Les&Wes

Summer Fun

2010-08-12T18:18:00.005-05:00

This summer in Buffalo has been soooo much hotter than last summer was, so we have been loving it!! Well, it's been an adjustment getting used to not having air conditioning in our apartment, but THANKFULLY one of our friends from church gave us a window unit for our bedroom, which cools Reese's room also. We wouldn't have made it without that at night. We have been trying to take advantage of all this glorious warm weather before the ground is once again covered with snow for several months! We have been taking many walks in our neighborhood just about every weekend, trips to the zoo, and trips to the park.

Wes did the 5K run with the group from Restoration Church like he did last year, and Reese and I went to cheer them on.

Here are some random pictures I've taken over the last few weeks while hanging out at home.

Don't these eyes just kill you?!

Reese and her daddy having a moment:

And Reese and Boston having a moment! It's a showdown for the ball!

She LOVES jumping and playing in her jumparoo.

At the beginning of August Wes got to lead worship at Kingdom Bound, which is a huge Christian music festival that happens every year in Buffalo. They did a great job of course!

The sweetest thing in the world is how Reese watches Wes when he plays and sings.

She kept doing this (getting really happy and excited) while she was watching him sing. So cute!!

On one of the many gorgeous days we've had recently we took a little family trip to the zoo. This was not the first time Reese has been to the zoo, but it was the first time she actually seemed to be looking at some of the animals!

But sometimes she would just rather look at her daddy.

Here's me and my little love bug:

And me and my other love bug :)

Wes and I have started a babysitting swap thing with Dan and Gina (the pastor of Restoration), and we are trying to do every Friday night where we either go on a date while they keep Reese or they go on a date while we keep their boys. Sam and Nick are 11 year old twins, and they love Reese a lot. She is starting to love them too I think.

She is in mid-spit in the picture above. She's started doing that and it is so funny! She is growing so fast of course, but she is so much fun and it's just getting better. We are super excited to go on our annual family beach vacation next week! We hope and pray Reese loves the beach as much as we do!!

Long time no blog!

2010-07-16T10:40:00.005-05:00

So I've been wanting to blog again for so long now, but life gets a bit busier when you have a baby around! I want to keep doing this because it will be so great to have a journal of our lives to look back on, and also hopefully our families will still enjoy keeping up with what is going on with us. There is no way to write about everything that has happened in the last 4 months, but I will hit some of the highlights! Life is a bit crazier now, but we are loving Reese so much and she is a lot of fun. I absolutely cannot believe she is almost 5 months old! It is ridiculous how fast time flies by and we are trying to enjoy every moment.

We got to go to a Buffalo Bisons (minor league baseball) game and I was so excited. A friend from church was playing in a band before the game and he got us free tickets. It was fun and Reese enjoyed her first baseball game!

We have been loving all the warm weather we have had so far, and we love to sit out on our balcony.

Reese is really starting to love her jumparoo! (Thanks to Jennifer and Alex for lending it to us!)

In June we had Reese's dedication at Restoration Church. It was a really special time where we committed ourselves to raising Reese well and to teach her and show her Jesus in our lives, and the church family committed to praying for us and supporting us in that.

As you can see she screamed during the entire prayer... bless her little heart, she was sick that day, had a fever, and didn't feel well at all. She never cries during church and they always say she is perfect in the nursery, so of all mornings to have her dedication this was probably not the best one! She actually projectile vomited in the car on the way to church ALL OVER her dress and I (first time parent) did not bring a back up - yikes. So when we got there, I stripped her down and my great friend Gina (Pastor Dan's wife) took her dress to the bathroom and washed it out in the sink and dried it under the hand dryer! It all worked out in the end, but it was a bit of a stressful morning!

Here is our little fam after church:

On Wes's first Father's Day he just wanted the three of us to go to dinner, so we walked down to a restaurant at the end of our street and ate at their outside tables because it was a great evening.

Bathtime is so much fun with all her hair to play with!

June 26th was our 10 year dating anniversary! So we decided to go spend the day in Erie, PA so we could eat at Chick-fil-a! We had a fun day walking around the mall and then a delicious supper at Chick-fil-a. Wes surprised me with flowers he had ordered and had delivered there - it was so sweet!!

Reese wore her Auburn outfit in honor of where it all began 10 years ago!

Wes has been playing a good bit recently, and Reese and I are his groupies. Here he is playing at a really cute coffee place outside on July 3rd.

We walked to Delaware Park one beautiful day recently and enjoyed sitting by the lake for a while.

Reese had her first pigtails at 4.5 months old! Can you even believe it?! It's the cutest thing ever.

And I will leave you with a picture of the most beautiful little baby girl in the world.

Finally...

2010-03-20T09:51:00.006-05:00

Well, finally ONE MONTH LATER, I am getting a chance to announce on the blog that Reese is here! Of course, I'm sure if you're reading this you already knew that. Anyway, after 30 hours of labor and an unplanned C-section, Reese Karley Walters was born on February 20, 2010! And she weighed 8 pounds 12.5 ounces - much bigger than we expected!

Here we are in the hospital, still pretty early in the day on the 19th:

And here she is, just moments after she was born, holding her daddy's finger:

I can't believe I'm putting this on here, but here is our first family photo shortly after the C-section (my husband did not tell me I still had the lovely cap on my head):

Just born in Buffalo:

All dressed and ready to go home in the pretty dress and bracelet from Gram:

First time in the car seat:

Napping with Daddy. So sweet.

Me with my mom, sister, niece Rylie, and of course Reese:

Just after her first bath. Can't you tell she loved it?!

Reese with her cousins Rylie and Bailey:

Looking at Daddy:

I cannot believe she is now one month old!! Hopefully I will be able to update more often now. We are taking so many pictures and she is already changing a lot, so I will try my best!

The Nursery is Finally Complete!

2010-02-15T15:20:00.005-06:00

Well, here we are - one week until the due date! I just can't believe it. Wes and I finally got the nursery all done this past week and we are pretty happy with it. We have all our family and friends to thank for being able to furnish this nursery with everything Reese needs and everything we wanted to make it cute!

As you can probably tell from the pictures, the bedrooms in our house are extremely tiny, so we really wondered how we were going to fit everything in here and have enough storage for all the clothes, blankets, supplies, etc. Somehow we made it work! Hope you enjoy the pics!

This is taken from the doorway into the nursery: (it looks sort of like we have mint green blinds in this window, but that is just the house next door)

The changing table our friends Jennifer and Alex are letting us use. Great to have and great for storage underneath. The beautiful painting above it was painted and given to us by a dear friend in Nashville, Chanda. She gave it to us when we moved from Nashville because I loved it so much - little did I know it would end up in our daughter's room! It looks so great in here with the flowers and the pinks and greens. The words in the background are Galatians 6:8-9.

The doll on the left I got at my Buffalo shower was handmade by a friend here, Stacy. The bunny on the right was handmade by Nana (Wes's mom).

The frames are her initials, RW.

The "Reese" was made and painted by Aunt Ashley (my sister) and matches perfectly.

Buffalo baby shower

2010-02-07T15:45:00.009-06:00

Wes played at an open mic night at Merge restaurant this past week, and he did an awesome job of course. He also had several folks from church and even one of our downstairs neighbors come out to see him, which was fun.

And here is my 38 week belly picture. Only two weeks till D-day, people! We cannot believe it. It could be any time now!

Yesterday some of my precious friends from Restoration Church threw me a baby shower! It was fun and lovely and such a blessing.

Here are the homemade cupcakes made by Jennifer. They are babies with pacifiers... although you might be like me and think they were supposed to be ducks (sorry Jennifer)! But either way, they were delicious.

The pretty tables and yummy food (some of it - the rest hadn't arrived yet):

I tried to get a picture of every person there so I could always remember.

Here are some of the girls playing one of the games. We called it the "smelly diaper" game and I actually requested it. It's where you melt different kids of chocolate bars into diapers and everyone has to smell it and guess what candy bar it is. It looks so disgusting and realistic and it is hilarious to see everyone sticking their noses into them!

I got 4 out of 5 correct, and I was so shocked that I missed one! I thought I knew my chocolate better than anyone.

Here are a few shots of some of the decor and gifts:

They had little bowls of Reese's pieces around - how cute is that? (for Reese, of course)

Opening gifts!

And at the end, Angela said a beautiful prayer for Reese and for Wes and me. It was really special.

By the way, Angela is a labor and delivery nurse at our hospital, so it will be so cool if she's there for the birth!

And these are the favors that were given out to everyone - little Reese cups!

We are SO, SO blessed to have such great friends and church family here in Buffalo. They blessed us beyond what we could have imagined, and we are so grateful.

Winter Again!

2010-01-24T17:10:00.003-06:00

Well, it's that time again in Buffalo for frigid weather and snow! Actually, it's been that time for a while now. Although I have to say that this winter has been much milder and less snowy than last winter was, and we are thankful for that! We actually did not have much snow before Christmas, but when we came back after Christmas there had been lots of it. We had a couple of weeks of pretty big snow at the beginning of January. Here is our front balcony - check out the depth of the snow on top of the table!

