Kid's Club

Renee invited us to play at Kid's Club yesterday.  I've never heard of it so I googled it and decided it'd be good for the girls.  Was it ever?!!  It was a blast!  Winter days are rough.  It may not be freezing cold here or snowy but the rain puts a damper on things and staying inside happens too much.  This was perfect to get out and have fun.  I love that there's so much to do here in Washington.  This place was only about 15 minutes away in Vancouver.  It pretty much has a swimming pool; a gym for classes like dance, gymnastics, cheer etc; the middle has a cafe & tables to eat because they don't allow outside food; and then the rest is the jungle!  It's like a glorified McDonalds playground but huge and CLEAN!  Slides, ball blower, ball targets, tree to climb up (this made me feel so clausterphobic), bridges and more.  It was $8 for Jaycee and then for Hadi cuz her age is 1/2 off reg price so $4.  One parent is free with paid child.  So it was $12 for all of us and I made sure we stayed for 3 hours so we could get our moneys worth.  I arrived a little late and then Renee left a little early but we got 2 hours to play together.  Xander her little boy didn't have school and Macey the little girl she babysits didn't either so all 3 of them played.  Hadi and I explored the jungle & Renee and baby girl did.  Hadi can be afraid of heights so sometimes she cried but overall I think she liked it.  I can't wait to bring my family here with their kids.  They will love it!  I like also that you can stay for as long as you want! Success for fun!  I'm thinking next time we need to check out the museum in Portland.  

http://www.portlandcm.org/visit/exhibits-studios/

 Here's Hadi trying to climb up to the slides. 

Jaycee loading up the "ball gun" and shooting targets.  Hadi though it was fun to get all the balls for her

 This is the ball room.  You can put balls in this machine thing and it shoots them up.  Also there's machines that take the balls up to the different levels and one that dumps a bunch from the top.  It was FUN!  Hadi was a little scared when the balls would fly but Jaycee laughed.  You can see the other 2 levels and the "ball guns" so you can shoot each other and the targets. 

 There's lot of areas to explore.  Hadi and I found this area with these huge balls. 

 This slide was AWESOME! It was at the very top and goes down fast & steep.  At the end the slide is level with the pads so you slide out onto the mats from going so fast.  It even gave my stomach a tickle.  We went down the slide a lot and the girls thought that was so fun.

 We found a silly area with funny mirrors.  This was right before Hadi decided she was done and needed a power nap. 

 Jaycee having fun with the slides.

Random Times of Parker Life

Jaycee has such a silly personality.  She was sportin' her new skinny jeans from Aunt Jodi, her silly socks from Grandma, stylish hat from Hadi & found mom's glasses...to top it off, her guitar.  Oh this girl makes me smile everyday

Walks to the duck ponds, yes in the winter.  It is pretty amusing to see the water frozen one day and we'd throw the bread on it and see the ducks slip all over to get to the bread.  This is our friend we see there almost every time.  He needs a name.

 Jaycee loving her pup.  She is FINALLY to a point that it's good to be nice to the dog.  And guess what, Milly will actually choose her over us.  She sure loves Mills.  She begs to feed her every morning, loves to make her chase her toys and mostly loves to have her cuddle on her lap. 

 This was right before Christmas of our Scout boys.  I'm sure going to miss this bunch.  I actually really loved Scouts and glad I was able to serve and get to know them. 

 Jaycee and Hadi playing.  Funny part is Hadi didn't care one bit and would lean in for more stickers. 

