Summer

(Pictures below)  This summer has been really busy and fun.  My sister and I worked hard de-junking my parent's house, which took a lot of time!  I can't believe all of the stuff that my siblings and I still had there.  It has been fun going swimming with cousins, playing outside, going for walks every day, and having more time with family out of school.  We bought a zoo pass, and I have gone to the zoo at least 8 times since buying it, so I got my money's worth!

Parker is growing and changing so much every day.  He says "Hi, Bye, Guck (truck), Aight (light)", and his very FAVORITE exclamation, "UH-OH"!  He thinks it's great to chuck his sippy at the ground and then say UH-OH!  It was funny the first few times... :)

Parker and I got to go to California at the beginning of August, and Randy joined us at the end of the week.  It was good to see my Grandpa and my Aunt Deanna.  Parker loved to chase the cats around the house.  I felt bad because he was throwing a lot of tantrums, and crying while we were there.  It wasn't until we got home that I discovered that he had four molars coming in.  Poor guy!  He was definitely happy to get home and sleep in his own bed.

We also had an impromptu trip to Disneyland.  I LOVE Disneyland, and we decided to take Parker there on our last day since the trip had been so rough.  We had so much fun!  Parker loved the rides (except the carousel) and it was great to see him smile.  Randy and I paid for my Mom to go with us, so she could take Parker home when it was time for bed and we could stay longer :)

Parker LOVES the water!  I couldn't get a great shot without some weird faces.

We went camping, and survived!

Parker's face- post camping.

He was sooo scared on this ride.  He was literally shaking every time the horse went down.

Tired.  See that Mickey with the santa hat?  Parker won't sleep or go anywhere without it.  He got it at Christmas time, and it already looks like it's five years old!

Too early to be awake in California.

It's sad to see the summer coming to an end, but at least we had fun!  And it will be nice to have cooler weather.

Over-Due Picture Dump

I haven't added pictures in a really long time, so I decided to just put a bunch of pictures on here.  Finally!!  Our little guy will be ONE on Wednesday, and I can hardly believe it!

Parker's favorite thing to do at the park: eat as many wood chips as possible and save some in his mouth for later...

Just in our backyard, enjoying the sun and the lilac bush

I couldn't resist.  I miss that hair!

After the hair has been combed... So cute :)

He is such a good helper with weeding.  He plays with the tools for a while, then crawls around in the dirt.  He also hands me any plants he finds.

This was hilarious.  He LOVES the tub!  I got the camera out, and these are the faces he pulled!

Crazy Parker!

This was from Christmas when his hair just stuck up all the time.

Family picture- Christmas

I just couldn't resist!!  What a cute bum!

Randy's Birthday.  It totally looks like I'm blowing out the candles.  Randy blew out the candles, and there was smoke everywhere, and I was blowing the smoke.

Parker's new haircut. So different!

My haircut from Christmas (I never posted it before!)

And just for kicks... look at how small he used to be!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

The Best Part

Motherhood is a struggle.  I'm sure it will always be a struggle.  For the last few weeks, I have really been trying to find joy in my new life.  Sometimes I get frustrated, angry, and feel lonely as I stay at home with my now 11 month old, trying to figure out how to still feel productive and happy.  It truly has been a struggle.  But I love my little boy.  I couldn't imagine my life without him.  So I decided to make a list about the best parts of my life.

Hearing giggles
Smelling that sweet, baby smell
Watching him play
Watching him discover new things
Seeing him reach all of the "milestones"
Seeing him smile at me
Feeling wanted (even if I need some space sometimes!)
Checking on him at night
Watching him sleep
Seeing his silly faces
Getting WET kisses
Stroking his baby skin
Feeling him rest his head on my shoulder
Being in the splash zone when he's in the tub
Holding fingers
Blowing on his tummy
Hearing him "talk"
Snuggling while reading books

I have a lot of hard days where I feel like giving up.  I have days when Parker will scream and scream and I don't know how to comfort him.  We also have really good days, and I want to try to focus more on those.  I want to remember my list so that I can focus on the joy of being a mom.  I can't believe my little guy is going to be one soon!  How life has changed in the last year.

100th post

This is my 100th post. Monumental! I just don't update this blog enough.

Parker is 10 months now! I love my little boy very much, but I have felt every day of those 10 months. Parker is doing so much better at sleeping through the night lately, which makes me very happy. Here are some things Parker is doing:

-Eating dirt/leaves/grass/paper

-Pulling to a stand

-Crawling all over the place

-Learning how to navigate the stairs

-Throwing tantrums when I don't give him what he wants

-Eating small bites of real food

-Has 3 (soon to be 4) teeth

-Obsessed with cords

-Cuter than ever!

