Broyles Awards

Yesterday, my parents, Cory (my brother) and me went to the Broyles Awards at the Doubletree Hotel. This award is the only national award given to the best assistant coach in college football. There were five nominees and the assistant coach from Alabama, Kirby Smart, won the award. The award is given by the Rotary Club of Little Rock. My mom's best friend is in the Rotary Club and is in charge of the awards and she got us tickets. It was so much fun and all about football. There was a room full of helmets of almost every team in the U.S. signed by their coaches for auction. My dad won two of the helmets but I cant tell you which ones because they might be a Christmas present for someone!!

Me and Cory (bad phone pic) at the awards.

Christmas filled weekend!

This weekend was pretty busy but so much fun! Have I told yall that I love this time of year?!!
On Saturday I went over to my parent's house and we baked our anual Christmas cookies. We do this every single year. It is me, my sisters, my mom and a couple of my mom's friends. We have always done this together with the same group of girls! We baked while Parker took a nap and while the boys watched the Florida/Alabama game. We usually make about 6 or 7 different types of cookies and make alot of them!! This year I found a cookie that I wanted to add to our list. It turned out to be SOOO good. It is a chocolate cookie with a rolo (a chocolate candy with caramel inside) baked inside. I will definitely share some cookie recipes this week.

Here is Parker hanging out with daddy on Saturday.
On Sunday, after church, we went to get out Christmas tree. We always get a real tree!! Since I was born we have gone to Schickles Christmas tree farm in Cabot to cut down our tree. It is always so fun witht he wagon ride out to the trees and they have SOO many trees to choose from. Well, this year we heard about a farm that was about 5 minutes from our house. So, we changed our tradition and went to this closer tree farm. HUGE mistake!!! We get there and there are about 20-30 trees to choose from and...they were already cut down!!! We made the most of it and still had a fun family outing!

This is Parker in the car on the way to the tree farm. It was in the 30's yesterday so we bundled him up!!!


He loves his new carrhart coat that his PaPa got him!!

Parker and Daddy with our tree. Please excuse Dennis' ridiculous hat!!!

Standing around the fire.

There was a santa there and Parker did much better this time. The closest he would get was gving him knuckles!

We put Parker's gloves on him and he couldnt stop looking at them!!

The girls!

Parker had to get in the picture!

When we go home from the tree farm we put Parker down for a nap and got started putting up the tree. I took pictures of it but I have never thought trees photograph well. I couldnt get a good picture of it but here it is....

The ribbon is gold but in the picture it look white for some reason.

Every year we get a family ornament made....

Here is the top of the tree (again, does not photograph well)

The mantle....

We arent going all out on Christmas decorations this year. We just did the mantle, one tree and outside. We usually do a real tree that is decorated in reds and a fake tree that is decorated in golds. This year we combined the decorations for both trees. Not sure if I am loving it but it works!

Sunday night we went to our work Christmas party. Dennis' mom was sweet enough to drive down and take care of Parker for us.

Wow, that was alot of pictures!!

We have alot more planned the next couple of weeks! This week I have finals and I will be finished with my first semester back in school. I did it (with all A's!!!!)

Have a great week!!

Santa Baby

We had our family pictures taken last week (I cant wait to show yall!) and after we had to return something at the mall. (we all had on our matching clothes and we got some pretty interesting looks. One guy even asked us if we always match our clothes!!) We dont really go to the mall that much, especially this time of year!! As we were walking, we passed where Santa was and there was not one single person in line!! We took advantage and went ahead and got Parker's picture made with Santa. Parker was loving Santa while he was sitting in his stroller, but when we got close to him he grabbed onto me and would not let go!! So, mommy got to be in the pictures too!! I am not good at scanning anything into the computer so I took the easy way out and took a picture of the pictures!

The picture on the right is right when we sat down, parker was still figuring it all out and then....the picture on the left! He just did not like being close to Santa this year!!

Remember last year....

Oh well, I think screaming Santa pictures are really cute and funny!!

Santa gave Parker an elf hat!

