Weird!

Ok...I REALLY see the difference in my boys. Meaning, the way Micah looks compared to Parker at his age. Everyone says he looks just like Parker. I hate to break it to you, but there are lots of features that Micah has that Parker does or did not have at that age. Micah favors me more. And Parker favored Derek more(and still does). Now, from your point of view I can understand why all of you think that they favor each other. And the pictures below are the reason why you all think that! Wow! It kinda creeps me out that when I look at pictures of Parker as a newborn I get this feeling inside of me that says "awww...look at Micah!". OH MY WORD! That is NOT Micah it is Parker! I never ever would have said this was possible 4 months ago when I just had Parker. Anyways, although these pictures prove your point on Micah looking like Parker. If you looked at both of them from our(mommy and daddy's)perspective then you would see something different. I promise!! ha ha!

Micah at 8 weeks 1 day old.
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Parker at 6 days shy of 8 weeks old.

Blue Eyed and Brown Eyed Boys!

Derek has been working day and night since Thursday. Today is Sunday(it is 8:42pm) and he is working right now. I have been home A LOT since Thursday. What is funny is that I have been busy doing lots of fun stuff like playdates, and music class with Parker, and hanging out with my parents for the last few weeks. But, it all stopped when Thursday came around. My friend who I do a playdate with about once a week or so is about to have a baby and her husband, who travels, is home until she has the baby so she is busy. My mom and dad are in B'ham. And Derek was gone! So, I took LOTS of pictures and the boys and I had lots of time together around the house. Right now, with Micah only being 8 weeks old it is hard to get out of the house for long periods of time.
Both of the boys had firsts this week. Actually, on the same day. We really want to teach Parker how to swim as soon as possible. I know he is young, but if we can teach him this summer we will(both of my oldest nephews were swimming at the age of 2 without any floaties!). If not, no sweat! But we want to get him ready for it. Anyways, a friend of ours who used to teach swim lessons said that we need to start by teaching him how to blow bubbles in the water and kicking. We have a big bath tub that can get pretty deep. The other day I blew bubbles in the water and asked him to try and he did it!!! No sweat! He also completely dunks his face in the water and knows how to hold his breath. I am very proud of him and look forward to the summer. He loves swimming and is not scared of the water at all. It will be fun!!
Micah, who just turned 8 weeks old on Friday rolled over!!! I cannot believe it! I do not think Parker rolled over this early...but I could be wrong. He rolled from his belly to his back four times! 3 times in one day...and then he did it again today. I am definitely going to give him more belly time because he has really seemed to enjoy it lately. He sleeps on his belly, so he is really good at holding his head up for long periods of time. He rolled over for the first time when Derek walked out of the room. I told Derek and then he did it again! When does that ever happen?! We are so proud of our boys. They are hitting milestones...and it is fun to see it happen. Here are pictures from the week.

Micah and me after Micah's bath. Parker was asleep and Derek was at work. Just having some special time together.

Sweet smile

I think I am going to have to get Micah's haircut soon. It is out of control! This is the same age Parker got his cut for the first time. I don't want to, but I was combing it tonight and it looked like a girls hair in the back because it is so long!

Cool camo socks from Aunt Ashley. Used to be Grays.

My brown eyed boy! Sent Mama Don a text message yesterday that said: "Hey Don! I was wondering if I could schedule a hair appt. for Wed. at 10:00am. Meet you at the highchair. Oh...Micah Moo needs one too. Could you pencil him in? Love you and Miss you! Love, Park" Obviously, Parker's hair is getting a little too long. He says his eyes burn because his hair gets in them. Oops!





My baby has blue eyes...just like his mama!

Parker and his creativity

Parker's imagination has really started to kick in the last couple of weeks. Along with many other things like vocab, skills, etc. Here are some pictures of him being silly and us following through with some of his ideas. For instance, Derek and I will sometimes let Parker sit in his tonka truck and then we will push him up and down the hallway. Yesterday he pushed the tonka truck to Micah, held out his arms and said "get in". Meaning, I am going to pick up Micah and put him in the truck. So, I told him to go get a blanket and I would put Micah in it. That is what we did. However, Parker wanted to push Micah around and I had to put a stop to that quickly. I didn't want little Micah falling out. Maybe when he is older...just not right now. Ha!
In the other pictures he is helping me cook. I put two towels on the kitchen floor and let Parker help me put the cheese and pepperoni on the pizza. A little while later he decided he was going to watch for the pizza and be prepared for when it was ready to come out of the oven. That would be why he has the glove on his hand. He is so funny and fun these days.





