Category Archives: FAMILY

October was a very busy month for us in 2014! Not only is it my most favorite month of the year (and so I cram a lot into the month anyway) but we were also able to spend about two weeks of the month in Utah visiting friends, blessing Chayse and doing a TON of really fun activities!

All of those posts are on their way, but first I thought I’d put up our typical Month in Review post. So this post is basically all of the photo’s that didn’t fit into the fifteen other posts I have to get up from October 2014! (I know, I know…I’m like 6 months behind!)

And the photo overload starts now… 🙂

At the beginning of the month we decided to try out a restaurant that was recommended by our neighbor called Mama Randazzo’s. It’s a little ma and pa type Italian restaurant over in Altoona, PA. Apparently Sal’s Six Packs (which is basically a beer and bevarage store) which is right next door to the restaurant is owned by the same owners and so the two places are connected. As we pulled up Titan’s first words were, “Um guys! I don’t know about this. Look at all those beer signs!” LOL He thought we were going into Sal’s Six Packs!

Once we convinced him that we weren’t going in the beer place, but rather to get some pizza or other yummy italian food, he finally was ok getting out of the car.

This place was definitely an older place but their portions were huge and the food was really yummy! The picture of the calzone above was HALF of their medium calzone. We started out ordering a large and the waitress quickly explained to us that a medium would probably be sufficient!

My two cuties waiting for dad to get home from an all night shift at the hospital! I saw Chayse’s adorable headband and glittery spider leg warmers for sell through an online shop and couldn’t resist getting them for the month of October! Especially since all of October she was still in her Pavlik Harness. Her super cute “I’m FABOOLOUS” onsie was surprisingly a $3.00 Walmart find. Loved the saying and the super cute polka dot sleeves!

Baby girl getting kisses from dad after his long shift! We LOVE hearing his keys in the door after he’s been gone on a 16 hour shift!

A quick picture I snapped at the beginning of the month as everything here in PA started to change color. We missed the peak of the changing colors when we were in Utah but, all in all, what we did get to see was gorgeous! I still can’t believe how lush and green it is here in PA. Definitely different for someone like myself who grew up in the desert that is Utah!

Shopping with the little man at our most favorite grocery store here in PA. We love ALDI! Titan was looking over the ad as I was checking out to make sure we hadn’t missed anything on our list. I love taking him with me because I can tell him what we need while we are driving there and 9 times out of 10 he can remember the list perfectly while we are in the store. No need for a day planner or written out list when he’s around. 🙂

I went to make eggs one morning and realized our egg carton had a scripture on it. “This is the Day which is the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Made my morning!

Another thing I was loving in October…lots and lots of hot chocolate with some french vanilla creamer mixed in! So yummy! Our Cocoa Motion basically had a permanent spot on our counter all month long.

Twice a year in April and then again in October our church has General Conference and I almost always make a batch of blueberry muffins that Sunday morning. In fact, we’ve probably had them so many times, now we could probably start calling it a tradition. 🙂

October is also the month of our anniversary! This year it was our 8th anniversary. For our anniversary we (and the kids) went to dinner at a mexican restaurant we’d been told was good (it wasn’t! but it was nice not to cook that night!) and then made a trip to Coldstone for dessert and to Toys R Us for some browsing for Titan! Things sure do change when you start adding more kids to the picture! 😉 (At this time Chayse was still exclusively nursing so she couldn’t be left with a babysitter for very long and if we were taking her along, we figured Titan may as well join us too!)

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Chayse checking out her photos while we pass more time in the Mother’s Room at church. This girl…she cracks me up!

When we left for Utah, this tree was still 100% green. Coming back from Utah though two weeks later, we were greeted with this gorgeous and bright yellow tree! So pretty and such a fun surprise!

Each year I try to pick up a couple new Halloween books to read all month long. Over the years our collection has grown quite nicely. Little did I know, Titan would want to read every single one almost every night! LOL

And here is a quick shot of what our front entry looked like a day or so after we got back from Utah! I debated posting this, but this is real life at our house! 🙂 We got in at like 2:00am and just dropped everything in the entry. Then, the next morning it was back to work for both Broc and I, and back to a normal schedule just in general which doesn’t leave a lot of room for spending an hour or two unpacking. So yes, this is what our front entry looked like for 2-3 days until I could get all the laundry sorted out, the pumpkins back on the front porch and everything just back where it belongs.

