Ducks!

We took Parker to the Nature Park to feed the ducks. He loved it! It was a lot of fun.

Parker says "ducky" now :-)

The biggest, fattest goose in the group was the only one brave enough to eat out of Tyler's hand. I guess that is why he is the biggest and fattest!

Chasing the duckies around!

Fun times with the Leders :-)

I have finally sucked it up enough to agree to have weekly dates without Parker. It has taken me a while, but I am finally able to be away from him without worrying--too much. :-)

We made a deal with Cherie and Cody that we would babysit for them on Friday nights if they babysit for us on Saturday night. We are SO bummed that we didn't start this earlier! It has been two straight weeks of dates with my hubby, and we LOVE IT!

We got some fun pictures on Friday of Parky playing with his adorable cousins.

Wee! GO BEN!!
Ben swinging like a big boy! He loved it :-)

My all-time favorite picture of these two!

Perfect Day

Saturday was the most perfect day. We decided to go hike "R" Mountain (Menan Butte) since it was supposed to be so warm...and it was! We left at 10:30 for the buttes. It was the most perfect weather--70 degrees with a light breeze. The hike was awesome! It was my first time hiking around the rim of the old volcano. Both of us have hiked the butte a couple of times, but never together. Tyler hiked with Parky on his back, while I carried the water and snacks on mine. :-) It was so beautiful and so much fun.

King of the Butte!

Our Little Family :-)

Panoramic view of the valley (far left is the crater)

my boys :-)

Family picture--shadow style

View of Rexburg from the top of the butte.

We are so grateful that the weather has been so good lately! Except that as I am writing this it is RAINING/SNOWING! WHAT?!? Oh well, these days are kinda fun too.

The rest of the day was spent playing outside with Parker, and then a wonderful date with my hubby. We decided that since we broke the bank last week on our date, that this week we would just enjoy the weather and play at the park. We threw the football a couple times and realized that we were too exhausted for this sorta thing. We ended up back at the movie theater. This time we saw "This Means War"--a hilarious, but crude movie. We would LOVE to own it---edited. :-) It was such a perfect day!!

Plus...I got a sunburn! WooHoo!!!

Parker's Decision

Every time we have a moment to talk around here it always turns to the subject of moving. It is so hard because we know that we are moving, but we have no idea where yet. Someone just needs to offer Tyler a job already! Since Parker is great at pointing to what he wants, I had this idea to have Parker pick where we should move. So I drew some awful pictures and had him pick. :-)

Tough decisions!!!

This was his order of preferences: (I put Canada in there as a joke. Sorry Nana and Papa. Maybe some day.)

1. Salt Lake City

2. Canada

3. Oregon

4. Florida

5. New Mexico

What is funny about it is that his preferences are almost identical to mine. Almost. For some reason I would really love to go to SLC. Although I despise a lot of things about Utah, the fact that I want to move there is answer enough (for me) that that's where we need to go. Who knows though. Tyler wouldn't even be able to apply to SLC until April 27th. That's what is holding us back. But I would love to be around Kody, Chelsea, Chris, Jean, and Connor! I am pretty sure that is why I am ok with UTAH.

If you notice in the SLC picture, Parker poked a hole through Uncle Kody's face in the picture. HAHA! He does love you. I promise ;-) Tyler laughed so stinkin hard when he saw that. Like father-like son, I guess.

Tyler sticking his tongue through (what used to be) Kody's face.

Words!

I started a list of Parkers vocabulary a while back and I am amazed at how much it has grown lately. It started out at about 10, and has grown to about 25! I wanted to brag up my little man a little bit, and share with you the words we get to hear him say.

