All of our family moments from April!
Every year I take the kids to visit a local strawberry patch to pick strawberries. Last year it was our first real outing during the shut-down and I will never forget how EXCITED we all were. We appreciated this little activity in an entirely new way after being cooped up at the house for so long.
It’s crazy how fast we get back into the swing of regular life and that excitement over simple joys wears off. Last year Kye was SO PUMPED. He was running around the field like crazy and this year he asked if he could stay home instead.
It’s tricky with a pre-teen because on the one hand I want him to be part of our family activities but on the other I do also understand him not being super into some of the stuff we do. When Spear is 12 will we still go to the strawberry patch?!?!
However, I think it’s also beneficial to push the preteen a bit into doing things that they may initially resist doing. Usually Kye may start off thinking something is lame but then by the end of the activity he’s thankful for having done it. Such was the case with the strawberry picking 😉
Spear was more excited about digging in the dirt than the picking but he caught on pretty quickly to looking for the “big daddy” ones and we had quite a bucket full!
We went towards the end of berry season so it made it a bit more of a challenge to find the good berries but that also made it more rewarding as we found them. I love little traditions like these with the kids!
We have the tradition of making strawberry shortcake too and it never disappoints 🙂
I’m writing this post very far behind “real time” which sometimes is an advantage and sometimes is a disadvantage. Big Daddy passed away a little over a month ago but back in April he spent some time in the hospital and we all went to visit him. Seeing these pictures as I prepared this post made me both happy and sad. Sad because I miss him and because these were the last time most of my babies saw him. Happy because I hadn’t edited the pictures yet so I was able to keep way more of them than I probably normally would have. Hence the photo overload 🙂
In April Big Daddy spent some time in the hospital and we knew that he wouldn’t be with us too much longer. We wanted to make sure to give the kids some time with him and Zach and I the opportunity to say all the things we wanted to say. The girls made him special cards and we were able to have a wonderful evening with him. It was truly perfect. He was very much so still HIM and I’m so thankful that these are the last memories Britt, Tess and Spear have of him.
The cards brought Big Daddy such joy and the letter I wrote him stayed on the table beside his chair up until the day he was transferred into the retirement community. Time is such a blessing and a gift and I’m so thankful we had it!
I love the way he loves our babies. We have the best Big Daddy!
When we left that evening Kye lingered and I could tell he wanted to say more but didn’t know what to say or how to say it and felt uncomfortable about it. I’m thankful the Lord blessed us with more time and that Kye and I were able to go see Big Daddy two days before he ended up passing away and that Kye was able to tell him how much he loves him and how proud he is to carry on the Parker name. I know Kye (and all of our babies) will always make Big Daddy proud.
I am forever thankful that Zach took so many pictures of me with Big Daddy too and that we got these of him with him as well. Whew. I am just so sad he’s not here anymore. Life is weird knowing he’s gone.
This month’s book club meet up was a small crew but we had a great time playing a super old game from my game closet. Katie, Zach and I were ALL about games back in the day but haven’t played ’em since like we had Kye haha so it’s been fun to bust ’em back out for book club!
I also had a “hater moment” this month when I learned that apparently one of my biggest fears as a blogger has been true for a long time. It was honestly a great moment for me as I realized I’m okay with people not always liking me. I LIKE ME. And really that’s what matters most! I talk a lot in depth about the haters and my response in this post on IG as well as in the “4 the haters” highlight on my profile page on Insta.
Kye received Risk as a gift for his 12th birthday and was ALL about playing this month. Ugh those strategy type games are just not my jam…I got pretty frustrated with it!
Kye also had a spot on his cheek pop up that made us decide to take him in to be seen and it turns out it was staph! They said it’s super common right now to see kids getting it from wearing masks so much, especially in our South Ga heat!
Archery was in full swing this month and Zach and I have been super proud of Kye and how hard he has worked at perfecting his skill. This month the archery team hosted a family day where we ALL got to participate and try out archery for ourselves. It was SUCH a fun day and so much of the fam showed up to learn more about archery and participate in the fun!
I loved seeing Kye shine and thrive and get to show off his skills. He was the one coaching every one else up for a change and he loved it! Big Papa was cracking us all up asking the coaches to help him and I even took a turn with the bow. It was FUN. I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it and I wasn’t too terrible either!!!
Anytime you beat your Dad at a sport it’s a good day right? That afternoon we had plans to go eat dinner at Zach’s parents house so the other kids went on to their house and it allowed just Zach and Kye to participate in the 3D tournament portion. I loved getting to watch!
