Christmas with the Parsons

Christmas was with Troy's family this year. We didn't get any pictures of Christmas Eve mostly because Troy had to work until 6. Before that we had yummy soup for dinner and just hung out with most of the family. After Troy got home we went to see my family for a minute and pick up our stuff so we could spend the night. Then the kids went to bed and we stayed up and played Santa and Sequence.

Christmas morning was very pleasant. Only Aaron and his family, us, and Jordan and his wife spent the night. We got up, had breakfast, looked in our stockings and got ready for church. Aaron's girls were amazing and didn't complain about not opening their gifts right away. It was nice to go to church on Christmas. It's funny because that's the one day the rest of the world does go to church and we make a big deal out of it like it's unusual. But it really brought the spirit into the rest of the day. We went back to Parson's and had a very laid back, sweet, Christmas.

Rockwell didn't quite get the opening presents part, but we tried. (We took off his shirt because I forgot to pack an extra shirt for sunday that wasn't a church shirt. Oops!)

His big toy from Santa was... racquetballs! I know, Santa is just too much sometimes. We're gonna spoil this kid. He loved them. He wanted to hold all three and promptly threw them in the air and lost them.

I found a pattern for a crocheted beard on Etsy. It's not quite fitted to his face in this picture but you get the idea. I think it turned out kinda fun. I made one for Rocky, too, but it wasn't finished. I'll post pictures of the two of them together when they're both finished.

Rockwell climbed onto Uncle Aaron's lap a couple times. We weren't sure if he knew he wasn't sitting on his dad's lap so we kept really quiet, hoping not to freak him out. After a few minutes he climbed down and never seemed to notice the difference.

Troy, sadly, got more toys than Rockwell. Look at that face! He was pleased as punch. This year I made him make a wish list on Pinterest. Then I could pick out a few toys he wanted without him being able to trace it. It worked great! In this picture you can see how much he and his brother Aaron really do look alike.

Troy picked out some really cute boots for me. He's got good taste and they fit!

Haha! I love this sweater! Troy's sister has one like it and i've always been jealous of it. When I told Troy I wanted one he went to look with her and said they were all sold out. Sneaky!

Troy made me model. This picture does double duty because now you can see "the belly". 27 weeks!

After presents we had a quiet afternoon where we munched, napped, cooked, and generally entertained ourselves. Rockwell generally entertained himself by stealing his cousin's glasses and climbing into Grandma's laundry room sink.

For fun, Troy's sister, Holly, wanted to do a traditional English Christmas dinner. She even made a goose! It was pretty tasty, but weird to eat a goose. She also made plumb pudding and brought poppers like on Harry Potter. The table looked so pretty with the poppers on it, I had to take a picture.

Rockwell LOVED playing with his cousins for two whole days. We hardly saw him he was so buys running around. I love this picture, even though it's blurry. I call it "Grandma Kathy Feeding Her Little Birds" Word got out that she was sharing her ice cream.

Well, i've got to end this post because Rockwell needs the computer. I know I posted about the things we got and did, but it was a very special Christmas to be with family and remember our Savior and the joy we can have because He came to Earth.

Our Humdrum Lives as of Late

Remember this project? The weather finally got over 50 one day so I put off everything I was doing and finished painting the house. It came together quite nicely. The trim still needs touching up but that can wait until next year.

Remember this kid? Well, now he fills our home with energy and mischief. He was just biding his time until he was mobile to let his true colors shine. He is so fun and busy and we are happy he's 18 months and in nursery

I turned around for 1 minute only to turn back around and find him sticking my sewing pins into his lunch.














I know soon we'll have to get after him for jumping on the bed... but it's so funny!

Baby #2 is a...a...

I tried really really hard not to get my heart set on one gender or the other this time. REALLY hard. I just couldn't help it. I had some anxiety leading up to this ultra sound. I was afraid I would be disappointed and someday have my child find out we hoped they were something else. So when we walked into the Dr's office my heart was beating and my palms were sweating. We met the tech and she chatted a bit. She asked if we were checking for gender and if we had any guesses. Troy and I had the same guess and told her we said we might make her double check. I laid back, she poured the gel, typed in some info into the computer, and set the machine to work. Within a minute she said, "well, I won't have to double check...." and Troy and I, being slow minded in our anxious state both thought "really? it's that obviously not what we'd hoped?" and she said "it's definitely a boy!" Really? REALLY? I mean, who actually gets what they hoped for two kids in a row? We were, and still are, thrilled... just tickled, really.

