Welcome Little One!

We are so excited to welcome the latest addition to our family.  

His name is Jordan Cleon Parkinson.   He was born on Friday June 8th, 2012, at 5:41 pm.  

He weighed 7 lbs, 9 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  

I was so blessed to have a pretty good pregnancy with no complications or major challenges.   One thing that was a little different for me this time was that I made more of an effort to "take it easy" at the end in an effort to not go into labor early again.  I had Jared at 36 wks 5 days, which is not extremely early, I just wanted to try to "make it" to at least 37 wks this time.   (Plus I had a lesson to teach in Relief Society that week and really wanted to do it)  So, after my lesson, at 37.2 weeks, I said, "Okay, I can go into labor now!" That week I went ahead and did anything I wanted.  I played kick soccer and went on walks with the kids, weeded the flower beds and the garden, cleaned the van.... etc.   It was great!   I have always gone into labor in the middle of the night, so every day after that I would wake up and say, "Well, I'm still here and I haven't gone into labor.  What can I get done today?"  It was a great week.    

Then, on Friday morning I had my 38 week Dr apt.  I had been 2 cm at my 36.5 week checkup, so knowing my past history, the Doctor said if I made it to that appointment, I should just bring my hospital bag in case he decided to keep me there.   Well, Aaron came with me to that appointment and sure enough, I was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  I had been having contractions  off and on the last few weeks, but nothing really remarkable.  This was really no indicator, though, and very similar to my previous labors.  I am always kind-of in a daze and asking the question, "When am I supposed to really hurt?"  and "Are you SURE I am in labor?"   But, I wasn't going to make the mistake I made when Heidi was born and didn't get the epidural until it was too late because I wanted to "really appreciate it."  And I did.  

Well, he sent me upstairs to Labor and Delivery to have my baby and about 7 hours later, at 5:41 pm, he was born.  It was a good experience and everything went well.  (As you can see from the picture below as I am enjoying my popsicle while waiting for things to progress.)

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One thing that was different this time was that we waited to find out if it was a boy or a girl.  Having two of each at home made this a lot easier.  I had absolutely no idea which one it would be.  After having several weird dreams in which the baby was wearing different colors of clothing, we decided the Lord did not want to reveal the gender to us beforehand.   When we found out he was a boy, we were overjoyed!

Our sweet little boy did so well.  He came out pink and crying and looking so good.  My first thought when I saw him was, "Wow- he looks just like Jared!"  I think I said the same thing when Jared was born, too.  You can definitely tell he belongs in our family!  So far he has been a great eater and has been gaining weight well.  

Oma and Opa brought the kids to the hospital the next day to see the baby.   They were all really excited to see and hold their new little brother.

Jared really had no clue about what was going on.  He recognized that mommy was holding a baby, but I don't know if he made the connection that it would be coming to our house.   I loved that his favorite part about being in the hospital was playing in the curtain in my room.  

I have to admit, I really like staying in the hospital (for a happy event like this).  They treated me so well there.  It was just nice to have a couple of days to recover and I took full advantage of it!  I love having them bring me my meals and being able to take lots of naps.  The second night, I had them take the baby and feed him a bottle and I took a sleeping pill.  I slept great!  It was a great decision, as I knew I was in for many months of sleepless nights.  

Getting ready to bring our little guy home

Cute and cozy-  All ready for the ride home!

We have enjoyed having a new little spirit in our home.  The kids are fascinated by him and love to just look at him or hold him.   We know he is very special and are so grateful for the opportunity of raising him!  

Cake Recipes

I had a few people ask for the cake recipe when we celebrated Heidi's birthday at my parent's house, so I decided to post it on the blog.  Hope this helps and have fun!!

White Almond Wedding Cake  (From AllRecipes.com)

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups water

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 egg whites

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour an 11x13 inch cake pan.

2. Stir together the white cake mix, flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until well mixed. Pour in the water, sour cream, vegetable oil, almond and vanilla extracts, and egg whites, and beat with an electric mix on low until all the ingredients are mixed and moistened but some lumps still remain, 4 minutes.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake in the preheated oven until the top is a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting.

