Who needs Edward Cullen....

when you have this look-alike at arms length!

But if I had a son, sir! I'll tell ya what he'd do...

he'd yell: 'TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!' Like his mommy used to do.

Parker had his first Georgia Tech tailgating experience on Saturday! We had a great day hanging out at the Lambda Chi house for some awesome BBQ, going to see my sweet friend, Ashley at her Sigma Chi tailgate, stopping by to see my bestie and old roommate from freshman year, Jessica... and of course stopping by my awesome sorority - Phi Mu - to catch up with some old friends before heading home. We didn't want to brave the weather for the actual game, so we brought Parker and Kayley home so Whitney and Doug could enjoy the AWESOME game that we beat some Virginia Tech butt in! (I'm sorry Kate.) 

Me and Parker with sweet Jessica

Parker the Yellow Jacket with his Aunt Jessica

Parker LOVES to touch cold things.  I guess this includes ice cold beer.

Parker with his Uncle Walzer - Walzer isn't too sure about Parker.

Kayley and Parker at Lambda Chi house - Carson - who Parker actually shared an original due date with - is on the right.

Kayley liked to play with the thingies on Parker's head.

On the way from the Phi Mu house back to our car on West Campus, Kay and Parker were OUT!  As you can see - everyone was bundled up!

It was SO cold!

Cozy Kayley.

The Hull Family at the Phi Mu house.

Kayley and Parker playing back at our house.

Monday morning - we started Parker on solids!  He ate cereal for the first time - and then proceeded to throw it up all over the place.  He did the same thing on day 2.  We are going to hold off on solids for another week or so...

He loves to reach for the camera!

Parker and I enjoing his very first bottle of formula! 

Parker - the Precious Yellow Jacket!

Happy Halloween!

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Another Video...

I can't help myself :)

Happy Parker!

I couldn't let the previous post be my last post up there - too, too sad!  Here are 2 videos we took this weekend - prooving we really are good parents that do everything possible to make our sweet son laugh!  Warning - these videos are OVER LOADED with precious Parker-ness! 

6 Month Doctor Visit

Not really sure what to think - he can faintly remember seeing that dumb lion on the wall before - but really can't remember how he remembers the lion.....

Poor Parker had to spend his day of being a 6 month and 1 day old baby at the doctor!  His check-up went well - he was pretty happy the entire time.  He had lots of very important conversations with "the lion" on the wall and showed all his awesome (and not so awesome) personality traits to Dr. Furr.  This included talking candidly on cue - being INCREDIBLY cute - giggling for her when she tickled him.... as well as spitting up all over the floor and on my 'dry clean only' pants.  Parker has this very special ability - you see.  He can SPOT 'dry clean only' clothes!  It's amazing.  He sees someone has a 'dry clean only' peice of clothing and IMMEDIATELY begins to spit up all over it!  It's really amazing.  I have learned a great trick of leaning forward a few inches when I see the half digested food coming back up and his spit up splatters all over the floor - sometimes onto my feet/shoes and the person standing near me shoes/feet as well.  But - it's better than spending $100 a month on dry cleaning! 

He was starting to remember what happened the last time he saw Mr. Lion and he grabs his best friends - his feet - for some quick relief in hopes that he mean lady won't come and poke him again!

Anyway - he showed all of these awesome abilities to our doc!  She was very impressed with him and answered about 2 million questions we had about the flu shot and the H1N1 shot.  She was awesome and patiently answered them all but I could SEE behind her sweet smile that she had probably been explaining these answers to about 20,000 different mommies and daddies in the past few weeks.  I finally decided to stop asking and I just trusted that God had led us to the right doctor (basically just using the same doctor my sister Whitney and her husband Doug had decided on after several pediatrician interviews over several week nights they set apart before their Kayley was born.... this is something we never took the time to do and just decided we would do what I so often do - and do what big sis Whit does!) and that we would trust Him and her to take care of our little boy. 

Mommy's view.

Looking up the lion for some support.....

Here are a few videos of Precious Parker - the first is of him before he knew the shots were coming.  The second - is very sad - but for some reason I really wanted to document it.  Some may think it's so mean to document such a terrible time in a precious child's life but I love seeing Parker's eyes look up at his daddy right before he gets his shots.  There is SUCH an amazing trust behind those eyes.  Parker just always trusts his mommy and daddy to always do the right thing - to always make him feel better - and he always knows we are there for him.  Seeing him look into his daddy's eyes - hearing his cry - hearing his daddy's soothing voice over him - seeing his daddy hurt for him - and then seeing his daddy scoop him up off the table make him feel all better.  Amazing. 

