How The Mills Roll...

A new Home to live

2011-12-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!

My Mother in law, Lynn, asked me to put pictures on my blog of the progress of our house that we are building. I looked back at the pictures I posted before and the front doesn't look much different. However, the inside is coming a long quite quickly. Just this week they hung all of our cabinets, sprayed our walls(all walls here in Austin are textured), put up our banister and rails, and hung our wooden mantel over the fire place. The wood is not stained yet. We are not sure what the next step is. I think they might start bricking the house. Our house on the outside has every kind of texture possible. Brick, Stone, siding, and stucco. That is how it is done here in Texas! :) We are so so so excited! We will be moving in with my parents in 3 weeks. We have been told we will be living in our house in Feb. Now, whether that is at the end of February or mid February we do not know yet. We feel so blessed! We cannot wait to finally be settled and live somewhere for a long time! God is so good and never ceases to amaze us!

Did you know?

2011-11-15T19:14:00.001-08:00

Did you know that we are building a house? Yup. We are so excited! And we feel so very blessed. We have rented since we moved here almost 4 years ago. We are more than ready to have a house of our own. However, we are very grateful to God for all He has done. It is because of Him that this is even happening...without a doubt. Never ever do we want anyone to think otherwise. Anyways...last Monday(not yesterday) there was just the foundation. This week our house will have windows and a roof! It will be done the last week of February.

Side view

Side view

Front view

Front view

Our Daddy is STRONG!

2011-11-15T19:08:00.001-08:00

We are SO proud of Derek. He ran a 1/2 marathon a few weeks back. It was the marathon for adoption. He ran it with my brother in law, sister, and 2 of our friends. They have been training for a while for this. I was going to run it but twisted my knee at mile 6. I had to opt out. :( I am SO proud of Derek and his determination. The boys were so proud of their Daddy. Parker kept saying he was going to cheer really loud for Derek so he would win. So sweet!

Whats Up, Whats Down, Whats All Around

2011-11-15T18:25:00.001-08:00

Here's our life in pictures the last month or so. :)

Meet my BEAUTIFUL niece, Ella. My sister and brother in law are adopting her from Haiti in 6-12 months. She is officially their daughter(and she officially has 4 blonde haired older brothers! Ha!). Whats even greater is that she is only 2 days younger than Ann Marie!!! Ann Marie doesn't even know it but her best friend will be here soon enough.

This is HUGE! Our church, Free Chapel, has joined another new church plant in Lakeway because we have the SAME vision! Our new church is called The Church at Lake Travis. It's awesome and such a blessing! Here is Jeremy preaching on the first Sunday. We are loving church!

We believe in being a missional community. We want to love our neighbors and reach our neighbors for Christ. The only way you can do that is to get to know your neighbors. This is our new neighborhood where my parents already live. We had a sidewalk meet and greet. Knowing NO ONE, 42 people came!!! Can't wait to live there!:)

Happy Thanksgiving! We cannot wait for Mama Lynn, Papa K, Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Matt to get here. We are going to make some great memories. :)

This sweet girl is so fun! She is crawling everywhere, pulling up and standing, and sometimes stands by herself for not very long. She has 3 teeth(2 bottom, 1 top). She LOVES to eat. She smiles at me every time I look her way. She nurses about 3 times a day...sometimes 4. We love having this baby girl to break up some of the boy stuff going on around here(fighting, wrestling, baseball, football, etc.).

We have been cheering on the Tide all the way from Austin, TX.

We have been having a small group at our house every other Friday night. We are reading the book "Power of a Praying Parent". We have desserts and discussion while the kids play. We have loved it!

Go Dawgs!! We, also, have been supporting Daddy's team, University of Georgia. We are especially happy they creamed Auburn. ;)

We joined a farmers market here where we get a basket of fresh veggies every week. This is our basket. It is so yummy! And keeps us healthy(well Derek and I, but my kids won't even look at veggies for the most part...ugh.).

This cute kid goes to preschool 3 days a week. He has LOVED it and cannot wait to start kindergarten. I have really liked it because it forces me to have a plan those days. Its been nice. Parker's teachers are so great. God is so good!

We have been hanging out with cousins. Parker always says his cousins are "his cousins and his best friends". And they are!

Now that the weather is cooler my boys have been playing on their playscape in the backyard a lot. We are giving away our playscape when we move but then we are going to buy the kids a nicer one later. They love it way too much to just get rid of it and never get another one.

Happy 9 months sweet baby girl!

2011-10-12T19:30:00.001-07:00

This SWEET baby girl turned 9 months old yesterday. She is sweet as can be. She gets LOTS of love around here. So here is what is going on with little Miss Ann Marie. :)
-She started to officially crawl around 8 months old.
-She is just now cutting her first tooth. I can see it but it hasn't officially come through yet.
-She eats pretty much table food all of the time. I feed her a jar of baby food every other day just so she can get some veggies.
-She is not loud at all. She babbles and will say "Dada" not knowing what she is saying. But she isn't super chatty yet.
-She smiles at me every time I catch her eye.
-She is in the 30% for weight and height.
-She still nurses 4 times a day.
-She still takes 3 naps a day.
-She sleeps all night...from about 7:30pm-7:00am.
-She is now pulling up on everything. We have to lower her crib bc she has just started doing this in her crib.
-She loves crawling into the kitchen and playroom in our house.
-She LOVES her brothers!
-She has just started getting a few boo boos bc of falling from trying to stand up. Makes me :(
-Mommy can get some good laughs out of her.
-She still does not know there is a bow in her hair every day. Not once has she tried to take them out. I hope she never tries to take them out! :)
-She drinks out of a sippy cup but doesn't hold it herself yet.
-She is wearing 6-9 month or 9 month clothes.
-Every time you give her her lovie(pink floppy eared bunny) she sticks her two fingers in her mouth and lays her head on my shoulder. SO precious!

Ok, that is a lot of info about sweet Rhi Rhi. We love this baby girl so much...I can't even express it. We KNOW God has his hand of protection, blessings, and favor on her.

Happy 9 months baby girl!!!! We LOVE you!

Parker Man

2011-08-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like I have blogged about our first born in a long time. He is the reason we started this blog a little less than 4 and 1/2 years ago. :) But the more kids we add the harder it is to keep up and write about each one individually. This little boy's personality is not what we would have imagined when he was 1 or even 2. ha! Has that ever happened to anyone else? We used to pray and be a little worried that Parker would be too passive and shy...and lack confidence. Well, let me tell you that is NOT the case. Now we are trying to figure out how to teach him to NOT be a "know it all" and be bossy and play fight all of the time. :) I will say, I would rather it be this way than the other.
Parker is full of energy, very chatty, joyful, LOVES his cousins(he says they are his cousins and best friends), loves to wrestle with anyone who will wrestle back(sometimes even if they don't wrestle back), eager to learn, loves to be the leader, gets super excited about things(that comes from me! ha!), would drink some sort of beverage(water, juice box, soda, tea) all day if I let him, REALLY likes treats of any sort, LOVES toys, dress up is a favorite, can hardly wait to go to class at church, loves his Papa K and Mama Lynn and Mama Don and Papa, talks about his Aunts more than his uncles(sorry guys), such a big helper around the house, STILL doesn't love to go poop in the potty(he does...but it isn't always easy...grrr!), has two front gray teeth(from hitting them at completely different times), is so ready for preschool to start(this is his first time going), loves to watch his shows in the mornings, really really LOVES his daddy, is super close to his brother, wants to talk and be right up in his sister's face all of the time(drives me bananas, but AM doesn't mind a bit!), is such a good big brother, doesn't take naps but I can get him to if I want him to, has a good heart, is good about sharing(most of the time), a great swimmer, good at playing t-ball, and he just loves life.
There ya go!!! I could think of a gazillion other things to say about this little guy but I will end on that note because I wouldn't stop. Parker is our first born which means a few things: it means that we are constantly learning with him on how to parent, it means that he is better at obeying than his brother is because I think we are more laxed w/Micah because we have other's to tend to(not a good thing on our part), and it means that he is our little helper. Honestly, the 4's have been great. We definitely have our moments but to me he has the perfect little personality for an older sibling and our firstborn. We love him so so so much!!! Even tho there are days where I do feel like I am constantly getting on to him I hope and pray that I take time to love on him so he always knows how special he is to us. :)

Btw: he had his 4yo shots last week. Poor guy...he was excited. Yeah, he didn't remember that shots hurt. I tried tell him but he didn't believe me. And he had to get 4!!! He was trooper and was fine almost right after they were done. He is in the 75% for height and weight. As we were leaving the office he said "Am I going to school right now?!" He thought bc he got his shots right then he could go to school that minute. :)

Family Vacation 2011

2011-08-02T20:03:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Fernandina Beach, FL for vacation with Derek's family. When I say family, I mean the whole Mills' side of his family. We went last year also. We fly into Jacksonville, and it is about 25 minutes from there. We really had a great time! We stayed in a condo w/Derek's parents on the beach. I am not joking when I say the first day we got there the temperature was about 20 degrees cooler than it was in Austin! It felt amazing the whole time we were there! The kids did good on the flights for the most part and all in all...it was a successful, relaxing, much needed vacation. We didn't want to come home...but had no choice.

This picture was taken on the plane. I cannot believe this happened but on the way back from the beach we left soooo early in the morning(4am..flight at 6am). At one point all of my kids plus Derek were asleep. All.at.the.same.time. For a little over an hour!!! Wow! It was great! I never expected that! I know it was all because of God!

Dress up Like a Cow Day

2011-08-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

We decided to dress up like a cow and get a free combo meal at Chickfila. It is fun for my kids and we all get free meals! My sister, brother-in-law, and two her boys joined in on the fun too. We had fun!

Aunt Lindsey got married!!! :)

2011-08-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Derek's sister, Lindsey Mills(yes...that was her name...needless to say we have lots of the same friend requests bc people think we are the other one) got married at the end of May. Derek, me, and Parker were all in the wedding. It was a great weekend! My kids did amazing! All of them were up super late two nights in a row and they did so good. The wedding was seriously so beautiful! It was at Matt's parents house. They did a great job of getting their house/land ready for the grand event. I wish I had pictures of the reception. It was behind the house around the pool. It was so cool! We were able to show off Ann Marie(Only Derek's parents and 1 set of grandparents had met her). We had a blast! We Love Matt, Lindsey's husband. They have been together(for the most part...ha) since Lindsey was 16. My boys love Uncle Matt too! *On vacation Matt kept getting Micah to say "I love Uncle Matt!" It was so cute!*

Lindsey and Matt, if you are reading this your nephews and niece are ready for some cousins to play with over there. So, get on it! ;)

Updates on Rhi Rhi

2011-08-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned it on here but we call Ann Marie "Rhi Rhi". I was calling her Rhi Rhi SO much that I had to start reminding myself to call her by her real name or else she will never know that it is not Rhi Rhi. Ha! I took Rhi Rhi in for her 6 month check up(well, it was more like 6 1/2mo). She was in 70% for her weight and 25% for her height. Which cracks me up. Most still think she is small though. She is sitting up so good now. She knows that we are eating now. If you had kids before there comes a time where your babies realize you are eating. So, tonight I had already fed her baby food and she was watching us eat and she kept making her baby noise to let me know she wanted something. Finally Parker said "Mom, Ann Marie wants to eat some more baby food!" lol. It was so funny! I think he was annoyed. She has zero teeth. At one point I thought she might be getting some. Now, I feel like we are no where near it. Parker and Micah didn't get teeth until 7mo(P) and 8 or 9mo(M). One of our good friends 3 1/2mo just popped out two teeth! Its crazy!!!

Ann Marie is so good, and just as sweet as ever. I am serious. She goes with the flow and pretty much is happy no matter what we are doing. She is definitely chill and I know what she likes(which helps when we are out). God gave us the most wonderful baby girl ever! We are so blessed!

Here are some pics of her. I love dressing her up! I LOVE putting bows in her hair. BIG bows. Even if I am dressed in yoga pants, tshirt, no make up...she will be in something cute with her hair pulled up in a rubberband and bow...no-matter-what.

These were my baby dolls when I was little. I cleaned them up, washed their clothes...and now they are Ann Marie's. :) I LOVED baby dolls when I was little. I hope she does too.

Ok, yes I did do this. Ann Marie needed to be fed her baby food, and I was desperate(and driving). So, I gave the spoon to my 4 year old and coached him thru feeding her. He was hilarious. I told him not to drop any on her(he was using a Boon Spoon where you squeeze the baby food out..not one where her scoops the food from the jar) and right off the bat he is like "uh oh, I dropped some. Oh no! It is on her lovie. Oh, its ok. Aww Man! She is getting it all over. Now it is on me!" LOL! I had to take a picture of what she looked like after only 4 bites. Needless to say I fed her. And he was upset because he wanted to feed her. I have decided I am going to teach him how to do it. ha!

Waiting at her 6mo check up.

Funny face...but she looked so cute! :)

Our Summer in Pictures

2011-07-10T19:10:00.001-07:00

Hello! I think I could receive the worst Blogger award lately! You can tell my life has changed since having three. Not in a bad way...I am just...busier. :) I will post on that in a minute. So, since it has been SO long. I have posted a gazillion ;) pictures for you to see what has been going on in The Mills family this summer. Under each picture I will write about it. :)
*Lets just say, Daddy is not in a lot of pics because he is smack in the middle of busy season for Square Cow. And they are BUSY! Thank the Lord! :)*

Cousin's watching cousin's tube on Lake Travis. We were all together celebrating Father's Day with my Dad and a late Mother's Day with my Mom.

This sweet baby girl who is known as "Rhi Rhi" to our fam is sitting up...sorta. :) She is not sturdy at all but she can hold her self up for a bit. She will be 6 months old tomorrow!!!

Rhi Rhi has no teeth(not to my surprise...her brothers didn't get them until 7mo+) but is still starting to eat some table food. Not sure what fruit she was eating here. She can't really aim this thing for her mouth good but she loves it(despite the look on her face).

All smiles! Ann Marie is such a happy baby!!! And hardly makes a fuss.

This describes our summer. Either inside playing with pool toys or in the pool w/pool toys. It is TOO hot here in Austin to be outside unless it is at 5am, 10pm, or in water. We are in a serious drought. Like, we were not allowed to have fire works on the 4th of July because it could have caused a serious fire. Crazy!!

Rhi Rhi pretty much plays in this or in her pac n play when we are home. She loves this thing! Oh, and of course she loves her Papa who will get on the floor and play with any of my kids. :)

Derek and I went to the Hillsongs United Concert for the second time on this night. It was so fun! The first time was in Houston in March. This time it was in Austin. We went with really good friends both times! It was fun the second go around bc my nephews went and it was so fun watching their reactions. Great concert!! Great time with the hubs!

I have been running since AM was 6 weeks old. I stopped before I got pregnant with her bc of misscarrying(even tho I don't think it had anything to do with the misscarraige). It just scared me. Anyways...this is my first summer of running in this heat. Wow! And Derek is so busy sometimes it is hard to get out there and do it. But it feels OH so good when I do it.

The LAKE!

For our birthdays(kinda) Derek and I asked my sister and brother in law to leave the kids at home and go to Schlitterbahn. It is voted the #1 waterpark in the world and it is about 1 hour from here. It is all natural and the water flows from the river. It was SO much fun! But of course I don't have any pictures accept this one bc your phone or camera will no longer exist if it tagged along. :) We are going back this week with the boys and the rest of my family. Couldn't be more excited to see my kids reactions. Yay! Oh...this picture is a slide that goes through the locker room!

A little tidbit, me and my siblings bdays take place all in one week out of the year. This year we decided to go out old school style. My parents, and just the three of us. We went to a movie and to outback(an all time fave growing up). We had a blast.

Brothers hanging out and eating popsicles. Sweet Memories.

This is a picture of the pool we are members of. That is Parker sliding down the frog slide. We absolutely L-O-V-E the Lakeway Swim Center. It is very kid friendly...tons of life guards and just a fun place to go. We are pretty much there all summer. I put AM in a water proof sling and it works out great. Everyone is happy!

Micah and his puddle jumper. :)

Birthday Pictures

2011-04-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

These were taken this morning right after donut time with Dad. Of course, we had to take a picture with Micah too because we got one with Parker. ;)

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun filled weekend with Parker's birthday party on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. Lets just say...my kids have hardly watched tv today because of all the toys, arts/crafts, bubbles, and candy they have received in the last couple of days. Easter morning we woke up and did Easter baskets with the boys. Ann Marie was still asleep. Then Derek headed to church early to practice drums before service. Everything was going great until the last few moments. I REALLY wanted to get video of the kids dressed up but that didn't happen. Ann Marie fell apart because she was ready for a nap. I was running late...as usual...and we were picking up a sweet lady in our church who we pick up every few Sundays for church. The service at Free Chapel was great! The dream team did a great job and so did the worship band and Jeremy! We love our church and feel so blessed to be a part of it.

Pretty girl all dressed up!

Yes, I realize that we are all over the place with what we were wearing for Easter Sunday. ha. Derek and I wore Free Chapel tshirts bc of being the dream team. Parker was matching Micah but when we got to church they had Free Chapel Kids tshirts so we changed him into that. Ha...oh well.

