Author: Stephen and Jodi

Simple Pleasure from a Long Weekend

We had a fabulous extra long weekend just staying close to home this weekend. A welcome change from all of the business caused from wrapping up 2009 and welcoming in 2010.

Stephen and Mason are enjoying their Friday night snowboarding dates and us girls (and JT) are getting creative with how we spend our time while they are away. This past Friday we had sooo much fun with a project that I am in love with. (way easy, way cheap, way cute headbands) We were all banded up and ready for church on Sunday. I also was caught wearing one today. Just really love ’em, really I do.  We also painted our nails and watched "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" and ate waffles with Lexi’s homemade maple syrup.

Saturday we slept in and went on a cross country ski run around our house. It was fun being together. JT was suffering from a croupy cough and benefited from being out in the crisp cold air. Olivia loved being pulled in the sled and watching all of the skiers. Lily was happy when Stephen told her to take her skis off and hop in the sled on the way home. Mason was surprised to see me turning on the heat to beat him home for the hot chocolate. He doesn’t know who he is messing with when hot chocolate is factored into the equation does he?

Sunday Stephen and Lexi conquered a sink full of dishes after Mason and I had a cooking fest getting dinner ready. I really loved making dinner with my little man. He is a cute boy, very helpful, and eager to learn how easy it is to make a meal.  Mason and Lexi also tag teamed staying home from church with JT and his croup. Lexi got a whole lot of Book of Mormon reading time in for her Virtue Project for YW…she was very happy and we were proud she chose to spend her time in a worthy cause.

Today Stephen made a very long rope to use on his rope tow…Lex and Mason where his extra set of arms, in addition to his teacher’s quorum helping him finish before they went cross country skiing.  Lex was the queen photographer, ready to document every last moment. Then after all of this stuff was done, my snowman family that I’ve been dreaming and hinting about appeared!!! I was such a happy wife and mom. I ‘ve been dreaming of a cute family of snowmen right in the front circle driveway. Stephen took it to the next level having them sized appropriately and reflective of who lives in our house. Yeah!

FYI – our family has now made it to level 7 on Mario bros!!!! (That is another thing that occupied most of our time this weekend 🙂 )

2010

Stephen said to our children, "I never thought I’d see the year 2010. When I was a kid that just seemed so far away!" 

Today is the official first day of 2010. We welcomed in the new year with a bang by eating fondue – sweetened condensed boiled in the can on the stovetop for 1-1/2  (it turns to something like caramel) then dipping cut up apples and bananas in it. Before that we played lots of fun games and laughed. Lex, Lily, Olivia and I made some 2010 glasses earlier in the day to help ring in the new year. BTW – I did get my first new year’s kiss at 12:midnight! All of our family were able to stay up until midnight – even JT! He was a die hard.

We spent the rest of today having fun in the snow and playing with the Parker Family at a "Christmas Party" where all of the children opened their highly anticipated gift from Grandpa & Grandma Parker – traditional p.j.’s personally labeled for each child! Each shirt said "cousin power" and then the child’s name. Lot’s of work for Grandma! She has been busy, I wonder how she found time in the middle of building a house, moving, and cleaning! Pretty amazing I think. It was fun that all of Stephen’s siblings were here together.

I was really sad that the weather didn’t cooperate for us to go to Utah to spend time with the Baldwins! All of our children were upset too! We really wanted to go see my mom, "Grandma Baldwin" for her 64th birthday. We made it to Pocatello when we decided to turn around. We had seen 8 cars off of the road and the storm seemed to be getting worse. Plus, you can’t deny feelings when you don’t feel good about something right? Wish we could have been there, I’m sure we missed out on lots of fun memories!

We were also busy resanding and staining 1000+ square feet of hardwood flooring earlier this week. It was a pretty big mess, but worth it in the end. The floor looks fabulous.

Tomorrow is sure to bring more social events that will keep all of the children bouncing with excitement. There is never a dull moment around here – although I wouldn’t mind one once in a while?!

Comments:

michelle said…

I like the glasses! they look great-thanks for the fun memories-we always love spending time with our fun family.
Sunday, January 03, 2010 10:12:44 PM

Stephen said…

It wouldn’t be any fun without Jodi, she makes life monumental.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 11:02:14 PM

Where there’s a will…there is JT

JT is a funny, cute, talkative, crazy, & sometimes destructive little boy full of determination and persistance.

