Fun In The Snow

I was trying to get Brooklyn calmed down and to sleep last night when I got a few calls...IT'S SNOWING!! Parker was excited, we went out and played for about an hour but after we came in it started snowing even harder. I haven't seen snow this good in Dayton since I was a kid. It was great!! I got a ton of pictures of the yard and house, here are a few...

Parker and I went out this morning with Brooklyn. I had her all bundled up with her little hat, mittens and jacket. She kept putting her mittens in the snow and licking them. She did pretty good until her mittens kept falling off and she would cry. Her little fingers were so cold so I brought her in. Here are a few pics of the kids...

We went to a Christmas tree farm in New Caney on Sunday. I told Parker that we were going to get our Christmas tree and he said something about cutting it down. We've gone and picked one out and cut it down every year since he's been born. Parker decided that he was in charge of the tape measure. He went around and measured the trees, calling out random numbers. Here are a few pictures...

A Visit From Santa

It's so funny the things that happen in a small town. I was trying to scrapbook earlier and I heard sirens. I thought that maybe it was a volunteer fire fighter headed to a fire or something like that. I kept hearing them, so I look out the window and there are fire trucks coming down the road. I go and get Parker and we stand on the porch and watch them as they are coming down the road toward our house. They stop in front of the house and in the speaker thing they say...come see santa. I told them just a minute, Parker was in his underwear (I didn't tell them that). I got him dressed and we went to go see santa. There were 2 Kenefick Fire Trucks and a couple of regular trucks all decorated in lights.

Santa comes up in the driveway and gives Parker some candy canes, which he was very excited about. One of the fire fighters asked Parker if he'd been good this year and he says yes and then asked what he wanted for Christmas. Parker's answer was boots! That's what he wants this Christmas...boots. Of course we have already bought all of his Christmas presents. I guess that's what we'll get with any Christmas money he gets.

Here's a video of Parker writing to santa...(the camera is shaking a little because I was laughing)

Getting Things Together

I think that I'm finally done packing the kids stuff for our trip today, so I decided to take a break before I packed my stuff. We're going to Mississippi to see Jeremy's family for Thanksgiving. We're leaving as soon as Jeremy gets home and packed. This ought to be an interesting trip. Jeremy and I both have a stomach bug and Brooklyn isn't a good traveler. Hopefully we don't get anyone sick while we're there.

Mom and Gene headed to Georgia yesterday to have Thanksgiving with Amy, Craig and the boys. They should have gotten there sometime EARLY this morning...somewhere around 2:00 AM I think that Gene said. I haven't checked in with them yet this morning.

Dad is staying here and hunting and watching Gene's dogs.

Brooklyn is trying to crawl. Parker did an army crawl first, but Brooklyn is skipping that step I guess. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. She seems like she's SO ready to be mobile. She does good in the walker, but that doesn't last long and Parker gets on the back of it and pushes it.

Well, not much news to report. Hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Back to packing!

Polka-dotted Baby Girl

Sunday night we noticed that Brooklyn has some red spots on her. We put some cream on it and Monday morning they were worse. They had become raised and were all over her legs, thighs, shoulder and face. Her feet and thighs were starting to swell. I was beginning to get a little worried because throughout the day they would seem as thought they were going away and then they would pop back up in a different spot.

Finally, about 4:00 PM yesterday, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for her for today. I thought that she had an allergic reaction to sweet potatoes. That was the only thing different that I could think of that she'd been exposed to in the last few days. As I was putting her to bed last night, it clicked...oh yeah, I had accidentally washed her clothes with our detergent instead of her baby detergent. I changed her into some pajamas washed in her detergent and the spots were gone this morning. I guess she has some kind of allergy to something in that detergent or she's just got extremely sensitive skin. Well, mystery solved.

Jeremy's parents were already planning on keeping Parker today since we were going to be headed to the dr. so I took him over there this morning so I could get stuff done at the house. I ended up leaving Brooklyn there too so I'm at the house now and it is SO quiet, it's great...now I can get stuff done.

It is such nasty weather outside. It's been raining almost all day. Our yard is flooded, it's crazy. I heard it's supposed to keep raining through Thursday, I hope not!! I went outside earlier when there was a break in the rain. I went into the shed to fix a piece of tin on the roof that had blown up from Hurricane Ike. I got the ladder out, climbed to the top and pulled the piece of tin back down...not even thinking of the fact that the piece of tin would be collecting water. I should have seen that one coming, but didn't even think about it. I pulled it down and got soaked...and that water was so cold.

Well, I probably should get back to my photos. Have a great day!!

