Family pictures!

Here are the Walquist Family pictures! I hope you enjoy! We had so much fun getting them done! I was worried Alexis wouldn't behave but she did GREAT!





The pictures of Chris and the kids are ADORABLE! Burke looks just like his daddy! Their smiles are identical!


Of coarse I had my turn with the kids!



Burke, Annie and Alexis!



Chris and Me!



My top 5 things I love most about Burke!
1~His laugh
2~His smile
3~How he loves sports and is very talented in them!
4~His ability to know the difference between right and wrong and being able to Choose the Right!
5~His easy going attitude(except with food)!



The top 5 reasons I love Annie!
1~ Her love for life!
2~ Her passion for the things she loves! Especially Horses!
3~ She is a very smart young lady!
4~ Her compassionate heart!
5~ I know this is a thing to love in a child, but her stubborness! If she can use it for good she will go places in her life!



The top 5 reasons I love Alexis!
1~ Her ability to comfort those around her even at such a young age!
2~ The fact that she LOVES toy story!
3~ That she is a mommas girl through and through :)
4~ I love that she continues to learn new words!
5~ She is so smart!



I hope you enjoy! I look forward to getting the pictures back and display them on my wall!

You never know how much time you have in this life...

This past week has been a very sad one for me. On Monday we had a birthday party for my niece that passed away in March. We wanted to remember the beautiful life she lived. We had a balloon release. We released 13 balloons because she would have been 13 this year! She was so excited to be 13 so I imagine she was smiling Monday!
On Monday I learned that a friend at work passed away suddenly. She had a heart attack and she was only 47. I am going to miss her so much. She always had encouraging things to say and a smile on her face. She was always so kind to everyone around her. I can't remember her ever being mean even when you could she was stressed at work. I am so sad that I will never see her again. I can't remember the last time I worked with her. I wish I could go back and tell her how much I appreciate her friendship. When I had my baby she made me a beautiful afghan and she was always doing things for others. I will always keep that afghan and remember Robbie as a kind and loving person. I am so glad I have that afghan to remember her. So good-bye my friend and remember that you will be missed very much! I am a better person for knowing you! I know that you wouldn't want us crying but it is very sad at work without you. In time it will get easier but you are very missed.

The rest of the story!

Recently Annie went on a field trip with her 1st grade class. They went to Albion and visited several places including the bank, fire station, llama farm. We soon realized that Annie has quite the imagination! She told us that there are elephants at the llama farm. She told us that she got to ride horses and even the baby elephant. She told us that the llamas spit on Ms. Convery and her best friend Landon. Soon Ms. Convery posted pictures of the field trip on facebook and Chris asked about the elephants. Ms. Convery replied elephants? We thought this was strange so we asked Annie were there really elephants or are you thinking Emu's? Well she said there were elephants. I asked her what color they were and she said that they were grey with a nose that went down to the ground. A week later I ran into Ms. Convery at the store and asked her if they rode horses and she said no. I asked her if a llama spit on her and once again she said no. That's when I realized that my little Annie had quite the active imagination. We thought this was cute. Although it is turning into her making up stuff alot so we will have to keep an eye on that. Hopefully I can get the point across the difference between imagining and lying. This stuff about the field trip is harmless, but she has told us that Burke called her a bad name when he didn't and it makes it hard to know when she is telling the truth. Hopefully I can instill in her the right way to go. Being a parent is hard sometimes and you never know what they are going to do! WHAT AN ADVENTURE! I LOVE IT!

A moment to stop and think!

Today at work as I was working very hard ;) I met this fabulous lady ( I don't remember her name and I don't think she knows of the impact she had on me). This lady came up to the service desk and asked about wiring money. Everything I do at the service desk comes so naturally for me now that I just hand the papers over and give a brief ( and depending how long my line is) and rushed explanation on how to fill out the form. I did this tonight and then continued to help the customers behind this lady. There were only a few so I had finished helping them by the time she was done filling it out. when she gave it to me it wasn't complete so I promptly returned the form and told her what information she still needed to give. As I was entering her information into the computer she apologized about it taking longer to fill out the form. I of course reassured her that it wasn't a problem. She then told me that she had a stroke a while back. And that she was doing so much better. We talked for a few minutes and I said that I wished there could be little fairies that came and fixed us. And she looked me in the eye and said it would be nice but that we should all take responsibility for our actions (which I 100% agree with.) I finished her transaction and we talked for a few more minutes and another customer walked up, but for some reason she didn't leave. After I was done helping this customer she said you know my stroke could have been so much worse. My neurologist had a stroke and he became paralyzed. I am so grateful that I am not. She then looked me in the eye and said we just need to be grateful for what we have. I don't think that she will ever know of the impact that she has had on me. I really feel she was the lords mouth piece. She could have left but when she went she hesitated and she stayed to tell me that. I don't know if I will ever see her again but how thankful I am to her and her willingness to tell me her story. It goes to show that we can never know when the Lord might use us as his mouth piece. I am so grateful that my path crossed this Lady's path today! I hope that I can be aware of the promptings of the holy ghost enough to know when I need to be the Lords mouth piece!

Looking to the future!

