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OBSESSED

I love all the different stages and phases my kids go through. Taylor's first love hands down, was Barney. Chase wasn't that into it, in fact his first true obsession was Blue's Clue. At the very young age of like 9 months Chase would sit and watch that show as long as it was on. Anything else he lasted all of about 10 seconds. Talan never really had anything quite the same way that Chase and Taylor did at that age, expect for his sword, that thing use to go everywhere with him. Maybe Elmo would come in at a close second. He did like ELmo quite a lot.

Anyways, Chase has a new obsession. He has caught the Lego bug. No big surprise there. Legos are right up his alley. He has always been fascinated with building and figuring things out. Puzzles are still a favorite past time of his. At the age of about 2-3 years old Chase would sit at the table and do puzzles as long as they were there for him to do. At that age it was about the only thing that he would do that required him to hold still. Chase is loving Legos so much right now that he could seriously play with the little things for HOURS! Watching him play and have so much for hours is awesome. Finding random pieces of legos all over the house, not so awesome. I'll bet you can't guess what he is getting for his birthday this year???

Easton also has a new obsession too. Playing in the toilet. So much fun! (enter sarcasm here) These are the things Easton lives for right now...1. a open gate to the stairs, he is such a climber, 2. babies his own age, oh my goodness he gets so excited when he sees a little person he will literally try and eat them, and 3. a toilet lid lifted up in the bathroom. I tell ya if he sees any of these things he books it like MAD trying to get there before someone can stop him.

And a little side note, worth writing down. Today was Talan's preschool classes Halloween party. As soon as Talan puts his Darth Vader mask on he morphs into character and starts singing the Darth Vader's theme song. dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. You know the one. Today his teacher told me that he is seriously the FUNnest kid! I told her try getting mad at him. I made Chili Verde for dinner tonight and halfway through dinner Talan told me, "mom I don't like this." I told him yes you do, he has had it before with no problem. Then he told me "No I don't. See mom watch this," then he proceeded to put some of it in his mouth and then spit it back out in his hand, then he told me "see mom, my mouth don't like this."

Fall break

Taylor and the boys had a week off from school last week and we lived it up BIG TIME! I don't think we could of squeezed in one more thing. The first part of the week we met my family in Disneyland, then the day after we got back our very dear friends from Utah the Hafens came for a visit. It was so fun having them here. Chase and Talan also had their first T-ball game last week. It worked out that this year since Talan's birthday is the end of August and Chase not until November that they get to be on the same team. So fun for them to be together. I remember when I was deciding if I wanted to get pregnant while Chase was still so young, the idea of my boys being on the same sport teams growing up really was a selling point for me. Isn't it funny the things us moms think about.
All Talan kept saying about Disneyland was that he wanted to see Mickey's house. I didn't even know that he really knew who Mickey was. What a treat that at the end of the tour of his house we actually got to meet the man himself. Another family picture. Cort keeps asking can we ever have enough family pictures?? I'm sure you can guess what my answer to that question would be. I am so in love with my family.

face painting fun

Cousins getting ready to go on Soarin Over California. These two couldn't have been more excited to finally be together again.

Haunted Mansion one of my favorite rides.

The Monsters Inc. ride proved to be a little too intense for Talan this time around. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this kid!

We tried to make every moment count with the Hafens here. We went swimming a couple of times, hit up the visitor center at the temple, had a Halloween party, we were busy bees. It was a lot of fun. Thanks again to them for coming.
Friends forever. 1st sleepover together. I think? These two have known each other since birth. When they were babies they had their very own language. They have a very special bond.

Halloween fun. Bobbing for apples.

Swimming. The 3 musketeers

Could these pictures be any cuter of my sweet boys? Last week at their game Talan was running to home base the same time as the other team was. Well, Talan held his ground when those ten other boys all came running to the base he was standing on. Talan just stood there fighting for his spot on "his" base.


I absolutely LOOOOVE this picture. There's just something about it. I just had to include it. I think I'll frame it and put it in their room.

Last night was our Sunday night movie. Tay and I were the only ones who made it through the movie. I couldn't help myself I had to snap a picture of Cort and Talan fast asleep together.

My very own superhero boys

Absolutely LOVE these boys!

Schnepf farm

Last weekend we hit up the coolest pumpkin patch ever! (Which it just had better of been considering what we paid to get into it!) :) It is located on a farm just outside of Queen Creek. We picked the perfect night to go. It wasn't busy at all, we practically had the whole place to ourselves and the weather couldn't have been more Fallish. That cool crisp in the air, ahhh it was perfection! I doused myself in hand sanitizer to ward of the mosquitoes seeing how they love to nibble on me. We went with our cousins/friends the Nelsons, who are always a good time.

Here's our pumpkin patch going crew. Don't mind Chase. Sigh. Boys will be boys.

Cute kids.

Easty and me on the carousel.

The kids were so excited to go on this roller coaster. I'm not sure Talan understood what it was though, until we were actually on it. But true to his nature the kid had no fear and got right on. Taylor and Gavin got to ride in the front. I LOVE the picture Cort got of them.

LOVE this kid.

Chase 1 and Chase 2 were inseparable. BFFs for sure.

