Firefightin' Family

kehrli update

2012-01-23T21:18:00.000-06:00

hey! we are alive! life is a little crazy right now. having one child is huge--life completely changes, but two, phew! rest no more. add in two full-time jobs, family, church, etc. and there is not much down time in our house right now. not to mention travel. upcoming trips include:
1. Silvy to San Antonio next week for work
2. James to Colorado for a ski trip with Feijoo & his brother
3. Silvy to NY/Connecticut for work
4. Silvy to Miami for work
(seeing a trend here? and i still am exclusively breastfeeding minus about 1 jar of baby food a week). goodness gracious we are nuts.
5. James & Silvy on a surprise anniversary trip (without the kids)
6. James & Silvy & the boys to Colorado for James' 10 year high school reunion
7. Silvy to San Antonio for a friend's wedding

we are training for a half marathon at the end of march and we bought a new (used) car last week! james is helping lead our small group (we are doing a marriage study that i am looking forward to--we love our group and are excited to be more intentional about devoting time to our marriage with everything else going on).

so for now i will simply post a pic of our sweet growing bundle of joy with a new hat from his aunt abbey. love you all!!

on saving

2011-11-21T22:40:00.000-06:00

i tried to write a post about parenting tonight but it was just not coming together, so instead we'll go with the default topic of this blog, finance. inspired by a friend who paid off her home in her twenties (on one income!), james and i are on a rapid plan of paying off our house as fast as possible (while still contributing to our 401k match, kids' college funds, giving, etc.). we've made budget the first 3 months, which is very encouraging. i love going to the bank and asking them to put x dollars toward a "principal only payment." i equally love reworking amortization tables every few months to see how quickly we can pay off our house if we add extra. and i love my frugal husband who is committed to sacrifice monthly spending money and all possible bonuses this year to put toward the house. yes, i am a nerd...but a nerd who will love not having a house payment in a few years if we stay on track. oh the freedom!
we acknowledge that it's not up to us to stay on track and are thankful for a God who is the ultimate provider. he has given james and me great educations and jobs, and we know they could easily be taken away. we are trying to be good stewards and rid ourselves of all debt (i think it is interesting that most people assume debt = credit card debt, school loans, even car loans, but very few people call a home loan debt). we are blessed to have wise friends and family who support and guide us in our financial decisions and we can talk openly to about money.

suzie ortman preaches open dialogue about finances with our spouses, children, etc. and i think it is so crucial to have someone to go to for financial advise (besides a bank loan officer, real estate agent, or anyone else who might have an incentivized biase). james and i keep an excel budget on our computer of all of our transactions during the month broken into categories so we can see exactly where our money is going and plan our long term goals every few months. we also bounce our financial ideas off our parents and very close trusted friends for input.

this article in smart money emphasizes the importance of social support when it comes to money. "In the U.S. this principle lies behind the success of Weight Watchers, with its group weigh-ins, and Alcoholics Anonymous, with its group confessions. But it's not a principle that most of us apply to our money: Saving is a private matter, and one that gets neglected. The consequences of our spending are firmly in the public view: a spacious home, a luxury car with the name of the kids' fancy school plastered on the bumper. But the consequences of our failure to save -- a loan rejection, an uncertain retirement, letters from a debt collector -- are much more discreet. This behind-closed-doors effect lets many people talk a good game about their financial responsibilities, while shirking them in practice, says Bob Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School: "People say they want to save, but they don't."

i hope we can all start to shed the walls of keeping finance a taboo subject. i think one of the reasons money is the biggest cause of divorce is because people are so afraid to talk about the subject. while we don't need to tell others how much we make, how much we have in savings, etc. we can all do ourselves a favor and enlist others to help keep us accountable for our financial decisions, especially those who have more experience and wisdom than ourselves. love you all!

seasons of love

2011-11-19T22:32:00.001-06:00

raising a 2 year old and infant can be challenging and restricting. while others are traveling the world, snowboarding the slopes and staying out late, james and i are usually at home by 8pm putting our lil' guys down for bed. as extroverts who like to get out, this season of life is stretching. we often find ourselves saying, "can you wait until the boys are old enough to go golfing with us or even just go out without scheduling the days around nap routines?" it is easy to wish the boys were older, especially paxton now that we've seen how much fun 2 year olds can be. however, we are learning to appreciate the slowness of this special time knowing it will soon pass by. while paxton cannot talk, walk, or communicate much yet, how can this sweet goodness not bring a smile to your face? (he can smile!)

and then there are times when you set up a whole photo shoot in the woods, dress the boys in their sunday best and get these precious looks (seriously mom?!?)

do we wish we would've waited longer to have kids? sometimes. would we trade them for anything? no. the more time and energy we pour into parker & paxton, the more we love them. every molding moment yields pride in our children's development and validates the role we are playing in shaping who they are as little people. loving and teaching children is one of the most fulfilling endeavors and i am thankful for the opportunity to do it every day. may i make the most of each day, each hour and each minute i am blessed to spend with my boys. love you all and give your kids a big hug and kiss today!!

5x7 Folded Card

2011-11-06T21:46:00.001-06:00

Hearts And Home Christmas Card

To view our unique Christmas card designs, click here.

View the entire collection of cards.

rock 'n' roll st. louis

2011-10-27T23:07:00.000-05:00

what a weekend! we did it! my (single) brother-in-law, paul, and i ran the st. louis half marathon!

among the other 20,000 runners

the night before the race i got food poisoning and was throwing up and going to the bathroom until 11pm. long story, but i don't think the fridge in our room was properly working, and after i drank 2 large glasses of semi-cold milk, my stomach immediately started grumbly and then everything went sour.

james sweetly offered to run the race for me since we'd already paid the entry fee and he didn't want it to go to waste. as much i would've liked to see him run (untrained), i got up in the morning feeling much better and decided to just do it.

hopefully in the spring i'll do another one to help lose the rest of my baby weight (ugh, go away). for now i will wake up with a little more pride in finishing and thankfulness that the training and run did not affect my milk supply! paxton is still going strong with no formula so far.

happy 4 months to my little guy a few days late. 17 lbs (90%), 27 inches (98%). grow, baby, grow!!! love yall.

wordless wednesday

2011-10-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

love these guys...

baby gifts--favorite ideas for personalized items

2011-10-14T21:00:00.001-05:00

people often ask where i get all of my personalized baby stuff, so i thought i would share 10 gift ideas and links so some of my favorite etsy shops! none of these people paid anything to have their sites featured (my blog is not that cool :))...these are just great places to shop online!

1. monogrammed burp cloths, bibs, etc. there are tons of etsy shops selling these. i get mine local in nwa from my friend brenda who runs a shop out of her home in springdale. burp cloths, blankies and bibs are a hit at every shower!

2. iron on decals. love these!! budget friendly way to give personalized gifts (you can buy blue or brown & white striped onesies at walmart for $2 or hobby lobby to iron these onto or tshirts for $4 from Target).

here are some i made for pax:

3. personalized bloomers (diaper covers) for little girls.

4. personalized bean bag name blocks. i ordered these for parker and pax's room and the boys love throwing them around

5. hair bows and headbands. half of the reason i want a baby girl is to dress her in big bows (which is probably why God has not given me a girl :)). but bows make such a cute gift!

6. initial onesies (this one has the name on the butt and comes with a matching tutu!). so cute.

7. diaper bags & backpacks

8. big bro / lil bro or sis shirts...i ordered these for parker and pax for christmas

9. personalized water bottles. i ordered these for parker's soccer team and love them!

10. personalized melamie plates. these make great baby plates for a nursery or a wedding gift!

and there you have some of my internet love. happy shopping!

batter up

2011-10-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

parker's current favorite song is "take me out to the ballgame" so this picture is very fitting :)

it's a...boy!

2011-10-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

no, no no...james and i are are not having any more kids any time soon. but i wanted to give a shoutout to randy and whitney who both just found out they are having their 2nd boys! get excited for matching outfits and rowdy pillow fights!

i am really loving having two little boys. they are so full of energy and love and make life more exciting and fulfilling. there are several others i know with two little boys and i've enjoyed reading about their journeys and learning from them. it is encouraging to know that these moms are dedicated to raising godly boys--the world needs more of them! :)

amy--caleb & garrett
melissa--lincoln & noah
jill--brock & zane
kim--maddox & ryder (who has the same birthday as paxton!)
wendy-- jonas & noah

love.

mazie's picture perfect party

2011-10-07T22:05:00.000-05:00

a couple of weeks ago we attended sweet mazie's first birthday party! i have been waiting to post photos until her mom, jennifer, put them on her new website. if you live in nwa, you should it out: www.parentsplaygroundnwa.com.

mazie's party actually got featured on a famous party site, so if you want to see more details, check out amy atlas' feature on the party.

here are a few shots i took of the precious birthday girl

jennifer and her husband built the chevron backdrop and jen spraypainted this old high chair. perfect!

petit romper + pearls = precious

jennifer's other daughter, madeline. are they not the most beautiful little girls?

jennifer and me

our lil family (paxton was asleep). gameday + party = great saturday!

love.

corn maze

2011-10-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

last week our church rented out the ozark corn maze near our house. parker was brave and rode the cow train in the dark. (it was a bumpy ride!) how sweet does paxton look in the picture above? love him.

amy and i with our lil' babies in tow. paxton was being fussy but i didn't want to miss out on all of the action, so i nursed him while walking around, ha! it was the first time i'd ever done that, but i just put my hooter hider over the sling and voila! james didn't even know i was nursing him so hopefully i didn't gross out too many of the other hundreds of people there. actually a couple people asked if they could see paxton and i had to awkwardly tell them not right now :).

parker and one of his best buds, jack. these two have so much fun together. we are already guessing parker is an extrovert because he gets soooo riled up seeing his friends.

our family of four. and yes, these are my clothes from college. they don't really fit any more and i really need to give up my american eagle jean skirt, but it was the only fall outfit i could put together. love yall.

wordless wednesday

2011-09-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

love fall.

wooo pig sooie!

2011-09-20T22:39:00.000-05:00

i've lived in arkansas for 9 years now (woah) so i figured it was about time to embrace this hog loving area. i've been posting game day photos on facebook every saturday and wanted to share a few on the blog (arkansas is undefeated so far!) wps!!

cookies, cupcakes & petit fours courtesy of the pinnacle white oak gas station :)

paxman and me

sweet brothers

love.

redshirting kindergarten

2011-09-16T21:48:00.001-05:00

parker just finished his first week of kids day out (with style):

my work is usually flexible and i often pick parks and pax up at 1pm and work from home while they both nap (until 4pm this week!). parker's sweet teachers commented both days about how smart he is and how they are impressed he already knows his colors and can count. of course i smiled with glee and a little pride in myself for diligently working on these things with him.

last year parker's teachers never commented about him being smart. he was still learning to talk (did not turn 2 until the last month of kdo) and was 5-8 months younger than all of the other kids (he was in the older 1 yr old class). i even heard one teacher tell the other "you can really tell whose parents read to their kid" and i wanted to tell her to shut up--parker is a boy and he is by far the youngest kid in the class!

so hearing parker's teachers comment on his intellect this year makes me excited. he is now in the younger 2's class (the 2nd half of the school year birthdays) and so all of the kids are within a month or two of his age and i've realized it is all about who you compare him to. the same thing happened at church--one day his teachers raved about how he knew all of his animals, sounds, etc., and it was because he was in a class with kids younger than him.

so what does this social observation want to do? redshirt him for kindergarten! after reading this ny times article and malcolm gladwell's book, outliers, this summer, i was seriously contemplating trying to give parker a competitive advantage by not putting him in kindergarten until he turned 6. i still haven't completely made up my mind, but i'm leaning toward not doing it because he is in the 95% for height and weight and would just troll above the other kids if he was a year older than most, even with a late birthday.

through observing his school and social interactions, i know parks can hang with other kids who are a little older. his pediatrician said she thought he would be just fine, but i don't want him to be just fine or hang in there--i want him to excel and be at the top. maybe i just need to give that up...or i can use those desires for him to be the best and brightest to motivate me to work with him every day when we are home.

even though it is so easy to turn on the tv or get on the computer to "relax" when i come home from work, i am doing everything i can to keep both of them off until the kids are in bed. when i give parker direct attention through playing together on the floor or reading cuddled up with him, he is much better behaved. so for now i will keep watching and working with him on developing new skills and knowledge. we will press on with shapes, numbers, letters, etc. and hopefully he will be more than ready for kindergarten in 3 more years!

are you going to try for a girl?

2011-09-14T21:02:00.001-05:00

i can't tell you the number of times i have been asked if james and i are going to try for a girl. i have always wanted a big family. with james and i each having only one sibling, our extended family is pretty small (parker and pax have no cousins). i've always loved getting together with my tens of cousins for holidays and love being around other large families. i'd like to think that i am a pretty decent mom and could give many children love and opportunities. so do i want more kids? definitely.

james on the other hand isn't quite as eager. it took a lot of convincing to give parker a lil' brother. i honestly think james would have been perfecty content with just one child. parker was an ideal baby and one of our biggest fears before pax was having a difficult child. during my pregnancy with pax, everyone shared a story of how their kids were so different and if one was an easy baby, the next would be hard.

thankfully, we've had two very easy going babies who are very similar. they look alike, act alike and are both extremely chill. every day i am thankful for the blessings of the two healthy boys and the smooth pregnancies and deliveries. virtually none of my biggest fears materialized and i thank God for having his hand in everything. before having pax, i feared:

1. he would have colic (no)
2. breastfeeding would be difficult (actually much easier than with parker and in 3 months of life, pax's had zero formula and i have 10 extra bottles pumped and frozen! love breastfeeding)
3. i would have to have a c-section (although pax's breach presentation threatened this, the ecv worked and no c-section [or pressure to have pitocin or induce!])
4. something would go wrong during labor (nothing besides an episiotomy and the labor was only 6 hours instead of the 18 with parks!)
5. he would have a serious developmental issue (none that i know of yet)

is pax a perfect baby? no. he doesn't love his carseat most of the time (although he did much better than expected on the 13 hour drive to wisconsin) and spits up a lot, but if those are the biggest issues, i cannot complain.

who knows if we will have more kids. if we do, i'd like to be in a place where i could stay home with all of the kids. having two parents at home makes such a difference and i don't think we could handle 3 with both of us working full-time. for now i will continue to work and we will work to pay off our home even faster than planned (one of my friends just told me she paid hers off this summer and it was so inspiring to know that someone my age did it...we can do it, too!). if we do have more kids, it will probably be a few years down the road.
so are we going to try for a girl? my husband says absolutely not. if we have more, he only wants boys (and keeps saying he is incapable of producing girls). as much as i want to buy big bows and zebra print outfits for a little girl, i feel much more confident raising boys and am not sure i would have the patience to put up with girly screams and drama. for now, i'll just keep loving on these little guys and enjoying every minute of their youth...

love yall.

happy day

2011-08-23T22:40:00.000-05:00

i have to go back to work next wednesday and am dreading it. don't get me wrong, i enjoy my job and like my coworkers, but i LOVE staying home with my babies and hanging out with other moms. staying at home is often exhausting and can get frustrating, but i love pouring everything i have into my 2 yr old and 2 month old. i wouldn't trade the days i have with them for anything.
i feel like my biggest calling in life is to be a mom. james' and my current plan is for me to stay home when we get the house paid off (which we are on track to do in 6 1/2 more years), but we might change the plan in a few years so i can spend more precious time with the boys while they are young. there is no greater joy than spending time with your children--watching them learn, grow, smile, laugh, make you laugh, etc. it is funny that before i had parker, i was convinced i would never enjoy staying at home. i still don't enjoy cleaning, but i love spending time with the boys.