Mr. Social

Mom and I decided to go shopping this weekend because Toys R Us and Kohls were having good sales on toys. I wanted to go ahead and see what I could find for the kids for Christmas. Jeremy was hunting so we had to bring the kids with us, which always makes things interesting. We were in Toys R Us and I had Brooklyn and was looking around for something, mom was behind me a little ways with Parker. Parker told my mom that he wanted to go over with me so she let him. Well, I didn't know that he was coming so I didn't know to watch for him so a minute later I look around and she doesn't have Parker.

So the search begins. I look on the rows in the section that we were in and no Parker. There's no sense calling him because he doesn't answer. I finally found him about 5 rows down. He apparently had wandered into the back room where the extra stuff is stored that won't fit on the shelves. I look down the aisle and there is an employee standing there holding the doors open and talking to Parker. Parker was happy, he found someone to talk to. He never gets worried when he doesn't see me because he doesn't think...oh no, i'm lost. He just finds someone to talk to and he's just fine.

A few stops later we were at Joanne's fabric store. We were looking at the catalogs to find a pattern that we needed. Parker was looking too because it was either sit and look at the catalog or sit in the shopping cart. There was this little black girl beside him, about his age. He pushed the catalog over to her and said, look at these dolls. The little girl pushed the book back and said, I don't want to look at that, and you're not my friend anymore. Parker just looked at her and said, why? She said, because you're just not. She then puts up her hand (her palm toward his face) and says, and don't look at me. I was just sitting there watching them, laughing to myself. It never once bothered Parker. He just kept asking her why after everything that she said. By the time that we left they were apparently friends because she told him bye and said that she'd see him tomorrow. Kids are so funny.

It ended up being a crazy day. We got home about 5:30 PM and went to a friend's house along with some other couples and we played games, it was fun. Brooklyn was dedicated on Sunday, she did really good...no screaming or crying, that's always good.

Yesterday I was changing Brooklyn's diaper and Parker climbed up on her changing table to talk to her. He always thinks that he has to entertain her. Knowing that he could get off by himself, I just got Brooklyn up and took her to the living room while I fixed her a bottle. About 10 minutes later I hear Parker calling me. He was still in Brooklyn's room on the changing table and had rubbed diaper rash cream all over himself. He emptied out half of the container. Needless to say, he needed a bath.

What an eventful weekend. :) We had a game night at the church last night and the girls enjoyed playing Phase 10 while the guys played 42. It was a busy weekend, but it was fun. I guess that I better wrap up for now. I need to work on more pictures for Randy's video. Have a great day!!

Let's Go Fishin'

We went to the Fall Festival at the church again this year. Parker loved playing the games, I got a few pictures of him playing, but his hat was so big that you can't see his face in any of them. The Fall Festival wasn't on Halloween this year because with it being on a Friday and there being a football game they were worried that we wouldn't have enough youth volunteers to help out with the games. So, Parker got to hand out candy on Halloween which he thought was very fun! Every time that he heard a knock on the door, he'd throw down whatever he was holding at the time and run to the door.

Well, with Randy's last Sunday being next week we wanted to make sure that he dedicated Brooklyn before he left. He's dedicating his grandson, Jonah, on his last Sunday so Brooklyn will be this Sunday. I took some cute pictures of her in a tutu that heather brought over that paige had outgrown. The pictures turned out cute.

I've been working alot the last few days on getting Randy's video together for his reception. I am so happy for him that he's following God's call to go into missions, but we will miss him so much! There are so many great memories of him as youth minister and pastor at the church. It's been 20 great years.

Well, I better wrap up now. I need to head to the grocery store and the library. Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!! Here are a few more pics before I head out...

Yummy Avocados

We started Brooklyn on solid foods Monday night and the first thing that we tried was avocados. I read that they are very healthy so I figured I'd give it a shot. Brooklyn cracked us up so much with her reaction to the avocado. I know how she feels though, I have the same reaction to them. Jess, I don't see how you like those things...YUCK!

She did alot better with it the second day and it was cold, but this video shows how she felt the first time we gave it to her. So funny, it had us cracking up...which is obvious by the shaking camera and of course you can hear us laughing.

Getting So Behind

I haven't been doing as good about blogging since Parker got interested in the computer. He likes playing games on pbskids.org so anytime he sees me on the computer he thinks that he needs to be on playing games. Usually I make him wait until I'm done, but then I can't concentrate because he's in here asking me a million questions. Crazy boy!

