Love Letters

You might think that I am going to write about my husband in this post but I wanted to write about my Annie. Annie is a very sweet young lady. When she first started reading and writing she would write notes to everyone that said "I "HEART" YOU." She loves writing letters to people and is really proud of them also. Annie recently wrote me a love letter that I thought was so sweet. It reads "Mom I love you. I bet dat dad loves you Love me Love Annie." This swelled up my heart. She is always thinking of others. I really enjoy her notes and I hope she continues to write them to me. I love my kiddos!

Alexis Kay Walquist

Alexis is our baby girl. She is currently 9 1/2 months old and has become VERY busy in the past week. She started crawling this past week and she gets into everything. We have a basket that we put our socks in and I can't tell you how many times she has emptied it now that she can get to it. She is our caboose in the family and what a joy she has been. She loves to make sounds. She has made growling noises. She makes this one noise that I can't describe any other way except that it sounds like she is hawking a lugi. I know it sounds disgusting but it really is cute ESPECIALLY in sacrament meeting. She loves to copy sounds. Except the word mama. I have been telling her mama since she was a newborn but can you guess what her first word was? Yep, it was dada! Every once in a while she says mama but really her favorite word is dada. She is such a wonderful addition to our family. I look forward to watching her grow and see what kind of interests she has. We love her so much!

My Little Man

My oldest is my one and only boy. When he was a baby we called him our little man. He is so wonderful to have in our family. His name is Christopher Burke and since his father is Chris he goes by his middle name. He is in 3rd grade this year and I can't believe he is so grown up it seems like it was just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. I remember when he was about ready to start 1st grade he told me he wanted to go by Christopher. I was very open with that option but as soon as I told him that he would have to learn to spell Christopher he said he was okay being called Burke. Whenever we take pictures of Burke he usually does goofy faces. He loves to take self portraits. Sometimes when I start looking through my pictures on my camera I'll have hundreds of shots of him making such goofy faces.

Burke is a wonderful big brother to ALL of his younger sisters. When we were pregnant with Alexis and we would have to go get another ultrasound done he would always say maybe she has turned into a boy. Well even though she didn't he is such a wonderful brother to her. Out of everyone in the family he is the one that can make her laugh. I have been amazed by this. Sometimes he can just walk into the room and when she sees him she giggles. Sometimes he will fall down and yell out "OWE" and she will go into a fit of giggles! Burke and Annie are also very close. Not to say they don't have their spats because they do, but they are super close and they rely on each other at school. I love my little man very much and I hope he knows how proud of him I am!

Annie Luella

My oldest girl is Miss Annie Luella. She is such a fun little girl, but she can also be the most stubborn girl I know. I say she gets it from her father, but he says she gets it from me. I guess unless you know us you will never know the truth! JK. One of the most frustrating things is bed time (although she has gotten a lot better). She has started to come out and asking if it was morning 30 minutes after she goes to bed. We know that she has not gone to sleep because she has never gone to sleep that easily. Its just a funny thing she has begun and I wonder how long this new stage will last.

Annie is a very high spirited young lady. When she was a baby she was dubbed the energizer bunny because she literally just kept going and going and going and going...... She is my child that LOVES to go to bed late and sleep in. Annie is a wonderful little girl that has a will that tells me she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to.

Annie has a love of horses and she has always loved them. She does not like My Little Ponies she like horses that look like the real thing. When she was two or three when she first started really liking ponies we learned real fast not to get the horses you can't stand up without them falling over easily. There were many times that she would throw the biggest fit because her horse wouldn't stand up by itself. I actually miss those days.

I look forward to seeing Annie continue to grow. She is going to be an amazing person when she gets older. She has a very compassionate loving heart. She has a beautiful smile and the mischievous twinkle in her eye keeps you guessing about what she will do next!

I hope Annie knows how proud I am of her! I love her very much!

A little about our Family

Chris and I (Jessica) went to the Rupert Singles Ward once. We met eachother and it was over. We went on our first date on July 20th and were engaged July 24th. We were married in the Bountiful, Utah temple on November 26, 1999. The last ten years have been the best and the hardest of my life. We lived in Logan, Ut. the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage where Chris worked. When he got layed off in 2002 we decided to move back home to Burley, Id. We have been here in Burley ever since. We have four beautiful kids. Burke is our only son. He was born March 17, 2001. Annie came to our family on March 26, 2003. We then had a beautiful baby girl who was stillborn. We named her Graycee Elizabeth Walquist. A short 9 1/2 months later we were blessed to have Alexis come into our family. Alexis was born on April 2, 2009. We love and enjoy all our kids. They each bring something special into our home. Chris is currently looking for a job and watching Alexis while I am at work. I work at Wal-mart and I am going to CSI part-time. When I grow up I would like to be a teacher. Burke and Annie go to Mountain View. Burke is in 3rd grade and Annie is in 1st. We have been lucky to have such wonderful teachers teaching our kids. Alexis brings such joy to us. She is a bit spoiled but she has a very good tempermant. She is nine months old and just barely got her first tooth and she isn't quite crawling yet but since she is my baby I don't mind that she is moving a bit slower than Burke and Annie did.