shoo flu

some nasty little bug raided our home and declared war. the flu.

it's been a week and a half since the first person was infected and it has slowly spread to each of us. if coughing in chorus was cool, we could probably make some good money for it. sadly we just sound like a bunch of barking seals. not cool.

we stopped by the weekend clinic this morning to have natalie checked out. the advice nurse thought it would be best since she is so young. the doctor we saw said the good news is that we should only be suffering with this bug for another week or so. the bad news... there are two other strains running around town and we could get bitten and go through this again... twice even.

but... i will say this. we all had the stomach flu at the same time last year and that was much worse.

sunday

wish tomorrow was a holiday. or a furlough day. better yet summer vacation!
 
but it's a school day.

all i have to say about that is...

make the most of your sunday.

i'm done!

roll call

who me? YES, you!!

did you notice i posted every day this week? every day!

i'm trying to encourage you to come and read :)

i've noticed that i only seem to get visitors when i link the blog to facebook. and that's okay with me. i just feel like i'm shoving the blog down people's throats that way.

so i'm curious... who is with me... here by your own free will? this is a roll call people!

leave a comment telling me your favorite color. :) mine is green.

friday nights

they are my favorite.
 


pizza, paper plates, movies, games, family, and...

joe and julie time!

once the kiddies are in bed, we watch some dvr of our favorite shows. there are not many things we like that are the same, so some nights we just watch something together just to be together. he'll watch biggest loser with me or i'll watch adult swim with him. he'll rub my feet and i'll scratch his arms. it's a pretty nice arrangement.

what is your favorite thing about friday nights?

mac n cheeez

so i didn't take pictures, but i just wanted to say that ben had mac n cheeez for the first time!!! no, it's not really mac n cheese, but...

it was tasty!

taylor and i liked it anyway. we may have been the only ones though. i have a lot of cheeez mix, so i'll be making this again and again and again.

i found the recipe here at my new favorite site. let me know what you think if if you try it.

and since no post is complete without a photo. enjoy!


natalie sitting in her bumbo

pancake party

there wasn't school on monday, because of president's day.

we celebrated by having a pancake party.


this was a real celebration, because these were ben's very first pancakes (that he can remember)!


ben has been on several allergen-free diets. no dairy, soy, citrus, eggs, nuts, and shellfish. that's a lot of things he can't have. do you have any idea how many things have soy as an ingredient?

i found a simple recipe here. i am in love with this site! so many simple, allergy-free recipes. where has this site been the last four years?! i have a feeling we'll become good friends over the next few years, since miss natalie will also be on allergen-free diets.

6 ingredients. that's all i needed. i used sucanat instead of granulated sugar--that's the stuff in the large white canister.


i mixed all ingredients until smooth. then i added blueberries, because blueberry pancakes are MY favorite pancakes.

spread some dairy/soy free spread (thank you earth balance!) and pour 100% maple syrup on top and wa-la! pure deliciousness!!

chocolate chicken

did you know about these? i didn't. ben told us about them one night during dinner.

B: i don't want this food--i want chocolate chicken!
M: chocolate chicken?
B: yeah!
M: where do you get chocolate chicken?
B: at the store. where you buy toilet paper.
M: (after giggling) oh yeah, of course.
D: how do you make chocolate chicken?
B: you put chocolate in a cup with milk and pour it over a chicken!

ben, that sure sounds tasty, but i think i'll stick to chocolate milk straight from the cup... and maybe an occasional chocolate bunny.

paging dr. parker

for a long time now, i've thought tayor would make an excellent pediatrician. he's super smart. med school would be a breeze. and he's awesome with babies and small children.

i remember when ben was a baby, taylor would sit in front of him and ben would just start smiling or laughing. so happy to have taylor's attention. zach would sit in front of ben and ben would scream.



it's almost the same story with natalie. she lights up when taylor walks into the room. she loves the company of her other brothers, too, but she will crane her neck into wonky positions to catch a glimpse of her oldest bro.

when nat is fussy, he tries to cheer her up with this tiny voice. and he does. when she's sitting in her bouncy seat or saucer, he'll sit next to her and read, making sure that she knows he's there by talking to her every few minutes.



99% of the pictures we have of natalie smiling are because taylor is standing behind the photographer.

taylor's ability to make children smile reaches beyond our family. at the park, mcdonalds, birthday parties... wherever we go, he always has a pack of tots chasing after him, thinking he is the coolest kid they know.



i don't know if taylor will become a pediatrician. he is pretty grossed out by even the mention of blood, so chances are slim. but i know he has a gift and my prayer is that he will use it to do something good in this world, something good that will benefit children.

first pigtails

natalie wore her first set of pigtails yesterday. so cute!!!



i can't tell you how much fun it is to play with her hair. if she's anything like her brothers, i won't get to dress her up the way i want for long. like her brothers do, she'll have her own idea of cute. (see evidence below)



i think i dressed her in three outfits, just so i could take photos of her with three different types of coordinating clips. ha!



grandpa bear, you are not allowed to ask her what's under a pig's tail. enough said.

how cute is this?!



