lots of celebrating

holy hannah,christmas is over.

parker is a year old.
and a new year is less than 2 days away.

the last two weeks we have been doing lots of celebrating!
it started on december 18.
parker's aunt diana was kind enough to share her birthday
so we celebrated parker's first birthday
and diana's birthday with the rucks family.

he didnt like his cake.
and he was spoiled rotten by his
grandma and grandpa rucks
and aunt diana.
he got lots of clothes, toys,
and the CUTEST little pair of nike's.

we then traveled to colorado
and had a great time.
while we were there we did lots of fun things.

parker got his first hair cut:
decorated sugar cookies:

played in the snow:

parker did not like the snow.
maybe if he had a snow suit on, he would have enjoyed it more.
we will try to be a little more prepared next time.

celebrated parker's first birthday:
again, he didnt like his cake.
i still cant believe his birthday is christmas eve.
he was again spoiled with lots of gifts from
G&G allred, and his (my) cousins.

met santa:

enjoyed unwrapping gifts christmas morning:

and went to church sunday afternoon:


though we didnt get an ipad, or iphones, or a house,
or any other kind of fancy gift,
we were still spoiled rotten.

now here's to a new year,
good-bye 2011, you sure were good to us.
hello 2012!

the other side

growing up i couldnt tell you what i got for christmas.

but what i do remember about christmas growing up,
is much more important than any present i ever got.

my family would choose another family from church.
and then we would do an anonymous 12 days of christmas for them.

on the first night,
we would slowly drive by their house
to check and make sure they were home.
and to also look for a good hiding spot behind a tree or bush close by.
then my parents would drive around the corner and park
while we proceeded to get out of the car, our arms full of goodies.

we would slowly creep up to their door step,
our hearts pounding in our chest with all the adrenaline pumping through our bodies.
then with a few loud knocks,
we'd take off running as fast as we could to our hiding spot
so we could watch their faces when they opened the door.

it was priceless.
and i learned it was far better to give than to receive.
(cheesy? maybe.)

the first christmas jared and i were married,
we choose another couple in our ward.
we were a little too poor to do a 12 days of christmas,
so we opted to just leave them something one night.

but then our second christmas came,
and then it went.
and we didnt choose any family to serve.

and then our third christmas came,
and then it went.
and again, we didnt choose any family to serve.

and now here we are,
our 4th christmas married.

a few nights ago,
after we put parker down for bed,
we heard five loud, fast knocks on our door.
at first neither one of us moved.
we sort of looked at each other like, 'who could that be?'

then right as jared opened the door, i said,
"i bet someone doorbell ditched us"
and sure enough there on our doorstep sat this:

i was so giddy the rest of the night.
i couldnt believe that someone had thought to leave us something for christmas.
it was a different experience being on "the other side" of things.
and then the thought occured to me.
we've missed the opportunity to serve others for the past few years,
maybe this was a reminder to get our butt off the couch
and return the favor.


we have no idea who left this for us,
but to whoever you were, thank-you!

chic-fil-a love

i must have been a sophomore in high school

when my parents started telling me i should go apply to chic-fil-a.
our very good friends (and next door neighbors), the paynes, had the hook-up.
because they had some very good friends, the murphey's.
the murphey's happened to be the operators of this particular chic-fil-a.
but all i could think about it was,
'please. this 15 year old does NOT work at fast food places.'
but i had a change of heart the beginning of my senior year of high school.
i learned money didnt grow on trees, and it was going to be expensive to move out next year for school.
so with my feet dragging, i went to work at chic-fil-a.
thank the high heavens above that one of my best friends,
kara baccus (now mrs. hutchinson...hi kara!)
also started working there.
we had some GOOD times.

