Get ready for picture overload...

Today Jackson Miles Parker turns 9 years old.  He is so excited, and so are we.  I always let the kids know the day before that on their birthday I will be doing over time on the picture taking to make sure that I get that "one" picture.  So ... this morning I told Jack to get his shoes on and go outside in front of the azalea.  (A little commentary on the outfit.  We talked last night about what he was going to wear.  If you know Jack, he lives, eats, and breathes for college gear, t-shirts, and gym shorts.  So Kyle and I knew that he would choose something along those lines.  Kyle, being the wonderful husband that he is, tried to get Jack to please me with khaki shorts and a nice shirt.  I appreciated the effort, but wanted the birthday boy to wear what he wanted.  He did choose a shirt that he made sure we knew he had not worn in a long while, and his standard black gym shorts.  The thing that I want you all to notice is that he has TWO bracelets on his wrist ... one yellow and one green.  He is supporting his two favorite college teams with colors on his body, as is usual ... red for the Alabama Rolltide and yellow/green for the Oregon Ducks.  One has to just ponder on his enthusiasm for a moment and realize that God has truly blessed us with an amazing son who loves life fully!)  He did it and below is what I got ...

 Jack in a simple pose saying..."do I really have to have my picture taken"

 Jack and his smile for the camera smile

 Jack showing his school pride with an "O"

 Jack with showing a little 9 year old bravado

Jack with his eyebrows cocked and ready

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my baby boy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jackie P!

What's in a bag...

Molly is still not feeling well tonight.  Kyle wanted to listen to her lungs just to see how they sounded.  So, he sent Jack off to the end of the hallway to fetch his old trainers bag from the CSU Ram days of many sidelines.  Jack came running back with his eyes wide open and the anticipation of Christmas morning with what might be inside the bag.  Jack laid it down and said, "Hey Dad, what is in this bag?"  He got the stethoscope out for Kyle and then in Jack fashion ... began to empty the bag!  The first thing Jack brought out looked like an old bottle of hydrogen peroxide but was something else.  He got stuff all over his hands so he handed it to me.  Naturally, we turned to look to see when it expired.  I laughed and asked Kyle to guess how old.  He said 2006!  I laughed again, and said guess again.  IT EXPIRED JUNE OF 1992!!  This is funny because ...

1. I did not meet Kyle until the fall of 1993
2. We did not get married until summer of 1997
3. We have moved MANY MANY MANY times and this bag has made it through all of those moves with expired stuff
4. It took us until our 7 year old daughter being sick for almost 3 days to discover such things

In case you were wondering, we proceeded to go through the rest of the bag and discard of most things.  There were various other "medications" that we well beyond their effective date.  We did laugh that we could sell it to the underground drug ring in Eugene and make some folks happy today, but thought better of it and put it in the trash.

My very favorite picture from yesterday...

There are no words, yet so many that jump into my head when I see this picture.  This is our Molly Bear with a true expression on her face.  She was not happy about birthday pictures, but those that know me know that there was not an option about taking them!  She put her outfit together along with the headband, which she made at a friend's birthday party this past weekend.  I love her smile.  I love the play of color with her outfit and the background.  I love that she is looking down.  I love that she did her own hair, and it looks cute!  I love this "little" girl of ours!

Why is it...

...that when the kids are sick I want to do random cleaning projects and often struggle with just sitting with them.  I always come up with really random cleaning jobs that I have procrastinated on for while to do while they are laying sick on the couch.  I feel bad, but then again they are not asking for me to sit with them ... they are entertained by the tv.

Our baby girl turned 7 ...

Molly turned 7 years old yesterday!  I can not believe that our baby girl is that old ... where does time go!  It was a good day.  I have more pictures to post later, but wanted to get at least one up before it was Jack's birthday.  She did wake up in the middle of the night last night screaming that her throat hurt and she was her own little heater (102.9), so she is at home resting today -- much to her distress.  She went back to bed last night crying about not being able to go to school!