Oh Christmas Tree

We finally have the house all decorated, my Mom's HUGE package of gifts arrived ready to go under the tree, & we have gone to the Holiday Christmas concert at Church, it is officially Christmas time!Parker's 2nd Christmas

Santa's front door to our house

Michael & Nikki's Wedding

Congratulations to Michael & Nikki Buchholz on their marriage! They got married the weekend after Thanksgiving, I just haven't had a chance to put up pictures until now.1st Dance

Parker was "in uniform" just like Michael for his job as Ring Bearer (which sort-a went as planned)

Derek, Mark, Lindsey, Mandy, Erika & Parker

The boys back together again: Jimmy, Mark, Ace, Michael, & Derek; all of whom Michael has known "since the 7th grade" (a joke from the rehearsal dinner)

Derek is famous for starting the "You've lost that lovin feeling" serenade at weddings, when the groomsmen all serenade the bride

Parker was ready to dance, standing in front of the band waiting for someone to join him

Taking a breather

Leaving the hotel

We wish you a Long & Happy life together!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving, 2009, my how time does fly...we were just looking at pictures from last Thanksgiving, when we thought Parker was so big. He was so little & bald & now he's a "real boy". It makes me sad but very Thankful at the same time.
There is lots to give Thanks for this (& every) holiday season; here are a few of mine (in no particular order):
1. Family!
2. My husband
3. Shelter
4. A table full of food
5. Our church
6. Our church family
7. New Life!
8. Ace's job
9. Unexpected blessings (a friend at church reminded me of this one)
10. Health

There are many, many more things I am thankful for, too many to write. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, from the Howell family to yours...

It's a GIRL!

So we officially have a baby girl on the way! I am so ready for little dresses & bows! Here I am 20 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl Howell. Yes I am huge, well, I have a bigger belly than I did at this point with Parker but I have gained less weight - who knows! Girls are so dramatic...

15 Month Dr. Appointment

Parker had his 15 month doctor's appointment today. He is 31 inches tall (25th - 50th percentile) & 23 lb, 12oz (25th - 50th). So 2 things, he isn't growing quite so fast now, & I have been way off on his weight...I have been telling people for a while now that he was about 26 lbs. - whoops. When people say that they slow down on their growing after they turn 1, that's very true...he's only gained 6 oz. since his 12 month check-up. But the Dr. says that's normal.

Since his flu shot from last week was still fresh on his mind, he went from happy to screaming as we walked into the exam room. He of course screamed & cried when he got his shots, poor little guy. But when we were leaving, standing at the check-out desk, he was standing there, holding my hand, just looking around, when all of a sudden the nurse who gave him his shots today came around the corner & Parker LOST it & started screaming. It was too funny not to laugh, all of the ladies in the office were cracking up too.

He still only says a couple of words, "Dad", & "Yea" are pretty much his vocab right now. Everytime the dogs bark & run to the door, everytime the phone rings, everytime the doorbell rings, he points to the door, looks at me & says "Dad??". He used to say MaMa & Dog but those have all but been forgotten since his Daddy has become his most favorite person. But I love it, his daddy is so proud.

Here he is today eating his favorite, bananas.

Little Kicks

So I am sure I'm finally feeling the baby...everyone else has felt their 2nd (or 3rd) baby very early so I was starting to get worried when I hadn't felt the baby at all...at least it is hard to tell what is the baby for a while. As I laid in bed this morning I realized I was definately feeling the little kicks from Baby Howell!

Many of you know what the baby is already, as I found out very early at my 13 week ultrasound, but I haven't posted it on the blog yet because it was so early & I want to make sure before I go & publish it. But I have my 20 week ultrasound next Monday so I am so excited to finally get confirmation. So I will post a belly picture & the gender next Monday after my appt. Sorry there are no pictures with this post, but I assure you I do look pregnant & Parkie is cuter than ever :)

Halloween

We had a quiet Halloween here at the Howell house, with only about 10 trick-or-treaters. Parker-The-Duck may have been the cutest trick-or-treater on the block!

