Violin Lessons

Natalie loves it when Mom pulls out her violin to practice. This morning was one of those times, and Mom let her play it after she's done practicing. Here's a short video of the virtuoso Natalie. She's a genius!

Dad's building projects

It's funny living in a place like this. There is so much abundance and waste as well. People tend to throw things away that are perfectly fine. It's really a blessing to have something like DI around than can take stuff and get it to people who really need it, or know what to do with it. Around here, there is not many places close-by that you can take things to do donate. There is a good-will but it's up in Irvine and people don't want to head up there. I like to walk around and check the dumpster areas (Mom hates it when I do this) and check for things people are trying to get rid of. There are tables, chairs, various decorative items, lights, and all sorts of things that are in good shape (albeit a little old or worn, but in good shape nonetheless). This last week or so I found a desk in one of these dumpster areas (they're like little sheds where they keep the dumpsters). The garbage trucks won't take items such because they don't fit in the dumpster. We really didn't need another computer desk, but I though we might take it and see if we could use it. Mom didn't want it, no way. So we left it there and hoped someone would take it. It sat for a week and we finally agreed to take it and put it in Natalie's room for Mom's art work (she had been previously working on the kitchen table). so I took it to the garage, cleaned it up, sanded it down a bit and re-stained it and it looks as good as new. we moved it into Natalie's room where it resides today. But then we needed a chair, and we didn't want to buy an new one. I was looking on craigslist for cheap deals but found none. As a testament that the Lord knows our needs, the next day Mom found a couple of old kitchen chairs in the dumpster shed ready to be thrown out. They were old, and one was broken beyond repair. Luckily though the other was fit as a fiddle. It had a broken seat with a cushion you tie on. I took the cushion and took the foam out and removed the broken seat. Natalie helped me to sand and fix the chair. We then painted it to match the other furniture in Natalie's room, used the foam to upholster the seat with some dollar fabric from Walmart, and bolted it to the chair. It fit perfectly in the desk and now we have a new desk and chair for less than $5. I tell you, it feels good to take something broken and fix it up. (Maybe it's like how Heavenly Father feels when he can take someone who's "broken" and fix them up through the miracle of forgiveness) We also needed a shoe shelf by the door (there were shoes everywhere!) so I made on out of scraps we had left over from other projects. It's great daddy-daughter time as Natalie loves to come out to the garage and help me out with my projects.

Before

After

Chair and desk hard at work

Shoes!

Baby Shower Booty

Tuesday was Mom's baby shower, and it was amazing to see the generosity of the families of this ward. Thanks to all you came to the party, and gave so much for us, especially since there is a baby shower every week in this ward. Our last bishop in Utah described it best when he said you couldn't swing a dead cat in this ward without hitting a pregnant woman. Hmmm, maybe there's a better description....then again, maybe not. Natalie loved to go through all the presents and kept saying "Cute!" just like her Mom. She got some clothes as well to match with her sister from some of the ladies. She is getting pretty excited for the arrival of her sister. The countdown has begun though, as Mom is dilated to 1 and contractions are beginning to occur, albeit sporadically. It has begun.....

President's Day fun

Last week on Prez Day we went to the beach in the morning and had a grand ole time. Dad has been getting some of the MFA students together every Friday to go out painting landscapes, and since there were no classes on Monday for presidential reasons, he got some people together to head out in the morning. Mom decided to come with as it had been a looong time since she had gone painting too. We took Natalie with us since we would be on the beach and she could just play in the sand. The morning loomed cool and gray, and many people chickened out because they thought it was too cold (60 degrees! hah!), but there were a few brave souls who came with us. We went to our favorite beach, just north of main beach in Laguna and set up. It turned out to be a great day. The sun eventually came out and warmed the cockles of our hearts. Mom did get some painting as the picture shows, even after Natalie threw sand on Mom and her painting. Oops! After we finished we walked down the beach to look at the tide pools, now showing due to the receding tide. We found many a starfish (previously undiscovered by the Parker clan) and even heard someone mention seeing an octopus there. We never found the octopus but found lots of fish, crabs, the aforementioned starfish, and lots of shells. We stayed out for an extra couple of hours until we were really hungry and headed back home. It was good to get out together and do something we haven't done in a long time, and now with numero dois coming, we may not be able to do again for a long time.

Valentine's Dress

This one slipped through the cracks last week and didn't get posted. We got a great package from G-ma Parker which included this great Valentine's Day dress. Natalie wore it to church and was oohed, and awed by the women folk (and some men folk, and chillun folk). Thanks grandma.

