My bath with the shark!

I gave the boys their bath a little bit ago, and put Mackie to bed around 7:45ish. I turned on Creston's cartoons so he'd get some wind-down time before going to bed himself. I then decided that it would be a good night to take a bath in our big tub...something I seldom ever get to do since there's usually no time for it...I've become strictly a shower girl! So...I turned on the water, put the "smelly stuff" in it and ran it 3/4ths full. Creston found this to be wonderfully amazing and even though he had already had HIS bath, stated that he was going to take a bath with me. Since we aren't a family that bathes together, that idea got nipped in the bud rather quickly. I shooed him back into my bedroom to watch his beloved cartoons. I finally hopped in, put a tiny bit of bubble bath in and turned the jets on! Aaaahhhhhh!!!!! Heaven!!!!! Peace and Quiet!!! (Except for the drone of the jets!)

SPLASH!!!!!!!!!! Right in the face with bubbles. Creston was standing next to the tub just laughing at what he had done! "I splashed you!!! Heeee Heee Heeeee!!!" Aggravated, I said "Go on back in the bedroom.....Mommy is relaxing now" and sank into the water. I looked up to see Creston still standing there and mouthing something I couldn't hear from under the water. I raised up out of the water and said "What did you say?" He said "Want me to get you something from MY bathroom?" I said "Something from YOUR bathroom?? What?" He said "Something to PLAY with in the BATHTUB????" Quickly, the aggravation melted away... I said "Bring me your little indian man to sit on the side of the tub..." he said "No...I'll bring you shark! He's more fun to play with!" So....Mommy & Shark took a nice relaxing bath together....only AFTER Creston made sure that shark could survive the bubbles. That's my sweet little boy!

I'll recommend it to anyone. Pure Heaven!

Saying Goodbye...

John, Phil, & Matt left to go home today....back to New York.

We went down to Nana's & Paw-Paw's to say our goodbyes....here's a shot of us riding in the back of the truck to go say bye...

While here, Phil taught Mackie to hold up both thumbs and say "AAAALLLRIIIIGHT". I caught it in this picture!

Here Johnny is throwing Creston the ball to catch...(we play a lot, don't we??? That's good, though!)

Here, the fellers are 'shootin the breeze!

Daddy's gonna get you, Mackie.....RUN!!!!

I wanted to get a family picture of Mack & Dorothy with everyone...And us too!!!

Giving goodbye hugs...

Loading up into the truck...

Headed off down the road.

Be Careful! Get home Safely!!! See you next time!!!!!!! Love you guys!!!

Playin' with the Cousins!!!

We really enjoyed having Johnny, Phillip, & Matt visiting down here in North Carolina this past week!!!!! We always love to have them come and always hate to see them go!!! Johnny is such a sweetie! When they come, it's as though they've always lived right here near us...we all just pick up from the last visit!!

Phil & Matt took right up with Creston & Mack this time! Our boys are finally old enough to get down and dirty and play "ROUGH" with the older boys! I really thought that my 2 were going to kill Johnny's 2!!! They all hung in there, though! Still not sure who won the "I've got more energy than you do" contest that I think they all had going on!!!

Heeeeeeerrrrrrreeeeeeeeee's Johnny!!!! (He and Mackie favor a lot with the blonde hair and blue eyes and fair skin......now Mackie's hair also looks like John's!!~ Don't know if I have a good picture of Mack's new hair cut on here or not!!!)

Here's Mark's version of making Johnny look "Old & Mean"! Here are Matt & Phil! Matt looks a bit scared.....I guess I can be a bit intimidating when I've got my camera and say "SMILE!!!!!!". :o) Now.....here is the best picture of all! Quite a few of the Parlier men of the entire family all in 1 spot at one time!!! John, Mack, (Wooden weird-Man thingy ~ Don't ask!), Matt, Creston, Phil, Mack, & Mark! All PARLIER!!!!!! Pretty good lookin' group, don't you think???? These boys should be able to carry on the Parlier name for at least a few more years!!!
Here's the wooden-carved head thing that Mack made to put on top of his Mailbox post....so incredibly NOT sure why in the world he did this.....he's kinda funny that way sometimes! He's a quiet man of few words, but when he gets wound up about something, you just never know what he'll do......And apparently, something wound him up enough to create this thing...Mackie likes to wave hi and bye to it and say "Bye Man!" as we go home each time...I find it disturbing, but who am I to judge!!!!! :o) All I can say is "Oh........dear!" Now......here is a picture of Matt giving Mackie a small "Handful" of M&M's!!!! I think by the time the night was over, Mackie had consumed most of the bag and was literally vibrating from the sugar high!! :o) (I also think that Johnny found this to be extreemly amusing...........don't you worry, John! We'll get you back sometime!!!! :o) ) Here, the "BIG BOYS" are playing ball! (Please note the LITTLE boy bat & ball!)

Phil (Will be a senior in College & IS single)

Matt (Just Graduated High School & is NOT single!!)

