Parker's Scratchboard

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We probably won't be able to update this again until after we return back from Utah, but we want you all to know that we love you and are always thinking of you. We hope that your Christmas is wonderful and that you feel the spirit of love and peace and that you always remember the true meaning of Christmas and keep Christ a part of the holiday.

Big Belly

So, I have had requests to put a picture of my big belly on my blog so here it is.



I don't like feeling fat and not be able to move around like before I was pregnant, but I love to feel our little baby moving around. It is such a wonderful feeling and I am so excited to have the little boy come to our home. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father trusted us enough to send us one of his children and I pray I can be the mother that this child deserves. Michael is going to be such a good dad and I am so excited to share this journey with him and have his support. He is such a wonderful husband. I have really been blessed to have him in my life.

Test Results

I got a message today from the doctor's office that said my tests came back normal, so I am not developing gestational diabetes! Yea!!! Just thought I would let you all know. :)

Sweet Potatoes and Apples

This is a recipe that I got from the Lazo's. We ate this when we went over to their house on Thanksgiving. Now, I am not a sweet potato fan, but these were the best sweet potatoes I have ever eaten so I am going to share the recipe with you all.

Ingredients:

6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
2 medium, tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into rings
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened apple juice
2/3 cup finely crushed gingersnap cookies (about 10 cookies)

1. Place the sweet potatoes in a Dutch oven; cover with water. Cover and bring to a boil; cook for 30 minutes or just until tender. Drain; cool slightly. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange half of the slices in a greased
13"x9"x2" baking dish. Top with the aplles and remaining sweet potato slices.

2. In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter and apple juice to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over potatoes and apples. Bake, uncovred, at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until apples are tender. Sprinkle with gingersnap crumbs. Bake 15 minutes longer.

Yield: 8-10 servings.

I hope you enjoy!!

Our New Room

Over the Thanksgiving weekend Michael and I went shopping for a new comforter because ours is ripping and doesn't look very nice any more. We also rearranged the furniture in our room, so we have a whole new look. Next step is to get a bedroom set :)

Thanksgiving

A couple in our ward invited us to come over to their house for Thanksgiving with them and their 5 kids. Their oldest is 16 years old and their youngest is 3 I believe. Dinner was really good. We had turkey and mashed potatoes of course, along with cranberries served with mandarin oranges, rolls, green beans, stuffing, and the most delicious sweet potatoes I have ever tasted. I don't like sweet potatoes very much but these were amazing. I will give you all the recipe so you can try them. For dessert they had a spice cake with pumpkin pudding in the middle and cream cheese icing. That was amazing as well! I baked 2 pumpkin pies to take over to their house as well. Delicious! After dinner we stayed a little while and chatted with the Lazo's. They are good people. We had a lot of fun!

We have so much to be thankful for! We are thankful for the opportunity that we have to live here in Derby, Kansas. It is far away from friends and family but we have good neighbors and a great ward family! We are thankful for Michael's job which provides for our family and allows me the option of staying home and raising our family. We are thankful for my job and the opportunity that I have to work with the kids and learn from them. They are adorable and I have a lof of fun with them. We are thankful for the opportunity that we have to become parents of a son of God. We look forward to March when we get to welcome him into our family! We are thankful that we are able to have Parker come and live with us. He is a good person and a lot of fun. We are thankful for our friends and family and for all of their love and support. We are thankful for the gospel in our lives which allows us the opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven again. We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us. We are thankful for his great love for us and we are eternally in his debt. We hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and we love you all!

Diabetes Test

So a couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor's office and I had my diabetes test done. They called me a couple of days later nd told me that my test was a little high and that they wanted to do a more extensive test. So I scheduled to go in the day before Thanksgiving to have my test done. I had to get my blood taken and then I drank the fruit punch. After that I had to have my blood taken every hour for three hours. My arms were sore by the time I was done. I hate having my blood taken. I still haven't heard back about the results from that test. I hope that it was better than the last one. I will keep you updated.

Our Halloween Pumpkins

Here are some pictures of the pumpkins we carved for Halloween. We had a lot of fun!!!!!!




























If you couldn't tell by the pictures, Halley carved the baby with a binki, Michael carved the rose, and Parker carved the face.

Is it a Boy or a Girl?

Can you tell?































If you guessed a girl....










