Poo.

This is seriously shocking - but I have NO pictures to document that more awesome family came to our house on Sunday to hang out with us!  Chris' sister, Amy, her husband, Jeffrey and their two kids, Campbell and Catherine came to our house on Sunday afternoon!  I made a fabulous chicken pot pie then Jeffrey and Chris had a BIG job of spreading POO all over our front yard while Amy the kids and I stayed in the cool as long as we could til the kids begged to go play outside in Parker's splash pool!  It was really too hot outside for baby Catherine so I stayed outside with the kids and I DEFINITELY got IN the pool with them because it was SO stinking hot!  I may have ran through the sprinkler a few times, too!  Thank goodness neighbor Robin saw me outside with them and came to take over the sprinkler run throughs - I was exhausted.  I may work out every day but sprinkler running is very hard work!  I don't think it helped that it was 95 degrees outside.

So - no pictures to document their fun visit - probably because I was having a blast chasing after two kids in the back yard in the splash pool and in the sprinkler - but I do have a picture to document our poo-covered yard.  This was Chris' Father's Day gift, by the way.  Bet you can't say you bought your husband POO for Father's Day!

My love for all things boy!

One of the many reasons I LOVE having a boy - is being able to sit back and watch him ADORE his daddy (whom I also happen to adore!).  I am absolutely in love with having a boy and the thought of this baby in my belly being a girl scares the heck out of me.  Yeah yeah, dance classes and hair bows will be fun and all but I've got three (about to be four) beautiful nieces that I can do all that fun stuff with.  I just LOVE having a boy.  I know what to expect with a baby boy and I would LOVE for Parker to grow up with a little brother who will follow him around everywhere and fight with him and look up to him.

Chris trying to fill his daddy's shoes at an early age - they are some big shoes to fill :)

Here is a pic of Chris and his dad.

Chris is one of four children - the oldest boy with two younger brothers - and I love hearing stories about them when they were younger.  One story that gets told nearly every time we are all together is when they were little, every morning their mom or dad would ask them what kind of cereal they'd want.  Well, little Scott would say, "Cheerios" and Jeff would say, "Fruit Loops" then CHRIS would say, "Apple Jacks", and then Scott and Jeff would VERY quickly change their minds and say they wanted Apple Jacks, too!  Then Chris would get mad and change his mind again - to which the younger two boys would also change their mind.  They LOVED their older brother and I love seeing the bond that they share.  

I want that for Parker more than anything.

Here's a short trip down memory lane - you'll have to ignore the titles at the top - they are from our wedding slide show.

Halloween - how cute is this?

 All grown up - this was at their sister, Amy's wedding.

 Anyway - on to the point of this blog besides making it quite clear that I don't want a little girl (I may have to go back and change this post if I do have a girl so she doesn't read this one day and cry her eyes out - ugh the drama!)..... the point was that one of the things I LOVE about having a boy is watching him adore his daddy.  Parker wants to do WHATEVER daddy is doing - ESPECIALLY if it involves mowing the "gas" (as Parker calls it).  Chris actually allowed Parker to help him mow on Tuesday night and I was in heaven sitting on the couch outside watching this litttle scene.  The smile on Parker's face clearly says it all.   I was quite tempted to run inside and grab Parker's Home Depot safety goggles that came with his tool bench, but I knew Chris would have given me the "Chill Out" look so I sat back, relaxed and soaked in the million, bajillion feelings of love and adoration that I saw in these few moments.

I love my family.

KK's night over and Happy Birthday to cousin Jac!

Whit and Doug have babysat for us about 10 times in the past few months and we haven't been able to return the favor due to our huge popularity :)  We finally were home for a weekend so KK came to stay with us and we had so much fun!  Chris had Parker's Uncle Jeffrey's tractor at our house in order to do something weird to our yard and Parker nearly had  a heart attack when he saw there was a REAL LIVE tractor in our garage Friday afternoon!  He and KK played on it for a bit and as you can see didn't fight at all about who would touch what.

KK had enough after a few minutes but Parker would have slept on that if we would have let him!

Saturday was miserably hot so we headed to the pool! 

Parker and KK's cousin, Jac, had his 4th birthday on Saturday!  This is the first year we weren't able to make it to his party in Savannah, but Park and KK sang him a special song during breakfast - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAC!  We love you!

Excited to go to the beach!

