Category: Stephen and Jodi

Our Valentine’s Day

We love Valentines’ Day and it has been a wonderful one.

We celebrated with traditional pink pancakes and milk. As a bonus this year (using inspiration from my groundhog meatloaf discovery) I decided to serve individually shaped heart meatloafs to my family for dinner tonight. Interesting? I know! Wish we would have gotten a picture, but they were actually a hit.

Stephen and the children gave me an awesome picture, "Family Love" (inspired by John I hear). Stephen also gave me a handcrafted necklace from Stephanie’s collection – loved it! Stephen received a year’s worth of planned dates for each of the remaining months of this year….some nostalgic, some fancy, some simple, all going to be lots of fun!

Lily especially had a wonderful year. She was extremely excited about her Valentine Party at school where valentines had been distributed all week long into an envelope that was off limits until the party. She was also the most excited about pink milk and also left notes taped to Stephen and I’s door for when we got home from our date last night.

Lex gave all of her friends a valentine with a cough drop taped to them as a joke. Mason also had an eventful day.

Olivia, JT, and friend Ellie and I made Valentine cookies and Valentine mints – both equally delicious! Now that they are eaten maybe we can get more serious about eating less sugar?! Whew…

 

New Spaces and Places

Stephen & Co. have been busy organizing and creating spaces & places. If you turn left at the bottom of our stairs and walk until you get to the first door on your left, we will NO LONGER be compelled to un-invite any to enter…RATHER, we will now with full pleasure, be happy to accept anyone (and their friend) to retreive an item in our recently renovated storage room! Thanks to Stephen’s & Mason’s hard work we are now able to find items easily, and everything has a place. Such a refreshing feeling! How have we endured the last 3 years without this kind of system? Organization makes life easy & happy.

Polar Bear Swim 2010

One more year of fun.  Alexis started recruiting early this morning, and before we knew it she had Grandpa, Paul, Matt, Riley, Mason and Myself.  It was just as cold as I remember it being last year.  I told Jodi I only have to do it one more year and that will make 5 years in a row.

Early this morning Jodi and I ran from our house to the Temple and back (9 miles round trip), I was worried I would be sore but after that dip in the ice cold water and then the hot tub after I am feeling great. The benefits are amazing!  Next Year I want to see even more of the clan out there cooling off.

Comments:

John said…

Great Photos. I love the facial expressions. I want to see some married ladies in the water next year. Michelle says she may be willing to give it a go. It looks like all had a good time watching and participating. Both looked to be pretty entertaining. Nice Work!

Monday, February 01, 2010 4:12:54 PM

dad Parker said…

That wasn’t exactly what I had planned to do, but Alexis is hard to turn down. It really was invigorating and made the day better.
Monday, February 01, 2010 5:38:24 PM

Jodi said…

I was sooo excited to see you all (Paul, Bruce, & Stephen) on the front page of the Standard Journal today!
Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:09:54 PM

Scott said…

One word: CUCKOO!
Wednesday, February 03, 2010 3:56:26 PM

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

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