I'm Still Here!

I don't have much to say other than, "Hey!".  The last couple of weeks have been pretty normal, except Ryan was out of town for a few days and Parker has a new, more intense displeasure with the camera.  Basically, I think to myself, "Wow, I really want to write a post," so I try to take some cute pictures of Parker.  Here's an example of what I end up with:

Basically, I pull out the camera because he's doing something sweet.  I try to get the settings right by taking a couple of practice shots.  Parker sees me with the camera and starts yelling, "noooooooooo!  nooooo!  mama, mama, mama!", and then crawls into my lap, where I cannot take a picture of his face.  It's very frustrating because I want to get more practice with my camera (with him, not objects) and he won't sit still EVER!  It's okay, though, because I'm glad I have a busy, active boy.

Here's what Parker was working on when I was trying to take his picture.  I think it says, "I Love Momma".  He puts all of the letters together on the fridge and starts saying, "R, N, M, O", for each letter.  These are the letters that he "knows", so he just uses those for every letter.  It's so funny.

We drilled holes in a pumpkin this week and shoved a string of lights in there.  I wanted to try it since Martha Stewart did it.  Major fail.  It didn't turn out as we hoped, BUT it's on the porch nevertheless.  I'll have to take a porch picture to illustrate.  I want to try a couple of actual carvings sometime next week.

Last weekend, our good friends Nate and Kim and their daughter, Kaley, had us over for dinner.  Parker and Kaley were so cute--they were hugging and kissing each other in the kitchen right when we got there.  Parker also kept reaching his hand out for Kaley to help her stand up off the floor...my little gentleman!  There was only one "rough" moment when they were hugging each other so tight that they fell onto the tile floor.  Poor Kaley hit her head pretty hard, and they were both crying.  I think it scared Parker more than anything. After that, I didn't see anymore hugs or kisses!  

I wanted to get a picture of the two of them together, but of course, did not pull out the camera before the tile-floor-incident occurred.  I got the camera out when they were playing after we ate dinner, and they were not interested in sitting together for a picture.  Stupid me!  

Nate knows how to reel them in--the iPad gets them every time!  "Hot dog? Hot potato? Elmo?"  He had Parker at "I".  

This weekend should be promising in terms of pictures--we are visiting an orchard for apple picking, going to a work function on a "farm", and it's Ryan's birthday weekend!  I am bound to get a least a couple good ones--right?