We are so proud that Kye has found the sport he LOVES and we love cheering him on!
For Easter we did a family egg hunt with coupons as part of the prizes and Kye found a coupon that allowed him to add anything he wanted to for a dessert on the grocery list. Smart kid…he added a cookie cake to the Sam’s list haha!
We have been loving getting to know our new church fam better and LOVE how much TIME our church family spends TOGETHER! It’s so awesome!!!!
Kye has gone home with his buddy Asher a couple times now and it’s so good for him to get outside and be IN nature! He loves it!
Kye also had a big opportunity this month – an over night field trip to Orlando with the archery team! They went to Sea World, Dave + Busters, Fun Spot and had a competition too. In this crazy year of rules and regulations it’s AMAZING that the archery coaches and the school staff made this possible for these kids. He had THE time of his LIFE but also missed his mama.
It made my heart so happy when he called me over his watch phone in front of all of his buddies to ask if he could drink a coke with dinner and then when I got a text that he missed me! I changed all my plans to make sure I could be there to pick him up 🙂
I was so proud that Kye had a fun time and love the sweet friendships he’s made through archery this year so far. I’m thankful he was able to have the opportunity for this field trip!
We also got awesome news this month that Georgia Bible Camp is BACK for the summer!!! Kye was so pumped and Britt was extremely excited because her first year of camp was canceled last year!
Britt is obsessed with listening to Harry Potter and we have the audio books on CDS so she carries around a portable DVD player all the time to be able to listen to them. Zach rigged it up for her so she can put the DVD player in a book bag to make it easier to carry 🙂
We ALWAYS get a cold front right around Easter time – it never fails!
Britt is really growing up fast and I am always in awe of her natural beauty. She’s one of those girls who just wakes up and is gorgeous! I love that she has a natural confidence and pray it always stays strong!
Britt announced that she’s too old to run off the bus and kiss her mom and that it’s embarrassing and it made me thankful I still have little ones who aren’t embarrassed of me yet (although, thankfully, Britt also forgot her decision by the next day). I love my afternoon moments with the girls!
Tess continues to lose teeth at a rapid rate and is now without both of her front top teeth! It’s CRAZY to see how much she’s changing so quickly!
We had a really neat thing happen this month….some photos we took for a flashcard brand awhile back for them to use on their Amazon store got chosen by Amazon to be featured on the homepage!!! Tess’s face was plastered all over the Amazon Home Screen on both their app and website!!! So cool!
Tess loves clothes and has a very specific taste and is very intent on choosing her own looks for school. I try to be easy going about it and love that she’s proud of her outfit choices and rocks em with confidence! It’s so important to me to raise confident girls!
She may be growing up but she is still our little Tessie and straight up fell asleep in her car seat on the way to night church one Sunday evening and then slept through the whole service too!
She is doing a great job stepping up with her chores and taking more initiative to get them knocked out. She is very thoughtful and used some of my postcards from childhood that I’d been hoarding for like 25 years and mailed notes to family. She also asks sometimes to take over the school note writing for the day as she loves to write notes to her siblings 🙂 Sweet girl!
One day I woke Spear up from nap and he randomly had a chip in his front tooth. SO random. No clue how it happened but we’re guessing maybe he bit the sides of his bed frame? Whatever the cause, the chip was pretty legit and very sharp.
I went ahead and used a little nail file to file it a bit to help it be smooth and not bother him. We went to the dentist to see what they thought and they said it needed to have some time to see if the tooth was jeopardized or not but we went ahead and made an appointment to have a cap put on.
Yes, we could have just filed it and left it since it’s just a baby tooth but Spear’s front two teeth are very forward and with him having such a big overbite it makes them even more noticeable. The way the chip is across the tooth also makes it concerning about the likeliness of him further chipping it.
The dentist said it was SUPER close to the nerve and it did seem to cause him a bit of discomfort so I was totally on board for getting it chipped!
We LOVE our pediatric dentist (if you’re local…Carly Thomas is AMAZING) and they bring in a sedation dentist for situations like these. As a mama of course I was a bit nervous about the whole thing but from start to finish everyone made us feel SO comfortable and the entire process was SO smooth. Quick, easy, and Spear had NO issues. Literally under a 20 min ordeal from start to finish. And his tooth looks AWESOME!
