Happy Anniversary!

Love ya, hunny bunny!

Easter Sunday

We had a nice relaxing Easter. We've all been a little under the weather. Not sure if it's a cold or not; it's been mostly sore throats and a little dry coughing (and Dada's been suffering from additional new medication side effects. No fun)! But just in case we're contagious, we opted not to go to church and spread more germs around. Fortunately, although Parker's been coughing all night the last few nights, he's only asked for me once and it was just to "tuck him in." I'm not sure he was even really all the way awake.

Thanks to the Capra's (um, I mean the Easter Bunny), Parker got a really cool Easter Basket! We "hid" it in our room and told him that Baby Jesus and Baby Lily left him a present. I tried to tell him the Easter story beforehand and Dada thought I was crazy. Like a 2 year old is going to understand, right? He certainly understood a present though! He was so excited when he saw it. He wanted to have the truck basket with him all day. I took him on a little trip to the grocery store and he had to bring it there, too. And he wanted it with him in quiet time, too. Very cute.

He loved the Whopper malt eggs!

Opening the card from Cousin Lily.

Getting a glimpse of the monkey in a bunny suit.

Hey, they look alike!

He could do this all day...

Later in the afternoon, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Dan came over to have a BBQ dinner with us. Everything turned out great and we had lots of fun.

Enjoying the meal... wait, what's wrong with this picture?

Parker was so happy to see his Gma and Gpa, and kept thanking them for coming over. He even wanted to go home with them! Fortunately he settled down for bed quickly, pooped out from all the excitement of the day.

Dada Truck and Baby Truck

Parker discovered one day that two of his vehicles had very similar colors and decided the larger one must have begot the smaller one.

This is in honor of all the green beer drinking dada's out there. Happy St. Patty's Day!

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!

Christmas Week

Whew! We had a full 5 days starting Christmas Eve. There are so many pictures and stories to share, but I will try to narrow them down to just the best ones. The picture to the left is showing an ornament given to me from the Capra's (my older sis Leann and her family). It is Parker and his cousin Lily in their Santa photos (Parker's photo is from 2007). OK... on to our 5 days of Christmas...

Christmas Eve

It's been a tradition for Jake's grandparents Art and Hallie to throw a Christmas Eve party and we've been going as a couple for the last 10 Christmases! Jake's cousins were little when I first joined the group, and now they're practically all grown up. We have some new additions to that side of the family (not all of whom could attend).

Youngest Baby - Alyssa (Jake's cousin's baby)

Jennae, Ken and Alyssa

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures of the large group of attendees because Parker was running around like a crazy dude getting into trouble, but here are some fun shots of him from the night.

Christmas Day

Parker had gone to bed later than usual on Christmas Eve because of the party and so ended his week and a half or so streak of sleeping in. Seriously, he went from sleeping 12.5 - 13 hours to 10 that night. I blame it on the noisy reindeer outside his window. So we all got up early, put on the Channel 9/KOST 103 Yule Log, and let Parker open his gift from us and his great grandparents Art and Hallie. Strangely enough, he got puzzles from both them and us! He loved them and played with them all day. What a nice quiet way to spend a rainy Christmas day! I didn't even change out of my PJ's.

December 26th

My parents, younger brother Richie and younger sister Sarah came to visit. We spent most of the time chatting, taking a little walk, and then eating at Islands. Parker does not get to see my folks very often since they live in Texas, so they tried to spend as much time with him as possible. They had a fun time singing with him at the restaurant, and Parker showed off by eating almost his whole quesadilla, his whole container of applesauce and quite a few chips. He loves eating out because it's a huge treat after my so-so cooking.

With a little help from my strange father (OK, so you can see from where I inherited it), Parker also got to open a present from his Auntie Sarah. He got his very own computer! He was so thrilled!

