Parker Hudson Kelly was born to be awesome.

This photo of him sitting on a pink suit case with a water gun in his hands is CLASSIC Parker. The kid just reeks of awesomeness.

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to celebrate him on his birthday and tell you a bit about my GIGANTIC little brother, Parker.

Born to our family on June 11th 16 years ago, the last of nine kids, he arrived on the large side. Tipping the scales at 9lbs 15oz he was already cooler than any of the rest of us. As you can see I was pretty excited when he joined our family.

I still remember sitting in Miss Lettera’s math class watching the clock. My mom was in labor and there I was doing stink’n stupid geometry. (Having had two children I would prefer to be in labor over doing geometry).  This was in the days before cell phones…we just had to wait, and wait, and wait until word came that our little brother had touched the ground and was officially one of our merry little band. When we knew he was with us, safe and sound, we did a  jig of happiness.

He was an awesome little kid. Fun, kind, and deep. He has always been a deep thinker and he also feels things in a very deep way. Recently he and my mom were talking together and discussing each member of our family, he summed up each one of us brilliantly in one sentence. I still think about that and am gobsmacked by it.

He also has a heart of gold.  When he was little my mom explained the plan of salvation to him – you know, the classic drawing. We later found this picture she’d drawn for him taped up on his closet wall, and in his little boy, scratchy handwriting he had written the phrase, “GOD’S RULES”. Parker cares about keeping those rules, and oh! how I love him for it.

The golden heart of that little boy still beats strong and true in his grown-up man body.

And I know I am his very proud, and rather bias older sister but all I gotta say is, “Hey, Zack Efron – you ain’t got nothing on my brotha!”

He is a handsome feller. Attention all you single ladies out there -just for your info,  he is as nice as he is handsome.

I hope he wont mind me mentioning that he still puts his head on his mom’s shoulder, he also puts his arm around his sisters when we are walking along together, he gives great hugs (not wimpy ones – like some of this other brothers who have had to endure some criticism on this subject) he loved to snuggle as a little guy – and he is still keeping it real in the snuggle department today.

Parker is funny. He really gets me laughing. He is also very, very creative. I wish I could show you some of his short films. They are awesome.

Parker has the same heroes for a long time. He dressed up as one of them on a Halloween many moons ago. Can you spot him in the crowd?

I’ll give you a clue.

He is still dressing up like this particular hero today. Here he is pictured this past Christmas.

All silliness aside, Parker has been through some pretty big challenges in the last few years. He has faced them courageously.  It has been a lonely, hard road – but he has kept his faith and kept going until he came out on the other side.

I love you, Parker.

Thank you for being such a great brother.

Thank you for being such a swell uncle to my little girls.

Thank you for being a great son to mom and dad.

Thank you for being  a good friend to all who are blessed to know you.

YOU ROCK!

(I started this post with one of my very favorite photos of Parker and I end it with another of my favorites. CLASSIC Parker! Long may he reign!)

So, how is the Bronx treating you? Are you having fun with Ian and Allison? Allison is a swell homemaker. She is going to take such good care of you.

I never got to say a proper good-bye.

I’ve said some mean things about you, in the past, but I just wanted to thank you for being our couch for the last five years.

You know, because you heard me say so often, that I am not a fan of the sectional (I am sorry if that hurt your feelings) and I am also not a big fan of microfiber (- again, sorry).

But OH! remember how wonderful you looked in our little Boston apartment. You were made for that place.

Good times, you rocked that little apartment.

Remember how we turned you into a  nest the first night we moved in and slept on you. That was kind of fun, huh? You held me up while I was sick for months when I was pregnant with Millie. Cameron slept on you a bunch when he came to stay – he told us you were pretty comfy. We sat on you when we watched those darn Red Sox pound our team – I think you’re a Sox fan, I could tell you were pretty happy. But you kept it to yourself. Kudos for that.

Then we moved to NJ and you never looked right in our new house. We both felt it. But you were still a faithful couch.

Then the moment came for you to go and I got a little sentimental. You looked so pretty after we had you spruced up for your new home in Le Bronx. It made me excited to think of you doing what you do so well – letting people place their bottoms upon you and rest a while – at Ian and Allison’s home.

And we had one last final HOORAH playing on you and dancing to They Might Be Giants. That was fun, for us – not quite sure if you loved it.

You’ve been true blue.

Thanks, old couch.

We’ll come and see you in the Bronx. I am sure that Clara would happily spit up on you again when she next gets the chance.

oxoxo,

Lize

To where we went after we picked Millie up from camp…

free clue: that is NOT a goatee

I knew this was going to be a good day when…

1. Clara slept from 6:00 pm to 5:00 am, woke up, had a little nibble and then went right back to sleep. Simple? perhaps. A total VICTORY? Youbetcha!

