Prayer Time for the Parkens

Instead of a baby shower this time around, I was blessed to have a sweet time of fellowship and prayer with some amazing women. I love being surrounded by these ladies and I am so thankful for the countless ways they serve me and our family. Here is a little about what we prayed about as we prepare to welcome our second son in this world....

As a follower of Christ, I am constantly brought to my knees by the grace and mercy of our Savior. As a mother, I am consistently being challenged in new ways and humbled by the ways God is allowing me to hear His voice clearly. It is so refreshing to sit in His presence, to be still, and to know that He can meet exactly where I am. He can meet me in the midst of a day where everything is going smoothly and He can meet me when I am a wreck.

Praying for my sons is of utmost importance as we want to teach them about our Creator and the importance of surrendering to Him. As Adam and I prepared for Everett and continue to pray for our second little boy, we chose their names and Scriptures based on what we felt God had in store for them.

EVERETT SHANE PARKEN was born May 2, 2009 and has been filling our lives with joy and laughter like you wouldn’t believe. Everett is already our social and outgoing one. We have no doubt he will be proclaiming God's truth to others early. He will ask the bold questions to others with a pure heart in only wanting others to know more about Jesus. Wherever he goes in life, our God is going before Him to reveal his compassion as Everett shares His truths.
[We have already seen this come true with his surgery and God's graciousness on his life to this point. And we know there is so much more God is going to do through him!]

EVERETT - "courageous"
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
SHANE - "The Lord is gracious"
"The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion." Psalm 116:5

We now patiently await the arrival our second son, JAMES ELIAS PARKEN. Servant-leadership is our prayer for James. We feel that God will use him to gather others as he serves them and shows them who our Savior is. James will be able to declare the goodness of our God through the ways that He blesses his life and our family.

JAMES - one of Jesus' first disciples
ELIAS - "You are my God"
"But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:43-45
" You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great." Psalm 18:35

We are so excited to see how God will use these brothers for his Kingdom. They each will have their own strengths, but they will be able to support and encourage one another through their weaknesses. We pray for Everett and James to grasp God's truth quickly and share it with others unashamedly!

Allison came in from Knoxville to help out while Adam was gone!

Friends I have had for many years - Heather and Kristen

Ladies from church - Leslie and Alicia

Parken Update!

So sorry for the delay on pictures and info into our world over here. We couldn't find our camera cord to upload pictures for awhile, but alas, I have it now and can resume infiltrating others with pictures of our growing boy! Since I left off last, we enjoyed a great visit from friends we knew in Boston. Greg and Allison now live in Knoxville with their daughter Emery and Mike and Beth will be moving from Boston to Colorado in a few weeks. It was such a blast to have them in our home and ring in 2011 together!

Out in downtown Raleigh on New Year's Eve

Entire group ready to ring in the New Year

Everett loved reading and hanging out with Uncle Mikey

We had a blast with Mike and Beth!

Adam's work did their yearly holiday party with food and a casino night. It was a good time as usual and gave me another chance to wear the black maternity dress. The last time I wore it was to his work party while pregnant with Everett.

Everett is in full preparation for the arrival of his little brother in late March. He has transitioned to the bottom of bunk in his new room. The bunk bed has a twin on top and a full on the bottom. Everett sometimes looks so little in that big bed. The transition was surprisingly (and happily) uneventful. He climbed in, laid his head on the pillow, and doesn't get out until we come get him....we are SO thankful on how smoothly this all went!

Everett completely asleep during a nap....I had come to wake him up as it was getting close to 5pm and I was going to want him to go to bed at a normal time!

In true Kristen style, she SPOILED us with an extremely generous Christmas present. I gift card to Bedandbreakfast.com accompanied with a free weekend of babysitting. Adam and I cashed in this gift this past weekend by heading out to the Inner Banks for Babymoon #2. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the gorgeous Pond House Inn along with lots and lots of sleeping and relaxing!

The Bluebonnet Room at The Pond House in at Elizabeth City. It was complete with a walk-in closet, fire place, flat screen TV, refreshments, and lots of space to relax!

The view from our room

Enjoying old fashioned milkshakes at the Downtown Soda Shop in Edenton

Me and my growing belly

All ready for our dinner out and enjoying our time together

Christmas in Texas

Adam, Everett, and I flew to Texas to enjoy a great week with our family and see a few friends. Everett continues to be a compliant traveler and we are so thankful for that! It was such a special season celebrating Christmas with Everett this year. We are loving our family and are excited about how we are growing!

Got into town just in time to celebrate Dad's birthday!

All the guys ready to go to the Christmas Eve service

Everett and Mommy

Adam's high school buddies and the wives

Adam's parents gave Everett a new kitchen!
He loves cooking in it and it works out well since it is in the breakfast nook of our kitchen!

