Friends and Family Pictures

My best friend, Kasey, asked me to take Polly's 1 year old pictures (a few months ago) and I've been meaning to post them ever since.  I love love her kids, and love her sassy, sweet Polly girl!  

Over Christmas, Chad asked me to take some family pictures which is a tiny bit tricky with how cold and snowy it had been.  We ended up at my in-laws and did some impromptu head shots of Hailey & Logan in their living room.  It wasn't ideal lighting, but they turned out good.  Hailey is 5 months and Logan is 2 1/2.  It was very tricky to get Logan to smile, but luckily he likes me a little bit and we caught a few!  And I thought the family ones outside turned out great, and we only were outside for 10 minutes or so, so the kids didn't get too cold.

Over Christmas, some ladies and I threw a baby shower for Shalauna, who is having a little boy (Zac) in March.  I did the invitations, and my mom and I did the decorations, Pam took care of the food, Laura did the thank-you gift, and Sheena brought a cake.  We're so happy for Shalauna's new arrival!!  I took some pictures for her, and her house has a lot of amazing natural light.  Here's a few.

The spread ... we matched everything to her bedding she chose

Shalauna with Pam Covey & her girls (we both used to babysit for Pam when we were teenagers)

Sheena & Shalauna

Mom, Shalauna & I

Soccer video from last fall

Hilarious video of Rachel playing soccer, showing off her "skills".  You can skip ahead to 30 seconds. The end is fantastic when she shrugs in exhaustion and kneels down right in front of the goal.  

Kyle & Brandon's Christmas Card 2012

There are no words to describe ...

These pictures were taken in Orem's University Mall in the front studio window where onlookers smiled at this festive family - cue double take - until they noticed there were two dads?  With 4 children under the age of 4?  Huh?  Some passerby's laughed, others looked seriously confused, and some stopped in their tracks to stare.  And there were even some older people that were so ticked - we thought they were going to throw rocks.

Can I just say that the photographers were very professional during this unconventional photo shoot - we were all very impressed.  They had no idea what was going on, but I'm pretty sure they caught on that it was a joke by the end of it.  I was there to help and take some video, and they were referring to me as the nanny.  At one point, the photographers referred to Kyle as "dad" and Rachel said, "No, that's not my dad, that's Kyle Flanagan!"

Please ignore Andrew's outfit (green shirt with the festive tie and blue shoes), and Kendall's red tights under a onesie that says, "Mommy's best gift" - ironic perhaps?  And the darling little girl in the picture that you might not recognize is Kyle & Annie's daughter, Etta.  Happy holidays from our dysfunctional families to yours!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve right around bedtime, Rachel heard Santa's bells outside, so she informed everyone that they needed to go home quick and go to bed immediately!  She was way into it, and I have never seen her jump into bed and fall asleep so fast.  The kids slept great and actually slept in, so we didn't have to wait long at all for Chad, Cindy and kids to come over.  It was a great day, and Kendall slept all morning so that we were able to focus on the big kids.  We spent the morning at my mom's, the afternoon at Hale's and then visited Grandma Parker that evening.

We are so grateful for this time of year and for our wonderful family and friends.  I love the magic of the season for the children, and how their faces light up at every new activity.  I love thinking of gifts to give others, and finding ways to help those around us.  I love the smells and the tasty treats.  I love being together as a family.  I loved the snow, and having to bundle up or feeling like we're stuck inside.   We really had a great time.

I guess I'll record the gifts we got so that our posterity can see how spoiled we all are.  :)

Whitney - Blendtec blender, rug for family room, hose reel, amazon gift cards, canning accessories, photography accessories, about 5 packs of jolly joes from my brothers
Brandon - ipad mini, nerf guns, cheese slicer (he asked for one, hates using a knife I guess), table saw, router table, costco-size jelly bellies and york peppermint patties, pocket gig
Rachel - Bullseye, Jesse Hat & Rapunzel with short, brown hair (Santa gifts, and thankfully she earned back the Rapunzel doll because that one wasn't going to be under the tree unless she started behaving better), Lalaloopsy minis, tap shoes, new leotard, jewelry box, art & craft activities, care bear, Lotso, Barbie car and clothes
Andrew - Woody & Buzz (Santa gifts), strider bike, pirate ship with guys, spiderman house, romote control firetruck, care bear cousin, Chuck dumptruck, some movies (Cars, Lorax, Madagascar 3), lunchbox
Kendall - new clothes from Grandma & Nana.  We didn't get her anything - not because we don't love her, but because she's 2 months old and the third child.  :)

The loot!  The motorcycle bike was for Logan.  

