The Journey of Parenthood…

Mother’s Day 2012

We make a BIG deal about Mother’s and Father’s Day around here. We go more overboard on gifts for birthdays, but we celebrate the parent days bigger. I think it’s important to teach our children to appreciate what we do for them as their parents! Everyone has a birthday but only moms and dads can celebrate Mother’s and Father’s Day 🙂 

As usual we celebrated the day before Mother’s Day since it’s always on a Sunday and we like to see our moms on the legit holiday. When we woke up that morning I went to nurse Britt and Kye came out in this cute outfit to present me with my first surprise of the day. It’s funny he was so shy about it?!?!

 I got to make my selection for breakfast…duh I picked pancakes 😉

 Ready to chow down!

 Enjoying watching!

After breakfast we all went to cuddle in our bed together and open my presents. Zach wanted to let me have breakfast in bed but he knew that wouldn’t be possible since I’d have to nurse. Good thinking 🙂 I will def enjoy that treat next year!

 Such the perfect card huh?

Once Brittlynn went down for her morning nap we stayed in our bed and cuddled up to watch a movie together, just the three of us. We watched Tangled (aka “Punzel”) and I napped on and off during it. Since we have never, not even once, slept with our kids in our bed (or slept in theirs) I enjoyed cuddling with Kye while sleeping. It’s something I’ve never gotten to do before!

 Presented to me while I nursed Britt for her 11:00 feeding

 We had lunch out back to enjoy the pretty day!

I thought it would be fun in honor of Mother’s Day to ask Kye some questions about me, I’m hoping to remember to do this each year:

Mommy’s Name Is: Emily Parker
She Weighs: As much as one of our pillows
She is: 43 Years Old
My Mommy’s favorite thing to do is: eat cupcakes
She is the prettiest: at the hospital when we got Brittlynn
She likes to cook: chicken nuggets and bread and fries
She always says: I love you forever
She is funny when: we are laughing
I love my Mommy because: we cuddle with Brittlynn

After lunch I headed out to my scheduled massage! For Mother’s Day Zach and the kids got me a gift card to Zaxby’s (which was pretty random…I told Zach next time I’d LOVE a gift certificate to Gap instead as I can’t buy myself clothes whenever I want to but I can eat Zaxby’s pretty often since it’s so cheap!) as well as a spa package! It included a 1 hour massage (SO needed!!!) and a pedicure at Anthony and Co. The whole thing was scheduled for me already at 12:30 which was perfect 🙂 So thoughtful! I hadn’t been there before but I did call ahead and ask if I could exchange out the pedicure. After Zach and I had our pedicures at Lemongrass we realized that places like that charge way too much for pedicures and they aren’t half as good as Nails By Chris. They told me I can exchange it out but I couldn’t that day since it was too short of notice so I get to go back for a facial sometime soon! Score!!!

I REALLY enjoyed the massage! During it she asked me if I get headaches often, which I do. She said it’s due to where I carry my tension (upper shoulders/neck) she suggested a website to visit and some techniques I need to do with a tennis ball to help loosen up all that tension. I, of course, can’t find the card with the website on it. Oops! Anyone know what she’s referring to???

After my massage I got home with time to shower before the kids got up. I got ready and we headed out to dinner. I HAD NO CLUE where we were going! I asked Zach if it was a kid friendly place and he said yes so I assumed somewhere casual. I actually figured McAlister’s since it is one of my favorites and we never go there (it’s my go-to Girl Night place!). When he passed the exit to the mall my mind immediately jumped to Aligatu but I pushed it aside and figured he was being sneaky and would go the “long way” to the mall just to trick me. Nope…Aligatu was our destination! I was pretty pumped about it and TOTALLY surprised which rarely happens around here! Kye even KNEW about it and kept it a secret!

While I was pumped, I was also a little nervous as I didn’t pack Kye anything to eat other than a couple of snacks (some places take SO long to bring the food it helps if he’s super hungry) and his milk. I had no clue if he’d eat Japanese?!?! I have GOT to start trusting Kye more with stuff and stop being so shocked by him haha. He did great with it and LOVED using his chopsticks!

