Play Play Play

It's been about a week since my last blog, so I figure I should update you on our little family way out here in Minnesota! It's been a good week. I'm really loving staying at home and it keeps me plenty busy. It's so nice to be able to be there and pay attention to my family each day, and not be stressed by worrying about other children, being on-call, or other work duties. Don't get me wrong, I still loved my job, and do miss it....I will work again someday I'm sure, but right now my place is at home, and I'm so at peace with that. I find one of my biggest struggles right now, is balancing time for me, keeping things clean the way I want, wanting to start projects like mail out pictures, scrapbooking etc.....is all overpowered by playing with the kids. They need to learn to become independent, but with me home I also want to give them all my attention and enjoy them while they adore me and need me so much. It will be all too quick before they don't want hugs or to hang out with mom. I hope that never really happens, but I know there will be a time when I have to share their wonderful personalities with others.....I don't want to share! So this past week, I spent it playing, taking walks, and playing. Thankfully, cooking is therapeutic for me, so I've also been able to cook each night and not feel like I have to cook whatever is the easiest and quickest to meet my familys' needs....I can cook what we want and plan ahead...it can be simple or something that takes some time. I made some yummy french toast, homemade meatballs to go with spaghetti, and taco salads to name a few.

Parker continues to learn new words all the time. He has also decided this week that Diego the animal rescuer, and asks to watch it ALL THE TIME! All of our walks and playing have also increased his coordination at running, and I'm amazed at how fast he can run....I was never a runner.

Addison continues to love to eat and play. She loves to watch Parker and loves it when he talks to her or plays with her. She is slobbering like crazy all the time, but still no teeth. She can't crawl yet, but is very strong on her legs. When you try to put her down, she wants to stand and hates it still when we put her on her belly. She figured out this week that it makes a fun noise when she babbles when she is on a bumpy road in her stroller or when she sits on your leg and it shakes. She loves to give hugs, but is still a mommy's girl. She's super fast at grabbing things, and is always on the look out for something she can grab. You have to watch where her arms are in relation to what's around you whether you put her down on the floor or are carrying her around...she can also bend from the waist in any direction but backwards and get herself back up, so she has a very large wingspan! And did I mention, she is FAST!





Parker and I made cupcakes one day....we even made our own frosting that Parker taste tested throughly as you can tell. We put fruit roll-up pieces inside the cupcakes for a fun sour gummy surprize when you bite into the cupcake! The frosting was made out of a marshmallow creme, it's yummy. Parker preferred to eat the frosting alone, using the beaters as a spoon!



We went to another playground we found, we're getting good at finding them! This was a truck Parker was driving....Addison looks concerned he's not watching where he's driving, if only she could talk! She loves to go to the playground here in our community and elsewhere. Even though she can't do much yet...she loves to watch Parker laugh and run around and go up and down. Parker loves the playground and loves to try to climb everything. He is getting better and better at figuring out how to climb by himself, and he climbs so high. One playground here has a slide that he has to climb up 3 levels to get to....he climbs all the way up the ladder and goes down the long tube slide with no fears at all. He loves to wave at mommy from the the top of the slide.



This isn't the tall slide I was talking about, but a picture of Parker getting ready to go down another slide. Notice the green grass in the background.



This is Silver Lake Park, it's really close to downtown. There's a lake as evidenced by the name in the park clearly, but a walking trail with "little kid" stuff, like shapes to name, colors, letters, etc all painted with signs to give parents hints on how to interact and teach their kids. There's alos a skateboard park, a large swimming pool (that's already empty), and a very nice playground. I took this picture, even though it's kind of dark to show you the scenery around here. I love the trees and the green, it's beautiful and a breath of fresh air. You can see the geese on the ground, which apparently summer here I think? I read somewhere that they thought that they were an extinct species of geese until 1914 or around there, when they found a gaggle of them here in Rochester.



Parker and Micheal went swimming last week before the pool closed for winter. It was way too cold for Addison and I to brave, and we only let Parker stay in it a few mintues before he was shivering! It wasn't cold outside, but the water was definitely not Texas warm! They've already started emptying it out for the winter....guess we should start getting ready to be cold! A lot of things here seem to end their season at Labor Day, not to mention that school didn't even start until the day after Labor Day, a vast difference from those in Texas and Oklahoma who started way in August!




The next one, I just thought I should include a close up of Addison for all to see. She has the biggest blue eyes and a smile like Parker's that comes so easy and rarely leaves. She also has a cute dimple, and as you can see from the slobber, a hope for teeth to come soon.



Who says you have to have girls to play with their hair?! Parker let me put his hair in a mohawk for fun one day. I don't have strong enough gel to keep it up all day...besides his daddy says that boys don't wear product in their hair. But he looks cute and he thought he laughed when he saw himself in the mirror.



Addison took her first bath in the sink! Yes, 7 months before her bath in the sink....usually we put the kids in the tub together, it saves time and water I suppose! But Addison needed a quick bath, and I didn't want to take the time to fill up the tub, so I put her in the sink. She really thought it was fun....and probably enjoyed not being splashed by Parker!


They have Kemp's ice cream factory or something here, not really sure yet...but there's a big billboard downtown with a cow on it, and every time we pass it, Parker says "MOoooo" We decided to try this ice cream, and it really is good...as you can see Parker is a fan already and he's only had a couple of bites!