Addison's Ladybug Birthday Party

Today was my niece Addison's 2nd birthday party. My sister found a great place to have her party this year. One of the local churches in Mansfield built a new children's area that has an indoor playground. There is also an area with tables and a kitchenette where you can serve cake, juice, etc. You can rent out the area for birthday parties, even if you are not a member of the church. It ended up being perfect since the weather outside today was rainy, rainy, rainy!

The Birthday Girl

The kids started off playing on the playscape. There were 2 slides and lot of things to climb on. After an hour of playing, they all enjoyed a snack while Addison opened her presents. Then we all enjoyed a very cute ladybug cake that my sister made herself. The kids all had a great time and we hope Addison has a very happy birthday later this week!

Parker coming down the slide

Even Eden got to go down the slide with Aunt MerMer!

Aubrey and Eden in their cute ladybug outfitsAddison's ladybug cake
Blowing out the candles

Celebration of Grammy's Life

I never had the opportunity to know any of my great grandparents, and it saddens me to think that my kids will not know any of theirs either. Grammy was my last living grandparent and it is weird to realize that the oldest generation in my family is now gone.

Yesterday was Grammy's funeral and it was nice to remember what a wonderful woman she was. I was trying to think about the things that I want to tell Parker and Eden about Grammy when they get older and ask about their great grandmother.

Grammy had 8 kids, 20 grandkids, and 23 great grandkids. One thing that I will always remember is that even with that big of a family, Grammy never forgot my birthday. I always knew that when I went to the mailbox on my birthday, I would find a card from her.

Another thing that I will remember about Grammy is how she loved puzzles. She was always working crossword puzzles and doing word searches. I believe this is one of the reasons she stayed so sharp for so long. Like Grammy, I too love to work all kinds of puzzles. I can't wait to see if Eden or Parker have a knack for working puzzles like me and Grammy.

Grammy always had a positive attitude, even after she had to move into the nursing home. All of the nurses loved her and she even earned the title "Resident of the Month" just a few months after she had been there! Every time we would go visit her, she would tell us stories about the other ladies in the nursing home who would wander around not knowing where they were. Grammy would always end her stories with, "I will never make fun of them because that could be me one of these days."

These are just a few of the things that I will tell Parker and Eden about when they get older. Grammy was a wonderful grandmother and she will be greatly missed. I just hope that one day, I will be able to explain to them what a wonderful great grandmother they had.

Grammy at her 90th birthday party last yearParker and Grammy- Thanksgiving 2007
Grammy and Eden- Thanksgiving 2008 (Eden was just 9 days old!)

4 generations

Grammy

Heaven rejoiced tonight as my wonderful Grammy entered into her forever home! She is now at peace and although we are hurting and sad, we would not want it to be any other way.

My Grammy was such an amazing woman! She had 8 kids in 9 years (with no multiples!) and lived to tell about it. What an inspiration to me as a mom of two little ones to know that if she can survive all of those tantrums, runny noses, and dirty diapers, I can survive them too!

My dad is the oldest of the 8 siblings. There were 2 girls and 6 boys. Bless my Grammy's heart-she must have had the patience of a thousand saints not to go crazy with that many boys in the house!! (That or a good pair of earplugs!!)

My dad has always been such a wonderful son to my Grammy, but especially so over the past few years when her health started failing. He was faithful to call her EVERY night at 9 o'clock to check on her. He drove to see her every other weekend and would often just sit in the nursing home visiting with her all afternoon. I can only hope that one day Parker will take as good care of me as my dad has taken of my Grammy.

Below is one of my favorite pictures of me with Grammy. It was taken at one of my baby showers when I was pregnant with Parker. It was the last time that Grammy was able to travel to Cleburne. I remember feeling so happy that day that she was able to come and share in my shower with me.

I feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful grandmother. She will be truly missed!

Lazy Labor Day Weekend

I have always said that God created Labor Day for teachers! He knew that after 2 long weeks back at school, we would need a day off to relax and recoup!

I was really looking forward to this three day weekend, mostly because we had nothing planned. We stayed around the house most of the weekend, just playing and having fun family time.

Saturday morning, the kids and I went to a baby shower for a good friend of mine who just had her second baby girl. Her first daughter is a few months older than Parker, and it has been fun to watch them grow together. Our play dates will be much more fun now that we have added another little girl into the group. (Poor Parker...he is usually the only boy in most of our play groups!)

We went over to my parents house for a cook out and swimming Saturday night. Emily and the girls had come down for the baby shower so it was fun to see them.

