easy as ABC

January has gone by much faster than i thought it would. we have stayed pretty busy this month with lots of dentist appointments (BLEH), lots of snow, lots of playgroups, lots of playing at the indoor play place, and lots of school and work for jared.

parker loves the snow. loves it loves it loves it. and its a good thing jared does too. those two could play out in the snow all day. we got some pretty good snow a few weeks ago, and they headed out to make a snowman. they started out making a little one.....

then moved to a new patch of snow and made a medium sized one....

and then moved back into our back yard and made a large one....

ya the snow is pretty, but truth is, im over it.

we've discovered a new favorite show.

pretty sure we have watched it everyday for the last week. i dont mind though. parker starts out watching it on his couch and then slowly makes his way to the couch curled up next to me. and sometimes if we are really lucky, he ends up falling asleep and taking a little nap. 

and how on earth would we ever survive being cooped up inside during the winter without friends to play with?

here in moscow, they have this little play area inside that has also saved our life this winter. somedays we go and its packed crazy full with kids everywhere, and other times we go, its just us. its been a great place to take parker to let him interact with some other kids, and to just run wild! we both love going. 

and our best accomplishment this month? learning and recognizing all our letters. see for youself....

NBD. im not sure which is more proud, my inner teacher, or my inner mommy. either way, im pretty proud of my little dude. he isnt talking much, but he knows all his letters! i do wish he was talking more. sure he says words, but as far as talking goes, its still pretty much jibberish. he's a little dyslexic in his talking sometimes. when he wants more of something, he says "more some" and when he says the number six, he says, "kiss." he knows most animals, and calls them by the sound they make, so we've been working on saying the actual animal names. some days i wish i had gone to school for speech therapy so i could know how to help his speech more. im sure he's doing just fine though, just a worried first time mama!

 

OH! and we cant forget what today is. Happy 27th birthday to my sweet cheeks! its been a very low key birthday since thursdays happen to be his busiest day of the week. but i did make him his favorite breakfast this morning, (french toast) before he had to take off to school. and in between school and a church meeting, we quickly opened his present and sang happy birthday as he blew out his candle just in time to leave again. he got a new fossil watch, that actually wont make it's appearance for probably another week. bummer.  

  thats okay though, we can enjoy his birthday "cake" until then. 

PHEW! what a fast month this has been. im hoping the next couple go just as fast. we are very anxious for graduation and our move to BOISE!!!!

HOLLERRRRRRR!!!!!!!

New Year, New Changes

ummmm... hello 2013?!?

i cant believe its already january again!

i made the comment to jared the other day saying something like,

"man, its january.... the blah month."

to which he replied

"hey, its not a blah month, its my birthday month"

oh ya... sorry about that one babe!

we've decided with this new year, we would make a big change in the rucks home.

we never got parker a real crib... he's been sleeping in a pack and play

pretty much his whole life, and was quickly outgrowing it.

so we thought now would be as good a time as ever to make the transition.

we wanted to wait to buy him a bed when we got to boise so we could see how much room

we would have in our new apartment.... so for now, we have 2 thick foam pads from costco that we stacked

on top of each other. they work perfectly for him. and arent very far from the ground if he falls out.

he has slept on it two nights now, and has done AWESEOME both nights.

(thanks to his aunt heather and uncle dave for the new sheets!) 

unfortunately when it comes to "rest" time, he has learned that he can get off his bed and open his door to come find me..... i think "rest" time has officially ended. 

im bummed i wont get "me" time during the day anymore, but now we get to put him to bed EARLY!

nothing is more sweet than your sleeping child.

how is he already old enough to sleep on a "big boy" bed? 

we cant wait to see what other changes take place this year.

its sure to be an exciting one, with jared graduating with his master's degree in may,

and moving down to boise to start out real big kid job!

this is a random video, but i wanted to put it up for aunt stacey and grandma allred to see.

happy christmas!

christmas this year was spent in idaho falls with the rucks' family.

we drove down from moscow, making it our 3rd trip down since august.

crazy? possibly. this trip took us a little longer, with the snowy roads we encountered. 

 

but it was the first time we have all been together in at least 2 years.

so it was fun to see everyone all together again.

we took parker to see santa with his cousin charlee, hoping he would see her with santa

and then not be afraid of him. boy were we wrong. 

 all smiles while waiting.

and then......

BAM!

maybe next year buddy. 

christmas eve was parker's 2nd birthday. still cant believe i have a two year old.

and i still really cant believe his birthday is christmas eve. 

we took him to chick-fil-a for his birthday lunch, because its my favorite, and he doesnt

have a say yet. can you believe jared's family arent really fans of chick-fil-a? 

crazy right?

i sure enjoyed it. and i think parker did too, since he ate 6 chicken nuggets. plus some fries. 

they gave him a balloon, a stuffed cow, AND a free cookie,

plus they sang to him. and he covered his face with his balloon the whole time.

we came home and had some cousin bonding time

then had some papa murphey's pizza and opened presents.

he.was.spoiled.

 happy 2nd birthday little dude! 

you drive us nuts but i guess we will keep ya.

with all of us home this year, there sure was a lot of presents under the tree.

parker got just as many presents christmas morning as he did for his birthday.

he very much enjoyed eating candy for breakfast.

im afraid to know how much he had.

he most definitely had a very thomas filled birthday and christmas.

thank you to everyone who helped make parkers birthday and christmas very enjoyable.

between his aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents and me and jared, he sure made out this year.

we had a white christmas this year and a few days after christmas jared took parker out to play in it.

i was sure he wouldnt last long, but an hour later he was still out there playing. he loved the snow

and didnt complain one bit about being cold. even after jared threw a snowball in his face.

good thing jared enjoys playing in the snow, because i would not have lasted 

that long out there with him. 

it was a great christmas, and so fun to see parker get SO EXCITED over everything.

we were all very spoiled this year.

we are definitely very blessed to have such good families that take care of us. 

parker boy

Ive been rather grumpy this week. For one reason or another.

And poor parker, has taken the brunt of it.

My mom must have sensed my grumpy vibe and called me yesterday morning.

She asked me how I was, I told her I was grumpy, and that parker was driving me nuts. Our conversation went on as she asked if I heard the news about the school shooting, we discussed that and then I vented to her for another minute before she had to go. But she told me to go play with parker, and to be grateful he was here to play with.

And so I did. Soon it was time for his “rest” and I sighed a sigh of relief as I sat on the couch after putting him down. Being a mom is tough.

But I cant even begin to imagine how tough being a mom has to be to those that lost their innocent children yesterday.

today my heart literally hurts for them. Im sure their sweet children drove them nuts as well, but Im also sure they are wishing they could hug them one more time.

So this morning, I woke up and decided id put my grumpy pants away, and try to have a little more patience with my parker boy.

i sure do love this dude.