The Parsons - I'm Here!

Cats 'n Kegs

2009-04-28T22:01:00.002-05:00

Ben's First Birthday!

2009-03-30T10:11:00.004-05:00

Here is a video from a party we had yesterday with church family! (This is also Ben's first time with cake and really sugar...the end result is great!)

Finally, An Update!!

2009-03-22T19:55:00.003-05:00

Hey Friends...so we officially stink at blogging. But hopefully this will get better once we are out of the states and this will be how we keep you updated!

I think the last post I had on here probably concerned Ben in his early months...but a week from tomorrow, Ben turns 1! It seems like a wild concept, but it's true. Not only that, Ben took his first steps today. His first official steps were at church this morning and then the video posted with this is of Ben's first steps that same evening! It is so cool...I love being a parent!

Summer on the Green/Rock the Light Concert

2008-06-20T11:20:00.002-05:00

Check out the new blog for SUMMER ON THE GREEN

2008-05-22T20:52:00.003-05:00

It has been a long time since I have posted last and since I pretty much only use this to show pictures of Ben, I will stop writing and give you what you want.

Three Weeks

2008-04-19T11:57:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I know that I am not good at posting to our blog, but just be happy when we do! The last three weeks have been amazing! Ben has done super well, as has mom. He has been a great baby in terms of his sleeping and crying. He really only cries when he is hungry and he is getting close to sleeping all the way through the night (well, 6 hrs!) regularly. My brother got married last weekend in Pittsburgh and it was amazing to see how much Ben had grown and changed in just the three days I was gone! They grow so quickly! He has baby acne right now, which comes and goes. He is also a pretty gassy baby. He takes after his mother (just kidding Hope!), it's probably his father! Here are some more pics of Ben and his new adventure in life!

Friends and Family

2008-04-02T17:51:00.004-05:00

Visiting

2008-03-31T14:37:00.004-05:00

If you would like to come and visit Hope and little Benjamin, please feel free to come by Tuesday or Wednesday. Give me a call (636-484-2924) to let me know when you are coming so that we can make sure we are available. We would love to see you and introduce you to Benjamin. Here are also some more pics!

Charles Benjamin Parsons

2008-03-31T11:55:00.002-05:00

He is finally here! Benjamin is 9lbs. 0oz. and 22 in. long. Enjoy the pics!

We're at the Hospital

2008-03-30T09:08:00.002-05:00

We went out for dinner last night around 5:30 with a friend and began waiting and waiting for the phone call to come to the hospital, our bed is ready! We waited at the restaurant until Hope couldn't sit there any longer. I told her that as soon as we left and got back to our friends house they would call. Sure enough, we literally pulled in his driveway and they called telling us to come in! So we got into our room and about 5 nurses swarmed Hope and started poking, prodding, sticking, questioning and who knows what else. As soon as they swooped in they were gone. It was a whirlwind 15 minutes, but there we were, alone in the room, awaiting what the next 24 hours had in store for us. We watched "Waking Ned Divine" last night and Hope slept through most of it...so that was good. She slept fairly well in her bed last night. I say in my chair tossing and turning the whole night realizing what the next 25 years of my life was going to be like. The nurses came in every two hours two check Hope's blood pressure, ect. They have been very kind here and very accommodating to all of our needs. They are great. They finally started Hope on Potassin (the drug used to induce labor) at 6 am this morning. It will probably be another 10-12 hours before we have any really exciting news. So we continue to wait, pray, and take in this amazing experience. I will try to keep you updated as the day progresses!

P.S. - Are you curious about the name yet...if you have voted with the majority, we thank you!

We're Waiting!

2008-03-24T22:12:00.002-05:00

!
Here is an updated photo of Hope!

Flooded!

2008-03-24T21:34:00.004-05:00

This was our life this past week. The top picture is taken about a half mile down the road from our house. The second picture is a house about a half mile in front of our house! As the Mermac River began to rise, our house and area was surround with water. The Chief of Police called and encouraged our neighborhood to evacuate due to the ensuing waters. Hope is due any day now, and not wanting to have to take Hope to the hospital via boat, we decided to evacuate and move in with some generous friends, the Lovealls! Some friends from church put our dogs up for a few days and we just waited. We tried to return home on Friday to see the damage, but were unable due to the waters covering the highways and roads into the town. Finally on Saturday we were able to get back home to find that our house was fine and the water had not reached our house. The Mermac river floods at 18 ft. It crested on Friday night at 41 feet. It was predicted to reach 47 feet! If it had done that then our house and our church would have been flooded. But praise God it recessed before that point. But as you can see in the pictures, others were not so fortunate. There is a lot of clean-up happening now and the process of rebuilding for many begins. The commissioner of the Eureka Fire Dept. is a member of our church and told me that the Coast Guard had to rescue 52 people in our area during the week. It is amazing what 10 inches of rain can do! Thankfully, Hope did not go into labor during this time and at this moment still remains prego! But it has to be soon...it just has to be.

Any Day!

