Walker *hic* turns *sob* one. Waaaaahhhhh!

Despite my best efforts to stop time, Walker woke up this morning a one year old. I'm sooo sad about it. I would like to press the restart button and poof, be back at the hospital in labor right now. This has been the best year of my life, I have loved raising this baby, and loved having him with my 4 other beauties. He has been a delightful baby, very sweet, and very into his mama. He enjoyed Henry's cake yesterday, and I'm trying to work up the courage to make a cake for Walker tonight. (Too much cake!)

Walker is crawling all over and getting into trouble. He can take a few steps, but doesn't believe in himself yet, so generally sits down when he notices he is standing alone. He still refuses the bottle and I figure ill be breastfeeding him until he's 10. He has starting talking a lot. He says mom, dad, duck, banana, this, bye bye, hi, and lots of sounds and gibberish. He is very particular about who holds him, but recently became quite obsessed with his dad. Walkers special feature is his inhaled squeal. He does that all the time, and has for months. It's really cute.

My kids always say that he's the cutest one in the family, that they love him the most, that he is the cutest baby in the world. In fact, though I've tried to tell them otherwise, they just assume I love him the most, because they do. The excitement of holding him and playing with him has never worn off for them, they still get excited for him to wake up. We love our baby and don't want him to grow up so fast!!!!!!

Happy birthday dear Henry

Henry George turned 5 yesterday. He had such a great birthday. He asked for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. So what's a girl to do? I made him triple chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting. Henry is always happy, so of course he was happy it was his birthday, and had fun all day. He had a birthday party with his school friends, and a birthday party with family. He loved all of his presents, and in his true, grateful form, his expectations were exceeded, his gifts were more than he asked for, he only thought he would get a small iron man, but he got a big one! Stu gave him the avengers, so we finished off the day watching that in the theater.

At age 5, Henry has very excellent speech, and appears to be bright, knowing his letters, and drawing them in order without anything to copy off of. He was such a spacey little guy a year ago, I'm quite surprised he's become so bright. He loves school and his family and friends, he really just loves life. This week henry said with all his real emotion, "mom, you just look so pretty today!" Not just to make me feel good, but he really meant it. He also gave me a long explanation including mountains and moon and ocean about how much he lived me, and then finished the statement with, "And I love dad just a teeny tiny bit more than that." Life would not be as beautiful without Henry's happiness. He is a joy to raise!

Is your mind boggled?

My brain is buzzing with possibilities and thoughts. Young men can go on missions upon graduation at age 18. Young women, blah blah blah doesn't apply to us. I'm a boy mom. Do we have dawson, Henry, and Walker graduate early and leave when they turn 18? Are all farewells/homecomings going to be in June? Will they offer mission prep in seminary? I'm in tears over this. This is so cool. I love modern revelation and living prophets. I just saw them interview a senior in hs who just found out he will be going on a mission sooner. He was beaming. The Spirit filled my soul and I knew that God loves these young missionaries and wants the best for them! General conference is kinda like Christmas. I spend both happily with my family, in my Jammie's, with fun surprises and big breakfasts. ;)