parker is at a fun stage right now--talking more and gaining independence (potty trained and sleeping in his big boy bed!). paxton is the sweetest little bug--sleeping from 9pm-5am regularly. i love nursing him, cuddling with him and smelling his sweet skin after bath time.

i realize this post is overly happy, but we had such a great day today and i want to remember these times when i am back at work and debating if i want to stay at home.

this morning pax woke up at 5am, nursed for 30 minutes, and then i met a friend at 6am to run 3 miles. after coming home, showering and hanging out with parker, pax woke back up at 8am and we got einstein brothers' bagels before 5 of the neighborhood moms came over with their babies and toddlers. we had sweet fellowship (and lots of "rahhhr" screaming and running around from the 2 year olds) and celebration in the joy of good things happening in a friends' life.

parker and i ate left over pasta for lunch and then the two boys and i took a 3 hour nap! hallelujah! when we woke up we went over to a neighbor's house to let the kids play outside and then i took the boys to qdoba for dinner. parker and i read stories for 40 minutes and paxton shared the sweetest smiles. after the boys went to bed, another neighbor came over to talk and now i am editing pictures of my sweet little lovies.

not every day goes as smoothly as this, but i love the time i get to spend with other women when i stay at home. it is bittersweet going back to work knowing the group will keep hanging out without me, but i hope to maintain friendships that have deepened this summer throughout the year.

and because i can't end the post without a picture or two, here are a couple pics of the 2/3 year olds over today. love yall!!

day in the life: friday

2011-08-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

james came home friday morning and we spent 3 hours walking around car wars at the promenade with the boys! we weren't planning on staying that long, but since we've been looking for a newer car for several months, we wanted to look at every single vehicle for sale. thankfully we had plenty of water and good snacks.

in the afternoon, parker, pax and i all napped for 2 1/2 hours! the heat wore us out. after we woke up, two other families joined us for the first unofficial 2 year old soccer practice! james and david tried to teach the little guys how to kick, dribble and handle the ball. i'm not sure that parker or his friends really learned any new skills, but they had fun hanging out and kicking the ball!

we are very excited that parker's buddy caleb signed up for the league and hope he and parks can play on the same team together! we love caleb and his parents. they live in our neighborhood and just had a little baby boy, so now we each have two boys the same age and grade!

ahhh fridays. love.

day in the life: thursday

2011-08-05T11:23:00.000-05:00

thursday was the dreaded day at home with both kids without daddy. thankfully parker had kids day out, so i was able to spend some quality time with pax. our cleaning lady came to the house for 2 hours and pax slept the whole time, so i was able to clean and organize some baby things while she tackled the kitchen and living room. i love having her come over, if for no other reason than it gives me a little motivation to pick up knowing she'll be here to polish everything up! pax all snuggled up in his miracle blanket (i really only swaddle him at night...if he is awake during the day i either put him on his tummy to help him get stronger or put him in the swing):

i spent some time on the computer reading my favorite blogs and buying half price deals (love living social and nwa deal piggy!). one of my friends from high school recently started a blog about her journey through motherhood and i've enjoyed reading her thoughts. not only is she is a great writer (studied creative writing at columbia), but we share similar parenting philosophies & hippy lawrence roots, so her blog is especially entertaining.

usually i don't plan outings on the days when james is working, but my friend jenna wanted to go to the splash park so we took parker and barrett out for some fun. they play so well (parker is just starting to actually "play" with his friends now that he is 2!) and jenna and i were able to have sweet fellowship with each other and our babies. i am looking forward to joining our community group in the fall and spending time with the roddey family! (we took a break for the summer with all of our travel plans and the new baby)

for dinner we went got qdoba to go. i go there at least once a week (and five guys now that it opened next door!)...i am convinced they are the reason i cannot lose all of my pregnancy weight. but for now, their food is tasty and delicious and parker loves some chicken burrito!!

to finish the night, we gave pax a lil' bath (parker's bath was the splash park). after parker got sun spots last year, the doctor told me to stop bathing him as much so i only bathe them like once every 3 days now or when they get really dirty or sweaty--it has helped his skin so much!. love yall and hope you are having a great week!

day in the life: wednesday

2011-07-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

well i am still trucking along with the blog posts, even if they are a few days late. sometimes i feel like you have to make a choice to either live your life or blog about it, and most days i would rather live it (although some people have the super human power to do both well). i just can't keep up with the internet and real life.

wednesday was another full day. james stayed home with paxton in the morning so i could hang out with my friend brittney and her little boys at boingo bounce in fayetteville! the lil' guys had a great time (and the rest of nwa did as well, as there were probably 100+ people crowded into the place). parker and jack:

i am thankful james is so willing to stay home with the baby so i can get out. i simply pumped a bottle before i left and was free for 3 hours! staying home with paxton is pretty easy right now as he is sleeping so much and a very calm baby. these little two year olds on the other hand--calm is not the first word that comes to mind :). i tried to get them to pose for a photo in the bounce house but they were too busy running around.

here we are with our 2 and under crowd. i can't wait until the boys grow up and we can do even more fun activities together with the taylors!

we grabbed lunch on the way home from tropical smoothie cafe (love it!) and then this little guy passed out for 3 1/2 hours (love that as well). parks is still sleeping in his crib and has not yet tried to crawl out so i'm going to leave him in there as long as possible.

while p was sleeping, we got two packages in the mail! i love getting mail and packages--it is one of the highlights of my day.

a couple of work friends sent this harry and david fruit basket and my cousin sent some aden & anais swaddle blankets. i have never tried them before, but they are soft and breathable--perfect for summer!

next james and i had another discussion about cars. as i've mentioned in previous posts, we've been saving and looking at cars for several years now. i was pretty set on getting a big, fancy suv, but as the price of gas keeps rising, my desire for a gas guzzling vehicle drops.

james is very frugal, and in an effort to convince me not to want an suv, he put together this suze ortman-ish cost comparison of how much an suv vs. sedan would cost both initially and over the span of 8 years. i have to admit it kind of worked, and i am thankful for having a practical husband who wants to use our money wisely. while i don't think there is wrong with getting a nice suv, we have decided it is not the best use of our money right now.

it is a little ironic that behind this whiteboard is a "simplify" sign in my kitchen. for me, having a loaded suv would be very cool and fun, but is frivolous. i don't want to live an overly lavish life and would rather people know me as a simple and content person than a flashy or cool person.

i am very excited that parker is now officially registered for his first team sport!! this fall, he is playing in a 2.5 yr old soccer league! they have instructionals for 30 minutes each sunday afternoon and 3 on 3 games immediately following. i hope parker likes it and has fun! james thinks there is no question that parker will like it with how outgoing and full of energy p is, but you never know.

in preparation of the upcoming season, we bought soccer cleats and shin guards at academy:

as if that wasn't enough for one day, my friends were all going out to noodles for kids eat free, so parker and i joined them and james stayed home with pax again. i felt a little guilty leaving pax with james so much, but james encourages me to always go out with my friends (if for no other reason than he gets a free golf card to play whenever i go out :)).

i did not take a picture of the group because i was a little pictured out and our group of 6 moms and 10 kids was enough of a zoo without photos. until tomorrow, love you all and hope everyone is having a great friday!!

day in the life: tuesday

2011-07-20T22:09:00.000-05:00

tuesday was another relaxing day in the kehrli household. james got off work (and got to sleep at the firestation from 10:30pm-6:30am with no calls!! this doesn't happen very much any more now that he is driving the busiest ambulance in town). he is on a golf kick right now, so he went golfing with a work friend right after his shift and i dropped parker off at "school" (kids day out).

though i am thankful for the break when parker goes to school, i don't like his summer kdo program as much as the fall one...this one is 8am-2pm and it just seems too long and more of a daycare than a school. the summer kdo also naps him (he often doesn't nap but just sits there for 45 minutes) and it throws off his whole routine.

thankfully parker came home yesterday and napped from 2-5pm (his normal nap length). here is a sweet picture of pax going with me to drop of the parkerman:

during paxton's morning nap i did a little online shopping and tried to get all of our insurance/billing stuff figured out. we still don't have all of the bills from paxton's birth and they already messed up 2 of the claims, so i've been calling blue cross a lot.

i also edited a few pictures since my 30 day free lightroom trial was ending. i decided to buy it, but in the mean time all pictures will be straight out of the camera. LOVE this picture of james and paxton.

my friends gave me a subscription to birch box after pax's arrival. it is a sweet service that sends samples of quality beauty products every month. this month one of the samples was purity facewash by philosophy. i've enjoyed it so much that i decided to order the full size bottle. it's amazing how much more online shopping i do now that i have little ones...it is sooo much easier to shop from the computer!

for lunch, i met up with my boss and our vp at crabby's to "check in." i love crabby's lunch menu and waffle fries!

last, we took a family trip to the pool. i am amazed at how brave and (overly) confident parker is in the water. he has no fear of going under or jumping off of the side. james is doing a great job teaching him how to swim, so i don't think we'll even have to do lessons.

for the first time since pax was born, i got in the pool!! the water never felt better.

(pax slept in his carseat the whole time). love summer and family time!!

sweet dreams. love you all.

a day in the life...

2011-07-19T09:54:00.000-05:00

a peek into a day in the kehrli home...if i am lucky i might turn this into a week in the life of the kehrli's, but we will see :)

we wake up around 7am. james leaves for work (1 out of every 3 days) and parker and i eat half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. yesterday i decided to give parks milk in a big boy glass since our sippy cups were all in the dishwasher.

i stepped out of the room to change happy lil' paxton

when i came back in the room, this is what i found. guilty.

thankfully my neighbor gretchen watches parker 1 day a week (and some other neighborhood kids) so i can spend quality time with pax and get some stuff done around the house while james is at work. today was his day to go over there :).

i checked my email, printed off a few recently purchased living social/nwa deal piggy coupon's and our training schedule for the St. Louis Rock 'n' Roll half marathon in October! to be clear--i am by no means an avid runner. i am hoping to finish the half, whether i walk or run it. 5 of my neighbors and i are going to train for it together to help lose our post-pregnancy weight.`

after pax woke up from his nap, i nursed him and spent a good hour of quality time just staring at him. he is so beautiful i couldn't help but get out my camera and snap a few pictures. it was one of the most peaceful days i have had in a long time--nothing to do but just spend time bonding with my little guy.

how can you not loving looking at this sweet face? i am so thankful to have healthy lil' boys and be a mother.

at 5:30, several of the neighbors and their kids came over for make your own pizza night. i bought crusts, sauce and cheese and everyone brought over their favorite toppings. all of our husbands were either at work or out of town for the night so it was nice fellowship, albeit a little crazy with so many kids.

it is a blessing to be part of a neighborhood where everyone is friends. i am so thankful to have these moms in my life. whenever we are done hanging out, they always help clean the kitchen and pick up toys so the host does not have to do it--so helpful.
that was our monday. we'll see what today brings :)

3 more weeks

2011-07-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

i can't swim until july 28th (6 weeks postpartum) and it is killing me!!! good thing i have a husband who is home every 2 out of 3 days and took 3 weeks off after paxton was born to help out. love these two pool monsters!!!

parkerman

2011-07-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

one of my goals during my 3 months off is to blog more, even if it is just a photo a day. parker is such a good big brother and i am proud of the little man he is becoming. love you, munchkin!!

timeline of paxton's birth

2011-06-28T14:17:00.000-05:00

5:45am: woke up and heard a little pop as my water broke (not a gush but more of a steady leak).

6:30am: mother in law wakes up and i calmly ask if she can drive me to the hospital in 10 minutes because i think i am in labor. i call james at work (he was supposed to get off at 8am) twice and text him twice saying "IN LABOR, GOING TO THE HOSPITAL" and get no response.

7:00am: arrive at hospital (father in law stays home with parker). call the main fire station line and ask if james is around and what do you know, he is but did not have his phone on him, ahhh!! (in his defense he had carried it around with him at the fire station 24/7 for the last four shifts and thought he was almost home free with only an hour left of work.

7:15 check into room. dilated to a 4 (i was at a 3-4 earlier that week at my dr. appt). request epidural asap.

7:45am: at last james arrives! hospital spelled my name wrong on the id bracelet and has to redo blood work, delaying the epidural. i try not to be upset and get some fetunol through my iv.

8:15am: still no sign of anesthesiologist. i beg james to go into the hallway and ask the nurses every 5 minutes where he is until i get the drugs. nurses tell james they have paged the anesthesiologist twice and can't find him (typical!)

9:00am: finally receive the best thing ever during labor: epidural medicine. life is good. pre and post epidural silvy's are two totally different women. i now relax, do my makeup, and invite my inlaws and parker into the room.

11:45am: nurse checks me and i am at a 9 3/4!! i specifically asked for no pitocin after the epidural and am so happy that i still progressed and the baby's heart beat remained strong after the epi. all family leaves the room except for james.

12:05am: i start pushing and after 15 minutes dr. informs me i need an episiotomy again.

12:21pm: paxton enters the world! 9lbs 8ounces of pure, sweet boy!

i hoped labor with #2 would be faster and easier than the first labor and it certainly was (6 hrs. vs. 18 hrs. with parker)! i am incredibly thankful for lil' paxton's health, my health, the extremely smooth delivery, the timing of everything (that is a whole story in itself). God worked out every single detail and i am overjoyed with our little blessing and family of 4. until next time, love you all!!

pax and parker on their birthdays two years apart!!

my external cephalic version experience

2011-05-28T22:10:00.000-05:00

baby paxton finally turned!!

a few weeks ago i posted a thread on facebook asking for advice on how to flip a breech baby. i received about 20 comments with various tricks to try including:
*chiropractor (acupuncture)
*pelvic rocks
*midwife (visualization)
*prayer
*handstands in a pool
and several other things including my doctor's recommendation: getting on my hands and knees with my head on the ground and butt up in the air for 45 minutes 2-3 times a day.

i tried a few of these things (including handstands in the pool on our secret trip to florida last week), but did not feel the baby flipping and did not have the patience to sit in uncomfortable positions for hours on end each day with no instant result. i went to the chiropractor 6 times for the webster technique, but even though my chiropractor was super sweet, i kind of doubt the effectiveness of the sessions. so...

i agreed to let the doctor try an ECV. on a scale of 1-10, he warned me the pain would probably be a 9, but it would take 5 minutes or less for the actual procedure (i read online that some women even get epidurals for it!).

the morning of the procedure, i went to the hospital at 6:30am (there is a chance of needing an emergency c-section so it has to be done in a hospital), where heart rate and contraction monitors were hooked up to my stomach. the nurse gave me two doses of terbulatine to relax my uterus and stop any contractions and mentioned that my doctor has "magic hands" and can flip any baby.

after the doc arrived and lubed up my belly, he pushed paxton's bottom out of my pelvis with one hand and gripped p's head with his other hand (from the outside of my stomach). he slowly rotated the baby's head in a circular motion until it was situated perfectly in my pelvis and the whole thing took less than 2 minutes.

i am very happy to report that not only was the pain not a 9 but more like a 3 (i think the iv hurt worse than the ECV), but baby paxton flipped with ease on the first attempt! i am so thankful and this is such a prayer request answered. i am still praying that he will not flip back, but i have a peace knowing that he is in an ideal position right now. i would highly recommend anyone with a breech baby try an ECV!

the first thing james said after paxton flipped was "i wish i would've brought a video camera and recorded that!" he was amazed that he could literally see paxton's head moving through my whole uterus and how smooth it was. since we didn't bring our camera, i leave you with a youtube video that gives you and idea of what it is like in case you want a visual :).

http://youtu.be/LYpkzidmaVs

love yall and hope everyone is having a wonderful memorial day weekend!!

weddings

2011-05-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

i have been making more shutterfly projects...most recently i ordered 5 free wedding cards to take to all of the weddings james and i are attending this summer. here's a sample:

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

love yall!

