Wanna come jump?

I think we might be crazy but we are renting this for Parker's birthday party in a few weeks. His cousin, Carter had this at his party this summer and Parker really liked it. Several neighbor kids have had something similar too so now it is Parker's turn! His theme is Scooby Doo and we were excited to see that they have a Scooby face to put on it!

I called today and left a message telling them I "wanted a bouncer for a birthday party in September..." Tonight while we were eating supper, a lady called and Jonathan answered. She said, someone left them a message and said they wanted a bouncer for a party and she wanted me to know I had left a message at the wrong number! How embarassing... I had actually called the bouncer place back later today and apparantly got the number right because they said, "Bouncer's Unlimited" when the recording began. I knew then I was in trouble, because I had not heard that message earlier today! I bet that lady wonders what kind of party I am having since I am wanting to rent a "bouncer!" Dear me...

Pass the cheese balls...

My mom bought us this enormous bucket of cheese balls for the kids! They absolutely love them and won't eat anything else if they are on the table! We have to make them stop eating them... I just love what it does to their little fingers too! Ugh... We have made a good "dent" in this bucket already! Thanks Mom!!! We'll let you know when we get to the bottom...

Blame in on Angie!

Angie has given me the fever to try out a new template! I have actually been trying to get a new one for some time now and have messed it up several times! I finally gave up but decided to try again when I saw Angie doing it! Bear with me as I am not as computer minded as some...

School and Stomach Bug...

Parker had his first day of pre-school today! He went to this same pre-school last year so it was all familiar to him. He did just fine but couldn't remember what he did at school when we asked him!! Typical kid... I was supposed to work today but got some dreaded stomach virus and was up hourly during the night and still sick today! I got Parker up and got him dressed and was able to take a picture of him ,but then it was back to bed for me!! I sent the camera with Jonathan with specific instructions to take "a couple" of pictures and that is exactly what I got... Two! One was even slightly blurry but I will post it anyway!

The Stomach virus seems to have only been a 24hr bug and so far, no other Walden's have gotten the pleasure! Thank goodness...

That's all for now!

Kyle the Marine...

We had a pitch-in dinner today celebrating Kyle Killinger becoming a Marine as of Friday! He is a third cousin of mine and a first cousin of fellow blogger's Denise and Nicole! His family was able to fly out to California and attend his graduation ceremony and had some really good photos of their weekend! It was good to see Kyle again today at church. He is home on a 10 day leave and will go back for another 8 weeks. Please remember Kyle in your prayers as he continues his training. Here are some pictures I took today for his family and friends to enjoy!

Click on the photo below to view more pictures of Kyle!

Kyle the Marine

Too much sports...

This is definitely going to be a Jonathan weekend!!! We are going to an Indianapolis Indians game tonight and then a Colt's game tomorrow night! (In my opinion, that is too much sports for one weekend!) Jonathan and Parker can't wait!

Tonight we are going with several other friends and tomorrow night with one other couple! At least I will have some girls to talk with during the games! The best part... I'll get to eat ballpark Nachos!!!

Back to Pre-school!

Tonight was Parker's pre-school orientation night! (I know, most everyone has been back to school for a while now but not pre-school!) He was excited to meet his new teacher's and even see a couple of classmates from last year! He is especially happy that Zephyr, the neighbor boy, is in his class! What fun!! They had to write their names on a shape to put on the bulletin board! I will have to admit, I was a little embarassed at his handwriting! Definitely needs some work this year! He remembered where everything was and it was nice for him to already be familiar with the school! Makes me sad to think of him going to Kindergarten next year! I can't believe he will be five in just a few short weeks!!

Speaking of his birthday, I asked him tonight what kind of presents he wanted for his birthday! He said, "A remote control car and a fence for my yard!" I about cracked up! Then he said, "So I can get a puppy!" Poor Daddy, the pressure is on, he really hates to disappoint his little buddy but dogs are sooooo much work! Ugh...

Parker's new song....

Parker told us he learned a new song in Jr Church. He started singing, "I am a C, I am a CH, I am a CRHITRHITRCITIHRA." What in the world does that spell??? ;0)

Our night celebrating!

Here are some pictures of our night out celebrating Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary! No, we didn't get offered Champagne either! It was truly delicious and we enjoyed every minute of it! It was quite peaceful without our kids! Special thanks to our babysitters that night!!! Click on the picture below!

40th Anniversary Dinner

Heather came to visit...

Friday was a very busy day here! The kids met their new babysitter and did great with her! Then, about 5 minutes after she left, the doorbell rang and it was Heather and Kenny visiting from Louisiana!!! The kids were sooooo excited! It took Paige a minute to remember Heather, but she warmed up quickly. They stayed for a couple of hours and played with the kids and I got to see their wedding pics! It was so nice of them to take time out of their busy schedule while they are home to stop and visit our kids!!

Thanks so much Kenny and Heather!
We love you!!
The Waldens!

