Merry Christmas 2010

Merry★* 。 • ˚ ˚ •。★Christmas★ 。* 。*FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!!

° 。 ° ˚* _Π_____*。*˚★ 。* 。*。 • ˚ ˚ •。★˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

˚ ˛ •˛•*/______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。* 。*˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

˚ ˛ •˛• ｜ 田田｜門｜ ˚˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

The day we come together and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

 Once again my mom bought us all matching pajamas.  The small grandkids even had their names on their shirts.

Rauch Family 2010

The Scott Parks Family 2010

The 2010 Christmas Card

Merry★* 。 • ˚ ˚ •。★Christmas★ 。* 。*FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!!

° 。 ° ˚* _Π_____*。*˚★ 。* 。*。 • ˚ ˚ •。★˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

˚ ˛ •˛•*/______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。* 。*˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

˚ ˛ •˛• ｜ 田田｜門｜ ˚˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。˚ ˛★ 。* 。*★ 。

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We knew putting up the Christmas tree would be a challenge this year,  but I was not prepared to tell him 47 times a day to not "touch" the tree.  The poor tree looks so hideous now as we have moved all of the ornaments to the top of the tree out of reach of those little fingers.  I forget he is tall for a 2 year old, so his reach length is pretty high.  He is quite possessive of the ornaments and everything is "mine".



Nonosina Dance Recital

We went to see Tiare, Scott's relative dance with her Polynesian dance group.  The name of her dance troop is called Nonosina.  They are based here locally in Anaheim, California.  They were amazing group of dancers ranging from 4 years old and up.  I was surprised at the various different cultures of dancers in addition to the Polynesian islands that were represented.  It was such a fun and beautiful show to go and watch.

Even though I did not know any of the tiny dancers, I just couldn't resist.  They were so cute!

Tiare center stage in the FINALE her SOLO performance of Taualuga

Most people will agree that the most gorgeous dance to come out of the Samoan culture would be the Taualuga, a graceful solo traditionally performed by a Taupou, or daughter of a high chief. The purpose of this dance is to flatter or celebrate this high chief on various occasions, or to serve as the showpiece finale at the end of a set of dances performed by an entertaining group.

Tiare "shaking" those hips. She is only 12 years old.



Santa Claus at Fashion Island

We took Brock to take his yearly picture with Santa Claus.  As I expected, he tried to make the great escape off his lap.  With the help of the Santa's elf, she made Brock laugh real quick and captured the shot.  Brock said he wanted a "chew chew" for Christmas, which translates into a train set.  Trains and building blocks are his new favorite toys to play with.  I love looking to see how my boy has grown over the past 2 1/2 years so I have all his Santa photos included to share.

Santa 2010 ( 2 1/2 years old)

Santa 2009 (18 months old)

Santa 2008 (4 months old)



Celebrate Good Times!

 Scott & I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on December 1st.  We took our first cruise for 7 days to the Mexican Riviera.  We stopped in ports of Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.  The weather was great and it was nice to get away and relax with my man.  I love you babe, and you are a terrific husband and father.

He loves to go to Grandmas house

Brock loves going to his Grandma Epi's house.  There are lots of mischievious things he likes to do while visiting his grandparents.

He loves playing/wrestling with his cousin.  I am not sure if he is resting or he just gave up.

He loves playing in their backyard.  He loves to hit balls and ride in the wagon.

Grandma spoils him with bottles.  I removed those from the house at 18 months.

He loves to play/pull at Kimo the cat.

He loves all the attention that grandma and grandpa give him.

Welcome to the family

Brock has a new cousin to boss around.  Tara and Mike welcomed baby boy Dane Wallace Parks weighing in at 7 lbs and 14 ounces and 20 inches long.  He joins big brother Trevor who turns two in January.  My boys stayed home as they had the flu.  They had to wait to welcome the baby to the Parks clan.

He's so little,  I love newborns!



Dane at the Parks Family Thanksgiving dinner





We went to visit Grandpa for Halloween this year. Grandma was in Western Samoa for her mothers funeral.  I really though he would enjoy dressing up and getting candy.  He survived about 3-4 houses before he was crying and wanted to back into the house and pass out candy.  The night before we attended our Ward Trunk or Treat party and headed out to my mothers house.  We love when grandma can babysit so we can go out to dinner in peace.

Trevor the "Construction Worker" and Brock the "Fireman"

Brock holding on to daddy because he really didn't want to take a picture

Our playdate to Irvine Park Railroad Pumpkin Patch



Last week I got together with my friend Lori from high school and her daughter Mikayla.  Mikayla and Brock share the same birthday and year.  These cuties are both our first babies.  We met at the Irvine Park Railroad.  Mikayla was dressed up in her Halloween costume and I was lucky just to get my son there.  The kids had fun looking for pumpkins and the highlight of riding the train.  The park is just beautiful and even has a small little zoo.





