Cosmo and Hailey

So a lot has happened in the weeks following Thanksgiving, so much so, that I'm not sure where to start. We got puppies, we graduated college, decorated for Christmas, and suffered the loss of my Grandpa Tetley after he passed away. SInce I don't have the pictures from graduation yet, this post will focus on the happiness/ craziness of having a 17 month old and two 8 week old puppies. Oh so much fun!

To start the story off- Tyler and I are CRAZY! We never seem to do anything normally. We had planned and prepared to get parker ONE puppy for Christmas and yet here I find myself chasing two around the house. Basically we ran across these puppies in the usual "American Kennel Club" selling location outside Walmart on a very cold and blistery Saturday afternoon. They were the only two left and they were shivering uncontrollably. We immediately fell in love but we were trying to wait until it got closer to Christmas before actually buying, so we drove away. About a minute down the road, we started feeling really sorry for those poor shivering puppies so we turned around an bought both to rescue them! We got a 2-for-1 kind of deal and they are papered, pure-bred yellow labs, one boy who became Cosmo (after BYU's mascot) and one girl, Hailey (after Hailey, Idaho).

They love to chase Parker around the house.

And Parker loves to sit in their kennel- I promise I did not put him in there :)

Parker thinks we bought him a couple of really warm and soft pillows.

The rest of these pictures are from one of my favorite moments! Parker insisted we go outside in the snow one morning. His jacket was in the dryer after being washed, so I dressed him in one of Jake's hand-me down, and way too big for Parker might I add, BYU sweat shirt. It made a nice little snuggie along with mittens and snow boots. Then I spent a half hour playing with Parker and the puppies in the snow. It was so funny! And I couldn't get any of them to come inside despite the chilly weather and snow that was still falling. It was a blast.

Family Pictures

My friend Suzie took some awesome pictures for us last week and I just wanted to thank her one more time! Check out her blog to see more of her great work! Suzettekoskellaphotography.blogspot.com

A Lot To Be Thankful For

One thing is for sure... we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! We have been blessed with so much. I personally am so grateful for my family- my wonderful husband and my adorable little boy as well as my mom and dad and brother and sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles... Love you guys all so much! I am also thankful for all of Tyler's family and their love! Most importantly I am thankful for the true gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Without the Savior, the atonement and eternal families, I would be lost in this world! And from that knowledge comes so many more blessing and if I were to list them all you would all stop reading right about now because it would go on forever!

To celebrate Thanksgiving this year we went to my grandparent's in Idaho Falls and enjoyed lots of great food! And of course we had our annual Turkey Bowl- our family football game. My dad, Jake, Tyler and I played against Kristen, my uncle and my cousins Kaden and Skylar.... and the Pooligans (Pooleys+Milligans) WON!! Nice work team! Tyler and I have also initiated the tradition of taking Kristen, Jake and my cousins to a movie- This year we wanted to see Christmas Carol but is was sold out :( so we saw Planet 51 and honestly it wasn't too impressive but we still had fun!

Here are some pictures:

Parker helping mommy make pre-Thanksgiving treats before we left for IF.

"Here Dad, have some of my turkey!"

Thankful for my husband!

Having too much fun with Aunt Kristen

My sister and cousin Skylar

My little cousins Carly and Kami- they are so fun!

The Rice Women- Mom, Aunt Andrea and Grandma!

Yum Yum at the kid's table

Carly loves Parker and pretty much followed him around the whole time we were there. I think he enjoyed the attention!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Love Tyler, Natalie and Parker

Way To Go Husband!

Well first of all in Pooley news, Tyler is now officially licensed as an appraiser! YYYAAAAYYY! He took his final test and passed with flying colors! We are so proud of him and thankful for how hard he works to take care of us. We are very lucky to have him! Not to mention how much fun we have with him. WE LOVE YOU BABE!! Parker and I made a congratulatory sign with streamers... unfortunately 3 of the 5 streamers were missing just 5 minutes after I hung the sign up... Wonder what little boy ran off with them? Who knows?

