First Day of School!!!!

School started today, and what is the first day of school without the classic picture in front of the door with your backpack on! Don't be deceived...Annalee is NOT in school yet! Paige got a new backpack and gave her previous one to Annalee. So, it was out of the question to take this picture without her because she had a "pak-pak" on according to Annalee! Paige was super excited and absolutely loves going to school. Her class this year will function pretty much like kindergarten even though it's 4K. The class she is in has several children with autism who are being held back one more year to prepare for kindergarten, so they moved Paige and a few other neuro-typical children up to that class because they thought they were more than ready. She should be a great deal ahead when kindergarten rolls around next year! Paige was very excited about the new things she had gotten in preparation for the school year. She got a new backpack and lunchbox, several jeans, a few hoodies, and shirts to take her into the Fall. Thanks Mimi for your generosity! I'm having to switch back into school mode and am excited to spend some more time engaging with Annalee as she is learning so quickly. Davis is getting big so fast as well. He is 6 mos. old today and we have his 6 mos. checkup this morning. More shots:( Hopefully he'll do well. I'll post updates on his stats soon!

New Look!

So, as you can see, we've spiced up the background of our blog a little. It was of course FREE, so Yay!! I preface this with "we" did this because it did entail quite an ordeal and required Scott to have to come and clean up my mess. I tried to do it all by myself. I was gonna surprise Scott with how well I can follow directions on the computer. For those of you who don't know, I am the definition of the computer illiterate wife of a computer savvy husband. You'd think that I would be smart enough to figure these things out, but I guess with each child, I just gradually get dumber, so as the computer age advances, I just get slower it seems! There are step by step instructions on how to change the template of the blog. I followed each one carefully. It actually took me several days to attempt it, because I had this fear of deleting the whole blog. Well....that's EXACTLY what I did! I couldn't understand how I followed each and every step and it didn't work. I called Scott at work and actually started to cry. He was all caught off guard, and was wondering why I was so upset about it. I think it was just that this blog has been sort of a journal for me for almost 2 years, and even though we had all the pictures still, all the stories that went with them couldn't be recreated necessarily. I was genuinely sad! Well, my hero rescued me yet once again! He came home and somehow retrieved it nad helped me get the new template set up. I then got a little angry, because he didn't do anything different than what I had done! Oh well! All is finally right with the blog so I'll just chalk it up to my lack of computer skills!

Fleeting Summer...

Say What?!?!?!

My sweet little angel sleeping!

Sleeping on his back after rolling over!

Annalee saying "ta-da!" as she was making Davis do a trick!

Their little polkadot bikinis and sunglasses!

Well, Davis has successfully learned to fall asleep on his back after rolling over. The options when my children get to that stage are (1) learn to fall asleep on your back if you roll over, or (2) learn to roll back over and fall asleep. Davis chose the first of the two. He can roll both ways, but in his crib he chooses not to for some reason! We have had a relatively busy few weeks. Scott had to photograph a wedding in Florence, AL last weekend so we missed him dearly as it was my first time with all 3 children by myself for the entire weekend! We made it thru just fine and even spent one night in Mississippi and attended two birthday parties. I must admit though, that after the second party, mommy had almost reached a breaking point, so we had to leave in a timely manner, so that everyone could nap! Our refridgerator has broken for the second time in a month and a half, our car is back in the shop this week after getting new brakes put on last week, and Scott starts school next week. Summer is officially over and school is promptly being back in session! Paige, however, doesn't start until the following week. We've had a pretty good summer, it has just gone by WAY too fast!

Addictions

I have recently become addicted to two things: 1. facebook and 2. the Office. I think

both are taking a great deal of my time so please pray for me. However, I love being able to see what people are doing all over he place and the Office is hilariously full of one liners. I even think Davis wants a Dwight Shrute bobble head. Last week I was telling Davis how cute and sweet he was and I swear he looked at me as if to say, "That's what she said"

Cow Appreciation Day

As most of you know my wife is addicted to Chick fil a and has gotten our girls hooked as well. So today I was meeting with someone around 2:00 and found that today was Cow Appreciation Day. If you dressed up as a cow, you received a free entree. If you dressed from head to toe..you received a free meal. So the Parks family loaded all 5 decorated "cows" and headed to our dinning location. Upon arrival we expected to receive a few entrees and buy fries and drinks but NO!!! They gave us 4 free combo meals (2 kids meals) for FREE FOC NADA!! It was great. We hung out with other cows played in the Fun Zone and even ate Ice Dream! It was awesome. Here are a few picks from the day.

My heart has been so grieved by the loss of our dear friends, Billy and Hope's, precious 4 year old daughter, Alaina. It has been a week now, and it has been one of the most difficult things for me. I just cannot wrap my head around it. I believe that we serve a sovereign God, but because I can't understand in my finite little mind, it causes me to struggle with it. God is most concerned with glorifying Himself, and I know that even this tragedy will bring Him glory. I just can't see the big picture and that drives me crazy! I know that I don't have to understand, and may never, for God to be glorified, but I want something to make sense. We have prayed continuously that Billy and Hope would believe that God is who He says He is, and to trust Him. However, God is asking me if I truly believe what I'm praying for them!

Our Wedding

This month Annie and I will have been married for 6 years which seems like a long time when I look back over and think about all that has happened. Today we showed our little girls our wedding video and alot of emotions came to pass. First, I remembered how much I love my precious wife. She is just as amazing and beautiful today as that day and she still keeps me just as curious. Second, I really miss my grandmother. Seeing her in the video made me a little sad, but I was glad to have those memories. Third, I miss my friends. I saw Al, Robby, Ivan, Bo, BA, Jay, and Damien and remembered the stories of things done and realize I suck at maintaining relationships. Of course since I am a guy I make excuses but aren't those excuses really the worlds view of masculinity. I love my freinds and wish they were all around to see my kids and allow me to enjoy theirs. Fourth, my girls love looking at their mommy as the princess! Paige said wow mommy's soo beautiful while Annalee said she bootiful. They are truly enamored with her and rightly so. She makes all of our lives great. Fifth, I am a blessed man and I can't thank my BRIDE enough!