Welcome to the World Chase!

I went to bed Saturday night at 11:30 and at 2:35AM woke to a call from my brother-in-law telling me my sister's water had broke! I was so excited. Only problem is, we live in Southern Illinois and they live in Columbus Ohio.. so they're about 6-7 hours away. I called my dad and we left as soon as we could. After a long drive, we arrived at 11:25 in the parking lot of the hospital. My adorable nephew was born at 11:29AM, 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 in long!



I am so glad we got to be there, he is absolutely precious, and I think they are pretty proud of him!

My dad got to hold him first, then I held him, then we let all of Andrew's family have a turn ;)



What a great Father's Day present for Andrew! After we got to hold Chase my dad and I went out to eat and Olive Garden so they could get settled into their permanent room. When we returned to the room he was all cleaned up and just as adorable as ever. He makes more little noises than any newborn baby I've ever seen, even in his sleep it sounds like he's singing to himself. That evening we made our way back to Sis and Andrew's house to clean up (her water broke in bed!) and get some sleep then came back the next morning...

I really didn't want to leave, but I had to be at work at 9PM so we had to leave around 1:00. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, even knowing I'll be back in a few weeks. He will change so much in that time, and I'd love to be closer to help my sister out, but I will just have to be happy with the time I get with them. Parker loves his cousin Chase, he hasn't met him yet but he loves to kiss his picture it is about the sweetest thing ever. Welcome to the world Chase Maddux!

Visiting our Besties

Our besties recently moved to Taylorville, which is about 2.5 hours away from us. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but then I realized that just meant we would have to go see them often and this past week was our first visit. We really had a good time. The best part about Taylorville is that it is about halfway between my house and our other best friend's house! So of course we had to go surprise Joy in Chicago, you know, because we were so close =)

We've all came a long way since we met two years ago, but through it all our friendship has only gotten stronger. Looking forward to many more visits!

The Zoo!

We went to the zoo with our friends last week and it was a perfect day. The weather was great, and Parker and Lennon were both little angels! While this age can sometimes be frustrating, it is also a lot of fun... now that Parker can talk more and pays attention to what I'm telling him, everything is more enjoyable. He never tried to run away from me, and even didn't mind holding my hand or riding in the stroller when I told him to. This is a big deal for us. =)

The gorilla was HOT lol. Love the old man in the background =)

Parker was so observant, he loved pointing things out to me. His favorite part of the zoo was the Reptile house. He loves turtles and snakes, and we spent quite a lot of time in that stinky place lol

Ssssssss.....



At the end of the day we decided to stop and make Parker's first Build-A-Bear. His name is Elliott the Elephant and him and Parker even have matching pajamas. He really is cute.

Night Night!



Flintstone Boy

Lately Parker has been obsessed with going outside and riding his tricycle. Now, he doesn't pedal it, but instead uses his feet on the ground like a Flintstone haha. He is so fast, though, I have to job to keep up with him! I am trying to teach him to use the pedals, but he prefers his feet on the ground so we go with it.

Parker likes to come into my room in the morning and cuddle for a few minutes before we get up for the day. Let me tell you, that is one of my favorite parts of the day. He usually faces my and he will put his hands on either side of my face and say (in the tiniest, sweetest voice) Hi =) I guess you just have to be there, it is adorable. Anyways, I guess he didn't remember that it was Saturday today because my mom said when he woke up this morning he ran into my room saying "Momma, Momma!" It sorta makes me feel bad that he misses me when I'm gone, but I love coming home to his hugs when I get off.



Playing in the bath tub =)



We had to buy a backpack for school, and he loves it. I'm a fan as well hehe. When we take the backpack home on weekends he will bring the backpack to us and say "School, school" in a very convincing voice, trying to say it's time for school. He does not like when you explain to him that it's not a school day. I am so blessed that he loves his preschool, he gets so excited when we get there and runs right over to the sensory table to do whatever is there that day.

Parker and Kadence playing in his room after church



Happy Mother's Day!

Parker made me the sweetest little art project at school for Mother's Day =) Best present ever!



I love being a mom. I knew from the time I was a little girl that I was made to be a mommy. Yes, there are days when I want to pull my hair out, but one little smile from my little man and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Thankfully the speech therapy has finally started to work. Parker talks non-stop now and it is so funny. Of course, to the average person, a lot of it probably sounds like jabbering but he is getting there. The other night he was climing up on my lap, then back down, then back up, over and over again. I said "Oh honey!" and he looks over his shoulder at me in the cutest little voice says "hoooneey!" haha He knows how to make me smile, that's for sure.

He has finally started to use sentences, and his first one was "My want it!" and he uses that a lot. While driving in the car, typically he talks the whole time and usually it goes a little like this "What's that? A bug. My want it! What's that? A car. What's that? A boat. Me!" As you can see, he answers himself mostly.

Happy Mother's Day to all, and especially to my wonderful mother who has always been there for me and taught me to be the mother that I am today.

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 =)