New Years Eve

We typically trade-off which family we celebrate New Years with (mostly because New Years Eve is actually Amy's birthday). This year was a Walker year. When we made plans in the beginning of the month, we planned to get together for a Family Christmas Party, and then stagger our trips to Wyoming because there isn't really space to house everyone yet. But when it got a little closer, we knew that we would be so SO sad not to celebrate New Years with the Haderlies so we called Jenna and started making a case for why they should come back for NYE (including bribes). They jumped on board and it made it SO fun! 

We did a countdown with 6 different activities for the kids to do through the afternoon/evening. Some of the things were bigger and some were smaller. It was simple but the perfect way to celebrate the last day of 2024. 

We started with an outdoor scavenger hunt that Lydia put together while waiting for the Haderlies to arrive. She had lots of things to them to find and do and it took them all over: the fields, the corrals, the shop, the underpass. 





Austin got a radio-flying airplane for Christmas and he was SO excited to try it out. We were so impressed with him and his flying skills. It was a stretch of a gift this year, but he loves it so much - it is perfect for him. 


We ate dinner, talked about favorite things from the past year (we made a little book of highlights), and talked about things we were excited for in the upcoming year. 


We had a Glow-Stick Dance Party and danced the macarena (a Walker tradition) and ended with watching the "ball drop/fireworks" in Australia or something while shooting off confetti and putting the kids to bed by 8. Ha. We did let the big kids stay up until about 10, when we did the same thing with the live ball drop in NYC. Jenna, Kevin, and I ended up staying all the way up until midnight for our midnight kiss and then straight to bed. 

Why do I have no pictures of my parents? I have no idea! They were there every step of the way cheering us on and celebrating with us. We love this little home and I love that my kids are now experiencing this as their grandparents house, just like I experienced it as a child. 

We are so grateful for the blessings of the past year and are looking forward to 2025. Happy, Happy, New Year! 

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the Peaden house this year. We went to church in the morning and then to the Peaden house. 

First thing - we realized we missed doing our traditional picture in front of the Christmas tree earlier in the week and so we had to make sure to do that as well. 

Shantel made a balloon countdown of fun things for the kids to do to countdown to the near year. This included doing the birthday party for Amy and Kevin. 

I love this picture because you can see how excited Lucy is to pop this balloon, but then when it pops she looks so sad it is gone. 

We had dessert to celebrate birthdays, plus frappe. We spent the rest of the night playing games and had a really great time. 

New Years Day started with french toast, cousin pyramids, and games with the Peadens. It ended with back at out house in Lehi, ready to start the new year. 

Walker Fam + New Years Eve

Because we spent Christmas at the Peaden's house this year, we made sure to block off a whole section of days out of our Christmas break to spend in Morgan. We filled our days with family, laughter, game playing, and lots of memory making. 

Skeet Shooting with the Crew
My dad is always so proud that Jenna and I are such good shooters. We went a lot when we were young and I remember holding my own against my high school guy friends. It's funny that he's still so proud about it, but it just means so much to him that we care enough to try/succeed at something he cares about so much. We had a great time, and my dad said that this was definitely "True Fun" for him. 

Hanging at the house- Baking, games, grandpa working on rockets with the kids. 


New Years Eve brought out our traditional paper-plate countdown. 

Some of the things that we included this year were:

**Glow rockets and remote control cars at the church. (Plus a spontaneous Cousin-Crew-Primary-Chair photoshoot)











*Playing Cousin-Crew Dungeons and Dragons with Uncle Matt


**Favorite Things Gift Exchange




**Prize Punch (Lucy was so tired, she just couldn't hang. 




**Glow Dance Party featuring several rousing renditions of "The Macarena". This was my favorite thing! (Backstory, in 1999 - my Aunt Kim and Uncle Marti hosted the best New Years Eve party EVER and this song was key in that celebration. Going into this year, my mom wanted to recreate that celebration. Even though this looked significantly different than that did - we had a fantastic time and it was probably our families best NYE celebration! 




**Countdown with the kids, then games until the countdown for the adults! 


Our family has adopted Brooklyn's family's tradition of having everyone make one prediction for the coming year. It's fun to write them down and look back at them the following year. (We keep them on top of the bookshelf on a random piece of paper.) This year we also included one goal for the year. In addition to that, we added another piece to the tradition. We used plastic cups to toast Martinellis and before we toasted, we all wrote down one thing we liked from the past year and one thing we were looking forward to in the coming year. I really liked that and would love to continue to incorporate that into our traditions. 

Shantel: 

Prediction- at least one country goes to war with Russia (Ukraine survives and begins a valiant recovery) 

Goal- Learn to make Sourdough Bread

David: 

Prediction- Utah Jazz wins the #1 pick in the draft

Goal- Learn to make Birria tacos

Happy New Year!