Merry Christmas 2009!

It has been one of those days that you simply want to bottle, put on the shelf, and know that you can open it up and experience it again on any other ordinary day.  I can not begin to tell you the many feelings of excitement, joy, anticipation, love, and thankfulness that Dave and I experienced today.  It was an amazing experience to watch Taylor walk into the living room and realize that Santa Claus visited in the night.  He was so overwhelmed that he didn't know where to begin.  However, once he got started, he was on a roll, and wanted to keep going back for just one more present.  We finished off the day by lighting a fire, popping popcorn, putting in a new movie, and all curled up on the couch- all four of us (Baxter included).  What an amazing day!

The Portable North Pole

Taylor has been such a good boy this year that Santa Claus sent him a video message via The Portable North Pole.  You can view it here.  It is too cute!

Here is also our Elf Yourself Christmas card.  Here is the other one that we created.  They are sure to make you laugh!

Getting ready for Christmas

Dave and I are really enjoying our time off from work preparing for Christmas and spending lots of special time with Taylor.  The other night, Taylor and Dave were watching a Christmas movie from the inside of his cardboard play house.  There were so cute that I had to snap a picture.  Yesterday, we made our first homemade sugar cookies.  They are Papa's favorites.  Taylor caught on to the concept of stamping out the cookies, placing them on the cookie sheet, and then dumping lots of sprinkles on them.  I do have to admit that I feel they turned out quite well.  Papa gave them a thumbs up as well. Tonight, we joined the Purcers in eating pizza and making a trip to the Roper Mountain lights.  I had no idea that there was so much to do there.  You can see Santa, roast marshmallows, take your picture at many different spots, and even enjoy various crafts.  We had a fabulous time!  We will definitely have to make it an annual outing.

A charcoal study of Taylor

Dave began this amazing charcoal study of Taylor a few weeks ago.  It was meant to be a practice portrait to see how well he could capture Taylor in charcoal, and how well he could do portraits.  In my personal opinion, he did an outstanding job.  I am absolutely in love with it, and when he puts his final finishing touches on it, I want to have it framed.  I think that he captured Taylor's eyes, lips, nose, hair, ears, expression, etc. beautifully!  I just had to share what an amazing job he did.  Dave did want me to mention that the picture does not capture the portrait exactly.  It was photographed with his artist light above, and in a fairly dim room.  The portrait isn't this dark at the bottom.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this time of year!  I love being surrounded by family from near and far.  We celebrated this Thanksgiving with a huge family gathering.  Twenty-three people came together at Mimi and Papa's house.    We enjoyed catching up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and our wonderful grandmother, Muh! Can Thanksgiving day last just a little longer?!

Leaves galore!

It has been a while since I have posted!  Time flies!!  What have we been up to you ask?  LEAVES, leaves, and even more leaves.  Every weekend for the past two weekends, we have all gone out and raked, blown, tarped, and hauled thousands and thousands of leaves.  We love our trees, but they sure do make us work for that shade we get in the spring and summer.  This year, Taylor has been able to help.  He is quite the raker and tarp hauler.  He was such a trooper to spend an hour and a half outside working hard.  I am not so sure that he was thrilled about it, but when we offered to put on the Spiderman Halloween outfit or shirt that he loves, he was game for it!  Of course we rewarded the sweet child with a "special lunch" to Chick-fil-A.  Nothing says incentive for getting the leaves done like waffle fries and chicken nuggets- A Parker family favorite!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  Taylor had a great time trick-or-treating with our sweet friends, the Purcers, last night.  We hit about 10 or 12 houses to make sure that the kids had the full experience.  By the end of the evening, we were waiting on the sidewalk while we watched the kids ring the door bell.  How wonderful!!

Before heading to the Purcer's house, we made a stop at my parent's house.  Instead of candy, they had a Spiderman toy waiting for Taylor.  Of course, Taylor was thrilled!  Actually, he was more thrilled about the toy I think than trick-or-treating.  Thanks, Mimi and Papa! You know exactly what this child likes!

A Laborious Weekend

This weekend was quite laborious in many ways.  First and foremost, it was quite laborious for my dear friend, Christie.  She had quite a long labor before delivering her third child!  Duncan Amsden Williams was born at 2:11 am on Saturday morning.  He is a beautiful 9 pound boy!  We are so excited for the Williams family!

