Happy 28th Birthday to Caleb!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to my Dear Husband,
Happy Birthday to You!

It is very rare for Caleb to get off early so I was super excited when Caleb got off at the same time I did and was able to pick Parker up from school! I know Parker was thrilled as well.
We kicked off the evening with a sweet tea and family size corn nuggets from Chicken Express.
Then we got ready and went to Outback. Even though Caleb's rib-eye tasted like a "sweaty person" and he had to send it back and get a pork loin, it was pretty good.
Parker chowed down on his chicken tenders and I had soup and a delicious salad.

Caleb,
I hope your 28th birthday was a good one! We sure enjoyed celebrating with you!
You are such a wonderful husband and dad. Parker and I are so blessed to get to do life with you.
Thank you for all you do for us!
Cheers and here's to 78 more birthdays!
I love you!

"I waked up."

Tonight we were trying to convince Parker to go to sleep.
He politely said, "I waked up."
We tried again.
Again he said, "I waked up" followed by some mummbles that sounded like "this morning."
I waked up this morning.
So really, Mom and Dad, why do I have to go to sleep again?
Wasn't that enough for you???

He keeps us laughing and on our toes all the time!

Silly Boys...

Parker loves to make everything into a hat. The other day he even wore a clothes hanger as a hat.

Love These Boys!

"Mom... take my picture."

He can count... HIGHER THAN 3!

Tonight I was laying in bed with Parker reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
We were counting the strawberries and oranges... he counted to 7 on his own!
Last night he and Caleb were counting and he went to 10. He needs help w/ the 6-10 sometimes, but he's getting it.
He's so smart.
So cute to hear him say the numbers.

I also tried to get him to make the sound of an S because the Elmo book we were reading was S is for School. He would watch my mouth to see how I moved my mouth to formulate the sound then he would copy it. It's so cute to watch his little mouth and hear the S sound.

Back to School

Parker went back to school today. He was home sick for over a week. Once while he was home he asked Caleb about going back to school and Caleb told him he would go once he was better.
We had been telling Parker all weekend that he was going to go back to school today.
Caleb takes him in the mornings because I have to be at work earlier than Caleb.
We were both worried about how today was going to go since Parker had been with us at home for so long.
Caleb said it was the best "drop off" he had. Parker didn't cry and he was super excited to see Summer and Sadie!

Back to Mexico

So this morning after Parker woke up (he slept in until 9:30, might I add), I asked him what he would like to do today.

In all serious.... as if he were telling me he wanted something to eat...

He looked at me and said, "To go back to Mexico."

Like duh Mom.

I text messaged Caleb and asked if that was one of the options for today.

Pants in the Dryer

So last night and today when Parker is getting dressed he wants to put his pants in the dryer for a few minutes.

The only thing we can come up with is that Caleb and I frequently put our clothes in the dryer to de-wrinkle. (Sorry Nana, I know your skin is crawling right now that we don't iron them.)

It's so funny how something so small like that, he notices.

Lord, help us to remember that he is constantly watching us... even the small things we do!

Update on P-Man

We went to the doctor again this morning. From the moment I told him we were going back to the doctor he talked about getting a sucker. He's playing with his sucker and the big ball in the pic above. Notice in the pic below that his jammies (his word) is unzipped just a tad. That's because he had his sucker stuck in his jammies with the top part of the sucker sticking out. It was there for safe keeping so he could still play.

His eyes look sad in this pic, but I loved his outfit. I decided that we both needed to get out of our jammies and into real clothes and all go to dinner. He's been home since Saturday other than going to the doctor twice. I've been home as well too except going to Target the past two nights. (By the way, they are having a HUGE SALE..
flip-flops $3.24, shorts for Parker- $2.48 and that's just to name a few.)

This is soooooooooo unlike both of us! He has asked me twice if he can go shopping! ;)

For some reason when I ask if I can take his picture he feels like he needs a prop to pose with. The pic above his prop is with his net from the Elefun game and the pic below is with a Legos block.

And about our doctors visit...

They did more blood work and his blood count is getting better which means he is getting better. He has a virus with some flu like symptoms but not the flu.

He should be on the up-hill from here...

Fingers crossed.

This afternoon he was eating more and running around like old Parker.

But tonight his fever was still present.

Tylenol is our new bf.

