Breaking the BIG news!

Here is how we told my parents and Derek's parents that we are having another baby.







Here we are right after I surprised Derek. Can you tell? By his face?? Ha! (He can't be that shocked, right?!) :)

Yup! You heard right....we are expecting Baby #2!

Hello All!

We have great news! We are expeciting baby #2. Parker is going to be a big brother(which I have no doubt he will be great at). I found out two days ago while Derek was at work and I surprised him when we went out to dinner. Then we surprised both of our parents by sending them three pictures of Parker in his highchair with a sign attached to the highchair in each photo. I will post pics later. Then we surprised my siblings by writing it in my nephews birthday card(he had his 1st birthday party last night). We didn't really surprise anyone last time because I was too excited. They all knew we wanted another baby soon, so it wasn't a complete shocker but they were still surprised.
My due date(from the due date calculator at babyzone.com) says I am due Feb. 8th. Last time it was only off by a couple of days. I probably won't go to the doctor for another 4 weeks or so. I am visiting B'ham at the end of June, so after that I will go. This baby is a HUGE blessing! We have loved every bit of having Parker in our lives. We feel so blessed that God has given us another baby to love and take care of. Wow! I will keep you updated.

What's going on in the life of 1 year old Parker Mills

So, here is an updateon what Parker is doing now. Ok, let me think...there is a lot. He is walking everywhere and it is so cute. I still laugh at him everyday because I cannot believe I have a child who walks everywhere. He now eats off of a plate and holds a fork in his hand. He hasn't quite mastered the art of putting the food on the fork, but he tries all throughout dinner. If he can't get it, he holds the fork with one hand, and feeds himself with the other. Ha! His high chair tray is attached to his high chair(it was Derek's grandpa's highchair). So now, we flip it over the back and scoot Parker up to the table. And he has his own plate and fork. He "talks" all the time. And really, we will have a conversation with him but have no idea what he is saying. He still doesn't say a lot of words. We have heard him say about 4 words but he won't say them all the time. He will mimick us all the time, which is hilarious.
He went to the doctor for a one year check up, but I already filed his report and I don't remember how much he weighs. I do, however, remember that he dropped to being in the 5% on his height which is odd. But, lots of kids do that, so I am not worried and neither was the doctor. One thing we do with Parker everyday is we say "Who loves Parker?" and then we raise our hands and say "I do". He will do it with us. We will go down the line on who loves mama, who loves daddy, etc. And he will raise his hand and do some rendition of "I do". It is so cute!! I think my parents started that whole thing when my oldest nephew was a baby. Parker laughs all the time and is so good. He is such a joy to us!! I am about to upload a video of Parker walking. I hope it works!

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we had plans of going to Hamilton Pool for a little over half of the day. Our family and my siblings and their families all packed up and headed that way. Hamilton Pool is a natural spring with a beautiful waterfall and a beach area for the kids. It is pretty rugged but seemed like a lot of fun. Especially since it is so stinkin hot here in Austin already!! Hamilton Pool is not far from my sister's house which is nice. We were sorely dissapointed when we arrived because there was no swimming allowed because of the high bacteria levels(obviously, we didn't really want to argue with that...ha ha). So, the park personel sent us a couple of miles up the road to a place called Rimer's Ranch. The pedernales river runs through there and it is beautiful!!! We practically had our own private beach area and the kids LOVED it! There was a sand beach area and Parker loved loved loved the sand. He didn't care that it was all over his body...even while he ate. I tried so hard to keep him clean, but it didn't work at all. And he loved it. Here are some pictures from the day. If you want to see a really pretty picture of Hamilton pool and the pedernales river you can go to brother-in-laws blog www.freechapelaustin.blogspot.com.

Just Another Day

New Shoes! Parker got his first pair of shoes last weekend from Stride Rite. We wanted to wait until he was walking. As of right now, he will let go of everything and try to walk. He will walk until he falls. So, we are working on continuous walking. Because once he falls he crawls. We have seen him stand up from sitting on the floor without holding onto anything, but he doesn't do it all the time. I think he will be walking all the time pretty soon.

Don't you love those shoes?? I LOVE the classic white baby shoes. They are so old school, but my fav!

Happy Mother's Day! Here we are on Mothers Day right before church.

This is a picture of Mother's Day last year 2007. Parker was only a couple of weeks old. Crazy how time flies!

I love this picture. Just hanging out. It took me screaming and being silly to get him not to knock this down until I took this picture and the one below. Ha!

Date night with Papa and Mama Don

When my parents were here, we(me, Wade, and Ashley) all decided to get babysitters for the kiddos and go have a "date night" with my parents. It was wonderful! We went to a nice Italian restuarant downtown, and then headed to a really cool coffee shop where we got dessert. We all laughed so hard and just had a nice relaxing time with no rush since we didn't have the kids with us. We also celebrated Mother's day and Father's day with my parents. We will definitely have to do this more often with my family. It was too fun!

Jenny and Nolan visit...

Our good friends, Jenny and her son Nolan visited us from B'ham last week. We did fun stuff around Austin and Jenny was able to visit some of her good friends who live in Austin and San Antonio. Nolan is a couple months younger than Parker so they had a good time! We went out to eat, to the pool, and downtown. Fun fun! Here are some pics:

Parker and Nolan in their pjs.

Nolan in the swing at the park.

Nolan and Parker with their mohawks. Well...Nolan's wouldn't quite stand up, but as you can see, Parker's hair didn't have any trouble whatsoever! :)

Parker and his fabulous mohawk!!! Ha!

Jenny and Nolan at The Oasis.
I just realized after looking through my pictures that I didn't get any of Jenny and I. How crazy is that?? Sorry Jenny!!