Yesterday we came home from Aunt Ashley's house right around lunch time. Parker wanted to watch Imagination Movers(that is all he will watch on tv and he wants to watch it EVERY time the tv is on) so I put him on the couch while I got lunch ready. A friend of mine called and while I was on the phone Parker fell asleep on the couch!! He NEVER does this!! I don't know what happened, but I guess he got really relaxed and it was about an hour away from nap time so he was tired. I put him in his bed and he went straight to sleep. Side note: How cute are his shoes?! I got them at Target just the other day.

Lets see if this works...

I am SO happy this worked! I only waited FOREVER for it to download. I tried to download another one that is so funny of Parker pretend talking on the phone but it was too long. Anyways...here is Micah cooing at me. It is so cute. And you can hear Parker say "Hey Mommy!". That is him pretending to be on the phone. He put the phone up to Micah's ear. Parker also says something about baby....which is Micah. He calls Micah, Micah and baby. At the end Parker says "Love you!". Sorry the video is so dark...and I turn in the other way. Oh well...I know Derek's family will appreciate this! Enjoy!

Brother time...

Parker had taken his diaper off during nap time...which he does if we put him down without pants. I put the same one back on him...that is why his diaper looks so flimsy! Ha ha!


Parker pretend chatting on the phone. It is so cute! He says "Hey Momma!!!" "Miss you!" "Love you!" "Bye!". Ha ha!

Trying to get a family(minus dad) picture. Not a great success, but it is still so cute to me!




Hey Brother!!!


Ready for church!


Being so silly!

I love these people!

Here are two families that I love so so so much! My sister, Ashley, and her family. And my brother, Wade, and his family. Wade and Kimberly are expecting another sweet baby the first week of July. They are NOT finding on what they are having so it will be a fun surprise!! My siblings and their families are such a blessing in my life and my kids lives. I LOVE that we all live next to eachother and that our kids get to all grow up together. Today, for instance, we spent most of the day with my sister and two of her boys. Then tonight we spent the evening with Kimberly and her boys. It was so fun! I, also, wish I had a picture of my parents. But, I don't have one on this computer. I do on my other one. When they officially live here it will all be so perfect!

Wade, Jax, Kimberly, Lawson.

Jeremy, Ashley, Gray, Sam, Blake, Tyler

Cupcakes with my cousins

We made cupcakes at my house today. Sam, Parker, and Gray all helped me make them. They all got to lick the chocolate off the spoons. Then they all got to eat 1 cupcake. Gray smeared it all over his belly. Thank goodness I took his shirt off first!! Parker and Gray took baths right afterwards. Here are some pictures of all the fun!





Gray, Sam, Parker all ready to make cupcakes.

We love our Papa...and miss our "Don"

Right now my parents are living with us. My mom is back and forth from B'ham, but my dad is here permanently. When my mom is here she is Parker's permanent playmate. Parker will NOT leave her alone. And he calls her "don". He will not call her Mama Don. And he says "Don" thirty million times in a row just to say it. We miss her! She is coming back in a week. Yay!!
Parker and Micah also love their Papa. Many times a week my dad comes home and takes Parker outside to play. Which I love because it is during the busiest time of the day for me and Derek is usually not home. He also holds Micah for me when I am cooking or after bath or whenever I need it. Which is WONDERFUL! But, the sweetest part of it all is that every morning he leaves Parker a piece of gum(sugarless..ha) on his nightstand. Parker is not usually awake when he goes to work. What is funny is for a while I didn't even know that he did that. But, Parker knew it. It was like an understanding they had. All the boys know that Papa always has gum. And they usually figure out where he puts it.

Parker with his gum at 8:30 this morning.

