Free Chapel Preview Service

This past Sunday, April 20th, we had our first preview service for Free Chapel(brother-in-law's church plant here in Austin). We are going to have one preview service a month until we launch in September. It went really well. Derek got at Jeremy and Ashley's house at 6:30 to load the SquareCow Mooving truck with all the stuff for the church(sound system, nursery stuff, children's stuff, EVERYTHING). I got to the movie theater(where we are having our services)at 7:00 am and started setting up everything. I am over children's church and nursery. We are doing Kidmo curriculum so I don't really have to teach. But I do the praise and worship, games, small groups, etc. We had 52 people at the service which is more than we were reaching for. We wanted 40 at the least. Praise God!! We passed out water bottles and cokes at the Hill Country Galleria(where the movie theater is located) the day before. Half of the water bottles had Free Chapel's website on them and we also passed out cards that advertised Free Chapel's service times. I, of course, as white as I am got fried!! I am still hurting. But it was worth it. So, here are some pictures of the children's church area. It is in a movie theater.

The Bat cruise

Yes...when I say "the bat cruise" I literally mean real bats. There is a bridge in Austin that has 750,000 to 1 million bats live under it. From March until August they come out from under the bridge at sunset. It is really well known(was on Rachel Ray's show). We decided to take Derek's family on the bat cruise. It is a rinky dink boat that goes up and down the river in downtown Austin for an hour and half. When the bats come out we go under the congress ave. bridge and watch. I will have to say...it was well worth the money and it wasn't really that expensive. It was beautiful weather and we had a blast.


Downtown Austin

Sunset

Congress Ave. Bridge(this is where the bats are...and the capitol building is located at the end of congress ave.)

You can see the bats in this picture. It is not really clear...but it looks like a swarm of bees.

Here is all the kayakers watching...and there are tons of people on the bridge too.

Happy Birthday Parker!

Parker had his first birthday party a week before his actual birthday. Because there are so many pictures I cannot possibly type what is going on in every picture. But, here it goes in a nutshell: Parker took a really late nap that day so he was kind of fussy when he woke up. I put his birthday outfit on him and took him downstairs to play and celebrate. Derek cooked red beans and rice, which we all loved including Parker. During dinner Parker decided he had to do a little business in his diaper. Yup!! It leaked through his diaper onto his brand new birthday outfit. So, that is why I only have one picture of him in it. I took him upstairs and gave him a bath(which I documented..ha). He then enjoyed his cupcake in his pjs. He got great treats for his birthday. He got some toy shelves, a bailey boys one piece outfit with a tractor on one side of it and dogs on the other, a john deer hat, toy tractors, and his big gift was a radio flyer all terrain wagon. He LOVES it! We take him on it every day, sometimes twice a day. So, that is about all. His next birthday party will be this coming Monday. It is more like a birthday week for him. :)

Parker LOVES family!

Derek's family came in town this last week to visit and to celebrate Parker's FIRST birthday. We had a blast! We were so sad to see them go. Hopefully they will visit again soon.

Dad,Parker, and Mom

Mama Lynn, Papa K, and Parker

Great Papa(we call him Papa) and Parker touching the deer's nose.

Audrey Grace(who LOVES Parker and talks about him all the time) getting really excited about touching the deer, Parker, and Papa.

Parker and Audrey Grace

Mom and Parker

Sweet Audrey Grace. She is adorable!!

The whole fam(Papa, Aunt Bonnie, Audrey Grace, Papa K, Mama Lynn, Dad, Aunt Lindsey, Mom, and Parker). We went to this resturant called The Oasis. It is on the lake and the view is unbelievable. You feel like you are on the beach. This picture does not do it justice at all. We live about 5 minutes from here.

How cute is he??

Attachments

Here are some fun pictures of Parker. For a while now Parker has loved to hold onto something for a couple of hours or longer. And most of the time it is not a toy. He will bathe with it, sleep with it, take it to Jax's house, hold it while crawling and strolling. Seriously!! Anyways on this particular day it was the hand sanitizer. Sometimes it is a ball, block, diaper rash oinment, etc.

Sad because I took the camera case from him.

Happy again!

Got my hand sanitizer and my tractor. I am good to go!!

About to be one and officially weaned! Such a big boy!

Yup!! That is right! Parker is officially weaned. It took about three weeks(felt like 12). His last feeding was Friday and he has been great with it. I wanted to post a picture of Parker celebrating but I do not have any time. Derek and I are currently keeping my sister's three oldest boys plus Parker until tomorrow. Then we get home tomorrow night and Derek's family is flying in Thursday at lunch. They will be here until Sunday. We also have the first preview service for Free Chapel on Sunday. Right now, our schedule is crazy!!! We are celebrating Parker's first birthday this week with Derek's family and next week with my family. I will post pictures of his birthday invitations that I made. Okkk...the celebration has begun...Happy Birthday Parker Poo!!