Spear had a bit of a lazy Mommy day after with some snuggles and cuddles and movie time as he was a bit sleepy after. By lunchtime though he was back to normal and ate a full meal no problems!
With Spear only having school three mornings a week I don’t feel like I really take advantage of the time with JUST Spear on the days he’s home with me. I know it’s a lot to do with Covid too and less options of things to do during this time!
Zach had some free time in his schedule so we planned a special Spear lunch at Chicken Salad Chick! We had SO MUCH FUN. Spear LOVED the special attention on him and I loved getting to spend time with both of my guys 🙂
Spear had his art show at school this month. His teachers are so sweet and do such an awesome job creating all the cute little handprint art pieces. Spear was very proud to show us his classroom and show off all of his creations. He LOVES school and we have been so happy at his preschool!
They hosted a Donuts with Dad morning and Spear was thrilled to get to have that time with HIS Daddy at HIS school. It’s never “Daddy” it’s always “MY DADDY” He loves Daddy time but might have also been super pumped for the donuts 😉
He said “my dad likes to ride a tractor” haha!
Spear has started to ask Daddy to tell him a “football story” at bedtime which is so stinking cute and also so strategic of him because he KNOWS Daddy won’t say no to a football story 😉
Don’t worry, he’s got me pretty darn wrapped around his finger too – I’ve totally become that mom that buys every tractor/truck shirt I can find and then let him wear them right away when they arrive 🙂
Spear just discovered his love of whole apples right before the tooth incident and we learned eating whole apples is like the worst thing to eat for your teeth because it’s ALL your teeth doing the work and it can cause damage. Oops! So last apple pic here haha
I walked over when Spear was chugging from a cup and asked what he was drinking and he said “lemonade” total LIES Haha it was SPRITE. Tess was like 5 when she first had Sprite but here we are with Spear being 3 and having it. Fourth kid moment.
Spear LOVES his scooter it’s been great for going on walks and he loves being able to go on his own. Goodbye days of pushing a stroller!
Spear loves running errands with me and is so cute how he enjoys sitting inside the shopping cart and having all the items around him. He is still using a bed tent and has gotten sneaky with the “don’t get out of the bed” rule 😉
I love the picture of him finding a toy Mickey and taking Mickey to show him his bedroom. SO cute. I also had a mom moment when I took him into Walgreens for a quick errand and he randomly PULLED HIS PANTS DOWN. Total first for me and I about died haha We had to have a talk about privates and keeping them private!
Spear loved getting to have some Daddy and Big Papa time at the golf course while Mommy was away at the beach!
The girls had their spring performance with gymnastics and they both have made huge improvements and did great. They loved having us come watch them perform and they did a fantastic job! When the awards were presented Britt also found out she’s been invited to a special advanced level class this fall. So proud of our girls!
Britt was SO thrilled that KYE hugged her. Look at her BEAMING. She adores her big brother 🙂 He shook Tess’s hand and said “good job” and she was equally thrilled about it haha they will take ANY attention he’ll give ’em!
We had a few fun campaigns this month and I love to have the pictures to keep because often they turn out so cute!
I’d never even heard of Sparkling Ice when they reached out about partnering together and omg we’ve become OBSESSED with it. I LOVE IT. It’s so good and doesn’t have any sugar and is only 5 calories. I know I sound like an ad but this is not sponsored haha
Hoover has actually been our favorite campaign EVER. They are the most awesome company to work with and we have a BLAST creating the videos!
Sometimes companies reach out and want to gift us things and, duh, I usually say yes because who doesn’t love something for free right? I NEVER expected to receive this personalized gift! Thanks to Hasbro we were gifted the new Foosketball game AND they sent us personalized jerseys with our favorite numbers as well as these hilarious huge cut outs of our faces. We had an epic showdown and it was so fun!
While Kye was on his field trip with the archery team we went to Recoil to celebrate Hadley’s birthday. It was Spear’s first time going with us and he had a BLAST – and Zach and I spent all our time chasing him around haha.
We also had a sweet family over for dinner and LOVED getting to know Drew and Brittney better! Drew is our preacher at our new church and they have FOUR babies who are all under age 6. We were two kids down and our crew still fills the couch haha!
It is SO nice and refreshing to have friends who “get it.” There is just a different vibe when you have lots of kids and it was so relaxing to host them knowing that there was NO judgement or pressure or anything. We could just BE and our crazy kids had a blast together too!
More pics of family moments from this month! I love spending time with my babies and especially seeing THEM enjoy spending time together. It fills my heart!
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