Merry Christmas - Week Long Celebration

I love saying MERRY CHRISTMAS! I can't stand Happy Holidays! I saw one of the best magnets/bumper stickers that said "It is okay for me to say Merry Christmas!" How true is that...anyways on to the week in review.

My office was only open Monday and Tuesday the week of Christmas. Tuesday night we had a nice surprise....mom and dad offered to keep Parker for the evening. Braxton and I had date night and we went and saw 7 Pounds with Will Smith. Great movie!!! Wednesday, Braxton had to work 1/2 day. I got up and cleaned house then ran into Gardendale for those last few details. When I arrived back home, my mom and dad and Dakota had arrived to return Parker. Wednesday night we took it easy. I wrapped the last of the presents and cleaned up a little more.
Christmas day was great. Christmas Eve...not so much. Braxton decided to change Parker's diaper at midnight and Parker decided he did not want to go to bed! Parker and I had to sleep in the quest bed until 3:30am then I put him in his bed. Of course he woke up at 6:45! After he woke up....we opened presents.
Parker got three presents from Mommy and Daddy...Jesus got 3 presents when he was born, and so does Parker! Plus he got a stocking from Santa including a Cars Ball and his first Mickey Mouse.

We went to Chuck and Misty's "old house" for the Reno/Kennedy Christmas lunch. Then Christmas night we hosted the Reno family Christmas at our house. There were TONS of presents. Parker started getting tired, but never gave into wanting to sleep! After everyone left our house, we drove to Huntsville to spend some time with my family.

Friday (the day after Christmas) we hung around Huntsville....returning stuff and just enjoying being off of work. Friday afternoon, Elesha, Dakota and Gavin came to my parents' house for the evening/night because Brant was working at the fire station. Friday night we played games and enjoyed each other's company. We played a new version of Monopoly that uses credit cards instead of paper money. Braxton was not happy....he lost! He went bankrupt first. He really tried to not go to bed mad, but it was hard!

Saturday morning we got up and began getting ready for the Duckworth Christmas. About 6 years ago the Duckworth family started the tradition of Christmas steaks. Instead of the traditional Christmas dinner we have steaks, baked potatoes, salad and other veggies. SO YUMMY!!! After lunch we opened presents. I love watching Gavin and Dakota open presents. This year Gavin and Dakota shared the opportunity of being Santa and handing out the presents. Late Saturday afternoon we drove back to Hayden for the rest of the Christmas holiday.

Sunday night I took down all of the decorations. I guess I am ready for the holidays to be over and to get back to some type of normal living! Whatever that is! I guess it is time for new year's resolutions and the famous four letter word D-I-E-T!!! HA! I hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Too Tired for Words!!!!

Christmas Catch Up

Yes, the Braxton Reno family does still exists! Wow what a busy December and Christmas Holiday we had. Hopefully I can sum up everything in a short few paragraphs. And if you are checking in for pictures...well I have failed as a mom and my pictures aren't that great! OH WELL...we will always have next year!

FIRST WEEKEND IN DECEMBER
We spent most of the weekend in Huntsville. We watched the SEC Championship Football game with our friends and part of the Duckworth family in Paint Rock Valley, Alabama. After the game we had my mom's side of the family Christmas party in Scottsboro. It was a great time to see my family that I don't have the chance to see as often.

SECOND WEEKEND IN DECEMBER
Busy weekend following my birthday!!! It was the Christway Choir's performances of His Promise. Friday and Saturday night were tiring, but it was a great turn out both nights and a great performance.

THIRD WEEKEND IN DECEMBER
I was trying really hard to be in the Christmas spirit. I guess this month has just been a strain on me personally. Lots on my mind, lots to do, and just stressful all together! I was almost finished with Christmas shopping...just a little more to do. We took it easy this weekend. Not alot on the calendar which was nice. Friday night, Braxton and I, joined my co-workers and their spouses as the Chop House in Huntsville for our annual Christmas party. It was a WONDERFUL evening. I love my co-workers and their spouses are so much fun as well.

Parker Helping Put up Lights!

The Reno Christmas Tree

First Thanksgiving, First Big Boy Car Seat, First Crawl!

It was a day of many FIRSTS! Even though it was not exactly Thanksgiving day, it was our first Thanksgiving meal with the Duckworth family.

Last Friday night we went to the Bridgestreet Tree Lighting ceremony. It was so COLD!!!! We buddled up the entire family and headed out for some Holiday fun. After we watched the tree light up, we went inside to Jason's Deli for some warmth!

