May Pictures

"What's this stuff? NEAT!"

All "the kids" hanging out together

I never knew I could love so much

"Hi sister!"

Month of May

Wow, Apparently my blog is now a once a month thing instead of once a day- sorry!
Life hasn't slowed down at the Lewis house this month. I had a great first Mother's Day- We had family over for dinner and I was given some great gifts from my boys: from Parker, 3 pots full of flowers and from Kyle, a gift certificate to the Brick House massage and Coffee house- yay! My toes and back are in severe need of some attention! Kyle has been barbecuing up a storm already and I have a feeling we better start eating more chicken and less steak or people are going to start asking me if I am pregnant again. Unfortunately, Kyle is a rediculously good cook and I might just have to accept my muffin top-eh, could be worse! Speaking of chubby people...Parker has become quite the little much mouth- he is getting kinda rolley and I love his little "rubber band wrists" that he has gotten. He has been rolling over, and sitting up all by himself. He still hates tummy time and I have a feeling that he will be a "scooter" instead of a crawler. I cannot get over how amazing he is! I feel like he is learning and developing so much, so fast- can you believe that he is almost 6 months old already?! I can't! My sister, Monika has been asking us when she could have Parker over for the night since he was born and finally got the chance last weekend. It was so nice to go out on a date with the hubby. We went downtown and walked around Riverfront Park then we went to "Rain" and had drinks and appetizers and just talked. After that, we did a little shopping and Kyle spoiled me with some very needed new Puma tennies. Then we headed to Downriver grill for dinner and some wine and ended the night with a late night walk with the dogs. I love hanging out with my best friend and I feel so blessed to have family that loves to hang out with Parker- and that he is really such an easygoing baby! Monika and Dan took great care of him and we picked him up after going out to breakfast the next day. We really need to do that more often- it was a great break!
I really will try to get blogging more often again- I think it will be easier on me in the long run because these long updates are kinda much- sorry! Hope everyone is enjoying all this amazing weather!

PS-If any of you have some tips for me on how I might be able to get out and work in the yard more with a 6 month old bring it on- I need all the advice I can get- my yard is out of control!!!

5 Month Update

WOW- April is already gone! It has been way too long since a post- needless to say, I am a bit busy now that I am back to work. I contemplated just giving up this whole blog thing since it has become so hard to keep up on and to be honest, I really don't think anyone reads this but it is kinda a nice way for me to reminisce about what has happened in our lives.

April was crazy busy- it started with the flu. I think I caught it first and man did it hit our family hard!! I had it for about a week and a half, Parker got it, Kyle got it and literally the whole Lewis clan got it! Then it made its way into my side of the family too- this was a really gnarly bug! Towards the end of me being sick, we took Parker's first road trip. We took him to Auburn, Wa for Kyle's brother, Jared's wedding. He was so great- he slept the whole drive there! He was so good the whole weekend, we were pretty proud of him. The wedding was great and we had a nice weekend away with the family. On our way home, we got to swing through Yakima to visit some of our favorite friends, the McCoys; Andrea, Aaron and Jackson. We had lunch, chatted for a while and Parker and Jackson got to meet for the first time....I'm pretty sure they are instant friends :) They were so cute together! We had such a great visit and it was so nice to catch up with some of our favorite people!

The other super exciting thing that happened in April was that my sister, Erika, moved from Florida to Seattle! This was a true answer to many prayers!! She is a regional manager for M.A.C. cosmetics (amazing!) and had moved to Florida almost 2 years ago with her boyfriend, Nate. Long story short, she planned on moving home whether she had a job or not when, BAM, the same position opened up in Seattle! She interviewed, they loved her, and 3 weeks later she's driving across the country to move home! (sorta home, but definitely closer than Florida!) We have had so much fun seeing her play with Parker finally and getting to catch up- like I have said, God is good!

Parker is growing like a weed still! In fact, he is officially 5 months old today!! At his 4 month check-up he weighed 14lbs, 10 oz and was 24 inches long- He is in the 50th percentile for height, weight and head size. He is amazing me every day with all of his new accomplishments. He has been eating baby food daily along with formula and nursing. He is taking after Kyle and has developed a palate for certain foods. He loves bananas and sweet potatoes and absolutely hates peas. He is sitting up really well by himself and rolled over 3 times today while we visited my Dad today! He is also becoming very vocal too- I love hearing him "talk" to himself or things around him. He has also discovered the dogs and tries to pet them or grab them when they walk by- so cute!

I really will try to keep this thing up to date a bit better- these long posts kill me! Plus, my memory is horrible so trying to squeeze a months worth of info into one post doesn't work so well. Take care!

Giving credit where credit is due

Boy is it hard to keep this thing up to date now! Sorry for my lack of postings but this back to work/mommy stuff is such an adjustment! I think that my friend and one of my favorite bloggers, Andrea describes it best as just having BALANCE in this life. I really do have an absolutely amazing husband who has shared this load with me- he takes care of Parker while I am off of work and gives him the best snuggles all day. Then he gives me the run-down of all Parker's activities (including poop session info) when I get home before it's my turn for snuggles. We have great family members that help out when Kyle and I have schedule overlaps on Fridays and still get a lot of phone calls from friends and family just "checking in" to see how all this new parent stuff is treating us. We really are so blessed!