this is kara^

one day we were both working and our ice cream machine was acting funny.
kara was workin the drive thru when a car pulled up.
their conversation went something like this:

kara: welcome to chic-fil-a what can i get for you today?
man: i would like a large ice cream cone please.
kara: im sorry sir, our ice cream machine is currently out of control!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

maybe you had to be there to understand how funny it was.
but we laughed about it for DAYSSSSS.
heck, i STILL laugh about it every time i tell that story.

i loved my time working at chic-fil-a.
and i made bank that year.
working from 5pm-11pm monday through friday
and 11am-11pm on saturdays.


needless to say, by the time i went to school,
i had eaten my fair share of chic-fil-a and was ready for a break.
but a few short years later, my craving for the tasty nuggets dipped in their buttermilk ranch returned.

when i met jared, he had never heard of chic-fil-a!
i introduced him and he too loved it. (i think)
we always talked about opening up our own chic-fil-a in idaho falls one day.

but, someone beat us to the punch!
we heard chic-fil-a was opening in idaho falls.
we were bummed we werent going to be the operators of this one.
and i dont really think either one of us had intentions of going to work there.

then one day jared was surfing a job site.
and he saw the position "Business Sales Analyst" needed for chic-fil-a in idaho falls.
he applied and got the job!
chic-fil-a calls the position the "profit champion"
we thought he'd have a pretty cool job.
turns out its a new position chic-fil-a is trying to put in their stores
so until they figure out exactly what he needs to do
he is your typical cashier.

i hope he enjoys working there as much as i did.
call me crazy but i would love to open a chic-fil-a with jared.
their whole atmosphere is far better than a wendy's or mcdonalds.
we went to a grand opening dinner for it and they had someone say a dedicatory prayer for the building and all the employees.
how cool is that?

i always tease jared that his dreams and ambitions and goals change constantly.
but for now our (my?) dream and goal is to be an operator of a chic-fil-a.

we can dream right?
anyways.....
what would a post be without pictures of parker!

he is a walking pro now
and no longer crawls.
its so fun!

he still loves spaghetti too.
actually he loves anything.
he is a moocher and wants whatever you are eating.

(i guess i havent taken very many pictures since thanksgiving.)

im so excited for his 1st birthday and chirstmas!

paper towels

i cant believe thanksgiving is over.

that means i will have a ONE year old in less than a month.
how did THAT happen?
what am i thankful for this year?
thats easy. paper towels of course.
you see, i am what some tree huggers would call wasteful.
(okay, most people in general would probably say im wasteful)
when i need to wipe something up or clean the kitchen i always grab a paper towel.
always.
and yes, my mama taught me better than that. (sorry mom!)
but i hate using a wash cloth because i feel like i just spread more germs everywhere.
plus i hate the way they make my hands smell after i touch it.

we had a wonderful thanksgiving with our rucks family in idaho falls.
filled with turkey and potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffing, rolls and butter, banana cream pie and pumpkin cheese cake. oh and ham!
parker loved the ham.

we spent the afternoon playing the kinect.
and let me tell you.
it was fun, fun, fun!
i was VERY sore the next day.
jared says maybe i should start working out.
parker looked stinkin' cute in his turkey shirt

and loved playing with his cousin charleewe found exactly what we were looking for on black friday.
thank-you walmart for price matching!
we have spent our thanksgiving weekend getting into the holiday spirit by setting up our charlee brown tree and watching how the grinch stole christmas.and now that almost one year old is up from his nap demanding my attention!
happy holidays!

craftin' fever

i told myself i wasnt gonna listen to christmas music until AFTER thanksgiving.

then earlier this week i turned the radio on to clean,
and christmas music was playing!
parker and i have been rockin out to justin bieber's "mistletoe" all week.
yup, i got bieber fever.
dont judge.

ive been keepin' myself busy with lots of projects.
okay just two. but they are pretty darn cute.
thank-you pinterest!

im totally excited for parker to wear this bad boy on turkey day.
jared wasnt so much a fan at first. but i think its adorable.
dont mind that the body kind of looks like a snowman,
and that the farthest left feather is off.
oh and ive recently added a gobler too.
(is that what its called?)

