Halloween cookies

I had to show yall the halloween cookies that I made. I am not the best cook or crafty person, but these cookies were so easy and I think they turned out pretty cute!

They are ghost cookies. They are nutter-butters that I dipped in white chocolate and put little chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth.

I made them for an adult halloween party that Dennis and I are going to tonight after our festivities with Parker.

And here is what Dennis and I are going to be for the costume party! It is going to be pretty funny. I think the funniest part is going to be seeing Dennis with hair!!

Fun Blog Game

Mandy tagged me in a fun little blog game. I am suppose to post the fourth picture from the fourth album on my computer. Well, here it is....

I don't think I have to tell you that this picture brings back so many memories. Some of them sad, but most of them happy. This picture was taken the very first time Dennis and I were able to hold Parker after he had open heart surgery. This was 17 days after his surgery and only hours after getting off of the ventilator. After so many ups and downs and worries he was finally off of the ventilator!! He still had so many wires and tubes, but we jumped at the chance when they asked us if we wanted to hold him!! It was the biggest ordeal to hold him and took about 15 minutes to get situated, but it was so worth it. I will never forget this moment as long as I live!

It is so much fun to see everyone's random old pictures!! I tag Mary-Kathryn, Kim, Shannon
and Andrea.

BOO at the Zoo!

This past Sunday night we went to boo at the zoo!! Parker loved all of the lights and fun activities. They give out tons of candy too!

We went with Stephen, Sarah, and Sydney. Parker just wore a pumpking sweatshirt and Syndey wore her fairy halloween costume.
This is us on the merry-go-round.


Parker loved the merry-go-round!

This is the only pictuer I could get of Parker with his hood up....he hates anything on his head!

It was impossible to get them to look at the camera at the same time!

Parker and all of his candy!

11 months and presents!!

Well, I am one day late, but Parker turned 11 months old yesterday!! I cant believe he is almost one year. I am so excited about his birthday party, I am sending out the invitations this weekend!! It is going to be an animal theme. Of course here is a picture of the sweet boy...

The puppy Parker is holding is a present that he got in the mail yesterday from a sweet lady, Sue, who heard about Parker through her niece Mandy. She wrote him a sweet letter and told us that she has a special place in her heart and life for heart families. We feel so blessed to have so many people all over the country praying for Parker. Even though he is doing great right now, he will always be "sick". She also sent him this prism. It had a note with it that nothing happens to us without passing through the prism of God's love. We placed it in Parker's window and now when the sun shines through it we will be reminded of God's unconditional and unfailing love.

Parker received another present in the mail yesterday from his uncle who lives in Nashville. My aunt is from another country and she sent Parker a bird that is native to her country. They are sweet to Parker! He had just woken up in this picture!

It is so weird that a year ago I was pregnant with Parker...here is a picture of what I was doing this time last year....

This is Parker's pumpkin from the pumpkin patch last year! So weird!

Prayers for Dennis' family

This has been a very busy week and many prayers are needed for my husband and his family. Yesterday Dennis' grandmother passed away. She has been in the hospital for 9 weeks and was moved to hospice on Tuesday. Her entire family was by her side during her last moments. Her husband passed away a year and half ago. The day she passed away would have been there 64th wedding anniversary. She went home to see her husband on their special day.

Here is Dennis, Parker and Me-maw just a few months ago...

Late yesterday afternoon, we found out that Dennis' sister was rushed to the hospital yesterday after an asthma attack caused her to pass out. She is now in the ICU on the ventilator. We dont really know much else right now. I will keep you posted on her progress.

Pumpkin Patch and the Weekend

Friday night we went to watch my sister cheer at their Homecoming football game. It started getting cold (which I am so excited about!!) and I got to wear my coat!

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch in Mayflower. Courtney told me about it, because the one we have always gone to closed this year! We had so much fun. I cant wait till next year when Parker can play with all of the cool stuff (they had hay tunnels, playground, corn maze, petting zoo, and so much more!!).

Wouldn't stop playing with hay for a picture!

We are on the hay ride and the wind was blowing in his hair! He loves the wind!

Parker's pumpkin. It didnt look very big until he held it!

On Sunday we celebrated my sister's birthday again since my brother came in town!! In my family we have birth months....it's pretty cool! We had brunch at Arthur's.