Papa and Micah. He undressed Micah for me because I was about to bathe him. :)

Oh my daddy

This morning I went to get Parker from his room and found him wearing this as pajamas. Yup, that is right! He was wearing a long sleeve Christmas pajama top, striped pajamas shorts that do not go with the top, and(drum roll please) a wrist band on his ANKLE! His daddy is to blame. Derek, first of all, likes Parker to sleep in just pants or shorts and no shirt. He says that he hates wearing a shirt to bed so why would Parker need to wear one to bed. I have to explain to him that Parker is a baby and will NOT stay covered up at night. If he gets cold(which he will with no shirt) then he could get sick. Or just being cold could wake him up. Needless to say, I am not surprised Parker was wearing this...however...I was a little surprised about the wrist band on the ankle. Parker got this in a party favor bag from my nephews bday party and he LOVES it!! He can't put it on himself so Derek had to of put it on him. He must have forgotten about it or just not cared that he wore it to bed. CRAZY!



This is what Parker does while I am tending to Micah in his room. :) Check out his boots.

Never wanna forget...

moments like these. I hope I always remember this picture of sweetness. I love to walk into Micah's room and see him all snuggled up on his belly sleeping. He looks so tiny in his bed. Even my sister said that she gets those feelings again when she sees Micah in his bed asleep on his belly. It gives her those warm feelings of when her boys were babies. I wanted to take a picture because I never ever want to forget this. I love having babies. :)

Micah's many faces

Here are pictures of Micah that I took because I was trying to get a smile caught on camera. Well, it didn't work! The reason he has his mouth open in almost all of these is because I will tickle his chin or his lip to get him to "talk" to me or smile. I was never able to get a smile. But, I was able to get some of him getting frustrated with me. Ha! :) He is so sweet!

He just had a bath. I combed his hair to the side instead of in a mohawk. He looks like a little boy!

I had this gown monogrammed for Micah's take home from the hospital outfit. I soon realized it was going to be way to big. So, he can wear it now! It is still too big on him...but I really like it!


frustrated with his crazy hair. Ha ha!

Almost smiling...

Do NOT read if you don't want to hear about nursing and nipples

So, this entry is about nursing and nipples. AND the reason I am posting this is because it might just help some of you out there who are in the some situation I have just come out of. Remember how I WAS potty training? Well, that has changed. I had to quit because I couldn't focus on anything else but this.
A couple of weeks ago I started to have REALLY sore nipples from nursing. It was only one nipple but it got so bad I would cringe every time Micah latched on. I then realized that it was cracked. So, for a day I pumped on that side and nursed on the other. I also contacted a good friend who is a nurse and she told me everything to do so I could heal faster. It started getting better. And just as it was tolerable again to nurse my other nipple cracked...AND THEN soon after BOTH nipples were cracked. I have officially cried about this almost everyday. I have done everything I know to do. I called my friend who is a nurse, I called the lactation consultants at the hospital, I looked online..etc. I will NOT quit nursing so if I have to suffer through it that is what I was going to do. It got so bad though that when he latched on it was instantaneous(sp?) tears flowing! I continued to pray and pray and pray. My doctor called in some cream that has helped tremendously but it wasn't helping with the latching on part. Finally, I read online and was suggested by a friend to use a nipple shield. One person wrote how her nipples were bleeding and the nipple shield was a lifesaver. It was my last resort. So, yesterday, I went to target and bought one for a whoppin $6.99. Guess what?! It has changed my life! Ha ha! Not really, but I can't feel a thing. Micah nurses so great with it and my nipples have gotten so much better! I cannot even believe that I didn't go buy one of these 2 weeks ago.
I do not have thrush or mastistis(sp?). Just cracked nipples that started to bleed they were so bad. Please, if you are reading this and you have the same problem GO BUY a Medela Nipple Shield. It is so worth it!
Ok, I do not want anyone's opinion on how I should or should not do this. Micah has been taking a bottle almost every day since he was three weeks old. So, I am pretty sure we are past nipple confusion. And you know what? I was in so much pain that it doesn't matter. If I can nurse and this is how I have to do it right now, I would much rather do it this way then quit nursing. I did not have these problems at all with Parker. It has been one day since I have been using the shield and I literally feel like a different person. I had started dreading every time I had to nurse, which made me so sad. Because nursing is such a special time.
I will start nursing without the shield when I feel like I am completely better. And I will reposition Micah until it doesn't hurt me to nurse. And, I will begin potty training again. But, not sure when.