Nutritional Information  Amount Per Serving  Calories: 211 | Total Fat: 6.6g | Cholesterol: 5mg

I have had a lot of fun decorating cakes with fondant!   I call it "playdoh for mommies." 

Marshmallow Fondant

2 lb powdered sugar (1 bag)

1 lb marshmallows (1 bag)

4 T water

1/4 C crisco shortening

Spread bowl with crisco.   Add1 lb marshmallows and water and melt in microwave on high for 30 sec.  Stir.  Cook 30 more sec. then stir again.  Repeat if needed until all the marshmallows are melted.   Add powdered sugar, stir then knead on a shortening greased surface.   Knead in more powdered sugar if needed.  If fondant is too dry and cracks, knead in some crisco.  If it is too sticky, add some powdered sugar.  It should be elastic but not stick to your fingers.  Store fondant in an airtight container or ziploc bag for 24 hrs before putting on a cake.   You can knead in the coloring the night before or the next day.  Coloring will darken over time.  Then, roll out on a greased surface and cut as needed.  

Do not store fondant in the fridge.  It will keep at room temp for weeks in the cupboard.  If it hardens a little, you can even "revive" it several weeks later by kneading in some crisco.   To stick pieces of fondant together, use a little bit of crisco like "glue".  Do not use water, which will dry it up.  

Wilton’s Buttercream Frosting

Spread the buttercream frosting over the cake before adding the fondant over it.  The frosting holds the fondant in place.  

1 C shortening

1 C butter

2 T vanilla (yes, this is 2 tablespoons)

2 lb powdered sugar (1 bag)

2 T milk

Cream the first 3 ingredients, then slowly add powdered sugar and milk at the end.  

Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

On Memorial Day, the day following my parent's homecoming address,  we decided to take all the kids to the Dinosaur Museum and Thanksgiving point.   The museum is really nice and the kids had a  lot of fun there.  I think their favorite part of the museum was the sand and water play area.  Here they could move the sand around and make lakes, islands, and dams and put little dinosaurs all over.  They spent a lot of time in this one spot.  

The kids also had fun digging for dinosaur bones in the sand.   

Jared going for a ride with Opa

Heidi's 5th Birthday

Heidi had a great 5th birthday this year on May 25th.  She is so easy to please.  Her most exciting presents were the balloons and some pink goggles. (Don't ask me why, but she has been asking for those for weeks and I found her 2 pair at Walmart for 1.50)  Anyway,  she was also really excited about the red wagon we got for her and Jared's birthdays.  She loved it so much, she wanted to sit in it to open her presents and to eat her snack before we ever took it for a spin outside.  

Her preschool was officially over, but they were having one last event at the school- a picnic at at the playground.  We brought cupcakes for everyone and they sang to her there.  It was perfect!  You couldn't have asked for a nicer day, either.  She had a great time playing on the toys with her friends.  

Kyle and Jared on the slide

Who wants a cupcake?  I picked out the sprinkles.  

That evening, while Kyle and Aaron went to a Father-Son campout at Earley Park, the rest of us had a "Princess Party" at home.  We ate pizza and watched Cinderella.  Then, we dressed up like princesses.

Erika even got mommy to dress up too, which is not a sight you see everyday- 

especially a VERY pregnant princess.  

We went up to my parent's house the next day for the weekend to be there for their homecoming.   The kids had a great time with their cousins.  We brought the cake mommy made for Heidi, her cousin Lucy and uncle Cory.  (Hence the letters L,C,H.)

Happy Birthday,  Heidi! 

Lucy, Kyle, and Erika waiting for cake.  

End of School Celebrations

The month of May has been a busy one, with kids having all kinds of programs and assessments in school, a Science Fair and a few birthdays.  There is so much excitement with school wrapping up and summer coming.

Kyle and his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Lish

  

On May  22nd,  Kyle had his "graduation" from kindergarten.  It is rather cute, but also a little silly to me to have them graduate from kindergarten, but that's okay- it's all for fun.  Kyle said,  "Now I can move on to first grade!"

Kyle is on the top row, 5th from the right.   (This was 2 kindergarten classes but you can't see them all.  ) 

Kyle has had a great year in kindergarten this year and has really loved his class.  He has made so much progress in school and we are so proud of him!  