Titan’s birthday is the first week of November so the last week of October he requested a visit to Game Stop to check out their games and to do some window shopping in anticipation of some birthday money he knew was coming he way. As you can see, he takes his window shopping quite seriously! 🙂

Ti Guy, our little man that is/was 5 going on 25! (I say was because’s he’s 6 1/2 now that I’m typing this up in May! LOL) It was killing me how grown up he was looking in his flip flop and jeans checking out the games. Pretty sure this site won’t change much between now and his teen years! We definitely have a gamer on our hands!

The lighting is awful in this photo, but I couldn’t resist. My adorable little work buddy every morning. She loved laying on the boppy looking up at mommy work and I loved looking down and seeing her sweet face!

Titan had been requesting chocolate chip cookies for weeks and I just never quite had the time to make them from scratch. So it was Pillsbury cookie dough to the rescue one afternoon! Love how they even have themed cookies for each holiday and that all I have to do to make them is pop them on a cookie sheet!

Broc’s grandma always puts together really cute treat boxes for all of her grandkids (and now great grandkids) for Halloween! Chayse was of course too young for candy in October and so she very nicely sent Chayse a new toy rattle in her treat box and Titan couldn’t wait to show it to Chayse.

Baby girl getting the hang of her adorable new toy and still rocking the Pavlik Harness on her favorite toy mat!

…and this is probably my favorite photo of the month! Watching Titan be a big brother has definitely been one of my favorite things! He adores his little sister and seriously thinks the sun, moon and stars all revolve around her! 🙂

September 2014 at The Parkers

My Mom & Sister’s Visit to Pennsylvania

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Back in July (yes, I know I am about 6 months behind, but better late than never, right?!) my sister and mom flew out to spend some time with us right after I had Chayse. Here are photo’s from their visit along with all the details…

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My mom meeting Chayse for the first time!

Titan was SO excited to show off his baby sister!

While I was really excited to see that they had devoted an entire suitcase/carry on to bringing me Kneaders eclairs!!! (Don’t get me wrong, I was most excited to see them, but I mean, Kneaders eclairs were definitely a close close second!) 😉

Just the first of MANY ways they spoiled us while they were in town.

If you are ever near a Kneaders location, you need to try these!

Chayse meeting her Aunt Tara (my sister)!

Chayse definitely got spoiled by her grandma and aunt while they were here!

Not only did they bring some things we requested that you can only get in Utah, but they also surprised us with the eclairs, some new outfits for Chayse…

…and my old doll from when I was little! Blogging friends, meet my Cabbage Patch doll, Natty Guckus.

I was SO surprised because I thought Natty was LONG gone. My sister found her though when they were doing some cleaning in storage and after washing her and all her accessories about ten times, they decided to bring her to Pennsylvania and share her with Chayse. Too funny!

Chayse sporting her new maxi skirt from Grandma Cindy. Can you believe they even make skirts that teeny tiny?! Too cute! (If I remember right, my mom found the skirt at the Provo Farmers Market and I just happened to have a onsie that matched perfectly!)

Our first dinner, we decided to take them to try out Jethro’s! I think we let Titan decide where to take them, and this is where he selected. He really likes the fettuccine alfredo and meatballs that they have.

The next morning my mom walked past our room and saw me half asleep holding and rocking Chayse. She quickly snatched Chayse up and told me to go back to bed.

Chayse getting cuddles and loves from my sister.

Baby yawns!

When I woke up a little while later I walked down stairs to find two very happy and content kids and a super yummy breakfast of some of my most favorite foods!!! It seriously almost made me cry. This mom definitely appreciated the yummy food that she didn’t have to cook and the extra sleep! Pure HEAVEN!

Getting ready to head out for the day! Don’t look too closely at the background, we were still very much in “move in” mode considering Chayse was born only five or so weeks after we moved to PA.

Oh this girl!

After breakfast we hopped in the car and headed to State College, PA to go to Panda Express and Trader Joe’s. Penn State is home to the closest Panda Express here in PA and if you know my son, you know he LOVES Panda Express.

I figured the trip would give us a good chance to show my mom and sister more than just our little area of Pennsylvania and to spoil Titan a little bit too.

A lot of the campus was under construction when we went over the summer but even with the construction, you could still tell it’s a gorgeous campus. I LOVED all the buildings and older architecture.

…and Titan loved that they had his beloved orange chicken.

…oraneg chicken that we almost didn’t make it in time for! Apparently Panda Express closes early during the summer, so we arrived seriously with only seconds to spare! Thank heavens we made it in time is all I can say. Ti literally got the last couple scoops of fried rice and orange chicken that they had. He was one lucky little man.

