Something Unexpected...

As many of you know my family has had a rough few months with everything going on with my Dad. He is doing so much better, it really is a blessing. He is still hobbling around on his crutches, slipping down a couple stairs every now and then. But mostly everything at this point is looking up. He has his spirits back, you can still tell he has a lot of pain but we are all so grateful he is still here with us for Christmas.

Surprises seem to be the theme this year. From this with my Dad, to Jonathan and I announcing we were getting married. We should have known that just because it is December doesn't mean the surprises would stop. My Dad wasn't planning on attending the annual Logan Fire Christmas party, but a lot of the guys talked him into it. So he crutched his way out the door to go. Every year they award men with different awards for the year. And last they award The Firefighter of The Year Award. It was a huge shock for me to walk into my parents house as see it siting on the kitchen table. I am so proud of him. My Dad is and always has been my Hero, I have always looked up to him. He never gives up, and these past few months that trait he has, to never give up, saved his life. This is his Fire Fighter Of The Year Plaque

Firefighter Of The Year 2009

TROY PARKER

Love you Dad... So proud of you!

Family And Memories Make The Holidays....

Last weekend Jonathan had the opportunity to Baptise the cutest little girl. Her name is Rio, she is a close family friend. Jon was honored to have been asked! He loved every minute of it. She was actually the first child he has ever baptised, he always had the adults on his mission while his companions usually took the children. Kind of funny. She was so excited!

This weekend Ariell, who will be marrying Spencer in a couple weeks, came up for Paul and Gwendolyn show, Then the whole lot of us went to IHOP for dinner. It was so much fun!! Ariell was able to bring Spencer's girls, as well as her own two kids Adi and Kaden. So we were able to finally meet the whole family! Jonathan totally took to Kaden, He decided they were going to be little buddies. They all make such a cute family!

Jonathan went and cut down a tree for our first Christmas tree! I was so excited to get it up!! I had all the perfect things to put on it, Black ribbon (because Jon had to have black on it) silver and blue bulbs, glittered black snowflakes, and a silver tree skirt that of course matched our stockings. The stockings would be hung over the fire place on what else but black snow flake hooks that would match the snow flakes on the tree (minus the glitter). I couldn't wait to get it up. I have always been the one to decorate the tree! I was always perfect.. Big beautiful green trees with different arrangements of color each year for my parents, and I was always the mastermind behind the picture perfect trees. I was sure this one would be the same.

Well, when you go cut your own tree down.. it doesn't quite have the same... demand for attention that farmed or fake trees have. We finally got it up in the house and Jon looked at it, then looked at me and said "Hmmm... Ugly tree Chels, lets put the crap on it." Then while we laughed at it for a bit.. He asked "How long do we have to leave this up?" It is the perfect Charlie Brown tree. That is the only way to put it. So we did the best to place the lights, ribbon, and bulbs on it. But how do you decorate a tree that hardly has branches!! This is what came of it!

We were talking about it, and this tree is actually the perfect tree for our first Christmas together. We know it's not about the fullest, greenest, and most perfect tree. It's about being together as a family. Our Charlie Brown tree helped us make a perfect memory! After putting up our AWESOME tree we finished our night with a Hot Cocoa date. Jonathan found this HUGE mug. Even bigger than the soup mugs.. and he made a big cup of Hot Cocoa, we went and sat in front of our tree while sharing our GIANT cup of Hot Cocoa. Definitely a fun little date to share a warm cup this time of year. I would recommend it to anyone!

Just A Quick Note...

Jonathan was able to talk with his brother Spencer today for the first time since he left for basic. They talked for about an hour about EVERYTHING! I heard tid bits about things from his wedding coming up to the regular jeep talk. You all should have seen Jon's face when I passed him his phone and said, "Hey, Spencer's calling." He got this adorable little grin on his face. You could totally tell he was so excited to talk to his brother. He really misses him, and is so excited to see him in a couple weeks for his wedding! We miss you Spenc! Thanks for everything you are doing!!

Memories In The Making...

Jonathan and I are so excited for the holidays!!! We have started pulling out the Christmas decorations and buying lights for the house. Of course they won't be put up or at least lit until after Thanksgiving. But all the same we are so excited to get everything up!
Jon has been so much fun, my Mom has let him in on a little hint, that I happen to be a bit of a snoop when it comes to Christmas, so he has gifts hidden not only out of the house.. but all over town. That's right he has hidden the gifts at different peoples house, one gift per house and not in a house I go to often. I have to say.. I'm pretty impressed.

