Time for a Trim

While at the lake for Parker's birthday, Aunt Brenda suggested that it might be time to give Parker a haircut. Actually she just wanted to trim up the hair around his ears, which Chad & I wanted to do for quite some time but didn't want to have to pay someone to just cut that little bit, and I wasn't brave enough to do it myself. Parker just sat and played with some toys while she cut it. It looked so much better...Thanks Aunt Brenda!

P.S. Aunt Brenda, would you mind giving him another haircut when we see you at the end of July? He might need a little more than a trim around the ears though... :)

Happy 1st Birthday Parker!

Parker was lucky enough to have three celebrations for his first birthday! He celebrated with Aunt Kari & Uncle Art on his actual birthday, went to NY Memorial Day weekend to celebrate with our family, and then had lots of his friends over for a cookout to celebrate a few weeks later.

Here are a few pics of our celebration with Uncle Art & Aunt Kari:

Testing out his new "Retro Rocket"

Uncle Art made Parker his first birthday cake...who knew he was so talented??

Not so sure about the cake at first...

Obviously he was a fan - He ate every bit of it!

We decided to make the LONG trip to NY on Memorial Day weekend so we could celebrate Parker's birthday with our family. Chad ended up taking an extra day off so we were able to surprise my family and get there a day early. We left at 4pm on Thursday evening, thinking Parker would sleep most of the trip. Unfortunately that didn't happen...he slept on and off from 9-12 but was wide awake from about 12am on. I was a little worried that he was going to be miserable when we got there at 3:30 and he only slept for a few hours before he was ready to get up for the day. But he was so happy! I guess he loves Sandy Pond as much as the rest of us. My mom worked so hard to make sure everything was perfect for the party and of course, it was! Thanks, Mom for making it such a special day for Parker!

His very talented Mia made him four birthday cakes - here are the truck and race car. The other two were a teddy bear and a #1.

Reading a book with Great Grandma D. and Aunt Shannon

He obviously liked his cake...

He started out licking the frosting and grabbing at it with his hands - Eventually

he gave up and just went face first into it!

So tasty!

Parker and his cousins, Megan & Molly

I'm still waiting on pictures of his third birthday celebration. Somehow I didn't get one picture on my camera! Parker had such a fun time playing with his friends. Our house hasn't seen that much activity in awhile, and at one point I'm not sure we could have fit one more toy, person, or baby in our livingroom! Debbie did an awesome job with the cakes - She made a 3-D baseball and a baseball field. We were so glad to have so many friends come to celebrate with us!

I still can't believe Parker's one year old already...those first 12 months flew by! He's such a sweet boy and we love him so much!

Fun In The Sink

Lately, Parker has enjoyed playing in the sink with his toys. It also gives him a chance to practice standing up on those skinny little legs! :)

Pool Time!

This spring Chad & my dad went to a garage sale and found this pool for $5! Since Parker loves the bathtub we thought he might like it. He's a fan once he gets used to it. While he was in it, Eli decided he wanted to go for a swim too. Parker didn't really care to share the pool with him and was much happier once Chad got him out!

Testing the water...

Eli checking out the pool

After a lot of circling, he finally jumped in!

And as if it wasn't entertaining enough to watch Parker playing in the pool, Grampie decided to join him! After Chad put him to work this week, I guess he needed a break!

Grampie, Aren't you a little too big?

This is fun!

A Weekend Of Many Firsts

At the beginning of May (I know, I'm terrible at keeping up with our blog...I have said many times that I will do a better job so my family can keep up with what we're doing and it just doesn't seem to happen. Good thing we talk and Skype a lot! Sorry, Dad!) we went camping at Badin Lake with Art & Kari. Chad & I were a little apprehensive about the trip since it was Parker's first time camping and we had just gotten Eli a few weeks prior. We decided either it was going to be a good time or we were never going to want to camp again. But aside from the ticks (all of us had one on us except for Parker and they loved the dogs, especially poor Eli) it turned out to be a great trip! Parker loves being outdoors so I knew he'd enjoy it. We hiked around the lake Saturday and he was perfectly content for most of the time in the backpack. He didn't sleep all that great but he doesn't normally when we go away so that wasn't a surprise. There was no good place for him to nap Saturday afternoon since it was about 100 degrees in our tent so Kari & I tried to take him for a ride in the car. Unfortunately he waited until we were about 5 min away from our campsite to fall asleep. We left him in the car when we got back but he only slept about 15 minutes.

Eli was so good! He followed Scooby around all weekend and we never had to put him on a leash, even when we went hiking. This was a total change for us since we were used to keeping Sadie leashed, otherwise she would have taken off and we'd have never seen her again. He was happy running the trails and swimming with Scooby. It was pretty entertaining watching him try to keep up with her, especially in the water.

We're looking forward to our next camping trip, hopefully very soon!

One happy camper

Inside our new tent...I'm not sure the person who designed
this was thinking about how to fit a pack 'n play and air mattress in it!



Our home for the weekend

Doesn't he look like a little fawn?

Ready for our hike! Why can't Mommy ever remember

my hat that actually fits me??

Taking a break

Mommy & Parker

Aunt Kari & Parker...what a face!

Eli & his new best friend Scooby

Packing up to go home...it's always so much more fun setting

everything up than taking it all down!

Our Newest Addition

Losing Sadie was extremely difficult but we knew that there was another dog out there that needed rescuing. After searching for weeks on the Internet, we found Eli! He was at the Chatham Co. Animal Shelter. Parker & I drove out two weeks ago yesterday to meet him...I wasn't sure I wanted to go without Chad (I really didn't want to go without him!) but their adoption hours are short each day and he couldn't get time off of work. So he trusted me to go and see what I thought. It didn't take me long to decide that I loved him and wanted him so the next day I drove out there to pick him up and bring him home! He had an adorable sister who I hated to leave there, but I figured one puppy and a baby would be plenty to keep me busy. Parker loves him and thinks he's hilarious...Eli loves licking Parker and tries to play with him but sometimes gets a little too crazy. He is like my little shadow and follows me around all day...he's having some separation anxiety issues but hopefully we can get that figured out over time. He's such a cuddle bug and has been so much fun to have around so far!

Didn't realize how much he looks like Sadie...

Aunt Brenda's Visit

My Aunt Brenda came to visit us at the beginning of this month...we had such a good time! One of the things she really wanted to do while she was here was take Parker to play at the park. And he of course loved it! We also went out to lunch, went shopping, planted flowers in my front flowerbeds, and reorganized my entire kitchen (thanks A. Brenda - it's so much more functional now)! I'm so glad she was able to come visit us for a few days. Can't wait to see her and the rest of my family Memorial Day weekend!