Parker's 1st Communion Gift

It is SO HARD to find a "neat" Communion gift for a boy...believe me, I looked and LOOKED.  I finally decided on this (above).  I wanted Parker to have something that represented his Christianity AND marked this special day in his life...not to mention let him know how proud we were of him.  I thought this was "neat" for a few reasons: 1) Yes, I know it is a "necklace"; however, the style of the chain and the dog tag seemed to make it more masculine, 2) You can see the cross...I found some really cute chains that had sports on them, but they did not represent FAITH in any way!  3) I had it engraved - the front of the dog tag says, "The Lord's Angels Watch Over and Guide You In All Your Ways", the back of the dog tag says "Parker Steven Juntunen - 1st Communion - 4.17.2011" and on the back of the cross are his initials "PSJ", after all....we chose that name special for him, it's important where it came from and I'm so glad he doesn't "hate" it!  We may have gotten to name him, but the Lord is the one who gave him to us and I get teary-eyed thinking about how grown up he is....how special he is....and how much I love and adore this first born son of mine!  The Lord will bless you Parker....I'm just blessed to have you! 

Parker's 1st Communion

APRIL 17th, 2011

This marks a HUGE MILESTONE for Parker ~ he received his FIRST COMMUNION!! We had three weeks of family classes and the 5th graders even got to learn how to make the communion bread! Parker was excited and very proud...and we were SO PROUD of him as well!!

The 5th graders were asked to kneel at the alter and their entire families, "those that support them in their faith" were welcome to come up for a special blessing where we all put our hands on him while saying the blessing. We had a rather large crowd up there!

Parker and Pastor Mark
Receiving the Bread for the first time!! SO EXCITED...Parker just kept SMILING the entire time! It was neat because two families were called up at a time for the 5th graders to recieve communion, I believe this really made them feel special - then the rest of the congegation received theirs.

And now the wine...after we got back to our seats, he told us it's "not really that bad"! Hahahaha....this could come back to bite me in the butt when he gets older, huh!? ~wink!

Parker was mostly concerned about NOT throwing up - he did a WONDERFUL job!

With the Grandparents

Proud Family!

After the service, we had a lunch at our house ~ we are so very blessed that the family we have in the area is so supportive and wonderful to us! Thanks to all the grand and great-grandparents and the entire Nelson clan for supporting Parker in this journey!!

Parker just loves these little girls....

Chad's Golfing Trip to Arizona

FEBRUARY, 2011

I know this is out of order, but Chad got to go on a really fun trip with two of his childhood friends and their dad and I wanted to share some of the pics they took! These guys are the ones Chad goes fishing with every summer and hunting with in the fall. Tom (the dad), bought a house in Arizona and invited the boys out for 5 days of golfing!! Needless to say, Chad had a BLAST....

This is the life, isn't it?

Isn't it PRETTY!? And WARM!!
This is a HUGE house that was for sale...Chad took a pic of it with his phone and sent it to me with the caption, "Look honey, I found our retirement home!"...not in my lifetime, I'm afraid! HA!

He even got to go to his first NASCAR event! We don't even watch it on TV, but Chad said it was "pretty cool" being there....he's a man of many words that hubby of mine.

Chad and his childhood friend Matt C.

Nice swing, honey!

Cute Little Girls

Sugar and Spice and

Everything Nice...

That's

What Little Girls Are Made Of!!

These little beauties are my cousins' girls! I wanted to "show them off" a bit...aren't they DARLING!?

Baby Taylor...she is growing more and more every day! Don't you just wanna kiss those cheeks!?
Little Miss Avery! She has the most BEAUTIFUL blue eyes and darling little curls at the back of her head! She is very quiet and wouldn't smile for me right away! Luckily, she warmed up and LOOK at how adorable she is!!

I couldn't help it, I had to include this pic because I think it's SO CUTE!!

Bowling Awards

APRIL, 2011

We went to the annual bowling awards banquet and LOOK what Parker brought home!!

* 5th Place for the Jr./ Adult Halloween tournament he participated in with Grandma Pam

*CHAMPIONS in the All City Tournamnent for Doubles with Nicholas! (and a patch)

*6th Place in Regionals for Doubles with Nocholas and...

* 2nd Place in Regionals for Singles!!

This is pretty cool... :) Parker, you're amazing AND talented!! We are SO BLESSED to have you as our son!

Kindergarten Tie-Dying!

