James (Jim) Parlier 12/7/42 ~ 1/9/10

Mark's Father's youngest brother Jim passed away on Friday, January 9, 2010. The Funeral was in High Point, NC. There were several members of the family that were not able to attend, so I took a few pictures from a distance and have posted them here. He was such a sweet man and there were many people that came out to pay their last respects. Please continue to keep Jim's Wife Jean and his daughter Jackie and all of his grandchildren, great grandchildren, & remaining family and friends in your prayers during this time.

I put the pictures that I took into this slideshow. Please click on the "play" button to view.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Put away the tree! Bring out the Snowmen!!

This is my transition from Christmas to New Years! I put away the Christmas Stuff and bring out my little collection of Snowmen....and leave the twinkle lights on my mantle so we still have a bit of "festive" in the air at night!!! :o) I'll add in my Valentine's decorations in a week or two!

Creston's 5th Birthday!!!

Creston turned 5 today!!! It's hard to believe that this little young "man" has been with us already for these 5 short years!!! The last few weeks, I've been noticing how he seems to be so much older than he already is. He tells the BIGEST stories you could imagin with big words and complicated story plots. He's all over anything that's Fire related. He dispatches his own fire "calls" and then races off down the hallway with his ladder truck or pumper to go put the fire out or to save someone that's trapped underneath a car. He instructs Mackie in everything Fire also. They are quite the pair when they aren't killing each other!

Creston is becoming more aware of things around him too. I've noticed here lately that when he starts in on his "Momma, momma, momma, momma, MOMMY!!!" tirades, that if I don't pay him the attention that he wants, or if I act like he's bothering me, he gets such a sad look on his little face...like I've really and truly hurt his feelings....and I suppose that I really and truly have. Noticing that little face looking so sad and dejected made me really upset myself the other night. It hit me that he REALLY has something important to say when he's trying to get out attention, and we REALLY should pay attention to him. I'm going to try to start doing better in that area. Even if it drives me completely batty!!! I don't want him to be so sad over something I've done or said to him (unless he's in T.R.O.U.B.L.E.!). He my little person and I love him. I love every hair on his little head! He was our special little angel baby and he's taught us so much already. Just when you think you've got parenting figured out, whammy! You find that you're soooooo far from getting it together that it's not even funny!

This year will be a big one for our little guy. He will be old enough this fall to start school of we go that route. He's already been learning quite a bit with us working with him here at home. A little sponge!! Mackie too, but that's another post! He's growing out of his little kid years and will quickly be a teenager....Oh! The HORROR!!!! Let's not think about that just yet!

So........fo now.........I'm going to focus on the fact that he's still small enough to enjoy being silly and he still finds learning new things fascinating. If I ask him to help me sweep, he gets all excited! (Can't beat that!!). I'm going to do better at remembering daily that when he is trying to get my attention for the umpteenth-thousandth time, that I'll try REALLY hard to not look or sound aggravated.......even if I REALLY am. (I'm bad for getting aggravated REALLY easily!) I'm going to focus on the fact that he's still young enough that if I work on being a happier person and mommy, that he'll hopefully remember that of me rather than a mommy who (I've said it MANY times before ) "yells a lot".

These are the most important years in his life and his Daddy and I owe it to him to make these years the BEST that ever could be. Our lives may not always be so rosy or perfect, but we can sure try as hard as possible to make his childhood one that he'll look back on and remember with a smile.

Soooooooooo....................here's how we made him smilw today!!!

I let him help me make his Birthday Cake!! He LOVES to help me cook! He likes to pour stuff and mix stuff and TASTE stuff!!!

This is him soooooo excited that it is his Birthday that he was jumping off the arm of the couch and landing in the middle!

This is his stash of loot (Pre-opening!)

Mark decorated his cake with this cute little Fire Helmet!

Creston was sooo proud of this cake and that it said "Chief" on it! Nana called up to sing "Happy Birthday" to him and said "Happy Birthday dear Creston"...and he said "You got it wrong! You were supposed to sing Happy Birthday Chief!!!" So she sang it over! :o)

Goofy little kid (gets it from ME!!)
The decorations.....with the Christmas stuff to one side!

Nana, Creston, & Mackie next to the tree. Creston and I decided that from now on, we'll leave the tree up until after his birthday. A new Tradition!

