Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Now that all of our cards are mailed, I think it is safe to post our card (sorry for the low res...i had to do a print screen from the site (walmart) where i made it).
how cute are these little bloomers? i love them! got them off http://www.etsy.com/.
made these ornaments for all of parker's little friends. so easy!
got these photos at the war eagle craft fair for james' parents. it was hard to find a nice frame with six openings, so next time i will just buy matteboard.

got this shovel for my sis & brother-in-law to be from the craft fair as well. rock chalk!!

got these mugs for my girlfriends off of etsy as well (i've never ordered anything from there until this month and i went a little crazy :))

ordered this off etsy as well...it is actually a wedding gift for the wedding james is in on new year's eve. thankfully i ordered it early b/c it broke in the mail, but the sweet seller already sent a new one.

part of my christmas present, new curtains. after we put up the curtains, we realized they were a little bit of a safety hazard with parker pulling on everything, so we left just the valances and i really like them! jcpenney!

i bought a bunch of these personlized bibs off of etsy as well for only $6.50! not bad at all. these were for the shower of the baby that was born at 1lb. 7oz. in september. he is now 5lb 8oz--still in the NICU but it is a miracle he is just alive!

and last but not least, most of you already know that i chopped my hair off and colored it dark for winter. i like the color, but i am working on giving it volume (aka the southern poof) and wearing darker makeup so i don't look so washed out. hope everyone has a wonderful holiday week! love yall!!

all that to say, i really only said why i am still a working mom and not how it is going. hopefully more on that to come...

on being a working mom

a few weeks ago, someone left a comment asking, "how is it going being a working mom?" i've been meaning to reply/post because i love this question, but i am way behind on life (btw, thank you all for all of your comments and messages! i love reading them and hope to catch up soon).

so...the simple answer is that i would prefer to be at home full-time, but i am enjoying working and our life.

i never thought i would want to stay at home. i'm not exactly mrs. domestic, and i feared i would be bored, lonely, need adult interaction & intellectual stimulation. however, in my 3 months at home, none of my fears came to fruition. perhaps if i stayed home longer they would've, but i doubt it. staying at home for me was like summer vacation--incredibly awesome/peaceful/relaxing/enjoyable. every day i would wake up and solely think about parker--how i could love on him, how he was doing, how i could help him learn & develop, how i could preserve & share memories through pictures and the blog. i read all the time and loved learning more about infants. i cooked more, got together with friends every day, took daily walks and trips to the pool, etc. life was balanced for the first time in a long time.

however...when i was pregnant and was sure i would want to go back to work, james and i made some decisions. one of those decisions was for james to leave camp war eagle and take a lower paying job as a firefighter. i still think this was a good decision for james and our family, and if we really wanted to we could make things work on his salary, but there is so much freedom in having 2 incomes. instead of worrying about finances every month, we are able to go on vacations, pay off our home faster, buy things for parker, give gifts for friends' birthdays, weddings, etc., host parties at our house, save to buy a bigger car when we have 3 kids (what?!? am i really thinking that far ahead?), save for our kids' college, invest in our 401k, support missionaries and so many other things with little stress.

not only that, but there are other important factors in our decision:

*james works 24 hr. shifts at the firestation and is home 3-4 days in the work week, so the most time we spend away from parker during the week is 2 days, and usually less.

*with company holidays, vacations, personal time, sick days, etc. i calculated that i only work 18% of the time. i rarely have to take work home with me or stay late at the office, so this is another big plus. being with parker 82% of the time isn't bad, especially for all of the freedom my salary provides.

*right now, parker is sleeping 4 hours while i am at work anyway and i come home and see him for an hour on my lunch break. also, the 18% doesn't include 3 months of maternity leave i plan to take every other year if we have more children (no we are not trying).

*i enjoy my job (the challenge it provides & relationships with coworkers). after i went back to work, i felt more like my old self and was forced to shower every day (or at least every other ;)).

*i have some awesome SAHM neighbors (like 5 in our subdivision). while james was in rookie school, we took parker to daycare (which actually i really liked), but now that james is working a normal schedule again, the other moms rotate watching him. we pay them, but i honestly believe they would do it for free because parker is that awesome, ha. seriously, one of them is trying to have a baby and goes to stroller fitness class with an empty stroller every week, so parker fills that void when he is with her! the moms are like second moms to parker and love on him so much, and it helps me get to know them better as well.

anyway, all that to say is that i know this is a very personal and sensitive topic...i just wanted to share my experience. spending conscious quality time together is the most important thing whether parents are working or not.

side note: i hate it when SAHMs make it a point to say that they "work" at home when people ask whether they work or stay at home with the kids. everyone knows that taking care of children is a lot of work and that is not the question posed. it seems self-righteous and almost pompous to respond in such a manner. the other day someone asked me whether i was a "mom" or i worked. i did not take offense to the question even though the wording made it seem like i could not be a mom and work...i recognized the intent of the question and simply answered that i work full-time. c'mon people!