$75k--the ideal salary

2011-05-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

i have a lot on my mind (mainly turning this breech baby!!) because of the endless list of things i want to accomplish before baby #2 arrives. like parker, preparing for paxton helps me evaluate my life satisfaction and think about changes i might want to make in regards to staying home vs. working and ultimate life goals. i keep coming back to this article that explores the relationship between financial and emotional stress of various salaries: Wall Street Journal Article.

main point: the ideal salary for optimal happiness = $75,000. i agree.

sure there are lots of variables (cost of living in places like nyc, high student loans, # of dependents, etc), but i think if you have to pick a number for an ideal salary in most parts of the country, $75k is correct. in nwa, there are a good amount of jobs that pay around $75/year (especially with at least 5 years in the business world), and many that offer flexible work environments / don't interfere a great deal on family life. most people i know who make more than $75 put in a good amount of hours and have higher emotional/family stress, and others who make less are often financially stressed (especially less than $40k, but i think there is a curve from 40-75 as higher pay = more breathing room).

as a side note, most of the comments that argue $75k (for one person) is too low seem whiny.

who knows what james and i will do in the coming years. i'm not going to discuss what we make other than saying we are a two income family right now, which minimizes a lot of financial stress. while i like the concrete $75k number as an ideal income, i still struggle with knowing what an ideal amount to save for our kids' college and retirement is (and if we are are on track). all we can do is keep trying to make smart, long-term financial decisions and not hold too tight onto our money knowing it is all a gift from God.

and maybe just maybe buy a new (used) car this summer that we've been saving up to buy for 2+ years!! :) g'nite yall. hope everyone is having a great week!!

happy anniversary baby!

2011-05-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

"you wear white and i'll wear out the words 'i love you' and 'you're beautiful'..."

tuesday marks our 3 year wedding anniversary! i can honestly say marrying james was the best decision of my life and i would make the same decision every day since then. without making this overly cheesy and cliche (too late), i love spending time with james and there is no one i would rather spend the rest of my life with. i always look forward to coming home from work and giving him and big hug and kiss, and i think he would say the same thing.

we still have fun and laugh together, which is refreshing and really helps hold our marriage together. even though our relationship looks different than it did pre-kids, the responsibility of adult/parenthood makes life that much more fulfilling. pouring love, time, money and energy into our marriage and kids gives a deeper sense of purpose. it is so nice to have a true partner in raising parker and i don't know what i would do without james' help in the process.

our relationship is comfortable and open. we don't have extreme highs or lows and the stability of our friendship gives peace. it is nice to have someone with similar interests who compliments my personality so well. we love doing everything together from going on walks every night to playing golf, cards, grilling out, etc. while i am much more of a planner and organizer, james is extremely easy going and laid back.

thank you, james, for being the rock and foundation of our family. i can't imagine my life without you and thank God for bringing us together. you are my best friend and everything. love you!!

love,

silvy

t-minus 5 weeks!

2011-04-28T22:36:00.000-05:00

my little sister's wedding is 5 weeks away!! which means baby kehrli's due date is 5 weeks and 3 days away! (and i only have 4 more weeks of work!) i just got my bridesmaid dress in the mail yesterday and thankfully it (semi) fits. the chest is wayyyy too big (which might the first time ever) so i'll have to get that taken in. i had to order the dress in January and had absolutely no idea what size to get, so i am thankful that it zips up!! my very prego belly looks rather odd shaped but it will work (and i have no makeup on in this pic but that is pretty typical these days).

this is really a better reflection of my current 35 week shape. watch out for the big belly!

maybe if the baby drops more, the dress will fit better. here's to hoping i don't go into labor the day of or day before the wedding. i already checked out kansas city hospitals and have everything ready to go if i have our little one out of state. please, baby kehrli, wait for your due date!!!

parker--2 years

2011-04-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

dear parker,
you are TWO YEARS OLD!! congrats little man. your daddy and i love you soo much and are proud of the boy you are growing up to be. you are 37" tall and weight 34lbs (both 95%). you are full of joy and get so into saying "cheese" that you squint your eyes like this...

you are adventurous, friendly, and LOVE to play!

during the week, you usually spend 2 days with daddy (and go to the gym), 2 days at kids' day out, and 1 day at my friend gretchen's house. you honestly have not got in trouble at any of those places and everyone always comments on how easy you are to watch. it is such a blessing knowing that you have fun wherever you go (when we drive by your "school" you whine to go "skoo" and often ask if you can go to "gigi's" because you enjoy both so much) and that you are not high maitenance.

you have been bitten 5 times!! at kids day out. they just kicked out the kid who has been biting you. i feel bad for his mom, but i feel better knowing you are a little safer in your class.

you are using more and more words and say "may...i...please..." when you want something (with daddy's and my prompt). i am trying to teach you some southern manners in hopes you will be a very respectful young man.

you continue to be a good sleeper and usually sleep from 8pm-7am with a 2 hr nap from 1-3pm. i am hoping this does not change with your new baby brother.

your favorite foods are chicken nuggets and pizza. when you wake up in the morning the first thing you usually ask for is a nuggie. i give you a peanut butter and jelly instead, but you would eat nuggies every meal if i let you. you still enjoy oranges, grapes, bananas, milk, and other healthy food (you just switched from whole milk to 2%!).

we bought you a power wheels jeep for your birthday and it is your new best friend. daddy and i are impressed with how quickly you picked up the steering, reverse, etc. we are also thankful to live on a culdesac where you can drive around without going into a busy street.

you are still struggling with your colors, but you have every one of your neighborhood friends' names memorized and say them each night when we walk by their respective homes. you get all of your energy from being around people and other kids.

you love to laugh, even though it is often when you do something that makes mommy, daddy or one of your friends mad (like stealing their toys), but i am glad you have a good sense of humor.

we have thoroughly enjoyed these last two years getting to know you and watch you grow up. you are the biggest blessing in our lives and we are thankful for every day we get to spend with you (and for all of the hugs and kisses). love you ohhhhh so much!

Love,

Mommy (and Daddy)

update on the accident

2011-04-19T21:46:00.001-05:00

i have been pretty sad about cainan's death...and by that i mean i have cried every day since it happened. the newspaper released more information about the driver who went across the median and what do you know--he tested positive for having several drugs (pot and several prescriptions you are not supposed to take and drive) in his system that impaired his reaction time on top of him having a suspended/expired driver's license. he should never have been on the road that day, and our friends were literally feet away from their exit off the highway when he went across the median and struck them head on. i know dwelling on that does not change the fact that little cainan was stripped of his life, but it makes me angry. there have been many comments and posts on the newspaper articles about how the road is dangerous and needs barrier cables or a median. although that might help, if we could just stop people from driving negligently that would've prevented this whole tragedy. i know his family is hurting and grieving as well and we all make mistakes, but it is just hard to forgive his actions.

look at this sweet face:

and this one from his obituary...the funeral is tomorrow and i hope they have a lot of people come out to support cainan and the shutt's. i know a memorial fund is set up and the community is planning other events like a cainan shutt memorial softball tournament in june, which has been very encouraging to ali and tommy.

in the midst of cainan's loss, his little sister, courtlyn is on the path to recovery! courtlyn is just one month younger than parker and ali wrote me last week before the accident that courtlyn would've loved to come to parker's bday party because she looooves elmo. i am so glad that the doctor's think she will be able to fully recover, broken neck and all. look at this sweet photo of her from today. isn't she beautiful?

james said i need to stop looking at all of the photos of cainan because i am just making myself depressed. i'm not sure why it is hitting me so hard, but i just can't imagine if that happened to p. i told james he and parker are never allowed to die because i would go crazy. i am not good about losing people in my life and it just tears me apart even though i know and believe we will see them again someday. anyway, hopefully with the positive updates on courtlyn this will turn into a story of hope, love and the support of a community. i am still praying for my friends every day, but i know God has a plan for everything. love yall and make sure to give your little ones extra hugs and kisses tonight!!!

heavy heart

2011-04-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

my heart is broken tonight for my high school friend, ali, and her husband, tommy--they lost their 5 year old boy in a car accident today. tommy's parents were driving on k-10 when a car went across the median and hit them head on (both vehicles were going 70mph and there were no skid marks so it was a very bad crash). their little girl was not breathing but firefighters rescitated her and she is in the lawrence hospital in critical care. here is a link to the story: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/apr/16/multiple-helicopters-being-dispatched-accident-k-1/

i know ali loved her little boy sooo much and i sit here crying thinking about how she must be feeling. if i had to look at parker's lifeless body at his funeral knowing he would never breath again, laugh again, smile, hug me, etc. i don't know if i could do it. it is just so sad. a few weeks ago ali and were talking about how her son was starting football this year and how she had been waiting 5 years for this day (we both love sports and are so excited to watch our kids play them) and now she will never get to watch him.

here is a picture of her sweet little boy. she has a lot of photos of him and i am sure she is thankful for every single one right now.

i need to get off the computer before i drive myself nuts thinking about this, but it is all that is consuming my thoughts right now. love you all.

upcoming events

2011-04-10T13:59:00.001-05:00

in an effort to mentally prepare for upcoming events before baby kehrli arrives (in 8 short weeks!), here is what we have on our calendar for our next few months...

april
*baby shower for baby kehrli next weekend!
*james--camping trip with his brother and best friend from high school
*easter! we will have guests so i'm going to order a meal from honey baked ham and just focus on cleaning...makes life so much easier!
*baby shower for my friend, sara, who is having a little girl in july!

may
*3 year wedding anniversary!
*mother's day
*florida/disney trip (james and parks with james' family)

june
*abbey & brett's wedding in kc!! james, parker and i are all in it
*baby kehrli is due (3 days later...we'll see how that goes)
*father's day

july
*levi's wedding--james is in it and i am going to stay home with the boys in arkansas, but...
*erin is flying in for 5 days!! can't wait!
*mini vacay at our friends' cabin (have i mentioned i love going to the lake?)

i am taking off work may 27th-sept 1st, so hopefully this will be an incredibility relaxing and enjoyable summer where we can make lots of memories as a family and enjoy our time together.

and because i can't do a post without some parker lovin', we got a new store at our mall this week, crazy 8. i got a few little things for p including this new hat (and a smaller one for his brother...can't wait to dress them in matching outfits). parker usually hates hats, but i got him to keep this one on for a few minutes yesterday. isn't he so cute!! :)

love yall!

elmo party picture overload

2011-04-05T21:53:00.000-05:00

since there are so many pics from parker's party, i'll try to keep the words brief...

decorations...found these juice boxees at walmart the day of his party!

the cookies. love them!!

mom and scott. parker's biggest friends!

elmo balloon...still parading around in our house

elmo elmo everywhere!

the cake. i was kind of impressed with myself at how well it turned out! my neighbors were super sweet and helped make the icing and decorate it with me the morning of the party.

my awesome friend amy brought over her bounce house for the kids to play in. it was the hit of the day!!!

every kid's dad came to the party (which meant there were a few more people than i was expecting but the more the merrier) and they all hung outside with the boys because it was 75 degrees! so perfect.

red fruit, yummy.

james organized the pinata fun and decided the pull strings were boring so we let every kid have a swing at it!

the girls/moms (they made all the pregos stand in the back) 3 of us are due in the next two months! it was nice to be able to hangout with them inside while the dads watched the kids.

james and parker on their motorized scooter. they love to ride this thing around the neighborhood!

and last but not least, the kiddos in their elmo shirts! excuse my super sloppy edit...i just downloaded a free trial of lightroom and am playing around with it.

as much fun as everything was, it is nice to have elmo behind us. mommy is soooo sick of elmo (and now we have like 15 new elmo toys and it is all my fault). next year we're doing a sports or jayhawk theme, ha! :) love yall.

favorites

2011-03-28T21:02:00.000-05:00

things i've been loving lately...

1. http://www.littlelovesdesigns.com/. i won a blog giveaway to her site and ended up ordering more because her bows and headbands are soooo cute! i am so excited to give these away at upcoming showers to all of my friends who are having little girls (which is like 2 since everyone i know is having more boys). it is a good thing i do not have a little girl because i would go crazy buying cute things like this!!

2. faux sheepskin rug. i picked up the 2x3 rug for $19 while i was in kansas city last weekend at home decorators. hopefully this will make a cute photo prop for at home newborn pics!

3. this lil' elf hat from etsy as well (now if only i can teach myself how to take pictures like this in the next two months):

4. children's place and gymboree. i buy most of parker's clothes here (and kohl's a close 3rd) since they are so close to our house and always have great sales. i refuse to buy any clothes from these stores unless they are on sale...these little outfits below were on sale + 30% off fill a bag sale + 20% off coupon from parents.