Brock and Mikayla sitting on the pumpkins



Look how tall he is and he is not even standing up straight.



Mommy, Brock, Lori, & Mikayla



Boys will be boys

The baby loves to help clean the house.  Scott got him a little toy Dirt Devil vacuum and he loves it so much he wanted to sleep with it.  Oh! man, I hope this is not the start of OCD.

 He loves to color as long as he is supervised.  Otherwise,  I end up with markers on the floor and walls by his creative little hands.

He definitely loves the attention from Dad.

Mommy ran her 1st 5K race

 Jennifer got me to sign up for my 1st 5K race at Wild Rivers in Irvine.  Both of our sisters joined us in the fun.

Shanna, Haley, & Danielle

(the smokers even smoked us)...well Jenn was just being kind to go at my pace.

The last part of the race we got into the lazy river and then ran the last little way to completion soaking WET!

The race was lots of fun even though I am no runner, but who knows maybe I will become one.

3rd Annual Pacific Islander Festival

Today, we attended the 3rd Annual Pacific Islander Festival -- located here locally in Huntington Beach.  Many of the Pacific Islands were represented by dancers, food, and trinkets.  Scott had a great time enjoying the variety of food.  Brock and I enjoyed the dancing and singing.  This festival took place over two days.  We spent a few hours here relaxing and enjoying the festivities.

The Samoan Booth

I was laughing out loud when I saw this size chart for the Men's T-shirts.  Click on the picture to get a better view.  How do you roll?

The Samoan Dancers ( can you tell I am biased?) 

Camping with the Racoons!

Brock enjoying the beach

Drawing in the sand

Look how cute my son is in his sleeping bag

                                

We went camping for the weekend with the Quesada family to Carpinteria State Beach.  The Quesadas just bought a new travel trailer and we wanted to help them break it in.  As Scott and I are setting up the tent I look over and see Brock playing in the fire pit and he is full of ashes all over his face and clothes. (Really?)  My brother, Richard, and his family came up for the day on Saturday to come play with us.  Lexie babysat for us on Saturday night while Scott and I went to dinner.  Brock loves Lexie!  Lexie was visiting her Grandma Kaye, who was camping also.  Her mom and I go way back to childhood and she lives only 20 minutes away from the campground. Brock loves chicks; he's such a little flirt already.  Unfortunately, I only got a few pictures of this trip.  This was our first successful trip with camping in a tent.  The raccoons came out at night and would claw at the tent, and I would hide under the covers and try to ignore those darned critters.  The weather was not so great, but we had a great time getting away nevertheless.

O.C. Fair 2010

We had great time this year attending the O.C. Fair.  We attended two concerts and we attend two Lucha Libre shows (Mexican wrestling).  My neighbor, Martin, is a wrestling promoter and runs a local wrestling organization out of Costa Mesa.  He got us great seats up front to watch the chaos.  It was so much fun to watch,  even though I didn't understand much of the Spanish being spoken.  It was so fun we ended up attending both nights to close down the fair.  Scott, of course, tried some unusual foods.  Disgustingly, he tried the "deep fried butter".  I'm sure his arteries didn't enjoy that little shock.  I know that sounds really gross, but I did take a bite and it tasted like a moist "churro."

Heart Attack Cafe

My little cowboy riding his horse

Scott loved the famous Krispy Kreme donuts that made the buns to this grilled chicken sandwich.

Blue Demon -- a very popular wrestler in Mexico

Headstones

Scott's Great-Aunt Olga Mant passed away earlier this month.  We had the opportunity to attend her funeral at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.  My mom graciously watched the baby for us.  My mom recently purchased my grandfather's headstone.  It was a long time in coming.  I am not quite sure why it took so long.  I would assume it was a money issue that turned into a forgotten one.  Since we do not make our way out to Whittier too often, I went to see his grave also.

Scott's beloved Grandmother Mary, who passed away in April, has her new headstone, which reads "she was the best."  She was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach, CA.  She would be happy with the ocean view.

My grandfather finally has a headstone after 17 years and, yes, he loved baseball.  He is buried side by side with my grandmother, who died before I was born.  They are buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, CA.

The Beach and Swim Lessons

Brock and Dad swimming in the ocean

Brock loves the water

Oh, and he loves sand, too!




We took Mommy and Me swim lessons this year for the second year in a row at Edison High School for two weeks.  It's been a busy summer!

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!

Kick, kick, kick!!!