How do I love thee??? Let me count the ways....

I decided to change the name and look of this blog for a couple of reasons...
1. Change is good, and this season is about to change for this family.
2. It's been so long since I've blogged, did anyone REALLY remember the name of it???
3. Let's be honest, most of the blogging done around here is about our little princess. So, in honor of this change this post is made in honor of our little princess, her highness Laurel.

Laurel turned 3 last Sunday. I'm not quite sure that has really sunk into my brain yet. She consistently amazes me with the things that come out of her mouth and the things she does. Many of you know her as just a "pretty face", though, so I thought I'd take some time to broaden your appreciation of the one, the only, Laurel Ray Parker with some of my own personal favorite things about her.

• 5 minutes in to her life on earth, our little turkey managed to rip the hospital bracelet off of her arm AND pee on the nurse. That should have been our first indication that we were, indeed, not dealing with the average, mild-mannered child. And, although there have been many LOUD and DRAMATIC words spoken from her, I would want her no other way.
  
• Her daddy and I tried our best to keep her from loving "princesses". We avoided it at all costs, in fact. However, I have learned that you can keep the princesses away from your daughter, but you can't take the princess out. And, there is something magnificent about a little girl knowing that she is indeed a princess, and must carry herself as such. This might be a good time to mention, however, that there is a stark distinction between "princess" and "DIVA"...and we will have NONE of the latter.
• From the time I entered the hospital in February of 2008 to meet Laurel in person, we have played music in her room while she's slept. I'm fairly certain that this is why she thinks her life is a musical. She sings and dances on command with whomever or whatever is near, be it a doll, a stuffed animal, or a person. And, correct words are not necessary. Hence, the new version of the old favorite..."Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell, Tinker all the way...oh what fun...la, la, la, la....HEY!" (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells).
• Any time Laurel puts on a dress or a skirt, her first action is to make sure it "spins" appropriately. After all, one cannot have on any type of "princess attire" that does not handle the twirling of a princess.
• Many mornings after Laurel gets dressed for school, I tell her to "go show Daddy how pretty you look". Her face lights up like the tree in Rockefeller Center as she runs into the other room to spin and show Kevin... "Look, Daddy, how pretty I am". Sweet, sweet, Laurel....may no one ever take that away from you.
• To say that Laurel is analytical might possibly be the understatement of the century. My daughter never "tried" to crawl. She watched crawlers for months, studying their every move. I honestly thought she'd never do it. Until, one day, at 10 months old, she decided it was time to show us what she had been studying all these months, and she took off crawling. Not once did she lose her balance or fall. She wanted to figure it out and do it right, or not do it at all, thank you very much. Four months later, she did the exact same thing with walking. One day, she just "let go" of the table she was holding on to and never looked back. Books, movies, anything you put in front of her...she has got to figure it out completely or she wants nothing to do with it.
• Speaking of books and movies...this child gets into a story. To this day, no matter how many times we have seen "The Little Mermaid", Laurel gets VERY upset with "the princess' daddy" because he "is not being very nice". And, don't even think about bringing it up later, because you will hear all about it all over again. Every time Prince Eric and Ariel float away in their princess ship, Laurel waves her best wave back saying "bye Princess" until the screen goes dark.
  
• Do NOT try to tell my daughter that she anything but "Laurel Parker". Any other adjective that you tell her will result in the very direct response..."I'm not ________, I'm LAUREL PARKER". Yes, yes, my child...you are.
  
• Perhaps this statement is a bit biased, but my daughter has the greatest laugh. It's not just a girly giggle. Oh no...this laugh comes from her very core and is possibly one of the most contagious sounds ever.
  
• When Laurel gets in trouble, she is ready to tell anyone who will listen all about it. She will give you the play-by-play of what SHE did, what YOU said, what SHE said back, and what her consequences were. At least we know she's paying attention...
• As stubborn, independent and hard-headed as she can be, she is also one of the best snuggle bunnies anyone could ever ask for.
• So, my dear Laurel, as you are now 3, know that you are dearly loved and cherished, and Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you. We wouldn't change a dang thing about you, even if we could. We love you, turkey.
  

We do change in multiples....

I refuse to begin this blog by apologizing for my recent lack of blogging. Those 2 or 3 readers out there do know my heart, and most likely, my schedule as well.

