Parker is 4!

I cannot believe that my little man is 4!  I'm not quite sure where the time goes...but it sure flies by quickly.  I feel like it was only yesterday that we were at the hospital waiting to be induced with Parks and now he is so big!  There are no words to express how much we love this boy.

travis, parker, & i...our first picture of the 3 of us!

Now Parker is so independent.  He wants to do everything himself...and actually does them well!  He impresses us all the time with his ability to learn new things quickly...as long as he wants to!  If he doesn't feel like it...our stubborn boy will have nothing to do with it.  I suppose I would rather have a strong-willed and confident child as opposed to a meek one...but there are days that it tests my patience!  Parker learned how to ride his bike all by himself (without training wheels) months ago.  He just decided one day that he wanted to, and that was all it took!  Travis and I are going to have to get bikes when he gets back from his deployment so that we can keep up and not have to jog to keep up with him!

Parker is the "man of the house" right now because Travis is deployed.  He has been testing all patience and all rules from the day Daddy left...but we will adjust and we will figure out how to cope with him being away.  He will be gone for 6 months.  We miss him terribly, but are being strong to support our Airman!  We are a proud Air Force family and know that this is just one of the sacrifices necessary to keep our country safe. 

For Parker's birthday we went to Andy Alligator's before Travis left to have a day of fun since Travis would be missing the actual birthday.  We had a blast!

This was the frog hopper...I thought it was simply going to go to the ceiling and drop, but it didn't just drop, it bounced up and down along the way...hence the name, I suppose!  Daddy lucked out and Mommy got to do this one with him!

For his actual birthday, I tried my best to make it extra special with Daddy being away.  I am hoping that he would look back on it and think I did a pretty good job!  The morning started with a crepe paper and balloon wall on his door.  The night before I set it all up...trying my hardest to be quiet and not wake him up while doing it.  Then I lay in fear all night that he would have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and the whole thing would be ruined...it wasn't!

 Then we had some green pancakes...with sprinkles, of course!  Can you see the theme/Parker's favorite color???  All green...all the time!

 Next was a trip to McDonald's for lunch and to play!  They both had a blast...please note the color of shirt he picked out...green...SHOCKING!

I think I did a pretty good job on the cake...and yes, the cake itself is green!  Like the Hulk {Parker is also totally Avengers obsessed!}

 Lighting the candles...he was so excited to blow them out!

 

Please note Parker singing in the video...so hilarious!  He is so used to singing it for other people!

 Presents!!!

We are SO thankful to our Air Force family for making it such a special day and helping us to enjoy the day even though Travis was not here to share it with us.  He was there on FaceTime for a fair amount of it though!  Thank goodness for technology!

Parker and his best friend Tara putting together one of his talking dinos!

 Talking dinos & Iron Man...what more does a little boy need???

ROAR!

Here are some other pictures of things that Parker has been up to:

we are so impressed with how well he writes his name...no help from us!

he had his first eye appointment and did great!

he helped dad make mommy's birthday cake...they did great!

made funny faces with mom!

went bowling for brady's birthday

got in some quality snuggle time with dad

played with sissy

gave sissy kisses

made some more silly faces

went on some walks

...and tormented his sister!  This last one is a better account of daily life here in the Guion house!!!

So...a lot has happened since my last post!

It has been far too long since my last post. So many things have happened and not all of them have been good. To start with some of the "good stuff" though, our little princess is 6 weeks old now. I can't believe how quickly it has gone. She had her one month check-up with her pediatrician (who we love) and she said our little lady looks great. She has been having a little streak of blood in her stool every once in a while, but the pediatrician said that because she is so happy and is growing that we will just keep an eye on it and go from there. I had to stop eating all milk product for 2 weeks to make sure that Delainey doesn't have a cow's milk allergy...it doesn't look like that is what it is, so we are checking into some other things at this point. Please keep our little lady in your prayers. I know that God is watching over her. She is just so happy that I am praying that is a good sign that nothing serious is going on with her.
We took Parker and Delainey to the fair. It was the first time Parker was big enough to go on rides. He loved them so much and it was adorable to watch him with Daddy.

My Aunt Lauri came to visit for a week and we had a blast with her. Her visit couldn't have come at a more perfect time. Right before she got here I had gotten news that my Grandpa Bob had passed away. It was heart-breaking and so sudden. Sometimes I still don't feel like it has had a chance to sink in yet. My Aunt Lauri is hilarious and can always make me laugh...so her visit was just what I needed before the stress of booking a last-minute flight to the Tri-Cities to attend my Grandpa's memorial. Parker had so much fun with her and loved having a visitor.

After my aunt left, the next evening (Thursday) we got on a plane to head to the Tri-Cities. Let me tell you...it was a debacle!!! I think that is putting it lightly!!! First, our flight leaving Oklahoma to Denver was delayed because of high winds into Denver. We finally left Oklahoma 2 1/2 hours late. When we got to Denver and boarded the plane to Spokane we were on the runway about to take off when the pilot said we were being turned back around and unable to land in Spokane. Our flight was completely canceled! The folks at Southwest were unable to find us a flight that would get us to Washington in time to even rent a car and drive to the memorial. At that point it was about 1 a.m. and the kids were exhausted...so were we! We went to every airline counter trying to find a flight into Pasco or anywhere close. Finally the people at the United counter went out of their way to help us and ended up finding us a flight through San Francisco that got into Pasco at 10 a.m. Friday morning (the memorial started at 11 a.m.). We were so thankful that they ended up over-booking the flight in order to get us on it. By the time we got the flight figured out it was 2 in the morning and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. We ended up having to stay the night in the airport which is horrible even without children, let alone a toddler and a newborn!!! We had to wake up at 4 in the morning in order to go get our bags from Southwest, check in with United, go through security, and get to our gate in time for the flight. The line for security was HUGE! If Travis hadn't been wearing his Air Force backpack we would not have been told to go through the military line and we would have missed our flight!!! Thank goodness for that backpack! All in all we ended up getting to the memorial just in time.
{sleeping in the airport is not something i recommend...especially with children}

The service was beautiful. At the cemetery we had an Air Force Honor Guard ceremony. It was amazing and Travis and I feel so honored to have been given the flag to bring back to Oklahoma with us. I will miss my Grandpa so much and will always remember all the times we spent with him. I will remember singing with him at his piano and singing in front of his church congregation when I was so little...just he and I in front of everyone! He was always there for me and I knew I could always turn to him if I needed anything. He was so proud of Travis for his decision to join the Air Force and I know that he was proud of me for how well I was adjusting to being a military wife. He made sure to tell me about Grandma Sy's adjustments to being a military wife and staying at home with the kids. It was nice to know that he knew exactly what I was going through. I know that he will always be looking out for us and that he was happy to go home to be with Grandma.
{this is the only picture of the 4 of us...please excuse my closed eyes...i'll take what i can get i guess}



The flight home was much less eventful and went much more smoothly. The time at home with family was much too short, but was cherished even under the circumstances. My family was thrilled to get to meet Delainey and see how big Parker has gotten. I miss family already, but am also glad to be home. Shockingly enough...I actually like living in Oklahoma so far!
{sitting with daddy on the flight home...so content}



{this little gal always has smiles for her daddy}