite pictures from the last few weeks.

At the sport show last year, we had a caricature done of Houston when he was 6 1/2 months old, drawn as a baseball player wearing a San Francisco Giants uniform. We decided to make it a tradition and luckily our man was there (who only has one eye, by the way) and did another caricature this year with Handy Manny in mind. The two will now hang side-by-side in Houston's bedroom.
Houston was such a big helper carrying sticks and helping us clean up the yard. He would drag one little bitty ol' stick up to the wood pile, jump and throw it, and clap for himself when it fell to the ground right beside him. But, the thought of being helpful was there and it was sweet that he tried.

Like I said, Happy 39th birthday to the man of the house!! Just a few days late with the wishes here, but we celebrated February 9th with homemade chocolate cake, barbecue, beans, and slaw. Hugh got money and a some new shoes to celebrate his turning older. And wiser. And with just a little bit more gray. But we still love him!

Houston, on the other hand, was not quite as happy to continue the celebration when mom told him "no" to his request for more cake!!

And Monday night, Hugh was honored to be an invited guest to the ASU Baseball Banquet with special guest Will Clark (who signed a baseball for Houston saying :To a future super star-Will Clark). Hugh had a great time visiting the Will Clark who was recently added to the San Francisco Giants organization as a special to the GM.

So, busy, but good times around the Walker household. Hugs and kisses to Hugh from us as he travels to Oklahoma and Texas!!