5. cookies from a local nwa girl, robin. she made these uber cute ones for our superbowl party and i can't wait to have her make elmo ones for parker's party this weekend!

hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

dad of the year

2011-03-23T21:50:00.000-05:00

as much as i hate people bragging about how awesome their spouse is, i am very thankful for james and what a wonderful husband and father he is. over the last few months, i have been traveling a lot, and james has sacrificially taken vacation days to stay home and watch parker.

for two weeks in a row in february, i got stuck in airports waiting for the snow and ice to clear up at xna so i could fly home. james was not just home with parker by himself for 5 days each week (which was originally supposed to be 3 days), but he was stuck inside because of the snow and maintained a very positive attitude throughout the whole thing.

to get out of the house, he traded his snow shoveling services for the neighbors' babysitting time so he could have a few hours to himself, and some of our wonderful friends knew james was home alone and invited him and parker over for dinner. he also tried to keep parker entertained with various activities like sledding...

and making snowmen...

snow snow and more snow!

i know this picture is blurry, but you can still see james and parker's expressions and it captures their fun-loving spirits and relationship. they have so much fun together and i know will be such great friends as parker grows up.

i am glad that is is spring. i am happy to be done traveling, and thankful we can hangout as a family and enjoy the lovely weather! i just finalized my last day of work: may 27th and first day back (september 1st) and can't wait to spend the whole summer focused on building memories with my sweet babies and james. here's to extra family time in t-minus 2 months!!

love yall!

glucose tolerance test--refusal of 3 hr. test

2011-03-12T22:24:00.000-06:00

on wednesday i received a voicemail from my nurse stating that my 1 hr. glucose test score was a little high and giving me the phone number to schedule a 3 hr. test with a local lab. i was in meetings for most of the day, so when i called back at 4:35pm the doctor's office was already closed for the day.

i felt a little frustrated...mainly in myself that i "failed" the test, but also in the fact that i could not get a hold of the doctor's office to ask my score. naturally i googled "glucose test pregnant normal score" and saw many message boards about the subject. most people said that anything over 130 or 140 required a retest.

finally when i was able to talk to the nurse the next day, our conversation went something like this...

me: yes i was just calling back about my glucose test results
nurse: what is your name?
me: silvy
nurse: was your result normal or abnormal?
me: um, the voicemail i got said abnormal...
nurse: did you get the phone number for the local lab?
me: yes.
nurse: well what else do you need?
me: i was just wondering if you could tell me my score
nurse: oh, well i'd have to pull your chart to do that
me: okay
*awkward pause*
nurse: well i'll have to call you back since i have to pull your chart
me: okay thank you
hangup...

several hours later i still had not heard back, so i called again and found out my score: 135.

after a few hours of thinking about and researching it some more, i decided not to retest. main reasons:
1. i don't think i have gestational diabetes.
2. even if i did have gestational diabetes, the treatment would likely be to regulate with diet.
3. i can regulate my own diet.
4. i don't think it is ideal to fast for long periods of time while pregnant or drink large amounts of sugar water on an empty stomach.
5. i often feel lightheaded when getting my blood drawn.
6. i don't want to take a whole morning off of work for the test.
7. i read many doctors have tightened the "passing window" for the glucose test, thus retesting many more people and producing many more false positives.
8. my score, 135, is not often retested.
9. as much as i love and respect doctors, i think know their own liability plays into extra unnecessary tests and procedures (i.e. why the c-section rate has gone up so much recently), this test included.
9. my pregnancy is not high risk and i passed the glucose test with parker.
10. the nurse did not call me about my results for 5 days after the glucose test (when she had the results in 1 day) and also indicated there was no rush in scheduling my 3 hr. test...so is it really necessary?

i think it is slightly humorous to read all of the posts on message boards of women who cannot believe others would refuse a test their doctor recommended. comments like "that is so selfish, foolish, etc." and "don't you want to do what is best for the baby?" appear often. however, i think it is really important for women to educate themselves about all topics related to pregnancy and not just blindly listen to a doctor's suggestion for everything (see the business of being born...yes it is rikki lake but still good, haha). imo, refusing the 3 hr test is the best thing for my baby.

i received a message from one of my high school friends who is pregnant (and was a national merit scholar, ha, but i do respect that) encouraging me to refuse the test and find alternative ways to check glucose (which i plan on discussing with my doctor on my next visit). i appreciated her support and wisdom on the subject. i feel good about the decision to not retest (and so does james), so i'll focus on eating less refined sugar and making sure i exercise at least 30 minutes/day.

and i can't end the post without a photo, so here is a sweet shot of baby boy kehrli at 20 weeks. can't wait to meet you little guy! (less than 3 months to go!!!)

cheapest way to buy diapers: amazon!

2011-03-07T20:41:00.000-06:00

even though i am cheap/frugal, i am not a huge coupon person because it takes too much time and seems like too much of a hassle. however, there is one coupon worth the time--Amazon Diapers!

over the last few months, i've only bought diapers and wipes from amazon and saved about 50% or more off the cheapest price i can find anywhere else. for example, twice this month i bought this 720 ct. Pampers wipes for $3.43! (originally $25).

here's the breakdown:

amazon sale price: $19.19

-amazon $10 coupon: (10.00)

-amazon mom subscribe & save promo (5.76)

= $3.43 with no tax and free shipping!

where do you find these coupons? the amazon mom promotion for 30% subcribe & save is free. i always sign up to receive the diapers once every 6 months and then make sure i cancel it sometime in the next few moths.

the following magazines often have the $10 off or 20% off coupons (photos below):

*parenting

*parents

*baby talk

*american baby
*fit pregnancy

i ordered a 3 year subscription to parenting for $6 a few months ago (if i see another deal like this i'll post it, but i've heard of several similar promos), so a coupon comes in that almost every month. subscriptions for babytalk are also free, so i get that one as well (besides the coupons, i enjoy reading these magazines as well).

i found coupons in magazines in the doctor's office this month, dentist office & hair salon, so i'd suggest searching for free ones there. here is what the coupons look like:

good luck finding the coupons and happy shopping! i'm excited to use my stockpile of diapers and wipes as baby gifts for some upcoming showers. with a little time, these coupons make diapers/parenting very affordable!

elmo saturday

2011-03-05T21:35:00.000-06:00

i am going to apologize in advance for all of the elmo posts coming over the next few weeks as i am collecting supplies for parker's bday party, but...yesterday we got our elmo pinata in the mail!!!

btw, i ordered most of his supplies from birthday express (and be sure to look for a coupon code before placing your order). with a toddler i have a new affinity for shopping online!

here is the all glorious 2 ft. tall pinata (it is pull string, which is safer for the lil' kids and also preserves elmo so he can be used as a room decoration later).

parker wanted to pose beside elmo...you can't tell but he is saying "cheeeese" here, so sweet.

the elmo pinata was the highlight of his day. i can't count the # of times parker chirped "elmo!" today. he even cried when i would not let him take him in his bed for night night.

he kept going up to elmo and hugging and kissing him (and maybe hitting and kicking him a few times). muah!!

ahhh!! let's get the party started, momma!!

and there you have our day (plus yoga, ku watch party, friends' surprise party and a neighbor's bday party)...but elmo was definitely parker's favorite part!!!

love yall! sweet dreams and rock chalk! it's almost tournament time baby!

favorite baby photos

2011-02-24T22:00:00.001-06:00

james and i have been talking about buying a nice camera for the birth of baby #2. i love, love photography, but i have been hesitant to invest in a good camera for fear it would make me feel guilty if i ever got parker's pictures professionally done. when i look at professional photos vs. most people who try to take them at home with a nice camera, they never seem to turn out quite as nice. at the same time, i think half of it is actually planning a portrait time and setting up all of the props to make it look like a professional shoot. there is part of me that loves this creative aspect of it and even though i don't have photoshop (or the knowledge of it), i have http://www.picnik.com/ :).

we haven't reached a final decision on the camera (and i have no clue what to buy so if you have suggestions of easy to use cameras for $500 or less that look professional, let me know!). in the meantime i've been thinking about what makes a cute baby photo. i collected a few photos of sweet newborns and tried to find common themes in what works:

**sleeping babies
**big hats
**woven sacks
**furry rugs
**big shells to rest the baby in

oh they are sooo cute! can't wait to have another baby!

birthday party planning

2011-02-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

james has been picking up a few extra shifts to take days off for all of my travel this month, so what have i been up to while he works for 24 hours? nothing better than planning parker's 2nd birthday party. these screenshots are very much works in progress, but here's what i've got so far...

parker LOVES elmo. elmo/melmo is his favorite word, and he always says it with the biggest smile on his face. even though i don't think elmo is a particulary "cool" or modern birthday theme, it's all about parker and what he wants. here's why i put together for the invitation and plan to print on cardstock and put on scrapbooking paper...

i saw someone made waterbottle labels so i tried to copy them

they have this cake pan at hobby lobby, and i'm confident my super cake decorator neighbor, heather, can replicate it!

the shirts i ordered as party favors with the kids' names on the back. i have parker's hanging in his closet and everytime i show it to him, he yells "elmo" and wants to put it on. not until the party little man!

i need to make a checklist of other party necessities (plates, napkins, activities, etc.), but that is enough for tonight and we are planning to keep the party small. hope everyone is having a wonderful week! i know these two are in mexico as we enjoyed their wedding last weekend.

time for my nightly glass of skim milk and prenatal pill (it is the only time of day i can take them without feeling sick). sweet dreams, love yall!

jbu, jbu, eagles, eagles!

2011-02-18T22:30:00.000-06:00

today kelly's korner is doing a "show us your alma matter." i wasn't going to post, but thinking about jbu makes me happy so i decided to dig up some old photos. when i reflect on my 6 years (yes i stayed for 2 years of grad school because i love the place so much, ha) at jbu, i am so grateful for the holistic education i received at jbu. i truly loved every aspect of the school--the classes, social life, spiritual life, etc. sure there were people i was not a huge fan of and things frustrated me from time to time, but overall the jbu atmosphere was so positive and encouraging, and i loved my time there.

my two favorite memories from jbu are my girlfriends and meeting james. when i see the pic below, i am taken back to the beginning of senior year when 8 of our 9 fun-loving friends were single ladies ready to make the most of our college career. we'd been through many good and bad times, cried and sympathized with each other over boys, classes, etc. we were determined to create memories our last year together. tara, rachel, carajean, jenna, summer, emily, lisa and charity--miss hanging out with you!

after you've been at a small school for 4 years, you feel like you've met/dated anyone you might be compatible with, and so i'd given up hope of finding my spouse at jbu. i decided to just have fun my senior year getting to know a wide variety of people and actually went on dates with 3 different guys the weekend james and i went on our first date, haha. james was my favorite and 5 years later, here we are married with 1 1/2 kids. even though there are times i wish we could've dated longer while we were at school, being single for most of college allowed us to grow and experience things we wouldn't have if we were together the whole time. love you, baby, and glad that God brought us together!

one of my other favorite memories is intramurals. i love competition, camaraderie and staying busy, so i played virtually every intramural sport the school offered. james and i actually met (we think) for the first time on the intramural field our sophomore year when he reffed one of my flag football games!

one of the biggest surprise blessings of my time at jbu was the opportunity to get to play for the tennis team. by no means were we any kind of prized athletes (at all), but i loved getting paid to workout and improve my skills in the sport. i miss playing tennis every day!

my time at jbu would not have been nearly as enjoyable with my best friend and roommate of four years, lisa. it is nice that we only live 5 minutes from each other now and can still be a part of each others' lives!

my favorite tangible piece of jbu was by far my roomate charity's love sac! i loved, loved, LOVED this thing (seriously spent several hours each day doing accounting homework on it). i want to buy one for our house now but cannot swallow the cost of one so i keep putting it off.

even coming from kansas, people questioned why i would want to go to school in arkansas. my friends and i wanted to experience true arkansas life so we went to brandon's house in hector for a weekend and experienced true arkansas with chicken houses, four wheelers and good ole' country fun.

because of my major, i had a lot of good platonic guy friends. thanks for the memories dusty, tj, todd, etc.!

i loved getting to know different groups of people at jbu, and my friends and i had fun hanging out with everyone from the basketball team to the crazy young sophomores.

looking at all of these photos really makes me want to have a reunion! it is sad that most of my friends are spread out across the country now and we don't talk to each other enough. when we graduated we went on a cruise together and had a blast. hopefully we can do something like this with our spouses again since almost all of us are married now--good times.

i would highly recommend jbu to anyone who is looking for a small christian school experience. you will look back and treasure your time there!! love yall.

finance post: prepaying a mortgage vs. investing

2011-02-15T22:47:00.000-06:00

if you have been reading my blog for very long, you know that i love finance, especially personal finance. i've written on the subject several times including here on our kehrli family goals and here on budgeting and saving for college (and as a follow up--transferring parker's money market account to a fidelity fund = 23% growth since i wrote the blog post in june. take that horrible interest rates! note that i recognize this is a blessing and not something i can take any credit for as the market has very dynamic over the last several years and we just happened to invest at the right time). there is so much freedom that comes from wise financial choices and it pains me to see to see others struggle with this topic (although i am by no means a finance expert or perfect in this area...and i might have just bought a pair of maternity jeans for over $100 and ordered unneccesary personalized elmo t-shirts as birthday party favors for all of parker's friends :)).

anyway, as james and i were reviewing our taxes this year, we started talking about our financial plan for 2011. as our income went up x in 2010, our taxes literally went up 4x, and i told james my #1 financial goal for the year was to reduce our taxable income for the coming year, mainly through increased IRA contributions. james argued that he really wanted to use any kind of extra income to pay off our house faster and not worry about a little extra tax, and so began the debate...

i googled, "prepaying a mortgage vs. investing" and came across many interesting articles. a majority of the financial experts agree that mathematically investing = higher returns (according to historical market stats). some of the articles were almost humorous in their basic advice, i.e. it is wiser to pay off a high interest credit card debt vs. prepaying a mortgage (you think?), and then i found this article, which i thought was a refreshing view on the subject (ignore the website url, haha).

highlights:
1. If you're asking yourself whether to prepay or invest, you're probably in pretty good shape.
2. Put away all pens and calculators and go for a walk with your spouse (this is not solely a math decision).
3. Do what you think is the best choice for your family and your life goals.

life goals, hm...my biggest life goal is to spend time with my family. i've often felt trapped that as long as james continues firefighting, i will never be able to stay at home (which btw, i completely support him in this and am glad he loves his job and schedule). however, after reviewing our finances more, we've created a plan to have our all of our debt paid off in 7 years. with no house payment, car payment, or any other kind of debt, it doesn't really matter how much firefighters make because i know we can live on the wages (plus the amount of money we would save on taxes would almost be a 2nd income [not that we make a lot of money, but going from two incomes to one greatly reduces anyone's taxes]). it is encouraging to know that if we continue on our current route, i can retire in 7 years! there is light at the end of the tunnel.

how awesome would it be to have james work 24 hours shifts, and then come home to the kids and me for 48 hours (i'd be home all the time!). we could get a family golf membership and play several days a week, go to the pool, volunteer more, have tons of time for family vacations, etc. i could go to the gym while the kids are at school and actually have time to plan meals at night (which will be so necessary when i have a house full of hungry boys!). oh the possibilities are endless. so i think i've been swayed...for us the emotional rewards and freedom not having a house payment provides far outweigh a little extra money in retirement. plus if our house is paid off and our kids' colleges are already saved for, the amount of money required for retirement should be much lower.

will all of this change? probably. who knows what life will throw at us, but having a plan for right now feels good and gives me hope. on the days when i am jealous of other mom's staying at home, i know that my time will come.

i am now 24 weeks along and have not done a single pregnancy post, ha. baby kehrli #2, i love you!! parker i love you, too. thanks for being my fun-loving crazy man.

until next time...go packers!!

old videos--parker firsts

2011-02-03T21:48:00.000-06:00

i am home!!! after a long, long week of airports, hotels, rerouting and finally driving home from tulsa, it feels sooo good to be home with my family. i am phsyically and emotionally exhausted, so here are a few old vidoes of parker's firsts:

parker's first cries (he was a screamer!):

parker's first time to sit up:

parker's first steps:

parker's first time sledding!

night yall, thanks for the overwhelming amount of comments on paul's post. i know i still owe a few emails...more to come soon. love!

meet my brother-in-law paul

2011-01-20T22:08:00.000-06:00

kelly's korner is devoting a day to "show us your single friends" and there is no one i would rather set up with a great girl than my brother in law, paul. he and my husband are best, best friends and while he has dated, he has yet to meet the right girl to spend the rest of his life with.

paul is 27, went to university of wisconsin, loves working out/sports, and is very loyal to his family. he lives in southern wisconsin but works in chicago and grew up as a missionary kid in ecuador. here is a picture of james and paul at our wedding rehearsal:

if you know any single ladies in the chicago/southern wisconsin area who might be a good match, please let me know!

tres amigos

2011-01-19T21:25:00.000-06:00

below are two of parker's best neighborhood buddies, dylan and caleb.

look at caleb's great smile!

touchdown packers!

we are blessed to have a great neighborhood of friends and kids!!! and i cannot wait until summer when we can sit outside and let the kids pay in the sun. hopefully parker will be a little better 4-wheeler driver this summer :)

in the meantime we are supposed to get 6-8" of snow tomorrow!! i'm hoping for school to be cancelled tomorrow and friday so i can work from home! love yall.

the cost of raising a child

2011-01-16T13:17:00.000-06:00

i've been wanting to write a post about the financial cost of raising a child ever since i read this article last year. i'd highly recommend reading it as it is a pertinent and interesting subject for new parents. one of the first questions james and i asked ourselves in the shock of finding out we were pregnant was, "how much is a baby going to cost?" our answer: we have absolutely no idea. the money watch article claims that middle class families will spend $286,000 over the first 18 years of a child's life (not including the cost of college or loss of income from a stay at home spouse). upper income families (income > $98,000) are likely to spend $475,000 in 18 years per kid.

these numbers sound absolutely outrageous and make kids seem very unaffordable. however, i would argue the cost of raising a child can be much lower than these averages with a few easy steps and our cost of parker's first year was much lower than our expectations. the article mentions that middle income families will spend $11-13,000 a year and upper income families $19-23,000. i am happy to report that in parker's first year of life, we spent less than half of any of those numbers. and without sharing too many personal details about our finances, it is helpful to breakdown where we spent our money:

1. childcare (about 50%). thankfully we didn't have parker in full-time day care all year and our work situation is very conducive to reducing expenditures in this category since james watches parker most week days. full-time childcare in arkansas is about $8-10,000/year and while i hear sooo many people complain about the crazy costs of childcare, it actually works out to less than $3/hr so hating the system seems unjustified. plus many of my friends are either SAHM's or have relatives watch their children so that helps significantly in this category.

