O Christmas Tree!

Getting Bennett's first Christmas tree

Bennett helping with the lights.

Maggie got into the decorating...

And of course Lucy had to be right in the middle!

Happy Holidays 2011

2011 Walter Family Highlights

Bennett Liam Walter was born October 25, 2011. Weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 19 inches long. We are in love!
Right after finding out Debbie was pregnant we took an amazing cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with good friends. 7 days of pure bliss!
We traveled home to Northern California for time with family and a baby shower.
We also traveled to Disneyland with a newborn for a Walter Family Reunion (11/11/11). Lots of quality time with family this year!
One month before due date we traveled to Nauvoo, Il to visit Stephen’s father and step mother who were serving a mission there.
Maggie and Lucy are doing quite well with the addition of a sibling!

We love you very much!
-Stephen, Debbie, Bennett, Maggie, and Lucy Walter

The Up House

A builder in our area received permission from Disney to build the house from the Pixar movie "Up".  The house has been open for display for a number of months but was just sold to a family from California.  So Debbie and I decided it was finally time to go and see it!  Here it is!!!

Debbie and Bennett at the cute Carl and Ellie mail box

House at sunset

Debbie covets this kitchen

Basement bedroom with Toy Story set up

Front room exactly the way it is shown in the movie... walker and all!

Just awesome!

So fun!

We loved it!  Bennett was a total stud the entire drive and walk thru.  We headed towards home and stopped and got P.F. Chang's for dinner (FREE LETTUCE WRAPS!!!)  What a perfect family day trip!

 We also went to Thanksgiving Pointe earlier this month with the Stokes family (missed the Chase family) to see the lights there.  We ate dinner at Chili's and had awesome hot cocoa milk shakes for dessert.  My phone died so we didn't get any pictures!  It was so fun though!  We have had a tradition for 3 years now to go do something as a family here in Utah.  One of the highlights of our Christmas season!

Hand and Foot Prints

As you can tell Bennett doesn't like us messing around with his left hand or foot...

Back in November we had plaster molds made of his hand and foot.  He didn't mind at first and then once it got hard he didn't like it so much!

But they turned out so cute!  A little creepy but cute! 

Big Sisters

Many have asked us how Maggie and Lucy are doing with a baby brother.  We have a report for you all!

They are doing exactly what we thought they would do with him.  Maggie doesn't care about anything other than her walks, food, water, sleep and play time.  As long as she gets those she doesn't care about anything else that happens around here.  She will sniff the baby and try and lick his head but that is about all the interest she has in him.  We expect her to sleep in our room when he gets older.  She doesn't really do change. 

Lucy is amazed by him!  She wants to be his best friend and she is very protective of him.  She watches his bassinet and waits for him to make a sound.  She tries to sleep right next to him and tries to clean him... Bennett doesn't seem to mind but we pull her off.
We anticipate that Lucy may end up sleeping in his room (when he is much older) to make sure he is protected.

So we have had pretty good success with the introduction of Bennett.  We will see how they do as he gets older, more mobile and taunts them.  That will be the true test.  But once again we think we know what will happen then!

Bennett's Baby Blessing

Bennett was blessed on Friday, November 25th.  He was 1 month old.  We chose to do it outside of church since family was going to be in town only for a short time for Thanksgiving.  So after receiving approval from our Bishop we prepared a wonderful dinner and dessert for the occasion.  We made 3 soups.  Clam Chowder, Baked Potato and Chicken Tortilla.  We had all the sides needed and tons of dessert.  We had a ton of food!  It was great!  We held the blessing at Great Grandma Linn's home to accommodate the amount of people that were going to attend.  We had about 30 people there.  We blessed him and then dug into the food.  It was a wonderful evening.  Here are a few shots.

Bennett was an angel during the blessing.  He slept most of the time the whole evening.  What a cute boy.

With Grandma Bonnie, and Great Grandma's Linn and Alvey

Mimi and Grandpa Linn and Grandpa Walter

Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa, Debbie, Bennett and Stephen

The Royce family (except Emerson) and The Walter family

The Linn, Walter and Alvey generations

Great Grandma Linn holding Bennett.  We are so grateful to her for allowing us to use her home.  We had such a good time and we are so grateful to all those who traveled so far to visit us and be apart of this special event.  There were so many pictures we focused mainly on the group shots.  You are all very special to us and we love you all!  Bennett is truly a blessing to us and we are so grateful the Lord has blessed us with him.

