Bartels Farm Pumpkin Patch

We took Parker to his first pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago.  It was Bartels Farm Pumpkin Patch in Fort Collins, CO.  It was great.  Farm animals to feed, a corn maze (we didn't do this), a hay bale maze that we plan to do next year when the little one can walk better, a hay ride, and pumpkins for as little as $1!  Plus, there was no admission fee.  That made it even better.  They had wagons available for us to use to take out to the pumpkin patch so Parker rode out to the pumpkin patch, then walked around to help pick his out, and then rode back with the pumpkins.  It was so cute.  Too bad our wagon had one flat wheel.  Oh well, we made it work.  We went with out good friend Krista and her four year-old Anthony.  He wanted to ride the monster truck, but we convinced him he had to be five to ride it so he was still too little.  Man, mom's can be sneaky!

Parker's One Year Photos

Parker turned one on May 16th.  It's very hard to believe our little baby is already one.  The year has gone so fast and so much has happened.  To those of you who have stuck with us along this journey I'm sorry we have been such bad bloggers.  I'm going to try to take more pictures of Parker and update more frequently.  I know I've said this before, but this time I'm really going to try.  I want to have this chronicle for him to look at some day and that is very important to me.  We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we do!

We went to Cheyenne last weekend and Kara accidentally dressed Parker exceptionally cute.  We went to the mall and walked past the Sears Portrait Studio and decided to stop in.  We are both very thankful we stopped.  They captured some great shots of our little guy!

Look at his underbite.  His facial expression is much cuter than the chair he is sitting in.

We love this little guy so much.  He's absolutely adorable and makes us smile every day.  Hard to imagine it has already been a year, but at the same time we can't remember what life was like without him.

The lady who took Parker's pictures thinks this is the perfect picture for Johnson & Johnson.  She thinks he should be their new poster child.  We can't help but agree.

A black and white version of the Johnson and Johnson shot.

Originally this picture had a slightly different caption.  Kara made the change to the quote and it is perfect for our family.  Nothing else needs to be said about this picture!

I love Parker's expression in this picture.  I also think it looks like he is trying to escape from the barrel.  He just looks slightly mischievous in this picture.

This is one of Kara's favorites.  His bathroom has a rubber duck theme.  We didn't even realize this when the nice lady taking the pictures set up this shot.

Here he is getting ready to eat the duck.  Another great shot by the lovely lady at Sears.  We really can't thank her enough for working with us.  She didn't care one bit about the make-up of our family.  Plus, when we went in to review our photos she was there and helped edit them with us and by the end all three employees and our family were all laughing.  It was great!

This shot is great because he's pointing at the duck.  One of these pictures will be enlarged and hung in his bathroom until he is old enough to be embarassed by it.

All I have to say about this one is he looks snarky.

We love the special effect on this one.  We all just happened to be waering blue jeans that day and highlighting the blue color made for an awesome picture.

Family Photo Shoot

When Parker was 4 months old we had a family photo shoot in West Laramie.  Tish Hill, a local photographer, volunteered to take our family pics.  She did a fantastic job.  I know these photos are now 5 months old, but we love them.

 

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Time has gone so fast!

First of all we want to apologize to all of you who faithfully followed our journey to parenthood. You watched us struggle through matching and unmatching, then an ectopic pregnancy, and finally the pregnancy and birth of Parker John. We've let you down by not letting you be part of his life and see how he is growing and how our lives have changed. Life has changed so much and we LOVE it. We wouldn't want anything else, because having Parker in our life is absolutely amazing. He made us the family we have always dreamed of having.

It's hard to believe, but Parker John will be nine months old on Thursday, Feb. 16th. He is so much fun right now...he's interactive, playing with his toys, and it seems as though he is learning something new every day. Recently he's learned how to click his tongue, clap his hands, say "anya" (who knows what this means), he is starting to wave, and he is starting to hold his own bottle. Oh, he also scoots backwards and spins in circles when on his tummy. He just can't quite get his legs going to help him go forward. He is growing up so fast!

Below are some pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!