California (Part 1)

Poor, poor, Taylor was not able to take a vacation this summer at work, and since I was craving the beach and a dose of some of my favorite people in the world I decided to drive back up to our old stomping grounds.

First stop on my tour de Los Angeles, was my cousin Karen's house. Karen is an amazing shoe designer for Steve Madden, and recently inherited the title of "mommy" when her fire headed son, Cole came into the world at the beginning of summer.

Between his fashion savvy mother, and his totally "hip" dad, Cole is destined to be a cool kid.  I mean, just look at whats hanging in his nursery.

Yesterday, we all went on an outing to take Abby to the famed American Girl doll store in the Groves shopping center.

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The Place almost is 10,000 square feet of dolls complete with a doll hair salon (profesional hairstylists do your dolls hair), doll hospital (for those heavily loved dolls), doll photo shoot area, and a restaurant where your doll has its own highchair. They even sell baby dolls for your doll. Abby was pretty much in little girl heaven, Parker....not so much.

We spent the rest of our vacation doing this.....

and this...

You get the point. Karen has a spectacular backyard, its like a little Mediterranean oasis in the middle of Easle Rock.

 And because I know Grandma Mary is reading this, I will leave you with pics of her beautiful new great grandson, Cole. Just look at that hair!

Practice

Our good friends from law school, the Summers, came to visit this weekend. I couldnt help but take these baby blues out into a field and love on them with my camera. WOW!

Thanks Brad and Beth for visiting us.

One!.... Singular Sensation...Every Little Step She Takes.

Lucy turned one this week. Its unbelievable that a little more than a year ago, we were told that we might have a deaf or blind baby, and instead we are enjoying a beautiful, perfectly healthy, crazily chaotic, toddler. A little girl who prefers to run around topless and who loves her daddy more than anything in the world. (I think its common interests in Dr. Pepper, headphones, and computer keyboards that bring these two together.)

One interesting thing about this girl is that she has a major sweet tooth, unlike any one year old I know.When we walked into the bakery section the day before her b-day, I ended up having to leave the store in a hurry as she started freaking out at the cakes.... yep..... a total tantrum over the Carebear cupcakes! She wanted one and there was no relenting.

So for her birthday, what better present to her, than to let her just go to town on the floor with the hot pink Carebear cupcake she picked out the day before. 

Happy birthday Lucy!

P.S. She ate the whole thing!

Nelson Family Farms: An Update

We are well into the gardening season, and I still am not sure how I feel about my little project. I have loved with all my heart on my garden, and had have some success, yet my extremely high expectations still hold me back from feeling happy with it.

The lettuce and onions have done great. We have lettuce coming out of our ears.

Our vine plants are large. We have 2 nice canteloupes, and a ton of small watermelon.Whether they will be any good to eat, I'll let you know later. My cucumber and squash are flowering, but I see no fruit yet. Sigh!

But whats really frustrating me is my midget corn. I dont know whats wrong with them. They are already flowering, but are only about 3 feet high. Our neighbors' corn stalks are in the same flowering stage, but are huge....like 6 feet high. This really bothers me. Oh, and also I have one tomato plant that flowers and flowers and flowers but has no tomatoes. I swear its teasing me. Luckily, its friend the grape tomato plant, has plenty to share. All you aggies out there, if you know anything about midget corn and tomatoes that need in-vitro, let me know. Its killing me!

Parkers Day

Yesterday when Parker woke up (6:00am) I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday. It was his day, I explained, and he gets to make the plans. He decided he wanted to first open his presents, and so we did, at 6 am. After presents which included two small lego sets and a nerf sword from mom and dad, and a homemade necklace from Abby, I asked him what else he wanted to do.

Parker told me that most of all he wanted me to call his "buddy Jack" and ask his mom if we could all go swimming. So I did, and Jacks mom met us at the pool.

This is Parker with Jack. Parker refers to him as his "buddy." In Parkers world, Jack is his best friend, never-mind the fact that Jack is four and a half years older than him. This special relationship is something I have never seen before. Parker adores, no wait, worships Jack, and Jack not only tolerates it but loves Parker back. He treats Parker as if he was really was his best friend, and includes him in everything he does when Parker is around. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. I am not sure how long it will last, but it has been going on for over a year now and the the bond has not yet seemed to fade.

So after swimming with Jack, Parker wanted to eat pizza, so we met Taylor at Peter Piper for some games and dinner.

 Cant have a Peter Piper birthday without a little ski ball. I like his lay-down technique.

When inquired as to what type of birthday cake he wanted, Parker told me he wanted to make chocolate brownies, with lots of chocolate frosting, and gummy-worms all over the top. Oh, and the candles,had to be green.  Done, and Done! (What can I say, the kid knows what he wants and just so happens to have an extremely developed dessert palate.)

Its good to be four! Happy birthday Parker.