Science experiments

Parker received a science experiment kit from his aunt Megan for Christmas. We tried the first experiment today. We put a cup of water higher than an empty cup. We then put a string between the two. After a few hours, the water had mostly moved from the full cup to the empty cup. Pretty cool. Thanks aunt Meg!

Ready for Santa

Parker is all ready for Santa this year. 

Parker's 1st hand-written Christmas list

Parker loves Legos.  So much so that the bulk of his Christmas wish list is... you guessed it... Legos. Here is the hand-written list that Parker developed the other day in the store with multiple Lego boxes strewn about.

I hope Santa can read Kindergarten!

A good visit with Santa

Parker had a good visit with Santa this past weekend.  He climb up in the sleigh all by himself and he sat nicely by Santa and smiled really big.  Then Santa asked Parker what he wanted for Christmas.  The only thing Parker managed to tell him is that he wanted "a swirly lollipop".  Santa was quite surprised that was all he wanted.  After hearing from hundreds of kids earlier in the day who probably wanted all kinds of expensive toys, Parker just wanted a lollipop.  Don't get me wrong, Parker wants a bunch of toys too.  It is just funny that his one chance to tell Santa what he wanted and he choose the lollipop. :)

If you want to order any of the pictures that were taken, go to this http://ashleynostalgia.findyourpictures.com/ and select User ID SLC.  Then type the password 09000405.  Happy holidays!!!

Christmas pictures

Here are the pictures from the trip to see Santa at the Galleria last night. It only took about an hour of standing in line trying to keep Parker occupied before he got to sit in his lap. Good thing it wasn't any longer. Who knows what the first picture would have looked like. Check out the worst and the best of the evening.

Santa photo op

Parker went to the Galleria mall today and got his picture taken with the big guy. He was pretty good... for a 16-month old. This image was the best of the lot. After we paid for the photo, we proceeded up stairs so Parker could run wild in the play area. He loves to climb on things. I took some great Polaroids that I will have to post later.

Happy Holidays!

Parker's First Christmas

We arrived at my aunt's house about 5:30 pm on Christmas Eve. We wanted to get there a little sooner, but with Parker, everything takes a little bit longer. When we finally made it, everyone was ready for dinner. We had a Mexican dinner with homemade goodies like guacamole, queso, enchiladas, and empanadas. It was delish! Parker had apples and carrots as you can see.

Grandma had a great time visiting with Parker, as did he with her.

Parker got A TON of gifts from the family. I think we may have to add a wing onto the house just to accommodate his new stuff.

Drums... now that is what I am talking about!

Parker was amazed by all the commotion of the day's activities. Although he won't remember any of it, I think he had a good time.

Visiting the Cousin's House

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, we visited family over the Thanksgiving holiday. During the trip, I attempted to take some Christmas photos of the kids (Maddie, Maria, and Parker). The original idea was to take some of the girls by themselves, then take some with Parker. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes of trying to get a good shot of the girls, they weren't interested in taking any with Parker. The following is a pictorial chronology of my attempt:


This was my test shot using Parker as a model to verify the lighting. You can see he is really interested in doing this for me. :)


This is the best image of Maddie and Maria. As you can probably imagine, I was having a tough time getting both of them to smile and look at the camera.


This was a cute candid I took of Maddie laughing while we were trying to corral the other kids for the group photo.


Before we gave up on getting all the kids together, I snapped this cute image of Maddie and Maria decorating the tree.

And finally, we realized it just wasn't going to be a good day for pictures of Parker. I snapped a few frames, and this was the best one. Luckily, I tried again the very next day and got some great ones that I will feature in my next blog post. One of them will be the one we use for our Christmas cards this year.