In other exciting Pooley news, Jay, Tyler's brother, received his mission call and will be serving in the Porto Allegre (sp?) Brazil mission. We are so excited for him! He leaves in March- Way to go Jay!

Halloween was lots of fun. We were very busy both Friday and Saturday. Friday Parker and I went to Grandma Milligan's preschool for her awesome halloween party! Parker had so much fun running around to all the activities with all of the little kids. Then we picked up Tyler and went to our ward Halloween party which was also fun!

Our little peter PARKER (yes that is where we got his name).

Unfortunately Tyler and I didn't have time to dress up before the party but Parker made up for us :)

Hanging out with our friends Laura and Jack

Tyler's family came to our house on Halloween for some dinner and trick-or-treating. It was so fun to take Parker around our neighborhood for his first time trick-or-treating- he loved it! Julia, Isaac, and Cece had a lot of fun too and were dressed up in great costumes.

A couple weeks ago my roommate from BYU and great friend Laura came to visit with her little baby Rachel. It was so fun to see them! We are thankful they braved the long drive from Provo to come hang out with our crazy family. Love you guys!

And here is my little rug rat! He is still the funniest little thing- changing so much everyday! He is full of new words and faces. He loves to show-off. He has a lot of his dad's performing personality in him- he likes to drag his little guitar out and strum it while dancing and singing, such a little rock star.

As for me... I have been working on my preceptorship on the postpartum floor at St. Lukes and I LOVE it! It is so much fun, not to mention I get to hang out with babies all day :) I love it because for the most part you are surrounded by happiness- new mom's and little spirits who were just in the presence of our Heavenly Father. It is neat to be a part of that everyday. I think I have decided that I would love to do this as a nurse, unfortunately finding a part time job in this area is almost impossible so I am just soaking up every minute of it and looking forward to graduating and spending all my free time with Parker! We will see what the future holds...

Pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins!

We spent a full day carving pumpkins with our families. We had so much fun! Here are some pictures from the adventures:

Parker is very excited about "pumpas"

Tyler became the designated carver

Isaac, Julia and Cece cleaning out their pumpkins... Eeew!

Parker wanted to help his Aunt Cece out.

Pumpkin guts fight. He totally deserved that one!

Parker playing with Boots, that is the friendliest cat I've ever seen. He loves Parker and even lets Parker pick him up and carry him around, which he does all the time!

We can't even carve pumpkins with out our BYU pride shining through. Tyler was the amazing artist behind our Cosmo pumpkin and Jake and I worked on the Y pumpkin.

Parker loves Grandpa Milligan's BBQ ribs! Yum!

Jake and Tyler doing the dirty work.

Even my mom and dad wanted in on the fun.

Parker stirring up the pumpkin guts.

You probably can't tell that I really love Halloween can you? I already have two posts on the holiday and that probably won't be the last. It is such a fun holiday!

Pumpkin Patch

I love pumpkin patches. Growing up in California, my family went every year to Bishop's pumpkin farm in Wheatland, Ca. It was my favorite place in the whole world! And it had amazing food, carmel apples, cookies, etc... It brings back such happy memories and every fall I wish I could go back. So, I decided that I want pumpkin patches (even though I have yet to find one as cool as Bishop's) to be a family tradition of ours. Here are a few pictures from our pumpkin patch visit to Linder Farms this year.

Petting zoo

My boys

The hay ride- it was too bright :)

Parker and Tyler showing off their pumpkin

"Don't worry Mom and Dad, I got these pumpkins!"

Couldn't get him to smile unfortunately.

It was so cute to see Parker get excited and toddle around looking at the pumpkins. He now points at the ones we brought home and says "Bumbin". Melts my heart!

After the pumpkin patch we watched another sad BYU game with my family and some of their friends. We still love out cougars!

Fall is my favorite season!!