Quick Update

I haven't taken any pictures this week so here's one from a couple weeks back with Parkes and Brandon on the bobcat. I did have a doctor's appt on Thursday and Parkes and Brandon came to hear the baby's heartbeat and everything looked good. Parkes really likes to feed the baby through my belly button. He, also, for about 6 or so months now has had this fascination with pretending to "pull" things out of his ear. You never know what he will say it is sometimes a car, sometimes a watch, and various other objects. He then proceeds to pretend to hand or throw the object to you. We have gotten several strange looks at stores as he does this to other shoppers. Well now he has started to "take" the baby out of my belly and then he'll put it back in. At least he has a very vivid imagination.

Family Photos

In June when we had the whole family together we got some family pictures taken by my friend Delia. She did a terrific job...here are couple of the ones of Parkes.

This weekend was busy with the dormer which actually did go up after 12 hours straight of hard work from Brandon and another guy!!!!! So all major construction is done at our house it is just finishing the space. Well that is for now I still have two and a half walls that I would love to get down before baby but I think will probably have to wait until after and a laundry room that I want reconfigured that will change the back door of our house and a front porch that will be added...but we at least are looking good as far as getting us in our new master suite and parkes in a bedroom and actually have a room for the baby. Brandon should of never let on about how good he is at construction otherwise I would never come up with all these projects for him.

Playing with Mr. T and Elmo

Sorry it's been awhile seens I posted. I feel like we've been running around like crazy lately. Here's what Parkes likes to do with the boxes that I bring home the groceries in after I finish unloading them. He gets whatever dolls he feels like that day and makes a train for them to ride in. Brandon will tell you that his Mr. T doll which was Brandon's growing up is a stuffed action figure, but it is definitely a doll.

We have had lots of fun things going on around here, but I have been bad about taking pictures of them. Parkes has enjoyed going to the pool and we have been going to story time at the downtown library. Parkes got his library card today and checked out some Curious George books which is one of his favorite TV shows to watch while eating his afternoon snack. He is also talking like crazy now...you never know what will come out of his mouth. The other day he announced to Daddy that "mommy's belly's getting big." Hopefully he just said that because I keep telling him it's going to get big. He starts VBS next week which we are both looking forward too. At the pool he swims and jumps in all by himself with his wings on and had lots of fun playing with Daddy and Matt in the pool being thrown around on Friday afternoon. Saturday was all about birthdays...I went and got manicures with the girls to celebrate Keri's birthday. Then we all headed out to Spring Hill to celebrate Brandon's co-worker's son's birthday. Then headed back to Nashville in just enough time to drop Parkes off at The Children's Playroom (which I highly suggested) so Brandon and I could head downtown to celebrate Keri and Meridy's birthdays. We went to hear music at this place call Paradise Park Trailer Park which as it sounds is a redneck's playground...it was so funny with a wall of mullets and toliets with flowers as decor. We didn't make it out long enough (just to 8:30) to go upstairs to the Dueling Piano Bar, but we heard it was really fun. We had a great Father's Day especially since Brandon picked to have his father's day lunch at Taco Bell which is Parkes all time favorite place to eat. Then at Brandon's request we all just spent the day together...he is such a wonderful father, you can see it in Parkes' face everytime he walks through the door. So that was our weekend/week. We are hopefully getting the second dormer put on the house this weekend so please pray for no rain so we can start getting this project wrapped up and have a bedroom to bring the baby home to sleep in.

Family Weekend

This weekend we had family in town to visit...most of my family lives here in Nashville, but my brother and his wife are in San Antonio and they came up to visit and my grandad is in Florida and he and Meredith came for a visit as well. So Parkes had fun visiting with family and playing with the big boys...he thinks he is one of the boys when they would get outside and play baseball. We had a good time getting to see everyone and Parkes enjoyed it so much. He will get more family time soon when his grandparents in Aruba move back home to west Tennessee at the end of the month.

Bicentennial Mall

Today we headed down to the Bicentennial Mall which Parkes absolutely loved last year so I was excited to see how he would react this year. When we first got there very few kids were out playing so he had fun running around like crazy stopping every so often to see what Jay was doing. He did then get a little grumpy which I finally figured out was because he wanted to take his shoes off and even though I'd rather he had keep them on it got him back out there running around and having fun instead of laying on the concrete. And when we got home he took a two hour nap for me which was much needed as he didn't take one yesterday (which I guess I can't complain too much because I left Parkes and Daddy at home last night to enjoy some girl time at Radius 10).

