Parker's 2nd Birthday & Justin's Birthday

Super behind on the blog...so I was thinking where to start?  The first pictures I found were of Parker's 2nd birthday so I'll start there!

We decorated his room after he fell asleep the night before so when he woke up it was balloons everywhere!

We opened presents before Justin went to work.  He loved his scooter!

I took the day off of work and took the kids to Arctic Circle for lunch.

That night we had family and friends over for ice cream sundaes and cupcakes!

It was such a fun day.  I love this kid!  He has so much energy but is so sweet!  He LOVES milk!  He always has his sippy cup with him full of milk.  He is so tall for how old he is!  On his 2 year appointment he was 50% on his weight and 85% on his height. 

We didn't go to dinner that night because we had just gone to dinner a few nights before for Justin's birthday.  We went to Ruby River that night.  The kids love going to dinner with us...such a special treat and it definitely makes for fun memories.

The Big 2-6!

Justin kept teasing me this year. I'll be quick to admit that yes, I was definitely spoiled this year for my birthday. Whenever it'd get brought up about how spoiled I was, Justin would say, it is 26, that's a big one! It was definitely way fun though!

We started it off the Saturday before. We went birthday shopping and picked out a new camera for me. I LOVE this new camera! Absolutely no complaints! I ended up getting the Canon (sold on Canons by the way) PowerShot ELPH 310HS. It's small and convenient, has a 12 mp and 8x zoom...and you can zoom while videoing too. I love the clarity of the pictures I've taken so far. Just love this little camera. After shopping, Justin took me shooting. I've been working on finishing my Hunters Safety online and so he took me to practice the different positions I'll have to shoot at. I'll go ahead and brag because I was surprised but I did really good. We shot a bunch and I only had 3 not go in the kill zone of the rabbit target and those were shots when I was standing up. So I was excited. Then we went home and got ready and went to dinner at Mo' Bettah Steaks in Bountiful. This is where it gets fun. This was my first day out in over a week from having the chicken pox. I really think my body just couldn't keep up with everything I wanted to do. Around the time we were shooting, I started complaining of a headache, but just told myself to take Tylenol before dinner...which I did. During dinner my headache kept getting worse and worse...never had it that bad. I was so disappointed I couldn't finish my food because I was feeling so nauseous. We left and as we were leaving, Justin asked if I wanted to go to a grocery store to find medicine or just to the gas station across the street. I told him to get me to that gas station as quick as he could. We got there, I threw up (in the disgusting bathroom) and we bought some meds and left. The entire drive down to Salt Lake I felt so sick. We were headed down to the Brian Regan Comedy Show. I had bought the tickets last fall and had been so looking forward to this night for such a long time...and here I thought I wasn't going to make it because of the chicken pox, and now a migraine! I was so sad. We made it to Salt Lake and parked and after sitting there for a while, I told Justin I needed to find a bathroom quick. So we found Deseret Book and hung out there for a little bit. That was actually a really good place because of all of the couches and chairs all over and not a lot of people. After a while, my stomach started feeling better and my headache was more tolerable. So we walked over to Abravanel Hall and got the tickets and found our seat. Seriously, as soon as we had sat down, I noticed my headache was completely gone and I was able to enjoy the show and the rest of the night. I had been praying a ton and it definitely had paid off-my prayers had been answered.

On my birthday, Justin surprised me. He was supposed to work all day and have school that night. That morning the alarm went off for him to go to work and he fell back to sleep, so I woke up in a panic that he would be late for work. That's when he told me he had taken the day off. We opened presents...I got a new rifle! It's a Savage 25-06 and I'll be taking that hunting with me this year! Maybe I'll shoot a deer with it...we'll see. I also got a T-shirt Mya had picked out for me at Cabela's. I think she had been more excited for my birthday to come than me. She was so cute about everything. I got my hair done then we went to lunch at Applebees. That night since he had school, he arranged for a lot of my friends in my ward that I served in Young Women's with to come pick me up and take me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was such a fun girls night! Justin did good this year. At the beginning of January, he scheduled me off work, him off work, arranged for my friends to take me out, arranged a sitter, plus while we were at dinner, he called Texas Roadhouse and told them to bring me strawberry cheesecake and anyone else at our table who wanted some, too, and he'd pay. He definitely is a sweetheart! I can't wait to see what happens for 27! -kidding-

Mya's 4!!!

