Happy Holidays

This was our Christmas Card photo for this year...

Panama City Beach

Yesterday Emily had to return a drill down in Panama City so Parker and I went with her and her two boys. We first went and had lunch with Chris and Nate (Emily's husband), which is always fun to do, then we headed down south. It was pretty chilly because of the wind, otherwise it wouldn't have been so bad. After dropping off the drill we went to Target for a little bit and I got Parker some new jeans and 2 long-sleeved shirts all for $14!! Then we headed to the beach...we at least wanted to see it! We found a place to park and then walked out onto the beach and Parker was in HEAVEN! He had so much fun playing in the sand, and he literally was covered head to foot in sand from throwing it in the air, rubbing his face and even trying to taste it. Needless to say, I'm glad I just bought him some new clothes because those were pretty dirty by the end! It was a cute little town and we wished that it was a little closer for us to go visit and that we were going to be here a little bit longer so we could go down on the weekend when the guys were off work...oh well.

Too excited to look at the camera! (I don't think I got even one picture of him looking at me!) The pier you could pay $2 to walk out on. And the digging begins! Before he really started getting into it... It's SNOWING!! After a few minutes of playing, but BEFORE he had just wiped sand ALL over his face!! (I don't have a picture of that though)

Pensacola Beach

Yesterday after church we drove down with Nate and Emily and their family to Pensacola Beach to go see a couple dome houses down there. It was FREEZING so we didn't really stay outside too long. We wanted to go on the beach and see the water and whatnot so we did for a few minutes. I also wanted to touch the water to see if it was warm...and it wasn't! It was beautiful though, nice fine, white sand and pretty turquoise water and the sunset was awesome :)

Pretty! Family Pic... My Boys :) Dome of a Home...it's a beach rental and pretty cool looking.

Update

Well I just thought I would give a little update on what we are doing. We finished up the job in Gainesville, Florida this past Wednesday and we packed up, cleaned the apartments and headed out to Chipley, Florida where Chris and the guys have a small job to fix. That should only take about a week and a half, two weeks tops and then we are headed back to Idaho for a few days to see Chris' family and get doctor's appointments taken care of (Parker is about a month overdue!). We aren't sure yet if we are driving back to Idaho or flying...it all depends on how much time we have left over after this project. Then on Christmas Eve we are flying to Seattle to see my family!! We are really excited...it's been since last Thanksgiving since we've been back there and I sure do miss it :)

Now for a little update on Parker...he is growing so much. He still isn't really talking all that much, however we have been teaching him some sign language to be able to communicate better with us. So far he has learned "Please", "Thank you", "Eat", and "Drink". It's pretty cute...plus he says "Amen" after the prayers (during the meal prayers he always trys to say it early in hopes that he can start eating sooner!). He also says "Bye-Bye", "Ball", "Hello". It's so fun hearing him start to say things and watching him grow into this little person. Well, I guess that's all for now...sorry there aren't any pictures...perhaps later!

Florida Museum of Natural History

Today Emily and I took the kids to the Butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. It was pretty cool, but pretty small. There were tons of butterflys though of all different sizes and colors. A couple of them landed on Parker's pants and head. He didn't really like the one on his pants and tried to bat it away, the one on his head he didn't notice!!

It was really pretty in there... Parker really liked the railing...there was a cool little pond and waterfall on the other side that had some turtles and some HUGE orange fish!Lunch time!Parker thought it was pretty and watned a closer look...There were a TON that still needed to hatch...

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Florida with Nathan and Emily South and their two boys as well as Emily's brother, Bridger and the two Mexican guys that work with Chris too. It was pretty low-key. We had a nice dinner and then hung out the rest of the day at home since Parker needed his naps. It was weird not being around any family this year, but it was still pretty fun. Now I'm stoked for Christmas since we get to go back to Seattle for a week!! Sorry, I don't have ANY pictures from Thanksgiving. I would like to list out a few things I'm thankful for...

- Chris and Parker, I'm not sure what I would do without either of them!
- My family
- A place to live
- My education
- That Chris has a job in this economy
- The gospel
- Good food to eat
- My friends
- Nap times ;)

There are so many more things I'm thankful for, these are just a few of them!

Front Door

Tonight we discovered that Parker can now reach the front door handle in our apartment!! This is NOT good news for us. We had just come back from the store and were putting away the cold groceries before heading back out for dinner. Now normally we lock the door when we come in, unless we are just going right back out. So Chris and I were putting away groceries and all of a sudden I heard the front door close. I was like "OH NO!!" Chris could have sworn he shut the door tight and he opened the door and Parker was half way to the parking lot. So when he brought him back in he shut it tight and then watched to see if Parker actually did open it...turns out HE DID! Awesome! He now tries literally every chance he gets to open the door. Looks like we are going to hve to make sure it's locked at all times. To clarify, the handle on the door is one of those you just have to push down and then push the door open...pretty easy for a toddler to open and get out! Who puts those kind of handles on the FRONT door...I mean seriously?!?

Santa Fe Teaching Zoo

Last week Parker and I went with Emily and her two kids to this little zoo that the Santa Fe Community College has for the Zoology department. It was pretty fun, however I think Parker would have liked it more if he were a little older. They had a lot of birds and smaller animals that didn't reall move or catch his attention. He did like the Capuchin Monkeys though because they were swinging all over the place. Perhaps we'll just have to try an actual bigger zoo that has the more common zoon animals!

Toy Story

Right now Parker's FAVORITE movie is Toy Story. It is the only movie that he will watch like 98% of. Last night he was watching so intently on his little chair, I just couldn't resist taking a couple pictures!

Loungin' Around

Chris let Parker play with my Ipod Nano and he decided to go relax on his bean bag chair while looking it over and pretending it was a phone. It was pretty cute!