ABC

parker loves books.

and i mean loves loves loves loves LOVES books.
he loves to look at all the pictures.
he loves to sit on our laps and listen to us read.
he loves to turn the page.
and then he loves to do it all over again.
i love it.
i love that he cuddles up with us.
i love that he is so curious about all the colors the pictures.
i love that he turns the page when he is done looking at everything.
i love pointing to different objects/letters/numbers and reapeating over and over and over again

"banana.... frog.... dog.... train.... car.... airplane.... etc"
"1 dog... 2 lollipops... 3 kittens... 4 balloons... 5...."
"a... b... c... d...."
he loves when we get to 'P'
(singing) "l... m... n... o... P... for parkerrrrr.... q... r... s......."

and lucky for me, i love books too.
(and jared is learning to love books)

anyways...
hi my name is brielle, and im obsessed with craft blogs.
seriously. obsessed.
some people are so incredibly creative and talented.
it blows my mind the things they can come up with and then create.

i quickly learned what the new thing is right now for nursery's.
an alphabet wall.
have you seen them?
ive come across lots of different ones
but these ones are the only two i can find right now.(c/o theletter4.blogspot.com)

(c/o hope, longing, life blog)

SO cute right?
i thought so.
jared thinks they are a little too much.
which could possibly be true.
some of them are a little more extreme than others.
but how perfect for my little dude,
who loves books.

now if only the money tree could appear in my backyard soon.
because this isnt the only project i would love to do.
i have a list of about 5,000 more projects.

by the way, this little dude is a crawling machine.
no more army crawling.
we are up on our hands and knees people!
he isnt very fast yet
but he is already showing us that our house is not very baby proof at all.
oh and did i mention his two bottom teeth are coming in?
you would never guess it though.
he is a VERY easy teether...
and for that i am truly, truly grateful.

just random

dont you just love that new family picture we have? jared's cousin desirae took them for us and she did a great job! i love how they turned out.

it's cute that our first initials spell out pb&j huh?
i thought so too.

well folks, looks like we have ourselves an 8 month old little dude. can you believe it? me either. 8 months. crazy. as my smart sister carissa put it, "that's like only 4 months away from a year!" (she is one smart cookie.)

yes this is gonna be one of "those" blog posts... you know the ones where a mom brags about all the new tricks their baby is doing. but like everyone else, i want to write it down so i can remember. feel free to skip the words and head to the pictures (which i need to be way better at taking by the way....)

at 8 months parker is.........
*weighing in at 16 pounds 1.5 ounces
*26 inches tall
*army crawling away
*eating all his fruits and veggies
*eating chicken and turkey
*eating ritz crackers (which make a huge mess by the way)
*tried a vanilla wafer from his uncle kyle, and an animal cracker given to him by the bishop at church (he loved both)
*does not like to play independently
*loves his walks
*gets excited when we pull our bikes out for a bike ride
*likes to help me "fold" the laundry
*loves to sit and read/look at books
*enjoys sitting in his bumbo watching his mama sing and dance around the kitchen while she cooks or cleans.
*loves to clap
*loves bath time
*thinks he is one cool dude at the store now that he sits in the shopping cart. (seriously, its adorable.)
*jibber jabbers all day
*laughs so hard when daddy plays with him

this year is really flying by. i mean september next week? really? fall is right around the corner and although im sad to see summer go, im excited for fall. jared makes fun of me because im already stressing out about what parker should be for halloween. i thought since parker's birthday is christmas eve, we should dress him up as an elf and jared can be santa and i could be mrs. clause. but thats about as far as ive got. any other cute ideas out there?

so im googling, and googling and googling until i find the perfect costume. fingers crossed i find something cute!

one happy camper

the other week we went to utah to go to a family reunion. almost every year since i can remember my whole family has gone camping. there's always lots of fun, family, good yummy food, staying up around the camp fire laughing, four square, kick ball, birthdays/anniversaries to celebrate, bug bites, and yucky outhouses.

this year we managed to have another great time with only 1 emergency room visit, and a whole lotta family drama. but i asked my mom what would a family reunion be without those 2 things? she replied "probably boring."

i was very nervous to take parker because i had no idea how he would do. turns out i had nothing to worry about. he LOVED it. he loved being outside all day, he loved being around so many people, he loved the attention he got from his aunt stacey and grandma allred, he slept awesome at night, he was mesmerized by the campfire at night, and only got 2 bug bites. he really was one happy camper the whole week.
he enjoyed eating watermelon and sucking on tootsie rolls during the week.jared enjoyed playing in the water and building a "hot tub" with kyle and kory. they spent ALL day working on it and were all sore the next morning from lifting the heavy rocks.

parker has been up on all fours rocking back and forth for WEEKS now. im so ready for him to just crawl already! i know, EVERYONE tells me those are going to be my famous last words.

he is still very much a mama's boy. its a love/hate relationship for me. i love that he always wants me and i hate that he ALWAYS wants me. im hoping that maybe once he figures out how to move, he will be more curious about other things and not constantly need me. he loves to go get the mail with me, and thinks he is one pretty cool dude when i let him carry a piece of mail back inside.he is starting to learn what the camera is and smiles everytime i bring it out. its so cute.
i think he looks the cutest when he is sleeping. i LOVE that we can now just put him in his crib and walk away and he will go to sleep. some nights he will cry, but it is no where near as bad as the 30 minute bloody murder screaming his use to do.

i still love this little dude lots and lots and love that he is getting so big! its so fun to watch him grow!