And this is the neighbors' balcony and the view of our street:

When the weather is like this, this is what Boston does as soon as we come in from a walk:

Ha ha! He runs as fast as he can into our bed and buries himself in the covers. We know how you feel, Boston! He is a southern doggie for sure.

January also was the end of my seasonal employment at Target. It was a real blessing to be able to work for a few months to enable us to pay for our Christmas trip, but I was pretty glad to be done with it. The standing for several hours straight was getting really tough on my back and feet. This is a picture of me in my Target "uniform" after my last shift was over! Yay!

Last weekend Wes was asked to play at a Walk for Cancer benefit at one of the local malls. He played all his original stuff for about an hour and a half while people registered and did the walk. He did great and all the folks really seemed to enjoy him! I know I did.

And finally here is my latest belly pic, taken at 35 weeks on January 18th. We both cannot believe how soon the time is coming! Everyone asks the question "Are you ready?" and we both honestly answer "No!" I mean, how can you really be ready for something so huge and life changing that you've never experienced before? We are just trusting that God will give us the strength we need to make it through and praying that He will prepare us for whatever comes!

First Baby Shower for Reese Cup

2010-01-15T17:54:00.006-06:00

So my wonderful family in Gadsden, Alabama got together to throw me a baby shower when we were down there for Christmas! It was just the family, which was great. My mom, sister, grandmothers, aunt, nieces, and cousin were all there. I am so glad I was able to get together with family to celebrate this special time.

First I have to post the pictures of my precious nieces Rylie and Bailey in their matching outfits!

And I just love how amused Rylie looks at Bailey's distress.

Okay, this is hilarious. My mom, sister, and I had been talking about what to wear to the shower and joking about how it was a "formal" event (not really, though). So before it started my sister came downstairs in this:

I believe that is one of her old prom dresses. It was hysterical. (Please don't kill me, Ash! Love you!)

Here I am (and Reese) at the beautiful table.

My mama and me:

And mama, my sister (after she changed), and me:

The DELICIOUS punch with beautiful fresh cut flowers around it done by my mom. And you can also se the adorable pink bootie mints:

The super adorable and DELICIOUS cake with Reese's initials:

And the gifts begin! Bring on all the girlie stuff!

Just had to include this beautiful pic of my Rylie:

Rylie and Kiley are helping me with my gifts. This was the great "sleep sheep" from my aunt Susan.

Cute purple and pink blanket monogrammed with Reese's name, from my Granny:

And my sister made and painted this adorable "Reese" for her room!

Those are just a few of the awesome things we were blessed with at the shower. Another huge thank you to my mom and sister for getting it all together and for everyone who came and for all the wonderful gifts! What a blessing!! We thank the Lord for all of you!

The Twelve Days of Christmas (almost)

2010-01-07T20:06:00.008-06:00

Well, we had a very busy, packed, and wonderful Christmas this year. And it wasn't quite twelve days, but it was eleven days including travel. Here we are at our apartment trying to get a "family" portrait in front of the tree. Boston really wasn't cooperating very well, and after a few attempts, this is the best we could do! He looks like a psycho dog with glowing green eyes and his tongue out, but he's still cute.

Christmas 2009:

So right after church Sunday morning before Christmas, we loaded up the truck (borrowed from our Buffalo friends Joe and Shelly) and headed out. Since it really isn't fun to drive the entire way from Buffalo to Alabama in one trip, and I am pretty pregnant, we drove to Louisville, Kentucky and stayed the night. Boston and I are enjoying being out of the car and chilling in the hotel!

The next morning we woke up and drove from Louisville to Gadsden, Alabama, stayed the night at my parents', and then the next morning woke up early and headed down to L.A. (Lower Alabama) to see Wes's parents. It was a balmy 60-something degrees in Mobile, AL and we were LOVING it!! Wes's dad even grilled out some delicious ribs for us.

Nothing like seeing a palm tree at Christmas!

The family in Mobile:

After staying a night with Wes's dad and stepmom, we drove over about half an hour to his grandmother's house to see her and his mom for the afternoon. It was great to see them!

That evening we drove back up to Gadsden and were pooped. Early the next morning (on Christmas Eve) we met our old friends at Chick-fil-A for our annual Christmas reunion! I've been friends with these girls since elementary school. It was so great as always seeing Brandie, Allison and Mattie, Kinsey, Michael, Brianna, and Sarah, and Ashley and her new husband! The time is always way too short, but I'm so thankful we were all able to get together. Allison and I are both due with baby girls on February 22nd!

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent at my parents' house along with my sister and nieces just hanging out, watching movies, making treats, and eating - it was fabulous.

Here are my babies (well, technically they are my sister's babies) with their matching PJ's on Christmas Eve sitting with Pop.

Boston got festive with a Christmas bow.

Since all my family lives in the same city, we were able to take a break from driving for a few days! Christmas day we spent at one of my grandparents' for lunch and another for supper. Here are some pics from Christmas day:

Precious Bailey:

Sweet sisters, our nieces Rylie and Bailey:

My lovely parents:

Me with the bow that has been put on my head every Christmas since I don't even remember when:

Wes and me with Grandaddy and Grandmama:

Wes and me with my aunt Susan:

So that evening we went to my Granny's house. My cousin had gotten "Just Dance" for the Wii for Christmas, so of course we all had to play and it was a blast!!

Here is my mom getting into it with Rylie and my cousin Kiley:

And my sister and I totally broke it down to "Step By Step" by New Kids On The Block:

We had lots of fun and I'm so glad we were able to spend time with the family. Here are some more random shots from the holidays.

A beautiful Alabama sunset the day after Christmas:

Uncle Wes and Rylie:

A pic that Rylie took of us herself:

My sister and I at my cousin's roller skating birthday party... I couldn't skate seeing as how I'm eight months pregnant, and it was killing me!

Me and Miss Bailey (in my parents' sunroom overlooking the river):

Wes and Bailey - look at that face! Adorable! (both of them)

And of course a preggers pic (taken December 28th, 32 weeks):

Wes and me in the sunroom with the beautiful view of the Coosa River:

When we headed out from Gadsden, we made a stop in Nashville to see some friends there. Here is Wes with some of our oldest friends in Tennessee, Clint and Brad. We've known these guys for over 7 years now!

And here we are with Brad and his wife Allie, our dear friends. Allie and I are both having girls and she is due 6 days before me! So sad we don't live in the same city anymore. :(

Bumping bellies with Reese and Sophie :)

And with another dear friend, Amber:

Whew! I am tired just thinking about our Christmas vacation! We traveled a total of about 40 hours, in a truck, with a dog, and swollen feet and ankles (well, mine were), but it was totally worth it to see and spend time with all our families and friends! We love you all and are already looking forward to the next time we get to see you again!

Busy Times

2009-12-07T21:18:00.005-06:00

These last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for the Walters household. First I wanted to show you a really funny picture. Our dog Boston usually does not bother anything he shouldn't...usually. We had left a bowl of caramel candy corn on the coffee table one night we were out, and we came home to this sight:

We don't know how he did this, but I guess he didn't like the candy corn since all this was left over!!

So a couple of weeks ago Wes got asked to sing at a benefit event. The benefit was for an organization that helps to provide clean water wells in Sierra Leone, Africa. The organization is called Let Them LOL (www.ltlol.com) and it was really neat to be able to be a part of this. Wes coerced me into singing "I Run To You" by Lady Antebellum with him that night, and someone got a shot of it.

Then of course there was the Auburn vs. Alabama game. Sad day. Let's not talk about it. But we had to get a picture to remember the day by, and unfortunately it looks just like the picture from last year's game.

I got to work at Target the whole weekend after Thanksgiving, including Black Friday at 4:45 a.m. (CRAZY!), so while I worked, Wes painted the nursery! The room before was a yellowish color, including the ceiling. Here is Wes painting the ceiling white and the before pictures of the room:

We decided on a color called "toast" that matches the bedding we picked out at Target. I think it looks great and he did a fabulous job! He even spiffied up the closet door.

We pulled out all the Christmas decor and decorated the tree that same weekend. It is always fun and exciting to do that! I was wearing a shirt that says "full of awesome" and Wes thought it was funny considering I am literally full of an awesome baby, so he wanted to take this picture:

Here is our pretty tree:

This past weekend was our annual Christmas Shopping Extravaganza! We decided to make it a road trip this year to Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie is only about 1.5 hours from Buffalo, they have a big mall, a Target, and most importantly, a Chick-fil-A!! (This of course is the main reason we decided to go to Erie for our Extravaganza.) It was glorious and totally worth it.

We had so much fun and all our Christmas shopping is done! Now I just need to finish the wrapping.

Just for the heck of it, here is a super cute picture of Boston with his huge rawhide cigar:

And finally here is my 29 week picture, taken December 6th, 2009. I really feel like I have grown a lot in the last couple of weeks, don't you?!

What's been goin' on

2009-11-24T21:20:00.004-06:00

It's been a little while since I blogged. I have started working part time at Target for the holiday season, so I've been pretty busy! Wes and I have had a good month and have gotten to do some cool stuff. One of the coolest things we did this past Sunday. A big group from our church went to serve and help out with a thing called "Boxes of Love". It was started by a church in Buffalo 10 years ago, and they helped 5 families with Christmas dinner and gifts. It has grown so much over the last 10 years and now many churches and organizations are involved each year. Last year Boxes of Love assisted 2,500 families!!

