Parker Family Update

Since Hannah's decided to be a sleepy head today and I'm waiting for her to wake up so I can vacuum (I've already got the furniture moved out of the way and her lunch waiting in the fridge!), I figured I might as well use this time to give an update. I often write updates centered around our precious little girl, but I thought it was about time to update you on the whole family, as there has been some major changes in our life lately.

First, we'll start with the biggest change, which was James' change in employment. His last day with Chase was Saturday and he jumped right in at Bank of America Home Loans on Sunday (yes, he worked Sunday, because it was the only day someone would have the time to show him a few things). Actually, he had been going over to Bank of America on his days off from Chase for the last couple of weeks, so he's been working hard on this new job (and hasn't really had a day off in a few weeks, so we're excited about this weekend!). His official start date was the 16th, but because he lacks the mortgage experience that was needed for the job, he has a lot to learn and is getting a crash course in the loan process. He has been learning quickly (there's so much to learn!!), and I'm so proud of how hard he's working so he can provide for our family! :)

Our decision for James to switch jobs was not an easy one. Things were starting to come together for him at Chase and he was really doing well there. So when this mortgage opportunity came up, we had a lot of praying, seeking counsel, looking at finances, etc. to do. James has wanted to get into the mortgage industry for a while now, so we knew we had to look into it. Since it is a sales position, it is purely commission-based pay - there's no base salary. With the economy and housing markets the way they are, we had a lot to take into consideration, since at Chase, we at least had a consistent and guaranteed income. I am so thankful for James, who doesn't just jump into opportunities, but takes the time to think through them, pray, and seek counsel from other sources. After talking with our Realtor, a family friend who's been in the financial world for a long time, the loan officer at Chase, and some others, we decided we would trust the Lord and go for it! I had prayed that if this was not what God would have for us, that the door would be shut, but God left it wide open for us! Since we will no longer have a guaranteed income (or even know what our income will be, for that matter), we recently sat down to evaluate our budget and shave off as much as we could, which is hard, when there's not much wiggle room to begin with! We're just trusting the Lord that he'll provide an income adequate to support our family, as we know that everything comes from Him!

On another note, I have been trying to lose all of these pesky pounds that I have gained since we got married and since Hannah's been born, so I've been running. Running on a treadmill that is placed in the corner of the room, facing the corner of the room gets really boring really fast. So, I decided I needed to change things up a bit and started a new running program called "Couch to 5K." It's a program designed to get you running 3 miles in 2 months. I figured that since I've been running already, the first couple of weeks would be easy-peasy! Oh boy! So far, it's still been a good workout! I don't think I'll ever run an official 5K (or at least not in the near future), but it's still much better running with an actual plan and goal in mind. We'll see how it goes. :)


James wanted me to share this photo with you all. We took a trip to Albertsons because I had some coupons I wanted to use, and while I knew it was a great deal, I didn't realize how great of a deal it was until we checked out. All of this cost us -- get this -- 95 cents! When it rang up at 95 cents, I looked at James and said I didn't think it should be that low, so we asked the cashier, who brought the manager over. They looked over the coupons (I had store coupons plus manufacturer's coupons) and receipt and couldn't figure out what was wrong, so they just sent us home! Wow! Glad we decided to stop by!

So, that's what we're up to. We miss you all and can't wait until the family vacation next summer!!! :) We're so EXCITED!

Sweet Cousin Time!

As I mentioned earlier, I would post pictures/videos of Linnea's visit with us today. It really is precious to watch Hannah interact (or TRY to interact) with Linnea. Enjoy!

Hannah's 1-year check-up

Yesterday Hannah and I ventured out to Kaiser for her one-year check-up! This was a huge deal, because we were hoping that we would be able to put her forward-facing car seat in the car, so we can see her when we're in the car and so she could see where we're going. California's regulations for placing a baby in a forward-facing car seat are that the baby must be at least a year old and at least 20 lbs. She weighed 19 lbs., 4 oz. at her 9-month check-up, so she's definitely at the 20 lb mark now, right? Nope! Apparently, she only gained THREE OUNCES in the last 3 months, because she weighs 19 lbs., 7 oz - meaning, we still have over a half pound until she can turn around in the car! Bummer! This is a surprising statistic to anyone who's SEEN Hannah - she's adorably chubby! I can't figure out how she keeps her weight down with all her chub! She's only in the 20-something percentile for weight and seventy-something for height (sorry, I don't remember the exact numbers). All I can say is, there must be some really chubby babies out there! :) (Her length is 29.75 inches).