Although I did not deliver a child by any means this weekend, I did work hard in the kitchen.  It was a huge baking weekend for me!  I made 4 dozen pumpkin muffins, 2 dozen blueberry oatmeal muffins, stewed one large chicken, made stock for soup, brownies for Taylor's teachers, and a loaf of honey oatmeal bread.  Whew!  I am tired of being in the kitchen.  My freezer is stocked for at least a month (Taylor is a huge muffin eater!).  We finished out the weekend at a fun, relaxing EP picnic.  The kids played, we ate catered food from Fatz, and caught up with friends.  What a great way to end a weekend!

Taylor and Pooh

Taylor ditched his "Mommy Sue" (aka his white bunny rabbit that he sleeps with) for his new found friend, Pooh.  Pooh has been in Taylor's room since he was born.  However, he has never really taken much notice of him until recently.  Last night, he walked around with Pooh on his shoulders  or else riding piggy back.  Pooh even snuggled with Taylor on the couch as he watched "Piderman."  Pooh also trumped Mommy Sue last night and got to sleep with him.  However, when I tried to put Pooh under the covers with Taylor, he pushed him to the side and announced, "No Pooh, you're too big!"

Spiderman and Potty Training

Two new things have happened this week.  First of all, Taylor started potty training on Monday.  I was a little skeptical when his teacher mentioned that she thought that he was ready.  I just wasn't sure.  Well, we jumped right on in, and we have been quite successful!  Taylor has only had one accident since Thursday.  He still isn't a huge fan of the potty, but we do just about anything to coax him on to it as frequently as possible.  I wonder what this week will hold?

The second thing that Taylor has really discovered is Spiderman.  I am not sure where he discovered him at all, but he has decided that he wants to ditch being a fireman for Halloween, and instead he wants to be Spiderman.  Dave found a short Spiderman video this weekend, and all Taylor wants to do is watch it over and over again.  Every time Spiderman makes his way on to the screen, Taylor screams, "It's Spiderman, Mommy!"  It is just too cute.

We tried to enjoy our weekend as much as possible.  Taylor had a low grade fever and a runny nose on Saturday morning.  So, we went to Dunkin Donuts and headed back to the house to snuggle in our bed and eat a donut.  That was sheer bliss!  There is nothing like snuggling with a toddler, eating donuts, and dozing in and out of sleep while you watch t.v. for an hour.  Now that is what Saturday mornings are meant to be!  This afternoon, we took Taylor to Target and then to the playground.  I think that we pushed him too far.  He kept putting his head on Dave's shoulder at Target and telling us that he wanted to go home.  He made it for about 10 minutes at the playground, and then we headed home for a quick lunch and a nap.  Here are a few pictures to recap our weekend.

Sky Top Orchard

m a little late on posting last weekend's events.  We managed to fit a lot in to one weekend.  On Sunday, the Purcers and the Parkers headed up to Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC.  The trip was nothing less than perfect!  We all piled in to the Purcer's new van and had the kids watch a movie while the guys drove and the girls relaxed and talked in the back.  That is my kind of trip!  When we arrived, we were the first ones at the orchard.  We grabbed a couple of baskets, a wagon, and headed out to have our pick of the orchard.  The fog was just starting to clear and the views were amazing.  We munched on many apples, let the kids run around, and filled our baskets full!  Poor Kevin got the heavy job of pulling the wagon of heavy apples back up the enormous hill that we all casually walked down earlier.  He was such a trooper!

Taylor became a little fussy toward the end and wanted to be carried.  He perked right up though when we made it back to the store at the orchard.  There were play houses to run in and out of, donuts to eat, and cider to drink.  These things made him perk right up!  To top off the day, we finished with a hay ride around the orchard.  No one else bought tickets, so the we had the ride all to ourselves.  The kids (and adults) got a kick out of seeing the animals and pond that they have on the property.  They truly have a great set up there.  If you have not been to Sky Top, and you are close by, you should check it out!

We have more apples than I think we will ever eat.  I see muffins, pancakes, pies, cakes, etc. all in the near future!!

To finish our perfect day, we had our annual Autumnal dinner with the Weekes.  Last year, Kelly and I decided that we should celebrate the first day of fall with a dinner since it is our favorite season.  We had such a great time that we did it again this year, and will of course continue the tradition in the coming years.  We recreated a similar dinner to last year's.  We such a great time catching up with them and watching the kids play.  Kelly's soup and dessert were amazing!  She is such a fabulous cook.  I can't believe that I didn't take a single picture (that is so unlike me).  However, Kelly took some great pictures.  You can find them on her site here.  What a perfect fall day!!