Still Sick

Parker started running fever Saturday afternoon. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he said he had a really, really bad sinus infection, gave us amoxil and said that he should be better tonight and that he could probably go to school tomorrow (referring to today). Caleb and I decided that I would cancel my sub job and stay home with him. I'm so glad we didn't send him because after his nap, he had a fever of over 103. We've spent a lot of time watching movies and laying around. I'm pretty sure he has Toy Story memorized. He does get spurts of energy here and there, but he's still not 100% back to himself.

A Day in the Life of Parker...

Parker snuggled up on Caleb during Caleb's afternoon "lunch break."

Parker is enjoying his computer more frequently.

He likes to watch the different animals dance.

I think he's feeling better.

His eyes are still a little puffy.

So he wanted some goldfish.

I got a few out and put them on the chair for him to eat.

I sat the bag on the table.

Chelsea came by to pick some stuff up and I was out front talking to her.

Parker had shut the door while I was out front.

I came in and saw this:

He said "goldfish" and pointed to them.

I asked him to help me clean up and he started singing then "clean-up" Barney song.

He was a good helper.

Then we were watching one of his movies.

I'm sure it was the 5th time this afternoon to see this particular one.

He started to feel really good because he insisted on sitting on my head.

Seriously. Was that necessary?

We had a delicious chicken pot pie for dinner. He wouldn't take a bite of it. I usually would force the issue but since he's been sick, I didn't force the issue.

I asked him if he wanted some turkey.

He said, "yes. gobble. gobble."

I laughed.

Oh and he wanted me to take this picture:

Another thing that he started this weekend was saying that he got something for Christmas.

There was a cup on the counter he was using and he told his daddy "I got for Christmas."

(He didn't.)

He got his Thomas flashlight out last night and said, "I got for Christmas."

Everything he's been playing with is something "I got for Christmas."

Where did he pick that up at?

So tonight Caleb was going to lay down with Parker.

I kissed Parker good night and said, "Good night sweet boy."

As he was walking away he said, "Good night sweet Momma."

I just love him! He's soooooooo darn precious!

This is for you, Gram & Papa

Sick Boy :(

Parker has been running a fever since yesterday afternoon.

He's extremely congested.

He goes in waves of seeming okay to feeling like he's been hit by a truck.

Poor guy.

Regardless of how he feels, he LOVES his Daddy!

He's going to go to the doctor in the morning.

Haircut... LONG OVER DUE!

Funday Friday

Started out watching Toy Story with Lola (our neighbors dog).

We had to go up to my work for a little bit.

Parker wanted to sit up on the island cabinet and told me, "Go make copies."

Since he was a big boy at work, I took let him pick where he'd like go eat at.

Any guesses as to where we went??

Mc Donald's. :)

He loves, loves, loves, loves, LOVES Lola.

Caleb made the comment tonight that Addison may not get Lola back if Parker has anything to do with it.

Cute Blondie.

Parker loves his big boy bed. A lot of people kept telling us that once we put Parker in his big boy bed that he would get out on his own. He has only done that a couple of times. He still likes to lay in bed for a while and then call for his Daddy to come get him.
This morning I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden I saw a little blond head bouncing under the kitchen bar.
It was cute Parker smiling coming to see what we were doing.
I just smiled and said, "Parker, you're so cute."
He is...
what can I say?

McDonald's with Daddy

I basketball player.

Last night I had one of my monthly Junior League meetings. I dropped Parker off with Opal at gymnastics until Caleb got off of work.
I always prepare Parker that I am going to a meeting and he is going to go with whoever it is that day.... today it was with Opal.
I dropped him off.
Isabela had gymnastics. Opal had Olivia on one hip and Parker on the other trucking back to the gymnastics watch/ waiting room.
Opal texted me and said Parker was quite the conversationalist.
He told her, "Momma at the meeting."
"Momma eat at meeting." *I'm not sure how he knew that. Guess he heard me.
"Where's Sebastian?"
She told him that Sebastian was at basketball practice.
"I basketball player."
He's so full of information.
I wish I knew what all he told her! :)

Slinky Needs a Drink

"In the bath, Mom!"

So last night I put Parker in the bathtub and even sat in the bathroom with him for a while while he splashed around. Then he wanted Caleb to come in there. Caleb did and I went to the living room.

A little bit later I yelled from the living room to Parker in the bathtub, "Parker, in 3 minutes you're going to wash your hair." Before I finished saying his name he said, "Mom, I'm in the bathtub."

I guess he thought I forgot where he was?

Caleb and I both laughed.

I'm pretty sure Caleb laughed because I am so forgetful.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget Parker was in the bath since I could hear him splashing around!

