SURPRISE!!

I pretty much have the best husband in the world.  Scratch that.  I DEFINITELY have the best husband in the world, and since I love him so much and he works so insanely hard for our family, I wanted to do something really special for him for his 30th birthday.  We might live in Katy, but I know his heart belongs to Fort Worth and that he misses his family and friends there more than he'd ever admit....so I decided that he should be with all of them for his 30th birthday celebration.  After a month or so of planning and scheming with his wonderful mom, we finally came up with a plan to *hopefully* surprise him with a birthday party at their beautiful home in Aledo.  And it actually WORKED!  He was totally surprised and loved getting to visit with all of his old high school and college friends that he hadn't seen in quite sometime.  His parents are pretty much, no, scratch that, DEFINITELY some of the most selfless people I've met and the party (margarita machine and all!) was a hit all because of their awesome hospitality!  And I think the slideshow his dad made with all of the awesome/embarrassing/super cute pictures helped too.  Not only did we have a surprise party, but we also had a family birthday party too and got to spend some good quality time with his Uncle Chris, Aunt Jayne, cousin Taylor, and Mimi and Aukey B.  Oh, and Parker loved every bit of his Aledo weekend too!  

 His PawPaw started a MASSIVE obsession with one tiny little word: RIDE.  Parker now automatically associates PawPaw with Ride and literally says it everytime he sees PawPaw or hears his voice.  

 Tyson's old fish camp co-chair partner, Lauren and her baby, Caroline.  It really made his day to see her again and to finally meet her baby!

 Sweet cake!

 Happy 30th, baby!!!  I LOVE YOU!

 It's blurry, but a goodie!

 She's a cousin who might as well be a sister, and I think you can see why! :)

 Just eating some waffles and having breakfast with PawPaw and Gigi!

He's just itching to get outside and play in that gorgeous yard any chance he gets!

  Aaaaand...he's off!

 I know his Gigi will love this picture of his sweet little neck! ;)

 Come on, Mom!!  There's so much to see!

 Man, that's one good-looking kid!

 He loooooves playing with PawPaw!

 Gigi bought him his very first t-ball set and daddy showed him how to play. 

 He decided he was done hitting the balls and instead, just wanted to take both of them to explore.

 Precious moments.

 There's a really neat park by PawPaw and Gigi's that we've always wanted to take Parker to, and since it was such a beautiful day, we decided it would be the perfect Sunday morning outing.

 Daddy decided the park was fun for him too.

 This is the man I love.

 Such a cute picture.  He was having SO much fun!!

 All of that fun kind of tuckered him out...because once Tyson sat on this swing with him, he immediately layed his head on his daddy's chest.  Which was quite possibly the sweetest thing ever and made his daddy's day!

 And then, he wanted some snuggles with Gigi and I think it was almost enough to make her melt.

 So. Precious.

 Bathtime!

 We waited a little too long to get a picture with Mimi...since he had such a FULL day, he was exhausted and not at all in the mood to say cheese!  He certainly did love getting to spend time with her though!

Happy Halloween!

Aarrrrgh!  Happy Halloween from our precious little pirate, Parker James!

 Our dress rehearsal at home...

 We went over to a friend's house for a little Halloween playgroup and Parker had a blast!  As you can see, he was kind of in heaven.

 He met his very first turtle, and was extremely curious about it.

 Of course, it wouldn't be a Halloween playgroup unless we dressed our kiddos up in their adorable costumes to take pictures of them!

 I'm convinced this is why adults created the holiday of Halloween, because how CUTE are these kids!?!

 This is just about the cutest thing ever.

 Gotta love the pirate and his parrot. ;)

 On Halloween night, we took our little pirate to the Fall Festival at our church, which he LOVED.  He wasn't quite sure what to think of Mitt Romney though. ;)

 We saw his little buddy, Asher there and couldn't pass up the photo opp. 

 The cuteness is literally almost too much to handle!!

 YO-HO!!!

 He loves playing with daddy!

 SO.CUTE.

 I really think I could just dress him in this pirate costume everyday and melt from how adorable he is!

 Such a cute picture with all of his buddies!

 Parker and sweet little Ellie...those Thompsons would certainly make amazing in-laws one day.  I'm just sayin'.

Still saying cheese after a night of crazy Halloween fun!!

Tyson's birthday is the day after Halloween!!  He turned the big 3-0 this year and I planned a surprise party for him in Aledo (another post on that soon!), and we also went out to dinner here in Katy.  I made him a fruit pizza since we had so much of his delicious birthday cake in Aledo. :)

 Aunt Katie and Uncle Keith watched Parker for us! :)

18 Months

18 Months.  I cannot believe my baby is EIGHTEEN months old!  He's halfway through his second year of life already....which means he is just about closer to TWO than he is to one.  I really can't think about it for too long because it almost makes me sad when I realize how fast time is going by.  He's changing so quickly and while I am always in love with each new phase, I get a little bit sad when another one has come and gone without me even realizing it.  I'm trying to be so aware of the precious moments I have with him and to slow down our crazy life to simply ENJOY him...because one day, my sweet 18 month old will be 18 and I know I'll be missing the days of spilled milk and "If You're Happy & You Know It".  Speaking of which, Parker absolutely loves that song and his face literally lights up every time he hears it.  He requests it each time we get in the car by pointing to the radio and saying "song, song, song..." until I turn it on.  He is developing such a sweet little personality and absolutely takes after his daddy...he loves to laugh.  He is starting to understand when we joke with him, and he's starting to also understand when we are definitely NOT joking with him.  Use a stern voice with him and it's quite possibly the saddest face you've ever seen.  Lip quiver and all!  He loves to go and see our house, and now calls every building under construction a "house".  His version of "amen", which sounds a little bit more like "ahh-me", will just about melt your heart.  He totally blows me away when he remembers which grocery stores he can go for a "ride" at (on their car carts) and which he can't (he never asks to do it at walmart!), and he pretty much assumes that he can have anything as long as he says "Pwease".  It's almost as if, overnight, he developed a love for playing with cars, trucks and trains.  He even makes the little "vroom" sound!  Still obsessed with balls and Elmo.  He has gained 3 pounds and two inches since July, which means he went through a definite growth spurt.  Oh, if there were only words to describe how MUCH we LOVE this little boy.  It's just about enough to make our hearts burst.

Officially 18 months and pretty much beyond cute.

 Our pre-bedtime ritual of milk, snuggles and of course, Elmo.

 He loves how daddy reads to him.  And isn't his daddy just about the BEST daddy in the world for even reading to him during an A&M football game??

 So proud of you, daddy.

 My insanely handsome boys.

 Parker loves playing with his buddy, Asher and just recently, Asher came over to hang out while his mommy went to the dr.  They had a great time playing together!

 He's also just now really developed a true love for his puppy AND blankie.  It's so sweet to watch how he'll just randomly gather them up and give them huge hugs.

 Parker's heaven: going for a ride WITH Sesame Street buds!

 Exploring our new house!

 He has no idea just how much he's going to love this backyard!

I guess it's just really something in the male genes, huh!?!