An Answer to Prayer

Parker, at 19 1/2 months, is officially full out WALKING!! Walking to school, walking to his room for night night time, walking to his high chair to eat... he is walking everywhere!! And where he used to only walk if he could hold our hand... now he WON'T let us hold his hand as he wants to do it all by himself (now its Good luck to us on trying to get him to go where we want him to go... he's like herding a cat but a walking cat that is... yay!). And on top of all this walking... his new favorite word is "WALK" - he says it from sun up to sun down... its all he wants to do... go figure! I have totally been that worried mommy for so many months now... and after taking him to a physical therapist who told me that we had nothing to worry about that he would walk on his own time... I was still worried! However, little did I know... God was just teaching me a lesson! Phil and I went this past weekend to a marriage retreat with our CLF bible study group and there I for the first time really opened up to Phil about my fear as a failure of a mom because Parker was not walking. Phil and I lifted Parker up in prayer all weekend long as we enjoyed a weekend of lovers bliss... from long walks, lots of talks and diving into the word, Phil and I left rejuvenated and even more in love!! It was AMAZING!!! But as we came home I was still faced with feeling like a failure of a mommy... so after lots of sleepless nights, lots of tears and lots of prayers... I put my hand on top of Parker's head, literally got on my knees and cried my eyes out to the Lord. I prayed till I didnt think I could pray anymore. And the exact second I stopped praying Parker physically got up from sitting on the floor doing puzzles and just started walking... walking like he had been doing it for years! And not only is he walking... but he's really good at it!! I was beyond amazed and truly speechless!!!! We are so proud of our little Parker man and feel beyond blessed!! Guess there is truly something to be said about the power of a mother's prayer! Thank you Lord for your love, for teaching me patience and for giving me the strength to trust and give it all to you!

Parker is walking... be sure to mute the music player on the right hand side of the blog to hear the video

Phil and me on our AMAZING marriage retreat

Philip and Parker getting lots of LOVE from their Mimi and Grande... THANK YOU so much Mimi and Grande for your amazing love and for taking care of our precious cargo while we were away for the weekend... we love you so much and are so blessed to have yall! Hope you got lots of our boy snuggles and kisses!! xoxo

WOW!

WOW... what can I say except for that I am the luckiest girl in the entire world!! I was sitting at the computer paying bills after just getting the boys down for naps and the doorbell rang. I was very surprised to see a dozen long stemmed beautiful red roses waiting on the other side!! At first I thought... who could these be for (its not my bday) and wow, they are GORGEOUS!!! As I opened the card, my eyes filled up with huge tears... I cant believe he remembered!! The card read, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Happy Ten Year Anniversary of our First Date My Love!! Babysitter comes at 7:45pm, put on a hot dress and let's welcome in another Ten! Love you, Phil" Are you serious?!!! Is he the most wonderful husband ever... and when I called him to thank him profusely... he even remembered what I wore that first date night ten years ago!!! AMAZING!!!! And the worst part is that after a crazy morning of carpool lines, wiping hands and faces, kissing away boo boos, wiping bottoms multiple times, story time and lots of hugs and kisses before naptime... I hadn't even had a minute to breathe and it had not even crossed my mind that today was the ten year anniversary of our first date! I will never forget that night in Athens, GA at DePalmas that changed my life forever!! And after 10 years together (7 of those married), 2 babies, 2 dogs and 6 houses... I love you more today than I did back then!! I love you baby and am so thankful for you... you continue to surprise me even after ten years and you truly are my soul mate, best friend, spiritual leader, lover and the best daddy I know!! Still dont know what I did to deserve you and am so blessed to know that when God was creating me, he had chosen you!! I can only hope and pray that our precious boys someday find the amazing love we share!! Cheers to many more years together and many more babies (oops... did I just say that outloud - ha, no we we arent pregnant), Now gotta run... gotta go figure out what in the heck I am going to wear tonight!!!! xoxo

