Moving Prep

The movers come on Thursday to pack our stuff and then they load the truck on Friday. Over the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of cleaning out, sorting through, throwing away, etc.

Today I put the kids to work helping me. They were armed with buckets, sponges, and scrub brushes...We cleaned the kitchen chairs, all of the patio furniture, and some of the outdoor toys. They thought it was great fun.

We ended the cleaning session with the sprinkler and baby pool. The kids loved it and I was glad to have accomplished something!

Brent's Graduation

Saturday night we celebrated Brent's FINAL graduation! (This was the 3rd graduation we've celebrated since we've been married...) Brent's mom drove up for the big day, as well as mom and mike. We're thankful for family who have supported and encouraged us through this long journey and thankful that they were able to celebrate with us.

Merritt, Brent and Marie/Gammy (Brent's mom)

Mike/Charleen (my parents), Brent/Merritt

Congrats Honey and I'm proud of all the hard work its taken to get this far!!

The Kids' First "Sleepovers"

When thinking about our move next week, the "things" I am most sad about leaving are the people that we have shared life with over the last 3 years. I am confident that God strategically put certain people in our path to teach us, rejoice with us, challenge us, and enjoy life with us.

One of those families are the Fitzsimmons. We met them because Avery and Kaylee started 3 year old preschool together. Keri and I noticed that we had boys that were the same age so we planned a few play dates for the boys while the girls were in school. Little did we know that a year later we would have another set of boys who would be playmates!


Keri and I have spent hours upon hours at parks and playgrounds with all of our kids. We've cooked out at each others houses when our husband were free. We went through pregnancy together with Graham and Shane, the babies being born only about 5-6 weeks apart. Our children are the best of friends. Our families just seem to "fit together" perfectly! We will definitely miss our dear friends!

Brent and Leo

graham squealed when he saw the big kids with juice boxes so he has now officially had his first juice box!

the littlest playmates

We had a cookout at our house Sunday night and then traded kids for the night! Avery went home with Kaylee and Bryce stayed here with Griffin. This was the first sleepover for all of the kids (with anyone other than grandparents). Haven't yet heard how the girls did....but the boys played wonderfully last night and this morning. Sleeping was a different story - we put them in bed around 8:30 and they didn't crash until about 10:15!! (and that was after many trips into their room!) And then we heard them reading each other books at 5:40 this morning!! I feel some good naps will be in order for this afternoon!

kaylee and avery, super excited for the night!

The boys played dinosaurs and legos for about an hour. Then we made popcorn and played Candy Land before heading to bed.

Overall, our first "sleepover" was a success!!

Festivities for Brent

Our lives lately have been filled with cleanings, showings, inspections, loads of paperwork, planning, etc. Its been exhausting. And we are cramming our schedules full in effort to do and see all we want to before moving.

We took a little break from the chaos of life on Friday night. We left the kids with a sitter and enjoyed a night out with the Urogyn Division that Brent works with. It was a celebration in honor of him and all the work he has done over the last 3 years. He chose the menu - BBQ, mac/cheese, collard greens, cobbler, and banana pudding!

We enjoyed dinner and adult conversation and they everyone present Brent with a gift and said a few words about his time at UNC.

The fellows - Barbara, Brent, and Andrea

Barb and Andrea made a poster (that looks like the ones they make for presenting their research projects) entitled: The Making of a Master Urogynecologist. It was very well done and extremely creative!

One of Brent's bosses gave him a poster of Justin Bieber!

Here is the long awaited and much sought after chair. (these chairs are awarded in academics; brent got one from residency with the greenville memorial logo and this was has a UNC logo and is engraved with his name.)

enjoying his new chair

I must throw in here that one of his attending gave me a bouquet of flowers and another one gave me a cookbook written by an owner of a local restaurant/market call Fosters. Can't wait to use it!

More celebrating to follow...

Summertime Fun

Its only the beginning of June and the temperature is already in the 90's! Yikes! Thankfully we have spent the last 2 weeks in the pool - swimming at Nina/Big Daddy's over Memorial Day weekend and then taking swim lessons last week and this week.

After naps today, the kids and I headed to the backyard to play until dinner was ready. I filled the baby pool and got out our sprinkler. The kids enjoyed being wet, unclothed, and muddy!

