Good morning and happy fall!! 🙂

Life lately here has been pretty much set in routine and it’s been wonderful. We are finally figuring out what the weeks are going to look like this fall and it’s just been glorious. The weather is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter and it’s just been perfect here. 😉

And hey, speaking of fall, guess what is now available for pre-order?? So excited for you guys to meet Katie! (And side note, it says 52 pages on the Amazon page, but it is actually a full-length book. Attempting to fix that!!) Katie in Waiting releases on November 20th!

This little love has been a sleeping machine lately. So thankful, because he’s also cutting his top two eye teeth and he has been just miserable a few days this week. 🙁 We have have had a couple of days of living on baby ibuprofen, Mama snuggles and the most annoying Mickey Mouse DVD in the entire world. This baby loves his “MeMo”. And potato soup and “bwead”. 😉

Jon listed his first house this past weekend! So proud of my extremely hard working man – he’s never been one to sit still. 😉 Praying that God blesses this new venture of his. And I think his helper is about the cutest real estate assistant in the world. Anyone need a house? 😉

Parker can still fit into most 12 month clothes (proof that he’s a lot shorter than Nathan ever was – by this point, Nathan was mostly in 24 month!), but his pants were getting pretty short on him, so I pulled out all the 18 month clothes and washed them and got them in his room this week. He found Nathan’s old Halloween costume and has barely taken it off. Poor kid has been sweating to death in it, but he’s just so cute! He poked the fluffy tummy, looked at me and grinned and said, “Baby!” Ha!

Nathan started running a 101 fever Monday night when he went to bed, so we stayed home from school on Tuesday and had a movie day instead. He didn’t run a fever the whole day and was basically back to normal Tuesday night, so I’m not sure what was going on, but Tuesday was nice and rainy and it was a good day to just be sick and lay around.

And that’s been our life lately!! Loving this time with these crazy boys!!

This year, we went to the State Fair two days in a row… we were all exhausted afterward! 🙂 The first day, we went with Gammy, Pops and Aunt Cayce as part of Nathan’s school, so we all got to go for free. So fun! And the second day, we took Jon back and did a few different things.

The first day we went was September 11th and Firefighter Day. So thankful for these heroes who sacrifice so much so we can live the way we do.

They had all kinds of firefighter demonstrations set up for the kids to do – Nathan was SO serious about them! He has wanted to grow up to be a firefighter his whole life, so this day was totally made for him. 😉

“Excuse me, but can I please take a picture with you guys?” They were so kind to oblige him. 😉

Smokey the Bear was there! Parker wanted nothing to do with him. We asked if he wanted to go see Smokey and he said, “No. No, no no no.” Ha!

Both of the boys LOVED the baby animals! They both got to pet a baby chicken and a baby duck. 😉

Hot and tired. 😉

Nathan was totally in awe of this firefighter who was all decked out in his gear. He thought he was about the coolest thing in the whole world. He didn’t stop talking about it the whole way home. 🙂

Back at the fair with Daddy!! Saturday was quite a bit more crowded than Friday morning, but we still had a great time. We watched a diving show and the boys practiced some archery.

We hit up the petting zoo on this day and Parker LOVED the animals! Oh my goodness, he loved them.

He found a brush to brush the animals with and went to town.

Then Parker discovered that all of the animals were right at the right height to hug:

Ha! He went a little bit HUG ALL THE THINGS, but he had a great time. Can’t speak for the animals, however.

 Hot, sweaty and tired, but we had a great time!

The boys were out before we even made it out of the parking lot. 😉

How we eat when Mom is kind enough to provide a bowl. 😉

This week has been fairly busy. We had a couple of make up swim lessons since we missed them during the fair, we’ve cleaned out closets and we’ve been working on school and Sparky verses and mountains of laundry.

These guys went to Talk Like a Pirate day at Krispy Kreme on Saturday before Jon and I headed out to one of my friend’s weddings. A fun but busy weekend to end a fun and busy week!! Ready for a normally scheduled week this week. 🙂

I have so much to catch up on still, but yesterday, my sweet Parker Bear turned 18 months old.

Seriously, I have no idea where the time is going. We were looking back at old pictures this weekend and I swear he was just born last week. And it scares me because I know it will just go faster and faster like it has with Nathan.

So, since I haven’t done a monthly update on him since he turned a year, I thought today would be a good day to have a post that is all about our little Parker love. 🙂

Parker is SO happy. All the time. Unless he is hungry, teething or tired and then he is very, very mad. He has two extremes, this child. When he is happy, he is uncontrollably happy and dancing and hopping and running as fast as he can to keep up with Nathan. And when he is mad, he is usually screaming and crying and not letting go of my leg. 😉 Thankfully, those times are usually pretty rare!