2. health costs. for my personal calculation, i added the incremental cost of adding parker to health insurance + hospital/doctor's bills. i am very thankful for parker's good health and that we did not have to have extra for staying in the nicu or going to the emergency room during the year. did we still pay a few thousand dollars for premiums, prenatal/delivery costs, etc? maybe. but i don't think a few thousand dollars for these things is anything to complain about either--we get excellent care in america and should help pay for quality doctors.

3. baby supplies. this is the area where i was pleasantly surprised to see low numbers in our budget. diapers are not really that expensive! for parker's first year of life we spent less than $100 a month on all feeding and diapering supplies (granted i breastfed over half of it, but still...the generic formulas that most babies can eat are not awfully priced either). we got most of our clothes, furniture, etc. at baby showers and garage sales, so there was not much we really had to buy brand new in terms of supplies.

4. tax break. i originally didn't have this in my expense list, but i think it makes sense to add back in the money saved in taxes into the cost equation. child tax credit of $1,000 per child (if income is <$110k married filing joint) + dependent exemption ($3,650*whatever tax bracket you are in) = more than the cost of diapers and other baby supplies most of the time.

5. income loss--i didn't factor this into the equation even though i took extra unpaid time after parker's birth, but i think that is more a personal choice to stay at home longer (or forever) and while it directly affects available funds and is linked to the cost of raising a child, it is not a direct cost (plus the numbers for this are all over the board making it hard to have a true average).

anyway, i write this post not to brag about how we were super frugal with parker, but to encourage others that raising a child can be very affordable. with a little planning, shopping around, etc. most stay at home moms can easily raise a child for less than $5,000 / year. just to throw a number out there (which may be arguable with many, many contributing factors), i think any family with a member earning $40-50k or above can have the other parent stay at home with one child and make it work. the more kids added to the family the harder this becomes, but finances should be considered before having more children if at all possible. also i think it is helpful to breakdown baby expenses month by month and see how much you are really spending on your children. i plan to continue tracking all of our kids' expenses every year and see where we end up.

did anyone else watch the oprah special this week with suze ortman and nadya suleman? i loved it. and i love suze ortman--sometimes i think we could be best friends if we were in the same friend group.

until next time, hope everyone is having a wonderful sunday. i had to add a picture of how parker and i spent our saturday since daddy was at work. go packers!!!!!!!!!! (and jayhawks!) love yall.

gender reveal party details

2011-01-10T21:50:00.000-06:00

i think all of you know from facebook, but we are having another BOY!! as much as i wanted another boy and was excited when we saw a little junk in trunk on the ultrasound, part of my heart sank a little wondering if we will ever have a girl. oh well, parker will have a best friend and we will have a rowdy house of sports loving boys.

i always try to have one element of each party we host a "do it yourself" project, and even though i bought almost everything this time (pizza, beer, chips, cupcakes, cleaning lady-ha, etc), i still got stressed out when i ran out of time to finish the sugar cookies. thankfully my sweet husband helped roll out the dough and cut all of the onesie shapes out.

here are a few of the finished cookies. two of my sweet neighbors came and helped decorate, which also helped alleviate the time crunch stress (although i still did not have time to do my hair or makeup, blah).

we ordered cupcakes from rick's bakery and they were delicious!! (i found the "it's a girl" and "it's a boy" cupcake toppers at hobby lobby for $1.99...saving the rest of the pack for showers!)

here is our dessert table...i love the pink and shiny blue fabric. i actually had the pink left over from my wedding decorations box and i bought a half yard of blue at hobby lobby for $1.50. the blue and pink plates, cups, napkins, etc. are from walmart for cheap.

team pink:

team blue:

these are the two fabulous ladies (neighbors) who watch parker when james is working. love them!

my cherished best friends from college supporting team pink, lisa and emily.

kids' beverages...i tried to find blue and pink jones soda and they sell it NO WHERE in nwa (well at least not at walmart, target, or the pinnacle market), so i settled for berry and punch juice boxes instead.

our gender "guestbook"...made from supplies at yours truly, hobby lobby (the letters were left over cutouts from parker's birthday party sign)

overall i think the party went really well. i enjoyed myself more than parker's birthday party and felt like i got to talk to more people instead of just running around doing things. even though james' asked for me to make it girls only after i'd already sent the invites, i think it was a good family activity and more guys showed up than we were expecting (well more people in general). the kids played, everyone had enough to eat, and it was a great night of celebration of new life! love yall.

quick update

2011-01-07T22:32:00.000-06:00

apparently i am not the only one who googled gender reveal party ideas and came across the cat fight: http://www.throughcloudedglass.com/2010/10/gender-reveal-parties-narcissistic-or.html

a snippet of what we've been up to...
"vacationed" in wisconsin for a week with family for christmas. it snowed and snowed and snowed. nothing like driving 30mph through the whole state of illinois on the interstate and spending 14 hours in the car for a day with a 1 1/2 year old. parker actually loved the snow and kept saying, "bubbles!!"

hung out with a lot of friends. one thing i love about nwa is how everyone is connected in some way, i.e. my neighbor/church friend lauren who went to jbu at the same time as me--even though we did not know each other there, we have a common bond and something to talk about now (and babies of course). aren't london and lena the cutest little girls ever?

one of my other neighbor's little boy, brady, and parker at the jump zone. i just noticed what a big tongue parker has, haha! poor brady got a bloody nose.

james and i went to shogun's for dinner on new year's eve...and then he fell asleep at 9:30pm (not long after parks!)

parker is still as sweet and crazy as ever and loooooves his new slide. thanks grandma/garage sale!

until tomorrow and the party, love you all!

to 2011

2011-01-01T22:05:00.000-06:00

is this not the sweetest photo you have ever seen!?! a friend just posted it on facebook, and although i usually don't get all sappy/look how cute my kid is, this photo melts my heart. parker was even saying "cheese" to the wedding photographer. he is a real person and not a baby any more!!

i have been going a little stir crazy this week with no work and cold weather. i think the biggest adjustment into parenthood is being locked to the house after 8pm every night (babysitters and pack 'n plays aside, although i don't use either much), and winter makes this especially dreadful. i suppose introverts don't mind staying home as much, but sometimes i struggle with feeling like life is not as full as other times in life when i was constantly building relationships and hanging out with others (i.e. college, camp, high school, etc.). then i look at that sweet picture of parks (squeezable, kissable cheeks), and i am reminded that pouring my heart into him is the most fulfilling thing i can do right now.

in my boredom, i've been playing our gender reveal party (i'll announce the sex of baby #2 next sunday...we just found out ourselves the day before christmas!). while ~~researching~~ googling party ideas, i found several articles and message boards bashing the idea of a gender reveal party. haters (haha can't think of a better word) complained these narcissistic parties were greedy events friends felt obliged to attend. my husband even agreed that no guy wants to spend his saturday night at a gender reveal party.

so i have to clarify before i put up all of my pink and blue decorations...a gender reveal party is not about finding out the baby's sex...sure it is nice to tell people at the same time (and in person...a lost art), but that is not why friends come. the point of the party is to HANG OUT! gifts are not encouraged or required, and for moms who are tied to the house every evening with nothing better to do than plan gender reveal parties (me), this gives us something to look forward to. i love planning parties and getting together with friends, and i am very much looking forward to our party.

as i learn more and more about motherhood, i realize that it is so important to find joy in the small things. while pregnant with parker, i read a local magazine that had a page devoted to "spicing up your walmart outfit" (i.e. trading the workout shorts for khaki shorts) and i thought it was the stupidest article i've ever read. really, is this all i have to look forward to as a mom--dressing up to go to walmart? i think i'll keep wearing my workout shorts, thank you. and now i know that when you've been at home with an infant all day and need to get out of the house, a trip to the store might just be the highlight of your day, and that is perfectly okay. it is a little things for a mother that bring joy and excitement, and we should be slow to judge other's sources of happiness (especially people who don't have kids :)). my goal for 2011 is to stay positive about life, family, parenting, work, etc. and to enjoy building memories with those i love.

happy new year!!!

merry christmas!

2010-12-22T22:15:00.000-06:00

apparently we have a family tradition of taking black, white and red holiday photos. i love looking at last year's photos and seeing how much parker has changed. can't wait to see what he looks like as a little boy and man someday (that is a lil' scary and sad to think about)! love ya little guy--you will be a great big brother!!

and since most of our cards have been sent out, here is our christmas card (thanks again, shutterfly).

the inside has this photo and a message on the right side.

merry christmas, yall!!! :)

baby #2!

2010-12-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

since it's been nearly a month since i announced my pregnancy on facebook, it's about time for a blog post. yay for baby #2!!! a few common questions and answers:

1. Were you trying? Yes. We had been trying (or not preventing) for about 4 months and even though that does not seem like a lot of time compared to some people, every month i took pregnancy tests a couple of days before my period just in case any levels of hcG showed up. i am very impatient. i didn't cry with the negative pregnancy results, but i was disappointed and might have taken more a few days later just to make sure it was negative.

also, we are due 3 days after my little sister's wedding in kc, so i was really hoping to get pregnant a month or two before but oh well. in the wedding, i am the matron of honor, james is a groomsmen and parker is the ring bearer. pretty complicated situation, but we are going to do everything we can to make it. i've looked up hospitals in kc that are in network and unless i am in the hospital delivering the baby, we will be standing up there beside them. not quite sure what size dress to order...

2. do you want a boy or girl? boy. several reasons for this...

a. i want parker to have a brother who is his best friend.

b. parker is wild, loves to wrestle, etc. and i think it would be good for him to have a lil' bro to wrestle with (even if a lil' sis might be good for him to help develop a gentle nature).

c. if we have another boy, james is more likely to be open to having a 3rd so i can try to have a girl

d. i think i am a better parent of boys and would not really mind if i never have a girl. i love watching sports, playing poker, playing golf, and other boy activities and think it would be fun to have a house full of boys.

e. boys are cheaper...and a lil' guy can wear all of parker's old clothes!

3. what do you think you are having? leaning towards girl.

i won't be disappointed if we have a girl. there are tons of fun things about having a girl. at our first ultrasound the baby was very calm and parker was never calm. also i am not as sick as i was with parker (although i hate, hate, hate the first trimester, which is mainly why i have not posted in months--i've been going to bed by 9pm every night..ha!) we are going to find out this time and i will post the sex after we have a gender reveal party with our friends in january.

until next time, love you all and thank you for all of the sweet comments on facebook!!!

shutterfly cards

2010-11-22T17:04:00.000-06:00

most of you know about my love affair with http://www.shutterfly.com/. i made our wedding book, ecuador book, honeymoon book and parker's 1 year book and have many more plans to use shutterfly in the future.

this year shutterfly is offering bloggers 50 free holiday cards for writing a blog post about the promotion! woohoo, at $1.50/card, that's $75 saved (knock that off of the holiday budget). i love making christmas cards, especially now that we have a little family. i love wallpapering our fridge with all of the cards we receive as well.

so here are my favorites from shutterfly...

this card is classy, but i'm not sure if i want to do black, red and white again since that was our theme last year:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/family-wall-noir-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93495

so we might do this one instead:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/provence-holiday-2011-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93495

we have a photoshoot coming up with Meredith who is offering $20 photo sessions until the end of the year (with the disk!) i hope to turn around the cards quickly! yay for shutterfly, photos and christmas! love yall.

18 months

2010-11-11T20:43:00.000-06:00

dear parks,

you are 18 months! stats from your checkup:

*35 inches (98%!!)

