Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Parker's Big Birthday Bash
Friday, July 25, 2008
Happy Birthday Baby Boy!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
5 FAVORITE THINGS IN THIS PREGNANCY
2. PINK! It's been so fun shopping for pink things this time around. There are so many cute things out there...too many in fact... this is probably Chris' LEAST favorite feature of having a girl in that it can get expensive... although - I have to say I am a total bargain shopper! Finding high quality things for a good deal is one of my favorite pasttimes!!
3. Knowing where every PUBLIC RESTROOM is in every public store I visit. (A little sarcasm here in case you didn't detect it...) I don't know if this is a GOOD thing but I'm a great person to ask where the bathroom is if you are ever in need of one.
4. CEREAL - I'm not sure myself or the baby would be alive right now if it weren't for cereal (mixed with water - I'm lactose intolerant so no milk for me) during this pregnancy. Cheerios, HN Cheerios, Honey Bunches of Oats, LIFE - those are just a few of my faves.
5. PARKER'S NAPTIMES = my naptime! I've been so drained this last trimester of pregnancy - I don't remember being this tired with Parker. By the afternoon I just hit a wall, and thankfully I've been able to get somewhat refreshed through taking a nap when he naps over this last 2 months or so. Somedays I really don't know what I'd do without them!
Good news!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
BED REST??
Happy Anniversary
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Afternoon at the museum

3 little monkeys playing in a cave.... I tried fixing their eyes in photoshop with no luck... I know it looks a little freaky but I still think it's such a cute picture of the three of them having fun and just being boys running through this cave and giggling.
There really are dinosaur bones behind us but apparently I stood right in front of them for this photo op. It isn't too hard to block things, however, these days with this big belly of mine! :)
Despite the bored look on his face, Parker really WAS fascinated by these shark jaws. He of course wanted to crawl in them and had to be carried away kicking and screaming. Thankfully, my friend Karen was there to help calm him down. Such a boy! Thanks, Karen, Jake, Cameron and baby Tyler for the outing!Friday, June 27, 2008
Father's Day Weekend Pics
My Dad & Parker. Parker loves to give him a workout by being thrown "up high" over and over again. He thinks it's the greatest thing...we're still trying to come up with a good name other than "Grandpa" for my Dad to be called... any suggestions? (My Grandpa and G-Grandpa were "Papa" and "Gramps", so those are out...)
Aunt Bethany (Chris' sis) is always good to make Parker laugh. He has a lot of fun with her!Flash forward ten years
Speaking of high school, my good friend Amanda arranged for a bunch of old high school friends to meet up at the park several weeks ago at the park for picnic. It was fun to see everyone that could make it & catch up for a minute! Some of these girls I see pretty often and some I hadn't seen in years! We decided that overall we all pretty much look the same as we did 10 years ago, despite three of us being in our third trimesters of pregnancy (Jill, myself, and Lindsi). Thanks Amanda for arranging the get together! She's always been the planner... some things never change! We decided that those who haven't yet started blogs need to get on it so that we can all stay in the loop this way! :)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Ahhh the Days
THE GIRLS 1998
Graduation was held on Brighton's football field. What a crazy night! There was a wind and lightening storm & I'm glad we all made it out alive. We're all a little wind blown here...
High school dances were the best. I swear there was one every month but it sure kept us busy with creative asking, answering and planning the big events. Here we are at girl's choice MORP senior year. We obviously chose the theme of brides and grooms... I borrowed someone's real wedding dress from the 70's! We put a ton of hours into planning this... we had every detail from fake wedding invitations (as the way we asked to the dance), cans tied to the back of our cars with "Just married" written on them, ring pops, a "wedding dinner" at a church with Brittany's dad as the wedding photographer, a "wedding video" playing with clips from famous movie weddings, (Princess Bride, Cinderella, Runaway Bride, etc.), and then AFTER the dance we went back to Lacey's and changed into hawaiian shirts and lays and went on our hawaiian "honeymoons". (Pretty innocent - we exchanged wedding gifts with white elephants that each couple brought and watched a movie or something.) Anyways, it was a good time!
