Arizona Sunshine

We have sure been loving the Arizona sunshine this winter. We are trying to be outside as much as possible before we have to lock ourselves inside during June through September!

We've also been loving our grass. When we go outside Logan always tells me, "Mom, I love our grass!" I am glad Jordan gave in and we got real grass, although we may be regretting it when we have to water it this summer!

Our yard still has a long way to go but it is so much better than the dirt it was when we first moved in!

Someone sure liked watching brother play with the bubbles!

This weekend we are hoping to set up the boys' swing set that they got for Christmas. It's supposed to take a lot of time but I know it will be worth it. Logan keeps commenting on how it isn't set up yet. Haha.  Wish us luck!

Parker is Six Months Old!

Okay so now that Parker is five days away from being 7 months old, I'm going to post his 6 month pictures. Whoops.

Parker has been practicing his sitting and is getting much better, although he could only sit for about 10 seconds when he was 6 months old. You can see him tipping over in these cute pictures.

At his 6 month appointment, Parker weighed 18 lbs 13 oz and was 29" tall, which threw me into a state of panic because it means he's 2 inches away from outgrowing his carseat. Holy cow! He's in the 99th percentile for height and 90th for weight.

He is wearing 6-9 month and 9 month clothes and unfortunately is a bit wider than Logan was because all of Logan's old pants (Children's Place brand) are a bit tight on him. It's a bummer since I really don't want to buy all new pants in a different brand! He eats about 30 oz of formula a day and eats solids once a day as well.

He likes to lay on the ground or in his crib and when we come in and smile at him he will throw his arms up and down really fast because he's excited. It's pretty funny.

He is a really good napper, taking two two-hour naps a day and then goes to sleep around 7:30 at night. He will usually transfer to his crib if he falls asleep in the car.

Parker got his first tooth two days before he turned sixth months old. It's his bottom right tooth. Teething was pretty miserable for him, which was a new experience since when Logan was teething I never even knew about it. The teeth would just pop through! He's pretty cute with his one tooth but I wish they'd come in two at a time!

Two days after he turned six months old, he got up on his knees and started rocking. I was sure he would be crawling by seven months old. Spoiler alert, he still isn't crawling but he still has five days to go and he is SO CLOSE. Seriously.

He likes to practice planking where he gets up on his hands and toes.

He's still a really easygoing baby, which is especially nice since I have to drag him around all the time to all of Logan's activities. But he almost never fusses. He's just such a sweet and happy guy.

 

These two are just the sweetest brothers ever. Logan is excited every morning to see Parker and the feeling is mutual by the smile on Parker's face when he sees Logan.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this in the blog yet, but we originally had the two boys sitting next to each other in the bucket seats in the van. But they couldn't see each other since Parker is rear facing. One day we had Logan's seat all the way in the back for some reason and it made Parker so so happy to be able to see Logan while he was in the car! So now Logan always sits all the way in the back. It's kind of a pain to buckle him in and also we can't pass him snacks and drinks very easily, but we all feel like the benefits outweigh the negatives.

We just love this kid and all the happiness he brings into our home. We love you, little Parker boy!

Christmas 2016

It was so wonderful to spend our first Arizona Christmas in our new house! I had a lot of fun setting up the Christmas tree in the living room and more fun making matching pajamas for my sweet boys. I'd been wishing to do this for a long time!

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. EVER! It's the best. I'll probably never get another one as fun as this!

 My boys by the tree.

Both the boys were really good with Santa this year (the first year Logan didn't cry, yay!). They saw Santa twice, once at the Intel Christmas party and the second at the ward Christmas party.

Logan had a Christmas program at preschool and it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

He and his class sang several songs (Logan knew all the words to Santa Claus is Coming to Town and was singing it for weeks before his program). They also sang Rudolph and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was one of my very favorite things about Christmas this year!

Logan kept asking if he could make a snowman so he came up with the idea to make one out of rocks.

We made some fun candy cane rice krispie treats for the ward Christmas party.

I was super excited to finish the stockings that Heather and I had mostly made last year. I also added the initials with my embroidery machine. I loved that I could hang them on the stairway since we do not have a fireplace here. I really really wanted a garland and my mom sent me this beautiful one. I just love the whole effect!

