Busy life in March

Just thought I would start this blog off with a picture of Parker and his very first swing experience. Gee, I have been depriving the poor boy. Anyways, at the beginning of March our little family took a road trip to Seattle for Chases interview with the Seattle fire department. It was Parkers longest car ride, and towards the end it became a little rough for him. We got the chance to stay with my old roommate Jessica and her cute family. She has a son who is just over one, and it was fun to see our little boys interact with each other. They were definantly boys, fighting over toys, and crying when sometime got taken from them. As you can see we are teaching Parker to be tough, so his cousins can't pick on him. Another thing I realized while we were staying at Jessica's house, is that it would be so wonderful to have a baby who sleeps by himself and through the night. Jessica made it look so easy. Every two hours Caleb goes down for a nap and not to mention without a fuss. Then at night she brings him upstairs, lays him down and he is out for the night, and her and Braydan can enjoy the evening. So Jessica count your blessings. You saw what we had to put up with :) So on the way back from Seattle we took a little detour to Megans house, to visit little Beckett. He is such a cute baby. It's hard to believe that almost 1o months ago, Parker was that small. It was good to visit with Megan and Chad and to get some free professional pictures done of our cute boy. I know most everyone has already seen them through Megans sight, but I am still going to put them up anyways. Thanks Megan. This month we also got the pleasure of Chases Mom coming for about a week to watch Parker, while Grammy Perdue was in Utah. I always dread when my Mom is gone, because that means I have to find a babysitter for Parker in the afternoon. And truthfully, I am not very good at asking people to do this. So Chase got a call from his Mom telling us she was going to come babysit. YEAH!!!! It was so great to have her here and Parker had so much fun with her. Not to mention the great Chinese food we had and Italian! Thanks for all the help MOM!

Chase is still keeping busy with all his work and school. He just finished up finals this last week and I think is enjoying his little bit of break before school start up again in a week. So last Saturday, Parker and I took a little field trip to see daddy at the fire station. Now when I think of Firemen, I think of manly men, who can be hard and never smile. But I tell ya, when you bring a little baby into the station, they all get googly eyed and start talking baby talk. So it was fun to be able to bring Parker down to see his dad on the job.

As Easter rolled around, I was not quite as excited about it as I have been in the past. Yes it was fun to be able to dress Parker up in his first Sunday easter outfit (thanks grammy), but as tradition goes in my family, the easter bunny goes around the house and lays candy all over the floor and you race to pick up as much candy as you can. Then when all the candy is found, you have to go find your Easter basket. Well Parker is not quite old enough for candy yet. Yes I could have laid some candy around the house, but it just would have gone in his mouth. Plus with church at 9:00 and no husband at home, well it made for a complicated morning. Parker and I left for church without Chase, and the two of us sat alone. Usually it would not have been to bad cause my family is normally there, but with spring break, they left for a couple of days. However, Chase finally showed up about half way through sacarament meeting. Usually during church, I have a hard time paying attention to the talks, but I was glad on this Easter Sunday I got to catch one of them. Elder Buchanan (missionary in our ward), gave a wonderful talk on the ressurection that touched my heart. I am so thankful that Christ gave his life for me and that I although I am not perfect, I am able to repent, and I will someday be able to return to my Heavenly Father and Jesus. With Chase being a Firefighter I always worry that something bad will happen to him. But, I know that because we are sealed for time and all eternity, I will never lose him and we will be together with our families for eternity. So after church our plan for dinner was just to do some meatball subs and pasta (nice dinner), but that plan was changed when the Brittany Kohler invited us over to Allens house for dinner. We greatfully accepted. It was fun to be in a setting with a bunch of kids to bring back the little bit of Easter excitment I had lost. Thanks Kohlers, Ridings, and Allens for the fun time.

Sorry I know that was long, but it hard to find time to keep it update weekly.

Cautious, training in progress!

Well I am hoping I can keep this as updated as possible. Our lives are not all to exciting, but we love to be able to fill our families and friends in that live far from us. First things first, Parker is growing like crazy! It is fun being able to watch him learn new things. Right now we are trying to get him to stand on his own. He can do it for a couple of seconds, and is very good at bringing himself back to the ground without falling on his face. He is a little reluctant at first to be let go by mommy or daddy, but eventually he let's go of his death grip and stands on his own. Chase's goal was to have him walking by nine months, but that time is coming up in a week, and it is not looking promising. So he has bumped it up to 10 months. So we'll see.

While training him to walk we thought we would also train him in the bathroom as well. He is not quite tall enough to sit on the toilet yet, but he sure has mastered the flushing part. Anytime Chase or I go into the bathroom, Parker is right on our tails chasing us down. He loves to be in the bathroom whether it be playing with the toilet, pulling down the toilet paper, or taking a bath. Hopefully it is a sign that he will be a well groomed boy who takes more then one shower a week!

With all the training we have been doing, we thought we ought to train him for his job in the future. Grandpa Caldwell is a retired firefighter, Daddy is a firefighter, so we thought it fit perfect for Parker to follow in their footsteps. He loves playing with his huge toy fire truck that Grandma Caldwell bought for him.

While you watch your children grow and learn, you also learn strange things yourself. For instance, we cannot for the life of us figure out why Parker is terrified of balls. Whether they be big or small, the poor boy just screams if one comes close to him. Now this can not be a good thing, as he is to be a soccer player when he get's older. Hopefully he will grow out of this strange stage.

Chase is still busy with going to school and working. We are hoping and praying he will find a job soon in the fire profession. He applied in Seattle, and passed the written test. So he goes on March 10th for his formal interview. There will be hundreds of guys that go through this whole process, but hopefully Chase will stick out to them and he can get started on what he loves doing. I am staying busy with work and playing mommy! I have to say that I am so grateful for being able to work half days. Especially that later half of the day. Parker is still not sleeping through the night, and yes he spends most of the night in our bed. However, we have made a step up in the world, because he starts out in his crib. He usually last an hour and then he has had enough. But we are taking baby steps, and hopefully it will continue to get better. So back to my point, with not getting much sleep at night, I am glad to have the morning to wake up and get moving. I usually stay pretty tired until I walk in the doors at work. What I love about my job is that, two days are never the same. Yes the kids can be quite challenging, and they know how to test your patience but on their good days, they are so fun to be with. I have come to love these kids, and I am so grateful I was given the opportunity to work with them.

We hope everyone is doing well, and we miss all of you who we don't get to see very often.