A Tornado Warning and a Few More Birthday Pics

The night before Parker's birthday, we had severe tornado producing weather in our area.  We had to wake the kids up about 9:30 and get them in our safe room (aka the laundry room).  The weather system was slow moving and it stalled right over Cleburne.  We were in the laundry room for over two hours and didn't get the kids in bed until after midnight.  They were so good and never complained about having to be cramped in a small space for so long.  The only crazy thing that happened was that Lily got so nervous that she threw up all over the place.  And of course the only thing I had to catch it in was a blanket.  Just for the record, cleaning vomit out of a blanket at midnight is not something I ever want to do again! 

 

The kids (and maybe their mom too!) were still pretty nervous after the sirens stopped blowing that we just moved all of their mattresses into the master bedroom and let them sleep on our floor.  As I was trying to get them to settle down and go to sleep, Parker asked me what time it was.  When I told him 12:05am, he got very excited and said, "So I'm officially eight years old?!?!".  He was so excited that we were able to wish him "Happy Birthday" before he went to sleep that night!

Since the kids didn't get in bed until after midnight, we let them sleep in the next morning which meant the Parker didn't get to have his traditional birthday pancakes at Granna's.  We decided to postpone them until the next morning because it just wouldn't be a birthday without his birthday pancakes!

 

Parker loved that Cory was able to bring him a special birthday lunch at school.  I'm pretty sure that Taco Bueno tastes even better on your birthday!

The next morning, Granna made Parker his traditional "8" pancake and surprised him with one more present- a basketball goal for the swimming pool!

 

We had fun stretching Parker's birthday celebration over four days this year!  I'm sure it will be a birthday he will never forget!

Happy 8th Birthday Parker

This weekend, we celebrated Parker's 8th birthday!  How we have an EIGHT year old in our house is still a mystery to me!  There was a time when Parker was three when things were tough and I wasn't sure we were going to make it to his fourth birthday!  But he got bigger and matured and here we are helping him turn eight!  He's such a great kid and I'm so proud to be his mom! 

This year we gave Parker a choice between having a big birthday party with his friends or getting a new Wii U video game system.  It didn't take him long to choose the Wii U! 

We still had a family birthday dinner for him on Saturday night.  He chose spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and asked me to make a baseball cake for dessert. 

He got some great gifts from his cousins and grandparents!  He especially loved the singing underpants card from Aunt MerMer!  It got a lot of laughs from all of the kids!

On Sunday, we let Parker have Cole, Trip, and Robert over to play some video games on his new Wii U.  We ordered pizza and I made some cupcakes for the boys to enjoy.  I think Parker had more fun playing games with his friends than he would have had at a big birthday party.  It was definitely one of the easiest yet most fun birthdays we've ever had for him.

We had a great weekend celebrating our sweet boy and are looking forward to watching him grow over the next year! Happy Birthday Parker!  We love you to the moon and back!

Eight Years Old

Parker Brown (that's how you always sign your name now!)-
     Today you turn eight years old!  I must be in denial because I still feel like you should be turning five!  The past year has flown by and you have changed so much over the past few months.  You are quickly changing from a little boy into a young man and as much as I hate to admit it, I really love this stage that you are in!  There will always be things I miss about when you were little, but there are so many great things about you getting bigger that I'm learning to love too!  Here are some of the things I want to remember as you turn another year older:

-You are still tall and thin and continue to be one of the tallest boys in your class.  You weigh about 70 pounds, wear size 8 clothes and size 5 1/2 shoe. 

-You eat A LOT!! You eat all day long and sometimes eat a snack within an hour of finishing a meal.  I don't know where you put it all!  Some of your favorites are spaghetti, tacos, fruit, pepperoni, cheese, chips and salsa, ice cream, and hot dogs.  You've recently decided that you like hamburgers but have stopped liking chicken nuggets. 

