I'm One

I loved this picture of Parker. I think it looks like he is saying, "I'm one!" We had them taken at Christy Rossi Photography.

Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

With the end of the year approaching, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the love and friendship you have shown to us. It was a busy year for our family, but we are healthy, happy, and look forward for more of the same next year!

Late last year, our family was joined by Parker Theron Young. What a blessing he has been in our home! He has an extremely cute smile and very large bright blue eyes. He has a sweet spirit that is perfect for our family. We look forward to him continuing to develop and grow this upcoming year.

Parker is lucky to have the best big brother a little kid could ask for. Hayden and Parker were obviously meant to be brothers. Their “good night hugs” before bed melt my heart. I secretly love it when I hear the two of them “talking” to each other late at night after they should be asleep.

Hayden has developed into an independent smarty-pants kid, and he is a joy to be around. He still loves sports, and is hoping for a football helmet from Santa Claus this year. If you are ever feeling a little down, strike up a conversation with this little fella and you’ll be smiling in no time.

Both Hayden and Parker have a special bond, I believe, with their brother Scott, who was stillborn two years ago. We visit Scott often at the Riverton Cemetery and do a lot of activities throughout the year to remember him. There is nothing sweeter than hearing Hayden talk about his angel brother.

My wife Jessica continues to amaze me all of the time. She is extremely smart and knows exactly what she is doing all of the time. Halfway through the year we determined that Jessica needed to go back to teaching for this school year. Even in this struggling job economy, she had two job offers with seemingly no effort at all. She is teaching third grade at South Jordan Elementary School, and has already made some changes for the better in the classroom. Even though I can tell she loves being in the classroom, it is apparent that her calling in life is to be a mother, and she does a wonderful job raising her boys. I am amazed at how well she can influence their behavior, and I have no doubt that our children will grow up to be good men some day because of her.

And then there’s me, the dad. This year I graduated with an MBA from the University of Utah (in case you were wondering, my November allegiances remain unchanged). I am still looking for a new and improved job, so if you know of any job opportunities, please keep me in mind! In the meantime, I go to work and then come home and do the best that I can at being a good dad.

More than anything else in the world, I love playing with my boys. I am thrilled that Hayden has started to learn how to play hide and seek, and that Parker has learned to walk so that we can soon play tackle football. I love being with my wife, even if the only alone time we spend together is right before bed when we can squeeze in a crossword puzzle before falling asleep. I have a lot of improvement to make as a father and husband, but I am grateful that my family loves me, and that’s all that I care about.

Mostly at this time of year, we would like to bear our testimony that God lives. I have seen His hand in my life so much, and I have felt the Spirit of God work in my heart so many times, that it is undeniable to me. Though we have trials, somehow we always get through them and afterwards we can look back and proclaim that Heavenly Father had been directing our path all along. I really believe that to be true. We are grateful for a living Christ, that we can repent and improve ourselves. Because He lives, he has the ability to play an active living role in our lives. We know that through Him we can all be return to live with Him for eternity, and be reunited with our families forever.

We hope that we can all take a few moments during the busy season to ponder His majesty, and to take a few moments in humble prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the gift of His Son.

Love,
The Youngs

Parker's 1st Birthday

Is it really true? Has a whole year gone by? I am not sure where this year has gone. I could have sworn that Parker was just barely born. He is growing up so quickly and is such a joy to be around. We had a fun party for him. Here is a snippet of his birthday. More will come later.

Daycare

Today was Hayden's and Parker's third day of daycare. They are doing well. Hayden absolutely loves it and does not mind being left one bit. Yesterday when I told him it was time to go he told me he wanted to stay and keep playing. I miss the boys so much while I am at work but am so glad that Hayden is so happy.

Parker is just Parker. Monday they said unless he was eating or being held he was crying. That sound like most days with Parker. He did not nap well Monday or Tuesday but did a lot better today. I told the center that he needed to be put to bed at nap time and if he cries that is fine. He needs to cry it out. He took two good naps today as opposed to one short Nap the last two days.

