mr. dick

so I ran into an old acquaintance yesterday. I guess you could call him that. I can actually say things like, "10 years ago" now that I am 28. Well I don't think I've seen this man for 10 years! I was at a church dinner and was just walking towards the exit with my running-around-greeting-everyone-like-a-politician-no-nap-yet-"3"-year-old and a baby on my hip that was an hour and a half past his two hour afternoon nap when I feel a tap on my arm. Just a gentle, get my attention tap, and I stop...of course the "3" year old continues on. And I am standing face to face with an older man who I do not recognize. I am a person who rarely forgets a face and remembers everyones names, whether I really know them or not. The conversations goes like this:
Man: Do you remember me?
Me: Remember you? or Recognize you?
Man: both
Me: I guess not...should I?
Man: Yes, my name is Richard Phillips
Me: (gasp) Oh, wow! Of course I remember you, but I did NOT recognize you
Man: I am one-third the man I was
Me: Well, and just how did you do that? (wondering why the heck I asked and praying to god he wasn't going to answer cancer or something awful)
Man: I joined Weight Watchers!
Me: Wow, you look great. Good for you
Man: Thanks
Me: I am surprised you remembered me!
Man: Well I never forget a pretty face
Me: Oh, I thought that it was because I was one of your best students
Man: ba-haa, haa, haa (with his head in the air and walking away)

Well-for those of you that remember History at RRCC, you remember Mr. Dick! After 10 years he remembered me...I wished I could have told him more, but I didn't...things like; that's where I developed my stalking-of-my-future-husband-stage, where I got a C in History because I wasn't too overwhelmed to remember simple facts I was just to immature to care, where I made some great friendships, and that I wished I hadn't called him "Mr. Dick" behind his back because he really was a great teacher and a smart, smart man.

Watch Me Grow

Here is the latest in the Watch Me Grow Series. 7 Months and happy! Check out those teeth. He currently has 2 top and 3 bottom with another bottom coming up real soon. He is officially crawling. We knew he wasn't too far from it, but now when he sees something he wants, he is off and can get it. One day he was crawling and the next he went straight to pulling himself up. He gets on either both knees or one knee and one foot. I was sort of hoping this one would just sit for the first year but it doesn't look like I am going to get my way. Is it all happening at warp speed or is it just me? Doesn't seem like that long ago we just came home from the hospital and were all tucked in for the remainder of the winter...

My little Yoda

So this post is for Godfather Jon...and in hindsight I see the resemblance. Emmitt looked like Yoda when he was born.


Jon actually said to Bear, something like "your kid looks like Yoda".
Bear didn't tell me right away and when he did, I asked "whose Yoda"?
He says, "you know the green guy from Starwars".
Still confused I didn't think that much of it, since I haven't seen an episode, ever.


Some people think all babies are cute. Most are, but not all, and even looking back, Emmitt maybe wasn't all that cute when he was first born. I can say this, because I am his mom, and now he is flat out adorable!

But being stuck in the birth canal for 3 days he came out a little (okay a lot) banged up. He was swollen across the eyebrow area with a huge ridge on his head. Both his eyes were blood shot in the corners from the pressure of hanging upside down and half out! And his nose was smashed and swollen. Here are a few pics in case you forgot...

Our little Yoda
Blood shot eyes, poor baby

A little old man or Yoda?

Of course for Halloween, Emmitt will be...who else? But Yoda~a VERY cute Yoda



At the Park

We are trying to take as much advantage of the nice cool nights these days. If it's not raining we are out for a stroller ride and usually that means a stop at the park. The boys have always been so good in the stroller that it makes it really easy to get buckled in and go. Once in awhile Parker thinks he should be able to ride his bike next to us while we walk but we usually bribe him with a snack to get in. If I am not walking with my mom, I am with Regan. The kids play well together at the park and the babies are usually sleeping. This trip, Emmitt snoozed in the stroller the whole time. We pick apples out of the Pastors tree for the kids to eat on the ride home...don't think he'll mind us stealing?! Sometimes we use Auntie Tammy's potty. But mainly it is nice to get out of the house because for now it's still easy...in 3 months (okay maybe 1) we will be struggling with boots, mittens, and jackets. I am sweating just thinking about getting 2 kids dressed and out the door by 7:45. Ugh.

Brooks happened to be awake this trip...those blue eyes are beautiful!
Maybe next summer he'll actually be able to reach...
He absolutely loves to swing. He finally caught on this summer to the "pumping" of the legs to keep himself going. I do however have to chant it in the background. Kick, bend, kick, bend...
Oh and all those curls. It's not even a shade of red, it's orange and it is hair that most women would kill for! Not to mention the porcelain skin and a set of baby blues to complete a beautiful little girl. People still ask Regan if the curls are real. I told her to start answering "nope, she sits still for 2 hours each morning while I fix it" but she won't...
She's pouting in the picture, but she's really thinking here...she couldn't get the digger to work for her. It's kind of a "humph?" look.
Still trying to figure it out...plain and simple, they aren't strong enough to operate both levers. So between the two of them they figured if one sat on it and tried and the other sat in the sand beneath it they could help eachother...that was until mommy's noticed the extremely heavy and sharp metal scoop at the end of the digger coming really close to their heads and detoured them onto the slide.

