The One with Jeff's Wedding

Eric's brother Jeff is my age.

He was one of Eric's roommates soon after we met, and they used to come over to our apartment in Rexburg to study their geography and math homework. We all used to be super close and then Jeff moved away. :(

 

Right after Parker and my birthdays we drove up to Portland because little Jeff was getting married.

At this point I've only met his wife a few times, but when I have met her I adore her.

And her story (which is not mine to share) is incredible - I truly feel that she was put into this family for all of us to learn and grow from her, rather than the other way around. She is an amazing person with much strength and heart, more than most people have at twice her age.

 

The trip to Portland was fun. Short, but nice.

We spent some fun time with family, a great time at the wedding, and then it was over too quick.

 

We went out to dinner just the five of us at the Original Taco House in Portland. It was pretty yummy, and the kids were amazingly well behaved.

Eric and I went on a quick date night to pick up Voodoo Doughnuts - even after seven years of marriage I had never had one of these famed donuts. Verdict = delicious!!

Jeff and Brittany's wedding was in this gorgeous little chapel, seriously it was beautiful, the entire setting, the weather, the decorations, the bride, the groom, it was wonderful. 

There wasn't a formal reception but there was a luncheon for all who came to the wedding after at the Stone Cliff Inn. I'm not the hugest Twilight fan ever (though I did read the books and watch the movies) but apparently this was a great place for a luncheon because it was used in the very first movie!!!

 

Have you ever seen a more beautiful dress????? I tell you this endless parade of weddings we have been going to this summer makes me want to get married all over again!

 

 

After the wedding luncheon Eric and I took Jeff and Brittany to the airport for their honeymoon to DISNEYLAND!!! It must be a Marshall family tradition to do this! After that everyone was so tired from preparing for the wedding (well, we really didn't do that much, but Eric's parents were dead) that we kind of just hung out for the next day and a half until we left.

 

We went to the mall and Paxton enjoyed going up and down (and up and down and up and down and up and down) the escalator. We must have been there for a solid fifteen minutes. 

Preslie was ecstatic to keep some of the flowers from the wedding. She has been wandering around the house with real flowers (or fake ones made of legos, paint brushes, dolls, anything she can think of) saying that she is getting married. Slow down little one, I don't even want to think of that yet!



 And we went on several walks along the nature paths. They are so much prettier in Oregon than they are in Idaho.  



The One with the Quarter Century Plus Some

I'm pretty sure you could read my post from last year about turning 25 and see much of what I am going to say on this one.

Turning 25 was a tough one for me.

Turning 26 was even tougher.

I can only imagine what turning 30 in a few years will feel like.

 

I know, I know, I have plenty of friends who are 30 and fabulous, and my hubs will be 30 this year, and really 30 is the new 20 and blah, blah, blah. I get it! So don't say it!

But the other day Taylor Swifts song "2-2-ooh-oohhh" came on and I was rocking out singing with it for awhile only to be suddenly hit with the realization that I am not 22, will not ever be 22 again, and in reality because I cannot go backwards in age (although I am starting to feel like trying) I am now closer to 92 than I am to 22. And then all of a sudden I felt like it was wrong for me to sing the song. Like those crazy moms you see wearing their daughter's clothes and trying to act like they are still in high school even though they are rapidly rounding the bend at 40.

Yes, all of a sudden I was one of those people in denial about my age.

Rocking out with my radio turned all the way up singing

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22. . . ." and yet I was singing this in my freaking mini van.

Epic FAIL.

 

So yes. I turned 26.

In reality the day to day aspects of being 26 are great.

I love the age my kids are getting to.

I can't imagine having them frozen here forever (although sometimes I'd like it) because I can't wait to see what they are going to grow up into.

The day to day tasks of 26 really aren't that much different than that of being 25, and yet I realize this daunting fact that 30 is LITERALLY just around the corner and I get a little sad. When I was 16 or even 18, 26 sounded old. Now I am 26, and I don't feel old, but yet I feel like I must be old or else my 18 year old self was an idiot. . . . . although that's probably true.

 

I had the unfortunate mishappening to find out that Eric was planning a surprise party for me.

To put it simply I came upstairs to find that his phone was underneath his pillow with him sleeping on top of it. Me being a snooping wife (and with no prior reason to believe such) I wondered who he had been texting and hiding from me. My thoughts were semi confirmed when the first text chain was to a random number with no name attached to it. Only, if I had been smarter I would have realized that it was my best friend's phone number but it hadn't previously been programmed into his phone.

Once I realized what I was reading I put the phone back under his pillow, but it ended up coming out about two days before the surprise that I knew.

I felt mostly bad. He has been trying for our entire marriage to surprise me with things, but I always somehow find out. I am the least patient person ever. It's sad.

 

We ended up meeting my friends at Costa Vida for a "SURPRISE!!!" party that I openly knew about. But it was still delicious and fun to get together with all of them and their husbands. I really do have a great group of friends. In high school I typically had one really good close friend and then a bunch of acquaintances, but I have truly enjoyed having a group of girl friends that I know I can absolutely turn to any of them for anything. They are fantastic.

