Birthday Celebration

I'm 28. I don't really feel any older, I kinda thought I was 28 already.  I'm sure things will be different next year, I'll feel all old and get wrinkles, but for now I feel like I gained a bonus year.  For Christmas we got Colby a bike, I've been wanting to get a carrier for Parker so I can ride a bike with Colby. I finally got my carrier, and then I wanted a new bike because the one I was using was Andrew's and old.  On Saturday morning (the 25th, even though my birthday is on the 26th), Andrew gave me the best blessing ever and let me sleep in. He snuck off with the kids and brought me home a new bike! I was completely surprised! I thought he just left to get french toast bread. I'm in love with this bike, and often beg Colby to go on a bike ride with me.

On Friday night I convinced Andrew to make my birthday cake. I was just looking forward to eating a ton of cake, but I thought it made sense to enjoy it with Andrew all weekend instead of just making it on Sunday and then having it just sit there and taunt me the rest of the week (I would have eaten the entire thing myself). The boys helped make it, and it tasted soooooo good! I had a great birthday, and can't wait until next year when I get to sleep in and get cake!

things that put a smile on my face

Parker is 100% addicted to my iPad, iPhone, iPod, iAnything.  I have to hide them in my room, if he see's it, he comes running and pretty much steals it from me.  One morning, he crawled on my bed, tucked himself in, and started playing Mickey Mouse on my iPad.  I love watching him do cute little things like that.

I try my best to keep Parker off the counter. When i'm in the shower, he's just helping himself to our cabinet. Trying on deodorant, andrew's cologne, and putting my lotion all over his hair. This one morning I was making the bed while Andrew was getting ready for work and Colby decided to join Parker. Those two come up with the craziest things to make the biggest messes.

Colby was reading to Parker tonight. They love each other so much.

Half a years worth of updates

So obviously I started slacking on my blog updates, so I thought i'd just do a quick update on what we've been up to since I last blogged.  July 16, 2013 Colby turned 3. We had a pool party for him.

Colby also learned how to swim! It was so fun seeing him figure it out.

We worked on our backyard by the pool, and built a fireplace. We roasted marshmallows in 100 degree weather.

The boys went on their very first pony ride in September when we made a visit to Oregon

The boys had fun at their cousin Lea's birthday party

They had so much fun at Lea's party

These Cousins were so cute together. I had a great time visiting Oregon for 2 weeks in September.

I ran my first half marathon with my dad and brother, Jason, in 2 hours.

We went to Lake Tahoe for Andrew's sister, Kim, wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful place.

more at Lake Tahoe

For Halloween they were ninja's!

In November we finally made it to the LA temple and stopped by the beach for a couple hours.

The water was freezing, but the boys had a blast!

For christmas we spent some time in Bend with Andrew's parents and had a great time sledding with the boys

Christmas time in Bend

This pretty much sums up the Sherwood trip, these boys got sick, and shared their sickness with a few too many people.

My parents wanted a cute picture with the grandkids. unfortunately Colby wouldn't have it and ruined the cute picture, but now i find it extremely funny the faces my parents made to try to cheer him up.

We've had a great time this year, so many experiences.  I love my family, they mean the world to me and I am so excited to see what adventures we will have this year!

San Diego

I'm blogging this a month late, but lately my little two boys have kept me going! I even have to do this fast because Parker is waking up.  So as I mentioned in other posts I'm sure, Andrew has been working crazy hours at work for the past few months. I think he averaged about 18+ hours a day. FINALLY he has slowed down and we get to enjoy his company once again and we love every second of it! Anyway, when it started slowing down he was able to take a Friday off and we decided to go ahead and do what we've wanted to do for a very long time.  We headed down to San Diego and visited the zoo.  It was amazing, that zoo is HUGE! I had no idea there were so many animals! Parker of course didn't care much, but Colby loved seeing the animals, although not nearly as much as he loved seeing all the BUSES!!  We went on bus rides around the park for his enjoyment.  That's all he wanted to do.  They even have this skyfari thing there that takes you from the bottom of the park to the top,  he loved it, but we couldn't see much.  We asked him how he wanted to get back down and of course he said...BUS.

