The Journey of Parenthood…

Thanksgiving

This year we traveled to Vero Beach to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the holiday we do every year with my family (Zach is hardcore about his Parker Christmas traditions so we do that every year with them!). I was excited to see everyone but also nervous for the trip. It was Kye’s first trip facing forward in the car seat. Would he sleep? It was also his first car trip using the potty. Would we have to stop a million times? AND Zach’s back was causing him a ton of pain and issues so I worried about him making the drive and being able to help Mom load up the rest of her stuff from her house. We borrowed Mr. Rusty’s truck and trailer for the trip and luckily his truck is big enough to fit all four of us rather comfortably!

On the way down Kye did great. We left at his nap time on Tuesday and he slept for a little under 2 hours. Not ideal, but I was just glad he slept. We also stopped every 1 1/2 hours for him to use the potty and he didn’t have an accident the whole way. Score! The only really bad part of the trip was that Vero Beach is a LOT further from Melbourne than we thought so we didn’t get to the room as fast and poor Zach was hurting pretty bad.

On Wednesday Mom and Zach headed back to Melbourne to get her stuff and I stayed behind to watch Kye. A great thing about having a kid is that they have to have someone to watch them and that means that someone can’t help move stuff. Haha! It was rather boring spending the day in the hotel room (especially since our feet were BLACK from the carpets…kinda gross) but we watched our share of Disney movies and while he napped I addressed Christmas cards.

 Zombie-Boy movie watching 🙂

 love that butt!

 I enjoyed the cuddle time, although I could live the rest of my life without seeing Cars again

 When he wasn’t movie watching he enjoyed lining up ALL his cars! Daddy and Gramma made him a little bridge for them to sit on 🙂

Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel and went to eat at Cracker Barrel for breakfast/lunch. Kye showed embarrassingly poor behavior. I had to walk around with him while Mom and Zach ate then Mom took over so I could eat my cold food. We ordered him food and he wouldn’t touch it. Very annoying but understandable as he had a pretty bad cough at the time and was actually on some meds for it, so he just wasn’t himself.

Once we got to Aunt Gretchen’s Kye got his nap and he slept for 3 hours in his pack and play in her extra bedroom. No one could believe he slept that great with all of us talking, laughing and carrying on. Have I mentioned I LOVE Babywise?!? 🙂 My kid can SLEEP!

Aiden was DYING to see Kye. Aiden is my second cousin and the youngest one of the bunch. While most of us have at least one cousin close to our age (I have Jonathan 11 months younger and Meghan 11 months older), poor Aiden is the youngest by several years. Once Kye came along I think Aiden decided that they will be cousin bffs and it’s precious (remember how cute he was with Kye at our family picnic?). Aiden even brought some of his old books to give to Kye and couldn’t wait to read them with him!

 They also enjoyed playing with Aunt Gretchen’s noise making animal toys

Every other year we have a BIG Thanksgiving with EVERYONE (on the odd years my uncles go spend Thanksgiving with their in-laws so we do smaller celebrations like last year). It was so nice to all be together and see each other. I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve seen everyone – including Brandon and Chrissy! Here’s some pictures of our Thanksgiving fun!

first married thanksgiving!

 Ben, Zach, Josh and Susi

 bffs Sabrina and Caylin

 Jonathan with his man Brian

 Me and Meghan

(my Charlotte Charm Necklace went GREAT with my outfit!!! Do you want one of your own? For FREE? Each ITEM you order by Dec 17th enters you in a drawing to WIN! Visit my site, here, then click “find your hostess” and type “Emily Parker” to get flat $5.95 shipping!)

 sisters 🙂

 SO thankful for HER this year!!!

While I enjoyed getting to see everyone, I hated to see Zach in so much pain. He literally spent the whole day laying on Aunt Gretchen’s couch to help his back recover from moving the stuff the day before and to rest before having to drive home that night. I promise I offered to drive…but he swears that his back hurts either way, driving or not. I’m just SO used to seeing Zach as the life of the party and I always enjoy functions with my side of the family because I love seeing how much Zach loves everyone else. It was hard for me to not have Zach be his normal self and it honestly made me have less of a good time. I was so worried about him and spent all my time watching Kye that I didn’t get to visit with everyone as much as I would have liked to. Oh well! In 2 years (our next BIG Thanksgiving) Kye will be able to take care of himself…but then again I may have another baby…looks like I won’t be free to just hang out for AWHILE! haha!

Kye was very tempted by Aunt Gretchen’s fountain

 he did end up having to be told “no sir” about it and I think even may have gotten a spanking?

 I don’t think our family has EVER all sat at one table together!

 The Bublitz Clan
(minus Susi who took the picture and Aunt Amy, Uncle Joe, Christine, Amber and Ashley who we missed!)

 I remember being at the kids table and always wanting to sit by my favorite cousin at the time (typically Meghan but as I got older Jonathan) so we sat Kye and Aiden together to carry on the tradition 🙂

 I made AWESOME Reese’s Cookies and had to let Kye have a couple

 he, like his mama, LOVED them

We headed home at Kye’s bedtime (7:30) and didn’t get home until 1 am. Zach was supposed to leave and drive 5 hours to Alabama the next day but instead got some MUCH needed rest at the house! It was a loooong drive and unfortunately Kye didn’t travel as well on the way home as he did on the way there. I don’t think any of us did! Kye stayed awake until after 9 and then woke up several times throughout the drive. Facing forward with all the lights from other traffic and the highway really affected him. He saw the 11:00 hour for the first time in his LIFE. Needless to say, we won’t be doing that again. Like ever.

I already wrote a post about what I’m most thankful for this year so if you need reminding you can read that here. I mentioned what I wrote in that post when it was my turn to say what I’m thankful for (EACH person in our family says something before we eat – as children we dreaded it and as adults we love it,  well at least most of us do. And ALL the guys end up bawling haha). Of course I’m also SO thankful for my wonderful family, my amazing husband for being such a great father and provider, my precious son, ALL the many blessings God has poured over me and, of course, my pets 🙂

Our Family at Thanksgiving

Emily Parker
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