We have REALLY been talking up the beach the past few days with Parker.  We leave this weekend to spend an entire week at the beach with my entire family!  Well - we have learned a trick that if P-man is EVER upset about anything, all we have to do is start talking about going to the beach with all his cousins, aunts, uncles, Nana, Hoppy, Mommy and Daddy and the kid LIGHTS up!  Check it out!  :)

Chatt Nooga - Damage from tornado

 During our weekend trip to Chatt Nooga, our mountain house was in Ringgold, GA - just a few miles outside of Chattanooga.  The torandos that swept through Georgia and Alabama a few weeks ago came RIGHT through the heart of Ringgold and it was amazing and humbling to see what these scary things can do.  We had to drive through Ringgold on our way out of town and I was nearly in tears as we drove by the damage.  Everything was closed down in this town - you could see down the side of one of the mountains exactly where it came through and it destroyed EVERYTHING in it's path.  My prayers are with all the victims of this terrible storm.

 McDonalds.....

 Gas station

 More McDonalds

 Wa Ho

 Hotel

Flavors of Forsyth!

This is our second year attending Flavors of Forsyth and it was a huge hit!  FOF is where a bunch of restaurants in our area come and bring in food that you can buy a small sampling of - so it's a great way to try out a piece of a lot of different restaurants for less than $10.   However - the crowds was ridiculous and the food wasn't that great and the stress of losing my child in that mess was beyond me.  I think we're done with FOF - but glad we got to experience it at least a couple of times!  

Children's Healthcare of Atl is opening a branch at the Avenues next month!  So exciting that they'll have an urgent care facility open on weekends for those "just in case" needs.  Parker loved meeting the CHOA people and after we left he kept saying, "See that boy!  See that boy!"

 We also go to meet the Chick Fil A cow!  Mooooo!

 Amy and Reid didn't come, and we lost Angela half way through but we were able to get a quick picture of 3/5 of our growth group ladies!  Here's me, Robin and Kristin!

Chatt Nooga! Day 2

 KK had a train conductor's hat so Whitney had to buy one for Parker, too!  He stayed over at their house one night the week before we went to Chatt Nooga so she took their picture with their hats on!  They were just a little excited about going to see Thomas!

 We're here!!!!

 Meeting Sir Toppham Hat was the best!  He gave him a high 5 and a hug! 

 Posing in front of Thomas!

 The petting zoo was a hit!  The animals ate right out of Parker's hand.

 On the short train ride!

 Uncle Doug keeping Parker entertained...

 We had a blast seeing Thomas in Chatt Nooga!  Thanks to Aunt Nitney and Uncle Doug for inviting us on this special weekend! 

Chatt Nooga! Day 1.5

 Maybe the best part of our trip to Chatt Nooga (for me and Chris) was that WE took a 2 hour nap while Parker napped on Saturday afternoon!  PURE BLISS!  We were also staying in the basement of this house - with no windows - hence NO light.  It was great.

After nap time, Park and KK played for a bit.

Showing their true cousin-ly love for each other...

 Our view from our deck...

 Returning the love...

 After nap and play time, we headed to a nature preserve a few miles from our house and took a hike - in the partial rain - but it was still fun :)  We found this ancient merry-go-round - I about threw up. Chris didn't even attempt to hop on cause he knew his breakfast and lunch would be all over the place.

 Starting our hiking adventure...

 Park was a big fan of finding BIG STICKS!

 We hiked about a mile to the water - Park thought it was a pool.

 After our hike, we ate at a small town pizza place - yum!  Then we headed back to the house to rest up to go see THOMAS on Sunday! 

Chatt Nooga! Day 1

Whitney and Doug invited us to spend a weekend with them in Chattanooga last weekend.  They rented a great mountain house in Ringgold and we had a blast spending the weekend together - away from the craziness of life in general.  On Saturday, we spent the morning at the childrens museum - which they LOVED! 

Ever since we left Chattanooga, Parker has been asking to go BACK to "Chatt Nooga" as he calls it.  Super cute.  If you ask him about his trip to Chatt Nooga, he'll start rambling but you can probably pick out the words, like WATER,

 LAWN MOWER

 CAR,

 DINE-SORE,

 BIG SPIDER,

 SWING, and he'll also mention a GIANT slide which I somehow didn't get a picture of.  Parker was SO brave and went down a huge tunnel slide all by himself! 

 We had a blast, but after 2 hours, he was DONE!  Time to go make a scene at a restaurant then head back to the mountain house for NAP!