Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year- aside from the fact that Parker didn't go to sleep until somewhere around 3:30-4am on Christmas morning, and then we woke up at 6 to open presents... That part was quite delightful... We stayed overnight at Joe's parents house along with most of his brothers and sisters and their families. There were 2 grandkids including Parker. After the presents were opened there, we went over to my family's house to open presents there, we then went back to Joe's family's for lunch and at that point Parker (surprise) and Joe (surprise) and myself (surprise) were feeling super tired so we went back up to my family's house where I figured, if at the very least Parker didn't fall asleep, Joe and I could and have others to watch Parker. Well, Parker fell asleep on the way there (about a 10 minute drive) and so he and Joe crashed in my sisters room and I hung out with my family. We had a lot of fun and eventually came home where we all went to sleep around 9:30 and Parker slept in til 8:30 (I think he was secretly trying to make up for the other night...) Anyway, we loved spending the time with our families, got some fantastic gifts, Parker probably too many : ) (Joe got him about 300 matchbox cars, and up to that point, that was the ONLY gift Parker was excited about- Thanks Joe! You saved the morning :)

Parker's face as he sees the cars.

Showing me one of the cars. Sorry for the blurry hand, and the snotty nose- it was the best we could do early in the morning.

Looking at all of his cars.

With Grandma at my mom's house- He was her little shadow while opening presents there.

Action shot- opening the presents.

He got some dinosaurs and he was so gentle with them. LOVE this shot!

A smile as big as he could muster that morning.

Same here, looking at another one of his dinosaurs. He would after opening each present say "Daddy Open? "

Another one of the presents which he got from my grandma is one of the little fur real puppies and he is just so gentle with that little puppy. He shows it things, and tells him the name of things. SO CUTE!

He was showing the puppy some of his new cars.

Giving the puppy loves (ignore that it is upside down... :)

More loves, sorry that it is blurry...

Temple Square and Trains

We went with my family to Temple Square last night and we rode the Trax up there. Parker was so excited to ride the train! We saw all the Christmas lights, and Parker LOVED it!

Festival of Lights

On Friday we went to the Festival of Lights with Joe's family in Spanish Fork, Parker LOVED it- the whole time- "Christmas Ights Momma! Christmas Ights!"I will admit once we got into the park, Parker got out of his seat so he could - well, practically climb out of the car to see the lights, for the most part, though, he did sit on my lap. He saw the dinosaurs (ya, still not quite sure what they have to do with Christmas, but Parker didn't seem to care) the Castle, the Happy Snowman, the Frogs (another one of those that I am not quite sure on the origin of :), the puppy, duck, etc. Parker had so much fun and it was a really good family outing.

Sorry the picture is blurry....

He was closing his eyes for the picture- the eyes closed is intentional :)

And as a total side note, every time I think of Festival of Lights- I think of Adam Sandler singing the Hanukkah song when he said "The Festival of Lights"...

Vinyl Lettering

So, I now have a new decoration love- vinyl lettering- if I do say so myself, I think it looks SO cool, and cute, and fun. Anyway, Brian (Joe's brother) got me a vinyl saying for Parker's room and we finally got it up. Also above his bed we got a magnet circle that he likes to put his pictures, magnetic letters etc above it and we think it looks pretty darn cute.

Batter

Parker is loves to be my little helper, especially when I am making anything with beaters. He is more than ready to help "clean" the beaters. What a goofy boy!

My Little Chatterbox...

So, Parker is quite the little talker. Sometimes, I actually find myself saying, Parker, honey, dearest, can you please be quite for a few minutes?? Let mommy think for a few seconds and then you can go right back to your talking. It amazes me all the words that he says, and the phrases that he says. The other night he was having a really hard night and was sleeping in our bed. I must have moved and kinda woke him because all the sudden he started saying "Open, Cose (close) Open, Cose..." and then went right back to sleep. For records sake, here are SOME of the words Parker says- this is a very short list in comparison to the words he says :)

While looking at the ornaments on the Christmas tree-

Elmo Go? Hmm....(while looking around the tree) It Is- I did it!

Wuv You! Wuv You too!

Sorry~

No Thank you~

Thank you~

Welcome~

Peas~

Chocolate Milk~

Sleeping~

Shhh

Quiet~

Listen~

Counts to 12

Joe~

Up/Down

Open/ Cose

Ight! (light)

Nathan~

Iz (Liz)

Michael

Kina (Karina)

Gamma

Papa

Jet (Nathan and Liz's Dog)

Baka (sabaka- Parents dog)

Car

Boat

Airpane

Jeep

Bus

Tractor

Truck

Mococo (motorcycle)

Helcopter

Space Ship

Trailer

Orange

Yellow

Purple

White

Black

Red

Blue

Green

Pink

Circle

Square

Oval

Rectangle

Star

Moon

Clouds

Jungle Junction

Rocket (little Einsteins)

Manny (Handy Manny)

Winnie Pooh

Tigger

Mickey Mouse

Cow

Horse

Pig

Fish

Bird

Elephant

Rhino

chicken

kitty cat

Puppy

Mouse

sheep

Etc.... The list truly goes on. I am so proud of him, and all the words he is saying and how he is really starting to let me know what he is feeling, wanting etc. He didn't really start to talk until probably about 22 months, but I wasn't too worried, it seems like with him, he knows how to do things, say things, he just wants to do them, when he wants to do them and so all of the sudden he will up and have a conversation with you. He is so silly!

New Moon Party

So, last Friday I went to a New Moon party with some friends from my ward and it was a ton of fun. We had a New Moon trivia and I won! Yay! I won a super cute Bon Appitet sign and it is currently hanging over my pantry. Here is a picture I "stole" from my friends blog of the group.

A View

The other day the sun was shining, it was sort of warm and I looked out my backyard to this view. I must admit, it is a rather beautiful view, and it was really cool that it was clear enough to see the lake.

Birthday

This is a quick post on my birthday before the presents (I have to get those from my sister's camera) so here are some of the decorations. A huge highlight was getting a new Dyson vacuum from Joe (he knows me so well)

Showing some of the delicious food (and my mom and sister getting it ready)

My cupcake cake- there was more candles than I am old, and I did NOT blow them all out.

A look at the decorations, Joe blew up all the pink balloons with his air compressor, now that is smart thinking.

Before/ After

So, with all the deal I have been getting, I realized that I needed to organize our "storage room" under the stairs, it was all a mess, soup here and there, I would have to search for things because there wasn't a specific place for anything so the other day I just emptied it all out and started over.

Before

And sadly, I had already taken a bunch of stuff out, and then decided to take a picture.

After

Now, it still looks like there is a lot of stuff, and there is, but the point is, it is all organized, more room to put more stuff and it looks way better :)