Oh this girl has Craig and me both wrapped around every tiny finger.  I get sad when it's bed time and I have to say good night.  I've enjoyed my time with her so much.  She's getting so big and learning so much.  I just can't believe how fast time goes.  Hadi can sign too.  It's adorable.  She can sign milk, please, more, food (this is her favorite), apple.  It's nice to communicate when she's crying and she can understand me.  She also just cut her first molar and I think there's another making it's appearance.  We are just about done nursing.  We went a lot longer than expected but I've really enjoyed the time with her.  She still looks for it if I tell her nub, nub.  haha.  She's getting quite fiesty when it comes to mom.  Jaycee knows & understands to be nice and share, but Hadi is not liking this idea.  Most days I have one girl on each leg when sitting down.  When #3 comes I have no idea where "it" will go haha   Hadi adores her sister.  They love to run around the house screaming with each other.  They love bath time together!  They love to throw every cushion off the couch and run & jump all over it.  They love to share their apples and snacks.  They really are best of friends.  Some people say how their kids fight all the time etc and I just can't believe how lucky I am.  They hardly ever fight and you can tell already that they will be so close growing up. 

 Playing at the library in downtown Vancouver.  This is such a fun library and the girls loved it!

 Being silly

 Food=sleepy time

 Hadi in her new outfit from Aunt Jodi.  Skinny jeans and boots-perfect!

28 Years!

I've always thought 30's was still pretty young and now that it's sneaking up on me, I'm not looking forward to it.  I just think birthdays are silly as we get older, but Craig sure makes it special every year.  He was cute because I'm trying VERY hard to lose my last 14 baby pounds and so he said he wanted to get me a donut for breakfast and I gave him "a look"   He knew that was not such a good idea.  hehe
It was a very chill & relax day.  Exactly how I wanted it.  I spent most the day being selfish by watching some shows, exercising and doing pretty much nothing.  Doesn't happen much so gotta take advantage.  I did get a lot of f/b posts---those always make you feel special :)   Then for dinner I had to decide where to go.  I had it narrowed down to Famous Daves, a pizza place or mexican.  We ended up going to a fabulous mexican restaurant in downtown Vancouver.  Oh it was worth every calorie!  We are still dying to go back.  It kinda reminded me of El Matador in Ogden, but way better and clean.  We then went from there to Winco for a few things & a treat for Aimes.  We ended the night coming home to a chocolate cake with chocolate filling & chocolate frosting.  It was so good.  Can you tell I love chocolate?!!!  For my gifts it was so cute because Jaycee had crumpled up a paper and said she got me a gift.  I thought it was probably just a folded paper but she really did draw me a cute picture of our family.  It was so sweet and I still don't know when she did this.  I requested from Craig clothes.  He did SO GOOD!  He got me a skirt from Maurice with a g/c to go back for more & some clothes from Old Navy.  I was so thankful.  I don't buy clothes very often so it was nice to get some cute clothes.  It'll be nice to get rid of "big clothes" one day.  I get so sick of the skinny clothes (wedding size), maternity clothes, after-baby clothes and after baby pounds clothes.  Although it does feel good to put away maternity clothes and after-baby clothes.  Anyway, I also got a g/c from Phyllis & Larry (Thank you)  I spent it on shelves from Ikea for our family room & dinner for us a few weeks ago.  If you know me well I also LOVE pizza.  Even with trying to lose weight, I squeeze in a pizza night.  Mmmmm... 
It was a great day and I felt so special.  Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.  Here's to 28 all year long!

Opening my new shirts...he's got great skills for picking out clothes.  I may or may not have been there to help ;)

 Love my new skirt!  I've been wanting a new jean skirt forever!

 Isn't that the cutest?!  I love my kids

Happy New Years!

I knew New Years would be a downer for me if we didn't do anything with anyone.  I'm a party kinda girl.  We invited a few families from the ward over to our house.  I did bad though cuz I didn't realize everyone would come and probably shouldn't have had so many people....oops.  It turned out fine though and was so much fun. I went to the Dollar Store (one of my fav stores) and got decorations and silly glasses to wear. I made fruit dip & fruit  and also bean dip & chips.  Everyone else brought snacks & things to munch on.  We played games & talked all the way to midnight.  All the kids had fun and turned out to be a fun tradition for next year.  We even got an AWESOME firework show again.  Battle Ground is awesome!  I was a little bummed when 12:30 came and everyone started leaving.  I was ready to still party.  It was good though to clean up a bit and relax. 

Tried to get everyone to look and not one person did!

 Party!

