This last weekend, my brother Caleb married his sweet fiancee, Nicole.

Such a wonderful, emotional, crazy and tiring week!! They are moving after they get home from their honeymoon, so this past week has been full of goodbyes and lots of tears as well as being crazy happy for them and this new adventure.

A thousand different thoughts and emotions. Add in the normal hormones of a fairly new mom and I’ve been a bit of a wreck lately. 😉

We’ve been meeting Caleb for lunch at (where else??) Chick-fil-A every week for the last month or so and this last Wednesday was our last lunch there. Gammy came to this one too. 🙂 So much fun! We will miss our new weekly tradition.

We had our last sibling night for awhile. These are some of the dearest people to me on this planet.

Someone adores their new Aunt Nicole. 🙂

I’m pretty fond of her too. Love that girl.

Friday we got up, did a few things around our house and then it was time to head to the final tux fitting. Love his expressions. 😉

Stylin’.

Some of the groomsmen.

I absolutely LOVE this picture. He was checking himself out with Caleb and Bryant. Love it.

Then it was time to run home, shower, get ready and head over to the rehearsal. Where someone gave someone this:

And pretty much made his entire life complete. 😉

At the rehearsal dinner. SUCH a beautiful, fun evening!!

Last picture with these two single people!!

Wedding day morning started off with a bang. We all met at the gorgeous golf course that morning and immediately started praying because it was raining and their wedding was outside. My grandmother, Nama, entertained this little one for me. Parker loved Nama!! And Nathan pretty much accosted the poor woman before she was even out of bed in the mornings. 😉 We love her lots.

Love this picture of the boys and their Auntie Nicole and Uncle Caleb.

Someone was back to picking dandelions for the prettiest girl – aka the beautiful Nicole. 🙂

And I LOVED this idea with the superhero shirts!! All the groomsmen wore them for one of the pictures. Nathan was a fan as well. 😉

We all prayed and prayed for good weather and fretted the whole time since it poured the entire morning. It had just started to clear ten minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start and as soon as Caleb walked down the aisle, sunlight started streaming out.

So amazing!

They are married!!

I looked down during the ceremony and saw this in my lap – sweet, tired boys. It’s hard work getting all these uncles married! 😉

First there was two, then there were three…

And now there is FOUR. Love, love, love this!

Me and my handsome brother. I love this guy. 

Mom and Caleb’s hilariously awesome mother/son dance. So much fun to watch! They did such a great job!!

Parker lap-hopped again this wedding but I think he had a special fondness for Aunt Jill. 🙂 He did so great. I was so proud of my baby boy!

The happy couple!

This was so fun – two of my dearest friends who I have known for most of my life met at the wedding! Shannon lives here now and Kaitlin was in town visiting. LOVE this picture!!

Getting ready to send Caleb and Nicole off. Insert happy and sad tears.

And they are off to a fantastic honeymoon in Orlando!! Love this picture. 🙂

After the wedding, all of my extended family went back to my parents’ house for dinner and swimming. We ended the very late evening with s’mores by the pool. I love my cousins so much! Love that we’ve all stayed close even as we’ve grown up.

Such a wonderful weekend!! Love those two so much and praying so many good things for their future! 🙂

Well, it was the day I was dreading today. Vaccination day. And in a even sadder twist, Nathan went to bed with a low-grade fever and by the time we got to the doctor for Parker’s appointment this morning, he was running 102.9 temperature at the office. 🙁

Parker, though, is in the peak of health! His head was 40.2 centimeters (81st percentile), he is 24 inches long (76th percentile) and he weighs 13 pounds (51st percentile). Big, healthy boy! We are so blessed. He just smiled and smiled at the nurse. He wasn’t too sure about our dear pediatrician and he screamed bloody murder when he got his shots.

🙁 Poor little guy. I was curious if I would cry this time around and yep, as soon as his little face started crumpling, I lost it. I hate seeing my babies in pain. 🙁

So we are home, we’ve stocked up on popscicles and orange juice for Nathan, we’ve changed back into jammies and gotten comfy on our towel-covered couches (for the inevitable orange juice spill) and Parker is in a much happier mood now that no one is poking him with things. 😉 And other than being a little chilly and having a non-related blister on his finger, Nathan is in a good mood too.

It was time for a movie day anyway. 🙂

Oh my goodness, I have SO much to catch up on on here!! My brother
Caleb got married this last weekend, so we are recuperating from wedding
craziness again and looking forward to some slow summer days ahead. 🙂

In the middle of all the craziness on May 16th, my little Parker Bear turned two months old!! How is this possible?

Parker
is just the sweetest baby! He’s seriously one of the easiest little guys
I’ve ever known – he is so content to hang out and go along with
whatever we are doing. The only time he gets fussy is when he’s tired or
hungry or feels like he needs to be included in something. 😉

Parker
loves, loves, loves to be held. He’s the happiest when he’s right there
with all of us, whether we’re eating dinner or playing a game or
grocery shopping or whatever. He loves to be held facing out too, so he
can see everything going on. And with a big brother like Nathan, there
is always a lot to see. 😉

He’s
eating every 3 hours during the day now and has been going about 6-8
hours at night before he wakes up to nurse and then goes back to sleep
for another 3 or so hours. He’s become SUCH a good sleeper! I’m so
thankful!

He
is SO smiley – oh my goodness. This boy starts smiling as soon as he
wakes up and doesn’t stop smiling until he goes to sleep. He is such a
happy boy – LOVE those sweet cheeks!! He has had quite the second month
too – we had Uncle Bryant and Aunt Nicole’s wedding, Easter, his first
zoo trip, lots and lots of walks, a bout with thrush and Mother’s Day
all crammed into that one month!!

He has his two month
appointment tomorrow morning, so I’m excited to hear his stats. When I
weighed him on our not-so-reliable bathroom scale, it had him at 13
pounds. GRACIOUS. Big boy!! It totally validated my tired arms at the
end of the day. 😉 I wouldn’t trade it for anything!!

 And for some more fun comparison, here’s the Nater Tot and the Parker Bear both at two months old:

In
all of them, Nathan is on the left and Parker is on the right. Is it
possible to be looking more AND less similar to each other?? 😉

This is the time of year when we basically move outside. 😉 So, I’ve been a bit behind on the blog because this has also been the week or two of rest time and nap time not quite matching up between the two boys. We will get there!! 🙂

We planted our garden!! Nathan LOVES being outside helping Dad – there is nothing that makes his day more. And little Parker Bear is falling right in line with that! I’ve never seen a happier boy than when he is outside.

We went to Jon’s softball game and Nathan sat smack in the middle of his two favorite people right now – his Aunt Nicole and soon-to-be Aunt Nicole (in FOUR days!!!). 🙂 Someone adores the girls.

 Running the bases after the game. It’s officially summer!!

Love our nightly prayers with the boys. 🙂

Zoo day with our dear friends Evie and Gracie!

First day of swim lessons!! Nathan went NUTS. We have been looking forward to this day for WEEKS and it finally came! He did so good – I was so proud of him! He’s had two lessons now and he can already get the basics of freestyle down. Love my little fish. 😉

Sleeping through breakfast. 😉

Mother’s Day was absolutely WONDERFUL. I’m so blessed to be the mom of these precious boys! What a perfect day!

 We found a bird’s nest that had blown off the tree on Mother’s Day and so of course we had to make a sign so the birds could find it again. 😉

Hanging out on the back porch while the carpets got cleaned. The weather freaked out that day and it was like 40 degrees outside that morning so we bundled up. 😉

He woke up asking for hot chocolate and marshmallows, so that’s what we had. 😉

Sweet, precious boys. I don’t think I can love them more!!

There are a MILLION grasshoppers overtaking our city so Jon and Nathan went on a little hunt for them yesterday and caught five. Miney, Makey, Mocho, Bojo and Bayjon. I wish I was kidding. They are currently residing on our back porch table. I just love grasshoppers. Not. 😉 I do love that Nathan felt the need for a camo hat and goggles to go hunting. 😉

Precious bath time smiles. I can’t get enough of his cheeks!!

The men in my life – Caleb is four days away from being a married man and moving to Texas. We are all in mourning here about the move! Soaking in every second of time with him and Nicole!!

I am SO sorry it’s been so quiet on here, friends! But, I finally get to tell you all what I’ve been working on every chance I get (which isn’t too often with these two busy boys!!).

Coming VERY soon to a Kindle near you, it’s my newest novella!! I’m very excited for you guys to meet Jane and Sam. 🙂 As soon as I have a release date, I will let you guys know!

In the meantime, how about a quick contest for a free copy of Return to Chocolate when it releases?? Leave a comment telling me what your favorite indulgent treat is and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

🙂 Have a great Monday!

We listen to a lot of KLOVE in the car, mostly because I don’t really want Nathan repeating some of the words heard in my favorite country radio stations. It’s hilarious though because Nathan thinks they are saying “Caleb” every time they sing their little jingle about “KLOVE” and it just makes me laugh.

They were doing their pledge drive recently and I wasn’t paying attention at all to the radio but all of a sudden, Nathan starts yelling, “Mom! MOM!! Get your money and call those guys!! CALEB is STUCK in the RADIO!”

We’re thankful they let him out. Uncle Caleb is well loved around here. 😉

We have been in a very, VERY smiley mood lately so it’s been the perfect time to take pictures of our Parker Bear. 🙂

I think the sleep and the routine and the lack of thrush is helping, don’t you?? 😉 Seriously. This face is just the joy of my heart!

Jon played football at the park with some guys this last weekend, so I dropped him off and then got the boys out for a little impromtu photo session. I don’t know what got into Nathan, but he was just being so so weird. 😉

 Seriously. I took 116 (yes – literally) pictures and these are pretty much the only ones that turned out semi-decent. (And by the way, check out the bruised knee caps on my big boy – let summer begin! 😉 )

 Love this one. 🙂 Parker’s eyes are SO blue – just like his brother’s.

Nathan looks about fifteen to me right here. When did he get so big?? And how is Parker already a baby instead of a newborn??!

And as for the rest of them…

I don’t even know. 😉

BREAKING NEWS, folks. Last night, my precious Parker Bear slept for FIVE HOURS straight, nursed, went pretty much right back down and then slept another FOUR.

I am a new person. A new mother.

I have coherent thoughts again! 😉

I thnk the biggest reason we’ve started getting more sleep (other than someone’s tummy growing big enough to hold a full-sized meal!) is that now that we are past the six week mark and my milk supply is definitely established, I’ve been able to get him more toward a schedule during the day. So he nurses every 2-3 hours now and we’re usually able to stretch that to a full three.

So I have high hopes that things will get back to a good routine around here! 

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately:

Lots and lots and lots of reading. LOVE that my big boy loves to read! We’re training Parker to like it too. 😉 This picture just makes me laugh. Nathan gets so into any story that we read and he was just very sad about the terrible fate that met the Gingerbread Man. Parker? Not so much. 😉 We are now reading through the Magic Treehouse series. Nathan can’t get enough of it.

First time back at CFA with friends since baby brother’s arrival! Can we tell someone was a little bit excited about this? 😉

Dressed up for BSF. We managed to catch the last two sessions! We have absolutely LOVED our time there.

The brothers. I heart them.

This face. Love it. I swear, I kiss those cheeks so much I’m amazed he still has them. He was so chatty and happy and smiley that day while Nathan was doing rest time, so I just put everything aside and talked with him for a long while and then…

He just conked right out. Nothing beats this. I held him for a good 1.5 hours while he just slept on me. Babyhood goes by too fast to miss these moments.

I’m finally cleared for working out, so I tried out the stroller with both boys this week! I absolutely love being able to fit both of them in there at the same time!

I have no idea how he can sleep like that, but I guess he was comfortable because he napped for almost an hour in there!

This kid just cracks me up.

We put sidewalk chalk in one of their Easter baskets so Nathan decided we needed to try it out that afternoon after Dad got home and Jon went to town. Ten minutes later, we had this:

I will never draw with Nathan again if this is what he expects now. 😉 Little known fact about my favorite guy: Jon is a crazy good artist.

Lunch Bunch at Julia’s house! We love our dear friends!

Someone discovered his thumb this week. We yanked it out and shoved a pacifier in. 😉 You can take those away when they turn three, you can’t take away thumbs! We’ll see if it works…

This is how pictures go now. One is always smiling and one is always frowning or totally not looking or yawning or blank faced or you name it.

My office mate always falls asleep on the job. 😉

My boys!!

We went to a little festival at Jon’s school last night and someone got a Spider-Man painted on his arm. He had big plans to keep it “forever” but it had smeared by the time we got in the car, which led to a rather big breakdown. Can we tell who is the favorite superhero right now??

And in very sad news, our enemy Thrush is back. 🙁 We got rid of it a few weeks ago, but I noticed Parker’s tongue was white again this past weekend and the nystatin wasn’t working this time. So, we went to the doctor today and they painted his mouth and tongue with genetian violet. Which turned his lips violet. And I mean VIOLET. It looked like we picked him up from Willy Wonka when we left the doctor earlier.

I’m not sure it’s really his color. 😉 It faded a little after he ate, praise the Lord. Though, I won’t mention what ELSE is now violet.

Um. Yes.

I guess it will take a day or so to wear off and it can stain anything he touches with his mouth or spits up on. And since my boy is super talented at spitting up, I’ve got my grossest clothes on, my couch is covered in towels and we’ve been boiling pacifiers and trying to get anything that potentially touched his mouth while he had the thrush cleaned so it doesn’t come back again. Poor baby.

It’s never boring around here!!