Photo Tour: Local Streams

In my efforts to learn how to take pictures correctly, I decided to spend some time taking pictures of spots around the neighborhood. More specifically, I spent time in the creeks and streams around Johnson. As a kid, I absolutely loved exploring creeks. I could have spent all day just walking up and down the creeks around my house when growing up, and got pretty close to doing just that.

It was fun to climb down into the creek beds and take some pictures. As I drive through places, I make mental notes of landscapes and objects I would like to photograph. Here are some of the shots I took today. My main focus was learning how to take good long exposure water shots (so you get the fuzzy-looking water). Hopefully, there will be more Photo Tour posts in the future.

My favorite part of the entire time was when I was coming up from the creek bed near the Carley & Main Street intersection in Johnson. A redneck shouts "Catch `em all!" at me. Keep in mind I'm in jeans and a polo with a camera in one hand and a tripod in the other. I quickly yell back at him "Does it look like I'm fishing?". He flipped me the bird. I laughed.

Like the Groom on his Wedding Night...

The Razorbacks started strong, but quickly lost their steam.

Blossoms

I love my Bradford Pear in the back yard. Each Spring, it amazes me to watch the buds form and then quickly bloom. The end result is an amazing density of blossoms covering the tree. This is middle-of-the-bloom, so I'll post a full-bloom shot later on.

Fat Rolls, Fat Rolls Everywhere!

First of all, I have to say this: Daylight Savings Time is KILLING me! I can not get back on a normal schedule of sleep. Since I'm not tired at midnight, I thought I should post some stuff about Brooklyn.

Fat Rolls
Babies are cute (for the most part). A big reason they're so cute is because they are chunky balls of fat and smiles. Brooklyn was sitting in her bumbo recently and I noticed that she had fat rolls on her arm. I started counting...and ended at 4! 4 freaking rolls on her arm! That's about 2 rolls too many, but it's still pretty cute. If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can count 3 large rolls: wrist, elbow, and bicep. The fourth is actually near her shoulder, which doesn't seem natural to me, but I'm not a doctor. She's right at the 50th percentile on weight and size, so I'm not alarmed...just amazed.

Frankenstein
While in her bumbo, we usually give her some rings to play with. Every time you put the rings in front of her, Brooklyn's eyes get really big and her arms go flying out in front of her like Frankenstein. She slowly moves her hands in closer for the choke-hold and seizes the rings. They are immediately inserted in her mouth for the next 10 minutes. For some reason, I really think her Frankenstein pose is really funny. So I will put the rings in front of her, she strikes the pose, I laugh. I then take the rings away before she grabs them and repeat the process over and over again until Allison tells me I'm being mean. I'll see if I can get some video of it for everyone's enjoyment.

A Mommy Moment

I just had a "moment" with Brooklyn. One of those moments that I think I will cherish in 20 years when she is out on her own and I am missing my girls being at home. Emma was taking a nap, so it was quiet time for Brooklyn and me. I fed her and she fell asleep while she was eating. I took that opportunity to close my eyes too and rest for a few minutes. She stirred and opened her eyes and immediately smiled. She laid so still and listened to me talk to her and play with her perfect little toes. Maybe it was particularly special today because my heart is hurting for a special person in my life. My aching heart has made me really cherish my time with my girls today. I take them for granted way to often. They are truly miracles from God.

Golf Update

Two things on my golfing radar this morning:

The LPGA
The LPGA just moved in next door to my office. The LPGA is actually playing a tournament here in Northwest Arkansas this year. The NW Arkansas Championship will be played at Pinnacle Country Club September 7-9. Depending on the field, I might just be going to check this out! Michelle Wie or Annika Sorenstam could be some fun players to see.

Razorback Golf Course
I heard on the radio (104.9 the X) yesterday morning that Razorback Golf Course has recently been renovated. The great thing about Razorback golf course is the location. It is very accessible. However, that's the only good thing about it. It's a terrible course. So, if by "renovation" they mean "we ripped up every shred of earth and build an entirely new course the RIGHT way", it might be worth a visit. I expect they mean more "We actually cut the pasture grass and added distance markers and got new tee box markers (little Hogs!)". If you know anything more about it, let me know!

Father-Daughter Hike / Outdoor Day

I was catching up on some All Sides of Life posts this past week and noticed a story on hiking. With Allison recovering from a long week of sickness and mothering, I decided it would be good to take Emma out on an adventure! I called up Murray Williams and invited him and his daughter, Mary Hadley, to go with us. I'm not sure how to write this blog shortly...I'll try to be brief.

We all met at McDonald's by the Springdale Airport and ate breakfast. Loaded up my car and headed out toward War Eagle Mill (WEM). On the way out there, Mary Hadley (MH) and Emma began chatting up a storm. Murray introduced me to TomTom. I fell in love with it. I want one.