We spent almost all day Sunday cleaning house. It is amazing how long it takes to clean when you have a toddler and an infant who are under your feet wanting to play. We took lots of breaks to play and eat, and finally got done mid afternoon. I also got all of the laundry and ironing done on Sunday so that all I would have to do today is relax.

Parker and Daddy playing with Play-Doh

Eden got her first taste of pancakes on Sunday. She thought they were very yummy!

Playing in Parker's crib...such a happy girl!!

Parker playing with his train set. He has been lining up the street signs and trees on the track and then using the train to knock them down. Very fun (and time consuming!).

This morning, we picked up Papa (Cory's dad) and headed to Fort Worth for lunch and shopping. Cory was so sweet to watch the kids while I went shopping at Ann Taylor Loft (my favorite store). They were having some good sales and it was so nice to shop without having to worry about the kids crawling out of the dressing room! We also ate lunch at Pei Wei... so good!

We ended the weekend with a fun trip to Jumpin Apes. Parker had a blast in the jump houses and it was fun to watch Cory going down the slides with him. There is nothing like going down a huge slide to make you feel like a kid again!

It has been such a nice, uneventful weekend and I am so thankful to have had an extra day to spend with Cory and the kids. I hope you and your families had a wonderful Labor Day weekend too!

Have a great week!

First Day of Preschool

It was way too quiet in our house this afternoon. Parker started Thursday school today.

I have been so anxious about his first day of preschool after our disasterous Meet the Teacher last Sunday. I had no idea how the morning might go- it would either be really good or really bad! We have been talking to Parker the past few days about going to school and doing fun things with Ms. Marcy and his new friends.

Cory got him up this morning, fed him breakfast, and got him dressed. He looked so grown up today. Our little baby is not a baby any more. Here he is in his first day of school shirt- doesn't he look handsome!

His new backpack has been a big hit. When I asked him if he wanted to carry it this morning he said, "Too heavy!".

Here he is with Mommy and Daddy before we left for school.

The entire way to school we talked to him and told him where we were going. When we drove up he pointed and said "School!" We got out of the car and he confidently walked into the building by himself, all the way to his new classroom. Miss Marcy was waiting for him and had put some puzzles out on the table for the kids to play with. When we walked in the room, one of the other little boys was crying hysterically and Parker asked me to hold him. I was worried that the tears were about to start, so we quickly went over to the table and started working one of the puzzles together. Cory quickly told him goodbye and left the room. After working the puzzles a few more times, I looked at Parker and told him that I had to go back to work. He looked up at me, gave me a big kiss, and kept working on his puzzle. NO TEARS! I couldn't believe it!

Cory and I lingered in the hall for a few more minutes, waiting to see if this was too good to be true. Could it really be possible that our child, who still occasionally cries when I leave him at Sunday School, was able to start his first day of preschool without any tears?

After we left, Cory told me he was proud of me for not crying. I told one of the teachers that I worked with that it was easy not to cry because he was not crying. Had Parker been upset, I'm sure that I would have lost it! As a parent, we feel the same things that our kids feel. When they are happy, we are happy. When they are sad, so are we.

I hope that the rest of his day was as good as the first few moments. I am already counting down the minutes until we get to go pick him up, because it is just way too quiet without him in the house!!

UPDATE: Parker had a GREAT day!! They said he didn't cry at all and had a lot of fun playing with the balls. He was so hungry when we picked him up...he finished the rest of his lunch in the car on the way home. He did not take a nap, but Ms. Marcy said he did lay down on his nap mat for a little while. He was so sweet when we picked him up and even gave Ms. Marcy a kiss goodbye when we left! I am already crossing my fingers that next Thursday is as successful as today!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Yes...she got in the drawer all by herself!!!

We Finally Have a Yard!!!

After living in our house for 4 months without a backyard, we finally got grass this past weekend. We tried to hydro mulch the yard a few months ago but it did not work, and all we were left with was a yard full of weeds and a huge water bill. We finally decided that the only way to get a nice yard for the kids to play in was to sod it.

We are so excited about the new grass, especially Parker. He has already had fun kicking the ball around and blowing bubbles in the yard. Eden has enjoyed eating the dirt and rocks! (Don't worry...I got the rocks out of her mouth before she swallowed them!)

I am so glad the weather is getting cooler and we can go out and play after dinner every night. I am looking forward to making a lot of memories playing in our new backyard.

The yard the weekend we moved in- nothing but dirt

The yard in July- just a bunch of weeds

The yard after they did the dirt work last week

The truck that delivered the grass- we ordered 19 pallets of sod. When it arrived, we thought it would be way too much, but we were wrong. We were short and had to order an additional 2 pallets. Our yard is HUGE!!!

The final product- ready for the pitter-patter of little feet!