oh, blog, how we have missed you.

here is what has been going on ... (warning, this could be long)

with lane:
1. the passey 'broke' (read: lane bit it in half and made teeth marks on the plastic part). we don't even miss it.

2. he has been talking so much lately. (see number one)
3. he has been singing the B-I-B-L-E song at the top of his lungs almost every waking minute of the day at a very loud volume. and because he is in the christmas spirit, he sings jingle bells to take a break from the B-I-B-L-E song.
4. had fun at pawpaw's in virginia. played with the dogs and swung really high on the swing.

5. is really unsure of things that are new to him, but then warms up quickly. examples: he screamed out of fear when joel brought in the christmas tree and said over and over "i don't like it." was very nervous of christmas light displays at tanglewood tonight, doesn't know what to do with the stick part of a fudgecicle, and so on.

6. repeats everything his brother says and wants to do everything his brother does. (even if this frustrates his brother, and costs his mother her sanity)

with davis:
1. he has really been a big helper lately.
2. homeschooling has been going great! (that is, he does whatever i ask as long as we make a christmas craft and hang it up in the house)

3. his first trip to the dentist. he did better than i ever have. and he got a plastic sword and a action figure (he called him "that guy who figures things out" because he couldn't remember 'action figure')

4. has really been fearful at naptime and bedtime. we are praying thru this rough stuff!

5. his favorite parts about christmas are decorating the tree and getting presents. when asked last week what he wanted for christmas, he responded "a whofee cushion" (whopee cushion) whew, i can take everything else back and run to the dollar tree.

6. had fun at pawpaw's house. played the wii, went on a hike and played at a cool park, discovered his love for the thanksgiving meal and asked if we could eat it every day.

7. told pawpaw at a fabric shop. "put that fabric away- it is freaking me out!" he cracks us up on a daily basis.

with ellen:
1. she is seven months old! wow!

2. she is sitting alone and rocks back and forth on her hands and knees. she can get anywhere she wants to go by rolling and scooting and various other maneuvers.

3. she wore tights for the first time, which then leads me to believe that she needs little mary jane shoes, which leads me to believe that she needs a bitty baby from american girl, which makes my brain explode and my wallet groan. i haven't quite figured out what to do with a girl. :)

4. vegetables!

5. had fun at pawpaws. got lots of attention, really enjoys shopping at crate and barrel, pottery barn and williams-sonoma with her mommy.

with me, angie, the one who writes this blog sporadically:

1. has had a crappy week, maybe month, but don't ask. i am almost over it.

2. is thankful for getting to meet with alisha!

3. is feeling overtaken by the stuff in my house.

4. had fun in virginia visiting quilt shops, but made no major purchases. i heart amy butler fabric. and i double heart my husband for letting me browse around at said fabric shops.

5. had fun on our hike in va. for the first two minutes before i fell down and whimpered back to the van.

6. all was remedied by my wonderful time with bonnie. so! fun! i am thankful for such a fun and encouraging friend.

7. i have been enjoying christmas decorations and talking about Jesus being born and looking at christmas lights and buying christmas gifts!

8. i am feeling like 4, 5 and 6 should all be one number, but i am not going to change it.

9. feel oddly excited about january coming, because there are so many things i am ready to change about my life. there is no way i feel like doing it now, and in no way am i setting my self up to fail with oh, 5 or 6 new years resolutions, but look, IT IS ON, blog friends, it is on. (in january, so stay tuned) (unless i add the resolution to be on the computer less, and then staying tuned won't do much good)

10. got to go the the southern christmas show in charlotte with my fun friends for a girls day. loved it. merry christmas y'all! (lots of vendors had this saying on various items to remind us that it was the southern christmas show, not the northern)

11. ten was probably it, can't think of more.

oh, and i can't really speak for him, but joel is doing a-okay. i am sure that he is

1. glazed over when reminded of times in fabric shops.

2. is thinking how to prevent the purchase of mary janes for ellen, in order to thwart the purchase of anything american girl.

3. is laughing at my pitiful-ness after i fell on our hike. is wishing he had a video camera to put me on afv.

4. is hoping i stay with at least one of the things that i have in mind for january, let alone 5.

5. tripped on 10 of the things overtaking my house on the way to get to the computer to read this.

so all in all, we are doing swell. here is a little shout out to my mom and julie, who frequent this sparsely updated blog.

what's up.

there isn't a lot going on around here, which is one reason why i haven't been blogging. the second reason is i am spending too much time on facebook looking at old college pictures that people have been posting. so fun! back then, i never would have imagined my life the way it is today. i am so grateful for my life, my husband and my kids. i wouldn't trade the way things are for anything. even on the crappy days, and i have had a couple of those this week. here is what is going on.

+ we filled up our operation christmas child boxes. i always enjoy doing these! davis likes it, too. this morning, on good morning america, around the weather time, there were some people talking about these boxes. there was a girl, maybe around 20 years old from russia. she said that 10 years ago she received one of these boxes and it was the first gift she had ever been given. i don't cry easily, but tears just streamed down my face. could you imagine? she had never been given a gift. my heart just broke for her. thank you Lord for reaching her! i pray that our little boxes can make such an impact. here is davis with one of the boxes:

+ along the same note, we recently received a letter from our compassion child. i read it over and over again. it means more to me after reading lots of blogs about a compassion sponsored trip to the dominican over the last week or so.