Pictures from Below

Hey, Here are the pictures below that didn't show up. I have now discovered the reason why some of my pictures do not show up on here. Hopefully, I have it figured out now.

 

 

 

Praise you Lord!

I am so serious about that title! I will have to say that weaning Parker has been the toughest thing we have done since he has been born. I know, I know, that is such a blessing that this of all things is the hardest. But, I prayed, I prayed, and I prayed for wisdom and guidance and for peace for Parker during this time. We are down to nursing once a day(morning) and everything is going great. I have my sweet child back and I am so happy about that. We decided to switch Parker to soy milk instead of whole milk. Derek and I kind of wondered if whole milk was bothering his belly, plus he wasn't drinking it at all. And he was a different child when we gave him whole milk. So, we made an executive decision and everything is much much better! Parker drinks about 2-3 sippy cups of soy milk a day. The bad side of soy is all the bad diapers. But, I am trying to feed him other things during the day that can help his body adjust. I just dropped the evening feeding two days ago so we have 5 more days until I drop the morning feeding and that is it. We are done! I am not happy about stopping nursing, but like I said before I know it is best for Parker. And honestly, with what I just went through I think it would be soooo much harder if he was older. I just wanted to update everyone to let them know how wonderful everything is going. Make sure you look at my new pictures below!

Crackers..sweet outfits..diaper time..

 

Thank you Mama Don and Papa for buying this outfit for Parker(last summer). He is just now wearing it and it is so cute!! He wore it to church on Sunday and looked adorable. He looks so much like Derek it is scary! Especially his hair.

 

 

 

This picture was taken the first time Parker learned how to share with me his food. So sorry about how horrible I look, but he looks so sweet. He thought he was so funny that day.

 

 

 

How hilarious is this picture?? Parker was in full action in this picture. He was talking away and hitting his hair chair(which he does on a normal basis). Fun times!

What?! Ha ha ha

Don't we all go through times when we find our kids in certain places or sleeping in certain positions that just make us laugh and say "What in the world?" Well, here are some of those moments in our house.

 

We just now started putting Parker's crib blanket in the bed with him. He now sleeps on top of it, but at this time Derek had moved it to one side of the crib and layed Parker down on the other side. When I went upstairs to check on him this is what I found. It is hard to see but he layed his head on the blanket almost like it was a pillow. It was just so funny seeing him laying like that because he looked so much like a big boy in a big boy bed.

 

 

Playing in the laundry room is so fun for Parker. And what is funny is that he loves playing with his jump n go on the ground. Derek put him in it the other day and he LOVED it. Which is hilarious! And something that is great for me when I am cooking.

 

This is where Parker is almost anytime I am on the computer. The second he sees me over here he crawls on over and gets right underneath the desk and plays. He has gotten in trouble many times because of messing with something he shouldn't. Today, I finally just let him play in the drawer while I blogged. Ha ha! Oh well, he loved it.

Weaning...not fun!

Well, let's just say it hasn't been easy weaning Parker from nursing. I guess I don't truly know how hard it has been because I have nothing to compare it to. But, compared to a normal day with Parker the last couple of weeks have definitely been different. Parker is so stinkin' good almost all the time. I am serious! I am not just a bragging mom...he really is so good(he takes after his dad...laid back). But since I have been weaning him he has been way more moody. I am not used to a fussy, moody, irritable baby. I am used to an easy, happy, laid back, go with the flow baby. AND I want him back!! Ha ha! I know I will get him back...and I understand after getting advice from my sister and a few of my friends that he will come back. But right now this is how he is reacting to this whole process. I know this is best for him and for me. I just have to keep reminding myself that I am the parent and I know what is best...and this will pass. He will soon forget that he ever nursed(which is sad, because I will never ever forget how special this whole year has been to me and all our special moments when I nursed him).
Anyways, Derek and I have started giving him soy milk because we did wonder if whole milk was bothering his belly. Today was the first day of soy milk and he actually drank more of it then he did the whole milk. He got to the point where he would push the sippy cup away that had milk in it. He has done much better with the soy milk, but we will see. We just tried giving it to him this afternoon. I continue to pray for wisdom and guidance on how to be a good parent and help him through this. This week we will eliminate the evening feeding. Pray, pray, pray!! Thanks!!