Opposties attract?

In case you couldn't guess, Wes and I are complete opposites! Most everything we do, we do differently. Of course we both think we're right and the other is doing it wrong. My motto in life is, "Simplicity is best." Wes' motto is, "....." ....well I don't really know what his motto would be he would have many. Anyway, since having Rachel, I have become somewhat of a bottle expert. I usually fill the bottles with water ahead of time and take them to Rachel's room so that I'll be ready for them when she needs them. The challenge in this is taking all the bottles full of water up the stairs to her room. As you can imagine, I have gotten good at this. It's really a challenge for me to see how many I can take upstairs at one time without dropping them. I think my highest number has been 13 (not trying to brag or anything :). My wonderful husband seems to have trouble with this task. He usually drops a couple of bottles on his way up the stairs and of course I give him a hard time about this. I usually say something like, "my arms are much shorter than yours and I can manage to take the bottles upstairs without dropping them." So my dear husband became inventive tonight and made a bottle holder. He somehow has his shirt in his shorts creating a pocket and guess what... it workedhe didn't drop a single bottle.

Lizzie holding bottles in her hands. SIMPLE!

Wes' bottle holder. Hands free-I might add.

Got to love him. I guess opposites really do attract.

Busy Days

The Parsons have been busy these days. The weeks just fly by, I can't believe we're in October. My little girl is almost 9 months old! Crazy!!
My weeks are full but not packed. I spend my Monday's and Friday's playing with Rachel at home, cleaning, and running errands. Tuesday's I do a Bible study at church and Rachel goes to the nursery. Thanks FBC for free child care!!! Wednesday's and Thursday's Rachel goes to Weekday school at church and I work with the toddlers right across the hall. They are really preparing me for Rachel's next stages. Weekends are usually spent with family, friends, and WEDDINGS! We only have 2 more this year!!

I don't think Tyke is having as much fun as Rachel!

Rachel has a tooth! However, I can't ever get a picture of it so here is a picture of me attempting to get a picture of her tooth. I think she is working on another one, she's been pretty irritated this week.

Wes has a special job with Rachel every night. He gets her ready for bed! Wes gives Rachel her bath, puts her in her night clothes, gives her her last bottle, and tucks her into bed. He loves having this special time with her. I know Rachel will be a daddy's girl!

Wes went in to check on Rachel tonight to see if she was sleeping ok. This is how he found her. She must have fallen asleep sitting up because she is just folded over her legs. She's a wild sleeper, I know she gets that from her dad! One day Rachel's husband will insist on a King size bed just like I did!!

Future Gymnast?!?

Rachel would really like to be able to stand up. She can get on the tops of her feet and hands but that heavy head of hers keeps her down every time :). So, she just stands there on her head for a few seconds. Here are some pictures of her.

She's also loving being upside down. She thinks this is pretty funny!

Of course Tyke, her dog, is over to the right.

Updates

Rachel is crawling a little bit better and faster! She still stops to take a rest at times and her knees are pretty pink these days. I've been putting her in pants a lot to protect her knees a little more. The dresses are on hold for a while because it interferes with the crawling. Rachel is starting to follow me places, I guess that's the end of privacy...right?

It seems like between 7 and 8 month old a lot of things have happen very quickly. Every week Rachel has been doing something new. This week Rachel has started pulling up on things. Mostly she loves to pull up on me :(. This is real interesting when I'm trying to get ready in the morning or brushing my teeth in the bathroom. She doesn't seem to mind if you're sitting or standing she's going to try to pull up! (She of course is now accident prone!) She loves to stand. You can see a little smirk on her face after she's pulled herself up as if to say, "there's no stopping me now, watch out."

Rachel just has one more thing to say, "Thanks for visiting the blog, I love you!"

Bye Bye!

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Rachel has got two things under her belt now. She can shake her head NO and she can Patty-Cake or clap her hands. Occasionally she will roll her hands in Patty-Cake but that's not a consistent skill yet. In the video she does roll her hands for a split second, clap and shake her head No.

Just a Swingin'

My Grammy got me a swing to swing in outside. I love it! I can go really fast and high! My hair blows in the wind when mommy pushes me! Thanks Grammy for my swing!

Rachel's Day With Dad

Saturday I met my friend Debbie at the mall for a little girl time. It was such a treat to not have to take the stroller, diaper bag, and my sweetie, Rachel. We spent a while out and it was great!! While I was out Wes kept Rachel. He did a great job and documented his day with pictures and video.

"Dad, where's Mom?"

Rachel crawled and climbed all over Wes. Wes loved it!!

My two darlings!

This crawling and climbing is hard work.

Is that not the best laugh! Check out those legs!!

Wes gave Rachel a bath also. He loves to play with Rachel's hair and make it look crazy!

Thanks Babe for taking such good care of Rachel! You're a wonderful dad!

Moving and Shaking

Well, we knew it wouldn't be long before Rachel started crawling. She's not moving very fast yet but I'm sure in a week she'll be zooming all over the place. I guess it's time to break out the safety gates!!

Video of Rachel crawling

Missing ECU!

