How did this happen???

As July approaches so very quickly, I can't help but wonder how two years could have flown by so fast! Especially after spending the other day sorting through the 4,000 pictures (yes literally 4,000 pictures- I'm a little obsessed with the camera) on our computer and finding these:

How does this

(shortly after birth)

Turn into this

(On his first birthday)

And then turn into this

(Memorial Day)

The little stinker gets cuter everyday! And I can't believe I'm going to have a two-year-old on my hands pretty soon. But this new two-year-old personality is pretty fun, nothing "terrible" about it.... yet!

On another note, I've been thinking about trials. We all have them, right? We have been faced with some lately and even though I think I've said the phrase "I'm giving up!" several times these past couple weeks, I know this too shall pass. And to be quite honest I am thankful for these trials because I know I can handle them. I would take these over other trials any day. I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband who is full of faith and can help drag me through the rough times (yes sometimes he has to drag me, ha ha) and to have such wonderful parents to support us and help as much as they can without impeding on our learning experience. And of course for the adorable boy who keeps me smiling all day long and a beautiful little spirit headed to our family in just a few weeks ( 7 1/2 to be exact :) Life is great and our Savior is with us every step of the way. All that is left to do is endure and enjoy.

Father's Day

Three posts in one day! This one is extra special because it's about Father's Day! And I am so blessed to have an amazing dad and an amazing daddy to my children!

Here are some of the reasons Parker loves his Daddy:

He is a great example to him

He loves Mommy and Parker very much!

He works very hard to take care of us

He is never too busy or too tired to play with Parker

He loves to teach parker new things

He loves to play soccer and and football with Parker in our living room

He lets Parker play his guitar with him

He gives Parker blessings when he is sick (which has been a lot lately)

He eats pop-cicles on the porch with us

He entertains and chases after Parker all of church so Mom can do her calling

He watches Playhouse Disney in our room in the mornings with Parker while he gets ready for work

He is just so much fun and shows us and tells us he loves us every day!

WE LOVE YOU DADDY!!

Parker is blessed with wonderful Grandpas as well! Here is where Parker ended up Father's Day night:

Crashed in my dad's arms in the rocking chair. I am especially thankful for my dad this year because not only has he been a wonderful father to me all my life, he is also a wonderful father to Tyler. They get along really well and spend a lot of time together golfing and talking about politics, etc. They even went on a road trip together. He is also a wonderful Grandpa to Parker. We love him very much!

And Grandpa Pooley always has a special treat for Parker when we go to visit Tyler at work. You can tell he loves Parker so much and Parker loves to see him! We are grateful for his love too!

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful Dads!

Odds and Ends

Just a few random thoughts:

1. My new favorite word of Parker's is Pop-cicle. However, he does not pronounce it even remotely close to pop-cicle. It is Poqu-a-ways. It took me a while to figure out what he was saying but I figured it out when he went to our freezer and pointed asking to eat a poqu-a-way outside. So dang cute! The other night he even said it in his sleep. Melt my heart like a popcicle :)

2. Yesterday marked two months left til my due date. Yay! I can't decide if I want these last two months to go by fast or slow. I can't wait to get her here so I can meet her and see her beautiful little face. On the other hand... I am nowhere near ready for her. We have all of the essential baby stuff from Parker but we have no girly clothes, blankets, etc. Plus I am not sure I am mentally and physically prepared for having two children- but that may never happen so bring it on!

3. We do have the blanket for baby's crib- It's the one I made- my big sewing project I mentioned earlier. I finally took a picture. All of you seamstresses out there would laugh at my work if you could see it up close but I think it will keep her warm which is all a blanket is intended for right?

4. Parker has his very own bed! We set it up last night and he slept in it all night long! Woo hoo! Here's to hoping every night from here on out goes that well. My Grandma is making him an adorable quilt with animals on it to go on his bed so when that gets here I'll have to post a picture.

5. I got to go to the temple with my mom Saturday morning. We went really early but it was so great to spend time in the temple with her. We both felt we needed a special trip and special it was. I love her and I love the temple!

6. The unknown: Our lease in this house is up in August- not great timing on our part considering our baby is due in August as well. So now we are faced with the decision of WHAT NEXT? Big question because it could be answered in so many different ways: see if we can extend our lease, move out but stay in Eagle, look into buying a house, move far away and start a new adventure. Who knows? But you can bet I'll be losing a lot of much needed sleep the next few months over it.

Montana

Tyler had some work to do in Montana a couple weeks ago so Parker and I decided to go along for an adventure. Our adventure consisted of a total of 24 hours in the car over the space of three days! It was a lot of driving but we saw some pretty scenery and had tons of fun just enjoying time together. Here is what the trip consisted of:

Day 1: We drove to Idaho Falls, visited my Grandma and Grandpa Rice, then went to my uncle and aunt's house for dinner and visited with them and my Grandma Tetley. Stayed the night in their basement- my cousin even gave up her room for us which was so nice!

Parker enjoying Aunt Missie's Ribs! Yum- the kid loves ribs!

Day 2: Got some donuts for breakfast and headed for Montana. Drove through Island Park, ID- very beautiful! Drove through Bozeman, MT- rainy but very green and pretty. Kept driving and driving and driving until we reached Hobson, MT, one of the smallest towns I've ever been to. It had two restaurants/bars, one of which Tyler is appraising, a library, a school, a post office, a general store and some houses... There wasn't even a gas station or anywhere to use the restroom.

After Hobson we drove to the county offices in Stanford, MT. Then we drove all the way back to Bozeman (3 hrs or so) back to the hotel. We ate dinner, swam in the pool at our hotel and slept!

Day 3: We decided to take the long way home so we could drive through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, WY.

We hoped to see some fun wildlife in Yellowstone.

Turns out, all we saw was a bunch of these....

Not too exciting but we did see some beautiful scenery such as this:

Plus I was entertained by these two:

And we had a lot of fun exploring.

Between Yellowstone and Jackson we saw these:

The Teton Mountains. Very pretty!

In Jackson Hole we stopped and ate dinner at Sidewinders. It was so good! Then we drove aaaaaalllll the way back to Eagle. Little Parker was such a trooper. He was content riding around, looking at books, playing with his cars, singing some songs and watching movies the whole way. We are glad we went on the adventure with Dad!

24

So I turned 24 on May 30... getting so old :) That isn't the exciting part though, the really exciting part is that I had a fantastic weekend with my family! And on top of that, Kim Lewis, now Kim Hawkes, my best friend for as long as I can remember, came to visit with her family from Logan. We were so excited to have them! Parker and Kim's little boy Caiden got along really well and Tyler and her husband Greg get along great too so it was a blast. My sister Kristen, Kim, and I have so many fun memories growing up together and we could spend hours talking (and we did! Stayed up til 4:30 am the first night!) I loved having both of my sisters for my birthday :) Tyler, my family, and Kim's family made this birthday extra special and I am so grateful for them.

Kim and I and our silly boys!

Parker and his new buddy Caiden

Another birthday celebration... Tyler's sister Chelsea finally had her baby girl Lucy. She is adorable and we are super happy for their family!

Baby Lucy