January 2013

Another Picture of Blake's missing tooth!

Alexia playing with her new doll house from Grandma Jenny

High Five Briana

Briana has all her stuffed animals

Oh no she dropped on

So sad!

Baby lions at the zoo!

Alexia in her sparkly outfit

Sisters

Alexia's taxi service

Briana in her birthday gift from Aunt Kati!

Alexia in dance class, you can also see her reflection in the mirror

The family that plays together!

Dr. Appt, all is good!

Such a cheerful girl!

Fashionista!

At the library once again!

I have been slacking in the blogging department lately.  January is a very busy month for us!  Alexia turned 4, so I will have another blog about her birthday party shortly!  Briana and Blake both had wellness check ups! All are healthy in the Parrack house!  We are very excited about a few recent additions to the family!  Love brand new babies!  :)  The kids are doing great, as are mommy and daddy!

Feeling very Blessed!

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Blake lost his first tooth!

The tooth fairy left sparkly blue water and sparkly money!

Blake was so excited!

Well, our oldest child lost his first tooth last week!  It was loose for a very long time before it actually fell out, the permanent tooth is already coming through!  The tooth still had a little blood on it (ick), so we put it in a jar of clear water to clean it and "forgot" it on the coffee table when we went to bed.  We woke up in the morning to sparkly blue water in the jar and no tooth...  There was also sparkly money under the jar...  Blake is convinced it was the tooth fairy.  Which tooth fairy was it though, The Rock or Larry the Cable Guy...  Hmmmm!

Mommy's Day Out

Well, I have heard many times over the past few years that as a mom I still need to take some me time, go out and do something relaxing without taking ANY of my children along with me.  I do not fully agree with that, I really enjoy taking Alexia and Briana along with me when I get the occasional pedicure (and by occasional I mean once every 6-12 months) or when I go to a good friend's house for a day of once a month cooking or a baking day.  Blake is fun to take on shopping trips or when I run errands, all the kids are great to be around!  I enjoy having the kids with me in every aspect of my life, it is a big part of the reason I changed my career path from 8 am- 5 pm Mon-Fri to a flexible career working from home in the evenings.  My children will only actually want me around for so long before they go through the "My mom is so not cool" phase.  I want to soak up every moment I can with these amazing little beings that we dreamed into life!  I want to learn from them and enjoy the wide-eyed wonder they have as they learn new things, or try to teach me something!  It has been over 7 years since the start of my first pregnancy and since then I have experienced a whirlwind of emotions and experiences.  Things I would not trade for all the time or money in the world.

That being said, my wonderful soon to be sister-in-law convinced me to go with her for a massage and then a meal.  It has been an EXTREMELY long time since I had a girls day that did not include my daughters.  It was very nice and amazingly relaxing.  We started out the day with a wonderful massage, followed by sushi at my favorite sushi place in Lincoln!  After that we went to Barnes and Noble and chatted a bit.  I got home mid-afternoon to find 3 happy children, a happy husband and my little brother all spending good quality time together!  I may do the Mom's day out thing occasionally, but for now, I am oh so happy to have my wonderful little sidekicks with me!  :)

Here are some pictures of my food, since it is hard to take a picture of a massage!  :)

My delicious cupcake!

Amazing Sushi!  

We had a great chef who sent out a complimentary sushi roll that was amazing!!!

I have not had a chance to go out for sushi in an extremely long time and it has been even longer since my last massage.  I went to a wonderful massage therapist for years before I got pregnant with Blake.  My last massage was in the summer of 2005.  How sad is that?!?!?!  :)  Although I have not felt deprived for the last 7+ years, the massage was AMAZING!  I have been a big fan of sushi ever since my long stay in Los Angeles when I was 19!  I had never tried sushi before that.  I was hooked!  I gave up sushi during all of my pregnancies for obvious reasons, I also did not eat it while I was breastfeeding simply because sushi places are not so kid friendly usually.  This was the first time in about 2 years that I got to eat sushi!  It was also amazing!  The sushi chef sent Marysol and I a complimentary sweet sushi roll to go with our combo platter, it was amazing!  I had never tried a sweet roll before, now I will probably not eat sushi without ordering a sweet roll!  

Long story short, I had a great time, the kids and hubby had a great time and I will probably do a mom's day once every 2 months or so!  While I do not NEED one, it was very nice to get to spend some one on one time with a good friend (soon to be family) and to actually get to talk to and listen to someone without having to keep track of 3 kids at the same time!!!  :)  

Happy New Year from the Parracks

I am sharing again a select number of our favorite pictures from 2012.  What an amazing year it was!  Watching Briana grow from infant to toddler has been amazing, what a brilliant and lively child she is!  Watching Alexia step into the role of big sister has warmed our hearts more than we can ever express!  The moment Alexia saw Briana she was in love, she has been mommy's big helper and absolutely adores her baby sister!  She is so good as a big sister, a little sister and standing on her own as well!  Blake adores Briana as much as he does Alexia, he is such a great big brother!  We are so lucky to have 3 kids who love each other and enjoy each other's company!  What blessings they all are in our lives!  We are better people because of them!

God has blessed us with many things in 2012!  Alexia turned 3 in January of 2012, Blake finished Chemo in April and had his port removed in June!  We have all been recovering as a family from the long journey that we had during the course of Blake's diagnosis and treatment and it has been quite a healing process for all of us.  The once a month routine blood draws are a cake walk compared to the 3 1/2 years of Blake's treatments!  We believe it will only get better from here as well!  We are so thankful to be heading into the year with a happy healthy family!  We are happy to have the people we love in our lives!  

We are praying for 2013 to be a positive year for us and for everyone else as well!!!  

1. 
   

   May the road rise to meet you
   May the wind be always at your back
   May the sun always shine warm upon your face
   the rain fall soft upon your fields
   And until we meet again
   May God hold you in the hollow of his hand

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve

Briana in her Christmas Best!

Blake, Lex and Daddy playing Talking Tom!

Presents!

Santa Blakey!

Christmas Jammies!

Setting out cookies for "Santa"

As is tradition on the Wilson side of the family, we all got together and spent the evening with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents!  We all had fun opening gifts and spending good quality time together!  Once we got home the kiddos opened their Christmas jammies and set out cookies and milk for "Santa"

We are very honest with our kids about "Santa".  They know the story of St. Nicholas who dedicated his life and considerable inheritance to helping those in need, among other things.  They know that when we pretend with "Santa" we are teaching them valuable lessons about sharing the joy we have because of Jesus.  We are happy and we want to share that with others, just like St. Nicholas did, and he was following Jesus' example.

That being said, we do have a lot of fun with the Santa Claus idea, we still do the milk and cookies, we still meet Santa once a year (starting last year) although Briana does not meet Santa yet because she has stranger anxiety.  :)

So we hung the stockings and set out the cookies.  We read the kids a Christmas bedtime story and head to bed!

Christmas Day

Where are the cookies?

Stockings!

Presents!

Breakfast at Village Inn

We love that they love each other so much!

Christmas morning the kids were very excited to see what was in their stockings and open their presents.  They each picked out presents for each other and were all very excited to give their gifts to each other!  Once we all opened our gifts we headed to Village Inn to meet up with Mama Corinne, Papa Mark and Great Mama Donna!  Breakfast was delicious and we had a great time!  Our server was wonderful!  We headed over to Great Grandma's house for a little while, then went home to nap and enjoy the rest of Christmas day there!