Derek's Aunt Paula sent these t-shirts for the boys and I love them! They say "Big Brother" on them and Ann Marie has a little sister one for when she gets a little bigger. SO cute! The boys were going to the Lakeway Easter Egg Hunt.

This is not Easter. But the boys wanted to be in a picture with AM. :)

Parker is 4!!! Oh my Word!

2011-04-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

I cannot even believe that my oldest son is already FOUR! Four years ago today as of RIGHT now...Parker was only 30 minutes old. This boy changed our world in the best way ever! He was the easiest baby and now is such a sweet four year old. We love him so so so so much! He continues to make us laugh and bring so much joy into our lives. Everything is new for us with him. This last week we have seen such a change in Parker. We were told that would happen right at 4yo. He has matured so much. We had Parker's birthday party on Saturday at Bee Cave Park. It was great! The weather was HOT but it was very breezy which made it feel good. My whole family was there and a couple of other families who are close to us were there. We had finger painting, bubbles, pizza and a spider man cake.
Today being Parker's actual birthday, Derek took him for donuts this morning all by himself. He was so sweet. The night before I heard him tell Derek that Micah could go. But this morning he changed his mind. Which is fine..we want each one of our kids to have that time with their daddy every birthday. Today also is a BIG day. We took away lovie and blanket. We have been telling Parker for MONTHS now and within the last month probably every day that when he turned 4 lovie and blanket goes bye bye. Derek said he kissed lovie goodbye this morning. He is ready for this. Even though last night I was second guessing myself. Anyways..he has been great today about it. Lets pray he doesn't even look back. ;) We shall see. Enjoy all the pics!

Ann Marie 3mo

2011-04-25T12:29:00.001-07:00

Ann Marie will be 14 weeks tomorrow. She is one incredible baby girl! She is SO good. SO chill. We are VERY blessed! There are lots of pics. So, enjoy seeing our sweet baby girl.

Yup. Her fingers are up her nose. All while sleeping. So funny.

I can now put her hair in a pony tail. I love it! It is so cute!

SO happy cause Daddy is talking to her.

She definitely favors her daddy. :)

Love this pic! We were trying to get her to roll over. She actually did that very night in her crib.

Little Snoozer.

Her great grandfather, Papa, and Mrs. Elaine came to visit. We had a BLAST!

Mama Lynn sent all the kids Easter baskets and this adorable doll was in Ann Marie's basket. I love it! She plays with it every time she is in her swing...which is several times a day.

Sunday Mornings are so fun!

2011-04-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

I love Sunday mornings. Because I get to dress up my sweet kids and show them off to all of our good friends and family. Maybe that is silly of me. I don't know. But I am so proud of my kids. I think they are the cutest kids ever! Ever since having Ann Marie dressing up my kids has become even more fun. I wake up excited on Sundays. ha! And it has made me more excited about dressing my boys. I am so dorky. I know. Anyhow, this chica looked so cute this morning! I just bought her this dress. I LOVE it! By the way...just a tidbit...if you are looking for some cute Carter's clothes you need to go to Sam's Club. They have such cute Carter's dresses and bubbles for girls and some clothes for boys for ONLY $5.44(or something like that)! The EXACT same dresses are at Kohls for twice as much! I can't believe it!

I feel bad for Parker. This exact time last year I have pictures of him looking the same way...swollen eyes...patchy skin on his face. Not exactly sure what is in the air mid March/April but whatever it is really affects Parker. His skin becomes itchy all over and his eyes swell up. We have to put him on Singulair just during these two months and Zyrtec every day. Today I took about 8 pictures and almost all of them his eyes were closed because the flash hurt his eyes. :( Anyways, praying that God takes these allergies away! Because I know He can heal Parker.

This little girl has gone 12 hours at night in between feedings! I feed her around 7 or 8(depending on her schedule) then she doesn't wake up until 7 the next morning. I am SO happy about this. She now eats 4 times a day and goes all night. She is still such a good baby! She has even started waking up talking instead of crying a couple of times in the mornings. :) She is NOT liking her car seat though. Ugh! She will be so happy until I put her in her car seat. She will be 12 weeks on Tuesday. I can't believe it! She is at such a sweet age. Tonight we were at a church meeting and she was cooing like crazy. Would NOT stop and was so loud. It was so funny. I love this baby girl so much.

All three of my sweet babies. :)

Boys will B Boys

2011-04-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Parker just started playing YMCA tball a few weeks ago. This is his first year playing. We have to drive about 15+ minutes to his practices and games. The YMCA is perfect for his age. Baseball and especially football are SUPER intense where we live. I am nowhere near ready for 3 practices a week + 1 game a week + watching the tapes on Sundays(a friend whose 8yr old plays football here has that schedule). Not sure if I will ever be ready for that. Derek's favorite sport is baseball. He loves watching it and loved playing it growing up. I am very glad we put Parker in it now. He takes time warming up to things. If he does continue to play baseball then starting at 3 is great. Although, it tries my patience. I am more of a go getter...get out there and hit the ball, run the bases kind of person. Not Parker and not his Daddy. I am learning to calm down and remember he is ONLY 3(almost 4). Thank goodness for my wonderful OH SO patient husband. What would I do without him?

"Cheers!" Nothing like cheers with popsicles.

It has been hot here lately. This was a couple of weeks ago after the boys helped me wash my car. They could have been in their bathing suits it was so hot.

Ann Marie's Dedication

2011-04-03T19:26:00.001-07:00

On March 20th, 2011 we dedicated our sweet baby girl to the Lord. Such an important day to us! We truly believe this is the start of life that will be fully given to God by Ann Marie. My brother-in-law has done all the important things in our life thus far. He married Derek and I, and dedicated my boys. So, of course...he HAD to dedicate Ann Marie too. :) This go around we had family and some close friends over to witness the dedication. The dedication was followed with a fried chicken, cheese potato casserole dinner and banana pudding and cake for dessert. It was a wonderful evening. We are SO blessed to have Ann Marie in our lives. We thank the Lord that He is the one who has blessed us with her and we believe and pray that He will always guide us and give us wisdom and discernment while raising her to be a young lady after God's heart. Here are some pics:

Uncle Jeremy and Ann Marie(we had already changed her out of her dedication dress)

Mama Don and Papa and Ann Marie

Mama Don(Ann Marie is named after Derek's grandmother and my Mom..so special) and Ann Marie

Get Your Ann Marie Fix :)

2011-03-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hey! Here are lots of pictures! Ann Marie will be 9 weeks old tomorrow. She is just precious! She is so good. We are very thankful and blessed! She is smiling now and cooing. Which is so fun! I LOVE dressing her! It is so fun. I get all giddy about it. ha. She is sleeping like a champ. This morning she slept until 8am. Her last feeding last night was at 10. Today is my first day trying to get her on a 4 hour schedule. So far, so good. The boys are doing good. Parker is growing too fast on me. He has had a slight attitude lately. I kinda feel like I am dealing with a teenager. All of this is new to me. He will be 4 years old in April. We just cut his hair. I am glad we did but I think we are going to grow it out again. ha ha. His hair grows so stinkin fast. Micah is so funny all of the time. He cracks us up! Enjoy all the pics.

Parker and his big boy hair cut.

Micah Moo...drawing.

She is so cheeky!

Sweet smile!

This happens every day...several times a day. She hardly even fusses about it.

Yeah, I know...sweet girl had no choice on this one. Her big brother who LOVES her so much just jumped in there to play.

Attempt #3 (sorry these are not in order). I never got a good one. Oh well. Life with 3 kiddos under 4(as of now)...this is what you get. :)

Attempt #2

Attempt #1

The Life we Live

2011-02-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our every day life.

I bought Ann Marie's first head band bows today. They are so cute I couldn't resist taking a picture of her. Love it!

Ann Marie wearing her first dress. This was right before church on Sunday. She looked so cute!!!

Brother and Sister.

Daddy and all his beautiful kiddos.

Daddy and his boys(Parker was refusing to keep his eyes open...this was right after they all woke up from naps).

Zoo

2011-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

Derek's parents came into town last weekend. We enjoyed having them here so much! Especially when BOTH of my boys got sick! I am sure they did not love being here during that but they were a HUGE help. I had one little boy with a double ear infection and one with a stomach virus that lasted for a good 5 days. It was awful! Before the stomach bug hit Parker we went to the San Antonio Zoo. Papa K and Mama Lynn bought us a membership there for Christmas. It was great! The weather was wonderful and the kids loved it. Especially the train. Here are some pics:

Happy 2nd Birthday to my BABY boy!!!

2011-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

I love to call Micah my "baby" boy. Because as of now, he is my baby boy. We want one more baby...and if it is a boy then obviously Micah won't be my baby boy. But if it is a girl...he will always be my baby boy. Right now, that is special to me. Every one of my kids has something special as to where they fall in birth order. Parker is my first born, Micah is my baby boy, and Ann Marie is my baby girl. :)
Micah turned 2 on January 30th. That actual day Derek took him and just him to get donuts. We stole this idea from my brother and sister in law. And I think my kids will always love this. On their actual birthday their daddy takes them to get donuts all by themselves. It was hard for Parker to deal with not being able to go. But come April, it is his turn. And we explained that, over and over and over again. ha.
Micah is hilarious. He talks in sentences. It isn't completely clear, but we know what he is saying. He is active. He is obeying pretty good(most days..ha). He is so whitty. He seems to be really good at sports(throwing, catching, hitting, kicking a ball). He loves to ride on fast toys. He is a lot less cautious than his brother. He can be loud but he isn't loud all of the time. He is so sweet!!!! He loves his baby sister and is so gentle with her! He always wants to get what his big brother gets. He loves Parker and to be around him and play with him. He doesn't care to watch a lot of tv. If he does like tv it is only the parts with music(for which he asks to re watch that part a million times!) or Toy Story. He knows where his eyes, ears, hair, nose, teeth, mouth, head, feet, hands, arms, fingers, elbows, belly, and toes are. He is a happy boy and he brings so much joy to our lives!!! We love you sweet Micah Moo!

Oh yeah, we had a Toy Story 3 and PJ party. All his cousins wore their pjs. We had Toy Story playing on both TVs. We had popcorn, skittles, and reeses pieces. And we also had a yummy cake!!

Micah(at the end of the table) and all his cousins at his Toy Story 3 party.

Ann Marie was about 2 or 3 weeks old at the party.

Big Brother, Parker(will be 4yo in April), and Micah.

He had very chapped cheeks at his party. :( He was still super cute!

This was on his actual birthday. He is saying "I'm one". He will NOT say he is two. so funny!

No worries, that is not coffee. His Dad poured chocolate milk in a coffee cup. My boys love drinking out of "adult" cups.

He got to open one gift from us on his actual birthday. It is a chatty elmo. He hardly plays with it. We thought he would love it. Oh well...you win some, you lose some. ha ha.

Blogger Party Pooper

2011-02-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Hello! So, I have been the worst blogger EVER!!! SO sorry!! Now I have so much to post I feel slightly overwhelmed. But, here it goes.
Ann Marie will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. She is so good!! Thank goodness, considering we moved and she had two sick siblings within the last 7 weeks. It has been crazy! Things have calmed down and we are very happy about that. I took AM to the Dr. when she was about 3 weeks old and she weighed 8lbs 3oz. She will go for her two month check up next week. I will let you know how much she weighs. She has only been waking up once at night since she was six days old. But the last two nights she has slept all night!! Yay!! From around 10ish to 6. I think she is actually losing some of her hair, which never happened with my boys. I still can put clip bows in her hair but today I bought her some headband bows and they are so cute! She has started smiling at us here and there. It is just precious. Her brothers still love her very much. Alright...here are lots and lots and lots of pictures!!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Ann Marie and Daddy snoozing.

Parker took this picture. He wanted to. :) Ann Marie and Mommy.

Attempting to get a picture of all three. :)

Oh, I could kiss those squishy cheeks all day long!

I had NO idea my dad hadn't held Ann Marie in the hospital. They came over for dinner a few days after she was born and my Dad walks in with a hospital mask. He said he had a cough and didn't want to risk her getting it, BUT he wanted to hold her. It was so funny! My boys loved it!! It was so funny.

Of course after Papa held her, Parker had to hold her.

If you come over and Ann Marie is not in her crib this is what you will see. Micah absolutely LOVES his baby sister. He is so sweet to her. He rubs her head and says in a really high pitch voice "Hey Baby! Hey!!!". If she is asleep, he says "er's baby?" (where's baby?). He can say her name but he calls her baby. I love their relationship already. Oh, and if she is crying Micah is the first and last to let me know. He won't leave it alone until I do something about it...or he will.

About to leave for her first dr. appt. at 3 days old.

Ann Marie Mills is HERE!!! :)

2011-01-13T11:53:00.001-08:00

BEWARE: LOTS of pictures!
Ann Marie Mills was born on January 11th, 2011 at 4:31pm. Weighing 6lbs. 15oz and 20 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and TINY! She has a head full of dark hair. And as of now...we don't think she looks like either of her brothers at this age.
Short version birth story: We arrived at the hospital at 6:30am to be induced. I thought for sure this process would go way faster. But, of course...like everything else in this pregnancy, anything I expected did not happen. :) I was dilated to a 6 by 3ish that afternoon. I had an epidural and was comfortable. But quickly that changed. I started feeling a little pressure down low...then within a matter of minutes it was UNBEARABLE! I could feel EVERYTHING! I dilated from a 6 to a 10 in a matter of minutes. I was bawling, coming off the bed in pain. I knew that it was time to have her 1) bc I needed to push 2) bc my nurse told me NOT to push bc we had to wait on the Dr. Thats a biggie bc usually you push with your nurse for a while before she calls the Dr. Dr. Seeker came "sprinting"(what my Mom said) in there to catch Ann Marie. I pushed twice...could hardly see my Dr. through my tears. But thank God she was tiny bc she came out! No worries...I felt that too. :) I was so happy she was here! She was so cute and I knew the minute she came out that she was little. But I was shocked she was that small. Alright...thats the story. It went from being B-O-R-I-N-G to quite exciting in a matter of minutes. Derek, my Mom, and my sister were in the room the see her be born. My sister, who is always my video person...I think videoed the whole birth. There was no time for her to get to an "ok" angle. Oh well...at least it is my daughter, maybe one day she can watch it. If she wants of course, and WAY later down the road. Like in her adult life. ha ha. Either way, she is so precious! Here are lots and lots of pictures. Not going to write under them because it takes too long.

Real quick: We came home very fast from the hospital..stayed less than 24 hours. I LOVED that. I do not sleep well in the hospital. Anyways...at first Parker acted like Ann Marie wasn't there. I think because his cousins were at the house and he was acting "cool". ha. But Micah was a little apprehensive. Last night after everyone left Parker was SO sweet. He would touch her ears, her hair, her fingers...and say "I love Ann Marie's hair(fingers, ears, u get the picture)." It is precious. He keeps saying how much he likes Ann Marie. And Micah has shown lots of interest in holding her and kissing her. Last night was hard bc Ann Marie was having belly aches all night and both my boys were up randomly. I think it was all because of the change in our house. But AM is doing much better today and the boys seem so much better too. Hoping for normalcy soon.

Enjoy the pictures!

Oh, Just waiting and Packing

2011-01-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

I have no pictures for you today. :( But, I have some news. No, Ann Marie has not arrived yet, but will be here soon. I guess since I am on that topic I will cover it first. I went to the Doctor on Monday. I did not expect to have progressed. I had my mind set on inducing labor on 1/11/11. But then my Dr. gave me great news! I was dilated 2 1/2cent and 50% thinned out. He said her head was super low and he wasn't sure if I would make it to my induction date. So, I started waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Ugh! And NOTHING! Well, I have had pressure and pain that I thought "this is it!" and it wasn't. In the mean time, Parker got the fever virus.
:( And the "news" I spoke of earlier is that we decided to move. This week I have waited on her and packed. You would think packing would put me into labor. Nope. Instead it has given me LOTS of back pain(especially at night) and pressure. Parker is all better now. We had almost 48 hours with no fevers in our house. Then, last night out of nowhere Micah started being super irritable. He ended up waking up last night with a fever. Ugh! I had a hard time getting him to sleep. So, as of now we are staying home from church this morning and praying that Micah feels better ASAP so that he can come see his baby sister in the hospital. After all of this I am kinda glad AM hasn't come early. I really want my kids healthy and happy before I leave them for 2(hopefully less) days.
Please pray for Micah(he isn't running a fever right now, but irritable), for labor and delivery, and for Ann Marie. We are so excited! I kinda got freaked out thinking that this very time next week I will be holding my baby girl! AHH! That is so great! It is so close!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T05:51:00.001-08:00

Hello! So, I have been a horrible blogger the past few months. Not sure why? Today is New Year's Eve. Woo Hoo! 2011 marks an exciting year for our family. We will welcome our third baby, first little girl VERY soon. And Derek's sister is getting married in May...which is going to be so fun! We have had a blessed 2010...and God gets ALL the credit for that. We hope and pray we follow His guidance and complete direction in every area of our lives in 2011. I can't even think about this bc it truly makes me sad...but this is my last year having Parker at home and not in school! I can't even think about it. In 2012 he will start Kindergarten! Ok...I will visit that topic in 2012. NOT now.
Update on Little Miss AM. I have had random pains, contractions, pressure, etc. for the past 6 weeks. I have NEVER felt this way with any pregnancy. I am to the point now where it doesn't matter how I feel it means NOTHING. :) I will be 38 weeks on Tuesday. I went into labor at 38 weeks and 6 days with Micah. So, we shall see if she decides to do the same. But, if not I am scheduled for an induction on 1/11/2011(cool bday huh?) at 7am. I am really excited about this and I am counting down the days. Today we have 11 days until she will officially be here. YAY! Of course, I am praying she decides to come on her own. But, I have had a great experience with being induced and going into labor on my own. Either way will be great. At 36 weeks I was dilated 1 1/2 cent. & 50% thinned out. I was really happy about this. But when I went back at 37 weeks I hadn't progressed at all. Which, once again...has never happened before. With my boys(if I can remember correctly) I progressed every appt. This weekend would be great for to come because my Dr. is on call all weekend. However, if I based her coming off of my gut feeling...it is not going to be this weekend. It will be on the 11th. I am ready though. She is definitely weighing down on me. It hurts to turn side to side in bed, to stand up...to walk after laying down. What is weird is I know I will miss being pregnant at some point within the next 5 months. But I can't wait to see this sweet, beautiful baby girl! I will keep you posted!