We helped out on the very first day of preparation for this year's Boxes of Love. Places all over Buffalo donate all kinds of items for this each year, so there were hundreds of boxes that had to be sorted through and organized, which is what we did. We sorted and separated everything into categories of food, medical supplies, personal/toiletry items, diapers, gifts, and household items. We did all this in a big warehouse space that gets donated to them every year. Here are some shots of everyone in action.

It was really fun and neat to be a part of this awesome ministry to the city of Buffalo. It's so wonderful to think of all the families that will be receiving food, gifts, and all kinds of necessities this year, and hopefully they will get a glimpse of Jesus' love for them through this. And it's always amazing to me what a blessing it is and how much joy you receive in serving others!

On a different note, I had a fabulous girls' night out last weekend. A bunch of us from church went to dinner at PF Chang's and then went to see "New Moon"! If you don't know what that is - but surely you do - it's the sequel to "Twilight". We had been waiting for this for months and it was awesome! Here we are at PF Chang's before the movie:

It was mahem and craziness at the theater because we went on opening night. Even though we had pre-purchased our tickets, we still had to wait in line for a while before we could get in. Here are Ashley and Amy in their Twilight t-shirts:

They say "Edward prefers brunettes" and "If you don't sparkle, I'm not interested" Ha!!

And finally, here I am growing, growing, growing! This is at 27 weeks (November 23, 2009). I only wish I had remembered to take this picture BEFORE I got in the shower and washed off all my makeup. Oh well.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-07T14:54:00.003-06:00

Here we are on Halloween - Can you guess what we are??

We are The Black Eyed Peas!!

Restoration Church had a picnic on Halloween, and it was a lot of fun. It was not the best day outside - cold, very windy, and raining on and off - so we had the picnic inside the community center. Lots of people came, and it was a great time for our church family to just chat, eat, and have fun.

Here is the wife and kids of Alex, one of the pastors. Jennifer is the zoo keeper, Amelia was her lion, and Josie was her little caterpillar. So cute!

Here is our friend Shelly and her little pumpkin Carley:

We had an awesome spread of food! This was the main and side dish table:

And this table was just sweets, so it was my favorite of course! I made apple cider cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing, YUM!

There was a serious game of flag football going on outside, despite the sprinkling rain and mud.

Here is Dan, our pastor, after the game:

And the whole muddy team:

Here was the inside of the community center where we ate and hung out:

And the set up outside where some guys were frying turkeys! They were so good.

And here is another belly shot! This is at 24 weeks and a couple of days (taken November 4, 2009). She's in there alright, and kicking away!

Fall Festivities

2009-10-31T21:37:00.006-05:00

We've had another really beautiful fall up here so far. (Side note: I cannot believe Wes and I have been in Buffalo for just over a year now and that this is our second fall here!!) The leaves all of a sudden started turning and it happened really fast over the last couple of weeks.

This past week we have had a couple of fun days going to new places we've never been. The Trippie family, Wes, and I went to a little village called Niagara On The Lake. It is actually in Canada, but it's only about 40 minutes from our house. It is a very charming place with lots of little shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts. We only spent a few hours there, but Wes and I definitely want to go back for maybe an overnight stay sometime. Here are just a few shots of Niagara On The Lake and the beautiful scenery. (I wish the pictures did it more justice, but you'll just have to come visit and we will take you there!)

This is Fort Niagara:

Lake Ontario:

Wes and Dan walking down the street:

And just one of the many gorgeous hotels there with a horse and carriage out front:

Yesterday Wes and I had a fun day going to The Great Pumpkin Farm! Here we are being goofy:

Giant pumpkins that weigh over 1,000 pounds!

Notice me there on the left, and you can see how crazy tall this thing was:

We got to feed these cute llamas!

And these guys were really cute and sweet too.

Oh my goodness, the cutest of all:

Fun times! I will be posting soon about our fun Halloween day we had today, and what we dressed up as, so check back soon!

It's gettin' real, folks!

2009-10-23T16:48:00.003-05:00

We have a crib in our house. Yikes! It is pretty crazy to see when you walk through the room, and it makes us realize that there will be a baby in there in about four months!

When my mom and dad were here visiting last week, they wanted to buy us our crib and mattress, which is a HUGE blessing! Thank you so, so, so much mom and dad! Your granddaughter will now have a very nice place to sleep because we would not have been able to buy this on our own.

We were able to get a beautiful crib that we both love, and it also converts to a daybed and a full size headboard which is awesome. Wes could hardly wait to put it together! Of course I wanted to document the process, so here it is:

TA DA! First dad project complete and it looks great!

I also bought Wes a little surprise the other day...

So slowly but surely, the reality is sinking in for us. Not totally yet, but we're getting there!

Maid of the Mist!

2009-10-16T15:27:00.004-05:00

First of all, I wanted to share some pictures of our sweet puppy (who just turned 6 years old). He likes laying under Wes's hoodie, and he stayed under there for several hours one day.

And here is Wes and Boston laid back enjoying a football game.

So cute! Anyway, this past weekend my mom and dad came up to Buffalo for a (too short) visit. We were all very excited to ride the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls for the first time! If you're not familiar with it, it's a big boat that you ride around the base of the falls, and the name is very fitting because you definitely experience the mist! It was a pretty chili day - in the low 40s - but it was a sunny and beautiful fall day.

Here we are waiting to board the boat wearing our cute Maid of the Mist ponchos.

And here are some amazing shots of the falls from the boat. There were so many birds flying around and a gorgeous rainbow from the mist. It was really awesome.

So here is the picture of Wes and me and the rainbow. The sun was really bright, and I was turning to say that I couldn't even open my eyes, and my mom took the picture anyway. Oh well.

Just gorgeous!

Mom and Dad (and the falls and the rainbow):

And here's a better one of us with the falls and rainbow. You may not be able to tell, but we had just gone through the mistiest (is that a word?) spot and got shot right in the face with water so we were pretty wet.

Oh, it was so much fun and I am so thankful we had such a beautiful day to experience this.

I didn't do a very good job of taking a lot of pictures when Mom and Dad were here, so this is the only other one I got! We had dinner at Famous Dave's bar-b-que one night and it was delish.

We had a great time, Mom and Dad! Thanks for coming!

And finally, here I am at 21.5 weeks (taken October 16, 2009). The bump is quite a bit bigger than the last pic I put up here a few weeks ago!! She's moving around a lot now and it's crazy.

September stuff

2009-09-23T22:01:00.003-05:00

So September has been good so far! It's hard to believe the summer is already over. It is still in the 70s here in Buffalo, so we're really thankful for that!

On September 9th we had a really special service for Restoration Church. We had our first covenant (membership) service for anyone who wanted to officially join the church. It was sort of like a mini worship service where Dan just said a few things about being a member of Restoration, Wes led in a few songs of worship, and then people got to come up and sign a covenant. It was a really neat service and it was really special for all of us to become an "official" family. We will now start doing this once every few months to give people the opportunity to commit to being a part of the church. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Of course we've also been excited about the start of Auburn football!! It's unfortunately hard for us to get to watch the games since we only have basic cable and we live in New York, but we did get to watch the last one online! We set up our computer in front of the couch and yelled and cheered and got to see the Tigers win! It was a lot of fun. Boston is getting in the Auburn spirit too.

And here's one more shot of our sweet boy snuggled on the couch just cause he's so darn cute:

And finally, here is a belly pic of me at 18 weeks (taken September 22):

I'm sure if you're reading this you've already heard, but apparently it's a girl!

Myrtle Beach 2009

2009-09-12T14:01:00.006-05:00

This year we did a Walters/Collins/Bilheimer vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Labor Day weekend. It was Wes's mom and her husband, his brother's family (wife and two boys), his sister's family (husband and four kids), and us. We got a four bedroom condo on the beach and it was really nice. Surprisingly roomy for eight adults and six kids! The condo was really nice and had a great indoor water park area for everyone with large and small water slides, lazy rivers, hot tubs, and pools.

Here are Wes's brother, Chad's, two boys Will and Patrick enjoying their apples in the hot tub.

Wes and Chad playing in the waves:

Patrick, our 2 year old nephew, wearing his floaties as anklets:

This is Wes's sister, Jeni's, youngest - Zachary - who is almost 3. Love his mohawk!

Jeni's daughter Torii who is 6 years old. Looks like she's had enough of the beach!

Uncle Wes and Zachary playing:

Wes and his mom:

Jeni's husband, Steven, and their daughter Shane (she is almost 4):

Jeni and me:

Wes and me in one of the indoor water parks:

This is Wes, Chad, and Jeni's son Tyler (8 years old) enjoying the hot tub. I was so jealous and sad - all those hot tubs and I couldn't get in because I'm preggers! It was torturous.

Here's our niece Torii coming off one of the water slides:

All the nieces and nephews! From left to right: Will, Patrick, Torii, Shane, Tyler, and Zachary

One evening we all went and played miniature golf. Here is Wes's sister and all of her clan:

Chad, Will, and Patrick:

All the kiddos together again:

Here is a pretty shot one evening behind our condo on the beach:

Patrick put on Uncle Wes's huge flip flops. So cute!