Silly boys.

Driving Home from Dallas IN THE SNOW!

Here are a few pics from our drive home today.

It was crazy how much it snowed in such a short amount of town in Ennis.

Parker looked at the snow some, but was more interested in watching Toy Story. :)

This first pic looks like a postcard.

This is my favorite pic...

Beautiful!

Best Buddies. Patches never rides in Parker's lap, but snow gives him anxiety and he rides back there. He did the same thing last year when we drove to Dallas for Lauren & Matt's wedding.

Trust me when I say we are not driving as fast as this video makes it appear.

One Cool Apple Sauce Eater....

"Mooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy...."

Today when I picked Parker up from school they were playing outside. He saw me before I could even call his name. He came running across the playground the whole time yelling, "Mooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyy" with his arms stretched out for me.

Precious.

Loved it.

Made my day!

Once A Month Mom

Today Parker and I spent the day at my sister-in-law, Chelsea's house.

It was our big "cook day."

Chelsea found this website Once a Month Mom and we decided we would give it a shot.

We went grocery shopping Saturday & yesterday afternoon for our groceries

and then cooked the meals ALL DAY today!

Basically Once A Month Mom is a website that has menus, grocery shopping list, and instructions for each person on cook day so you cook enough food for a month in 1 DAY!

(Obviously, you freeze the meals. Thankfully we have a 6 ft freezer in our garage to house the finished meals until we're ready for consumption.)

*We were planning last week before the Jan. 2011 menu was up

so we decided to try out Jan. 2010.

Here is a link to everything you need for what we did.

Also, here is a link for tips on getting started and here is a link of FAQ.

We bought most of the groceries at HEB and a few bulk things at Sams.

Here are some details of our day.

One half of the groceries

Other half

Here is 25 lbs. of chicken and 4 lbs. beef.

5 more lbs of chicken

All the veggies, diced and ready

(Talk about a lot of crying going on when the onions were chopped.)

All the chicken shredded

(We put the cooked chicken in the KitchenAid Mixer and it shred it.)

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

(This is in the ranking of one of my favorite meals- DELICIOUS!)

Chandler helping wrap the Eggwiches

The big container of stuffing for the Taco Wraps.

Somehow we made WAY too much.

This is missing a few meals that were still in the works but this is alot of the food from the day.

Overall we loved doing this and plan on doing it again at the end of the month.

We were EXTREMELY tired at the end of the day but it was worth it.

Here are some things we learned for next time,

hopefully if you do this it will help save you from our mistakes.

Specific to the January 2010 menu:

-I'm not sure what I did wrong with the rice, some how we made way to much but we think we did what it said. We were a little unsure if she was using Instant or Regular rice so that could have been the confusion. We bought a 4 lb. box from Sams and ended up using almost all of it.

-Toast the Eggwiches in the toaster, not the oven.

-For the taquitos do all the tortillas in the oil first and then stuff and wrap. This wasn't clear but we ended up doing it this way because it was burning our hands off trying to do it immediately.

-We ended up making the Cannelloni as a lasagna because we were a little unsure about the noodle rolling.

-We made mini-muffins instead of regular muffins, so you could do it either way but we liked these better. I love the "bite size" aspect of mini's.

General Tips we will do next time:

-Hire a dishwasher to clean as we cook!

-Have lots of BIG bowls ready.

-Chop everything the night before. We spent awhile just prepping things and felt like it took too long.

-Pre-read instructions better so we know exactly what the day looks like (for example: one of the recipes later in the day had me saute mushrooms, I wish I would have read that earlier and done it with the "prep" stage)

- We also might try grouping the groceries by meal.

Here is a list of all we made:

-Taco Wraps: 12 per person (with a gallon freezer bag of filling extra to use)

-Monterrey Chicken Quesadillas: 12 per person

-Asian Chicken Salad Pitas: 11 per person (we separated it into 6 in one bag and 5 in the other)

-Mexican UnStuffed Shells 2 gallon baggies per person (4 servings each)

-Buffalo Chicken Pasta: 2 gallon baggies per person (4 servings each)

-Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches: 2 gallon baggies per person (4 servings each)

-Homemade Taquitos: 19 per person

-Mandarin Orange Chicken: 2 gallon baggies per person (4 servings each)

-Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole: 4 8x8 pans

It says it makes for 15 days of breakfast, 10 days of lunches and 15 dinners. Each person should have 2 meals of each recipe.

$137.50 per person