And now to spend minimal time on the most important thing about the ultrasound- everything looked really really good. All his organs, bones, etc look great and he's measuring right on. But really, I love that I can call our little "it" a "he" now!

This Halloween

This Halloween was a little bit different than the last few. For one thing Troy threw his costume together last minute like a normal human being and surprised himself when his 80s punk rocker (or is he Ozzy Osborne?) outfit turned out pretty fun.

I'm just a black cat. Nothing exciting. I still hate dressing up, especially being 5 months pregnant I felt very limited (showing too much to be anything sassy, not showing enough to be anything clever)


















The three of us. Some year we'll do coordinating costumes, cuz it's so fun, but not this year. We just couldn't think of anything.

Instead of our big old party we had just a small party due to busy schedules, fatigue and illness. Charles and Nancy were kind enough to let us have it at their place at the last minute. Brennen and Grace, Nick and Angela, and Josh and his date, came, ate and watched "Little Shop of Horrors". It was nice and low key. No trick or treating even.














Rockwell's E-Wok costume. Troy has always wanted his kid to be one so we made it happen this year before he's old enough to choose otherwise ;)


















I made the fuzzy part and Troy designed and made the leather part. He looked so cute and surprisingly kept the hood on for more than a few minutes (but not all night).

Happy Halloween! We can't wait to do it all again next year (but maybe I can...)

An Update

Most of our friends and family live pretty close so I don't do updates on us all very often, but the pictures I have for today are kind of random and appropriate for one.

Troy: Has been so busy with school and work. He's taking 3 art classes, one sewing class, a religion and a science class plus still working at Ace. In his spare time (which is increasingly less and less) he spends in his green house. He's had an amazing crop of lemon cucumbers and onions with a few peppers, tomatoes and white pumpkins.

This little guy decided to grow on the roof so Troy made a sling for it.

Last week he went shooting with the guys














So manly :)














Alison: I have been working part time at Lincoln Elementary school as an aid. I love helping the kids learn. I also have been chasing Rockwell around, trying (sometimes in vain) to keep up with the housework, sewing Rockwell's Halloween costume and doing other little projects, and growing a human.

One project we've been working on is our house. We've had some issues and needed to replace some of our "siding" pieces and since we didn't think we could match the color close enough and had to paint anyways, we went with a completely different color. So our tan house is now our bluish-gray house and I love it. It's a big project and still isn't done , but we're getting there.

My mom and my neighbor, Leslie, came to help me paint. I can't thank them enough. It went so much faster with their help. I had to take a picture of Leslie because it was kind of an adventure getting onto the shed and leaning over the crack to paint this part.














Rockwell was SUCH a good little helper. It took him less than 5 minutes to get covered in blue paint and once he was cleaned up, he discovered he likes to climb up the ladders. Scary! but funny. Here he is sporting his very own smock- putting him in it was the smartest thing I've ever done.














Here you can see the "siding" and how it is a different color and how it goes directly over the insulation. Trailers are cheap for a reason, I can't complain.














Rockwell: Is getting so big and SO much fun. He smiles a lot more now and even occasionally laughs. He loves the cats and the neighbors dog. He's a pretty busy guy, getting into everything and making a mess in about 5 seconds, but usually pretty quiet. He can say: mamma, dadda, pappa, grandpa ("Pampa"), cracker, and ball. He can sign: more, eat, please, baby, milk, water, and candy. He is currently refining his jumping skills and even manages to get one foot off the ground. He is even starting to communicate his will through small tantrums. He's a brave boy and loves to climb on everything but is careful not to attempt things beyond his level. We love him so much! He brings so much joy and chaos into our lives!

Announcing... Baby Number 2!

Some of you already know, but this is the official announcement (because it's getting hard to hide) that baby Parson number 2 is on it's way. We are so excited to welcome another special spirit into our home and thrilled that Rockwell will have a sibling close in age to play with. As of today we are 15 weeks and 3 days along and we're expecting him or her to arrive at the end of March and we get to find out the gender in December... can't wait!

(p.s. this is not a picture of our baby. We stole it. We don't even know who's baby it is. It is a picture from google)

My Squishy

I could just squish that cute little face


















Enough said.