When I pick Parker up in the evening he is exhausted. This early wake up and not long naps is not the best for him. I put him to bed early last night and had some things to do so Joe and I took Hayden to run errands and to dinner. It was so late when we got Hayden to bed. He was so tired he peed the bed twice last night and didn't even get out of bed to tell me. I heard him crying and went to get him and he was sound asleep. I had to wake him up to get him to go potty and change his clothes/bedding.

The second time he peed made me laugh because when I went to get him his pants were half way off and he was crying in bed. While I was getting him clean underwear he said, "I was trying to get my jeans off and I started to pee." I guess I can say Hayden shared his first dream. He thought he was in the bathroom trying to go potty.

When I picked the boys up today Hayden's teacher told me he told everyone at lunch he needed to bless the food and he did. I was so happy because one of my big concerns of daycare is who will teach/remind my boys to pray. I am glad Hayden has learned that it is important.

Parker's teacher told me she counted Parker taking 12 steps today. He took his first two steps last wee, and by Sunday he had taken as many as six steps. Tonight he was sitting on the floor and stood up with out holding on to anything. He is getting so big.

So far I am pleased with the daycare center. I am glad they tell me all about my children's day.

Sippy Cup

11/18/09

**Warning: possibly TMI for some***

I have struggled with Parker nursing since he was five months old (although he never was fabulous to begin with). He never would nurse very long and we were often worried about his weight. I started losing my milk at one point but found some herbs that got us back on track. When I started teaching again I refused to give him a bottle since we had worked so hard to keep him nursing. He was so close to a year old I didn't want him to start having a bottle. I decided we would really encourage the sippy cup while I was at school and I would nurse him in the mornings and evenings. This worked really well.

The Friday of my first week I came home and Parker had four new teeth. he bit me so hard the next day I was bleeding. Every time he would nurse I would bleed. A few days later he bit the other side. That was the end of nursing! I think it is funny after working so hard to keep him nursing we had such an abrupt ending. (Although it wasn't really funny it hurt like heck!)

He finished up the breast milk from the freezer and is now on whole milk from a sippy cup and he does great.

Bath Time

11/15/09

Hayden asked me to take his picture. So I did. I feel very lucky that from birth my boys have liked bath time. I would hate to have to fight with kids everyday to get them to take baths. The only time it usually is a fight is if I tell Hayden he has to get out and he wants to keep playing.

Leaves are Falling

11/10/09

Lance was raking leaves and I decided to take pictures of the kids playing. Parker was okay at first but quickly got tired of Hayden and Brea covering him with leaves and then cried the rest of the time.

Halloween

10/31/09

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Usually we hang out at my parents for their party but this year we decided to go to Joe's brother's house for a party. We had lots of fun doing a spider craft, reading stories, eating donuts off a string, having a spooky dinner, and of course trick-or treating. I wish I took pictures of our fun dinner.

This is a cute bag I made for Hayden. I got the idea from the same place I get all of my ideas, my good friend Sharla. Check out her fun blog.

Joe decide that we needed to all be dressed up so we quickly changed the boys costumes and were characters from the Wizard of Oz. I was Dorothy. Parker was my puppy dog Toto. Hayden was a lion and Joe was the scarecrow.

These are all the Young cousins except Elsie was sleeping.

The guys posing for a picture. Ryan was an aphid to go along with his Erin as a flower and Sydney as a ladybug, too funny.

The boys had fun eating the donut off the string. When the men had a turn the all started fight that so and so was cheating.

Hayden and Sydney were so cute trick-or-treating together.

Playroom Dreams

I wish I had a house. It isn't horrible living at my parents' house. They have a nice big house but it just isn't mine. I want to have my things, my space etc. I can't wait until we get into another house. The thing i want more than anything in a new house is a playroom. I have always hated having toys in kids bedrooms. I think bedrooms should be for sleeping not playing. I have grand ideas in my mind for a playroom. Even if they aren't very realistic I can still have fun imagining it.

My brother-in-law and his family have the best playroom. It is so big and has lots of cute little doors that go into a crawl space. There is so much room for all the toys. Hayden loves to go play there. The last time we were there the Playmobil castle was set out. Hayden had so much fun playing with the knights and the soldiers.

10/8/09

I took the boys to Gardener Village to feed the ducks, get cookies and fudge and to see the witches. I had fun watching Hayden feed the ducks even though the ducks were not the least bit interested in eating the bread.