We love him and are generally found laughing at him and his ways…BUT sometimes we get tired at night trying to keep up with him and his business! I love his age so much – I look forward to him waking up each day and seeing his cute smile. I also look forward to bedtime after a tiring day of chasing. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

JT can say many words: He calls Lexi (Exi), Mason (Meesown), Lily (can’t really say it "L’s" are hard and she has 2), Olivia (via). We love it when he walks around after someone toots and tells everyone "_____ is poopy". He did this today in Nursery. He told his teacher he was poopy and she brought him to me. I went to go change him and he was dry as a bone – I think he must have just tooted. Funny boy. He loves to talk very loudly too by the way which makes Sacrament meeting fun :). He almost always puts a "y" or "ies" on the end of his words: panties (aka – pants), sockeys, shirty, spoony, etc..

JT loves to build with blocks and then knock them over. He is pretty good and throwing them at people too – we are working with him on that one. He is into matchbox cars and any toy that makes noise. His favortie bedtime songs are "I am a child of God" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." I noticed that he does not like to have his socks taken off or gloves if he has them on. He also doesn’t like it if one shoe falls off and the other one is still on – it makes him very stressed. He like his pairs in pairs I guess. He loves to play with mine or Stephen’s iphones! He is great at unlocking it and knows just what buttons to push to get what he wants, he is a fast learner. This iphone fetish has come in handy on many occasions when we need to keep his mind busy at a choir concert or doctor office. The toddler applications are my favorite downloads!

He is a great eater and will eat most anything that is put in front of him. He is also good at playing with his food. At the end of most meals he has dumped his drink onto his food.

And last but not least, because it happens over and over throughout the day – he loves to use a barstool to get what he needs. We raise independent children around here!

Holiday Who-rah!

The party girl was on it again and insisted on a Christmas party with her friends. She invited 16 girls, but when all was said and done only 5 came. Lots went out of town and all of her friends (5) from the ward were grounded or had company. The instructions were to come in their favorite who-do and to bring a gift to exchange. It was fun to see what they came up with. There was good food, rock climbing, and they watched "The Grinch" with Jim Carrey. It was fun for Lex to get to have her friends from school over – the ones that she is always talking about.. When inviting friends over we usually stick with the ones from our ward because they live closer. I appreciated getting to know them and why Lex likes them – they are all great girls! Cute as ever and funny too!

Christmas Parker Adventures

Christmas has now come and gone and we are enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon snuggled in brand new p.j.s and entertaining ourselves with family games and left over Christmas treats. It is a good day!

This past Monday we left to go to the Parker Cabin in Island Park. There was just enough snow to enjoy a little sledding and snowboarding. We also "ate good food at the cabin" (Lexi noticed), and played games together, and watched movies. It was so much fun to be together. While we were there, Stephen decided to change the snowmachine battery with the replacement one his dad sent up with us. Mason and him were in the garage when Stephen decided to clean off some dirty wrenches. He carried them far way from the fully gassed up snow mobile and lit them on fire (to clean them). While this was happening I was tucked snuggly away in the warm cabin preparing my lesson to be given in RS today, when Mason came running in the cabin exclaiming,"Dad is on fire come quick!" I bolted out of the door in my slippers and found black smoke spilling out the opened doors of the garage and a panicked Stephen. This is something I have only seen a few times in my life. He is always cool and collected in dangerous situations – I’m sure being on fire, having your eyebrows and eyelashes scorched, and not being able to breath, could quicken the pulse rather rapidly! We (Stephen, Mason, and I) began shoveling snow onto the snowmachine while sliently praying the gas tank wouldn’t explode or the fire spread to the wood pile. Eventually we put the fire out enough that we could pull/push the machine out the garage door tip it over and load snow over the track. BTW – All of the other children had been out playing in the snow and hung out over by the swingset watching the craziness, but they were safe! To say we feel blessed that we didn’t blow the cabin up and all die is an understatement. We feel like some gaurdian angels were looking out for us (a few mentioned were Michele and Grandpa Parker – I think Grandma Parker was there myself, she was always so concerned that things were in order at the cabin!) Anyway we look at it we were extremely grateful and know it was beyond our measley power and abilities. After talking to his dad, Stephen, Mason, and Lex, changed engines with the other snowmachine in the shop at the cabin that had a good body but a not good engine. They were so proud when they heard it purring in the garage after  5 hours. Our cabin excursion strengthened our family bonds by learning how to work together and it also deepened our love toward one another.

After we came home from the cabin, Mason and Stephen decided to work on the old snowmachine at our house to see if they could get them running. They were successful and have had oodles of fun playing in the little snow we have here. Lily has even been found driving so that Mason and Stephen could be pulled on their snowboards. We can’t wait for it to snow a little but more!

