Parker Man

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

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

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!!! :)

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

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

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

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

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. :)