Kendall slept the entire morning!  I fed her around 5a and then she slept in until 9:30am - great timing so that we could  just enjoy the morning with Andrew & Rachel.  

Santa Gifts!  And she earned back her Rapunzel with some better behavior.  :)

Santa gifts

New leotard & tap shoes from Grandma Nancy - what a cheeser!

Strider bike without wheels from Grandma

Papa Wally & Pookie

Love this picture!  Grandma Parker with Kendall - look at Kendall smiling at her!  She was so sweet to Grandma Parker.

Hale Christmas Activities

We made our way to Utah on the 21st and Brandon insisted that Kendall and I fly and that he would drive Rachel and Andrew.  He didn't want a newborn that needs to eat every 3 hours to slow him down, and he is a sweetheart and wanted to do what was best for Kendall.  It was an absolute joy to travel with just one little baby!  For Brandon, he said that the kids were amazing, really they were.  I think it's because they didn't have me there to boss around and keep them entertained.  They left at 2p and arrived around midnight.

The next morning, we went to a breakfast-with-Santa event at Riverside Country Club with Grandpy Val.  It was very fancy, and I was a little stressed out with all the glass dishes and goblets that the kids were using, but the buffet was delicious and it ended up being a lot of fun.  Santa arrived via golf cart and they had a hilarious "Buddy, the Elf" character.  Then we exchanged cousin/sibling gifts and were so happy to be with our family!

The highly anticipated, annual Grandma/Grandpa Sleepover was after Christmas, and the kids were so excited.  Grandma makes a video of it every year, and they love watching it (especially the part where they jump on all the mattresses she puts in the basement; it's always the same song, that the kids remind her of, "Da da da da da da and we jump on the beds!").  They have dinner, swim in the hot tub, lots of jumping and playing, read a new Christmas story, and wear matching pajamas.  Andrew got to sleep out with all the big kids per his request, and he was, of course, the first one awake!  It's a fun tradition, especially for the moms & dads.  We all went out to dinner to Red Lobster together, which is always super fun.  However, Kendall was being high maintenance!  Overall, Kendall did very good the whole trip and seemed to know when to be patient, behave well, sleep extra long, etc., so we were being as understanding as possible at dinner as we were trying to put her to sleep, then I was nursing her in the Red Lobster bathroom stall, bouncing her, trying to put her to sleep again, etc.  Right now, we're in the stage where Kendall seems restless in the evening hours, wanting to eat every couple hours, and her last feeding isn't until 11p or so.  Then she is up around the same time as the big kids, with lots of cat naps during the day (and we never know when we'll get that glorious long nap), and she loves to sleep in someone's arms in the daytime (particularly daddy's).

Random story:  I got my haircut while there, and Hailey always straightens it for me.  I hadn't had my haircut for 6 months, so it was long overdue.  When I got home, Andrew had a fit about my straight hair and cried and cried because he either didn't recognize me or didn't like it.  He is not a fan of haircuts!  It's funny because when he was younger, he almost didn't recognize dad after one drastic haircut.  Funny boy.  *Make note of Andrew in the pajama picture - he's the only boy with a white long-sleeve shirt under his t-shirt, which is because he doesn't wear short sleeves, so we had to put a long one underneath.

Trying to stay warm in Utah!  :)

Buddy, the elf and Santa at Riverside

"Cheers!"  I was stressing out as Val was taking this picture!  

A very lively Santa!

Cousin Gift Exchange

Rachel and Kennedy showing off their gifts

Sunday Best (Maybe not Andrew's "best" - see disheveled, too small shirt and skater shoes), and on a sidenote, he absolutely hated wearing that suit and it made Brandon and I pleased to make him wear it.  ha!

Jump house at the sleepover

I love seeing pictures of these cute girls together.  I hope they will be forever long friends!  I didn't have any girl cousins my age, and always thought that would be fun.  They are all one school year apart, which is how me, Shalauna & Sheena were.  

Miles Murray - what a cutie!

