Birthday Bliss

28 is great

Thanks all for the birthday wishes!!

change of heart

above is Jordan having a tantrum....

below is me having a tantrum....

Last week I changed my hair...and on Monday night(the 24th) I changed my heart (or at least my attitude.)'

Let me back up my story a little bit. On Friday we headed back to the Harbor for my brothers wedding reception (yep all the Parks kids are now married) :)

While driving Trent received a call asking him to take a position in Bremerton (which would mean moving back to Gig Harbor) we said we would think about it and get back to him. (It was also up to a 'higher up' at that point) and seeing family and friends is always fun.

On the drive back home Sunday night we received another call saying we would be staying where we are at.

Then my kids were beasts on Monday. seriously the hardest day in a long time. and my car started having problems..as in I could not get it out of park, Carson missed the bus becuase of this and on and on..down to my umbrella wouldn't open (I know pathetic right?)

It was just a rough day I ended up crying on and off a few times about a few things and Trent started seriously getting worried. (I'm not a cryer when it comes to life things..only about church stuff)

Enough of the drama.

I realized that night a few things:
a. first I need to get over it. :)
b. I live in a GREAT place full of great people
c. Trent has a job. a great job that he loves and he is really good at
d. it's up to me to love where I am at in life and what I am doing. I'm always going to be a mom and my kids are always going to be kids. my girls will be hard (as I'm told..over and over..that I was really hard too. and I dont think I turned out that bad.) :)

So I changed my attitude. and on Tuesday (which happend to also be my birthday) I was literally surrounded with love all day long. my kids woke up and were great. Carson on his own came up to me and said, "mom, I have a present for you, I'm going to be really nice all day long and i'm going to listen to you the first time all day today." such a sweet boy, and he did. best gift ever! I received phone calls and texts all day from people in my ward, goodies and cards from a few and flowers sent from my mom and dad, and even an email from my bishop.

I realized that I need to open up more and trully be greatful for all that I have and am surrounded by. I am still relativley close to my family and friends and now I have a new area full of new friends.

I am a lucky girl that has three great kids and one fabulous husband.

and luckily tantrums don't last forever!

the end.

long over due

An old friend from high school emailed the other day and said he would be in town . So we arranged a time for him to come over to play and meet my family. It had been nine years since the last time we saw eachother. NINE YEARS! Crazy.

We had a great time visiting and the kids LOVED him. seriously, this morning Carson woke up and said, " Can we have Scott back over?" Audrey woke up and said, "Is Scott still here?". and later that day she said," I miss Scott." Trent said when he left last night, "He is seriously one of the nicest guys I have ever met". and "I like meeting people who are accomplished and down to earth and he is deffinetly both."

Scott is a C17 pilot (soon to be a U2 pilot) and brought with him his pilot helmet. He really had the kids and Trent then. :)

It's always a blast to see someone you haven't seen in awhile, especially someone that was so great during the "high school years."

Thanks again Scott for stopping by. We'll have to plan something again soon....maybe we'll have to visit you in your new place soon :)

I got into the action too :)

Rhythm Of Love

Love this song! I can't hear it without getting up and dancing!
Have a happy wednesday!
We are almost to the weekend wahoo!!

We've been doing a little of this lately......

Which means we've started a little of this....
(those are her clothes on the floor that she sheds herself and leaves all over the house.)

That so far has only led to this....




and that's about it.



(can you tell I just discovered that I can edit the text on here!! be prepared for "center" and 'color' overload!!)

change?

~Before~

~After~

It was time for a change.....

Meet Jimmy

Here is the newest addition to our family.

~ Jimmy ~

Jimmy was born between 1938 and 1942 and was owned by Jimmy Durante (his namesake). He was given to a good friend who gave Jimmy to his grandson and we found him through an adoption program called Craigslist. We had help in the delivery from a friend who provided the neccessary tools for Jimmy to arrive. Labor was, as some of you know, labor. You can ask Trent he says it was pretty painful. through a lot of discipline Jimmy is turning out fabulous. We have a little more counseling to scrub the layers of a smokey past but we love Jimmy and are very greatful to have him in the family. The kids love him and look forward to playing with him, and in the short time we've had him I have loved spending a lot of one on one time with him.

snow day Saturday the first.

Jordan's perferred way of sledding down the hill...see the video link for more fun viewing.




Mom and Audrey's turn


Carson and Audrey coming up from a run down.


second hill to go down, not nearly as fun as the first.


pink marshmallow....I coundn't not chuckle looking at her.


video of Jordan "sledding"

oh dear...

This is what happens when:

Your garage door doesent close all the way..
and its the middle of the night...
and someone goes into your garage...
and goes through your cars, both of them...
and takes nothing but your keys...
the keys that have your house key, and car keys on it...

We even had a visit from the nice Policemen (should have taken a picture, Carson thought it was SWEET!)

and I spent many hours on the phone changing financial accounts...

and Trent and I were able to play handyman(Dad, you should really move into our extra room) changing the locks in our house. *the towels and coat in the door are to keep the 18degree cold out of the house while Trent went to get the doorknobs changed*

moral of the story...
make sure your garage door shuts all the way AND don't leave your keys in your car.

Milk, it does the body good.

need I say more?

one lucky girl

I count my blessing daily...especially for this guy!


and here are a few reasons why...


Trent went out and pulled the kids and the neighbor boy around the neighborhood the other day for about 45minutes. did I mention it was REALLY cold!



He loves doing fun stuff with the kids

on Saturday afternoon(the 8th) he sat down with the kids and had them help him make pumpkin pies...just for fun.


did I mention yet that as I am sitting here, he is currently getting Jordan out of the bath and getting the kids ready for bed....
and am defiantly One lucky girl!
Love you Trent!!

oh what do you do....

What do you do in your free time?

This is what Audrey and Carson do...

directions:
1. get a bunch of plastic cups
2. get a nerf gun
3. climb onto the windowsill
4. stack said cups
5. gun them down.
6. repeat.

provides: hours of entertainment. and even better when paired with mom's camera. :)

look who's 2

On Friday Jordan turned 2 and we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate.

Jordan given hugs to her new pal Mickey Mouse (she actually picked him out about a week ago herself.)

Jordan with her best buddy...dad.

opening a birthday gift (after Christmas she had the opening down to an art.)

daddy even gave her "POP" (that's how she says it.)


being her silly self.



and the cake....(she's really into "icky ouse" right now.)

fabulous nesting blocks sent from grandma


can't believe how fast that went by. my baby is 2.

New Years

I've never been one to make New Years resolutions

(why commit to something that I know I won't follow through on.)

But last night as I was doing some reading and studying for some lessons I'm going to be giving soon I got to thinking that one of the reasons we are here on earth is to become better then we are now, and how can I do that if I don't challenge myself at all.
So I decided to commit myself to something weekly..if not daily. A small thing that I think I can improve on.

so this week my 'goals' are:

1. to hear both sides of the story.
2. to do something physical 3 times this week (like how I didn't say specifics like run a mile. again, why commit to something I won't do-and then get mad at myself for not doing it.)
3. plan out our family meals this week
4. try to be nice to myself

I'll let you know how this week goes.