Colby's Homecoming

Colby came home from his mission in Washington, D.C. Colby is over a year older than Noble and we were all at his farewell. He gave a great talk with his father and his brother Spencer. We also had a good time seeing old friends from Fernley. It is great to go back and visit.

Shay got done with soccer this week and with marching band. He should have his life back. We mentioned this to Shay and Shay started singing from Fiddler on the Roof, ''To Life, to Life, Lachiam". We all started laughing.

This last week I have been substituting a class of 5 autistic boys. We have had some big challenges with several things and I am sure it is because the boys have been missing their teacher Stephanie who had to have knee surgery. Stephanie is a good friend of mine so I have been calling her to get some help. We have been trying to reward good behavior every minute or so to help the boys to act appropriately. I can really tell the difference in only a couple of days. It looks like I will be teaching in this class till we go to Boston for Devree's surgery. These are adorable little boys.

Tomorrow is October 31st so Happy Halloween Everybody!

Devree's speech and Hamblins Halloween 2011

St. Jude's emailed last week and asked if we could speak in Sacramento. Devree was happy to do it. St. Jude's booked our hotel and we went up on Wednesday night. We went and saw Cheryl a friend that lived close by and I have known since before we each got married. She is a returned missionary too and a little younger and she got married first. She has the opposite of me. She had 3 girls and 1 boy. While we have 3 boys and 1 girl. Cheryl's oldest daughter is already married.

Cheryl and I in her lovely home.

Cheryl, Brady, Kylie, Devree and I.



We think her 3rd daughter would be a good match for Shay. Kylie is the same age.

Well it was really sad to think about having our annual Halloween party without Noble here. We have been having an annual Halloween party for about 15 years and this is the first year without Noble. We decided to do something different and have the party at the disk golf park close to our house. We asked everyone to bring a lantern or flashlights but many people did not. At 7:30pm it was ao dark you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. We played games and ate some great food. We think next year it might be back to our house.

Todd and I dressed as Hoops and Yoyo. Many people did not know that they are the famous characters of greeting cards. We always buy Hoops and YoYo cards.

Todd is the green bunny and I am the pink cat.
Josh is a pirate.
Zack is a biker and Harry was a bottle of ketchup. Harry won the costume contest and then another boy that got a mohawk just for the night to be a "scary" teenager. It was fun.

Devree's Choir Concert TOFW! or Time Out for Women

Devree, Kacey, Chris Belcher, Chelsey, Kalene and Erin meeting one of our favorite speakers. Chris has battled cancer almost her whole life.

She is totally blind but people want her to autograph everything.

Ready for Friday night session of TOFW to begin.

After Saturday's session, Erin gave us a tour of UNR. There are many roses on campus and it is a $1,000. fine if you cut/pick any rose.

We found a beautiful backdrop of fall colored vines. This is Erin and Kacey.

Kalene and Kacey with the back drop of the Truckee river.

The Walker Women pose! My 3 nieces that were able to attend: Erin, Chelsey and Kacey

Erin by the river.

Chelsey not wanting her picture taken.

Chelsey picking up her Mom, Kalene but only getting the top half for the looks on their faces.

The Petronella pose says she isn't happy with her picture being taken.

We LOVE YOU Chelsey even if you didn't want your picture taken.

Erin treated us to Chinese Food for lunch.

Walking away with the "Choose to Become" theme going in our minds after the conference.

We are modeling our free tote bags that we got.


My brother-in-law Cody called a while back and he wanted to surprise my sister and their 2 daughters and 2 daughter-in-laws to Time Out for Women in Reno. He wanted to see if they could stay with us. I was very excited and it was also Time Out for Girls so I bought the tickets for Devree and I. I was so happy to see that one of the speakers was Chris Belcher. She is a woman that has battled cancer and numerous operations most of her life. Wow what an inspiration to hear her speak. My neice Kacey had got her to sign her book back when Devree was in treatment and Chris wrote a note in it for Devree. The book was fabulous also. Oh we had so much fun just us girls.

They came late Thursday night and we stayed up till 2 am talking.
Friday, Erin treated us to Chinese Food and then we went shopping. Everyone of us got something.