MARCH 31st, 2011

HOW FUN! Since my new work schedule frees up my work-week days, I got to volunteer to help out in Savannah's class while they did tie-dying! They have been learning about fabric, and today they tie-dyed shirts, smeared pieces of fabric with permanent marker, mud, washable markers and really old relish, then they washed them with soap and a little scrubber to see which items would come out of the fabric! They even got to SEW - now THAT'S a brave teacher!!

Large tubs of color! They got to choose
blue, orange and purple - of course they
ALL wanted all of the colors!!

Here Miss Savannah shows us her shirt that has just been colored! Can't WAIT to see how it turnes out - GOOD JOB HONEY!
Savannah and Mommy - what a FUN morning!!

State Bowling Tournament - Dickinson, ND

MARCH 26-27th, 2011

Parker and his buddy (and next door neighbor), Nicholas have been on a bowling league together for the past 3 or 4 years (can't exactly remember!!) - they are both quite talented and have a lot of fun!

This is our second year participating in the ND State Youth Bowling Tournament and it was held in Dickinson, ND which is about 5 hours away from where we live! So, we got the kids out of school early on Friday and headed out for a weekend of fun. The boys did a GREAT JOB and even though they were competing against each other during the singles games, they are very supportive of one another! Had to take a picture of the screen - this is Parker's BIGGEST GAME EVER!! A 220!! It was SO MUCH FUN watching him! He was so excited, the whole room was excited for him as well!
Also had to get a picture with one of Parker's biggest supporters, Grandma Pam! She came with us and is the lady that got Parker and Nicholas bowling in the first place! Her and Emmett bring the boys EVERY SATURDAY morning to the lanes, and yes, she has been doing this for 3-4 years - what a super grandma!!

Look how handsome my little bowler is! My neighbor Tracy and I ordered the boys these matching, "official", retro - bowling shirts! The boys look and feel "professional" in them and I love that they have their names on them!

Couldn't use the flash on the camera while they were bowling - Parker has a nice approach and his ball even curves!

This one turned out to be a S-T-R-I-K-E!! WHOO-HOO!! Over all, it was a GREAT weekend! The tournament goes for 4 weekends and we participated during the first weekend so we will have to WAIT (oh no!) to find out the end results!!

WAY TO GO PARKER AND NICHOLAS! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!!

MARCH 25th, 2011

Here we are at the water park in our hotel in Dickinson. I mean, these kids were out there AS SOON AS we brought all the stuff into the room! It's a good thing the pool was fun, because our room was the size of a SHOEBOX so sitting in there with nothing to do would have made us all nuts!!

Here's Mr. Aiden relaxing on a whale!! He is so funny..."I'm just chillin', mom"!
Savannah had a blast on these floating disks and the rope! It did cut up her hands a bit....good thing they are completely calloused from the monkey-bars at school!!

Parker spent most of his time on the water slide and in the hot tub!!

E-I-E-I- OOPS!!

March 24th, 2011

Aiden had a speaking part in his 2nd grade play tonight! He was "Aimless" the lamb and he got to talk to Bo Peep! He did a WONDERFUL job speaking and knew the songs to a T!! It was really fun watching him as he puts his all into his "performances" - with facial expression and everything! Way to go, Aiden WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!

Yep, mom had to make his costume and since I don't sew, this is what we came up with...COTTON BALLS!!

Hmmm....what a darling little lamb! Hiding...

Here he is at the microphone!

LOVE the facial expressions!

After the show with his 2nd grade buddies, Ty and Benny!

Can't wait to see what he comes up with in the future!!

St. Patty's Day!

March 17th, 2011

It's St. Patty's Day! YAY!! Today we got up a little early to get dressed and take the dreaded pictures mom INSISTS we take!

Here we have Mr. Parker....such a cute Lad! I've been making him pose in green for me for MANY years, and he continues to do it witout complaint! What a trooper...and a good-hearted boy!

Mr. Aiden, a true stinker-ish leprechaun through and through! He's lucky he's so cute and his heart is so big....you'll never meet a bigger love-bug than him! And he's SO LOYAL! Such a proud Irish lass!! Who can resist that happy face!?

Ahhh...it does my heart good to look at these three sweeties in their Irish attire! They were all such good sports about it!

Since we were hosting a dinner, I thought it only appropriate to purchase a few decorations!!

Even Great-Grandma and Grandpa Cottrell were in the mood to celebrate!

Here we have our Lamb and Potato Stew, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Corn and not pictured was the AMAZING Guiness Chocolate Cake with Irish Whisky Carmel Topping!! YUMMY!!

The kids with Grandma Pam and Grandpa Emmett! We always love having them stop over!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!