ive been waiting patiently to go to a baby shower so i could make one of these:the shower was a superman theme, so i went with superman colors.
it was so easy and so fun to make.
took me about 10 minutes.

the other day my sister cleaned out her basement and gave us our coffee table they had been storing for us back.
parker is pretty sure we put it in the living room just for him to play with.
he crawls through it all day.and the most exciting news here in the rucks home?
parker's walking!!!
he's taken a few steps here and there.
but sunday night (november 13, 2011) he just decided he wanted to really walk.
he isnt walkin around the house yet,
but he is getting better and better everyday.
its so fun to watch him grow.
can he really almost be 11 months?
where has the time gone?

tender mercies

church with parker every sunday is an adventure.

he is no longer the cute little baby that sits so contently on your lap.
instead he wants to go go go.
when he whines, cries, and screams i feel like all eyes are turned on us.
its LOTS of fun
trying to keep him entertained, and quiet.

last night i was very much looking forward to the extra hour of sleep.
hoping parker somehow knew that he too was suppose to sleep an extra hour.
after dinner, we did our normal routine.
playing, playing and more playing,
a nice warm bath, and a yummy bottle,
and he was out like a light bulb by 8:15.
bliss.

jared and i stayed up later than usual
because we were getting an extra hour of sleep right?
we finally went to bed around 12:30am
keep in mind we are 10 o'clock bedtimers,
so this was a rare occasion.
next thing i know i hear parker.
i look at my phone. it's 2:03am.
i go into his room, give him his binky
thinking he will just go back to sleep like he usually does.
he had different plans.

im not really sure all the details after that.
i just know he was up screaming and crying from
2:03am, until 5:57am.
(according to our kitchen clocks that had not been changed yet)
it was the worst night we have had with him in the short 10 months he has been here.

since we had such a rough night i wasnt sure if we would make it to our 9:30 church.
but by some miracle we did.
given parker's past with church, i knew we would probably spend most of it in the hall because he would be grumpy and tired.
so you can imagine my surprise when parker was absolutely WONDERFUL during church.
all of it. sacrament. sunday school. and relief society.
really an angel.

as i was sitting in sacrament watching him play so quietly on the bench next to me
i couldnt help but feel so grateful.

now we are home from church.
parker and jared are both napping.
and i sit here so grateful that parker's worst night
just happened to be the night we got an extra hour of sleep.
so grateful his worst night just happened to be
on a saturday night so i didnt feel guilty making jared help me.
so grateful for the tender mercies the Lord gives me.
(he must really want me to have another child someday!)

of course last night i wanted to put him in a cardboard box
and sell him at walmart, but i think i just might keep him.
because how can you be upset with someone when they look like this?

flash back

remember 3 years ago,

when jared and i dressed up like this
for halloween:
totally cute right?

fast forward to present day.
add this cutie patootie to the mix:and you end up looking like this for halloween:even more cute right?
dont worry, we won "best family theme"
at our ward halloween party.

do you think we've changed much in the last 3 years?


does he not make the CUTEST cat in the hat?

parker and i made the 3 hour trip south to utah last week.
parker loved playing with grandma allred:
he didnt care too much to see his new cousin bencyn:
but he did enjoy playing the drums on his feet:and walking outside with 'GG' (great-grandma):and loved his other great-grandma's cookin':
oh and check out this cool flower in my grandma's yard:
cool huh?

so today after church, jared and i had a conversation that went a little something like this:
brielle: have you ever been going about your day doing whatever, and then all of a sudden get this overwhelming feeling of excitement and happiness for christmas?
jared: *laughs* ummm.... no.
brielle: oh... well that just happened to me.

seriously, im so excited for the holidays to start.
i get so giddy thinking about it.
even if parker has no idea what is going on
it will still be so fun to have a little child with us on christmas morning.