Graham loves that he can participate and loves to be right in the middle of the big kids

The older 2 made "mud cakes" for an hour. Avery kept saying, "this is the best day ever!"

you should have seen the residual dirt in the tub after showers tonight! (and that was after being hosed down outside first!)

I couldn't resist this!

Avery's Birthday Party

Avery got to celebrate her 5th birthday on sunday with family and friends. We had a great time at Bull City Gymnastics. Lot of running, jumping, climbing, swinging, and tumbling. After an hour of burning energy, we refueled with pizza and cupcakes!

Griffin, Bryce Kaylee, Avery, Katie,

Bailey, Ellie, Katelyn, Graham, Ethan, Maddox, Emma, Jackson

the birthday girl, getting wrapped up like a present!

the look of pure joy!

sliding into the pit

two of my favorite guys! (and 2 of the most handsome guys...)

Nina and Big Daddy

making her wish...

Graham squealed when he noticed that everyone else got a cupcake...so here he is enjoying his cupcake!

Dance Recital 2011

Avery had her dance recital on Saturday and did great! I was curious to see how she would do this year - last year she smiled and did great - but on Wednesday at dress rehearsal she was really serious...I wasn't sure if she was nervous, concentrating or just tired...But she did really well at the recital. She smiled a good bit and did her classic tongue-in-cheek face when she was concentrating really hard in a few spots. She had a great time - our girly girl loves getting to wear make up and use hair gel/spray!

griff and daddy, waiting patiently for the show to begin

we were thrilled to have nina and big daddy join us for the festivities this year!

avery remember that daddy brought her flowers last year for her recital - and has been asking us for weeks if we'd get her some this year! When I picked her up from backstage, she didn't want anything to do with me - she was full speed ahead to find daddy and flowers!!

nina and big daddy got avery some flowers too...she was super excited!

an attempt at a family picture - griff slept through the last 30 minutes of the recital so he was grumpy here!

and i can't remember when brent and i had our picture taken together last....way to long! so here's to documenting ourselves!

Sneak Peak

Avery's dance recital is tomorrow but her dress rehearsal was on wednesday. They don't allow photography during the actual recital so I took some at rehearsal. The ones during the performace aren't great - it was dark and I couldn't get too close. But you can get the idea!!

Katie, Avery, Katelyn

Little Cinderellas doing ballet to Bibbity Boppity Boo

Next up was tap. They did the Heaven Hop.

getting beautified

striking a pose!

I'll post more pics from the BIG DAY!

Maybe our new house???

Brent went down to Augusta a few weeks ago to house shop and sort through all the listings we had been sent. He narrowed it down to 6 or 7 houses that he thought I'd like to see. So we drove over from Atlanta on Sunday to look at those houses and a few that had been listed since his visit. Our realtor called last week and told us that she had found our house...and it turns out, that we think she did!! We looked at the house on Sunday, made an offer, and are planning on closing June 27 if all goes smoothly!


The house is absolutely beautiful, is in one of the 2 neighborhoods we were looking in, has been 99% updated in the last 5 years (everything - including door knobs!), and has a great back yard! It looks perfect for this Parnell family!



Here is a link to some additional pictures -
http://tours.stevebphoto.com/public/vtour/display/31047

Memorial Day Fun

(Aeneas, Griffin, Addison, Patrick, Avery)

We had a great long weekend in Atlanta over Memorial Day Weekend. Mom and Mike were keeping Justin/Anna's kids and Peyton/Ann joined us as well. The kids had so much fun getting to spend time with their cousins.

(saeran and merritt, enjoying our popsicles)

We did a lot of swimming and just hanging out outdoors. The guys made it to a Braves game. And Brent and I made it to Augusta to house shop. One of my life-long friends Lindsay brought her family over to swim one afternoon- so I was able to meet her beautiful baby girl! It was a busy weekend but worth it!!

(graham wasn't fond of the water unless he was held close to your body - no sitting in a float or playing "games" with him)

Saeran and Graham

Avery did an excellent job swimming and surprised us with her progress! By the end of the weekend, she could swim laps across the pool and was diving off the stairs and picking toys up off the bottom of the pool.

Griffin and Aeneas being pirates on their ship

Daddy and Avery riding scooters

this is a really common site to see whenever we are outside...hoping he never tries this on the school playground!

Griff was helping Big Daddy make some homemade peach ice cream...FIST BUMP, BLOW IT UP!