"Not again!"

That was poor Parker last night, sometime between the hours of 3 and 5am, as he was throwing up for the second or third time :( Heartbreaking, but still adorable. He did say some funny things though, but I'll spare too many details. I will mention, however, how very glad we are that we switched to cloth diapers. Evan's had diarrhea, which is terrible no matter what, worse with children, and worst when those kiddies are still in diapers! But, since we have cloth, NO BLOWOUTS! Hurray! And, the soft cloth spares his sensitive skin as well. So, although we've been running the washer and dryer nonstop today cleaning up after kiddie emesis, it's not because of poopy clothes! They're doing better this evening, playing really sweetly together right now, but are still pretty sick. I think Parker's just about over it though. We'll see! Always an adventure!

Christmas spirit

I forgot to mention this in my entry last night. I really love the fact that our Christmas season is during the winter months, because it makes extra service so much easier! Thomas got home from school last night, and apologized for being a little late. (Honestly, I hadn't been expecting him for another hour because I was up to my nose in kids...) He's been riding his bike to and from school (yay for going green!) and he noticed a woman shoveling her driveway on his way home, so he hopped off his bike, set it down, and finished up her driveway for her. What a sweetheart. He and Mike also shoveled our driveway Sunday morning, and then ended up shoveling that of our neighbor's as well. That's my sweetie! Honestly though, he'd do it even if it wasn't Christmas-time :)

Christmas traditions and best buds

Merry Christmas time! I love the Christmas season, and the fact that the whole world (well, much of it at least) is celebrating the birth of our Savior. It's also nice to hear songs of the Savior on the radio. I'll admit, I prefer the traditional Christmas songs to the newfangled ones. I thinkg "O Holy Night" is my favorite, even though it's not a canonized hymn persay.

I also love Christmas traditions! This year has been so fun so far, because it's really our first year doing Christmas. Our first year, we had a tiny tree with a few lights and scattered ornaments I'd stolen from my little brother (I didn't really steal them... my mom had decorated his dorm room with them the previous year, and stored them with our stuff. He didn't want any of it back...) We opened our presents, which we'd purchased for each other with each other, on Christmas Eve because Thomas worked a double shift on Christmas. We had Parker our 2nd year, but he was only 7 months old, and I don't think we even got him any presents... He did open some at Grandma and Grandpa Palfreyman's though. Last year was a lot of fun. We got Parker some presents (we didn't worry about Evan, since he was barely 2 months old), but we were in North Dakota with Thomas' family, so we did stockings and everything there. It was a lot of fun to share in their traditions. Thankfully, our families' traditions mesh really well, and we're adding in some of our own. I bought fabric to finally make our Christmas stockings. I'm looking forward to that :) My mom took the above picture of Evan while we were shopping for said fabric. That was an experience and a half! I'm actually waiting for my mom to get back from NYC to make the stockings... I'm not willing to try on my own and mess up! I actually never had my own Christmas stocking growing up. My brothers all did... even Michael, who's younger than I am...?... but I didn't have one, and so always used my mom's. Somehow, Santa still managed to put little Theresa's presents in the stocking labeled "Susan." Intuitive old elf :) I wanted to make sure that I'd be making stockings that would still coordinate when we add future stocking to the family, so I just got coordinating printed fabric, and matching fleece for the tops. They'll be fantastic, and all ours!!!

Another new tradition: on the Monday after Thanksgiving we made a tree topper for our little tree. Actually, this is the fourth annual year. :) Our first year we had a paper star, don't remember year two, last year was a fantastic angel, and this year is a paper mache star that the boys helped with. Cereal boxes, newspaper, flour, water, and a little paint :)

We decorated the tree last night: first Sunday in December! It was so fun. It's great to get into the excitement of Christmas. We have nativities set up all over the house. I put on on the hallway table that the boys can't destroy. They enjoy playing with them, and Parker loves to hear me talk about baby Jesus being born. It's fun to have the chance to teach the boys about our Savior and his love for us.
Parker's new thing is to want to eat at his little table (lil soupa) in the kitchen. Evan has enjoyed it too. It's crazy how much they're growing up!

