More Stick People

Okay so last drawing by Parkes because I know y'all would rather see pictures of the kids, but here is a picture Parkes drew last night of Happy. I might be biased, but he is pretty talented. He has his eyebrows, mustache and even tie in the drawing.

Walls Come Down and Preschool Starts

It's been a busy week and as you can tell it has even lead Parkes to take a nap... Last Friday morning I got a call from Brandon telling me that the framers from his job next door were going to come on over and take out our two walls. So I showered, got everything packed up to spend the day out with two boys and cleared out two rooms in an hour so they could get in and start tearing my den apart. Luckily it turned out great and they were very clean about it and vaccuumed everything up when they were done which was a nice surprise. So then the next night we headed to my parents to see my grandfather and spend some time with family. Below is my sister Hayley with Parkes and Cash and their cousin Abby James (it's the best I could get) And here's Draper (and Aunt Jennie) who didn't want to be in the picture with the others. And Parkes and Hayley making silly faces...one of Parkes favorite things to do when a camera is around. I've almost finished my week of training to start working at the preschool. Cash has gotten his first experience in a nursery which from what I've heard and seen he is as happy as can be and took his first nap there today instead of being more interested in what the other kids were doing. And Parkes went the first two days with me and then Happy (Brandon's Dad) picked him up to spend the week with him so they could fish and have fun together. I'll be teaching the middle two's so any helpful hints are welcomed. And I am still in a little bit of a shock that after going around and asking the three year old teachers who had Parkes I found out he was in the four year old class which he would of been the youngest but not by too much. Then today I was told that they needed to move someone up from the fours to PreK fours and they were going to move Parkes after keeping him the first two days of training they felt he would do the best. I think he will do great in the class as he has always enjoyed talking and interacting with older kids, but it makes me feel my little Parkes is getting so old.

Portraits by Parkes

Okay as if I need to even tell you who Parkes' portraits are of since they are so beautifully drawn, they are from left to right, Jon, Jay and Ms. Laura (she's all yellow so a little hard to see) he drew for me this afternoon. So if you are looking for any portraits to be drawn Parkes is available. He usually sticks to our family until today. For the few days since Cash has started standing on things he is loving life. He's very happy to be up and able to see what his brother is getting into and Parkes has been good most of the time allowing him to play with the new stuff he can reach.

Woke up to....

Saturday morning (this picture is a reenactment...Cash doesn't sleep in a polo and shorts). Brandon and I were shocked. Cash can't sit up by himself without tumbling over after a few seconds, but he has no problem using his arms to pull himself up. Brandon started adding a second story to the neighbors house monday so he has had a rough commute to work these past few days...he told me last night after being inspired by the olympics which i have been obsessed with for some odd reason as i haven't watched it in years, maybe it's the crazy amount of world records being broken....anyway he told me he was going to run to work this morning so I hope he made it okay.

Pictures from the Past

Today is a meaningful day to our family so I've been looking through a lot of old pictures remembering fun times and sad times. So I thought I would share some pictures from 2004...it was very much a year of change for me and Brandon. We lived the newlywed lifestyle for six short months before we found out we were pregnant with "crawdad" as we called Parkes at the time. He was such a wonderful surprise that we had no idea we were ready for, but I guess we were. We had some wonderful times with friends and family...there were so many joyous occasions that year. I just wish I had known then to cherish each of those moments and not worry about the meaningless things that tend to get in the way. It is so easy to get caught up in our lives and the "to do" list that need to get done that it is nice to reminisce and remember how blessed we are to have the life that we have and our friends and family to support us through it. Thank you so much to everyone in our lives that have loved and prayed for us without y'all we would not be who we are.

Well to stay out of this heat we've had lots of days like the picture above playing inside and Parkes and Cash are happy to have each other to play with. I still haven't taken too many pictures lately, we've just had a lot going on this past two weeks. I've been interviewing for a preschool teaching job...we were looking to try to get me a job with insurance, but with Cash still young, preschools for his age in our area our competitive and consist of a pretty long waiting list so me working at a school the boys could go was the best option for us, but as I found that still isn't the easiest thing to find that can have two spots for the boys and insurance benefits. So I interviewed this morning and have the job as long as my references say good things at a three day a week preschool that can take both boys so at least it will give us the extra money to cover the insurance we have set up now and allow me to be home two days and not miss out on Cash's first couple of years which was one of my concerns with a full time position. So it will be an adjustment, but also nice to get a little break from what I've been doing for the past almost 4 years. Parkes has been as entertaining as ever lately. Here he is before bed last night in Cash's toy which he always wants to play with over his toys now. He has been quite the gentlemen lately too...he always tells me when I get dressed in the morning how I look beautiful or my dress looks nice. And yesterday as we were driving home from a baby shower (Brandon dropped me off and he took the boys out for ice cream) Parkes asked me if I enjoyed my shower and after I said yes he told me that I smelled nice and looked all clean. And finally Cash will be 7 months in three days....so crazy. It is amazing that he is the same baby from the colicky baby three months ago. He thank goodness has turned into such a happy little boy who definitely is going to stand up for himself around Parkes. He puts a death grip on what he wants if he sees Parkes coming near him. He spends most of he's days laughing or napping.