Chase, Cannon & Kennedy

Love this picture!  Rachel & Brynn

Parker Family Christmas Festivities

We stayed at my mom's for the first half (including Christmas), and she does such a great job doing for my kids what she used to do for us growing up.  She works very hard and throws a big Christmas Eve party for the Thompson clan, and has even come up with a way to convert her garage to a room for when she has big parties (dad hangs curtains that go floor to ceiling to cover the walls, it's impressive).  She loves to give gifts, and she's always the last one to open any, because she enjoys watching everyone open theirs too much.  She does a good job making it extra special for everyone.  

Having said that, it wouldn't be a Parker holiday if there weren't some funny happenings and irreverent moments, which is why I love my family so much...

Lesson learned:  Never go to SLC on the frontrunner train the weekend before Christmas!  I'm sorry, but this was the train ride from hell.  It was so ridiculously crowded, I can't even explain (plus we paid $20 for this torture?).  We took the train (still took 45 min, just like by car and the children were entertained by the train for about 10 minutes), then we transferred to Trax and went to see the Temple lights with about a million other people.  I'm surprised we didn't lose anyone at City Creek and particularly their play place, which was packed.  My attitude also stunk about the whole thing because we had a newborn with us who wanted to be held, yet it was too cold to have her out and about, and it was during her tougher evening hours.  Plus I feel like all sorts of strangers were "coughing on her".  She did amazing considering the circumstances!  Then we missed the 7:20p train, and the next one wasn't until after 9p.  It was a long night for the kids, but truly I think they had fun and thought it was rather adventurous.  

For Christmas Eve, our family has a "talent" show and everyone is pretty good at participating and putting in a good effort.  We knew we wouldn't be able to out-do ourselves after last year (need a reminder?  click here), so we just played it pretty low key.  Andrew sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and Rachel sang "When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter", they both were brave and are good little performers (although Andrew did need some coaxing).  Kendall needed to nurse so it kept me from sharing my limbo talent - maybe next year?  :) Brandon shared his "photography" talent and showed off some the pictures that he "took" this year.  Awkward family photos still haven't gotten old (see picture collage).  Chad did a spoof on a mission video that Kyle took of himself during his last transfer, and then Kyle made his own music video of Gangnam Style.  Hilarious stuff.  A couple years ago Brandon changed the words to "Mary, Did You Know?" for Cindy, and this year Cindy responded back with another version to Brandon.  I have no idea how mom and dad got out of doing a talent this year.  I am still hopeful that Chad will do karate as his talent one year!  

And Chad's karate reminds me that we pulled out some old family videos and had a blast watching them together.  It reminds me why I do all this documenting on the blog, pictures, videos, etc.  One day I will be so glad I did, because it's amazing how quickly we (I) forget things.  In the videos, Chad's karate actually was pretty good, and so was his tantrum getting ready for school that mom recorded as proof for dad.  I was an overly helpful 11 year old who took my role as second mother to Cade very seriously.  I may have been a better mom back then.  :)  We watched Cade's first year of life including his first steps (he is now 18 years old), and were reminded what a cute little baby he was!

As a family we decided to watch a new Christmas movie instead of one of the classics we'd seen a hundred times (A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation).  Mom recommended "Christmas Oranges", a movie about a little girl in an orphanage ... I'll actually spare you the summary.  What basically happened was that we all thought we had the movie figured out and assumed that it would be so predictable, but then the ending was completely disappointing and we liked our ending better.  I think you probably had to be there, but we turned a worthless movie that I can't believe we all sat through into a big debate about how we think it should have turned out, so all in all it was a pretty funny night.  But I think we're going to stick to the classic Christmas movies from now on.  

During the holiday season, I discovered the television series, "Duck Dynasty" about a bunch of wealthy rednecks who run a duck call company together.  I tried to get my whole family on board and caught up on all the episodes while we were there.  This show makes me laugh out loud, and when mom and I watched the Christmas episode, mom almost peed her pants, we were laughing so hard.

New jammies for the kids - Christmas Eve

Logan & Andrew, just a few months apart

Kendall & Hailey, 3 months apart

Rachel didn't want to be left out of the girl picture!

Do not mess with TRADITION - their favorite tradition is playing nintendo together on Christmas Day

Brandon's "Talent" Show Presentation:

Sorry if you are now scarred.  Brandon photoshopped all the heads on these people in case that was unclear to you.  When Rachel saw the picture of herself, she said, "Hey, I don't have those pajamas."  and they laughed at Cade's saying "Cader is naked!"  Too funny.