Christmas Eve we went out to the annual Burton Christmas dance and saw Santa Clause. This was the first year Olivia sat on Santa’s lap willinglly! She asked him to bring her a flying doll. After the dance we came home and ate Chinese Food complete with fortune cookies, had a talent show, watched Luke 2, and played games. We also finished up all of our gifts we have been working on. We decided to do a homemade Christmas after hearing about other family members from years past. Alexis was especiallly excited to go this route. Stephen and I summed it up by saying it was a lot more work but also a lot more meaningful. We ended up being very creative and tried our hardest to use what we had around our house.  Lily and Olivia left notes to Santa (Lily’s requested a signiture as proof of his existance) along with chocolates, an orange, and glass of egg nog.

At 7 o’clock Christmas morning, we went downstairs and found our children excited and waiting! It is a record at our house – we are usually up at 5 am. We must have all been exhausted. Santa found us and we were happy to get a quick visit from Grandpa and Grandma Parker bringing a breakfast of delicious orange rolls – just what Stephen had been craving! We were able to skype Grandpa and Grandma Baldwin and tell/show them all of our Christmas morning splendors. Later that night, we had a wonderful Christmas dinner with the Puzey family and played games and watched movies until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. We like to claim them as an extension of our extended family. JT just loves them all as much as we do.

Yesterday we woke up and took all of our decorations down in preparation for our wood floor to be finished. As much as I love Christmas and all of the fun decorations I always love it when my house is less cluttered of it all and back to "normal". Stephen was a life saver helping get it all done as I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed!

This Christmas season has been a wonderful one, we are happy that we could savor every moment and cherish the memories until next year.

 

Remembering to put Christ in Christmas

This message sure put a lump in my throat…I love this time of year and what it stands for! When I choose to get my priorities out of whack it is comforting to know I am the only one that moved. Christ is our constant & unchanging friend. My heart is overwhelmed at the kind of friend He is to me as well as all of the world. Merry Christmas – it is a time to rejoice that He came for us and that He still lives!

Parker Life in Progress


Hair fixing Brigade Saturday before the baptism

We have been so busy having fun, we haven’t taken the time to document it…until now.

Thanksgiving weekend brought about many fun times. The food was good, the setting was perfect (Rick’s work) for the bulging family, and my children had a blast hanging out with their cousins! Like always after we ate we scoured the  Black Friday adds. I was soo exhausted after several sleepless nights, that I couldn’t muster up enough energy to even get excited about participating. Rather, I shopped online in the comforts of my king-sized bed, snuggled up next to my cute hunny. I have now become converted to this kind of Black Friday Shopping! I got everything I wanted with free shipping. I did miss the rush and the crowd watching, but definitely NOT the cold. Friday we went cross country skiing, which was fun. I can’t wait for more snow to enjoy this sport some more. 

The following week was filled with many preparations for Lily’s Baptism Weekend. We were anxiously awaiting all of the Baldwin family. We also experienced a miracle – the ENTIRE BABCOCK FAMILY made it to Rexburg! It has been 4 1/2 years since my sister has been here so I was very excited. It was so much fun and many great memories were made. My mom has a knack for spoiling her children and grandchildren and this weekend was no exception! It was fun to be with my family and celebrate. Happy Birthday to Eric yesterday.

We are very grateful for loving extended families!


Lexi’s choir concert
Lily at Grandpa Parker’s new house, notice the gift from Grandpa hidden in the glue

Lily got her tooth pulled
Mason and his cousins built a giant fort and slept in it

Grant, Mason, and Jake
Blue Eyed Babes

Stephen was so excited to share his climbing wall with the Baldwin Family
The famous Babcock sisters: Ashley annd Emily
Stephen got to pull out his pot from the Trick or Treat run

Chocolate manufacturing!
Gift Exchange

Scott and Jeana joined us from Texas via Skype
Olivia reverted back to her younger years

Lily’s invention – The opposite pouch (for those of you who can’t remember your opposites)

Olivia was requested that Grandpa Baldwin take her to Pre-School Friday morning while he was her – and Grandma got to pick her up.< /td>


Carter and JT playing some tunes
girls at play – Grace came later

Comments:

Magan said…

Thank you for hosting us all. The kids made some great memories. And we all learned a little secret about miss Michelle….
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:11:24 PM

Jeana said…

Congrats to Lily! How fun for everyone to get together! It just wasn’t the same only being there virtually… especially now that I hear there’s a secret I missed out on.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:04:04 PM

Official Member

This past weekend Lily was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. December 5, 2009, was a memorable day. Many family members were able to attend and show their support – I’m sure Lily felt very loved. She was excited to be baptized in the dress that Grandma Baldwin made for the girls at our house. (Alexis wore it previously) As we were pulling out that dress to see if it would fit well she noticed the dress that Alexis was confirmed in and then the dress that I wore to my baptism. When I asked her she wanted to do for her dress, she asked if she could wear mine and that is what she did. It was so cute on her and such a nostalgic moment for me personally.

