Update on the Big GIRL Bed

So she slept thought the night in her bed... I was so grateful!!! But what do I do for nap time? Do I confuse her and lay her in her crib or do I try the big girl bed? Well I decided to go for it, and put her in her bed. She cried for 9 minutes and then she was out. I checked on her after an hour, and there she is laying in her bed snuggling her baby. It was so precious! I wish I could have gotten a picture. Then last night we went out to dinner at Olive Garden with some friends and got home way past her bedtime. We said prayers and laid her in her bed, and she DIDN'T EVEN MAKE A PEEP!!!! She slept all though the night and was up today at 7:05 AM. We are so proud of our big girl!!! We knew she could do it!

SHE DID IT!!!! LIZZIE IS A BIG GIRL!!!

So last night we tried Lizzie in her big girl bed again, but this time we did our normal bedtime routine. We laid her down in bed and shut the door. She cried and screamed for 12 minutes and then she was out. I gave her an hour before I checked on her,listening carefully to the monitor, and she was out!!! I didn't sleep well last night cause I was worried she would fall out of bed or she would wake up and not know where she was. At 7:15 this morning I hear her knocking on the wall. SHE DID IT!!!! She slept all night and loves her new bed!!!

We are so proud of you Lizzie!!!!

How The Parker's show their love to one another...

We had some extra paint left so David and I decided to express our love to one another!

David's tender message, "Katrina I want you now and forever!

*Maybe I should just move the bed back and leave it.. what do you think?

I NEED Advice!!!!

So tonight we tried out Lizzie's NEW BIG GIRL BED!!!! She didn't like being in there all by herself and she just screamed at the door. So David and I took turns laying in there with her. We tried ignoring her but that didn't work she just wanted to play the whole time. Her clothes are everywhere, she must have gotten in and out of bed a million times, drank 3 bottles full of water (she NEVER even drinks more than an ounce while in her crib), she uses her bed as a trampoline, and tried to do David's hair. So after an hour and half of playtime she went back into her crib, and within minutes she is asleep! This is so frustrating!!!

So Mom's in the blogging world I need your help!!! Any advice with how to get kids to transfer to BIG KID BEDS?

*Who thought transfering beds would be such a BIG DEAL to her. She wanted her crib since day 1, and now doesn't want to give it up!

Memorial Day at Lawerence Welk

Both of our parents own timeshares at Lawerence Welk in Escondido. We were lucky enough to spend time with Oma and Papa down there over Memorial Weekend. Marla and Shauna and their families came down also so of course we had a great time. Our friend Heidi and her little girl Charlotte came too! We enjoyed Sloppy Joe's by the pool and even splashed around a bit. Lizzie loved the 1 foot pool and enjoyed making friends with all the other kids there. She got to use her LOUD voice for all to hear! Plus she became great friends with Jacob and Jeff! She would follow them where ever they would go.

Don't you love how everyone is smiling except Lizzie? She is just TOO BUSY!

Parker riding around on David's back

Ashlyn using her floaties... They were the hit the of day. She could swim all over the place and she was so excited about it! GO ASHLYN!

Mommy and Lizzie swimming around in the pool!

I LOVE to see the Temple.. and I went inside today!!!

Today was a special day! David and I went with the youth of our ward to do Baptisms for the Dead. Our ward summited all the names which was extra special, but the HIGHLIGHT of the trip was David and I started my parents work. My friend Bethany was baptized for my mom (since I'm SUPER pregnant) and David was baptized for my dad. There was such an amazing feeling there, I'm so glad that I have FINALLY started my personal family genealogy. I can't wait to go back and finish their work so we can be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. Even though I didn't know my parents very well I know that I'm completing a special task that my Heavenly Father has blessed with with. I'm so grateful we have a temple so close and we can visit it often!

Also our Stake President has asked us to start working on our family genealogy with New Family Search. If you haven't started you should! It is so simple to use and David and I were able to do some work for our ancestors too while we were at the temple. Once you start you won't want to stop! Thanks President Steadman for lighting the fire and getting us to work!!! I know our ancestors will be so pleased with us!

I'm going to be on the ELLEN show on June 5th!!

So Ashley, Stacy, and I went to see the Ellen Show yesterday! We had a great time, and got a lot of free stuff! Ashley was chosen to show off her AMAZING talent of "SUPER INHALER"(pinching her nose without using her hands) It is pretty amazing! Maybe Ashley will post a picture of her talent, and I will post it!

THE FREE STUFF WE GOT:

The New Kelly Pickler's CD

Kelly Pickler is HILARIOUS!!! She talked the whole time, and Ellen couldn't even get a word in. She sang her hit "Best Days Of Your Life" and danced with the audience. She talked about her new tour, and how she almost got arrested the other day since she didn't stop at a stop sign completely.

(Even if you don't like Ellen you should just watch the show to see Kelly!)