Of course while taking this picture I realized I was possibly the worst mommy out there - and that I had to be the cruelest mommy in the world for making my son be in any pain what-so-ever!  Another thought in my head was - my child is SO INCREDIBLY HANDSOME and I think he is looking a little more like his mommy every day :)  If I do say so myself....

6 Months

October 14, 2009

Dear Parker,

Today is your six month birthday. 

I think back to last August (2008) when I found out you were in my tummy and I remember crying for nearly a week straight.  In fact, I cried so hard the day I found out I was pregnant with you, my cell phone completely broke because it was so tear-logged.  I had to rush to go get a new phone!  If only I would have known how incredibly awesome life would be with you, my reaction would have been MUCH different.  But I didn't know.  I was SCARED!  Your daddy and I had only been married a little over a year, daddy was still in school, we didn't feel grounded yet at all, we were renting a tiny home in Smyrna, we didn't have any money saved up,  and we did not think we were fit to be good parents yet!  I knew that one day I would want to be a mommy, but I did not think I was old enough, mature enough or good enough to bring a life into my world. 

I questioned God a lot those first few days I knew you were inside my tummy.  I had a friend at church, Lori, who had been trying to have a baby for YEARS and she had gone through so much to try and have a baby.  ALL she wanted was to be a mommy.  And here I was, crying and upset that God had chosen to give you to me - with no trouble at all - and here was Lori - who was ready and willing - and He hadn't given her that one void in her life yet.  (Quick update on that - Lori gave birth just a few weeks ago to a precious little girl!)

Oh, Parker, if only you could realize how much you changed my life in an instant.  A few days after we found out you were only 8  months (which ended up only being 7 months!) from joining our lives, I began to realize what a true blessing you were.  I handed my life, your daddy's life, and your life over in God's hands and told him I trusted him fully to take care of us.   And did he ever!  The few things we were most worried about - after we handed them all to God - were taken care of - above and beyond what we could have imagined.

Just a few MINUTES after you were born!  We called you Rocky for the first few hours because you looked like you had been in a boxing match!  And you had been!  With my PELVIC BONE!  :)

A few months down the road, we found our PERFECT dream house that we could afford to build - and thanks to our wonderful family - we were able to scrape up enough money to find a way to afford it.   Child care - which was a CONSTANT worry for us and how we would ever be able to afford it - was solved in an instant when your incredibly generous Aunt Whitney and Uncle Doug offered to share their nanny with us.  Our cars - which are both nearing their 10 year birthdays - have been HANGING in there with no major repairs needed.   And our 3rd dog, Harlee Jane (who we had been fostering several months before we found out you were coming) was adopted out to an INCREDIBLE home and family. 

Just me and you, bud, hanging out just an hour or so after you were born!  Mommy was SO tired!  And you were so sweet!

God had EVERYTHING planned out perfectly for us - I just had to re-learn (like I do so often when I forget) to fully trust him and give everything to him in order to allow him to bless us with our OVER FLOWING blessings. 

Looking MUCH better the day after you were born!  You went from 'Rocky' to 'Super Baby Model'!  I posted this picture on my facebook page and I got SO many comments from friends who just said you were absolutely the most beautiful baby they had ever seen!  I must agree!  :)

Parker - you are the best thing that can possibly come from two people.  You are a perfect creation and you honestly make my life more wonderful and more enjoyable every day.  As soon as I walk into your nursery every morning and see your PRECIOUS smiling face looking up at me, I can't help but fall in love with you more and more every moment. 

I had no idea it was possible to love another human the way I love you.  It's almost like I can come a little bit closer to understanding God's love for me - his perfect creation - his child.  And it makes me want to give my life to God every day - in never-ending praise and thanks to him for GIVING his son up - to allow him to die on a cross as a punishment for my sins that I comit every day.  How heart-wrenching to even think of giving you up - ever - for anyone!  For any reason!   To know that God's love is so much bigger than what I feel for you - is amazing. 

This was taken the day after we took you home from the hospital - which was also your daddy's 28th birthday!  You snoozed the entire time in your bouncy seat.  Today - at 6 months you BARELY fit in your bouncy seat! 

