Happy Birthday Elijah!

Holy cow looking at these two pictures makes me baby hungry. Lijah you were such a pretty little thing. So little compared to the other two. You were 8lbs 5oz at birth and you came home at 7lbs 12oz. We almost didn't know what to do with you.

I can't believe it has been three years! You make momma smile. Everyday is an adventure with you. What are we going to do when it isn't just you and I anymore? Happy Birthday sweet baby boy!

I'll Be Back Around Again Soon

I haven't been on blogger for a very long time. It's amazing how a plus sign on a plastic stick changes things. I'll resurface in a few weeks I'm sure.

Special Christmas Gift for Kid # 2

These pictures were taken the afternoon of January 2nd. While Darren had Alexia and Elijah off somewhere (seriously can't remember where), Parker decided to interrupt my pieces of quiet by asking, "Mom, will you play with me?" Normally I would put him off because of something else that needed my attention, but this time I put what I was doing aside and asked him what he wanted to do. He received a science kit for Christmas this year and so we decided to be scientists together. He had the kit and I grabbed the camera in order to document his findings. Together we roamed our yard and then the neighborhood looking for cool things to take samples of, draw in his notebook, and take pictures of.

Scientist Parker off to explore the world around him. Mom, why do you have to take my picture so much?

Look at these cool things that are falling off of our trees in the front yard. I'm not sure what kind of seed these are but I sure have found a lot of them in my kids' pockets.

Why do angry ants advance across all Arizona? :) (just a little mom speak there)

It's very important to document everything properly.

Good thing for gloves in prickly situations.

We found this cool leaf that Parker thought looked like a dinosaur claw at the park.

Dinosaur claws/weird earrings ya know, whatever.

I know I shouldn't include this picture of our afternoon of fun but here is my boy after hearing that it's time to go home. He was a very sad little boy at that moment. Don't worry Parker, we'll play again soon.

Some favorite recent pictures of Elijah

This one was taken at Grandma Stewart's house on Christmas day.

I love how red his lips are...

...and his blue blue eyes. I call Elijah my pretty boy. I swear he could have passed for a girl as a baby. You don't know how many times I was tempted to put him in one of sister's dresses. I didn't okay? I just thought about it...many times.

He was running from Aunt Missy in this one. I hope I look that happy when I smile.

Elijah loves his Elly or Ellio. They are good buddies.

And this picture is for Aunt Alena. Couldn't you just squeeze this little Yay-who! He calls cowboys "yee haws." We passed two guys in the parking lot the other day who were wearing cowboy hats. Of course he had to point and say "Momma, Yee haws, yee haws."

Now this is fun!

Parker has been asking about playing baseball for forever. Seriously. I can't remember when he didn't want to play. It's his daddy's first love - no I mean it - and I think it has rubbed off on his boys. Even Elijah is always ready to go outside and play some "ballcatch" as he calls it. I've been promising Parker he could play coach pitch ball for a while now. He never batted off of a tee so starting them there seemed a waste. He is finally old enough and the weather is cool enough so we signed him up. It took me finally calling the league to find out what team we were on. It seems they had overlooked putting him on a team, so I actually got to choose and picked the one with practice right up the road and on Fridays, so no fight to get homework done first. The countdown to baseball practice was nerve racking. "Not today right mom?" But Friday finally came.

His first game was the next day - and his momma had a blast. I know he did too. Watching this little boy of mine be so excited about something is so much fun. All the fun being had out their on that field makes me giggle. Repeatedly. It makes his daddy grumble. Repeatedly. Baseball is serious stuff remember.

So forgive my lack of video camera skills - after all, I'm still a mom trying to watch the game too.

This first one is of Parker in the field.

The rest are of him batting and running the bases. The second in this group shows Parker's preoccupation with his uniform. Most of you know Parker takes his costumes and dressing the part very seriously. I couldn't help but giggle as I watched him at every base pull his pant legs up higher and higher. Darren couldn't stand it and I couldn't stand still for the giggles it was causing.

