What We've Been Up To!

Well, the last month has flown by and we've been pretty busy! We had a fun Valentine's Day full of presents, treats, going out to lunch, homemade chicken cordon bleu and of course a four year old with a mustache!

These are the presents Parker and I gave Bryan and a yummy cookie my friend Marci made me!
Parker's treats from some of his friends

Shopping for a dress for Kansas City so funny!

I made Bryan his favorite Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner

That weekend we were headed to Kansas City for our annual Awards Night. We were packing the night before we left when Heather discovered Parker's fish Finnegan had died. It was a very sad scene as Bryan told Parker what had happened and took him into the kitchen because Parker wanted to see Finn. He sunk to the floor and started crying. He got over it pretty quickly and declared he wanted a new green fish named Twist. Then he decided he wanted a baby octopus instead. After saying goodbye to Finnegan, Parker did a couple puzzles almost totally by himself! Then he came to 'help' me pack.

Daddy and Parker flushing Finnegan (horrible I know)

My big boy working on puzzles while I was trying to pack for our trip

My packing helper made sure we had Valentine treats to take with us!

Kansas City was so much fun as always! I got to hold Roy and Megan's sweet baby girl on the plane ride there! It was the first time in my life I wished the flight was longer! We enjoyed lots of yummy food, great company and the guys and gals won Agency of The Year for the second year in a row! WOOT! WOOT! We had a great time dancing the night away and had some extra excitement when Abe and Jerika's room had a plumbing issue that resulted in flooding the fourth floor and everything below it in the hotel! It was quite an event filled trip!

Who wouldn't want to just hold her forever!?

There was an awesome magician at dinner the first night! Look at Er's reaction, I'm telling you, AWESOME!

Enjoying KC BBQ at Jack Stacks

On the big awards night! I'm sporting the dress I scored on a screamin' deal! ($11.99) Thanks to Megan for doing my hair!

Agency of the Year! Way to go!

Lou up on stage with the band

Poor Jerika and Abe!

Bryan got a picture of the flood! Look at the reflection on the floor!

All Parker wanted us to bring him was a Microraptor, we could only find a Velociraptor! I think he was ok with it!

On President's Day we went bowling with Bryan's family. Parker was so excited! He loves bowling and spending time with his cousins was just icing on the cake! We bowled three games and the first one Parker kicked everyone's trash! (Uncle Tracy ended up beating him by one pin!) Then after we surprised Mom by meeting at Red Robin to celebrate her birthday!

Parker's dinosaur helped him bowl his awesome game!

Yep my kid bowled a 143!

Matt thought toweling off his ball might help his game

Parker wanted to sit by Jake at Red Robin, he loves his cousins!

Project Life is in the House!

I was so excited to receive my Project Life kits last week! I was obsessively tracking it online several times a day to see when it would arrive! Finally it came! I have been busying trying to catch up on Jan and I am just waiting for the pictures from last week to come in the mail so I can add those to the albums! Here are a few pics of what I have so far!

Parker helping me open the box!

Gloria brought Matson over at the same time the UPS man came! The boys had lots of fun playing with the packing paper that was in the box!

It's tradition to take a picture when you receive your white box

Inside the white boxes, all the goodies!

My work area I've set up in the living room

These are some of the pages from Parker's album.

These are a couple pages from our family album. I didn't have a ton of pics from the first part of Jan, so I've been filling in the picture spaces with some of the coordinating paper that comes with the kit.

I'm really enjoying this process! I'm a little intimidated by the picture a day concept, but I'm trying to capture the every day moments as well as the big events. It's been fun to see Parker get so excited to look at 'his scrapbook' and he asks me almost every day if there are any new pictures to look at! I'm glad to see his interest!

The Joy Of Love!

In addition to participating in Project Life I have signed up for a FREE online class here. It is called:

I am excited to check my email every day and get a new 'assignment'. I want to improved my photography skills, as well as focus more on those I love! I can't wait to get started! Oh, and my Project Life kits shipped finally! They are supposed to be here Wednesday! The UPS man has no idea the kind of crazy woman is going to greet him when he brings me my two white boxes! And you know I'll be taking a picture because it is tradition when you order Project Life! ; )

A shout out!

To my amazing husband! He works so hard to provide for our family. He puts up with some not so nice people on almost a daily basis. He is a faithful home teacher and serves in the Elder's Quorum Presidency in our ward as well. He is being very patient with me these days, which isn't easy! He drives a beat up older car (he practically lives in it) and let's me drive the new nicer one! I love him and appreciate everything he does for me and for Parker. He got me an early anniversary present yesterday and I am so excited!

I've discovered Project Life by Becky Higgins! I've been reading a lot about it and think it might be the answer to not being 'caught up' all the time with my scrapbooking. You can find out more about it here. You can also do a search on Becky's blog on the right side bar for Project Life. Bryan bought me both the Amber and Turquoise editions for our anniversary! I can't wait for them to come so I can get started! I think I might do a family album and also an album for Parker. We'll see how it goes!

Christmas etc...