Wes and Patrick (and Will in the Auburn hat):

It was great to see everyone and spend a few days with them on the beach. I think everyone had a good time!

On our way back to Raleigh (where Chad and Elizabeth live) from Myrtle Beach, we got to make a stop in Wilmington, North Carolina for lunch and to walk around a little bit downtown. It is a very cute and charming little place. We had lunch at a place called Elijah's and got to sit outside right on the water.

Here are some shots of beautiful Wilmington:

Chad, Elizabeth, and the boys walking on the boardwalk:

Downtown area:

Thanks again to Chad and Elizabeth for letting us ride and stay with you and for taking us to Wilmington! And thanks again to Pam for doing all the delicious cooking in Myrtle Beach! We love you all and look forward to the next time seeing you!

Panama City Beach 2009, and some other stuff

2009-08-30T20:38:00.008-05:00

We recently returned from our annual Skeltons/Kitchens/Walters Florida vacation, and it was fabulous. Wes and I made the heinous (but thankfully safe) 15 hour drive to my parents' in Alabama and we were so ready for the sand, sun, and family! I tried to pick just a few of my favorite vacation pics, but still ended up with like thirty on here... oh well, hope you enjoy!

Precious niece Rylie (4 years old, almost 5) posing in her pink bikini.

Precious niece Bailey (3 months) in her tiny pink tankini at the beach for the first time.

This is what Bailey did the majority of the time on the beach.

My family celebrated my birthday with me while we were there, and we got a delicious Publix cake!

This was our set up each day:

The Kitchens family:

Enjoying my margarita (non-alcoholic of course) at Margaritaville:

My dad, sister, Wes, and brother in law on the go carts:

Wes got this awesome shot of my sister and I sitting at the ocean:

The whole clan:

Wes and Rylie playing the velcro mitt tennis ball game (or whatever it's called):

Miss Bailey in another precious little bathing suit:

The day we drove back to my parents' from Florida, we got to spend a little time on the boat on the river in Alabama.

Rylie and I had a dance-off in my parents' living room, and this was the trophy ceremony. She's apparently very serious about it.

In other news, Restoration Church is going great. This past week after we got back from vacation, we had a big project going on that we helped with. We made "love gift" baskets to hand out to local businesses close to where Restoration Church meets. We had people volunteer to make homemade goodies that we but in the baskets, along with a copy of the new "Restoration" CD made by Wes, and an information card about the church. Then we had volunteers come help assemble the baskets and volunteers to hand them out to the businesses. We gave out 100 of them, and almost all of them were very positive responses. For a lot of the people it was weird that we were just randomly giving out gifts with no strings attached. Hopefully, it got a lot of people in the community thinking, wondering, and most of all experiencing the love of Jesus! Wes and I got to help assemble them and also got to help give them out, and it was a great experience. Here are a couple pictures Wes got of us assembling:

And then finally, I'm sure if you are reading this you know that Wes and I are expecting our first baby in February. I figured I better start doing the belly shots so the family can watch me grow! It will also be cool to look back over all the months. This is my first one at 14 weeks (picture taken August 25, 2009). Although I had just eaten a lot of cookies prior to this picture, there is definitely a little baby bump there!

Celebrating the first anniversary of Leslie's 29th birthday in Toronto!

2009-08-15T10:19:00.004-05:00

Wes and I decided to go for a fun little trip to Toronto, Canada to celebrate my birthday. My birthday was on Saturday, so we went to Toronto on Friday and stayed one night and came back Saturday night. Here we were driving into the city:

Here is our hotel, the Delta Chelsea, in the middle of downtown:

I just wanted to relax, enjoy the hotel, and enjoy the city. At the top of the hotel they had an adult pool and hot tub ("adult" just meaning no kids were allowed - they had a family pool on another floor) so we enjoyed that on Friday evening for a while.

After that, we decided to venture out into the city and we walked to Chinatown which was very interesting and cool.

We just came across this cool painted map thing on the side of a building.

Here is an interesting tidbit: Canada has solid black squirrels! We have seen several of these in Niagara Falls, Canada and then we saw some here in Toronto. The crazy thing is even though Buffalo is so close to Canada, we have never seen a black squirrel here. I guess they don't like America.

We wanted to eat dinner at a unique place, so we came across O'Grady's while we were walking and decided to eat here. It was pretty good.

On Saturday we spent a lot of time at a huge indoor mall thing that was just a couple blocks from our hotel. This is just one level of four I think.

And here's the one picture we got of us together.

Downtown Toronto. Look at all the people! It's kind of like Times Square.

Wes looking super fly in H & M.

This was one of those crazy, cool guys that stand and look just like a statue and then they move and it's totally freaky. I love these things.

It is really cool living so close to Toronto!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

2009-08-06T21:16:00.006-05:00

Remember this frozen lake? This was taken in December at Delaware Park near our house, and the lake was totally frozen over.

Well, this past weekend Wes and I went canoeing on it! It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday so we headed over to Delaware Park to canoe on the lake. This was my first time canoeing, so I was very excited. Here are some pics of our fun day and the beautiful scenery:

Wes was the master rower.

While he did all the rowing, this is what I got to do:

I wanted to try and row for a while, so we switched places. It was kind of harder than it looked, so I only did it for a few minutes. But it was still fun!

After canoeing, we went to Cafe Allegro, a cute little spot in the Elmwood Village (where we live) and sat outside with our fancy orange drinks.

We have never seen people enjoy summer so much as they do in Buffalo. Because the winters are so cold and so snowy and so brutal, Buffalonians take advantage of every single day of the summer by being outside and doing things like we did Saturday. We are trying to make the most of every warm day we have here!

The Walterizzos go to the Italian Festival

2009-07-25T10:27:00.005-05:00

Walterizzo is our made-up Italian name. We feel sort of left out around Buffalo because so many of the people here are Italian and have awesome last names like Perello, Cirocco, and LaFratta so sometimes we like to call ourselves the Walterizzos. Anyway... last weekend was the big Italian Festival here in Buffalo so we most definitely had to check it out! We actually have a Little Italy section here in Buffalo and it's only a few miles from our house. It was a lovely evening, so we went to experience the Italian Festival.

Here is the entrance with all kinds of festival type rides and games.

Here is a shot inside the festival, and as you can see it was very packed!

Wes and a giant lemon.

We didn't realize how much food was going to be available! There were so many different little stands with all sorts of Italian foods, but we decided on Salvatore's for a couple of slices of pie (pizza pie, that is).

Since this was a new experience for us too, I thought I'd share some of the interesting sights one would see at the Buffalo Italian Festival:

I'm sorry Pinelli Foods, but we just thought the photo they chose for the huge banner was hysterical (click on the picture to see it enlarged).

The big bocce tournament. We just recently learned what bocce ball is and played it at our church picnic several weeks ago. Apparently it is really big up here.

The t-shirt booth with shirts like this for sale:

And a very interesting statue/money thing to raise money for a local Catholic church I suppose:

There were so many sweets to choose from, and I finally decided on a giant Italian pastry thing:

It was definitely a fun, delicious, and interesting experience. I believe the Walterizzos will be back next year!

Catching Up

2009-07-16T11:08:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a while since our last blog update. It's time to catch everyone up on what has been going on in the B.lo with the Walters! Here is a recap of the last couple of months:

Our small group has been going great. We still meet every week on Tuesday nights and discuss the scripture from the previous Sunday's message, pray together, and occasionally go out for a fun outing. Last month we had a grill out at a park by the river and had a great time.

I (Leslie) got to see New Kids On The Block in concert again! They came to Buffalo and a group of girls from church were going and invited me to come along (they knew I was a hard core fan). It was fun seeing them for the third time in my lifetime!

We've been busy, especially Wes, but he always makes time for some of this each day:

Our dear friends Brad and Allie came up to visit us the first of July! We were so excited to have our first friends visiting Buffalo and we got to show them some of the sights. We took them to the Lake Erie harbor to walk around:

And then of course to Niagara Falls! It was their first time seeing them and they really loved it. However, I just have a picture of Wes and me there. Oh well.

We also walked around our neighborhood, Elmwood Village, and they loved it so much. We went to dinner at an awesome downtown restaurant and they loved it there, too! We were glad they enjoyed their trip and hope they come back to see us soon!!

Earlier this week a group of people from Restoration Church participated in a 5K, including Wes. We had t-shirts made with our church logo and website on them, so maybe some folks found out about us through this event! Here is a shot of all the guys before the race:

And they're off! That's Wes with the white t-shirt and black pants.

And then following the run, what else would you want to do but stuff yourself with free hot dogs?!

Here is the entire Restoration Church group. They did awesome!!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Beautiful days in Buffalo

2009-06-12T11:17:00.009-05:00

Spring is still so gorgeous here in Buffalo. A few weeks ago we got to go to the Buffalo Zoo for the first time (thanks to two free passes a friend gave us!) and it was so much fun.

We loved these bears so much!