2008-03-17T08:49:00.002-05:00

Last week, our doctor said that Hope could deliver anytime now. Little Benjamin (is that the name, I dunno, it did win the most votes in our poll!) weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. with three weeks to go! So he is gonna be a big boy if Hope carries to term. She is hoping she doesn't! So any advice you have for helping along the delivery process, please let us know!
I started spring break this week and planned four days of fishing! Yeah! I went out yesterday with two guys who had never really been fishing. But we caught two spoonbill and a carp in 2 1/2 hours. So that was good. Then today, I woke up and the weather had gone foul. So I had to cancel todays trip. Boo! So I am praying for no rain on Wednesday and Thursday!
I also just got Super Smash Bros. Brawl for my Wii. So if there are any enthusiasts who would like to play online, just make the challenge and I am there!
We have another doctors appointment on Wednesday, so we will see where we are then!

We're Still Pregnant (Well Hope Is)

2008-02-12T16:02:00.000-06:00

So I know it has been forever since we last posted. I knew that this would happen if I started one of these things. But after much hate-mail from avid readers of this blog (ok, I made that up) we have posted again with new pictures of Hope "prego" and also a video of the baby's room. Some of the pictures and video have little dots on them. Sorry, I think I touched the lens and smeared it. My bad. Anyway, I hope that these pictures bring joy and meaning to your day and that the video will inspire baby rooms all across America. I am particularly proud of the changing table built into the closet (the video doesn't do it justice) which used to be about 8 in. higher before Hope had me take it all out and lower it. Lots of love, sweat, and tears have gone into that room and I am sure much more will come out of it. Anyway, vote for the new names. Some are not new, however, this is a list of names Hope and I like (but that does not mean we both like them all!) Leave your comments and let's get better at this blogging thing together!

2008-02-12T15:51:00.001-06:00

2008-02-12T15:48:00.001-06:00

Baby's New Room

2008-02-12T15:25:00.000-06:00

Here it is...almost. Still have a few more touches. And a baby!

The Brothers

2007-12-14T09:02:00.000-06:00

Hope and I decided from a very early point in her pregnancy that we would not name the child after any of our siblings. If you know my brothers at all, to name our son after one of them, well we would never hear the end of it. But out of curiosity, I decided to put my four brothers names on our poll for this week to see which brother would win. What's a good holiday without some good 'ol family competition! I have abstained from voting this week because the Lord has made me smarter than that, but I am excited to see how it ends up!

Baseball Stuff!!

2007-12-04T13:41:00.000-06:00

It was my birthday this last weekend and I was reminded of quote found in the title (what movie by the way?) as I was opening my presents. There was no baseball stuff (thankfully), however I did acquire three new video games for my Wii. I received Madden 07, Tiger Woods '08, and Zelda: Twilight Princess. Tiger took up a lot of my time in the beginning as it is a fun and relaxing game to play (except for the fact that I am usually muttering under my breath because ironically my Wii golf game is similar to my real golf game). But now I have gotten into Zelda and haven't been able to put it down. If you want to play, just call me and I will find time to play! I also got half of my Christmas lights up before it started to rain and I am now waiting to find time to finish them. Hope and I also went and started to register for baby stuff. This is a really weird experience and very overwhelming. I thought all you needed was a diaper and a bottle. Apparently not. But that will have to be for another time. Hope is feeling well and the baby is doing well also. Vote for this weeks name and just in case you wanted to know, my favorite on the list is an X-men.

Joshua and Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T11:24:00.001-06:00

Joshua won this weeks poll by a landslide. As I thought about this, I was brought back to this morning as my wife and I were packing to leave for Indiana to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Joshua was called to lead God's people into the promised land, waging war against its inhabitants and striking down all in their way. As my wife was packing this morning, she felt as if the baby was waging war in her stomach and it was not a pleasant morning for her. So I thought that was ironic as Joshua won this weeks name today. Joshua will be put into the finals along with Alexander for the name of our baby. I hope to leave you all my thoughts soon from the PCA Global Missions conference I was at last weekend. Let's just say Richard Pratt became my instant favorite living preacher!

Alexander wins week 1!

2007-11-14T10:51:00.000-06:00

The voting ended for week one with Alexander coming out on top with 11 votes. Remington pulled a close second with 10 votes, but much to my wifes relief, didn't make it! New names are up for this week, maybe one of them will be the name of the next great all-American boy!

Fishing

2007-11-07T09:33:00.001-06:00

Catching fish like these always makes for a good day! I used to think about how manly I felt after catching something like this. Now I think about how much fun it is going to be to teach my son how to fish and how catches like this will impact his life and his understanding of his masculinity. You see, it's not so much about whether or not he catches fish like these...it's about understanding who he is as a created man of God and the enjoyment of all he has created.

P.S. - The fish tasted great!

It's a Boy!!

2007-11-06T13:31:00.001-06:00

It's a BOY!! Yeah, we are so excited to welcome this little boy into the world! We are now 19 weeks into our new journey as parents. We had an ultra-sound done yesterday and this is what we got to see! It is amazing how much he has grown over the past 2 months. He now weighs 9 oz. and we were able to see all of his anatomy (which was all good and functioning!). It is amazing how you could see his little fingers and toes, his lips, nose, his...manhood! It was great. We got to watch him move around inside the womb and he even tried to suck his finger twice but had no success on finding his mouth. We'll work on that! But the doctors said that mom and baby both look great and that we are on schedule for an end of March, beginning of April baby. Hope's dad is hoping for the baby to come before the 9th of April because he has tickets to the Masters! The doctor said she shouldn't have anything to worry about! If you have any name ideas, leave a post!

2007-09-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

This is the newest edition to our family! Hopefully this will be a place to see us as we grow and to meet this new little person (aka - our little gummy bear as we like to call it!)