He has become a great sleeper, which is something I never thought I would say about this kid! Ha! He takes a great 2.5 to 3 hour nap every day and then sleeps at least 12 if not 13 (or even 14!!) hours at night. He is super attached to his pacifier (Nathan got him to call it a baba), his Mickey Mouse (“MeMo”), his Pooh Bear and his blanket.

Parker loves to talk. LOVES. TO. TALK. He talks or yells all day long. I’ve lost count of how many words he says, but his favorite ones are Naynen, Baba, MeMo, Mama, Daddy, Dodo (Kody), EAT, Ice (which means water, I finally figured out), No, Mine, Nack (snack), Play, Jump, Ball, FOOT-ball and watch. He’s started putting two and three words together so he’ll say, “Play Naynen” and “Want nack” and “Mama hold please”. He is VERY good about saying please and thank you and he will sometimes burst out in the Roll Call from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

He loves to watch anything Mickey Mouse but especially loves a sing-along movie I have from the 80s of all the characters and a bunch of kids singing Disney songs in Disneyland. He has become fairly demanding about it: “WATCH MEMO. MOTE? MOTE?” (asking for the remote) 😉 He loves to play with cars and will drive them around the house. He loves anything and everything that Nathan is doing because Nathan is his bestest buddy in the whole world.

He can jump and get both feet off the floor and he does a fantastic somersault. He laughs with his whole entire body and his little cheesy smile is my favorite thing in the whole world. He has the best cheeks for kissing and he loves to snuggle, especially at night or first thing when he wakes up. He is incredibly loud. His new favorite night is Thursdays when Nathan is gone at Awana because then he gets mine and Jon’s total attention. He has been known to hit when he is not happy, but he’s pretty good about saying “I sowwy” and giving hugs later.

We just adore our little Parker Bear! He has completely transformed our family and I cannot imagine it without him. Love my little man!

So sorry for the lack of consistent posting lately!! If I have a spare minute to sit down when I’m not falling asleep, I’m working my hardest on Katie in Waiting (official release date coming soon!!), so I haven’t had a lot of time to write on here!

We spent a fantastic Labor Day weekend in Durango with our dear friends Jen and Greg and their kids Noah and Emma. 🙂 Noah is six months older than Nathan and Emma is one month exactly younger than Parker, so it was perfect ages! We rented a little cabin in the middle of nowhere down the LONGEST dirt road ever and had the absolute BEST time!

These two were together all the time. Constantly. Parker was NOT a fan of Noah by the time we left because he stole his bestest buddy. 😉 They played so well together! We surprised Nathan with the trip, so he was SO excited to see Noah and play with him!

Parker and Emma in the gazebo by the cabin. 🙂 These two had a love/hate relationship. Emma finally warmed up to us only to get beat up on by Parker for coming close to “MY DADDY” or “MY MAMA”. Oy. We have some possessiveness to work out before January comes. 😉

The five of us. 😉

There was a huge meadow by our cabin, so the dads took the big boys out and taught them both how to use a BB gun. Noah was a total natural!

Me and my little buddy. 🙂

The dads and big boys went for a walk to spot some wildlife, so we kept the little ones at home. A chipmunk kept coming up on the deck, so we put little pieces of a Nutri-grain bar and cheetos on the deck to lure him up there for the kids to watch. Parker was completely fascinated! It’s all he talked about. 😉 And thanks to Nathan singing “Let It Go” the whole hike, we saw more wildlife than they did. Ha!

The whole gang!! Love these people!

We walked through town and saw a couple of horses pulling a wagon, so we had to stop and get a picture with the “hee-ya” like Parker calls it. 😉

More hee-yas! Parker tried so hard to fit in with the big boys. 😉 Love how he says “hee-ya” instead of “yee-ha”. 😉

Jen and Greg gave the boys these awesome lego construction sets that they worked super hard on. So sweet. I know Nathan loves that he has something that matches Noah now. 😉

The buds in bed. This is the first time Nathan has slept in the same room with someone who isn’t me or Jon and he did pretty good! The first night they were up SO early, so we laid down the ground rules and they behaved a lot better after that.

Our last dinner before heading home. Love my sweet family.

Such a wonderful trip!! My favorite parts were when the babies would be napping and Jen and I would get a cup of coffee and just talk. Love my friend. Loved our time together!! Already excited for next year. 🙂

 Such a fun first day of school!
 