I don't have very many pictures of Parker because he is always in the stroller so I tried to get some cute ones of the boys but the lighting was really bad and I never could get them both looking at me at the same time.

Big Brother

9/11/09

Hayden is a great big brother (when he wants to be). Parker was sitting in his high chair with a few peas on his tray. Hayden decided he would help and stood next to Parker and as soon has he started getting low on peas he would add more to his tray.

Trick-or-Treating at UESP

10/30/09

Joe's work invites the employees' children to come trick-or-treat through the building. I like that we have more than one occasion to put the kids in the costumes because when you spend so much time making them or spending money I don't like to feel like it was all for only ten minutes.

Hayden loved getting treats from everyone one. Especially because they kept giving him more than one treat (this caused a little confusion the next night).


Parker on the other hand hated his costume. ?But he looked so cute and I worked so hard on his cute little box (my mom made the cloth part).

Every time we put his costume on this is what he did. So he was in it for less than 10 minutes in all the days combined.

Halloween at Little Gym

10/29/09

When I taught school I loved seeing all the kids in their cute Halloween costumes but I HATED dressing up. As a mom it is so fun to dress my children in cute costumes. I was glad Hayden got to wear his costume to a Little Gym. The went trick-or-treating to all the doors and sang all their cute songs for the parents.

Hayden did a great job singing his songs. Some kids never opened their mouth the whole time so I was happy to see my son sing them for the parents. He sang them for days before and after. He still sings them all the time.

Pumpkin Carving

10/26/09

Last year Hayden was still really young so we didn't attempt to have him carve a pumpkin. He painted his. This year I was excited to have him help scoop out his pumpkin. I cut the top off and opened it up. Hayden got one whiff and gagged. I told him to put his hand in and pull out the seeds and slime. He touched it with one finger and gagged again and said, "I don't like it." So he colored his pumpkin. I suppose we will try again next year.

Joe on the other hand had a great time carving his pumpkin. He made me a little nervous with the knife though.

Of course all Parker wanted to do was suck on his pumpkin.

Friends

Is their anything better in life than good friends? I don't think so. When I started teaching over six years ago I taught with Julie Henderson. We quickly became good friends. I looked forward to going to work each day and visiting with Julie. We would get to school too early and stay too late. We would grade papers while watching musical, talk about everything, anything and nothing at all for hours. I have always looked up to Julie. She is such an amazing person. She always has been such a great example to me, be it teaching, spiritually, or any other aspect of life.

When I quite teaching after Hayden was born I quickly began missing our daily visits. I am so grateful that she got married not too long after I did and our husbands enjoy being together too. Now we can all hang out together. We don't get together nearly as often as I would like but this fall we were able to do a few fun things together. In September we all went up Provo Canyon for a picnic (I forgot the camera) and in October Julie and I took the kids to Gardner Village to see the witches and get cookies.

Hayden is almost two years older than Anna. I think he should take Anna on her first date when she is 16. Or, if she will wait two months Parker could take Anna on a date.

Aquarium

10/19/09

I love the Living Planet Aquarium. I love that it is kind of small so it doesn't take forever to get through. I love that they add new things. I love that it is an indoor activity we can do on crummy days. I love that a annual membership is only $16 (the price of two admissions). I love that they have story time.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

10/17/09

Every October Farnsworth Farms has a Halloween/Fall festival. They have a tractor-pulled hay ride, hot cider, donuts, pumpkin path and other activities. This year we had Grandma and Grandpa Young come with us.


The weather was perfect; no coats needed. We enjoyed the cool fall air while we sipped our cider and devoured our donut (Hayden was way sticky). Hayden loved the hay ride.

My favorite part of the movie is when Charlie Brown and his friends are going trick-or-treating and the kids say, "I got three quarters." "I got a popcorn ball." And Charlie Brown says, "I got a rock." This continues after each house. For some reason it makes me laugh every time.

I had such a fun time with the family that night but the best part was I made a new friend. Her name is Jennifer. She is a photographer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. I had a wonderful time getting to know her. I hope to be able to help her with some of the projects she does for NILMDTS.