Memorial Day Weekend!

It's about 80+ degrees and humid and I should be outside playing, but with sunburned shoulders and Craig asleep I'm gonna tell ya all about our fun weekend! 
Memorial Day growing up was a trip to Park City, UT to go shopping at the outlet mall.  Then it turned into 4 wheeling & shooting day with the family when my parents and us bought 4 wheelers.  Since we moved I've decided Mem Day weekend is our camping get-a-way.  We tried last year, but I was too late and there were no empty spots.  So this year I jumped on the gun and did research and booking back in March.  We invited Dathan and Kel to join us. 
When I found out I was pregs I was a little nervous because of memories camping when I was pregs with Jaycee.  Not too fun being nauseated and in the sun.  Luckily, I had my pills and I only got sick the day we left.  I was also a little nervous because the forcast showed thunderstorms all weekend long.....Well, once again...they lied!  It was perfect weather.  We've all adjusted to the humidity so it wasn't as big of shock in the daytime.  However, sleeping in a sleeping bag made for -20 degrees is not such a good idea in 60 degree weather plus humidity.  We all had such a fun time and things went perfectly!

 Our smiling faces cooking breakfast for everyone

 Throwing rocks in Hogan Lake

Camping on Hogan Lake

 Bray has started baseball and so they brought up his mit, ball and bat to play.  It was a lot of fun hitting balls to each other.  The girls played with Bocce balls in the field while we played.  Bray has such a good arm on him.  It was funny because he brought up different baseball hats and made me wear one to show the team I was on. 

 Craig hitting the ball to us while Dathan was the catcher.  Craig is going to make such a good dad to a little boy one day

 Kami playing in the grass

 Headed back to our camp to start our dutch oven dinner.

 Haylie decided to play with a stick that had been burning in the fire.  She got ashes all over her face.  We all got a good laugh.

 The boys left early one of the mornings to go fishing on the lake.  They rented a boat for the day.  We utilized the boat by letting the kids play in it.  It was so hot this day so we all went to the lake to play in the water. 

 Jaycee is such a water baby.  She's not scared at all and didn't even care that it was a little cold getting in.  She had a blast swimming with daddy.

 Bray finding rocks and snails in the water. 

 Everyone playing in the boat.  Haylie didn't like the water or the boat one bit. 

 The girls sitting in the boat while Craig pushed them around in it.

 Smile for mommy! 

I didn't get any pics of the night of swimming.  We all got burnt except the kids and most got a little bit of heat exhaustion.  So the evening was just laid back and made hobo dinners and sat around the campfire all night.  We woke up in the middle of night to a wicked thunderstorm and luckily we didn't get wet.  The next morning the aftermath of the storm brought hot 80 degree weather and super muggy.  The bugs were so bad so we hurried and packed up to come home.  We just love camping especially when we get to go with people we love!

Life

I know I have been such a slacker at posting.  There hasn't been too much going on besides the good news of our sweet addition and our plans on moving next year.  Other than that, it's been same-old, same-old.  It has been raining a lot here, but that's expected for Maine.  It can't be so beautiful without the rain.  It's a fun rain though.  Most the time it comes and goes throughout the day and is warm enough to play with Jaycee in it.  We do that often.  Right now is black fly season so doing anything outside requires lots of bug spray!  Ah, the sweet perfume smell of OFF.

Craig has been so busy at work and learning more everyday.  He's been given a lot of different things to work on and getting to know some cool people.  Craig also got a new calling at church.  I know, SHOCKED RIGHT!  They switch things around A LOT here!  He is now the Branch Executive Secretary.  He's liking it and trying to get things more organized here in the Branch. 

