Here’s some more pix of Parker’s bday:

(Above) Parker sword fighting Darth Maul.

I’m not sure why, but the kids wanted to make it look like they were standing on darth vader’s head.

Getting rid of Darth Vader.

Scott “vader” losing the battle to the Jedi.

I’m not sure what this is, but I think he was excited about getting money for his Bday.

A few things and stories about Parker:

* I like to call Parker Mr. T…short for Mr. Tease. He LOVES to tease, but the good thing about him is, he is good at taking a joke, too. If someone teases him he can easily laugh it off.

* Parker asked me once if I would please call him “Jumper” instead of Parker, because of how much he likes to jump….and it’s true, Parker is always jumping off of something. Mostly it’s the couches, but it drives me crazy. I just know he’s going to hurt himself one of these days.

* For some reason when we pray as a family, Parker usually ends up giggling through the whole prayer. Not funny for me, but he has that cute smile, so I can’t ever stay mad at him.

* Even though he loves to tease, he also watches out for his brothers. A few times as Scott and I have gotten the kids gathered up to leave to go somewhere in the van, one of the boys for some reason doesn’t cooperate, and ends up throwing a tantrum. Whoever the tantrum thrower is, sometimes I will tell them we are going to leave them home….which of course we would never do, so I’m not sure why I make that threat in the first place. But, there have been times, when we’ve gotten everyone in the car except the tantrum thrower, and Parker will start crying and begging us not to leave his brother behind. Another time, I had taken the 3 younger kids to the store to shop for groceries while Jaxon was in school. I told them if they were good I would let them pick out a treat at the end. Well, Keaton ended up getting too many warnings, and so I finally told him he would not be getting a treat. Of course he started to cry and I saw Parker walk over to him and try to tell him it would be okay. So, when I got done shopping I let Berkley and Parker pick out their treats, and reminded Keaton he wouldn’t get one. So, yeah you guessed it, he cried some more. I paid for the groceries and handed Parker and Berkley their treats, while dragging screaming Keaton to the car. As I was putting the kids in their car seats, Parker quietly asked me if he could please give his treat to Keaton. I honestly didn’t even know how to respond. I didn’t want to let Keaton think he would get a treat even though he was bad, but Parker was willing to go without so Keaton could have a treat. I allowed Parker to give Keaton his treat, and was amazed at how kind and loving he could be. He’s such a good example for me.

* Parker potty trained himself just after he turned two years old. I had just finished potty training Jaxon, which had been a nightmare, so I decided to wait to potty train Parker. But, after we moved into our house, I kept finding Parker diaperless. He was taking his diaper off and actually using the bathroom, only I didn’t know he was really using the bathroom. He would flush the toilet, so I really didn’t know he was going, and I kept getting mad at him for taking his diaper off all the time. Well, one day he must have forgot to flush the toilet and I finally realized he really was using the bathroom. He was by far the easiest kid to potty train.

* The second Parker wakes up is a big wrestling match with Jaxon and Keaton. Our house is wrestle mania.

* Also just after Parker turned 2, he was diagnosed with JRA. It was all so devastating and upsetting at first, but he’s learning how to deal with it all and so are the rest of us. I used to wonder if for some reason our family was being punished because of all the problems we were having.  I don’t think it’s unnatural to think that, but I started obssessing over it a little too much. But, one day when I was studying the scriptures I came across this story in the bible in the book of John, and I finally felt okay with everything:

John 9:1-3,6,7

1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was ^ablind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this ^aman, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Parker turned 6 years old, and we had a small bday party for him. For part of the party, Scott drew this awesome picture of darth vader on the driveway, and then we let the kids throw water balloons at him to “kill” him. After they got all the black off the sidewalk, Vader was officially gone. Also, for the party, I decided to get the swimming noodles and was going to make swords out of them, or light sabers. I thought I would just put black tape on the bottom of them and let them be floppy so there would be no chance of hurting each other. Well, Scott saw the noodles and asked me what I was going to do with them, and I told him, and he got all excited and went to the store and bought pipe to put in the middle of them and made them look all cool. I’m not sure who had more fun with the light sabers, him or the kids. The kids still love sword fighting him with them.

Scott “Vader” fighting off the Jedi Knights.

Parker had to make a leprechaun trap this year. He was way excited about it. I let him decide how to do it. He drew the rainbow himself, and then he told me how he wanted to make it so the leprechaun would fall through the hole in the middle of the trap. It turned out really good. While I was helping him put it all together, Keaton disappeared for a long time in the other room. Just as I was about to glue the rainbow onto Parker’s trap, Keaton came and showed me a rainbow he had drawn, and told me he really needed a trap, too. It was really cute and funny. I didn’t have time to make Keaton’s trap right then, so for the next two days after that, that’s all he could talk about. I finally gathered up some materials and helped him make a trap, too. By the time we took the pictures of the traps, Keaton’s latter had been broken into pieces. I never did get around to getting it fixed. But, he was still happy with it. It was lots of fun doing these traps with both these two super cute boys. Sadly, the leprechaun outsmarted us, and we weren’t able to catch a leprechaun.

My last post was very confusing, so I thought I would make sure everyone knows, we are not having twins. And, yes it is a GIRL!! We are super excited….well mostly. Keaton and Berkley still don’t seem to like the idea, but I’m sure they will love her once she gets here.

We found out what we are having today….Any guesses?? I was honestly happy with either one, BOY or GIRL. When we first told the kids I was going to have another baby Keaton and Parker both said they wanted another BOY. Berkley was upset about a baby, and kept telling me he was the BABY…hence no other baby was needed. Jaxon wanted a GIRL. I think he was set on a GIRL, because we trade off babysitting with this family who also has 4 kids and their baby is a GIRL. Whenever they come over Jaxon loves to sit and play with that little baby, so he decided a GIRL would be good. Scott asked me a couple of weeks ago if I thought a GIRL would “bring balance to the force.” Ha ha…I doubt anything will bring balance to our force of Jedi’s Knights. And, I have to admit when the radiology tech told us it was a GIRL, I was shocked but super excited!! After seeing the 1st ultrasound done by my doctor in his office, I was certain it was going to be a BOY. The baby was so wiggly that it was hard to get pictures of it. Then, they did another ultrasound when I had my appendix out, and again, the baby was super wiggly. I figured it would be another wiggly fun little BOY. I guess I have had so many boys for so long that that’s all I could think of was BOYS. But, we are way way excited…..Any ideas for names are welcome. And, I hope you like my little trick of being sneaky in announcing what we are having.