Our Weekend Away

Last Thursday morning, Waylon took the kids to school, I packed up the car and we were off to Bald Head Island by 8am! It was a really nice weekend away with some very good friends! Nana and Grandad picked up the kids from school and kept them all weekend for us. They had a good time also. First, our weekend....

On the ferry

When we got there, we unloaded and headed out to the beach almost immediately and just relaxed there for most of the afternoon. It was nice to just sit, sun and read! When we got back to the house we enjoyed a great lasagna dinner prepared by Megan and Jason. Then we had a crazy night and I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30!! :-)

This is a "blond moment" story I shouldn't tell but it's just too funny not to! :-) Friday morning, Jennie and I took a quick trip to the grocery store and when we were leaving, we were having trouble fitting the key in the ignition of the golf cart. We ended up calling Josh to come out (it's his parents' house and golf carts) to see what the problem was.... turns out we were trying to take the wrong cart!!!! :-) We were glad that the real owner didn't come out while we were trying to steal their cart. :-)

Later on Friday morning, back to the beach for more relaxing... (you see a theme here?)

This is what the guys did on the beach most of the weekend.

Played holey board.

Friday night we had another yummy dinner this time prepared by Jennie and Cory. After dinner, the guys decided to have a silly dance party. It was hiliarious!! :-)

Jennie and Cory working in the kitchen!

The guys -- we have this exact same picture from 4 years ago
(just a little less hair (or more grey)!!!) :-)



And of course us girls haven't changed a bit, right??? :-)

Saturday morning Josh and Anise made a great breakfast for all of us and then - yup, you guessed it - back to the beach! It was a great day with a crazy ending....

Us girls on the beach.

Jennie and I were reading the same book

(the second in the Twilight series)

We'd been out there all day and were thinking about heading back soon when all of the sudden, Cory stepped on something out in the water. He had a puncture in the bottom of his foot and was bleeding pretty bad. There was also a bruise popping up near the site. We elevated his foot and put pressure on it, got it wrapped and decided to head back to the house. Jason and Josh were getting ready to help him back to the golf cart and I took this picture....

... and right after this, he passed out! It was very scary. He was out for a good minute or so and I called 911. He woke up wondering why he was on the ground and EMS arrived soon after. He was fine after that but he had a lot of pain in his foot for an hour or two afterwards - until he got a shower. We later determined from all of his symptoms that he mostly likely got stung by a stingray!!! Low blood pressure/faintness/dizziness/bruise at site/pain peaks in 1-2 hours/venom is denatured by hot water! Crazy.

After that drama, we all got ready and went out to dinner at Eb and Flow's - one of the few restaurants on the island. It was a great dinner and fun time!

The whole group!

Everyone was pretty tired and went to bed fairly early that night. Sunday morning, we packed up and headed out. We got home around 2 or so. Kylie was down for a nap but Noah was still up (no naps at all for him all weekend!) so we were so happy to see him and I think the feeling was mutual. :-) He just giggled and giggled and gave us big hugs. It was cute. We went in and got Kylie when she woke up from her nap and she was happy to see us also.....

Now for the kids' weekend.... (these pictures are from Nana and Grandaddy)

Nana picked up the kids a little early from school on Thursday and played until Grandaddy got off work. Friday, Nana was home alone with both kids all day and I think she was pretty tired by the time Grandaddy got home at 5:00! It's a big job to do all day alone - especially with no nap. Noah definitely took advantage of the giving grandparents and didn't nap all weekend! He was exhausted on Sunday night! :-)

Arts and Crafts with Nana

Saturday morning was Eli's birthday party so Nana and Grandad took Noah and Kylie to celebrate. From the pictures and the stories and the goodies they brought home, it sounds like it was an amazing party!! It was a monster truck party and they made monster trucks and raced them!! So cute.

They even had a cutout of a monster truck and had the kids take pictures in there!

I think Noah is waiting for lunch here but I just think it's so cute. :-)

Lunching with the birthday boy!

Getting ready to race!

They are off!

Back home, Noah couldn't get enough of his car... the wheels kept coming off and Grandaddy had to pull out some tools to secure them! :-) Love this action shot. You can see in a picture earlier in the post that Kylie liked it also. :-)

Later on Saturday, they went to the mall and rode the carosel. :-)

Kylie had fun, too!

Sunday morning, Andrea and Savannah came over to play for a while and I think everyone enjoyed that!