Before she went to the Church to get baptized Saturday morning, Stephen showed her the baptism video he had been working on for her. I also gave her the testimony book I had been working on, complied from testimonies of many family members. It was fun to watch her excitement and delight. I love it when my children get a moment to feel special – all on their own. It was a wonderful time for the rest of our family to realize what a better person we are because of Lily.

She was the only child from our ward to be baptized and our Bishop forgot about her baptism. We had to wait for a little while for him to show up. He felt so badly about this. While we were waiting for him to get there Lily started getting more and more nervous, she wanted to know why she just couldn’t get baptized without him? It also gave her a little extra time to wonder if the hair floaty she detected earlier in the water would still be there, and how to tuck her dress in between her legs so it wouldn’t float up in the water. Also to wonder if the water was getting too cold. I tried extra hard to distract her with lots of positive vibes and it seemed to work. 

Both Grandpa Baldwin and Grandpa Parker were the witnesses. All of her worries were washed away with her as she stepped inside of the font (that is except the worry of the water being cold – which became a reality). Stephen and her knew just what to do and with a few powerful words in a sacred prayer she became an official member of the church. I met her as she exited the baptismal font and helped her change her clothes and she shivered profusely. She had a pure smile and bright shiny eyes and such a happy countenance, I recognized what a privilege it was to be in her company. We were so fast changing that she beat Stephen getting dressed. Many uncles were there to stand in the circle as she was given the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

After congratulations were received the clan headed to our favorite restaurant in town – Bajio. It was quite a crowd!

Stephen and I appreciated everyone who took time out of their busy lives to show their encouragement and love toward our little girl.

 

Comments:

Grandpa and Grandma Parker said…

It’s so good to be part of the true church on the earth today. Lily will be a great addition to the already great Sugar ward. It was fun to see her excitement.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 9:16:03 PM

michelle said…

What a special day for a special girl. We are so proud of your decision to be baptized. We sure wish we could have been there. Thanks for sharing the fun pictures.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 9:25:15 PM

Dad said…

You made a great choice Lily. I am so happy to see you walking in the ways of the Lord.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:15:30 AM

What fun little girl

Lily finally made it, she wouldn’t accept that she was 8 years old until 3:24PM today.  We were talking with Bishop Hymas and he asked her if she was 8 now, an she replied nope not until 3:24 PM.  I thought to myself she is pretty set on being 100% honest, and good for her.  She is set for her baptism date of Dec 5 and she so excited, I wish I could capture her spirit and share it here.  She can be heard often playing "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" on the piano, and adding little twists to it to jazz it up a bit.  I love it you can hear her excitement as she plays and smiles.

Jodi held a great birthday party for her with a long list of her closest friends.  She even invited one boy :-).  They each made their own little dish of Lasagna, baked it and ate it.  The house was like having 10 blenders and vacuums on at once, 10 little girls and one little boy can get pretty giggly and loud.  I would call it Chaos when I was trying to lead them in a game.  They had fun and that is the important part,

This morning Lily woke up happy and excited again, she opened the gifts from her siblings and Mom and Dad, she was a real treat to watch.  She was so excited when she opened each gift, but I think the Scriptures from Mom and Dad took the cake.  To top it all off Grandma and Grandpa Parker came to church with us today to see Lex give her first talk in sacrament meeting and to help babysit as Jodi and I sang in the ward choir.  Lex did a great job, but we will have to hear more from her on that.

Lily was able to Skype Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin this evening and she gave them about a 30 minute concert on the piano of all the songs she is learning.  She received a piano book from her birthday from Grandma Baldwin (via Jodi from the BYUI bookstore ask Jodi how the CTR ring fit Lily sometime) and within minutes she had learned a new song out of it.  She really loves to play the piano and to play on it.

We are all excited for her to be baptized in couple weeks, to make her a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She will be a great addition to the fold.

Comments:

John said…

What a great little lady. It looks like a good time was had by all. We can’t wait to see you next week. We are so proud that you are getting baptized soon.

Monday, November 16, 2009 9:12:30 PM

michelle said…

Happy birthday Lily-you are a great girl. Looks like a fun party-I love the aprons and hats.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:27:23 AM

Patricia said…

Lily, your birthday party looks like you had so much fun. Your Mom did a great job of putting everything together, huh? She amazes me! You look so happy and cute in the pictures. We are sure luck to have you as our grand daughter. You certainly are “grand”. Thanks for playing all of the piano songs for us. It was so nice to see and hear how good you are getting at playing the piano. I can’t wait to see your new music book, too. We are especially excited to come up for your baptism. We sure love you.
Grandpa and Grandma Baldwin
Friday, November 20, 2009 2:20:27 AM