 I refuse to use a fork when eating oriental food, I feel like you HAVE to be authentic. I know, I’m lame haha. I’m glad Kye takes it seriously too though!

 awesome

In order to go out to eat as a family we had no choice but to skip Brittlynn’s evening nap. In reality she SHOULD be getting ready to drop it anyway, but she’s so not. She sleeps great for it every single day still! I wasn’t overly concerned about skipping it…but we quickly realized she is officially too old to sleep when we go out places. We both felt pretty guilty b/c she couldn’t get comfortable (the only downside of being hardcore Babywise…my babies ONLY sleep in the crib/pack and play and will NOT sleep in our arms!) and was extremely upset. Zach ended up taking her out and she was BAWLING the whole time. He went in the car and couldn’t get her to calm down. Our chef came to the table and I did not want Zach to miss it so I went out and told him just to stop stressing about trying to get her to sleep. Skipping the nap all together wouldn’t be the end of the world (I KNOW I SAID THAT!!!!) especially b/c it was the evening nap. Had it been an earlier one I probably would have left to go home. As soon as I took her in my arms she stopped crying (total self esteem booster) so I held her the whole meal and she was as happy as could be! She didn’t even mind the fire when the guy was cooking 🙂

We ate dinner super early (like right at 5) and we didn’t have to be home for Britt’s bath until 6:40 so we took our time. Every year for Father’s Day we go golfing together. I LOVE that tradition as it’s so something that Zach loves. I am pretty jealous about it actually. I have thought. And thought. And THOUGHT about what my special Mother’s Day tradition could be. In the end I decided I’d like to go to The Mix every year on Mother’s Day. It’s one of those pay by the ounce yogurt places and it’s super fun and YUMMY. And we can all as a family enjoy it. So this year was the first year we started a new tradition. And it was DELICIOUS!!!

 I am IN LOVE with this picture of us. My boy and ice cream…perfect combo!

 Can you tell Britt is teething? Like in every picture she’s chewing on stuff haha

It was really such a wonderful, wonderful day and I’m so appreciative of Zach for taking it so seriously. He even took BOTH kids out to buy the card and gifts for me! He really thinks it’s important for our kids to appreciate me. I love that about him! I work hard to be a good mommy and love that I have a special day every year to celebrate that!

On legit Mother’s Day we had church…it was only the second time we went early enough as a family for Brittlynn to go to her class. They had to come get me as she was bawling and they couldn’t get her to stop!!! They were doing a craft for Mother’s Day and she did NOT like it. Bible study is during her morning nap. Well she skipped the evening nap the night before then only got a 45 min morning nap since we had to leave for class/church so she was exhausted (as you’ll see in the pictures below…). I’m still glad they made her do the craft though! It was precious…love those little finger prints!

Usually our little family tries to dress coordinated on holidays or big events. Have you ever noticed? 😉 Mother’s Day was no exception and sometimes I amaze myself at being able to find things in our closets that go together. This was a toughy but I loved how it turned out!!! I wish SO badly that Britt wasn’t so tired b/c Kye was ROCKING it for these pictures and we could have had some great ones!

 Attempting to crop Britt out…

 At least she’s looking! Bless her tired heart!

 Three generations!!!!

 Britt was looking a little cuter for Gramma’s turn!

 Attempt at a family one…look at that child about to fall asleep on me!

 The best one 🙂

We decided to have everyone over at our house for Mother’s Day. That way Brittlynn could get her nap and the kids could all play. It was PERFECT!!! We let Kye skip his nap (I LOVE that he’s old enough now where we can skip his nap every once in awhile and it’s totally not a big deal! We only save it for special occasions but it’s wonderful!) and we picked up a TON of KFC. It couldn’t have been more wonderful! No one had to cook or clean up and we could all just dig right in. And it’s more of a “legit meal” than like pizza ya know?

The moms

 Mrs. Charlotte and her birth daughters 😉

 Mrs. Charlotte with all of her daughters!

I’m not exaggerating when I say this. I think this year was my absolute favorite Mother’s Day yet. I enjoyed our day as a little family and I had a BLAST with everyone over at the house. It was great not having to rush to leave and we could hang out with everyone as long as they wanted to stay! Kye had such a fun time with Colt and Payton and Zach and I had a great time laughing and being with our family. I know I say it a lot but we are truly, truly so blessed. I think all the time about how blessed Mrs. Charlotte and Mr. Rusty are to have all three of their kids live in the same town! They all married people from other places (actually all of us graduated from high schools that are within 30 min of Atlanta) yet we all relocated to Valdosta. I pray that we are as fortunate someday to have all of our children and grandchildren so close to us. Family is SO important, it’s really what life is about 🙂

You can look back to my first Mother’s Day here, my second one here, and my third one here. 

Emily Parker
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