We've never appreciated spring so much in our lives since moving up north! I just can't get over how beautiful God's creation is.

This gorilla was so funny - just chillin.

Wes is laughing with the hyenas.

Sweet polar bears - I bet they LOVE it here in the winter!

That day was so much fun and I hope we get to go back to the zoo a few times this spring and summer.

Wes and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 1st!! We couldn't do a trip like we would've loved to, but we did take a day (a beautiful one at that) and visited the Botanical Gardens because we'd never been there.

There was a huge checker board in the middle of one of the greenhouses, so we played a game. Well, we didn't finish it because it was pretty hot in there and it was taking a long time, so we called it a tie.

So we saw this sign under a mirror in one of the greenhouses...

and then we took this goofy picture of ourselves in the mirror "enjoying the gardens." We're silly.

Wes made me hold this. Very funny. But he's right, I am sensitive!

Cool pic of a cactus:

Ooooooh, so rebellious.

Our favorite part was the rainforest.

After the botanical gardens, we found this cute little place for lunch called Daisy's Cafe. It was really neat and very delicious! We love finding and going to new places, and we may be visiting that one again since it's only about 15 minutes from our house.

After lunch we wanted to enjoy more of the gorgeous day, so we went over to the Lake Erie harbor to walk around.

We went up to the top of the observation tower and got these shots:

A great shot of the city:

It was a great day for a boat ride. Too bad we didn't have one.

We sat on a bench and had some ice cream and this was our view:

It was a glorious day and a great way to celebrate our anniversary together! And as you can see, Buffalo is an amazing place in the spring and summer... come on up for a visit!!

Leslie's trip to Alabama

2009-05-31T16:02:00.007-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I (Leslie) flew down to Gadsden, AL to visit my family and for the birth of my sister's second baby girl. Wes had to stay home to work, so I got to stay a whole week and a day! I had a wonderful time with everyone and I'm extremely thankful I got to be there for my niece's birth! My sister had a scheduled c-section on Monday the 18th, so it was really easy for me to plan to be there. Of course I took a lot of pictures, so here we go.

Here is my cute little preggo sister:

On Saturday I was so thrilled to be able to go to one of Rylie's t-ball games! (Rylie is my sister's 4 year old daughter, and just about the cutest thing you've ever seen.)

She is the only girl on her team, and she has a hot pink batting helmet and glove.

My dad, Ashley, Rylie, and me in the dugout before the game - Go Braves!

Early Monday morning we all headed out to the hospital. Here I am with Ashley right before the c-section.

Ashley and her husband Josh:

Here is Josh coming out with Bailey Kate! Look at Rylie's face as she sees her little sister for the first time! Can't get much more precious than that.

Me and my Ryles:

And the beautiful Bailey Kate:

Here is Rylie right before her very first time to hold Bailey - she is so excited!

Precious sisters:

Here are just a few of my faves:

Rylie LOVES to be silly! And okay, so do I.

Like here when I made my little sister wear this "I love my big sister" bib.

I can hardly handle how sweet this is:

Love my nieces!

Bailey is wearing her "I love my aunt" bib.

It was a blessing of a trip, and I cannot wait until August when I get to see them all again!

May 23rd was Wes's birthday, and this is what he did with all his birthday money:

Never thought I'd be married to a boy with tattoos, but that's who he is and I love him! It actually looks pretty sweet. You'll have to check out his arm next time you see him!

Spring in our city

2009-05-06T21:15:00.005-05:00

We are finally seeing signs of beautiful spring here in Buffalo! After so many months of snow, freezing weather, and no green in sight, I cannot even express how wonderful it is to see green grass, leaves growing on trees, and flowers! I've been taking lots of pictures around our house because it's so exciting.

This is the tree right in front of our house (the pics are taken from our balcony). Up until about a week or two ago, it was completely dead with no leaves at all, and then all of a sudden green started appearing!

And then this pic was taken just a few days after the above one!

Here is one of our street also taken from our balcony:

These flowers are in our front yard:

And this is our backyard. We had no idea all these beautiful flowers were underneath all that snow!

Then I took this one just days after the above one... You can see how many more flowers there are and how the ivy on the wall has grown.

We let Boston run around the backyard, and sometimes the downstairs neighbors come out with their dog, Luna, and they play together. It's so cute.

Here we are in our backyard:

So YAY for spring!!

This past weekend we had a Restoration Church hang out night at Melissa's coffeehouse, and Wes played. We had lots of folks come out, and it was a really fun night. Here are a few shots from that:

Lives Restored!

2009-04-28T13:51:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday afternoon was a special day for Restoration Church because we got to witness and celebrate baptism. Since our church doesn't own a building yet, we do this in a really unique way -- in the pool at the YMCA! Dan really likes it this way, because it is a good way to get out in the community instead of staying inside the walls of the church all the time. The two times so far that Restoration Church has had baptism, there has been at least a couple of people who work there make comments like "I've never seen anything like this before!"

The couple that got baptized Sunday, Tony and Terri, have such a great story of how God has worked in their lives. They were involved in the Catholic church for years, but recently Tony was just feeling that he wanted something more and that something was missing in his life. They heard about Restoration Church through word of mouth and they decided to come check it out. Tony said he knew that first Sunday that he had found what he was looking for. Soon after that, he met with Dan to talk about having a real relationship with Jesus, and he has since committed his life to Christ! They have both been attending ever since, and when Dan announced that we were going to be having a baptism service for anyone who wanted to make that profession of faith they knew they wanted to take that step.

So we had a nice crowd from the church come out to the YMCA pool to witness and support Tony and Terri in this beautiful symbolism of what Jesus has done in their lives.

Here is the happy couple afterwards:

It was a great celebration time. Baptism is such a beautiful visual symbol of how Christ restores lives, and this was a wonderful reminder of why we are here in Buffalo!

Two Days + No Computer = Bliss!

2009-04-19T17:22:00.005-05:00

Wes and I had the privilege of having a little getaway this weekend in Ellicottville, NY and it was just fabulous! Ellicottville is about an hour south of Buffalo, and it's actually a ski town. Alex's parents (Alex is one of the other pastors at Restoration Church) own a condo there and they were kind enough to let us stay there for free! Wes has been especially busy the last few weeks, plus we'd been going through some tough life stuff, and we just needed to get away from all the mayhem for a little bit and do nothing, so this was totally perfect.

The condo was really nice, check it out:

Here is the view while standing on the balcony:

As you can see, they are literally right there at some of the slopes and ski lift. Of course most of the snow was melted and it's past ski season, so we were literally the only people in the whole condo place which was very nice.

Here's Wes and Boston in front of their condo:

The weather was absolutely perfect and gorgeous both days we were there: sunny and in the 60s. It was so much fun walking around with Boston and enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

We had no plans, no schedule, no computer...and it was the best. All we did during the day was go for walks, drink coffee, watch old movies, play games, and sit out on the balcony. It was just fantastic. Wes dominated in chinese checkers, but I dominated in parcheesi!

Here's Grandpa having his coffee:

(If you can't see, the mug says Grandpa)

And Boston sunning:

We took this one on one of our walks - the condo we stayed in is there to the left of the slopes.

Friday evening we went into the cute little downtown area of Ellicottville to walk around, look at the shops, and have dinner.

Here's some relaxing on the balcony. Boston had too much sun, so he decided to get in the shade in the corner.

We're so thankful and blessed to have had this opportunity. It's SOOOOOO good to get away from the regular routine sometimes and simply enjoy being together, and that is exactly what we did!!

Mission Arlington '09 ~ Part 2

2009-04-11T11:30:00.008-05:00

Alright, so day 2 of our mission trip we went to Mission Arlington as usual to find out our assignment for the day. It was kind of neat not knowing what we'd be doing until we got there each day! Day 2 started with cleaning. One of the apartment complexes Mission Arlington works with has given them an apartment to help house their volunteers, which is so cool that they've done that. This apartment was very much in need of a cleaning, so that's what our group did that morning.

We spent a few hours in this two bedroom, two bathroom apartment wiping down the walls...

cleaning the toilets...

cleaning the kitchen, refrigerator, stove...

cleaning the furniture...

vacuuming all the carpet and baseboards...

and removing nails and screws from the walls, reattaching shelves, replacing light bulbs, etc.

Oh, and cleaning windows... Apparently it takes four men to clean a window.

Here we all are outside the apartment when we were done.

We worked up an appetite, so we went to a place called Black Eyed Pea for lunch and they had good ole southern cookin' and sweet tea!

We got to introduce fried pickles to our New Yorker friends who had never heard of them!

Here are the girls back at Mission Arlington:

Then that afternoon we got to go back to the apartment complex we'd been to the day before to hang out with the kids again. We were really excited to be able to go back again and see them all. We did another Bible story and played lots of games.

Here is Jose - we love him!

And another pretty little girl.

Me and Matthew again:

And another game of "Stop and Go" (it got pretty intense as you can see in the background)

Day 2 was another great day. We got to the Mission on Day 3, again not knowing what we'd be doing. What we ended up doing all day was really cool. Mission Arlington gets a LOT of donations every week of clothing, furniture, and miscellaneous items. People call them to let them know of what they want to donate, and they send volunteers to pick these donations up. So that's what we did. Our group got split up into groups of two or three, each got to use an F-150 to drive around (all that had been donated by Ford to the Mission), and got our assignments of where to go and what to pick up!