1. Mom, Mama*

2. Dad, Dada*

3. Oh, Wow!* (I love this one!)

4. Bye Bye (his little wave that goes along with it is adorable)

5. Hi, Hello

6. Nice

7. Ball**

8. Truck

9. Nana

10. Gamma

11. Ow

12. That

13. No*

14. Thank you

15. Here ya go

16. Tucker (Grandma and Grandpa's dog)

17. Doggy

18. Uh-oh* (He says this ANY time we/he drops something on the floor. He keeps saying it until you pick it up. SO cute!)

19. Cookie* (He calls ANYTHING he likes to eat 'cookies')

20. Juice

21. Milk

22. Purple (He learned purple and blue in like 5 minutes one night.)

23. Blue

24. You're welcome

25. Wee! (He says this when he goes down the slide. His new favorite. He loves trying to walk up the slides.)

26. Eye (He says this and points to your eye)

27. I do!

I put stars next to the words that he says most often. We just love his little voice. It is so fun. He definitely knows when you are asking him a question. He almost always answers "no," but sometimes will nod his head. He doesn't know 'yes' yet, but he's definitely got the nod down. Last night Tyler was feeding him some macaroni and cheese. He asked him if he liked it (not really expecting an answer), and Parkers eyes got all big and he started nodding his head. Enough that he kept hitting his head on the back of the highchair. It was adorable. I love that he can answer questions now. "Ball" got two stars because that is his absolute favorite right now. He can point out a ball anywhere. I usually have to search for what he is talking about. It amazes me how well he can find balls. I have to explain the story with "I do!". Yesterday I asked Parker if he wanted to go play outside. He was standing by the front door all dressed and ready. His reply? "I do!" He said it over and over again. Tyler and I just stared at each other in amazement. So proud of him!

Now for some pictures: Playing with cousin Benny last night...

Fun Craft!

I found an idea on pinterest that I just HAD to try. It is really easy. All you do is:

--Get some crayons. I got a box of 64, and I used most of them. I took the blacks and browns out. The number of crayons that you use depends on the size of your canvas.
--Get a canvas. I had a larger canvas already.
--Align the crayons in whatever order you want, and hot glue them to the top of the canvas.
--Get something to put under your canvas. I needed about 3 garbage bags--it tends to spray every which way.
--Prop the canvas up against something and take a blow dryer to it. As it heats up, the crayons will start to melt and run down.
It's a really easy project that looks GREAT when you are done. I really want to do another one. The great thing about this project is that no two will look the same. I can't wait to decorate with this in Parker's next room!!

The finished product:

I LOVE it!

Parker snuck away with some of my extra crayons. I found him lounging under his sled in his bedroom...eating them. haha

Parker put the stethoscope in his ears all by himself! Guess we know whose footsteps he is following in!

Daddy playing doctor.

Parker playing doctor.
Oh how I love my boys!!!

Hogle Zoo!

Last Friday, Momma Little called and invited us to come to Downey for the weekend. She wanted us to ride with her to SLC for Jean's (our sister-in-law) baby shower. Of course I was ALL for it! We quickly shifted our plans and left for Downey. We spent the night with Mom and CJ. We got to see CJ's pottery display at the high school. He is SO talented! He doesn't have too much up yet, but he has created a blog. If you would like to check it out, it is: little-works.blogspot.com. He is looking to start selling his AMAZING creations, so keep checking back. He has lots of great items that he will be posting soon. I just had to brag him up a little bit. :-) Anyways, the next morning we woke early to head for Utah by 9. Mom got a call saying that Jean was in labor. We decided to still go. We got to the hospital, and found out that the baby shower was cancelled (figures...) and that the baby was not born yet. We had no way of knowing how soon Jean would deliver, so we decided to just enjoy our day and come back to the hospital later. Mom had a great idea. She wanted to take us to the zoo! YAY! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Hogle Zoo. Parker absolutely loved it! We were all surprised that he never lost interest and never got tired. The pictures are not in order, but they are really fun.

Chilling with Momma looking at monkeys.

CJ modeling for the Mongolian camels. Tyler rode these on his mission!

The cutest monkey EVER! I so want one of these for a pet! ;-)

Parker's favorite were the elephants. Since daddy already taught him what elephants say months ago, he knew exactly what to do to imitate the elephants. This is a picture of him making that sound. :-)

Momma and baby elephant.

We had to stop at the elephants again on our way out. Such a cute picture of Parker and Daddy.

Sweet picture with the "This is the Place" monument in the background.

CJ giving me a ride in the rented stroller.

I love giraffes!

Parker dragging mommy around.


Parker riding the fun elephant that made crazy noises. He ended up getting scared when it got really loud.

Parker posing in the turtle shell on the playground.

CJ measuring up. haha

CJ and Parker displaying their monkey likenesses. haha

Parker squealing at the monkeys


Haha...Parker grabbed Tyler at the exact second that the picture was taken. Nice. ;-)

It turned out to be an amazing, fun day. It was so nice to be outside in the sun and warm weather. It was beautiful! After the zoo we went back to the hospital. We got to see baby Connor! What a perfect, beautiful little guy! Congratulations Chris and Jean! Thanks for letting us be a tiny part of your big day! And, thanks Mom for driving us to UT and taking us to the Zoo. You're the best!!!

Parker

Nana has been requesting more pictures, so here they are...

And a couple of cute videos of Parker. This first one is of Parks eating a Peppermint hug. He LOVES them! He just laughs the whole time while eating it...as you will see.

Pocatello has a really cool pet store that has a petting zoo out back. Tyler helped Parker feed the goats. He didn't really like it too much. As you can see, it was a very cold and windy day.