Thanksgiving Week

Since I am still on maternity leave, it seemed a perfect opportunity for a nice long visit to St. Louis for the holiday.  Because Greg is, of course, NOT on maternity leave, we decided to journey to Missouri seperately.  I flew in with Parker on Sunday and Greg drove in with Otis on Tuesday/Wednesday.  I was a bit nervous about flying with the Little Miss by myself, but she did amazing!  Thank goodness she loves the Baby Bjorn, because I had her in that most of my travel day.  She slept the entire first flight to our layover in Chicago.  I fed her in the airport in between flights and then she actually was awake most of the second flight from Chicago to St. Louis.  She just looked across the aisle at the people sitting there and I think she liked the bright light coming in the windows.  One plus to flying in and out of Rochester is the use of smaller planes...they are louder and bumpier, perfect for most babies.  The change in pressure did not seem to bother Parker's ears at all.  I think she is destined to be a traveler!

On Tuesday night, all my St. Louis girlfriends and most of their kids came over to hang out and meet Parker.  Between the 7 of us (me, Jenny, Mary, Terri, Jennifer, Rachel, and Joy), we now have 16 children.  Five of them were not there that night and a few not in this picture, but you get the idea:

We were really lucky with the timing as the Rackers crew was just on their way out of town so we got to have a visit!  All my girls (these gatherings are few and far between):

 

Parker got to meet loads of relatives on Thanksgiving.  My best guess is that she was held by about 15 new people that day and she loved every minute of it.  Here are some photos from Thanksgiving "lunch" at Aunt Jan's:

 

 

For dessert, we had pie and fresh whipped cream.  Jack got a special serving of whipped cream and his Daddy suggested he could lick the plate, yum!

Thanks to my parents and the Claytons, Friday night was double date night for us.  This was the first time Greg and I have been out without Parker!  We had sushi at The Drunken Fish and then drinks at Pujols 5, good times.





We left St. Louis on Saturday and drove half way to Columbus, OH to visit/stay with Nate (friend of Greg's from college).  Parker and Otis did pretty great.  I did sit in the backseat the whole time, so not the most comfortable ride.  Nate and Angela and friends had tacos ready when we arrived.  Otis got lots of attention and trips to the park, so everyone was happy.  All in all, a very successful first major trip for Parker!!

House Changes

We finally got around to purchasing new living room furniture last week and it looks great!  Our old sofa was just too large for our space and the chair-and-a-half was simply awful.  The coffee table was a cheap Target one that we wanted to update anyway and then our neice Clare helped that cause by accidentally leaning on the end leaf and breaking it off!  And last but not least, a new area rug.  The old one was is poor shape after four years of constant heavy traffic.  Here is the finished product:

When we moved the old sofa, low and behold we found a treasure trove of rawhides...I guess we know where Otis' favorite hiding spot was...

Last winter, we had a squirrel decide to move into our home. He can jump to our roof from an adjacent tree and dug into the underhang and made a nice little abode over our sleeper porch. This fall Greg got a Havahart trap and set it out by the pine tree where the squirrel is often seen. After a few hours, we caught our man (or so we thought). Greg released him that day in a park far from our house. However, we discovered when you place carrots, nuts, and dried fruit in your yard it attracts more squirrels! Since we no way of knowing if the one we caught was our roommate, we set it again. Squirrel #2 got to take the drive down to Letchworth and currently has a new home with a nice view.

Baby's First Hike

We took the whole crew down to Letchworth State Park on Sunday. It was a decent day...although not sunny, it was close to 60 degrees. Parker LOVES being in the Baby Bjorn and stays awake for a long time just looking around. Otis loves going anywhere, so everyone was happy! This trail was pretty flat (we avoided the more interesting part of the trail because it is hunting season) but very nice views of the gorge. This is the Genesee River and known as the "Grand Canyon of the East". Two weeks ago it would be been beautiful with all of the fall-colored leaves.

We had a hand-me-down Baby Bjorn that was a few years old and employed a bunch of button type mechanisms to hold the baby. I had trouble putting Parker in it, needing to hold her with one arm and attach buttons with one hand. We decided to invest in a new Baby Bjorn that has much simpler attachments and a lumbar back support. I figure then we can use it for a longer time as she gets heavier. This was the first time using and we still had to make some adjustments...she is riding pretty low in this set up...we have since fixed it.

Parker - 1 Month Old

On Thursday, Parker was 1 month old!  It's simply amazing how times flies.  Here are some shots of her with her official 1 month old sticker on...

Clayton Visit!

Aunt Annie and Cousin Charlie arrived this week to meet Little Miss Parker.  With 4 week old and 7 week old babies, we didn't do anything terribly exciting, but had a lot of quality time.  We did make it to the outlet mall for a marathon shopping session.  Both babies did great, with only one minor meltdown from Parker.  Friday night we had Jason, Emily, Colin, & Ben Nudds and Shane Nudds and Papa G over for pizza.  We attempted numerous times to get a cousin picture while both babies were awake, but alas it was not an easy task.  Here are some attempts:

Annie with her neice:

Proud parents:

Halloween

No costume this year for any of us, we just couldn't get it together.  Thanks to some hand-me-downs from the Ashers and Knichels, she did have a Halloween-appropriate outfit though!

I am afraid Parker inherited this wide-eyed look from her Mother

Chalfant Visit

Jill, Dan, & Fallyn Chalfant visited us from Colorado this past weekend.  Fallyn is 9 months old and we know she and Parker will have so much fun together in the years to come.  For now, they just had a competition on who could make the most noise and who could keep us from eating dinner peacefully.  Life sure is different than the last time the four of us were together!

Although not in same quantities, Jill and I got drink wine together for the first time in two years!

Fallyn's chance to ride Otis

Parker is in the swing; Fallyn is helping out

Greg with our two cuddlers

Lunch at Open Face Sandwich Eatery in our neighborhood

Parker in her Kelly Chrisman Original hat

Trying to get a side-by-side of the girls....didn't go so well