Christmas!

This year was so fun because Parker was actually able to open up presents and really loved all the gifts he got!

Parker was so excited about his pajamas that Grammy made for him. He started putting them on the moment he got them out of the box! All of the boy cousins have pj's exactly like them! Maybe we can get a group photo one of these days! Until then, this will suffice.

He loves this little truck he got. However, I am not such a fan; I did not realize it made noise when I got it! I haven't quite figured out how to turn the sound off. If I can't figure it out soon, this toy might mysteriously disappear--at least until summer time when it can be outside!
Parley sent Parker a soccer ball. Parker loves it!

This is a special bag for my temple clothes that my madre made for me! But Parker thought it belonged to him. :) This bag is amazing! My mom did such a marvelous job, and I didn't even suspect she was doing it! The detail on it is gorgeous. She says there are flaws, but as I am not a sewing expert, I will probably never notice them! Thank you Mom!

Some Random Pics

On your mark. Get set.
GO!
Our little man has recently become obsessed w/ jumping off of things! He has no fear, which is a little scary! So far he hasn't tried anything too high, but the other day I caught him standing on the arm of our couch, poised to jump! Crazy kid!

Parker loves to "read." He'll find a comfy spot, a good book and sit there and just read to himself!

He seriously did this all by himself. I was in the kitchen and came out to check on him, and found him reading the Church News! He already has good taste in literature!

We had a blizzard!

Our neighbor and his boys built these snowmen! I wanted to post this pic for multiple reasons: 1. they built two GIGANTIC snowmen, which is just neat (the boy is 16 and probably close to 5'10") and 2. Even after building those 2 snowmen, they still had tons of snow left in their yard. According to most people who've been in this area for a while, this is the most snow they've received in about 20 years!

This is a pic of the sidewalk and road in front of our house!

The driveway after I was done shoveling it! I had multiple people (neighbors/friends) stop and volunteer to shovel it for me, but I REALLY DO enjoy shoveling the snow; it is a great workout and fun!

Me after I was done shoveling the snow. My hair was completely soaked!

Parker has a recent infatuation w/ hats! We normally don't wear them in the house, but he is just so irresistably cute!

I do not wear my hats backward like this, neither does Parley, but this is always how Parker puts them on. Maybe it's easier that way! who knows?

Happily playing in the snow! Right before I made a snow angel!

Not so happily playing in the snow after I laid him down to make a snow angel (he wanted to do one, until he felt the cold snow)

Our snow angels!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It snowed Saturday night...





...and Sunday!

Please forgive the sippy cup; he was having some bowel issues and I was trying to keep him hydrated! :)

Parker loved it. Then I took him for a ride on the boogie board (generally used in the ocean). We ran up and down our street, only a couple times, because I thought I was going to die!

Parker's suit and me so very pregnant!

A friend of mine gave us a suit her son had outgrown...Thank you Brianna! These are some pics of Parker in his new suit w/ his new haircut! I also think it helped him be more reverent at church today; he was an angel! I have also posted a pic of me at 31 weeks (today)! Parley complained that you couldn't tell I was prego in the last pic of me, so I had to prove that I really do look (and feel) pregnant! Please ignore how incredibly dorky I look; it is very difficult to take pics of yourself. Thank you!

One last post for the day!

This is Parker at his finest! I have him in his diaper so that you can see how adorably he runs! In this video, also notice the buzz I gave him...kind of on accident. :) He is definitely a character and loves life! I love him so much and I'm so grateful we have been blessed to have him in our home!

P.S. Sorry I posted a million times today. A lot has been happening that I wanted you (especially Parley) to see!

Thanksgiving in TX!

Parley's parents live down in good ol' TX, and since we hadn't been to visit for over a year, I thought it would be nice for Parker and I to go say hello!

They say "everything is bigger in TX" and they are right! We had two GIGANTIC Thanksgiving meals while we were down there! And, boy, were they delicious! Those Jones ladies really know how to cook!

It actually worked out perfectly because all the grandkids were there, which will be the last time for a few years as one of the sisters and her family is moving overseas (we'll miss you lots!)

Here's a pic of all the grandkids w/ Abuelo and Lita (Grandpa and Grandma):

While there, Parker pretty much did the same thing he always does: eat, sleep, and poop (according to Bro-in-law Jeremy). And I stayed up way too late playing games and gabbing away w/ my wonderful family! The ladies (minus Mary) made a visit to Heritage Farm which I have posted about in the post below this.

Mom, Dad, Sisters and Bros: Thanks for a wonderful visit! We had so much fun! Maybe a visit up to WA can be arranged sometime. Either way, we are coming to visit again! You can't get rid of us!

Heritage Farm

In front of a grain mill--it was gorgeous!

While in TX visiting Abuelo and Lita, Mom (lita), Katrina, Susannah, and I (with Parker) made a visit to a place called "Heritage Farm" (I think). It is this little community of people striving to live a self-reliant life. They store their own rain water; they use horses to plow their fields; they make their own soap, candles, furniture, clothes, yarn...everything! It was pretty neat. However, I am very much a fan of the Industrial Revolution! I shall continue buying my clothes (and other necessary items) from other people who enjoy making them and do it a lot better! I think I was born in this day and age for multiple reasons, one of them being that I am a complete "ninny" as Parley would say! :) I did very much enjoy the gardening concepts. They demonstrated greenhouse growing, which I would love to do someday! I really enjoyed it all; I just have no desire to live so extremely self-reliant! I am a definite believer in being prepared and being self-reliant, just not SO self-reliant! Overall, it was fascinating, beautiful, and inspiring! We all really enjoyed it! The following are some pics of Parker from the trip. His favorite part was the animal section. I do believe his new favorite animal is a chicken!

