Shannon is getting married soooooo soon

I'm in a rut of being about one month behind on the things I want to blog. 

But ... better late than never - right?

One of my besties Shannon is getting married in 

LESS THAN ONE MONTH

craziness ...

I am so so so so excited to adventure to South Carolina to watch her marry her love, Andy.

I'm excited to wear a pretty dress, sleepover with girls, hang out with all of our friends, see friends from out of town, and spend time baby free time with my husband.

It's going to be a good weekend. 

Anyways, I thought I better share pictures from her shower / bachelorette weekend before her wedding day is here!

all pictures were taken by jenna 
you can visit her blog here

Parker is almost four months

So I guess now is as good of a time as any to share his three month pictures...

My little peanut,

I love you so much. It's amazing how my love for you continues to grow. You bring so much joy to your daddy and I's life. I love how much you smile. I love when you recognize my voice and instantly give me your gummy smile. I love it when we "talk" back and forth. You've got a lot to say and you love hearing the new noises you can make. You love sitting on your bumbo, but your daddy says it looks like you're on a roller coaster because your head wobbles a little. One thing that you do not love is tummy time. You get mad at me each time that I make you lay on your tummy, but I only want to make sure you grow to be big and strong. You still love to be swaddled up like a little burrito. Each morning though, I find you with your arms busted out. You love kicking your legs. You kick your legs with so much force, but you don't move anywhere. You still love your play mat, and you're getting much more coordinated at hitting the little animals. 

You've been drooling more lately, and you're obsessed with putting your hands in your mouth. Really you like to put anything in your mouth ... your hands, blankets, sofi book, and paci. Oh ... you LOVE your paci. Sometimes you'll suck on it so hard that it leaves a print around your mouth. Your paci is a lifesaver for your daddy and I. We don't know what we would do without it. I can tell that your eyes are changing and focusing more clearly. When I read to you, I can tell that you're really looking at the pictures. We need together almost everyday. You also listen to your Coldplay lullabies everyday. 

I cherish my days off with you. We're lazy and spend lots of time smiling at each other :) 

When you're at home, you're so much better at your naps. This makes me very happy, bc  I love to be lazy and nap when you do. You're still learning how to nap at school, but you're getting the hang of it. All of your teachers adore you. They say that you have a fan club at school. You also love your changing pad. I don't get it, but I'm glad that you like it. Everything you're on your changing pad, you smile, coo, and kick your legs. Sometimes it's hard for me to get your diaper on because you kick so much.

One thing that you and I haven't loved from this month is how sick you've been. You've had a really bad cough and congestion all month. You've been to the dr. several times now and we're still trying to figure out how to make you better. You've be given an antibiotic, and now we're giving you a round of steroids and breathing treatments. I hate filling your body with so much medicine, but more than anything I want you to get better. You've been waking yourself up a lot at night from your coughing fits. It breaks my heart. I want so badly for you to be healthy.

You're such a sweetie. Even though you're sick, you still laugh and smile all of the time. A lot of times you'll even get distracted from taking your bottle because you're smiling so much. Every night your daddy and I pray for you before you go to bed. Every night I pray that God would take away your cough, but more importantly, I pray that the Holy Spirit would fill your room and comfort you, that you would grow to know the Lord at a young age, and that you would never know a day when you didn't love Jesus. Yes, that's my one hope for you Parker - that you would grow up to never know a day that you didn't love Jesus ...

because He loves you so much.

And so does your daddy and I.

I came home from work the other day

and Eric was taking pictures of little man lounging in our bed.

He's just so precious that I had to share

Happy Friday

HAPPY FRIDAY!

So thankful that it is the weekend.

It's been a dragging week at work ... plus we've got a sick puppy and sick little man in the house

So this weekend is going to be low key as E and I nurse Parker and Stella back to health.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog a little too.

I really want to share his 3 month pictures with you guys.

Until next time ...

enjoy your weekend :)

loving life in my bumbo

I'll be back soon with a re-cap on month three.

For now I'm going to lay on the couch and REST.