This trip is kind of a big deal, it was our first trip that WE paid for, with absolutely no help. I can't believe we've been married for almost 5 years and this is our first official family trip, then again we don't go on many trips without either his family around or my family around and they are both just so generous.  ANYWAY, it was a great time.  We had planned to go to an aircraft carrier museum on Saturday, but both kids woke up Saturday morning sick, so we went to breakfast instead and then checked out mission beach.  It was then that I realized I LOVED San Diego.  I didn't see much of it, but what I did see what so fun and amazing.  and it wasn't over 100 degrees like Bakersfield, that might have a lot to do with it.

San Luis Obispo

Andrew had a recruiting event at the college in San Luis Obispo on Saturday.  We decided to make a little trip out of it, and I'm so glad we did.  It was such a nice weekend to get away and enjoy a little time at the beach. 

 

We hung out at Pismo beach while Andrew was away for a couple hours at his recruiting event

 

When Andrew got back, we rented an awesome bike and strolled around town, despite what you may think from this picture, the boys actually had a great time.  Colby kept saying how fun it was, and parker kept banging his helmet against the bike, clearly out of excitement.

 

 Then we made the crazy walk up to the end of the pier.  It was so windy and cold, but we couldn't give up!

 

Loved this weekend. Andrew has been working insane hours the last few months, it was nice to get away, even if he was still gone for part of it!

Parkers 12 month check-up

On the 13th Parker had his one year check up, a month late.  For my records, here are his stats:

Weight: 17 lb 10.5 oz
Height: 29 in

He's a tiny boy.  Dropped below the 5th percentile.  The doctor is a little concerned, but since i told her how much he eats she seems ok with it, but how my goal is to fatten this little boy up.  I looked back at what Colby was at this age and he had dropped below the 5th percentile at some point as well, so I think it'll all be ok!

Parker is so much fun.  He isn't using any words, just dadadada, but he talks ALL the time. Always babbling something.  every now and then i'll get a mamama or nanana in there but he has no idea what he's saying.

He is such a trooper and doesn't even cry much when Colby pushes him down.

He tried to climb on everything.

He wants whatever colby has.

He thinks whats mine is his.

Still taking two naps, but soon will probably be down to one.

Smiles so so easily.

Loves his daddy more than anything.

Drools more than you could ever imagine.

Never stops moving.

I love that little boy :)

potty training

I believe the first attempt to potty training Colby started sometime in January.  I went into it with little research and being completely naive to how hard this process was actually going to be.  I guess my thought process was along the lines of if you stick to it, your child will learn to potty train in a week, and after the first day he'll start to figure out what was happening.  I guess I was thinking I had a miracle child that would figure it out fast.  He didn't.  We tried for a week straight, i went straight to underwear so that he would feel he was wet, not like it, and soon start going in the potty so he wouldn't get wet.  Well, I spent that entire first week cleaning up mess after mess after mess after mess.  It was awful.  I gave up after a week.  I tried again a few weeks later, and had about the same sucess as before, so again, i gave up.  I tried again and this time I went to pull-ups so I wouldn't have to keep chasing him around with a towel to clean up his messes.  It was FOREVER before he started to understand.  I want to say it was a few weeks, and he finally started to go on the toilet all by himself, but would still have a few accidents.  Then, we went on vacation. oh goodness.  it was all out the window, i even brought his little potty on vacation with us, so he would go every now and then, but was having messes for the most part (we were at the pool/ocean most the day, so accidents just happened). So after a week on vacation we basically started over.  LUCKILY he picked it up faster this time around and didn't take months to accomplish it.  I don't know if I can even say he is fully potty trained (it's been about 5 months of trying by  now).  He will pee in the toilet, but pooping is hit or miss.  If he is outside, forget it, he wont come in to go.  His naps he stays dry, but not nighttime.  It's a work in progress.  I take him on quick trips with his big boy undies. we go to the park and the grocery store without having accidents (he even told me at walmart that he had to use the potty - which he didn't, i guess he just thought it would be fun to sit on the store toilets. gross). I cannot believe we are finally near the end of this potty training process with him!  it's such a huge relief. Of course next comes teaching him to stand up instead of sit, and to actually use the big boy potty instead of his little one, but he's too small to get up on it by himself, so it'll just be a work in progress...and then the night time wetting. goodness now that i realize this list still to do, is there an end to potty training?? well, at least we are down to having one kid in diapers. that's a relief!