Here, Johnny & Mackie are apparently BOTH amazed at something!!!!! Oooohhh!!!!!

Or maybe it's an Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!

Here is yet ANOTHER handful of M&M's going into the 1 year-old's mouth!!! :o)
(Love you, Johnny!!) Mackie was soooo wrapped up in those M&M's that as he kept sneezing (he's got a slight cold), I tried to wipe his nose, but there was too much snot everywhere, so I took him inside and said throw those M&M's away so I can wipe the yuck off of your hands & face (which were COVERED in Snot), and what did he do????? He ate them all! Snot and All!!! Nope! He's not going to throw away ANY of those yummy M&M's!!! :o)
Now......remember what I said about Mack? Here is supposed to be a picture of Love and devotion between two people who have been married over 35 years......I said "Lean in and act like you love each other..." Mack instead flipped his false teeth up and kinda out of his mouth to provide us with this memorable shot! I give up!!!!!
That was the end of our Monday! The NY crew will be going home tomorrow.....
more pictures to come!

Who needs a kiddie leash?

Want to make sure your little one doesn't leave your side????? Attach his Pacifier to your Husband's "Hammer Holder" on his cargo pants and you'll never have to worry about junior wandering away again!!!!

This post has been included in Real Life's

Your Life Your Blog Blog Carnival

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!!!

We had a GREAT 4th this year! Mark has been off work since 6/29, so we've had a lot of togetherness and fun with Family over this special Holiday weekend!! We've been on a trip, visited with a lot of family members, and went to a GREAT cookout at the Boone FD with our FD family and then watched the Boone fireworks behind Station #2! Really nice time!

Here is a slideshow of our 4th celebrations!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Andy, Jennifer & Aidan came to visit!!!

Andy, Jennifer, & Aidan came up to visit his parents for the 4th and for his dad's 86th Birthday (on the 7th)! Happy Birthday Smith!!!

We had a great time letting the boys play and getting to chat a bit! Our boys love it when Aidan gets to come and see them! We'll have to get down their way really soon!!!

Aidan brought Mackie an early Birthday Present...a Little Einstein Rocket Ship!!! THANKS!!!! He also brought Creston a baggie full of goodies! He Loved everything! Thanks for him too!!!!

Here's a slide-show of the visit!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanks, guys, for coming!!!!! SOOOO SORRY that Mackie smacked Aidan in the head...we'll tie his hands next time!!! :o)

Pigeon Forge 2009!

We went to Pigeon Forge on Monday and came back this afternoon!!! We went to Dollywood (after 3pm on Mon. so we could get in free on Tuesday!!), then went to eat dinner, and swam a bit before heading for bed on Monday night!!!!

Tuesday morning, we ate the free breakfast in our Hotel, the Park Tower Inn... http://www.parktowerinn.com/ (just a street back off of the main drag and right behind the "Red Roofed" outlet mall). We really liked this hotel. It was reasonable, clean, and had 3 pools to pick from!!! Yippee!!! After breakfast, we loaded up, went to Dollywood, and wore ourselves out all over again!
While there, we got to go and see the Zoboomafoo show that the Kratt brothers were putting on during KIDSFEST at Dollywood! (They have an animal show on PBS for kids).We went and saw this show last year, but this year, one of the brothers wasn't there because his wife was having a baby! It was a really good show. The neat part is, is that evening, when we stopped at Bennett's BBQ to eat dinner, the brother that had done the show (Martin, I think...the one on the left in the above picture), came in with his two sons to eat also! Mark looked his way and said "Hey...Hey Brother...!!....You did a good job today!" Mr. Kratt was very nice and asked us which show we had been at...we told him the first one of the morning...he commented about how it was hard without his brother's help, and that he was glad that we had come and enjoyed it. Very nice man! I was star-struck!!! :o) I tried to get a pic. as we were leaving, but the camera wouldn't cooperate and I would rather have died than to have asked him for a picture! (That's just me!!!)


Anyway........

Nana & Paw-Paw drove down on Tuesday afternoon to meet up with us, so we left the park around 3 to go back to the hotel and clean up to go to the Comedy Barn that night with the Grandparents! It was FUN!!

After that, we went to Creston & Mark's most favorite place in Pigeon Forge...the TRACK! They like to ride the Go-Carts and the other little kid rides there! Here's Creston having a complete BALL!!!!!

This is my attempt at getting a good "Family Pic" at the TRACK in front of the "Old lady who lived in a shoe...." Paw-Paw took this one and I forgot to tell him to ZOOM in!! :o)

After all of that fun, we went back to the hotel and went to bed!!!!! The next morning, we ate breakfast, then got BACK into the pool before having to check out! Both of the boys loved swimming! There was a lazy river that we got to all float around in!! FUN!!!

It was a good and quick trip! I took so many pictures, that I'm putting them into a slide-show for you all to look through!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

If you've never been to Pigeon Forge before and you have little kids, you really need to tkae them sometime.....BUT....plan on going for 4 or more days.....too much to see and do in only 2!!!