2. Millie woke up in a fantastic mood. When she is on, man! is she fun.

3. Clara did a big poop after her 1st nap (most moms groan when they smell a poopy diaper – not me, I CHEER!)

4. Found a new coffee table* and I didn’t have to wait six weeks for it to arrive.

5. FINALLY got a date for when the sofa and chairs will arrive, synchronize your watches – cuz this Thursday they are going to be DELIVERED!

6. When to get ice cream with Millie while Clara took her second nap (you heard me, her SECOND nap).

7. Vickie C. made an awesome comment on my blog. Cheers, Vickie!

8. Got to talk on the phone, a big, fat, long convo with AJ.

9. Dinner was leftovers from Sunday night – you know what that means, right? Dinner prep took about 10 mins. SWEETNESS!

10. Got an email from Alli, and our old sofa is sitting pretty in the Bronx and is now in a New York State of Mind.

Hey mom, these pictures are especially for you…

(Amanda, check out what she is chomping on. I have become the person that I once scorned.)

* True story: I have been working very hard on making our home the loveliest place it can be. I am grateful to be able to do this because I feel like it is important. I believe our homes, and specifically what takes place within the walls of our homes really matters to God. To make a home lovely takes real effort. It takes lots of work, searching, thinking (okay, obsessing in my case) over even small details, and when you are trying to do it within the framework of a budget it takes double the time. I have been searching endlessly for a coffee table, the other day I broke down and prayed for help. I  approached the Lord and said, “I understand that in the grand scheme of things this really isn’t that important. But I have been working very hard to find this item and I would really appreciate your help. And if I could get a great price that would be so wonderful.”

So check it out. Today I walked into a store, told them what I was looking for the Nadia coffee table by Mitchell Gold, they said, “Oh yes! We have that in stock and it is 40% off.”

A little gift from Heaven!

When I was little my mom used to let me wear her wedding dress. I loved wearing that dress SO much!

(check out Cam’s pjs – are you thinking what I am thinking? He’s pretty much rock’in em!)

I took my dress out of “moth balls” a while back so that my sis-in-law could try it on. I am going to pack it back up again but before I do, I wanted to give Millie the chance to do what I was so lucky to do as a little girl.

So yesterday she tried it on.

Remind you of anyone?

Wait for it……

You guessed it. Princess Di!

I know this story didn’t end happily – but OH! how that wedding made an impression on my little heart.

Remember Di’s train? I swear it went on for a week! I still remember thinking to myself as a little girl, “HAS ANYTHING EVER BEEN MORE WONDERFUL THAT THIS?” as I watched her march down that aisle.

I wasn’t lucky enough to be married in the 80’s (dang, it!) but that didn’t stop me from getting A LOT of fabric in my dress.

And when I say a lot I mean A LOT!

Oh, wedding dress – I love you. You are so beautiful to me. I wore you the day I gave myself to the world’s most darling Brit.

You made me feel so beautiful.

It was such a happy, happy, happy day.

Virgina, thank you for making my dress SO beautifully. It is a work of art. Every stitch is perfection.

It sill makes me so happy.

Perhaps the only thing better than wearing it myself was seeing it on my little girl.

Here it is my fine friends.

The long awaited tale of our fridge that died.

It had been acting up for months. We’d had the repair man in twice. But it decided to officially konk-out on Memorial day – which meant there wasn’t a lot we could do except throw away a bunch of food and keep our fingers crossed that we could replace it, and fast. You see most of the stores were closed and their websites all seemed to say that ordering a new fridge would take three weeks to deliver.

THREE WEEKS?!

Here I am with our old fridge. When we cleaned it out it was so stinky that I decided to wear a tea- towel on my face. Jan thought I looked like a terrorist and that I was holding those brussels spouts hostage.

On Tuesday I ran to a local appliance store called Karls. Found a model that would work, ordered it and by Wednesday we had a new fridge up and running.

And we love it!

She is so pretty that I just couldn’t put the photos and magnets on her and make her look all common and cluttered.

In fact, both Jan and I were loathed to put any food into it – it was just so crisp and spanking clean!!

Welcome to our family, happy, new, clean, white fridge – that works!

Fear not, little fridge – I won’t hold any of your food hostage.

Of late my mom has been on something of a roll.

She has been sending Jan special treasures in the mail.

It started with this fabulous-ness

It came in the mail all folded up with a sticky-note that read, “what do you get for the man who has everything?”

When Jan opened up the shirt over this logo another sticky-note was carefully placed and it read, “something that nobody wants”.

(Which one of these cool b-ball players do you think Jan is? I think he is the one on the far left who is taking that skinny guy DOWN! Or he is the one on the right hanging from the rim. Yeah! baby! If you’re wondering which one I am – I’m the one getting hit in the head with the ball.)