I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She seems so grown up to me! Mya loves being in sunbeams! She had a hard time her first day. I think she thought she'd be able to sit by me and my class, so me dropping her off with her class then heading to the back of the room...she didn't like it. She cried so she came and sat with me and my 6 year old class. It ended up being a big day for her. There were no talks that first Sunday of the year but they were drawing names for the next week and Mya got the talk for the next week. She looked at me with fear in her eyes and told me she didn't want to do it. Then later her name got drawn again to help out with sharing time...I ended up going up there with her. Then in singing time, she was up there with all of the new sunbeams as they sang the Hello song to them. About half way through primary, Mya decided she could be brave and sit with her class. The rest of primary though she kept turning around mouthing things to me and smiling. So cute. That week we worked so hard on her talk. It was simple, but easy for her to memorize and it got the message across. She practiced in front of the mirror all week, in front of Lisa, Megan and Gavin, Grandma and Grandpa Wayment and Grandma Ropelato. We got lots of practice in. On Sunday, they sang happy birthday to her then she got up and gave her talk. I was so proud of her. She had it memorized so I didn't even have to help her. I just stood up there for moral support in case she forgot anything (and I wasn't sure if she would end up talking since she's a little shy). I wanted to cry when she was done! I was so proud of her. Justin came in and listened and said he could hear everything. She knew this was a huge thing for her and she was even very proud of herself.

Her birthday was so fun. She woke up and opened presents, I finished her cake then went and got a bunch of helium balloons for her birthday. After we went to McDonald's and then bowling. After that we came home so Parker could nap and so we played Sorry while he napped. Then Mya wanted dinner with just mom and dad, so we took Parker to my parent's while we went to dinner. She loved the one-on-one time with us. She kept telling us during dinner, "Thanks dad and mom. You're the best mom and dad in the world. I love you. This is the best day of my life." She's so fun to spoil since she's so grateful!

After dinner, we had a little party at home for her. She gets so excited for everyone to come over and that's what she kept talking about. I think she was in heaven that day. It really was just so fun!

My Baby's 1!!!

Parker's birthday was awesome! I took the day off so we could play all day! So we took it pretty easy, but he definitely had my attention all day! We got him a car seat so he can turn around (which he absolutely loved riding in it the next day. He kicked his feet and smiled all the way to grandma's house), ball popper and clothes. Parker has 6 teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom), his main words are mom, dad and dog. He says dog when he sees a dog, a picture of a dog, or any other animal including our rabbits and fish. He also started walking just days before his birthday. That night we had everyone over for brownie sundae's while Parker enjoyed his over sized cupcake cake! It was so fun and he definitely enjoyed the attention.

Parker brings us so much happiness! He's always smiling, giving huge wet kisses, and loves playing with Mya. He follows her around everywhere...most of the time she likes it. He watches out for her - if she's crying, he cries or gets very concerned. They really love each other and they get along really well. My favorite is car rides when they laugh at each other in the back or Parker starts singing/humming because Mya is singing.

At his 12 month appointment, he weighed 23.5 pounds and was 95th percentile on his height. He's very curious and into everything, but I love it. It's so much fun being his mom!

Justin's 28!

Justin's birthday was on a Saturday this year so he only had to work until 1. So what did we do to celebrate? After he got home from work he opened his presents (clothes, air tools for work, bow stabilizer). We had Jimmy John's for lunch. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting...of course. This year Justin requested mint ice cream without the chocolate chips so we made homemade mint ice cream. We went to the Pizza Factory for dinner then finished it off with the arcades at Fat Cats.
The kids were getting a little restless at dinner since they "lost" our pizza so we had to find ways to entertain the kids. Parker loved the lemons and they both loved playing with the sticks the breadsticks came on. I'll just say it got a little noisy by us.
What are they shooting??? Elk, of course...are you surprised?
I love this guy! He amazes me all of the time! He is so considerate of others and he has a way of making everyone like him. He's so sarcastic and has a comment for everything...I'm not even sure how he comes up with them sometimes, he's pretty witty. He's an amazing dad. There's a reason he's Mya's favorite person in the whole world! He has a very strong testimony and he's such a great example to me and the kids. One of my favorite things about him is how he can always make me smile or laugh...even if I don't want to. He's always looking for ways to help others and if someone asks him for help, he won't hesitate. He's very handy. If he doesn't know how to do something, he'll figure it out and it always turns out great. He seems to always be busy with projects...last year was re-doing our fence, this year he's re-done the outside of our trailer, he's made our mailbox, swingset, and rabbit cage. He's fixed our car and saved us $600 and he's usually busy with projects his grandpa has lined up for him :). He helped his brother fix the front of his car and painted flames on it. A common phrase from my mouth to him is "That turned out better than I thought!" He's great with picturing things and creating it and I have a hard time picturing them so I'm always pleasantly surprised when they turn out at least 10 times better than I imagined. It's never a dull moment with Justin and I wouldn't trade it for anything! I love you dear!