Family Pictures Galore

I know I've been so sloooow with updating the blog, but life is crazy crazy busy right now. We moved out of our apartment and are in the process of buying a house, so we moved in with Brett's parents for a few weeks until things are finalized! We are so excited for the changes and to be out of our 3rd story apartment (or our tree house as Brett called it). We are definitely ready for a home!

I have more Hawaii photos to post, but right now I want to post the pictures from our Christmas Card photo shoot with Denae. We love them~ hope you do to!

What really goes on at the photo shoot- trying to convince Parker to take one last picture :)

paradise part 1

 This year we got to tag along with Brett's parents and some of his siblings to Hawaii. Brett's dad was speaking at a business forum at BYU-Hawaii- so we all used it as an excuse to go! 

It was so much fun and such a relaxing trip. It was even more relaxing because Parker didn't come :)

He stayed home with my parents and was so happy to do so! 

These pictures are in no particular order- but you still get the idea 

 The Polynesian Cultural Center was awesome. Learning about all the island cultures was so fun. Brett even did a little Fijian dancing!

 So did his dad and brothers :)

This was our backyard of the house we rented. It was on the north shore of Oahu, and it had a perfect beach in the back! So dreamy

the men- with landon acting out how he got crushed by a wave

we hiked Waimea falls. the waterfall was a little weak but we still swam in the water

Denae & I in our matching 10k race t-shirts.

we went to church on the north shore- such a cute ward

these are Portuguese donuts called masladas. They are delicious!! You can get them filled with custard or chocolate, or plain. They are delicious. Brett loved them because he says they are exactly like something he had on his mission in Chile, now he wants me to learn to make them ;)

we ate so deliciously while we were in hawaii- this was one of my favorite meals though, at a small cafe. It was crab cakes with the best asparagus I've ever had. At one point I dropped a piece of the asparagus on the floor and I was seriously contemplating picking it up and eating it, until Denae and Jill talked me out of it!

we were to late in the day for a full tour of pearl harbor, but we were still able to walk around and see lots of things there.

we got shaved ice allllll the time! Denae has a blackmail photo of me- in the car at 10 am, parked in the local town, eating shave ice all by myself. That's right, I drove by myself into town and got myself some shave ice. It was the best!

(btw- pictures from here on out are courtesy of Denae :)

the girls at the beach

(even though I look pregnant in this picture, I am not :)

Boogie boarding was so much fun! Denae and I were trying to "keep up with guys" and out- do them. I think we succeeded.

The guys favorite thing: trying not to die from crashing waves, this can cause wives/mothers serious worries

This was at a cool little island called goat island. And you actually wade out to the island, you can walk out there! It was fun and at points the water was up to my waist!

This is the back of house we rented

And this is the front, it was so cute!

More pictures to come

Halloween and moving on....

hApPy hALLoWeEn!! 

ok, glad that's over and done with. There's my halloween post. :)

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I completely dislike halloween, there are a few things I like about it- such as; dressing my baby up in an adorable costume that he can barely walk in & eating all the candy people give to my baby at the ward trunk-or-treat, and well... that's about it.

I'm not a huge fan of dressing up and I dislike anything remotely scary so count me out for any haunted houses or scary movies.- see? It's just not my thing. 

But I do like when Oct. 31 comes, because it means Nov. 1 is the next day! 

My favorite time of the year, christmas music will soon be coming, and a feast of yummy comfort food in a few weeks. Then Christmas trees, and the Christmas lights....ok, I'm getting a little ahead of myself! 

But for now, here are a few pictures from recent weeks. 

Parker enjoying the beater from the cookie batter for the first time

 This is when he discovered if he sucked/chewed on the 3 musketeers wrapper long enough, good stuff will eventually come out. a little gross, I know

 

This boy loves to shop with his mom :)

 In his new suspenders

Parker and his cousins, Miles & Mack were a Lion, Tiger & Bear Oh My! This year

we loved it. So much in fact that we dragged them to a pumpkin patch so Denae could do a little photo shoot with them. It went pretty good, as you can imagine there were lots of distractions for the babies, like goats, pigs, other kids wanting to get in the pictures and us moms yelling at the stranger kids to get out of our precious "limited cooperating time" pictures! Ya know, the usual stuff like that :)

 Airplanes are realllllly cool

Chad & Julie also did a fun FHE (Family Haunted Evening) the Monday before Halloween, with super cute decor, yummy food and fun games! Thanks guys! Of course, I didn't take pictures of any of that because I was at the food table most of the night. Seriously. But Denae did a fun post with more pictures!

Hope you had a good Halloween! 

Now, onto November!

15 months

My little Parker is 15 months today!!

Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday he was barely sitting up and just learning to hold things. 

But these past 15 months have been so fun to see him grow and develop his own little opinions and personality. Here are some of my favorite things about my little man at 15 months:

• As I've said before he loves to dance. He will dance to anything, and he bends his little knees and spins in circles. Sometimes he shakes his arms and tries to sing along. We love it. 
• He has a little defiant streak- he loves to try to touch the TV as brett is telling him not to. He loves to shake this floor lamp we have back and forth while we run over (scared its going to fall on him!) But most of the time his stubbornness and defiance makes us laugh.
• He loooves these Gerber baby "meat sticks"- he can eat those all day long. Brett thinks they smell like wet cat food, and they kind of do but Parker loves them so we can't take them away!
• He's still the toughest little guy I've ever seen. He falls, bumps his head, his mouth, his nose...and just gets up and keeps going with barely a second thought. (I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!)
• He has a fake cry that is sooo adorable
• He can say the noises of a cow, dog, kitty cat, chicken, monkey, pig, sheep, and horse.
• He can point to his ear, nose, hair, eye, mouth, teeth and his 'sexy body'- haha he just rubs his belly up and down.
• He can open the front door all by himself, it's always locked now. 
• He stands up in his crib and talks and yells until we come get him.
• At night we say, 'go to your room for your bottle' and he'll lead us in, then he'll close the door and walk over to the rocker ready for his bottle. So sweet.
• He goes down for naps and to sleep at night without a peep. He sleeps 7pm-7am. And takes two naps a day, usually 1 1/2-2 hours each. 
• Whenever he sees a picture of Mickey Mouse or Elmo he says, "awwww"

I know that's a long list, sorry! :)