Oh, but it gets better, people.

This week in the mail Jan received yet another package from his ma-in-law

Can you read what is written under Jan’s name? In case you can’t, I’ll tell you -“Sports Enthusiast”. Jan was already laughing even before he saw what new treasure my mom had found for him.

My mom is a woman of many talents. But one you may not know about is her knack for writing pithy notes. She was FAMOUS in our high school for sending in the best “please excuse my child for [fill in the blank here]” type notes. The office ladies would hang them up and laugh about them for days.

Here is the note she sent to Jan

What did she send this time?

Jan was born in 1975. And we live in Jersey.

My mom sure knows how to pick ‘um, doesn’t she!

Thanks, Mama-dukes. Jan has already worn his Provo Men’s Basketball shirt (around the house). When I asked him if he has any plans to wear it to play ball with his buddies he just smiles, that famous Jan smile.

Make lemon-aid, and make it pink!

On the first day of Millie’s summer camp I got chewed out by the director for sending her to school in her brown, patten leather mary janes. This was after I got snapped at for bringing her lunch in the wrong lunch bag – as you can imagine I was feeling pretty awesome.

Most of the time I try to be meek and take it in the shorts but I can only stand being snapped at so much – add to the fact that I hadn’t slept much the night before and my fridge had died.

Like I said, it was one of those days when I was feeling pretty awesome.

“We don’t actually own any sneakers. I am sure she will be fine in these today.” I said through clenched teeth.

Ah! How I love these grumpy folks!

It is just such fun to get snarled at on a semi-regular basis.

So what would you do in this situation?

I’ll tell you what I did. I went right out and found the world’s cutest sneakers.

And now I feel much better.

Step into the future, Tess.

But hold onto….

Look’n good, girl. I love your dress!

I don’t know who that mysterious trumpet playing, tuxedo wearing fellow is. But I pretty sure he wants you. I think you’re rocking his little world!

Ahhh!

Thems is proud parents, no?

Something is missing from this photo…ME! (boo, hoo!) Brynn, love the shirt. Sum, love the jacket. Bette, love the skirt that I bought for you from Anthro. It was cool of you girls to coordinate. Everyone here knows how I feel about coordinating outfits! ME LOVES!!

I dig Mom poking her little face in there. ME LOVES!!

Thank you, Tess. Your niece Millie will die of happiness when she sees this particular photo. ME REALLY LOVES…YOU!

And now, a word about my sister, Tess Kelly.

High School Graduate.

Five years ago my family moved from our beloved New York. Tess was devastated. But not for long. Because when she landed herself in the Rovo – she took it and she ran with it. In HS Tess was a student body officer, a color guard captain,in the jazz and symphonic bands, a top notch student, and a friend to EVERYONE. I tell you what, Tess has a million friends.

True story: Once I was walking along the streets of Provo, UT with Tess after she had marched in the 4th of July Parade.  Quite a few people knew her and many were greeting her as we passed. As we walked we passed by two very petite and pretty cheerleaders (I knew they were cheerleaders cuz they were in their little outfits) one of them called out,  “Hey, Tess!” Tess nodded back to her and nonchalantly replied,  “hey” . Then she turned to me, shrugged her shoulders and said, “Cheerleaders. Uhg!”

I know what you’re thinking – so cool – right?

You did it, Tess. You accomplished something very few people I know accomplish – you had a GREAT time in high school. You took that bull by the horns and you rode it. And you did it with a gigantic pack of friends. Way to go!

Look out BYU! Tess is coming! And she going to conquer you too.

I can feel it in me bones (and it is a very happy and excited feeling).

No techno trousers to speak of but we still managed to have a swell Sunday walk.

We have a favorite place where we always go. But as Millie was just given a big girl bike we thought we’d try a new trail. One where she could ride that there bike.

She petaled about two yards and was ready to give up on the bike and go on a “REAL” walk.  Millie’s definition of a real walk? One which involves throwing rocks and sticks into moving water.

This was Jan’s response to her request.

Easy, Tiger! ( Not really, if you look closely you will see that Jan Dawson is perfectly in control of his emotions. The man is still smiling.)

I’d been watching her as she struggled along and suggested that we raise her saddle. This actually helped her out quite a bit…and soon enough she was cooking with gas!

Once she had gone more than a yard on her new bike, Jan felt that we could go to our favorite spot for a walk.

And as ever, it was positively lovely.

Some places are your favorites for good reason.

We felt a bit like the three bears coming home. Because before we’d left I’d taken a cake out of the oven and I told Millie we would be able to tuck into it once we got home and it had cooled off.

It was yum.

I think Millie had more fun drinking the Perrie.

She is a thrill seaker, that one!

P.S.

Mom and Dad,

get your own bikes!