We're singing Happy Birthday to him. He's getting ready to BLOW!!!

BLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nana got him a football!!!
...and some fingerpaints!!!

Daddy got him a comforter for his new bunk-bed (which I have yet to post about, but we're re-doing their room and it's not done yet!!! ~ Pics. to come later!!)

We also got him one of those new Color Wonder coloring books with the Markers that won't show up on anything but the special paper! REALLY great for us since MACKIE likes to color on anything that isn't moving!

His special present was a jersey and "football" pants set so that he can dress up and tackle everyone!

Mackie got a matching set too. Creston picked them out!

Here they are!!!! They promptly took them off after the picture!!
Such a good picture!

This one is even better!!

And THIS one is even BETTER!!!

Mark is playing with his remote controlled car that he got for Christmas.

The car is in the middle bottom of the following picture. He was chasing the kids with it!

Nana & her Creston!

Paw-Paw and his Creston!!

Creston & his Mackie!!

Creston and Mackie and their gigantic Lollipops!!! (which only lasted for about 25 minutes). Mackie decided to play swords with them and busted Creston's all over the floor....which resulted in a burst of tears and the exclamation that "My Lolliopo is RUINED!!!!!!!"

Me and my sweet boy!
Me and my dirty-faced littler boy!!

My Sweet Little Creston....how I love him! I couldn't be prouder of anyone (except for Mackie, but this is Creston's post!!) We are truly lucky people to have such sweet little boys!! (I did good! I didn't call them Holy Terrors at all in this post!!! Whoops!!)

Happy Birthday, Creston! We love you VERY Much!!!

New Years Day 2010!!!

We woke this morning to a fresh layer of snow on the ground! It flurried most of the day. It was pretty and cold at the same time!

It covered all of the ugle dirty snow that is still on the ground. Made me think of fresh beginnings for the new year. I usually try to think of something gushy to say on my New Years postings, but I think this time, I'll just let it be. This year will be as we make it. No more and no less. Let's just wait and see what happens!

AND...we had our FIRST Boo-Boo of the year! Mackie somehow attacked his eye with the edge of our coffee table....still not sure how he CUT his eye on the edge, but that's what he kept saying...he even pointed to the edge and said "it hurdt me!!!"

He's trying to see it too!Cute comment of the morning! We were watching the Tournament of Roses Parade and the boys liked watching the bands go by. There was one band that had really large black-sparkly Plumes in their hats. I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden, Creston hollered "Look mommy at those birds on their hats!!!!!!!" He was soooooo excited that they all had birds on their heads like that! THEN......Mackie started hollering "I don't see DEM!!!" MOMMY......I DON'T see da Birds!!!!!!! WHERE ARE DA BIRDS????" I just started laughing! They can be so very cute when we need it most!

New Years Eve!!!

One last Family Picture before 2010!!!

This is how we rung in the New Year!!! Neither of the boys had gone to sleep yet, so I got them up, put them in our bed...turned on the TV to Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve Ball Drop and we made Daddy sit up at the last minute to watch it all happen...then we made Daddy hug and kiss us all and then he went BACK to sleep and I put the kids in bed! Then I went and finished a book I've been reading! Pretty good evening!!! :o)
Happy New Year, everybody!!!

Carrie & Joe came to visit!!

Carrie and Joe braved the bad weather reports tonight to come up and visit us up here in the Higher Altitudes!!! :o) We had a really good time! They brought presents and yummy treats for everyone and then we played several hands of ROOK while keeping an eye on the sleet/snow outside!!! :o) Carrie and Joe (who have not played in a LONG time......won.) :o( We shall have to hone up on out ROOK playing skills and BEAT them the next time!!!

Carrie and Mackie with his new Fire Truck!! He's excited!

Carrie looking a bit scary at Mackie!!! (Sorry Carrie...it was to cute not to use it on here!!)

Creston entertained us with his FULL fire suit! (The guitar is an Axe!)

Watching Creston open his 5th Birthday present...ALL 4 Superman Movies!!! THANKS, Auntie Carrie!!!!Explaining Rook...

Photo Op!!

Yup! It's snowing... Snowing some more!!!

They made it off the Mountain safely and we were glad to have been able to visit with them!!! You two come back soon!!!!!