Merry Christmas!

As I sit here, typing away, Mitchel is putting the finishing touches on the last of his Christmas business, Parker is snuggled up warm in bed, and The Polar Express is playing in the background. Oh....and Lilly is licking her feet. Hmmm. So much for the peaceful scene I was setting up.

I get very thankful this time of year for the ways the Lord has blessed us, and this year is no exception. The tree is trimmed with nicely decorated packages, the kitchen is overflowing with baked goodies from friends, family, and myself, and I have a silly, beautiful baby girl, and a wonderfully sweet, kind, and good husband. 

I've been thinking a lot about Mary here lately, and what life must have been like for her as the mother to Jesus. I've read so much about that this year, and it brings me to tears to think what a long, hard, glorious road that must've been for her and Joseph. I'm so very glad that I can somewhat understand the burden, sacrifice, and love that was poured out over that baby, child, and man now that I'm a mom. However, I pray that God would reveal in me the power Mary had in the Him. I want all that He has to offer Parker, and yet I know that requires sacrifice and determination on my part. So day by day we go.

This has been a wonderful holiday season for us. We've stayed well, praise the Lord! And Parker has really enjoyed all of the special things that come along with the holidays. In our advent calendar this year, we placed in each door a mini m&m for each day, so now every time she walks by it she points and says, "mmmm." We baked cookies today, and I thought she would have lots of fun playing with the sugar cookie dough and helping cut out the cookies. Ha! I gave her a chunk of dough, and you guessed it, right in her mouth it went! I mean A LOT...I about fell on the floor laughing. What a great idea that was! She ended up with flour all over her and sneaking 2 MORE chunks of dough into her mouth before I had enough of that fun. We'll try again next year I guess! Little turkey, or maybe that would be my fault:). We are eagerly anticipating the fun tomorrow will bring for her. We pray you all have a very blessed Christmas, and enjoy the pictures below. Merry Christmas!

Santa, Parker, and oh yes, mom. We had a nice FAMILY photo with Santa this year. Ha!

Our girl, coloring a Santa picture.

Christmas at Nana's. Yes, a purse, necklaces, and a bracelet. No doubt about it, she's a girl:).

Christmas Eve at Mimi & Papa's.

Being silly in reindeer ears. They had jingle bells on the antlers, and she kept shaking her head to make them jingle. That girl cracks me up! I just love her.

Pictures at the Park

So yesterday we headed out to our local park to take some pictures for Christmas and to take Parker's 18 month pictures. She had a great time despite the fact the wind was fierce that day. We found a nice big field, and Parker ran with freedom, picking up random leaves here and there. She also discovered how much fun it is to jump and stomp on the bridge over the pond. There were ducks swimming all around and two that were quite friendly. We had a great time just playing outside in the good ol' Texas crazy December weather. 

I was a little nervous watching Parker run around like a wild woman in her pretty little Christmas dress. But rest assured, it's all still in tact!

Showing dad around and watching the leaves blow by.

Just Parker and dad.

Parker being silly looking for the ducks.

We're keeping busy, in full swing of Christmas shopping, baking, and preparations. Parker is catching on to the excitement too. She loves Christmas lights, trees, and music. Sunday on the way home from church, she was falling asleep in the car, and then much to Mitchel's shock, she popped her head up and started singing gleefully along with Charlie Brown's Christmas music. She cracks me up! We took her to the Rockwall Christmas Parade on Saturday, and we'll end with a picture of our girl all bundled up.

You can tell it's cold....just look at that red nose:)!

Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving a little late! We hope you all had a wonderful day. Our day was filled with family and food. Parker had lots of fun playing with her cousins at the park and at Aunt Deloris' house. She greatly enjoyed eating cake but didn't enjoy the turkey so much. Oh well, one day she'll figure out it's all good:)! Poor Mitchel ended up getting sick (oh yes, again) the next day, so our holiday shopping didn't happen last weekend, and Parker and I spent the weekend tending to her sick dad.

The official count for stomach viruses in the Mershawn household this fall is up to 3. Yuck! We've never been sick this often I don't think in our life. Oh well, I'm saying we're done for years to come with stomach bugs.

Moving on...I'm finally getting some pictures up of Parker and Mitchel from our many adventures of October and November, although, none of Thanksgiving. Ha! Oh well.

Here's Parker with Mitchel on the pony ride at LakePointe's Fall Festival. She LOVED every minute of being on that pony, and when it was time to get off...she was NOT happy. She shook her head no with force, and cried. I guess her and that pony had a special connection;). Aunt CC, you may have a niece with your passion! Ha!