The three most wonderful and handsome boys I know! Christmas Eve 2010

Right before bed time on Christmas Eve 2010. Next year there will be a touch of pink in this picture. I already have matching pjs for all of them. :)

What I did Thanksgiving Morning

2010-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

I painted my toenails, waxed my eyebrows, took a shower, and ironed LOTS of clothes. I washed all of Ann Marie's clothes a couple of weeks ago but waited until Thanksgiving morning to iron all her smocked dresses. I also ironed some other things. I just love all her smocked stuff. I am sure I don't have nearly what most of you have who live in the South. But, considering I live somewhere where I never see smocked clothing on children, I think she has a good amount. And I plan to get more some day. It makes me SO excited to see her in these dresses. I can't wait!
I have been feeling the need to get more ready for her. Her nursery is done, clothes washed and put away. I even have her stuff to take to the hospital laying in her baby bed. All I have left to get her is pacis, diapers, wipes, and ruffle socks :). I have more ribbon to make some bows for her but haven't gotten around to it. The one other thing I have left to do is wash the fabric off of her swing, bouncy seat, carseat, boppy. I was going to wait on that but with the way I am feeling I think we might go ahead and get it out of the attic and wash it. Then put it in her room until she is ready to come out. Makes me excited just thinking about it!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was so relaxing this year. We were home all morning. I got my cooking done the night before so I had time to do a lot of things I had been wanting to do done. My husband is in charge of frying the turkey so him and the boys played on the back porch while monitoring the turkey. We then headed to my brother's house and had a REALLY yummy Thanksgiving lunch, played a few games, then came home for naps. That night I took Parker to see the movie Tangled w/my sister, brother in law, and their boys. He laughed and laughed. Cute movie. I hope all of you had wonderful a Thanksgiving!!

Parker and Micah in front of our tree. Love this picture.

Outside frying the turkey. The temperature was 72 degrees that morning. In about an hour the wind blew and it dropped to 50 degrees! It was crazy and FREEZING! Been cold since then. Brrr.

Parker just being sweet

Micah in my room. Sorry, he has food on his face. Seriously thought I would never let my child walk around(even my house) w/food on his face. Ummm...the more kids I have and the more pregnant I am the less motivated I am to wipe his face constantly. But I really can't stand it being on there.

This is how he sleeps...

2010-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

This doesn't happen now. But for several weeks I would check on Micah after I layed him down for his nap and I would find him on the floor halfway under his bed totally asleep. I always had to move him to his bed. It always put a smile on my face seeing him like this. I don't know why. It is just so cute.

Halloween Neighborhood Party 2010

2010-11-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

For reasons I would rather not go into at this moment we do not celebrate Halloween. But, this year my sister and brother in law(who live 5 houses from us) decided to be Missional. They decided to have a block party up our street and hand out hot dogs, chips, drinks, & candy to anyone who came by. And we helped. This was e-mailed out to our whole neighborhood. We had a blast and met new people. The kids still dressed up but played the whole night together. I would love to do something like this every year. It is like reversing the whole purpose of Halloween and I love it! :)

Micah, the chicken.

Parker and his 2 best buds...his cousin Gray, and our neighbor Grace. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Parker and Gray are so cute...but how cute and smiley is Grace?? Ahhh I could eat her up!

Free Chapel She-Treat 2010

2010-11-27T05:23:00.001-08:00

In October we had our first ever She-Treat at Free Chapel. AKA Women's Retreat. It was wonderful! We went to San Antonio and stayed at The Hyatt on the river walk. Our good friend, who works with the Hyatt, spoiled us like crazy with a HUGE suite that had a living area plus 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It also had a beautiful view. We arrive on Friday evening and left on Saturday. My Mom came in on Saturday and spoke to all of us. I know she is my Mom but she is a GREAT speaker! Seriously...if you ever need a spiritual woman speaker for anything my Mom would blow you away. We were laughing and crying as she spoke. We left challenged and inspired. I would say the first She-Treat was a SUCCESS! :) I only have 3 pictures(one that is blurry) from this. So here are two.

Here is most of the group at The Hyatt. (We were missing 3 girls)

My good friend, Kat, is probably going to hurt me for putting this picture up. But, this is my oh SO pregnant friend, Kat. Can't you tell?? She swears she is going to gain 75lbs. during this(her first) pregnancy. Ha ha! She is tiny! I will say that she has gained 15lbs. in her first half of the pregnancy. She is proud of herself for that. I wish I could be so tiny that when I am pregnant I was PROUD to gain weight. Darn you skinny people! Love you Kat!

32 weeks & 1 day preggo and not feeling so well...

2010-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

The sweet baby girl is causing me to not feel so well lately. :( It all started last Thursday when I was really low on energy for about three days straight. Finally, on Monday I decided to go to the Dr. Mainly because that morning I could not walk 10 ft. w/out having braxton hicks contractions. I know that braxton hicks contractions are fine...I have had them with both of my other pregnancies. However, having them back to back to back made me feel like something was up. Well, nothing is up...except the fact that Ann Marie is practically weighing down on my cervix(and bladder..."Squishing" it is what the Nurse Practioner said) and I have to kick my feet up and relax. She said AM is a happy baby in there...which is great. However, ever since Monday I have had braxton hicks contractions constantly, been crampy, and feel like I just can't do much. It is frustrating. If I even get up and start to clean the kitchen(I am not talking about hands and knees scrubbing of the floors...just washing/putting away dishes) my belly becomes hard as a rock and I start having random pains. I know the difference between real contractions and other pains...I am not having real contractions. However...I do agree with the Nurse Practioner that if I keep doing too much I could put myself into labor. I was almost in tears this morning because A)I am trying to eat healthy and all I wanted was something bad for me B)My floors need to be mopped C)AM smocked dresses need to be ironed D)Just because. I had to leave my house. Ugh! I have never felt this way during a pregnancy. I have always had great pregnancies so this is all new to me.
Don't get me wrong. I know this could be WAY worse. I am SO thankful I am not on bed rest or in labor. But lets all pray this goes away. Because if not, I am not sure how much longer AM will stay in. Thanks!

Parker-isms

2010-11-21T14:16:00.001-08:00

Hey! So Parker has been saying the funniest things lately. I am amazed how much he is learning and soaking in daily. He is such a good boy and has such a sweet spirit about him. He is well mannered and is good about following directions(most of the time). Anyways...here are some of his funny sayings lately.

P: "When I'm adult I am going to be a chef and cook recipes!!"

P: "When I'm adult I am going to be a rockstar!" Me: "I thought you were going to be a chef?" P: "I can be a chef and a rockstar!!!"

P: "Mom! I want to go to the denisk(denist)!"

P(in church this morning telling my good friend who is the teacher for preschool): "I don't have any animals." Teacher: "I have 2 dogs. Does anyone have any dogs/cats?" P: "I don't have any animals, can someone PLEASE buy me an animal?!"

We were painting Parker's bed, so he slept on his mattress which was on the floor for several days. This is his reaction when he saw just the mattresses on the floor.
P: Ran outside to where we(my Mom actually ha ha) were painting. "MOM! You have GOT to come see this!" Me: "What?" P: "MOM! Come in my room! My bed is SO TINY!! It is SO TINY!!!"

This boy is cracking us up daily along with his little brother. Both of them are at really fun ages. In Power of Praying Parent one chapter talks about praying that God would reveal to Derek and I, as the parents, what gifts and talents He has given our children. And then pray that we would do whatever we need to do to encourage those and help our children develop those even more. I really believe this is a time where you can see snip its of what your children's gifts and talents are. I pray we can help our kids in these areas to the best of our ability. We KNOW our kids are smart and gifted and talented. And that God is giving them so much favor! I am so thankful for God in our lives and theirs!

One more little story. Derek has started reading the prayer out of Power of a Praying Parent at night to the boys before bed. I don't put the boys to do bed so last night was the first time I have seen this happen. Derek sat down on the edge of P's bed and said "ok boys, it is time to pray." He had the book in his hand. Then one by one both boys got off the bed and got their own book. They sat by their Dad on the bed and pretended to be reading their book too. It was SO cute! Hopefully I can catch this on video and snap a picture of it. It is priceless! And the best part is that it is about God and praying...not just some random story.

Potty Trained...FINALLY!

2010-10-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

My 3 1/2 year old(today to be exact) has been out of diapers since 2 weeks before he was 2. However, this last year and a half has been very hard with teaching him not to have any accidents at all. Potty training has definitely been the hardest thing I have done thus far in parenting. Anyways, after much prayer for wisdom, patience, and guidance(I am SO serious! All I had left was prayer!) my 3 1/2 year old is completely potty trained!! I cannot tell you how happy we are about this! Our days are so much happier and calm. I really am so proud of Parker!
Derek and I had to kick into gear and be strict with some things so that Parker would start making his own decisions and go potty by himself w/out depending on us to tell him when to go. It is so crazy but since we did this he has not only had zero accidents(after the first few days) he has grown up in many other ways too. He has become more independent and happy to do things on his own. I heard that first borns would let you feed them with a spoon for the rest of their lives if you(as the parent) would let them. I do realize this is not true about everyone...however..it is true about Parker. He is independent in some ways and many ways he still likes to depend on us for things. His brother, however...is very independent on everything. We have seen Parker grow up in the last several months.
He has:
- stopped being scared of things that used to scare him,
-started making decisions on his own,
-dressing himself, putting his shoes on by himself(even if it is the wrong feet),
-doing favors for me around the house,
-making his own pb and j sandwiches,
-helping Daddy cook,
-helping his brother do things, etc.
Even though it is hard to see my sweet first born grow up, it makes me so happy to see that things are getting easier with him. Parker was a GREAT baby. Then after he was one he got a little harder. Don't get me wrong. Derek and I have had to work with him on all of these things. He did not just stop being scared, and willingly putting his shoes on. We had to make him be around loud noises even for just a little while and tell him there was no reason to be scared. We made him put his own shoes on even though he pitched the biggest fits. We made him go to the potty by himself(at home) even when he would rather have us take him. It wasn't easy. But, so far...it has paid off! We constantly get advice from others and it has helped tremendously. We have learned quite a bit about potty training that I hope will help with our other children.
But, my Mom asked me today(or yesterday) what I feel like has made the difference with Parker's pottying. What did we do that changed how he handled it. I didn't think of this at the time. But..duh...I should have. I honestly believe more then anything what has helped the most with ALL of these things has been PRAYER! When things have gotten tough Derek and I agree in Jesus Name that Parker will start to go potty w/no problems. Or fill in the blank. We will pray that over him every day out loud so he hears us. We constantly tell him that he is a smart boy and that God will help him with whatever things we are working on. Once again...I have had angry moments. I hate to admit that but it will about push you over the edge when your child has been potty trained for a year and he just poops in his underwear for NO reason. Or that when you tell him that he can't drink juice for lunch he says "well, I can drink water." Yeah, I know...if he gets that...he gets the whole pottying thing. I guess all of this is to say 2 things. First, we are SO proud of our son. Even though some things are hard...he really is such a good boy. I am sure some people would love for their biggest issue to be potty training. :) Second, if you are having issues of any kind with your child, the answer is prayer. God will give you guidance! He will! Even if it takes a year and a half!

Ann Marie's Room & Garage Sale Finds

2010-10-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

My Mom is my decorator. Did any of you know that? She is the one who comes over any time I need to hang something, re decorate something, or paint something. She.Is.Martha.Stewart. Not literally, but she is. And she is my Mom. :) Which makes me happy. I have been telling her that AM's nursery was starting to get on my nerves. It was "done" not but not really. Things had to be hung and decorated. I still don't have any of her clothes washed. They are organized. I will wash them. When it gets closer. I still have 12 weeks left. I have also been telling my Mom that I wanted some new accessories. I wanted to change what was over my mantel and we just brought my coffee table back into our living room. It need decor BAD. Today, I scored, BIG TIME at a garage sale in our neighborhood. I heart garage sales. If you live in B'ham and not garage selling on Saturdays you are missing out. FYI: Mountain Brook has the best garage sales ever! My parents used to go every Saturday just for fun. I love it. They don't have garage sales that good here. A few here and there. Either way...here is AM's nursery and my great findings.

The frame was given to my Mom from a client. The changing table/dresser was given to us by a client of my husbands.

GARAGE SALE! I bought this awesome hanging shelve today at the garage sale for a whoppin $10!! I LOVE it! The knobs are painted pink and green. My Mom hung hooks at the bottom so we could hang her pretty smocked dresses. The doll was my collectible doll when I was little. A long with a gazillion more that I have in the attic. The shelf and drawers will be used for her bows. You know what I love most about this piece? It could go anywhere in my house. And be of good use.

The crib was given to us by the same client of my husbands. My Mom bought the custom made bedding from a garage sale in Mountain Brook for $75!!! And I bought the framed letters from Hobby Lobby for half off. We just changed the ribbon out on them. My Mom and sister found the ribbon for me. It is perfect, bright and colorful. Exactly what I needed for her room. We rent this house so we aren't going to paint her room. So anything that brings color in is a plus.

Angle from her door. The armoire is from Micah's nursery. My husband bought this off of craigslist for $35.

GARAGE SALE FIND! Bought this jar for $5. It is great to sit on my coffee table...and that is all I have on it. Lets be real, having kids prevents you from sitting much on the coffee table.

GARAGE SALE FIND! Bought this window with the mirror in it today for $3. The brown doors behind it are from my china cabinet. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh Baby Girl

2010-10-14T19:23:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of our sweet baby girl. I haven't updated on her in a while. Well..maybe it is because I have two sweet, active boys I chase around all day..but I don't feel like there is much to update on. Besides the fact that she seems pretty calm in the womb. :) She is not nearly as active as her brothers were in there. As I type she is "moving like crazy" compared to how she normally is. She does seem to move the most at night and then if I wake up in the middle of the night(and she gets woken up) she REALLY starts to move. My last appointment was a 24 week ultra sound. It was SO neat. It was 45 minutes long. My boys stayed with my Mom and Derek was able to go with me. They check everything at this appt. Her heart, brain, femur, thighs, belly, all of her organs, etc. They do not tell you this before you come but when you are getting the sonogram done they will flash between 2D and 3D. I have never had a 3D ultrasound before. We saw her sweet face, hands, feet, legs. It was so real. Like I could just pick her up.
Anyways, all that to say, everything came back perfect! She looked just beautiful. She was so calm that one time the tech had to shake my belly to get her to move. Never happened with my boys. ha. I right around 3 months left. I still get nauseous randomly and I just started taking medicine for the awful acid reflux I was having. I feel a lot better now. I also have aches and pains. I guess it just comes with this being my 3rd. It is SO worth it...however, I have NO idea how people like Michelle Duggar have 19 kids! Whew! I am thinking one more and that is it! :)

If you look closely it looks like her right hand is throwing up the Hook Em Horns sign. Well, rest assured that I do NOT think that is the case. I am not even sure if that is her hand. Either way...she will not be a UT fan. :)

Video from Zoo

2010-10-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

San Antonio Zoo

2010-10-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Last week we took the boys to the San Antonio Zoo. We have been waiting until it cooled down to take them. We went a year ago and loved it! It is only about an hour away. I want to get a membership there. Simply because once we are paying for Micah too it will only take going 2x in a year to cover the cost of a membership. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun with Daddy too!

I was very curious to see how Parker did with the goats this year. Last year once they came towards him he was terrified! I was SHOCKED! He loved it! It is amazing how much your child can grow, physically and mentally, in one year! Here he is feeding the goats.

Daddy and Parker having some one on one time.

Brushing the goats hair. Micah did this too. However, he was not a fan of feeding them. :)

One on one time for Daddy and Micah.

