31 weeks.

These were taken at 31 weeks which was 4 weeks ago because I am now 35 weeks! It was a good time to take "maternity pictures" because I am much much bigger now ;) Only 5 more weeks to go and I am getting incredibly excited to meet my little boy! Especially since Marie had her baby boy last night; it's starting to seem more real that he's coming. I feel like I am so ready but I'm sure as it gets closer I'll probably start to panic or something ;)

Steve took these pictures of me and I was happily surprised with how they turned out. Sometimes it's hard to have your picture taken when you know you're just going to look bigger than you feel like you should but Steve somehow has a way or bringing out the best in me. Throughout all of this pregnancy and my complaining he has always told me that I'm beautiful. And I know he means it. I love him so much and how he always makes me feel like a million bucks :) My hands, feet, face are all still swelling up with each week that goes by but I'm just going to be ok with it for now. We're both so excited to be parents again.

We will meet you soon little one!

GIANT tractor! What boys' dreams are made of.

If it's not obvious, he had a blast on this giant tractor at the pumpkin patch last week. He wanted nothing to do with the pumpkins there; he just wanted to hang out on this tractor. (And that old-timer truck too) He is all boy and I love him so much. Sometimes he is just too cute :)

See pictures from this same pumpkin farm from last year HERE. Little boy has grown so much in a year. *tear*

The Dallas Arboretum

It's October! I'm so happy! It's my birthday month and it's finally Fall! And most importantly, I can now say that I'm due next month. (Let's hope the baby actually comes in November ;)

Last week my visiting teacher invited me to come along to the Dallas Arboretum because she could get me in for free!! It was awesome. It had the craziest biggest pumpkin patch I have ever seen! I've never seen so many pumpkins all in one place before and I had never seen all those different kinds of pumpkins either! Cole thought it was pretty neat too; he kept picking up the ones that weren't too big to carry and throwing them down like they were balls or something. It drove me a little nuts but he had fun :)

He also got his face painted and would only agree to do a football. I tried to get him to do something "cuter" like a panda bear or a tiger but he wouldn't do it. When he saw another little boy getting a football painted on his face, he decided it was worth it to have a stranger hold his face and paint on him if it meant he could have a football on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror they provided for a long time. He loved it!

He also got to pet the animals in the petting zoo and splash his hands in the prettiest lily pond. By the time we got home he was completely exhausted and so was I. Sometimes I feel that Cole has no sense of danger because he would constantly just wander away from me and I would have to chase after him. And he's fast! I'm glad we got to go though because I don't think we ever would have gone if it hadn't been for free. That place is probably one of the prettiest places in Dallas but it is also really expensive!

August and September

I'm always sad that nothing really happens with the pictures on my phone so here are some from August and September!

+Cole painting for the first time.
+Cole wishing he could drive ;)
+Sunday evening outings to Founders' Plaza (where you can watch planes take off and land at DFW airport) and Mustangs of Las Colinas (huge horse statues in a cool fountain with a boardwalk nearby). We have church in the morning, so after we get home and have our Sunday afternoon naps, Cole is always dying to get out of the house by the time the evening rolls around. He loved both of these places we've been to recently.
+Getting tickled by dad ;)
+Cole's first time playing mini golf while we were in Fort Smith, Arkansas at the beginning of the month!
+Cole squirting himself with his water gun ;)
+Waffles with maple syrup and blueberries!!!! Of course. It takes like 10 times more delicious when you're pregnant :)
+Me at 31 weeks!
+Cole's cute face. Lucky boy has some seriously long eye lashes.
+A good hair and makeup day for myself. It's worth documenting ;)
+Loving the forward facing camera on my new IPHONE!!! I've wanted an iphone for years it seems and I finally have one :)
+Baby #2's 30 week ultrasound. His profile looks so much like Cole to me! So excited to meet my baby.
+And lastly, Cole looking so grown up throwing rocks into the canal the other day. Love that little boy.

Nicholas Stephen at 2 years and 9 months

+He's currently living off of butter and bread. He asks for it for every meal. :/ (Although he is eating cheese in these pictures so I guess we'll add to the list: butter, bread and cheese.)

+Whenever I tell him "Good job, Cole!" he responds by saying "Thanks mom!" :)


+He loves to run. FAST! He literally runs circles in the living room and says "Look mommy! I fast!!"

+Still always naked. Always. But what's new?!

