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.

so far, this is the oldest i've ever been.

our friends lee and josh (holla!) got a tshirt for joel for his birthday that says so far, this is the oldest i've ever been. we had a good laugh. here in the parker house we are getting older.

here are a couple of ellen's three month birthday pics. she is a cutie. she loves to smile at everyone and she loves to pull her dresses up to her mouth and chew on them. (if this keeps up, michelle, i will need bloomers in every size) today when i was riding the elliptical machine, i promise she was moving her legs up and down like mine. i am sure she was facinated with such an anomily- mommy exercising?!? can't compute! ps. i only rode it for five minutes then my legs went to jello.

my birthday was last week and it was fun! some sweet friends took me out to dinner the day before and joel and the kids took me out the night of my birthday. i lost track of how many times i said "you need to listen to me because it is my birthday". hey, you can't blame me for trying. getting older isn't so bad, i guess. i realize that it is all downhill to 40 from here on out.

joel's birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated it on saturday because of church. davis called it "daddy's fake birthday". we took him out for breakfast, went to throw rocks in the river, had a picnic lunch and ate a yummy dinner followed by ashley's chocloate chocolate chip pound cake (i know you didn't invent it- but i always give you credit, ash) on pirate plates picked out by davis. i really enjoyed his day, and so did he.

here is one picture of our little olympian. he won the gold for always trying to get the last word or was it 'has way too much energy at 9 PM' or wait i think he holds the record in asking to play the wii one thousand million times a day. maybe it is for being the funnest four year old i know.

so two posts in one day. get on the ball all you blogging slackers. :)

lane and his wind up sushi

so, after we left calcasieu at 3 in the morning, we headed for atlanta. i was still a little 'on edge', but i slept a lot. i am sure my patient husband was thankful for that. i am still nursing ellen around every three hours, so we try to stop in places that the boys can get some energy out. at our lunch stop, joel took the boys into walmart and let them run around and pick out a cheapy toy. davis picked a travel basketball game that was broken in oh, maybe 4 minutes after we opened it. lane insisted on getting a wind up sushi. yes, they had different varieties of sushis and lane picked this one. (forgive me for my sushi ignorance, i don't know what any of them are called) if you can't tell in the picture, it is the kind with red fish laying over a rice roll. he played with it for hours until it got lost in between the seats in the van. when you wind it up it travels around the table. joel and i thought that the sushi was hilarious when lane picked it out. now it only makes me chuckle when i pick it up off the floor with the other one million toys they have. another thing that was funny about the sushi was davis actually trying to say sushi.

so, we arrived to our hotel outside of atlanta and boring, boring, boring. the next morning we went to the georgia aquarium. we really had a great time. i highly recommend it! the only suggestion i have is to go on a weekday. during the school year. it was very crowded. the boys really enjoyed it despite the crowds. ellen even enjoyed looking at the fish. i had fun after i got over a quick bout of claustrophobia, and joel had fun except for the fact that a worker lady shoved our stroller (with ellen in it) away from joel so she could clean- oh and execpt for the no straws rule (which makes for messy chocolate milk drinking when you have a 2 year old). no, really- joel had a good time, too.

my favorite thing at the aquarium. the garden eel. the sign says they rarely leave their spots to look for food. sounds a lot more fun than swimming all. day. long. like the other fish. :) the saw sharks were davis' favorite, oh, and the moon jellyfish, oh, and the sea lions, oh, and the stingrays. (he is four, so he is a little indecisive, like his mom, who is thirty-four)

we left the aquarium and headed for home. to celebrate being home and as the grand finale of our terrible eating, we picked up outback cheese fries and the healthful chicken on the barbie (it cancels out the cheese fries) just fyi, i have recently read on big mama's blog that outback cheese fries are the absolute worst food you can order at any restaurant, anywhere, ever. the end. moment of silence. they are my absolute favorite thing to eat. i think.

i am glad to be home. i am glad davis found the wind up sushi between the seats.

our family on a trip and a wind up sushi part 2

is it bad that i forgot that i posted a blog that needed a part 2 and a part 3? well, here it is for all of the masses...


we left st. francisville on tuesday and we headed for calcasieu, my hometown. we rode across the mississippi on a ferry. it was fun, but very fast. we ate at a yummy place called satterfield's (i think) in new roads. it was fun time.




we arrived at my parent's house and were able to visit for a while, then i went to my friend bridgett's house for dinner and time to visit. christy and bridgett have been my friends since 5th and 6th grade. as i have gotten older, i realize what a gift they (and our friend michelle) were during my school years. i wouldn't have made it without my sweet friends. i really believe that God gave them to me way back then. one of the highlights of going home is seeing them- they are like family to me. well, the three of us have really multiplied :). christy has 4 kiddos, bridgett has 3 and we have three. so there were 10 kids 6 and under, i guess. there was much laughing, and some fussing, and some yummy eating, and some nudity (swimsuits are totally not needed in a backyard swimming pool), and more laughing. it was really a good time.



