Our Weekend

All too often, Friday night gets here and we have absolutely no plans. So, our weekend ends up being just like any weekday night. This past weekend we wanted to get some plans going so we could be "cool" :).

So, when Darrin got home from work Friday, we drove straight to Crystal Hot Springs (1 hour and 15 minutes away-near Brigham City). We brought Parker and decided to wing it. They said you could bring babies as long as they had a swim diaper on. So, we brought one just in case the water was an ok temp to bring him in. Otherwise we thought we'd just have him chill in his carseat next to us in the pool.

We got there and he wasn't liking the carseat too much. So, we decided to bring him in with us. The water wasn't too bad-99 degrees. They have three hot pools and that was the coolest. So, we got his swim diaper on and brought him in. Not all the way but mostly just splashing etc. He LOVED it! We all did! We had so much fun and the temperature was perfect, the night was perfect-PERFECT Friday night.





After the hotsprings we went to this really cute Country Diner that was DELICIOUS!!!





Then for our Saturday we went Sledding and to the Festival of Trees








All in all our weekend was perfect-I love it when that happens! And I love my boys and spending time with them! We also went and got our tree and got it up (REAL)! I love it!

Fall and now Winter

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. A few major things have happened.

First of all, Darrin and I got new cars (well, new to us)! Darrin got a RED Dodge Ram 1500 and I got a BLACK Volvo S60. We both love our new cars! Darrin's brother got into a pretty bad accident and totaled his car so he got our Ford Focus. It had been a good little car for us but it was time to let it go and it all worked out well that his brother needed a car when we were looking at getting a new one. I cannot explain how WONDERFUL it feels to have a car. It's been a year and a half since I've had my own car and can get out of the house while Darrin is at work. YAY-it's wonderful!

Second item of business is that Darrin is now an OFFICIAL employee for American Express!! He's worked there as a contractor (temp) for a year now and FINALLY got hired on. He's working on finding/flagging frauded AMEX gift cards. So, if you're frauding AMEX gift cards, WATCH OUT cause my hubby is gonna catch you!

Thirdly, I was on my way to Saratoga Springs the week before last and my tire BLEW OUT on the freeway. I was all by myself and it was super scary. It took 2 1/2 hours to get the spare tire on. I was in the MIDDLE of the freeway people! I had pulled to the middle because I was closest to there and then my Pops came to rescue me but several things kept going wrong-needless to say it was scary and I don't want to go through it again!

Fourthly, Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful! We spent it with Darrin's family and it was full of good food, great company, Black Friday shopping, seeing the movie "Tangled" (fantastic!), and we also went on the Heber Creeper train ride with Santa! It was all a lot of fun.

Fifthly, we pretty much sold our Ogden Salon last night. We sold to a nice LDS couple who is leasing to own until they can get a small business loan to purchase it which they're hoping will be in January or February. We are SUPER MEGA EXCITED about it! We hope they do really well and love the salon that we put so much into! The reason why we're selling is because it's just been too hard to manage it from Salt Lake and now with little Parker I didn't have much desire to continue putting so much work into it when I've got my hands pretty full here at home with work and being a mom.

Lastly, Parker is eating solids like a champ-yet he's stopped taking a bottle! Lame. But he's also rolling over really well and today especially he's been showing off his sitting up skills. He's growing up so quickly and we love him SO much! He's been so much fun and we're excited to get the Christmas tree up so he can gaze at the lights as we know he'll love them.

Hooray for Christmas time!!! Here's some pictures of lately:

Wheeler Farm with my Sister, Heidi:




Toe Sucking:

<

Heber Creeper with Santa:

Halloween & Eating

Darrin and I didn't really have any excuse to dress up this year :(. But we dressed Parker up anyways. He was a caterpillar :). Cutest I've ever seen. He's also been able to start solids. So far it really hasn't been his favorite thing. But he's getting the hang of it. I think he just doesn't quite like the idea of shoving a foreign object into his mouth that he's supposed to eat off of like a spoon. Plus the tastes are obviously different. But it's sure been fun working on new milestones with him!

Dominican Republic

On Saturday evening my heart POUNDED with excitement as I was being driven home from the airport. Usually I'm NOT excited to be coming home from vacation. But in this case, I was thrilled to be coming home. Why you ask? Because it had been a week since I had seen, heard or held my little Parker baby!