Like I said, we got back around 2:00 and released Nana and Grandad and both kids were exhausted! Noah was almost falling asleep at dinner and both kids were in bed, asleep, by 7:40 (Kylie's bedtime is usually around 8 and Noah's is usually around 8:30).

On Monday, I was worried that I'd have a hard time getting Noah to bed for nap but at 11:00 he said he was ready for lunch and when he started whining after lunch around 11:30, I threatened him and said, 'Should we just go take a nap now?' and he said yes!!! He walked up the stairs by himself and got right into bed and was out!! It was so funny.

Turns out, he came down with croup this week and now gave it to Kylie (I'm listening to her wheezing through the monitor right now) :-( but more on that in my next post - coming soon!

Catching up before our no kid trip!!!

Tomorrow we are dropping the kids off at daycare and heading to Bald Head Island until Sunday!! Waylon's parents will pick up the kids tomorrow afternoon and stay with them through the weekend. I think everyone is excited for the weekend!

But first, a quick update on last weekend....

Saturday was a busy busy day! In the morning, we did more clean out and things around the house to get it ready to put on the market. After nap, we had two birthday parties! First, we headed off to My Gym for Phoenix's 1st birthday party (our neighbor across the street). Everyone had so much fun - what a cool place!!

Noah with the birthday girl

Kylie's turn!

Walking with a push toy. She's really got the hang of this now and is all over the house like this. She's even letting go of things and trying so hard to walk. It's not going to be long at all.


Noah jumping with Dax - these two are only 1 day apart in age!

Is this not the cutest picture ever?!?

My boys

Phoenix knew just what to do with her birthday cupcake!!!

After Phoenix's party, we went straight to Andrea, Sean and Savannah's house to celebrate Savannah's birthday which was on August 8th but they were out of town so we celebrated last weekend. Noah and Savannah had fun playing in the water before dinner!

Savannah helped feed Kylie.

Everyone wanted to help Savannah open her presents - especially Noah! We had a hard time with this for some reason that night. Savannah was very sweet about it though.

This is what we got Savannah - and this is what she thought of it...

And here's what Noah thought of it....

And here's what Kylie thought about it!!!.... :-)

Wouldn't it be interesting if I ended up with the girlie girl and Andrea gets the tomboy! :-)


More present opening with helpers

Sunday - more work around the house and some errands. In the afternoon, Nana and Grandad came over to get a run down of the routine and where everything is in the house. Waylon cooked a pork shoulder and it was delish!

Noah and Kylie playing

Love this shot of Nana and Noah!!! They are going to have a blast this weekend.

And lastly, here's my Noah funny for the week. We were walking through BJs on Monday and he (very loudly) said, 'Mommy, do you have another baby in your belly?' I laughed and said, 'No, why, do I look like I have a baby in my belly?' He touched my belly and said, 'Yes'. :-) Good thing I'm feeling pretty good since I've lost 22 lbs since the end of May or else I might be a little concerned!! :-) His teacher at school is pregnant so I'm thinking that's where that came from... who knows. I told him I didn't think mommy was going to have any more babies in her belly. :-)

Monday afternoon, Andrea and Savannah came over to play and I didn't get any pictures!! Crazy. It was a wild - they were all over the place but had a blast as usual!

Back to work Tuesday for me for a whopping 2 day week and now we are off to the beach tomorrow with 4 other couples. We are really looking forward to relaxing a little!

Been a long time... time to catch my breath

It's been a very stressful few weeks in the Parham household. For a few days there, I felt like I was drowning and barely had my head above water. We made it through and are swimming well now though!





Going back to Monday Aug. 2nd, Kylie was on the mend and seemed to be healing up and feeling better, too so the kids and I took off to the mall to meet Jacque, Elizabeth and Jacob for a little playtime. It was a crazy trip. All the kids were wild for some reason but had a great time.

Noah and Elizabeth

Kylie and Jacob

I love this one. It looks like Noah is taking Elizabeth out on a date.




Kylie and Jacob got in on the play time too!