Last Saturday (November 22) was the Duckworth family Thanksgiving. This was the first time for my dad's family to be together for Thanksgiving in about 8 years. We had a wonderful spread of food. Parker showed off as I knew he would...being as cute as he could possibly be!

Once the extended family left, Braxton and I went to Babys R Us and bought Parker a "big boy" carseat. He is still facing backwards, but it is definetly a big boy seat! It even has armrests for his little arms. While we were shopping Elesha sent a text message saying that Parker was crawling! It was an army crawl using one arm and scooting on his belly. This was the best picture I could get of him trying to crawl!

The 3 Grandchildren - Gavin, Dakota & Parker

Thanksgiving Around the Corner

Well I am sitting here WAITING patiently for Thanksgiving to roll around. For me Thanksgiving will begin Saturday! The Duckworth family (my dad's family) will be having Thanksgiving at my parent's house. This will be the first time the entire Duckworth family (minus my uncle's wife, Marcia) has been together for Thanksgiving in 8 or 9 years! So it will be an exciting day.

I can't decide if I am looking forward to seeing my family more or the food!?!?! Just kidding! It will be nice to see everyone, and enjoy the food and fellowship with my family.

As I said this kicks off our Holiday season and I just can't wait. My plan is to put up our Christmas decorations Saturday evening and finish them Sunday night. I am also anxious to see how long our Christmas tree will stay standing up. I am thinking that once the bright lights, and shinny ornaments adorn the tree....Parker may start crawling after all!! I can't say that I won't be a little excited, but hopefully my tree can wish stand a 25 pound little boy pulling on it.

And yes, I promise to post pictures soon!

Crazy Few Weeks

I have not done a good job of posting lately....but as I warned everyone in the beginning, no promise of posting every week.

This is a busy time for everyone with the holidays beginning, but things are even crazier because this is a busy season for me at work. How busy? Let's just say that the last 2 weeks I have had a headache EVERY DAY!!! But I am making it and I will survive. Once Monday, December 15th hits, my stress level will go from 150% to about 50%.

Last weekend was a little busy. Friday night we were in Huntsville for Gavin's 4th birthday. Hard to believe he is 4! It was at my home church. Parker was not feeling the best, but he survived for at least 3 hours. Saturday morning I drove back to Gardendale for a hair cut/color....it could not wait any longer! Braxton stayed in Huntsville for the morning to take Parker to the doctor. We thought he had an ear infection, but Dr. Laue saw nothing! That afternoon we went to Brayden's 1st birthday. It is amazing to see Brayden and Parker sitting beside each other. 4 months apart and Parker (the younger of the two) is 4 pounds heavier! Parker was definitely making a list of all the toys he wanted for Christmas and his birthday in March. That evening we sat around the house and just took it easy. Sunday was another day at the house. Sometimes it is just nice to get stuff done on the weekends.

This past weekend we took it easy. Friday night me, Braxton and Parker went to eat at Habaneros. It was Parker's first experience with all of the bright lights and bold color. Parker spent most of the night leaning back looking at the ceiling. And we did find a new love....refried beans (no cheese). Saturday we slept until almost 8am. I cleaned house during the morning while Braxton ran into town to run a few errands. The afternoon we spent hanging out and playing with Parker. Then we watched the football game. ROLL TIDE! It was a nice laid back, no makeup day!! Sunday we had church and then that afternoon we had our Choir Social at the Stardome Comedy Club. We ate lunch/dinner and heard Mickey Dean a stand up comedian. It was a great time of laughter and it was a nice chance to have some adult time.

I hope to post a few pictures of Parker from the last few weeks. One of my particular favorites is him trying to eat spaghetti noddles! TOO CUTE!

Hopefully everyone will have a great week!

Socks - Parker's New Friend

Promised picture of "Socks" and Parker.....too sweet!

Halloween Weekend

Friday evening we stayed with my parents. Saturday morning we got up and had a wonderful pancake breakfast thanks to Nana! Then we got ready and drove to Tennessee just south of Nashville. Braxton has a great uncle and great aunt (Uncle Mike and Aunt Pat) that live in a beautiful area of Tennessee. Other than pictures they had not had the opportunity to meet or see Parker. We ate lunch with them and stayed to watch the Alabama vs. Arkansas State football game. Uncle Mike played for Bear Bryant in the 60s. I actually got to see the letter that Bear Bryant wrote to him telling him that had received a scholarship to play football for the University of Alabama. It was pretty cool!! We had a some great food and wonderful fellowship. Parker fell in love with Aunt Pat. He actually let her rock him to sleep and before long, they were both asleep in the chair together. It was SO SWEET! Thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Pat!