Thanksgiving!

Keep reading... and I'll explain this pic, and why I'm lying on a couch surrounded by all of

the Palfreyman family after Thanksgiving dinner.

We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Palfreyman's home (a family for whom we are extremely grateful!) After dinner, which was fantastic, and so fun to prepare!, we took Parker out to see the horses while Evan napped. Parker had fun seeing the "horsey," and kept neighing at her.

Parker was so cute and had so much fun with Maiya, an adorable 5 year old girl belonging to Chase's fantastic financee :) They played really well together, and she took such good care of him! Parker wouldn't get up on the horse until I got on the horse though. We had a lot of fun riding. After Parker was all done with his horsey ride, I decided to take L.C. for a spin.

Yeah, it's been about three and a half years since I've been on a horse... I totally got bucked off.

So, I get the wind knocked out of me, and Derk and Thomas run down to make sure I'm ok. Poor Parker was so worried to have seen me fall off! So, there was some blood on my hand, so I asked if I was bleeding, or if it was just from my mouth where I'd bit the inside of my lip. Since, the cut was under my chin, they didn't see it at first, and told me I was fine. Then blood started dripping from my chin into my hand. Gross.

Thankfully, I was in the best place possible to have something like that happen! Karen's a nurse, and we had three other EMTs, and plenty of curious and helpful spectators. The cut was shallow enough that some steri-strips and tape should take care of it just fine. Along with some Motrin and ice :) What a day! I'm grateful for family and skilled and trained medical professionals! Although, I do feel like an idiot :)

Sum up

So, I've neglected the blog for well over a month, and have tried to sum up in a few entries. We're finally feeling better, although we're still congested and have coughs. But, at least I have energy again! Evan's still cutting those teeth though, so nights are adventures! Thanks for your patience, and for following along with our crazy lives!

Halloween

This is Parker trick-or-treating last year... his first time. He went as Mario, and Thomas was "Joe the Plumber." Evan was two weeks old, so we just hung out at Thomas' Uncle's house :)

And, this year! Parker was a prince, Evan a dragon, and Daddy and Mommy were the king and queen. It was actually the first time I'd ever been trick-or-treating in my life! We had a really fun Halloween. There was a ward Halloween Party on Wednesday (pictures pending.) Thomas and the Priests quorum put together a fun "spook alley" for that. The boys had fun with some of the games the youth had set up. Evan's favorite was "pumpkin rolling." He kept chasing everyone's pumpkins. :) On Saturday, Halloween itself, we had a very fun dinner with Thomas' siblings and their spouses at his brother Jonathan's place. Amanda (Jon's wife) made a great "Mummy meatloaf" that she wrapped in lasagna noodles to add the mummy effect, and Carlie (Thomas' sister) made "hairballs" from sprouts and avocado, served with "saliva (italian) dressing" so fun. Then the trick-or-treating. It was so fun to be able to trick-or-treat in an LDS neighborhood. It's probably one of the only chances like this that we'll have! We spent about an hour, and just stopped by people's houses in our ward. It was nice to find out where people lived, and to visit a little bit.

Afterwards Parker spent forever sorting his candy, and counting the handfuls as he put it back in his Elmo bucket. Oh--Evan absolutely loves that bucket. He added "Elmo" to his ever-growing vocabulary! And, how he says "Ehm-oh" makes Parker crack up laughing. Silly boys.

I liked this picture of the boys just sitting and chilling on the couch.

College Game Day

Since this is a family blog, and not just a place for me to show off how cute my kids are :) I thought I should add a quick entry about ESPN's College Game Day coming to Provo. Thomas' cousin Derrick came and spent the night over here on Friday (we enlisted him for babysitting, of course) and then he and Thomas headed out ridiculously early in the morning for the stadium and College Game Day, after having stayed up to make a fantastic poster, of course :)

This picture of Parker was taken by someone sitting behind us. I don't remember which game it was, but it shows our little cougar fan! He loves saying "YUB Cougars!" So, still a little backwards, but a profound question nonetheless :)