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.

bargains

first things first.
jared took the gmat last week.
he was stressed beyond stressed about it.
i was stressed beyond stressed for him!
his scores on the practice tests weren't as good as he was wanting them to be.
but the morning he was dreading came.
and with a quick prayer and good luck kiss
i sent him on his way to pocatello.
50000 hours later (or so it seemed at least)
my phone finally rang.
he was done with his test.
and he did AWESOME!!!!!!!
way WAY better than his practice scores.
now he can breath a sigh of relief.
and he has started on grad school applications!

so, i have a new addiction.

and no it's not pinterest.
although i am addicted to that as well.
even though i have not made one single craft i have pinned,
i still feel so crafty just looking at everything.
im hoping to maybe make some fun christmas presents for a certain little girl i know
*cough cough* stacey lynn *cough cough*

okay my new addiction.
there's this store.
its called the D.I.
ever been to one?
cause you need to go.
ASAP.

its my new favorite place.
im guilty of strapping parker in the car and going twice a week.
okay fine, sometimes three times.
but if you only knew the kinds of Christmas presents i have found,
and the prices of those Christmas presents i have gotten for parker,
you would be going twice a week too!

sure, its all used stuff there
and a lot of it is quite a bunch of crap.
but with a little digging, you can find some absolute treasures.
and besides, the dude is turning one.
he could care less about whether the toys he gets are used.
but the things i have found him look brand new.
im pretty excited for his birthday and christmas.
now if only jared was that easy to shop for........

we took parker's walker to the park and let him walk with it.
it's a little ridiculous how adorable he looked.i got that walker at the DI for $3.
and his cute jacket? the DI....... for $1.

oh and did i mention all the cute cardigan's and sweater's ive found for myself?
all for $3 each.
sure they are used, but with a short trip though the washing machine and dryer
they are just like new again.
because let's be honest.
we do not make any money for me to go shopping at the mall with.
so i can live with used, cute, cheap sweaters.
and im pretty sure i bought a whole new winter wardrobe all for $30.
if that's not a bargain, i dont know what is.
seriously, its a great store.

parker is so curious about the leaves on the ground.
he kept getting distracted on our walk.
bending down to pick them up and put them in his mouth
learning quickly that it didnt taste very good,
so he moved on to the another leaf,
which also didnt taste good.isnt this the cutest picture you have ever seen?
*sigh*
how did i get so lucky?

sleep? whats that?

its friday night.

8:58pm to be exact.
and both of my boys are asleep.
we obviously are real party animals.

back before parker was born,
when i was going to school and working,
10pm would hit, my head would reach my pillow,
and id be out like a light bulb before someone could snap their finger.
people would tell me, "man i can never sleep"
and i would think, WHAT? how can you not sleep?

but these days i just cant seem to sleep.
okay thats kind of a lie.
i guess i eventually fall asleep at some point.
but 10pm hits, and jareds head hits his pillow and he's out cold.
11pm hits, jared is still out cold, and i lay there wide awake.
12am hits, still wide awake.
1am hits, still awake.
but i must fall asleep sometime after 1am,
because i never do see the clock when it says 2am.
anyways....

speaking of time, its october.
and it snowed yesterday.
thank goodness its suppose to warm back up to the 60's next week.
im not ready for snow.
and neither is parker.
he kept crawling towards the door begging to go outside.
i would hold him and open the door so he could see the snow falling.
he had the most concerned look on his cute little face.
and then he would cry when i closed the door again.
its gonna be a long winter.

speaking of parker.
he is so cute, i can hardly stand it.
his two little bottom teeth have come in nicely.
he loves his bath timehe loves getting into thingshe loves spaghettihe loves paying outsidehe loves crawling on daddyand of course he loves his mamaoh and did i mention i finally made an ABC wall in parkers room?
now im off to tuck that cute husband of mine into bed.
hoping he's too sleepy to notice my cold toes on his legs.