side note #2: mom magazines often add to the pride of SAHMs. one article i read in parents declared that SAHMs do the work equivalent to a $870,000 salary or something ridiculous like that. the article said that SAHMs deserve the salary of a psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, teacher, etc. equaling $870,000. while the article was semi in jest, and i know that all moms need encouragement, let's be a little more realistic (and while i do not think you can put a price tag on the emotional, social, intellectual bonds built between a stay at home parent and a child, computing the opportunity cost of hiring a nanny would be a little closer than adding the salaries of several high paying professions).

anyway, love yall! sorry this is so long. i was just going to share photos of my new high chair cover and look what happened :)

video!

just because it's been so long since i posted, here is post #2 today: a video of parker pulling up!

Parker 7 months Pulling Up! from Silvy Kehrli on Vimeo.

8 months

dear lucky #3,
(your birthday is really on the third--mom is just a lil' late with the letter this month)
hey! baaa baa baaahh bahh bahh! you continue to be our mischievous bulldozer, scooting like a wounded soldier all over the room. you follow dad and me wherever we go--from the living room to the kitchen to the laundry room to our room! all of the exercise is good for you and is helping you slim down a bit.

parks, you've had such a great month. you are happier than ever. dad and i love to tickle your tummy to hear your big belly laugh. you are getting much better at eating. you eat oatmeal for breakfast, a food for lunch, and rice cereal for dinner.

we decided to let you cry it out a few weeks ago. i'm sorry, i'm sorry, but you needed to learn how to fall asleep on your own. you cried for about 25 minutes and it was so sad to leave you in your crib, but you survived and now you are such a great sleeper! you usually sleep from 8:30pm-6:30am with 2 2hr. naps during the day (9ish and 1ish).

dad is home with you most days because of his awesome schedule at the fire dept., and you two are having fun bonding. i hope you and dad are best friends when you grow up. you endured another 12 hr road trip to Wisconsin and got to see both of your grandmas and all (3) of your aunts and uncles this month!

we love you tons and can't wait to see you grow and smile every day. love ya munch!!

oh i almost forgot your vital stats:
22 lbs
28.5 inches
0 teeth
0 words

and of course the entry wouldn't be complete without a few pics...love the sunsets by our house!

posing in his crib

"who needs santa when i have grandma??"

playing in the fall leaves!swinging at the park! you loved it!

love yall!!

7 months

dear mobile little creature,
hello! tomorrow you turn 7 months! over half way to a year, little parks! congrats buddy. you are a bucket of fun! if i could describe your personality right now, it would be a mix of a mellow fellow and bulldozing lion. you stick everything into your mouth--still love those feet, fingers, paper, toys, mom's hair, necklaces, etc.

you are in between the scoot and crawl, but we have to keep an eye on you because you move all around the room. tonight you even crawled from the living room to kitchen when i was out of the room for 2 minutes. good job, parker! it is so cute to see you get up on all fours and rock back and forth and then inchworm your way around.

your vocabulary consists of "ga-ga-ga-ga-ba-ba-ba-ba-cooo--ahh--goooo-arrrhhhhhhhh!" someday you will say "mama" or "dada," and someday you may get teeth. still no signs of anything yet (which means that they will be healthier, right? that is what everyone keeps telling me).

you tried several new foods this month--peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and squash! this was your first month to eat anything besides rice cereal and oatmeal. you are getting much better at opening your mouth and swallowing when we feed you, even if you always make a huge mess.

you said goodbye to daycare when dad finished rookie school, and mom cried the whole way home. mom really liked your teachers there and was sad that you had to leave your "friends." your class made you a super sweet going away card with a picture of each of your friends inside, a framed picture of you with your name on it, and some books and toys. mom knows this is just the beginning of watching you grow up. don't do it, parks! stay my sweet little 6 month old forever!

you went on your first hiking trip at horseshoe canyon this month. the leaves were beautiful, so beautiful that when we tried to go to hawksbill crag it was so overcrowded that we decided it was not worth the traffic problems even though we drove all the way there. we spent the day at horseshoe instead. it was not exactly our weekend as granola-fest was happening the same day. right before this picture was taken dad saw a young woman with full armpit hair belaying another climber. needless to say, he doesn't look overjoyed in the pic.

you, sweet thing, fell asleep in the pack. and that is how i will remember your sixth month. sweet smiles, laughs, and tons of fun. love ya little guy!!!

love,
momma

rahhrrrr!

before it is way too late to post halloween pics, here are a few of parker the (cowardly) lion. all week we worked on his growl and it was so strong, but then he froze up on halloween. i guess a cowardly lion is better than a crying lion so i can't complain. we had a wonderful, full weekend. didn't quite get as much laundry or cleaning done, but i'd rather spend time with friends than have a spotless house.