We took Brooklyn to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month shots. Only 2 this time, thankfully. She did pretty good. She was drinking a bottle, I took it out of her mouth for the shots, it was over in a few seconds and she had a bottle again and quickly forgot about the pain. I took her with me running errands, we visited my friend Marnie that I worked with at Woodridge, saw baby Jonah and the rest of the Abshire family at the hospital, visited Jeremy at his office, went to Kohls to exchange some shoes and did a few other things...it was quite a productive day. Brooklyn had two 10 minute naps and a 45 minute nap so I was very surprised that she wasn't cranky.

Got a pumpkin at Walmart the other day, Parker picked it out. I went shopping with both kids, not sure what I was thinking. It was an adventure that left me worn out when I got home. It's very hard to shop while pushing the shopping cart with one hand because I'm feeding Brooklyn a bottle in her car seat and checking on Parker every 5 seconds because he's decided that he knows what I need and is taking stuff of the shelf or is running and sliding down the aisle on his knees or following people around asking them questions. We got to the check out finally and I'm trying to tend to Brooklyn and I took over and Parker is taking the bags of groceries and throwing them in the basket. Good thing I already had the eggs over by Brooklyn so they didn't get crunched.

Angel and I have finally decided on a date for our garage sale and it's soon so I've been trying to clean out closets, drawers, cabinets, etc...anything I can find. It's looked a little disastrous around our house lately. We decided to go ahead and sell all of Parker's old clothes. Jeremy and I decided that we're fine with two kids. If we do decide on a third one we want to adopt and it won't be a baby so that is why we decided to go ahead and sell his baby clothes. It makes me a little sad though. I didn't think that it would bother me. Pulling out all of his old clothes, remembering him in them and knowing that we won't ever need them again. Oh well, no sense keeping them though. I would love to be able to just pass them along to someone, but I need some money to finish up my Christmas shopping.

Okay, I was debating on whether or not to tell this story...but I just have to, it was too funny. One day last week, I had just gotten out of the shower, gotten dressed and was headed into the living room. I hear Parker say...Brooklyn, look at this. I stopped in the doorway to see what this was all about. He had his heiny toward her and he mooned her. He thought that he was so funny doing that, he was laughing. I had to contain myself before I went in there and got onto him. It was so hilarious.

Well, I hear Brooklyn waking up so I better wrap this up. Hope that everyone has a great weekend.

Getting SO Big

Brooklyn is going to be 4 months old on the 17th, it's hard to believe. She has started rolling over so good. She can only roll to the left though. She automatically rolls over on her tummy in the bed now and she sleeps so good. Since she has started doing that, she sleeps from 9:00 PM until 7:00-8:00 AM. It is great. We have to turn the radio on for her too. We tried her womb sounds bear and CD's but as soon as the music or the noise stops, she wakes up crying...so the radio works great.

Jeremy took me out on Thursday to celebrate my birthday and it was extremly fun! We only went out to eat and shopping at Kohl's but it was great for it to be just the two of us. We caught a really good sale at Kohl's and got tons of stuff there and I got Chicken Parmigiana at Italiano's...which is always delicious.

Well, I guess that I better wrap up because I need to finish getting ready so I can meet Jeremy over in Atascocita. Now it's time to shop for the kids. Brooklyn doesn't have much for the size she's in now and Parker has tons of winter shirts but very few pants and his only shoes are flip flops. So, Kohl's here we come...once again. :)

The Latest With The Kiddos

Well, we have spent the last week trying to get Brooklyn and Parker back into some sort of a routine from two weeks away from the house due to the hurricane. The first few days back were crazy, it seemed like the kids didn't like that there was just one person paying attention to them now.


Parker and I finally got to go outside for more than just to get into the car to leave, since we've been back. The mosquitos have been terrible since the hurricane. The city has come by 3 times that I know of to spray and I think that it's finally working. We still got a few bites, but it was so much worse last week. I was trying to clean up the porch and trim my plants and of course Parker wanted to help. Then we blew bubbles for awhile and we came in.


We went to the library to return Parker's books and movies that were due a week ago. We came by to return them when they were due and there was a sign up saying that they were closed due to the hurricane. Then it took me a week to get back up there to do it. :) Thankfully she didn't charge us the late fees.


As we were leaving the library, Parker wanted to go by my mom's school to see if she was there. We pulled up to the school and parked right next to the handicapped spot. Parker said momma, look...that man is sitting on a circle, he better be careful or he'll fall off. I thought that was so random until I looked over and saw that he was talking about the handicapped sign. So funny!