what's not so cute is the flood in our backyard. yuck.

ben and dr. hooey

ben calls his pediatrician, dr. huey, dr. hooey.

when we visit dr. huey, i have to remind myself his name is dr. huey, you know, so i don't accidentally call him dr. hooey.

if you don't have kids or haven't been around kids for a long time, it's very easy to start talking like them. you don't even have to try. magically the refridgerator becomes refridgadrr-drr-drr or frige-i-frator. or dr. huey becomes dr. hooey.

dr. huey is a celebrity in our house. zach has this vet costume that ben likes to wear. he calls himself dr. hooey while he wears it. "i'm dr. hooey. who needs a doctor? i'll give you a shot and you can be brave."

yesterday we went to see dr. huey for ben's 4 year check-up. the last time ben went to the doctor was for his 3 year check-up. that's one year of good health. love that!

when dr. huey came into the room, he asked ben to sit up on the table. ben wanted nothing to do with the table, so he covered his eyes and yelled. loud. i was kind of shocked. he wouldn't look at dr. huey for a good 5 minutes. finally dr. huey offered ben a sticker. why didn't i think of that? ben was putty in dr. huey's hands after that. when his exam was over he shouted "dr. hooey, I LOVE YOU!!!!" dr. hooey said ben was his favorite and easiest patient all day. so sweet! too bad the appointment didn't end on that note...

dr. huey said ben had to get a shot. ben told dr. huey he was 3 and not 4, with the hope that 3 year olds didn't have to get shots. ha!

30 minutes later a nurse came in to give ben a shot. he wasn't happy about that. "i hate shots. shots are poopy and sucky. i'm gonna throw that shot in the garbage!" i had to wait for over 30 minutes listening to him sound off about how horrible shots are. but the nurse, she got the brunt of his complaints. she told us to hurry up and get the pharmacy before it closed. i'm pretty sure it had been closed for 40 minutes already and she was just trying to get rid of us. that place was locked up tight without a person in sight. i think it's poopy and sucky that i have to drive back there to get our prescriptions.

all in all, ben's appointment was uneventful. i did learn some interesting things though...

* ben is bigger than 44% of other 4 year old boys.
* ben can hide under my jacket for about 10 minutes before he's bored
* ben's teeth look "great"
* ben won't take no for an answer when it comes to dum dum lollipops
* ben has excellent eyesight
* ben is afraid of the table that goes up and down
* ben can sit still long enough to have his blood pressure taken--it might take
more than one try, but it CAN be done!
* ben is easily bribed by stickers
* ben has no problem yelling at strangers



gotta love that silly ben!

funny faces

the other day joe took some pictures of our family.













i know exactly what you're thinking... cute family, right?!

ha! we were laughing until we had tears streaming down our faces.

the first pictures were taken just to see if our faces were symmetrical, but then someone moved and someone else looked off to the side and someone stuck a tongue out. it quickly became a game of who could make the funniest face. i know you are wondering, how can i get my own funny face picture?

joe took these on his iphone using a free app called "ugly face."

these are saved in a folder on our desktop. the next time i'm feeling stressed out, down, or angry, i think i'll try opening them to see what happens. i already know what happens when you look at them during a middle of the night baby feeding. :)

here's one last picture. uh oh, ben's getting mad...



which photo do you think is funniest?

eat your heart out

after a day full of school partying and too many sweets, heart shaped hamburgers, chipotle sweet potato fries, and cajun green beans tasted a-mazing! we had to unexpectedly wait for the burgers to finish cooking, so my green beans and fries didn't make it in the picture.

happy valentine's day!

zachy bob

he has many nicknames, but my favorite is zachy bob. when he was in kindergarten, he wrote "zachy" on his school papers. so cute!!

now he's zachary. one of four zachary's and one of two zachary p's in the first grade alone. since he can now produce the /k/ sound, he's not even zatary parter. he's just plain ol' zachary. unless he's wearing this...



then he only answers to baby mario.

whether we call him zachy bob, zachary, baby mario, wacky zachy, baboo, or one of the other many nicknames we've given him over the years, he's still our sweet, lovable, and super silly boy.

meg's mom's margaritas

this is probably a popular recipe, but the first place i saw it was here. so good! it made a lot. think house full of your best besties. definitely for more than just me and the hubs. look at the blender, pitcher, and my cup. i didn't even use half of the beer.

speaking of which... don't knock my selection of beer. it's the only kind i was allowed to use. ha! maybe now that we know it's this good, we can use something else. maybe :)

it went perfectly with this.



my staple. i make this at least once a week, usually twice. it's healthy AND delicious. i got the recipe for the rice here. it tastes just as good as the real thing (i think so anyways). i use brown rice and add a can of black beans that have been drained and rinsed. today i added chicken... the rotisserie kind from raley's. i bought it for something and didn't use it, so on a whim i added it. mmmmm!!

i'm looking forward to the kids going to bed, putting my feet up, and sipping on my margarita. it's not quiet at all tonight. in fact, noise is coming from every room in the house. but i'm okay with that. :)

what's that?

it's the hum of the heater.
the gurgle in my stomach.
the cat pawing at the door.