+ this week has been hard, discipline-wise with the boys. when will parenting ever be easy? i am afraid that i know the answer. sigh.

+i asked joel if we could get some christmas stuff out of the attic. i really have the bug early this year. we will be out of town for thanksgiving and christmas, so i don't feel like we get to enjoy it very much. maybe if we do a little at a time it won't be overwhelming.

+ this week i am really thankful for joel's job, for journaling times in the morning, for leaves falling, for accountability, for our community group getting together again, for our health, for great value strawberry pop-tarts, for my friends and for my family.

lane, and percy (his favorite).

after making lunch one day last week, i walked in to the living room and found davis watching tv like this.

the dynamic duo

here area some pictures of the boys- batman and robin for halloween. we ate dinner (thanks, deb!!!) and went trick-or-treating with our good friends the ballentine's in their neighborhood. it was such a fun night. it was more fun to go with friends, for sure. davis really enjoyed himself, and once lane got wise to the fact he'd be getting candy at every door, he had a great time, too. he carried his bag wide open from house to house. it was cracking me up.


we didn't realize until we were almost finished that d's eye-holes weren't matching up to his eyes. he would step on the cape part and it would send the mask all askew. the poor thing tripped his way to most of the doorsteps. and it is pretty evident in most of the pictures, but since it was dark that night, i really couldn't tell at the time. don't worry, it didn't slow the candy collecting down at all.




lane fell asleep two minutes after we got in the car, they were both pretty wiped out. i have gotten accustomed to the constant rush of sugar through my bloodstream, and this, i fear, is not a good thing. or maybe it is, because i really don't care if i ever see another kitkat again. or a mini snickers.

six months

here are a some of ellen's six month pictures. happy half birthday to our sweet girl! she is doing well- still eating plain ol' cereal for now, for those who are curious. :) she is in the fun stage of rolling across the floor until she gets stuck up against a piece of furniture. i am loving it! i can't believe it has been six months.

she is a cereal girl.

so, we started ellen on cereal this weekend. she did pretty well. mostly made faces and spit it back out. we were all cracking up at her funny faces- especially davis. here are some pics.

this one looks like she is tired of the paparazzi:

davis laughing:
last night lane wanted to taste the cereal. he quickly regretted that decision and gobbled down a bug shaped graham cracker. davis, being older and wiser chose not to partake.

halloween decoration

i am not a big fan of halloween. my son- he is a BIG fan. why not? candy and dressing up are fun (at least the candy part :) ) davis is so funny- this really cracked me up-

davis has been asking to decorate for halloween. we are not. i have told him that we will decorate for fall with pumpkins, and maybe a few crafts for around the house and that is it. well, last night he found a piece of string on the floor. (the string is actually from his new costume) he asked if we could hang it up to decorate for halloween and pretend it is a spider web.

not being one to squelch my son's creativity-

in this one he is saying "happy halloween!!!"

the buckeye state (at grandma's)

my grandmother lives about an hour away from the greene's, so we didn't have to do much traveling to get to her place. it was so good for my grandma to get to spend time with the boys and meet ellen. she is really good with kids. her 87th birthday was a few days before we got there. joel took the boys to the columbus zoo and they had a great time. i really enjoyed my time with her. while helping organize some books on her desk, i noticed a book (i think it is from you, ash) that is for grandparents to write in- telling about their childhood, love and marriage, raising kids, and so on. i asked her a lot of the questions and wrote down her answers for her. it was so neat to hear her stories of growing up and meeting my grandpa. i will never forget our fun conversation. here are some more pics-

the buckeye state (at the greene's)

last week, we traveled to ohio to visit our friends the greene's, then to visit my grandma. i'll start with the first part of our trip-

we were really looking forward to seeing our good friends, and seeing their new place. they moved into a farmhouse on some land that they and our friends the styer's own in mount vernon. it is just beautiful! they are renovating the house (it is almost 100 years old) and it is so great. lots of character and neat things you can't find in a brand-new home. i loved being there. it was so fun to be around them again- we really have missed them since their move this summer. we were able to go to their soccer games, visit a church with them, just hang out, the boys explored their land... it was just fun to live life with them for a few days. we had a great time!!

a good week

it has been a good week, but it has also been a long one.

here are some highlights (well, the first one is a lowlight)