Parker - you have AWESOME role models to look up to.  I pray you turn out to be just like your daddy, your Hoppy and your Papa - all of who are incredible Christian men.  I pray that you will follow in their footsteps always. 

I know that you won't always be perfect. And I know that you will disappoint me time and time again - but you could NEVER do ANYTHING to make me love you less. 

You are amazing.  And I thank God for you EVERY day.  I love you.

Love, Mommy

Killing time....

I am sitting  here - listening to the rain hit the roof of our house - trying to stay awake until 11:30 so I can register on Herbal Essence's web site so I can get a free bottle of shampoo.  Turning into a coupon-er has made me a bargain queen and I just CANNOT pass up an opportunity to get something for free - espsecially crappy shampoo that I'll use because I got it for free! 

So - what else should I do besides BLOG! 

There has been one thing in particular I've been meaning to blog about - but never seem to remember when I'm blogging - which is normally done while I'm feeding Parker or pumping... lovely I know... or in this case... waiting to save $3 on crappy shampoo :)

GOING PRIVATE.  I go back and forth and  back and forth on this ALL THE TIME.  I even got really close once and asked all my friends who read my blog regularly and would want to be included on the "list" of people who can still read it with a password and log in name to email me or comment on the blog to let me know!  Then I never got around to doing it... there were about 50 or so people who replied and I was THRILLED that that many people read it! And I am glad to say I'm not the only one who has struggled with this....  Some of my bloggy friends and I have chatted about this before.  Part of us wants to protect our families, our babies, our privacy - from the outside world and WHATEVER cooky people are out there that could be reading into our life.  But the other part LOVES the fact that you can share memories and life situations with other friends that you don't necessarily know very well. 

For instance - a girl name Terri moved into a house about a block away from us when we lived in Smyrna. 

Another mutual neighbor told me I HAD to meet this girl because she reminded her so much of me!  I didn't think much of it - I was pregnant, in the midst of packing up my house, working full time, blah blah blah - I wasn't really interested in meeting some random girl who I probably wouldn't see again after I moved anyway!  Well - a few weeks before we were moving, I had dinner with my sweet friend Hollie and she was telling me about this girl named Terri that moved a block away from me and she was awesome and I should totally get to know her.  Uh huh - you guessed it - it's the same girl!  So - that night - I decided to stalk this Terri girl to see what she was all about and why everyone said I should get to know her!  So - I found her on facebook and sent her a message and asked to be her Friend... which she accepted by the next morning :)  (I'm glad I'm not the only social networking addict around here!)  While checking out her FB page, I saw her BLOG link!  YAY!  I was super excited!  I read all about her - and we had SO many things in common and all our  mutual friends were so right!  I needed to meet this girl!  Well guess what - I didn't even meet her until AFTER we moved and now I am so sad I didn't meet her sooner.  ANYWAY - the point being - we have such a sweet little friendship.  It's fun to relate to each other in so many things that we are going through together (pregnancy, infants, baby boys, etc...)  and I would have never been able to form this friendship if it weren't for her BLOG!  That WASN'T private! 

Ok - 9 more minutes to kill time - which I'm glad because I have another bloggy friend I must talk about...

The Keight Case.

 I met Keight's now husband the first or second week of my freshman year at Georgia Tech and I kind of became friends with this whole little group of girls and guys and we all went to CCF throughout the week together.  I think Jesse and I even had a class together - I think it was Political Science - not sure to be honest.  Anyway - I think that is when we became friends because we would study together.  I think that's right - I may need Jesse to confirm that.  EITHER WAY - we became friends my freshman year through CCF and through a class we had together.  Well - I left Tech after my 3rd year to go to Kennesaw State University and my 4th year of college - I studied abroad in Salamanca Spain for 3-4 months.  Jesse was also in Salamanca during the same time I was there, but he was doing some mission work for CCF.  He and Keight were just dating then - but she came to visit him for a short while.  And Chris also came to visit me for a week or so (this was also the same time when he proposed to me in Paris) but while Chris and I were eating at Burger King in the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca (I think that's where it was) we ran into Jesse and Keight and I met Keight!  Okay - that is the ONLY time I have ever met Keight - and I was sure that she wouldn't like me because while I was a student at Tech - I had it FIXATED in my mind that all athelete girls hated my guts.  I lived in a dorm with (I think they were basketball players) over one summer there and I was scared to death of those girls.  I have no idea why I though that - but anyway - I was sure Keight probably hated me too.  But ANYWAY I also found her blog through Jesse's FB page a year or so ago when we were both preggers and I totally fell in love with her blog.  Likewise with the Terri situation - Keight and I were preggers at the same time - had kids only a month or 2 apart and we have so many things in common. Over the past few months we have bounced advice off one another through e-mails and FB messages and blog comments and it has been SO fun to talk about all the things we are experiencing similarly.  ALL OF WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if her or my blog were private! 