GO PIRATES! This is the time of year that I really miss my college days. When I hear the marching bands and see the football games I think about the many wonderful memories I had in college. I thought I would walk you through some of those memories as I reflect today. The music on my playlist is none other than the marching pirates of ECU! I hope you enjoy it as you read.

Cute Pee-Dee

New Pee-Dee

This is the East Carolina mascot. This is Pee-Dee the Pirate. During my time at ECU they changed the look of our pirate from a cute pirate above to a meaner and more aggressive pirate below. What do you think???? Change is hard and I prefer the cute pirate myself. But I guess we look tougher now....right!

My freshman year was full of fun. I roomed with my friend from home, Susan. Our friend Ashley was already at ECU and later the three of us would get an apartment together. The three of us have some great memories. Girls if you're reading, do you remember the Ghost Light, Papa Johns, Hair pulling laughter, and Acid Park??? What laughs! The picture above is us going to a Disco Dance with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. And just to make a strong point.... I know many people consider ECU a party school, well it is what you make it and I chose not to make it that!!

We all loved to go to football games. The students had to sit on the sunny side of the field so after our first game we learned that you always wear sunscreen, bring your sunglasses, and wear a hat. It was a tradition to always have the "cute" pee-dee tattooed on your face! Arrgghh! Go Pirates! I also remember the phrase, "where's my oxygen?" I started saying this after those huge players would run about 10 feet and would straggle to the sideline gasping for air. You could just see on their face they needed oxygen. I'm surprised they don't have oxygen tanks lined up on the sidelines for these guys.

I must say since We left ECU the students are doing this really dorky pirate face. They cover one eye like a pirate patch and move there arm up and down...not really sure what it suppose to look like, maybe a sword. But we are a tad bit embarrassed about this new look. I guess when we left the coolness left too. :)

Wes and I, and our roommates were all involved in IVCF (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship). I speak only for myself when I say, "I really enjoyed this group." This was my youth group away from home. It kept me grounded and was a strength to me as I was figuring out just who I was. Because of this group I stayed away from all the crazy things that can happen on a college campus.

This is a picture of Ashley, me, and Susan at the best football game EVER! This was the ECU vs. Miami Hurricanes game in 1999. We were flooded out of Greenville due to Hurricane Floyd so NC State allowed us to use their stadium to play the game. Think about it the Pirates were playing the Hurricans.....Hurricans....we had just be hit by two major Hurricanes and we were ready to fight back. Poor Miami. We came from behind to beat the Hurricanes in the best game I have ever seen. Our fans were rude and removed the field goals from the NC State field...sorry on there behalf but you couldn't beat the emotions of this game. Ashely-do you remember the hurricane hit?? Cumin' atcha' from all sides!

This was me preparing for Hurricane Floyd. On the table you can see all the flashlights and candles.

My Junior year we were hit with two major hurricanes one was Hurricane Dennis and the other Hurricane Floyd. Both of these hurricanes were just weeks apart. Dennis came through the Carolina's and then bounced back and hit us again. Dennis dumped tons of rain on the Eastern part of the state and by the time Floyd came along the ground was so saturated that a flood was in our future. ECU was under water! We lost over 2 weeks of school. There was even talk of canceling the semester however they didn't. My roommates and I volunteered with the red cross and student services. Many people had lost everything they owned. Students lost books, books they had just bought a month ago at the start of school. It was eye opening to live through a natural disaster. You can check out pictures at http://www.nandotimes.com/nt/images/floyd/

This was just one of the many places in Greenville that was flooded.

I know many people call ECU-EASYU but I must disagree completely. I graduated in four years with a degree in Elementary Education. At the time the College of Education was second in the state. Who was number one??? UNC-Greensboro. I was offered a job with CMS on the spot in March, 2 months before I graduated.

Wes and I met at ECU. We were both part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I remember when I first met Wes and thought to myself, "this kid needs some medicine, I know he's ADHD." :) Wes ALWAYS had a million things going at one time. He has slowed down A LOT since college. We did not start dating until after I graduated so we spent many weekends burning up the roads to see each other. Those are some of the sweetest memories I have. ECU has served me in many ways. I had some of the greatest friends, the greatest education, and I met my husband. I owe a lot to ECU! GO PIRATES! http://www.ecu.edu/

Labor Day at the Lake

This Labor Day weekend we drove up to the lake to spend time with Wes' family. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Wes and I can't remember when we've had such a long and lazy weekend. We had a great time. Below are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

Rachel is chewing on everything. We think she might get teeth soon.

Tyke learned to love the water!

Terry got a new battery for his boat and was happy when the radio turned on.

Rachel is so close to crawling! Who knows when it will happen.

Rachel was sitting with her daddy on the swing. Isn't this the cutest picture.

This is the front view of the picture above.
Wes and his dad caught some HUGE fish. I'm so proud!
In all they caught about 6 but all about this size.

Rachel has got this new goofy look. She is so funny when she does it.

Tyke swam the most out of all of us this weekend. He really got used to jumping of the dock. Watch the video to see one of his first attempts.