Q&A

Q: Why were you away from Parker for a week?!
A: Darrin and I went to the Dominican Republic. We had buddy passes that expired on October 31st that we needed to use. It was going to be very expensive to bring Parker along and wasn't going to be quite the vacation we were in need of with a baby. My AMAZING mother in law seemed eager to spend a week with Parker, and so we couldn't resist :).

Q: Why the Dominican Republic?
A: Well, good question. Jet blue flies there which is the airline we went through. And we found a super awesome deal for an All-Inclusive resort there, so we thought, "what the heck! Why not?"

Q: What about feeding Parker while you were gone?
A: I pumped as much milk as I possibly could while still feeding Parker before we left. The grand total of milk I left with him came to...drumroll....90 ounces!! (can you tell I feel pretty proud of myself? :)) But unfortunately, it wasn't enough :(. So, he got about 2 bottles per day of formula in addition to my milk.

Q: How did he take the formula?
A: My mother in law said he had a little trouble the first time but after that he took it great. I am so blessed with a versatile baby! He took the bottle great, the formula great, my milk great, and then resumed back to breastfeeding right when I got back great!

Q: Was it hard to leave little Parker at only 4 months old?
A: YES! But to be very honest, not as hard as I was imagining. It was really hard to see all the little babies over in the Dominican Republic and not have my baby! BUT it was a much needed vacation and it really helped us to rejuvenate. When I got to come home, I appreciated my little one all the more. I spent more time worrying about missing Parker BEFORE I left then when I was gone. Plus, it REALLY helped that I trust my mother in law 110% with him. I knew he was safe and sound.

Q: How did you keep up your milk supply?
A: Pumping, Pumping, Pumping! EVERY 3 hours. Not so much fun. But worth it to be able to come back and resume where we left off.

Q: How was the Dominican Republic?
A: It was great! Mid 80's the whole time and VERY humid which made it even warmer. The ocean water was INCREDIBLE!!! Like walking into a nicely heated pool. We went to Ocean World (like sea world but on a smaller scale in a good way), went snorkeling (saw some amazingly beautiful things and fish!), and went sea fishing (a bit boring until a large Mahi-Mahi was caught).

Q: What's the Dominican Republic like?
A: Very warm, CRAZIER THAN CRAZY driving, humid, lots of sugar cane, beautiful greenery everywhere, beggers all over the place, VERY friendly people, people from Haiti go to the Dominican Republic illegally (just like people from Mexico coming here) and the Dominican's really don't like that, all in all I would just tell you that it's a lot like Mexico there with a few exceptions.

Q: Would you go back to the Dominican Republic?
A: Probably not. Once was enough, although I think we'd love to go back to the Caribbean since the ocean water is SO AMAZING!

Q: Did you go with anyone?
A: We went with my Parents which was a lot of fun! Thanks so much mom and dad for coming! We had a blast with you!

It's good to be back. I love being a mom! Speaking of which, today Parker has his 4 month appointment and get's to eat rice cereal for the first time this week!!! Very excited for that milestone. Here are some pictures from our vacation:

We were on a red-eye flight and so they gave us these SWEET eye covers :)

The beautiful beach by our resort.

Of course we got all the food and drinks we wanted at our All-Inclusive resort. Lots and lots of Pina Coladas. Those will be missed!

With my awesome parents and a typical Dominican Republic background. Beautiful.

At the cigar factory. They practically made me roll one. Haha. The guy insisted. But at least I can say I've rolled one now.

My Mom and I got braids.

Yummy Food at the Mexican Restaurant at our resort.

Our friend the Lizard that was in our room. Sweet Darrin took it out carefully. It was really quite cute though. Lots better than finding a spider in my room :)

The Love Birds at Ocean World that ate out of your hands!

Parrot kissin' Darrin

Sharks...Run!

Shark show at Ocean world. Pretty amazing!

The Beautiful Dolphins

Swimming with tigers. Now how many people can say they've done that?

Cool Mermen

Gone fishin'

Clear blue waters

The Mahi-Mahi that was caught

The shell we found while snorkeling and the creature that was inside

Kinda creepy

That's my man drinkin' his drink

And we got to come home to this handsome little dude!