Christmas Day

My Cousins and Aunt came over for Christmas. This was after we were all sugared up. It was only the beginning of the night of laughter.
Playing Kismet

Christmas Morning

I think this was one of our best Christmas mornings since we have been married. Parker is old enough now to understand the gloriousness of Santa and also old enough to understand it was about Christ's birth. 3 year old + Christmas= FUN! This letter to Santa are his exact words he wanted to tell Santa. Then he proceeded to draw his bike and then he said "wait wait, we can't forget about Garretts presents." He was worried Santa would forget Garrett so he had to draw a picture of his "2 presents." Then he had me write his name with dots so he could trace over it himself.
So, the morning began. ***preface, Parker is attached to his blanket*** he carried his blanket down with him and to his astonishment, SANTA CAME! He dropped his jaw and froze his body as he dropped his blanket to the floor with just a slight movement of his fingers. Still frozen he noticed his bike, but most importantly, he noticed that Santa ate the Rocky Road we left for him.

This was his face for about 5 minutes. ASTONISHMENT. (Sitting next to the rocky road plate is his elf that went to visit Santa every night to report on Parker's good/bad status)

First time on, riding like a pro.

Then there was Garrett, not quite understanding what was going on but thought it was all great. Parker being the "good brother" that he is, helped open Garrett's presents. He even helped play with his toys too.

Click on the picture below to see it better. This was his favorite toy of the morning.

December Part 2

Day in the life. Parker helping Grammie in the kitchen. Pancakes for sunday dinner is one of our favorites.
Garrett snuggling with GG. He will go into her room, climb on up her lap and watch TV with her for at least 15 minutes at a time. 92 years apart in age and they still have things they enjoy doing together.

This is a rare photo. Brad and I, ALONE, in a picture. Lately we always seem to have someone hanging on us. This is from our ward's Christmas party.

Kinda random and not posed. I have been waiting for an opportunity to do a color/black&white picture. So here it is.

December part 1- short and simple

OK, maybe not short, but simple.

I was able to get together with my two best girlfriends I have ever had and will ever have. They are simply the best. Left to right, me. Heather. Jerilyn.
This is "before" seeing Parker at preschool

After... notice a difference in the fun meter. We were really bored waiting for the doors to open.

Parker's preschool class put on a christmas program where all the kids shook their jingle bells as the parents entered the room and proceeded to sing Jingle Bells and other ADORABLE songs and poems. Those who know Parker know he is rather loud at home and won't stop singing, but in public...silence. He did 3 things during the program 1. shook the jingle bells 2. said "hey" during the song jingle bells 3. put his fingertips together above his head for "I'm a little Christmas tree." The rest of the time he smiled and did his shy face, but we could not have been beaming with more pride than we did while watching him stand still with all those little kids. This picture is of him "getting ready" to go to preschool that day. Such a cool kid with Mom's sunglasses.

Eating cookies in his classroom afterwards. What you don't see is the girl (Ava) sitting to his left...as Parker would say "the prettiest girl in his class" with out any hesitation.

Fire Station

A few weeks ago the boys and I ran into some fireman in the grocery store. Parker did not let go of the sticker they gave him for the whole day. The fireman told us we could stop by any time to check out the big fire truck, so today that is just what we did. Parker and Garrett were both a bit apprehensive at first but after a few minutes they were able to enjoy the whole adventure. A special thank you to the fireman who took the time to make today special. Both boys even got little fire chief hats. If you have not done this yet in your neighborhood, I would highly recommend it. ( I would call first just in case they aren't as friendly in your town) So fun and so free!

Just Because

We love you. Through your ups and downs. Through every mood. Through every tantrum. With every hug and every kiss.Every laugh and every cry. Every frustation and every joy. Every smile and every frown. You are one complicated kid and we love every bit of you.
Patiently waiting to get in the car for preschool. I couldn't resist getting out the camera.

Halloween 2009

This was my first attempt at making a halloween costume for one of my boys. It could have been better, but also could have been way worse. Parker decided he wanted to be "Casper the friendly ghost" for Halloween. So, that is what he got. I spent the whole day before Halloween making his costume. It wasn't too hard to make, just a bit time consuming to get it to fit him just right since I didn't have a pattern. We wanted to use white face paint on his face but in a time crunch we ended up putting sparkly white eyeshadow all over his face. haha. I thought he was a perfect Casper with his HUGE blue eyes. When people asked him what he was dressed as he didn't just say "casper" he had to add "the friendly ghost."

Now for our little CHICKEN. I did NOT make Garrett's costume and I am so glad I didn't take the time to make one since he wore this for a total of maybe 3 minutes. He hated it. "but isn't he smiling in this picture?" you ask. Yes he is, but this was literally the only smile we got out of him. Distraction I tell ya, distraction. Both boys did well with staying up past their bedtime to trick or treat and surprisingly even better at church the next day. Shocker!

A special thanks to my Aunt Linda and my cousins coming over to hang out and trick or treat with us. We had such a great time with you!

Happy 1st Birthday Garrett!

October 24, 2009

Garrett turned 1 YEAR OLD! He has been the absolute happiest and cheeriest baby that I have ever met. He is completely FULL of snuggles and hugs and kisses. He will stop playing just to come over and put his head down on Mommy or Daddy's lap. 100% Snuggle Bug! Brad was out of town on his actual birthday so we celebrated a few days after with few of our friends and their kids. I totally copied this cake idea from my friend Cari Jessup from Utah and she won't even know it until she looks at the blog. Her "banana" cake turned out much better than this.

