Fun Visits

On Tuesday night we did our Christmas with Stephen, Sarah and Sydney. Sydney and Parker get so excited when they see each other, but uou definitely wouldnt be able to tell from the picture below =) Sydney was not wanting to hug!! (look at her bangles, so precious!)

It was a great night. We built a fire, talked and let the kids play with all the new gifts. Parker got an awesome pickup truck with trailor and 4wheeler! He LOVES it!! Please excuse my messy living room! I am so glad we have such great friends and it so fun that Sydney and Parker are only 2 weeks apart in age!

This week we went to visit some amazing women and give them a Christmas card. Parker's life was changed because of the girls at Easter Seals. We absolutely love Liane and Sara, his speech and physical therapists. We spent two days a week with these girls for over a year and Parker loves them! I was so excited for them to see how amazing Parker is doing and how big he is!

I am sad that I didnt get a picture of Parker and Liane but I did get a picture with Sara.

God placed these amazing women in our lives and I cant imagine Parker learning from anyone else! It is because of them that he can eat, talk and walk! It is so fun to go back and see them, we will definitely make this a tradition (but we might have to go back more than once a year!)

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was so much fun!! Parker is at the best age right now! (I think I say that at every age, but it just keeps getting better and better!!) He loved all of the festivities.
On Christmas Eve we ate dinner and opened presents at my Grandmother's house.

We have a tradition of taking pictures of all the families and of just the grandkids and my grandmother makes it into a calender for the next year. She gives them to us on Christmas Eve every year. So, this year we got the 2011 calender filled with family pictures. She has done this since I can remember.

Parker found a plastic slinky that use to be the dogs toy and he played with it all night! He would make it go down the stairs, and then he would count each circle, and then he would do it all again.

After Gran's house we came back to our house with my parents and brothers and sisters. We always open gifts from each other on Christmas Eve while we drink hot chocolate. This year my mom added a little surprise. She always gets us all pajamas and house shoes but this year she took it up a notch....She got us all footy pajamas with our names on them!! Watching the guys put these on was HILARIOUS! I do have pictures but I would probably get killed if I put them on the internet!! I did get a picture of Parker's....

The next morning Parker was SOOOO excited to see what Santa brought! Here he is getting up...

He was pretty excited about all of his goodies. He got a basketball goal, tool bech and some books and puzzles and lots of cars!!

And then he got another surprise, a Lightning McQueen bicycle! He loves it! We will have to work on it but he is gonna love it when the weather gets warmer!

For lunch we went to Dennis' dads side of the family and then for dinner my other grandmother and that side of the family came over to my house. Parker started thinking everywhere he went he was going to get to open presents!

And, the new puppy is still as sweat as ever! He is almost house/crate trained! And Parker is loving him!

I hope that everyone has had an amazing Christmas. I wont every forget this Christmas with my wonderful family. Now it is time to organize this crazy messy house!

Happy Birthday Jesus

An Early Christmas Present

My husband just could not stand it! He surprised us with a new puppy for Christmas (he didnt have anywhere for him to go to hide from us, so we got him a few days early). Dennis loves to duck hunt, but when he found out that our son wasnt going to be able to play competitive sports (due to his heart condition) he immediately became a little obsessed with hunting. He knew that it would be something that he and Parker could do together.

His name is Oliver (Im gonna call him Ollie because it's cute!). Oliver is a flat coated retriever (pretty much a black golden retriever). They are really great duck hunting dogs. Dennis has always wanted a bigger dog so he just got one that could hunt also, He is sweet!

Parker has always been pretty scared of big dogs (or any dog that isnt our tiny Shih tzu). but he has really warmed up to the new puppy.

Oliver really likes to cuddle right now, so thats fun =)

We will definitely have to make a few "chores" for Parker when it comes to the new puppy. He is for sure old enough to start having some responsibilities (dont worry, Im not gonna be crazy mom...yet).

Merry Christmas to everyone!! I cant wait to show yall our Christmas card tomorrow!

A yummy Christmas tradition!

Every year all the girls on my moms side of the family get together and bake TONS of cookies! This year we decided to do it at my grandmother's house.

My Gran has been having back trouble so we wouldnt let her do anything, She was great at delegating from her chair! (She actually had back surgery the very next morning! and she is doing great!)

My sisters =) We had a great time, it was a full day of mixing, scooping and eating =) We also decided to make my gandmother a few meals for the week and we went ahead and prepared most of the stuff for Christmas Eve dinner.
We all go to my grandmother's house for Christmas Eve and she always cooks everything. I think she was kinda sad that she wouldnt able to cook but she was thrilled to be having the surgery! Im sure she will figure out a way to do more than she should but that is just Gran.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday week!!

Cory and Katherine's wedding

This past weekend my brother, Cory, got married to Katherine. All of the festivities were in Searcy because that is where she is from.
On Saturday afternoon was the bridesmaids luncheon. Here is all my sisters and our new SIL.

