Tonight we said our final goodnight to Frasier Maupin. He was a member of this family before we were even officially a family. He moved with us from Albany to Miami to Nashville to Phoenix. He saved me when I was unbearably lonely, snuggled me when I was cold, shunned me when I was pregnant, pooped on the carpet, spread litter to every corner of our homes, played fetch, wrestled with lizards, tormented Jack, tolerated our kids, and loved us unconditionally everyday even when we weren't very lovable.

Thank you Frasier for bringing me so much joy and love, and I hope you are now without pain in a place with plenty of tuna and ice cold milk. I love you sweet boy and I will miss you.

Pumpkin Patch

Our Halloween celebrations have been plentiful this year. I've never been a huge Halloween fan, I'll dress the kids up, we trick or treat, but nothing extravagant. But we have fallen into such a fabulous group of friends here, and it seems each holiday has taken on a life of it's own!

We started with the pumpkin patch. We went to the same place as last year, and never before has it been so apparent that my baby boy HAS CHANGED! Lets review...last year...

This year!

But Parker isn't the only one who has grown up. Last year...

This year...

Of course, Lisa and I haven't aged a bit :)

Irresistible

These pictures were taken a few days after Parker's birthday party when we still had the slide and gator pool out back.

I double dog dare you not to fall in love with this man...

The Big Little Man

This is a post I have been working on since Sept 27th, its only been a month, but I haven't been able to load pictures until today. Either way, he still is adorable :)

Parker is two. Did you hear that? I said, Parker is TWO! How on earth did that happen?!? He is two and adorable and fabulous and a handful and dramatic and little and lovable and OH-SO-BLONDE! He is a whopping 26 pounds (25 percentile) and 35 inches (50 percentile), but his great curls add at least 2 inches. And I love him. I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM. His smile is contagious, he sings Twinkle Twinkle and he talks back to Diego and Dora like their lives depend on his every move.

We had a party at the house to celebrate his big day. It was a grand success even if he was a little annoyed about sharing his brand new toys. I found myself inspired by my friend Debbie, who recently had a party for her son's first birthday. As it turns out, I am no Debbie. She comments repeatedly on the ease of making her own amazingly fabulous party decor...mine were not easy but I like to think we had our own fabulousness going on!

I made these pinwheels. And for every father at the party who felt compelled to remind me over and over that they didn't spin up to the standards of a...well...anyone really, they were a royal pain in the rear end to make! Jona quit not even halfway through. I did not enjoy constructing them, or even duct taping them together in the end, but I did INDEED make them and I was giving them out darn it. So there.

These were my other super-cute-and-crafty party favor idea. And while they did turn out super-cute-and-crafty, the names started popping off the balls well before a single guest arrived. I didn't let anyone touch them until every single guest had arrived so everyone could see the cuteness!! And then everyone took home a perfectly plain beach ball...yippie.

There was digging...

driving....

sliding and splashing!



Chicken wings for all, because as it turns out, while Parker wants to be a vegetarian he is a chicken wang lover!

And sweets, my oh my there were sweets. Parker believes with all his heart that birthdays mean cake, nothing but cake, cake cake cake...and M&Ms!

These were also inspired by Debbie, and they turned out PERFECT!

My Big Little Man loved every second of it. I love you my precious little boy, you are such a gift and I thank my lucky stars everyday to have you as my son!

It was WAY to hard to pick a few...Cape Cod was AMAZING!

I'm such a big boy...

Hi! My mom is super lazy and hasn't managed to blog in FOREVER which is really sad cause we've done some pretty awesome stuff this summer. But whatever. I just wanted you all to know THAT I'M TWO!

I'll try to light a fire under mama's bum and get her going on this blog thing.

Love,

Parker

HAPPY DAD'S DAY

Hailey picked out her own special outfit to help Jona celebrate Father's Day. Ain't she somethin'? "But mooooom, there's pink here and here (skirt and small flower on shirt), purple here and here (shirt and small flower on skirt), and blue here and here (socks and stitching on skirt)." She really does have so much in common with her daddy.

Happy Father's Day Jona- we are so lucky to have you!

Happy Father's Day Daddy/Grampy- wish we were there to give you big hugs and bake you something chocolate!

Happy Father's Day Tony/Papa- so glad Jona and the kids got to spend some fun time with you, so sorry about the plague!