Baby Parker!

Finally our new addition has arrived in our family. Parker was born Mar. 19th at 12:30am. He weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 22 1/4 inches long. He has quite a bit of light brown hair and has massive hands and skis for feet. He has already brought great joy into our home. We are so glad to have added him to our little family. Brandon has really enjoyed being with him for the small amount of time he has been able to be here. Our good friends Kim and Brandon (Big B.) watched Little B. for the night and Kim is helping watch him today so we can catch up on some much needed sleep. Here are some of the pictures we have so far, more to come as life goes on.

Hide n Seek

Before

Not too long ago Brandon and I were at my mom's and I was putting him down for a nap in the spare room. I needed to change his diaper and realized I didn't have one downstairs with me, so I told Brandon to wait there and I'd run get a diaper. I came back down and he was nowhere to be seen. I noticed where he was and left the room as quietly as I could holding back my laughter to run upstairs and grab the camera. When I came back downstairs I took a picture and then said, "Where's Brandon?" He poked his head out from under the pillow. He is so silly sometimes. We love him to death!!!

After

Zoo Adventure

When Ben's brother Ryan got home from his mission we went to the airport to pick him up. Beforehand we went to the zoo. It was nice and cold and snowy during the beginning, but warmed up a little as the day went on. Brandon's favorite animal lately is a "neck" or Giraffe. He knows they are called giraffes but prefers the name "neck". This face is awesome!

The Leopard is the most reliable animal for us. It is always there pacing the window and Brandon loves it. He chased it back and forth for quite awhile.

Big Boy!

A couple of days ago we put Brandon in a big boy bed. He really thinks that it is the best thing ever. The first night I was super nervous because I didn't want to be up all night putting him back in bed. To my superb delight he only got up at 8:30 or 9:00 pm while Ben and I were still awake. We got him a drink and he went back to bed and stayed there until about 6:45 am. I was out sleeping in the rocking chair in the living room because it has been more comfortable and Brandon came out and very happily said "Good Morning". I got up and told him it wasn't quite morning and had him go back to sleep which he did for an half hour and then was up again. The hardest part has been nap time which he hasn't stayed in bed for yet. Hopefully he will get the hang of it all. He sure likes being a big boy.

Pinball Master

Recently we obtained some pinball machines from Ben's parents and have added them to our gaming collection in our basement. Usually Ben, who has had mucho more practice than me, beats me! But recently I have been gaining ground on him and have become somewhat of a pinball master! I got super lucky the other night and even made the GRAND CHAMPION spot! It's hard to read the numbers but I scored 846,087,760. I couldn't even believe it!

Sledding Adventures

Sledding

Ben, Brandon, and I went sledding with my family on Saturday. My brother and his family (Brittainey, Caitlin, Jessen, and Tylee) came out and went with us as well. We had a lot of fun. We went up near the mountains and found a good hill to slide down. Ben's family let us borrow some sledding tubes and my family brought runner sleds. Caitlin and Crystal loved to ride down on the tubes. Caitlin even went and helped Ben make their own trail which was a lot of fun. I don't think I've been sledding in so long, but it was so much fun! Brandon liked getting pulled up the hill on the tube and hanging out in the tube at the top, but didn't much like going down and getting snow in his face! All in all we had a great time!!!

Christmas

Brandon was so much fun this year for Christmas. He really understood about what was happening and was excited about it. We go up around 7:30 or 8:00 and all went into the living room. Brandon got a Basketball hoop from Santa and played with that for awhile. While he played we made our traditional Christmas blueberry muffins and then finished opening our presents. Brandon was so funny opening presents. He opened a shirt that had a tractor on it and he said "Oh a tractor" even before he had it opened enough to see it. Then he opened a pair of pants and held them up to his face and said, "Oh...cute". I don't know what he was talking about....pants?? cute?? to a 2 year old?? It was funny. The best one of all was that I wrapped a truck in an old potty box and when he opened it he was like, "Oh, a toilet!!" and he was so excited that he opened a toilet. I had to tell him that his present was inside of the potty box. So Funny!!

