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. :)