You're WRONG, it's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Update

So, we went to the doctor's office yesterday and he said that everything was looking good. I'm measuring small but he said it was okay because I'm not very tall. He also said that we would be able to fly home because he does not give me permission to have any complications with the pregnancy :) We have scheduled to have an ultrasound on Monday at 3:00 PM. So we will let you all know how that goes.

Here are some more crafts that we have done in celebration of the holiday season.
















We made the houses for a family home evening activity. I made the smallest house, Michael made the one with 3 ghosts and Parker made the other one. It was a lot of fun.

Job and Baby Update

My job has been wonderful so far! I love working with the kids! My Tuesday/Thursday class consists of 4 three year olds and they are so adorable. One of the mom's just had a baby and she just bought a wardrobe of maternity clothes and she is letting me borrow them, which is really nice because clothes are expensive when you have a lot to get. My Monday/Wednesday/Friday class I have been co-teaching until just recently. There were 8 three year olds in that class and they were all super cute too. One of the four year old teachers quit and so I have taken over her class on Monday/Wednesday/Friday so I will no longer be teaching that three year old class. It's really sad because I really liked that class. Hopefully I will come to love this four year class just as much. We just had parent teacher conferences and I got to meet a lot of the parents and get to know them better. I kind of felt bad because I didn't have a lot to tell the parents of the four year olds because I have only had 3 classes with them, but I am excited to be able to get to know the kids better.

As far as baby news, I haven't felt the baby move yet but I will be having a doctor's appointment on Wednesday of this next week and we will be scheduling a time to have a sonogram. I am so excited! Hopefully we will know what gender the baby will be soon. As soon as we know I will updat you all!

Our 17 Year Old Child

Parker is now living with Michael and I. We are excited to have him! He will be living with us until the end of the school year when he graduates. We went to parent teacher conference with him on Thursday of this week and all of his teachers said that he is doing well and that if he continues to do the same then they will not keep the work that he had from Hunter, so basically he has a clean slate and doesn't have to make up for the poor grdes at Hunter.

A few days after Parker arrived a co-worker of Michael's said she had some stuff that she would give to us because she was moving to South Dakota. She wasn't able to get a big U-Haul and she didn't want to wait for a bigger truck so the stuff that she could not fit in the trailer she gave away. We ended up with a changing table, dresser, bassinet, play pen, high chair, 2 recliners, a couple of table lamps, a patio table with two chairs, and 2 bicycles. I felt like I was robbing the poor woman but she said that if we didn't take it she was just leaving it at the apartment complex with a sign on it that said free. We have truly been blessed.

Our Little Trick or Treater

Wow it's been a while since we have last updated this! Sorry about that. A couple weeks ago we made a cute little trick or treatr ghost. It's really really cute. We had a lot of fun making him. Now we have one halloween decoration :)

Halley Gets A Job

So, I am going to be working at The Learning Tree, which is a preschool that teaches 2 1/2 year olds to 4 year olds. I am going to be teaching the 3 year olds. I will have two classes. One that is Moday, Wednesday, and Friday and one that is Tuesday and Thursday. Someone in my ward works there and she is taking the Strengthening Family class with Michael and I and she found out that I majored in Marriage, Family, and Human Development and so she recommeded me for a job. I went in Monday and met with the director and she said that if I wanted to teach that I would be free to do so because she trusts Dana's opinion :) I am so excited! I will be teaching until the baby comes in March.

Kristopher Comes to Visit

Kristopher, Michael's brother (a.k.a. Halley's "Twin") came to vistit us this past week. We picked him up from the airport on Saturday 9 August and we went straight from the airport to a ward member's house and finished helping them move in. We had spent the morning help one ward member move out, then went to help another ward member move in, and we still weren't done so Kris got to help :)

While he was here we hung out and watched movies and played pool. We had a lot of fun. We also went bowling one night because it was the last day that they were doing all you can bowl for $6. It would have been more enjoyable if there wasn't so many people smoking. It got to the point where we had to leave because we couldn't stand all the second hand smoke. But apparently, Derby just passed a law that people cannot smoke in public places so we won't have to deal with that shortly. :)

Kris and Halley went out with the missionaries one afternoon while Michael was at work. We just drove them around and Kris was full of stories and jokes and we had a super good time. The next day, one of the sister missionaries called me and asked me if Kris would be willing to give her a blessing so we went over and helpe her out in her time of need. The last night that Kristopher was here we went out with the missionaries again with Michael as well. We went and visited Don (who Michael and I have been to his house before). He is an awesome person, but he has a "woe is me" attitude. The missionaries asked Michael if he would bear his testimony of how faith has helped him in his life. Kristopher was asked to talk about the sacrament, and they asked me if I would share thoughts and feelings about my baptism. When we were leaving, Don gave us some if his jalepeno jelly that he has been canning. It was super good! He said that it has jalepenos, vinegar, and sugar it. So, really it was more sweet than hot in my opinion. Michael thinks it was hot. It was a neat experience. We really enjoy going out with the missionaires and helping them whenever we can.