I asked Darren if maybe he had thought about coaching Parker. He told me maybe in a few years when the kids are a little more serious about the game. Not enough competition going on out there for my hubby.

As we left the park and walked back to our car Parker held my hand. "Momma, today my dreams came true." How's that Parker? "Now I'm a real baseball player."

Alexia loves...

...her Let's Play Music classes. My friend Renae teaches the music classes and she is so good at it. I can't believe how much Alexia has learned and improved since she started with Renae. This will be her last semester and she has started writing her own song. When she's finished I'll video her playing it. Here is a picture of her with Mrs. Renae at their recital last summer.

...clogging. This has been so much fun for Alexia. I think she may have stumbled upon a serious love here. It's so fun watching clog around the kitchen to the radio while emptying the dishwasher. Her recital was in December and we all went to watch the fun.

This is Alexia with her good friend Kalissa (Renae's daugher)- and yes, they are the same age. Now that I think about it if it were Renae and I in this picture the height difference would be pretty similar. ;)

Miss Maddie is Alexia's teacher. Alexia loves her to death.

They Change so Fast

I ran into these pictures the other day. The first one is of Alexia on the first day of Kindergarten. The second on is of her on her last day of Kindergarten.

She grew up so much that year. I put her in the same clothes on purpose so I could later compare. Now I am sure the clothes shrunk a bit in the wash but she also grew three inches that year. I'll be interested to see how much Parker changes this year.

Class Parties and Gingerbread Houses

This year I got to go to school on "Winter Party" day and bounce between Alexia and Parker's class parties. Darren worked from home that day so while Lijah took a nap I headed over to the school. Both kids had some fun crafts and activities going on and so I would sit with one of the kids for ten minutes and then I'd run over to the others' classroom for ten minutes.

I got to help Parker make a gingerbread house and put together a foam stocking craft.

I got to play Christmas Bingo with Alexia and eat healthy classroom party food. She ended up with a plateful of cookies to bring home after their cookie exchange. Each of the kids did a book swap in their classroom. It was a great end to school for the year. They had so much room they will probably want to go back in January! :)


Every December we make our own countdown to Christmas with activities to do each night. One activity was making a gingerbread house. So after Elijah went to sleep today we brought out the kit and I let the big kids have at it. Parker wanted to eat both of his gingerbread houses right away. He couldn't understand why he ought to wait.

Mr. Star Student

(Parker with Freedom Bear and Mrs. Mendoza)

Parker has talked all year long about Freedom Bear - a stuffed bear that comes home with you for the week that you are star student. Well Freedom Bear finally made an appearance at our house and Parker was so excited. All I could think of as he carried it everywhere was whether or not it got washed in between houses. I never knew I was so afraid of cooties. But I guess I have good reason as evidenced by this public service announcement.

Anyway part of being star student entailed taking your favorite book to school, having a letter written from mom read to the class, and putting together and presenting a poster all about you. Here are a few pictures from Parker's 15 minutes of fame.
After telling the kids about the pictures on his poster, Parker got to answer questions from the kids in his class. It was so fun to go to school, see him in his class, meet some of the kids he is always talking about and eat with him at lunch.

The letter I wrote and sent to school to have his teacher read to the class follows. Parker told me that it was "so embarrassing that I wrote about him getting lost."

