Christmas Video

For Christmas Grandpa and Grandma Atkinson are taking us all (all Atkinson siblings and families) to Mexico. We leave tomorrow and are so excited- pictures to follow. But because we won't be here for Christmas we are celebrating today as a Clegg family- here are some of the events of the day (besides going scuba diving in prep for Mexico!)

Fall Video

Fall Days with Mommy

Parker and I have been enjoying the beautiful fall days. Since we don't have much of a yard we go over to the church parking lot and run around. Parker loves it.

My Favorite Things

Parker loves to take the milk out of the fridge. Then he loves trying to screw the caps on and off.

He also loves to climb inside the fridge and take everything out that he can.

Especially his sippy cup.

But most of all he just LOVES making messes.

Halloween

For Halloween we were the BAT FAMILY. It was a fun Halloween. Parker didn't quite "get" it but he loved the attention his costume gave him and the candy he got to eat!

Batman, Batwoman and our little helper, Robin. Doesn't he look tough! Growl!

Every year my mom makes soup and puts it in these pumpkin soup bowls and we have a big Halloween party. It was fun this year. We did it outside in the backyard and it was beautiful. Here is the crew.. Basics L-R Haylee and her friend Abby, Bryant and Mindy and a neighbor girl, Josha, Tasha, and Asher, Aaron and Jessie Kerr with kids (jessie on the bottom), Jenny and David and boys, Spence, me and Parker, Sierra, Art and boys.

Haylee eating a soup bowl, texting (of course) and dressed as a butterfly

We had a little donut eating contest with the kids- eating them off of strings. Parker couldn't quite get a handle on it but he loved watching the bigger kids eat theirs!

Mom and Robin AKA- Parker

Bobbing for Apples. The record was 2 seconds- David Butler. I did it in 7.

Parker with an ENTIRE donut hole in his mouth. Ht's so funny-he wants his hands free so he just STUFF everything in his mouth so he can move around.

Eli as Spiderman and Sierra behind him as the web.

September Birthday's

September is a big month for the Clegg's. Parker's birthday, Erin's birthday and one of our anniversaries (we celebrate two- which I'd go into but you probaly don't care so I won't). So Parker turned 1 and I turned 29! So on September 13th we woke up and sang Happy Birthday to Parker. He, of course, didn’t really care or know what we were doing and we had a pretty normal day except that we picked up Spencer from school and went to the park and had a little picnic for dinner. The following Saturday we had a big party at Liberty Park for him and me. It was really fun.
A lot more people came than I expected. Originally we had wanted it to be just close friends and family but I heard from a bunch of people who couldn’t come so I started to invite other people, like this Indian couple and Chinese family that live by us. But it ended up that a lot of people came plus all the extras I invited. It was cool though. And since I don't plan on that Chinese family ever visiting this site I will tell you a really funny story: So they don’t speak English very well-they are actually VERY hard to understand. I’ve had to have him repeat the same thing over and over and over like 30 times before and I had NO CLUE what he was saying. Anyway, so they gave us a little gift and I didn’t know if she wanted me to open it in front of them or not so thinking it would be polite to open it, I did. She had one for Parker and one for me. The one for Parker was a little toy that was cute. The one for me, well, I started to open it and this little pink g-string fell out. I was so surprised I thought…this must be something else..this can’t be what I think it is..the rest was in the package still and it was all frilly. I kind of looked at her and she said what I thought was “doll” so I thought “Oh, this must be some kind of doll for Parker or something” and I started to pull the rest out only to realize that it was in fact a nice piece of lingerie. It was SO awkward. Her husband was there and kind of looking away, there were people all around me and I had no idea who was watching me in this totally awkward moment. And she and I couldn’t really communicate..so I just said “wow! Thank you!” I seriously am laughing right now just thinking about it. Clash of cultures I guess. It was hilarious though.
So the party was fun. Lots of food. Friends. Family. I love Liberty park because there is so much to do there (like the Ferris Wheel we took Parker on in this picture). I was kind of amazed that so many of our friends came up to Salt Lake for it. I wasn't expecting that and though I totally understand when people can't come, having them there really meant something to me. It was Sadie's birthday and she and KC still came up, Bry and Mindy had tons going on but came up, my dad who had like 4000 things going on that night, and all our friends, "my girls".. who have kids and are so busy. But having them there, I just realized how grateful I am for my friends and my family. I am so lucky. And somehow I noticed that with my family more than ever. We have come through some hard times these past two years and yet I have only grown to love them more for the people they are. I have learned a lot from them. And they showed their love for me on my birthday in various ways that meant a lot to me. Now I understand why my dad used to tell me when I was little that all he wanted from me was a card. Those little cards and little words and little acts of love were all I needed. So Parker. Parker is a one year old. He is a toddler. He is walking now and getting into everything and I can't believe we are here. He liked his party, kind of..I think he was ready to go home before we even blew out the candles, but that's okay. It's really for us anyway. With the change of seasons I am reminded of last September when we had him, when he was so small and this sense of peace overcomes me of that special (though sometimes challenging) time. He has brought so much to us in this one year of his life and he'll only bring more I'm sure. Lots to be grateful for in this my 29th year!! Happy Birthday Erin and Parker.