Kelly is also the new spokes person for Big Sexy Hair, and she gave us a year supply of their hairspray!

Kathy Freston was also on the show and she talked about her new book "The Quantum Wellness Cleanse" and how for 21 days you should give your body a rest from: Sugar,Caffeine, Alcohol, Gluten, and red meat. Another free giveaway!!!

But the highlight of the whole day was THE DANCE OFF!!!!

*During commercial breaks Ellen has audience members compete in a dance off. I was one of the last ones to be picked, and for sure did not think that I would win since I danced against 2 high school kids. I exited my row and shook my groove thing! (If you knew me when I lived in Utah for a year for college) I did my sexy Utah dance(for Ashley), and I think that was the reason I won besides the fact that I am super pregnant and shakin' it like no one's business! At the end of the show The contestants were called out, and I got the most cheers and WON!!! You are probably wondering what I won: Probably the coolest prize ever!!!! A FREE ELLEN SHIRT!

So you should watch Ellen on June 5th-check your local listings to see what time it will be playing! Look for Ashley, Stacy, me we are on the back row!

The fun projects I have been doing!!!

Okay let me start this post off by giving some worthy advice to anyone who is going to put up a border ALL BY THEMSELVES:

1. Give your child lots and lots of treats before you start the project
2. Put on Blue's Big Music Show!!! Get's her every time...
3. Use all 4 limbs to hold the border up while you work
4. Wipe up the border paste from the carpet before it dries
5. ARE YOU INSANE? NEVER...NEVER...NEVER... HANG WALL PAPER BY YOURSELF!!!

David and I have been working on getting Lizzie's BIG GIRL ROOM put together so she can move out of the crib and use her BIG GIRL BED! She is dying to sleep in it. Every night she climbs up on her bed and wants to sleep there, but with no door on the room she is stuck in her crib. We finally got her bed, sheets, comforter, and now her border! I read the instructions of the wallpaper glue, and thought this was going to be a piece of cake job. I start with the 2 sections by her closet and those were a piece of cake. Who would have thought that 133 inch piece would be much harder right? There I am with glue up to my elbows and all over the carpet While Lizzie is screaming at the doorway since she had a poopy diaper and trying to get in to help me (I mean rip the paper from the wall) I'm going insane with a screaming daughter, using all 4 limbs to hold the paper on the wall (do not try this pregnant!), and trying to get the stupid border not to twist or rip in the mean time. After an hour of fighting with the strip , and scrubbing my carpet to get the huge drops of glue out of the carpet.

1 SECTION OF THE ROOM IS COMPLETE!

Then I collapsed to the floor trying not to die of heat stroke since it is so dang hot out here, and change a full poopy diaper at the same time. Let's just say I waited for reinforcements to finish the other 2 walls that are captured in this photo. 4 people later, 1 bottle of glue, and 15 minutes later the border is complete!!! Why didn't I wait for their help before? I guess I'm crazy and thought I could do it by myself.. but I should have learned this lesson earlier from

The Wonder Pets.. "You never do anything alone!!! It is all about teamwork!"

Thanks to my amazing husband,Papa, and Oma the border is complete!

My amazing husband bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, and it finally came out of its box today!!! I know what you are thinking... "Katrina it is May, and you are FINALLY opening your present?" I have never owed a sewing machine before, plus I can barely use one. So I have been waiting for OMA to come over and help me set it up! Last night after the border party we opened the box and she showed me how to use all the of different functions, and I was FINALLY able to finish a sewing project I had been working on for 3 months now!!! Thank OMA for all your time and love!!!

Here's to more sewing adventures!!!

San Diego with GREAT friends and Brian Regan

So David wanted to surprise me with tickets to see Brian Regan in San Diego, but it was the same night as the Father and Son outing (I know we have no boys, but David was going to take some Young Men from our ward since their Dad's couldn't make it) David didn't end up going to Father and Son's so we headed to San Diego and a night out with Nathan and Chelsea (we NEVER get pictures of them when we see them.. sorry!!!)

we had a great time and we laughed all night long. Brian's brother opened for him, and he is such a hoot! I wonder if their whole family is just funny. What a fun family gathering that would be to go to. I'm still laughing at all his jokes they keep running through my head all day long! David and I didn't get home till 1:30 am that is probably the latest we have been up in forever!!!

Thanks for a great night out on the town Nathan and Chelsea we need to do it again sometime!

The Parker Grandkids

The Texas Parker came out to play last week and we had a great time with them! This is the only picture that I have from the whole time they were here I really need to be better at capturing the moment. The only bummer was that David and I were sick the last couple of days they were here.

Aren't the cousins so cute? two more girls cousins will be here soon, and that will help even up the numbers of boys vs. girls in the family. Thanks again Parker's for the great visit!!! We can't wait to see you again Uncle Darren!!!

FOR ALL MY FOLLWERS!!!

