twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the house, everyone was sleeping except me of coarse.  My sweet little angels all snug in their beds, have visions of sugarplums (and Star Wars and Monster Trucks) dancing in their heads.  

Santa, we know you're on your way.  We have left you some cookies and food for your reindeer.  

We love you Santa.  

We do BELIEVE.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

{ Waiting }

We've got two little boys over here waiting anxiously for Santa Claus.  They've claimed to have seen reindeer in the backyard.  Maybe they did, I think I heard some jingle bells.

Microwave Jingle Bells by AKQA

Merry Christmas!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

{ We're Back }

Yup, this blog has been very neglected, but I promise to be posting about all of our adventures that we have been on in the past months!  This year has sure been crazy, but we are hanging in there.  Stay tuned...we are excited to be back in the blogging world.

Jill  ; )  

10 seconds of fame!

Jill Parkin Designs got a small spot on the "Good Day LA" for winning the 2008 Hotlist.  They came and took video of all my invitations and some of me holding up invitations.  I must not have done a good job because they cut me out!  At least my invitations did good. Watch here. 

happy father's day

Dear Daddy,

We made you this tie to wear because we love you so much!  

You are the best daddy in whole wide world.  You play with us everyday.  You take us camping and build tents for us in the backyard so we can sleep under the stars.  You read us stories and tuck us in at night.  You take us to the donut store and always make sure we get our favorite donut.  You cook us dinner and help mommy with the housework.  You always make sure we have clean pj's and that our fishy gets fed.  You take us to Target to look at the cars, legos and Star Wars toys, and we always get a yummy slurpie on our outings there.  You take us to the library to get a new set of books each week.   You teach us many things; to ride our scooters, to play baseball, to do what is right and to be mommy's big helpers.  We could never ask for a better daddy than you.  Happy Father's Day daddy, we sure do love you!

Love your sweet boys,

Jack and Kyle

the fathers in my life

To my husband,
Chado, words cannot express how much I love you. Thanks for being the greatest father in the world to my boys, you mean the world to them. You are so good to us.

To my daddy and Chad's dad and grandpa,
Thanks for all you have done to help raise us up in this world. You are the best and we appreciate all the love, support, help, advise, stories and wisdom you have given to us. Thanks for being there.

Happy Father's Day.

With love,

Jill

stylin' packages

How cute is this packaging tape.  It sure beats plain brown or my hubby's fave DUCT TAPE!  Oh, but look at all the cool things you can make with it....

guess who won????

So honored and excited to have won Fox La's Hotllist - Best of Orange County for Invitations!!!!! Thank to all who voted for me. Luv Ya!!!

cute & red

I bought these today.

afternoon out.

Chad and I went to see this movie today.  It's been out for a while, but the time was right and it looked kind of funny.  Yep, it was funny.  

Now, this is just wrong!

Thanks "G" for watching the boys.

{ cravings }

I have been craving these for a weeks.  So I made some.

IMO my sisters and I make  the best chocolate chip cookies. Don't believe me?  Ask them. Okay, so we're biased, but if you are so lucky (tooting my horn right now) to have tried them, you'll agree.  

So if you want to make some too, use this recipe.  It's the best. But to make them like I do, you have to use Butter Crisco instead of butter, and imitation vanilla.  And when they are cooking, you have to take them out of the oven BEFORE they brown, they should only have slight browning on the edges. And leave them on the cookie sheet to cool.  I don't put the walnuts in either.  Trust me, they're YUMMMMMMMMY!

Now go make some.

raining

Today the weather was yucky, can't believe it rained (did I say rained?  I meant poured and hailed). It was 100 degrees on monday, what's up with that?  So we went here!  We love this place. Thanks for coming with us Aunt Amy, we will miss you when you leave to Arizona.

happy birthday Papa!

Hope you had a wonderful day!  We love you.

DREAMING: silly rabbit, silly uncle

We heard that uncle Tony had an incredible game of one-on-one basketball the other evening!  The game took place in dreamland, Uncle Tony v.s. The Trix Rabbit?  Wow, Tony has some great dreams!!!!

If you are wondering who won, you'll have to ask Tony.  Unfortunately we weren't able to attend that game.  We'll stay tuned for tonight's game.  Uncle Tony v.s. Toucan Sam, and if he wins that series he will go on to the play-offs, joined by Tony the Tiger and Lucky the Leprechaun.