*30 lbs (75%)

*head--don't remember, but about 50th%

we are loving seeing your personality emerge...you are a mix of the cutest sweatheart and biggest troublemaker. one minute you are sweetly cuddling and the next you are slapping my face. dad and i can't figure out if you have an extremely high pain tolerance or are just that tough. you don't cry when you fall, get hurt or even bleed. the other day you were running with a basketball and tripped and bit your tongue and it didn't bother you for more than a second.

you are determined, strong, fast, mischievous, and full of energy. you hate holding hands and are not afraid to leave my side. at our neighborhood halloween party while some toddlers clinged to their mom's side, you ran everywhere and i was so exhausted trying to chase you.

you love to wrestle and give hugs, although you sometimes confuse the two. last week we had dinner at our neighbor's and you put two of the other 1 year olds in headlocks while you were "hugging" them from behind. you also love to steal other kids' food and sippy cups.

you love all things sports related and spend many hours playing tball, golf and basketball in our living room. one day you teed up the football on the tball stand and were hitting it with your golf club, bless your heart. you love love love throwing balls and will ask to play with them whenever you spot one.

you've started to fold your hands and say amen--warms mama's heart. i love you and can't wait to watch you keep developing!!!

love,
mama

home

2010-10-10T21:14:00.000-05:00

we are home from kansas. 3 trips back and forth in 2 weeks makes me one very tired girl.

to "anonymous": yes, i did change out of the shorts for the bible study :). i put on jeans and a intramural t-shirt from college, haha.

i took one whole picture of heather's wedding saturday. my friend, jen, took over 2,000, so i will share more when she sends me some! love yall.

p.s. james and i got home today just in time to see the end of the chiefs' and packers' games. blah. hopefully both teams will make the playoffs!!!

p.p.s. maybe i should wear makeup more often. i look a whole lot better with it...

on dressing up

2010-10-07T00:36:00.000-05:00

last night as james and i were walking out the door to our weekly small group bible study, james asked if i was going to change out of my running shorts. i replied that no, i actually changed into them for the study and he asked if i would at least put on jeans (he had on jeans and a polo). before you think my husband is some kind of controlling dress snob, let me give you a little background...

after james and i had been dating for about a month, we had a "state of the union" relationship talk. we shared our biggest joys of dating and biggest fears. i kid you not--james' biggest fear was "that i would make him wear too many polos and dress up all the time." if you knew my husband growing up, you would understand his fear as he lives in t-shirts and basketball shorts. and the reputation he heard about me was that i complained my boyfriends did not wear enough polos (ha!). it was that day that i knew if that was his biggest fear, we could work through our issues and build something good.

james and i both love wearing workout clothes/sweats/running shorts. a sweaty guy in gym clothes turns me on so much more than a guy in a polo. not that i hate polos (because actually i do like james and other guys in them), but anyone can put on a polo, and polos send a message that "i'm trying to look good" (especially at a dave matthews concert, haha). on the other hand, a guy in workout clothes says "i'm not trying to impress, i'm living and taking care of myself (and i'm probably decently athletic)."

growing up, i wore t-shirts all.the.time. especially at sporting events, i absolutely HATED it when girls dressed up. a blue, tight dress does not convey jayhawk spirit like a good ole' fashioned t-shirt. then i went to john brown and i became that girl. i'm not sure if it was because all of my friends dressed up, i liked the attention/was trying to find a husband, or we had nothing better to do (probably all of the above), but i dressed up for basketball games. (i would like to share that post-college, i stopped. when i go to arkansas games, i always wear t-shirts).

working out at camp war eagle really helped me go back to my roots. one of my friends came to visit and wore a cute sundress, and i wanted to ask her why she wanted to draw the attention to herself as the only person out there not in shorts and a t-shirt. even if her primary motivation wasn't attention but maybe "to feel beautiful," they are virtually the same thing in my eyes.

i think high heels are the biggest attention seeker. and yet, i still own heels and wear them from time to time, so what does that mean? actually, i have some pink shoes that average about 5 compliments a day when i wear them (hahaha yes i keep track because they are my only pair like that) and i constantly struggle with why i wear such things. is fashion asking for attention or is it to display beauty (and is either good)? is our goal to draw attention to our shoes or attire or to focus on the heart? how does dressing up in heels or wearing makeup fit into professionalism vs. seeking attention vs. enjoying life?

last year i read the book, "captivating," with some of my girlfriends and we discussed many of these points. however, i don't think my heart fully settled on the issue and i still question whether the pursuit of any type of beauty is positive/holy/profitable. as much as i tell myself no, i'm still going spray tanning tomorrow and buying fake nails for a wedding saturday. yet, i haven't worn mascara for the past 2 weeks (or much in the past 2 years for that sake) and i can't convince myself that getting regular manicures or pedicures is a good use of the money God's provided. i am very comfortable without makeup, but often i question if i am too comfortable and should wear it more. and that concludes random thoughts from silvy on this lovely october night...love yall.

love ya, grandpa

2010-10-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

my grandfather passed away last week. even though he was 88, it was semi-unexpected and very tough for our family. james, parker and i drove to lawrence on monday and spent the whole week with my dad and relatives. i learned many new things about my grandpa including that he led a team of mechanical engineers to perfect the process for coating m&m's (3,300 pounds an hour in the 1950's!) and that he received several patents for his incredible creations on other research projects. he was a loving father and grandfather who deeply cared about his family. he was generous, selfless and humble. he had a strong work ethic and spent many hours working on the family farm (which motivated him to earn his degree from KU).
here is a link to his obiturary: http://www2.ljworld.com/obituaries/2010/sep/29/carl-perkins-jr/

i love the photo my aunt submitted from his pilot days in the army (WWII):

i am really glad my grandpa got to meet parker. even though he only had 1 grandson (out of 8 grandkids), he has 4 great-grandsons (out of 5!)

james, parks, dad, sister, fiance and me after the funeral. dad changed out of his suit before i could snap a photo. our family hates dressing up :)

some of our family at my dad's house. it was nice to be able to spend time with everyone.

here we are at a ku football game a few years ago. love this pic!

i love you, grandpa, and your presence will be deeply missed at all of our family gatherings!!!

health insurance

2010-09-23T22:53:00.001-05:00

by no means is this any sort of political post, but i would like to praise my company for a minute for providing excellent health insurance. it seems like all we hear are people complaining about how terribly expensive healthcare is and no one is grateful. even the millions of people in our country who get free health insurance are not grateful (okay i really promise this is not going to be a political post, but james' experiences as an emt and at the hospital are sometimes frustrating to hear). anyway, today i salute you, hr of our company, for doing a fine job helping our employees have affordable insurance.

even though our deductible is fairly high, our work sets aside a geneourous HRA fund every year. this money rolls over if not used in its entirety and is funded solely by our employer. james and i used this money to pay for most of parker's birth expenses and it was a huge blessing.

also, our work rewards people for making healthy lifestyle choices. this is something i am very adamant about and am thankful for as well. in two weeks, our office will undergo a voluntary "screening" that tests cholesterol, blood sugar, bmi/waistline, blood pressure and asks if we are tobacco-users. depending on the scores, we receive a monthly discount for living a healthly lifestyle. it does not hurt the people who are unhealthy, but rewards those who are not as likely to be a big financial health expense to the company. granted there are factors and situations that make it more difficult than others to achieve certain bmi levels or whatnot, but overall, i think there is such a lack of personal responsibility for being healthy and it is encouraging to see rewards for valuing health.

i weigh more than i want to right now. my bmi is probably higher than i want it to be (i haven't had it tested for a while). yet there is no one but myself to blame for my current situation. sometimes i tell myself that if i didn't have a kid i would still be in the same shape i was 3 years ago (and i more than likely would as i love to workout), but at the same time, several of my neighbors go running every morning at 6am and if i was really motivated to lose the 13 pounds i've added since we got married, i would get up early to run. here's to hoping the screening still goes well... :). love yall.

weddings can be fun

2010-09-21T22:44:00.001-05:00

i still have a few denver posts in the queue that are a little outdated now (zoo, estes park, firefighters museum, etc.), but tonight i'll share a couple pictures from my friend jinger's wedding. james and i truly had a great time at this event. we didn't know a ton of people, but the wedding had 3 key elements that always make a wedding more enjoyable for guests:

1. kid friendly...or kids were invited. (for the first time at a wedding, parker made friends and danced on the dance floor for a good 2 hours!! it was such a blessing. he also kept going around stealing steak knives off the table before dinner and running around with them but that is a whole 'nother story [no one was hurt]).

2. dancing

3. alcohol/dinner

we've been to so many weddings lately that have not had any of these luxuries and we just did not enjoy ourselves. i know weddings are all about the bride and groom, but i really appreciate the weddings where people put the guests' enjoyment in the priority list as well. besides the fact that we have to entertain parker in the hallway during all wedding ceremonies, receptions without food or dance floors are not really kid friendly either and p is at the age where he does not want to sit still.

anyway, the next two upcoming weddings should be fun...heather's wedding will be a fun lawrence/high school reunion, and courtney's wedding will have all of the above mentioned amenities.

below are two of my best friends from my internship who were so kind to come to james' and my wedding in kansas two years ago:

happy lil' family. love that james and parker match!

yay for a renewed faith in the happiness of weddings and a positive attitude going forward...love yall!

monkeys

2010-09-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

we went to a first birthday party for one of parker's best buds the other weekend and the theme was monkeys! love themes and wrapping presents (we got him two monkey outfits :))

i tried to get parker to pose with me and the present in his monkey shirt. you can tell how exicited he was for the photo. fail.

i loved the birthday cake brittney ordered that perfectly matched the invitations. they had a monkey pinata as well as other cute monkey decor!

birthday boy in action. isn't he the sweetest thing you have ever seen?

until next time, love you all! happy friday!!

colorado

2010-09-06T22:43:00.002-05:00

home from colorado. great trip (surprisingly smooth), great to be home. happy labor day!!

happy day

2010-08-25T23:14:00.001-05:00

i can officially announce that my best friend from high school is engaged! the wedding is october 9 at the pavilion in shawnee mission park. apparently the original guest list had over 1,500 people, but they cut it to only have 500 attendees. even though i am very excited for my friends' relationship, i am not really a fan of weddings (anymore). it's funny that before i got married i loved going to weddings and now i dread them (mainly because i have a 1 year old who does not sit still). actually children under 11 years old are not allowed at this wedding/reception (see trimming the guest list), so i'm not 100% sure what we're going to do with parks since my whole family is invited. dread is a strong word and i don't mean to complain because i'm sure the day will be very fun, but all of the drama that surrounds weddings can be so consuming and frustrating, and i have to constantly remind myself to have a good attitude and give my time and gifts generously.

in the spirit of positivity, here are a few pictures of heather and me...(it's too bad i lost all of my scanned photos from junior high and high school...we had some good ones!!)

the day james and i got engaged! heather and my sis drove down to arkansas from lawrence!

at our wedding rehearsal! (gosh my arm looks fat. i was 5'7" and 130 pounds...how do my arms always look fat? i'm blaming it all on 10+ years of gymnastics muscle turned to fat :))

at the top of a 14'er we climbed!

we love the muscles pose, haha. 5.3.08!

here's to a special upcoming day for my friend where i will remember that my bridesmaidal duty is to be the best support i can be! love yall.

school time

2010-08-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

parker is officially starting "school" this fall. as much as i'm a big believer in kids being kids and playing all day long, i also think a lil' structure is healthy, so september 9th parker begins his school days journey at pinnacle hills' "kids day out." (thanks for being pc, monster church, since james is the one getting the 'day out'). my next door neighbor (who taught kindergarten for 10 years) is going to be one of the teachers and offered to take parker every monday and thursday from 9am-1pm. she is so excited about the classrooms, curriculum, activities, etc. and easily convinced me to enroll parks. every day the kids will enjoy a full schedule of:

*music class
*finger play (play dough, finger paints, etc.)
*Bible story
*secular story
*playground time
and lots of free play!

teachers send home a list of milestones to work on each month, which the kids are evaluated on during play to see how they are progressing. as much as it sounds scary to measure children at 1 year old, the overachiever in me really loves this and appreciates the partnership in my child's growth and success. when the children get older activities are geared toward getting them ready for kindergarten like writing and scissor skills.

they also have all kinds of fun parties like pumpkin picking and i'm sure parker is going to love the social interaction (he really thrives on being around other kids). anyway, the first month goals are:
1. walking on his own (check)
2. pushing, pulling and dumping things (check)
3. turning pages of a book (semi check)
4. saying "more" in sign language. what? i haven't taught p any sign language, so for the last 3 days james and i have worked vigorously on getting parks to sign more and he is already a pro! i was super surprised how fast he picked it up. our next word is "milk," which he needs to learn by november, so we have plenty of time!

here is a lil' video of james practicing with p:

love yall!!

water baby

2010-08-22T22:55:00.001-05:00

parker loves LOVES the water. he loves splash parks (are these a fairly new phenomenom or was i just clueless before having p?)

he loves dunking himself in the water (a little scary for mom and dad. he thinks he can swim).

loves playing under the mushroom

loves going down waterslides

seriously he went head first down the slide 20+ times. good thing it was a cool evening and we were the only ones at our friends' pool!

he loves swimming in lake michigan (FREEZING lake michigan). he would not stay out of the lake even though his lips were turning purple and his legs felt numb.

last but not least, here's a video of our fearless little swimmer with grandma betty.

i would love to raise all boys because they are too much fun!!! love yall.

parker cleaning the fridge

2010-08-16T22:22:00.000-05:00

it's monday. parker and i went for a long walk tonight and stopped and talked to several neighbors. having a kid is such an in for making new friends! until i upload more pictures from my camera, i give you a video of parker finding a cool spot to hang out in this 100 degree weather!

love yall!

15 month stats

2010-08-12T21:43:00.001-05:00

we are home from wisconsin. hopefully lots of posts to come. i just realized i never posted parker's 15 month stats! (this makes it so much easier to go back and fill in his shutterfly baby books at the end of the year)

height: 34" (>98%!!)

weight: 28lbs (85%)

head circum.: don't remember, but around the 50%

4 teeth (ha!) he just got a 5th at 16 monhts

oh what a joy he is. love his smile, laugh and crazy energy. muah lil' guy!

love,
mommy

climbing

2010-08-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

my mother in law (who is watching parker this week) commented that parker is a very advanced crawler. she took him to a playland and said he was crawling all over the towers that the other toddlers his age could not climb. i've never really compared parks' crawling skills to others, but i think part of the reason he started walking late was because his crawl is so efficient. parents claim life totally changes once babies start walking because you have to chase them everywhere, but to our surprise, the week parker started walking was no different than than the week before. when p was 11 months old he could climb up and down the staircase and crawl to a door, stand up, open the handle and crawl into the other room. playing on the playland at the gym really helped him master his climbing skills. now if i could just teach him how to point to his nose! :)

pictures of parker in action at a bentonville park:

looking at the slide

going down head first! the slide was not very slippery so i let him repeat this cyle several times (don't worry, mom, i stood at the bottom of the slide every time)

love yall!

finance article: federal income tax

2010-08-02T21:19:00.001-05:00

i've been reading some interesting finance articles lately, and this stuck with me: nearly 47% of americans paid no federal income tax in 2009! can you believe that? (and that is just all of the people who filed returns). now i am not complaining about all of the nice deductions and credits, especially for parents, but this seems a little unnerving. actually it just kind of makes me want to not work...and have another baby.

with current tax laws, a family who earns $50,000 annually with 2 kids pays no federal income tax! this seems a little unfair to tax payers without children. here's the breakdown (copied from the article):

$50,000 income
(11,400) standard deduction
(14,600) personal exemptions ($3,650x4)
=$24,000 taxable income
fed. income tax on $24,000 is $2,769

+$2,000 in child tax credits (1,000 for each kid)
+800 making work pay credit

=+31 back from the government.

something about that just does not seem right. $50,000 is not a poverty income. the top 10% of earners in the u.s. pay 73% of the income taxes collected. i would be so frustrated if that was me. everyone wants the best education systems, health care, public safety, etc. yet half of americans pay no fed. income taxes to fund them! something interesting to think about...

in other news, i really miss parker. can't wait to see him again on thursday!

doesn't he look grown up in this picture?? love him. love yall. sweet dreams.

the places you'll go

2010-08-01T22:36:00.002-05:00

most of you know james and i are psuedo models (read not glamorous at all), but we enjoy seeing where the pictures pop up. i wanted to share a few recent locations:

1. sarah (san fran trip) saw us on a commercial for 1-800 lawyers in north carolina with a caption that "over 50% of marriages end in divorce." nice.

2. erin (san fran trip) sent this link: http://www.make-my-baby.com/ (i'm the 2nd from right on the top row in case you couldn't tell) hahaha

3. english teacher friend sent a link to this photo of teaching material where thousands of high school students might write narrative essays about our photo (let's hope they don't say we need help from 1-800 lawyers :)).

4. recently engaged high school friend found this pic on the website: http://www.allfaithsweddings.net/

5. a local gift store, melody's choices, has a picture of my bridesmaids and me in their clear glass frames.

6. if you google, "couple kissing," this picture comes up on page 2 (it is an ESL lesson--love the caption). don't ask me why one of my guy friends googled "couple kissing" at work.