It's been a long week ... little man has been sick with a summer cold ... and up a lot coughing during the night ... it's pitiful...
and poor Stella is also not feeling well. 

Be back soon.

the many faces of Parker

Parker, 

You're growing up way too fast.

Way too fast. 

Please slow down and cuddle with me forever.

Thanks,

Your Mom

wide eyed little boy and other random things

For some reason I like this picture. 

Parker has always been such a wide-eyed little man ... taking in everything around him.

I've been single parenting it for the past couple days ... and it's not an easy task ... to say the least.

I always have respected single mothers ... but now I have a whole new respect.

I feel like I should serve and babysit for a single mother sometime ... because seriously when you're doing the parenting thing alone you have no time to yourself.

Parker has been great. He's such a fun little man. Smiling all the time ... especially in the mornings. I'm not a morning person, but mornings have become my favorite time with him.

He's also sleeping like a champ! He's been sleeping 10-11 hrs every night almost the past month. I am so so thankful. It's a strange new feeling to know that when I put him down at night, he's going to sleep until after the sun comes up :)

In other news ... work has been crazy busy for me lately. 

Since returning from leave, I've jumped right in and have begun working with several families. 

I feel refreshed lately. I do miss Parker each day I'm at work, but when I'm driving home, I often think about how much I love my job. I've been daydreaming lately of what it would be like to work in or start a private practice someday.

I know I haven't talked about home stuff much on here lately ... I've been a little consumed with feeding schedules, changing diapers, tummy time, naps, reading children's books, listening to Coldplay lullabies, and getting sleep at night.

But ... my mind has been full of thoughts about things I want to do to our house.

I blame it on Pinterest. I'm obsessed ... and the iPhone app makes my obsession even worse. 

I'm dying to build a deck. We have a major mud problem in our backyard - it's a combination of two crazy golden's, way too much shade, and poor care on our part. 

I deck would help tremendously. 

Other things I'd like to do:

make a collage wall in our hall

paint our living room and hall 

put in new countertops, backsplash, sink, faucet, lighting ... pretty much everything but floors and cabinets

tear out the nasty/weird shelves in our den and move our tv against the wall so we'll have space for another chair

Buy storage units at IKEA and put them in place of the useless armoire in our living room

I told you ... so many ideas floating around.

The deck will definitely be number one ... I think we're going to build it around October when it cools down a little. 

Inspiration for the deck

Next might be purchasing the storage units from IKEA. Eric wouldn't really consider this a "project" so I could probably convince him to do it. Eric despises projects. He'll probably get mad just reading my writing about projects :)

I pretty much want to copy this picture...

Ok, so I said that the deck would be number one ... but I lied. 

I think the collage wall will be because I already have a lot of the frames and pictures ready. I've been saving up for awhile now. I'm really excited to finally hang some of the pictures. I think it will help personalize our home. 

Anyways, sorry for the totally random post. 

Happy Friday night and enjoy your weekend!

I will definitely enjoy my time off with Parker and am really excited for Eric to come home :)

summertime at the park

2 month photoshoot

2 months old

Parker,

You're 2 months old and you ...

are getting a big belly and chubby thighs

love to play on your mat - you've even grabbed the little ring twice

love to listen to coldplays lullaby music

love to look at your mobile and listen to your glow worm

started daycare and have a fan club

are getting a little better at taking naps - still keep me guessing though

(my favorite) - you smile and laugh at me a lot 

smile a lot when you wake up

were visited by both of your grandma's and aunt's 

are sleeping through the night (ok ... maybe this one is my favorite)

are drinking your milk a lot faster

are on the go a lot - you've been lots of places (and you're always so good)

still need your reflux medicine - which still makes you constipated - so we still give you prune juice

love your pacifier 

love when I read to you - your eyes gets real big when you look at the pictures

love to sit in your boppy pillow and look out the window

only like tummy time for a couple minutes and then you fuss

are still so hard to burp

love to be swaddled, but you always break out - so now we double swaddle you 

(oh the things we do to get you to sleep)

I love you more and more each day ... and I love it when you smile back at me ... it let's me know that you love me too.

stella and parker

Parker has a new friend.