Okay - it's 11:30 and I just tried to sign up for my free crappy shampoo and aparantly I can't read a calendar because the deal is over.  Bummer.  Oh well - at least I got to write about these few random things I've been thinking of lately :) 

So - anyway - this is my dillema.  I love meeting new people through blogs - it's fun and totally random and I honestly think that God led me to meet Terri and Keight through their blogs!  They are both super Christian girls who deal with the same issues I deal with every day.  And it's just NICE to know there is another new mommy out there who loves to kiss her baby boy's bottom, too... and it's NICE to know that you're not the only one who is experiencing double digit jean sizes for the first time and totally hating it... and it's NICE to know that you're not the only one who got knee fat as a side effect from pregnancy! And it's NICE to know that it's OKAY if your marriage is struggling every now and then - especially after a baby.  It's NICE to know that you're not the only one who struggles with her quiet time every day - especially after baby. It's NICE to know you're not the only one who dreams of being a back up singer for Carrie Underwood and having her legs and her hair.  Helloooo!  If that doesn't sound like God's intervention then I don't know what is :)  Just kidding - but not really - but really - but not really :)

And as a side note - as I was finishing up that last sentence - my sweet Buddie came into eye shot of me and peed on the floor - right in front of me.  This dog and his pea-sized bladder are driving me nuts!

GOOD NIGHT!

The T Family - Double Stroller - Sitting Up!

I've blogged about the T's for quite some time now - they are my precious second Atlanta family.  I began babysitting for them my 2nd year at Georgia Tech when their Aunt Annie (my Phi Mu big sis) graduated from GT and moved away!  Sad for Annie - lucky for me - because I got to become part of the T family :)  Love them!  This totally makes me feel old but Abbie - in the first few pictures - was like 9 months-ish when I began sitting for her! 

Abby got a hold of my camera and took some pix of us!  She did a great job at centering for a girl her age (I can't say exactly because I honestly can't remember how old she is... I think she'll be 7 next summer.)  She also took some pictures of our car seat, some plants around the house, the kitchen booth and also a self portrait of her which turned out to be her teeth only :) I won't include those for you enjoyment - but you can imagine!

I must say that in the picture below I was looking very hard for the diapers in our DIAPER BAG that Chris packs every morning.  Well - whoopsie - he forgot to pack diapers so Parker was in the same diaper on Tuesday from about 3:00 when Chris picked him up from the nanny's until about 8:30 when I got home... awesome parenting here...

Park wearing some gold medal Abby wanted him to wear... she said he was #1!

Luke and "State Park" as he likes to call him :)

My sweet Mag Pie :)

So beautiful :)

Since October has finally begun to feel like October again - mid to upper 80s - we tried out the double stroller with Nanny Julie yesterday!  It was a sort of success!  Kayley likes to reach over and grab Parker's belt thing and sometimes she misses and grabs his nose or eye or ear... Parker isn't too fond of this.

Last night was one of THOSE nights.  This entire week, it's been raining every morning and my normal 45 minute to one hour commute has turned into a 2 and a half hour commute every morning... I've been running off of about 4.5-5 hours of sleep and we just planned too much in too few days so Parks has been a little on the "off schedule" mood.  Yesterday when I finally got home around 6 and I after I fed him - it was near 7 pm and so much needed to be done.  Before I began to get started on things, I prayed that God would give me strength and that he would  help to keep Park occupied for at least 30 minutes so I could get dinner started, clean the kitchen up, get his bath ready and also pin up some curtains I got on clearance yesterday for $12... and as always - God is good!  :)  I got most of this done while Parker sat up ON HIS OWN for about 30 minutes and played in his pack-n-play.  This is the first time he's sat up by himself for this amount of time (the most he's done it in the past is about 2 minutes!)  When I finally finished everything, he just looked so precious I had to take a picture :) 

Precious big boy!  (Playing with another toy we stole from Aunt Whitney's house!)

Very last update...