Where, oh where to start? I left off in March, which was incredibly stressful. Let's just say the month was sandwiched with wrecks by my dear hubby on both sides. The first involved totaling an HPD vehicle, and the second (on his birthday no doubt) involved his new car being in its second wreck. Enterprise and the body shop know us well at this point. Praise God, he wasn't injured in either. However, note to all husbands out there...please do not begin phone conversations with your wife with the following statement: "You don't need to come, BUT, I'm on my way to Ben Taub....I totaled my car....Don't worry, I'll be home soon..." and then proceed to hang up the phone. I won't even go through the thoughts in my head at that moment, but I will say I did find the police officers I know as quickly as possible and make them stalk Kevin at his station to find out the real story. Do you really blame me?

Add to that the horrible process of real estate sales. I spent the majority of the month of March waiting and praying to see if our condo was actually going to sell. Let's just say I'm NEVER, EVER, EVER going to go into real estate. And, I'll probably never move out of the house I'm living in right now. If I ever have to go through that process again, it will be too soon for my liking.

But, moving on...we did get into our new casa in April, and spent the majority of the next couple of months getting settled (one day I'll post pics).

So, as if that wasn't enough change in our world, we decided to shake things up a bit more. We found out in early June that I was expecting another little turkey again, and then found out in July that I received a job offer to teach in Katy. We were thrilled about both. So, the month of August was spent traveling, getting ready to start a new job, and searching for a preschool for Laurel and baby-to-arrive-in-February. Change, change, change...I guess one big change isn't enough for me...gotta get it all done at once:)

I'll unpack these decisions (and get my house clean enough to photograph) shortly....but, don't hold your breath!

Catching up--Chapter 2: The Month of Birthday Bashes

Apparently, February is when all the cool kids give birth (okay, so maybe just my my seester-in-law Erin and myself). So, this February brought a 2nd birthday bash for the little Bit, followed a week later by the celebration of sweet Parker Dugan's 1st birthday. We celebrated in style at the Promiseland play area at our church, full of Yo Gabba Gabba fare and friends. I'm pretty certain that Laurel didn't understand much of it, she just loved the cookies and the Gabba. I must say, I'm pretty okay with that. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day...


So, I made my best effort on the cake, but let's be honest....I'm way better at making it taste good than look pretty:). I added the picture with Kevin mostly because I think his facial expression is hilarious, and so you can get the full affect, her shirt says "I'm the Birthday Girl...now give me some cake". The irony of this shirt is that she refused to eat cake until the NEXT Saturday when she saw cousin Parker eating his and decided it wouldn't be so bad after all.

A couple of weeks later, we had Laurel's 2-year-old pictures taken. I was honestly pretty hesitant, because, well...she had been acting very "2" in the days prior. However, when we walked into the photo studio, her inner diva exploded. It was almost troubling. She threw her shoulders back and worked that camera. Again...not really sure how I feel about this. But, for now, we have some fun pictures to show for it.
Confession: I only added the last picture (and made it bigger) so you could see the nice big green bruise on my child's forehead. "What's that from?", you ask....Well, you see, a few short days before this little photo shoot, my little darling threw one of the grandest 2-year-old fits of all times. In her anger (don't ask me at what...who knows) she decided it would be a good idea to bang her forehead onto our ceramic tile (that has concrete underneath). I had a few moms ask if I was going to put concealer on this bruise (to which I inwardly replied, "do you know me?...I mean REALLY...this is NOT Toddlers in Tiaras"). It will just serve as an reminder when one day this little darling has a 2-year-old and I can smile and remind her of her own antics:).

Alright...now that I have you on the edge of your seats.....the next chapter in my update saga... Chapter 3: March...Honestly, the most stressful month I can remember. Dying to read it, aren't you;)?

Without further ado...

So as a feeble attempt to motivate myself to actually write on this thing, my good friend Danielle gussied up my blog. And now, I must attempt to catch my faithful few readers on what has happened throughout this first of half of 2010. Rather than send you on a blog-binge (as I'm sure you are so hungry for details of our life), I will break this into a few short chapters to summarize the happenings and (hopefully) catch us up.