Cool picture huh? That is a huge crocodile swimming by as Parker and Derek stood there.

If you see that big "rock" to the right of the picture in the water...you are actually looking at a HUGE Hippo!

Instead of looking at all the cool fish, Micah and Parker wanted to jump off the rocks. Boys...Boys...Boys.

Parker's turn to jump.

Attempting to get a picture of the two of them. I tried other times too...never got a good one. Oh well. I think this one is kinda cute though.

Sweet Micah chillin in the stroller. He is super quiet in the stroller. My kids have always enjoyed their stroller. Thank the Lord!

Parker not cooperating and taking a picture for me. This was right when we got there.

We ended the trip by eating at Freddie's. We had yummy steakburgers, hotdogs, and ice cream!

Digging in some good ice cream!

A Visit from The South

2010-10-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

My husband's parents, Aunt, Uncle, and cousin all came in town a few weeks ago. I am SO bad at grabbing my camera when everyone is in town. :( We had a great mixture of eating out at yummy places and cooking some hearty dinners. We hope everyone had a great time! My boys sure love having their Papa K and Mama Lynn here. :)

Micah, Parker, and John-Marc(Derek's cousin who is 2 weeks younger than Micah)at Mighty Fine Burgers. Don't you love their matching Spiderman shirts? John-Marc is ADORABLE!

Parker sitting in the front of the boat on Lake Austin. It was a lot a fun until we got caught in the rain on our way to eat dinner at Hula Hut. That was the 2nd or 3rd time Derek's family got caught outside in the rain here. What is crazy is that it hasn't rained that much since they were last here!

Micah and I on the boat. We sat together in the back.

Its Been Too Long...

2010-10-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!
Guess what?! I am back! ha ha. I haven't been blogging because of our poor internet. We had the lowest plan out there and it was not fast at all. In other words, it was close to impossible to upload pictures. It was fine at first. Then it just got worse. Anyhow, Derek hooked up our DSL last night and everything is SO much faster. It took me not even 2 min. to upload the pictures below...whereas before it would have taken me 20 min! Now you understand, right? Here are my sweet boys!

Roll Tide Baby!

Micah is a GREAT driver on his ride on toys. So, Parker decided to hitch a ride with him around the house. ha ha.

Question for Other Mama's

2010-08-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have a question for all of you Mama's out there who deal with the same family dynamics I will soon have.

I have had it heavy on my heart lately that I do NOT want to leave my 2nd born son, Micah, out in any way especially when Ann Marie comes in to the picture. Those of you who don't know. I have 2 sons and soon a baby girl. So many things about Micah are so much easier then Parker was. Even though Parker was a great baby...Micah is so great and easy too. We are very blessed. But what happens is because Micah is so easy he just doesn't have to be heard. You know...and his brother, the 3yo, does. I am worried because I have to buy new clothes for Parker simply because he is my first. I will have to buy clothes for Ann Marie because she is my first girl. And then there is sweet Micah. He will always get his brothers "Pass me downs". I absolutely do not want Parker to get attention because he is the oldest, and Ann Marie to get attention because she is the only girl(that might change one day) and then Micah to feel left out. Even now, I catch myself trying so hard to not overlook him. I try to love on him extra hard because I don't want him to feel this way. I love this boy sooooo much...I almost tear up...I can't describe the love I have him. The same way I feel about Parker. It would break my heart if he ever felt something different from Derek and I.

So, my questions is: if you are a Mom of two(or all) of the same gender children in a row how do you handle it?
And if you are someone who happened to be the one in the family who falls under this category how did your parents handle it?

I want to be so loving and fair to all of my children. I do realize that children's perspectives are off sometimes and sometimes...they are going to feel left out...no matter what. But, I want to be able know with everything in me that we do not do that.

Oh my word. I could eat this boy up! :)

What happens when...

2010-08-21T06:40:00.001-07:00

You move your 18mo into a big boy bed & into the room with his brother? A lot. Ha ha.
So, the biggest transition we have gone through lately is moving Micah into Parker's room. They both now sleep in twin beds and I really do like their room...considering we live in a rental home(I would do more if we owned this house). The transition has been fairly easy. However...there are still things we are having to figure out at the time being. So...here are some bullet points about my kids and this transition.

My 3yo:
-He understands to be quiet and not wake Micah.
-He understands to get in his bed and not get down. Don't play.
-He is now having go to bed a bit later then Micah or go to sleep in our room until Micah gets used to Parker being in there.
-He has decided to wake his brother up EARLY the last two mornings. At first I was fooled and it didn't even cross my mind that he woke up his brother. Until this morning. Grrrr....
-He can sleep through Micah waking up(which hasn't happened much).
-He loves Micah sleeping in his room. He now calls it "our room" and calls the nursery Ann Marie's room. Sweet.

My 18mo:
-If Parker is in the room he will play, play, and play for an hour and half before going to sleep...even when Parker does not participate(reason why we decided to not put them to bed together...just until Micah gets used to it.)
-He didn't discover he could get out of the bed for a week. That was nice while it lasted.
-Doesn't matter what time it is...even if it is dark. If he is wide awake he will crawl into his brothers bed and play.
-He is sleeping better in his big boy bed then his crib.
-He naps GREAT in there.
-He loves his bed.
-He loves being in the room with his brother.

So...even though we are having to tweak things temporarily, our boys are doing really good with the transition. Even though at 6:00 this morning I was talking with God about wanting this to get better...I believe God reminded me how it is good that we are doing this now and not when I am 9mo pregnant or when Ann Marie gets here. So far...Micah has done a great job with transitions. Right now, his age is busy, busy, and more busy. He is into everything. He doesn't pitch fits hardly at all...I have seem him pitch just a few in his 18mo of life. I am very grateful for that. He is very consistent with his moods which I am so thankful for. He is so darn cute and I love him to pieces. Oh yeah...he LOVES his ride on toys. Which cracks me up. He rides his fire truck all over the house and thinks it is his. IF anyone else is on it he is not happy. Parker didn't care much for ride on toys. It is so cute seeing him throw his feet forward to get himself going. ha.

Parker is growing and understanding things more and more. I love it. Honestly, it is getting much easier with him. Not that it has been horribly hard or anything. But he will go get diapers and wipes for me. He told me that Micah's diaper was full the other day. ha ha. I can take him anywhere and he is really good. As long as that boy has plenty of sleep he is good. We are getting over whining so much(thank the Lord!). And doing better with pottying(after almost a year and a half!!!). We are talking about putting him in preschool but not sure when. Maybe Jan. but probably not until next Sept. He is very lovie and snuggily with Derek and I but not so much anyone else. When his cousins or friends try to hug him he is not all about it. ha. He knows the difference between his right and left and is learning to recognize his letters(I just haven't put much emphasis on this one). I think he is so smart and so sweet to his brother. He talks about Ann Marie like she is here. He knows she is in my belly. But he says "Mom, are you buying those for Ann Marie?" "Mom, look at Ann Marie's room!" I think he is going to love her so much and be a huge help.

Speaking of Ann Marie. She is doing good. She is moving all day but not kicking me nearly as much as my boys did. Derek hasn't even felt her yet. By this point he had felt the boys. I am about to be 19 weeks pregnant and you can't even tell I am pregnant! I just look fat! I have to tell people I am pregnant and that I am having a girl. This is so different for me. With the boys you could definitely tell I was pregnant by this point. I, honestly, am not happy with the way I look. But what I can do? Nothing at this point. Acid reflux has definitely kicked in. Yuck. I go for my 20 week appt. in 2 weeks. I am half way there! But...feel like I still have forever before she will get here. Yesterday and the day before I had waves of nausea! ugh! Crazy how different pregnancies can be. Oh...one more thing..I made her 3 bows last week. The first time I have made bows. They are super cute and I only hope to get better at it. Hopefully it will save me money.

Here are some pictures. I haven't been camera happy lately. Sorry. But here are my cute boys!

Messes do not bother him at all. Yummm...Chocolate pancakes!

He LOVES balls!! If you look closely you can see his toe coming out of his footy pjs. Probably time toss these.

Parker in action. My kids think it is so fun to jump off the short wall behind our couch onto our couch. Yes, they have gotten hurt. And yes, it is kinda dangerous. But they love it and they are boys. Boys will be boys.

Trying to get up there with Park.

Don't you love his get up? He will dress up a gazillion times a day. He liked me taking pictures of him in this. ha ha.

Dreaming of Bows, Dolls, Pink, & Purple

2010-08-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

What does that title mean? If you read in my previous post I was going to the Dr. this week to find out for sure this baby in belly is a girl. And it is!!! I am very happy about that simply because I already bought her quite a few things. Oops. ha. I thought I was having a girl and I believed the sonogram tech would have given me a 100% sure answer at 12 weeks but she is not the Dr. and probably couldn't. However, even though I REALLY thought this baby was(is) a girl every time I purchased something I got a tad nervous. ha. ha. Thinking my husband is going to kill me if this baby is not a girl. I waited forever at the Drs. office but luckily I didn't have my kids. The nurse did the ultra sound first and said it was girl and then Dr. Seeker came in excited as ever when he saw that it is a girl. He threw his arms in the air and said "You can say now that we are 100% confident that this baby is a girl!" Lol! He is so sweet! Now I think about it all of the time. That I am having a girl! This is so wonderful and perfect! I have 2 amazing, handsome, hilarious, sweet little boys that I would not trade for anything...and now we are just going to add a sweet little princess to this crew. I know she will love her brothers so much and they will love her so much too. Not too sure Daddy knows what to expect with a little girl...but I know he will be smitten. He is excited! I loved how Dr. Seeker was showing me her face, and her belly and he was calling her "pretty". Alright, now it is time to soak in loving my sweet boys...and of course my wonderful husband.
This random but as of yesterday my 18mo little boy is sleeping in a big boy bed in his brother's room. Well, now it is Parker and Micah's room. We put his twin bed up yesterday and moved their room around. But did not anticipate putting Micah in there yet. We decided to just try it out last night and for the most part he did great. Took a while to get to sleep. He was talking and standing in the bed. But after he fell asleep he was out until 7:30am. He napped in their today once w/out Parker and the other time while Parker napped. It is kinda weird though because now Micah's room is "empty". All his furniture is in there but nothing else. :( Not his clothes or him. And no one will be in there until Ann Marie gets here. Kinda sad....my baby is growing up!
No pictures here. Thats all folks! But it is BIG news!

Amelia Island, 2010

2010-07-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from our beach trip which was so great. We relaxed, did not use our cell phones much at all, hardly used the laptop, played at the beach and pool, ate lots, enjoyed time with Derek's whole family(mom, dad, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents)and enjoyed time with just us. It.was.exactly.what.we.needed.
It was our first time flying with Micah and Parker has flown several times before. He loves to fly. Micah did pretty good. Better then I thought he would do. Although we LOVED the beach and when we landed Parker said "Are we going to the beach? I want to go to Florida!" He had know idea we were in Texas. ha ha. I am glad we are home and ready to move on to the Fall. I am hoping the Fall here is cooler then normal and it gets here faster. We will see. But...life is good. Of course Derek came home to such a busy week at work. He worked from 7am-2am one day. And it is almost 9pm right now and guess what? He is still working. :) Just means the business is doing good. So...even though it is hard to deal with some of the time...we are blessed. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Derek and I on the back porch of our condo. We were going on a date that night. Ummm...to Zaxbys. Ha! We don't have a Zaxbys here and we love it. It was a good cheap date. We talked a lot. I loved it! I love spending time with this guy! He is the best!

Micah playing in the sand about to take pictures. He looks like he is holding a cigarette. He is NOT.

After pictures Parker getting in the ocean fully clothed. Oh well...

Derek's Aunts, Uncles, Mama Rose, Papa, Dad, and Mom.

This picture is so sweet.

Derek and Parker. A little dark. But good picture.

LOVE this picture! They are so handsome!

Parker in his new Monster PJs.

Micah giving me some kisses. He is not stingy with his kisses at all.

This is how far the shore went out. I loved it because the beach was flat and when the tide came in it was shallow and not rough at all. It was a great beach for toddlers.

Organizing Bug

2010-07-28T21:26:00.001-07:00

FYI: I just read through what I typed and there are lots of errors. I do not feel like going back and fixing them. So you can laugh at them and move on. :) Also...I go on Tuesday to find out for sure that this baby is a girl. The first go around they told me they were 95% sure it was a girl. Same thing they told me with Micah about being a boy. But, I sure am ready to know they are as sure as they can be that she is a girl. :)

I knew that last week was the beginning of the end for some things in The Mills household. First, it was the last week of eating bad for us. Second, it was the last week for me to hold off all the places in my house that needed to be organized. Third, it was our vacation...which for me meant the beginning of vacation which was great...however when it ended it felt like the end of the summer. Let me explain these:

Since being preggo Derek and I have eaten SO unhealthy for us. I haven't felt good. Even last week during vacation I was sick twice. But we decided before we left that after vacation we were going to start eating healthy again. Derek wants to lose weight(I think he looks GREAT! However...he really wants to lose a few pounds.). I simply want to eat better for me. I don't intend on losing weight, however...that might happen since I am it is like night and day how different I am eating. Anyways, we switched out E-mealz(Dave Ramsey meal plan) to the weight watchers point meal plan. And have been doing good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I have had some ice cream at night which I justify by eating so well for me during th day. I hope this last for me. It is hard not to think "I am pregnant! Who cares?" But...really...it cannot be good eating fast food a gazillion times a week. Right?
Next...organization. This is what I titled this post because the organizing bug has come over me. For some reason right before we left for vacation I had this desire for it to be Fall. Which for me, Fall comes with structure...wonderful smells, clean house...great weather. I also have thought how even though this baby girl will not be entering this world for quite some time there are things that need to get done at me house. So, I started on Monday. First, I went through every toy we own inside our house and Parker and I filled 2 trash bags full of toys to give to Goodwill. This ended up being a teachable moment for me with Parker on giving. And it felt great. For a split second I thought about selling the toys. But I am SO glad I didn't! We were able to put everything in the bags and take it straight to Goodwill that afternoon. As I went through all of the toys I organized them too. We are going to sell the coffee table we have in the play room to make space in there. This coffee table opened up and it had great storage room where I stored lots of toys. Now...there is nothing it in! Woo Hoo!
I also cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer completely. Tonight, a organizing task that has haunted me for a few months now I completed! Yay! I have the boys clothes in bins with the sizes on the front of the bins. They were all in Micah's closet. The bins were getting out of control. I was piling up clothes on top that people had given me, along with things both boys had grown out of on top of some things I bought for Ann Marie. It was bad. Well, to me it was bad. My husband had to work late tonight so I pulled EVERY bin out of Micah's closet and then ones out of Parker's closet. Would you like to know how many there were? 10 PLUS 2 bags full of clothes and piles of clothes on the floor. One reason why I was so inspired to do this is because our good friends are about to have a baby boy in 5 weeks. I have SO many clothes because of my sister and sister in law have given me all of their's and my own kids clothes. I knew I had clothes to spare. I went through them all and filled up two bags full of clothes, shoes, etc for baby Noah. Then, I reorganized all of the sizes and hopefully have everything looking good now. Anyways, I still have quite a few more projects. But to have gotten this much done in 3 days for me is really good! I am proud!
By the way, I posted some pictures below from our wonderful vacation at Amelia Island. I have more and maybe one day I will post them. Ha! Also...I love my friends blogs who are so cute...simple...short...and to the point. I CAN NOT DO THAT but wish I could. So if you don't read everything I write. That is ok...my feelings are not hurt. Because I probably wouldn't either. :)

Micah and his sweet 2nd cousin, Jordan. Isn't she so adorable?

Micah in a baby pool on the beach...which was a life saver. Great idea Mama Lynn!

Parker just loved being in the water...beach or pool.