Happy #40th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Today my parents will celebrate 40 years of marriage! Quite a milestone! They didn't want us to do an open house for them so my brother and his wife along with Jonathan and I, took them to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on Friday evening. We ended the evening with a carriage ride! (All 6 of us in one carriage, we thought we gave that horse a real workout!) It was quite an enjoyable night out without any children! I will post some pics of our dinner out later but wanted to post some of these old wedding photos for you all to enjoy! Check out some of the eye glasses!!
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Enjoy your weekend in Shipshewana next weekend and your Greater Vision concert!!
We love you very much!!!
May you have at least 40 more years of marriage together!!!

Love,
Karen and family
Jeff and family

Mom and Dad's Wedding

Jonathan~Elvis~Memphis...

Jonathan had to go out of town for a couple of days this week to Memphis, Tenn. He got in late last night. Of course, if you know Jonathan well, you will know that he is quite the Elvis fan!!! Today marks the #30th anniversary of Elvis' death and he said the town of Memphis was hopping! He didn't have time to go and visit Elvis, let alone even drive by Graceland, but he sure thought about it! He brought home Reese Cup's from Memphis that are Peanut Butter and Banana flavored!! Can you believe they make those because of Elvis?!



Anyway, thought you might enjoy these Halloween pictures I took of Jonathan a few years ago. It was the first year we took Parker trick or treating and since he had to walk with Parker, he decided to dress up himself. Such a nut...

I think he was dressing up like the "fat Elvis!" :0)

Anyone want his sweaty scarf???

And another babysitter says goodbye...

Yesterday was our babysitter, Jenny Grissom's last day to babysit for us. She teaches in our Christian Day School and they start back next week so it was goodbye to Wesley and Jenny for now. Parker loved having them here and said he and "Weswee" are best friends! (He loved it because Wesley would play ball with him, play trains, build airplanes, etc!) They all loved Jenny and had fun this summer with the Grissom's!

This is now the 2nd babysitter we have gone through this year! If I thought about it, I could get a complex but I know why they had to quit! Heather got married and moved to Louisiana! (She is coming home for a visit this week! YEA! We hope to see her!) We also knew that having Jenny was only a temporary fix since she teaches in our school!
Thanks Wesley and Jenny for a fun summer with our kids! They enjoyed it and loved having you here!! We are very grateful too!!

Love,

The Walden family!

Cousins...

Parker loves his cousin, Kerrigan. She belongs to my sister-in-law, April and my brother. (Jeff is her step dad, she has a very good Daddy too!) Anyway, they are best buddies and love to play together. Kerrigan will start 2nd grade tomorrow and Parker won't be 5 until mid-September! A week or so ago, my mom took Parker and Kerrigan for the day and spoiled them! They had lunch of their choice, which was McDonald's, played at the indoor playground, and went to a bookstore and Kerrigan's choice store...Kohl's!!! They got Dairy Queen before ending their day! They had so much fun and it was sure nice of Grandma to take them and let them spend the day together without their siblings to pester them! She got them toys as well as all the other kids something too!

Thanks Grandma, we had so much fun together!!!
Love,
Parker and Kerrigan...

A fun weekend...

Well, our weekend is coming to a close and we are tired but had so much fun! It was good to be with Donnie and Amy and their boys today! We enjoyed eating dinner with them and spending the afternoon reminiscing with them! (Jonathan and Donnie are HUGE Michael English fans and they had to watch some old Gaither videos to get their "fix!")

The Bethel Quartet tonight was really good too! They had fun singing together and talking of the good ole days! Jonathan added up, and the group tonight went to Bethel a total of 43 years combined and they have been out of school for a combined total of 136 years! Sounds to me like everyone is getting old!!!

My kids have ran fevers all weekend and I think they are teething again! Makes for a miserable time, but somehow we survived it anyway!

I was busy fighting fussy kids during the service and didn't get any pictures, but did manage to get them to pose for me after church! We went back up and had them stand by the old arch! Some of you may remember walking through that arch day after day!!!

Have a good week! Jonathan is going out of town for a couple of days which I am absolutely dreading! Guess I will be Mr and Mrs Mom this week!

Bye for now!

Bethel Quartet...

Don Bates Jr and his family will be spending the day with us tomorrow. Don will be preaching in the am service and then we will have a concert in the evening service. He is planning on singing half solo and the second half will be a quartet consisting all of Bethel Holiness Christian School Alumni! Don will sing tenor, Jonathan lead, Randy Dunn baritone, David Wetherald bass, and Annette Killinger playing the piano. They all graduated from our school so thought it would be fun to get together and sing a little. Tonight we went to the church to hear them practice and of course my camera was in my diaper bag. Parker and I took some pics of them practicing! (They were too busy singing to pose for us!) If you aren't busy tomorrow evening, come to our church and hear the concert! Church starts at 6pm!

Gotta run! The Bates family will be eating dinner with us and spending the afternoon here so my alarm clock will be going off extra early...

Hot, hot, hot...