Not so perfect Parker... Papa has nick names for his two grandsons - Griffin the Great and Perfect Parker.... well... Parker is NOT so perfect all the time... This is for all of you who imagine our life is as perfect as it shows in all our cute-sie videos and pretty pictures. IT IS like that sometimes... but NOT all the time.

This was taken one night during dinner... Parker was DETERMINED to be in a bad mood and nothing we did helped.  We moved him to five different locations, gave him 5 million different toys, burped him, held him... nothing.  He was just mad at the world... so we just let him after awhile. 

Almost finished updating :)

Saturday morning started with a EARLY walk around the neighborhood!  We had such a fun time.  Chris and I were both up and at 'em at 6:30 Saturday morning (Chris was up an hour earlier due to our awesome Buddie issues we are dealing with) so after Parker ate his morning meal, we went on a walk!  We ventured over to our neighborhood "tot lot" and let Parker "play" on the playground.  Here we are going down the slide together..... as you can see he thought it was awesome! 

Later on Saturday, AUNT JESSICA came to visit! We had such a fun time hanging out and catching up!  And of course STUFFING ourselves with FIVE GUYS cheeseburgers for lunch.  YUMMMMMM!  Here are some sweet pix of Aunt Jess and Parker at our house.

Ha ha - Parker decided to spit up some of his 5 Guys Cheeseburger right when we took this picture!  Yes - that is spit up trailing all the way down his NICE CLEAN Georgia Tech onesie.

Saturday night, we went to Aunt Whitney's and Uncle Doug's. I had PLANNED to make a cake after dinner but seeing as we didn't even get over there for dinner until nearly 9 pm, making a cake was not feasible.  So - we packed up the cake supplies on our way out and Parker was quite fond of being the designated cake ingredients holder :)  I may send this in to Betty Crocker....  future Betty Crocker model on our hands?

I think so!

After church on Sunday, Chris was finishing up his brick wall around our tree bed in our front yard that he's been "working on" for 2 months now!   Park and I were bored so we brought a blanket outside to watch dada work.  We had so much fun playing outside.  Our neighbor drove up and commented that we were a picture perfect All American family :)  I think I may have to agree....

Here is possibly the fattest face picture Parker has ever taken!

Buddie hanging out with us outside.

Precious Parker practicing his sitting up skills while playing with a toy we stole from Aunt Whitney's house.

HEY MOM!  His lips seem to always be sucked in on the bottom - he is constantly sucking his constant slobber back in... love these teething days!

Mama and Parker playing outside in the front yard.

Monday night, we were trying to get some last minute energy out of Buddie and decided to let him chase his laser around the house for awhile.  I had just finished up feeding Parkster so he was fully awake and alert - he LOVED watching Buddie run around the house.  Watch his head go back and forth watching Buddie run around.  We thought it was presh!

Random stuff... that you probably don't care about but we do!

NEW NEIGHBORS!  YAY!  Jon and Robin moved in 2 doors down and we are so excited!  We have awesome neighbors that I fully take advantage of as much as possible.  During the game on Saturday, I oh so casually dropped in our neighbors Jim and Ana's house to see a few minutes of the game and oh so casually had to go start dinner a few minutes afterwards and oh so casually just left Parker in Ana's lap for 30 minutes while I got dinner together at my house!  And yesterday - not even a week after Jon and Robin moved in - I asked them to go over to our house to let Jack and Buddie out since I wouldn't be home til later than usual.  And Buddie even left a pile of pee on the floor for Jon who cleaned it up for us! 

WOW - our neighbors are SURE lucky to have us!  :)

Dada and Parker - I have so many picutres like this but I love them.  Seeing dada and Parker cuddle after bathtime is so sweet :)

DOUBLE STROLLER!  We finally found the double stroller we've been wanting.. it's normally like $300 new but we found one on Craigslist for MUCH less than half of that price so we grabbed it!  If only it wasn't 15 degrees cooler in early October than it normally was, we may actually be able to use it...  (Oh - and Kayley doesn't normally get in the stroller mostly naked - but I had just brought the double stroller over for the first time and Kayley was literally about to get in the bathtub but she still had her socks and diaper on!  So we went with it!  We strolled them around the house for a few minutes to see if they liked it so we could justify our purchase!)

I took this video a few weeks ago in Waycross when dada and Parker were napping together.  We always joke that when Parker smiles in his sleep, that he is just dreaming of a sea of a million "mommy milk makers".  This is proof.