jackson hole! yay!

joel and i went on an early anniversary trip to jackson hole, wyoming. yay! we had such a fun time. we really missed the kids. we said a zillion times "oh, the kids would love this!" and the like. or we would be at a restaurant and see a baby girl ellen's age. and say "aww, we miss the kids!" and then the girl would throw her lunch on the floor and i turned into that kid on the simpsons that points and laughs and says "ha ha." it is amazing to me the amount of time i spend in a normal day preparing food and getting people dressed/ready, etc. it was nice to have a break from that, it was nice to have just me and joel time, it was nice to not have to worry about my child wandering off into a geothermal pool. but i came back refreshed and ready to be the best mom i could be! (this feeling may have fizzled a little... but the point is the trip is exactly what i needed!)

our room was so nice and cozy and it had a fireplace, which in most areas of the good ol' us of a would be silly in the summer, but not in jackson, wy! it was 39 degrees when we landed and there were snow flakes flurrying around. hooray for a fireplace!!


i actually got to read a lot while we were there. i read the shack on our trip. also a short book about this really cool artist that joel bought for me for mother's day (the book, not the artist!) it was really nice. and i finally did one of my new years resolutions. nice! it was just really fun spending uninterrupted time with joel. he is really a lot of fun to hang out with. i am really glad that i am married to him! :)

here is me sitting in jackson square talking to our kids. there is a webcam that shows live pictures. the kids got to see us wave to them on the computer. fun! let it be known that i was completely creeped out by all of the elk antlers in an arch. is it odd that i would rather see a whole elk head mounted with the horns than a cluster of horns in the form of an arch? after being there for several days, you kind of get used to them. antler chandeliers, antler salt shakers, antler candle holders, antler utensil handles, antler backscratchers (i kid.) (about the backscratchers.)

the mountains the first evening we were there. you couldn't see much because of the low clouds. it was like 39 degrees. and rainy. but beautiful!

here is the view from our parking lot. the pretty green grass is a ski run. from what i understand, there is some pretty intense skiing to be done on this mountain. let's just say i would never hurl myself down anything this steep- snow or no snow.

so, here are a couple of pictures of the place we stayed. snake river lodge and spa. it was bee-utiful. i didn't want to wait until the tomato truck drove away. i am sure that our restaurant had great tomatoes. we didn't eat there, mostly because the prices were silly.

from the front... our room was to the right in a crazy place that i never did figure out. everytime we were leaving the hotel, i got us lost in the maze of hallways. our poor bell hop? bellman? suitcase bringer-upper? got lost, too, and had to go find help. poor tanner from south carolina. more to come...

friends

it seems like a long time ago, but i wanted to post a few cute pics of our memorial day fun! our friends the henkels came over for a visit. it was such a fun time! wii, kids playing, cooking out, too many trips to walmart, a small mishap to the henkel's car, more wii, watermelon, and fun times getting to catch up on things. thanks for making the trip over, aub and rachel!

watching a movie:

silly faces:

girls

something i find interesting:

my 12 month old girl will find ANY article of clothing and try to put it on. she pulls it over her head as hard as she can and then gets frustrated when it is not "on".

i cannot, with all of my sweet momma persuasion, make my almost 3 year old attempt to put on any article of clothing by himself.

i think ellen will be dressing herself before lane is.

ahoy, mateys!

the birthday boy! i think he makes a great pirate!

sword fighting, of course...

arrr! my favorite pirate boys!

he kept striking these pirate poses. i have at least ten pictures like this. he is so funny!

the treasure hunt! joel read the first clue and they had to figure out where to go...

the whole gang off to find clue #2.

bombing the 'pirates' that were hiding in the trees with cannonball water balloons.

walking the plank to get the next clue.

where do we go next?

digging for treasure. the sand it was a-flyin'. after seeing this picture, i know why my couch was covered in sand after all was said and done. it was so fun to watch the kids get so excited! the treasure hunt was a success. joel really did a great job putting it together.