Friday night was the first part of the conference and we got some decadent desserts after the program. Saturday started way early and we drove back to the Reno Convention Center. Devree had her own meeting while we had ours. We shopped at the conference and found Christmas presents. I ran into 2 friends from Fernley. That was so awesome! I cried and laughed through all of the presentations. Kalene treated us to a delicious buffet and Cody had asked each husband to write a special letter to each of their wives. We read them at lunch and a few of us got tears at how beautiful our husbands wrote their words of love. We ended the day by walking by Truckee River and Erin gave us a tour of UNR- University, Reno. Then home to eat BBQ and play some games. I didn't play games because I was exhausted and was worried about my Sunday School lesson. All of the girls left Sunday morning. But we have already decided we are doing it again next year. There is one in Las Vegas and some in Utah because we want Emily (the niece that couldn't come) to be able to join us.

Devree had an Advanced Choir Performance on Monday. There is no better way to have a Family Home Evening to go and hear one of your children perform.

The Advanced Choir sang so prettily, tears came to our eyes.

Devree... our little song bird. She is the section leader for the Sopranos. Devree, we are so proud of all of your talents.

Raspberries,Pumpkins and Band!

We went to Latin Farms and got some raspberries and PUMPKINS!
Dane likes his little pumpkin.

We loved this little baby obstacle course.

This was called "The Cow Train" and they buzzed around the lawn behind a quad. They went fairly fast. The 50 gallon drums were painted like brown cows and Holsteins.

This is the famous tree that Louis fell out of and broke both his wrists. Dane is posing.

Dane loves the camera.

Shay was at Galena performing in their first Band Competition of the season. It was a beautiful 70 degrees. Shay said his hat is a "Sweat Bucket".

Here is Shay on the left with his "perfect" form. The formations were good but the trumpets music dropped out in one section. We don't know what their rating was. We picked up Shay to go Halloween shopping.
So it is that time of year again. Favorite Fall with the cooler temperatures, the beautiful colors and Shay begging me to let him get down all of the Halloween stuff. He gets it from me. I love Halloween and I passed it on to him. The house is decorated. The party is on the calendar and now it is time to prepare the many other things that need to be done in the fall. Canning raspberry jam tomorrow is one of them. Isn't life DELICIOUS?

Chase's Wedding

The new couple, Chase and Erin.

Had fun with the car.

First comes Love, then comes marraige, then comes a baby carraige.

The culprits making the car look good.

All of the adults and Carson went to dinner after the General Relief Society Meeting and Reception. Todd, Josh and Chelsey at our end of the table.

Carson at the other end with Kamon on one side and Emily holding Vance on the other.
Emily holding Vance. Vance is such a sweet, cuddly baby. He even let me hold him for a long time and snuggled in.

Chelsey made the cake and was the Maid of Honor. Josh was the best man.

Tammie and Chelsey trying to have a chat at the reception. Ben holding Kloe who wanted to crawl everywhere and Cody and Kalene.

Kalene and Kyran having an intense conversation.

Before the wedding begins.

Todd said Emily is so photogenic holding Bos who is being a little shy.

Vance and Grandma Kalene.

Carson and Josh.

Bos holding on to Grandpa Cody.

Ben holding Kloe playing with her beautiful dress.

Kyree found a unique rock.

Kalene was such a good helper with Bos who was the ring bearer. Kyree was on one side and Kalene on the other as flower girls but Kalene had her hand behind Bos' back to help him along. They were the cutest thing about the whole wedding. Later Bos asked Cody why they didn't use his rings that he brought on the pillow. It was adorable.

Two beautiful girls. The wedding party before the wedding. Kacey was the photographer so I didn't get very many pictures of her.

Bill came with his wife and two adorable boys. It was "Rock Day" at school. Devree made her wig with a pony tail Mohawk down the center. Shay had me apply eye liner. At seminary another boy saw Shay and wanted to do his own eyes with eyeliner.

Sorry Noble. Shay found your Stix shirt and Devree is posing in her eyeball socks. See O'Barrs? Your socks are still in use.

Todd and I had lots of fun going to Las Vegas for Chase's wedding. We met Ky and Tammie there without any of our kids and stayed in some condos that were very nice with a jacuzzi bath tub and even a fireplace. We went out to dinner and enjoyed the hot tub too. It was a fast, relaxing vacation. It was great to see all of the Walkers, Petronellas and Bassetts. I love to see all of my grand neices and grand nephews too. I love mini-family reunions and I am really looking forward to the big RICE REUNION next year.