-You are a great student and excel in school.  You've made straight A's all year and love Mrs. Humphreys' class.  You are such a rule follower and never get in trouble at school.

-You love to read!  You read all the time and recently earned a Kindle Fire for reading 1.5 million words in the AR program at school.  You are the only second grader in our school that reached that goal. 

-You also love to play computer, iPad and/or video games!  You play every day after you finish your homework.  Your favorite games right now are Mario Kart 8, Super Mario, and Diablo 3. 

-You still love to play baseball and are enjoying playing on your select team this spring.  You usually play third base or left field. 

-Your closest friends right now are still Cole and Robert.  You are also buddies with Trip, Cullen, Creed, Kaden, and David. 

-You love your sisters but the way you often show it is by bothering them!  It drives me crazy!  You have sweet moments with them but most of the time you are pushing their buttons and trying your best to upset them.

-Your sense of humor and understanding of sarcasm is really starting to develop.  It's fun to be able to joke with you in a more grown up way.

You still have your difficult moments, but overall, you are such a joy to parent!  I hope you will always know how much my life changed for the better eight years ago when they placed you in my arms for the first time.  I pray that this year will be your best one yet!

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Four and a Half

Lily Claire-
     Today you are four and a half!  You are so excited about being able to add that "half" to your age!  You told me earlier today that four year olds might say ugly things to others but now that you are four and a half, you wouldn't do that anymore!  With age comes great responsibility- ha!  Here are some things I want to always remember about you as turn a half year older:

-You continue to be the tallest kid in your class and tower over most of the other little girls!  You are wearing size 6 clothes and size 12/13 shoes. 

-You may be the tallest in your class but thankfully you are not too big for me to hold.  I love when you ask me to hold you, rock you, and snuggle with you.  It will be a sad, sad day when you get too big for that!

-You are still our most adventurous eater and will usually try most things.  (You tried edamame a few weeks ago and loved it!)  Even though you like most foods, the two things you are not crazy about are spaghetti and beans.  You still love fruit, tacos, yogurt, and your new favorite food is corn dogs!  You ask for a corn dog for lunch every.single.day! 

-You say the funniest things!  You still mix up words at least once a day which never fails to make me laugh!

-Your favorite cartoon right now is Octonauts.  You watch it every day while you are eating your picnic lunch.

-You are starting to read!  You were showing a lot of interest in learning to read like Eden so I taught you the word "the".  You now know several other sight words and can read easy, patterned books if they have those sight words in them.  It won't be long until you are reading just like your brother and sister.

-You love your baby dolls and are a great "mother" to them all.  You especially love when we get to take them on walks around the neighborhood.

-You love to color and paint and love it even more when I sit down and do it with you.

-You give the BEST hugs!  You give me several every day and I love each and every one of them!

-You love being the "only child" while Parker and Eden are at school and you can always talk me into getting you a special treat while we are out and about running errands.  You are definitely spoiled between the hours of 12-3:30!

I don't know what I would do without you Lily!  I am so glad that I have one more year with you as my sidekick before you start kindergarten!  Your happy, funny personality warms my heart, even on the hardest of days!  You complete our family so perfectly and I'm so glad I was chosen to be you mommy!  I can't wait to watch you grow over the next six months!

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy

Future Yellow Jackets

Back at Gerard's fall festival in October, Parker and several of his friends bid on a "Night with the Yellow Jackets" and they won!  They were so excited to get to sit in the dugout with the varsity baseball team during one of the home games in the spring!

 

We found out that the game that they were going to get to participate in was the same day as their school field trip.  I was worried that Parker was going to be too tired to enjoy it, but I was completely wrong! 

 

Parker, Cole, Creed and Cullen arrived an hour before the game, got suited up in their oversized Yellow Jackets jerseys (they were jerseys that the team wore several years ago), and warmed up with the team. 



They kneeled with the team while the opposing players warmed up.

They participated in the team prayer before the game.

And they got to throw out the first pitch!