Our first stop was War Eagle Mill. We took several pictures of the water wheel, the river, and the geese. The girls chased the geese a lot. They also climbed a hill under the bridge several times. We went into the mill to browse and grabbed some flavored honey. Note: it's 4/$1.00...and 2 is all one person needs. Number 3 is overkill.

After an hour or so, we loaded up the car again and decided to go over to Beaver Dam. So we drove up to Eureka Springs and ate lunch at McDonald's. While we were there, Murray picked up a local publication that gave us some ideas of things to do around Eureka. We pinpointed Lake Leatherwood and decided to go there. This is where we started our hiking. When we entered the forest, we notified the girls that this is officially "hiking". Emma kept calling the forest the "jungle". We told her that this was, in fact, a forest. She looked at us very seriously and said, "No, these are trees". It's hard to explain to a 3 year old that a large group of trees IS a forest. Murray did a pretty good job explaining it, but Emma lost interest in the conversation and started looking at the bark hanging off trees. We hiked for about 1/2 mile then turned around and hiked back along the lake. Lots of throwing rocks into the lake occurred at this point. We played around the swimming area for a while then loaded up the car again.

Our next stop was Beaver Dam. Murray and I had a lot of fun with saying the word "dam" over and over again. Men never outgrow their inner 10-year-old boy. Never. Dam! We drove over the dam and snaked around to the parking area below. The girls enjoyed climbing over the boulders while Murray and I took more pictures. There were lots of people fishing, so we had our hands full reminding the girls (specifically Emma) to be quiet so we didn't disturb them. We left pretty quickly, though, since Emma yelled "I have to go poo poo!" pretty loudly. We rushed back to the car and hurried to the Dam Store (again, we had a good time with that one). Of course, the "urge" had left Emma, so we got some snacks. We ended up driving home (by way of Rogers) and calling it a day.

All in all, we drove about 100 miles, 6 hours of play time, ate at McDonald's twice, and got to spend some great quality time with our girls. It was a pretty amazing time. We all agreed (especially the girls) that we should do this again sometime soon (the girls meant NOW, despite their tiredness). In fact, based on the ridiculous amount of fun I had, I may be the initiator of a Father-Child Nature Day during each of the 4 seasons from now on! So, if you're a father and your kid can walk and skip a nap, stay tuned: the next phase is coming!

You can see my pictures of the trip here.

What is a sick day?

I have new sympathy for my Mom. When you become a Mom you start to realize all the sacrifices that your own Mom made for you through the years. The main sacrifice that sticks out in my mind now that I am a Mom is that fact that Moms just don't get sick days. This week is the first time that I have been sick with 2 kids. (besides a cold) I had full blown fever. Not 99.9 fever, but 103 spikes from time to time. Besides the fever/chills and a mega headache, I felt fine. No cold, cough, stomach bug, ear problems, nothing. After almost 48 hours of off and on fever, I decided to go to the doctor. Come to find out, I have a urinary tract infection. I had no sign of that, but there you go. My point of the blog is to see if anyone else out there thinks that the government should fund a babysitting/cleaning service for Moms who are sick? This seems like a great idea to me.

John has always been very helpful when I have been sick in the past. Unfortunetly for me, I picked the one week that he HAD to be at work to get sick. So, I bucked up and did my job. As I mentioned, I would have spikes of fever that would result in chills and headache. I was thankful it was not constant, but it came all of a sudden. God did bless me by giving both children SUPER naps this week and SUPER behavior. Thank you Jesus!! Emma really came through for me and what a blessing it was. John helped a lot when he got home from work, but he was tired to from long days too. On Thursday night, my sweet hubbie brought me a big bouquet of daisies (love them!) and thanked me for all I did this week despite being sick. It made my week!

We did get to get outside in between my "episodes". The fresh air felt good and it is so good for Emma to be able to run around. The girl has some energy to burn! I think this might be one of the first pictures of me and both girls. Don't you like our shades?

I am feeling a lot better today. Better than I have all week. I do still have the headache from time to time, but no fever! Brooklyn and I are having a day to ourselves. John, Emma, Murray Williams, and Mary Hadley are on a little outing right now. They went to War Eagle Mill to a nature trail and are now in Eureka Springs doing something. I feel sure there is a blog to come on that.

Just Swingin.......

Since it was such a nice week outside, we decided to try Brooklyn out in the swing. She really liked it. She was smiling and laughing up until the point I got the camera out to video her. Oh well, I have the memory in my head.

America is Retarded

Read about why American is Retarded on the TV Addicts blog.

Another Loud One

Brooklyn is now 5 months old (as of Tuesday, actually). She's been an extremely easy baby thus far. Very little crying. A decent sleeper. Very smiley. And very quiet.