Still Sick

2010-07-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts here for ya. First, I have not been in the mood to blog. Hence the reason I haven't. I really think it is a pregnancy thing. I am 13 weeks and 2 days preggo and I am STILL feeling nauseous! I feel soooooo much better then I did the first 10 1/2 weeks. This is tolerable. And it is not all day like it was before. But, I ate a super good meal(not super good for me) tonight, came straight home and laid in my bed because I have a headache accompanied with nausea. Gross. It is just so interesting how this baby is a girl and this pregnancy is so different then my other two(which were identical for the most part). I am not going to lie. I am ready for the nausea and headaches to go away. It is hard to function when they hit me. I, also have not been nearly has tired this go around. When I was pregnant with Micah I was exhausted all of the time. Probably due to climbing two sets of stairs every day, several times a day. Which I don't do now bc we live somewhere different. I have noticed lately, though, that if I go out in the morning for a couple of hours...I am completely pooped when I get home. I do take a nap every day when my boys nap. That has been something I have done during every pregnancy so far. Blessed that my boys still nap really good and that I can do that. I can feel her move. :) Which is such a great feeling. I feel her every day, but not all day. She is too small for that. If I lay down...usually at night I can feel her. I already have to sleep with two pillows on each side of me to sleep more comfortably. Never have I had to do that this early on. I have gained more weight more quickly. Due to not eating healthy at all. Planning on changing that after vacation...which starts on Sat. We are flying to the beach. So excited! We will be gone for a week. After that, I am hoping to eat better.
You know what is great though? My boys have been so great about going with the flow. We are not nearly as active and haven't been these last 13 weeks. And they don't care. They play so well together and at home. Derek thinks we have too many toys. And we probably do...but they play with all of them. And I am thankful for them. We still go to the pool a lot. And Parker is swimming like a fish all by himself. Parker is so great to snuggle with me when I don't feel good or am tired. Usually I only rest like that when Micah is napping. And if Parker is not napping yet...he will chill with me. I love it. He loves to get in my bed with me. Or he will watch a disney show. He is my buddy. So is Micah...he is just smaller and more active. Parker was too at that age. Maybe not as active. But...definitely wouldn't sit and snuggle. I hope all of my kids snuggle with me like Parker does.
I got my girl clothes fix for a little while. I showed you earlier what I bought Ann Marie. Now...I am calmer about it. My Mom bought her bedding and some smocked dresses. It is all absolutely adorable! I am sure I will go on another shopping trip next Dr. appt. Something about seeing her makes me excited! I, also am excited for her to come into this world. We are nowhere near her due date. And I don't want to wish away this time because then I am wishing away my boys time. There is so much to happen before she gets here. Vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Fall, Winter...etc. THATS a lot! So...I am going to be happy being pregnant...feeling her...preparing for her. But...not wish away this time. This will be the last 6 months I have with just boys. I want to cherish it. Ok...no pictures once again. I will try to post some after vacation.

We are having a baby and its a GIRL!

2010-07-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

So...I haven't posted anything about this in SO long! Some of you might remember my post around Easter about being preggo with baby #3. Well, a week later I miscarried that baby. :( I was upset about it. It was not fun. It was my first and hopefully last miscarriage! The miscarriage is a whole different story. I will not go into that. But, God blessed us with another baby 2 weeks after I miscarried! Now, I am 12 weeks and 3 days pregnant! Most of you probably already know that. I haven't kept it hush hush...just wasn't ready to blog about it yet.
Again if you have been following my blog for a while(like 2 years) when I was pregnant with Micah I found out he was a boy at my 12 week appt. It was so crazy. It was a new Dr. because we had moved. I had to go in for a 45 min. ultrasound. I don't know anyone else whose Doctor's do this but mine does. I just happened to ask the lady if she could tell what the baby was and within min. she knew it was a boy! I couldn't believe it! Fast forward several months. I was waiting to see the doctor for a routine appt and was having a conversation with another pregnant lady who was waiting. She was really far along too. She found out she was having a girl at the 12 week appt. too! I thought, for sure, that I found out just because it was a boy and easier to see. I was wrong!
Now, this week was my 12 week appt. I was excited and praying that they could see what this baby was. My husband decided to come to his appt instead of the next one just in case I did find out. It was a different lady but I told her about Micah and she said she would check. Within minutes she said "Yup...I am 90% sure it is a girl." I was so happy I could have cried. I almost did! Then she checked her all out...and looked again 2 more times. By then, she said "ok, I am now 95% sure it is a girl." She even wrote down 2 websites that teach me how to make bows and sell bows. I really don't think she would have told me if she wasn't sure. She is an expert at this. This is all she does day in and day out. She also told me she has a really good track record. I am so excited. I have known for over 24 hours and already bought her bows, 2 blankets, 4 outfits, a sweater, and a pair of pants. AHHHH! My husband is shaking his head at me. But, she has hardly anything at all. I now have my Mom on a hunt in B'ham at all the amazing garage sales there for smocked dresses and adorable southern outfits. My whole family was so excited and so is my husband's fam. I laid all her outfits out and just stared at them in amazement that I am having a baby girl! Parker is excited. He has called it for weeks now. He always talks about his baby sister.
I can also feel her move. Which is so fun. It is funny because when we were getting the ultra sound she hardly moved. She was so chill. At Micah's 12 week appt I remember him flailing his arms every where and practically doing flips! I guess the difference between boys and girls. I go back on August 3rd for my Doctor to confirm it is a girl. I am ready for that appt. Just because I want the other 5% to be confirmed. ha ha. Although, I know it is a girl! I have had way too many signs.
Ok, this so long. But I haven't posted in forever. I am going to scan her ultra sound pictures in here soon. They are cute! By the way, her name is going to be
Ann Marie. We will call her Ann Marie. Ann is after Derek's nanny who we were very closed to. She passed away 2 years ago. And Marie is after my Mom. That is her middle name. Two great women! So, she will be a great woman of God! We will speak it over her every time we say her name.
These are pictures of stuff I bought her. Silly, I know. But I just love these outfits!

Princess Harley Jane is 1!!!

2010-06-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love my title? Ha. I had to make it girly. Harley Jane is the one and only sweet girl in this family. She turned 1 on June 16th. Her party was so cute! It was an Austin Tea Party. Everything was so perfect and girly. Even though there was only 3 girls out of 12 boys it was every bit of a tea party. The boys loved it too. It was my boys first girl bday party(I think.). Here are some pictures from the event. And of the sweet birthday girl. She is beautiful...like I am not joking...and I am not being biased(maybe a little)...she REALLY is beautiful!

Some of the boys sitting at the table.

Gray and Parker. Best buddies!

Adorable Lawson.

The birthday girl being pretty and sweet.

Parker and Micah eating nectarines getting ready to leave for the tea party. I am on a nectarine kick. Might be the only healthy thing I am loving. :)

Fun Fun

2010-06-15T10:15:00.001-07:00

I have some pictures for you!!! Aren't you excited? ha ha. Well...I just got my memory card in for my new camera yesterday. I was so excited! I played with my camera a lot yesterday and found some really neat things that my camera does.
Anyways, here are just a few pictures of the boys(1 of me).
Lately we go to the pool almost every day. I am going to try to take my camera to the pool so you all can see how awesome our pool is. My boys love going! We are really trying to teach Parker to swim. Last summer he was swimming by himself by the end of the summer. Not far or unsupervised...but he was doing it. He is now swimming by himself but we are trying to get him stronger at it. He is great at kicking his legs! That boy can tread water like nobodies business. But, he doesn't move his arms a lot. Anyways...we are working on it. Micah just loves it. He will roam around, play in the water, get a float, etc. He is so cute! People always look at him and talk about how cute he is. I agree!!! ha ha.

Parker dressed as a monkey. My sister gave us a lot of dress up clothes that her boys are too big for. Parker dresses up every day! For instance, at this very moment he has a carrot hat on with a superman cape. Earlier this morning he was a pumpkin with a batman mask on. So funny!

Ok not a fan of this picture of me. But the reason I posted it is because of this cool feature my camera has. I can put it on this mode that if it detects someone smiling it automatically takes a picture!! Ok, so maybe this isn't new to you, but it is me and I LOVE it! Especially since kids are all over the place with their smiles. This was the first time I tried this feature.

Cool picture of Park.

I LOVE this picture! This face is frequent from Micah Moo. I am SO happy I captured it. I see this face all of the time and it makes me laugh. It is a half whine/fuss kinda look. Hilarious!

Sweet boy. He is our roamer. Always roaming around the house.

I got a.....

2010-06-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

NEW CAMERA!!! YAY!!!!! My birthday was three days ago but I just got my gifts last night. I asked for a nice camera. I actually asked for a different one then I got but I am SO happy with the one I got. I did not do much research at all and told my husband that when I showed him the one I wanted. So, I knew he would do some research. He did, and he bought me an awesome camera!!!! Actually, the camera wasn't from just him...it was from a lot of people. Anyways, I thought you all would like to know about it since I hopefully will be having some good pics coming your way. :) I have to wait on a memory card though. But once it is in...I will be getting some good pics and video(it has HD video on it too!). I also got six new dining room chairs that I love and a necklace that I have been wanting for a few months now. The necklace has 2 antique charms on it with my boys initials. The charms are tiny. It will be the only thing I have with my kids initials on it and I will probably wear it almost every day. :) I had a great birthday. My husband did a GREAT job! He has done so good this last year on making every holiday special. I am so appreciative!!
Coming soon...new pictures with my new camera!

What is Micah talking about these Days?

2010-05-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures for you. :( I just need to upload the ones off my camera. Sorry...but I will do that soon enough.
I wanted to post on some of Micah's words he is saying these days. I want to do this because I purposefully went back to when Parker was Micah's age to see what he was saying at that age. So, I will probably do the same when I have another baby. Micah will be 16 months old on May 30th(2 days). Here is a list of things he says that we can understand.
-Mama
-DaDa
-Cracker
-Cook(one of his first words...weird...I know.)
-Uh Oh(another 1st word)
-Hot(this one is ALWAYS paired with "cook")
-Cookie
-Get down(we know he is saying this, but you probably wouldn't)
-Done
-Night Night
-Bye Bye
-Papa
-Cracker
-Bath
-Sucker(I think I heard him say this one day...but I could be wrong about this one)
-aljdkjhakgjhagjhlaghejklahiudhgjabgjlhaiukghkahfdk: Let me explain...this boy jibber jabbers ALL OF THE TIME! Parker did the same thing...and it is the funniest thing ever. I seriously haven't seen a child do this as much as my kids. I am sure they do, but it is the funniest thing. Today, on the way to the pool he would not stop "talking". He kept looking out the window and pointing. My friend, Paige, was with us and we were laughing so hard. He sounds like he speaks vietamese(sp?). This probably means he is going to be a talker like Parker. Which I thought for sure Micah would not be like that. I think I am going to be wrong. He probably says other stuff too. But, I could be forgetting it or don't know that is what he says.

Parker is funny as ever. We are going through a strict pottying routine right now. He has been potty trained for a over a year now. But, he still has accidents simply because A.)he doesn't want to take the time to go or B.)He doesn't tell me or his teachers(at church). We are on day 2 and it seems to be working a little bit every day. We haven't had any accidents. This boy knows better then to go in his pants...trust me...he is just being silly. But, he says funny stuff all of the time too. Like when he gets in trouble for whining and I tell him to hush he says "I wanna talk." He also talks about crushing Goliath(David and Goliath). He is really growing up on us! Him and Micah play so well together. I am so happy because they are to the point now that if we go to the park just with us and no friends/cousins they play with each other! Before when Micah wasn't old enough to play Parker would have gotten bored. But now...he plays with his brother! Yay!

My sweet boy is 3!!!!!

2010-05-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! I have b-day party pics from my sweet little P's birthday. As I mentioned before he had a joint party with his cousin "G". He and P are only 5 weeks apart. P has already turned 3 and G will turn 3 at the end of this month. My sister and I had a great time planning this party and doing fun, cute things to make it memorable. We had it at a neat little place called Rolly Pollies. If you ever are wondering if it is a good idea to have a party there it is!!!!! They do a GREAT job of making your party special, easy, and fun for all the kids. There is a foam pit, climbing wall, zip line, bounce house, trampoline that you run on and then bounce on this big pad, bars, balance beam, and lots of other things that I don't even know the names for. There are 3 instructors there helping the kids do things...but not in their way at all. They provide balloons on each kids chair, the paper goods, and a place for gifts. It was so great! And I think everyone had a really good time...at least I hope so. P had so much fun. However, he didn't feel great(which happened last year on his bday party day...UGH!).
Since there is NO WAY I can take the time to write what each picture is. I do want to say that 1) we got the boys shirts made from a girl on Etsy. The same girl who made M's 1st bday shirt. She is so reasonable and good. Aren't they adorable?! 2)My sister made their cupcakes. How stinkin cute are those?! They looked amazing. My nephew said "My Mom should work for Hey Cupcake!" lol! They were so yummy too! 3)The theme of the invitations was a bright colored Lion with a bday hat on. Their gift bags had (matching to the invitations) writing pad, animal pen, animal crackers, animal stickers, and a blow pop. All the bags were tied with animal print ribbon.

I have to comment on this picture. P LOVES this hat. It is WAY too small on him. It is like infant size. Lol! My Mom let us pick him out his first baseball hat and she bought it for him for his bday. It is his first Atlanta Braves hat. We went and picked it up yesterday and Derek brought P into the store. I think Derek was a proud daddy getting his son his FIRST baseball hat...and especially a Braves hat. So cute!

An evening on the Lake

2010-05-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

We are apart of something called the Freedom Boat Club. It is this cool club where you can hop on a boat on different bodies of water throughout the US. It is really cool. We either hop on a boat on Lake Travis or Lake Austin. This night my whole family minus the kiddos went on Lake Austin. The water in Lake Austin is FREEZING! Which is great during the summer...but at the beginning of the summer before it is super hot...it is a bit cold to get in. We just relaxed and parked the boat at a really cool place called The Hula Hut to eat at. You will probably see lots more pictures of us on the boat this summer.

A very well known bridge in Austin. It is called the 360 Bridge(there is also another name for it that I am not sure of).

L-R Ashley(My sister), Wade(My brother), Kimberly(SIL), Me, My Mom(who got soaked and we were laughing so hard we were crying!)

Wade and Kimberly w/the bridge in the background(that you can barely see...oh well)

Me and My Buddy

2010-05-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

So, as you all know P and his daddy went out of town a few weeks ago for 4 days. Leaving me and M to have some fun quality time together. I have never had just one on one time with M for that long. Usually, if I have one on one time with him it is for a couple of hours. I had decided to do nothing too adventurous that week. We pretty much stayed home and relaxed. We did go to lunch with my Mom one day, small group on Fri. night, and dinner with my parents. Then M took his naps at home and played while I checked lots of things off of my list that had been on there for quite some time. I cleaned, organized, finished M's baby book(YEAH!), and played with M. I wasn't sure how he would do not being around his brother...I wondered if he would get bored. But, he did great! He was chatty and so sweet...as always! If you asked him "where's P?" He would look all around...like P was about to walk through the door. Kinda sad!
I loved having that time with just M. It just reminded me of how easy going and precious he is. I love him so stinkin much. I kiss him all the time and can't get enough of him. It also made me realize how much I love my husband and P. I missed them like crazy and couldn't wait for my family to be all together again. Here are some pics I took of M.

I just had taken his outfit off because after I watered the flowers outside he plopped right down on the stair(where him and P sit all of the time) but it was covered with water. He didn't seem to even notice. :)

Mama Lynn, Papa K, Papa, and Mrs. Elaine came to visit! WOO HOO!

2010-05-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I didn't fulfill my promise last week. I didn't post every day. It is a lot of work! Sorry! But, maybe soon I will get to P's bday party.

The week after Easter Derek's mom, dad, Papa, and his wife, Mrs. Elaine, came to visit. We had so much fun like we always do! The boys played, played, and played some more. We usually always do something touristy when his family visits. This time we went on something called a Duck Tour. It is kinda expensive, but it was so fun. You get on a bus(aka the duck) and ride through downtown Austin. The driver tells you all about the history of downtown austin and neat things about different buildings. You also get a quacker. And you will randomly quack at people all around town. Then, the bus turns into a boat. ha. And we went into the lake. It was fun. The boys loved it. I found out more about downtown Austin then I ever knew.
We also visited Steiner Ranch Steakhouse which was delicious! Papa loves going there. And so do we.
We are going to the beach in July with Derek's family. We are excited!

My Day is Today...along w/all other Moms out there. :)

2010-05-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to all you Mamas out there!! Today is such a special day. It is for me. Being a Mom is my passion. I love it with everything in me. It is hard, emotional, trying, joyous, special, bonding, unconditional love, sacrificial, risky, rewarding, amazing, indescribable, breath taking, and the list could go on and on. Being a mom is a gift that I cannot believe God gave me, but He did. And I hope I can do EXACTLY what He wants me to do with my kids.
This morning Parker walks into my room with flowers in his hand. He said he got these for me. :) I also got a gift card to go out to lunch w/my mom or a friend w/out kids. And my fave candy bar. :) Perfect and thoughtful of my husband. And then tonight he surprised me with asking some of our good friends to keep our boys so that we could go to dinner. I still don't know where we are eating. It will be downtown Austin, that is all I know. I love stuff like this. Well, gotta go get ready! Hope all of you feel as blessed as I do to be a Mom. And I hope you all have a wonderful day today!

Here we are at P's 3rd bday party last week.

Happy Easter!!! 2010

2010-05-04T18:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! ha, a little late...I know. :) Growing up my Mom and Dad hid our Easter Baskets in the house and on Easter morning we had to find them. They would play the Hot/Cold game with us. It was a lot of fun. So, this year was my first year to hide the boys baskets. I didn't play hot/cold with them because they are too young for that. But, I think P enjoyed it. M's basket was on the couch covered with a blanket and P's was under a table that sits in between two chairs.
I was in charge of Children's church on Easter Sunday. It was so rewarding. It was probably my favorite children's service I have ever done. It wasn't that great BUT I feel like the kids really understood the Easter story when they left.
That night we went to my brother's house for dinner. We all made breakfast food. My Mom made up this crazy game just for the adults. The kids went outside with a babysitter and we all played this game. Everyone had to search REALLY HARD for three eggs each and there were lots of questions and lots of rewards(candy, dr. pepper, giftcards, money). It was so fun even if my brother won about every prize. :) Mom did a great job! I expect to play that game every year(hint hint Mom!!)
All in All Easter was great. Celebrating Christs resurrection was on my mind the whole week before. P made resurrection bread with my sister and her boys. We read P the story of Jesus' resurrection from the Jesus Story Bible. After church we asked what P learned in church and he said "God and the stone" and "God made everything!" :) Thats what it is all about.