Anyway, Hannah had to get 5 shots yesterday, plus a blood draw. Poor baby had a band-aid on every limb. I think shots must be confusing to babies, especially once they get to this age and have a little more of an understanding of things. All she knows is that mommy's holding her while some lady repeatedly inflicts sharp pains into her legs and arms, and she didn't even do anything to deserve this kind of poor treatment. It was kind of cute, though, after she got the blood draw, the lady went to put a sticker on her shirt and as soon as Hannah saw her coming at her with something, she started screaming again! Such a traumatic experience for such a little girl! Thankfully, she doesn't remember any of it! Except, we have to go back next month for her flu shot. At least it's only one, though!

On a different note, I had the joy of babysitting Linnea for part of the day today. While it was a lot of fun and I definitely won't mind doing it again, it made me thankful that I don't have kids that are a year apart (Kristin, I don't know how you did it)!!! It is, however, so much fun to watch Hannah interact with her baby cousin. We're still working on what it means to be gentle and to be careful not to fall on the baby, etc. (which is one of the reasons having babies this close in age would be difficult to deal with full time, although I realize that God's grace is sufficient for even that!). I did manage to get some really cute pictures and videos of the two, so I will hopefully post those in the near future. Hannah absolutely adores Linnea (most of the time) and gets REALLY excited when she sees her! It melts my mommy heart!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!!!

Has it already been a year?! It's hard to believe that one year ago, our precious Hannah Grace entered the world! James and I can't imagine what our life would be like without her - she has brought so much joy to our family. Her smile and laughter are contagious (and she's smiling or laughing most of the time)! I'm not a morning person, so I don't necessarily enjoy getting out of bed in the morning, but once I walk into her room, and see her smiling face and squeals of joy, I wouldn't trade it for anything - not even an extra hour of sleep (but, thankfully, she's not too early of a riser!! :) ). James and I have learned and grown so much through this year - about marriage, about family, about ourselves, about each other, about God (and His grace, love, mercy, patience...) and, while they weren't always easy lessons, we are so thankful God walked us through those trials and times in which we learned these valuable lessons and truths.

Yesterday we had a little party for Hannah and were so blessed by our friends and family! It's so great to see how many people love our daughter and are praying for her and will be godly influences in her life as she grows up. The theme of her party was "Cheerios," because they are her absolute favorite things in the world!!! So, my sister and I set out to make a Cheerios box cake! We had fun making it and were pretty happy with the end result! We also made a small Cheerios box out of the scraps from the big cake that we used for Hannah's own, personal cake.

I was a bit disappointment in how Hannah went about eating the cake. I always love when babies just shove the whole thing in their mouth and make a HUGE mess all over themselves and everything around them. However, my baby is just too polite to do that. At first she just picked the Cheerios off the cake and ate them. Then I pulled the fondant off the cake to see if that would help, but she just stuck her finger in a little bit of the frosting and licked it off. Ok, well, let's try breaking the cake into smaller chunks, so she can just pick up a chunk and eat it. Nope! My little princess just picked up the little crumbs and ate them. Finally, I picked up a chunk and gave it to her, but she still didn't shove it in her mouth. What a disappointment, but it was still fun watching her eat it!

She had a blast with her presents, too! She was probably wondering why we kept giving her a toy and then taking it away from her. She didn't mind us taking them away, though. I think she realized that when we took one away, she got another one! Anyway, she's been busy today playing with all of her new toys! Daddy's had fun playing with them, too! :)

One of the highlights of her birthday was having family here to share it with her. My Grandparents flew in from Pennsylvania to be here (this was the first time they were able to meet her), my parents and my sister and her family came down from Northern California, and of course, her Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kim, and baby Linnea were there. We were also blessed by all of our friends that came to share this special occasion with her. Thanks to everyone who made this day so special!!!