Boys

One of Emmitt's accomplishments this month is mobility. I can't really call it crawling yet. He rocks back and forth on all fours and then dives for what he was trying to get. Or rolling, literally from one end of the house to the other. But full arm and leg coordination crawling, not quite yet.

Again...this kid has a million faces. I think digital cameras make it worse. He makes a face and instantly wants to see it on the back of my camera. So the other night I set up the video camera and connected it to the TV and just put it on to view and let him see himself on the big screen! 2 hours of dancing, running, playing guitar on his hockey stick I finally had to shut it down and put him to bed. He had a blast being able to see himself on TV! Cheap entertainment.

He can be goofy, but boy can't that face just melt your heart?

He has gotten really good at sitting. To the point where I feel confident that if I put him on the hardwood floor he isn't going to tip backwards and hurt his head. And a few times he has gone from all fours back to his butt...all big physical developments.
Teeth, teeth, and more teeth. JUST LIKE PARKER. I really try not to compare the boys that much, but I do. Not in a good/bad way of whose better or worse but how and when they did things. But man...why did we have to get another teether like Parker. Drool, sleepless nights, drool, whines, hands in the mouth, feet in the mouth, drool, nothing works. Tylenol is pointless. Teething rings only last for awhile and he throws them. Ahh...he currently has five. Two bottom, two top and just now another one on the bottom. Parker had 16 teeth at a year so we'll see if Emmitt can catch up with him.
Obviously my favorite for the month. Can decide in color, black and white or both...



PS-we still don't know what color those eyes are...blue around the edge by brown in the middle. No money has changed hands yet between mommy and daddy...we'll keep you posted.

Shack Life

Fall is, by far, my favorite time of year. One of the best parts of Fall is the beautiful weather, that cool air and days at the shack. Parker would live down there if we let him...it takes us about 3 hours to pack up all the stuff we have to move down to the shack but it is well worth it. I actually got Bear's (and his brother's) crib from when he was a baby and set it up down there for good. We spent part of Labor Day weekend at the shack...it just happened to be the last weekend of summer for weather. We ended up coming home Sunday morning at 10 am when it had hit 80, we had had enough. But the boys absolutely had a blast playing at the shack. A change of scenery proves wonders for kids. Parker is always so well behaved at the shack, he really views it as a treat to go. We brought his four wheeler down and he rode that around and around the shack. He would walk the "trails" at the shack, loves going potty in the outhouse, and of course wearing his shack clothes! He and Bear went down a day earlier than Emmitt and I and had daddy and Papa time.
It happened to be Papa Don's 68th birthday on August 30th. We had made all these plans to have supper together at the shack and then realized it was his birthday! So it made it all the better. He kept saying it was one of the best days of his 68 years. I made him his favorite cake, German Chocolate, and painfully tried decorating it with shack utensils. Ended up squeezing out a frosting 68th and some candles. Parker loves birthdays, doesn't matter whose it is, he loves the candles, singing and the cake.
I own rubber boots...in a very bright shade of pink...I sometimes wear them in my yard when we puddle jump but mostly they stay at the shack. I love my girly rubber boots. Parker has started noticing all the repetitive colors in our family...mommy has lots of pink and orange, Emmitt's clothes are usually blue or orange, daddy has lots of green, and Parker has camo, orange and every other color.
He likes to match things up; like his pink vitamin with my robe or brown meat with his eyes, he remembers what other things match up to be. Another really funny thing he does (that shows me he is learning) is that 3 or 4 objects be come family members. He lines up the objects of various sizes and calls them "daddy, mommy, baby" or "daddy, mommy, Parker and Emmitt." Like my hair products-3 different sizes of bottles become big, medium and little/daddy, mommy, baby. He does this with rocks, cups, toys, boxes, pictures in books, everything. "This is the daddy leaf, a mommy leaf, a baby leaf" sometimes he'll make the objects into 4 family members, but what we don't know is if the baby is Emmitt or himself.

One of the hugely missed luxury's the shack does not have is running water...so that means hauling it from the well down the road to the shack, boiling it for dishes and of course being at the shack means boys get dirty so the water is much needed for baths. The sink bucket was a perfect fit for Emmitt. Parker was a little crammed in though. When Parker was about 8 months I gave him his first sink bath at home and there was water everywhere. That was the one and only time...until now. I know some people love giving their kids baths in the sink-I admit the standing position for me and my post-baby-in-pain-all-the-time-back enjoyed it, but even at the shack, there was water everywhere.

Guaranteed to Make You Laugh!

guaranteed to make you laugh! ENJOY

The Wedding!

So Congrats to my new sista! Blake and Casey were married this weekend. Here are a few pics, unedited and I am far too tired to type much for now. But it was perfect. Everything went off with out a hitch. Parker and Adelie walked down the aisle and temporarily stole the show! Until the beautiful bride came in. Blake cried through part of it, just like Barrett did so that always make it even more emotional! I was too busy to take pictures, imagine that...but they had 2 professionals, a husband and wife combo, and they followed each of them throughout the weekend! AND they get to keep everything, so I can't wait for the pics to come! I did video record the wedding and we watched part of that and it was beautiful that time too!
The day in pictures.