Parker the helper

Grandpa Mike was picking up apples to feed to the horses (honestly, I'm not sure whose...) and so Parker decided to help! He really is such a sweetheart sometimes!

Another chore that Parker really enjoys is dishes! Notice, he's even wearing an apron, just like Daddy. Please disregard the disgusting volume of dishes in that sink, and remember that we have two children, and no dishwasher!

We are really grateful for Parker's natural desire to help. He's the kind of little boy who doesn't like to get dirty, and will close doors that are accidentally left open, will put the diapers away after they're stuffed, and will tidy up after Evan, singing the "clean up" song from nursery. He'll also arrange his toys in neat little lines... all over the house! He also love to help me bake: measure flour and sugar, and stir. It's good to remember these sweet moments when his alter-ego the terrible two year old hellion takes over :)

I posted several posts today... so keep scrolling!

A family pic :)

One of Parker's favorite tricks. He'll even stand on just one foot! He's quite the little show-off

Acrobatics! Evan used to stand reflexively, but now he consciously stands stable. Parker started doing it because Evan would, and now Evan does because Parker does! Silly boys...

Evan is our little monkey... he climbed up into the cart when I was at the sink. He's sneaky too.

From the mouths...

So, I have a thing for linguistics, and love to listen to how people speak, both the words they use, and the way they pronounce those words. I've had a lot of fun as an easterner out here in UT as well, although when I was teaching in Middle School back home, my students asked me where I was from because they said I had a funny accent :) But, I had also just gotten home from my mission in France and Switzerland... Anyway, it's also a lot of fun listening to Parker figuring out English (and French.) I got really excited when he told me that something "falled" off the stairs. Although standard English would prescribe "fell" instead of "falled," his use suggests that he inherently understands that "ed" at the end of the word denotes past tense--thus, he was speaking from his own understanding of grammar instead of merely repeating a phrase he'd heard Mommy say. Fantastic.

The point of this entry though, is to mention Parker's newest linguistic quirk. He's started adding a dipthong to words with the "ow" sound. Ex: he now says "die-own" instead of "down," "i-out" instead of "out," and "ki-ouch" instead of "couch." It's hilarious, although it makes him a bit harder to understand. He used to say those words perfectly, and Ihave no idea where this new tendency towards dipthongization came from!

Harvesting Blackberries

Wednesday my mom, Parker, Evan, and I went to a neighbor's (i use the term loosely... she lives a few blocks away...) house to pick some blackberries. My mom had picked some prickly pear cactus fruit, and then juiced it to make jelly. Unfortunately, the stuff, although healthy for you, doesn't taste so yummy; it's pretty bland!! So, my mom needed to find something to mix with it to optimize flavor while preserving the health benefits. A sister in our ward offered her blackberries. So, 9 am (it ended up being closer to 9:15) on Wednesday we all headed over to pick the berries, we stayed for about an hour, picked around three gallons of berries, and Mom got to make her Desert Jam.

Parker had a lot of fun finding the black berries, not the red ones, and putting them in his bucket. He did get pretty perturbed about the juice that stained his hands though. He does not like getting dirty!

Here he is. "Parker all dirty! Parker needs water!" He eventually bugged us about his dirty yucky hands until we left, and could not have been happier to have his hands washed!

Evan had a lot of fun trying to grab some berries too. He suceeded, without my knowledge, and got blackberry juice all over his face, and my shirt.

Family Home Evening

Now that Daddy's home, it's much easier to have an official Family Home Evening. We've been reading scriptures and praying after bathtime each evening, but haven't been as good about FHE. But, our family scripture study actually inspired this week's FHE lesson/activity. We'd just finished reading about Lehi's dream (we can only get through about 10 verses a night... slow going, but we still feel the Spirit and have a good time!) so we decided to go outside and draw what we'd read about with sidewalk chalk (thank you again Jeni!) Parker and Evan loved it. They got nice and dirty, but they had fun, and bathtime quickly followed FHE time :)

Daddy's Home, and Ward Campout

Parker had so much fun following the little trails and kicking his ball along them. At first, he'd just tried to cut straight across the field, and was very pleased to discover that the paths provided an easier route.

Fun with glowsticks!!

Parker really liked the parachute that the ward had rented for the weekend.




Our gorgeous campsite was up in Payson Canyon, in the Nebo mountains. It was last Friday and Saturday... who wouldn't want to go camping two days after getting home from two months away working in North Dakota? Actually, it was a really great weekend for all of us, even though we were all pretty tired Saturday afternoon. The boys ended up falling asleep in our arms at the campfire, and then Evan was up and ready to go at 6:30 Saturday morning. We'd brought the pack'n'play, and he slept in it until about 1:30, when he woke up cold because he'd kicked off all his blankets. Addition one to our queen-size air mattress. Parker woke up around 4 or so, thrilled with his sleeping back, and fell back asleep for another half hour, and then we had addition number two to our bed. So, Evan woke up to find his entire family in the same bed, and was absolutely thrilled. He romped all over all of us until everyone was awake and ready to play.

Parker was helping Daddy collect firewood for the campfire, but just ended up carrying this stick around for the rest of the evening!

Our luxurious tent :) Parker and Evan absolutely loved it. Until Parker realized that we weren't going home Friday night. After eating dinner and playing with the parachute, we changed Evan into his pjs to keep him warm, and changed his diaper, etc. Parker told us he was ready to go "homey-home." We told him that we were going to sleep in the tent that night. He was shocked. It was hilarious. But, he adjusted to the idea and had a fun time anyway!

Yay for air mattresses! I don't care what anyone says... after having had kids, I'm allowed an airmattress when camping! I've done my share of sleeping on the ground :)

Parker and Daddy watching ESPN before bed Wednesday night. Boys and their sports :) Both boys were so happy to have their Daddy home! Evan still follows Thomas around everywhere he goes.