Remember the Parks? Whatever happened to them?

I am a terrible blogger. I get behind, then I don't post anything new because I think I have to go back and update the old stuff before I can do the new stuff. One thing leads to another...and here it is over 5 months later.

"Let me explain...No, there is no time. Let me sum up":

We spent 2009 in San Antonio, Texas, while Jon completed his navigator training with the U.S. Air Force. We loved our time there and are grateful for the good friends we made.

Our beautiful daughter, Ellen Janyce Parks, was born on November 10. She was 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. She was named for someone who is very special to me, my "Great Aunt Jan." We are adjusting to being parents and love having her as part of our family. She was a colicky baby, but we are thankfully past that now and she is more fun every day. (I will post some slide shows later to update pictures of her.)

We are currently at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. We will be here for 6-7 months while Jon trains specifically for the C-130. He is really enjoying it so far. After some other shorter training and hopefully some vacation time, we will PCS to our first assignment to Yokota Air Base in Japan!

Hopefully once I get some photos of Ellie posted, I will stay more up to date with this, but no promises! It's a work in progress.


PS If you have a blog and I don't have it listed at the bottom of this page, please send me the link! I want to stay up to date with how you all are doing too!

Baby Update

Here are some photos from my ultrasound at 38 weeks and a couple of photos of my belly from 39 weeks. I am now two days away from my due date. This pregnancy went by so fast! I can't believe we are already at the end. The last week or so I have been on modified bed rest because my blood pressure has been high. I haven't had any other complications though, so the biggest struggle has just been balancing how much I can do. If I stay down TOO much, then I feel sick and start going crazy. But if I get a little overconfident and do too much, then my blood pressure shoots way up and I get in trouble with Jon and my midwives. If I don't go into labor on my own this weekend, then we will discuss inducing at my appointment on Monday. Normally midwives will not induce, but they say it just isn't worth the risks with how high my blood pressure has been. I have started progressing and I can tell this baby is getting ready to come, so I am hoping we go into labor Friday or Saturday. We will keep you all posted!







Check out this one compared to a picture of me drinking from a funky water fountain at the Texas State Capital. Can you see the family resemblance?

Fall Update

I haven't been great about blogging lately, but with the baby coming soon, I probably won't take the time to write a lot. I am really frustrated because my web browser is having a hard time loading the pictures so that I can't organize them in the post well, so this may be a little messy. But I want to check this off my list, so here are some pictures of some of what we have been up to in the last few months:

We always try to be "tourists" in the cities we live in. One weekend we had a great time going to San Antonio's Witte Museum. Our favorite part? The kids' museum, of course!





My parents came down to visit us in the beginning of September. They said that they wanted to come and play before I was "no fun anymore." We were excited because they brought a bunch of rain with them that finally cooled off our 100+ summer. We had a great time.






Jon turned the BIG 3-0. For his birthday, we went out to eat with friends. This place, "Big Lou's" was featured on "Man vs. Food" We, of course, had to order the 42" pizza. It was HUGE. We all felt our arteries hardening as we ate.






We also went up to Austin to go to REI (Jon's favorite store) and the State Capital. We also dressed up and went to a nice restaurant. Our last fancy date before the baby comes. I wore a black wraparound dress. I looked huge, but we forgot to take a photo of that.




And finally, we had the chance to meet my old roommate, Elissa, and her family for dinner. They were in town for her husband's job. We haven't seen each other in at least 5 years, so it was really fun to get together. Elissa is one of my favorite roommates from college. She cracks me up.

Summer Update

We have been having a great...and very hot...summer here in San Antonio. It isn't "Doha hot," where the heat can sometimes take your breath away when you walk outside, but we have been over 100 almost every day in July and August so far.

I have added a few posts about some of the things we have been doing the past few months. I can't believe how fast the summer has gone, but I am ready for fall.

Prego Pics

I am now about 28 weeks with 91 days to go. Not that I am counting! Actually, I feel great and am doing well. I am just starting to feel big and am wondering where this baby is going to go in the next 3 months.


14 Weeks and 20 Weeks


23 Weeks and 27 Weeks

Our ultrasound from about 20 weeks. It's a Girl!