After Panda, it was over to Panera for the grown ups to get their lunch.

And then it was off to Trader’s Joes. I had only been in one once before like 4-5 years ago and my mom and sister had never shopped there. So when we saw there was one in the area, we decided to make a quick stop.

On our way to the store, my sister and I both jumped on social media and got a list of things that are “must haves” from Trader Joe’s. I love how now with social media, you can immediately get any info you might need/want!

On our way home from State College, we stopped by the hospital to visit Broc at work.

One of my favorite photos of my favorite people!

And finally, we made it back home. Of course, since my sister and I are both bloggers, we just had to set up our purchases really fast to snag a quick photo. 😉

(Note: You can find my sister at Keep Moving Forward with Me and actually this is a good time to say that about half the photos in this post were taken by her. She was nice enough to let me grab them off her camera before she left!).

Baby girl was awesome during all of our errands! She’s going to be an awesome little shopper, just like her brother, I can already tell… 🙂

For the next day’s breakfast, my mom and sister made pancakes so that we could try out the Cookie Butter from Trader Joe’s. This was one of the items everyone told us we had to try and we were told it goes well with pancakes.

We also enjoyed the flowers that an employee at Trader Joe’s sent home with me after she found out I was out running errands with a baby who was less than a week old. The customer service at Trader Joe’s really is awesome!

After breakfast it was off to a T-Ball game of Titan’s! He was really excited that my mom and sister were going to get to see a game!

Batter up!

Oh how I love this little man!

Grandma was in heaven because she got the best of both worlds. She got to watch Titan’s game AND get snuggles from a sleeping baby girl!

…and yes, that is Titan sitting in the outfield. I think it’s safe to say being a baseball player is not in his future. 😉

He did give most of it a good go though.

Another benefit of having my sister and mom in town was that my sister took TONS of photos for us! She captured so many great photos and moments that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. So grateful for that…and for all the laundry she did for me!

Our laundry situation is all set up in our basement which is down an old set of steep stairs. My sister very nicely did at leat 5-6 loads of laundry while they were in town so that I wouldn’t have to be going up and down the stairs carrying things. Like I said, they totally spoiled me!

Another dinner out, this time we tried out Traditions. A local Pennsylvania Dutch Restaurant and Bakery that is run by the Mennonites in the area.

Ti with Grandma Cindy and Aunt Tara. He LOVED having them here!!

As far as our thoughts on the restaurant, it was good and fun to try out once, but I don’t know that I would go back time and time again. Definitely worth trying out at least once or twice though.

Our view as we left the restaurant. Pennsylvania really is a gorgeous state!

On our way back from dinner we found a fun park and decided to stop for a little bit. We didn’t last to long though because Titan needed a restaurant almost immediately upon arriving and the restrooms were all locked up. Luckily it’s a park we’ve been able to return to.

A quick family photo taken by my sister.

…and another yummy meal cooked by my mom and sister! Titan wasn’t the biggest fan of this meal. I think he called it, “Green YUCK!” but I really liked it. In fact, I’ve been meaning to make it again. When I do, I’ll be sure to post the recipe because it was really simply (I think) and really good!

After that dinner it was time for some games. We all played Munchkin while I got to hold this sweet little sleeping munchkin!

My mom and sister’s last full day in town we went to Chayse’s newborn photo shoot and then spent the rest of the day in Gettysburg. Gettysburg will be it’s own post though! This post is already REALLY long and Gettysburg would add on A TON more! 🙂

My mom and sister’s last morning in town, we ordered take out from the local crepe restaurant, Allegheny Creamery and Crepes…

This was the morning that my crepe addiction here in PA began! They are just so delicious and good! Plus, I mean, you don’t get any more quaint adorable of a restaurant environment! My all-time favorite crepe is their Nutella Crepe with Strawberries and Bananas. I’d order one weekly if it fit into our budget. 🙂

Last but not least, Titan talked my mom into playing a couple quick rounds of The Ladybug Game before it was time for her and my sister to head to the airport. I have to admit, I didn’t want them to leave! It was so nice having them around to talk to and do things with and I definitely got spoiled having the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. all done for me for a few days! Plus, they helped take care of Titan and Chayse letting me rest up a bit more than I would have been able to otherwise!

Thank you again Mom and Tara for coming to stay with us and for all that you did for us!!!

(Note: Just for my own personal record, their trip was from July 17th-22nd. So Chayse was 6 days old when they arrived and 11 days old when they left.)