Sunday was church. We actually had a pretty smooth morning of getting ready for church. No ruffled feathers today! Sunday was Pastor Appreciation. We had a guest speaker from the Alabama Church of God State Office, Stan Holder. I had only heard him speak one time while Braxton and I were completing the MIP program. Wow did he do an amazing job. I think I pretty much cried last 15 minutes of his sermon when he was talking about how God completely healed his son and then we he talked about the mental healing he had experienced after he accidentally shot his brother in the face at the age of 8. If God can heal both of those situations, then there is nothing to big for GOD!!! After the sermon we had a wonderful time in the altar of God's reassurance that He is in control and an opportunity to just worship Him.

After church Parker, Braxton and myself went to eat lunch at Chili's and then to Target to pick up a few birthday presents. I think this was the first time that Parker had ever been down the toy isle. Boy were his eyes opened wide! As we were walking down one isle we saw a SOCK MONKEY stuffed animal. We showed it to Parker and his eyes lit up and a big smile came across his face. When Braxton put it back on the shelf Parker's eyes followed it. Well it was our first experience of being a SUCKER in the toy isle. We bought it. But to watch his face light up, it was worth every penny! I will try and post a picture of Parker with his new friend Socks.

Hope everyone had a GREAT week!

Happy Halloween!!!

It is Parker's FIRST HALLOWEEN!!!!! I worked from home on Halloween. Parker was such a good boy. He is so good about playing while Mommy works. I was so proud of him that I had to stop and take a picture! He is so content. Sometimes he will try to "move" towards me and the computer. He isn't always successful. When he starts to get real fussy, I move him closer to me and he will sit beside the shinny trash can (paper only!) and look at himself...he loves it!!

I hope Parker doesn't always think that every Halloween will be like this years! We had a wonderful Halloween. We loaded up and went to Huntsville for Parker's first Halloween. Two of our great friends, Tish and Jamie Engel hosted a hayride and Halloween party. We all (about 25 of us) met at Hampton Cove and had a hayride through the community. We stopped a few times and let the kids (and adults) trick-or-treat. See Parker's first house? Picture is not great, but it is what I got! Parker was so good. He didn't cry once, but he did try and eat the hay. I guess Sock Monkeys and hay don't go together. At the end of the ride he leaned his head over and was out!

After the hayride we stopped by to see my boss, Candy and her husband John. It was a nice surprise on Halloween. Parker never woke up while we were talking with them. After a short visit, we went on to the Halloween party. It was crazy! Some of the grandparents had also come by to see their grandchildren all dressed up for Halloween. We had Peter and Lucy from Narnia (Gavin and Dakota), a skeleton, 2 princesses, Peter Pan, a cowgirl, Indian Jones, a knight, one of the stars from High School Musical 3 and an octopus. It was GREAT! We ended up not leaving the Engel's house until 11pm. Thankfully Nana and Papa took Parker home around 10pm. It was a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Week in Review

It has been awhile since I posted anything, but we have been a busy family. Last week was just a busy day-to-day week. Parker was fighting an ear infection last week. I worked from my parent's house one day. When the work day ended I took Parker outside to grass (which we don't have at home) and took a few pictures in his "First Halloween" shirt. I think he was more interested in the grass than smiling for the camera.

Last weekend we just hung around the house. I wanted to get a few pictures hung up and I actually had the opportunity to go through all of Parker's (aka Gavin's old clothes) and hang up his clothes. It is hard to believe that he will be wearing 12 months in just a month or so!! Parker is actually slimming up....not to much weight gain, but of course his belly is still there.


We were just hoping that is 0-9 month Halloween outfit was going to fit!

Liz Hurley Ribbon Run

Is it Sunday yet????? So this is probably the BUSIEST week at Huntsville Hospital Foundation. For those who might not know...I work for HHF. We are the fundraising arm of Huntsville Hospital. We have 12 employees in our organization. This week is our largest event, the Liz Hurley Ribbon run. It is a 5k run that benefits the breast cancer fund at Huntsville Hospital. Last year we had about 2,500 runners registered. This year as of Wednesday night we had over 2,800 registered...and when I left work (at 6:45) we had over 3,000! WOW!

Needless to say, I am tired and worn out. Tomorrow will begin at 8:00am (well probably 5:30 because that is when Parker usually wakes up) and I won't get home until after 9:00pm. Then I have to be at "work" at 6:00am and I will work until 1:00pm. And then Parker and I will finally go home to Birmingham since Monday morning to see Braxton/Daddy.

If you have a free moment, pray for sanity, patience and a strong back to lift all the heavy boxes! Signing out and going to bed....Crystal