steppin' out with otters?

don't worry, we'll get to the otters.

this week's steppin' out post is kind of a fail.  i gave my camera to sam with some miscalculated settings & the results are a couple of blown out faces.  ooops.  at least you can probably make out parker's sad "put-me-down-i-don't-want-you-to-hold-me-i-just-want-to-run-around" face.  that face?  is the reason why we didn't attempt any more pictures... it just got worse.  until he was put down & running around again.

this is just about what you'll find me wearing pretty much 95% of the time.  jeans & a t-shirt.  yup, that's my mom uniform pretty much how i've always dressed.

{linking up with mandy at harper's happenings for steppin' out saturday.  woohoo!}

our weekend was pretty sweet.  we had lots of fun visitors, lots of good food, an insanity-fitness-test-off, & i got to play photographer not once but twice.  saturday night i met up with mandy for a group mentorship session which was uh-mazing & then i also got to shoot our friends' maternity pictures.  check them out here.  love them!

sam & i ended our weekend with a walk in the park.  we got to enjoy the perfect weather & parker got to spend some time climbing on the playground & going down the slide all by himself for the first time.  sorry, i was too busy being an excited mom to get pictures of it.  but here he is making his way up to the top & gearing up for the ride back down.

oooh, the anticipation.

after the playground it was off to explore everything else.  parker enjoyed picking up & throwing rocks, dancing along park benches, & climbing over curbs.  you know, the important things.

and here's the part where there may or may not be otters.  we walked along the lake & saw three or four weird floating things that were very nessie-esque.  i'm 75% sure they were otters though, & not monsters.  although i wasn't aware there were otters in our neck of the woods & it wouldn't take much to convince me that there are monsters in that lake, so it's still up for debate.

you be the judge.

either way, parker was pretty excited about it.

that's the face i make every single time you vote for this blog.  i promise.

our week by iPhone - week 38

happy weekend friends!

first & foremost, who saw yesterday's weird "guest post"?  yeah.  we can thank some weekend house guests for that one.  they thought they were being funny by jumping on my computer & violating my blog while i was out in the morning but i found it not so funny.  sorry for the confusion folks.

let's put that behind us, shall we?  moving on to our fun week!

monday started off with a mad dash to the playground after stroller strides, repeated trips down the slide, & practicing fork skills with scrambled eggs.  clearly the eggs go inside the milk cup.

after naptime we met up with friends at the lake where parker enjoyed the view from the shore & enjoyed snacks & scooping up rocks with his shovel way more than anything water-related.  we stopped at costco on the way home & parker found sharing his shopping cart with a cute little girl to be very, very funny.

tuesday.  after more laketime first thing in the morning, parker fell asleep in the car on the way home & decided he didn't need a real nap.  so naptime was replaced with some snuggles in bed & movie-watching.  fair trade for one day i 'spose.  then i got super domestic by whipping up a strawberry-spinach salad with oven-fried pork chops for dinner.  yum yum yum.

sam & parker finished the night off with lots & lots of wrestling.  it's kinda what they do.

wednesday.  we enjoyed the sun by making a run for the playground & more time on the slide.  didn't you know slides are best enjoyed while eating cheerios?  parker did.  when we got too hot we took the party back inside & colored.

while sam was outside watering flowers parker contemplated venturing past the door & joining him.  we both decided to go out & keep him company which he obviously appreciated.  then parker may or may not have had a meltdown when it was time to come inside.

thursday.  i've mentioned the amazing sandwiches the cafe at my office makes right?  i look forward to them all week.  i also look forward to coming home from work & seeing what parker & the babysitter have been up to all day... i think there was more to their day than this.

that night while i layed across the top of a $350,000 viper {pre-production edition, only one of four... no big deal}, parker ran around at home with sam with his pajamas on his head & then passed out.

friday.  friends came into town & went to stroller strides with me.  i swear parker was happier about it than he looks.  he was definitely happy later that day when he got to play at the legos table in carter's while i shopped.

and what's a friday night without some fro-yo?  lame.  that's what.

that was our week!  how was yours?  i wanna see, so link up!

Game Rules:
1.  your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it!  you don't even have to have a picture for every day.  got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week?  link up!

2.  if you want to grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog do it.

and please post a link to my blog so others can come here to grab the code, too.
the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

Grab the code here:

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=101252" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:



we've moved up to #8 thanks to your votes!  keep 'em comin' friends!

on family size.

i think about this constantly.  and it's not like we have to decide how many babies we're having for at least three or four more years.  but i find myself thinking about how many kids are gonna make up our whole family like all. the. time.

i grew up in a family of four girls & sam has three brothers & a sister.  we love our big families.  and there is nothing like getting the whole family together.  so growing up i always thought i'd have four kids.  no brainer.

and then we had one.

