Happy New Year!

On New Year's Eve I took care of my nephew Jaxson. He comes over pretty early and Finn LOVES waking up with him already at our house. They played hard all day.

I found them pretending baby Kate's tub was a car. Those are Novell name tags in their mouths. Today Finn brought me a name tag and when I didn't play with it as 'cool' as Jaxson he said, "Ok, these not for moms, these just for Finn and Zaxson."

The snow was perfect for snowmen so I bundled everyone up and took them outside. By the time we got out though, the temp must have dropped because the snow was suddenly not sticky at all...hence our deformed, midget snowman. But the boys didn't know the difference, they were just glad to be outside together.

That sweater Kate is wearing was mine as a baby.

That night, we went to my sister's house for the party. We played lots of games and ate lots of yummy food. And of course, Aaron brought lots of fireworks. Aaron's little fireworks show for the kids was definitely the highlite of Finn and Gemma's evening. I love the image of all the kids in their winter coats with the glow of the fireworks and snow.

Finn and Gemma snuggled up watching a movie.

Kate went to sleep as soon as we got there and stayed asleep the whole time! Finn stayed up late partying and eventually succumbed to exhaustion. We all had a great time; it was a perfect way to finish out the holidays and ring in the new year!

Christmas Time 2009

We stayed in Utah for Christmas this year to have our own little Parks family holiday. It was so great! Christmas Eve we went to my sister Andrea's house during the day for a yummy mid-day feast. Finn had a great time with all his cousins and the food was delish! That night Aaron's mom came over and we sang Christmas carols, read Luke 2, watched the nativity movie and made cookies for Santa. Finn loved every minute of it.

New PJ's!

Finn and Grammy on Christmas Eve

After the kids went to bed we stayed up late eating yummy treats and playing games with "It's a Wonderful Life" on in the background. The part at the end when Harry says "to my big brother George, the richest man in town." makes me cry EVERY time. I also love that they sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Man I love that movie.

Christmas Day was amazing. Finn was so excited he couldn't pay attention to any single thing longer than one minute. Santa brought him this Elmo Restaurant that he happened to find used at a great price and Finn was ALL ABOUT IT. Here's him playing with it later that morning:

Sesame Street characters from Brittany.

My new bathrobe from Aaron! So soft and wonderful, I absolutely love it.

And my new shirt! Aaron always does such a good job picking things out for me.

Aaron with his new driver. In retrospect I guess it was kind of sad for me to get him something he can't use until spring, but he is really excited about it!

Kate was 6 months old on Christmas Day!

We were SO excited to give this to Finn! It is a night light that looks just like the moon. It comes with a remote and even does all the different phases. Finn LOVES to look at the moon whenever we are outside at night so we knew he would love it.

Kate with her new links that she LOVES.

Ellen gave Finn many small toys to occupy him at church, including a mini rubix cube. He went and found Aaron's all on his own, brought it to him and climbed up beside him so they could both play together. Finn is so thoughtful sometimes! Also notice how handsome Aaron looks in his new sweater and shirt from me.

Finn with his spelling toy from Grandma and Grandpa Harker. He is really good at finding the letters all on his own and placing them in the right spots!

Finn with his new Elmo slippers that Santa left him in his stocking

Aaron made a delicious Christmas Feast all on his own for us to enjoy! We had turkey and lots of yummy sides including sweet potatoes which he made just for me because I'm the only one that likes them :) Every day I am thankful to have a husband that likes to cook.

We also got Wii Resort from my parents for Christmas and had a great time playing it and a bunch of other games on Christmas day. This time of year just makes me so happy. I am so glad that I have a family of my own to share it with. I am also so thankful for the birth of our Savior -- the King of Kings born in the lowliest of circumstances -- who came for all of us that we might have real happiness here on Earth and in the life to come.

Aaron's Birthday

Aaron turned the big 3-0 this month. Wow. I remember being 16 and thinking 30-year-olds were old fogies. Thirty is not old at all! Still, it's a pretty big milestone so I wanted to do something really special for Aaron this year.

His birthday was on a Saturday, so I decided to surprise him a day early with an overnight date. My brother Tom works with Aaron so I had Tom send an email to Aaron's boss, asking if it would be okay to whisk him away early on Friday. I showed up at Aaron's desk mid-afternoon and he was totally surprised. When I told him I was there to take him away, he was a little confused and said, "uh, I can't leave yet." He was totally surprised when I told him I already cleared it with his boss. My sister Megan was so great and took our kids for the night (hooray for a bottle baby!) and my sister-in-law Lesli watched Kate for a while as well.

We had fun playing on these huge checker boards in the lobby of our hotel. I found out that I still suck at checkers.

I had already dropped off the kids and packed a bag for us so we drove straight to Salt Lake. We stayed at the Sheraton which has just been remodeled and was totally nice! It has a very modern feel to it and all the rooms have big flat-screen tvs. We checked in and Aaron had time to freshen up before we went to our dinner reservation at Tucanos. (One of Aaron's favorites.)

The two of us at Tucanos after a tasty meal. We shared some really yummy papaya icecream for dessert -- the perfect thing after a heavy meal -- delish!

