A Piece of Paxman/Walker Family History

A Piece of Paxman/Walker Family History Whenever I think of my family I can’t help but smile. I don’t think there is a family in this entire world that is as unique and full of individuals as mine, so many memories, so many happy times. Our family was officially established on May 29 when my parents were sealed for all time and eternity in the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple. Heaven must have smiled down kindly on that match which was truly made in heaven. The handsome groom, a Southern California boy was 26 when he wed the love of his life, the most beautiful bride, and a farmer’s daughter from Greybull, Wyoming. Rick and Amy Paxman were destined for a wonderful life journey together. My parents, Rick and Amy, were faced with their own set of trials soon after marrying. They were not able to have children. I don’t say unfortunately, because if they were able to, I would not be their daughter and nothing would be more heartbreaking than that. But the Lord knows what He is doing, and He knew that each and every one of us five children were meant to be a family with my parents as the head of the family. They went through the ups and downs of not being able to have children, staying by each other’s side, and full of faith the entire time. They were truly blessed because they were able to adopt five children through LDS Social Services. My mom tells me that is not very common. Usually people can only adopt two or so, because so many people want the opportunity to adopt. Heavenly Father knew they would be amazing parents and that they were probably the only ones who could handle the combination of us five and our crazy. Kelly Scott Paxman was their first addition. They were so happy to have him. What a bundle of joy he was! I came next, Lindsay Anne Paxman, around two-three months old. I was their only out of state baby; born in Maryland. Now they had a boy and a girl and they thought that this would be the end of the adoptions from everything they had heard and been told. Little did they know they had one of the cutest babies in the entire universe coming to them, my younger sister Lauren Claire Paxman. My mom had a dream a couple weeks before she got the call asking if they would take Lauren. She had the impression that they would have a baby coming, and so for those few weeks she prepared as if she was going to have a new baby come into her home. She truly had no warning and nothing to go off of, other than her dream, and guess what? She was very in tune with the Spirit, because she got the call a couple of weeks later saying they had a baby girl for her. This is only one of our family stories where my mom demonstrated amazing skills of listening to the Spirit. I still hope to be like her in this manner one day, the sooner the better. Taylor Mark Paxman came next. He didn’t have a name for a while, especially because we were unsure of how long we would have him in our home for. My family desired him more than anything, but his birth dad was a piece of work to say the least. He did not want to part with his son, even though the birth mother absolutely wanted him placed for adoption. The court gave Taylor’s dad a year to get his act together. He was an alcoholic and drug user, and unemployed as well. My parents had to deal with him in court and he was not a happy camper. Thankfully for us, he failed to meet the court’s standards on deeming to be a fit parent for Taylor, so after a year of prayers, fasting, and faith, we were blessed to have Taylor join our family. During this year, our little caboose as we call her joined our family. Susannah Lynn Paxman was a sweet brand new babe when she entered our home; literally just a couple of days old. It was such exciting news for us all. Lauren is actually her half blood sister, they share the same birth mother, and so they wanted to place Suzy with our family. Of course, my parents, and the rest of us, jumped on the opportunity. So with the five of us children all adopted and more importantly sealed in the temple to become a forever, eternal family, we were set for adventures and joy together through this journey we call life. Our home was constantly filled with laughter and good times. When the children were younger, the “three little kids” as well called the, we knew that they were up to something if the home was too quiet. Quiet meant mischief. There were many times it was too quite and we would hear giggling off in the distance. A favorite family story of mine, and probably all of ours, is about the three little kids getting in trouble with the family pantry. Taylor was always the ringleader though; let me make that clear. He admits it to this day. We have no idea where he got all of his crazy ideas. One day, it was particularly quiet; too quiet. So my mom, older brother Scott and I ventured downstairs to find the kids. There they were, in a room that was covered in white dust, an inch or so thick. They had taken every single flour bag out of food storage, and decided it would be quite the fun time to drop them off of high things and watch them explode in the air. I don’t think I have ever seen children squeal with so much delight! They were absolutely enthralled in what they were doing. Of course, my mom seemed overwhelmed, but eventually all we could do was vacuum it up and laugh about it. After all, moments like these are what make family history, literally. And to this day, this story makes all of us laugh, and puts a smile on all of our faces. Family games were also a favorite. We had so many fun birthday parties, family home evenings, and late summer nights playing games. Half of the games my dad invented and we thought he was the greatest for it. One of our personal favorites was what we like to call “Lions.” I hope my dad plays this with his grandkids. I know he, or will at least attempt to. The