Jaycee is growing and learning so fast!  I get shocked by what things she says and knows.  She knows all her ABC's and what they say and now we're working on learning her numbers and colors and shapes.  She picks up pretty fast on things.  One of my favorite things Jaycee says right now is she'll eat something and she'll let you know if she likes it.  She'll say, "delicious" "Jaycee likes it" or "Jaycee doesn't like it"  Tonight at dinner we were eating a pasta salad and I said, "Jaycee I like it"  She responded back with "Mom, I like it too"  Craig and I both laughed.  She also has all her final 4 baby molars coming in right now so she's had a couple rough days of crying and crying, but with being a 2 year old girl I wouldn't expect any different.

I'm doing pretty good now that I have my prescription to help me out.  I don't have quite the energy to do things like I used to so that's been an adjustment.  I love going for walks right now and try to go at least 2 miles a day as long as the weather will allow it.  I have tons of scrapbooking to do and now I really have to hurry and finish Jaycee's before #2 comes along and I get even more behind!  I'm still in the Primary Pres and loving it.  Primary is my comfort zone and I love the kids we have!

Izzy is....well Izzy!  Craig and I like to call her "reggie"  She has been a real test of patience with us.  She LOVES to bark at EVERYTHING and EVERYONE who gets anywhere close to our house.  I like it when I'm alone because of protection but it gets really annoying.  Luckily, Jaycee and Izzy are best buds.  Jaycee has now learned to open her kennel, tell her commands, and her favorite-to pet her.  It is pretty cute to see them together.

So that's life in the Parker home as of right now.

Changes!

I made a couple changes to our blog.  Let's see if you can spot them out! 

Mommy

We got a package in the mail from my sweet mommy who I just love and miss dearly!  She was so kind to send me some shirts from Down East and also she sent us some mallow popcorn!  We love that stuff at our house.  She was so kind to also send these 2 adorable aprons; one for Jaycee and one for me.  Craig taught Jaycee a couple weeks ago to say "Hi, I'm Jaycee" when people ask her name.  So when my mom told me about these aprons she told how she embroirdered on her apron, "Hi, I'm Jaycee"  I didn't even tell her that Jaycee says that all the time.  My mom is just awesome like that.  She also sent in this package some cute hats for Jaycee, a mother's day gift and a little rolling pin for Jaycee to use for her play dough.  Thank you mom and happy mother's day coming up.

Jaycee playing with her play dough with her new apron on.  She loves to wear it around the house and always makes me wear my matching one with her.  

Jaycee playing with her "my size" rolling pin.  

Matching girls in our aprons.  She would not look for the camera.  

Isn't that apron adorable?!

Happy Easter From Pelham

When I found out Craig was leaving for 2 weeks over Easter I was so bummed I'd be alone.  Then the brilliant idea popped in my head...drive to Dathan's house!  Done!  We've had such a fun time and get to play here until Friday when Craig gets back.  Jaycee has had SO much fun playing with Haylie and Brayden.  She gets along really well with Haylie now and they are just best buds...well when Haylie isn't crying.  Jaycee has had a couple "accidents" with potty training.  She does so good at our house on her own potty so it'd hard to adjust to a new potty.  I didn't realize potty training is so hard!  The kids had so much fun finding their easter baskets and loading up on candy RIGHT before church.  Not such a good idea.  We all took naps after church and then they went on a fun egg hunt in the backyard and got MORE candy.  I'm gonna have potty treats for a year!  We were so excited that the rain stopped and we got to enjoy a nice 70 degrees outside and had to even put on bug spray.  I'm so excited the weather is getting nicer.  We ended the night with easter dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, corn and rolls.  What would've made this Easter even better is if Craig were here with us.  I did video camera a lot of the day so he'll be able to be a part of the day.  Only 5 more days until we get him back!  Here are some pics from the last few days.

Coloring Easter Eggs!

The Easter Bunny brought Jaycee some fun things: dog stuffed animal, play jewelry, light ball, pez, stickers, lip gloss, and eggs filled with candy. 

Kami getting into her easter basket before church.

Jaycee and Haylie going wild for all the candy

 Jaycee all ready in her easter dress.  The headband kept falling over her hair so I had to pull it up, but she loved wearing it 

CANDY!  