Getting dressed up for dances was always fun. Here I am all ready for girl's choice W.A. (Women's Association). So you're thinking, "GOLD?" Yes, I know. I've never even been a fan of gold, but for some reason I ended up liking this dress. We picked up our dates for this one in Gloria's motor home! Her dad and uncle were nice enough to dress up in formal suits and top hats and be our chauffers for the night.
Prom was always so much fun at the state capitol building. I was so excited to be going in a limo (my first time!) for this dance. My best friend Lacey and I (far right) ended up shopping for dresses together and fell in love with the exact same ones! The only difference was the color. I don't think it was that noticeable, but we didn't care anyways. We just wanted to look good...typical girls. I think we kind of liked that we matched. We went to the JS Memorial building for dinner & if I remember right we took a carriage ride around downtown, then headed to the dance. It was a ton of fun! Seriously, how often do we get to dress up like that post high school besides our wedding days? In my world, pretty much never.
My senior year in high school I was a hostess at Dos Serranos Mexican Grill (it has since closed). Steph Daniels also worked there with me. It was a decent job, although I think I was happy to have an excuse to quit when I headed up to USU the fall after graduation.
The things we did to entertain ourselves.... once in a while we used to drive up Parley's Canyon and take Quarry's Exit (a tunnel turn around off the freeway) and freak each other out with the tales that scary people would set up traps in there to capture the innocent drivers trying to turn around late at night. We would really get pretty scared! Hey -free entertainment, right?P.S. I hope no one minds me posting any of these pictures!
A Day at the Spa!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Fam
Green grass + warm weather = Happy Michelle
Hooray for grass in the backyard! Chris worked all day Thursday and part of Friday and Saturday laying sod in our backyard. I am soooo excited to have this underway. It is so much fun to play with Parker outside and now that we're finally experiencing some warm weather, you can bet that we'll be out there a ton this summer. Next comes a fence... hopefully we can get that up in the next month or so. Thank you, Chris for all of your hard labor back there! You are the best and I can't tell you how nice it is to have a "handy" husband. (He also installed the sprinkling system!)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
THINGS I LOVE
2. Parker - Who makes me feel as though every morning is Christmas when I get to go get him from his crib and see his happy little face (Somedays I feel like a total zombie that early in the a.m., but I am still so excited to see him!).
3. Sunshine! Please stick around...
4. The beautiful area we live in- I just love this little neighborhood we live in. I feel so safe here and so blessed to live in such a beautiful place. The mountain views outside my front door are breathtaking and I just love the beauty that surrounds us here.
5. Family who love my little boy! We are blessed to have great family who absolutely adore Parker. Chris' Mom calls often to tell me that they are having "Parker withdrawls" & are in need of a visit. We feel blessed that Parker has such great grandparents and aunts and uncles who are soooo good with him. He has just one adorable little cousin - Atticus (5 months old) who currently lives in Texas, but we know that eventually they'll be great friends and are grateful to have at least ONE cousin who isn't too far apart in age from him!
6. A baby girl - This pregnancy came somewhat as a surprise - but we couldn't be more thrilled to be expecting Parker's little sis in just three months. Seeing the baby "countdown" on the blog drop below 100 days floors me! In so many ways this has seemed like an eternal pregnancy (it being accompanied by lots of sickness in the first four months, followed by many strange and not so fun medical "issues"...lately I'm pretty good though, knock on wood) but then again, I can't believe I'm in the third tri and that this baby's debut is just around the corner. We're so excited!!!! :)
7. Chris' job - It's been really thrilling for me to sit back and watch Chris as he exercises the doctorate degree that he's worked so hard for this past 8 years!!! He decided as a kid that he wanted to be a Pharmacist when he went on some scout or church outing to a neighbor's pharmacy, which really sparked his interest. As he was going through college working on his undergrad, he at times doubted his abilities to accomplish this goal and wasn't so sure that this was the path for him. But with lots of hard work and perseverance, he made it through and it definitely has paid off! I am so proud of all of his hard work & for all that he's accomplished! Pharmacy really is such a great field and we highly recommend it as pharmacists are in such demand. All in all, we are so grateful that he is blessed to do something that he so enjoys, that he's worked so hard to be able to do, for the way that he's able to provide for our family - and the job security is such an added bonus! Great work, honey! We think you're the best.