Don said to eat the jalepeno jelly on crackers with cream cheese!

We took Kris to the airport Sunday and bid him farewell until we can come and see everyone in Utah for Christmas.

More Doggie Tricks!

Michael's Birthday

Michael's birthday was yesterday, the 2nd of August. Halley got up and tried to make him breakfast before he woke up but his parents called and woked him up, but Halley set off the smoke detector anyway that would have woken him up. Halley hid each of Michael's presents somewhere in the house and he was given a clue to where each of them was hidden and when he found the present there was another message that had an activity to do along with it. The first was a soccer ball which we took out and played with at a park along with Shadow. Next he found a Collin Raye CD and then we played his favorite game. Third was a sleeping bag and we had a picnic on our deck. Fourth was a present from Mommy Millward and we went shopping to buy some new clothes for work. We then went to a baptism of a new convert in a ward and after we went to Cold Stone and got ice cream. YUM YUM :o) When we got home he found a Air Supply CD with love songs on it and we danced to it. And last was a birthday cake made of candy.












It was a good day and we had a lot of fun.

P.S. We also bought plane tickets home for Christmas. We are flying out December 23rd and returning January 6th.

Our 1 Year Anniversary!!!

July 28th was Michael and Halley's one year anniversary!! Michael planned a special day for the two of us, but we were not able to do all that Michael originally planned. Michael was in contact with the botanical gardens here in Kansas and had planned for a security guard to stay later than normal business hours so we could have a picnic and walk through the gardens, but it turned out that the security guard was unable to stay later after all. So we went to dinner at the Olive Garden and then went and saw "The Keeper of the Plains", which is a 44 foot tall statue of an American Indian which was built to celebrate the United States Bicentennial. The statue has two bridges on either side leading to it and it is also surrounded by a ring of fire that burns every night.




























The statue is set up where the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers meet and there are steps that run along side of the river and you can put your feetsies in it.

Shadow's Obedience Lesson

Our Day at Sedgwick County Zoo

While Garrett and Parker were in town we went to the zoo in Wichita. There were huge turtles that you coulod walk right up to and we even heard one make a noise. (I didn't know turtles made noises).

There was also a sweet jungle that you walk through where there are lots of birds flying around and little animals off in the bushes along the path. There was a pond with big fish in it as well and there's one point on the path where you walk under/through the pond and you can see the fish swimming around you. It was really cool.

We went inside to see the elephants and we got to watch them be bathed and fed and they even did tricks for us.

The hippos were cool too. The exhibits that have land/water animals had a way to view them both on the land and while they were under water. With the hippos there was a place up top where you could view them on land and while they were swimming on the top of the water. Then you can walk down some steps and you go underneath to the acquarium and you can view them while they are under water. The water was really dirty so you couldn't see them until they were basically up against the glass. One of the pictures we have is of me, (Halley) standing in front of the glass and the hippo standing right behind me. He was huge! There's another one where e is kissing the glass :)

One of the last exhibits we went to was the gorillas. It was raining at that point so we went inside to look at them and they were all sitting up against the glass to get out of the rain. The all had their backs to us though. One was right in front of Garrett so Michael told him to put his hand on the glass and see what the gorilla did. When Garrett did that the gorilla turned around and started doing a little dance and he put his lips up against the glass and was moving them around on the glass. It was really funny. When it stopped raining they went out away from the glass so we went outside and watched them. Two of them were sitting on a rock together facing each other and then one of the other gorillas (whom everyone was afraid of or something) came by and the two gorillas jumped off the rock and went around the other gorilla and the one started pushing the other as if to say "Come on, let's get out of here. Go." It was interesting to watch.

It was a pretty cool experience at the zoo. It is a nice zoo so if you're ever in Kansas it's something that you can go visit :)