Later on Monday afternoon, Kylie got into the toilet paper and had some fun!! :-)

Love this picture

And Noah got into the bins. :-)

Tuesday was a CRAZY day. I dropped the kids off for mine and Kylie's first day back in a week and a half. I got to work (in Durham) and had just enough time to update everyone on how Kylie was doing and had just sat down to get some real work done when daycare called and said that her incision was oozing all over the front of her outfit. So I hopped back in the car and went back (to Raleigh) to pick her up. On the way, I called the doctor and he wanted to see her (in Chapel Hill), so we spent the late morning at UNC again. Turns out everything was okay but they were concerned that the stitches in the muscle wall had now popped and she was leaking interperitoneal fluid (the fluid that is in your body cavity surrounding your organs). He now thinks (after her post op appt this week) that it may have just been bath water that had gotten trapped and had finally made it's way out. She had had her first bath since surgery the night before. So it was another scare and another setback but we've been on an upswing since then so we are feeling good about it now.

I had to run back by school on our way home to get Kylie's medicine (Noah stayed and school and Waylon picked him up so I could work some from home) and when I went back, we tried letting her sit at the table and eat some lunch. She's been eating mostly 'real' food these days and is loving it.


Here she is at the table at school with some onlookers - including one of her (old) teachers Ms. Heather (she's now moving into a new room)

Tuesday night, Waylon and Noah brought me home sunflowers for me since it was such a crazy day. Noah came running in with them and came right up to me and said, 'I love you Mommy. Everything will be okay.' It was so sweet (of both Noah and Waylon)!

She's also doing great with walking!! She loves to walk holding our hands and even does it one handed now. And she's all over the place with her walker also. It won't be long!

Wednesday was a very stressful day for me. I was very nervous about Kylie going back to school and just trying to get back in the groove at work and so many other things on my mind. I was actually having chest pains and my eye was twitching all day!! The next day it all went away though and things are starting to feel a little more in control now.

Here's a shot of Kylie - doesn't she look so big here??
Saturday was my birthday so the kids and I celebrated in the morning by going to Monkey Joe's with Amy and Stella Dot while Waylon mowed the lawn. :-) Noah hadn't seen Stella Dot in a while (she switched schools a while back) and they had a blast together.

Amy helping the kids up a big slide

And coming down!

This turned into wrestle-mania

(see Stella Dot's blog for more pictures)

After naps, I took some self portraits with the kids. :-)

I stole away for about an hour of shopping before we went to Megan and Dave's for a great dinner! We kept the kids up a little late and got home around 9:30 or so. They had a lot of fun thanks to everyone keeping them entertained! :-)

On Sunday, Waylon took Noah to the grocery store and Kylie and I got some quality time. She climbed into a tight corner and I got this great picture. :-)

Later on Sunday, we went over to Waylon's parents for a yummy birthday dinner - and dessert, too! It was so much fun and we all had a lot of fun.

Kylie and Noah took turns hiding unde the bag. :-)

Playing with Grandaddy

Kylie fell asleep drinking her bottle right before we left to come home.

On Monday, after Kylie woke up from her nap, I came downstairs and Noah said, 'Where are we going?' and I said, 'I don't know. Where do you want to go?' and he said 'the park'. So off we went! It was very hot so we didn't stay long but it was right around lunchtime on a Monday so there was no one else there which was nice.

Kylie loved the swing!

Where did the time go?? Check out our kids!! Crazy.

This week has been much better than last week. Like I said, we had Kylie's (original) post op appointment on Wednesday and the doctor was very pleased with how she's been healing. We will go back on October 6th for another check up.

A funny story about Noah from last week - he had an accident in his bed one night. That hasn't happened in a long time so he was really upset. We didn't think it was that big of a deal but an hour or so later, when we were on our way to school, he quietly said, 'Mommy, I don't want to tell my teachers.' I asked him what he didn't want to tell them about and he said 'About my pee pee.' It was so sweet. I told him we didn't have to tell his teachers and he seemed okay with that and was fine after that.

This week we also met with some realtors and chose one (the same group we used when we bought this house - and sold our other one - 5 years ago). They have a stager that works with them so she came by on Friday. After she left and the kids were sleeping, I did some cleaning out and had the dining room table piled up with stuff. When Noah woke up from his nap and started down the stairs, he looked at the pile and said, 'Oh. My. Goodness. What. Did. You. Do?' It was so funny!! :-)

Friday afternoon we had a dance party in Noah's room and we all had a blast! :-) Noah and Kylie also played in his bed. So cute!!!

Today was a very busy and fun day - more clean out and fixing up and two birthday parties!! Stayed tuned for that update (I started this post last night so I didn't get all the pictures from today in).

Hope you all are having a great weekend!!