hard floor was hot lava and the carpet was where the lion, better known as my dad, was able to roam on. We would try and run past him through the living room, the carpeted area, to the kitchen, which was hard floors. My dad would pretend to be a Lion, constantly grabbing at us and trying to “eat us.” Even writing this makes me laugh out loud remembering these fun and unforgettable times. Dad also dressed up as “Inspector General,” for us each and every Saturday after we had “completed” our Saturday chores. He would line us all up like we were in the military, and then inspect the jobs we had done. Every week he would wear a silly hat that would make us all laugh. Our personal favorite was him wearing underwear on his head. What kid doesn’t want to see their dad with a pair of tighty whities on their head? It was simply the best. Our family grew up with a very Christ centered home. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was our focus, and we always worked to be an eternal family. Our parents always taught through both words, but more importantly their actions and examples, the importance of following our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is because of them our testimonies flourished. Closeness would be an understatement in our family. Our family was very open with each other and we shared things with each other all the time. There were no secrets in our family, and I loved it that way. Growing up, each of us knew that we could go to my parents at any time, any day of the week and tell them anything that was bothering us. We knew that we would be accepted nonetheless no matter what we had done. We knew that my parents were always there to help us with whatever we struggled with. But they were also there for our most happy and joyous times. Something special our parents did every Sunday was to spend time with each of us individually. They would take each of us at separate times into their bedroom and talk with us about everything going on in our lives. I always loved this because my parents talked to me about what I wanted to talk about at this time. Sundays were always an enjoyable talk time; it was never anything any of us dreaded, in fact the opposite. We always looked forward to it. These Sunday talks were some of my favorite talks ever and I will always cherish the memories. Family Home Evening was never missed in our house. Okay, maybe never is being a bit dramatic. Sometimes they were missed, but rarely ever. It was a huge priority in our home. We always took turns giving the scripture, prayer, lesson, choosing the activity, making the dessert, sharing a talent, etc. It was some of our most fun times as a family. You could always count on Dad for making an Orange Julius as our treat if it was his week. They were delicious! One of our best family vacations was the last one we took in December of 2012 to Costa Rica. It was our second trip to Costa Rica and boy was it worth every penny. I guess that’s easier for me to say since we didn’t pay for it; my parents paid for all of us. Each of us was asked to contribute $200 a piece to the total trip. That was a dream vacation, a steal because of how generous my parents were. Costa Rica was magical. We all loved it even more this time around because we were that much older to appreciate it than when we had done the trip in 2006, and also because my husband, Tanner, who is definitely a loveable guy was with us this time around. It’s a trip that will not soon be forgotten. The trip was perfect. The first week we were there, we stayed in a condo right by the beach. It took about five minutes to talk to the prettiest beach I had ever seen in my life. We went multiple times every day, spending our days in the hot sand and cool water, playing Frisbee as a family, and relaxing under the shade of tropical trees sipping smoothies. Literally, we spent hundreds of dollars on smoothies. Okay, maybe not hundreds but combined, Tanner and I probably spent $100 in smoothies that week. They were made from fresh fruit; fruit you can’t always get here like guava, passion fruit, and star fruit. They couldn’t be beat! I was made fun fo because my favorite was the banana chocolate smoothie. My family teased me saying you could easily get this in the states, but not like these you can’t. They were heavenly; simply divine. It was neat on this family trip because we had a couple of really nice meals out but for the majority, we ate at the condo for the first week. We each took turns each cooking meals. It was fun to see what each of our siblings made. Also, grocery shopping over in Costa Rica was a whole other experience. It was so neat to see the culture and the beautiful people of Costa Rica and their simplified lifestyle; it was truly refreshing. In Costa Rica, they have a saying. Their saying is, “Pura Vida” which means “Pure Life.” They basically believe in being happy, seizing the moment and the day, and truly living life to the fullest. I could go on and on, but back to my family. Going to the beach this first week and watching the glorious heaven sent sunsets, were a must every day. The second week we were able to spend in little resorts up in the jungle. It was gorgeous there! We were in the wilderness in an all-inclusive resort. The second week, our meals were included so there wasn’t any cooking we did. It was great! Our family was able to go zip lining through the jungle, as well as waterfall propelling and rock climbing. We also were able to propel down bridges or bridge jump, repel through a waterfall, and also play in the waterfall. We went on a long horseback ride as a family, with a couple of guides, and it was marvelous. The guides and horses led us to hidden waterfalls where we were able to jump off of rocks into the cool and refreshing water. Taylor decided to make our waterfall trip extra special. He fell off the rocks, or as he said, he slipped. It