A shopping snack....

So I dropped Parker off at school this morning and then me and Spencer headed out to do some power shopping. I've been a last minute shopper this year and it's crazy out there people. We had been to a couple of stores and I thought we needed a little pick-me-up at Maverick (soda). So I'm filling up my cup and I smell something delicious. I know it's hard to believe that you could smell something good in a convenient store, but I have the nose of a blood hound. It was the smell of jalapenos. I look all around trying to spot the good stuff and I found it. I have never in my life bought food like this from a convenient store, but it smelled so good. And it tasted delicious! My mouth was on fire by the time I finished it, but it was worth it in the end. I guess I better head off to the gym:)

Parker could not wait to give Santa his letter. He wrote this letter at school. We were driving there to see him last Saturday and Parker said, "Mom, I need you to write one more thing on here...put 'I love Santa so much!' Cory says, "Oh you are trying to butter him up." Parker replied, "Yep, I am."
Thanks a lot random kid in the background!
"I'm really not into this, can we please leave?"
Oh the humanity! Christmas 2006. Spencer has always been skeptical of the big bearded man. I have pictures every year of a crying Spencer on Santa's lap. Why do we do this to our kids?

You are probably wondering.....hmm what is that jug of Tabasco doing over there? Well it is there to signify my love of the spicy food in life. The little bottle just wasn't enough I had to go for the jug. I'm blaming it on the pregnancy. I'm into jalapeno, serrano, red, poblano any kind of pepper....bring it on! I can't get enough. I can only eat eggs with Tabasco and whenever I get a Subway sandwich I get it loaded with jalapenos. That's not normal people! And Emilee's cranberry salsa was so good and spicy with just enough jalapenos. I know some of you are counting how many times I've mentioned jalapenos already....bear with me it's become an obsession. So I want to take this moment to thank all the spicy foods of the world for being so darn delicious and spicy. My family was laughing at me over Thanksgiving, but I was in heaven with all the food. I told my mom if I'm not eating I'm thinking about eating. And if it's spicy....I start to do the Homer Simpson drool.

A great Thanksgiving......

This is an apple pie I made for Thanksgiving. It turned out so good and it tasted good too. I had never made the filling from scratch and I did this time and it was a crowd pleaser. I had made one the Monday before for Parker's "Thanksgiving Feast" for preschool so I had a practice one under my belt. I never got to taste it, but Parker said it was good and that was enough for me.
We love Grandma and Grandpa Blackwell's house. It is the best place for kids. They can play outside with no worries. It's nice to come here and relax.

The crazy, fun boys. Tommy, Spencer, Parker, Cooper, Campbell, Carter, and Beau. We are just missing little Luke. That's all the boys!

Lexi sure loves her Grandpa. She is the cutest, sweetest, most beautiful little girl in the world. I am so in love with her. I am so excited that I get to be her babysitter on Monday's starting in a couple of weeks. Every time I look at her my heart melts and I love those cheeks. Spencer always says, "So cute". You got that right little buddy.
We all bellied up to the table to make these little gingerbread houses. It was fun. The kids really likes squeezing out the glue, it got a little crazy, but thankfully it is easy to clean up. Grandma Blackwell knows how to do it up right! She's the best we love her.
My mom and dad are really amazing, they do so much for other people. They are so kind and they love their family and they let us all take over their house over Thanksgiving and while it is crazy and loud I know they love it. They went the day after Thanksgiving to St. George to work in the temple Friday night and then got up at 3:45 a.m. Saturday to be back ready to go at 5:30a.m. They are truly amazing. They are the best examples of living righteously and doing what the Lord asks of them no matter how hard and no matter the sacrifice. They always have and I don't know what I did to deserve them. I am so blessed!!

What a little cutie wearing mommy's sunglasses. That's a lot of smudges! I love that little chin. Well I thought I better tell ya'll that I'm pregnant. I know what you are thinking...she's pregnant again?! Well, the truth is that Cory isn't getting any younger so we have to keep the ball rolling in that department. We are hoping for a little sister, but we will take what we can get.
Parker said he hopes it's a boy because he wants it to be a "boy world". I told him to look around because it already is. He said he doesn't want to have a little sister because she will leave her dolls in his room. I can see how that would be a big concern for a 4 year old.
So I am 13 weeks along and have been to the doctor a couple of times and had some ultrasounds done. I point to my stomach and tell Spencer there is a baby in there and he says, "You don't have a baby on your shirt!"
Parker also told me that my stomach is getting bigger. I told him it's because I'm down to exercising once a week and eating like an olympic athlete in training....not a good combination.

