Parker and Tanner "helping" wash the van.

Summer is right around the corner and I am loving the sunny weather. We have been spending lots of time outside swimming, playing in the sprinklers, going to the park, going to Dollywood. I LOVE IT!!!! We went to Dollywood the other day. Since we have season passes, we went around 5pm until close at 8pm. Perfect!!!! It wasn't crowded and it wasn't as hot. The funny thing is...Tanner asked me when we were in the bathroom if we were at Disney World. Then when we were waiting on Paul and Parker to ride the Blazing Fury, Tanner told me he wanted to ride the Peter Pan ride. Oh, poor Tanner! LOVES Disney World! Well, it's not Disney but it is fun for the whole family. :)

On another note...we have been having some issues with Parker lately. He is 5 going on 15! He says "mommy" way too much. Asks way too many questions. And tries to argue his way out of getting in trouble. It has been driving me crazy! I feel a little guilty in some ways because I let him get away with so many things when my mom was living with us. I just couldn't do it all. I was taking care of my mom and chasing a two year old and somehow Parker got left to fend for himself. Now, I am paying for it!! Paul and I both agree that we need to put the hammer down. So pray for us! It is challenging! We love both of our boys soooooooooo much and we definitely want to guide them towards godly character and NOT selfishness and worldliness.

So, this brings me to another thing---My mom....oh how I miss her! It has almost been 1 year since her passing. I just can't believe it! Sounds weird, but I miss her more now. So many things remind me of her. I think that Parker and Tanner miss her too! Parker has MawMaw's alarm clock in his bedroom and we were trying to figure out how to set the time and he said, "can we call MawMaw and ask her?" Oh, Parker, how I wish we could. Then the next day Tanner was having a bad day so I started talking to him about his bad behavior and he said, "I want my MawMaw." It was so weird because it was all around the same time that I was feeling the same way. She was such a huge part of all of our lives and for 1 year our lives revolved around her. She is truly missed! But most of all---still VERY LOVED!!!