Getting his "diploma" from the principal

Right after Kyle's graduation, we watched Erika perform in the assembly with her recorder.  She has been practicing all year and it was fun to watch her.  She is in the top row, right in the middle.

Two days later, on May 24th, Heidi had her preschool graduation with the Fielding Developmental Preschool.    She has had a great year, too and has loved her class.  She has made a lot of progress and had a lot of fun.  I am a little nervous about kindergarten for her the coming year, but I am hoping to work with her a lot over the summer to help her get ready.  

Receiving her "diploma".  

Heidi in the front row, looking a little bewildered.  

Heidi with her teachers, Mrs. Carma and Mrs. Karen

Jared's 2nd Birthday

Look at our little fireman!  

Jared turned 2 years old on May 19th.   We have sure loved our little boy.   He has been so much fun!  He has such a spunky little personality and a love for life.    We get a kick out of watching him experience new things.  Every day he is learning new words and everything is so exciting for him, whether it is an airplane up in the sky, a bird, or a new toy he has just figured out.   We love watching him grow.

Playing "peek-a-boo" for the camera

We celebrated his birthday while down in Sandy visiting my family.  His main birthday gift was a new red wagon, which we didn't actually get out until Heidi's birthday almost a week later- it was for both of them.   He didn't really know any different anyway.  

The sad thing was that he woke up feeling awful, having thrown up in his bed and being pretty lethargic and clingy.  So, I held him a lot that morning and he didn't eat anything.  Well, by that afternoon, after keeping drink down, he seemed to be pretty-much over it and back to normal.  So,  we let him celebrate his birthday like planned and he was doing great.  

With all the travel down to Salt Lake that weekend, I never made him a cake.  Instead, we had a picnic at the park in Provo after going to the Natural Wildlife Museum at BYU.   We ate pizza and Jared got cars cupcakes, which were a hit with the kids. The museum was really neat- and even better, it was free to the public.  I have never been there before and I was really impressed!   They had all kinds of exhibits about animals, which were stuffed not alive, but really cool to look at.  

At the park the kids got time to play with each other before saying goodbye again.  

Opening his presents- What could it be?

Jared at the park playing with his two new gifts-
Lightning McQueen and Mater cars.

At the museum,  Erika and Kyle thought it was pretty cool that we could take a picture and make it look like they had horns coming from their heads.  Who says Mormons don't have horns?
 

My Parents' Homecoming

On May 17th, the big day finally arrived when my parents came home from their mission in Vietnam.  The kids were so excited to drive down to Sandy and see their Oma and Opa again.  They have been gone for 18 months and we have really missed them.  We are thankful for the blessing of Skype, though, which has really helped us keep in touch.   In all honesty, the time has actually gone by really fast, just speaking for myself, although there were hard times.  When I was standing there next to them, it just felt so natural, like they hadn't even left- like it was a dream or something.  The kids warmed up to them so quickly as if they had been here the whole time.  (Except for Jared, who was 6 mo when they left, but he is still shy around everyone and actually did pretty well with them.)

We are so proud of them for making the sacrifice to go on a mission.  Not many people have the opportunity to serve at such a young age.  They experienced a lot of challenges, but I know they have learned from it and I could tell that they have grown spiritually, too.   We are grateful for their example to us of service to the Lord.  It also nice to have them home again.  

This isn't everyone who was there- my family was all in the car
when a bunch of us just jumped into the picture.    

The day after their arrival, we spent the night down at their house for a few events.  Friday night we went to the wedding reception of my cousin Camille Sparks.  The kids had a great time with their cousins at the reception.  They especially enjoyed groovin' out on the dance floor, totally uninhibited.   It was nice to visit with many of my family there.  

The next day, the kids got to hang out at Oma and Opa's house and have fun together.  They got to play outside and go for a little horse ride.   They also had a lot of fun going out to the barn to gather eggs and see the animals.  Erika, Lucy, Kyle, and Logan were almost inseparable.  

Erika and Lucy enjoying a nice lunch

We had a little baby shower for my sister Amanda, who will be having a baby girl in July.   There were several other people there, but this is a picture of just me and my two sisters and sister-in-law.  We  had a good time playing games and eating, and planning for babies soon to arrive.  It was a great weekend!  

Candice, Jordan, Amanda, and Me