Here are all the kids at the party. From left to right, Parker and Garrett, Dallin Stewart, Henry Tingey, Kate Meulleck, Sam Tingey and Ashley Stewart.

Garrett wasn't too sure of the cake but he WAS NOT afraid to get down and dirty.

Pretty intense present opening. This isn't scared, this is determined.


Here are the words he can say at 12 months. Some words happen everyday but a few are just here and there.

Ma ma
Da da

Parker = DA-kur

no

night night = nana

yeah

all done= a-DUN

cracker = Kakur
thank you = tay too

hi = ha

At his one year check up he weighed 21 pounds 2 ounces(25%) and 30 inches tall (55%)

He loves to wrestle with his brother, eat as much food as possible, smile whenever he gets the chance, drool, sleep through the night, drink any liquid I can give him all day long, point at things, climb up and down the stairs, his binky, his monkey (hence the monkey party-inspired by his favorite stuffed animal from mommy's friend Jerilyn)and most of all he loves his mommy and daddy!

Food, Glorious Food

Name that food... Peanut Butter, yes that's the EASY ONE. The other food on his face is yogurt. Lately he has been getting really messy at lunch time. Parker has also been way into taking pictures so I take them whenever he lets me. Even with that messy face he is still the cutest! And then there is Garrett who is always messy. Here is the classic spaghetti mess picture.

CLEAN OR DIRTY, I LOVE THESE BOYS!!!

It's cuter up close

Click on this storyboard to make it a bit bigger so you can see the lizard better.
So Brad caught this and brought it into Parker and he was in HEAVEN! He was so gentle with it and let it run all over his arms and back and even on his head. He is definately his father's son... really good with little crawly things.

He was devasted when we told him he had to put it back in the "wild." So to comfort him we told him this was just a baby and it's mommy lizard was probably worried about him and we needed to put him back. Like most of our plans, it backfired. Parker came up with an even better plan. "why don't we just go get the mommy lizard so they can be together and we can have both of them."

One of those days

Today was one of those days as a mother where you can not help bursting with pride while tearing up from both joy and sadness. Parker had his very first day of preschool today. He simply could not wait for this day to come. At his school they have all the kids bring buckets instead of backpacks. So cute.

I could not handle the excitment in Parker's face in first picture. So cute. Just ignore that he looks like he is doing the potty dance, just a coincidence.

On the drive to preschool I was prepping him on minding his manners and all those things mothers say. Plus I explained to him that I was going to drop him off and leave. Here is how the conversation sounded....

Me: "When we get to preschool I am going to come in with you but when you are comfortable I will leave."

Parker: "But then you'll come back?"

Me: "yes"

Parker: "NO! don't come back"

Me: " Parker, I have to come back and get you...You can't stay at preschool forever."

Parker: "But why?"

Needless to say, he was little excited for this day to finally come. When we got there he jumped right in and gave his teacher, Mrs. Kircher, a really big hug. (He knew her already because she came to visit him at home a couple weeks ago) Next, he was off to playing with toys. I stood by him and watched him play a bit like all the other mothers until Parker stopped playing, stood up and said in a very loud whispery voice...

"Mommy (pause) you're supposed to leave."

I asked him for a kiss and hug and I was off. He didn't even watch me leave. Heartbreaking and reassuring all at once.

Two and half hours later I patiently awaited with all the other parents for the gate to open. I will always remember looking through the window and seeing my little baby sitting on his square on the floor with his classmates. He looked up and saw me in the window and his face lit up and waved. So well behaved and so innocent. I love him more and more with every milestone in his life.

Just Hangin' Out

Updates:
Garrett will be 11 months on the 24th and eating as much big people food and as we can shovel in. He loves to laugh and literally wrestle with his big bro. He is our little dare devil and my guess is he will be walking before we even know it.
Parker starts preschool tomorrow and can not wait. He has been asking to go to school since we enrolled him back in April. He is becoming such a little man and an AMAZING and patient big brother.

I took these pictures on sunday afternoon while they were playing outside to get all their wiggles out from church.

Garrett loves the camera and could not stop smiling,
Parker on the other hand.....

They love each other so much already. I always hoped my two boys would be like this together.

Orange County Zoo

Cute little zoo for a cute little family. This zoo was just the right size for us. It only took 1-2 hours and we were done. But there were plenty of fun things for Parker to do.
Garrett even loved it.

They had a little area where the kids could not just pet the goats, but brush them with cute little brushes. Parker dove right in and loved it.

Outside the zoo they had some pony rides. They had "walking" ponies and "troting" ponies. First Parker went on the walking one and enjoyed it so much we thought we might give it a try with the trotting ones. I wish, oh I wish I had a video camera for the troting one. His whole body bouncing up and down with a permanent grin on his face. No, my hair did not grow in seconds, this is a girl that worked at the place. She was tied to Parker's pony so she could control the speed.

Garrett with Daddy on the sidelines waiting to get big enough for his turn. So proud of his big bro.

the walking pony.

Some of the animals we were able to see. Not pictured was a couple of bears labled as black bears, but they looked pretty brown to me.