Parker and her friend Isaiah befriending a duck in the petting zoo at the Fall Festival. Parker thought he was so cute. "Ohhhhh."

Okay...getting a little redneck on you here... Mitchel's 9-point from his opening weekend hunting trip. It's already proudly mounted with his 2 others in his office at work- at least it's not at home! hehe

We hope you all have had a nice holiday weekend full of shopping, turkey, and rest... and without a stomach virus! We are eagerly anticipating Christmas this year, now that Parker is so much more excitable. She already loves and begs for more Christmas lights out driving around, and daily reminds us of our Christmas tree and how to turn the lights on. Such a first born!

Larry the Cucumber

Okay, so Mitchel has had his laptop with him this whole past week, and all of our pictures are on there. I'm hoping to get Parker's kangaroo costume pictures up here soon. I've got to get them downloaded so you all can see how super cute she looked in it! She was so proud of herself. Such a funny kid.

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted anything. We ended up with a virus in our house last week, and to be honest, I didn't care to do much of anything until about last Friday, when our house needed a good cleaning. So now here I am finally catching up on some blogging!! LOL

It's been a busy past couple of weeks for Mitchel, who by the way, bagged himself a nice 9 point buck 2 weeks ago. Needless to say, he was incredibly thrilled with himself. As he should be:).

Parker and I have been spending lots of time together with daddy away at work a lot. Hopefully he'll get some much needed rest here pretty soon...of course with the holidays coming up, who knows! HA! We'll be glad to get him home for a few days in a row, though.

I do have to share Parker's newest word. As you may know, she has had a thing for Elmo for a while now- not really sure what made her fall in love with him, she's only seen him a handful of times in action, but she loves him none-the-less- she has now found another little animated friend whom she calls by name very affectionately. Larry the Cucumber. She calls him- "wee-ree". Makes us laugh and want to squeeze her every time she says it. Anytime the tv is on she looks for him. Too funny. But....rest assured Elmo, every furry creature that crosses her path is still referred to lovingly as "Mel-mo."

Hope you all are doing well and are excited about the upcoming holidays. I'll talk to you soon with kangaroo pictures in tow!

Hello & welcome!

Around 2 or so months ago my sweet cousin-in-law asked me why I wasn't blogging about our family, pointing out that I had missed more than a year of precious memories of our little girl. So, in an effort to redeem myself, I am now blogging about our little Mershawn clan! So Kylie, this is all because of you. Enjoy!

This has been a fun time of year for us and our little lady. Parker has been all about the "pu-pu's" (translation: pumpkins) this year, and we've given her many opportunities to run amongst them. She took her first official trip to the Arboretum at the beginning of October, where the pumpkin patch was in full swing. We strolled up to the patch, got her out of her stroller, set her down (gently mind you), and she very daintily put her hands out while grimacing, realizing that she was standing on hay and dirt instead of solid ground. Way to be lady- like Parker Grace!

It took her about 5 minutes to become acclimated to the hay and pumpkins and in no time she was buzzing all around that place. So much fun. She had a blast going through all the pumpkins, giving quite a few of her now famous Parker hugs, handing us trash, gazing in the pumpkin house, going through the hay maze, chasing birds, and posing for MANY pictures. We walked all around, and the fountains also brought a very cheery reaction from her. That girl is just so much fun.

That pumpkin needed a hug!

The following week she got to visit Rockwall's pumpkin patch, where she not only got to pick out her own "baby" pumpkin to take home, but also made a wonderful pumpkin craft and got a balloon animal made by a crazy clown with very large red shoes. (Parker loves any kind of "shus") She has been carrying around her baby pumpkin for a couple of weeks now, and he's starting to show it. There's a large spot forming on the back, and he is quite soft now (yuck), so in the very near future, mom will have to be sneaking her little friend to the trash can:(. Poor little guy. He's very loved!

Parker & her baby pumpkin

A few other Fall highlights for baby P have been the Fair, where, yes, oh yes, she had her first taste of a corny dog. For those of you picking your jaws up off the floor, yes, it was difficult for me, and I have had a few nervous breakdowns since (haha) j/k. She was all about Big Tex and the petting zoo, and I was quite proud of our little Parker at the Science Place. I've decided she's the smartest girl I know:)! There's a great toddler/preschooler area at the Science Place, and she loved motoring around there getting to touch (ew) EVERYTHING. Once you get over the germy thing, it was a lot of fun. 

Yep, that's a corny dog.

Parker & Mitchel with Big Tex