The Darndest Things

Recent conversations and daily life have produced the following remarks:

Afton in prayers:

"And thank you that is Halloween. And thank you for Halloween decorations. And thanks for Christmas decorations. Becuase some people have both Halloween and Christmas decorations. . ."
(the eager department store marketing of Christmas items during the Halloween season have Afton a little confused, but very excited)
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Dallin: Mom, you like David the best.
Me: Why do you say that?
Dallin: Because he's the cutest
Me: Oh my little cutesy wootsey tootsey kiddie, blah blah blah (pinching Dallin's cheecks and giving little hugs.)
Dallin: (pushing me away). I'm GLAD Davie is the cutest.
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Afton: Mom, who was the cutest at the Halloween Party? . . . . ME!
(a welcome comment after Em and I rushed to put together her requested birthday cake costume in the last hour and first half hour of the ward Halloween Party (can't be sooner than 45 min late!))
Afton: Someone thought I was a cupcake!!!!! (in disbelief.--it is important to get costume recognition details right for 4 yr olds.)
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Dallin: I love kindergarten. I'm so lucky I'm in kindergarten. Afton is gonna be the next lucky one to go to kindergarten.
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Dallin: Mom, I like Clarissa. She is the new girl. She looks like Sleeping Beauty except for the hair and I don't know what color her eyes are, but they might be blue. (Are there any other ways to look like Sleeping Beauty for a 5 yr old girl?)
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Me: Lindsey, I love you.
Lindsey: (nodding and looking up at me) Heavenly Father luff me. Uh huh.
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Dallin: Lindsey, you were the winner too, because you were on the team with Afton and I and we beat Mom and David. (to Lindsey after she fell down on the walk/race home from school and ended up being pushed in the stroller with the losing team).

Some Serious Discipline

We were really excited to move to this house. Then we found out it came fully equipped with a 10 foot time-out spot. This house was made for us.

A Million and One Pictures of the Parker Kids

Good buddies are invaluable. Jordan Daines took these pics of my kiddies (and me, at my protest, just not the photogenic type). We miss our little South Pas now that we are here in Gilbert, AZ, but can I just say Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh to a back yard, and a garage with MY OWN washer and dryer to revel in, and a culdesac where the kids play outside almost all day long, and cheap rent, and enough rooms that David doesn't have to nap in Jared's office where he wakes up every 15 min. You can't beat the weather in southern California, but again . . . aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, here are the pics, by Jordan Daines, and for all my friends back in S.P., I would totally hire her, (hope you wanted a little advertising Jordan). It is HARD work to get any of my kids to cooperate in any manner whatsoever, and she managed to pull it off with all four.

Sorry, I like so many I couldn't decide which to post an posted a bunch of them.

Dallin, D.J., Deej, Deejamus Prime:

--Dallin makes me want to laugh. He has a contageous laugh, and is ideal to watch a good comedy with because his laugh makes it much funnier.

Afton, Aftie Tafties, Taffy:

--Afton makes me wonder. There are no boundaries for her imagination, and it's awesome to ask and find out where she is thinking at any random moment.

Lindsey, Lindsey Lu, Lu Lu, Lu Lu La:

--Lindsey makes me feel loved. I have to ask before I can kiss her. She usually grants my request, but she likes to specify where the kiss will occur. Sometimes on her nose, sometimes on her cheek, her arm, her knee, or wherever needs a kiss.

David, Davie, Davers, Schootch:

--David makes me feel popular. I've never had so many people, young and elderly, surrounding me as I did at church the other day, all of them gooing and gaaing at the little flirt.

The REAL Windsor SLC house.

Sorry for tricking so many of you with my last Windsor post. Here are the post recent pics of the house, just about to be posted on the MLS. We are proud of it, but Jared is as tired of it as I used to get of my school research papers just before turning them in. He just wants to be done with it. There is still some landscaping to be done, which we have complete assurance will be done this week??????
If anyone knows someone who wants a really cute little house in a darling neighborhood in SLC, and who is voting for Obama (or someone who loves to debate people who are voting for Obama, since most of the neighbors are sporting Obama signs in their yards) then this is absolutely the house for them.

Create

"...take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness. You will improve not only the world around you, but also the world within you."

OK. How awesome was that RS General Conference talk by Elder Uchtdorf? You may feel the same, but I am sure it was written expressly for me. I'm such an apologist.

