Christmas prep & Grandmas

I usually dont set up christmas until after thanksgiving, but I justified it a little bit this year. We had a mock thanksgiving the week before with the family before my little sister went on her mission. So to me, it was after. Parker and I set it up the Tuesday before the real thanksgiving and before we headed down to my parents for break.

my little helper!

Parker was a little stinker while at my parents. He only wanted my mom and was super cranky. He ended up drinking something that we think led to some allergies and sickness. So that didnt help things. But grandma has cool stuff at her house that kept him entertained.

this is up in grandma's office/sewing room. He loved to put the pegs in this and would just sit in play with it for like ten minutes straight!

Parker calls my dads mower a tractor. He wanted to go outside to the detached garage atleast 100 times a day to see it.

kicking it with Papa watching cars

my mom pulled out my old banana chair and Parker loved it! it was pretty humorous watching him climb in to it.

While I was at my moms I decided I wanted to make stockings. Parker didnt have one and the previous ones drew and I had were falling apart thanks to Parker. I used this as my inspiration. Luckily my mom is a BOSS and owned this craft. Burlap is a beast to work with so just be forewarned! 

Since we're going to Arizona this year for christmas, its hard for me to actually wrap presents and keep them until Christmas. Its just a pain to fly out all the gifts to just fly them back. So some things have come a little early. P got a vacuum toy from grandma S, two sweaters from me and Drew (our logic: he can wear them longer if he had them now) and a tent and tunnel toy. And I bought myself some jeans too that count as a christmas present. Its just hard for me to practice patience when its something I want/need.

happy to be home

playing in the tunnel

We found a new use of the christmas box my dad made us a couple years ago.

our little christmas corner.

Zoo

Last week we had some warmer days (high 50s-low 60s) so we decided to make a trip to the zoo. We went with our friend Erika and her son Izak. We got there a little late because we went after Parkers nap so we only had a little over an hour before they closed. He sure was on one when we first got there. He wanted to walk. but since we were on a time crunch it really wasnt an option. So he ended up on my shoulders. Which ended up being okay because we got to see the elephants train! I've never seen it before! One picked up a log from the water with his trunk, carried it in his mouth and dropped it in front of some viewers. The one over by us shook his head, layed down, and sat up on his bum with his front legs in the air. It was super cool!! 

The lion was even out and rather chatty

just down from the elephants there was this old hippie van set up to play in. Parker loved it! Izak took the driver seat and P just climbed in the back.

Look how fast his little arms are moving!

This was the first time that Parker was able to really play at the zoo. It was so cute to watch! Can't wait to go back!

oh and check out this guy! He was like the size of a rabbit, no joke! There were hundreds all over the zoo!! They werent even scared of people either! Here he is enjoying a colored goldfish Erika gave him.

Halloween recap

Since its thanksgiving next week I figured I should post on Halloween. The plan was for P to be lil Frankenstein this year. Well the costume had a short shirt and super long pants. Not to mention Parker did not want to wear the hat. We still tried for the ward party.

A community around here had trick or treating with the businesses, tractor rides, and a bounce house. We all decided to be dentists for that. We each had a toothbrush and box of toothpaste. Drew felt lame since that's his daily giddup for school. No other adults dressed up so we looked a little silly. P loved the tractor ride but wasn't digging the idea of the bounce house.

We did try trick or treating this year on Halloween night. We went through the neighborhood behind our complex with our friends and their kids Carson and Lydia. We were some of the earliest out so a few houses hadnt started yet. Glad we went with older kids cause P had no idea what was going on and just followed them. It was freezing here that night so we only lasted maybe an hour. Parker did like seeing batman at one of the houses. When we got close he was in awe and was whispering "bah man". Ha he said batman the whole way home!

haha checkin out carsons stash

We do weekly girls nights here with the dental wives. The week of Halloween was a murder mystery party. It was my first one too! Some ppl were hilarious with their parts totally made the night!

sorry I screen copied this pic.

Family Picture pt 2

If you remember, we took family pictures this summer in Gatlinburg during my familys reunion. P was only 13 months old and was hardly walking then so he didnt look much like a toddler then. I have lost some weight/ inches since then so I thought we needed new pictures. Especially if we planned on doing christmas cards.

My awesome friend out here, Katie, did a total last minute shoot for us. Drew and I had been talking about it but didnt know when would work best. Kentucky was having some awesome weather for awhile so Drew said, why dont we take pictures tomorrow. Katie was down. The weather was in the high 60s. Perfect!