Soccer Star

I spent a lot of my life kicking around a soccer ball. I still remember the day I told my mom I hated ballet and wanted to play soccer! And from then on I loved that silly sport. Playing soccer was my one and only talent and hobby back then. But a few weeks ago, I acquired a new calling in life....

Soccer Mom!

And watching this kid play is even more enjoyable than actually playing myself, I must say.

And he loves it! His first game he just went for it! There are 5 kids on his team and only 3 play at a time... Parker played the whole game because he refused to come out and sit on the side lines and his coaches didn't have the heart to ruin his fun.

And he scored a goal!

But more importantly he had fun!

I am so proud of him for being a little go getter!

He occasionally likes to fall down very dramatically...

Go

Tigers!

Being a mom just gets better and better! Just when you think, "Oh I wish my kids would stop growing up!", they reach a new age filled with new kinds of fun! Like soccer games!

Oh and he has scored a total of 8 goals so far in 4 games!

But who is counting and bragging?

Me... I can't help it.

:)

A Year Ago....

A year ago I met my beautiful baby girl for the first time. And fell in love with her instantly. Rylan is such a warm and happy little spirit. She lights up any room she is in. We love this little girl and are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Rylan is quite the character. She has such a charming personality... and a feisty one as well. She does what ever she can to keep up with her brother. She wants to be involved in everyone's activity and conversation... and she is warmly welcomed by everyone :)

Happy 1st Birthday to my favorite little girl!

We had a fun little luau at the park to celebrate. She was the cutest little thing all dressed in her grass skirt. You'll have to check out the pictures on Facebook though, for some reason I can't get them to load here.

So far Rylan has:

Sat up on her own: 4 months old

Crawled:7 months old

Got her first tooth: 9months old

Walked: Just in time for her 1st birthday

She says :Momma, Dadda, Hi, Hey, More.

She loves: people (but won' let anyone hold her) and food! And also getting into trouble with Parker.

She eats: EVERYTHING

She weighs: 16.5 lbs (yes, she is tiny!)

We love you Rylan!

Is it Football Season Yet?

The other day Parker and I were out in my parent's backyard. He creativly turned a plastic hose from his toy fire truck into a stethescope and told me he was going to "doctor" us. He held one end of the hose up to his ear and the other he held against his chest.....

"Mom, my heart is saying "boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom!"

He then said it was my turn to get "doctered". He held his little fire hose stethescope up to my chest...

"What is my heart saying Parker?"

....... "Mom, It says BYU!!!!!".......

Confused I looked down to see he had placed the end of the stethesope on the Y logo of the BYU shirt I was wearing. But let's be honest, my heart most likely does beat "BYU!"

We Be Pirates!

My little Parker is three now... how does that even happen? One day I'm holding this tiny baby in my arms and the next, I'm chasing after a little boy who is dressed as a pirate and yelling "Arrgghh!" at his 3rd birthday party. It goes by too fast. Which is why I like to throw birthday parties because then at least I can look back at each year of his life and see all the ways he has grown and all the fun memories we have.

This little guy is such light to us. He loves each member of our family, our extended family and our circle of friends. Everyone around him feels that love too. He gives the best hugs and kisses. He loves nursery, he loves to talk about Jesus. He loves to say dinner prayers and every night when we read scriptures, he wants to talk about Ammon fighting the bad guys and getting the sheep back (no matter what story we are actually reading that night). He is learning so much at preschool and has made lots of friends. He loves basketball (and every time he makes a shot he yells "Jimmer!"), soccer, all Disney Pixar movies, and Little Einstein's.

To celebrate my very favorite 3 year old, we had a Pirate party.

There was a huge inflatable water slide:

Grandma lead us on a very fun treasure hunt:

And we had a whole bunch of pirates running around!

Thank you to all of our friends and family who made Parker's day so special. And a special thank you to my family for all of the help.

Happy Birthday my little pirate Parker... but try to slow down a little, you're growing up way too fast!

Oh say can you see....

Have I ever mentioned I love holidays? Well I do. Especially the 4th of July. I have this Patriotic streak in me (I can't listen to the national anthem with out crying, I have a strange impulse to hug soldiers, and I love fireworks) I love all things patriotic. Plus, throw in a little summer, family, BBQ, parades, fireworks... How could you not love this one?