whoa.  how the heck do people do more?  parker is a dang near perfect baby & i have my hands {happily!} full.  i feel like i can never get "caught up" & there is always something left undone.  always an email to be answered, always a room to be cleaned, always a load of laundry to be put in.  it's not parker's fault, i'm just saying that when you become a mom there is a big shift in priorities, ya know?  things get left undone because your family needs you & you have to decide what can wait until tomorrow.  and i just have one kid.

and we want how many more?

depends on who you ask.  sam would say one more... done.  i would say one more... then we're probably done.  i'm excited & scared at the thought of having another, but mostly excited.  we can't wait for parker to have a sibling.  and two seems like such a perfect little round number.  you can still drive around a five passenger car, you can easily tote around a double stroller, you have one hand for each kid & a kid for each parent.

but then i think, what if they don't end up being close?  will my kids be deprived of that big family that i always loved growing up in?  but maybe cousins will provide same thing.  maybe.  because parker has a LOT of cousins.  like 19.  but we don't live very close to any of them so uh, maybe not.

and that's my internal debate.  i think that after baby number two gets here we'll know.  we'll either know that we're done or we'll feel like there's more babies to be made.

but i wanna hear your thoughts.  anyone out there always think they'd have a big family & then decide later it wasn't for them?  or are you one of those amazing women who take motherhood in stride & can't wait til your mini-van is full?

...or are you like me & you're just taking it one baby at a time?  because at this rate, if they keep turning out like parker we may have our very own football team someday.  only time will tell.

i'd love a couple votes.  that'd be pretty sweet.

wordless{ish} wednesday: like father, like son.

ok, so sam will probably think i'm a total creeper for this one, but i totally had to.  this is how sam has slept every single night for as long as i have known him.  and his family will back me up on this.  so what was i supposed to do when i started noticing that parker has been sleeping the exact same way the last couple nights?  blog about it.  obviously.

the only difference is that sam's arm reaches a little further than his forehead.  oh those silly babies & their short disproportionate limbs.

{linking up wordless wednesday at baby baby lemon, the paper mama, & a little king & i}

two clicks for short armed babies?

just another day at safeco.

i've already talked about how safeco field is my happy place, yeah?  now add in eighty degree weather, a mariner's win, a super happy & excited p-ray, & some of my favorite in-laws?  and you pretty much have a perfect day.

that was our day last saturday.

and parker got super excited once he realized where we were.  when we walked into safeco he immediately started dancing & kicking his legs & clapping.  not joking.  let me tell ya my friends, we were a couple of proud parents that day.

i think it's safe to say parker loves everything about mariner's games.  well, almost.  he may or may not have freaked a little when it was time to get our group picture with the mariner moose.  but i can't blame him... the dude's a little creepy.  maybe it's the ginormous eyes?  or the tight white short shorts?  whatever it is, parker's on to him.

can ya spare a couple clicks today? it'd probably be pretty awesome if ya did.

ask me anything - w. 8

if you "like" my facebook page you may have already seen that i'm picking the "ask me anything" posts back up.  i still have a list of questions that are unanswered & it's fun to do something a little different every now & then.  so if you have something you've always been wondering, or even if you just make something up right now, feel free to ask me anything via comments, facebook, twitter or email.  mmmm k?

1.  today's first question comes from malanda via facebook.  she asked,

oooh, i love this question & not just because you called my baby adorable!  ok maybe that.  but also because this is a question that's been on our minds a lot lately.

before parker was born we always thought we wanted our babies about two years apart.  that meant getting pregnant, ummmm... this month.  but now that it's here, we're not really feeling ready quite yet.  we're just enjoying our time alone with parker way too much!  but we're not that far off.  i guess where i'll leave this question at, is that my ideal age difference now is about 2.5 years.  however, it's no secret that it took me a while to get pregnant so we don't want to wait too long, either.  i get really excited at the thought of hopefully being pregnant in the coming year!  but super scared too.  so i go back & forth between being impatient to get pregnant, & hesitant.

with all that said, hopefully look for some exciting pregnancy news sometime in the next year, ok?  cross your fingers!

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2.  the second question comes from my sister-in-law laura.  she asked,

not even once!  i love love LOVE the name parker & i often wonder how we'll ever be able to pick out another name for the next baby that i will love as much.  the name suits him so well & i love that it's unique but not too trendy.

other names we had in mind were caleb, palmer, elliot, & taylor {all with middle name "ray" after my grandpa}. what's your favorite runner up?

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and last but not least, random.org helped me pick a winner for last week's alexandra rose giveaway!  today's lucky winner gets a $20 credit toward anything in her super cute shop.  lucky duck.

here's parker, snuggling with his very own alexandra rose taggie blanket to help me announce the winner.

KRISTIN!

congrats kristin!  i'll be sure to get you two in touch pronto.  bummed you didn't win?  don't forget to use your code "GOODLIFE" to get 10% off anything in her shop.  that'll make you feel like a winner, right?

and that's it for today.  happy august everyone!  maybe this is the month where summer will start in the pnw?  let's hope.

your votes always give me hope.  not sure for what, but they do.