wouldn’t be so funny, but Taylor can sometimes be a ham, or a show off. We encouraged him to jump first, and mind you there were other people there watching. Nobody was jumping in yet. He decided to be the big shot and jump first, but his foot slipped because the rock was wet, and the rest is history. He totally could have been hurt, but luckily he wasn’t! He just had a few scrapes, nothing he couldn’t handle like a man. Speaking of embarrassing though, I took probably 20 minutes at least maybe 30 to jump from a rock into a waterfall at a different time during that stay there the second week. Lots of people were watching me, and for some reason I was absolutely terrified. Eventually I jumped and it was worth it! Well actually, I am not sure. In that very water, there were fleas that we were unaware of. Some of us got fleabites; I probably got them the worst. They covered my legs and itched like crazy, not healing until the day we flew back; even then they were still itchy. But I’d say it actually was a small price to pay to be able to have the experiences I had. Leaving Costa Rica was heartbreaking to all of us. Of course we love our everyday lives, but this was truly an out this world experience for each and every one of us. Our family became closer that trip, as we all were able to experience in the opportunity of a lifetime together. Don’t get the impression that all of the vacations were tropical that we took. Growing up, our main vacations were out West to visit family. We always tried to travel to Utah, or Wyoming, and sometimes even California to see grandparents, cousins, and attend family reunions. The family we saw the most however, all of our lives, were my cousins the Johnsons. Richard Lynn and Jill Johnson (my dad’s younger sister), would come to our house frequently; Easters with them became tradition and we loved every moment of it. They have three boys; Philip, Christopher, and Timothy. I was especially close to Philip since he is just a year or two younger than me. I’ll never forget the Easter we were told that we were too old to Easter egg hunt; so we just hid the eggs and ate candy while doing so. It all worked out! Philip and I were always sneaking treats. It’s probably how we bonded so quickly. Birthdays in our family were always looked forward to. My parents didn’t necessarily buy us a lot of material gifts, but all eyes were on us for our birthday. Of course they gave us some nice things, but they didn’t go overboard like some families. My mom always treated us like royalty; our dad as well. They usually took us out to a lunch by ourselves with our parents to the restaurant of our choice. Then, my mom made whatever our little hearts desired for dinner. One of my favorites was her homemade chicken potpie so I probably asked for that a few times. I always remember Dad always wanted lamb. That was his favorite birthday meal. We each were then allowed to pick our own cake that our mom would make for us. Mine was always homemade Oreo ice cream cake; at least whenever I remembered. It was hands down the best cake I’ve ever had in this world! I hope my children love it as much as I do. Our family was and continues to be very musical. The Von Traps had nothing on us. There were nights where we would get carried away singing together as a family at the piano. Each of us children was very blessed because our parents encouraged us from the time we were young to take part in an instrument and we all did. My dad, Scott, and Lauren played guitar, while my mom, Taylor, Suzy, and myself played piano. We were given the best weekly lessons possible because my parents paid for the best of the best when it came to teachers. I believe my mom ended up paying $45 a week for a 45-minute piano lesson for me and the others who played piano as well. That is a dollar a minute! You could tell how much they wanted us to excel in our talents. We each had our own recitals in our home whenever we completed a book in the Suzuki music program, and those were highlights for us. They were truly our time to shine. My family also all enjoyed singing. While some of us were more public and open about it, each of us had wonderful voices and it was always fun to sing around the piano or guitar together to church hymns, primary songs, or just a song we all knew and loved. One of my favorite things to do was sing with my dad; while he accompanied me on the guitar. Christmas caroling was taken to an entirely new level in our family. You better believe my dad had folders, actual thick folders that were full of four-part harmony Christmas carols. He had us practice before we went out; there was no taking this lightly. This is where our inner Von Trapp family really shined through. We would actually get a scolding if we were off key or not as thrilled as my dad about singing in -20 degree weather. Yes, Michigan winters do get extremely cold. However serious we were of carolers, we all secretly loved Christmas caroling. We visited friends we saw all the time, and those we didn’t see often enough, leaving them with some Christmas spirit, and homemade holiday jellies. Helen Paxman, my dad’s mom, came to live with us in the fall/winter of 2006. She didn’t live with us, but she did move to live by us. She moved from California to Ann Arbor, Michigan to an assisted living home that was about fifteen minutes from our home in Saline, Michigan. The move was truly a blessing for both her and us as a family. We had never had relatives this close, so it was nice to have Grandma near by. My mom was a devoted daughter in law to her, visiting her numerous times a week and attending to her side. Grandma Paxman never had enough kind things to say about my angel of a mother. Dad could lose patience with her, but I think he was secretly very happy he was able to spend the last few years of her life close by her. She was so proud of her son, my dad Rick.