Easton just along for the ride. This kid is so chill still and is always just happy to be there. Hopefully his easy going nature with stay with him and it's not the calm before the storm. :)

Lots of pumpkins to choose from. However, for 12 dollars a pop we decided that maybe we would get ours somewhere else. But the patch did make for some cute pictures and you know I liked that!

Chicken fighting.

Road rallying. I seriously want one of these little cars to cruise around the neighborhood in. Maybe a Christmas present Cort??

There was also a petting zoo with a slide that you had to go down in order to get in with the animals. No pics of that sorry. I was enjoying watching Talan too much, I forgot to take pictures. Oops. So not like me. Talan was a hoot. We were walking through looking at all the animals and when we came up to the turkey my cousin asked the boys what is that pointing to the turkey and one of the boys said that's a chicken and Talan said "WHOA! That's a big chicken!" and then when we were walking past the cow Talan screamed, "Hi cow!" and then bend down and gave the cow a huge "MOOOO!" I couldn't help but laugh. Cort keeps telling me he's going to be our little class clown. I think he may be right. Thank you Nelsons for the fun filled night.

September 2010

Lots of fun times to report for us Welkers this past month, that's for sure! Here's a look into what some of our past month has looked like. I can't believe it's almost October. I am starting to realize how precious TIME is. In fact, I have really been evaluating lately how I spend mine. My kids are growing up so incredibly fast. I am really trying to embrace each day, even the crazy ones that I could do without. :) Here's some of our month in pictures....

I made a quick trip to Utah at the beginning of the month to spend some time with some of my FAVORITE people in the world. We went up to Logan for Time Out for Women. It was kind of like BYU's Womens Conference. I left feeling almost like a new person, the messages and the music were AMAZING, to say the least. I bought a book while I was there to read on the plane back to AZ, called the Time Starved Family. I have been amazed at how much I am enjoying it. It is written by a mom with 7 CHILDREN. It has really given me a lot to think about. She talks about priorities, and how valuable our time is, among many other wonderful and thought provoking things. If you want a good read that will give you lots to think about check this one out! Thanks so much girls for the fun time and for being such wonderful examples to me. Being with you always makes me happy. I really miss you all a lot.



Easton is changing everyday. He has a couple of new tricks that he has learned recently. Probably my favorite is that he is now waving goodbye, however it's not your typical wave, instead it's more like a hail Hitler type of thing. It's hilarious. He is also saying ba-ba meaning bottle and bi-bi for bye. My least favorite thing he is doing is climbing the stairs. I NEED to get a gate for these stairs of ours all day long he is constantly climbing them. I am getting my workout by merely chasing him up them!


Taylor was the superstar student in her class a couple weeks ago and she made this cute poster to display. She made the whole thing herself. She is really enjoying her new school. She even started a Star Wars club there with some of her hew friends. She cracks me up!

This past Sunday was a rough day for Taylor. When we first moved to Arizona my Grandpa gave the kids 3 lovebirds to have as pets. Taylor has been really wanting a dog for a couple years now. I told her that if she could proof to be responsible with the birds than she could eventually get a dog. She has actually been pretty good about taking care of them. Well, on Sunday morning before church we looked out at the birds and they all seemed fine, but later that afternoon when we were outside we noticed 2 of them on the bottom of the cage. They had died. Taylor was crushed. I had to keep reassuring her that it wasn't anything she did. We buried them that night and Taylor made them a sign with their names. She kept saying the 2 that died were the girls, who she named what else? Padme and Asuka from Star Wars.
RIP Padme and Asuka. Poor Obie Wan seems so lonely now.


Cort's sister came for a visit and we all met her adorable little girl for the first time. Her and Easton are only 3 months apart and Talan and Brewin our only 6 months apart. It is so fun to have cousins the same age. We enjoyed having them and we are excited to hopefully be seeing them a lot more now that we are only about 5 hours from them verses 10.



We started a new tradition too this past month. We have been wanting to do a weekly family movie night for awhile now, but Friday we try to make me and Cort's night out and Saturday is crazy with church. So we opted for Sunday afternoon. It has been perfect! Plus, we finally joined the rest of the world and got a DVR! I have been recording lots of family friendly movies throughout the week. I have about 20 or so now recorded. The kids love it cause they have so many new ones that they have never seen to choose from. Cort says I'm obsessed! :) It has really been a lot of fun. Easton still isn't clear on the whole concept of movie night, see pic below. Regardless though, we are loving our new Sunday afternoon tradition.

This past week we have just been hanging out at home. It has felt so nice to be lazy. Here's a pic of the boys lounging around. Hope your month has been grand and that you are all enjoying my favorite season of the year. There is just something about fall that is so magical to me. Can't wait for Halloween! Good thing it's around the corner.

Mr. Talan goes to playschool

Talan started his first year of preschool last week. His cute class is just down the street from our house. A couple of the cute kids in his class have been having a hard time when they get dropped off, but His sweet teacher Mrs. Kristen told me that Talan is doing great and isn't phased by the craziness of it all. And that's our Talan in his own little world and just happy to be there.

When I dropped him off on his first day, he walked in like he owned the place, opened up the toy cupboard and started pulling stuff out. I love watching him grow and learn and see the differences in my four kids.
Talan proudly showing me what he did he class on his first day.

The other day after I picked him up and I asked him how his day was, he told me "I didn't cry mom, I fine. I fine." Love him.