It was actually really fun and exciting to get to drive all around Arlington picking up these donations that were going to be given to families who really needed them.

On this day alone, they had 180 pick-ups to do!! This happens every week and they totally rely on volunteers to get this done. It's so amazing to think that God had us here for this specific week to get these specific things done. What is equally as amazing is that they told us that by the end of the day, all the donations that the volunteers had picked up would probably already be given out to people in need! As many people as they have calling daily to make donations, they have more people calling daily who have nothing and are requesting things. I am just still so in awe of what they have going on here at Mission Arlington and how many people everyday are getting to experience the love of Jesus through it!

So one of the highlights of this day was that while we were out doing pick-ups, we had to stop for lunch and we happened upon this Chick-fil-A! Thank you Lord for this provision! ;)

Wes and Derek had to secure this refrigerator we picked up since it fell over while we were driving. Woops.

When you come back to the Mission, you just pull your truck in and there are more volunteers there to unload everything you've picked up and sort it out in the bins:

Pretty amazing. After doing the pick ups for most of the day, we then loaded up a trailer with a lot of the furniture everyone had picked up that day and took it to a local apartment complex. We unloaded it and let people come out and get anything they needed! I'm so thankful to have been a part of such a tangible way of sharing God's love with people!

I don't feel like I've been able to get across how great this trip was, but I am immensely thankful that God worked this out exactly how He did, and we were all blessed so much to be a part of Mission Arlington.

Here we are at San Antonio airport, ready to head back north!

And of course the on the plane shot:

Flying into Buffalo over Lake Erie:

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us, prayed for this trip, and gave to make this possible!

Mission Arlington '09 ~ Part 1

2009-03-31T17:22:00.009-05:00

Sunday night Wes and I returned home from our mission trip to Arlington, TX. We were originally going to Acuna, Mexico (the place we went last year on a mission trip), but due to the safety issues and problems they have been having at the Mexican border, that trip had to be cancelled. We were sad about that, but knew that God must have had other plans for our group.

The trip was changed to Arlington, and we were going to be helping out at a place called Mission Arlington. We really had no idea what we were going to be doing, which was both exciting and a bit frustrating for those of us who are planners! But it was a good lesson in just letting go and letting God be in control of things. It turned out to be such a wonderful experience! We were blessed for sure to be able to see this place and help them out for a few days. We were all blown away by Mission Arlington and what all they do for the people in that community, and all in the name of Jesus!

I will try to tell and show as much as I can about our trip. I could write for pages and pages about it, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible. Here we are ready to fly out of Buffalo:

As a brand new church plant, Restoration Church obviously does not have a huge number of people attending yet, but we had 14 people sign up for this mission trip! At the time of the sign up, that was about 1/3 of our church! That in itself is so amazing.

So we all stayed in this building that used to be an office building that Mission Arlington now owns. It was pretty cool with a common area in the middle with several couches (perfect for playing mafia and other games at night), and bedrooms on either side. Here is the common area:

Here is Wes's room he shared with 3 other guys:

And here is my room I shared with one other girl:

Here is the main office of Mission Arlington:

Day 1 started with a tour of Mission Arlington just so we could see what all goes on there. It was started over twenty years ago, so it has grown and expanded so much over the years that they now have several buildings. They have one section that is kind of like a row of townhouses, and they have split those up into a dental clinic, clothing donations, a day shelter, storage, etc. Here is the clothing place where people in need can come in and "shop" for whatever their families need.

Here is the outside of the free dental clinic:

In a separate building, they have the food pantry storage:

And then they have a large warehouse where they store all the furniture donations:

Inside the main office building they also have the food pantry where families get to come in and get one bag of food per week. They said they have 180 people A DAY come in and get food! This was one of the most amazing things to me. To think that they have that many people coming in every single day and they never run out of food (which is all donations) - it's like a modern-day version of Jesus feeding the 5,000 when the food just kept multiplying and they had enough for everyone!

After the tour, we went out on our first "job". Every other week they load up a bus with all kinds of things - household items, toys, perishable foods, etc. - and just unload it at these apartments for people to come get anything they need. All we had to do was drive up and start unloading, and the people started coming out. They know Mission Arlington does this every other week, and the best part is that they know the reason they do it.

Precious children:

We went to two apartments and unloaded the stuff and had many people come get many things. Rose, who is a Mission Arlington employee, was with us and she knows a lot of these people and was telling us that they really only take what they need, so we actually had a lot of things left over. It was so humbling for a lot of us to see this. Most of this stuff we would see as trash to throw out, but to these people it was treasure.

After the apartment giveaways, that afternoon we got to go back to the first apartment we went to to have a kind of backyard Bible club for the kids. This was definitely one of the highlights for a lot of us. These kids were so precious. They loved having us there, and we were able to play with them, color, sing, and share a Bible story.

We shared the story of Jesus healing two blind men, and our group acted it out for them while one of our guys told the story. Here are Wes and Joe being the blind men:

Here we are playing some games with them:

Wes leading in a game of Simon Says:

This little boy, Matthew, was fascinated with all our cameras. Here is Tim showing him his pictures:

Precious girl:

Here is Alex (one of Restoration's pastors) in action at Duck Duck Goose:

Me and Matthew:

Day 1 was a full and great day. We did make a stop that evening at Walmart of course, and this one had Texas longhorns and stars on the outside:
That night we went out for some Texas barbecue, and it was good. Wes is enjoying his ice cream:

So that was our first day. The rest of the trip is to be continued so keep checking back........

I'll be loving you forever, NKOTB!

2009-03-23T16:55:00.005-05:00

Oh my word. Last night Wes and I went to Erie, Pennsylvania to see New Kids On The Block in concert. It was soooooo good and we (or at least I) had a blast!! It was my sweet husband's suggestion that we go when he heard they were going to be having a show close to us. How great is he?! So I've been anticipating this for a couple of months and it definitely lived up to my expectations.

Here I am ready to go to the concert. This is the actual t-shirt I bought at my first NKOTB concert in 1990 when I was 10 years old! And if you don't know, that's Joey Joe, my boy on there.

We got there plenty early so we could eat before, so we got to stroll around downtown Erie for a little bit.

We had originally planned - and were super excited about it - to eat at Chick-fil-A since we don't have one in Buffalo and the closest one to us is in Erie. Sadly, we forgot that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays! :( We were crushed. So we ended up eating at Happy Garden chinese restaurant. It was good, but there is no comparison.

Here we are waiting for the show to begin.

The concert opened up with a dance crew called Jabbawockeez and they are amazing. We had seen them on MTV and Ellen before, so that was really cool.

And then it was finally time. I couldn't believe that 19 years later I was standing there about to see another New Kids concert. The crowd was awesome - mostly full of women in their late 20s and early 30s like me which was hilarious. After a video that built up the anticipation, they emerged from the stage and I was screaming like a 10 year old.

Contrary to what a lot of people like to joke about them, they are definitely not old and fat! They looked great and still had all the classic dance moves down as you can see.

In the middle of the show, they moved to a small round stage at the back of the arena, so of course we ran down there to get closer and man were we close! We were about ten feet from them! You can tell I'm a little bit excited.

Look at this amazing shot my hubby got for me of my boy:

The arena was really kind of small, so our seats were much better than I expected since we got the cheapest ones.

At the end, we went down from our seats to stand on the floor.

They blew confetti at the end. It was so much fun.

This is my favorite - us, the confetti, and the Kids in the background on stage. Perfect.

It was a great night and one I will remember always. I just wish all my old NKOTB friends could have been with me!

Wes and I are heading out for our mission trip this Wednesday. Due to safety concerns at the border, we are not going to be able to go into Mexico as originally planned so we will be staying in Texas for the mission trip. It's kind of crazy, but we know God had this planned all along, so I know He has something wonderful in store for us and the people there. If you're reading this, please be in prayer for us and our group this week! Thank you!

Bowlin' Bowlin' Bowlin'

2009-03-14T10:36:00.005-05:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since our last blog update! Time is passing by so fast, I can't believe it's already mid-March. We just wish it would get warm up here!

This past week we had a fun night with our small group and we went bowling. It was fun, even though no one really did that great. Here are some pics of the night.

Wow, check out this form!!

I guess he's pretty proud of himself.

Goofy guys.

Here we are sad because we're doing so bad.

Oh well, it's still fun!

More goofy guys.

And wow, how about this form?!

The girls:

I needed documentation of this - check out frames 8 and 9 - two strikes in a row for me!!! (I am "G" because they called me Giggles.)

And Wes's high score - 133! Woo hoo!

We came home to find a funny little surprise. This is what we saw when we opened the door:

We have always bragged on our little Boston saying "oh, you can leave anything out, he never bothers anything!" Oh well I guess those days are over. Granted, we did leave a tied up bag of trash out on the kitchen floor, so there is only so much temptation a little doggie can handle!

Here is the perpetrator:

How can you get mad at that???

Freezing temps + Good food + Friends + A LONG drive home = Our trip to Toronto!

