Parker's First Tailgate

So this was a few weeks ago, but the pictures are still super cute. Parker was a sweet little tiger fan that enjoyed meeting and thanking "mama reddit" for her auburn day-gown, strolling in her bob, hangin' out with friends and taking some good 'ole naps on the plains. we loved having her outdoors for the day and look forward to many more years in auburn with friends and family!

Ham Trip

So the other weekend we were in bham and had lunch all together. It was so great to visit with everyone and see maggie & mitchell after their engagement. the only thing that was missing was kalee.

Wedding Bliss

a few weeks ago ralph's good friend Zeb got married in birmingham. it was a beautiful wedding and we had a wonderful time as a family. everything was so busy with getting ralph to the church, going back to change, feeding schedules and naps by the time we got to the wedding, drove to the rehearsal, met up with the parents etc it was time to go. so needless to say i was disappointed that we only paused for one picture!!! even so she was a beautiful angle and was loved by all.

War Eagle!

this picture is about 3 weeks old, in fact parker has actually already grown out of those pjs, however i thought it was appropriate for football season. parker has developed a "tiger growl". it sounds like a raspy gurgle and she loves to mimic us as we growl back to her. she is now 13 weeks old and smiles at ralph and i when we come home, loves the outdoors and drools like crazy. we are enjoying her so much and can't get over how much she has grown!

Finally.....An Update!

WOW.....we love charter internet service ha! finally after several weeks we have internet at our new little duplex. it seems like it is taking forever to get everything together and we are still moving in and out of storage every night. nothing is really put together right not but please feel free to stop by and visit us any time. our new address is 1383 KURT CIRCLE AUBURN, ALABAMA 36830. here are some new pics for the time being. parker is so loving and laughs all the time. she smiles and her new "trick" is pulling up her dress. anything she can get her hands on (dress, blankets, lamby etc) she grabs and pulls right up over her head. its so funny and cute. we try to play pee-pie, but she hasn't really caught on to that. enjoy the pics and say tuned. we literally have thousands more to post!

Swimmin' With Sharks

Yesterday while ralph went on his shark fishing adventure parker and i went to the club with lacey and daniel. we started in the shallow end and she seemed to enjoy it. i held her for a while while she got used to the water. next, she tried holding her breath and swimming underwater. this was not her favorite activity of the day for sure (see the crying picture). we put her in her life jacket so she could float. she was very content, and i think had fun. we found a little shark floating in the water so we took some pictures to show daddy that we could fish for sharks just like he could. after we got out of the water her diaper was so huge but she didn't seem to mind it. we laid naked in the evening sun, dried off and then sure enough went to sleep.

Double Digits.....10 lb 14 oz To Be Exact!

Yesterday we took the short drive to visit dr. greer. he and his sweet nurses were happy to see parker and delighted to meet her proud Grammy. ralph had already decided last week that she was 10 pounds now, but i was having a hard time believing it. his theory was that he has picked up hundreds of 10 gallon plants so it was easy to tell that she was 10 lbs. this was true and he proved to be correct. she laid so sweetly on the scale and it read 10 lbs 14 oz! the nurses said that was a great gain from her last weigh in at 7 lbs 12 oz (1 week old). so i've decided to post some pics of her bath time to go along with her wight gain so you can all see how cute her little round tummy is. bath time, by the way, is still an iffy experiment. she hasn't committed to the fact that she loves it, but also never cries. she typically just has a confused look on her face and sits in silence until she's wrapped up all nice and warm in her towel. im sure she will grow to love it soon!

Sleeping In the Sun

Today we ventured outside with my Grammy (my mom) for an outdoor afternoon photo shoot. she loved it so much she didn't even wake up. the images we captured i think are breathtaking.

Parker's Birth Story

many of you were present at parker's debut but here is the inside scoop of how it all went down. since parker loved to be inside we scheduled to be induced on friday june 20th. we checked into the hospital at 7am and lo an behold as soon as we stepped off the elevator my super supportive parents were sitting in the waiting room as if the baby was coming any second! they assigned us to a room and then we signed alot of papers. around 9 they gave me my iv. that hurt soo bad! it was in my left hand (it goes in your hand bc you use your arms during labor to push and bear down) and i could hardly move my fingers. after about 30 minutes of just pain they moved it to my right hand...which was a life savor. around 10:30 i began to receive my petosin....this is the drug that begins the labor process. next i received my epidural. although you may hear terrible stories about this and the needle and the pain...it actually is a very easy process. they give you a local numbing drug right in the area where it goes so you don't feel anything. then the good stuff starts flowing and after about 30 minutes you can't feel a thing. its a miracle drug and no one should go through labor with out this. around 3:45 they checked me (still thinking it would be around 7pm for her delivery) and stated "alrightie girl you are ready to push!" i insisted that i was not ready and didn't have any type of urge to push like they explained in our child birth classes. however, they began to transition my bed, bring in dr. golden and some table full of instruments. several encouraging statements later, 5 easy pushes and aprox 23 minutes and little parker elizabeth pate was born. it was an absolute joy and miracle to witness. words cannot express the overwhelming feeling of emotions that you feel all in a matter of seconds of meeting her. she was placed in my arms, daddy ralph cut the cord and she was cleaned up and ready to meet her family. our stay at eamc was wonderful and the nursing and nursery staff were great. all in all it was a wonderful experience and we are so glad that everyone was able to come be apart of it. 

Welcome to the Pate Family Blog!

so this is our very first official post on our new family blog. we are so glad we are going to be able to share with you all stories and pictures of sweet parker as she grows and changes. i will go ahead and apologize for any grammatical errors and mis-spellings. we all know that they are not my most developed skills. stay tuned for updates and let us know what you think!