singing happy birthday to the birthday boy!

well, i think fun was had by all. i enjoyed it! the Lord has blessed us with so much. from the blessing of my big kind-hearted boy, his precious brother, and sweet little sister- to the fact that He held off the rain for my sanity and the enjoyment of the kiddos. thanks, Lord for a wonderful day!!

arrr and the seven seas.

davis has been practicing his pirate lingo for his big pirate birthday bash and "arr and the seven seas" has been one of his favorite things to say. this is a post with some of the details of the party for all of my fans (well, really my mom and mother-in-law). so far, i think davis is enjoying being five!!

here are a couple of pics of the cake. it was fun to do. my mom got the playmobile set and i just plopped it on the cake. it worked great. davis requested "something on a stick like ellen got", so he got some cannon-ball cake pops. (on a stick.) side note: i don't frequent sonic that much anymore, (unlike some of my friends) but back in the day, the description on the ordering board for a corn dog was this: "on a stick". that always made me laugh. of course it is on a stick.

ahoy mateys!

not too fancy on the food. hot dogs and chips.

these are a couple of the treasure maps that joel made. they were great! when one of the kids saw one he said "it's a real treasure map!" the clues he made were so clever and we had a great time on the hunt!

these are the telescopes that we made. the kids really took their time and enjoyed doing them. the saran wrap on the end is 'glass' just fyi. it was fun!

part of the treasure! i thought the verse was perfect and right on the kids' level.

well, i am cake drunk, so i am going to end this one here. next up...pictures of the party. hooty-hoo!

insert clever blog title here

don't know why, but i can't move my pictures, so here they are, all clumped together.

my boys

sweetie girl

me and my boyfriend. note to self: work on posture.

silly boys

so, life is good here in the parker house. just thought i would give an update on how things are going...

-our community group finished up the truth project last night. i really have enjoyed getting together with our friends once a week, and i have learned a lot thru the series. it would be hard for me to list the things i've learned, but it has been great.

- the small group that i meet with on wednesday mornings finished up last week, too. i will miss meeting with those ladies once a week, too.

- i am quickly realizing that i may have a love/hate relationship with my summer. love not having much to do, yet hate not having anything to do. welcome to my crazy.

- ellen accidentally took six steps while trying to put a shirt on herself this morning. she will be walking for reals soon. it is really hard to believe!

- i have been exercising lately. oh, don't be confused, this is still angie's blog. i am ready to be healthy, etc. so i started one dvd program and really liked it, but then started doing the 30 day shred. i am on day 9 (i skipped mother's day- i was too busy eating humongous chocolate chip cookies to exercise). it has been pretty rough, but i am seeing results and am able to do a few pushups and i haven't punched the tv yet, so progress is being made. i am also thankful for the accountability of doing this 'with' a friend. i am really motivated by accountability, for sure!

- i still haven't read a book this year. it is a wonder that my mind hasn't turned to mush. joel got me a short-ish book for mother's day, so it will be my first attempt. :)

- loving not watching tons of tv. hate moving the stupid antenna around to try to get pbs for my kids to watch. the kids are champs and don't even complain anymore when the picture breaks up and the sound goes out. poor little things with bad tv reception.

- needing to do a re-declutter. i am feeling stressed about all of our junk. a little fearful that my stuff will bury me alive now that i don't HAVE to clean up since small group won't be meeting here every week.

- doing pretty good on not eating between meals. i really am learning about my eating habits. if i feel down or upset in 30 seconds flat i am standing in front of the cabinet looking for something to eat.

- have learned to stop buying raisinettes and donettes. (you know that there is a problem when your two big snack weaknesses end in -ettes. good grief.)

- was convicted at church yesterday because of my lack of consistency in parenting. i need to be consistent because my God is consistent.

- haven't been in the Word much at all. due to the fact that i am a fan of accountability, i wonder what will happen now that i am not meeting with community group or my small group for the summer. don't want to get even lazier.