Tonight Jonathan wanted to dinner.. that usually mean some kind of take-out. Which is fine, It doesn't bother me. But tonight he came in and said "Chels, you are going to kill me. I'll be back." And he locked the door open and walked back outside. Then he walked back in the door with two full bags of Chinese.
"They messed up the order." was the first thing that came from his mouth as he walked in the door. I could help but laugh as he started unloading the dinner he has slaved over. You know the size of the to go boxes, the big ones. Well... We had four of them.. Four different meats, two full things of rice, 7 or 8 ragoons, 4 egg rolls, a pint of soup, and 9 fortune cookies. He said he knew the "price was a little much." I just laughed and kept laughing for a few minutes. We had our very own Chinese Thanksgiving at our house tonight!! Love that boy!

Time Is Flying...

So many things are happening right now. It seems that Jon and I never have a chance to take a breath. But I love it!! We have two wedding coming up in December! I am so excited for both of them! The first is on December 23rd. Jonathan's brother Spencer will be marrying Ariell. She is so much fun! She has two kids, and from the pictures I have seen their little family is so adorable together. Spencer has been away to Basic so Ariell has been putting together the wedding. What a great deal for him. He gets married and and doesn't have to deal with all the pre-wedding things! The second wedding is on December 29th, my cousin Toni (who you have seen in earlier blog posts and pictures) will be married to Marc. I am so excited for these two!! I can't wait to get to see pictures of her in her dress!! Its beautiful! So classic but at the same time very trendy!! I love it!
Jon and I have been doing the usual, work and he is waiting for classes to start back up. He has really loved working at the hospital. You can tell he really loves the medical field! He has been doing a lot of four A.M. shifts which haven't been bothering him at all. I don't know how he does it. Three or four days a week he works the regular eight to ten hours shifts and LRH, then heads up to USU to work another four and sometimes six hour shift. He is my superman.. cheesy.. oh well. Don't think he doesn't get tired though. Some nights he is beat! Like last night.. You know when little kids fall asleep eating, and you can't help but laugh at them. Well I have one up those cute little munchkins! I hope I don't offend anyone by telling this.. But it just has to be told! So I will say sorry in advance.. just to be safe!
Anyway.. Back to my story.. Last night Jon started to say our prayer before bed. It started...

Jonathan: "Our dear kind Heavenly Father, We thank thee for this day. And all the blessings you.."

I paused.. Waited.. Then opened my eyes to see him PASSED OUT!!

Me: "Jon? Are you asleep? Did you really just fall asleep in the middle of your prayer?"

Jonathan: "Oh... Father I'm sorry.. We thank thee for all the blessing you have given to us. "

The prayer went on and I thought we were in the clear... He was going to make it! I was sure of it! Then...

"and Father, Please bless Chelsea will get those papers in on time. Amen"

Me: "Jon? What papers do I need to get in?"

Jonathan: "What? I don't know what you're talking about?"

Me: "Well you better figure it out and let me know when you do, cause you just prayed for it."

Then he looked at me bewildered for a moment.. and giggled and said

"He understands me." and rolled over and fell right to sleep.

I LOVE THAT BOY!! He keeps me laughing even when he is sleeping.

It kind of makes me wonder.. Has anyone else had this or something similar (conversations with sleeping people) happen to them? Let us know!!

More Pumkin Walk...

At the Pumpkin Walk Toni, Marc, Jon and I played with the cut outs.. the kids had nothin' on us!!

Phlebs, Pumkins, and Dates...

So many things have happened!! To start off Jonathan came home from work today and wanted to go out on a date. He was totally cute about it. We got ready and he kept repeating it as a date and thanking me for going with him, like when we were dating. We went to Texas Roadhouse, and it reminded us why we don't go out on Saturday nights! The place was packed and it took over an hour to be seated! Then he brought be home and we watch The Proposal, after the movie he gave me a hug and said "Thank you for going out with me." then casually turned his head and BELCHED... and we were back to good old being married. I love him, and I couldn't stop laughing, but YUCK!!

