Tuesday, May 27, 2014

kick off

even though summer doesnt technically start until my birthday (june 21), i always feel like memorial day is the kick off to the summer season. for our long weekend, we headed over to southeast idaho. but not before trying out green beans for the first time!





oh and did i mention this stud passed all 4 sections of the CPA exam?
HOLLERRRRR!!!!!!!

we also had to wash our cars and mow the lawn. parker is a great helper with both of those tasks.


his favorite part was spraying the water. he kept telling me he was a fire fighter.


during these activities brooklynn did what she does best... look adorable.


after a good night sleep, we finally hit the road to enjoy our long weekend!

we stayed with jared's parents in idaho falls. parker enjoyed playing with all of his cousins toys. unfortunately, his cousins werent too excited to be sharing said toys. they played just fine if they were outside with no toys.



parker especially loved the trampoline


we also got to travel to rexburg a few times to see kyle and carissa and stacey and play with kyler. again, we had issues sharing toys, ay yi yi... but they sure had fun running around outside.



i got to go to the temple on saturday with my sisters. it was a neat experience being in the celestial room with both of them. 

and of course, we cant forget about little miss and brant man. these two are only 3 months apart and are both so stinkin chunky, its adorable! 

ah, summer.... welcome back!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

locked out

*i just want to get this typed up today before i forget to blog about it*

we have been in our new house for a week now. and one thing we love, love love about it is the fenced in back yard. we have a sliding door right off our kitchen/dining area that leads out to it....

this door has a few issues locking, so we have this metal pole that we put down, just for added measure....

it goes down in the track like so.....

during the day though, when we are in and out through the door, i usually just prop it up......
see it?

soooo..... this morning.... late morning.... 11:30ish morning..... brooklynn was in her bed napping and paker wanted me to come out and eat a snack with him on that little table and chairs we have. so out i went.... with the pole propped up. 

for some reason, instead of just keeping the sliding door opened and closing the screen door, i slid the sliding door almost closed.... leaving 3 or 4 inches of it opened like so....

as i squeezed my booty into one of the teeny tiny chairs i heard something inside fall.... not even giving it a second thought. parker and i sat out there for a few minutes eating goldfish and talking about bugs, when i decided i was thirsty. i got up out of the teeny tiny chair, got to the sliding door, went to slide it open, andddddd............................. it doesnt budge........ 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! that sound i heard wasnt just some toy falling off the counter... oh no, no, no, no..... it was the stupid metal rod falling perfectly into its place inside the track.... GAHHHH!!!!

sheer panic set in as i thought (or maybe said out loud .... so sorry parker!) what the **EFFIN BLEEP** am i supposed to do now?!?!? 

im locked outside of my house with my three year old ...who has no shoes on.... without my phone. while my baby girl sleeps inside. thanks goodness she was alseep in her bed!

as my heart pounded faster and faster, and i could feel the panic rising into my chest, and then my throat, i tried squeezing parker through the tiny gap, as he screamed, no mommy! OWIE! his darn head was just too big to get through the gap.... 

with my adrenaline pumping i pull as hard as i can on the door, hoping maybe by some miracle i can crush the metal pole HA, ya right.  i contemplated just kicing through the window... LOL.... also ya right.... but i pulled myself together....

with my body still on the verge of a panic attack, i knew i needed to get to a phone to call jared so he could rescue me. 

i take parkers hand and we walk around to the front of the house. as i stare at all my neighbors houses around me contemplating which door i was going to knock on, and sound like a complete lunatic asking them to borrow their phone....

 then i remembered just on monday, our neighbor 2 doors down brought us a loaf of yummy, still warm might i add, banana bread. her and her husband (bonnie and daivd beck) are in our ward, and just so happen to be retired. praying they would be home we walk over and ring the door bell.... 

no answer..... of course.....

parker pushes it one more time as im turning around to figure out my next move when the door opens, and there stands a very elderly lady....who needs to use a walker.... at the door. this doesnt look like the bonnie i met a few days ago, but i ask her if i can borrow her phone, multiple times as she is hard of hearing, trying to explain to her what has happened. we shuffle back into the kitchen, i see a house phone, and pick it up to call jared, while this older lady gave parker 2 chocolate candies. 

i dial jareds number, and it rings... and rings... and rings... of couse.... no answer. but i leave a message, saying something along the lines of i locked me and parker out of the house, and brooklynn is still in there by herself.... and i need him to come home and let me in. i look up out the sliding door to the backyard and see both bonnie and david working... 

so i step outside and say hello, reintroduce myself to them, and explain the situation.... we decide maybe we can get a hanger through the opening and somehow lift the metal pole.... as we walk back inside their home, the elderly lady (who i soon learn is bonnie's mother who now lives with them) tells us the phone has rang, but she was too slow to get to it to answer. we look up the number and sure enough, its jared. 