Afton, the Princess Scarescrow

Aftie has been creating again. She couldn't bare to part with her collection of sticks a few Fridays ago at the park. Initially, I cautioned her after noticing a stick twirling from her outstretched arm with complete disregard for the little heads in close proximity.
"Aft, you need to play with the stick in a place where there are no kids, or I'll have to take the stick away."
She semi-heard me, choosing not to look at my "warning face," but to stare at the way she caused the irregular form of her stick to twist in the air by rolling it in her fingers. The top of the crooked branch moved slowly as it rolled to the top of it's ellipse, then quickly back around to it's starting point.
Once a safe distance was secured between her and the other playmates, I took a moment to prepare myself for the upcoming battle of “stick separation anxiety” that occurs when we enter the car after a park trip, then quickly resumed chatting with the other moms. Mom Chatting is a past time I rather enjoy, and with the ideal weather and shady conditions, park time stretched into the hours. By the time I finally rounded up the posse for our nap-inducing drive home Afton’s stick collection had increased by 500%.
Before Afton climbed in the car I broke the news. “Afton, we are going to have to leave those sticks here so someone else can have a turn with them.”
“But mom, they are for my scarescrow.”
Afton had been inspired earlier that day by a scarecrow face decoration Dallin’s kindergarten teacher had planted in the dirt outside his classroom. I was going to insist again that the sticks be left behind, but grew soft to her plans (which I figured would be forgotten by the time we got home like so many 4 year old ideas are.)
But she stayed awake, with sticks in palm and idea fresh in her mind until, 30 minutes later, I dug some rubber bands out of a drawer and sat down to ease her frustration at not being able to tie the sticks together properly with a small piece of blue curling ribbon. Despite myself, I had been sucked in by her enthusiasm and began to enjoy my part in the project.
She requested some orange paper to make the face and about 20 pieces of paper later, settled on the yellow face with the cute hair. I then cut and taped it into place while she picked out the wardrobe--shorts and shirt underneath, with a favorite dress-up gown on top. To avoid the overly-limp look, we then stuffed her with wadded papers torn from one of those huge open-enrollment insurance books that come in the mail.
By then I had adopted into my own vocabulary her mispronounced “scarescrow” title and the new friend officially became “Princess Afton Scarescrow.”

Ribbon hair attached so Princess Afton can wear barettes.
Cleaning up the mess is what I felt I should have been doing rather than securing sticks in the form of a scarescrow. But then, what would I be remembering today?

Princess Afton lived a life of just beyond 1 week. She was danced with, conversed with, taken on car rides, and even shared a sleeping spot next to her creater and friend. Her death was caused by a slow leaking of her stuffed paper innards all over the house and several broken appendages. She was loved and will be remembered for her great ability to listen.

Flashback to Summer

Sooooo........I kind of missed a whole summer of blogging. We were in Utah and I took a vacation from a lot of things besides feeding and bathing my kids. My Mama and Pops were extraordinarily patient with our extended, extended stay of 2 months! (Davie spent half of his 4 month life there). Besides the King Reunion we spent the time frolicking in Utah while Jared took on a house-flipping in SLC. Here are some pics (courtesy of Grandma Barbara Parker), I'll let them do the talking.

Jared's baby. 1910 Windsor, SLC. In the 9th and 9th neighborhood--very adorable. This is the before pic. Cute little brick house, right? What looks like brick is actually an asphalt tile that is made to APPEAR like brick. Yes, those are ragged screens hanging off the front door and windows.

Construction phase
What became of the kitchen after Jared let the demolition boys loose in there.
The back bedroom, stripped. Even the boards under had to be replaced (there were weeds growing into the room when we first went in.)

The garbage pile in back grew and grew until it was big enough to eat the house, and then Jared found a group of huge Tongan guys in Smith's Grocery to come haul it away and stave off the tidal wave.


TA-DA!!!!!! The finished product!!!!!!






Just kidding. That is actually a Parade of Homes house we visited with Jared's parents. We don't have a "finished product" yet, but it is close. Here are a few pictures from this crazy Parade of Homes house.
The basement actually opened up to ANOTHER lower level made up of a PIRATE BOAT, and a CAVE with a slide leading to a HOT TUB in the lower cave.

Hot tub in bottom of cave with a flat screen for your entertainment. There is a door from the cave that opens up to a huge basket/wally/racket ball court. Crazy!

This is the little built-in playhouse/village in the house.

OK--this really is Jared's house, still unpainted exterior, but great improvements already. The new windows make a HUGE difference. Pretty much everything about the house is new. Electric, plumbing, new HVAC, even new interior framing.

New custom alder cabinets. Jared hired out the tile work to save his knees. And most of the other work too, actually.



David Richard Parker was (finally) blessed. He was almost 4 months old. It was sweet (even though he started spitting up during the blessing).

He barely fit into this blessing outfit from when my brother Lukas was a baby.


We didn't quite trust LuLu to hold Davie.
Aftie and her Grandma Parker (thanks for the pictures, Barb!)




There is the funnest water feature at Liberty Park in SLC. It is a miniature version of the Salt Lake and the rivers that feed into it, surrounded by little canyons.
Afton got into a tangle with her chewing gum.
David is a social baby. He loves people and loves to play the crowd. He's here with the big cousins Dylan, Brad and Nick.
More house reformation pictures to come!