2009-02-25T18:30:00.007-06:00

This past Friday we went to Toronto, Canada for the first time! Dan (the pastor of Restoration Church) and his family invited us to come along with them to spend the day in the city. Buffalo is only 1.5 hours from Toronto, which is super exciting. Toronto is such a cool city! It's really big and has a New York City feel to it. The only downside of the day was that it was unbearably cold (temp in the 20s, wind chill much worse), so walking around outside was not something we wanted to do a lot of. I did, of course, take lots of pictures though.

Here is one of our "warm-up breaks" we took in random stores as we walked around the city. This was a mattress & furniture store that we warmed up in for a bit.

Then after more walking, we went to Allan Gardens, which is a botanical garden/greenhouse downtown. This is the outside, and please notice all the snow!

Allan Gardens was definitely beautiful, but probably the best part about it was it was about 80 degrees in there! It was glorious and we stayed in there for quite a while soaking it in.

Here is a shot of the Trippie family - Dan, Gina, Sam, and Nick.

Gina and I with the cacti:

After that we wanted to head to another part of the city, but were pretty tired of walking. So we found a cab that would let all six of us get in together! Wes got shotgun, so he took this pic of all of us squished into the back seat:

Of course we had to have some afternoon Starbucks!

We went inside one of the huge, beautiful churches to look around. It reminded us of Paris and London!

For dinner we went into Chinatown!

We ran into a local and asked him where we should eat, and he recommended a place that turned out to be sooooo tasty. Check out our spread:

Here I am trying to work the chopsticks. This was the first and only bite I had with them - way too much work.

Group shot at the restaurant with one of our servers under the lovely orange(?) tree:

We had a really great day. The end of the trip went a bit awry though.... So like I said earlier, it's only 1.5 hours from Toronto to Buffalo..... however..... it ended up taking us almost 5 hours to get home! Dan was driving us, and on our way home we were going to make a stop at Ikea. He got off at what he thought was the Ikea exit, turns out it wasn't, so he got back on the highway. Then ME of all people - the most directionally challenged person in the car - noticed that we had been driving for about two hours and hadn't even gotten to the U.S. border yet. So I mentioned this, and everyone kind of started wondering as well. We stopped at the next exit and the guys went in a restaurant to find out that we had been driving west for over an hour instead of south! We were almost to flipping Detroit! We had already been driving for two hours, and now we had almost three more to go to get back to Buffalo. Well, we had a lot of laughs about it - made lots of fun of Dan - and finally made it home. Boston was not happy with us, but all was well. We're also very excited to go back to Toronto when the weather is warm!!

Non-Valentine's Day '09

2009-02-18T21:22:00.002-06:00

Last week for our small group we went to hear Nick Vujicic speak at a large church in Buffalo. Nick is from Australia, he's 26 years old, and he was born with no arms or legs. He is a Christian, and he has decided to dedicate his life to going around the world and speaking to people about Jesus. It was a really amazing and uplifting night. Nick has a great personality - he's really funny making all kinds of jokes about his situation - and he is able to present the gospel in a real and touching way. Seeing how he gets around and how much he has been able to do with his life makes you want to never complain about much anymore! If anyone is interested, you can read about him and his ministry at www.lifewithoutlimbs.org. Here is a pic from the night.

So of course this past weekend was Valentine's Day, but we usually don't really do anything for it. We think it's pretty much silly to spend a lot of money on flowers, cards, or gifts just because the holiday says so. Plus I'd much rather get flowers or a card on any random day! Anyway, Wes played another show at Merge Restaurant on Valentine's night, so some of our friends came out to see him and we all had dinner there before he played. It was a nice way to spend our non-Valentine's Day. This is Adrienne and Patrick:

And Nicole and Jeff:

And everyone:

Here is a close-up of our fantastic table art:

And us being cheesy/sweet making a heart:

Wes doing his thing:

And a pic of us and a beautiful rose (given out by the restaurant of course):

Life Lately

2009-02-07T14:07:00.004-06:00

So we have a new look for our blog. We like it. Anyway, we've been having some fun times with friends from church lately. Our small group went out to dinner one night for our weekly get together and had a great time. We're going to try to do this once every month or two just to get out into the community. This was our first time, and already we had a chance to share about Restoration Church because our waitress asked us what our group was doing!

For the Super Bowl, Dan (the pastor) invited people from the church to their house. There were around 25 people there, lots of food, and it was a great time to get to know some new people. Here are a couple shots from that night:

This past week I (Leslie) have been busy working on a project. One of the local churches here has been kind enough to let Wes, Dan, and Alex have the use of one of their vacant offices. This has been great for them since our church does not own a space yet and it gives them the opportunity to work together a few days a week. Anyhow, it was a bit bland and they wanted to warm it up a bit so they asked me and Gina (Dan's wife) to fix it up. We only had a budget of $100 and we needed paint, paint supplies, window treatment, a rug, decor, and accessories. We did a lot of shopping for bargains and although we didn't have enough for a rug, I think it's definitely an improvement! Here is the office BEFORE:

Here is a DURING shot:

And here is the office AFTER: (It's not the best pic, but you get the idea)

We still have lots and lots of snow everywhere. We're not gonna lie, we are ready for some spring weather! This picture is of our front yard and it was taken yesterday:

No joke, our front yard has looked like this since December.

Here is our street:

It just never gets warm enough for long enough for any of these mounds of snow to melt. We're hoping we will start to see grass at least in March!

Now THIS is the most exciting thing that has happened in a while... We have found a good Mexican restaurant in Buffalo!! We've been pretty sad because there are not many Mexican places here, and the first one we went to was less than stellar. Well, we came across El Palenque and our lives have been changed. They have a great white cheese dip and really good food like we're used to. We went last night and it was delish!

As you can see we're pretty excited. After we ate there, Wes played a show at a restaurant called Merge. It's a very cool place that just recently opened up downtown, and it's about 5 minutes from our house. He did a fabulous job as usual, and here is a shot of it:

So that's what's been going on with the Walters lately. And hey, if you're reading this, leave us a comment why don't ya!?

Restoration

2009-01-15T15:31:00.003-06:00

We have now been in Buffalo for 3 months. That's really hard to believe in a way. But in a way it feels like we've been here longer. We haven't given an update on how Restoration Church is going in a while, so I wanted to do that. The short answer is that it's going great! Since October the church had been meeting on Sunday evenings every other week. Two Sundays ago (on January 4th) we started meeting on Sunday mornings every week, and that has been wonderful. Sunday evenings were great too, but there is something about starting your day out by worshipping the Lord, and also having the sun shining through the windows and reflecting off the snow that makes it feel more joyous!

Wes is loving his job as a worship pastor. He is super busy, especially now since we are meeting every week, but it is a good busy with a great purpose. He is doing such a good job, and everyone seems to love him. He has also had several opportunities to lead worship at a couple other churches for youth meetings, and he is going to be leading at a youth camp later this month which is very cool. He loves doing stuff like this, and it's great that he has been able to meet other pastors who have asked him to help out with these things.

I have been involved by helping with the set up of our gathering each week, helping set up the coffee and snacks, and last week I started singing with Wes on the worship songs. This is something he asked me to do, and though I love to sing, I'm not a real fan of singing in front of people into a microphone -- however, I really want to help out the church in any way I can and it's good to get out of our comfort zones every now and then! I also have to remember that the only audience I'm singing for is God, right?! I will also be helping out in the children's area about once a month, so that will be fun.

We have a small group now that has started meeting every Thursday night and I think that is going to be a huge part of our lives here. We currently have about 8 people (including Wes and me). Our small group won't be the same every week, which will be exciting. We will either be discussing scripture, discussing the previous Sunday's message, playing games, eating, praying, or serving out in the community. We are really looking forward to the wonderful relationships I know we will (and already have) form through this.

We have new faces at Restoration Church every week and that is very exciting. It is VERY different living in western New York as opposed to the Bible belt of the south like we always have. It seems that everyone in the south is either a Christian, claims to be a Christian, or at least knows the "story" of Jesus. There are so many people here in Buffalo that do not know or understand the love of Jesus. They do not realize what He did for us by dying on the cross. Or maybe they do, but they don't understand that salvation is a free gift. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to be worthy of it. Many people here have backgrounds that were very "religious", but they don't get that it's all about a relationship with Jesus. Dan, the pastor, has already talked to so many people who have been deeply touched by what they have seen or heard at Restoration. That is why we are here. Yes, we miss our families terribly. Yes, it's hard to deal with blizzards and driving in several inches of snow and walking the dog in sub-zero weather. Yes, we miss living in Nashville and the great friends we have there. But is it all worth it knowing that we are living in obedience to God and His call on our lives to live in Buffalo for a time? Is it worth it knowing that people may come to know the Lord and that we have the privilege of being a small part of that? ABSOLUTELY! We are thankful and humbled to be a part of what God is doing in western New York.