Here is the whole family...minus Dennis!

Parker would not get that silly spoon out of his mouth!

Another day of therapy

Well, today we had our third therapy session this week. This week has been really tough on me. He is still crying the entire time, but the crying isnt as hard. On Monday I am just dropping him off to see if that helps the crying. Maybe if he doesnt see me, he wont want me. So, today in therapy we were really trying to get Parker to put weight on his arms. Whenever you put him in a position to put weight on them he just bends them and pulls them up. SO, we have a new contraption for his arms. ...
.
This will keep his arms straight when we put him in the crawling position so that he has to use them! We werent making him work when I took this picture. He just thought they were funny and he was flapping his "wings"!! And they didnt have two matching splints so he will be all mismatchy!

Birthdays and Pumpkins

Yesterday was my sister's 21st birthday! We had dinner and cake at our grandmother's house last night. Mom and I made the cake and I practiced making stars with the icing. I am practicing because we are making and decorating the cakes for Parker's birthday party next month!
Parker also got his Halloween costume. He is going to wear the same costume I wore when I was 6 months old!! It is a pumkin that is 25 years old. My grandmother had to re-stuff it and re-attatch the eyes and mouth. She made it a little too full so she is going to take a little stuffing out and then it will be good to go for Halloween! I have a picture of me in this same pumpkin.....i just need to scan the picture and I will show you guys!

Powder Puff and Friends

On Tuesday night we went to my sister's powder puff game. I remember when I was in highschool...I loved the powder puff game during homecoming week, it is a flag football game between the junior and senior girls and Football players are the coaches. Kelsey was the center and she wasnt the greatest, but she did improve ALOT by the end of the game. I gave her the most improved award! The very first play of the game two girls got hurt, a girl from each team. One of the girls was laying out of the field for like 10 minutes and we had no idea what was going on!! We found out that her knee had popped out and there just happened to be an orthopeadic surgeon at the game and he popped it back into place!! but they called an ambulance and it was a huge ordeal! So, there was like a 20 minutes pause in the game after only one play! It was kinda funny. Kelsey is a junior and they lost 28 - 7.

Me and Parker

Parker and Kelsey

Last night Danny and Brittani came over and we watched the finale of Project Runway. I was kinda sad the Korto from Little Rock got second!! Danny and Parker always have fun playing!

Here is Parker working on pulling up! I am so excited that he can sit on his knees! This is a big step!

The Contraption

Well, as you all know, Parker started physical therapy last week. He did great all last week and is rolling over more and more. His biggest problem is having the desire to want to get places and get things. He will be playing with a toy and I will move it so he has to get it and he just forgets about it. He would rather just lay there. Right now we are working on getting him to learn that he can roll across the room to get something. We had our second therapy session yesterday and Parker did a tiny bit better, but he still cried the whole time. She wants us to work on getting his chest, neck and arms stronger.....that is where the contraption comes in. This makes Parker hold his head up. We are suppose to get him to play with toys with his arms while in this. He looks happy in the pictures but that only lasted about 20 seconds. He gets sooooo tired after about 2 minutes. Usually when he is on his stomach and he gets tired he just lays his head down on the ground. Well, he cant do that when he is in this thing. We are going to put him in it 3-4 times a day and hopefully each time he will be able to do it longer and longer. This will help him be able to bear weight on his arms---he cant do that AT ALL!! And it will help him be able to get into the position to crawl. He cant go from sitting to his stomach because that requires weight on his arms. I hope this works!! Please pray! We go back tomorrow!! We are going 3 times this week...This is hard work for my sweet Parker! He is so amazing!!

Pretty roses!

Here are the roses Dennis sent me yesterday for our Anniversary. Of course, I couldnt take a picture of them without Parker being in it!!! We went out to eat last night for our Anniversary and silly me forgot my camera. We had so much fun and it was so relaxing! We did miss Parker but it is always nice to have a break. After we ate we went to Halloween express and got our Halloween costumes for a costume party we are going to. I will have a picture of that soon but I will keep the costumes a secret for now....I want it to be a surprise!

Four years and going strong!

