Parkers First Halloween Page

Okay so I finally got Parkers page done tonight... I felt bad that I had Bradens done and nothing really for Parker.

New Years Resolution Scrapbook Page...

So a site I joined today had a challenge (they give away stuff to those that win) for a "New Years Resolution" page.



So here is mine

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what do you think?

Halloween Page

Here is my new page I made today. (you can click on the image and it will get larger for you)
Now I need to do one for Parker - though i think this takes less time then physical scrapbooking being a stay at home mom I still cant find enough time to really make headway.

Scrapbooking

Okay so I created a new page tonight - I'm going to make pages and instead of getting them printed which I hear I can do for 6.00 per page - I am going to make a digital album for the boys - 1 for each year.

I'll keep the photos in hard copy in case they want them later in life. Hmmm maybe I should make an index of all the photos used too at the end of the DVD. (sorry brainstorming while I type)

So here is my page - tell me what you think.



Would love some feed back -

Credits: All images (other than the boys) were downloaded for free at shabbyprincess.com.

Christmas 2007

Christmas started early for our family, we traveled to Oklahoma City to celebrate with Brants family "Fiesta" style. Brant has an aunt that loves to cook mexican, does a very good job at it too. So we spent the night with Brants family Saturday and met up with all the uncles at Uncle Feltons.

Here are a few photos from that event.

Cousins Hunter and Caleb

Braden

After stuffing our faces we headed back to Brants parents house and opened presents. Braden had a blast opening gifts this year. It was fun to see how excited he was with each gift, though clothes he quickly placed them back in the box.

Here are photos of Braden

Nana and Papa Garrison got him safety gear. We are thinking about having him wear it daily since he always is falling down.

Braden scored in the PJ department. He is coming to show me the football themed PJS

This was definitely Bradens favorite toy. Way to go Uncle Brad. This is a Ford pickup with a trailer on back - Just like his daddy (not colors of course) - so he hooked and unhooked the trailer over and over all night.

Here are photos of Parker from that night.

I got parker this hat - dont care what anyone says it is ADORABLE. Granted he looks like a crazy person in this photo.

Parkers gifts at Nana and Papa Garrisons

Parker again with the I'm Crazy look - I kept sticking the bows on him... as you can see below he is not amused with my humor

If a baby could tell you off, this would be the look.

After getting home Monday afternoon - the boys and I went to my parents to let daddy get some sleep since he was going in Christmas Eve to work a shift for someone. We were headed to my Grandma Wagners (my moms mom) for Christmas Eve with that side of the family.

Here are some photos from that night. We stuffed our faces with snacks and played Dirty Santa.

This is Parker with Grandma Wagner.

My father, Jay and Braden.

Grandfather Chapman with Braden and the Ferbie, Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie

Grandma Wagner, Cousin Johnny, Aunt Chris, Uncle Spike with Parker and Chris's mom.

We had a long, fun night. I went home with the intention on fixing the deviled eggs and the green bean casserole but i was exhausted and only managed to boil eggs.

I woke up Christmas morning and finished my cooking and got the boys ready to go to Grandma and Papa Bentley's - we waited on Brant to bring the presents.

Here are a few photos from Christmas day.

Parkers first Christmas... HOW FREAKIN' CUTE!

Braden showing Papa Bentley his new car (that you can exchange tires on) oh and Piper my mom's little dog.

Daddy and Parker

Braden opening up his off road truck.

Parker opening one of his Christmas Gifts.

Daddy and Parker tuckered out.

All in all it was a very nice Christmas - always great to spend time with Family.

So I really bomb when it comes to getting things done on time. Here is a Christmas card that was supposed to be ordered and sent out but I slacked and didnt get it done in enough time.
So we do hope that each of you have a very Merry Christmas!
This years resolution is to figure out how to balance my life, set priorities, and organize myself better.

Share your resolution!

Evaluation is today

So today Braden is going to be evaluated by the speech pathologist. He seems to be picking up alot more vocabulary words the past month, still not putting things together for sentences. Yesterday he did say Daddy and Bubba - pointing at a photo. But he isnt doing what he is supposed to be doing. So we will see what she says and what suggestions she has for what I should be working on. Im just thankful she could get us in to see if there is an issue or not.
So I'll blog more when we get home.