- the boys pulled the dresser over on themselves last friday. it was the scariest experience i have had as a parent. in the midst of it, though, i realized that the Lord provided what i needed and He allowed me to see such character and strength in my sweet four year old. davis was such a strong man in helping me to get lane out from under the dresser. he was so proud as i recounted the story to joel. it was so neat to see the little man that God created him to be. i am so thankful to our Protector that neither of them were hurt.
- saturday we went to octoberfest in our town. (forgot the camera- so no pics) it was a beautiful day and a fun time. davis enjoyed riding on the thomas the train ride, doing the limbo, and running around in the huge bouncy thing. he goes at life full blast, and it was interesting to see that in contrast to our timid lane. he was content to watch davis and had a good time hanging out with me and ellen on the sidelines.
-i also got my rings back. yay! i don't remember if i wrote about this before, but i had to have my ring cut off while i was pregnant with ellen. we had both rings resized and it is wonderful to have them back. we actually look legit now. :)
-monday we went to an orchard in morganton and picked apples with friends. (another photo-less event ) alisha practically forced me to go (just kidding :)) i am glad she encouraged me to do it. for me, sometimes having three kids prevents me from doing fun things, just because i feel overwhelmed before i even leave the house. i am thankful for a friend that will push me to do something fun even when i am looking for a way out. we had a great time picking and while we were driving home davis said that he had "so much fun picking apples today" i am glad we got to hang out with good friends.

okay, i am tired and i am sure this post is too long, especially since there are no pictures. we are headed out tomorrow on a trip to visit our friends, the greenes and then to visit my grandma. i'll let you know all about it when we return, and i will include pics, i promise. :)

kicks are comin'

here is davis walking away the pounds.

not as tough as alisha's new workout, but hey, it is getting me off of the couch. maybe one day i will be fit enough to do crossfit ... nah, probably not.

for the record, i did do this once and then davis asked me to do it with him. he is not on any type of exercise regime. unless being silly is exercise. then he exercises all day long.

girl time

we have been celebrating julia for the past week. she turned 21. she is very special to us! davis planned a celebration for her last thursday- cake and playing the wii. we had a fun time hanging out with julia and kari and i hope julia felt as special as she is.

here is one of ellen's five month pictures- she is getting so big!

on saturday morning, i was able to go for some girl time- ellen and i went on an overnight visit to the shenandoah valley with vicki, julia and kari to celebrate julia's birthday. we met hannah and bekah there- they drove down from PA. it was such a fun time! i really enjoyed getting to visit with all of the girls. it was also special for me to have that time with ellen. she is such a sweet baby- i loved getting to give her all of my attention. thanks, vicki, for inviting me to go with you and your girls- what a special time! thanks, joel for being willing to watch the boys so that i could go! i have a great husband!

yay friday!

i won something! i am so psyched! i found this simple reviews blog while i was looking for reviews on skidpants and it was a big help- so i favorite-ed it (isn't it funny how all of these nouns are now verbs?) and have entered some of the giveaways. i got a really cool wrist keychain and a change purse. whooty-hoo! i am trying to figure out how to do a link.

also, ellen officially found her thumb yesterday. up until now it has been mostly fingers or fist in her mouth with the occasional thumb. yesterday she just flat out put her thumb in there. with both boys being passie-lovers, we are entering new territory. thumb sucking and linking things on my blog. what a friday. and it's only 9:45.

all is well.

so, things have been going good around here. here is a quick run-down of all of the happenings in the parker household.

joel and i attended a love and respect conference at our church. i was in a terrible mood at the beginning and it was hard to juggle schedules, etc. with the kiddos, but it ended up being good. with the house overflowing with children these days, i think it is nice (and pretty important) to just focus on us. our marriage. more than the basic kid stuff or what i watched on tv junk. lasting things.

i got a new haircut. maybe a picture will come sometime. oh, the anticipation.

homeschooling has gone well. i don't really like to use the word homeschooling, only because we are only doing basic things on a loosey-goosey schedule. but, oh, does d love it! lane has done really well, too- better than i expected. i have enjoyed the structure for sure!

there have been hard things happening around us. being the over-thinker that i am, i usually get really upset about something, pray, pray, then over think, overthink then calm down then start to have a rational thought process. i feel a little exhausted about how many of these cycles i have been on lately. being a verbal processor doesn't help, either. joel has to hear about everything rattling in my brain at any given moment. (thank goodness for tivo when these thoughts spew out during football games :) ) i am doing some growing up, i feel like. and learning that the Lord created me to be a little wacky and He loves that about me. i am learning how to trust him in every situation. it isn't always easy, but He is good. and gentle. and humble. (right, lee?)

davis is getting so big. this picture makes me laugh because i call him pumpkin head. today, he said something really sweet to me and i encouraged him and told him that i am so proud that he is such a kind and loving boy. i told him that when he says sweet things, it just fills my heart up with love. he replied, "when your heart is all full of love, then you blast it on me and i can blast love on other people." boys.

lane is talking a lot more lately. his favorite things to say are "i can't reach it" and "look at me, mom". i can be looking right at him and he will say look at me mom. it is pretty funny. he has a great little personality and is such a loving brother.

ellen is five months old! i can't believe it. she is rolling and laughing and sticking out her tongue all of the time. she is so content to watch her brothers that it makes it easy on me. she would much rather hang out with them than me. :) here is a picture in her skidpants, which i love!! and her cutesycloths onesie. i know the picture with the tongue out is a little blurry, but it cracked me up.

oh, and i wanted to say hi and i love you toniki and mrs. beth! i wish that i could've been there at the ladies' conference. niki, mom told me your opening story and i cracked up. joel wondered what was funnier, the story or the fact that my mom told me the story. :)