where's parker? he must be staying warm under his costume!

all bundled up. thankfully it was 61 degrees, but parker's hands were still chilly

"mom, why did you bring me to work?"

trick or treating with dad around the neighborhood

hope everyone had a happy halloween! (and yes, parker was going to be a football, but the lion costume fit his personality much better and it was only $5 at a second-hand store and james' and my costume were borrowed. yay for recession 2009! :)) love yall.

pumpkins

even though it was cold and rainy, we still had a great time at the mcgarrah pumpkin patch last week!
aww what a cutie

"look, mom, i am eating the straw. i eat everything!!"

ooooh a big one!

can't wait to go again next year!

and just because, here is a picture of some pumpkin bread i made. it was actually edible (and delicious!!) love yall. have a great week!

team china

i am really happy tonight. after years of supporting our husbands at rec. basketball games, my girlfriends and i officially signed up for a city volleyball league! it is our husbands' turn to come and watch us play :).

i've struggled the last couple of years with having a consistent group of girl friends to hang out with. in high school, our friends were so close and i am incredibly thankful for our friendships that continue today, but everyone is spread out accross the country. in college i was blessed to constantly be surrounded by great girls, as living together breeds deep relationships, but most of the girls don't live close and the ones that do are at different stages of life.

after getting married (and having a kid), i've struggled with finding my group. don't get me wrong--i have a many friends and even friends who know me very well and i can always count on here, but just not a good group. the hardest part is deciding what group i want to be in. i have my work friends. we enjoy happy hours, go out to lunch for each others' birthdays, throw wedding and baby showers, but sometimes i wonder if our connecting thread is simply working for the same company and we don't share many interests outside of work.

then i have my mom friends. i enjoy hanging out with them and talking all things baby. but most of them are stay at home moms and get together during the day for play groups and bible studies, and i don't feel like i would ever fully be part of the intimate group without staying at home.

james and i also have many, many couple friends, but couple friends just aren't the same as girl friends. plus, i think most of our couple friends like to hang out more with james than me and i just get invited because i'm his wife :). j/k...sorta.

anyway, this is all why i am so excited to play volleyball. it is all about the girls, doing something we love, getting a little exercising and building relationships. i don't know if i will ever have such close girlfriends again now that i am a wife, mother, sister, etc. and girl friend, but here's to hoping. love yall!

p.s. college friends accross the country--miss you!

christmas pics

my friend jen came through town this past weekend and was kind enough to take a few pictures of the dees and us! i am excited to get an early start on christmas cards this year. here are a few of the shots (i used http://www.picnik.com/ to edit them. i love that website--and it is free!)

hopefully my blog will undergo a fall/christmas makeover soon. love yall!

6 months

dear parker,

we are a couple of days late this month, but congrats on the lil' birthday! 6 months! the best age yet. you did so well with your immunizations today. you are officially 20lbs (90%) and 28.25 inches (95%). go parks! dr. foster said you are going to be a big boy :). i constantly get comments on what a chunk you are. it's kinda funny--most of the time i don't care (babies are supposed to be chubby, right?), but when the nursery worker at church said "look at those FAT thighs" it got to me. chubby, chunky, big, round, festively plump, etc--those words are semi-acceptable, but fat? my son is not fat, dangit! 90% for weight and 95% for height--perfectly proportioned!

i digress. parker you are awesome. the nursery worker almost made up for her comment by saying how wonderful you are and never cry. that makes me extremely happy--you are such a content baby. you are happy playing by yourself but love getting attention from others.

we have "stations" for you at home to help your development. you rotate between the jumperoo, exersaucer, playard (kick machine), bumbo, boppy (sitting up), tummy time, reading and playing with mom and dad. we try to play with you and give you as much tummy time as possible because mom read that that jumpers are the leading cause of developmental delay. now that you can sit up all by yourself we are working diligently on the crawl. dad says to give you two more weeks and you will be scurrying across the room.

you went on your first plane ride this month. you, grandma betty and mom had a great time in florida. here you are in front of the 17th green at the sawgrass players club.

i love your age right now so much. you babble, you squeal and you are so happy.

the sun was in your eyes at the beach, but here is a great shot of your chubby little thighs :)
we still can't figure out the color of your eyes. dad says they are blue-ish, brown-ish, green-ish.

even though pool season is over and it is getting cold, we have football to keep us entertained every weekend. go pack! (and jayhawks, razorbacks and do i dare say it...chiefs!)

until next month, love you little guy!!!
love,
momma

p.s. last weekend we went to jbu's homecoming and were blessed to meet melissa m, chat at the soccer game with melissa c and see many other old friends like the girls from the spankers flag football team pictured below. good times!