Life goes on! And Happy Birthday Grandaddy!

There has been a lot going on in the Parham household in the past few weeks - Kylie is potty training!  She's been showing a lot of interest and has been doing really well with #1 (for the most part) but we are having some major trouble with #2.  I know we'll get there eventually, but it's tough right now.  

On top of that, we've also been wanting to get rid of the paci and have been talking a lot about how 'big girls don't use pacis', etc etc etc.  Two nights ago, I just kind of 'forgot' to give it to her at bedtime.  I was fully expecting her to call out for it (and was planning to give it to her if she did) but she never did and hasn't had it back since.  We haven't had any trouble except today when she couldn't get relaxed for nap so she just didn't nap!  So, it looks like we officially have a big girl!

Speaking of big kids - Noah is enjoying sounding out words and starting to read.  He gets so proud when he figures out a word, it's so cool!  Kindergarten registration is in just one week so I'm kind of freaking out about that!!  :-)

Now the 'real' update....

Going back to two Fridays ago.... we had a much needed playdate with the Fleegles.  It had been a while since we had seen Elizabeth, Jacob and Jacque.  The kids had fun playing in the playroom downstairs, the playroom upstairs, Noah's room, and the garage (riding bikes).  We just kept moving locations when they got too antsy.  :-)  A quick lunch and a show and then time to say goodbye.  It's hard to catch pictures unless they are sitting still!!  :-)

So sweet

A show before saying goodbye

That afternoon, I took the kids out for a quick walk around the neighborhood to collect leaves for a craft project (thanks for the idea, Andrea!).  It was quite chilly so we had to get bundled up.  Kylie insisted on wearing Noah's hat (really Daddy's but Noah has been using it too) and she also insisted on wearing his 'globes'.  :-)

Noah really liked picking out pretty leaves

Making Leaf placemats - I didn't get an 'after' picture of the project.  I'll try to get one soon...

We've also been riding a lot of bikes in the garage.  They really love doing this!

We've also been raising butterflies in the past few weeks.  Grammy and Papa got Noah a 'butterfly kit' for his birthday and we've finally been home long enough to do it.  We had caterpillars sent to us in the mail and when they made cocoons, we transferred them to their butterfly house and eventually, we had butterflies!  Noah was SOO excited when we came home to find that they had hatched.  We even got to see one 'unfolding' after it had just come out of it's cocoon.

The empty cocoons with three butterflies, including the one 'unfolding' at the top.

Sunday morning, Waylon took Kylie to the grocery store and Noah and I hung out at home for a while and then went to the mall together.  While I was taking a shower, Noah did his yoga DVD that Aunt Leah got for him for Christmas last year.  He loved it so much and afterwards, we were talking about how Aunt Leah teaches yoga and he said, "I wish Aunt Leah was my..." and then he said, 'Nevermind'!  I pressed him to tell me what he was going to say and he didn't want to so I asked if he wished she was his teacher and he said no.  Then I asked if he wished she was his mommy and he said, 'Yeah'.  :-)  It was pretty funny.  We were laughing about it and later he said, 'Well, a yoga mom would be much cooler.... but I still love you!!'  He's too funny.

On Sunday afternoon, Waylon decided to take Noah to the NCSU basketball game so Kylie and I took off to Savannah's house for a girls playdate.  They had fun together and we went to North Hills for dinner where Uncle Royal met us!  We were so excited to see him!

Uncle Royal!

Noah and Waylon had a BLAST at the game.  Noah came home with a new basketball and was excited about playing in the garage with Waylon when he got home from work on Monday.  So cute.

Wednesday morning before school, we decide to let our butterflies go.  The kids were so excited to watch them fly away.

This little guy decided that he liked Noah too much and he didn't want to fly away so we decided to put him back and let Noah take him to show and share (not sure why I didn't think about that before!).  Noah LOVED showing him off to all of his friends at school and told them all about the metamorphosis.

I was planning to keep the kids home with me on Friday but I found out on Thursday that Noah had a Native American party on Friday afternoon and he really wanted to go so I took the opportunity to get a jump on Christmas shopping.

So excited!!

Noah's class

Yesterday was the NC State/Clemson football game.  We all went out to tailgate but then Kylie and I came home for a late nap and Noah stayed with Waylon,  They (again) had a blast at the game.

Now this is tailgating - watching a movie in the back of the car!  :-)

Kylie really has quite the personality these days.  She loves her new-found freedom of wearing underwear and really enjoys taking her clothes off and saying 'I'm NEKKID!'  It's so funny.  It's all we can do to keep her underwear on (but with all these accidents recently, it's necessary - yes, we've been there....).

One of those moments - I know she's going to kill me for this one day.  Sorry honey!  :-)

Crazy girl!!!