I like this picture a lot. P with his sweet smile in his cute Easter shirt.

M looking Southern! I still dress him Southern every week(not all the time...but at least once every week) despite the fact that people DO NOT dress their kids like that here in Austin. I can't help it...it is adorable!

I have no idea why I couldn't get a good clear picture. But, the fact that my husband is not ever with us on Sunday mornings to help me could have something to do with it. He helps set up and with the sound. So, girls out there...if you have to get your kids ready all by yourself, loaded in the car, and unloaded at church...you are not alone. My sister and I both do it EVERY Sunday!

M and P waiting in our bed for us to get everything ready to come and find their Easter Baskets. P's eyes are pretty swollen in this pic. His eyes are closed...but I can tell how swollen they are. :(

The boys baskets full of goodies. Goodies that I got on clearance that is. Most of these items I got on clearance after Christmas at Target!!! What a steal!

WAY Behind...Where to start??

2010-05-03T17:26:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while and a lot has happened in April. So, I am going to try to start from the beginning of April(late March) and hopefully by the end of this week I will top off all of this bloggy craziness with a big bang...Parker and Gray's 3rd Bday party! :) Here are some pics of randomness around the house. Hanging out with my sweet sweet boys who I LOVE so much!!

This is how "P" is dressed most days around our house if we aren't going anywhere. Yes, my boys are still wearing their Christmas pjs. I love them...they are comfy, and so cute. P's eyes are swollen in most of these pics. He had HORRIBLE allergies where his eyes were almost swollen shut some of the time. He is now on Singulair. And has been feeling MUCH better! Thank the Lord!

Sweet "M" just eating a snack. Ahhh...that boy is C-U-T-E!

I LOVE this picture. Except if you zoom in M's eyes are closed. :( The flowers on both sides of the boys are so pretty. I cannot believe how pretty they have stayed. I hope I can keep them up...considering today I came home and they were wilted. The heat is getting to them. I gotta water them more!!

I had to ask P to put his arm around M. Love matching outfits. Won't be able to do this for too much longer.

Just eating a snack outside in this beautiful weather. M does so good with sitting at this table. He is a very messy eater. I thought this was a good idea bc I didn't have to clean up the mess. Well, I was wrong. I found that out when I came outside later and there was a line of ants all the way up to the leftover food on the floor. Oops.

Melts my heart. :)

Matching outfits again. On our way to the Easter Egg Hunt. P insisted on holding M. :) My camera died right after this pic. So that is all I got.

Random Thoughts By Me :)

2010-04-29T08:53:00.001-07:00

Hello Bloggy World. I have been gone for quite some time now. :( Sorry! I have a gazillion thoughts that I would like to jot down on my blog today. So, I hope that is ok. They are totally random. Just a warning:

-I have a THREE YEAR OLD!!! Parker turned 3 last Sunday. I cannot believe it. He was gone from Thursday until Sunday(his bday) with his Dad in Georgia. That was a first for all of us. Me sending Parker off without me. Derek taking Parker without me on a long trip. Parker flying(he has flown but he couldn't remember) and he was SO excited and loved it!

-I have a "new" car!!!! We sold our Volkswagon a month ago. We drove one car for a month. Which, in the grand scheme of things is not a big deal. But, thank goodness for our wonderful friend/neighbor who let us borrow her car some and for my family who definitely went out of their way to make sure we had a ride places. Oh yeah, the new car we have is an Expedition. It was Derek's parents car. It is older, but it is in GREAT condition and it is so roomy! It has a 3rd backseat and air vents through out the car which I love! Oh, did I mention that Derek drove it back from Georgia? With Parker in the backseat and it took them almost 20hours!! They didn't stop overnight. They drove it straight! Wow! My hubby is amazing!

-4 days without me and spending almost all of his time with his Mama Lynn and Papa K is WONDERFUL, HOWEVER it is NOT so wonderful when he came home. :( We have been going through toddler bootcamp to whip this boy back into shape. And no I am not talking about working out shape...I am talking about obedience in every way possible. Wow! It is all worth it though.

-While Derek and Parker were gone I got some great one on one time with Micah. And I was able to organize things, put things in the attic, clean the WHOLE house, finish Micah's baby book(AHHH! That is so great to finally be able to say that!), and spend some time with my family. :)

-I got a new laptop! Actually, it is a netbook. But, I love it! It is perfect for me in every way. It didn't cost as much money but has almost all of the same features. The only thing it doesn't have is a CD/DVD drive which I am going to buy(if I can convince my husband that I need it, which I do). My husband got a new laptop too. He got a MAC. Oh, no...are we going to be MAC snobs now?? Well, not me for right now. Maybe one day. But, for now...this cute little netbook is perfect for me.

-Micah has a double ear infection. :( I debated all day on Tuesday whether or not to take him to the Dr. I was almost positive that he had an ear infection. However, there is always that small % of doubt that crosses your mind that I could be wrong. I don't know what changed but I decided that I really thought he had one so we went to the doctor and I was right. For some reason the antibiotic they give Micah does not kick in immediately(like it does for Parker). It takes a few days. So, I have been running on not much sleep at all for the past few days. I am tired. He is tired. But, for the first time in 3 days I think this morning he had a turn around. He acted a lot more like himself. And is taking a nap. Lets pray tonight is lots better!!

-Parker is having a birthday party this weekend. He already had one in Georgia that his Mama Lynn and Papa K gave him(I cannot get over how sweet it was for all of Derek's family to come to this party...cant.get.over.it). This party is special because Parker and his cousin, Gray, are having a joint party. They are only 5 weeks apart in age, they are best buddies, and they live 5 houses away from each other. This is a big deal to them too. Ashley said that Gray kept running in the culdesack in front of their house and Ashley told him that he could get hurt if a car came and he was in the street. And Gray followed that with "And I couldn't go to my party with Parker?" Lol!

-Derek and I have our 5 year anniversary in May. cArazy!!! I can't believe it! It has been SO wonderful! I tell people who are about to get married that it doesn't die down after you get married. Maybe it does for some people. But for us, it has only gotten better. I love being married to my wonderful husband! And I am happy to celebrate 5 years with him.

Ok, thats all that has been going on with us. I will post pictures probably next week after Parker's party. Hopefully I will have some good ones. If you made it to the end of this blog. Thats awesome!! :) Thanks for reading!

Baby #3 is going to BE here in December...Yippeeee!!!

2010-04-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, trying to be catchy. ha ha. We found out on Easter morning that we will be expecting baby #3!! We are super excited! We told my family the night of Easter by writing in a casserole "10 N '10" which means my parents will have 10 grandchildren in 2010 ALL under 10yo. Crazy!!! I told a few friends b4 Wednesday night...but Wednesday night we told Derek's parents and his Papa and Mrs. Elaine. It was perfect because we have never been able to tell Derek's parents in person before. They had planned on flying here the Wednesday after Easter for a while. They were really excited! Then we posted it on Facebook/Twitter to let our world of friends know.
I don't have an official due date from the Dr...I won't be going to the Dr until about 9 or 10 weeks probably. But, if the calendars are right online(which they always have been for me) I am due December 12th. As of now I feel great. I am tired and moody. And picky about what I eat. But I am NOT queasy. I read back on my blog when I was pregnant with Micah that I started to feel that way at around 6 weeks. I am still praying to feel great all the way through.
I have tried telling Parker about the baby but he does not get it. He gets that the baby goes in my belly. BUT he keeps asking me if Micah goes in my belly again. ha ha. I just got a new computer so I will upload pictures soon. I have to download Picasa first.

Clumsy...or just bad luck?

2010-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

All I can say is "Really? Wow? Ugh!!!"

I am blogging about nothing to do with my boys(for the most part). Today, I am blogging about my clumsiness. That I don't often deal with. I don't even consider myself clumsy. However, the last 2 days you would probably say differently. What is up with me?!?!?! Here is the story:
It all started yesterday morning. My sister, her two boys, me and my two boys decided to go to the mall. They were riding with us and I had given her a time I would come pick her up. Well, of course, I was running behind. Big SHOCKER(being sarcastic)! I tried my very best not to run behind. I was actually doing great on time until I decided to throw dinner in the crock pot. I thought the recipe would be easy, however it was a lot of measuring. I needed minced garlic, which I didn't have, so I minced fresh garlic. I have one of those chopper things specifically for mincing garlic. For some reason, I was chopping away(the clock was ticking at this point) and I decided to pick up the chopper. The minute I did that the bottom fell out and so did all of the gooey, chopped garlic. ALL OVER MY KITCHEN FLOOR! On top of the fact that my boys were playing in the kitchen taking all of my pans out and bringing all of their tools in there to somehow combine the two and do who knows what with. At this point I am frustrated, stressed, and getting snappy with Parker. Ok, so we survived and were a few minutes behind. Oh well, let's fast forward.
My sister-in-law meets us at the mall and all three of us split up with plans to meet back together later. The boys and I are walking somewhere and I decide to take the escalator down to the bottom floor with the Joovy(not a single stroller). Parker loves the escalator so I told him to go in front. Micah was in the stroller. I knew the minute I stepped on the escalator I was in trouble. The stroller was leaning forward and I was having a hard time keeping it level. We got to the bottom and I can't get this huge stroller over the hump at the end of the escalator. I am starting to freak a bit. Within seconds I had fallen on my butt with my back smashed against the see thru side of the escalator(oh what a pretty sight that was) My ankle is twisting because the escalator is still going and I can NOT get my stroller to move!!!!! A guy at some random kiosk sees me and starts coming over(a little too slow) to help me. I am sweating, totally embarrassed, but finally get the stroller to move and get up. I definitely made that guys whole week! If I was him, I would have told everyone I knew. I was laughing too, but more like "I cannot believe I was just that person...oh my word" nervous laugh. Surprisingly, there was no one around in the mall and either people felt so bad for me they didn't stare or I really don't think anyone else saw me. I still cannot believe that happened to me. Ugh!
Fast forward to today at about 7am this morning. On Wednesdays I get up really early and go grocery shopping. Derek has a networking meeting at 9 so I am able to go without the kids. It is well worth getting up early for. It is a little wet outside/drizzling and I just threw on something to wear. My mistake is that I threw on Old Navy flip flops which are the WORST in rainy weather. I cannot tell you how many times I have fallen in those stupid flip flops. Of course on my way into Walmart I was praying I would not fall. It is still dark outside. There is hardly NO ONE there. But, of course, the minute I walk through the entrance where 3 people are chatting I slip. I didn't fall, but it was one of those "Oooo...Ohh!" slips where everyone reacts. This is getting really old. Later on I go with my sister to Sam's Club. We are loading all the kids in the van and I drop the big drink I had just purchased that spilled all over the bottom of my jeans and I even had a puddle of Sprite in the cuff of my jeans.
The last straw for me is when I got home. Parker was drinking that same sprite at our kitchen counter. I take it from him and when I do, I drop it AGAIN. On the floor where the hardwood floors meet the carpet. Somehow, a whole punches through it and Sprite is gushing out. I cannot believe it. At this point. I was thinking "I have to blog about this". Do any of you have days like this? What in the world? And the thing is, it can't frazzle me, because I have two little guys I have to take care of. I can't just shut down. I have to keep going regardless if I fall a million times or if I spill things on me all day. I can't cry about it. Kids will definitely bring great things to to your life like realizing things are not a big deal, and even if they are...you keep going. :)
Sorry this is soooo long!!!

Just to say something about my boys since this blog is about them. This little guy has not had a morning nap the last two days(he is still taking them but we have been gone) and he has been SO good. I cannot believe it! I am so impressed with him. He hardly makes a peep.

Naps are Fading Away....

2010-03-18T12:48:00.001-07:00

I am so sad to be saying that statement. Well, not really...but sorta. Micah's morning naps have been slowly getting shorter and shorter. It was like one day I was waking him up after 2 hours of napping and then next he was only sleeping an hour! I called my sister for a quick reminder that this does happen at his age. Parker dropped his morning nap at 16 months. I love my sweet Micah but I also love my time in the mornings to let Parker watch Playhouse Disney and I get things done. His naps are about 45min-1hr. I guess I better get used to it. Because soon enough he won't even be napping in the mornings anymore.
Naps are not just fading for Micah. But Parker's afternoon naps are getting shorter too!!!! I mean, I do realize he will be 3 in one month but STILL I LOVE having a good 2 hours in the afternoon with complete peace and quiet. Parker still takes about 1hr 1/2 nap. My sister has taught me this concept called "rest time". It is awesome. When her boys get out of the nap taking phase she makes them go into the play room and have rest time. They cannot come out for 2 hours. They can watch a movie or just read...they do not have to go to sleep but they have to be quiet and rest. Her boys STILL do this in the summers and her oldest is 9. It just gives her some time to chill out and collect her thoughts because we all know that the worst part of the day is sneaking up. Well, that is the worst part of the day for my boys.

Little Stinkpot

2010-03-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

Micah is my little Stinkpot. I don't call him that all of the time...but sometimes I do. He is a stinker. One darn cute stinker though. :) Here are some pictures of this sweet baby boy. He is about to be 14 months old and I can't believe it!! He is so sweet and funny. He only says two words "Uh Oh" and "Daddy". Which I am ok with. I cannot remember when Parker was saying words(bad mom right?) but I do know that the pediatrician said that the 2nd child doesn't talk as early as the 1st. No worries there. Micah is a CLIMBER! I remember seeing my nephew, Gray, climb into/onto everything. I don't think Micah climbs as much as Gray did BUT he climbs way more then Parker did. He climbs into things and then can't get out/down and whines until I come get him. Ugh! ;) I love this boy so much! The other day my boys and I were walking home from Ashley's house. Parker was riding his plasma car and Micah was in a different car that I was pushing. I was thinking how much I love having my boys. They are so sweet to me, fun, love to play outside...and entertain themselves pretty well. I want a girl SO BAD one day. We probably want 4 kids. But, in that moment I realized that I will be happy with all boys if that is what God wants for us. It was a good moment. A God moment...even though maybe one day it will be me with 2 boys and a decked out in pink girl. :) ha ha.

I have a high chair at the table for Micah but recently I put this little high chair on our bar stool so that Micah and Parker can sit here while I am doing things in the kitchen or eating their snack. I love having them right there. It makes it so much easier for me. This particular day Parker was still asleep. Micah was sitting there so sweet and eating his breakfast. I couldn't help but snap a shot of him being him.

Yeah, here is one of things he climbs into and can't get out of. This big Tonka truck. It isn't dangerous or anything for him to be in it, but he gets stuck. This is him asking for me to get him out.

And here he is waving at me. :)He waves when we say "Hey" or "bye" or even when some random car drives by. ha ha.

Ok, so I obviously have more then one child. With Parker I was so aware when it was time for him to transition into new things. One day I walked into the kitchen and apparently left Micah's plate too close to him. When I walked around the corner he was feeding himself. ha ha! I had no idea he was ready for that. Yesterday I did it again and this time it was with yogurt! What a mess! But he REFUSED to let me feed him. He is growing up!

10 Random Things

2010-03-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

My friend, Jenny, tagged me to post 10 Random things about me. So, here goes...

1. I just joined Emealz. And so far, I love it. I love to cook, but this is awesome! It gives me 7 meals for 6-8 people that I can purchase for $80(grocery list and all!). I tweek it here and there to what I need so that I can stay within our budget. You should check it out!

2. We have currently watched all 3 seasons of Friday Night Lights and are caught up to it being live. And we LOVE it!!! It was filmed in Austin which is really neat because we recognize quite a few places.

3. My favorite time of the day with my husband is when the boys go to bed and we can relax and watch our shows. I L-O-V-E it.

4. I know some of you are not van people but I want a Honda Odyssey Van SO bad one day when we can pay cash for it. I love them, especially for traveling long distances.

5. Here is what I am involved with for Free Chapel: Wednesday night girls small group, Thursday afternoon park small group, Friday night small group, Sunday morning I am over greeters and once a month over Children's church. Its a lot, but I really enjoy it!!!! :)

6. B'ham will always have a special place in my heart, but I really love living in Austin.

7. I live 5 houses down from my sister, 5 min. from my parents, and 15 min from my brother and sister in law and love it. My kids love it too.

8. I started running in October. I ran my first 5k a couple of weeks ago. Haven't been great about running since then...but about to start back up again. I enjoy it when I am done. :)

9. I love coke.

10. I love the word "Love" since I said it a MILLION times in this post. :)

Boys will be boys

2010-02-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Here we are on a beautiful, but cold day in Austin. I knew we weren't going to be getting out of the house that day so I took the boys in the garage to play. Parker is playing t-ball and Micah is just hanging out, climbing on things(for which he does all the time..he has already figured out how to climb to the top of the slide and sit on it). It was fun. I really wanted to upload this so Papa K and Mama Lynn could see the boys...and because Micah walks everywhere now and they haven't seen him do it yet. He is actually a really good walker. And he is so tiny so it is so cute seeing him walk. Enjoy!