Sunset or Midtown Discounted Gift Cards

Just wanted to share what Brooke sent me so everyone can share in the discounts. Sunset Grille and Midtown Cafe have their gift cards marked down 33%. Just go to http://www.sunsetgrill.com/giftcard to purchase them. They are both such yummy places to eat. I strongly suggest Midtown for a romanatic date night and Sunset is a great girls night. Also make great gifts!!! Buy before June 6th.

Katie's Kards

Pick up a copy of the June "Birthday" issue of Nashville Parent to see the write up that our neighbor put in for Katie's Kards. It will be the grand opening of this new venture so we'll see where it goes.

Memorial Day Weekend

All this wasn't done this weekend, but I thought I would post some house pictures to show what a hard worker my wonderful husband is. So this first picture was taken the week before Christmas when we spent a few nights with no roof on the house. I don't know how well you can tell but basically there's nothing up there, luckily it was in the 70's that week. Now this one was taken at the end of that week when all the framing got done. Brandon didn't do all this on his own we had some framers come in. And then this is what Brandon did all weekend long. He's been working on the inside, but with the long weekend figured this was a good weekend to rent scaffolding to get the outside done. So for 8 or more hours a day for three days he was by himself out on the house which worked fine until it was time to move the scaffolding to the other side of the house and as he was trying to take the top layer off and he's 15 feet in the air it slowly starts to fall luckily towards the house and the laundry caught it. But that was when I had to go in because I couldn't watch and he wouldn't allow me to help him. And here he is finally at 5:00 on Monday evening finishing up the last few pieces. You can see his head and arm up on the roof. So after that he came down and had a much needed cold beverage and we cooked out some hamburgers and hot dogs with Matt, Keri, Todd and Joel who came to see his hard work.

Baby's First Picture

Well there the baby is with a healthy and strong heartbeat (the little dot towards the left side). The due date is Jan 16. And before you get your hopes up to find out what the sex is I will just go ahead and disappoint everyone...we are not finding out. And I have already been asked if people could find out and just not tell us, but that won't happen either, not even our doctor will know. I have put Brandon on a timeline to have me sleeping upstairs by the beginning of my second trimester which is a pretty tight schedule especially since we are still waiting for our second dormer to go up (keep you fingers crossed for next weekend, but I'm sure it will be after that). Anyway, Parkes has his last swim class tonight. He seems excited about the baby, but he really just thinks that we all three have babies in our bellies or that we are going to get "two Drapers" (he loves his cousin).

Parkes' First Shower

Parkes took his first shower by himself last night (of course with Brandon watching very closely by). He wants to be a big boy and refused to take a bath. He has always loved Sunday mornings because he got to take a shower with Daddy, but now it seems to have spilled in to the rest of the week.

Parkes is halfway through his swim lessons, and although he absolutely loves the water, jumping off the side (which he has now attempted to do backwards because he is obsessed with anything backwards right now) and kicking and paddling he has no desire to participate in the nursery rhyme games that they play in his class or practicing with the teacher. This is the best picture I got from class…even though I took a good 30 pictures Parkes was just moving way too much. Then here’s a picture of Parkes with his sand table which he has played at every afternoon since he got it, but just yesterday decided that it would be more fun to lay down in it (and I thought getting the table instead of the sand box on the ground would keep him a little cleaner…should of known he’d find a way around that).

Mother's Day

Here's a picture taken on Wednesday of what Parkes had time to get into while i step out back to water the flowers. He covered himself in mommy's markers and was so proud of his coloring. And then here's from Mother's Day. We had a great day...we went to eat brunch at Dalts after church and then ended to day with Parkes' playing in his new sand table (really a gift for me because he plays in it for hours) while Brandon cleared all the brush from the back of the yard where the creek is so we can expand our fence. And I rearranged the patio so my new conversation area which I got for mother's day would look all nice...now I'm just trying to find an 8 person table which I think Brandon is going to have to build to make it how I want it, but that is going to have to wait awhile as we found out we now have a nine month deadline on the construction on the house. I think most everyone that reads this has heard...we are pregnant! I go to the doctor May 24 so I will now a due date then but should be sometime in January. Hope all the other mother's had a great day too.

Yummy Birthday Cake!!!!

Parkes' favorite part of Birthday Parties is the cake. Here are some of his friend's (left to right...Emmy, Jack, Parkes, Ava and Baylor) at Ava's Birthday. They had so much fun running around chasing each other and laughing. It is amazing to see how they have changed in the ways they play together and so much fun to listen to them start laughing when they think they are acting funny. Parkes is very lucky to be surrounded by so many friends.

And finally here's a cute picture of my two favorite boys at Belle Meade Plantation.

