Thankful Thursday... in Pictures

It's been awhile since I've done a Thankful Thursday blog, so I thought it was about time!

I'm thankful for my sister and her hubby's generosity and for giving us a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory!


I'm thankful Parker partook of the squaw bread at the restaurant. He called it chocolate bread (and we didn't correct him).


I'm thankful for my silly husband


I'm thankful for Parker's grandparents always doing fun things with him that he doesn't get to do with us very often....

Like riding in a cool wagon.

And getting to eat Mickey Mouse pancakes in preparation for a day at Disneyland!

I'm thankful Parker enjoys playing pretend now....

Here he is pretending to be Grandpa with his new
Hawaiian shirt from Auntie Leann and Uncle Greg.

Giving himself a bubble goatee so he can be Dada

I'm thankful for "baseball" in the house!


I'm thankful for the day Parker kept asking for more raisins. Hey, it's fruit, right?


I'm thankful for Parker's art work...


And for him inspiring me to do my own...

(OK, so I was just using up the paint he didn't use and it took

me only a few minutes to do both of these, but it was still fun!)

I'm thankful Parker has been interested in spelling (especially if it's related to cars).

(Parker: "Mama! Come see! I spelled GMC!") =)

I'm thankful for hot days in the shade with a kiddie pool!


I'm thankful for play dates and silly boys!


I'm thankful Parker can make a car out of just about anything!


And lastly, I'm thankful my husband just sent me a text message saying he was taking a surprise vacation day tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

-------------------------------------
"Let love be your guide." Ephesians 5:2

Mama's New Blankie and P's Cool Orange Car

In the beginning of March, P-man and I took a trip to San Bernardino to visit Christine and her family for her birthday, but we were the ones who walked away with gifts! Christine's mom, Daphne, knitted me a new blanket. It is my new favorite nighttime couch blankie. P-man and Dada fight with me over it, too.


Christine's husband, Mo, also let P take home one of his son's collectible cars. P-man calls it his cool orange car.

See the monkey driving it? Elmo's in the passenger seat.

When he first got the car, he incessantly asked me "what's this, mama?" pointing to all the different parts of the car. I tried to answer as best as I could, having a limited knowledge of cars. ;)

Here's a video of us going over the different parts of the car:

(FB users click on "view original post" button to see video)

Wii and Rock Band

As many of you who are friends with me on Facebook already know, Parker and I recently took a trip to L.A. to spend time with Sara and Christine. Sara bought a house there last year and has fixed it up quite a bit already. Christine brought Rock Band for the Wii gaming system and we all had a blast playing. This was my (and Parker's) first time playing on a Wii system. Not surprisingly, Parker loved the drums best. I preferred singing as it required the least amount of coordination and talent!

Updates and Reflections

We have been busy bees since Thursday and I haven't had much time to sit at the computer (I promise ya'll I will read and return your emails soon!). I'm making a little time here and there today to work on this blog since I have to ice my back periodically anyway. I've been doing pilates again and have had no problem with my lower back ligament until today when Parker and I were reading Mother Goose Rhymes and doing "This is the Way the Ladies Ride" amongst other active songs/rhymes. I wasn't as careful as I should have been bouncing him around on my knees and lifting him up and down. Oops.

Parker Likes Pilates, Too!

This past week has been mixed with blessings and trials. Parker has pretty much decided that he's done napping (I'm still hoping it's just a phase, I mean, he's not even two yet). So I've been trying to implement quiet time at least so I can get a "lunch" break. He has been very good about it and will play and sing in his crib but rarely will actually fall asleep. If he never falls asleep and starts getting antsy before an hour is up, I go in there and set up a timer with the remaining time left so he has a reference, but today, for example, he played in there for an hour and 15 minutes and never cried once. It is nice that when he doesn't fall asleep he doesn't go through the weird afternoon moodiness and tantrums, plus he falls asleep much easier at night and usually sleeps a little longer to make up for it.

Friday morning Parker and I spent a few hours in Dana Point (blog with pics on that to come later). Friday night and Saturday were fun family time...

For Example:

Playing "Drums" With Dada

... along with getting some chores done. I had to get an oil change for my car, so we put the car seat in Jake's truck so that he could take us home and not have to sit there for a couple of hours. The only way it would fit properly was facing forward with the base off, so after all that work rearranging the thing, we decided to just go ahead and keep Parker facing forward now even in my car. He loves it. He sits in the middle and gets to watch everything going on. He likes to say "green light go!" "yellow light slow..." "red light, stop!"

Sunday we dropped Parker off at Grandma and Grandpa Munns' house for a sleep over and Jake and I went to Jenny and Steve's house for dinner and adult conversation! Jenny is an old co-worker and friend of mine. We are thinking of taking a big leap into home ownership within the next year and Steve has agreed to help us out with our search, all while doing his regular job and working on Pepperdine's MBA program! Jenny is also working and completing her nursing degree. What a busy couple!

Monday I met up with a couple of old friends from high school (Christine and Sara) while Jake got the condo to himself and finally got to spend some quality time working on recording more music. I had so much fun catching up with Sara and Christine. I hadn't seen Sara in probably ten years! Fortunately Christine and I have had the opportunity to get together a few times since then, but it's never enough. It's interesting to see the different paths we've taken in life and how much we've grown up (but not aged - no never that), yet each of us still seems to have the same personality/roles we had in high school. It's good to see some things never change and we love each other for who we are, through thick and thin, good and bad, and all that mushy stuff. I can't wait to meet up with them again!

Today Parker and I watched a good portion of the inauguration ceremony. I can't believe how emotional it was for me. Now that I'm older, I appreciate more what kind of history I'm living in today and I am hopeful that President Obama will make some positive changes to this wonderful country. I'm not sure Parker will remember this day, but I enjoyed celebrating the moment with him. He held his hand over his heart while the soldiers sang the National Anthem and I was so proud of him and our country.

Visit from Joe Dawg and H-Bomb!

We had a fun visit from our old friend Joe and his son Hayden last week. We hadn't seen them in over a year! Our schedules are off just enough to make it nearly impossible to get together. Parker loved playing with Hayden. They played with Parker's new Play Doh and Hayden brought Parker some cool boats for the bath tub. Parker tried to catch Hayden at one point to tickle him, but H-Bomb was too fast for us. It was so strange because I still think of Hayden when he was Parker's age, and now he's almost 7! They really do grow quickly, don't they? Today I was rocking Parker in my lap and reading to him and realized how big he was compared to me. It made me a little sad. I'm glad to have had that visit from them for a couple of reasons - because we miss them, obviously, but also because it was a good reminder to me to slow down and appreciate Parker and our time together now. Here are some more fun pics from their visit... Hayden started running and hiding as soon as the camera came out, and it took dozens of shots before I finally caught him. *laugh* Silly guy!