8. The Gospel - What a blessing it is to be a member of this church! I am so grateful for all the good things that encompass my life, beliefs, and standards because of it. I'm grateful to be able to move anywhere in the world and have those instant associations and meaningful relationships with many wonderful people that otherwise could take years, if ever, to develop. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and to know that I have the opportunity to be with lost loved ones again someday. I'm grateful for the meaning my knowledge of the gospel gives my life and for the way it is enriched because of it.
9. Great friends over the years - I've been so blessed throughout my life to have great friends. I had such a wonderful group of close high school friends who were always such amazing examples to me. I was one of the lucky few I guess you could say who really was never "peer pressured" in high school, because those that I hung around with were truly upstanding people. I was also one who was blessed to have a blast in high school and to really leave with no regrets.
I also had great friendships develop in college, and then as Chris and I have been married we've met such wonderful people through our first married student ward, all the way through grad school in Arizona and back. It's hard to keep in touch with everyone that we want to, that is for sure! This blogging thing is so good in that regard... I wish more of them would enter the blogging world!! :)
10. Roxy- I admit - she's really annoys us somedays but we do love her and she really has blessed our lives. Chris picked her out at a no-kill rescue shelter right after we moved to Arizona one day while I was at work, and she has been like a little child to us ever since. Once Parker arrived, her status in the family definitely changed - saying she was demoted is an understatement (I know, poor Roxy), but we love her nonetheless and she's brought us much joy in the almost four years we've had her. Oh, and Parker definitely enjoys having someone to boss around all day. (Once again - poor Roxy...)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Parker Pastimes
Parker love love LOVES to feed the dog. No, I don't mean by giving her a dish full of dog food, but handful by handful, piece by piece. I know what you're thinking - "SICK" - yes, trust me, I know. It grosses me out on a regular basis. Why in the world he derives such great joy from this - I have no idea, but it makes him so happy (he squeals and giggles the entire duration of this little activity each day) & Roxy for some strange reason seems to enjoy it these days as well... (probably because she feels like he's being nice and not trying to torture her somehow). SO - I allow it to happen. If not, I end up putting her food up to keep him out of it and poor Roxy ends up starving all day. Needless to say, I constantly have my trusty vacuum out and am cleaning up the trails left behind by all this dog food.... oh no, there is not just one designated place for these feedings, part of Parker's "fun" is feeding her all over the main floor, and once in a while I find some pieces on the stairs.... we of course are sure to wash up his little hands after this lovely pastime. FUN TIMES!! That's what it's all about, right?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Who can resist those dimples?
I'm sure this may be a familiar story...or is it just me... I had Parker all ready for bed the other night(husband was working the late shift)... bathed, in his jams, all ready to read stories so that the exhausted pregnant Mom can finally go eat her dinner (which will probably be at that point a bowl of cereal). But Parker had other plans as usual and was hopping, squealing, and laughing while running up and down the hall and into his room like a mini mad man, all the while wearing his Dad's favorite BYU hat. Meanwhile, my pathetic worn out body sat helpless in the rocking chair waiting for him to somehow calm himself down so that I could get this little boy into bed and then do the same myself. Seriously -- WHERE DOES ALL THIS ENERGY COME FROM? And could I please have a small fraction of it?? I just had to laugh at his antics, and managed, despite my sheer exhaustion to snap this picture of my silly, good natured, hyperactive, sweet, crazy almost two-year-old little boy. He sure wears me out - but the joy he brings us in return is so worth every minute. Tuesday, May 20, 2008
STICKERS
So this morning I was blow drying my hair, and I look down to find Parker with these big, white "stickers" that he'd found in the bathroom drawer placed over his eyes and over his head. I started laughing and he just looks up at me, grins, and runs off to his room squealing. I followed behind, grabbing my camera to take advantage of the photo op. He DOES love stickers....especially the ultra thin, super absorbent type...