So - Just got back after a nice long hour of being "evaluated" - boy i dont think they could of had the temperature in the closet any hotter! Braden did pretty good, i thought he would clam up and just smile, but he interacted with her. She feels that he has about a 4 month delay, which isnt terrible but there is a speech delay - cognitively he is right on schedule, in understanding, understanding terms. So she said just to continue being the nagging mother I am about him using his voice. Told me I was doing good by letting him watch Dora and Diego - and shows like that, that they really do make a difference. So I guess we will continue doing what we are doing expect we are going to read more. And mandate use of voice more instead of signs.
So if any family is reading this - BOOKS, PUZZLES, DVD's that is really what the child needs, clothes and art supplies .... no toys - we have toys running out of our noses!

Im gonna take photos of the boys later today I'm planning on letting braden get the crayons out. Hey mom's out there... Is two just a ridiculous age for paint? I was thinking about getting some water color paint for christmas... but I'm a real fuddy duddy about big messes. Probably picked that up because of my mother.
YEAH it is nap time! Nap time rocks!

50th Birthday

Sunday was Brants Fathers 50th Birthday, we attended sacrament meeting and sunday school and made an exit to get down to Oklahoma City for a surprise party. Anyone that knows the Garrisons (not this garrison) know that their time schedule is different from most people. I learned quickly from my husband that his "little bit" was like an hour - when mine was like 15 minutes. So the idea was for Garys (Brants father) brothers to come over to take him out for a Birthday lunch - they were to be there and gone by 1 - I guess that didnt happen and then they didnt leave the house till almost a quarter till 2 - party is supposed to start at 3, meaning Uncles were to bring him back home for the surprise. At 3 no one had heard from them so the calling began. About 30 minutes later they find out that they have just finished up and are headed out. Instead of coming home they decided to go to Bass Pro - yes while we are all waiting to surprise Gary. Karen, my mother in law called and made up a story about how the water heater was acting up and there was water every where - sadly the water heater is located in the garage so Gary didnt feel that was something he needed to rush home for, so he proceeded to give her instructions on how to fix, even called the youngest, Brock and asked him where he was and if he could go to the house and fix it. All attempts at getting them home did not pan out. He finally showed up... not sure what time it was, the party was nice. Brads (Brants middle brother) friend is a cake maker, she and he worked on a beautiful cake. I would so love to create something like that but I get tickled at myself when the icing goes on smooth and I can make some kind of fluffy border. So I doubt that kind of pretty cakes will ever be in my future.


Abby with Parker and Braden.

The awesome Golfing Cake.

Brock Brad and Brant putting the sign up.

Felton, Gary, Grandma Regina & Marty - The 50 or older club.

Uncle Felton and Uncle Jimmy (the one that isnt 50 yet) with Parker

Gary got Socks, real gift was in the garage.



Brock, Brad, Brant and Mom's present to Gary.

Braden LOVED playing with his cousins. Hunter (Uncle Jimmy's son) who is 3 1/2 and Caleb (Uncle Marty's son) who is 8 and Abby (Brad's Step daughter), he had a blast wrestling with them and throwing and kicking the black balloons that littered the living room. Parker got to meet all the Garrisons, he hadnt ever met before. So I think he had a good time. He was a very good baby and only got fussy about 6 pm that evening - so 3 hours of being passed around - not to bad for a 5 month old.

I made those ornaments this weekend and they seemed to be a big hit, I gave them out to all the aunts and grandma's. We arent going to give them out at enrichment now so I guess though they took me forever to do, it was a fun craft, clever craft, and cheap - so I'll keep that in my notes for down the line when someone needs something cheap around christmas time. I have photos of most of the project but the are on moms camera and I didnt get them over to my flash drive.

Today has been a very decent day - granted we didnt get to bed till late. Braden has only done one thing that was a no no - but I really cant get to mad cause it is something Daddy asked him to do Friday. We were switching out the batteries on the Swing - asked him to go throw the old ones away. Needless to say he knows how to stick one of his toys in the battery compartment to open it and proceeded to take the D size batteries out and carry them one by one ot the trash.. I was half out of it on the couch - I let him do it - and went and got them out of the trash later. I think I'll be putting some packing tap around that compartment.




This is what happened in Ponca Saturday morning. Brant took this photo from the upstairs. We got the most snow in the state. it wasnt too bad but Brant wanted to take some photos.

