Things are Moving Quickly!

In August 2005, I (Ashlee) started a new chapter in my life.  I moved to Dallas to go to college at DBU.  After living on campus for two years, I spent the rest of college living in the heart of downtown Arlington. I fell in love with the area- the Rangers, Six Flags, downtown Fort Worth, the Parks Mall,  and everything else that this area is home to, including a lot of very special people. During this time, I also met and fell in love with Tyler, who was also living in the area during this time. After I graduated, we got married and started our lives together on the far southwest side of DFW in Cleburne.

For the past three and a half years, we've made this our home.  We've become our own little family.  We've made friends that have been like family.  We've transitioned from college students staying up late, hanging out at friends' houses and seeing every new movie the week it comes to theaters to parents who are asleep by ten and see movies once they're out on DVD while Parker is asleep.

Things have changed a lot in the past seven years since moving to the Metroplex.  However, after a lot of prayer, thought, talking, and more prayer, things are about to come full circle.  Tyler has accepted a job with The Woodlands Fire Department (north of Houston) and we'll be moving back to my first home soon.  We don't know what to expect with this move.  Tyler has never lived away from this area and I haven't lived in Houston full-time since I graduated high school, but we're excited to be back.  We're sad to be leaving most of Tyler's family, but excited but be near mine.  We'll be able to go to church with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins.  Parker will get to grow up with first and second cousins close by to play with.  We're excited we'll get to be around for the day-to-day events like watching dance recitals, baseball and football games, and birthday parties.

Normally I hesitate to make "big announcements" online because they don't seem very personal.  However, with the speed things are going and it being the end of summer, I wanted to just get it out there so no one is caught by surprise when we're gone soon.  Tyler is starting work in about two weeks and will be commuting back and forth for a few more weeks until Dallas is born, probably at the end of September.  After about a week at home in Cleburne after he is born, we'll all finish the move and be down there full time.  We'll be staying with my parents until our house here sells and we find a new one there.

For those of you reading this from Cleburne- We've loved our time here and the people we've gotten to know.  We'll really miss each of you, but we'll be back to visit a lot!

For those of you reading this from Humble- We're looking forward to getting to spend more time with you in the coming months.  (And would appreciate any house hunting hints you may have.)

For those of you that don't live in either of these- No worries, our Facebook statuses and pics won't be affected at all. :-)

In other news- Parker is still happy and healthy, getting into everything and learning new things, especially new vocabulary every day.  Dallas is measuring exactly where he should be, even a little bigger.  His due date is still Oct. 2, but since he's so big, we're hoping for an early arrival. :-)

We'll post again soon, or at least when there is something worth reporting.

Plays, playing and playing

Here are some pictures to play catch-up (again) because we seem to never post pictures anymore, (other than straight from the phone).  However, since there is a living room floor covered in 4 loads of folded clothes that need put away, floors that need swept, a dishwasher full of dishes that need unloaded and countless other things that need done before nap time is over, I thought now would be a good time to upload some pictures and update the blog. :-) Who knows, maybe the cleaning fairies will show up while I'm not looking.

In April, my (Ashlee's) brother played the role of Jesus in the University of Mary Hardin Baylor Annual Easter pageant.  It was a huge honor that he was picked for this part out of the whole student body and he'd spent a year preparing for the role.  I was prouder of him than I think I've ever been watching him play his part.




As a bonus, Parker got to play one of the "townspeople" in the opening scene and even got to sit in his Uncle Coley's lap.

We just pretended that he was either from the far-northern part of the middle east or didn't get out in the sun much as he was significantly whiter and blonder than the average Jewish person.


For the first time in a few years we got to spend Easter Sunday with my family in Humble. It's a rare occurrence that we get to visit on a Sunday and see friends at church that I don't normally get to see and an even more rare occurrence that it was possible on Easter.

 

Parker was old enough to hunt for eggs this year, although once he found the first one, he lost interest in the "hunt" part as he thought he found a ball and didn't care for the rest of them. His cousins were nice enough to share some of theirs, though.

Ok, there's a fun background story on this firefighter costume. When Tyler and I had been dating about a year, Tyler had already been through fire academy and had just been hired by the City of Cleburne as a firefighter. It was a given that he would be a firefighter indefinitely. One weekend when I was home, Mom and I went to a specialty kids clothing store (probably to get a baby shower or birthday gift for someone) and saw this firefighter costume. It was really cute and not something you can find many places, but at this point Tyler and I weren't married or even engaged so we didn't get it.  However, suspecting that some day we'd get married and that we would probably have a boy eventually, Mom went back and got it because the store was closing and she knew we wouldn't be able to get it later. So after Parker was born, he got this at the hospital. It was going to be his "Fall Festival" costume this year, but as he's growing so fast, we went ahead and let him wear it before he outgrows it. He loves it!

We've spent most of the summer playing outside. This child is like a little frog going back and forth between the water and the sandbox. He doesn't care what he's doing so long as he's outside and dirty.

When Tyler's at work, we usually try and visit him every shift. Parker got to play in the firetruck on this day. He thinks he's pretty cool.

This is Parker's first ride on a four-wheeler. (No worries, it never left 1st gear.) He loved it.

Burleson has an indoor kiddie area that is the perfect size for Parker. Okay, maybe it's a little big, but don't tell him. As far as he's concerned, he's just as big as the 6 year old. He quickly got tired of the "baby" slide and thought he needed to go on the bigger slide all by himself.

A couple of weeks ago we made a quick visit to see family in Houston. My cousin has a little boy who is just a few months older than Parker and they love to play together. The older they get, the closer in age they seem to be because they can do more of the same things. This time, they could say each other's names (although Parker won't perform when asked) and played on the playground at church together. When we got in the car to leave, Parker kept saying "Ti-tus, Ti-tus").

Hope you enjoyed our little overview of the last couple of months and a pat on the back for anyone that read the whole way through this.

Obvious

By now it is obvious to anyone still reading this, that we are not very good at keeping up with a blog. It has been a long time since I have written as Ashlee wrote the last post. Where to begin?? It has been an amazing, exhausting, adventurous 11 months. It seems to have flown by. I now see what people mean by "time is relative." 

Because we have not kept up with this, here is a summary of the last few months. 

October- December

We took Parker to the zoo. 

We went to Erica's graduation from the Fort Worth Police Academy.

 We visited Tyler's parents in Kopperl.

 We went to Ashlee's cousin's wedding followed by a Texans game.

 Parker grew.

 We spent Thanksgiving in Whitney with Tyler's family.

 Parker got his first haircut.

 Parker grew a little more.

And then he decided he'd grow a little. 

These are just a few pictures. We spent a week celebrating Christmas between Cleburne, Kopperl, and Humble. It was a great holiday and we enjoyed getting to spend some time with family. Parker has a house full of toys and says thanks to everyone who bought him gifts. 

We are truly blessed to have our families and friends. We thank God daily for blessing us and are grateful for every day that we get to spend with that beautiful little boy. 

I'm not going to end this by saying that I'll post more often this year, we'll just wait and see what happens. Thanks for reading.