MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Rafe loves Gin-gi from Shrek as well as all of the other characters and I love gingerbread men and have since I was a little girl so I thought it only appropriate to make them and decorate them together. Rafe did a great job helping Mom decorate them and then would immediately lick their faces off and eat them. We had so much fun together making our Gin-gi's. And the cutest part was Rafe in one of my aprons. So stinkin cute!

More Twilight!!.....I just can't get enough.

La, me, and Amanda with our goodie bags. As happy as little clams in our Twilight world.

Jess and I, dressed to impress.......uh.....Edward?.....Nope, not so much.

My sister-in-law, Amanda, and I anxiously awaiting the time we get to go into the theater.

Catching up...

Since my last entry Rafe and I took a trip to Utah in November. For my Birthday this year, my La (aka Mom) bought me a VIP ticket to the Red Carpet Premier of "TWILIGHT"!! We went to the Preshow party at 9:00pm on Nov. 20th. It was a formal event and it was a BLAST!! They had a live DJ, dancing, drawings for prizes, a buffet, and a red choc. fountain and treats. At 11:00pm we lined up and got our gift bags and headed down to our theater where we walked through a mob of fellow Twilight fans waiting to get into their theater. They gave us free refreshments and once we were seated they open our theater up to the general public. We had so much fun and the movie was FANTASTIC!! Ryan joined us in Utah for Thanksgiving on the Tuesday before and we were so happy to be with him. We had a great time with family and friends.

Dec. 7th.....Today is my birthday and it was a good day. We went to church and then Ryan had his Military Symposium from 1-5 and then a dinner at 6pm, which I went to with him. Dr. Lt. Andy Baldwin of the US. Navy was a guest speaker and a guest at the dinner. Now for those of you that don't know, he was a Bachelor a few years ago on the Reality show, "The Bachelor". I was excited to meet him because I watched his journey to find love. He is a very genuin down to earth guy and has great passion for the humanitarian work that he does. Ryan got to meet him and talk to him for a little bit and we were able to get a picture with him. He is a very nice guy. So that's all for now. Oh and there's a picture of our new condo family room all decorated for Christmas. Will post more pictures of our condo soon.

Halloween Fun!!

Rafe and I had a blast in Utah. We went to the Corn Belly Corn Maze and had so much fun. We also went and picked a pumpkin with Grama and Grama J. I had my annual Witches Night Out with the Girls!! I was able to see a lot of my dear friends and loved to be able to be with them. Grama played dress-up with Rafe and dressed him up in all sorts of Halloween costumes. And, of course, Rafe's trip wouldn't have been complete without a ride on Grandpa's tractor. We had a great time with our family! On Halloween Day we went to Nick's Garden and Farm Market and picked pumpkins to carve together. Once we had the pumpkins we wanted, they had bathtubs for you to wash your pumpkin in. It was so much fun there. They had mazes, tractor rides, blow-up toys to play on and lots of other fun things. Rafe had so much fun carving his pumpkin and did a wonderful job. Later that night we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat and then met up with some of our friends and went Trick-or-Treating with them and their kids.

The Cheesecake Factory!!!

Jed, TomiLee, and Little Sawyer Man came to visit Colorado to go to a Bronco's game and we were able to meet up with them at my all time favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. We had a great time and loved being with them! We miss our family!

Rafe 1 and a half now!!

We had a little get together with my cousin, Alice, on Rafe's one and a half birthday. I love Halloween and cake so I made a Halloween cake. Go figure. Any excuse I can get to make cake, I'll take. The next day, I came home from a meeting to find Rafe had built his first fort with Dad. It was so neat and fun to watch them play in it. It was just Rafe's size......Ryan on the other hand...Not So Much!! But kids of all sizes are welcome in the fort.

Catching up

So it's been awhile since I've been able to post on my blog. During that time we have found a condo we love, that Ryan hasn't seen the inside of yet, put an offer down that was accepted and now are waiting to close. We are so excited! It is located in Parker, Colorado and is about 2 miles away from Ryan's school which is what we were wanting. Save money on gas, WAHOO! We can't wait to start working on fixing it up. We'll keep you posted.

Ahhh Fall,,,,,My favorite time of year and it's here!!.

Casper my Baby Powder Ghost!

Yesterday I had just finished changing Rafe's diaper and when I put powder on him I always say, "Poof Poof". I usually twist the Bottle closed right away but didn't do it this time and Rafe grabbed the powder and shook the bottle and said, "Poof Poof" and got powder all over himself. It was so funny!! He couldn't even open his right eye because it was completely covered with powder so I had to wipe some off before I took these pictures. Just wanted to share that funny things Rafe does on a daily basis.