This week

Some pictures of Mom and Natalie from this week. The first is Natalie helping mom make some turkey pot pies. We're training Natalie to do the cooking so when the baby comes we're all covered there. Also are some pics of Natalie and the basketball that is our new baby. Natalie loves to kiss, hug, squish, push, rub, pat, and jiggle, the belly of mom. We went to dad's basketball game and everyone thought she was trying to hide the ball under her shirt. Only a couple of weeks left though!

The turtle

I found this turtle out at the wild life refuge deep on Modjeska Canyon (the place that was hit hard during the wildfires a couple of months ago). This turtle was perched upon a rock and looked like he was stuck. He was a small guy, but seemed like he was doing okay so I left him there on the rock. I love his little legs stretched out in the back though. I had to tell him what Natalie says every time she sees a turtle..."YOU ROCK DUDE!"

Music Makers

Natalie and Mom head off to Music Makers every Wednesday with some of the other ladies of the stake. They meet for an hour and the moms take turns doing music stuff with the kiddies. Natalie has a blast and always looks forward to going. She is at the age where everything is great and she wants to know more about everything. So here are some pictures from this weeks episode.

Natalie and her best friend forever. Natalie is always sad when they have to part, but oh the joy when they get to see each other.

Natalie's favorite part is the parachute. What is it about kids and a big sheet flying over their heads. It never gets old.

More YouTube for your enjoyment

I stumbled across this the other day and thought I might share it. It is Rowin Atkinson, the guy who plays Mr. Bean. usually I'm not a big fan of his goofiness but this bit was pretty good. Natalie liked it too.

Hang Drum coolness

This was a video off of youtube that Granddad told us to look up. There are many but this is a cool demo of the Hang Drum (pronounced "hung" it's Swedish). Very cool looking drum and sounds very interesting. Also very hard to get. you can do a search in youtube for "Hang drum" and there are many musicians who play it. There's even a guy who explains more about what it is and how to play it. Enjoy.

Old School

Thought you might enjoy an old video of Natalie back in the day when we lived in Provo. Such a cutie-patootie.

And, some pictures of Madeline and Natalie at RMBall enjoying an orange. My how they've grown.

Making V-day cookies

Sundays are awesome, and that awesomeness today was manifested in the making of some Valentine's day cookies. Natalie loves to help out in any way she can, especially the eating part.

At the Basketball game

Since it's too expensive to head out to the Laker's game (besides who wants to see them?) we went to a girl's high school basketball game. Wh-a-at?! you say, a GIRL'S high school ball game?! Yes indeed. We went because the point guard is in Dad's Sunday school class, and her mom is the visiting teach-ee of Mom's. So we had other interests besides just the game (it was good too). It is a catholic school (JSerra) and they have been doing well this season. This was their last regular season game before the tournament. It was to drop Natalie off at the sitter and have a couple hours to do something we haven't done in a while. It was a blowout game in our favor so that was a bonus. It was funny to see all the fathers and grandfathers yelling at the refs and all the mothers and grandmothers telling the men to sit down and be quiet. Ah high school sports!

More zoo still

Here we are feeding goats. Goats are ugly.

More Zoo

So at the zoo there was of course, a train ride, which Natalie was dying to go on. Luckily it was cost no money, but cost almost an hour of waiting in line with all the other anxious and restless chilluns. We got in line for the ride and Natalie said she needed to go potty. So we went and when we got back the line was much longer. BUT we waited and finally got to go on this spectacular 5 min train ride that didn't even go through most of the park. That's alright because Natalie was so happy it made it all worth it.

There were elephant rides but I couldn't coax Natalie into getting up on top of an elephant. Looked like fun though. Maybe next time.

Santa Ana Zoo

Yesterday was Daddy-daughter time/Give-Mommy-some-rest-day. So we went to the Santa Ana Zoo. We had the membership from Hogle Zoo that allowed us to get into Santa Ana zoo for free as well. It was membership day so everything was free. It's not the big of a zoo, and they don't have all the big animals that bigger zoos have, but they did have a lot of cool stuff. Natalie had a good time and is always game to go back soon.

Santa Ana Zoo's mascot is the monkey, as they are known for all the moneys they have. Surprisingly, Natalie wanted to have her picture taken with the monkey-guy and walked up to him on her own accord.

This bird came almost within arms reach of us as we watched. Natalie was great at holding still and waiting for the bird to some up to us...and then some obnoxious people came up really loudly and scared it away. Oh well.

Natalie

What a funny head this girl is. We've been getting stuff ready for the baby and Natalie has been reminiscing with all her stuff. She got in the car seat and we couldn't believe how big she is getting. Growing like a weed, as the old saying goes.Dad came home from school the other day and Natalie got one of his shirts and put her head through the head hole and then poked her face through the arm hole. It looked like a burka or something. We love that she is so random and silly (kind of like mom and dad).