This picture summarizes Parker's behavior at the rehearsal on Saturday night. He was a wild man and it made me extremely nervous about him being the ring bearer. When he would take the pillow up to Cory he would throw it in his face! We had a long talk that night about not throwing the pillow!

Me and the couple at the rehearsal dinner.

Sunday was wedding day and Parker looked extra snazzy in his little tiny tux!

Sisters and mom

Cutie.....

Cory and Parker had matching converse shoes with their tux.

Parker had the same tie as all of the groomsman so we had to improvise!

I was tucked literally down an entire pants leg!

The brothers and sisters (minus Tyler)

This was Parker practicing before the wedding. You can barely tell, but he has a person from his Little People school bus on the pillow. We told him to not let the toy fall off the pillow and he didnt throw it!! We decided to use coins during the ceremony because his Little People toy didnt really match the decor =)

We had lots of fun killing time until the wedding started!! (Yes, Im being a little sarcastic, only because I was trying to control a 3 year old in 3 inch heels and a tight dress, while trying to keep him decent looking...Im pretty much a miracle worker!!)

Parker kept seeing all the girls fixing their makeup, so he had to! Sorry Daddy!!

The happy couple

Me and my cutie!

Wow! This weekend was a whirlwind to say the least! Parker did amazing at the actual wedding. He walked down the isle with coins on the pillow (he was very careful and didnt drop them). He handed Cory the pillow after he got his coins back, of course! and then headed to mom. He colored for a few minutes until someone quietly took him out (that was our plan, because I couldnt stand at the front of the church watching my child be bad and not have any control over the situation!) It all went smoothly and now my brother is married..CRAZY!

Pleasant Valley Christmas

This has become such a fun tradition at our church. Every year the weekend before Christmas our church has a Pleasant Valley Christmas that includes ice skating, hot chocolate, horse drawn carriage and the biggest Christmas snow village you have ever seen.

This year I had to get Parker out on the ice but there is no way Dennis was getting out there! He is the biggest chicken about ice skating and always has been!


Parker kinda liked it.
He just kinda moved his feet back and forth while he was dangling from my hands.

What is a great post without a cute picture of Mallory?

Parker stood in front of the snow village for a good 30 minutes just looking at everything and watching the many trains in the village.

I could get him away from it!

this is less than half of it! It has a Home Depot, Mcdonalds, air port, working ski lifts, train station and much more. It takes him 21 days to put it together! Amazing!

We didnt end up riding the carrige becuase the line was pretty long and it was really cold! Parker didnt mind too much, he just loved seeing the horses!

The next day started the festivities for my brother's wedding! Post to come...

Christmas program

Last night was Parker's schools Christmas program. His class and another class sang one song together, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The kids were so cute, but it wasnt nearly as entertaining as the last program!

This Parker and one of his best friends in school, Carson.

I didnt get very good pictures of the actual performance, but you can see Parker over to the left right in front of the teacher. He did good, but he kept looking back at the older kids to see what they were doing....Peer pressure!

This is Parker and his teacher, Mrs Lynzee. He LOVES her!!!

Dennis' parents came to the program and then we went out to eat with them. Sadly, I didnt take many pictures last night.

Today Parker had his last day of school until the new year! He got out at noon and then we went to eat lunch with Daddy. Parker was so thrilled!!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Christmas season!

Miracle Ball 2010

This weekend was the annual Miracle Ball. It is the largest fundraiser that the auxiliary does for Arkansas Children's Hospital. My parents were the co-chairs for this years ball.



Dennis and I spent the last week (and year) helping organize and decorate for this event. Dennis painted all of the huge trees that were throughout the room. The theme was winter wonderland.


My parents have spent the last year or more planning for this night. It was perfect =)

My mom looked beautiful!

A few of our friends were able to come celebrate the night with us. The event is black tie and I think we all enjoyed dressing up and going out together with no kids!

My amazing parents. They included Parker in the evening with a little video of his journey at Children's. It was pretty emotional for everyone in Parker's life to relive those memories. I think it made an impact on everyone in the room. Thanks for bringing me tissues, Diane!

My parents spoke. My mom was so nervous! She ended up getting a little emotional in her speech. My dad did a great job stepping in when she got teary =)

Dennis got to help during the live auction by being a spotter. He had a corner of the room and he would wave his flag when someone wanted to bid. He did a great job and had a hand in convincing a man to increase the bid on one of the items to $12,000!!

We had an amazing evening and the event made more money than ever before. This year we raised over $520,000 for Arkansas Childrens Hospital!

This morning we attended a "thank you" brunch for all of the helpers and sponsors for the event.

My brother has been shooting a music video and Steven Baldwin is the director. He came to town for the weekend to attend the ball and help support my parents.

He is a very interesting man! He is so nice and such an amazing Christian. He has big plans to use his "celebrity" to help the youth of our nation. I cant wait to see what an impact he makes.

Yay! this week I am starting to feel like it is winter and Christmas! I think the high for the next two days is in the low 30's! Good thing Parker is obsessed with his hat =)