Jon and I carved our pumpkins this last week! We started carving with one of those carving knifes. But Jon thought he needed a "Man Knife". Well guess what, yep.. Jon broke my knife.. Guess he was a little too much Man for the knife!
Jonathan was offered a PRN job at the hospital as a Phleb!! We are so excited for him to start there on Monday! It will be interesting to see how it goes the days he works downstairs and we work together.

Last night Jon and I went to the Pumpkin Walk. It was a lot of fun! I had never been before.

Big Update...

Since so many things have happened since the wedding that I haven't been able to update on. I am just going to do a quick overall. Jon and I have the oportunity to go to Oregon with my side of the family right after we were married. We had such a good time!! We went river boating on speed boats, gold panning (which turned into salamander hunting), and watched the fourths fire works on the beach!!

We also able to go see the redwoods!! Those trees are huge! I was always told how big they are, but you dont really understand until you are standing at the base of one looking up into the tops. It was so much fun!!

Jon and I went back to the camping spot we camped at right after our wedding. We both love camping, it's a good thing cause everyone found out that Jon loves it so we got tons of camping stuff for our wedding! Its been great! We are set to go camping for a long time. Aside from a pad to sleep on, but it just makes out bed that much more comfortable to come home to!

We were called to callings in our ward. Both of us are ward Librarians.. Jon thinks it's awesome, he just wants to sit in the library and color. Then I have another calling in the Enrichment commity. We will see how that goes, sounds like fun. But I have to confess, I don't think I have ever been to an enrichment night.

Wedding Pictures...

We got our pictures back, so we wanted to post a few.. Thanks again Celeste and Kellee!! We love them!

Lots of the kids ended falling asleep! They are so cute! This only shows two of them, but we have pictures of all the kids, and they all fell asleep! SO CUTE!!

We have a cryer! One of my favorites!

All Riley wanted to do for a while was hang out with Jonathan. It was so cute!! He just didn't want anything to do with him once we wanted him in pictures.

It took forever for us to get this picture.. but we still had to have a little help from my Dad to get it!

Hopefully we will post some more some time, There are so many we like! Enjoy!

An Amazing Man....

You know.. I know Jonathan is a great guy, that's why I married him. But every once in a while I have to take off my hat and give many kudos to his parents!! Two days ago Jonathan had to pick me up from work. When he got there you could tell he'd had the day off and had been home alone ALL day! (torture for the kid) He was all over the place! All the way home he kept saying, "I can't wait till you get home and see!" Coming from Jon, that could mean anything, a very very broad range of very different things!! I walked in the house (I was in a hurry to get showered and ready to go help with a carnival for kids)and noticed the living room was clean, aside from the papers on the fire place, it was spotless. Even vacumed! I thanked him and walked back into the bedroom to grab some clothes, and our room was so nice!!! All the clothes that he hadn't had time to wash were ready to go in the bed was made and vacumed!! I LOVE THIS BOY!! It was so nice to come home to everything clean. Then to top it all off the next moring we both had a day off. And he got me a drink and a blanket, sat me down on the couch and started finishing all the laundry he had started the day before, he did the dishes yesterday as well. What a guy! Makes me feel so useless... but it was so nice to not have to worry about it all.
That night we went to the kids carnival, we were helping with. It was a fun night! And to top it all off, I got to go home to a clean house and a made bed to crawl into.. NOTHING BETTER!!

Victory...

So just so you all know.... I'm moving up in your blogger world. I totally just figured out how to change my background.. I know, I know you all are looking at it going.. Uh.. That's not THAT hard. Well for me, (I'll Admit it) it was. The first step is admitting the problem. Not the cutest background in the world. But I think I'm happy with myself enough that I actually did it, That it can stay for a while!

HIGH FIVE!!!

If It's Not One Thing..... It's Another...