Parker has gotten a mean streak all of a sudden. Monday, he hit Brooklyn on the head with a plastic racket and yesterday he hit her hand with a flashlight. He hit her head hard enough to leave a bruise, she screamed for about 10 minutes before I could get her calmed down. I hear her scream and then I automatically hear Parker saying, it's okay Brooklyn, it was an accident. I don't think that he means to hurt her, he just plays so rough.

Brooklyn is bound to have some teeth coming through the gums soon. She is drooling like crazy and chewing on her hands. Her little thumbs are so red from her chewing on them all of the time. She's not fussy though so that is good.


She rolled over for the first time on Saturday and I can't get her to do it again. She pulls her legs up toward her chest and will roll to the side but then as soon as she puts her legs back down she rolls on her back again.


Gene and Grandmom came down Thursday night to celebrate my birthday over the weekend. We had a good time. My brother thought that he was so funny getting me a card that said "60" on it. Then he wrote on the inside...just think, you're half way there. So sweet!


Grandmom got Brooklyn laughing, it was so cute. Here's a video.

Parker has really started picking up songs quick. I'll Fly Away Oh Glory came on the radio a couple of days ago and he started singing it. His version though is I'll Fly Away Oh Dory. He really surprised us when Brandon Heath's song, Give Me Your Eyes, came on and he started singing it. Brings my heart joy! :)

Life Back to Normal

It feels great to be back at home with electricity. We got our electricity back Sunday afternoon. We were over here cleaning up the yard and my mom and I came inside to get some water and she noticed that the fridge light was on. YIPPEEE!!!

I downloaded my pictures and videos of the hurricane...here you go. The video is the back side of the storm. It was worse when it hit during the middle of the night. These pictures are of my parents house and neighborhood. The ones of my house and neighborhood are on my mom's camera and I haven't gotten them downloaded yet.

We're Evacuees

We're at my grandmother's house now. We got here yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. We left the house at 11:00 AM and didn't get here until about 6:00 PM. It is supposed to be a 4 hour trip, but took us 7 hours...which is still so much better than the 18 hours it took us to get here when we evacuated during Hurricane Rita. It took us an hour to get to Cleveland because of all of the traffic lights being out. I think that we counted about 30 trucks between Dayton and Cleveland that were either tree trimming services or electric companies from tons of other states.

We stopped in Cleveland at Dairy Queen because it was the only place to eat that was open. They were only selling chicken finger baskets or steak finger baskets, we put in our order and sat and waited. It was a little over an hour before we got our food. Once we hit the interstate in Conroe, it was smooth sailing from there. We stopped at Gene's office to visit with him and headed to grandmom's house. We'll be here until we get electricity or mom has to go back to school. Dad and Jeremy stayed home. Jeremy's office didn't lose electricity so he's having to go in this week.

I don't have any pictures of the storm yet because I forgot to bring my adapter to download my pictures. I'll have to either go get another one or wait until we have power at home to put my pictures and videos on the blog. The storm wasn't too bad in Dayton, especially compared to Galveston. We had alot of trees that fell...some on houses and some crossing the roads and in yards. Nothing happened to our house, we just have some yard work to do because the back yard is a mess. Jeremy's parent's house is fine and so is my parent's house. Their next door neighbor had a tree go through a room in their house and the neighbor beside them had a tree hit the roof and cause damage, but it didn't go all of the way through. We were very blessed to have no damage.

Well, I guess that is all of the news. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Riding Out Hurricane Ike...yIKEs!

Well, no real hurricane news to report yet. The winds are blowing about 40 mph, but they're not consistent. We should feel more effects later. I think that it's going to hit us in the middle of the night. We have had a few flickers of the lights, but still have electricity as of now...9:45 PM.

Jeremy and I got up at 6:00 AM to finish cleaning up the yard of any possible projectiles. We put everything in the shed that would fit, took the net off of the trampoline, turned Parker's swingset over on it's side and burned the limbs that we had already put in a pile. We left the house about 1:15 PM.

We were going to stay at Mike and Heather's house and have a hurricane party, but called them earlier today and they decided to evacuate. :) Heather being 8 months pregnant, decided last minute that she didn't want to be here through the storm, but mostly she didn't want to be here through the heat after the electricity went out. We're staying over at my parents house in town because we didn't want to be in our mobile home with such high winds.

We had some excitement earlier today. Dad had a big pile of limbs in the side yard and decided to burn it. Because everything was so dry, the flames went pretty high. A few minutes later we see a fire truck driving up...and then another one...and then a cop...and another cop...then a jeep and suburban from the fire department. Dad is spraying the fire with the water hose as they drive up. Apparently someone from the neighborhood saw the fire and called the fire department when all we were doing was burning limbs. It was crazy.