California Dreamin'

Wednesday afternoon we all loaded into the car and headed to LA for Jordan's wedding. We got there late thursday night and stayed in the temple apartments. The next morning we all got dolled up and walked to the LA temple.

Our self portrait by the beautiful LA temple!

The gorgeous couple- Mr and Mrs Parson. Anna looked so stunning! I've yet to see anyone else pull of a short dress like she does. and we're super excited that she's part of our family now.

The bride and bridesmaids

The groom and groomsmen (Daniel, Aaron, Troy and Brett, we sure missed Justin but we'll see him soon for the other reception)

That night after the luncheon we HAD to make a Trader Joe's run. I've never been there. It was pretty fun and I got some peanut butter filled chocolate covered pretzels which are so perfect for us, so it was totally worth the trip and the scary picture of all of us

Saturday morning (late) we wanted to go to the beach. We were all planning on sitting on the sand doing some body surfing, but Anna's parents were so awesome and loaded us up with boogie boards, towels, chairs, shovels, and pails, and our cousins the Barkers packed us some sandwiches and we were SET for the beach! and it was FREEZING! and windy but we had fun nonetheless.

The crew: Holly, Franci, Laura Barker, Tiffany Barker, Aaron, Brett, Troy, me

Every beach we go to (actually quite a few considering we live in Idaho), Troy and I have to get a picture in front of the waves. Its tradition ever since our Disneyland trip with the high school (hmmm, I think I just got a blog post idea...) So, Here's to tradition...

The fun thing about the Parson family is that they are artsy-fartsy wherever they go. One of their traditions is making mermaid tails in the sand

And of course an amazing sand castle (Troy actually had nothing to do with this, he was busy boogie boarding in the icy water)

Then we rushed home to get ready for the reception and what a reception it was! everything was beautiful and every detail seen to and OH THE FOOD was incredible! and I didn't get ANY pictures from it!!! how lame am I? My camera was in a car that had been parked far away by the time I remembered I needed it. Hopefully I can steal some from someone else soon.

I titled this photo The Reception: The Morning After. I really do feel bad because it was magical.

So sunday afternoon we got to have lunch with Niels and Loraine before we headed to Cedar City where we stayed the night at Del and Lynette's, woke up early and came the rest of the way today.

I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Lisa and Richard, Aaron and Camile, The Barkers, Niels and Loraine, and Del and Lynette for giving us a bed to sleep in and real (really good) food in our bellies. It was much appreciated especially after eating all that junk food and sitting in a car for so long.

and a HUGE GINORMOUS thank you to my Mom, Dad, Lindsay, Heidi, and i'm sure Tyler and Rachel for watching Rockwell because he would have been scarred for LIFE traveling more than 30 hours in less than a week. Really, trust me, it would have been a nightmare for all involved, so thank you!

Trailriding Adventure

Leon needed some photos for a painting so his neighbor Mel Griffith took him up into Alaska Basin on his horses and was kind enough to let us and Jordan and his fiance Anna (who we love) tag along. It was BEAUTIFUL. Though we couldn't make it to the top due to snow we had an amazing time.

Jordan and Anna (in the orange hat, though you can't see her face) and Mel. Mel was a biology teacher and so we'd stop every so often and have a mini biology lesson, which was really cool.

Troy and I. And YES I wore my cowboy hat because I love it.

Jordan, Anna, Troy, Me, Kathy, and Leon when we stopped for lunch. Notice all the beautiful black horses? They're the Americana horses and BOY did they have a lot more energy going up and down that rocky trail than any trail horse I've ever been on. It was such a blast! P.S. Thank you SO much mom for watching Rockwell the whole day!

What a Busy Summer

So it seems like you either have time to blog and nothing to write about or a ton to write about and no time to blog. This summer has been the latter. We've been boating, camping, hiking, gardening, riding horses, sewing, and swimming and then some. Below are a few posts about some of the fun things we've been up to in the last month

A Long Overdue Post About our Camping Trip

We went camping one weekend with Fred and Nita, Brennan and Grace, and Charles and Nancy to the calderas. It was quite an adventure hiking all our gear down in there but well worth it because it was beautiful and out of the wind. Most of the photos aren't too exciting but we sure had fun just hanging out in the great outdoors. We had some food issues but we now know better what to pack next time.

It was Rockwell's first camping trip and he had a lot of fun playing in the dirt. He slept in the sleeping bag with Troy and I and did pretty well.