Merry Christmas 2012!

This past Christmas was exciting for the Walker Babies and busy, as usual.  "Santa" was up late on Christmas eve setting up toys for our little darlings.  Our living room was filled with all sorts of toys, clothes, and books.  The highlights for Jude and Channing's Christmas morning were their cow and bumble bee wheely bugs, a balance bike for Jude, and sweet baby doll for Channing.  Here's how our living room looked prior to Jude and Channing waking up on Christmas morning:

Here's how Jude looked first thing Christmas morning before heading downstairs to see all of his new things.  Isn't he just adorable?

 

Here's how the kids looked upon their first sighting of our living room filled with new toys from Santa:

 

Channing was thrilled with her new Bumble Bee Wheely Bug as she climbed right on!

 

 

Jude was pretty excited with his Cow Wheely Bug and his new Balance Bike!

Following our Christmas morning shenanigans, we got the kids dressed and headed over to my parents' house for our traditional Christmas morning family breakfast!  My mom always makes a wonderful Christmas breakfast with a sausage/egg/cheese casserole, some sort of sticky buns or Moravian sugar cake, fruit, and grits.  We enjoy breakfast along with my parents, my brother and his fiancee, and our nephews.  Following breakfast, we all gather around my parents' Christmas tree to open gifts.  It's always a highlight to watch all of the children enjoying their gifts on Christmas morning.  

Here's a picture of the Haseman grandchildren on Christmas morning 2012:

Dallas (12 yrs old), Jesse (9 yrs old), Jude (2 yrs old), and Channing (1 yr old)

Following our Christmas visit with the Haseman side of our family, we went back home for lunch and naps before beginning a Christmas visit with the Walker side of our family.  Jude woke up from his nap before Channing was awake, so he had a little bit of time to practice outside on his new balance bike.  This bike is designed to teach young children how to balance on a bike so that when they learn to ride a proper bike without training wheels, they will have already developed the skill of balancing.  A balance bike does not have pedals or training wheels; the child is supposed to use their feet to propel themselves forward and eventually be comfortable enough to pick up his/her feet while they coast along. 

Once both of the Walker Babies were awake and ready to go out, we headed over to Ian's Uncle Kent's house for Christmas dinner with Ian's side of our family.  Also joining us for dinner were a few family friends, Ms. Barbara and Ms. Karen, and my parents.  (We had thoroughly enjoyed a Christmas dinner at Barbara's house a few days earlier, which included the most delicious bread pudding I have ever had).  After consuming our Christmas dinner at Kent's house, we exchanged gifts and enjoyed eachother's company.  Everyone was so very generous and we feel very fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends whom we love dearly.  

Here's a picture of the necklace that my dear mother-in-law, Bonnie, gave me for Christmas.  She ordered it from a woman who she saw at a craft fair.  I love it!

In typical Ian and Ashley fashion, we decided against buying eachother gifts for Christmas this year.  Instead, we decided on one big family gift of an i-Pad.  It is amazing that a child as young as 13 months old can use an i-Pad to play little games!  Here's a picture of Channing having so much fun getting to have a turn in the Apple store while we waited to purchase our family gift:

 Jude also loves to play his games on the i-Pad.  Here he is taking a turn on our family Christmas present:

A Walker Family picture on Christmas 2013:

Merry Christmas 2012 from The Walker Family!

I'll end this Christmas 2012 post with a picture of our sweet little Walker Babies, who were having a blast scooting around on their Wheely Bugs in the days following Christmas.  I think that they look so much alike in this picture:

December 2012

Following Thanksgiving, we decided to really get in the Christmas spirit with a trip to see Santa!  Jude was a little apprehensive about sitting on Santa's lap, but we went at a time that Santa was not too busy and was able to spend a little bit of time chatting with Jude about all of the things he wanted for Christmas.  Eventually Jude did sit on Santa's lap long enough to take the traditional picture with Santa. 

Channing, on the other hand, seemed content sitting with Santa and even sat with him by herself for her own Santa picture!

 One Friday evening in mid December 2012, we were able to meet up with Nana, Papa, Dallas, and Jesse for dinner at Jason's Deli!  It had been a while since Jude and Channing had seen Dallas and Jesse and they were excited for some special cousin time together.  I brought along the camera and had the hardest time trying to get a picture with all four cousins looking towards the camera.
Dallas (12 years old), Jesse (9 years old), Jude (2 years old) and Channing (1 year old). 

 Jude simply adores these two (Dallas and Jesse) and so do I. 