so, i call him back, and of course no answer again.... david comes back into the living room with a wire hanger and as we are heading out the door, the phone rings again, and its jared. PHEW! we decide its better for him to just come home and let us in then trying to see if this hanger theory we have will work. 

remember how i said we moved out into farmland idaho? ya, work is not a very close place to our house... its about 16 miles. so parker and i stay at the beck's house chatting for a few minutes while we wait. im so embarrassed about the whole situation, but they had to tell me about a time they did the same thing.  

they told me to make a copy of our house key and bring it over, in case i ever need it again, jared wont have to make the trek all the way back home in the middle of the day. 

we chat for a few more minutes, as i thank them over and over again and walk back down to our house to wait for jared. he shows up just a few minutes later laughing and shaking his head.... ive never been so relieved to see him! when we get back inside i walk to brooklynn's room to see her still sleeping peacfully... completely oblivious to the terror that just rang through my body...

now that its all said and done, i cant help but laugh. but my goodness i thought life was just about over for a few minutes there. ay yi yi! 

ever been locked out of your house before?

Sunday, May 11, 2014

life is busy!

i really have been slacking on the blog lately. i wish i made more of an effort to update our blog. my grandpa passed away a few weeks ago, and we sat around all weekend reading through some of his journal entries. it made me want to start keeping a better record of our family happenings! 

as always, life has been busy. april was a fun month with a week long visit from my youngest sister stacey. she was on her week break from semesters at byu-idaho so she came over to stay with us for the week. we had so much fun with her here!

 we made cute easter basket cupcakes

brought her to preschool with us

enjoyed a couple different picnics

spent a day at the zoo

dying easter eggs

and holding real bunnies.... they were SO soft.

she also babysat for us twice. once so we could go to the temple and another time so we could go see WICKED! jared surprised me with tickets to the broadway show for valentines day. it was the first time either of us had seen it and it was SO MUCH FUN! we loved  it! 

thanks aunt stacey for coming to see us! we had so much fun with you, and wish we lived closer. stacey just got her mission call to Virginia! she leaves in august. we will miss her, but are excited to write our missionary letters! 

we made a quick trip down to utah to attend my grandpa's funeral last weekend. my entire extended family was in town so it was so fun to see everyone... and of course sad to say goodbye to a wonderful man. thank goodness for the knowledge of the gospel.... its nice to know we will see him again. 

 he sure left behind quite the posterity! 

my aunt snapped this picture of brooklynn at the luncheon. oh she is so chunky i love it!

the allred cousins! parker had a blast running around with kyler all weekend. they had so much fun together. we wish we lived closer to him so we could play more.

with everyone in town we took the opportunity to snap some very impromptu pictures

 we all sure love GG!

 4 generations

after our quick trip to utah we came back to boise just in time to move! thats right ANOTHER move! making this our 6th move in 6 years. 
(which by the way, we also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in between all the crazy!) 
dont worry, this time we just moved across town.... and into the cutest little house you ever did see. i wish i could say we bought it, but we are only renting. and we technically dont live in boise anymore.... we are now residents of kuna, idaho... aka the country. we only moved about 10 miles from our old place, but it sure is out in farmland. you have to pass field after field after field to get to us. we do live in a cute fairly new neighborhood though. we were sad to leave our ward in boise, but we went to our new ward today for the first time, and we really liked it! so SO many friendly people, and lots of young families just like ours. i think we will fit right in. and we are just down the road from our friends and old ward. 
one of our favorite parts of the house is the fenced in back yard.
and of course with a house comes yard work! 

 parker and brooklynn are both growing so fast. brooklynn is already 6 months old! hello?!?!? when did that happen?!? 

they are becoming good friends. 





just like parker, we swaddled brooklynn. for the last month or so, she has been able to escape from it so just this last weekend we took it away. its gone much MUCH smoother than when we took the swaddle away from parker. thank goodness! 

jared stays busy at work and still enjoys his job. he just took his last section for his CPA license, and our fingers are crossed he passed! it will be so nice to have him come home after work each night and not have to stay late to study. we all love having him home. 

im staying busy trying to keep two kids alive and our house looking somewhat presentable. 

and since its mothers days, i just have to do a shout out to these two who made me a mother. although they can drive me NUTS i sure love them. thanks to jared for working so hard, i get to stay at home with them and watch them learn and grow and interact with each other.  



so in a nutshell, thats what we have been up to..... phew! life if busy, and i dont think it has any plans of slowing down. so im trying to enjoy the mundane day to day things because i know my little partners in crime arent going to be this little forever.