Also, real quick, I wanted to give a shout-out to my sister's husband, my brother in law, Josh! I failed to mention in my Christmas post that he was not able to be with us on Christmas Eve because he is a fire fighter and was working on Christmas Eve. While we were enjoying lots of food, family, and presents, he was working hard saving lives and protecting the people of Anniston!! I'm sorry you weren't able to be there, Josh, but thank you for risking your life to protect others! Here is a special picture of Josh since I didn't have any of him in my last post:

Christmas celebrations & Bringing in '09

2009-01-06T17:45:00.006-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas in Alabama. Leslie's entire family lives within 20 miles of each other, so it's great that we get to see them all at the holidays. We started off at Granny's on Christmas Eve with lots of delicious goodies and presents. Here is Granny and Mom:

Here's a shot of all the ladies - four generations of females only! And my sister Ashley has one more girl on the way! :)

Me and my beautiful (& preggers) sister Ashley:

After Granny's we headed over to Grandmama and Grandaddy's for a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner and more presents. Here is G'mama, Ashley, and my niece Rylie:

And Mom, Dad, and Aunt Susan... and check out the spread! Yum-O!

Me and Susie:

G'mama and G'daddy with his new present:

And Rylie chilling out with her Uncle Wes:

On Christmas Day, for the first time in all my 29 years, we did not go anywhere! Wes and I were at Mom and Dad's and we just relaxed, watched Christmas movies, and ate all day until Ashley, Josh, and Rylie came over that evening. It was wonderful. Here is Boston loving all his toys from his stocking that his Gram and Pop gave him:

Approximately 5 minutes after this picture was taken, he had ripped the head off the stuffed cat. Oh well.

Mom and I made lots of treats on Christmas morning:

That evening we did our family's gifts. Here is the awesome shirt we got my dad:

And for some reason I didn't take many pictures of us opening our presents, so that's all for that. We had lots of fun, though, giving and receiving all the great gifts and spending time together! After presents, we all watched "Christmas Vacation" which is the perfect ending to Christmas Day.

The day after Christmas we had our festivities at my Big Daddy and Nanny's house (my other grandparents), but I believe I forgot my camera and therefore have nothing to show for that day. It was a great time too, though!

December 27th was my cousin Kiley's 8th birthday, and I am so happy she had a skating party! Wes and I have been roller skating three times in the last four months -- it's been a good year. Here is the birthday girl in her birthday shirt:

Rylie and I had a blast skating together.

And Wes had to show her the proper form at skee ball.

Later that day we had some Wal-Mart fun, of course. We couldn't believe what we saw at the Gadsden, Alabama Wal-Mart!

Trust us, that is nothing like the real thing. And Wes and Rylie having fun at the after Christmas sale - how cute are they?

Another highlight of the holidays was getting to see some dear, dear friends who were also in Gadsden visiting. It was SO GREAT to see Brandie, Kinsey, Michael, Ashley, and their precious kids since this only happens once a year if we're lucky. I have been friends with these girls for almost 20 years. I cannot believe I can even say that. Yikes!

So we drove the (terribly) long journey back to Buffalo and got ready to bring in the new year. We had a Restoration Church staff Christmas/New Year's party on New Year's Eve and it was fun. This is how you store your sparkling grape juice in Buffalo:

Here is a shot of everyone right after midnight enjoying our sparkling grape juice. This is Alex, the executive pastor and his wife Jennifer.

And our children's minister, Derek, and his wife Michelle:

Here is Sam and Nick, Pastor Dan's 9 year old twin boys. As you can see, they were excited to be awake past midnight.

And the pastor, Dan, and his wife Gina:

And us:

Whew, that was a lot of pictures. What can I say? I love pictures!

Our first real blizzard, and part 1 of Christmas 2008

2009-01-01T11:34:00.006-06:00

First of all, we of course have to include some pics of our Boston. Here we are doing his favorite thing - cuddling.

And here he is under the blanket his Nana knitted for us. He loves to get under it and stick his nose out to sniff.

So the week before Christmas, we experienced our first real snow storm in Buffalo. The only time we had ever seen this kind of thing was the big snow storm of 1993 in Alabama! We had to go out and play obviously! This is in our front yard. Check out how deep it is:

And I thought I'd throw in a pic of our cute little tree.

Back to the snow. Here is our balcony. The snow is up to the seats of the chairs!

This is in front of our house as we were leaving to drive south for Christmas:

And here's our little Saturn amidst the snow: (Isn't the street beautiful, though?!)

We set out for the 11 hour drive to Nashville while we were under a lake effect snow warning. It was not fun. For the first 6 hours of the drive, we were in snow and had to go 20-40 miles per hour. Here are some shots of what we were driving through in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio:

We were SO excited when we saw our first bit of grass that wasn't covered in snow about 6 hours into the trip. Needless to say, the drive to Nashville took 14 hours instead of 11, but we were very thankful to make it there safely.

The next day, we met several of our Nashville friends at Chick-fil-A for lunch. We had to eat there since the nearest one to Buffalo is 105 miles away. :( Man, it was good! Here are the dudes - Kevin, Wes, Zeb, and David:

And the girls - Melodie, Amber, Sara, Leslie, and Jennifer:

The Brown family also came out to eat with us. Here is Chanda and Cadence:

Sweet Cayla:

And here we are playing with smiley Annika:

It was really great to get to see and hang out with our Nashville peeps for a little bit! After lunch, Wes, Boston and I got back in the car for the rest of the drive to Gadsden, AL. The 3 hours was nothing compared to the 14 hours the day before! I'll share about our Christmas celebrations in the next post. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year's!

Alabamians in Yankee Country

2008-12-16T11:14:00.011-06:00

It's been a while because we've been busy! My (Leslie's) parents came up to Buffalo for a visit this past week and we had a fabulous time. This was only my parents' second time ever flying, and their first time ever flying together. This was also their first time in New York, and actually the farthest north they've ever been, so it was a totally new experience for them. We took lots and lots of pictures, so I will put a lot up here.

They got to Buffalo on Tuesday, and we woke up Wednesday to snow falling! It was perfect. As you can see, mom and dad were very excited.

It ended up being very cold and snowy for the week they were here, and it didn't melt until the day they left. Here we are at Dolci, a great little dessert spot near our house. They had their first cannoli here and loved it of course. Delish!

We walked up and down our neighborhood, Elmwood Village, and enjoyed all the little shops and the beautiful old homes.

On Friday night, Wes performed at a coffee house, and we had a good time hanging out and listening to our favorite musician.

On Saturday, it was beautifully sunny and totally freezing. We went out to the harbor area on Lake Erie and enjoyed the sights.

Then we warmed up by introducing the parents to the best fast food in Buffalo: Mighty Taco. Mmmmmm, super mighty.

Then we went over to Delaware Park near our house. As you can see here, the lake is totally frozen and snowed over.

And of course I need to throw in a little pic of Boston and his cigar.

On Sunday we hit Niagara Falls! It was gorgeous with the snow around it. Up on the observation deck, the wind and mist from the falls was unbelievably strong and we were pretty much frozen. But it was still amazing and fun!

On our last night we went to dinner at Bada Bing and dang it was good! I recommend the bada-bacon-burger.

Well, that's been our last week. We're getting ready to head out to Alabama for Christmas on Monday and we also get to stop through Nashville to see friends. We're very excited to spend time with family and friends, eat treats, give and get gifts, and of course celebrate our Savior Jesus Christ! Hope everyone has a merry little Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-01T09:43:00.003-06:00

First of all, this is a store down the street from us, and I just really want to call them and ask them what their hours are...

Anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a good time at our friends' house even though we were missing family. We came home that evening and got right into the Christmas spirit by putting up our tree and decorations! Yay!

Even Boston got into the spirit. Doesn't he look so distinguished in his Santa hat?!?! :)

Saturday wasn't so great on the football front. The best and most anticipated game of the year - Auburn vs. Alabama - was on, but obviously it didn't end the way we had hoped.

This was actually the first time Auburn has lost against Alabama since we've been married, so it was a sad day. We still love our Auburn Tigers, though, and we'll get them next year!

On a side note, notice in the background the cute stockings hung on an actual fireplace for the first time!! Love it!

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful.

2008-11-25T10:32:00.010-06:00

We got a little bit more snow in our neck of the woods this past week. However, we've learned since we moved here that everyone has this idea that Buffalo is constantly covered in several feet of snow...and that is true in some areas...but we live in the actual city of Buffalo which doesn't get nearly as much snow. The "Lake Effect" which is what causes all the snow actually hits the counties south of us, and sometimes even the southern part of our county, but we usually don't see all that craziness. I have enjoyed what little snow we have gotten, though, and I think if we have to deal with the freezing weather, we might as well get to enjoy some snow with it!

On Saturday we braved the freezing temperature and went for a walk at Delaware Park near our house with some friends. It was a gorgeous day, but my legs were numb halfway through the walk. Here are some shots of us at the park. There was this area of ground that had a thick layer of ice on it, and it looked really cool because you could see the colorful leaves under the ice.

We had another Restoration Church gathering on Sunday night, and Wes got some pics of some of the cool folks there. You'll notice in the last few that Dan's (the pastor) son Nicky managed to get in all the shots and it's hilarious.

Last night we had our first meeting of what will become our small group. Only a few people could make it, but we had a great time doing some singing, praying, eating, and of course playing some games.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week enjoying family and friends, and thanking God for all His amazing blessings!