After we finished doing things at our house we went over to my parents to open some presents with them and then played games with them most of the day. During the evening we went to Ben's family's house and ate dinner with them, opened presents, and played games. It was a very eventful day!

Keeping up with the bloggers

Boy I sure do have a hard time keeping up on this blogging stuff. I have a bunch of fun things to put on here, but due to lack of my photos it's always hard to want to add anything.

Ben, Brandon, me and most of my family went on a Train ride on Ben's birthday (not FOR Ben's birthday mind you) called the Polar Express. The kids get to dress in their pj's and you get to ride the train to "the north pole". On the ride you get served hot chocolate and cookies by elves and read The Polar Express. When you finally get to the north pole Santa gets on the train and gives all the kids a bell.
Brandon had so much fun. He couldn't wait to ride the train for "Daddy's party". He thought for sure we were going on the train for a birthday party for daddy. He loved to sit by Caitlin, Jessen, and Grandma, and always wanted to have Tylee sitting with him. It was lots of fun.

The next day Ben and I proceeded with our shopping for a new car, which we had done the day before and met everyone at the train. We eventually found a car that we both really liked. (Pictures eventually) And you know car dealerships....it took us forever to get out of there. But we went home fighting over who got to drive it ;) Just kidding. I drove part of the way and then let Ben drive the rest of the way home, and boy did he smoke me. I couldn't even keep up with him. It is a silver 04 Toyota 4runner.

I'm sure there is something else I've forgotten to update but this will do for now! Hopefully I can get into a better jive.

Tagged again (thrice)

I'm not very quick about responding to these tags. But here they are.

8 Favorite TV Shows
-Top Chef
-Criminal Minds
-Charmed
-Dancing with the Stars
-The Biggest Loser
-CSI
-The Office
-CSI- New York
-Eleventh Hour

8 Favorite Restaurants
-Hollow Moon Cafe
-Ruby Tuesday
-Cafe Sabor
-Olive Garden
-Canton City
-Ming's Garden
-Village Inn
-Subway

8 Things I Did Yesterday
-Had a birthday party for Crystal
-Changed diapers
-Watched BYU football
-Made a cake
-Wrapped presents
-Cooked dinner
-Set up a Christmas Village with Ben
-Cleaned up toys

8 Things On My Wish List
-A vacation almost anywhere
-A pampered chef measuring thing
-New clothes that fit my ever expanding body
-Be debt-free
-Get in shape
-Find time to have friends over for games
-Decide on a name for the baby
-Have some money to eat out

8 Things To Look Forward To
-Thanksgiving
-Christmas
-Disneyland with my family next year
-My new baby boy in March
-Ben's semester of school to be over
-Getting a new car
-BYU/Utah football game
-Bed


2nd Tag: Post a picture that is in your 4th picture folder 4th image over.
I suppose I'll tag Emily, Brittainey, Mell, and Amy (Sorry guys I don't have many to tag) ;)

This is actually a wedding announcement picture. My parents went up to the mountains with us and we took some pictures. This was one that we used.

Tag #3

Quirks:
1. I can't stand to wear shoes very long. As soon as I get in the house I have to take them off.
2. When I wash the dishes I always have to wash in the right sink, rinse in the left, and always in a particular order.
3. I'm very cluttery, but I hate when things are all cluttered around so I feel like I'm always cleaning.
4. I grind my teeth when I sleep.
5. I almost always eat cereal for breakfast. It's easy and I like the other breakfast foods for dinner anyway.
6. (this one is cheating because it's about Ben) He is a perfectionist. We set up a Christmas Village the other day (he loves to do that) and he just kept fixing things after I thought it looked amazing.

Halloween and Birthday!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some of the cute Halloween pictures that we got of almost all of the grandkids. My cute little bat wouldn't sit still very long and so in the picture with "everyone" we are missing Taylor in her cute fairy costume. Both Brandon and Jessen were bats so that was fun. I made Ben a batman costume and I was a simple cat.