Jon and I were so excite to hear he PASSED his test!!! Now only one more test to go tomorrow. Everyone cross your fingers!!
But to bring down the mood from that we have been spending a lot of time at the hospital with my Dad. He was admitted early monday morning around 3 AM, after sitting in the ER for 3 hours while my Mom was trying to convince them that something more was wrong than just muscle spasm's. When the doctor finally ordered the CAT scan like my mom had been asking for. They found two blood clots in his lungs. Last night he was moved to ICU, but things are looking up. He may be starting to get an pnuemonia but we are hoping he will be back to medical soon.
It is so hard seeing him like that. He could hardly breath for a bit there. You can tell he is in a lot of pain.
It makes me so gratefull for the family I have, Not because one is in a bad state. But because when my Grandpa found out, he and my Uncle were up at the hospital early monday morning to give him a blessing. They are so caring! My grandma has been great to talk to when Jon isn't around.
But like I said, Jon passed his test so with the bad comes the good! I am so proud of him! He was so nervous! He came home thinking he was going to fail. So one more tomorrow and WHEN he passes he will be a certified EMT-B. Love you Jonny!! Good job, and Good Luck!!

Totally Blog Ill-it-Err-ett.... Get it?

So many things have gone on and we have so many pictures to post!! Jon (and a hand full of other people) keep telling me that I need to update my poor falling behind blog. (kind of like my thank you cards from the wedding...I promis they are coming)
One thing I have been trying to do is design the a cute blog page, you know the ones you have to copy and paste the HTML into the spot, and save them Vwall-ah! You look like an amazing page designer. The only problem is.. I cant even figure out how do you that on here. Any other thing I would be able to figure it out and do fine. But I will be the first to admit the blog has gotten the best of me. I just simply can't find it, so as of now I'm throwing in the towel. Maybe some day I'll try again.

Jon's birthday was last month.. So for the next 6 months I give my cougar status.. Come January though, I'll be back on my cougar game!

The next couple things coming up for us are going to be fun! This next weekend will be a good one! First Jonanthan's buddy (Harley Christensen) is coming home from his mission on August 21st. Then on the 22nd, he actually gets to go see him. I have a baby shower that day..( I hope I dont have the day mixed up) for Shannon I'm going to. So we both get to see people we haven't seen in a while. Last but not least we have a family get-together at the cabin. River here we come!!

One Month Down

I have been terrible lately at keeping this updated... I thought I should do an update since I have been told by several people to do so.
It has been one month! I can't believe how fast it has gone. Jon and I have done so many fun things. Right after we were married we went camping for a few days, then headed off to Oregon with my side of the family. It was so much fun, I promis I will get some pictures up as soon as I have a free moment.
Since we have been back we have been so busy! We figured it out the other day that since we have been married we have been able to spend four nights home alone with no calls, no one showing up, and with out us having to go somewhere to meet someone for something. Now that I am finally writing this I'm realizing how many pictures and things I need to update on. We are in our new home, and almost have everything up and put away. We will need to get those pictures up and also some of our wedding photos.
My Endowment session was on June 16th, I was there when I was supposed to be an hour and a half early. Jon on the other hand was able to go 30 min before like everyone else. But I think they should have told hime the same time as I was told. Not only was he running late, he also brought the wrong recomend. So they told him he wasn't going to be able to go to the temple that day. I don't know the whole conversation obviously, but I'm pretty sure that is about when the panic set in. I guess they asked him to go get his new one and maybe go to a later session. Jonathan told him he had to make the session and to just call his Stake Pres. Can you believe that they actually did? Then.. (yes there is more) they put him the wrong waiting room. He kept looking around to find someone he knew, and decided to try the other room. That's finally where he found the whole family. Meanwhile I was sitting in the session room with the other two brides watching their fiance's come in, Jon wasn't anywhere with them, till the almost the very end he wandered in. Oh, By the way.. we were almost late for our own sealing as well.. yeah we started it off well, two for two.
On the wedding day, after the sealing, Jonathan and I went outside to do pictures with the families. Except for one thing, Most of his family was gone. Jon's absoulutly adorable neice Gwen (I guess she is my neice now too) fell outside while they were all waiting for us and hit her mouth. She had to go to the ER. She cut up her lip and knocked out a couple teeth. I felt so bad for her. Good thing we had the reception to get pictures of everyone... since we were missing a good portion of the Dattage side, understandable though, don't you think?? What wasn't understandable on the other hand... My one and only brother.. as well as only sibling.. was no where to be found. He showed up right after of course for the luncheon where there was food. But aparently we failed to provide Kyle with refreshments to come to the temple. ;) To be fair, I guess he was late and was around the other side of the temple and couldn't find all of us. Well I guess that is enough for now. I will get those pictures up and and anything else I missed hopefully this weekend.

Coming Up Fast...