A few days before Christmas, Intel let families go to the Phoenix Zoo for Zoo lights. It was really fun and we all had a great time, especially Logan. We found a light up scorpion and had to take a picture.

Logan saw all these other kids with a light up spinny thing that you can hold and he really wanted one. He hardly ever asks for anything so we bought him one. He was so excited about it and just saying, "Wow, this is so cool! Thank you!" It was really cute. It's fun to spoil your kids once in a while.

We got home from Zoo Lights really late, about 10:00pm, and the kids had conked out in the car. There was a huge box from Amazon sitting on our doorstep and Jordan and I were asking each other, "What did you order?" We couldn't figure it out. We opened it up and...

It was a ride on Jeep from my brother Matt. I was so shocked, I really wish that you'd have seen my face. Matt has never gotten the kids anything for birthdays. He told me he was making up for it. I'd say he did. We put it together the next night and kept it locked in the guest room until Christmas.

I finished up my Christmas present for Jordan. It's a map of all the places we've been together! I stained the wood, made a stencil, painted it. It was a labor of love and Jordan really liked it! It was fun to have a surprise for him. Here's some of the DIY pics I took while I was making it. It was really big (20"x 24") so I had to do the stencil in two pieces.

Bonnie and Dennis were so sweet and invited us over for brunch on Christmas Eve. It was so yummy and we enjoyed being with their family.

That afternoon we did a nativity with just our family. I was Mary, Jordan was Joseph, Logan was the innkeeper and a shepherd, and Parker was baby Jesus, and Lexi was a sheep (she has a sheep costume). When Jordan knocked on the door for the innkeeper, and Logan found out that there was no where for Mary to go, he said, "I have an idea! Let's build them a house!" It was so darling. It was a very short and simple nativity, but I really enjoyed it. I totally get why my parents always forced us to do the nativity now.

 

 On Christmas Eve we opened up a present--a Christmas picture book for the family. Then the kids were in their PJs and off to bed!

The next morning Logan was so excited because Santa had come! He dug through his stocking and then we had to wake Parker up (it was about 7am by then). I didn't take any pictures Christmas morning! Santa brought Logan a blue bike, which he'd been asking for, and Parker a puppy that talks and knows Parker's name. We did the something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read thing for the boys, so they each got a new outfit and a new book (Logan got Beep Beep, Go to Sleep, a robot book he loved at the library). Parker got a teether and a toy that sings. Logan got a cat car and a remote control police car (that I hated later, it has a LOUD siren that will not turn off if the car is running, and of course that was Logan's number one favorite toy).

It was so fun to see Logan so excited about Christmas. This was the first year he really "got it" and the Santa thing and everything.

Christmas was on Sunday so we got dressed for church and headed out. I had a pretty new red dress and the boys had gotten matching ties for Christmas. Here's Parker and I before church. Church was really enjoyable with some good talks and I sang in our ward choir. I love singing in choir.

We didn't put out the car from Matt before church for a few reasons. One, Matt totally outdid Santa so we didn't really want to overshadow all the work Santa had done. Haha. Also we knew we would never get him to church if we have him the car. And isn't it more fun to spread out the presents anyway?

We were expecting more of a shocked reaction, but I think Logan is too young to realize what a cool, big present this is. He was excited but it wasn't a surprised excited. Although he did say, "I've been wanting this my whole life!" We took a long walk with it and it was really fun!

We finished up Christmas with a delicious dinner at Bonnie and Dennis's house. They are just the best to have us over twice for Christmas and include us in their family gatherings! The food was delicious and it was so fun to be with their family.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this month we had been trying to follow the Light the World promotion that the Church was doing. We didn't manage to do something every day, but it certainly kept me more service minded and watching for opportunities to help other people, even if it was just in small ways. I was able to watch kids for a sister in the ward who was having health problems, we took treats to Logan's teachers, and one of my favorite (so small!) things was that I unloaded a lady's cart in the grocery store who was in one of those motorized carts. She was so sweet and thankful. It was dumb but I wouldn't have thought to do that if I hadn't had Light the World in the back of my mind. I really enjoyed it and would like to do a better job of keeping to it next year.