One For The Record Books!

I can't believe it...I have both kids down for a nap at the same time and in their beds. I just don't know what to do with myself...so, this is what having free time is like. Parker was playing computer games, I gave him his 10 minute warning for nap time, 10 minutes passed, we went to his room and picked out a book to read. We read the book, he laid down without a fight and within 5 minutes was asleep. That is a rare occasion. Brooklyn went down for a nap in her bed for the first time. I usually let her sleep in the swing because she sleeps better there. She wasn't sleeping good in the swing so I figured that I might as well try the bed. She cried for a minute or two and konked out. I can actually clean up my living room and dining room without having to be quiet.

It is so hard to believe that it is already September. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be right around the corner. I asked Parker the other day what he wanted for Christmas. He said that he wanted a big slide and a bigger stool because the one that he has now wasn't tall enough for him to stand on and reach the top of the entertainment center. Crazy little man. He said a few other things but I can't remember. I'm sure by next year he'll know exactly what he wants.

Parker and I enjoyed the cool weather this morning, it was so nice. There was a little breeze, the sky was a little overcast and it wasn't humid. He played on his swingset and in the sandbox for a little while. Then he ran to the house all of a sudden and said that he was running from the ants. I didn't see any, maybe he was just using his imagination...who knows.

Brooklyn is getting to where she doesn't like to be by herself for any amount of time...she loves attention. Parker is always trying to entertain her and in her face. Brooklyn and I play for awhile and then I lay her down on the floor to play. She is only happy for about 5 minutes now and then she wants someone to entertain her. Parker tries to entertain her when she cries and if it doesn't work he comes and tells me that she is crying for me. He tells me what he thinks that she is saying, mom said that I was that way with Gene when we were little. Of course with us, I would always tell her that Gene was saying things like he wanted a cookie...because then if he got one, I would too. :)

I am still enjoying being at home. A few of my friends from work said that they were stay at home moms and didn't like it as much as they thought that they would and wanted to go back to work. I really didn't think that would happen with me. Of course, there have been a few days that by the time that Jeremy gets home I feel like I can't handle another minute! Me staying at home has helped me to put my priorities in order, I have more time with the kids, but make more time to be with Jeremy now. I didn't realize that I had taken so much of my time away from him and focused that time on Parker. I use my time more wisely now...of course I feel like I have so much more time now to get everything done.

Well, I better take advantage of the rest of nap time and get some stuff done around the house.

A Fun Long Weekend

We enjoyed our long weekend, we didn't do anything Friday night, but made up for it the rest of the weekend. Saturday morning we went to Aaron and Justin Walters' Open House. We stayed there until about 2:00 PM. We had already seen their new house, but not all decorated. It looked very nice, they really seem to be enjoying it! Parker got in the pool but stayed on the steps...except for that one time. :) He reached out to get a flower that was floating in the pool and slipped and couldn't get his head back above water. Jeremy VERY quickly went in after him. Parker got over being scared pretty quick and was playing on the steps again.

Jeremy and Heather came over Saturday evening. JJ (which is what he goes by when him and his cousin are around each other...less confusion) grilled ribs...which were very good...and we just sat around and talked and they wanted to check out Wii Fit.

Sunday, Heather and Mike came over with Paige and Carson and the kids played with every toy in the house I'm pretty sure and we ate and started playing cards. We put a few movies on for the kids, they sat still for the most part and we played a few more card games.

We went to my parents house yesterday for Labor Day and dad grilled chicken, sausage and a few other things. Parker enjoyed playing over there for several hours. He doesn't go over there as much now that mom is back in school and I'm staying at home with the kids. We got home about 6:00 so I put Parker in the tub to play while I bathed Brooklyn in her little tub beside him. I got Brooklyn out, handed her to Jeremy and finished giving Parker a bath. He was squirting his water gun (or gunner as he calls it) and it was getting me wet. I told him to stop and he didn't so I popped him. He looked at me, very serious, and said...that wasn't a real pop. I popped him harder and asked him if that was a real pop. He looked at me and said no, so I started to pop him again and he quickly changed his answer to yes. I told Jeremy about that last night and he was cracking up. Parker is so crazy.

This morning I was changing Brooklyn's diaper and I had to go to the bathroom so I asked Parker to watch her. He does really good with her. As soon as I got in the bathroom I asked Parker if he was still watching her. He said that he had lost her...you lost her? He says, just kidding mommy, I'm teasing you. Oh my goodness, that boy acts just like his daddy...it's scary.

I finally downloaded the pictures from when we went to Gene's so here are some of the kids there and some of his house.