I am very thankful that I was able to go to my Aunt and Uncles homecoming yesterday! They gave beautiful talks. My life is very difficult sometimes and the spirit of their talks raised me up and helped me know that I could get through another week no matter what it brings. I get frustrated sometimes because Chris doesn't wear his cpap mask as much as I would like. He has made a lot of progress. I just need to remember step by step we will get there. I need to show patience and that is something that is very hard for me. Patience has been one of my biggest down falls my whole life. I expect results now and I want what I want sometimes. I know this attitude is not ideal, but at least I recognize I need to change. Sometimes its frustrating because I can see the end result and I know our lives will be so much better if he could just get used to the darn machine. Sorry I will get off my soap box now. But my Aunts and Uncles Ward really gave me the boost that I needed to face another day. I hope to be able to say that I have learned patience in the end, but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

At work I feel pretty good about things. I got my eval. Saturday and it was a really good eval. I have some stuff I could work on but overall it was really good. I will get another raise in June. That will really help out. I look forward to this next year and wonder what it will bring. Hopefully some really good things. Hopefully Chris can get back into the work force. Hopefully we can get into a bigger place so we don't feel so scrunched. I look forward to all these things and I hope it all comes to past. I don't know where we will end up but as long as we are together and happy that will be good enough! :)

Alexis Kay Walquist Story

In my previous post I told Graycee's story but her story wouldn't be complete if I did not tell the story of her little sister, Alexis. My saddness was great after Graycee. We were told that we needed to wait two months before trying to have another baby. Well since it took two years to get Graycee we were scared that it would take that long to have another baby. So we decided not to prevent it and 5 weeks after I had Graycee we found out we were expecting again. I was so nervous and scared that something would happen. My pregnancy went very well, but Alexis was my most quiet baby. She hardly ever moved and that really scared me sometimes and I was a jumble of nerves. We had tons of non stress tests done. the last five weeks I was pregnant we had them done twice a week. It was really relaxing listening to her heart tones for a half an hour or so. There was only once that she scared us to death and wouldn't move. I drank cold water, ate something with sugar and she just wouldn't move. I was sent to the hospital to have an ultra sound stress test done and she was fine. What a relief that was. Well the last week I was pregnant my doctor had planned a trip to peru. I had my last drs. appointment with his partner and he told me if he was my doctor he would do an c-section. Well that really upset me so when I started having contractions regularly i put myself on bed rest because I didn't want anyone else delivering Alexis. Well my doctor made it back and we had plans to induce the day after he returned. So on April 2nd we went to the hospital and we had Alexis. I don't remember a lot about my labor with her. Once again when I had the epidural my blood pressure bottomed out and it was worse than before. I was numb up into my chest. I was so thirsty but couldn't swallow. I got sick to my stomach, I could barely breathe. Chris tells me they called respiratory and that brought in a cart to incubate, luckily they didn't have to do that. I remember my doctor standing next to the bed watching the monitors saying Jessica are you still with us. It was so scary. But we got her here and we were overjoyed with her. Alexis has such a calming spirit. She brings joy to all that meet her. She has comforted me so much. i love her so much. The moment I saw her I was head over hills in love. I am so grateful that she is a part of our family. Our family would not be complete with out her!

Graycee's Story

This is a bit hard for me because Graycee is someone so special to me that I don't share her with just anybody. Graycee is my little angel that I got a glimpse of in this life and I look forward to getting to know her better in the next life. The little glimpse I did get was enough that I sit anxiously awaiting for the time I can be with her again. She has helped me to love and appreciate my family so much more. I have come to realize that this life is so fleeting and that just because you think it won't happen to me it really can.

When we found out we were expecting Graycee we were so excited. We had been trying for two years to have another baby so when it finally happened our joy was overwhelming. Everything seemed to be going ok, other than a few aches and pains I felt great. When I was about 18 weeks along we decided we would get the blood test done to check for spinabifida, down syndrome, and another thing. Well the test came back positive for spinabifida. We were sent to Boise to go to a specialist there so we could get a really good ultra-sound to check Graycee out. During the ultrasound I watched for the spine and she looked great to me. Her spine was normal I remember feeling such relief, but when the doctor came back in he gave us the bad news. Graycee had something called mphalicil hernia. This is when the organs are on the outside of the body. The next decision we had to make was to do an amnio or not to check and see if she had down syndrome or another chromozone disorder where they have an extra chromozone. We decidied to go ahead because we wanted to know exactly what we were facing and wanted to make sure we were ready for her when she got here. When we left the hospital I remember sitting in the car and crying. I remember feeling so numb. I couldn't believe it. I remember not wanting to be around anyone. It took a week to get the results of the amnio and it was good news. This was not a genetic condition for her. Something happened while she was developing and it just happened. We started going to Boise every 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. They did an ultra sound every time. When I was about 23 weeks along I got really sick. I had a really bad cold and an ear infection. At this time Graycee began to get less active and in my heart I knew there was something really wrong but I was so scared that I kept my fears hidden. I started having contractions on June 8th and I went home and rested, but the next morning she wasn't moving at all. I called Boise and they told me to go to the local Doctor here in Burley. I knew she was gone and at the doctors it was confirmed my baby girl had returned to Heavenly Father. While I was in the hospital they treated me so kindly. We had some very neat experiences there with family and a few close friends. I was able to have a beautiful priesthood blessing that gave me some understanding of why Heavenly Father took her home to be with him. She would have been such a sick baby. She would have been in such pain I am glad she didn't have to suffer, but I am unbelievably sad too. I miss her so much. She had such a fighting spirit and she gave me such a feeling of peace. I look forward to seeing her again. I will enjoy my time here and hopefully live my life in a way that I can be with her forever. I never quite an understanding of the atonement before. The things I learned because of Graycee have changed my life forever. My eternal perspective has widened. I understand that Jesus did not just die to save me from my sins but through his atonement he suffered all my sorrows to so that he could understand completely so that I wouldn't be alone in my sorrow. Every person experiences the sorrow in different ways and I know Jesus understands me completely. I am eternally grateful for all that I have learned. I know that families can be together forever and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that I belong to the church of Jesus Christ and that he is the true leader of our church through our wonderful prophet, Thomas Monson. I am so grateful for the teaching of the church and the hope that it gives me. I know that as long as I do my part I can be with my family forever.