Speaking of blessings, I am definitely leaving out the one who I have to give all the credit to for the strength, patients and guidance that you have to have as a parent, God. He has always been there for us whenever we need it, we can always turn to prayer when we feel lost and know that we will be heard. He listened to our prayers while we were trying to get pregnant and answered them with our little "miracle man". Going back to work has truly been about balance and I think that God has helped us out in more ways than we know and I just cannot express enough gratitude towards Him. Now that I have a child, I know what that deep love is that you can only know as a parent and now I have a better understanding for the love that he can show us when we ask Him for it, and even when we don't.

God snuggles us every day........He is a great parent!

Not enough time in the day...

I just got home a little while ago and Parker is now napping so I will try to bust out a quick blog since I seem to have run out of time for this thing lately. Here's the rundown....
-I am back at work now and it is effing busy there!
-going back has been the hardest thing I have ever done
-I am so appreciative for my staff! They did great while I was gone!
-I am so tired that last night I almost put Parker's jammies on w/ no diaper
-I never see Kyle anymore, wait, is that my husbands name? Wait, I have one of those?!
-I miss my morning snuggles with my little man so I smother him on Sat and Sun mornings
-I am so happy to see the SUN!!
-Poor Parker still has a snotty nose and nasty boogs
-I can't wait for the new Harry Potter movie to come out this summer!! Babysitter?
-I swear that Parker has grown a foot in the last couple weeks- he is so tall all of a sudden!
-I miss my friends (but I get to see some of them soon- yay)
-my dogs are shedding which fortunately means spring is here, unfortunately, you can't tell by the weather
-my cousin is going to have her little girl soon and I love talking babies with her
-Parker is smiling and sitting up and I know he will laugh any day
-my sister-in-law, Andrea is pregnant again!!

Sorry if a lot of this is whiny, but at the end of the day I still thank God for all He has blessed us with. We have a lot to be thankful for and I know it is because of cause of Him. And at the end of my crazy busy days I have this to come home to....

Procrastination station

I have always been a bit of a procrastinator and today is no exception. I really should take advantage of the fact that Parker is napping and get some much needed sweeping and mopping done but the thought just makes me want to bury my head in the computer (doing it now) or reading a few chapters of "eclipse". Yeah, I go sucked into the twilight series and no, I don't go and read at the high school so I feel less nerdy for being into it. I am going to be going back to work in a couple weeks and I am starting to literally lose sleep worrying about how this is going to work out. How am I supposed to be a great and dedicated boss, mom and wife all at the same time?! This could take some finagling but I am determined to do it! Okay, onto something not so stressful...
We had a real date last night! We had my sister-in-law, Andrea babysit and got to go to a nice dinner at a new restaurant, Ambrosia, out in the valley. It was delicious! We had a glass of wine and talked then headed to Twiggs for dessert and a cocktail. We had planned on seeing a movie after that but decided that we would rather rent one, cozy on the couch and eat microwave popcorn. So, we picked up Parker and did just that. We had a great night- Kyle had also surprised me with some gorgeous diamond earrings after, of course, we said that we weren't doing gifts. Apparently, Kyle had already bought them so it didn't count, at least in his eyes :)
If you are on my Myspace or Facebook, you will see that we had some great pictures taken of Parker. I have been wanting to do this for a while and finally had my brother-in-law, Tim's fiance, Katie over to take them. She is a teacher and does this on the side and for never taking baby portraits, she did a fantastic job! It was a bit of a learning experience for all of us but was fun too. Parker only lasted about an hour before a meltdown happened but we did get some great shots. I would like to get more family portraits done soon. Ya know, one more thing! Okay, enough of the procrastinating, it's lunchtime now.

Another growth spurt?!

Stylin' in Auntie Monika's shades

The little one has been napping a lot again lately. He has also been unusually picky too. It's not too bad, I can figure out what he needs pretty easily. The not-so-easy part is trying to hold him in his preferred position (at that moment) while helping him keep in his binky, grabbing his burp rag, reaching for laundry, loading the dishwasher and fiercely staring down dust bunnies all simultaneously. I think that God has trained me well though. All the years in very muti-tasking jobs is paying off and I have always loved a good challenge!

We have had a great week of visits. I am really trying to see all our friends and family before I go back to work in a couple weeks. We met up for coffee with my friend Cate and baby Claire in the afternoon on Wednesday, My sister-in-law Andrea and nephew Ethan Wednesday night, my friend Mica and her mom Janie on Thursday and Parkers Aunt Monika, Aunt Becky and Grandpa Anderson on Friday, and had the Parkerts over for dinner at some point, but I really don't know what day that was. Maybe Parker is just trying to tell me to keep still for a day while he rests up from hugs and kisses galore but I just don't want anyone to miss out on seeing that precious face! I know I am trying to do a bit much when I can't even remember what day of the week it is (seriously!) So I am sitting here, blogging, sipping on coffee (that has chilled since I started this) still in my jamms while Parker naps in his swing and I try to ignore the housework that I should get to that has piled up during this busy week and the fact that I should get into the shower. Call me crazy, but I LOVE this life!!

Morning snuggles with Mom. My favorite time!

Hangin' with Grandapa

Grandpa on diaper duty!