Rainy Days

2010-02-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

Lately the weather here has been yucky. We are not used to that here in Austin. I am so glad Micah got this indoor/outdoor slide for his birthday and that it is big. He doesn't know how to climb up and go down yet. But he loves playing on it trying to climb up the slide. And Parker loves it. It has been great since it is so gross outside here. Anyways, here is what we do on rainy days.

This is what you will see when watching my kids play on the slide. Micah at the bottom, Parker at the top...about to slide into Micah. Which oddly enough, Micah thinks is funny.

His eyes...precious.

His new one piece outfit he got for his birthday

Happy Birthday to Micah Moo!!

2010-02-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

On January 30th, 2010, Micah turned 1. My heart melts for this boy! His actual birthday was on a Saturday. That morning Derek took him to get donuts. They were sweet and brought Parker and I back some. :) I want each one of my kids to have special daddy time the morning of their birthdays. That night we took the boys to Mighty Fine burgers and let them share a milkshake(they both got their own cups) and they LOVED it! Micah was giddy about it. I thought, people probably think I am a crazy parent letting my baby hold his very own milkshake. ha. I didn't care though. Micah's birthday party was on Sunday night. It was a family party plus our good friends Jason and Paige Martin(they lead worship at Free Chapel). That alone is 20 people.
The theme of the party was cow print. We decided that because everyone in my family even Micah's cousins call him Micah Moo. :) His invitation had a cow on it and it was so cute! I ordered cow print plates, napkins, and cow footballs for the boys goody bags. We had cow print balloons already(courtesy of SquareCow). On all the goody bags I tied a "M"(for Micah) to it with spots on it. It said "thanks for coming to my party". We also had these really cool straws that had chocolate in them so when the boys drank their milk it tasted like chocolate milk with the straws. I, for some reason, got really into this party. We tried to have Micah's favorite foods for dinner and snacks. He LOVES fruit and it was a HUGE hit with the kids! I will definitely have fruit at all our other parties from now on. I ordered a cupcake cake from Sams. It was SO yummy! I have made Parkers birthday cupcakes before but I am HORRIBLE at icing them and I really didn't want to go through the hassle this year. However, I couldn't bare the thought of spending lots of money on a cake either. But Sams was a steal. I gave them a picture of a cow that they printed on top and it was edible. And I got 30 cupcakes, chocolate and white, for $16.39!!! And they tasted so good. Awesome deal!
We had such a great time. Micah hardly made a peep the whole party. All but two of our(me, my sister, and brother) kids are preschool age or younger. And they are really into birthday parties right now. They love them! Which makes it really fun to have them. I think they had a blast. I think Micah had fun doing his own thing. He didn't get a chance to open anything because all of his cousins/brother did it for him. ha ha. Which is great with me and him because he doesn't know the difference. However, I almost got knocked over a few times. :) Micah loved his cupcake. I mean he LOVED it! He dug into it the minute he got it. He did not waste any time and of course when he got done we gave him a bath. The icing was black...which I thought might just stain his skin. ha ha. But it didn't. All in all the party was a hit and even though Micah never will remember it...we will...and we have pictures for him to see. :)

All of his presents minus his big boy bed from my parents(that he won't be in until he is two!) and his truck from Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Wade(sorry y'all...I forgot about it at that moment).

Everyone was cracking up at how big Parker's belly was at that moment. It was sticking out like crazy.

Birthday Boy

Harley Jane might be getting a tooth. Her tongue is sticking out all the time these days.

I LOVE his shirt. I ordered it off of Etsy. It is perfect.

Parker and Gray really like sunglasses. These are Gray's glasses on Parker.

My Dad sat with all the kids and ate his dinner. He had them laughing so hard. And what is funny is that he was hardly even doing anything. They think he is the funniest Papa ever!

Ty and Micah(he was frustrated with getting his picture taken at this moment)

Sweet Blake with Micah

Jax looked so cute. Jax and Micah

This is a great picture of our birthday boy.

Yummy, cute, cake.

So, I know that cow's don't lay eggs. But, I thought it was cute anyways. The cow eggs are chocolate covered raisins. And the cow patties are reeses cups.

Ok, so I thought I did a good job on the "Happy Birthday Micah" sign. I do wish it showed up a little better, but I didn't have to buy anything for it. I had everything here which made me happy. The window pane was in Micah's room for decoration and I have been meaning to put pictures in it since the day he was born. So this was a great opportunity for me to get that done.

New Post, No Pictures...Just for now though

2010-02-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hello Bloggy Friends,

I have been gone for quite some time now but I am back. :) I didn't take the time to explain before hand, but our church starts the new year off with 21 days of fasting. One of the things I chose to fast was Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs. I have lots of pictures to upload on here. Some from Christmas still and some from the last month. The fast was great! I am reading Power of a Praying Parent and doing the journal that you can purchase with it. I LOVE it! I started it during the fast and it has changed the way I pray for my kids, husband, and everything. But, especially my kids. It is so wonderful! If you are looking for some guidance on how to pray for your children I highly recommend this book and the journal. I believe that we are going to see some great things happen because of the fast. Not just us, as in me and my family, but also in Free Chapel, Square Cow, and in other areas of our lives.

Some fun stuff went on during the month of January, BUT the best part of it all was Micah turning 1!!!! I cannot even believe it. That sweet baby boy turned 1 on January 30th. Several times during the days leading up to his birthday and on his actual birthday I reflected on what I was doing at that moment a year ago. I do that often. Lets just say, I will never ever forget the day he was born. The contractions were bad enough to mark my memory forever. :) Obviously, he was MORE then worth it. He is such a sweet baby! He is so consistent and I love it. He is happy from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed at night. He pretty much fusses at the same time every day. Which is great, because I always know when it is coming and what he wants...which is usually dinner. To hold him off I give him a bath. ha. He LOVES LOVES Parker. They play so well together. He got a big indoor/outdoor slide for his bday from his Papa K and Mama Lynn. Parker and Micah play on it all the time. He is WALKING everywhere. It is so cute watching him walk. You can tell he is a new walker. He knows when he doesn't want something to eat. He will either 1) turn his head away or 2)knock it on the floor. That stinker. He is still laid back and sweet but very active. Quite a bit more active then his brother was at that age. He can open up my child proof cabinets. Oh what am I in for? He says "Daddy!" 30 million times a day. He has 3 teeth and one that has cut through but itsn't showing yet. At his dr. appt he was 40% in height and 25% in weight. We have got to lower his crib because he loves to take his letters to his name off the wall. They are right by his crib and all I can hear is him banging those wooden letters everywhere. lol. He plays so well by himself. My Mom said that she has never seen a 1 year old play by himself for so long. However, on that note...he DESTROYS the play room. He dumps everything out, and pulls the toys off the shelves. ha. He is snuggly and beautiful and sweet. He loves his lovie and sucks on his pointer finger(just like his brother). I love love LOVE this boy with everything in me. He is absolutely perfect for our family!!!

Visiting good friends/family

2010-01-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

We left Texas at 4:15am and drove all the way to Alabama. We got there around 5:45pm. Which is good timing considering we had two kids with us. We rushed the kids into my parents townhouse to give them baths and then got back in the car to go visit our good friends, the Huffstetlers. We LOVE them! Since we have moved they had a little girl. Evelyn Ruth is so cute and sweet and quiet. My boys were all over her house playing with her toys and she sat in her pink(I might add) cozy coupe car(she got for Christmas)and at one point talked on her pink phone. And that is all she did the whole time and was so happy. lol. SO different then my boys.
The next morning we went to Church of the Highlands where we saw none of our good friends because it is so big now. It was a great service though and we loved visiting. We then drove to my Memaws house and dropped off some Christmas presents and visited with her for a few minutes. THEN we met our good friends, the Strongs who happened to be in town, for lunch. Whew! My boys did AMAZING! And honestly, it wasn't stressful. It would have been if the boys weren't so good. But they were. After all that at about 1:30pm we headed to GA. It took us a little over 4 hrs to get there.

Memaw(My mom's mom) and Me. She is so sweet and hilarious!

Parker, Memaw, and Micah.

Evelyn Ruth, Parker, and Micah.

BROWN Eyes and BLUE eyes. SO cute!

Christmas 2010 and yes, these are ALL the pictures I have. Sad, I know.

2010-01-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

So, here are my whoppin 5 pictures I took on Christmas day. Ridiculous!!! However, we had the video camera set up while the boys opened their gifts the whole time. AND I videoed with my Flip camera some too. I might add a clip later of that. It is so cute!
On Christmas morning Parker woke up first...and had NO idea that the day was any different then any other. We had told him the night before that he would be able to open presents but still that morning was the same. We waited until Micah woke up to let them open their stockings and presents. It was fun, uneventful really. My parents were there and my mom made us breakfast. It was nice having them here. My parents left after the boys were done opening gifts and went up to my sister's house with breakfast for them. That is when we gave Micah his Step 2 car(I have no pictures of that...just the Flip camera). He LOVED it! He laughed and sat in that thing for forever. And he still loves it. I love it because I can buckle him in it and take him outside and push him around while Parker is playing outside. Micah is at that age that he is ALMOST walking everywhere, but not there yet. So, me holding him outside the whole time doesn't cut it.
Around lunch time Jeremy, Ashley, and the boys came over. There were SO many presents at my house it was crazy! Everybody loved their gifts from Mama Don and Papa. We snacked on dip and cheese ball/crackers until that afternoon. Then we made a Christmas meal late afternoon. It was nice to have Christmas at our house. The part I didn't love about it was that we were leaving the next morning at 4am to go out of town. So, on Christmas Day I didn't feel like I could relax. All I was thinking about was packing for my whole family and being in the car for 13-14 hours the next day. Whew! Maybe next year we will wait to leave 2 days after Christmas rather then the day after.

Tyler and Micah. So sweet! Tyler asks to hold Micah quite often now. I love it when he does. I want my boys to get as much bonding time with their cousins as they can. They are all going to be best friends anyways!

Parker watching his DVD player that Mama Lynn and Papa K bought for them. Ok...HUGE lifesaver for our LONG drive to GA.

Derek's gift to me was a pampered chef baking stone! I LOVED his wrapping. Hilarious! Packing tape, his business card, and "To Lindsey, From Secret Admirer". Perfect! GREAT gift!

Playing with their presents.

Picture of their gifts from the night before. Right after I set them all out. The ATVs were from my parents. Aren't they so cute?

It is now winter in Austin...Brrr!!!

2010-01-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

First, can I say that I miss our BEAUTIFUL 65 degree weather that Austin usually treats us with. No worries though...we are supposed to get some of that next week. Thank goodness since my boys got riding toys for Christmas. I would like them to actually be able to play with them!

Below are pictures of the boys with some of their winter gear on. Actually, their ONLY winter gear. And you will notice that Parker is trying to shove his head in a 0-6 month hat. That is all I got for him. lol.

Micah looks so cute in this hat. Oh my, his face looks so cute and plump. :)

A Decade

2010-01-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

I have been HORRIBLE about taking pictures lately. It is amazing that just by adding one baby to the clan you get so much busier doing things. Honestly, I am so bummed about it. But, that is ok...I will get better. So I was thinking about it today(bc of Rachel Hick's blog) about what has happened to me in the last 10 years since this is the end of a decade. And WOW! A LOT has happened to me...definitely the most important decade so far(since I have only lived a little over 2 1/2 decades I don't have much to choose from..lol). It goes way back:

-I turned the BIG 16 years old and got my license and my first car.
-I graduated from high school.
-I went to Lee University as a 18 year old who had NEVER had a boyfriend. :)
-I met a great guy named Derek Mills the first weekend I was at Lee University.
-I got in DZT.
-I got engaged!
-I graduated from Lee only to get married 2 weeks later to Derek.
-We moved to B'ham, AL. Kind of a culture shock for me considering most of my friends where a few years older then us and made more $ than us.
-We bought our first house.
-We had our first baby boy, Parker.
-We decided that God was leading us to move to Austin, TX to start a moving company and help plant a church. BIG DEAL!
-My Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a bi-lateral masectomy, chemo, radiation, BUT is cancer free now!!
-We moved to Austin.
-We had our 2nd baby boy, Micah.

Ok...thats all for now. But, that is a lot!!!! I love that 3 most important people entered my life in that decade. My husband and 2 little boys. God has blessed me so much! Life has been hard at different times but God has never failed us. And He is the reason why I have joy and love the life I live.

Home from Church Today

2009-12-20T06:41:00.001-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Love, Derek, Lindsey, Parker, and Micah Mills

Here is our Christmas card photo. Well, sorta...the one I sent out is cropped and in Black and White. I am not sure where that one is on our computer. ??

This week has been not so fun in The Mills household. :( If any of you are friends with me on facebook or twitter you already know what we have been going through. Let me give you the short version.
-Parker diagnosed w/pneumonia on Monday and given antibiotics.
-Micah diagnosed w/ a cold on Tuesday...but Parker was better.
-Micah diagnosed w/ an infection on Thursday and given anitbiotics. Thursday night he threw up 3 times from coughing so hard.
-Micah diagnosed w/ asthma due to a virus on Friday and had to be put on a nebulizer 4 times a day. (His 1st nebulizer treatment was at the Dr. office and the Dr. said that if his oxygen level did not go up he was going to admit him to the hospital...scary!!).
-Micah's oxygen level was better on Saturday but still has to be nebulize 4 times a day until Monday when we go BACK to the Dr. He is taking an oral steroid(not sure how I feel about him taking steroids...ugh...but I want him to get better so whatever it takes.), amoxycillan(sp?), steroid through his nebulizer, AND medicine through the nebulizer to prevent him from wheezing. YUCK!
-On top of ALL that...I came down with something and felt HORRIBLE. I went to the Dr. on Friday and the strep test was negative(that is what I thought I had) and was sent home empty handed. Booo... I feel much better today. But it was painful! We have enough medicine at our house I could just take some of my boys. lol...just kidding.

I need to add right here how AMAZING my husband has been through all of this. It was hard enough when my boys were both sick and I wasn't. But when I got sick it was horrible!! Thank you to my wonderful husband who stepped up to the plate BIG TIME and did everything for me and the boys(he was needed in the middle of the night SEVERAL times!)!!! I am so thankful that Derek was also able to be home from work 3 days this week to help me. He even took Micah to the Doctor twice by himself(he has never done that). I love you Derek SO much!

SO, all of that to say, I have no pictures for you. :( Sorry! Parker is %100 better and I almost there too. Micah is better, but still isn't great. We are believing for complete healing though(ASAP would be nice Lord ;) ). This week is going to be good though. I want to be in the Christmas spirit as much as possible. I also want everyone to feel so much better before we make the long drive to Georgia to visit Derek's family. We have been really excited about the visit. AND we are stopping by B'ham to see some friends that Derek hasn't seen since we moved!!!!

Micah isn't walking yet. He is so close...he takes steps all the time, but I think this whole last week has probably slowed the process up. He hasn't been up for it.

Thanks for praying for us!!! Parker asks almost every day if he can open his presents up. lol. I guess he just thinks that all of the sudden I will be like "OK!" But, I guess to him that is exactly what will happen. He doesn't quite understand that Christmas is on a certain day. We have trying to tell him about it and that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday. Christmas is going to be fun this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This is weird

2009-12-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

I was getting pictures printed for some ornaments on our tree that are "My First Christmas" ornaments. They hold a picture. I had two, one for Micah, and one for Parker. So, I decided to go back and print a picture out of Parker's 1st Christmas. Really this picture was taken in November right before his first Christmas. Anyways, how weird is it that these two pictures look EXACTLY like the same kid? It is so weird. I had to write their names on the back of the pictures just to make sure we remember who is who. ha ha.

Parker, November 2007

Micah, October 2009

Blog Worthy...for sure!

2009-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

Last night my Mom said that she thinks Micah could walk. Derek and I were like "well, lets try it out." So, we we sat across from each other and balanced Micah on his feet and guess what? He walked!!! He took 1 step...2 steps...3 steps...and at one point he took 6 steps in a ROW!!! We were so excited, clapping, and telling Micah "good job". He was excited too. Keep in mind that he is 10 months and 1 week old. Yeah, my brother said "you are going to be busy"(instead being a proud uncle...ha ha). Anyways, this little guy will be walking soon. Fun times.