Having a little chat w/ the chickens

This turkey was very protective of his females. Parker loved his very aggressive"gobble gobble" but then had to move on to all the other exciting animals like...

...the sheep!

My cute little man in front of a barn!

Playin' in the great outdoors!

Parker loves to go to the park that is close to our home. He has recently become a master of the slides!

Getting ready to go down the twirly one.

"Wo! That's a little faster than I bargained for!"

I got the pool out for Parker and his friend to put leaves into while I did the actual raking. Whatever keeps them occupied. You can't tell by his face at the moment, but they BOTH loved it! I just couldn't catch them both smiling at the same time.

Raking leaves was a multi-day project. This is a picture I captured of him.

He really doesn't like trash.

Deals of the day!

First and most exciting: I paid $1.95 per gallon of gas today! Woohee! How exciting is that? The place I stopped to fill up at was all out of gas my first time by, but I timed it just right on our way home so that I was able to "fill her up" for SUPER cheap! I never thought I'd see the day that i'd pay less than $2 a gallon. Miracles are happening!
Second, my freezer is chuck full, thanks to my mother! She called and told me about this amazing deal at Albertsons that I could not resist. Basically I spent $20 for a heck of a lot of food! However, when I got home, Igot a little nervous as I opened up the freezer and saw what little room I had. But we made it work!
Exciting news: we got to webcam w/ Parley. Parker was very excited about that! He is doing well and promises to shave his mustache before he comes home. THANK YOU PARLEY! :)
And I had a doc appointment today. Nothing too exciting about that. I just get to have my Rhogam shot (thanks to being a negative blood type) and I also get to have the glucose test done! Yippee! Who doesn't love getting stuck w/ a needle in the gluteous and then having all your blood drawn out of your veins?! Actually, it's not that bad. I've had 2 shots in the rear and have never experienced any pain from them. And then the blood draw is nothing compared to plasma selling! (had to make a little moolah in college)
Well, I'm signing out! I just had to brag about those two exciting deals and fill you in on our life!

Hip hip hooray!--I have a cute blog!

Thanks to my great friend Ashley, I am no longer blogologically challenged (at least not in the area of making it look cute)! So thank you Ashley!
Also, on a more serious note, I have been thinking a lot lately about the issues I mentioned in my last blog about Prop 8. However, not just on Prop 8, but on how one becomes involved. How does one become an active voice/participant in promoting these things? Sometimes I become overwhelmed by the "power" that it seems the media and wealthy have. However, although we may not be involved on a scale as large as what has occured in CA, we can be involved in our small circle of friends and in our community. I think we sometimes allow ourselves to become consumed by our day-to-day activities and it's easy to push out these important issues. But if we encourage dialogue among our friends and raise awareness on these issues, it will have an effect.
That has been on my mind a lot for the past couple days and I'm sure it will continue to be. I would love to hear any suggestions you might have as to what a person can do to have an influence!
And I apologize for standing on my soap box!
On a lighter note...today was one of those days that I was ready to put Parker to bed for his nap by 8:00 am--he'd only been up for about 30 minutes. I think the poor child is getting more molars (do they get 2 sets on the bottom?). He has had his hands in his mouth all day!
But I guess that's not really happy news...hmmmmmm....happy news....oh! I know!--we had a beautiful sunny day today! So, I took advantage of it and took Parker to the park (I hope that is not a sinful thing to do on Sundays!). Anyway, he decided he would go down a rather steep slide head first...you guessed it: he went flying off and landed on his face in the gravel (it's kind of soft gravel :)! Luckily he is a tough little dude and he just looked up at me wondering how he should react. So I gave a little laugh and he commenced to laugh, hop up, dust himself off, climb up the steps, and go down the slide again--this time, feet first!
I hope you have a happy day!

A great article on just some of the issues surrounding the fight for traditional marriage!

Thanks to Daddy Jones for sending us this article! It talks a lot about the intolerance of the opponents of Prop 8 in California toward those who support it. But I really like the last few paragraphs that cover some of the benefits of keeping traditional marriage and the scary things that could happen if the homosexual agend wins out!
Try this link for a good read: http://www.ldsmag.com/familyleadernetwork/081114tolerance.html
It really inspires me to make sure I use my voice and stand up for what I know is right!

I finally got my hair cut! I love it for multiple reasons: it's exactly what I wanted and it takes about 2 minutes to do....that is what I call the perfect hair cut! This pic was taken by yours truly about 5 min ago, so it doesn't accurately reflect how cute it is. But trust me; it's cute!

Disclaimer!

I think I am blogologically challenged (yes that says "blogologically." sound it out very carefully; it makes sense). Thus, the blog will be very simple: no fancy fonts, no fancy pics, no fancy links, and no other fancy doodahs! :) Unless I can figure it out in a relatively short period of time. Maybe it's really easy, but in the 10 minutes it took me to look at my options, I didn't find any of the fancy stuff. So until fancy becomes simplified, this blogologically handicapped person will not fancify! (fact about me: I love to make up words!)