Another fun adventure we had in December 2012 was a trip to Mocksville, NC to visit with my good friend, Julie!  Julie and I were room mates in college and did just about everything together.  During this particular visit, we ate lunch at Miller's Pizza Barn, spent time playing and visiting with each other at Julie's house, and ate dinner at our favorite little spot in Mocksville called Miller's Restaurant.  It's a little local restaurant that serves a huge variety of foods (mostly country cooking) and has great prices. 

Here's a picture of The Walker Family in Mocksville, NC in December 2012:

Following our dinner at Miller's Restaurant with Julie and her boyfriend, Drew, we visited with Julie's sister and her family at the Clemmons Fire Department.  Julie's brother-in-law, Bob, is a fireman in Clemmons and invited us to come and check out all of the firetrucks! 

Jude was absolutely in awe climbing in and checking out all of the fire trucks and the ambulance.  I am positive that this was the highlight of Jude's day (and Jude loves spending time with Julie, so that shows just how much he enjoyed the fire trucks!)

Here's a picture of Channing trying on the fireman's gear!  She was just a little bit too small! 

Thanks for the visit, Bob!  We really had a great time and Jude is now convinced that the driver of EVERY fire truck or ambulance that we may see is Bob.  Ha ha!   

In the spirit of Christmas, both Jude and Channing made hand print ornaments in their classes at Duke Children's Campus!  These are the first of what I'm sure will be many handmade ornaments from our children over the next few years.  I will always cherish these ornaments as I remember their tiny hands.

Channing's hand print ornament, Christmas 2012

Jude's hand print ornament.  Christmas 2012.

 Christmas is always a time to visit with family and friends, and this Christmas was no exception.  We enjoyed a visit with our friends, Libby and Jason Hooker, who live in Charlotte.  During our visit, Libby helped Jude and I decorate a gingerbread house.

Libby and I have been friends for 30 years (since we were 2 years old!).  Our mom's are best friends as well, and Libby's step-dad is my dad's best friend (my parents set up Libby's mom and step-dad).  Here's a picture of Libby and I when we were about 3 or 4 years old:

And here we are this past Christmas, at 32 years old:

During the Christmas Season of 2010, Ian and I did a Christmas photo shoot with Jude and got some really great photos.  Jude was 7 months old.  We decided to recreate this photo shoot this past Christmas with our dear Channing, who was 13 months old.

Here's a few pictures from our 2010 Christmas photo shoot with our 7 month old Jude:

Here's a few pictures from our 2012 Christmas photo shoot with Channing, who was 13 months old:

A few days before Christmas, we received a package in the mail.  We weren't expecting anything to arrive, so we had no idea what it would be.  Upon opening it, we discovered these little treasures:

 

They were homemade Christmas ornaments from Dallas and Jesse, our adorable nephews!  I was smiling from ear to ear when I thought about how sweet it was of them to think of us and send us this treat.  Jude was thrilled to place them on our Christmas tree and loved rearranging their places on the tree throughout the rest of the Christmas season. 

My dad plays the tuba.  He began playing the tuba during his high school days and continues to do so in his church orchestra.  Jude has always been enthralled by music and was thrilled when Papa Joe let him have a go at his tuba!

As usual, our month of December was filled with love, laughter, and adventures.  I'll do a seperate blog post featuring the Walker family's Christmas 2012. 

2012 School Pictures

Jude and Channing attend The Duke Children's Campus and twice a year (Spring and Fall) they have pictures made at school.  I havn't included these pictures in any of my posts yet for 2012, so I figured I would do a separate post for their 2012 school pictures. Look at how much they've changed in these pictures!

The picture on the left (above) was in April 2012 and Channing was 5 months old.  The picture on the right (above) was in November 2012 and Channing was 11 months old.

The picture on the left (above) was in April 2012 and Jude was 23 months old.  The picture on the right (above) was in November 2012 and Jude was almost 2.5 years old.  

Here are their 2012 Sibling School Pictures:

 April 2012

November 2012

Channing is ONE!!!

The littlest Walker turned one year old on November 16, 2012!  To celebrate, we threw a birthday party for CC at our house on the weekend following her birthday.  We were thrilled to celebrate with friends, family, and even a few of Channing's teachers who came out to celebrate our girl! 

 Just as we did for Jude's 1st birthday party, we ordered subs from Fire House Subs and enjoyed that along with chips, pasta salad, and cake! 



Here's CC's little SMASH Cake that she had a great time digging into!

Once Channing decided she was done with her cake, she picked it up and threw it on the floor beside her high chair!  Thank goodness her Daddy had put a mat down under her chair!

Channing was given many wonderful gifts from her family and friends for her birthday.  Our gift to Channing for her 1st birthday was a little wagon that she can push around our house.  Channing and Jude have had a blast pushing each other in the wagon all around our downstairs!

Happy 1st Birthday "CC Girl!"  We all love you so very much!