FYI

2009-12-06T19:19:00.001-08:00

I wasn't going to post any pictures on here but I changed my mind when I saw the selection of pictures I had to post. :) BUT, the ACTUAL reason for this post is this. Parker has eczema. It isn't always bad and he hasn't always had it. He started getting it about a year ago(maybe?). Well, it drives me crazy and him too. Ok, it doesn't bother him too bad unless it really flares up. Twice has it flared up where it has made him itch all over which is really an allergic reaction to something(we think it is certain soaps). Even when it is not flared up it is still there. Sometimes so dry it creates scabs. A friend of mine saw it and told me about Pure Aloe...so I researched it out and found out that Pure Aloe really helps eczema. When I found this out I immediately went to Whole foods to buy some Pure Aloe. I lathered Parker up with some(which it did sting him the 1st time I did it but now he says it doesn't sting that bad) and his legs look SO much better. Where there were once huge red spots on the back of his legs it is now almost completely clear. I am SO happy! I feel like between believing for healing and God showing me about the Aloe, Parker is on his way to being eczema FREE!!
Just so you all know, I realize that there is awful cases of eczema out there. And Parker does not have that. And I also know that some cases of eczema are related to allergies to certain foods. However, I do not think Parker has that. I just wanted to let you know if you happen to be like me and are looking for a solution that is simple and something other than steroid cream. I also bought some shampoo that is all natural and made with pure aloe. Thats all! Just FYI. :)

The famous grandchildren picture. Mom and Dad's grandchildren that is. I did not get a good picture at all. Parker decided to bail out after 2 pictures were taken. Boo. My sister and Mom have a great shot though. Anyways, besides the fact that almost none of the kids are looking aren't they so cute in their pjs? And how about Harley in her tutu. Loved it.

We had Thanksgiving at Wade and Kimberly's house this year. It was great! Derek fried a turkey and I made home made dressing. First time we have ever done that. And honestly, it turned out great. ALL of the food was so good! So, it was us, my brother and his wife and kids, and my parents. So relaxed and fun. We did miss the Mills family Thanksgiving in GA. But, we are going there right after Christmas. FUN!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Not sure why Micah is not happy in this picture. I think he wanted to crawl outside. Parker wore this outfit for his first Thanksgiving too. I love it!

Mommy and Micah. So happy!

Just Us

2009-11-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Parker eating cookie cake at Kimberly's birthday celebration with the fam. This was after the haircut...that he needed as you can see below.

Ok, so maybe he needed a haircut(maybe is not even worth saying...he REALLY needed a haircut), but he is so cute! Just so you know...when you have a child that has hair like my kids you are bound to have a long haired boy every once in a while. He truly needs a haircut every 3 weeks. Who has time for that?!

My beautiful cousin, Stephanie on her wedding day! I flew to Alabama just for this event all by myself(no kids or husband) and to be honest, it was wonderful. Did lots of Christmas shopping with my Mom and got to see a beautiful wedding! And my cousin is one of my best friends...it was worth every thing to be there!

Flip Video Camera

2009-11-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

Hey!
Yesterday Derek came home with a gift for me. Well, he didn't buy it but his client gave this to him to give to me. How sweet! It was a brand new(in package) Flip Video Camera. This one is one of the original versions so now they have ones more advance and that can record for longer. This thing is so cool! It is small like a camera and it has on it a USB port that flips out of the side. It can record up to 30 minutes and then you download the videos on the computer just by connecting the USB port. Derek knew I would love it because I am always recording on my phone short clips of the boys. We have a video camera. But, we don't have the cord to connect to the computer. Plus getting the video camera out takes work. Whereas something like this will be used LOTS!!! You can make "movies" with their program, get snapshots off of the video footage, e-mail the videos, and lots of other fun stuff. Anyways, Hope this works and you like it. This is the only clip I have uploaded. It is not long at all. But so cute!

Only Words

2009-11-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

This post is just an update of what is going on in our lives. No pictures. My Mom and Dad sold their house in B'ham! PTL! And my mom borrowed my memory card to my camera so it is in B'ham with her. :)
So, after a whole year of my parents house being on the market they close on November 10th! If it wasn't ever clear to you, my parents have been living with us since Jan. Which some of you or your husbands would HATE. However, Derek and I have enjoyed it. Derek is so easy which is wonderful. His feathers don't get ruffled easily and he doesn't ruffle anyones feathers. (Side Note: SO wish I could be that way). And I get along with my parents very well. We are open with each other and respect each other. They are so easy to live with. They have been a huge help with my boys and my boys love having them here. Yesterday we had a play date and Parker said "Julia is going potty in Papa's bathroom". Which is also known as the guest bathroom. Ha! We told my parents not to be in any rush to move out and to take their time on finding something else. They might rent, they might buy. Either way I will be glad when my Dad AND my Mom(who is B'ham a lot still) have a place here and are here for good.
Parker has definitely shown me that he is 2 in good ways and not so good ways. Parker has always required a lot of sleep but for some reason for the last 3 or 4 weeks he has developed an awful habit of waking up at 4am. All I have to do is go in his room and put him back to bed and he is fine. BUT still...interrupted sleep by your 2 1/2 year old is ridiculous. I have tried everything to get him to stop but now I am having to leave him in there and let him cry. It is NOT fun! And what stinks is I should have nipped it in the bud forever ago. Now, he cries for a long time. Tonight will be the 3rd night so I am hoping that this is what breaks the habit. He has shown me attitude, and talks back, and pitches fits. However, he has shown me how smart he is, sweet, loving towards us and his brother he is, and how funny he is. We have good days and we have bad. Being on top of the discipline is the key but isn't always easy. He is MUCH better when I am on top of it. I love him so much! He brings so much laughter to my days. Today we went to the zoo and I was able to let him walk the whole time. He was so good and obedient. A little slow...but obedient. I said that I can't believe he will be 3 in 6 months!!! He is just about to the too big for a stroller age. I remember when there was no way I was letting him out of the stroller without his daddy around. Crazy how time flies!!

Micah is just as cute and sweet as he can be. He smiles ALL the time. Way more then Parker did at his age. He has lots of hair but it is his daddy's texture. Which means, he probably won't be having a bowl cut like his brother(Parker has my hair). I think we might have to keep it short and maybe spike it up most of the time or kinda long but not too thick or it will be BIG. lol. He just turned 9 months old last Friday. He is so close to walking. He stands up without holding onto anything. He will be standing there playing with a toy. He can walk with his walker toy. And he is everywhere. He will play in the playroom for forever by himself. He is still nursing but I think I am about to have to quit. I don't think he is getting enough milk. He just gets frustrated and will only nurse for 3-5 minutes sometimes coming off several times. Good thing he will take a bottle of formula. He actually loves bottles. Since day one Micah has only cried when it has something to do with sleep or getting off his sleep schedule and trying to get him back on it. That is how he is still to this day. Lots of people say "I have never heard him cry." Thats why. Because most people aren't at my house during that time. But as long as he is doing good with his schedule he doesn't cry. We want to wait until a year from right now to get pregnant again. That way Micah and the next baby will be 2 1/2 years apart. However, because Micah is so good I am already thinking about having another baby!!! I am going to try SO hard to wait simply because it makes sense for us to. But don't be surprised if we don't.

The business is doing good and Free Chapel is too. However, we always need prayer. Prayer for growth, God's provision financially, God's protection and His favor. I will post pictures when I get my memory card back which should be in about a week.

Top Ten {Tuesday}: Things that need to be done at my house

2009-10-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am not good about doing a "Top Ten Tuesday" List every week. I do it when I get the urge. Today, I have the urge. :) Since I woke up this morning I have seen several things that I need to do in my house. Which drives me C-R-A-Z-Y! Because I want to get all of it done right then. However, I have 2 little ones pulling at me almost every minute of the day. Besides, right now...the ever so wonderful NAP time. That, my friends, is why I still have this list. Because during nap time I do not want to be doing a million things. I want to chill out, watch whatever show I want, take a nap if I choose, eat lunch, etc. However, the list still exists. Here goes.

1. Clean the guest bathroom-AKA my parents bathroom. Why should I clean my parents bathroom? Ha! Because my Mom is gone to B'ham and lets just face it...my Dad is not going to clean it. Thats ok...I like doing things for my Dad.
2. Organize, get rid of, tidy of playroom. Ok, so I already did this one. But, I did it this morning. It was on my list.
3. Wash, Dry, and Fold the HUGE mound of laundry on the chair(that has been sitting there for 2 days).
4. Sweep.
5. Mop. Due to the fact that my 2yo thinks he is an adult and needs to drink out of big boy cups. I do put lids on them, but he takes them off and spills his drink every where. Today I told him that he was going back to the sippy cups. Oh well...he is 2!!!! What was I thinking?!
6. Wash dishes that are in the sink. If my Mom was here these would have been done by 7:30 am. Darn you work! My mom needs to be here! ;)
7. Clean outside fridge. Really, it is in my garage. But I have leftovers in there that need to be thrown away. I dread doing this. Yuck!
8. Make a grocery list and buy groceries. This is usually done by today. Gonna have to wait until tomorrow.
9. Get my hubby(and a friend) to figure out how to switch our Dish Network to a different room. I REALLY do not want to pay someone to come and do this. It should be simple, right?
10. Wash all my cushion covers for the 2 chairs and couch in our den. But, why would I do that when they will be stained in no time after they are washed. Hmmm?

Just Doing Life Together

2009-10-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Oh just enjoying his frosty. You know...needed to air out his bottom.

Parker has had a virus the last couple of days. So after his Dr's appt. I told him I would get him something sweet. Anyways, he didn't eat all of it that afternoon so I let him have the rest of it after dinner. My dad had already trying pulling his pants up once but Parker pulled them back down where you could see the top of his bottom. He has had an opinion about his clothes lately. Like "I don't wanna wear shirt" or "I don't wanna wear my underwear." lol. Please don't be surprised if you come over and my child has no pants on...just underwear. That is how it is here most of the time.

How cute is the bottom on this outfit?!

My mom's good friend bought Micah this and I love it. It is so soft and he looks so stinkin cute in it!

Having SO much fun playing in the water why brother takes a bath.

One day Parker was taking a bath at a random time and I was cleaning his room. I hear Micah crawl in there and he is laughing so hard. I finally decide to see whats up. Parker has the bath tub so full of water it is about to go over the top. Micah is standing there splashing in it with his hands...not caring one bit, actually liking it to splash everywhere. You know what I did? I laughed and walked out of the bathroom. I let them play. Even though it drives me bananas to have water on the bathroom floor and for my kids to get their clothes wet sometimes they just need to do it. For their sanity and mine. :)

Vacation Continued

2009-10-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

The resort had an awesome pool, baby pool, lazy river with a beach/sand area, play ground, places to eat, a game room, and bikes to ride. Our room was so nice! I posted 4 pictures of it at the bottom. I wrote by all my pictures so not much to say up here.

Boys playing in the baby pool

Parker swimming. The water is actually not even 2 foot deep where he is at. It looks like he is swimming laps. ha!

Derek and Parker going around the lazy river. Parker loved the lazy river!

You can see the hotel in the back. That was just part of it. It was really nice!

Me and Micah hanging out on the beach/sand area. The water was REALLY cold in the lazy river. So, we opted to hang out and wait on them.

Micah eating some really good ice cream and lovin every bite.

Parker being sweet taking pics for his mommy.

Me, Micah and Parker

Derek, Micah and Parker

My sweet boys!

Mini Vacation Sept. 2009: San Antonio

2009-10-06T11:13:00.001-07:00

Because just Derek and I took a cruise in May we wanted to take the boys somewhere for a mini vacation at the end of the summer. We decided to go to San Antonio. Our good friend works for Hyatt hotels. He offered us a great deal on staying at The Hyatt Resort. We also decided to hit up the San Antonio Zoo while we were there. Besides Micah not sleeping well at all the first night...we all had a great time. It was a much needed break for Derek. I am ready to visit the zoo again. This zoo has so many fun things to do for a kid. And it has a lot of shade. Here are pictures from the zoo.

This bird kept following Parker. It was so funny!

This picture is funny to me. We were trying to get Parker to be the butterfly so we got Derek to show him. lol. Parker didn't do it. I do, however, have a picture of him running away from it. :)

Parker loved the monkeys. I used to think monkeys were cute. Not so much anymore. I saw way more than I would have liked.

This is where Micah hung out most of the time. I did end up front packing him towards the end. He was so good the whole time.

On our way into the zoo. Parker was ready!

Top Ten {Tuesday}: Favorite Recipes from my Recipe Blog

2009-10-06T05:57:00.001-07:00

Here are my Top Ten main dish recipes. I have a recipe blog and I am only going to list ones off of there because that way if you are interested in the recipe you can get it instead of me having to list the whole recipe. Go here if you want to make one.

1. Rattle Snake Pasta. Yum-O! And makes a lot!
2. Cheese Tortellini Beef Stew- Not a big beef stew fan, but this is not like beef stew.
3. Lazy Lasagna-Easy and so good.
4. Paula Deen Chicken Pasta. Anything Paula Deen is tasty(and fattening..ha).
5. Crock Pot Chicken Tacos
6. Taco Soup
7. Angel Hair Pasta
8. Chili
9. Chicken and Rice: I have 2 chicken and rice recipes on the recipe blog and both are really good.
10. Stuffed Chicken Croissants

Pictures to Come

2009-10-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hey! I still haven't posted anything on our trip to San Antonio. Our mini vacation. BUT I will soon. Our computer got a horrible virus on it and we had to have a neighbor friend wipe out the whole computer. I still have to download Picasa to get my pictures on here. I will soon! My kids are being so funny these days! Today for the first time I saw Micah really think about doing something I told him "no" to. And he didn't do it! I don't have to tell Micah no too much. But, something he does DAILY is crawl right up to the Plug-In in the wall and pull it out. Then, he crawls away. I have no idea why he loves doing this, but he does. I have told him no several times, but he doesn't seem to care. Today though, I was right there. And kept telling him no. He finally crawled to me. I was so proud of him. I clapped and told him I was proud! He smiled so big! :)
Parker is a stinker. Today his daddy told him that he could have some more drink after lunch. BUT I had just told him no more because he already had plenty(he is potty trained...therefore I have to be careful about too much liquids). Parker heard me say no after his daddy said he could have some after lunch. He turned to his Dad and said "Daddy, I can have more after lunch, right?" Ahhhhh! He is only 2! And he already understands communication so well. A scary thing.

Ok, pictures to come. I promise!

Top Ten {Tuesday}: What to feed my 8mo that has NO teeth!

2009-09-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

To start this off, I have to say that my 8 month old has no teeth. But, I no longer feed him baby food. So, I thought this might be good ideas for people who want to go off of baby food but are not sure what to feed their baby with no teeth. Ha! But, you have to know that Micah doesn't choke very easily. My first child did. Micah is great at gumming almost anything which makes it easier for me to feed him a variety. Also, I do not do the whole organic thing. And I am not a health nut. However, I do like to try to give my boys healthy stuff, I am just not way strict about it. With that said here is the list:

1. Fruit cups. Both of my boys love these! Peaches are easy for Micah to gum and mandarin oranges. They are easy to grab and go too.
2. Beanie Weenies. My Mom suggested these. They seem gross to me but they are a hit!
3. Gold Fish.
4. Apple Sauce.
5. Baby Mums. These are little rice cake things that a friend told me about. These are great because Micah can hold them himself and munch on them while we are out and about. They are not too messy and two come in one package. You can get them in the baby aisle at Walmart OR possibly at a local grocery store.
6. Canned veggies. Just pop them in the microwave and voila!
7. Flip It Crackers. A pretzel on one side and cracker on the other are great. A little messy.
8. Instant Grits.
9. Instant Oatmeal.
10. Re fried Beans. I give these to Micah when we eat at Mexican restaurants and he LOVES them!!

Whats going on with Micah??

2009-09-09T10:41:00.001-07:00

Wow...my baby boy has been up to so much within the last month! Here are some facts about Micah that you might like to know:
-started crawling at 6 1/2 months. Now crawls EVERYWHERE.
-started pulling up and standing right at around 6 months.
-started eating solid foods at 7 months.
-at almost 7 months he weighed a little over 17lbs.
-6 month check up he was 5% in length and 50% in weight.
-Got his first big boy hair cut at almost 7 months old.
-Wears size 3 diapers.
-still takes 3 naps a day. But the 3rd nap is only about an hour or less.
-I nurse him 4 times a day(was doing the bottle at night but decided against it.)
-LOVES his brother, food, playing with toys, his baths, and crawling, AND standing up.

So, my little Micah might be little but he acts big!! He is so tiny to be so mobile. Today he was in the pac n play playing and I look over there and he is trying his absolute best to CLIMB out. Like, his feet were going up the side. He, also, has let go of things and stood for literally a split second.
He is now eating solids all the time. I was spending SO much extra per week on baby food that although Micah doesn't have teeth I decided(because of my mom) to try some solid foods with Micah. Well, that boys chews food like he has a mouthful of teeth and he has zero teeth! The last few days he has eaten real food for almost all of his meals and I am one happy mama! This is big for me...er...him. :)
Micah is such a good baby in every way. We love him so much! He adds so much joy to this family.

Eating his first oreo...this was after the fact. He was happy about it.

This was before/during.

My little crawler.

Look at his new hair cut! I LOVE it! He looks different(you will see the difference below) but you can see his sweet face. His hair was taking over! Something had to be done.

One of the first times he stood up holding onto the piano.

In his crib with his lovie.

LOVE this picture! His hair is crazy long, he is so happy, and I love his name above his bed. My mom painted and hung those when Micah was a newborn. This picture is definitely making the baby book.

When I walked into his room that day he was doing this.

Derek wrapped him up all tight one night after his bath. He looked so cute!