Dear Parker, (and class)
Hello Handsome! Hello Mrs. Mendoza and class. I'm excited to tell you a few special things about my Parker Boy. One thing that is different about him is how big he was when he was born. Parker weighed 10 lbs 13 oz at birth! That is more than the middle sized bag of potatoes! :) He was chubby from the beginning and all the nurses came to my room to see him when they heard how big he was. But even though Parker was big and strong he couldn't breathe very well and he spent a week in the NICU. We were so happy when he finally got to come home.
Parker has always loved to show affection to others. He smiles a lot, gives nice compliments all the time and loves to give everyone what he calls big squeezy hugs. Because of this I sometimes call hm Squeezy Magoo! I love his big hugs and sincere compliments.
Parker is very friendly and not afraid to talk to anyone. One time our family was on vacation in Oregon. His Grandma and big sister decided to take a walk down by the beach near the house we were staying in. They asked Parker if he wanted to go with him, but he said no. After they left he changed his mind and left without telling anyone to go find them. We all thought he was with them from the beginning. About an hour later a man showed up on the doorstep asking us if we were missing a 3 year old little boy. Parker had been wandering the streets by himself in the neighborhood looking for his sister and grandma. When the man saw him alone he asked Parker if he was lost. Parker told him no, he was looking for his Grandma. Then Parker walked the man back to the house we were renting for the week - three streets away! Our family was so grateful for this nice man and Parker being able to find his way back to us.
We love our Parks, Parker Boy and Squeezy Magoo! See you soon Parker. Love, Mom

Thanksgiving in Arizona

Let it be known that we always go to our parents house for Thanksgiving and stay home for Christmas. This year we are doing a switcheroo. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. Daniel, Scott, Lindsay and Shelby, we missed you! Five of my six siblings, four of their children, three of their spouses, two of my parents, and a partridge in a pear tree come to stay with us. Thank you to everyone who let me borrow mattresses. That was such a huge help. My little family had a great time and I hope the rest of them did too. Our week was full of fun activities besides food - although there was a lot of that too. We visited the zoo, some made a trip to the temple, we all went shopping (Wow Darren and Dad you guys were troopers with the kids that day!), took go cart rides with Grandpa (so did the neighborhood kids) and played a family baseball game at the school- boy against girls of course (thanks for the idea Parker). Some of us went out to dinner together, some of us went to a Christmas concert together, some of us took naps on the floor with all the commotion going on around them (boys how do you do that?), some of us got hot chocolate and shared the teeniest piece of cheesecake together, some of us stayed up until 2 am gabbing, some of us saw the temple lights together. Here are a few pictures from the week.Our family at the petting zoo. We've had a membership to the zoo for a year now and just made it over to this part of it for the first time. Parker loved the big plow horse named Jack. He was HUGE!

Lexi's big day

While Darren's parents were here I took back up with me (in the form of Grandma Stewart) and finally went with Alexia to get her ears pierced. She has been begging me for over a year to let her do it. I really wanted to wait until I was sure it was her decision and that she was big enough to take care of the cleaning herself. That said it turned into a FIASCO! I won't embarrass her by going into too much detail, but let's just say the monster child that punched me and the nurse during her last flu shot reared its head. Wow that girl can work herself into a tizzy. The moms in the store were looking at me like I was the devil making her do it. I kept saying we could go that she didn't have to do it, but I wasn't bringing her back in for a repeat episode. Her reply with a sob and wail? "I want them pierced. I'm just scared. Why didn't you just do it when I was a baby?" Grandma and I took turns hugging and talking to her and I finally calmed her down by having her sit on my lap and whispering to her about the day she was born. That's how I got her to get her first cavity filled too. Anyone notice a pattern? The other girl working that day in Icing came over and re-marked her ears. Now Alexia had two of them on either side. The older/wiser/probably has a child of her own associate says to Lexi, "We are just going to hold them up by your ear and when you are ready for us to do it count to three okay?" Lexi nodded her head and kept listening to my story. That's when I saw out of the one eye the older associate mouth the words, one... two... three... over the top of Lexi's head. When it was done Alexia said, "Hey they tricked me. That didn't hurt at all." Darlin' that was the same thing you said after the flu shot too. Grandma Stewart may have been mortified by the entire scene, but she and Lexi picked out some more earrings and made their way to the counter. Thanks for the back up Teressa. Lexi chose these cute sparkly flowers she said because she knows momma loves daisies. And since Grandma sprang for the whole thing she didn't even try to talk Lexi into the plain ones her mom would have insisted upon. Thanks again Grandma!