 

My friend Kelsey, who had a hand in planning this little shin dig, found out that my all time favorite thing is caramel apples. I L-O-V-E them! I think Eric probably asked her to make them because of an outstanding joke he has on me from our honeymoon in Disneyland where he saw me eat a caramel apple without it being cut (what was I to do? They didn't cut it, I still had to eat it) and he tells everyone to this day that I was sloppily drooling all over the place as I ate this thing. Regardless of the reason for them being made, they were delicious!!!

After Costa Vida we came back to our house and played the Newlywed Game. It's not like any of us are really newlyweds (the youngest couple has still been married three years) but this game is hysterical. You learn things you wouldn't ever learn about your friends, and some people get so mad, and others are just funny, but really we always end up having a good time with it.

 



So the surprise birthday party festivities took place on Friday night. Saturday Eric had to work form 7-3 because of his dang relief shift schedule. It was kind of terrible that he wasn't actually at home on my real BIRTHDAY, but at 26 now I kind of just figure I'm an adult and can handle it. My friends did work out a way to get the kids watched though so I could go and get my first ever pedicure with them. (Kelsey's husband was volunteered to watch the kiddos, Kelsey and Zach have no kids, so it was an interesting arrangement - my kids loved it, but I'm not sure he will want to have kids now anytime soon).



Then Saturday night was the combined family birthday party for Parker and I with extended family. Preslie came down stairs dressed like this.

It was pretty adorable. 

 Eric got me a dang good white chocolate raspberry cake.

 And both Parker and I got sang to in primary on Sunday!!



The One with the Sixth Birthday

I seriously cannot believe that this little man

is SIX YEARS OLD!!!!!

 

Where did the time go?

I still remember that painful delivery like it was yesterday.

Seriously, it's a wonder I've had any more kids after that one. :)

 

But here he is in all of his six year old glory!

 

What can you say about Parker?

Well really, what can you NOT say about Parker?!!?

 

He is a wonderful big brother!

 - His favorite color is blue

- He loves soccer, baseball, football, riding bikes

- He still hates getting his hair done

- He has lost three teeth

- He is a tough little boy. I sometimes forget that he is only 5 (or 6) years old. I rely on him for so much and he is such a strong and talented boy that it's easy for me to forget he is little still.

- He is shy and he gets embarrassed easy. He blushes every time he gets a compliment.

-I caught him downstairs the other morning making cereal for he, Preslie, and Pax.

- I hear him yell "I love you" and "goodnight" to Preslie pretty much every day.

- He is a helper, he loves to help carry groceries in.

- He asks "Why?" to everything. He loves to know how things work.

-He is great with math and science type stuff, figuring out how things function.

- He still has a little lisp, he can't say his teacher's name quite right ;) But I think it's adorable.

- He doesn't notice girls. For now I like this. He just thinks of them as friends but doesn't realize that some of them have crushes on him.

 

 

Parker's birthday was pretty laid back and low key. It was not too long after we got back from Portland the first time, and it was only a couple days before we went to Portland for the second time. He didn't want a huge party like last year - he didn't ask for a theme of any kind, all he said he wanted was root beer floats - the kind you spin like Grandma Great.

So we did that. Just had family over for root beer floats.

 

We let him pick what he wanted for lunch: Chick-fil-a of course!!!

I picked some up for him on the way home from gymnastics with Preslie.

This kid could (and would) eat Chick-fil-a for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let him. Too funny!

 

Rather than have one big present fest where everything gets glossed over and ignored (like it is at Christmas) we had Parker open up a present every few hours throughout the day. I had expected him to not be happy about that idea and complain (and then I most likely wouldn't have forced it) but he actually was completely fine with it.

 

First he opened up clear legos that have lights. I guess they are the big thing for boys now.

He also got some cool playstation and Wii remotes to use when he gets to play video games with Daddy. Which I'll be honest, doesn't happen much, but he loved the idea of having his own special controllers for those rare occasions so much that we ended up getting him some. He also got some clothes, and a spiffy hat.

 

His BIG present from us was an AppleTV to have in his room. 

And contrary to what this picture looks like he was pretty excited. I don't think he understood what it was for a long time after he opened it.

 



Parker's birthday was on a Thursday, but we had a combined family party for he and I on Saturday where we had his Root Beer floats!! It was kind of hard to get candles to stay up and lit in it, but it was pretty delicious!

Grandma and Grandpa Great Carpender got him pirate pajamas (which he has worn pretty much every night since), and Grandma and Grandpa Lewis got him a HUGE remote control car. Unfortunately Paxton claimed the car as his, unilaterally, the second it was opened and Parker hasn't really been able to play with it much since. But Paxton sure loves it!

I still can't believe this little bugger is six years old, it means that I am getting old, and it means that my days with him as my little boy are dwindling down. I look forward to the next six years but pray they don't go by as fast as these ones did!