Crawfish Boil

We had an impromptu Crawish Boil this Saturday evening at our house with some of Brandon's work buddies and the Essners, Kizers and McCains. It was so much fun. Parkes loved the "fissshheeees". He had no fear of them and would hold them and got in his pool with one of them. And the food was fabulous...thanks to Curtis for cooking for Brandon (Brandon has a talent for passing the cooking over to someone else).

Mullet Wig

Okay since my computer seems to be agreeing with me I figured I'd make up for not posting and post this picture of Parkes that was taken a few weeks ago. It makes me laugh. Parkes really likes his two wigs he has accuired from his Daddy (he also has a Slash wig from halloween one year). This wig Brandon was dared to wear to a Poison concert and of course he did. The funny thing is so many girls were coming up to him because they thought he was Jack Black...you would have to see Brandon at a Poison concert imagine the way Jack Black dances in School of Rock and it's pretty close with the air guitar skills.

Centennial Park

Here's some pictures of Parkes at the park. We went there so Brandon and Parkes could fly a kite, but it more turned into Brandon and his brother, Brian, attempting to get the kite in the air because of course Brandon had to buy the biggest kite he could find. Here's an action shot of Parkes stomping through the flowers just like a boy.

And then here's Brandon with the kite (how he spent most of the day).

I liked this picture because they look like they are in a deep conversation

Here's Parkes and his Grandpa watching them attempt to fly the kite

Birthday Party Weekend

Parkes had his birthday party this weekend so he's friends could come with his birthday 2 days after Christmas he only got one friend there last year which was fine for a 1 year old but he definitely had much more fun with his friends there this year. I don't have many pictures from it because he didn't sit still but here's two of the best. Thank you everyone for coming, Brandon took the toys you brought down to the Wayne Reed Center and they were so excited to get them (for those not there we took toy donations instead of presents this year because Parkes has so many toys already and with our construction zone house there is no where for them to go). After the party we went over to Earth Day at the Centennial Park where Parkes enjoyed seeing all the dogs but didn't want to sit down to listen to the concert (which we heard Gabe Dickson who was very good). Then Sunday was just as busy but Parkes had fun with his Grandparents visiting from South Dakota. Parkes finally Monday after 3 days of no nap (which he rarely has a nap on the weekends anymore), he crawled into his bed on his own around 6:30 and was asleep in 5 seconds.

A Picture Posted

okay i didn't want to press my luck when i actually got a picture to post. we are looking into upgrading our internet with brandon working at home a lot of the time. and a funny story from this past week...parkes has decided to start calling me katie some of the time. and he thinks it is so funny.

Still no pictures

Okay I still can't get the computer to work with me. so I will have to try tonight or tomorrow when Brandon gets his laptop at home and try to get that to work. I know the grandparents would like to see Parkes' easter pictures. So here's a funny story from yesterday instead...Parkes actually took a nap yesterday afternoon around 2 so I sat down to enjoy some quiet time and to catch up on General Hospital. About 3 I hear this loud thud and then I hear Parkes talking to himself. So I went to his room and opened the door where he was standing with a confused look on his face. I asked if he had fallen out of his bed, and he looked up at me with this huge smile and said, "Yesssssssssssss!" and then started laughing.

Happy Late Easter

Okay the dial up internet is really slow this week and isn't allowing me to post the pictures from easter so here's what I wrote to go with it and when it starts coroperating with me I'll post them...

Saturday was the Easter egg hunt at church and it was freezing. Parkes got 3 eggs then saw the playground and decided that would be more fun. Then the next morning Parkes woke up to see what the Easter Bunny had brought him and search for the eggs that he decorated the day before. He got all six of them and asked for more. So by the time we got over to my parents house that afternoon he was ready to hunt eggs and found a whole bags worth (of course his competition was Abby James (1) and Draper (6 weeks)). Also I must add that Brandon dressed Parkes for bed so please ignore his interesting outfit in his Easter morning pictures (Laura and I went out for a bit Saturday night so Brandon and Jon could watch a fight with the boys and I came home to this outfit). This week we've keep ourselves busy trying to get Parkes so tired he would take a nap which isn't going over to well so we went to Bellevue mall monday with Baylor, then school on tuesday, and this morning meet up with Jay and Brax for storytime at the Green Hills library then over to Davis Kidd for some food and playtime...so let's hope he takes a nap today. And hopefully tomorrow we will be able to do something outside because hopefully (please say a short pray for us) our dormers will be going on the house to finish the major structural part of the addition. We did thanks to Joel get two trees taken down yesterday.

And thank you everyone that responded to my last post...it was very helpful!!