Growing up so Fast!!!

So a week ago Rafe got a pretty miserable cold, that he is still fighting, and he has always had my old bed in his room next to his crib/pack 'n' play that he has slept in since he was born, which he is now way to big for. Well, I felt that I should sleep in his room with him because I knew he would be waking up a lot in the night. So we decided to just sleep in the big bed together. Since that time he has now graduated from his crib to sleeping in his big boy bed. He loves it and hasn't fallen out yet that we know of. We lowered it to the ground so that the mattres and boxspring wouldn't keep falling off the bed frame. He is growing up so fast. I can't believe it!!

Salt Lake City Fun

Before we left for Colorado, we spent the day in Salt Lake City. We went with Grama, Aunt Amanda, cousin Evin, Uncle Jed, Aunt TomiLee, and cousin Sawyer and took the Front Runner down to Temple Square where we had lunch at the Joseph Smith Garden Room. We then walked around Temple Square and went to the Gateway and played in the water and went to Build-a-Bear where Grama bought her three grandsons their own individual bear. It was a great day!!

My Little Boy...not so little anymore.

Rafe is growing up so fast. He loves to read, read, read, and climbs, climbs, climbs. He is a very active little dude, persistent, and mischievous. His Grama and Grandpa say he's a "Jed". His uncle Jed was just as active and always getting into things he wasn't suppose to and was very persistent. They are two in the same from what I've heard. But we love him very much. He had his first REAL hair cut. Yep....I finally brought myself to doing it. I never really wanted to cut his hair because I didn't want my baby to grow up and look grown up. But I had to face it....he is growing up so BIG!! I have trimmed him up a few times but this time I really cut his hair. Half way through it I was regretting it. I looked at him and didn't like it but then again, at that point he had a mullet because only half way finished. He's not my Baby any more, he's my little Boy. It makes Mama sad.

Ryan's White Coat Ceremony

Last Thrusday the 31st of July, Ryan had his White Coat Ceremony where he received his white Dr.'s coat. It was an awesome experience for him and for us to celebrate that with him. We are so proud of him. He is now Student Dr. M. Ryan Parks, 2nd Lt. United States Air Force. WOW, what a title!! Very honorable if you ask me. It was great to be able to be there to watch such a neat event take place. Ryan with Matt Malivuk with whom he went to COT. And Rafe is so proud of his Dada!!

Memory Keepers:

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Trip to Utah!!

In July we surprised my family and took a road trip back to Utah for Pioneer Day. We completely took everyone off guard and surprised them. Their expressions where priceless and we had a great time. It's weird to say that we took a vacation to Utah since it's the place I was born and raised but that's exactly what we did. We went on a very fun drive with Grama La to Brigham and ate lunch at Maddox then went on our drive to Bear Lake where we got their famous fresh raspberry shakes. We took some time to play in the Lake with Rafe. He had a great time splashing in the water. We went to Snow Basin and played disc golf with the family and some ward friends. It was so much fun!! We saw a lot of friends from work and just had a nice time. Ryan, Rafe, Aunt Amanda, cousin Evin, and I went to Hogle Zoo and we had a great time together. We saw the albino alligator that they call "The Ghost of the Bayou" On the 24th of July was Pioneer Day and we went down to a local celebration. Ryan, Jordan, my Dad, and I entered into a volleyball tournament where we took 2nd place. It was long, hot, and so much fun!!! They had a candy drop for all of the little kids and dropped the candy from a hot air balloon. I went horseback riding on Rohan for just a short time but loved it. Rafe's favorite things where riding on the tractor and on the motorcycle with Grandpa. So needless to say we did a lot but wished we had more time to do more. We miss Utah very much and our family and friends there.

Our Alaska Trip

In July we went to see Ryan's family in Alaska. We had a great time and enjoyed being with each other. We went to the cabin, went fourwheeling and on a boat ride, we went to the Zoo, we hiked Thunderbird Falls, went to the Anchorage Temple, and Rafe had his own personal hot tub, Grama's kitchen sink. Rafe really loved being with his cousins and getting to know them as well as a lot of his Parks family. Rafe was able to meet his Great Grandpa Parks and we enjoyed being with him. We have a four generation picture; Great Grandpa Parks, Grandpa Winkey, Dad, and Rafe. There were plenty of people there to play with Rafe and he loved being with his aunts, uncles and Grama and Grandpa Winkey Parks.