Yes, I made my family dress entirely in red, white and blue.

For those of you unfamiliar with area, there are some nice little po-dunk towns on the out skirts of the city. We ventured out to one of these towns because it has the best parade in the valley. And in addition to the parade, you can enjoy the scenery of the strange-type people that live out in the country. Good ol' country folk, the kind that still wear overalls and chew on grass. No really. I saw it with my own eyes.

The parade was perfect though. Not too long, not too short. A little water, a little candy. Some horses and a marching band. Oh and the fire trucks, like 10 of them. Parker was in parade heaven!

We finished off with a BBQ with my family. And fireworks down town.

My family has a band. I wasn't invited due to my lack of any form of musical talent. Parker was however... I will admit, he has more potential rock star power than me.

How lucky am I to live in a country where I can spend a day like this? Happy Birthday America. You are the source of many joys in my life!

Dad Day

Dear Daddy,

You're a good one. And we really like having you around. You work hard, you play harder and most important, you are a good example of a worthy priesthood holder. We are especially lucky to have you.

Love, Mommy, Parker, and Rylan

Parker's Father's Day BBQ at preschool. And Daddy in all his goofball glory. we sure do love that goofball.

The "men" in my life:

I am blessed to be surrounded by wonderful fathers! My dad is also an example of an exceptional man and father. I look up to him in so many ways. Love you Dad :)

I also had the opportunity to express love to my Heavenly Father via my 2nd Father's Day talk in church ( I think its a mean joke to make me speak on Father's Day all the time, how can I not cry and embarrass myself when talking about my dad?) Tyler and I both spoke, his talk was awesome... Im sure mine could have been if you could have understood me through my blubbering. But here is to another Father's Day. Aren't we lucky to have Dads in life? I think so!

Stories...

Well, despite the weather fighting us, we have decided to continue on in summer fashion, come rain (a whole lot of it) or shine.

This weekend we went to the Eagle Fun Days parade. Parker was thrilled to see the fire trucks at the beginning, thought the tiny little girls doing cartwheels, back handsprings, and back flips were quite inspirational (as evidenced by his later attempts at back flips on to our couch... awesome) and was enthusiastic about any other truck he saw. The parade over all... kinda lame, but I mustered up an impressive amount of fake enthusiasm to keep the kids entertained and excited. Afterwards we wandered around downtown, enjoyed some cotton candy and listened to some 90's cover bands playing at the gazebo. We had quite a bit of fun until later that day we realized the stroller was not as sufficient of a sun shield as we hoped and poor Rylan was as pink as a tomato :(

Waiting for the parade.

Waiting and waiting for that darn parade.

Rylan has her very own face- a signature face that she makes just about every time someone smiles at her. She scrunches up her nose, squints her eyes, and smiles as big as her petite little face and jumbo cheeks will let her. It looks a lot like this.....

I LOVE THIS LITTLE FACE!

The other night we went on a little drive. As we were driving we came across this in the middle of the road:

The biggest frog I have ever seen in real life. It was a monster toad. I was half tempted to kiss it to see if I could score my sister some basketball player of a prince but thought better of it thinking it might actually produce a Sumo wrestling type prince.. Yikes. Unfortunately Parker was asleep in the car so he didn't get to see mom and dad's awesome wild life discovery. I was also tempted to take the thing home and let Parker have a pet for a day or so but who knows what you need to house and feed a frog that size? He could eat small Rylan-ish babies for all I know?

My last story is about my funny little Parker. My sister got me my favorite flowers for my birthday (isn't she nice :) As I put them in the jar, I sprinkled in the powdered plant food that comes with flowers. Parker watched, asking me what I was putting in the water. I answered "Well, it's kinda like food for my flowers," to which he said, "So they don't get hungry?" Exactly.

Well through out the couple of weeks that those flowers sat on the table, I noticed Parker kept climbing on to the table and playing with my flowers, taking them out of the jar and I would have to ask him over and over again to get down and leave the poor flowers alone. Just the other day I walked by the jar and noticed the water was really cloudy and kinda nasty looking. Upon further observation I found tiny pieces of a variety of Parker's snacks floating in the bottom. He has been feeding my flowers all this time. So they don't get hungry. No wonder they have lasted so long!

What a funny little boy.