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?