The rest of the night Parker was yelling in the mall "I love you, ho ho ho" and when he says Santa, it comes out "DeDa". I love the way he says certain words (Amy is "Amu", Cory is Cor I", Milk is "me", Banana is "anana", Bentley (our dog) is "beebee" and I know there are so many more!!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Christmas Parade

I absolutely love this time of year!!!
Last night we went to a Christmas parade in downtown Benton with Stephen, Sarah and Sydney. (Thanks for inviting us!!) I, of course, forgot my camera and am stealing all of these pictures from Sarah!!
It was a little chilly last night and Parker didnt have any gloves or a hat (mostly because he WILL NOT wear them) but I felt like such a bad mom!! We had to leave early because his hands were so cold!!
Here is the courthouse.

Some man took a group picture of us but he got some crazy light in the background!!

After the parade we went and looked at all of the lights around the courthouse. You cant really tell, but Parker has his head on Sydney's shoulder while they are looking at the lights. He loves her so much and calls her "Lee-Lee"

Thanks, Sarah, for inviting us. This was such a fun way to start off the Christmas season!!

Playdate with a new friend and an old friend

On Monday, Parker's birthday, we had a fun day! We went to the church's indoor playground and played with Noah and Brody. Noah's mom, Mandy, is a friend I knew of in high school but had never met in person until Monday. We connected through the blog world!! We have been emailing and talking for a long time and it was so great to finally hang out with her and Noah. Brody's mom, Michele, is a friend from highschool and it had been forever since we had seen each other. It was so great for these boys to get to play together.

Snack time.....

of coures, Parker had to pose.....

After our really fun morning we went home for a much needed nap. That afternoon we had our family pictures made. Dennis had ironed his and Parker's shirts that morning and I just had to snap a picture of them hanging......so sweet!!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

Parker is two years old!!!!

Warning!!! There is a not-so-fun-picture of Parker in this post!!!!





I cant believe that my sweet little baby boy is two years old!! Where did that 5 lb baby go? These past two years I have been the best and I am so thankful for Parker!
Can you believe that Parker went from this.....

to this big boy.....

Happy 2nd birthday, Parker!!! We love you!

Parker is doing so great! He can say his ABCs (sometimes he gets stuck at L,M,N,O,P!!), he can count to 10, and he is running all over the place!! Thanks for all of your continued prayers for Parker!! Still cant believe he is two!!!

Thanksgiving program

Last week Parker had his Thanksgiving program at daycare. I was really surprised that they did a program for his age. It was so funny!!! The teachers sang the songs and the kids whined for their mommys and sang a few words in between!! Parker was the loudest kid!! He was yelling "MOMMA" across the room. He wasnt being bad just loud!! He sang some of the songs and then they got to come eat a Thanksgiving lunch with us. It was really cute but I think it will be a little better next year when he can sit still for more than 2 seconds!

Here is Parker getting up trying to come over to me. Notice how all of the other kids are sitting in the seats ready to sing!

SO, Parker got to sit in the teachers lap!! He wasnt too sad about it!

Singing....

It was just so cute and the first of many programs I will get to go to!!

Parker's 2nd Birthday Party!!

Parker's birthday isnt until the 23rd but we went ahead and had his birthday party this weekend since his real birthday is so close to Thanksgiving. We had his party at our church. They have a really fun indoor playground, a cafe and the gym where people played basketball and did roller skating!! We had a great turnout (but I was sad that some people couldnt make it!!) and everyone had so much fun!

Since it is right in the middles of hunting season, that was our theme. Dennis is a big duck hunter so my mom and I made a cake that looks like a Mallard. We made it look like it is sitting on water and the inside of the duck was red velvet cake!! so funny!

We set up our bounce house in the indoor playground and it was a big hit. Dennis even got in with Parker.

We also had a very special guest....

Barney!!!!!

This is what Parker looked like when he saw him....He was so excited

Giving Barney knuckles

Blowing out the candle....

Parker also got a special present and he loves it!!!

Parker was alot more into opening his presents this year.

It was a great day! Parker was in the best mood and LOVED Barney. I was worried that it would scare him. He would go around and tell everyone Barney was there and would point to him.

I still cant believe Parker will be two next week. If you ask him how old he is, he will say "TWO"!!! I hope everyone has a great week!!