I know I shouldn've even begin to complain, especially to Michelle... Our air-conditioner problem was completely minor but we still had to pay and it is 77 degrees in this house!!! We have put up with our air not completely cooling the house most of the summer and have tried several different things. Finally, after it being 77 degrees at 10pm inside our house last night, and with the air running constantly since June, I decided it was time to give Earl Gray a call... They told Jonathan the earliest they could come would be Monday afternoon. I was going crazy since we are having company this weekend. We gave my dad a call and he was able to get them here this afternoon! (Guess it pays to know someone, huh?) They said it was just minor and that it would take most of the afternoon to catch up but by tomorrow it should be fine! Thank goodness... by the way Michelle... it only cost us $118.00 too!! Much less than your bill and it never did get that hot in our house. When you come in from outside, it feels great at 77 degrees. That is why I said, I shouldn't even complain... But I did...

So true...

My Grandma and Grandpa Brown...

A few days ago would've been my "Brown" Grandparents 61st wedding anniversary. I think of them often and the good family times we had together. I wanted to post a few pictures of them for my family members that check my blog. We miss them dearly but what better place to be celebrating an anniversary than in Heaven!? (Just like Sara's parents!)

Grandma & Grandpa Brown

New Family Picture

Here is the color version of our family photo.

Power in Prayer...

Tonight after we got home from church, Parker was changing into his pajamas when all of a sudden, he devloped this severe pain in his left, lower abdomen. He asked Jonathan to "pray for it" like he always does when something hurts. However, this time he seemed more serious and the pain did not go away. We gave him Motrin, had him "try" to use the bathroom, (since it looked like it might be his bladder hurting) and gave him some water to drink. He wanted us to call "Papa" Bob and have him pray for Parker too! (He dearly loves my dad and says they are Best Buddies!) He just sat on my lap crying and ended up screaming extremely loud for about an hour. That was all I could take, so I called his pediatrician on call! After being on "hold" for about 15 minutes and finally talking to him, he said it sounded like I should probably take him to the ER to get checked out. He told me I could probably wait about 10-15 more minutes and see if it got any better and to try having Parker "hop" up and down off the ground to see if it was interferring with activity, walking, etc. I came out and told Parker what the doctor wanted him to do and he was still screaming at this point! Through tears he said, "Well... I can try to hop!" I told him if he couldn't hop we were going to the hospital! He jumped up and down multiple times and was jumping so hard I finally had to tell him to "stop!" He said, "I think I will go pee now." and ran to the bathroom and was able to go this time! He hollered out, "Mom, I am peeing now, call the doctor back and tell him I don't have to come to the hospital!" (I didn't know this, but he had told Jonathan he didn't want to go to the hospital because when Mommy went, they cut her belly and he didn't want them to cut his belly!) He ended up running out of the bathroom and straight to the table and started eating pizza and chips with WATER!!! There is no denying that a definite miracle took place in our house tonight! Parker called Papa back and told him "thank you" for praying for him! My dad told Parker he was "praying hard" for him! We were praying too but I bet it was Papa's prayers that got through!! Parker thinks so anyway!!! Parker prayed a "thank you" prayer to Jesus for healing him and it made me cry! He said, "You are supposed to be happy that Jesus answered Papa's prayer!!!"

Anyway, the doctor is still probably waiting for us to show up in ER and I will have to tell him my story when I see him at work!!! We tried to explain to Parker about hospitals and that not everyone gets "cut" every time they go there, but it is difficult to prove when Jonathan and I both have scars from that place!!! :)

He is miraculously better and sleeping soundly in his bed now!

"Thank you Jesus for a HUGE answer to prayer in our house tonight!!!"

"Old Friends..."

My best friend in school, Amy (Speer) Holsapple. We have been best friends since before Kindergarten. Now we have 6 kids between us. We never dreamed when we were playing baby dolls that we would have this many kids of our own!!
Several of us Bethel kids were at Randy's party on Friday evening. Carolyn decided to get a picture of all of us "Bethel kids" who went to school together. Pictured above are from left to right: Rachel (Pfaehler) Edwards, Elaine (Barmore) Dunn, Montie Dunn, Missy (Speer) Dunn, Amy (Speer) Holsapple, Randy Speer, us, and Randy Dunn.

Someday, we need to get another Bethel reunion together!!! It has been 10 years since we did it! (Man, is it a ton of work though, contacting everyone...)

Randy is Over the Hill...

Today is our good friend, Randy Dunn's #40th birthday! We are going to his party tonight, but we wanted to post a picture of him and wish him luck as he rolls down the hill... Several of you probably know him and some of you even were in his class in high school! (Guess that means you all are close to the top of that hill too!! :)

Happy Birthday Randy! You are a great friend!!

Jonathan, Karen and kids...

All work, no play...

We are having a "huge" garage sale this Saturday on our school property to help benefit Jr Church!!! It is a great way to get rid of tons of stuff and also give our Jr Church a good boost!! I have been busy this week going through tons of baby stuff and pricing, etc! (I don't know that it is worth the trouble!) I haven't even scratched the surface. We have even talked of having another one in a few weeks!! I wanted to let you know where I have been this week! Anyway, if you are in our area on Saturday between 7am and 3pm, drop by and see us!!! (Actually, I will be at work but some of our other Jr Church workers will be there sweating away!!!)