The next day Craig was off so we had to take advantage.  We had a relaxing morning and then decided to check out the Lloyd Center.  It's a huge mall in Portland that has 3 levels & ice skating rink.  Crazy right?!  It was fun to walk through, talk and browse.  It was just a perfect holiday with my family and loved every minute.  Also with the New Year weekend we felt kinda weird that it was January and there was no snow and pretty much felt like spring so we decided to take a drive to MT Hood.  It was GORGEOUS!  We got up pretty far until we didn't feel comfortable to go further with the weather in the car.  It's crazy how our house is maybe 400 ft and we drove there to reaching over 4,000.  It was nice to feel like it really was winter and to see snow.  We stopped for the puppy potty break and Jaycee even got out to make a snow angel.  How funny! 

At the mall watching the Zamboni guy.  Suprisingly it wasn't cold either.  Jaycee got that hat from Hadi for Christmas.

 Awe how cute

 Gotta stretch those legs out and play on the escalators

 The drive was breath-taking!  From millions & millions of trees coated with snow to the trees on the side.  There was a point that I looked out my window and it looked fake.  If you are ever in the area, you must take the drive in the winter.

Hadi didn't quite know what to think

 My girls :)  I'm a proud mama

 Saying Hi-Hadley style

 Tried a silly pic.  Wasn't quite working haha

 Love them

Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We've come to really love Christmas and especially the day with our kids.  They really make it so fun!  

This year 2012 we got to sleep in once again.  Hadi woke us up around 10 (we went to bed at 4 am!) and then decided to take her in to Jaycee's room to wake her up.  We thought it'd be funny to get the camcorder out to tape her reaction.  We acted as if it was just a normal day.  We got downstairs and the first thing Jaycee sees and says "Look, dog treats!"  She LOVES her dogs!  She was soooo excited that Santa brought them toys & treats that it took her a few minutes to realize.  She then spotted Hadi's stocking and that it was full and we had to show her where her's was.  She thought it was so cool that there was finally stuff in it.  We let her and Hadi play with their Santa unopened gifts & stockings while I made our traditional buscuits & gravy.  

We then went over and opened our gifts from Santa and from each other.  It was so fun to see our kids enjoy every gift they got.  Craig and I didn't do much this year since we bought a house and furnished it but I actually really like it like that.  I'd rather the focus be on our kids and was glad we did that.  He did awesome though and was so thoughtful to go to Maurice and pick out clothes for me and perfect size and all.  I was very grateful.  

After opening everything we mostly just hung out and played until it was time for dinner.  We did a pork loin, sweet potatoes & corn & jello and it all tasted so yummy.  At night Craig watched his new Batman movie while I was actually kinda bored.  It was def different to have a night with nothing to do, no where to go, no one to see.  We did get invited by some ward members to come play games but Craig had to work the next day and we thought maybe someone would want to Skype.  Jaycee did get a fun cupcake game from Grandma that we all could play with her.   

Christmas was wonderful and it's crazy it has come and gone.  I'm glad it all went great and hopefully for everyone else!

Wake up sleepy heads

This picture is Hadi all-the-way.  She will grab anything soft, tuck it in her hand and in goes the thumb.  I mean anything including dish towels, my slippers, robe, blankets etc.  These are her new jammies from Aunt Jodi & Kenny

 Eating yummy breakfast

 Our lovely Christmas selves

 mmmmm...Milk

 Jaycee loves Polar Express.  The little boy wears a robe on it and one day she told me she wanted a robe one day when she gets big.  Luckily, I found this in the check-out line at Kohls the day after Thanks for a steal.  It's a little big hence the rolled sleeves but she can wear it for a long time

 Opening presents from Santa

 Hadi opening gifts

 She's been wanting a new umbrella all fall long.  Now it needs to rain again to use it-I don't see that being a problem here

 Hadi got a yummy smelling lamb buddy from Santa.  She loves, loves, loves that thing!  She carries it everywhere!  And yes, hold it in her hand and sucks her thumb

 Grandma's gifts came a few days late but here is Jaycee opening it