Holiday Greetings

A Visit with Santa

"I would like a new truck for Christmas."

"Santa, I don't want to sit with you but I will stand by you, is that okay?"

"How do you know my Daddy was just home?"

"I would like a beautiful new sparkly dress Santa!"

"Thank You for the goody bag Santa... I don't need anything for Christmas, cuz we are going to Disney World for Christmas!" (Can you tell we rehearsed what we were going to say?) :)

Home for the Holidays!

Opening Christmas presents with Daddy!

Playing Bendaroos!

Don't Break the Ice

Posing in our $3 Disney PJ's that Mommy bought for us on Black Friday!

Hmmmmm...... Woody?... or Buzz Light Year?

Thanks Daddy for a wonderful trip home for the holidays! We miss you already! Love you!
XOXOXOXOXOXO's

Thankful for....

This Thanksgiving I realize more than ever how very much I have to be thankful for. I need to be reminded of all these good things, when I'm faced with the challenges that life brings. This year as I reflect on all that I have, and all that God has provided me, I am extremely grateful! Here are a few pictures Daddy took on Thankgiving Day of each of the kids, since the weather was so beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving to you ALL!

Hunters in Training

Saturday afternoon Mommy and Daddy took us out Deer Hunting for a couple hours.   Although us older two had been hunting with Daddy before, this was Jaxon's first time.   This is what he thought of all the driving around....

Although we sure enjoyed our time "hunting" with Mommy and Daddy, we were sure bummed that we didn't "catch that buck".    Maybe next year?

  

Fashion Show with Friends

Tonite we were invited to the Ebertowski's for dinner, and while the lasagna was in the oven baking, the girls had a grand time performing a "Fashion Show" for us. The girls have an entire dress up trunk filled with old dance recital costumes, tutus, flower girl dresses, and princess attire to choose from, which made it easy for all the girls to have several changes of clothing to model. It was quite the show!

Sweet

Here are a couple of my favorite recent pics of the kids. As you may notice Jaxon is not present in either of them. You see most of the time my kids are cooperative and pleasant, however there are just times in a 4 year old's life that are just too busy for picture taking. :) Today was one of them. As I always am reminding Daddy, "We need to pick our Battles!" This was a battle I was just not willing to fight today, but after all it still turned out to be a pretty GREAT day! We couldn't have asked for a nicer November day!

Holiday Baking with Grandma

Daddy's 2nd Marathon

Here is Daddy running in his second ever Marathon, but this time in Jackson, Mississippi. Way to go Daddy! We are so proud of you! Keep up the good work. We are confident you will soon qualify for Boston!

A Small Price to Pay for Flu Shots!

This is what the scene looked like before flu shots on Saturday. We woke up bright and early, ate a nice breakfast, and got our shoes, coats, hats and mittens on to go to Mommy's old school. What for you may ask? Well, there was a FREE H1N1 Flu Shot clinic offered for children ages 1-4, or those older children who have chronic conditions such as asthma, etc., therefore Mommy thought it was a great plan to attempt the long lines of people in hopes that we could all get one. After all, Mommy already has missed 7 days of work so far this year due to the Swine Flu and she is praying each and every day that it doesn't return to our household. The 90 minute wait itself wasn't even the bad part, however 5 forms to fill out while keeping an eye on 5 energetic children wasn't so fun, nor was walking into a gymnasium full of crying, screaming, kicking children. All in all, I must give the kids credit... they did a great job. Despite the fear triggered by the environment itself, it was well worth the wait.... and after all it was FREE!

Hailey's Golden B-Day

Dear Hailey Grace,

Happy "Golden Birthday" Baby Girl! It's so hard to believe how quickly the time has passed us by since the day you were born, 8 years ago today. It seems amazing to me that for 8 years we have been releasing one pink balloon for every year, and this is the first time EVER, that none of the balloons got stuck in a tree, etc. It was a beautiful sunny day (we actually did the balloon release a day early...since Saturday's weather was so beautiful) and the balloons just floated and danced all the way up to you. You're brothers and sisters sure kept your memory alive this weekend as they sang Happy Birthday to you (several times), whispered messages into their balloons before releasing them, and helped mommy make chocolate chip cookies for your B-Day celebration. (Jaxon thought they would be a favorite of yours). Please know that there isn't a day that goes by that your Mommy and Daddy don't think about you. You are in our hearts now and forever, and until we meet again..... XOXOXOXOXO's to YOU, Hailey Grace, our baby girl!

Love, Mommy

Finally.... FALL FUN with Five!

Happy Halloween, or NOT?

As most of you already know, the Parker kids were not feeling well enough to go out Trick-or-Treating this year due to being sick since last Tuesday, therefore Mommy decided to make it a Halloween we would never forget! Mommy said she sure won't EVER forget it !!!!

First, we woke up to hot cinnamon/orange danish rolls! We also got to wear our fun Halloween shirts instead of pj's all day again, and our glow stick necklaces..... Thanks Grandma Peggy!

Mommy planned a scavenger hunt with hidden candy, and we all got a new box of crayons, and our own pack of gum too. Here is a picture of us using our new crayons to color and draw Halloween pictures. Mommy must have thought since we had already missed so much school, that we needed to fit a fine motor lesson into our already busy day.

After finding our candy and gum we got to have a little chocolate fix to make it through our day. I think that worked more than the medicine did!

Next we had a "mummy making contest".... two rolls of toilet paper and a whole lot of fun, right?

Kierra said not so much!

After begging Mommy to go outside ("since it was a beautiful sunny day") she finally agreed. After all... a little fresh air would do them all some good, right?wrong! Jaxon just didn't have the energy to play! Poor guy!

As much as I tried to make this a fun halloween, it broke my heart knowing that my kids were so miserable! As you can see though, despite how crummy they felt, they still put on their smiles for some of the pictures! Here Adrian is carving a pumpkin online!

and then we got dressed up in costumes just long enough to take a picture or two..Next thing I know the three kids who felt the worst had retired their costumes for their pj's instead. Can you guess who? Mommy planned Halloween Mac-and-Cheese for lunch and hotdogs/chips for supper. She also made us ghost shaped brownies, and bought Halloween Oreos, and Halloween Ritz crackers too. Mommy said, "You know kids are sick when they don't even want cookies, cupcakes, or brownies". A couple bites each and they all wanted to be done!
Princess Paige was our only Trick or Treater of the night, and she came bearing Treat Bags for her daycare friends! Thank You Princess Paige! Right after supper we turned off the lights and took our party downstairs, where we had a glow stick scavenger hunt, danced to music, and snuggled up on the couch for a couple Halloween cartoons compliments of Nick Jr.
...and a huge thank you to ALL of our other great friends and family too for all the other Halloween goodies, meals, treats, surprises, kind words, phone calls, etc that really helped us get through these past nine days of being sick! You're the BEST!

Keiley's CHEER team

YEAH! Finally got a picture from my dear daughter who lives many miles away.... here is a pic of her CHEER team at practice. They will start CHEER competitions in Jan. Good Luck Girls! (She is front and center... third from left in the front row!) We are so proud of her! Keep up the good work, Keiley! We Love You and Miss You a Ton!