It was a wonderful Christmas, so fun and relaxing. Such a great one for the first in our home!

January Utah Trip

We really didn't want to go anywhere for Christmas and New Years (we've spent a LOT of our years married traveling and we're kind of over it) so we decided to take a trip out to Utah for MLK Day, since we haven't seen the Utah family since August. So we packed up the kids and Lexi for our first long trip in the van. We had a lot more room than in the Malibu.

They were happy most the way but we did have some fussing at the end.

Logan was super excited when we started seeing snow on the way! We stopped for a bathroom break and we were freezing!

The first afternoon we were there we met up with all the cousins and went to the Dinosaur Museum. Here's all the cousins on the new playplace. There's 13 of them now.

Friday morning Jordan had to work, so I took the boys over to Merijane's house because she had snow. There was no snow at Grammy's house so they were nice enough to invite us over for a playdate! Merijane and I had fun catching up and the kids had a great time playing outside.

Snowball fight!!

Grammy got some really cool car tracks that Logan had a great time playing with. She also got a super fluffy new rug that Parker wanted to roll all over (and spit up on, so we had to keep an eye on him!)

Friday evening we headed down to Orem for a dinner with my grandparents and also Matt. It was so good to see them! The boys were shy at first but then they warmed up. Logan wanted to toss bean bags with Grandma and Grandpa and he was impressed by the star on top of their Christmas tree. Parker was fussy at first but then he let Grandma and Grandpa hold him and he showed off his new sitting skills.

Logan was so excited to see Matt and kept climbing on him. When it was time for dinner, he pulled his chair right next to him and said, "I want to sit next to Matt!" I'm glad they like each other. :)

Here's my Grandpa with little Parker. He is such a wonderful grandpa and I can't wait for them to come visit in April!

On Saturday we went sledding with all of the cousins. Logan was upset because some snow got in his face. He went down a few times with Grammy and Aida (Aida sitting in front so he wouldn't get snow in his face. Jordan and I also took Parker down his first (tiny) sledding hill. He didn't love it.

Here's us with most of the cousins (we're missing Oliver and Jack)

After sledding we stopped by to see Jamie and Emily's beautiful new house, and also stopped by to see Jordan's grandpa Cline.

The next day was Sunday, so it was pretty chill. We went to church in the morning and then that evening we had a big family dinner. After dinner the cousins put on the most funniest nativity you've ever seen. The kids were running around and yelling and it was hilarious. The oldest cousins (Libbie, Hailey, and Molly) had organized it and I don't think they realized how hard it would be to get 8 little kids to follow directions. It was so funny to watch. The girls were upset up but I think they'll find it amusing in a few years. Logan was Joseph and he kept spinning around in his costume. He wouldn't say anything and then he started smacking people with his fox. These pictures do not do it justice.

 

Here's all the boy cousins together. 9 girls in a row and then 4 boys in a row. I have a hunch that our next (and last) baby will also be a boy, but we'll see in a few years.

Jordan took this picture on his parents' bed and I thought it was cute :)

Logan went on his first sleepover Sunday night to Jamie and Emily's house. He just went off with no hesitation and Jamie and Emily said he did great! He had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave when we picked him up on our way home the next day.

We stopped in St. George Monday night and had a pretty awful night of sleep. Parker woke up at 9, 10, 1, and then at 3 he was up for over an hour. His sleep had been getting progressively worse since we started our vacation but this took the cake! It was really awful and we were sooo tired the next day.

We continued our drive on Tuesday. We stopped to see the Hoover Dam. I didn't realize that water didn't flow all the time, so there wasn't a ton to see, but it's still cool to say we've been there.  

I also got to be in two places at once just like Jamie from A Walk to Remember! (Nevada/Arizona state line) (also a weird picture of me)

We finally got home and it was so nice. We had a good trip but I am always ready to get back home. I'm kind of a homebody. Haha. After I put the kids to bed I took a really long bath while watching Grey's Anatomy (haha, my ideal bathroom would include a tv by the tub, as well as a chandelier hanging above it). I was really worried about Parker waking up but he slept 13 hours straight and it was SO GREAT! He was very happy when he woke up. Fingers crossed for another good night tonight!