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

And we are so excited as this week is our first week back to school for the boys. Philip had his first day yesterday and Parker had his first day today!! We celebrated with special donuts for breakfast (a real treat since mommy usually just fixes cereal for everyone) and the boys put on their new school bags and off we went. We like always sang "the wheels on the bus song" all the way to school but this time Parker was a little upset to say the least. He didnt understand why he now had a bag packed to be dropped off too. So I guess you could say Parker was a little upset (the pictures speak 1000 words) about this whole new idea of school for him... afterall he is used to spending his days being spoiled with mommy so he had a little bit of a rough start. But by the time I went to get him, he was playing with all the little kids including his bff Holden and new toys and the teachers said he did great! I however was a mess (you would think that with the second one it should get easier but the waterworks just started like crazy when I left the parking lot with now not one but two empty carseats)... but thanks to some Missoni shopping at target I cheered right up!! And Philip on day 2 is starting to really like his new friends in his class... thanks to two little boys who celebrated with birthday cookies today (although we still have our occasional melt downs over being in a different class than his bff Charlie). However, today they got to play together on the playground so Philip was beyond excited to tell me all about how he and Charlie played on the scooter to the game "green light - go, red light - stop. and then the scooter broke" - oops... hope we dont have to pay for that one... that could make for an expensive school year! But then again... its so worth it because long school days mean VERY tired little boys... yay, for mommy!!!

Labor Day Adventures

For Labor Day we went to Atlanta for the "Go Dawgs" (as Philip calls them) kickoff game in the Dome. Besides our weak showing... it was still an absolute blast to see all our family and friends!!! The boys loved getting their game day faces on with their go dawgs matching jerseys who are still of course giving the shout out to our boy Matthew Stafford... afterall these boys may be born in Georgia and NC but they still have their TX roots from their daddy! Then after the ga game on Saturday we took the boys to Macon to stay the night with our best friends from college Mollie and Steven and play with their little ones Harry (who is 5 weeks older than Philip and they grew up their first year of life together as BFF before we moved to Charlotte and they moved to Macon) and Lynde Anne (their newest little addition who is 5 months old - so precious)!! The boys had a blast driving Harry's gator ruling the land except for the part when Philip drove it full speed into the house and Harry looked at Philip and said "lets switch"... looks like daddy has some driving lessons in the near future - ha!! And then after a fun day of playing... the boys really enjoyed their spend the night party sleeping in the same bed together coma style... too cute. Parker loved joining in on the fun and was all about baby Lynde and making sure she wasnt left out. He kept saying "baby" all weekend long while patting her head... looks like he might have found his new girlfriend!! LOVE these little ones and miss our best friends in Macon way too much! Cant wait to see yall at some GA games soon, we are fired up for another fun season... Go Dawgs!!!

Game faces on... lets just hope daddy brushes that hair before the 8pm kickoff

Nothing better than a little early morning wrestling

Go Dawgs

Philip and Harry

loved driving

the Gator

like big boys!

Coma style sleep... I love this picture!

Parker man checking on baby Lynde... so sweet

Lastly, the Parents made an attempt to get a picture of all the big boys who clearly didnt want to get their picture taken

Looks like the kids won!

Meet the Teachers at MPUMC

Today we went to meet Parker and Philip's preschool teachers at Myers Park Methodist. The boys were so excited that they both woke up early and took a fun shower with daddy. Then we got dressed in our matching clothes and off we went as a family of four. This will be Parker's first year at preschool so as you can imagine his big brother Philip was very proud to walk him in to the school and show him all around. Parker LOVED it... he loved his teachers Mrs. Julie (who is Charlie, Philip's BFF from school last year's mommy) and Mrs. Lisa, he loved the toys, he loved all his friends especially his BFF Holden (which I am pretty sure they will be running the show between the two of them before long), he pretty much LOVED it all!! And we even met a few new friends in Parker's class that was such a fun surprise... we met Charlie (Cat's little boy who we know from last year) and we also met Bryce... the infamous kissing "Kate" from camp's little brother (who Kate still apparently wants to rename Philip) are all in Parker's class and Kate was even there to show her little brother around too. What can I say Philip and Kate's love affair might just continue afterall!!!! Next up was Philip's class... he got to meet his new teachers Mrs. Shuler and Mrs. Poole, meet lots of new friends Connor, Conrad, Griffin and lots more and he got to play in his new cool big kid room. It was full of arts centers, sand tables, reading nooks and more. He is very excited and best of all he will be just 3 doors down from Parker man's classroom. Philip has already assured me as we left today that he will make sure "Parker and Holden are doing okay and not crying like babies" (gotta love his concern over his little brother "crying like a baby" and ruining his rep at preschool) and I can assure you Philip will!! Here's to a fun new school year... we can't wait for it to start (especially mommy)!!!!!!!