I'm ready for Christmas are you? Im not ready by any means when it comes to shopping but I'm just ready. I love family. I love getting to be with family. I just love this time of year.

My sweet child returned...

For this past month I have wondered where my sweet Braden had went, he had really turned into a very rude little fella that wouldnt sleep, kept climbing out of his crib, was being majorly bossy. I kept going through things to see what could be causing it... it usually ended up that he was probably mimicking my frustrations and lashing out.

Well yesterday he took the best nap - it didnt start till like 3:30 but he didnt get up till 7, I usually put Braden to bed at 8 - but since he just had woke up I was not going to listen to the screams if I made him go to bed at 8 - so I let him stay up with me till about 10:30 - then I told him he needed to go to bed and that he could take one of his trucks to bed with him if he wanted - so he took his backhoe and his drill and tootled right to bed, no screaming no crying. He sat in his bed, drank his milk, played with his truck and within 30 minutes he was asleep. I went to bed at midnight thinking, he would be up any hour climbing out of bed waking me up or sneaking into the living room to play or mess.

To my shocker he did not get out of bed till 8 am - at which time he didnt come into the room completely - he stood at my door way and grunted at me - like come on! He was so sweet and wanted to cuddle and set on the couch with me as we watched the Wonder Pets.

He literally behaved like an angel all day.

He didnt really want to take a nap but did anyhow after about 5 minutes of screaming. But other than that little episode, I seriously couldnt of asked for a better day. He listened. He obeyed. He wanted to help. It was awesome.

I decided I should blog about this so when tomorrow morning he wakes me up at 6:30 and wants me up and is rude and unruly again I can remember there is HOPE. He can behave. That sweet little boy is still there! =-)

I didnt take a photo today - but here is a photo from a few weeks ago. Actually thanksgiving. We celebrated his Birthday with Brants parents. He loved his cake this year.

My weekend Project...

I am going to attempt to make this this weekend - I am going change up the directions alittle cause if it turns out i have to make like 50 of them for Enrichment.
So I am going to use fleece for the Hat and Mitten and I'm going to paint on the buttons. That should keep the cost down to around well less than 50 cents -I'm guestimating around 25-30 cents.
I'm going to make them for family too, cute and thoughtful addition to their gifts we made them this year.

So I'm going to do a step by step blog and see how that goes.
They seem rather easy - we will see!

Here is the link to the directions. http://www.thefamilycorner.com/homegarden/crafts/lightbulb_snowman.shtml

Why is it so hard...

for little boys to sit still and look at a camera for just a minute?

Tonight I wanted to get a photo fo the boys by the tree - I'm pretty much done decorating it and just wanted to remember it and them together. How hard could it be to get a photo.

Well you can see how it turned out.

Okay both at least looked at the camera!

I guess Braden thought the TV was more interesting.

Parker loves playing with his toes!

He fell over!

Braden by the tree.

Ponca City Ward

Okay for some reason this has been the season for a few of us to get back in contact with those that we grew up with.
There is something special I think we all feel for those that we shared so many special memories with. We grew up together, had fun together, shared moments of spiritual growth together. I thought I would do a blog about this search incase someone comes across it that was apart of the Ponca City Oklahoma Ward.
To each of you - you are missed, the ward is tiny again, we go through so many changes because of employment. Come visit us sometime!

Another place for us on the Net

Okay so I think we are every where online, why not blogger.com too? I should get off my tush and finish our family website up but for some reason I never have the amount of time needed.
So here is my first blog.
What I hope this accomplishes.
A place that can archive the going on's of the family, accessible to everyone. Maybe alittle therapeutic for me, rambling is a past time of mine.
Simple easy way for others to read and comment about photos (hope there isnt a limit - cause we are picture taking fools)

So Hi blogger.com - the Garrison family is taking the plunge!

Here are a few photos from today, Parker is working on sitting up on his own. He can do it for the most part but kept th rowing himself backwards and hitting his head, so mommy got smart and remembered to get the boppy pillow out.

Powder - or better known as Brant - I had him come down to comfort braden. Braden has taken over my old cell phone which was a flip phone. He had managed to pinch the fat of the palm, Parker started fussing too, so brant came down stairs from sanding the drywall - i couldnt resist a photo.