First Smiles and Thanksgiving Week

We woke up Thanksgiving morning to a happy boy!  Bennett smiled for the first time today!  With the magic of cell phones we were able to catch this cute moment.  We had lots of Linn and Walter family here for Thanksgiving.  It worked out great because we decided to do his blessing the day after Thanksgiving.  Here are some shots from the week.

All smiles.

Meeting Uncle Michael for the first time

Meeting Grandpa Linn

Meeting Great Grandma Alvey.  There are so many grandparents that love you!

Meeting Aunt Heather.

Thanksgiving with the Walter family at the Stokes house.  YUMMY FOOD!

Debbie enjoying her dinner...

Being held by Grandpa Walter for the first time.  He was sick the previous times he saw you.

Cleaning up

Enjoying time together with Family

Thanksgiving games

What a fun Thanksgiving!  We loved spending time with the family!  We spent the late evening at Great Grandma Linn's but Bennett was so fussy that we took no pictures.

A few nights later we found this star outfit for Bennett and had to buy it since Mimi had a pajama outfit that was similar in design.  Everyone caught the bug and wanted a picture matching baby Bennett.  Such a funny night.  It was such a great Thanksgiving.  We loved spending time with both families!

Disneyland (11/11/11)

The Walter family grew up at 1111 Parkview Drive.  Because of that we are all kind of obsessed with the number 11.  So before Bennett was ever thought of we were all planning a trip to Disneyland for 11/11/11.  Once he arrived we had decided that it would be best to stay home and not go.  We received a lot of support in our decision but were dying inside!  We were so sad.  Grandpa Walter called and requested that we really try and come so we knew it was important to him.  We accepted his sweet invitation and started packing.  We drove and Bennett was a complete rock star!  This baby loves the car!  We got in late 11/10/11 and Grandpa and Bonnie came to meet Bennett.  We all had special shirts made for our big reunion!  Bennett wore a shirt and special hat mommy had made for him.

Waiting for the tram to take us into the park.  Here is the back of his shirt.

His first Disney character!  We were so excited to be in the park!

Meeting Natalie, Abbie and Eric.  Everyone was so anxious to see him!  This was another reason we wanted to go was to be able to show everyone our new baby!

All wrapped up in Aunt Katie's arms.  He was such a good boy both days we were in the park.  Lots of sleeping.

At the Walter family brick.  We meant to get a picture with our brick but ran out of time.  We moved a little slower and didn't ride a lot of rides but we still loved every moment of our time in the park with the family and the feeling of Disneyland!

At the end of the first day we gathered together to take a family photo.  The only two people missing were Daryl (who had to go to work) and Daniel (who is on his mission).

The family gathered before dinner on 11/11 for a family picture.  Everyone was there except Daryl (who had to return to work) and Daniel (who is on his mission).  Everyone in the park wanted our shirts!  They asked everyone in the party where we got them!  We should have sold them outside the park!  Thanks Katie for designing and all the work you put into them!

Uncle Dave with Bennett.  It was truly a blessing to be able to see all the family and have Bennett meet everyone!

We then headed back into California Adventure to see "World of Color."  We loved the show watching the show with the family!

Right after the show we headed back to our room.  Bennett was exhausted!  LOL!

Day 2 was also a lot of fun.  Some of the family had gone home but there were still quite a few of us.  Dale had no one waiting to talk to him so we felt bad...

Bennett rode Little Mermaid ride on his first day in the park and rode Small World on Day 2.  These were the only two rides we took him on.  We were so grateful for family that watched him while we went of a few rides.  You guys were amazing!

We waited to see Santa Claus.  It was so cute and we were so lucky to have Mrs. Claus in the photo.  It also saved us a trip to the mall!!!

Our little family

In front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle

Our last evening in the park.  We lost some camera's we had taken but luckily there was nothing on them that we hadn't downloaded.  That was a blessing.  We had the best time with everyone!  We are SO grateful for everyone's support and love.  Thanks Grandpa for everything you do for us!  You encouraged us to come and we are so glad we did!  We love you all very much!