Great Sites

I have added two great sites to my side bar:

The first is My aunt Natalie who does photography. I think that she is very creative and new with her style and I can't wait for her to do some pictures for us. You just have to check it out!

The second is Usborne Books. I like many others love children's books. In January my sister in law and I signed up to be independent consultants. I mostly just want to build my library, but if you like them too you can check out that site. I had a party when Samantha was a baby and some of the books I bought eight years ago are still some of the kids favorites. I read so much with Samantha and today she absolutely loves reading. I haven't been so diligent with the others, and I need to be and it helps when the books are ones that I am excited about too.

Some of our favorites are the phonics readers like Toad Makes a Road, Jo Litchfield's hand made model (model clay figures) Like Everyday words in Spanish and I think their encyclopedias are great too. Many books like the encyclopedias are Internet linked so you can go online and learn more about a specific topic which I think is really cool an the books have a lifetime guarantee so if they get ripped or ruined you can replace them at half cost (plus shipping and handling). I love Usborne books!

Growing

Anika has been growing and changing. She has cut her four front teeth in a matter of four weeks and has learned to walk. She made a breakthrough today and gave her daddy a kiss which she never does. She is always teasing him and withholding kisses. If he wants one he usually has to steel it. Well I think she is becoming more of a daddy's girl.

We are also growing new grass outback hopefully. With the help of some nice friends Mike moved a bunch of new dirt into the back yard and then planted new seed in hopes for some better grass. Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow. The kids loved playing in the dirt.

The first picture is of a group hug and I just thought it was cute

We can't seem to get a good walk on camera so you just have to trust me on that one I guess

Cloie's "Princess Birthday"

This is the second year Cloie has had a "princess birthday." We had a little party as a family on her birthday (on a Wed.) and then invited friends over on the weekend to share dinner and the cake. When we told her that we were not going to have cake until Saturday she kept saying "I want make my pinsess birday now!" So obviously the princess birthday was the cake. Cloie is our little princess and it is so fun to have such a girly girl. She has a new habit of tilting her head to the side when she smiles. Helena had to remind me that she is only three because I put four candles on the cake. She wears a size four in clothes, I don't know what I was thinking.

Snow day

I haven't been blogging lately because we had a virus on the lap top, but we are back up and running.

I'm back tracking a little to show you some pictures of our snow day. In February we went to Payson AZ to let the kids play in the snow. There wasn't much left of the snow, but we did find some. I took us on a little goose chase as I looked at the map and thought it would be faster to take this other road. It turned into 22 miles of dirt road. I guess it makes for a great "Parker Family Fun Day" story. We scrounged up all the winter wear we could find and some plastic bags to go over their shoes. The kids got cold fast but they still had fun.