Winter...sort of

The other day we decided to get out for awhile and take Parker to the park (haha) and give the swings a try. Doesn't he look cute in this sweater his Great Grandma Best knit for him?

Check out what Sam was wearing. We are so blessed.

Free Stuff

Amazon is giving away one free Christmas song everyday until Christmas! You can download the past ones and check everyday until the 25th for new songs! They have some pretty good ones too. Go Here.

Seven Months

Am I the only one who can't believe the Little Man is already 7 months old?

And this is why it's getting MUCH harder to take these monthly pictures of him...

Video!

Sam's throwing him around so it's hard to see him, but you can hear him!

Cancelled

If you know the Schmidt's, you know that we are big TV watchers. We're not lazy, but we do enjoy a watching the telly every now and then (or everyday). We're not picky; we watch everything from the Hills, to The Office, to Pushing Daisies. I would go though all the programs we regularly watch, but that might be a little embarassing. Not to mention lately football has been on almost EVERY night. Boo! Plus basketball. And soccer. And Ultimate Fighting.

No longer. We decided to downgrade our service to just basic cable. We decided it was just becoming a waste of time, especially all the HGTV and ESPN watching. I'm actually really excited and I've started making a list of all the things I'm going to do instead of watching tv.

1. Read
2. Learn to sew (after I get a sewing machine)
3. Make some art for my walls
4. Learn digital scrapbooking (does anyone know anything about this, what's the best program...I'm thinking about Photoshop Elements. Thoughts?)

This is big for us!

Today is my mom's 30th birthday! We miss you!!

The Man's Favorite Things

Here are some of Parker's favorite things at the moment.

He loves his Exersaucer. I think he's figuring out that if he pushes all those buttons they make noise and play music!

He LOVES being in the kitchen with me. He sits on the counter and pulls all the utensils out of the crock. His favorites are the rubber spatulas. Great for teething.



Parker continues to love his baths. I'm convinced he could sit in there for hours.

He also loves eating. He eats rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, and avacado.

Parker also LOVES his daddy. He is the first one to get a smile in the morning, and he is constantly looking for him (especially while I'm trying to feed him). I am loving this picture of the two of them. I love that they look like twins, I love how Parker has his hands folded, and I love how it reminds me of what a good dad Sam is.

The Man's Room

My mom requested to see some pictures of Parker's room, so I thought I'd share them with everyone.

The crib. My mom and I found this bedding in Dallas at some baby boutique. It retailed for over $700 (what?!?!) and we bought it for $75. Yeah baby!

Changing table with cowboy lamp.

Shelf with books and toys.

Picture Tag

My friend Jackie tagged me! Isn't this a great picture? My favorite part is my double chin. This is me the night before my first induction (if you remember I had two before actually giving birth on my third trip to the hospital). And that is my nurse who would not let me eat, even though my doc said I would be able to! I was so mad.

Now here's what you do:
Go into your pictures and open the 4th folder.
Post the 4th picture in your folder.
I tag my mom, Lucy, Amy, and Megan!

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas

I want to live here. Sam and I have been married for three Christmases (going on four now) and have yet to put any holiday decor up. It's very depressing. I really want a Christmas tree, but cannot justify buying one (especially a live one) when we will be gone for weeks! Plus there is NO room in the apartment we're living in now. Sad. I guess maybe a wreath on the door and frequent readings of the Pottery Barn catalogue will have to do. Maybe next year...

Six Months

I can't believe I have a six month old!

Election Day and San Jorge

Here's a picture of Sam and Parker on Election Day. We lucked out because our assigned polling location was the main office of our apartment complex. So we walked over and didn't even have to stand in line! Parker sported his red, white, and blue pants, and even got an "I Voted" sticker!

This past weekend Sam and I packed up the Man and headed down to St. George to see my cousin Logan perform with the Young Ambassadors. We spent some time with him at the temple in the morning.

I just noticed the bride in the background!

The group gave an impromptu performance for the missionaries in the visitors center. It was beautiful, I wish I would have thought to take a video of it!

The performance was Saturday night at Tuacahn (such a cool theater!). It was fabulous. They sang a variety of songs from all decades and genres. Logan sang "Tell Her About It" by Billy Joel and "Everything" by Michael Buble. He was wonderful. My favorite section was the 80's (which Logan's first solo was in) because they also sang "Break My Stride" (love that song!) and "Seize the Day" from Newsies!

Here is a funny picture I took of the little man the other day. He was trying to escape from his swing. He's so awesome and continues to make us laugh everyday!

Prop 8 Day

This Saturday Sam and I spent most of the day working on the Yes on 8 campaign. It was actually a lot of fun! In the morning we just walked around an area putting door hangers on front doors to remind people to vote.

Later in the day we attended a street rally in Poway. About 600 Prop 8 supporters showed up to wave signs. I was amazed at the positive response we got. A lot of people that drove by waved, honked, and gave us thumbs up!

Storm Troopers vote yes on 8!

This car drove up and down the street throwing candy out the window for the sign holders. As Sam and I were leaving we saw a policeman had pulled them over!

Sam and Parker

Remember to vote Yes on 8!!

Happy Halloween

Videos

Two posts in one day! Here are a couple cute videos of the Parkster taken recently.

Pumpkin Picking

This past weekend we headed down to the pumpkin patch. Of course it was like 95 degrees outside so we didn't stay long. But we took a few pictures and even watched a pig race!

The pigs were named Palin, McCain, Biden and Obama. Here they are at the start.

A shot of McCain and Obama here

Happy Fall everyone!!

our next president...

Please listen to this...it's ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

Mickey Time

A few weeks ago when our friends came to California, Sam and I decided we needed to become Disney season ticket holders (woot woot!). SOOOO...we went to Disneyland today! It was, of course, still decorated for HALLOWEEN (spooky) which was super fun. We walked around, took in the atmosphere, went on a couple rides, and had corn dogs(thank you Tod & Lauren for introducing us to them, they're amazing).

Parker loves the Jungle Cruise

Sleeping on Pirates of the Caribbean

The Haunted Mansion was all redone with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. If you have a chance to go before it goes back to normal, do--it's completely cool.

Happy Halloween!

First Feeding

Last night Parker went through his first rite of passage: rice cereal. I thought all babies hated the stuff their first time--apparently not! Parker actually swallowed his first bite. Granted when we fed him he was really hungry, so maybe he was just taking whatever he could get, but I sure was surprised!

First bite

Crying for more



I finally had to cut him off cause I didn't want him to get sick, and he was not happy!

We'll see how it goes today! :)

Life's a Beach

Last weekend we spent a few days at the beach with some friends and had a seriously good time. After a month of abnormally high temperatures here in San Diego, it cooled off as soon as everyone got to town, but we still had fun! We rented a house in Carlsbad and spent a couple days sitting on the beach, boogie boarding, and going to Disneyland.

Parker

Ashley and Parker

Chelsie and Jeff
Lauren, Tod, Jeff, and Chelsie in their fort

Sam and Jeff catching some waves

Tod, Sam, and Jeff

Parker and his godfather

Celebrating Lauren's birthday!

Playing a little Cranium

Brandon, Jeff, and Parker
Halloween time at California Adventure

Tod, Lauren, Jeff, Chelsie, Brittany, Brandon, me, Sam and Parker

Thanks for such a great time everyone! Can't wait til next year :)