what is the significance of these random sounds? it's not the actual sounds i'm excited about, it's the fact that i can hear them!

to say my home is generally chaotic would be an understatement. imagine loud children screaming and multiply that by 3 (because 3 of my children are the loudest kids i know) and that's probably what it sounds like on a mellow evening. i just don't think most people can imagine how noisy my house is.

but right now... it's quiet.
it's peaceful.
it's splendid, for sure.

i wish i had a bowl of ice cream. that would make this, it's friday-time to unwind-time, near perfect.

here's me. looking tired. and old. and needing my hair color touched-up. but happy.



happy friday everyone!

sweet girl * 6 month update

natalie is and always has been a sweet, mellow tempered baby. she is stubborn, but she isn't a cryer and is easy to soothe.

she had her well baby visit on tuesday. dr. huey thinks her "sweetness" is all for show and that there's trouble behind that gummy grin and those dreamy eyes. look at those eyes... do you see trouble? i didn't think so!

she is still my "big girl." she has dropped a bit off her curve in weight. probably from refusing to eat for 4 weeks while mommy was at school. (that's her stubborn side.) she weighed in at just over 18 lbs. her length is still in the 100th percentile. she is nearly 28 inches long! according to dr. huey, she's the size of a large 8 month old. i say "stop growing up so quickly baby girl!"

natalie got her 2nd dose of dtap yesterday. she cried right when she got the shot, but then, just like that, she stopped. i scooped her up and she just looked at the nurse... clearly not happy, but not upset either. (that is her sweet, mellow tempered side.)

our next appointment isn't until september... she'll be just over a year old. but i don't want to think about that. i just want to live in this moment and enjoy all of her chubby, sweet babyliciousness while it lasts. and yeah, i'm pretty sure i just made that word up!

he's been 4 for days, but we're celebrating today anyway

according to ben, he's been 4 years old for days now.



being kiddo #3 means that he already knows what birthdays are all about. over the past 6 months there have been countless birthdays and none of them have been his.

he's ready for his special day today!



the best part is... we get to stay home and celebrate ben all day! having a birthday close to president lincoln's has its perks.



do you know when lincoln's real birthday is? my first graders didn't understand why we honor him on a day that's not really his birthday.

it's so we can stay home and celebrate ben's 4th birthday, silly kids!

happy, happy birthday big ben. you bring so much joy and laughter to our lives!

the world of blogging

so you've probably noticed some changes.

this is not my first blog. i started blogging after ben was born... twice.

one of the things that has frustrated me about blogging is that it can seem overwhelming at first. online storage, html, pixels... oh my! i'm not computer savvy in any way.

i've enjoyed reading blogs and have wondered how so many people can make their blogs look pretty. i wanted a pretty blog. it's hard to commit to something you don't like.

this time around i've stepped it up a notch. i've done some online research. the internet is amazing. if you know where and how to search, you can find anything!

it was ridiculously simple to pretty up this blog. there was some trial and error, but the most frustrating thing to happen was when ben pushed the power button on my computer and turned it off mid work. stinker. but with technology being so advanced, i didn't actually lose anything. can't tell you why... but how cool is that?!

i've heard many people say they've thought of starting a blog.

if you are one of those people and the reason you haven't is because you are scared it'll be hard, i'm here to say YOU CAN DO IT!

i found great help here and here and here.

do you have a blog? why or why not?

some friendly fun

do you remember your first playdate or sleepover? i recall one of my first sleepovers involved pizza, root beer, and the premier of michael jackson's "thriller" video. i remember the excitement of it all and waking up the next morning still in disbelief that i wasn't in my own home.

yesterday taylor had a school friend over for the first time. he was so excited. before we left for school, he kindly (cough cough) instructed zachary to make his bed and pick his underwear up off the floor. good to know that's important to him!

they spent most of their time together playing a video game. i suggested uno more than once, but apparently super smash bros. brawl trumps cards. as you can see, even dad joined in on the fun.



this was such a good thing for taylor. i hope this was the first of many playdates to come!

half a year

miss natalie is half a year old today.

these 6 months have flown by.

we go to see dr. huey next tuesday, so i will update with stats then. until then, here's a little bit of our 6 month photo shoot.



she was a bit uncooperative holding her sign. she preferred to eat it.

so i took some photos of her laying on the ground. she loooves this. rolling every which way.





i'm pretty sure her tooth partially poked through today. either that or she has thrush. just kidding. i know it's not thrush. at least i think i know. ha!

one more photo for the road. my favorite.



leave a 6 month birthday wish for natalie. i know she'll love it!

a picture in time

right now...


taylor is filling out valentines.


zachary is washing his hands while jumping up and down.


ben is walking a toy cochroach.


natalie is napping. oops i woke her up.


it's just another exciting night in the parker house! what are you up to tonight?

2,000 pudding cups

the other day zach was whining (surprising, i know!) and being the kind and patient mom that i am, there is no chance that i would have sarcastically mumbled "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

not sure why he shouted this: "WHAT?! 2,000 pudding cups will make me stronger? i want some!!"

ha!