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. :)

family pics OR why not to have family pictures taken OR davis doesn't mind having his picture taken one bit

so, we took a visit to portrait innovations a couple of weeks ago. when lane was 3 months old and when davis was 3 months old we had a family picture taken, soo...off we went because i won't allow my third child accuse me of playing favorites with the first two.

lane insisted on holding a random football he found in the studio. he didn't like it when we made him stand somewhere specific. if it were up to him, he would've been in the waiting area. davis has a sweet smile in every single picture. what a champ. the look on ellen's face in this one is cracking me up.

and in this one. she wasn't really cooperating or smiling at all, so the picture taker said, "put this rose in front of her, maybe she will reach out for it." well, no, she stuck out her tongue and went a little cross-eyed. HUGE. RED. ROSE. PPLLLBBBTTT. (that is the best i can do to type a spit noise)

over all, they did pretty well. i bribed them with transformer gummies (well, not ellen, i won't have to do that until she is mobile) i layed them (the gummies) on the counter along with my other stuff and at one point they must've fallen off the counter, because while we were taking pictures of ellen alone i looked to see the boys on the floor literally shoving gummies in their mouths like they had never seen a gummy before. the gummies had no chance. they both had chipmunk cheeks and blue tongues, but hey i got a picture.

here is one of all of us:

and we got this one of ellen, because this is usually how she spends her days, dressed all frilly hanging out in a white wicker chair, occasionally asking for a sweet tea:
because we got a package deal, we did get this one in a pretty big size. so i can pull it out when lane is 15 and complain to him about that time when he was two and refused to smile for a picture with his siblings:

lane- "maybe if i stand still i can get a fourth package of gummies"

davis- "i am going make mom and dad happy and be very smiley and agreeable, then i will tell this lady taking my picture how she should pose us and create a new backdrop for her"

ellen- "call me"

family picture taken when ellen is 3 months and three and a half weeks old- check!

disclaimer: we did not purchase all of these pictures, just the last three. we got a cd with every picture taken with the package deal.

no idea what this blog will be about.

so, the parker family is doing well. i have been in a slump lately, hence the lack of blogging. i don't know about you, dear reader, but i really tend to live my life from one event to the next. this has been a pretty busy summer as far as that goes, having ellen, then helping friends move (boo) to baby showers, to weddings, to more baby showers- the women at my church are kicking out the babies (i can say this, i am one of them)- to a consignment sale this past weekend. last week our house was smattered with old toys, mis-matched baby shoes, lots o footie pjs, and loose hangers as i tagged and prepared to make our fam. some money. saturday night i was talking to joel and felt down. what next? i don't have any thing to work towards, really. this is not what i intend to do, live from one thing to the next, but i am a planner- and an administrator- type personality and i really enjoy working out the details of things. this week, with nothing really ahead of me, i feel at a loss. so, i am blah and it is something that i really need to bring to the Lord, but honestly, i struggle with how to do that.

i feel like the perfect fit for my teachery, planning self would be to homeschool d this year, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. i am planning to do it, but i have put it off for yet another week. next monday will be the big day and i really am not excited about it. i really feel like we need to. it will be great to have a plan for d and l. up until now, it has been a free-for-all around here pretty much on a daily basis. while i love that, i also hate it. i have never pushed the boys on an academic level, i am just not a flash-card kind of mommy, but we need structure and davis practically begs to write and do art and do "creatives" (that is what he calls little art projects) so it is a good fit. i know i will enjoy the structure and it will be fun, but i am dreading the start of it. because even though things are slow around here, the kids are all changing at such a rapid pace it scares me a little- davis sat in "big church" with us on sunday, lane is talking so much, and ellen is starting to stretch into a 4 hour eating schedule (hooray!!).

this week, Bible study starts- i am very excited about that and we started having sunday school again yesterday (after a lazy summer schedule). we are watching ray vanderlaan videos, which i adore. as i am typing, i really am able to see the solution to all of my issues. i haven't been in the Word at all for a pretty good stretch of time. i really flounder with no accountability. i haven't even been in a sermon at church since ellen has been born. she nurses during that time, so i go to the nursery every week. ugh. i don't like the cycles that i see in my life. i do often get to this point, and i am thankful that my Lord brings me to a realization of how badly i need Him, even on the days and weeks with nothing to look forward to, or especially on those days and weeks.

here are some pictures of the kids- they are doing great. i am really enjoying each stage they are in. i am thankful for them every day.