This afternoon, we had the Parham/Sharpe clan over for dinner and to celebrate Grandaddy's birthday.  Again, such a crazy time so I hardly took any pictures.  But here is a good one of the grandkids singing to Grandaddy.  I couldn't find our birthday candles so he got a decorative candle instead!  :-)

Next up, Thanksgiving with the Parham/Sharpe AND Palmatier clan!  We are ALL going to the lake house to celebrate and we are so excited!  Then we'll be up in MD the following weekend so Noah is going to go back to MD with Grammy and Papa for the week.  So fun!!

Halloween and Weekend Fun!

Last Monday was Halloween!  Such a fun time for kids!  We had lots of events leading up to it so it was a big exciting day when it finally came.  They had to have paper bag costumes for school so I got some ideas online and got to work!  I was very proud of the result and the kids were excited on Monday morning also!  :-)

Here is the back of Kylie's costume - I thought it was clever.  :-)

Monday night was very exciting!  It was a little disappointing cause it started to rain around 3pm which meant our neighborhood Pre Trick-or-Treating Pizza Party was cancelled.  :-(  Luckily, it stopped raining about 10 minutes after we went out.  It was still a little soggy but the kids got some use out of their new rain boots that Grammy and Papa got for them.

Getting ready to go!

Showing off the tails

Before we left, Abby came to our door with her dad, Eric.  I just had to have a picture of them!! :-)

Great picture with Daddy!

I took the kids out and Waylon stayed back to hand out candy.  He said we had tons of kids (as expected) and we saw a bunch of people out on the streets.  They did really well walking around and had so much fun!

When we arrived at Margaret's house, Kylie walked right up and said, 'I'm a kitty cat, MEOW!'  It was so cute!!

Back at home, enjoying candy and relaxing!!  HA

We had a good week after that.  I enjoyed not having anything big to plan (or shop) for that week!  :-)  Friday, the kids stayed home with me for the first time in a few weeks so we had a great time together.  We went to storytime at the library.  They were reading the Nutcracker and had some of the kids from the Raleigh City Ballet perform some of the dances from their big show.  It was really cool and the kids loved it!

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to visit Grandaddy at work!  Everyone was very excited about that and Grandaddy really enjoyed showing the kids off to his coworkers.  :-)  When we walked up to the front desk, one of his coworkers called for him, 'Dick!!' and Kylie corrected her, 'Grandaddy!'  :-)

At Grandaddy's desk

Friday night, we met Daddy, Carolyn and Abby at Red Robin for dinner.  Madness - as expected with three young kids - but fun!

All the kids piled on Waylon.  :-)

Saturday, Waylon decided he didn't want to go to the football game (he hasn't been too happy with how the Wolfpack has been playing), so Noah and I went together!  We had such a good time.

Jennie, Me and Megan

Noah must have missed Daddy cause he latched right on to Cory and Jason (and maybe Jason missed Ryan and Cory is getting ready for Baby Sam!).  :-)  He had so much fun "playing football" (mainly chasing and tackling) with them at the tailgate and Jason even carried him on his shoulders for a bit when we were heading into the stadium.  :-)

The boys

Silliness with Megan during the game

Noah was getting sleepy (he'd skipped nap) so I told him to lay down.  He didn't actually sleep but did rest a bit.

We lasted until about 10 minutes left in the game (we won 13-0 against UNC!).  As we were leaving I tried to take a self portrait and some nice lady offered to take our picture together.

I love this one.  :-)

Saturday evening, we got in the car to go out to eat but never made it out of the garage!  :-)  We decided it might not be worth it with everyone's attitudes.  Instead, the kids had a good easy dinner and Waylon and I ordered take out after they went to bed!  :-)

Sunday morning, Waylon made a big breakfast and we did some grocery shopping before naps.  That morning was looong because of the time change the night before.  But the kids didn't seem too affected by it so that was good.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Andrea, Sean and Savannah's for some playtime and dinner.  So fun as always!!  The kids had a great time playing dress up - I know Noah is going to kill me for these pictures one day but hey, it's his childhood!  :-)

Notice the heels.  :-)

Look at that happy face!!  :-)

The Three Stooges  :-)

Here they were pretending to be witches.  So adorable!

Another big update for the week - Kylie is potty training!  She had been showing lots of interest and staying dry for longer periods of time so we decided to give it a shot.  She's been in underwear for over a week now with lots of success with #1.  #2 is a little more slow going so it's getting a little old but her teachers are encouraging us to stick with it so we'll keep the patience and hope she gets it soon!  It's been nice not to have to deal with diapers and will be even nicer when we don't have to deal with accidents, too!!  :-)