Today Dennis and I have been married for four years!! Wow!! So much has changed but so much has stayed the same too. This time last year I was pregnant and we were getting ready for our sweet little Parker and now we have our perfect little family and we are getting ready for Parker's first birthday!! We have grown up over the last four years but we are still just as silly as we were the day we met over 6 years ago. I love Dennis so much and everyday he gives me more reasons to fall even more in love with him. We have definitely gone through some rough times. I think that is what has made our relationship so strong. We have also had some really amazing times too! I cant wait to make so many more memories with my two special boys!

Tonight Parker is going to parents's house and we are going to go out to dinner and maybe to a movie. It will be nice to have a night without Parker and not really have a plan. We can just do what we want!! Parker is staying the night and I will go get him first thing in the morning on my way to the office.

First day of therapy

WOW!! I think therapy was harder for me than for Parker. We had our first day of physical therapy today at Easter Seals. It was suppose to be for an hour, but Parker only made it for 45 minutes. He cried the entire time. The picture below is a picture of the first 30 seconds and then he started crying. It was so hard not to pick him up and just leave. I held him alot of the time to try and calm him down, but only when the therapist asked me to (I was good!). She assured me that every baby gets upset their first time and it will get better. He gets so sweaty and hot when he is upset. We used holding him as incentive for him to roll over or sit up. It worked pretty good. He is learning that you can go and get what you want. He is the only baby I have seen that is just content with sitting still. I know I will wish he was like that when he is going everywhere, but he needs to crawl (it's what babies his age do). He did so good!! He can already roll from his back to his stomach by himself!! We have lots of stuff to work on this week and we go back next Monday. I cant wait to see what a week will do if he can already roll over with one day!! Thanks for all of the prayers. It was a tough day for Parker and for his mommy!

Heart Poem

I saw this poem on another heart mom's blog and it brought tears to my eyes. I just wanted to share it....

Heart Poem
It's a beautiful day up in heaven. Jesus is rounding up his tiniest angels, to go live on earth, and be born. One of the sweetest angels says to Jesus "I don't want to leave, I like it here, and I will miss you". He reassures the scared little angel that everything will be okay, and that he is just going for a visit. He is still not swayed on this idea. So Jesus kneels down, and says, "How about if you leave half of your heart here with me and take the other half with you, will that be okay?" The angel smiles and says, "I guess that will work". But the little angel is still a little scared. He asks,"Will I be okay with only half of my heart?" Jesus replies,"Of course you will, I have other angels there that will help out, and you will be fine." Then Jesus gives the angel more details about his plan. He says "When you are born, your mommy will be scared, so you have to be strong, and when you feel weak just remember that I have the other half of your heart". "Enjoy your time with your family, play and laugh everyday." "And when its time to come back to heaven, I will make your heart whole again. Always remember that you are not broken, just torn between two loves."

Project Runway and Outside

Yesterday Parker and I had a lot of fun playing outside. It was such a beautiful day so we hung out in the backyard. We also played on the neighbors swing set!! I didnt get any pictures of that because I was too busy sliding down the slide!!

he wasnt sure what to think of the grass!

After all that fun he started getting sleepy.

Last night I went to a Fashion Show at the Governor's Masion and it was produced by Korto from the show project runway on Bravo!! I love that show and I watch it every week. I was so excited to meet her. I kinda felt like I knew her because I have seen her so much on t.v.

Spur-of-the-moment trip to Nashville...

Yesterday my dad decided that we needed to go to Nashville to see Cory's show at Rocketown. So, he rented a plane and ten of us flew to Nashville after work. We made it just in time to see the show and we were in bed by 11:00 p.m. It was so much fun. Me, mom, dad, Dennis, Parker, Amy and a few friends went. Parker did so good on his first plane ride and his first concert (We are such good parents!)

We left Little Rock at 5:30 p.m. and we were in nashville at 6:30. We grabbed some dinner and we were at the show by 7:00. Cory did awesome, of course!!

Here is Parker all sweaty at the show. Dont worry we were in the balcony by a wall. It wasnt that loud back there.

Cory is on tour with Second Hand Serenade...but we didnt stay to watch them. We hung out with Cory, went to see his tour bus, and then it was time to go. Here is Cory and Parker after Cory finished.

Parker was awake this entire time. Once we got back on the plane I put him in his pajamas, he had his bottle and slept the entire flight. This is Parker after waking up to get off the plane. I dont think he knew where he was!!