During the game they sat in the dugout and watched the game with the players.  The high school boys were all so nice and treated them like part of the team.



After the game, they got to run the bases and listen to the coach's pep talk.  It was a great night for our future Yellow Jackets!  I know I'm going to blink my eyes and Parker's going to be the one playing out on that field.  I'm so glad Parker got to have this experience with the Yellow Jackets.  He had a great time and made some great memories with his friends!

 

Field Trips

Parker and Eden both had their class field trips today.  I had to give the STAAR test at school, so I was not able to go on either trip. (insert sad face)  Thankfully, Parker and Eden have so many people who love them and love to spend time with them!  Granna offered to go with Eden down to Hulen Park.  She took her lunch and watched her play with her friends until she had to go pick Lily up from preschool. 

Parker's class went to the Fort Worth Zoo and he was so excited when Aunt MerMer called and asked if she could go with him on his field trip.  They had a great time walking around and looking at all the animals together.  His favorite part was the reptile house and getting to touch a snake. 

Both of the kids had a great time on their field trips.  This was definitely a day where the phrase "it take a village" applied to our life!  SO thankful for everyone who stepped up to help out on this fun day!

Parker's 2nd Grade Progam

Parker's 2nd grade program was tonight.  They sang songs about animals in the rainforest and Parker had a speaking part about the ocelot.  All of his classmates did a great job with their speaking parts!  I know I'm biased but they are a really great group of kids!  It's been fun to watch them grow and change over the past three years.  

Let's Go Rangers!

This past week we had the chance to go see the Texas Rangers two times!  We unexpectedly got offered tickets to Opening Day and asked Emily and Jon to join us.  The weather was perfect and even though we arrived a little late due to all the opening day traffic, we had a great time!

Today, we took the kids for our annual game with the tickets Dr. Ranelle offers to us.  We checked them out of school early and headed to the game.  This was Lily's first time to go with us and she was so excited!

It was a little sunny and hot at first, but by the third inning we were in the shade and the kid's attitudes improved immensely!  They enjoyed their nachos, corn dogs and cotton candy and then were ready to go home!  We managed to keep them happy until the sixth inning before we packed up to go home.  I'm not sure how much of the game they actually watched but I think they all still managed to have a great time!

Gone Fishing

 The kids have been begging Granstan to take them fishing in the pond behind our house.  The cousins were visiting on Saturday and the weather was perfect, so we decided to take them for a little while.

 

Granstan surprised Parker with an early birthday present before we left- a new fishing pole and tackle box!   He was so excited and couldn't wait to try it out!

It took Granstan a few minutes to get everyone's pole ready, but they were all soon happily (and noisily) sitting and fishing on the bank of the pond. 

Lily decided to sit in Granstan's lap while she fished and it wasn't long before she caught the first fish of the day!  She was so excited but wanted nothing to do with the fish.  She didn't want to touch it and it took a lot of persuading just to get her to take a picture next to her fish.

It didn't take long before she and Granstan caught another one! 

Granna was the next to catch a fish, although her fish almost looked more like the minnows we were using than an actual fish!

Emily and I were next to get lucky and then Parker and Cory quickly followed with their first catches of the day.

The kids all wanted to touch Cory's fish, even if just for a second!

Eden finally enlisted the help of Granstan and soon caught one too!  She was so excited and couldn't wait to tell her teacher on Monday.

Addison and Aubrey were the only ones that didn't catch anything on Saturday. (Ryan and Jon caught one on the other side of the pond and I didn't get a picture.) They were a little disappointed but we told them that we will take them back out again soon so they could try again.

Because of the perfect weather conditions, we ended up staying out at the pond for several hours.  It didn't hurt that the kids were catching some fish too!  I'm sure they would have lost interest a LOT quicker if nothing was biting that day! 

We all had a great time and I'm so thankful for my dad for planning such a fun day for all of us!  I can't wait to do it again soon!