Exciting Times!

We have some fun and exciting things happening in our lives right now:

1. We are going to see/ride Thomas the Train on Saturday at the Mt. Hood Railroad. Parker is going to LOVE it!
2. Abby is expecting her second little one any day now. The baby is in position and ready to come. . .we can't wait to meet our new little niece or nephew!
3. Nate's other sister, Rachel, is coming into town Monday evening to hopefully be there when Abby has her baby. It will be fun to have her stay with us on her way down to Corvallis and on her way out to Colorado.
4. I (Jess) am waiting to hear about 2 potential job offers. I am in the final stages of decision -making with both and would be excited to work for either company. Both would offer me the flex/shorter week while allowing me to work until we have another baby (hopefully next year sometime)
5. We are heading off to Chicago and Wisconsin on the 4th for my friend Melissa's wedding. We are staying downtown on the Magnificent Mile and hope to do a little exploring while we are there. On Monday, we'll then head up to Wisconsin to spend time with extended family on both of my parents's sides. There will be 5 second cousins close to Parker's age and we'll be spending time on the farm, which Parker will love! Thankfully, Gigi (grandma/my mom) is flying with us to help out with Parker while my dad and brothers road-trip it out!

So much going on right now. Please keep us in your prayers and we make decisions regarding our future, as we welcome a new neice or nephew, and as we travel to the mid-west.

Little Monkey

Mama's little baker

Yum!


Parker helped mama bake chocolate chip cookies for the first time tonight. He was such a cute helper and spent a good 10-15 minutes sucking every last bit of batter off the beaters and scooper after we were done!!!!
BTW, so not fair that my son is about 5 shades darker than me! He got so tan in the last two days!!!

Cousins. . .

Parker and Betsy had a great time together this past weekend! They were so cute playing together. Its so apparent how much they love each other already:)

Not-so-happy Parker

Since we usually have goofy pics of Parker on the blog, thought I ought to display a few of his less desireable faces;) I wanted to show off his new pajamas, but he just wasn't feeling it. Notice how he gets increasingly more agitated with each picture until mom takes one with him and only THEN does he manage one of his trademark smiles!

Cute Randoms

One of P's favorite things lately is getting IN his toybox!

Another favorite past-time is bug hunting!

Cute red cowboy boots and t-shirt from Grandma.

Eating with a fork like a big boy (he insists on eating with utensils these days)

Watching "tb" with Bumpa and

pretending to be a baby:)

* Parker also has been telling me when he has to go poo poo lately. He yells, "Mama, poo poo!!" really loudly, and then we run to his potty chair. Today we actually made it there mid-poop so he was able to flush it down the big toilet and get his cherished truck stamp for going. What a big boy! We are so proud of him for being ahead of the game with potty training!!

He has also been going down without his binkie the last two days without even asking for it or caring. He hasn't been terribly attached and only uses it at bedtime, but I am thankful that it seems he will easily wean himself off using it.

Cute Story

I (Jess) was playing with Parker this morning. He wanted to get inside of this big basket and was saying "boot" (his boot and boat sound the same). I repeated what I thought he said/meant -"boot" and he looked and me and clearly and decisively said, "ship" . That was impressing in itself-that he used another word for what he was trying to communicate! But then he was saying water (wawa) and pointing outside the basket -basically playing make-believe and pointing to the pretend water all around his ship!!! But it gets even better. I got Nate on the phone so Parker could tell daddy about his ship and Parker started blowing pretend bubbles (swim lessons are paying off!!). He wanted to do row, row and rock, rock the boat and blow bubbles in his "ship" for a good 20 minutes. It was adorable and amazing to me how he already grasps the whole pretending and make-believe thing. I guess I wasn't expecting much beyond pretending to feed/play with dolls/babies and pretend to be a baby himself. . . . . He sure has an active imagination already!
Makes me realize how fast he is growing and developing. He is so much fun and gets more adorable as time goes by (even though we didn't think that was possible). Thank you God for the wonderful gift of Parker!!!