For those of you who weren't able to be there, here are some pictures. We wish you all lived closer and could come!!!The big cake and Hanna's little cake (we obviously didn't spend much time on her cake)!

Top view of the cake.Eating the Cheerios off of the cake.Not too happy about having about 25 people standing around just staring at her... (and the fact that I didn't put a clip in her hair, so she looks like Donald Trump - I think I would be crying, too!). This is as messy as she got.Listening to the Pichura cousins sing "Happy Birthday!"

P.S. There are more birthday pictures on Facebook (sorry for those of you who don't use it, but Blogspot takes A LOT LONGER to upload photos).

Linnea Joy is Here!!!

Linnea Joy arrived this morning at 9:30 after a very quick labor (yay for Kim!!)! We are so excited that she is finally here!!! We were able to visit them this afternoon and let me just say that Linnea is beautiful!!! She is also very tiny - actually she's not that small for a newborn, she's just small compared to our 11-month-old!! She weighs 6 lbs, 5 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long.

Fun with Grandma!!!

Grandma is here!!! Grandma Parker came from Oregon because Uncle Aaron and Aunt Kimmy are waiting for my newest cousin, Linnea Joy, to arrive! I'm really excited about having a little cousin to play with soon (and she lives so close to me, so we can play A LOT!!!)! In the meantime, though, I'm enjoying having Grandma all to myself! She's so much fun and I love her a lot! Mommy kept telling me that Grandma was coming, but I wasn't really sure who she was, because I haven't seen her since Christmas, and I wasn't even 4-months-old then. I've grown up a lot since then and was very excited to show Grandma how big I've gotten and how much I've learned since then. Here are some pictures that mommy has taken of Grandma's visit so far. I like them and I hope that you like them too!Grandma brought my birthday presents from her and Papa! The night Grandma got here, I got to stay up way past my bedtime and open my presents! It was fun! I wasn't really sure what to do with the paper, but daddy helped me! There were fun and exciting things inside the paper! In this picture, you can see the fun book that they got me (on the floor next to me) and I am opening up the second present!

Yay! It's an elephant with toys that you can put INSIDE the elephant! Mommy caught me crawling around with my whole arm stuck inside of the elephant! I love him and he will remind me of Grandma and Papa!

I was eating Cheerios out of Grandma's hand at church tonight! I love Cheerios so much! I was stuffing my mouth full of Cheerios and Uncle Aaron said I'm like a vacuum cleaner. I'm not quite sure what he meant, but everyone thought it was funny.

We're still waiting for little Linnea to come out. I already asked her to come out and play with me. I told her it's really fun out here! There are lots of people and toys to play with - oh, and lots of yummy food, too! I don't know what she's waiting for, but I guess she's really comfortable in there and not ready to come out yet. I hope she comes soon, though, because I can't wait to meet her!

I love all of you (even though I probably don't remember who you all are, but mommy and daddy tell me about you), and I miss you all!!!

Love,
Hannah

A Special Treat for You!

Well, I periodically share what new developmental steps Hannah is taking, but I decided this time, it might be nice for you to be able to see for yourselves. I don't normally post pictures or videos on my blog, so here's a special treat for you!

As you can see, her language is starting to develop. She can say "Dada," "Uh-oh," "Bapa" (which is my Dad), and "Up." Of course, she doesn't always say them when prompted, but usually just when she wants to. :) Oh, and that little ducky she's playing with is just about her favorite toy (just ask Aunt Kimmy!).

She's also beginning to show signs of preference, which can particularly be seen in the area of food. I have found that if I give her noodles and kidney beans at the same time, she will eat all of the kidney beans, leaving all of the noodles on her tray, then ask for more. So now, if she's going to be getting noodles, she gets them before she gets (or even sees) any other type of food.

As you can tell from the video, she has thinned out a little. She's still "squishy," as someone from church described her the other day, but she just doesn't have quite as much chub.

Our little ducky!

Standing up (she doesn't need much to pull herself up; just a wall for balance).

Simply cute! :)