Calloway Gardens

This past weekend the girls and I spent the weekend with our Best friends Kelly, Paul, and Brogan in Pine Mountain, Ga. We stayed in the hotel across from the Gardens and had some fun adventures. We played with butterflies, learned about raptors, and dug around in weeds and trees looking for Geo-Cashes. It was the most fun I had had in the last 2 years. Here are some pictures:





Check out more on Sarah's Picassa.

My Picassa is full :c(

Okay so my picassa account is full so we are uploading all new pictures to Sarah's account.
Soo March 2007 through August 27th, 2009 is on http://picasaweb.google.com/mattjparks

and

August 28th, 2009 through Present is on http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahmparks

Saints, Cousins, and Waffle House

Last Friday (Aust 14th), thanks to our wonderful boss, Sarah, Emma and I were able to go to the Saints first pre-season game (we also have tickets to their first real game). We all had a lot of fun and Emma lasted till Half-Time...Yeay Emma! And the Saint won!!
The next day my cousin Kristen, her husband Christopher, and their sweet little man Elias, had beignets with us at Cafe' Du Monde. They were in town from North Carolina for a short vacation and called us up. Yeay for family!! This was also Emma's first experience with beignets, because she had always been to young for them before. She enjoyed her piece, but we have found Emma does not LOVE doughnuts...she just enjoys them. So she did not beg for more she just kinda nibbled at her piece. I guess that is a good thing.
Yesterday we went to the new waffle house in the lower 9th ward of new Orleans (offically Arabi). Waffles houses here in New Orleans (I know hard to believe for fellow southerners) are sort of a rarity, but this one was even more special, because my brother designed the site plan and landscape for it, all the way from Greenville, SC. He is quite talented, though I don't think a Waffle House parking lot offers much of a canvas to work with.
And Some Emma sure is cute pictures. That cute dress is one of Sarah's dresses that she wore when she was Emma's age...So cute! Two beauties sharing the same dress. I guess this means Emma's already borrowing her mom's clothes :c).

Woooah Emma is 15 months

Today Emma turns 15 months old. Where have the months gone? We look at pictures of her when she was little (birth-12 months) and she looks so little.
Emma's new favorite word is "woooah" I believe she learned it from Daddy. He saw "finding nemo" the other day and loves the part when they swim with the surfer turtles. So daddy says "woah" a lot. This was heightened by daddy taking her to home depot and driving the cart "crazy" and saying "woah". Its quite cute when she trips or falls and looks around and says "woooah".
A few of the kids in Emma's nursery are potty training and she became very interested so we got her a cheap little potty and stick her on, in the morning, after naps, and when she says pee pee, or poo poo. So far she has gone pee pee a few times and 3 good poops. Of course she is preety oblevious to the fact stuff is coming out of her, we just catch her when normally does her "stuff" (right Brogan). Its good experince for her though when she does start "feeling it".

Shoes that attract dogs

I made a guest appearance on Sarah's blog to show a video of Emma and her squeak shoes.
Check it out

Spring Summer cleaning

So, my Mom came to visit us here in New Orleans for my birthday (July 27th). She brought with her a vacuum attachment to clean fans. Boy did we need that. Our fans were very dusty, and under the dust was a nice layer of greasy gunk. I was able to clean all three of our fans with the vacuum and a plastic knife (to scrap off the grease). I took some pictures of the last fan blade before I cleaned it. Please do not call DSS because the fans are now all clean and Emma is fine.

top of fan blade

Bottom of fan blade

All Clean!!