We made gingerbread cookies before church. That is the beauty of 1 o'clock church, we can dilly dally around all morning doing what we please. We even hang out in our underwear...okay only Parker does:) I spy some tighty whities in the background.

I made gingerbread cookies for the first time in my life and they turned out great. I wasn't even sure if the boys would like them, but they did.

Decorating them is always the most fun I think it might even make them taste better.
I wonder what is on his mind lately? Yes, his gingerbread man is holding a gun......hmm what am I going to do with these boys? That's real nice, honey, decorate your little "Gingy" like that while wearing your white shirt. Really appropriate.

Raising 'em right!!

"Daddy can I shoot some rabbits with you when we go to Marysvale?" Spencer thought it was a toy gun and wanted to hold it and play with it. In case you were wondering this is an assault rifle. These guns are selling out across America and the prices continue to get higher as the demand is very high right now with a new president going into office. President elect Obama will most likely ban these types of weapons.....so stock up citizens and exercise your second ammendment right! Cory told me this gun is as important as food storage. Nice selling point! He must be a good salesman because this is the second gun he has purchased in the last 8 months.

Daddy got a new toy. By the look on Parker's face I think he will grow up just like Dad and talk his wife into letting him buy expensive guns.

These are some family pictures we got taken last Saturday at a really beautiful pond by Weber State. There are so many good ones that I put a bunch of them on here for all to see. I love this last picture because this is what happens at our house every night (minus the nice clothes). They call it "wrestle mania". They always ask me to play, but I'm just not as fun as dad.

These are the flowers Cory got for me last Thursday. He was feeling bad about leaving to go hunting. There were so pretty he did good. This was the highlight of the hunt....finding the mud holes!

What the.......?

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. Yikes! The kids were so excited. We got about 6 or 7 inches.

He just couldn't help himself. Luckily I was able to take these pictures from the warmth and safety of my bedroom window!

We let Parker run around in the snow for a bit even though it was Sunday. So we went to church and the bishop got up and said, "Merry Christmas"...ha ha! And Parker immediately looked at me a little puzzled and I told him he was only kidding. So we are coming home from church and we pull up in the driveway and Parker says, "Mom and Dad I have some bad news....Halloween is cancelled!" We look at him and he is dead serious and we could not stop laughing! It took us a while to convince him that we are still going to have Halloween. After all, we do already have the Iron man costume as you can see!

This is Parker doing our ward 5K race. Some people run and a lot of kids ride bikes, scooters, etc. He takes it very seriously. He looks forward to it for weeks. I tried to run with him last time and didn't take into account his very competitive nature. He was long gone and Cory had to drive to find him and make sure he knew the way to go. He started preparing for the race after dinner by doing pushups and stretching. It was awesome! He took 3rd place behind two boys on bikes that were 11 and 12. Go Parker!!! He is already looking forward to the day when he can do triathlons. I think he needs to be 6 or 7 so I've got a couple of years to train him:o)

This is Spencer on the phone. Whenever the boys get mad at me they threaten to call Cory. Parker will call him and say, "Mommy has been naughty!" Spencer will usually just say, "I want my daddy, I don't like you!" Gee, thanks guys. Way to make mom feel special.

This is our dog Pepper. We've had her for 3 years now. We got her when she was a puppy. She is a great dog and she is small and weighs the same as Spencer (28 pounds) so the boys like to play with her and wrestle. Parker thinks she is big enough that he can ride on her back and he trys all the time and she really hates it.

Beau and Parker at Grandma and Grandpa Blackwell's house. We miss our Hurricane cousins!
The boys of '04. Tommy's saying, "My turn!""Check out this trick!"

Parker created this picture at school. It is a self portrait. I think I see some talent there. I really love the nose! This is Spencer's favorite sleeping position. It's even better with dinosaur p.j.'s and pillow. Now if we could only get him to get rid of the baby blanket!

Parker in the Oval Office

We were watching John McCain speak at the convention and Parker was asking us who he was. We told him he was running for president. Parker then said, "What about Barack Obama?" We then asked him how he knew that name and he said, "I remember it because it has a 'bomb' and a 'rock' in it?

Parker started school!

Today was Parker's first day of preschool. He is very excited, but Spencer was very sad when he realized what was happening when we dropped Parker off. We got back in the truck and he said through his tears "I miss my Parker, I need a friend".

Funny Parker

Parker is always saying funny things. Sunday night we let him eat a chocolate chip cookie before dinner (which we have never done before:) He ate the cookie and then came up to me and said, "Mom, I think I ate the wrong cookie I better have another one."

I've caved under the peer pressure of the blogging world. So here it is this pretty much sums up our summer. We have had some fun vacations and have enjoyed doing lots of fun stuff with the boys.