Brandon thought that his birthday party was lots of fun. We had Ben's family, my family, and our friends Kim and Brandon (Big B) over. Brandon loved everyone singing to him, and he would have let us do it over and over again.
While we were singing Brandon thought he needed to fold his arms!
And then he would clap afterward and say, "Sing birthday again"!

This is my cute niece Taylor. We decided she needed a party hat too!

Finally!

I'm such a procrastinator and I never feel the need to run in and get pictures of Brandon done professionally, mostly because I'm too busy and too cheap. I went with my mom to visit my sister Emily and we ended up going to Kiddie Kandids. Here are the cute results. (even though Brandon was super duper tired and didn't want to cooperate with the pictures at all!)

My House got Tagged!

I was supposed to do this forever ago, but the only camera I have is on my camcorder and it has been with Ben at work for who knows how long.


Kitchen Sink



Bathroom



Closet


Fridge


Favorite Room


Self Portrait



Favorite Shoes



Dream Vacation

I guess if I could go anywhere on vacation right now it would have to be San Diego. Ben and
I love it there!


I think I forgot to take pictures of the Laundry room (oops) I guess since I'm not at home I don't have to! ;)

I guess I'll tag.... Amy, Mell, & Anna! Good luck ;)

Memories

I got this off of my best friend's blog.

Here are the directions-

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together or it can be a memory with Ben or Brandon. It can be any memory that you can think of, doesn't matter.

2. Re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. Or if you don't feel like commenting you can email me if you have my email address.

Vacation

Boy how the time flies. I just can't seem to keep up on my blog. Lots of things have happened in the past little while. One weekend my mom went out to pick up my niece and nephew and they hung out for the weekend which was a lot of fun. Brandon and Jessen don't get a long super well yet, but they are still cute together. Brandon loves to swing at Grandma's house.

In the middle of July we went to a family reunion with Ben's family which was a lot of fun.

At the end of the month we went down to Las Vegas with my sister Emily and her husband, Derek. We stayed with Derek's family and they have a pool. Brandon loved to go swimming, the whole time we were there he probably swam at least once a day. We had so much fun.

While we were in Vegas we got to go to The Phantom of the Opera, which was SO good. We had amazing seats and it was spectacular. We also went to the Mirage to see the Secret Garden and Dolphin habitat, the bad part is that Ben and I forgot our camera, so we don't have any pictures of it. While we were there we walked underneath to see the dolphins swimming and Brandon said "uh...habit" (that's have it), he wanted the Dolphin so bad. When we got to the top Ben was holding Brandon over by the water and he saw the dolphins swimming and said, "in there" and tried to take off his shirt so he could go swimming with them. Very cute!

Another fun thing that happened while we were in Vegas was that Derek's dad is a police officer and works special events when they need him to. He was working a Toby Keith concert and called and said that he could get us in. Emily said that she would watch Brandon so Ben and I went with Derek's mom and sister. It was a lot of fun. While we were gone Brandon got to go swimming yet again with Derek.

After Vegas Ben and I went to Cedar City to watch a play at the Shakespearean Festival. Ben took a Film/Drama class and got to go to 3 different plays there and really wanted me to get to watch "The Taming of the Shrew", so on our way back we went. It was a really good play.
This July has been really full of fun things to do!

Tagged!?!?!

Well darn the luck, I have been Tagged...

A) Four places I visit over and over:
1. My Mom's
2. Provo
3. Salt Lake City
4. Walmart

B) Four people who email me (regularly):
1. Mell
2. Amy
3. ???
4. ????

C) Four places I like to eat:
1. Canton City
2. Ruby Tuesday
3. Subway
4. Olive Garden

D) Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. San Diego
2. Mexico
3. Europe
4. Where I'm at isn't actually too bad, I'm at a KOA in Cedar City with Ben

E) Four TV shows I would watch over and over:
1. Blue's clues (I'm getting attached, since Brandon likes it so much)
2. The Office
3. Criminal Minds
4. The Mole

F) Four People I'm tagging:
I'm ending this tag right here! ;)