Since we moved into our new home, he has become much more mobile. He has hit his face on the floors and walls many times now attempting to stand and such... Poor kid. I can't imagine life without my little guy! Every time he smiles, he melts my heart.

Welcome to 2012!

It would be an understatement to say that it's been a while since I blogged... I got a text this morning from my brother that said that he was "appalled at no blog posts for the last four months!" Yep- those were his words. I told him that my excuse is that I loathe posting pictures on my blog because it seems to take for-e-ver. But I decided to sit down and just do it! First I'd like to give a little update on each of us:

Randy- Still LOVING his job with the Family History Library downtown. Almost every day he comes home with a smile on his face and at least three stories to share with me :) I need to be better at not rolling my eyes at how excited he gets over finding (seemingly random to me) death records, birth certificates, connections to other people, etc. He is such a good dad and husband and always treats us well. We love it when Randy gets home from work and we especially love the weekends!

Emily- Going crazy with packing, trying to get Parker to sleep, trying to keep a clean house and get meals on the table. I feel like my life is pretty much the same every day- feed, change, sleep, repeat. But the stay-at-home life is getting easier.

Parker- Has two teeth!! He was unbelievably ornery for a week, and I realized a little too late that he was teething. He is on the verge of crawling, and can now sit himself back up after laying down. He is still learning how to sleep through the night, but usually wakes up at 4 or 5 am. We love to capture him laughing hysterically at random things, and hopefully I will be able to post a video of him laughing at paper. Or maybe him yelling at a spoon...

The biggest change of all is that we bought a house! We are moving this weekend, and I can't wait to get settled in our new place. I am excited that the kitchen is nice and big, and I won't have to use a 2x2 foot counter to prepare all of our meals! There are some fixes that need to be done, but all in all we are really excited.

His hair is getting so long! This was taken after I took his hat off, and his hair was sticking out in all directions. Such a cutie :)

I love seeing all of Parker's rolls when he takes baths! He was just chilling on the floor with his towel after his bath.

Halloween time- we got good use out of this costume. I think he wore it at least 3-4 times. What a good sport :)

2 years for us, 5 months for Parker!

I can't believe that Parker is 5 months old. A few weeks after he was born, I honestly didn't believe he'd ever get this far! He is becoming a little more mobile, and is grabbing things with his hands like crazy. He is so funny. His new favorite thing is to rock back and forth really fast while we're trying to burp him. I think it's his way of telling us that he wants to stand up!

He's still a healthy boy, and I am still learning about being a mom. My new thing is not to stress so much if he wakes up early from his naps. He used to take 2 to 2.5 hour long naps, and it was wonderful! Lately, he wakes up after 45 minutes. I really had a hard week last week, so I decided just to let him be up if he wakes up during the day. I already feel better :)

Randy and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary a week ago. We decided not to get a babysitter because Parker kept waking up screaming-so we thought it would be a bad idea. We ended up getting Olive Garden to go, and stayed home and watched the Andy Griffith Show. We didn't really see anything on Redbox that we were interested in, and we love the Andy Griffith Show, so we thought, why not?? Randy bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that had 2 cala lilies in it because they are my favorite. I stole my sister's idea and blew up 30 Helium balloons myself* and tied pictures to the balloons with reasons that I love Randy written on the back.

I love our little family and the time that we get to spend together. Even though sometimes I dream of the time when life was so much less complicated, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

*I bought a balloon maker because there was no way I could fit 30 helium balloons in my car. I was trying to fill up the balloons and Parker decided that he didn't want me to put him down and screamed and screamed. Randy got home from his business trip too early, so I ran outside with a screaming Parker and said "You need to watch Parker and you can't come inside for a few more minutes!" Luckily he was still surprised, and Parker still loves me :)

Confessions about Grocery Stores

When I wasn't married, I absolutely hated going to the grocery store. Now that I am married, I still hate going to the grocery store, but if I don't go, we don't have food. Therefore, I have found that there are some grocery stores that I kind of enjoy going to once in a while, and other grocery stores that reinforce my hatred of grocery shopping.

The store that I absolutely love is Winco. What a glorious place! I love all of their variety. They keep the store nice and clean, they have enough check stands open so you don't have to wait an eternity to check out. Their prices are also really good. Winco is awesome.

Harmons is another pretty good grocery store. Clean, great produce section, good selection... They are just a bit more pricey.

The absolute worst grocery store in the world is Walmart. Sometimes I don't mind going to Walmart for other things, but I HATE grocery shopping there. It's almost always crowded, the lines are forever long, and their produce and meat are expensive. For some reason, I don't like their selection either.

There is a Smiths by us that I don't like. It feels dirty, and for some reason it's hard to get out of their parking lot for me. They do have some good deals there, but I still prefer Winco.

There you have it. Winco is the best. If you haven't been there, you should check it out!