TRYING really hard to get a picture of all of them.  Really, really hard to do when sugared up!

Jaycee loved looking for the eggs.  She grasped onto the concept really easy and had fun opening them to see what was inside.

My husband loves me

Preslee Jo

I came across this blog today http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com  Read her story of her sweet angel Preslee Jo. 

As Jaycee was asleep upstairs, I was downstairs crying and thanking my Heavenly Father for my many blessings.  How could my trials seem so hard to bear when others have it worst?  I'm so grateful I found this blog.  I hope it will touch your life also.  When Jaycee woke up I gave her an extra big hug and just held her while she watched ANOTHER episode of Backyardigans. 

The past two nights Jaycee has decided to come in our bed around 4 ish.  Sunday morning it was cute because she comes in and says "Hi, Dad.  Good morning"  I decided I was too tired to put her back in her room so I let her sleep with us until the alarm went off.  Well this morning she came in again.  Craig had to wake up at 5 to drive to the airport for his flight.  She climbed in bed and snuggled up to us both.  Now I should've taken her back in her bed so she doesn't get used to coming in our bed, but I decided to enjoy the moment.  My wonderful husband, adorable little girl and I all asleep in our bed cuddling all together....THESE ARE MOMENTS WHY I LOVE BEING A MOMMY AND A WIFE! 

Change

April 23rd will mark one year in Maine.  I can't believe how fast time flies!  And within that 1 whole year I've had 4 callings all of which have been called and accepted.  I was called to Relief Society instructor right when we moved here.  That was very intimidating for me, but I did the best I could with my calling.  Then, 3 months later I got called to the YW 2nd counselor.  I was so excited.  In November, Craig and I got called to be branch missionaries.  He's the branch clerk and I was still in YW.  Doing both callings was really stressing me out and taking so much time out of being with my family.  A couple months ago I was really struggling with trying to give 100% to both callings and still being a good wife and mom.  I said a lot of prayers for help and things got a little better.  Well last Sunday I got sustained and set apart to Primary 2nd Counselor and I am so happy!  I really feel it's an answer to my prayers and have felt less stressed with this new calling.  I'm excited to be serving with 2 of my friends from the Branch and for teaching the gospel to all 26+ children.  (That's pretty amazing for a branch!)  Craig and I are still serving as Branch missionaries which has been very rewarding. 
So here's to change and putting a smile back on my face!

Picture Upload

I've had a couple pics sitting on my camera I've been meaning to put on here, but didn't until now.  So Here we go.
Jaycee opening her birthday card from gramma and pa-pa allen

Jaycee is now really close to being potty trained.  She still wears a diaper at nap & bed time, but other than that she wears panites and uses her potty all day long. She still needs to learn to go outside of our house, but we're getting close.  She's such a good girl.

Gramma and pa-pa gave Jaycee a gift card for her birthday so we let her roam the toy section for a good 20 minutes to pick out toys.  She picked out a baby doll carrier and then we found this cart and knew she'd love it.  She loves to push it around the house and put her dolls and Elmo in it.  Oh and she also likes to torture the dog around the house by chasing her with it.

Gramma and pa-pa Parker sent Jaycee a little easter present.  She was so excited when she opened it to find a whole bag of bunny mallows and this adorable new dress.  I tried to get her to pose, but this is the best I got.

This is the Jaycee scowl.  She pulls this face then starts cracking up thinking she's so funny.

Craig got back Sunday morning from California and we were so excited!  He even came up to the church to meet us.  Right when we got home we had him open his birthday presents.  He wasn't expecting anything because he got a new bike, but I still wanted to get him a little something.

Jaycee helped him open his other present which was some pants.  He had a pair that he loved and they got ruined a year ago, so I bought him a new pair.

We made daddy his favorite cake.  I made it a little different and it actually tasted a lot better.  If you want the recipe just leave a comment. "Happy Birthday Craig!"