Halloween Chicken Dance

My grandma always gives "singing" gifts to Parker, which he LOVES. This one was a singing chicken dressed as a pumpkin that plays the "chicken dance" song. Here he is dancing in his new gloves (with fingers - which he wore for 3 hours straight one day) & hat.

Cold October Days

These are from a few weekends ago when it was really chilly in Atlanta, just playing outside on a lazy Saturday...

Parker & His Tractors

This was Ace's tractor as a little boy, Parker loves anything he can ride, especially tractors! Like father like son.

Funny Guy

The other day Ace waved me into the kitchen whispering "look at Parker" so I grabbed the camera...it was Parker trying to ride his little toy tractor, for some reason it made it funnier that he didn't know we could see him. This does make Ace proud, as Ace says "he's such a boy..."

Another cute story that unfortunately doesn't have a picture to go with it, my Dad has this Scottie dog statue & while we were all eating dinner & Parker was "all done", he went over to the dog & started talking to it, bending over as to listen to his responses & patting it on the head, all while carrying on a conversation with it. Then later we saw that there was some meat on the ground next to the dog...I had seen him put his fingers in the dog's mouth, apparently he had tried to feed it. Ha! Too funny.

Curlz

Parker gets really sweaty lately from playing, but only on his head...which brings out his cute curls, I just thought I'd share a picture of his curly golden locks...

Oh Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year again! We took Parker to pick out his very own pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch this weekend, he was more interested in the wagon than pumpkins, such a boy!

Amma & Parker

Riding the tractor

Family pic

Pop & Parker

OK the infamous "Baby Bump" pics start...me at 14 weeks!

12 Week Ultrasound

We got to see our baby today -- & it actually looked like a baby this time! At 8 weeks we had an ultrasound at my regular OB's office & we could hardly even makeout the heartbeat, their machine is so grainy. For this appt. we were sent to a specialist that our Dr. sends everyone to for this and any future ultrasounds so we got to see some really clear pictures of our baby. Everything looked great, heartrate was 154 & baby was bouncing all around in there. I cannot wait to feel the baby, that may only be about 3 weeks away at this point. Baby Howell is about 2 inches long & was measuring 12 weeks 5 days. Go baby Howell!

Big News!

So YES, we are very excited to share, there is another baby Howell on the way! I am due April 10, 2010, oh so close to Daddy's Birthday on April 13th, although we won't be going past the due date because I will have a scheduled C-section at 39 weeks, so more like April 3rd or so. As always, please pray for our little one as he or she grows.

1st Braves Game

Our little Brave in the tiniest Braves hat. Cute detail from the day, everytime the crowd clapped, Parker stopped what he was doing & started clapping too, like "what's going on, everyone's patty-caking, I must patty-cake too!" Patty-caking is his favorite.

This is what Parker did most of the game, played with the seat, actually he wanted to crawl under the seats. Ick.

St. Simons

The whole crew went down to St. Simons last week, we stayed at the Baker's beautiful house down there & even got to enjoy the Beach Club at Sea Island for the week - thanks Carey & Andrew! Oh & Parker perfected his walking while we were down there - we have a toddler now...

1 Year Stats

Parker had his 1 year check-up today, here are his new stats:

Length - 30 1/4 inches, 50th - 75th Percentile
Weight - 23 lb. 6 oz., 50th - 75th Percentile
Head Circumference - 48.6 cm. - 50th - 75th Percentile

My Dr. doesn't give me exact percentiles for some reason, it's always given to me in a "between" fashion. Yea Parkie!

Happy Birthday Parker!

It was a year ago today that I was in the hospital & had baby Parker, hard to believe for me. Our lives changed forever a year ago today, baby Parker has changed so much, from a tiny sleeping baby to a little crawler, to a walking almost-toddler. We love our baby Parker so much & cannot imangine life without him. You truly never understand how much your parents love you until you have a child of your own, the love for your child is something you can't explain.

Here are some of our favorite "Firsts" pictures1st Smile

1st Halloween

1st time rolling over

1st time sitting up

1st Christmas

1st Valentine's Day

1st Snow

1st Easter

1st time standing

1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Parker, we love you more than you know!