Everett with Scott & Kristie

Enjoying and sharing food

Uncle Richard with all his nieces!!!

ALL the family for lunch at the Chinese restaurant!

Us with Madison and Ethan

Time in the Lone Star State

Adam was headed to Brazil for a week and Everett and I got on a plane to spend time in Texas during his work trip. I was initially nervous flying on my own with a toddler, but I should have known better! Everett is an awesome traveler....he even slept on the plane both ways! Everett and I got to spend time with friends and family. Everett enjoyed the time with his grandparents and Uncle Richard along with eating LOTS and LOTS of food!

Picking Chinese vegetables with my Dad

Everett couldn't say the name of the vegetable in Chinese, so he renamed it "Bucky." We were laughing about it all week.

Picking out a pumpkin at the nursery!

Some of my high school friends from church
with all of our kiddos...Everett was napping...

Mommy friends having a picnic at the Botanical Gardens

Reading with Grandpa

Spending time with Mamma

Having fun at the pumpkin village

Everett LOVED being on this tractor!

Decorating pumpkins with stickers

Painting the pumpkins with Tony

Having a snack with my Mom

Everett loved all the food Uncle Richard made for us!

Although the Rangers didn't win the World Series,
we had fun cheering them on!

Everett's 10th Haircut

Yes, our son has had many haircuts in his 17 months of life. I think we are on cut #10 now, but I'm starting to lose track. His hair was getting long and it was about that time again. I had him sit in his booster seat on the back deck while I cut his hair. We had a fun weekend celebrating Josh & Alicia's wedding and Ryan's birthday. Here are pictures of our growing boy!

Eating my snack while Mommy cuts my hair...
this is before I got started...

Haircut is all done!

Such a big boy!

Walking around waiting for Daddy at work

Everett and Daddy competing for another bite of banana pudding at the Rehearsal Dinner

Eating cornish pasties for the 1st time at Ryan's birthday party...Everett inhaled them...it was nearly embarrassing...

All dressed and ready for church

We could not get over how cute he looked all dressed for church with his hair fixed and in his big boy shoes!!!

Charleston, Knoxville, and Friends

It's been awhile seen I've posted pictures, so here are quite a few to get you all caught up with life in the Parken house! Adam and I celebrated our 4th anniversary at the end of August and we were blessed by a weekend getaway to Charleston, SC. Great friends watched Everett for us and we enjoyed exploring the city of Charleston along with eating our way through the city! Charleston had so much history that we toured several homes and took a carriage ride downtown. We had amazing meals and loved staying at 1837 Bed and Breakfast.

Charleston, SC

The Carriage Ride

Gorgeous buildings were everywhere

Down by the water

For the second weekend in September, we headed down to Knoxville to spend time with Greg and Allison as I was helping with her baby shower. Allison got a great surprise as we brought our dear friend, Beth, with us! It was such an awesome weekend being around such close friends and helping the Trevathans get ready for the arrival of their little girl Emery!

Two fo my favorite girls and my favorite ice cream...BLUE BELL!

Allison's baby shower

Everett snuggling for reading time with Uncle Greg

All of us getting ready to dig into some food!

Having fun at the Tennessee Valley State Fair

Adam and Beth getting ready to have a Fried Twinkie

Adam gnawing on a turkey leg and Greg working on some BBQ

Beth loves ketchup....and, she taught Everett how to dip his food into ketchup. It was so great to have her around for a few days!!

In true Parken form, Everett is eating like it is his job. We are suspecting it is due to a growth spurt, but he has been devouring food like crazy. For breakfast one day, Everett ate 2 blueberry pancakes, a fried egg, and a bowl of applesauce. For breakfast today, he ate 1 bowl of cereal, 1 fried egg, and 3 bowls of applesauce...Adam decided to cut it off after that. Here is a before and after picture of one of his dinners consisting of bagel pizza, peas, and sweet potatoes. Let's just said Adam is proud to call Everett his son. =)

Everett's plate before we gave it to him

Everett's plate after his dinner

Everett has learned to feed himself with a spoon! It's super cute. We are still working on the fork, but it doesn't stop him from getting his food in his mouth!

Everett continues loving hanging out with his best buds. He gets to play with Dash 4 days a week and Max at least twice a week. Max will come over on Tuesdays and Thursdays when were home just to join the the fun with all the boys. Here are all the boys together from yesterday...

Everett, Max, and Dash

And, because I love shopping, I couldn't resist this hat for Everett at Baby Gap. I'm hoping it cools off soon so he can actually wear it. But, either way, here is our adorable little boy modeling Mommy's new purchase!

Totally irresistable!