Sorry for the detailed post...I just want to help out anyone else who is having this problem. Although, I really pray that no one else is having this problem. It is AWFUL!

Potty T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G really means TRAINING!!

Yup! I am potty training Parker. Am I crazy or what?! My sister started potty training Gray(who is 5 weeks younger than Parker) a week and a half ago. Gray has shown interest for a while now so she said "lets do it!" She tried talking me into doing it with Parker and I was like "No Way!" Obviously I didn't mean it or else I wouldn't be doing it right now!!! :) My sister is so stinkin influential in my life. Ha! Actually, Parker started showing the same kind of interest as Gray was. Example: COMPLETELY stripped down(shirt, pants, and diaper...yes he can do it himself) and said "tee tee tee tee!" until I took him to the potty. THEN started wiping himself. All of this was in front my sister and cousin. We, then, felt like he was screaming to the best of his ability "POTTY TRAIN ME!". Because the boys are so young(Parker 22 months, Gray 21 months) we understand it is going to be a longer process. But, Ashley had a good point. We are still using less diapers. The only time Parker wears diapers is naptime, bedtime, and if we go run errands. Today is day 3 and Parker has tee teed in the potty once and pooped. Both of those times were by accident. Ha! But that is what happens when you have your toddler sit on the potty thirty MILLION times a day!! He has had MANY tee tee accidents on the floor. THANK goodness for hardwoods. I don't think he understands the urge yet...but that is what the word "training" is for. We train them to understand it. The hardest part of it all is nursing for 20 min. every 3 hours 15 min.
Today, I kept Gray and Sam so Ashley could run some errands. Wow! I only took underwear on and off non stop. I wiped up tee tee like crazy! And I was constantly sitting by the potty making up songs about bodily functions. What a morning!!!

Parker on his potty. And yes, he is sitting backwards. If you know anything about boys and going potty you will know why I have him sitting backwards. If not...don't worry about it!

"Stepanie" came to visit!

Wow! I haven't posted in a while. Well, my cousin and one of my best friends, Stephanie(Parker calls her STEPanie), came for a short visit. It was so fun and I enjoyed the company. Especially since I am really working on staying home a lot to keep Micah on a good schedule. Parker also enjoyed her!! I wish she didn't have to leave. I am trying to talk her into moving here. That would be wonderful! She is so easy and totally understands that I have babies that are on schedules. Praise the Lord for friends like that(my good friend Abby is the same way when she visits). It puts me at ease rather than feeling stressed.
Micah is going to be 6 weeks old this coming Friday. He is so sweet and wonderful! My sister has let me know, however, that Micah is more of a normal baby. Whereas Parker set the bar high. Parker just fell right into a perfect schedule the minute he came out of the womb. He hardly ever cried or anything! When I would lay him down he went to sleep, not a peep! Micah, is different. Ha! But that is ok...he is still really good. He is a great nurser, hardly ever spits up, and sleeps good most of the time but especially at night. On Saturday he went from 10-6 in between feedings. I was SO excited hoping that he would do the same thing the next night. He didn't! Sundays are harder days for him because of church. He gets way off schedule. I prayed again that he would do it on Monday and he went from 10-4. I am still happy with that. Last night he went 10:30-5:30. I now know he can do it! And I think(and pray) that he continues this schedule and hopefully even goes longer. I seem to compare Micah and Parker a lot for which I need to stop. Parker was a great baby and Micah IS a great baby. He has started to smile at me and I have even heard a few "coos" which I LOVE and think it is so sweet! Parker acts like Micah has always been here. He doesn't really like Micah phase him. Here are some pics from the last two weeks.

Daddy and Micah snoozing.

Steph and Micah. Steph looks great in this picture!

Micah and Parker.

Micah looking so sweet in his little gown. In Austin you would almost NEVER see a little boy wearing a gown. But I don't care! I love it!!