Grandma and Grandpa's

WARNING PICTURE OVERLOAD: 

Me and Ben were at Grandma and Grandpa's the 2 weeks before Halloween. We always  have so much fun there. We flew this time and Ben did so good. The flight attendant actually said he did Awesome that most kids cry during take off and landing. On the way home was a different story. We had our own row so that was nice but for some reason Ben got scared and screaming and shaking trying to get down I think he thought he could get off. He recovered and flirted with the flight attendants the rest of the flight!

We went to City Park's story land. It is so Cute and the boys had a great time running around and Lily loved the wagon!

 Such a Sweet Boy

Loved driving the Fire Truck 

I kept Trenton most days so that him and Ben could play together. They have so much!

Example of how hot and muggy New Orleans is. My camera fogged up 

Photo shoot of Benton in their Drew Brees Jerseys!



 Trent did good at the photo shoot. He even struck a pose!

Then there were 3 in a Tub!

 Ben's face says it all!

Playing in the rain at grandma's. Ben loved it Trent not so much when his shirt got wet he kept saying "Ouch"

 New Orleans has a GREAT Children's Museum. Not sure who had more fun The boys or me and Grandma!

 They had a pretend Eye Doctor's Office it was so Cute

 

 And a pretend Winn Dixie

 Ben having to sit right next to grandma while Trent takes care of him :)

 Some homeless child looking for change

 Driving the Ship

Ben playing in the Corvette. I was afraid to post the ones of him playing in the mustang ;)

While in New Orleans Trent had his 2nd Birthday! It was so much fun Becky through a great party! I think the adults had just as much fun in the bounce house has the kids did!

 Trent and Aunt Kathy

Woody and Buzz

Jen and Lily Girl

Lily Lovin her cupcake! I'm lovin her fluffy hair :)

Ben LOVIN his cupcake. Notice he ate the frosting off of it

These Guys :)

The day before we left me and grandma took Benton to Global Wildlife. I'm not going to lie I was worried about this. I was afraid I would hate it because keeping Ben still in a moving vehicle NOT an EASY task. And I was afraid Ben would be scared of the animals. But I was wrong on both parts. It was so Much FUN! I can't wait to do it again. Ben was even feeding the Emu out of his hand. My mom has better pictures because my camera died at the beginning of the tour. I will post other ones later. There were some impressive animals there. And yes we went through that large bucket of food. We started with four plastic cups and ended with four plastic cups. Very impressive considering how many we saw dropped!

Of course I teared up at the Mama and baby Giraffes. It was so sweet to see the mama kissing and protecting her baby

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful time and memories we will cherish FOREVER!

Way to Go Rangers!

Just a little late on this post but the picture was cute!

Halloween

We had a GREAT Halloween! Our future golfer started his day with bacon, eggs, and an orange cinnamon roll, then we played outside with our pumpkins and scarecrow, napped, then went to The Drueckhammers for our 3rd Annual Halloween Party! The party was so much fun we drank goblin punch, ate mummy dogs, carved pumpkins, trick or treated, and then ATE CANDY!!!!

For the past three years we have been trick or treating with my sister and her family, and Bo's cousin and her family. The kids always have so much fun together. I went through and found pictures from the past years so you can see all the kids together! The 1st picture is missing Kali, the 2nd picture is missing Ben, and the 3rd picture is missing Sara. Who will be missing next year ?!?!



EB AWARENESS WEEK

When Ben was 3 months old we made the transition from sleeping in the bassinet beside our bed to sleeping in his crib on the other side of the house. I suffered severe insomnia during that transition :) One night while up in the middle of the night I came across a picture of a baby who had bandages all over his body and head. I couldn't stop wondering what had happened to him. My first thought was he had to have been burned. I started googling the name of the baby and his dad (who I knew from high school.) I came across an article talking about a Benefit Golf Tournament in honour of Tripp Roth. Also in the article was a link to his Caring Bridge website where his mother wrote and updated about her son's disease.


After reading a couple posts I found out that when Tripp was born he was diagnosed with a rare genetic skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa "EB." Any type of friction on his skin or mucous membranes causes severe blistering. After seeing a specialist they were told Tripp would not live to see his first birthday and that he was 1 in 2 million! Read Tripp's story here. (Next month Tripp will be 1 1/2 years old :)


One evening I was so tired and when Bo got home from work I said 1 2 3 Not It! on who had to give Ben a bath that night well of course I won and Bo bathed Ben and put him to bed. That night when the insomnia kicked in I got up to read Courtney's post and was horrified when she had wrote a post saying how Tripp screamed in pain during his bath that night. The post was heart wrenching. I bawled the whole time reading it. Here I am with a baby that LOVES his baths and I was too tired to enjoy it! From that night on my life had changed I would no longer take for granted the little things in life. As a mother I could not begin to understand how Courtney must have felt seeing her child in so much pain during a simple daily ritual that I had taken for granted


Today starts EB AWARENESS WEEK so I thought I would write a post on how I first learned about EB and give my readers the opportunity to learn about it and the chance to fall in love :) Since Ben was 3 months old I have been following Tripp's incredible journey! I'm so in LOVE with that boy! He is such an INSPIRATION! His mother Courtney is my HERO! She cares for Tripp so selflessly. Courtney and Tripp have become an important part of my life. Everyday when Ben is napping I have to check on Tripp :) OK so maybe it is more then once a day :) but when Courtney writes a post on Tripp not feeling well I feel the pain and when she writes a post of him showing off his tricks or pictures of him smiling I feel the JOY! I am a better mom because of her and think everyone should read about her journey caring for her son with EB. To start following Courtney click here

 This week Courtney is going to try and write posts answering her blog readers questions about EB.

To learn more about EB go to DebRA.org 

Happy Friday!

Memory Lane

These pictures are of Ben Parker ONE YEAR AGO at the Dallas Arboretum....they make me so so SO Sad but oh so HAPPY and PROUD at what an incredible lil guy he has become. He makes my heart so full!

Wasn't he so stinkin cute in his lil corduroy blazer

See next post at what a difference a year makes

Last Thursday we went to the Dallas Arboretum with Minnie and Cousin Brooklynn. We had so much fun running through the pumpkins and playing in the pumpkin houses!

Of course first thing first....SNACKS!

 Ben pushing baby Madison :)

Don't they look like a little family pushing their baby and picking out pumpkins for the front porch :) 



Minnie and Brooklynn

 Benny liked picking up and throwing the pumpkins

 

"Who's child is that?!?!"

Now when I talk about Ben doing the back arching this is what I'm talking about and that is a 35lbs boy

Ok so he might kind of be a Monster. But he is a really Cute Monster!

They had a lil Oktoberfest going on so Ben had a Root beer float!

 

Brooklynn watching herself eat guacamole in the mirror. She is so funny!

Sweet Sleeping Benny :)
What a fun day we had! Thanks Minnie and Brooklynn!