So I can't stand looking at the depressing post anymore! Here are some pictures from December and we've been up to! Parker made a couple ornaments at school and he took a picture of his frosty the snowman hanging on the tree. We went to Idaho for a family Christmas party. It was fun for the kids to run around and play at the church. We ate and made gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun! I made neighbor gifts this year and we also made sugar cookies (not my favorite thing to make and I was reminded why we only make them maybe twice a year!) For Bryan's Christmas present I sent him with my brother Dustin to the Las Vegas Bowl! Dustin is a Boise State fan and of course Bryan was cheering for the Utes. Bryan had a great time, except for the Utes losing part! We spent Christmas Eve and Bryan's Aunt Pam's house with the Allen side of the family. We ate and sang and did our traditional acting out the Nativity song and opening new pajamas! Parker got a TON of hotwheels racetracks for Christmas from us and from his birth family! The living room is frequently taken over by race tracks and cars as Bryan and Parker try to build different tracks. It's so fun to watch them play together!
Dustin, Lindsey and Rylee came for New Years and we had so much fun! We took the kids to the Discovery Gateway because we had a free pass we got from the Adoption Walk. They had fun playing with all the different exhibits! Then Dustin took us to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. Parker loves going there because there is a huge shark hanging from the ceiling and when you got there for dinner, they play fun music and the kids love to get up and dance with the staff. We spent the rest of the night eating, playing games and the kids watched movies. They had fun throwing popcorn all over Parker's room. Then we rang in the new year with noise makers and party hats!

Parker's Frosty

Parker with my cousin's cute little girl Ashlyn

My neighbor gifts

All wrapped and ready to deliver

Making Christmas sugar cookies

The boys at the bowl game!

Bryan had to get a picture of Swoop for Parker

Our little shepherd!

Opening his hotwheels racetrack!

The boys building a track

Of course he found a shark in the water table at Discovery Gateway

Rylee and Parker with their popcorn mess!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

January Blahs?

I don't know for sure what is going on right now. Maybe it's the January blahs, maybe it's PMS, for sure throw in some infertility blues...maybe I just need an attitude adjustment! It might be a combination of all of them! All I know is I am having a hard time right now! We had Stake Conf this weekend. It was a tough one for me. I was released from my calling as the 1st counselor in the Stake YW Presidency, more on that later. One of the hymns was "Count Your Blessings" "When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done." Then a friend posted this scripture on fb this morning: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isa 41:10) So today as I try to catch up on all the things around here I have been slacking on, I will be counting my many blessings (one of whom is sitting on my lap right now) and keeping a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father will help strengthen and uphold me while I try to muddle though this difficult time. So bare with me as I try to get my act together as I start a new year! (I know I'm a little late, but I am an habitual procrastinator!) I may blog less, maybe more, I don't know. We'll see what happens!

Month of Celebration! (Warning it's a long one again!)

November is a month of celebration at our house! We have National Adoption Month, Parker, both my grandpas, Tracy and Bryan's birthdays and of course Thanksgiving! It was one busy month! But we love it! We started off by attending the 5th annual Adoption Walk With Me event. We haven't been able to go before because we've always had something conflict with it the last four years! Finally it worked out this year and my brother Dustin, his wife Lindsey and our niece Rylee were able to come down from Idaho to join us! It was so much fun! Lindsey made us AWESOME t-shirts, they had raffles, balloons, hot chocolate and bagels! We had a great time and love celebrating adoption every chance we get!

Rylee and Parker walking for adoption

Parker giving adoption the thumbs up!

Parker needed a little break from all that walking!

Parker turned 4 this year! I know I can't believe it either! He wanted everything shark for his birthday! He opened presents from his birth family, we had a party for his friends, went to Boondocks on his birthday for another adoption event and then we had family over for cake and ice cream the day after his birthday. We celebrated for 4 days! It was awesome! We are so grateful that he is part of our family!

He got shark and ocean dvds from his birth father

Aunt Roberta reading the boys the book she gave Parker

Playing 'shark tag' at Parker's birthday party

Opening presents

Shark fin cupcakes!

Fishing pond

All that partying wore him out!

I always take a pic of Parker first thing in the morning on his birthday

So excited about his big boy bike!

We waited in line forever to ride these cars at Boondocks. It was freezing but he loved every lap around the track!

Riding the big boy bike!

The shark cake

We went to Idaho this year for Thanksgiving. Parker was so excited to spend a few days with his cousins! We stayed with my brother Jack and his wife Alison. I started the day going shopping with Jack and Al. Then we had a nice dinner and then Alison finally let us look at the black Friday ads! That night we joined my cousins for our traditional Thanksgiving bowling night. Parker LOVES bowling! It was fun to watch him bowl with his cousins! Then, Lindsey and I made our shopping plan and Heather and Jack decided they wanted to come too! We went to Toys R Us and the line to get in was ridiculous! So we headed to Walmart. Everyone helped me get a few things that I wanted. Then Jack and Heather went home. Lindsey and I waited for Target to open. We stayed up all night! I did that last year too, and I don't know if I can keep doing it! It was fun and I got most of my Christmas shopping done! I don't even know how many stores we went to, but I was able to take a nap for a little while after we were done. That night Mom, Heather, Lindsey and I went to Perkins for a treat. We talked and laughed (Linds and I were still so tired we were extra giggly!) It was a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving bowling with the cousins

I don't have any pictures from Bryan's birthday, lame I know! He opened his presents that morning and he wasn't picture ready! He got a new U of U t-shirt (you can never have enough) and he got the TV series 'Firefly' on Bluray. He's been wanting it for a while now and it really wasn't a huge surprise to him, but he was still really excited to finally have it! He worked that day, so that was about all we did. I still owe him a date night to Braza Grill for his birthday dinner! Parker and I ran some errands that day and ended up at Kneaders for a little treat. He wanted to take some pictures together and then he told me, "Mom, we can put those on our blog!" So, here you go!

Always with the licking of the frosting first