Silly Tony!

{ brothers }

"My Brother, My Friend

I love my brother, my brother loves me. 

My friend, my hero, he always will be.

In sundry ways our uniqueness is clear.

He likes to go far, but I favor near.

He likes to play sports and being outside.

I prefer playing music and playing inside.

Sometimes we fight and scream at each other,

but he is my friend for he is my brother."

Jackson & Kyle

my beautiful mammas

Wanted to wish you all a Happy Mother's Day! 

To my mom, grandma and "G":

Thanks for all you do for our family.  You mean so much to us and are priceless in our eyes.  

And to my pals,

I often look at each one of you and wonder, "How does she do that?  She is sooo amazing!" I see how you nurture and care for your little ones leading them on the right path in life.  The joy you and your children share.  I am fascinated by the many accomplishments you have all made.

And on those hard days, when you are just about to give up, take a minute and give your babies a hug!  Dance around, forget about the housework, look into the precious eyes of your little one and see the sweetness.  Remember how important you are to your little sweeties....the most precious things on earth. They love you unconditionally...you are their hero!  And you are all mine.

Being a mommy is the hardest....and the BEST thing on earth! 

You are all the best!

xoxo, Jill

gone fishin'

If you could only see the faces on my boys as the returned home from a morning out fishing with daddy.  They were all smiles from ear to ear!  They enjoyed a morning with daddy, papa and their cousins at a local fishing pond where they were able to catch fish.  Jackson caught a pretty big one, and little Kyle was as happy as can be just carrying a fishing pole around.  Jack said that he wanted to go back right now and didn't want the fun to end!  Lucky Boys!

{ my friends }

"I don't remember how we happened to meet each other.

I don't remember who got along with whom first.

All I can remember is all of us together...always."

Author unknown

I wish you all success in life, and that all your dreams may come true.  

I may seem busy a lot of the time, but I keep you all in my prayers. 

I just wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to you.  

You have truly helped me to know what is most important in life.  

I love you all,

Jill

my bathing sweathearts

Nothing melts my heart as much as these sweet smiles and playful spirits at the end of a busy day.  Bathtime! A perfect moment to unwind for the day and enjoy what truly matters in life....these sweetie pies!

Now, time for bed...Sweet Dreams!

Love, mommy

summer has begun!

At least in California! This weekend we got to go to our first swim party of the summer and we had a blast! The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time in the pool while mommy and daddy had fun chatting to friends.  

Thanks Adornette Family for the invite, and Happy 5th Birthday to the birthday girl Samantha!  May you get that birthday wish!

Love,

the Parkin Family

A tent, A daddy, two boys & a million stars

Friday night the boys had a camp out with daddy in the backyard!  Wasn't sure how Kyle would do, but daddy said everyone had so much fun and they even got a little sleep.  The boys had a blast. They are soooo lucky to have such a fun daddy.

introducing...

We've got a new baby to share with you...

Madeline Paige Nguyen

born April 12th, 2008

Isn't she precious! Good work Aunt Michelle and Uncle Tony.  

We are so excited to have her in our family.  

Party Day!

This weekend we were able to enjoy a party with our good friends. It was our little friend Mia's first birthday! It was great to visit with our friends and Jack and Kyle had a blast playing, coloring, hitting the pinata and of course eating sweets!

Here is the little birthday Princess Mia and her mommy Queen Rose

Our little friend Robin getting her face painted

Jack with his friend Cory

Samantha and Julie (aren't they cute!)

We feel so blessed to have such good friends!  You are all the best!

Valentine's....YUMMY!

This blog thing must be working, because here is what I got for Valentine's Day from the hubby. YUMMY! Too bad I couldn't eat them all because I am on a diet, but I had a bunch of drooling boys that did just great at gobbling them up!

My Gymbo Baby

We've enrolled in Gymboree! Kyle that is. And I am really having fun getting some one-on-one time with little Kyle. I appreciate getting to know this little sweetheart's personality and cute characteristics. He's determined, athletic, a little helper, a little shy, happy and full of giggles! 

Here are some of his Gymboree tricks!

He can go up...

He can go down...

Through a tunnel...

Slam Dunk! 

I sure love this little guy!

xoxo, mommy