The holidays and a little more

The holidays are a little different when you have to work on them.  This year Thanksgiving was our holiday to work. Brent worked the night before and I was supposed to work Thanksgiving day so we didn't really plan anything. I got put on call so we went to Jace and Lindsey's and crashed the party with Jace's family of about 30 people.  I can't complain, it was fun. These are the only pictures from that day but Parker sure was looking cute. I know the first one is so blurry but it is also so sweet.

We got a Christmas tree and started decorating our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  It was kind of nice because we still have so few decorations for our house and it filled in the spaces a little bit. Luckily, Brent donned the Christmas vest and made it look good.  Parker got his own Christmas attire assigned to him…a tree headband.  He didn't mind it all.  If he was crying in a picture with it on it had nothing to do with the headband but something else he was upset about.  He actually wore it quite a bit. Baby torture, I love it.

 Parker really loves his high chair. He loves to play with the measuring cup, the whisk, a wooden spoon, and an empty water bottle when he is in it.  Occasionally we stop paying attention just long enough for him to grab hold of the plant in the corner and do some damage or pull a small bowl off the table and break it.  He really loves to eat. If you stop feeding him before he thinks he is done, he throws a toddler like fit that includes throwing his head back and screaming.  He also went through a phase where he loved to lay as sideways as he could in his seat and also where he would shake his head back and forth. I wish he would've done that for longer because it was so cute.

We finally got around to painting the kitchen so that the upstairs would be mostly complete before my mom and Lee came to stay for Christmas.  Our plan is to redo the kitchen in the next year or so but we couldn't take the orange any longer. Shortly after the painting was done our new couches arrived and so did our rug.  Our house is slowly, and I emphasize slowly, coming together!

 Thanks for the reindeer outfit Grandma and Grandpa T! So cute.

From the beginning of Parker's life he has been one of the wiggliest babies I've ever seen.  His legs are always kicking.  So many new babies are just kind of blobs who just sit there even when they are awake.  Parker never really did that. He just kicked.  When you stood him up he would also kick the ground with one leg, his clogger as we called it.  When he started rolling to his stomach he would get there and then just kick and wiggle his arms.  Gavin said that Parker was swimming and in fact that was exactly what it looked like.  He would swim and then do his push ups, or at least push up his chest off the ground by planting his arms and look around and then go back to swimming. It was his signature move.  By the beginning of December Parker could roll all over the house.  He wasn't army crawling or anything, just rolling. Parker started getting up to his knees around December 15th/16th.  He would swim, then do a push up, then pull his legs under him to all fours.  He would often even settle out in a plank position for a bit and then stick his bum way up in the air like he was going to bear crawl.  It was so fun watching him figure it out.

 Zoo Lights

This picture is really blurry but it shows one of Parker's favorite activities which is pulling out all of the things in his bins on the shelf and putting them back in or eating them.  Getting him dressed these days is hilarious because he is so wiggly and interested in everything around him.  Gone are the days where he just lays on his back and lets you get everything done.

Brent managed to get in a little bit of mountain biking in the snow.  He's got a new buddy down the street, Taylor, to go with and although they both had their fair share of slide offs they had a great time.  Even today, in the middle of a snowstorm, they rode up Mueller Park. I don't know if I'm that hard core.

So we would have gone to Boise for this Christmas but Lindsey was due on December 28th so that seemed like a bad idea.  My mom and Lee came and stayed at our house and Jace and Lindsey came over everyday.  Thanks to our new house they both had their own room, their own bed, and a little bit of space so they didn't feel like they were imposing so much which was nice to be able to offer. Other than planning food, Brent and I didn't plan any activities or Christmas festivities.  This is how we ended up at Saltair on Christmas Eve after a spur of the moment decision to do so.  We tried to make it for the sunset but turns out the sun sets surprisingly quick at the end of December and in a totally different location so you don't get the cool sunset over the Great Salt Lake. All that being said, it was fun to go out and brave the cold for a bit and take a few fun pictures. That Christmas tree headband. Just couldn't get enough of it.

After getting home from Saltair we made dinner, homemade pizza, then read the Christmas story and sang some Christmas hymns.  In a couple of years when the kids get older I have no doubt that we'll be back to acting out the nativity and I couldn't be more excited about it.  Afterward, the babies opened their pajamas and us kids got our Christmas book from my mom.  Parker didn't get into it at all and in fact we had to give him a pacifier to try to coax him into sitting still for a picture and pretending like he was into his gift at all.  So what if his pajamas were the Christmas pajamas Gavin got on his first Christmas.

 

Christmas morning was great. We slept until Parker woke up at 7:30. Lindsey and Jace got to our house around 9:30 and we had breakfast and then we started opening presents around 10:30. We have to enjoy this for a few more years before we have children that just can't wait for Christmas morning.  We received this Santa outfit at a shower and I was sure it would be so huge still at Christmas but turns out it barely fit him. It was kind of ridiculous but we just couldn't resist it for a few hours. We got Parker two toys from a garage sale for 25 cents a piece. Steal of a deal.  We also got him a Curious George book and then let the grandparents take care of the rest.  He has seriously loved all that he got as evidenced by the smiles, laughing, and hours of entertainment he has had so far. I think some of the other highlights were Brent's root beer gift and his homemade apple pie.

So Christmas was great.  What was even more great was watching Parker figure out how to crawl. Like I said before, he started getting up on all fours right in the middle of December.  By Christmas he was getting up and maybe making it a hand step or two.  He would move and then fall forward on his face and lunge forward in the process. Then he'd get back up to a push up, then all fours, and then repeat the process over and over until he got what he wanted.  The week between Christmas and New Years was when he really got good.  He was getting really good and then Brent and I both worked New Years day so we missed a whole day. The next day he just started cruising all over the place without hardly falling. Now he is such a pro. I am actually really enjoying him crawling. He can get what he wants and follow us all around and is so he is really happy with his new skill. Also, as he started crawling he found doors and they are now his new favorite toy. The only problem is that now his puke is not confined to the blanket I put him on.

On December 26th, Lindsey had her baby, Grayson.  He beat out Parker at 9 lb. 11 oz. and made quite the entrance being born at home after only about 1 hour of labor.  He is so cute and getting only cuter. Kaley came down for a few days to help out and see all the boys. She was great and brought Parker even more fun toys. The only bad thing about Grayson is that he is just so little that he makes Parker look so big.

December 28th was such a great day as our friends Melissa and Chase got married at the SLC temple and had a reception at the Utah State Capitol. Couldn't be a better couple and we couldn't be happier for them. I also couldn't have been more excited for all of our friends to come to town for the wedding and to be able to show Parker off a little bit. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures because I had my hands full with the babe but I have such great memories in my head and these two priceless pictures.

Then this past weekend we had some fun outdoors.  We hiked up an icy Holbrook Canyon with my mom.  There were only a few incidents involving falling face forward into the snow. Then we spent an evening in Midway at the Ice Castles with Stacie and Jared and Asher. Pretty cool. It would be even cooler if we could build our own ice castles in our backyard. As were driving up to Midway I was reminded why I love Utah. We suffer through some cold long winters and nasty nasty inversions, but there is nothing quite like a clear bright blue Utah sky with snow capped mountains in the back ground. I especially loved it when we came around into the valley that Midway sits in and saw the backside of Timp as the sun was setting. You can't beat it. 

And finally, Brent took Parker on an adventure just a couple of days ago to hike Mueller Park. I really hope he loves hiking this much when he gets older.

So there it is. So so so so long. At least I loved it.