7. college friend saw this frame at michael's and bought it for us:

8. last but not least, a facebook chat convo (i rarely chat with anyone) from tonight with one of my college friends about a pic he saw:

Aaron: hey

Me: yo

Aaron: so get this, kinda out of the blue, but it was crazy

Me: k

Aaron: so i'm at my grandma's house in NE Ohio

and she's that crazy excentric granma that cuts all the pukey cheesy little poemy article things out of the newspaper and posts them on her fridge
Me: lol
Aaron: and im getting something out of the fridge
and looking at the myrid of things on her fridge
and i see this clipping from a local newspaper
and it's one of you and james' wedding pics
with a little marriagy poem thing

Me: that is hilarious! did you do a double take?
Aaron: yeah i couldnt believe it
cuz it didnt have your names on it or anything
and this isnt even a large newspaper...some po-dunk local news paper for something called a "doyelstown" ohio. anyway, i got a kick out of it, thought i'd share...

i really need to make a scrapbook of these because it is getting a lil' crazy. love yall! happy monday!

wedding bells

2010-07-30T22:08:00.000-05:00

i went to the gym this week for the first time in a long time. when i ~~said~~ spelled my last name at the check in desk, "k-e-h-r," the sweet worker burst out, "are you parker's mom?" to which i smiled real wide and nodded. the girl shared that parker was her favorite kid and another girl lit up and sincerely echoed, "i think parker is everyone's favorite" (see james going to the gym for 2 hours every morning). i almost asked them to be my new best friends but just said thank you and walked into the dressing room. it might have been the highlight of my week.

then at work today one of my friends told me that i was like a barracuda, which negated any warm fuzzy feelings from the gym. i replied that "i'm not sure how to take that and don't think it is a good thing." she told me that it was meant as a compliment and that at least the sharks would not eat me. hmmm... the sad thing is that i think there is a lot of truth in the statement. i'd like to think i take initiative, get the job done, am aggressive, etc., but i sometimes am a little too demanding and argue my points without enough sugar on top (or any sugar). at the same time, i can be very encouraging when people do a great job and put forth extra effort, but i am working on being less of a barracuda.

anyway, it seems like our life is weddings, baby showers and baby birthday parties these next few months, and i love it. here's our mini calendar of events:

last weekend: james' cousin's wedding in columbia & dylan's 1st birthday party in our neighborhood, check! (they had no alcohol at the wedding but a keg at the kid's 1st birthday, hm...)

this weekend: melissa's baby shower & lydia's wedding! (work friend)

aug: jack's 1st birthday (monkey theme!) and hailey & austin's wedding (gym friends)

sept: jinger's wedding in denver! family vacation!

october: heather's wedding in kansas city (best friend from high school...am a bridesmaid so must lose weight) and kirena & jamison's wedding (jbu friends)

november: courtney's wedding (work friend)

(next june-sister's wedding!!!! can't wait)

time to order some presents from etsy! love yall and happy weddings!

mile high

2010-07-29T22:23:00.001-05:00

our life is not all fun and vacation, but it is summer time and so tonight's post is all about denver. even though james and i've made trips to kansas, wisconsin, missouri, cali and florida this year, this is truly our first official kehrli family vacation!! (can you tell i'm excited?) i love planning, so we have a (flexible) itinerary with plenty of time for parker's naps (11am-2pm blocked out each day) and full intention to be back in our hotel room by 8:30pm every night for the sake of p's routine. knowing that it can be a faux paux to talk money, i've gone back and forth about whether to share our budget. however, there is a big difference between sharing annual incomes (which james and i've vowed not to do on the blog or IRL) and sharing a trip budget (which i think can be semi-helpful for others), so here goes our 5 day/4 night budget:

flights: $320 (parker still flies free!)

hotel for 4 nights: $220

rental car for 2 days: $100

food: $250

entertainment: $75

TOTAL: $975

we've already booked and paid for the flights and hotel, which makes the actual expense in september easier on the wallet. below are the trip details!

1. denver aquarium. i've heard great things about this place and since it is right by our hotel, it should make a great activity for a 1 1/2 year old (who is still free to almost everything!)

the rockies have an afternoon game while we are in town, so we are planning on hitting up the $4 rockpile seats! i went to several rockies games whil living in denver and loved them.

our hotel: the sheraton. we really wanted to stay downtown because i love the 16th street mall, and we can rely on public transportation the first 3 days (as well as many restaurants within walking distance), so this hotel it is.

the hotel recently recently completed a $70 million renovation including this rooftop pool, which i cannot wait to hit up (and am sure parker will love!)

and last but not least, i'm hoping we have time to go to the denver zoo as well. the aquarium and zoo might be too many animals for one trip, but i can't decide which one would be best so right now they are both on the agenda (james nixed the water park idea because parker is too young to truly enjoy).

saturday night we are going to my friend jinger's wedding with some of my old intern friends, and hopefully we can meet up with some jbu friends as well! apparently denver is our favorite city to visit because we've gone there every other year for a while. here we are in summer of 2007 before going to cirque de soleil (we look so young!)

feb. 2009: out to dinner with jbu friends in denver! (technically p's first trip to denver as i was 7 months pregnant)

i still think if there was one city i would love to live in it would be denver. if one of our families lived there the decision to move would be easy. i love love love denver and colorado! so beautiful, laid back, and tons of outdoor activities to stay in shape. maybe one day i'll move back. until then, sweet dreams and love you all!

babysitter swap

2010-07-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

below are a few pictures i snapped while hosting our neighborhood babysitter swap the other night (best idea ever!). the night we hosted i just had 4 lil' munchkins. i put a bowl of grapes on the ottoman and they went to town!

playing with all the fun toys...

the boys climbed all 17 stairs in our staircase 3 times! talk about some good exercise.

i'd highly encourage all parents to find a group to "swap" with. we have 5 couples who rotate watching the kids every other saturday night so we are guaranteed 2 free date nights a month. and i really love hosting all of the kids and structuring activities for the toddlers. yay for friends with babies! :) love yall.

bff...ffff :)

2010-07-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

i have 2 goals for the next 13 days while parker is at his grandparents' house:

1. blog everyday

2. lose 5 lbs

i can't promise my blog posts will all be long and deep, but if nothing else i can post a daily photo. today's pictures are of some of my very best friends in the world. going to san fran with them was just what my soul needed. since we've all been super close since 7th grade, we are completely open, honest, real and unconditionally loving (it's too bad i have no photos on my computer of us in junior high...we'll work on that). even though only one of you reads my blog, i still love you all to death!!

more california pics to come in a trip review. hope everyone is having a fabulous monday!!!

15 month old food ideas??

2010-07-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

parker is going to stay with his grandparents in wisconsin for a week on thursday (which we just randomly decided today). i am frantically trying to put together a suggested meal plan for p. not that i am some kind of controlling parent (well maybe just a little), but more that i want them to feel prepared and to have an idea of his likes and dislikes. actually i think i am too laid back about most things and i don't really care what they feed him as long as it is healthy. in brainstorming parks' favorite foods, i've realized i do not diversify his meals enough. he is a little too old for jarred food, but he still enjoys gerber's 3rd foods (especially lasagna!):

he also really likes fruit cups. even though fresh fruit is better and i try to buy it as much as i can in the summer, these are super convenient and usually come in "natural" or "no sugar added" forms:

other than that, he loves GRAPES, bananas (usually), applesauce, crackers, bread, pb&j, cereal, chicken nuggets, cheese, and avocado (which is growing on him. i usually sneak this with a jarred dinner food and he eats a whole mashed avocado and jar of food in one sitting. i just researched avocados and that is a ton of food for one toddler meal, so i might cut back to 1/2 avocado in one meal--i just hate watching it brown in the fridge). love avocados!

it is late so i will leave you with a video of parker chowing down on a banana. love him. if yall have any ideas of good foods for 15 month olds, please share!! thank you!

video: parker learning how to walk!

2010-07-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

parker finally learned how to walk at 14 1/2 months! even though my biggest milestone goal was for him to walk by 12 months, 14 1/2 months is perfect, too! every baby develops on their own timeline, and i enjoy telling other moms that parker was a late walker and their late walkers will be just fine!

parks was sooo funny when he learned how to walk. one day he would not let go of the couch, the next he looked a drunk (see video below) and the next day he was an expert walker!

in other news i had a wonderful vacation with my girlfriends in san fran, but i am still trying to catch up with emails and am feeling a little overwhelmed. here's to a great weekend of relaxation!! love yall.

disappointment

2010-07-05T22:59:00.000-05:00

i'm not 100% sure why i'm writing this post because my behavior this weekend was nothing short of embarrassing, but if i just post a bunch of pictures of our family and friends swimming and grilling out, it just doesn't seem right.

last week our friends' texted james and invited us to a lake cabin for the weekend (the cfo of jb hunt's lake cabin actually). i was really excited and since we'd already made a few plans with other friends, we decided we would try to go out saturday night and stay until sunday evening.  during the day on saturday we were going to go boating/tubing/wakeboarding with my boss and his wife (sidenote: after working at our company for 11 years, my boss put in his two weeks last monday and i cried at work in front of all of the other managers. [and no, i am not having an affair with my boss]). it rained all day saturday so we decided to take a rain check.

i was not super disappointed because the next day we were going to the lakehouse, with jet ski's among other fun toys. sunday rolls around, we anxiously fill our car with towels, swimsuits, food, etc. and head to church, ready to hit the lake right after the service. in the middle of the sermon james received a text from our friend saying the weather channel was predicting rain. we didn't care because even if it rained we would love to get away and play games inside the cabin, so we said we were still in. ten minutes later our friends cancelled. when we got home i looked at the radar map on http://www.weather.com/ and there was no green! none.

this is when i start to get frustrated. i know weathermen are not always correct, but seriously, are we adventurous or not? all i wanted to do the whole weekend was go to the lake, and we had other friends invite us boating sunday as well, but we turned them down because we were going to lakehouse (which by the way this is the first time anyone has invited us to the lake this summer. we really have no connections). james told me that i was acting like a spoiled brat (and even though i was), i got mad at him for the comment. he doesn't know that going to the lake is special because it reminds me of my childhood when we went to our lakehouse every single weekend. he suggested we go to the pool instead and i said something about how we go to the pool every day and that is not exciting for the 4th of july.

so i picked up the keys and drove out of our house. i needed to get away and decided the pool was my best option so i could at least get a little sun. our usually overcrowded pool had NO ONE in it at 12:30pm. no one. you know why? BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS AT THE LAKE! then i just lost it. i started crying and sat by the sat by the side of the pool feeling sorry for myself until i received a nice text from james validating my frustration and giving me the freedom to have as much time to myself as i needed while parker napped. for some reason i could not get over the expectations i'd set to go to the lake.

it's moments like these that i am ashamed of and hope to prevent in the future. i'm sitting here crying that we have to go to the pool instead of the lake for 4th of july while there are people all over the world in much, much worse situations.  the same thing happened a few years ago when james got me carnations instead of roses for valentine's day (i cried and it ruined the whole night). while these two events make me sound like a horribly ungrateful person, they remind me that i need to constantly focus on what matters most--people. i am blessed with a wonderful husband and awesome son. we were all together for the holiday and that is all that really matters. i need to let go of expectations when they do not come through as planned and be more flexible.

we ended up going to the pool with friends, eating dinner with our neighbors (who smoked some DELICIOUS brisket), lighting fireworks and watching the sky light up all around our neighborhood with various shows. it was a good day and even though i had a chip on my shoulder throughout the afternoon, i can finally say that i am done with it.

going to san francisco tomorrow helps a little bit (bring on napa valley and the spa!). for real, though, i am going to work on changing on my attitude when things do not go the way i envision them.  recognizing that i can be extremely selfish is the first step to changing, right?

of course i couldn't leave for vacation without one sweet picture of my baby celebrating the 4th.

hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and your attitudes were better than mine! :)

the life

2010-06-29T21:34:00.000-05:00

parker has the life. seriously, he has no idea how good he has it. james does, too. here is a little peak into a typical day:

6:30am: parker wakes up. (would like to push this back to 7 or 7:30 but i'm not complaining).

7:15am: p eats breakfast, usually applesauce (no sugar added :)), a banana (he stopped eating bananas for a while but now that he can bite off of the actual banana, he loves them again), 1/3 of my pbj & some of daddy's cereal. he is such a little beggar when it comes to wanting to share mommy and daddy's food.

7:45: mom leaves for work

8:45: james and parker head to the gym:

they usually stay for 2 hours! sometimes 2 1/2. do you know how good of shape i could be in if i went the gym for 2 1/2 hours every morning?!? jealous.

daddy loves lifting weights, playing basketball and relaxing in the hot tub. it is a nice break in the day for him and satisfies the "i need to get out of the house" feeling.

sweet playland at the gym (i have no idea who the kids are in the picture--just got it off the gym website, ha. maybe i should take some pictures of parker at the gym... or that'd be completely weird...nah, i'll do it). actually, according to james the teachers at the gym love parks and have taken pictures of him playing, but i have yet to get ahold of any of the photos.

p and daddy come home from the gym around 11:30 and parks goes straight to bed for 2-3 hours. man, if i had 2-3 hours of free time in the middle of the day, i would cook, clean, blog daily, work on more shutterfly albums, etc. or maybe i would just watch tv, but i'd like to think i could get a lot accomplished. daddy and p play at home from 2-5 and then...

5:15 mommy gets home! we often go to the pool or have dinner play dates with parker's best friends in the neighborhood, grahm and dylan.

around 7:45 parker goes to sleep and it is mommy and daddy time before it is time to start another day. we all have a good life, and even though there are times i would rather be working out than stagnantly sitting a computer making pivot tables, there are many things i love about my job and life.

on the 1-2 days a week when james and i both work, parker goes over to my sweet neighbor cyndi's house. even though p cries when we drop him off at the church nursery, he has never once cried when i've left him at cyndi's. he loves her so much. in fact, he's cried when i come to pick him up much more than drop him off. p sure knows how to make a mommy feel good :).

but do you blame him? look at this awesome bounce house she inflated for him to play in one day! she takes him to the splash park, pool, etc. and he loves playing with her two kids. james mentioned the other day that he thinks parker is an extrovert because he just gets so excited when other kids are around.

i am thankful for where we are. after long distance dating, p's surprise 2 months into our marriage and job changes for james and me in the first year of marriage, it is nice to have comfortable stability right now. sweet dreams and love you all!

grandma time!

2010-06-23T22:01:00.000-05:00

a few weeks ago my mom, grandma and step grandma drove from central kansas to arkansas so parker could finally meet his great grandmas!! four generations:

i always like to do my mom's hair and makeup when she is in town.

isn't betty (mom) beautiful?!?

there happened to be a free zac brown band & tim mcgraw concert in town, so we drove to fayetteville for the action!

i LOVE zbb. tim mcgraw was great, too, because we could sing along to every song. love country music!

the flash kept blinding parker, hahahaha.

ahh finally a good one. daddy and parks.

we came home and played some apples to apples.

and of course hit up our favorite summer spot--the pool!

thanks for coming to visit, grandmas! we love you!!

p?

2010-06-20T22:33:00.002-05:00

i am exhausted tonight because parker did not want to go to bed until 9:45pm (as opposed to his 7:30pm norm), thus totally wiping out any "me" time. last night p didn't go to bed until 9:30pm because of the wedding, and his whole schedule is still out of whack. as much fun as it is to hang out with friends, i've found it is soooo much easier to come home by 7:30pm. as limiting as that sounds, our whole family is much happier and productive when we adhere to normal bedtimes. plus it is nice to spend time with james each night around the house and relax.

for the last month or two i've found myself doodling potential baby names on the sunday church bulletin even though we're still figuring out the timeline for baby #2. here are some favorites:

1. paxton (i love this name and think it sounds so cute to say "parker and paxton" but james says it is too preppy/metro).