I think that Stella is pretty fond of him too.

Also, I promise that I will be back soon with Parker's 2 month pictures.

I really need to take his two month pictures before he's three months old!

sweetness

it's all in the details

Hello Bloggers! Hope your 4th of July weekends are going well.

Eric, Parker, and I have spent the day recovering from a trip up to Ohio for my cousins wedding. It was great seeing lots of family and having them meet baby P for the first time.

The trip must have really worn Parker out because he came home and slept through the night for the first time!! 

I know there are a million different definitions of sleeping through the night ... so when I say that I mean he slept from his last feeding (9:00 last night because we were at the wedding) until 6:00 am. We got home from the wedding around midnight and I had 6 hrs of uninterrupted sleep. It was glorious. It is the best feeling in the world to wake up to his baby noises and also hear birds chirping :) 

I never thought that I'd be so happy about getting up at 6:00 am!

I'm hoping that last night is a preview of things to come.

If I can brag on P a little bit more ... 

He turned 2 months old today!!!

and took 2 naps today (both over an hr) ... this is a big deal over here at our house.

I'm so so proud of my little boy.

I'd say that being a parent is the closest thing that I've come experiencing unconditional love ... but if I'm honest ... I love him even more when he sleeps well :)

On a slightly different note ... 

I took all of these pictures before Parker was born.

They've been saved as a draft post for months now. 

I figured I'd go ahead and finally share a little more of the details from his nursery.

From here on ... this post might be all over the place ... but stick with me!

This buffet is the first thing we purchased for the nursery.

We purchased it from our neighbor Jack.

I love the curvy details. I also loved that I didn't have to sand it.

While we were doing the board and batten in Parker's room, our living room looked like this.

Eric stained the buffet a rich, dark brown.

Finished board and batten. 

This seemed like it took forever to complete, but I am so thankful that we did it. It definitely adds a lot of character to an otherwise plain room. It really brightens things up a lot too!

I purchased the lamp and tray (I don't think it's called a tray, but my mind is blank on what else to call it) at our Peddler's Mall. I purchased the changing pad from our church's consignment sale.

We left the same chandelier (that I bought at our local Habitat for Humanity store) and spray painted it red. We also spray painted the lamp red and added a new white shade (from Target).

The navy swivel glider is also from the Peddler's Mall and I landed it for only $15!!

The pillows are made by Anna at For the Love of Joy

Repurposed old window.

Vintage Old Maid cards given to us from a friend.

Vintage wooden US puzzle pieces I bought on etsy ... and turned them into magnets.

Parker's closet ... full of his itty bitty clothes.

Some of these he's already outgrown ... sad.

This closet used to be mine. 

Now Eric and I share the closet in our bedroom ... that is also this size. 

Impressive I know. Less is more, right?

Plant from my office.

Calendar from my wonderful friend Jen. 

I try to write a memory on each day's card, but I'm not very consistent :(

Diaper and wipes caddy.

Airplane mobile that was a gift from the Ryders.

The mobile and industrial metal P are both from Restoration Hardware

Socks the Fox!

I can't wait for Parker to cuddle Socks someday. Eric bought Socks as Valentines Day gift for me ... for Parker :) I bought him a Coldplay lullaby cd.

Can you tell that I love BlaBla dolls?

We purchased Mr. Watson during our babymoon in Charleston SC.

I wanted some vintage airplane prints, but the only ones I could fine were from Pottery Barn and I wasn't willing to shell out the money for them. 

So ... I made my own!

Jen found a vintage WW2 aircraft book during one of our trips to the peddler's mall. The book was FULL of pictures of vintage planes.

Poms in the shape of the sun and clouds. 

The little airplanes covered in maps were decorations from my baby shower.

Storage for blankets, burp cloths, and toys.

Quote from The Chronicles of Narnia.

Red hooks were on clearance at Anthro

I think that's about it! Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

I hope you all enjoy your holiday off tomorrow.

Night!