it was so good to see my mom and dad. we don't get to go home very often, and i really enjoyed having my kids there. lane's birthday was officially wednesday, so my mom gave him a lightning mcqueen party. he LOVED it. lightning mcqueen everywhere. (lane calls him 'uh-queen') we partook of more birthday cake and ice cream, and lane had a ball playing with his new toys. this year my parents were able to be with both lane and davis on their birthdays, which is such a blessing since they live so far away. thanks, mom for the great party.





davis went with joel and my dad to the hunting lease. davis got a "hunting lesson" from grandpa. he had the best time. he is facinated with my dad's hunting stories. one of the few times he has sat and listened to anything was my dad telling a story about hunting.


we played outside and went to the new fancy library :). it was a fun, but short time. ellen was spoiled again by dad and mom- she really had it made this trip.



that pretty much sums up our time in calcasieu, i left out the part where i was on the verge of a breakdown at this point in the trip- just an emotional wreck from layer upon layer of stress. anyway, i am all better now, don't worry. oh, and the much anticipated wind-up sushi will be explained in my next post. does sarcasam come across well when typing?

two girls, three guys, a trip to louisiana and a wind up sushi (part 1)

so, joel's sweet meme died a little over a week ago. she had a stroke 11 years ago that left her paralyzed on one side and unable to talk or walk. now she is singing and dancing in heaven. i am thankful that she is in a better place, even though she will really be missed here.

when we heard the news, craziness ensued here in the parker house. waiting to hear when the funeral was, packing, making a decision about the trip (would we all go, or just joel, etc.) we decided that it would be best for all of us to travel home, even though it meant us missing our hannah's wedding. davis was so excited about being the 'ring carrier' in the wedding- and i reallllly wanted to be there, but it was important for us to all go to louisiana. my heart is still really sad about not being at the wedding, but the Lord knows- He has a reason for the timing.

do i even need to say that the trip was tough? i have just erased a long paragraph going into some of the reasons why it was tough. i will summarize. no sleep the night before we left. pulled out at 3:30 am. still nursing every 3ish hours. infant that decided to spit up enormous amounts in the car. 15 hours. mcdonalds for bfast and lunch, burger king for dinner. not sure of where we were staying once we arrived. thankfully, joel let me sleep a LOT of the time on the road and the boys did really well. joel's aunt dianne (davis nicknamed her 'aunt' while we were there- "hey aunt, i'm hungry!" "where's aunt?" it made me laugh) has a great friend, moon-ying, that let our family plus joel's mom and sister stay at their lake house in st. francisville. it was such a nice place, and even though we were there for a tough reason, we have lots of great memories because of their generosity.

davis loved playing with extended family. ellen was treated like a princess. lane loved chasing the puppies around. joel was able to spend time with family that he hasn't seen in years. it really was a great time being outside- (i had forgotten how stinking hot it is in la.) on the boat, kayaking, throwing rocks in the lake. what fun to have memories with joel's family!

lane's second birthday happened while we were gone. debbie had a little party for him. he loved the balloons and the ice cream and the toys. he is getting so big and really talking more and more. i just love that kid. he is grumpy and difficult some times, but on the flip side, he is just so fun to be around.

okay, so more later. you will have to stay tuned to find out exactly what wind-up sushi is.

blueberries

We went blueberry picking at ira cline farm last weekend. The farm is a couple of miles from the house. they have yummy strawberries in may and loads of blueberries in july.

davis doesn't really love blueberries. he prefers the flecks that resemble blueberries in muffin mix. i let lane taste a blueberry when we started picking and he spit it out. then he realized they were yummy and ate blue and purple and green blueberries off of the bushes the rest of the time we were there. luckily, he did not have a stomachache later.

it didn't take long at all to fill a box. after about 15 minutes, davis was done 'helping' and lane was steadily eating, so joel and i picked quickly. we picked 4 quarts. they were really sweet!

this past week we have enjoyed blueberry muffins (lots of blueberry muffins), blueberry pancakes and blueberry yum-yum. i must say, i am a little blueberried out. we still have plenty left over for freezing, so don't worry.

ellen went picking with us, but dozed in the stroller the whole time. here is a current picture of her after her two month dr. appt. with my little pony band-aids from her shots. she is really a big girl. very smiley and squiggly. notice the very cute cutesy cloth onesie: