Nashville, Tennessee!

We took a weekend getaway trip to Nashville, Tennessee and it was so much fun. Friday night we went to eat at Demo's and Saturday we went  ziplining! We had never been and it was actually a blast, scary but fun.

We went to the Opry Mills Mall after ziplining, I forgot how big it is! I really wish we had a mall with that many stores close to us. After shopping we went to see "The Lucky One" at the movie theater in the mall and it was a good movie, but not nearly as good as the previews looked. That's always disappointing, but it was still nice.

Sunday we went downtown to walk around and check some things out before heading back to good ol' Southern Illinois! The best part of Sunday, was that we stopped in Paducah on our way home to eat at Olive Garden... haha

Sometimes it is good to get away, even if it's just for the weekend. We had a great time just enjoying each others company and not having anything we HAD to do. It was also nice to have a weekend off for the first time since December! It was definitely hard to come back to work yesterday, I can tell you that. =)





We are Family

We decided to take a goofy picture at our weekly cookout this week and well, I think we succeeded... I love that we get together every Wednesday, it's good for us and it's good for the kiddos.



Kollins watching Parker



So Thursday after I took Parker to preschool to help put together watch Tim and his cousin put together the new patio furniture we got at Menards a few weeks ago. After all their hard work, we grilled out and had a great lunch before I had to go to work.



All Done!



I must say it was nice, Tim works all week and I work all weekend so we normally don't get to do things during the day and it was perfect weather as well. I have next weekend off, it will be my first weekend off since December and I can't wait to see what it has it store =)

Happiness Is...

                                                                   
                                  Happiness is Jumping On The Bed



 

Living in the Now

We went to the park to meet our besties on Wednesday and it was the perfect day. It was warm, there was a nice breeze, and the boys were pretty well behaved. I love this age. They know they are buddies, they laugh at each other, and they must have a secret language because I sure couldn't understand what they were saying that was so funny.

We knew one day they would be this big. We talked about it when they were just little babies playing on a blanket... "Oh, just wait 'til they get bigger. They are going to be best friends, they are gonna be little trouble makers..." We were right. It's thrilling and heart breaking at the same time, because it came so quick..

Now we don't talk about when they get "older", because deep down we know in the blink of an eye that day will be here. As they enter Kindergarten, we will be talking about when they were "little" 2 year old boys, running and playing at the park. So we live in the now and we hope it doesn't fly by too fast, all the while knowing it will.



Good Week

We had a good week. I always feel better about coming to work on Saturdays when my week has been good. It was revival week at our church, so Monday they had an event called "Touch A Truck." They had all kinds of vehicles there from helicopters to tractors and you could climb up in them and let me tell you, this was Parker's paradise. He loves trucks, tractors, cars, anything with wheels!

It was such a fun activity for us, and it was nice to get to go to church! I work every Sunday so that makes it hard, so having church in the week was great. By the way, here is Parker's version of "Jesus Loves Me"... "Cheesus Cheesus Cheessus Bible Bible Cheesus" haha He tries!

On Wednesday night we babysat Kadence & Kollins! Parker loved having them over, but didn't like sharing his toys. He had to learn a lesson in sharing, because he wasn't being very nice!



The rest of our week was just nice and relaxing, and the best part was sleeping in! Ever since I moved him back into his crib, he sleeps until 9:30! That's an extra 2 hours of sleep, I'm loving it! I guess it must be the security, because I don't know what else it would be. Anyways, I'm hoping next week will be just as good!

Parent Fail?



This is how my day started out yesterday, with my little boy happy and silly, like usual. We had a good morning of watching Winnie the Pooh and The Smurfs, then we had lunch and then it was the dreaded nap time. I don't know about you all with toddlers, but nap time has been horrible for us lately. I moved Parker to a toddler bed in December. Why? Because I thought he was ready. I think I was wrong. He does fine decent at bedtime, but naptime is a whole different ballgame. I warn him 5 minutes before that it is almost naptime. I give him a sippy cup of milk, his night-night and he goes and climbs into bed. Within 5 minutes I hear him up playing in his room. I put him back in bed. Immediately after walking down the hall he is up again. I put him back in bed. This goes on for an hour until I am completely frustrated and I realize a nap is not in the cards. What is ironic is he takes naps at school like a champ, no fuss.

Because of the no-nap situation, around 4:00 he turns into a grumpy boy monster. Every.little.thing sets him off, the fits starts, the time outs are non stop, and we are both exhausted. Tim got there around 6:30 with pizza, and Parker was in his highchair. Within 5 minutes, Parker was out cold in his highchair. You would think this is a good thing, but it's not. If I wake him up, he will freak out and if I let him sleep, he will be up in an hour crying. I let him sleep. He was up in 20 minutes screaming his head off, and nothing helped. Finally, after some coaxing and The Smurfs he calmed down.

So what do you think I did? I went into his room and started immediately putting his crib back together. I don't care if he is 5 years old and still in a crib, who is going to know? He was actually super happy about it, and went right to bed without making a noise. So maybe I was trying to rush my baby into becoming a big boy, and I don't even know why because that is definitely not what I want. However, I am glad I was able to admit to myself that it was a mistake and fix it, so hopefully it was not a complete Parent Fail.

Best friends

I'm sad to say that our best friends are moving away =( We went over to play last week and it was so fun to watch Parker and Carder play, but a little sad at the same time. It's only 3 hours away, but with our other best friends living 6 hours away it's a bummer. The good news is, this will put them in the "middle" so we can all meet up there to visit!

I finally gave Parker his big Easter present and he loves it! Of course, he can't say truck so it's "car car car!"

Hi mommy!

Tim trying to teach him how to steer

It was a lot of fun watching him, but when it was time to come in he was not a happy camper. He has started throwing these hilarious fits, he will jump up and down as hard as he can and "cry." I just ignore him until he stops, but that is a little difficult sometimes, and impossible in public. The Terrible Two's are a very real thing, but that will be a whole other post I will have to try to get to today!