This post goes out to all my blog followers who wanted to see how BIG my belly has gotten! I have less than 10 weeks to go... Hooray!!! The baby is doing great and growing quickly. She loves to hang out in my rib cage and wiggles around, which doesn't make Mommy happy since she can't breathe when she does that.

On a funny note.. David and I the other day were buying curtain panels online we found some we liked and picked out the color we thought would go best in the dinning room. So we are about to check out and David spots some curtains for $6.99 a panel (He thinks) and tells me to purchase those instead since we didn't need black out curtains for this window. I look at the price difference, it is cut in half, and said okay and hit the order button. Well they came in the mail yesterday and I was so excited to get them hung up, but I was just too tired. So this morning I noticed that the package was open on the dinning room table I looked at the color really fast and liked it, but it was too early to pay close attention to the curtains. Well a couple hours later I sat down at the table and started taking the curtains out of the package...

and to my SURPRISE.. they were not curtains they were VALANCES!!!!

I called David and asked if he had noticed anything wrong with the curtains and he said no, and then I proceeded to tell him we bought valances instead of curtains. I checked the website we bought them from and right there it said valances.. OPPS! My brain needs to come back from vacation :) Now I have to drive all around Riverside County looking in all JC Penny's to see if they carry the curtains I wanted since the website is out of them in the length that I need!

AOTW #8 Sea World

This week our adventure lead us to San Diego where we spent the day at Sea World. We had a great time with all the different kinds of sea life, plus we only had to pay $6.00. I know what you are thinking... $6.00 sign me up. Since a NORMAL day cost $12.00 for parking, $55.00 admission, food, etc. so you can walk out of that park broke. We even got in early too before the park was open. Thanks Marla and Mindy for the great adventure. Lizzie loved all the animals and especially loved hanging out with her BFF Waimea. Lizzie & Shamu (She was more interested in the birds below us than the show)
Lizzie and Mandi in ELMO LAND!!! I couldn't ride ANY of the rides since I'm prego! LAME!!! Thanks Mandi for taking Lizzie so she wasn't left out

Lizzie waiting her turn to ride since Krislynn is getting so BIG!

Mandi and Waimea... Doesn't Mandi look like she is having so much fun?

Enjoying the dolphin show.. Cheese balls are the greatest!

The whales swimming around

Lizzie and Waimea SUPER fascinated with them

Lizzie pointing out the different animals and telling each one of them HI!

Getting excited over the polar bears

Lizzie and Mommy and the penguins

Mormon Helping Hands

This weekend David and I were able to help with Youth Conference. Saturday was the service project and as a part of Mormon Helping Hands ( a priesthood-directed Church program for providing community service and disaster relief to those in need) we laid sod for Valley-Wide Recreation. The kids were not too excited about this project since it involved them getting dirty, but by the time they got there and started the project they were having a great time. We had over 260 youth and leaders in attendance.

Look at the smiles on everyone faces!!!! Service can be TONS of FUN!!!

Some of the young men from our ward

Angel and Mike "What a great team!!!"

Gina and I supervising the project


Prego momma talking with the youth

David and other members from our Ward

We have such great youth in our stake!!!!

AOTW #7 Jump Zone

So for the adventure this week we went to JUMP ZONE in Redlands. We had a great time! Lizzie and Waimea weren't too sure of the whole place at first, but after a little time warming up to the place they had a great time. Jump Zone is a kid's paradise of tons of blow up jumpers and slides, plus the best part is that the parents are FREE!!! you heard it here.. FREE! You just need to bring a pair of socks to wear and you are ready for a load of fun! Lizzie got ran over by a little boy,and she hit the back of her head really hard on the ground. After that Lizzie didn't want to leave Mandi or my lap for about an hour while Waimea went off playing without her. By the time we were getting ready to leave the girls were riding the slides and jumping all around!

Mandi, Waimea, Lizzie, and Nathan enjoying the bouncers

Lizzie LOVED this worm. She bounced with it all over Jump Zone

The girls enjoying the step to get into the bounce house, they thought it was their personal slide

Look at that face.. pure bliss!

Why are you wearing my outfit?

Thanks Katie and Nicole for inviting us!!!

FHE Easter @ Oma and Papa's

At Oma and Papa's house they did an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. The kids were so excited to go see what the Easter Bunny had left, The yard was split in half one side for the younger kids, and the other for the older kids. Lizzie had a great time looking for eggs with her Daddy. They make such a great team! The eggs that the Easter Bunny left at Oma and Papa's were EXTRA SPECIAL since they had money in them!!! CHA-CHING!

"Come on boys over here!'Finding eggs in the flowers
Come here lil green egg!
and the priceless photo...
Lizzie trying to steal Parker's eggs while Parker tries to smile at the camera and pushing Lizzie's hand away. Lincoln watching what Lizzie is doing. Ashlyn always with a BIG smile on her face, and Jarren excited about his find!