Monday night, we put a very excited Nathan in bed after he’d laid out his school clothes and gotten all of the things he needed in his backpack. He looked up at us and said, “Mom, how do you sleep?” I said, “On my side, usually. Why?” He said, “Because I start school tomorrow, so I’m a big kid now. I have to start sleeping like a big person too.” Cue the tears. I cried Monday night but held it together for my sweet boy on the big day! I just can’t believe he’s already starting school!

I got up early Tuesday morning to make a good breakfast for Nathan that we could eat with Jon before he left for work. When I went in to get Nathan out of bed, he was wearing his school clothes instead of his pajamas. 😉 ha! He was SO excited!!

We had a Happy First Day of School breakfast of blueberry muffins, bacon and eggs. A feast considering the typical breakfasts around here. 😉

Parker woke up with CRAZY hair but we had to take a picture of the brothers on the first day of school anyway. 🙂 It doesn’t matter what I use to try and get it to lay down, it doesn’t work. It just eventually settles down on it’s own. He still has fluffy baby hair. 😉

Hugs for Dad before he left! I love how excited Nathan is in every single picture!

At the campus!!

LOVE this of the two boys walking inside together. Parker gets to come as well, though he goes to a nursery for the little guys. But, he is SO proud of his backpack that matches his big brother’s!

Me and my first baby. 🙂

 When we first got inside, we went in his class to put his backpack away and all the other kids were running around and he pulled out a notebook and a pencil and sat down at his place and just start writing his name. 😉 SO cute. He is so excited to learn!! I love that! He had a great day with his teacher and classmates and we are now the proud owners of a pinto bean that we are going to attempt to grow into a plant. 😉

Tired but very happy at the end of the day. 😉 I think it was everything he hoped it would be. 😉

And this poor kid…ha! He was SO tired he could barely walk, but he insisted on wearing his “packpack” and carrying both his water and lunchbox. He had a great time too!

All in all, it was a wonderful first day of school for my sweet boy. So thankful for these last five years with him and so excited for this new adventure ahead. 🙂

School starts today for Nathan, so we have been soaking in the last of summer!!

I can’t believe my baby is already going to school, I mean, seriously, he was just this big only a few weeks ago:

Cue the mama tears.

We started up most of our fall activities over the last two weeks! We have a crazy fall scheduled so we’ve had to drop a few activities that we have done in the past just to keep our sanity (and to give me at least one day to just be home). This time around being pregnant, I have been very tired and sore, so planning in days to be home and do a lot of sitting activities have been SO wonderful for my ligaments and ankles!! 🙂

The boys started swim lessons a couple of weeks ago and are LOVING them. Nathan went last year but this is Parker’s first time to go. He still has to have a parent in the pool with him (enter me) but he is soaking it up (no pun intended). He’s already started gliding to me under the water. It’s so fun to watch him learn! And Nathan is busy learning how to switch back and forth between freestyle and backstroke. I know two kids who are going to go nuts watching the Olympics this year.

Some post nap snuggles with my tattooed toddler. Someone has to be exactly like his brother in all things.

Case in point. 😉 Since Nathan starts school this week, we’ve been trying to go over a few review things over the last couple of weeks and to get us in the groove for the home days with his school. I started trying to do school in the mornings, but it was just too hard with Parker needing to play and Nathan needing to get some energy out, so we’ve switched things up a bit. I get Nathan up early from rest time and we try to get the majority of his school done before Parker gets up (which means less writing time for me, so please pray that I use the time I have diligently!). But when Parker is up, he’s got to be doing “school” with Nathan. I found a little paint with water board for him to play with and he loves it.

Orientation day!! Nathan was fully dressed in this outfit and had his backpack on before I was all the way out of bed. 😉 He is SO excited for school to start!! Since I stay on the campus, I got Parker a little “packpack” too to take to his class (aka the nursery). It’s going to be a fun year!

We had to take the car in to get the oil changed and they were showing a preview of a new Snoopy movie. The boys thought Jiffy Lube was the best place ever.

Nathan finished his entrance booklet and was awarded his Sparky vest, bag and book at the closing ceremonies in the big group. He was SO proud! Oh my goodness. It was adorable.

On Awana nights, Parker gets Mom and Dad to himself, so we took him to Target for a little shopping and Auntie Cayce’s Starbucks for a treat, where we all got spoiled rotten by Cayce. And to top the night off, she even let him sweep a little bit. 😉 I think Thursday nights might become his favorite. 😉

We
got a box of baby girl and maternity clothes in the mail from my dear friend Leigh
Ann – SO much fun!! I love all the pink! Such a blessing from a sweet
friend.

And that was our week last week! Can’t wait to update on how school went today! 🙂