Okay, So I know it's been a while. But things have been so crazy!! I have my whole house in three different cars right now until our new apartment opens up this Monday (hopefully). Both mine and Jon's cars are completely full, then we still needed more space, so some went to storage for a couple days, and even more is in Paul's car too!! It's nuts!! I have no idea where anything is.. and I just know Jon wants his jeep back so he can go play in some mud. Jon is so excited to move to the new place.. I'm excited because it means we are that much closer to the wedding!! Can you believe it? We are down to 25 days!!
We had our formals taken this last week. Celeste and Kellee did an amazing job! We had so much fun with them. We started at the temple, then headed down the Logan Fire station. Kellee has a thing she calls the signature series. She takes something that is different, or just plain fun between the couple and takes pictures of that so you have a unique photo for the two of you that she never uses again. Jon and I decided to be blind folded since we met on a blind date.. We thought it was pretty clever!!

Jon said to me the other day, "I'm sick of being engaged!" And I totally agree with him. We have a ton of fun. But I think we are both ready for the wedding.

We have a couple of busy weeks coming up. Yesterday we met with Hollie our wedding planner. I don't know what I was thinking when I chose the first linens. They were pretty, but totally the wrong color of orange. Good thing we went back and set a few things straight.

We also have all but a few of our announcements out! Things are coming along. It's finally seeming real. But I still don't think of it as our wedding.. It's still feels like a big party I'm planning.. We will see how long it takes for it to really sink in.

Well this has been all over the place. But I thought I should catch up while I had a moment. It's thrown together but hey.. It works right?

Hopefully I'll be back really soon to share more.. There's no telling when I'll be in front of a computer agian while we are getting everything moved in.

Coming Up Fast..

Jon and I had out formals taken this last week. We had a blast, Celeste and Kellee are so much fun. They make us laugh. I can't wait till I have some of the photos to put up and show everyone.
It's all coming up pretty quick! I can't believe how close it's getting! Jon said to me yesterday "I'm so sick of being engaged!" Then he looked at me like he was trying to figure out if that came out wrong. It was pretty funny. Sorry it's so short, but I only had a minute, and it had been a while. I'll be back with more soon.

A Home..

Jonathan and I met with the landlord of the place we have been dying to rent. And I sounds like its all ours!! We are pretty excited. It is such a cute place, nothing to fancy just perfect for a first little home. There are two apartments in the house and one in the basement, so it's a pretty private place. And get this.. it's a two bedroom for only 420.oo a month!!! Can you believe it?! When we get a picture of the place I will have to be sure to get one up!

A Hole To Call A Home...

Jon and I have been searching everywhere for a home.  Its probably been the one thing that stresses both of us out, not because of the looking part, but more because its not set and done like the other things.  We have had a place in mind that we both really like, but there was one problem.  People still live there.. so we have just been crossing our fingers and hoping that they decide to move before we are married.  Guess what happened today!!  The landlord gave me a call and said they would be leaving, I missed the call of course, why wouldn't I miss the one phone call we have been waiting for.  So tomorrow I will call him back, cross your fingers hopefully it all works out!! 

Also!!  My best friend Meghan and her husband Paul had their baby early this morning!!  I'm so happy for her!  It is a little boy and he is adorable!!  His name is Onyx Kunsaitis.  CONGRATS MEG!!  Jon and I will be going up to Idaho this weekend to see them.  I was supposed to go up yesterday when I got the call that she was going into labor, But of course finals week stopped that plan..  why wouldn't it?!   

Playing Catch Up

Jon and I thought posting a blog would be the easiest way to let everyone in on what is going on with us. Even though I did my best to stay away from the blogging seen, it wins...

Right now the name is a little deceiving, I'm still a good ole' Parker. But changing the name in a little while seemed pointless. Jonathan and I were engaged on February 9th.... I think. Our wedding date is on June 23rd, and we can hardly wait. It has been a lot of fun, I don't know why so many people told me it was going to be terrible.. stressful at times, yeah... but overall pretty fun to plan. Maybe because we are both so easy going.

Here are a couple of our engagement photos to get the blog started, Moments by Kellee photography took them. We had so much fun with Kellee and Celeste... HA! Kellee kept telling Jon to not look so gay.. I love it!

I can't wait to do our formals with them in the next month!!