2. preston (see response above from james. i would really like 2 p names :)).

3. princeton (sure it's a lil' haughty, but i think kids generally grow into their names and hopefully it would encourage studious habits).

*besides all of these names starting with p, i love the strong hard "t" sound in them.

4. perkins (it could be cute).

5. payton (this is the only one james likes of the list, but i like it more for a girl).

other p's: prescott (now that is preppy!), pierce (although it reminds me of paul pierce who james dislikes even though he is a former jayhawk!), paul (BIL's name), peter (know too many creepy peters), etc.

and if we don't go with p, the other three names i still like from our first pregnancy:

1. blaze (there is something about the "z" that i love).

2. cash (how can you not smile when you say cash kehrli?)

3. hunter (hard t again)

james pretty much hates all of these names, but hopefully by the time #2 is here we can agree on something. oh and girl names? j reminded me again today that he is only capable of creating boys (the mantra he chanted our whole first pregnancy even though i was convinced we were having a girl).

and last but not least, here are a few of parker's one year pictures i never posted from a few months ago. love him!!

sweet dreams!!

upcoming fun

2010-06-17T22:58:00.000-05:00

james and i had kind of a lame-o winter in terms of vacation. our spring break consisting of going to tulsa, and even though we got to stay in this decent hotel, it was mainly a work trip so it doesn't really count (although it was cheap!).

after being cooped up in arkansas for so long, we are very excited about our upcoming excursions! james went camping in the ozarks last weekend with some of his college friends to kick off the summer (i got to visit my family in kansas). this saturday we are going to my friend carajean's wedding (far left), and i am looking forward to seeing some of my old college friends.

they are having a nursery at the church for the wedding (awesome!) and i got this fun dress from white house to wear.

in july my best friends from junior high and i are spending a week together in northern cal! a few years ago we did the l.a./santa barbara/vegas tour, and this year we are touring san fran, napa and two nightst at spa on highway 1! can't wait!!! (parker is staying home with daddy and grandma)

and last but not least, in sept. we are taking a family trip to denver for my friend jinger's wedding! (far right). we worked together at pwc and i can't wait to see her walk down the aisle in colorado.

i love summer, love traveling, and love how appreciative i am to be home after trips!

looking back

2010-06-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

i've been working on parker's first year shutterfly album for oh, 4 weeks (and there is still a long way to go). before i had him, my goal was to do a nice album for each year of my children's lives. that goal seems a lil' ambitious now (although i'm convinced that if i was a stay at home mom i would have time to do it), but at least i will have one album for parker's first year! i don't know if i can keep up the pace of monthly photo shoots with each of our next children, but oh well. i cherish the thousands of pictures i have of p!

one month. i can barely remember when he was this little!

6 months! chunky lil' monkey, but oh so cute!

one year! love his personality! love the smiles and belly laughs.

oh what a year it has been. what a wonderful, joy-filled year.

t-r-o-u-b-l-e

2010-06-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

parker might be the wildest 14 month old ever.

exhibit a: he loves to crawl off the steps in the pool into the deep end and dunk himself. they expanded our neighborhood pool by connecting the baby pool and big pool this year, creating a scary trap for young ones. we wanted parker to know that he cannot go past the edge of the steps into the deep end, so we let him go under a couple of times and swooped him right up. however, this backfired and now parker LOVES to go off the stairs and dunk himself as a game. it is so obvious that he is doing it on purpose because he always takes a big breath before stepping off the edge. oh well, i am just thankful that he loves the pool and water! here is a lil' video of him splashing.

exhibit b: pulling all of the books off the book shelf (and food out of the lazy susan, lotions out of the bathroom cabinents, etc). it does not help that he can open every single door in our house now. ahhh so much for shutting him out of non-baby proofed areas. here is a lil' video of him and his friend grahm making a mess...

exhibit c: parker demonstrated tonight that he can climb onto mini motor vehicles and drive them! we were playing outside with my next door neighbor's two boys and parker ran over to the 3 year old's fourwheeler, hopped on, and figured out how to use the gas pedal within 30 seconds!

parks, you are truly a rascal. all boy, all the time, always got to keep an eye on you. but that's why we love you! muah!

on budgets

2010-06-02T23:06:00.003-05:00

call me a nerd, but every month i look forward to putting together our household budget. ever since our class created a stock market team in 8th grade (erin!), i've loved all things related to investing and finance. there is still part of me that would love to be a financial advisor, but i need to get a few more gray hairs before people will take my advice seriously.

i love reading about how other people budget. i don't think there is a right or wrong way--what works for some couples doesn't work for others. many young couples i know operate on a cash or envelope system and it works well for them. james and i are not disciplined enough and too impulsive to do this. if it is may 25th and we want to have steaks over the weekend, yet we don't have much "grocery money" left, we still buy steaks. if our friends invite us bowling and we've exhausted our monthly "entertainment allowance," we still go bowling. you get the idea...

instead of a strict budget, we have more of a budget "goal." at the end of each month we reactively track our expenses and classify them accordingly to measure performance. for us this is less restrictive and fits our lifestyle. during the month we try to live frugally, but we don't change our actions because one bucket of the budget is empty. post-spending tracking gives flexibility with variable costs (like the price of gas) and yields freedom.

sidenote #1: we are not anti-credit cards. i agree with most of dave ramsey's advice, but credit cards can be a very useful and profitable financial tool if used properly. we have a capital one card (with a personal photo on it, ha) that earns a $50 walmart gift card every other month on average. by using our credit card on expenses, we get $300 worth of gift cards a year! there is no annual fee with the card and we make sure to pay it off fully every month.

sidenote #2: we love automatic withdrawal options. all of our utility bills, car insurance premiums, mortages, cable bills, even our tithes at church are automatically taken out every month (i can't decide if i like this last one, though. our church encourages people to give by direct deposit, but sometimes it seems to lose part of the heart of giving. however, the accountability of having it taken out every month and the heart of that decision to set it almost makes up for it).

we also automatically transfer money to parker's college fund and savings fund. we just switched his savings fund into a mutual fund because we were sick of getting minimal interest at the bank. any time he gets gifts for his birthday we put it directly in one of these accounts and enjoy watching them grow (oh and our names are listed as the account holders even though they are for parker--better for financial aid later in life!)

phew. this is getting long and i haven't even listed our budget categories. hopefully more on that later, although i'm not sure anyone is really interested in this topic or cares. james and i are by no means experts, but we've found a good system that works for us. and i can't do a post without a couple of pictures of parks...he can now open doors! ahh this was a scary day when he realized he is tall enough to reach the handles. and i love the next pic of him, even though i have no idea whose legs are behind him (at his friend abree's 1st birthday party some of her relatives were playing with parker). so cute!

g'nite yall. sweet dreams!

on love

2010-05-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

last night i went on a walk with my bff from college and she shared that one of our mutual friends is separated from her husband and likely getting a divorce. semi-shocked, i felt an incredible sadness come over me. not so sad that she was going through a divorce, but just sad for the loneliness, heartache and judgement she must feel.

said friend asked me in college if she should marry the guy. i remember a distinct conversation we had about how "beau" treated her so much better than previous boyfriends, that he was a Christian, that he didn't party hard or do other things that are frowned upon in conservative circles, etc. however, i'm not sure that she truly loved him.

at our small Christian college, it was easy to get caught up in what people "did not do" or their past. i remember thinking how badly i wanted to marry a virgin. it was a huge plus to me that james never had sex with anyone, but looking back, the impact of that prerequisite was so small on our future. if i was not crazy about james and did not love who he was as a person, his positive past would only have been a temporary plus.

on top of people's track records, i watched many friends fall for the way guys treated them. the phrase "find a guy who pursues you" played like a broken record across campus. i cringe every time i hear about a guy pursuing a girl. while there is something to be said about a guy treating a girl with respect and working hard to make her feel like a lady, i am a much bigger believer in finding a guy who is your best friend rather than one who pursues you. the pursuing has to be a two way street. if it is only the guy pursuing, it is easy to get caught up in the way the he treats you instead of his character and to settle for someone who treats you well instead of someone you cannot wait to spend more time with.

if you think about why we love God, it is not because of the nice things he does for us or even because he pursues us (the devil pursues us, too), but it is solely because of who God is. yes, people's actions stem from character, but our love must be rooted in a deep passion for the other person. when i see lists of reasons why people love their spouse, i am always encouraged when the reasons read "he is..." instead of "he does..." so tonight, i give you ten reasons why i love my sweet husband:

1. he is an incredible father (staying home with an infant 5 days a week is not easy!)

2. he is fun-loving and positive.

3. he is patient (when parker pulls the books off of the shelf for the 10th time in one day)

4. he is giving, especially of his time (his friend needed help driving buses for the boys and girls club this week and he did not hesistate to volunteer)

5. he is a servant (he cleaned for 3 hours the other day!)

6. he is loyal (to family and friends)

7. he is humble (he absolutely hates when his teammates keep track of their personal points in basketball games, ha)

8. he is competitive (i could not live with someone who is not)

9. he is an extrovert (we are both energized from hanging out with friends)

10. he is a great teacher (it is so sweet to come home and see what he and parker have been working on that day)

(bonus: he is happy/content/joyful. i think it is so important for people to take responsibility for

their own personal happiness and not depend on others to affirm their worth).

love you baby! there is no one in the world i would rather spend every day of my life with besides you :).

gift ideas

2010-05-19T07:55:00.000-05:00

since wedding season is upon us (and baby showers are a constant), i want to share with yall one of my favorite gifts: personalized plates. they are on sale 20% off for one more day at http://mellyroodesigns.blogspot.com/! if i was a new customer i would order like 5 more.

i asked her to make a plate matching parker's bedding:

look at the plate! isn't it so cute? i love it! (we are painting his room this weekend and going to paint these frames to match)

then i had her make one for my cousin robyn's wedding to match their invitation (even though i didn't send her a pic)
the platter! my mom said they loved it and all of my relatives wanted to know where i got it.
btw my blog is not cool enough to get compensated for any kind of review--i just shared this because i think they are so great. hope everyone has a lovely day!

mmr vaccine rash

2010-05-16T20:00:00.001-05:00

warning: graphic pictures

last week parker got his first rash. it started on his stomach and spread more every day. it was one of the scariest things we have gone through with our lil' guy. after much thought and research, i believe the mmr vaccine is to blame. just google "mmr vaccine rash" and you'll see several similar pictures.

the good part is that parker has been acting completely normal and playing all day everyday. he still smiles and laughs, but ughhh--look at that rash! it cannot be comfortable. we went to the doctor friday and got some meds. thankfully parks is doing much better.
posing with the spots. you can see how tired he is fighting the infection.

new buzz lightyear scooter. he LOVES it! and i love it because it is the first toy james' ever bought for parks (we are extremely frugal, especially when it comes to toys because "you are the best toy for your child" :) and others spoil him to death).

moral of the story: i have never been a big anti-vaccination person. honestly, i have not done that much research on them. after this horrid rash, though, you better bet i am going to read some books and delay our next child's shots. and i might just have a home birth, too! :) ha.

Hiking: Hawksbill Crag!

2010-05-11T21:19:00.001-05:00

if yall have been following my blog for a while, you know how long i have wanted to go to hawksbill crag (since i was pregnant 1.5 years ago). we actually drove the 1 hr 45 minute trip to podunk, arkansas, on the most beautiful fall weekend and apparently everyone else agreed that it was the most beautiful weekend and went there as well. that day because of the swarms of photographers, we had to hike 5 miles uphill to the 3 mile trail. parker was only a few months old so we passed.

since my photog friend was coming into town and we were planning another road trip, i watched the weather all week. www.weather.com assures me no storms until 2pm, so we wake up early and make it to hawksbill at 10am. right when we get there--RAIN. POURING RAIN. are you kidding me? we are faced with the inevitable "what do we do?" conversation. we don't want to put our lives in danger, don't want parks to get a cold, don't want to ruin cameras, etc. but WE DROVE ALL THE WAY OUT HERE...AGAIN!

after stalling as much as possible by eating our picnic lunches in the car, we decide to get out under a tree and take a few pictures with the greenery. notice the chi-ed hair, makeup, etc. (oh and spray tanning, too, in case anyone is wondering why casper now looks darker than her husband. big fan of spray tan! :))
we brave the rain (all of the harmless jungle rain on LOST is influencing on our judgement). 1/4 of a mile into the trek james asks if we want to turn back. drenched shoes, muddy trail and soaking wet pictures? not exactly framers. i selfishly convince the team to trek on and it continues to RAIN and RAIN and RAIN. we hiked for over an hour in the sopping rain. look at the straight hair now! ha.however, this might be my favorite picture of the trip. raw, pure and LOOK AT PARKER! happy baby!beautiful moisture in the trees! finally we arrive at whitaker point!!! and the rain stops!!! thank you GOD!i tried to fohawk parker's wet hair and this is how it air dried.

parker and i change out of our wet clothes and into new outfits. smiliest baby ever!we take full advantage of having the rock all to ourselves and tickle parker to death.

even though my hair is in a messy ponytail i still love these pics. how can you not look at parker's face and smile?

and that, my friends, was a perfect ending to an adventurous morning. the sun shined the whole hike home and we appreciated every second of it. oh sweet warm weather how i adore you! love you all!!

2010-05-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

happy mother's day, grandma betty!!!!

you are the most energetic, fun-loving grandma in the whole world! thank you for all of the thousands of hours you've poured into to loving abbey, parker & me!
love,
silvy & parks

easter!

2010-04-24T21:38:00.000-05:00

so these are 3 weeks late, but life is finally slowing down a little. happy easter!
mom, sis and me--it was sooooo windy!
james' family!

sis and bro-in-law-to be! oh parks, you lil' squirmy rascal

sports themed easter eggs! parker get ready for high expectations :)
flowers left over from the birthday party made a great centerpiece
parker's buddy jack and him in children's place vests at church!a wonderful easter. so nice to be surrounded by friends and family for the holiday. tyson donated hams to our office (they are one of our clients) and everyone pitched in to prepare a delicious sunday dinner. it is going to be an annual tradition of easter at our place from here on.

love you all and hope you are having a lovely weekend. parker and i walked 3.1 miles in the rain this morning for race for the cure, good times :).

hiking: devil's den

2010-04-21T20:40:00.000-05:00

oh i love hiking. i love being outdoors and there is no where i feel closer to God than in the middle of his beautiful creation.
we started the day with church and a delicious burrito from qdoba (closest thing we have to chipotle in arkansas):then we met up with our newlywed friends: sarah and david. aren't they so cute?!?

the background looks like a painting, so beautiful!

aww to be newlyweds again! (ha)

parker loves hiking, too, especially since he gets carried around in dad's backpack all day

we got a lil' lost and ended up going further than planned, but everyone still had a great time

oh parks :)
i love you!
now if you would just learn how to walk!
until next time, love you all! (and we are finally, finally going to hawksbill crag next weekend with our friend who is a photographer to do real family pics. can't wait!!!)

p.s. go lee dewyze! i know everyone loves crystal and she is great, too, but lee has been my fav all along!