December 27th

Yay! With the addition of Leann, Greg and Lily, my whole (immediate) family was finally together! We just spent the day hanging out, opening presents, cooking, eating and playing with the kids. Jake and I made soup and cornbread for lunch and then Leann made a fancy restaurant style meal with roasted lemon rosemary chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and spinach salad. The only thing missing was the restaurant ambience... kids that wouldn't nap and folding tables in a tiny space made for quite the experience!

Auntie Sarah and the Capra's went all out with the presents. There were some fun gag gifts, including the huge magnifying lenses for my Dad, Brown Bread (we seriously used to eat this bread from a can all the time), and mopping slippers. Parker was hooked up with quite a few gifts by the Capra's, but his favorite gift from them was a huge noisy police car. My parents' gift for Parker arrived in the mail just in time and he had gotten a huge bead roller coaster toy from them (like the kind in dr.'s offices). He loves playing with it and asks to have it brought from his room to the living room every morning.

Below are some more fun photos from the day.

December 28th

We finally got a chance to get together with Jake's immediate family and his grandparents Chet and Betty. Jake's mom had made all her usual Christmas goodies and Jake and I had fun helping to decorate the sugar cookies. Parker was too enthralled with toys to want to participate, as much as I tried to coerce him.

But boy did we get hooked up this day! Parker got slippers, a whole Thomas the Tank Engine track along with a bunch of other engines and trains, an electric Lightening McQueen car, a fun interactive book from Chet and Betty, and his most exciting gift: his first tricycle! We had a blast trying it out that day and Dada has been taking him out on it almost every day since. Thank you Gma and Gpa Munns!

All in all it was a great Christmas and we are so grateful for the sacrifices that my family made to get here and for the generosity all our family bestowed on us this year. Now we are just enjoying having Jake home until Monday. Parker has been loving getting so much extra Dada time in.

Thankful Thursday - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Today is a special Christmas list of gratitude.

1. I'm grateful that Parker is still young enough to be grateful with just one gift.
2. I'm grateful for Parker's sweet "Merry Christmas, Mama... Merry Christmas, Dada."
3. I'm grateful for my husband who's been doing a lot of dishes and helping me with Parker today so I can relax a little after not getting enough sleep.
4. I'm grateful for the smell of cookies in the oven.
5. I'm grateful for a lazy, rainy day with an excuse to stay in my PJ's and purple robe.
6. I'm grateful for the KCAL 9/KOST 103 Yule Log. We had a fireplace this morning, and Christmas music!
7. I'm grateful for our cell phones so we could call lots of family without any extra charges!
8. I'm grateful we have so many family members who love us and support us through good times and bad.
9. I'm grateful that it's been three years since Jake has had a grand mal seizure and we're hoping it was the first and last one!
10. And last, but not least, I'm grateful we still have more days of celebration to look forward to this week as we spend time with family and friends!
    

Giving Thanks and Eating Us Some Turkey

Thanksgiving this year was mellow and fun. We went to Jake's folks house and tried to get there early enough to help out, but Connie was so organized that there wasn't much left to do! She cooked a great meal with such yummy gravy. I think that was Parker's favorite part, too. He was even willing to try some new things. He tried stuffing and sweet potatoes and fruit salad with whipped cream, but he wouldn't touch the cranberry sauce. He probably would have just spit it out anyway!

Last year he didn't want to nap on Thanksgiving, and this year was no different. I was hoping the turkey would help him get sleepy, but he almost always fights napping when all of us are together. I think on Christmas we may not bother even trying! He's always more of a grump after having a nap anyway.

Family Photo Op!

Mama and Dada

Look at the Feast!

Funny Faces with Uncle Andy (Drew)!

Having Fun with Gma Connie and Gpa Dan

Playing Piano with Dada

Parker spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's so we could have a break and he could have some fun. The next day, Connie and Dan took him to the mall and took pictures by the big Christmas tree like they did last year (wish I had some photos of last year to share). It's a new special tradition they're starting with him! How fun. Here are some awesome pics they took.