Here goes nothing...January:

Happy New Decade! This one was way less painful than the ringing in of the last decade (ie Y2K). Not only were we thinking that the world was going to end (well, not me...but there were some), I, genius that I am, decided to have my wisdom teeth out days before. So, I spent the beginning of Y2K looking like Mrs. Potato Head. Not so, with 2010! In fact, I can't even remember what we did, it was so exciting. I'm pretty sure we rang in the new year with Dick Clark, and may not have actually made it to midnight Central Standard Time. I guess that what happens when you are old and 30:).
The most noteworthy event of January 2010 was a fun-filled trip to see Grandma and Grand-dad Ray on the farm in Missouri. The toddler and I flew up by ourselves (always an adventure), and spent a week with my family. It was freezing cold. I guess after 7 years, my blood has officially grown unaccustomed to winter. Who am I kidding? I hated winter when I lived there. In fact, spent about 5 months out of the year unable to feel my fingers because they were always so cold. So, in good humor, the Lord gave us a major snowstorm while we were there. A total of 8-10 inches (depending on who was doing the measuring). Laurel loved it! She built her first snow-thing (I would say man, but it was more blob-like), and watched Grand-dad shoveling all the snow on the tractor. It all melted just in time for us to board our plane back to Texas.
To this day, any time Laurel sees a tractor, she thinks it belongs to Grand-dad Ray.


...And on the way home...looking out above the clouds.

Next up...Chapter 2...February (the month of birthday bashes).

Coming Soon....

1. A new post. I promise, my 2010 New Year's resolution did not involve non-blogging. It's been one crazy busy year.
2. Pictures of our new house in Katy. Well, let's be honest...Fulshear. We actually live more in Fulshear than Katy. But we love it:)

Patience, my friends, patience.

Between festivities....

That's where I find myself right now....right smack in the middle of a season of festivities. One might compare it to "the eye of the hurricane".

This past weekend, I hit the big one...yes, the big 3-0. Kevin and some of my sweet friends threw a small surprise party for me at Buca de Beppo, which was very fun. On the actual day-o-my-birth, there were many other parties to attend... We began the day at the Candy Cane Lane preschool Christmas party at our church. Laurel was a little unsure of the petting zoo, and was even less thrilled with the goat that went after her sippy cup. We then proceeded to celebrate the 3rd birthday of our friend Jayk before Kevin had to head to work.

The afternoon brought a college graduation celebration for our friend Christa. Seriously, this girl is amazing. I'm so proud of her. She has worked full time, taken care of her hubby, and gone to school full time....AND managed to graduate with honors. I'm pretty sure it was all I could do to get through college when the only thing I had to take care of was me. Way to go Christa!

The day ended with a dinner date with Laurel to Panera. We got to the register to order, and she immediately spotted the chocolate chip cookies by the register. So, in all of her cuteness, started sweetly begging....More cookie, pease....pease....PEASE!!!! Who could resist? I really wasn't wanting to ruin our "date" before we even ordered.

After 2 days of recovery...we are in gearing up for the festivities of Christmas. Kevin and Laurel left for Austin yesterday for Nanny and Baba's, and I'll head up there today after work. Last night I had the condo completely to myself. It was crazy-quiet. No monitor music...no puppy dog following me around...nothing. Which was nice for about an hour. Then I took myself on another date to Panera (are you noticing a trend?).

The festivities to come include candlelight service with Kevin's family, and Christmas in Austin. Kevin has to work Friday, so he'll come back that morning, and Laurel, Toby and I will stay until Saturday. Should be an exciting weekend of presents, wrapping paper, and boxes. And, maybe if Laurel hits the jackpot, some packing peanuts.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas with your family or loved ones with whom you celebrate!

Much love to all of you!

And the countdown begins...

Not to Christmas, silly...to the 30s. Yes, they begin on Saturday. And, in anti-climatic form, Saturday will bring a 3-year-old's bday party, a Pre-K event at church, and then hanging out with Laurel while Kevin goes to work. I've noticed that as I get older, birthdays seem more and more like any other day of the week. Not a pity party...just an observation:)

December also has brought another landmark...the 5th anniversary for the Parkers. We got back last Monday from Key West...which for this ocean lover, was amazing. Ocean everywhere I looked...out the window, down the street, surrounding the highway...everywhere. In case you are from Houston and didn't know, the ocean is actually blue...not brown like you see in the gulf. Who knew? The best part is that my husband is a firm believer in the fact that vacation is for doing nothing....and that's what we did. We ate breakfast about 11 every morning, slept about 10 hours a night, and often took naps during the day. By Monday, though, we were definitely ready to return home to the Little Bit. Here are a few pics to give you the brief rundown of the weekend...
Outside our hotel in Key West


The street performers at Sunset

My anniversary present to Kevin...Dolphins tickets...these were our seats
And, the view from our balcony in Miami.

That's all for this Monday...Have a great week!