- joel and i are gearing up for our happy 10 years of blissful marriage anniversary trip in june! we are going to jackson hole, wyoming. i am super excited and have been looking into buying bear sized pepper spray. one day when i was exercising, davis said "mom, i know why you are exercising." i said "oh, you know that mom wants to be healthy, now, right?" he said, "no, you just want to be as fast as me so you can run faster than a bear on your trip." hence, the pepper spray search on google.

- lane has been talking a lot, and what do you know? he is really a funny kid. always doing something crazy to make us all laugh.

- davis is gearing up for kindergarten. i am wanting to savor every minute of the summer with him!

goodness, this is long! hey, mom! (that was because you are probably the only one still reading this. :) )

ellen is ONE! yay!

well, i really had a fun time at our sweet girl's party. it was a good time with friends, and i really think that ellen felt special. she seemed to have a great time. she likes the attention, to be sure. we have one hundred eighty something pictures, but you won't have to look at that many (whew!) and i am too tired to figure out how to do a slideshow, so here goes...


she looked super cute in her cutesy cloths tu tu! my friend michelle made her birthday outfit and it was just perfect! it really exceeded my expectations. go right now and order something from her website! or you could at least finish reading this and then order. :) thanks, michelle, for doing such a great job. her cutie outfit was a hit!

present time!! the big kids were at the ready to watch, or um 'help' ellen open her presents...


she got these pretty butterfly wings from the simmons for a gift! cute! she got this baby doll from her grandma. she 'opened' it first and did not care about much else after that. i love to see the girly side coming out in her. she really is such a sweetie. she held the baby up to her shoulder and carried her around.
we got her this shopping cart, so that she could use it to help her walk. she pushed it around everywhere. i guess since i haven't been great at updating things here on the blog, i could take the opportunity to let you know that she is able to stand by herself, but she isn't quite ready to move once she is in the standing position. she has taken a step or two, but i am thinking that was accidental. :) she got 120 pieces of various food items from her dee dee to fill up her shopping cart. i think i have picked up all 120 pieces 120 times since last night. i exaggerate- maybe 117.

cupcake time!! you will all be glad to know that we averted disaster by not letting the cupcake anywhere within her reach while we sang to her!! :) a lot of you probably don't know that for lane's first birthday, we put his cupcake (with the candle in it) on the tray of his highchair, and while we were singing happy birthday to him, he squelched? extinguished? put out? the fire with his fingers. his tiny one year old fingers. all at once, i was thinking WHO PUTS AN OPEN FLAME IN FRONT OF A BABY?! I AM THE WORST MOTHER EVER!! and also screaming PHIL!! to our friend phil, who is a doctor. because, you know, it was a medical emergency and all. don't worry, he was okay, no really, phil said so- but he is a little uneasy around fire and i take the blame, because i will go ahead save him the counseling bills...it really is all my fault. sorry, big tangent there... notice that joel is holding the candle far away from our birthday girl! lesson learned!

she had been crying and unfortunately, like her mom, she gets all blotchy when upset. one taste of that yummy icing and all was better. unfortunately, yummy icing is what helps all of her mom's problems, too, but another blog for another time... :)

she ate almost the whole thing! notice her cutesy cloths bib that matches her outfit! michelle is a sewing genius!

about to eat cupcake pops! yum!

ellen's friend audrey turned one about a month ago. her mom, lee (who is also my friend :)) made her a tu tu for her birthday. she brought it to e's party so we could get a picture of them looking cute.
here she is walking with julia and thinking "this is the happiest day of my life! thanks mom and dad for the wonderful party! i will always be a good girl and never slam my bedroom door or tell my friends that you are lame!" or something along those lines, i'm sure.

a great time was had by all. we are so blessed with people that the Lord has placed in our lives that love our girl (and the rest of us). thanks, Lord for the fun time and for delighting in our baby girl. that is all, the end.