After dinner we walked around the shops for a while. It was so fun to be downtown during Christmas time. The next day we went out for breakfast before heading home.

That night I made Aaron a chocolate cake and we had a few friends over before heading off to my sister's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.
We had such a great time the whole weekend. I am so glad that I got to surprise Aaron with something really fun for his 30th birthday. I am so blessed to have a caring husband that loves me and our children so much...and cooks too! Happy birthday hot stuff...seeing you in that ugly sweater vest only made me love you more.

Goodbye 243rd Ward

We always knew that Aaron would only serve in the singles ward for one year...and since he was called last November that meant our time was up. We knew it was coming, but we weren't quite ready for it. That year flew by so fast! During that time we learned a lot about ourselves, made some great friends and drew closer to the Lord. I watched Aaron mature spiritually as he strived to meet the needs of those he served. I was able to connect with many members of the ward by serving on the activities committee.

Our family is moving on! Church will be A LOT quieter without us around I'm sure :)

To say it was easy would be...mmmm...totally wrong. Having a 14-26 month old boy with me for all three hours of church meant that I often got little out of the meetings. And then when Kate was added to the mix it became pretty chaotic. Picture me pushing a double stroller up campus hill in heels. Luckily I had the help of the 1st counsillor's wife who Finn LOVED and several kids in the ward helped out when they could as well. Plus, Aaron could come to Relief Society with me so I was really only on my own for Sacrament Meeting...which was last...during Finn's nap time...oy.

Rich, Aaron and Finn. Rich was the clerk(?) in the ward and Aaron got to know him really well. "As I type this Finn is going "Wich! Wich! Daddy! Finn!" He really connected to some of these guys.

I was excited to go to a family ward with a nursery but it was still hard to leave the people we have grown close to over the past year. We got to say goodbye at the ward Christmas party which was really special. That's where we took these pictures.

Eric (Elder's Quorum President), Aaron and Brother Christmas (1st Councillor...and yes, the best last name ever)

We will miss all the kids (yes, they are kids to me :) and are thankful for the ones that still drop by to visit us from time to time. We have been going to the family ward the last few weeks and LOVE it. It is full of such great people! We are excited to start this new chapter in our lives and actually interact with members of the church that are not 18-30!

Holy Videos Batman!

Here are a bunch of videos I have been meaning to post for a while.

Finn bonding with Kate while decorating the tree:

Finn hanging an ornament:

Jingle Bells Serenade:

The next video was taken about a month ago. Kate makes so many happy noises all day long, and loves to make spitting sounds...which should be gross but is actually really really cute.

This next one was taken a couple months ago. Since Finn is all about the alphabet, Aaron got him some sight-word flash cards and he LOVES them. It's a special bonding thing between him and Aaron...Finn loves to "Do Words" with Daddy while I make dinner. During this video Finn is using his silly robot voice so you can't really understand him. I'll try to get a better video of this sometime soon. His vocabulary has really exploded lately and we are so impressed with all the things he is learning and saying.

Decorating the Tree

Finn sang the chorus of "Jingle Bells" at the top of his lungs the entire time we decorated the tree this year. It is so fun that he is old enough to really get into the holiday.
We made the mistake of telling Finn is was time to decorate the tree BEFORE Aaron put the lights on...those 10 minutes were the longest of his life I think. But don't worry, "Jingle Bells" kept him company until it was time to put on the first ornament.

Kate hung out on the floor the whole time and watched the action. Now she likes to lay close to the tree and look at it and the other Christmas lights in our house.

Putting the star on top is Finn's favorite part...thanks to my stellar photography skills Aaron is cut out of this shot...but he was looking just about as happy as Finn.
After the tree was done we made hot chocolate and watched Mickey's Christmas Carol and Pluto's Christmas Tree...favorites of mine as a kid. There's something about starting traditions with my kids that just makes my heart explode with happiness. I love it!

Thanksgiving AKA Relax'n'Binge Fest 2009

For anyone who reads this: sorry for being lame-o and not posting anything forever...but as we all know the holidays get ca-razy!
Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! Aaron's brother Matt and his family came up for the whole week and we had a great time together with them and all of Aaron's other fam that live near. Are you ready for this? Aaron and his brothers do ALL THE COOKING on Thanksgiving! His mom definitely did her part and we all pitched in a little, but the girls were not in charge AT ALL. That is the way we have done it for the past few years and I have to say, I think it's pretty fantastic.

"Band Hero" for the Wii was a definite highlite of the weekend. It has a couple Taylor Swift songs that the younger girls were ALL A-BOUT. Kinz is singing here, with Ben on drums and Aaron and Matt on guitar.

Finn LOVED "playing" guitar along with everyone else. He seriously sat here with this guitar for at least an hour!

We got to celebrate Makinzie and Taylor's birthdays while they were here. Here is Finn post birthday cupcake, mid ice cream., pretty happy with himself.

Kate has seriously turned into the easiest baby. At about 4 months old she started sleeping through the night all by herself, she is happy just to hang out most of the day and she is rarely grumpy. She chilled in this swing for a good portion of the weekend, happy as can be.

I am so thankful for my fun little family, and all our extended family that make the holidays so great. We really are so blessed.