Lagoon

We went to Lagoon with for Grandpa Atkinson's work party a few weeks ago. It was so much fun. Bryant won all of the games that you have to be strong for and gave all his prizes to Parker. We had fun riding the rides with Haylee, Mindy, Bry and dad. Mom was feeling sick so she watched Parker (sucks for her, great for us!) The new ride was awesome. And here is a picture we took, hilarious I think.

The Goods

Here are the good from our garden. Yum Yum! Zucchini, tomatoes, acorn squash and butternut squash did the best. Cantaloupe was gross and we only got two. Our cucumber was weird too. Our watermelon was good but tiny. We only got one eggplant and no green peppers at all. So I guess we're still learning but it's a start!

So we finally got some of the classic pictures. I wondered how kids fell asleep in their highchairs because Parker seems to only sleep in his crib...but here we go!

and this one..well, I was grinding wheat flour and Parker wanted to get involved so I let him. Boy oh boy was that fun to clean up.

And I wanted to share some thoughts on motherhood now that Parker is turning one and I am a pro. :) -JK- definitely not a pro. Anyway, being a mom has been a totally eye opening experience for me. I have loved it and struggled with it all at the same time. Every stage is a different blessing and a different struggle. I think Parker is the cutest he has ever been and I love playing with him, all the things he's learning to do-like walking which he is learning to do right now and it's totally adorable. And yet, I struggle with giving up my life for a little baby who wants to play with me all the time when I have things I need to do! It's maybe something that I will never be perfect at but lately I have seen something so beautiful when I do sacrifice my "checklist" for this little guy. I realize that in the smallest moments, when i get off the freaking computer and get on the floor and play with Parker or follow him in the walker that he loves to go so fast on, when I laugh with him and play chase with him...that is where I am the fullest. There is balance and I think it's good to have my own interests and let Parker play and discover by himself sometimes. But for me the balance can be too much on the side of doing "my stuff" and it's hard to just stop and play sometimes...but lately I have. Like when I just LET parker dump FLOUR all over his body and all over my kitchen floor (as shown above). My first reaction was "oh my gosh, are you kidding me?!" but then I laughed and Parker laughed and we had the best time and THAT is what motherhood/life is all about. :)

Lake Katherine

Yeah, so it's feast or famine on this blog site for me and right now I am in feast mode.

This weekend we backpacked to Lake Katherine up at Brighton with Art, Sierra and family. Those two are brave- with two kids- but it was definitely worth it!

Parker was not happy on the way home (refer to picture of his grumpy face) and he soon fell asleep. That's what we get when we miss naps. Poor guy. But he loved the dirt and the campfire that I had to keep him away from

Check out Art's MASSIVE backpack plus baby!

It was a trip with gorgeous views, lots of yummy camp food, good conversation, laughs, lots of talk about Physics (between Spencer and Art) and of course struggles getting kids to bed in tents. It was a wonderful trip though. I loved being at Brighton with Sierra- a place she and I have many memories together -though it's usually covered in snow). I'm so thankful for friends like her who stay close to me over the years. Sierra was always the girl who would do ANYTHING. I am always amazed that she found someone even more crazy (in a good way) than she is. Carpe Diem was her motto and they for sure do it, I'm just glad we can come along for the ride. :)

Old Testament

I just wanted to congratulate myself that after 7 years of reading every day I have finally finished the old Testament. It took me forever because I went on lots of tangents and read a manuel along with it but it was so worth it. I LOVE the Old Testament. I learned so much. So Congratulations Erin!