very blessed

Thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday yesterday!

I got some new dishes thanks to my WONDERFUL parents,

a new purse thanks to my AWESOME in-laws,

and some clothes thanks to my HOTT sweet cheeks.

not to mention, i got to do a little retail therapy to get my new clothes

-by myself, i might add.-

spent some time playing with my cute boys.

went out on a date with my sweet cheeks to see a movie and dinner 

at chic-fil-a where i got a FREE milkshake,

and everyone came over to say happy birthday!

a HUGE thank-you to grandma rucks for watching parker.

(some may know this, but i have a REALLY hard time with letting people

babysit parker..... but thats for another post.....)

i also got a pumpkin pie from my 

AMAZING sister carissa and her hubby kyle,

some chocolate cookies from my good friend arielle,

and to top it off, went out with some of my best friends to

half-off appetizers @ applebees..... 

(dont judge, its all we got here in the burg!)

seriously, a great day.

as we went to bed last night, i kept telling jared over and over

how so very blessed i feel! 

i have a great life, with great people in it. 

thank you to everyone!

okay, im done. now onto the main man most of you 

come to this blog to see.

because what would a post be without pictures of parker?

we've had some fun days playing @ G&G Rucks' house

with cousin charlee.

and played once in the pool. i think it was too cold.

of course we've read books,

and discovered the merry-go-round

across the street.

and now i have to drive him to a park a mile away

so that this dumb merry-go-round doesnt

suck our bank account dry!

and just cause he's so stinkin cute:

we are loving this warm weather! 

and feeling very blessed in life right now.

overload

i LOVED how our family pictures turned out last year,

(thanks to jared's cousin, Desirae)

so when my TALENTED friend jessica offered to take our family pictures,

of course i had to jump on that band wagon!

she did my make up and took our pictures.

and im SO HAPPY with how they turned out!

she took over 200, and we got some REALLY good ones,

thanks to parkers WONDERFUL aunt carissa and uncle kyle

who came to help get him to smile!

but just to prove that all of them didnt turn out so cute,

and also because grammy allred and aunt stacey want to see more,

here is a picture overload.

thank you so much kyle and carissa for coming to get parker to smile!

tired of looking at us yet? 

there are LOTS more, but sorry mom and stacey, you will have to 

wait to see them when you come up.

parker is going to be up from his nap soon and i need

to get some stuff done! 

enjoy!

like a hawk

since we live across the street from porter park,

you can usually spot parker and i there multiple times a day. 

and even though we go play there a lot,

im having a hard time letting my little dude "go." 

i follow him like a hawk, and never leave his side.

ive gotten better at letting him try things by himself.

 but sometimes my heart skips a beat 

when i see him almost fall off the step

or almost fall over the edge of the slide. 

and sometimes there are lots of bigger kids playing and running, 

and not paying attention to little dudes like parker.

which is fine, they are kids, thats what they do.

but sometimes i have to remind myself that i am 

a mother at a public park, 

not the teacher on duty at recess. 

it was pretty rainy here for a few days straight 

keeping us away from the park and stuck inside.

we read many many books. 

parker loves his books. like really loves them.

somedays, all we do is read books.

and i have to be honest, some days i just

dont wanna read the three little pigs anymore!

but i will because parker loves it, and i love him.

^i love how he is squatting in this one.

every afternoon when parker wakes up from his nap,

he knows he gets a little snack, and heads straight to the "cupboard."

and boy does he sure get feisty if he cant get the snack out himself.

and sometimes he is a little impatient and doesnt wait until his pants are on.

  i so wish we had a fenced in back yard for him 

to run around and play in.

our options, besides the park, is either the parking lot in the front of

our apartment, or on the train tracks behind our apartment. 

and so again, i follow him like a hawk when we are outside our apartment.

i let him help me clean the toilet the other day.

and im pretty sure he thought it was the coolest thing

since sliced bread. 

jared recently got his motorcycle permit, 

he borrowed his dad's bike for the week and loved it.

me, not so much. apparently neither did parker. 

i just love him. love him. love him. love him.