+Kisses are a cure all for him. If he ever gets hurt and starts crying, if I only give it a kiss he will immediately stop crying. He busted his lip the other day; it started bleeding and when he saw the blood he seriously freaked out! He begged me for a kiss and so I did, I kissed his bloody lip which was kind of gross to do but he immediately calmed down. It was cute and gross all at the same time ;) I'm just happy I have the magic touch :)

+He recognizes the letters in his name C-O-L-E and sometimes A and B too. :) And he can kind of count to 4. And then from 6 to 9. But he always messes it up going from 1 all the way to 10. Oh well, he'll get it :)

+He has ZERO interest in potty training :/ whyyyyyy?!?! He wears the football toilet seat we got him on his head like a hat if that's any indication of how not ready he is. I don't care that he's almost three and not potty trained; the age doesn't matter to me. I'm just plain old tired of changing diapers and I imagine I'll feel that way even more so when the baby comes.

+Only 3 more months til he turns three and 2 more months until the baby comes and he's no longer an only child! He's been so good with babies lately; he says "awwww" and calls them "cute." I think he's going to be a great big brother!

It must be a boy thing.

I watched one of my friend's little boy last week who is about the same age as Cole. He'd been over for only a little while when I let the boys play outside on the porch. I filled up Cole's little water guns and they ran around squirting each other and laughing their heads off. Before I knew it, they had taken their clothes off and were running around in just their diapers. Cole is pretty much always without clothes when it's just us at home; he loves to be naked all the time. So I wasn't sure if he had set a bad example for his little buddy! And I had even made an effort to make sure he was dressed before his friend got there! But when his mom picked him up and I told her about them only wanting to be naked, she said that her son too was constantly stripping. So, it must be a boy thing and I guess I better just get used to it because I'm going to have two little boys running around here soon :)

One final trip to Fort Smith, Arkansas

Ezra turned ONE on Sept. 1st so we decided to make the 4 hour drive to Fort Smith so that we could be there for his birthday party. Jordan and Bekah and her parents were so generous and let us stay at their house for the weekend. We hadn't been there since Thanksgiving 2011 (almost two years ago!!) so we thought we should better go since we most likely won't ever be going again! :( Well, not for a very long time at least. Bekah and Jordan have been such wonderful friends to us throughout this Parker experience and we are so sad to say good bye to them when we move to Washington at the end of the year. I'm so glad we were able to make one final trip to Fort Smith and spend such a lovely weekend with our friends and their family. We look forward to them visiting us in Washington one day :)


^^how he really felt about getting his picture taken ;) ha. I don't know why it's so funny to me ;)^^



^^Can't you just tell by the look on his face how much fun Cole had during this trip?! He played non stop for almost three days straight with Ezra's cousin, Aubrey who is almost five. She's the cutest tomboy you will ever come across and introduced Cole to Spiderman. He's hooked now. And when they said good-bye when we had to leave, Cole cried (of course) and Aubrey gave him one of her "Thomas" trains as a good-bye gift. Too cute. Cole looooves his Thomas train!^^


^^And these are the lemon cupcakes with some serious lemon frosting I made for Steve on his birthday but they didn't get eaten until our trip to Fort Smith. (you know, since Steve fell asleep on the night of his birthday before we could sing him Happy Birthday!) I made sure to bring them with us on our trip so that they could get eaten by everyone and also so they wouldn't go bad ;)^^

Steve turns 28!

^^taken outside of Johnny Carino's^^

On Friday, August 30th, Steve turned 28 years old! I tried to make the day itself special for him but Steve has been so busy at his internship at the VA, I think he just wanted to come home and sleep! I did make him lemon cupcakes from scratch (something I found off of pinterest ;) and a little Happy Birthday banner that's still hanging up in our living room 3 weeks later :) We're both so bad about celebrating anniversaries and birthdays; I really tried to put some effort into making the day special!

We ended up going out to eat at Johnny Carino's, our all time favorite restaurant. We're going to miss it when we move away! Steve normally doesn't pay much attention to his birthday or how old he's turning, but as we ate dinner as a family, Steve talked about how excited he was to finally be turning 28 years old! Steve has had his life planned out since he was like 14 years old and for the most part it's pretty much gone according to plan. He's known since he was 14 that he wanted to be a chiropractor and at that young age he figured out how many years of schooling he would need: 4 years undergrad plus a 2 year mission, and then 3 and a half years of grad school which would make him 28 by the time he finally finished school! It's kind of amazing that he's still on track after all these years. He's just so happy (and I am too!) that the end of school is finally in sight: exactly 3 more months! We're just so ready to finally have the chance to make money and not live on student loans anymore.

Anyway, I'm glad we were able to celebrate Steve and his 28 years of life on his special day :) We might not have sung Happy Birthday to him or gotten around to eating his cupcakes after we got home from dinner because Steve passed out too soon ;) But at least we could spend the time together as a family talking about our future together. I love you, Steve. SO much! I'm so lucky to have such a loving, hard-working husband and I look forward to celebrating many more of your birthdays :)