Allison and I were both kind of happy that she was all of the above, but REALLY happy that she was quiet. With Emma in the house, there's very little silence (or peace). We were thinking Brooklyn might be the "quiet one" in the house. You know, more of a replication of Allison's personality (Emma has my loudness, in case you were deaf or dead).

I think that is all about to change...

2 For 2!!!

I absolutely detest the Claw games you find everywhere. You know the games: the claw that drops down on on the unsuspecting stuffed animal, only to have the weakest grip ever and slide right off the animal shattering the hopes and dreams of little girls and boys. Yeah..that game.

Tonight at Neighborhood Market, I upped my winning streak to 2 in a row! A few months ago, I snagged some critter at the Springdale Hastings. Tonight, I snagged a yellow Easter Bunny. Emma was ecstatic, as was I. This was the conversation on our way out to the car afterwards:

Me: Emma, do you love your new Easter Bunny?
Emma: I do! But he's crying!
Me: Oh no! Why is he crying??
Emma: Because he misses his mommy!
Me: Oh...I bet you're right. But YOU can be his mommy now!
Emma: (said as if my statement was the stupidest thing ever) But Daddy, I'm not a bunny!

It's hard to argue with that line of reasoning.

Rocket Ship

Emma: Mom, I'm going poo poo!!!
Me: I'm coming, hold on. Don't get up. I need to wipe you.
Emma: I went.
Me: Wow, Em, that is a big one. You must feel better.
Emma: It was big. Look Mom, it looks like a rocket ship.
Me: (Laughing and wiping)

I'm not sure where she got this hobby, but she consistently likes to tell me what shape her poop looks like. (she is normally pretty right on) The first time was close to Christmas and she told me it looked like a Christmas tree. I'm sorry this is a gross post, but those with kids will understand the humor. According to Aunt Amy, this all makes Uncle Sam very proud!

Static

Birthday Celebrations

Over the past couple of weeks, it's been one birthday party after another. Add to that, it has been their 30th birthdays, so it is pretty much our last hoorah.

Allison's 30th Birthday
I threw Allison a big surprise party for her 30th. My sister hosted the party at her house, and all the kids (18 in total) were at my house with several babysitters. Logistically, it was difficult for the guests to drop off kids, get around the corner and get inside within the 30 minute time frame I allowed them. Anyone with kids knows time frames don't work. Ever.

We walked into the house, and everyone yelled surprise! Allison isn't a fan of the spotlight, but the big crowd slowly dispersed and became many smaller groups, much more agreeable with Allison's spotlight levels. It was a great night, and Amy (my sister) decorated the house wonderfully. We had Whole Hog Café BBQ and a cake from Rick's. It was a great evening.
(pictures courtesy of Brooke Robinson)

Brooke's 30th Birthday
You can read all about it on Brooke's blog. All I will say is yeehaw, and it was a great evening.

My 30th Birthday
First of all, I was out of town for work on my 30th birthday. So I got to spend an enjoyable evening with 9 people I met 2 days prior. Though not the worst way to spend a birthday, it wasn't ideal. Allison, my sister, and my parents had a Cookie Bouquet sent to my hotel room, so it was in my room when I got back from the day's training. It was really neat and warmed my heart.

Since I couldn't celebrate on my birthday, Allison threw me a "Guy's Night" party on Saturday night. She spent the day cooking, getting the house ready, and packing up the girls to spend the night at my sister's house. Tons of work from a loving wife. She even made my favorite cake: yellow cake with chocolate icing, and put it on her new cupcake tree. We played Loopin' Louie, Nintendo Wii, Halo 2, and poker. We finished off the evening by watching Miami Vice. Around 1:30 AM, Allison called to let me know Emma wasn't sleeping well over at Amy's house. So I went and picked her up and brought her home. She zonked out, so the guys continued watching the movie. We wrapped up around 3:00 AM, which is WAY later than I normally stay up. It was a great night, despite the fact that I'm now 30.

The Big 3-0

I have finally caught up to my old woman. Allison turned 30 on February 11th. I make the turn today.

I'm in a hurry, else I'd wax poetic on how life has been, my thoughts on where my life is now, and where I think it's going in the next 30 years.

Instead, I'm going to spend my birthday with some random people in sales training down in Tampa, Florida. I could think of worse ways to spend my birthday...but not too many ways.

Bumbo Madness: The Swedish Chef

Brooklyn spent a little time in the kitchen the other day cooking up something for the family. It tasted pretty awful, but it's the thought that counts.










In semi-related Bumbo Madness news, here is a video of Brooklyn laughing at Emma.

Why Allison and I Fight

Allison and I don't fight much. But when we do fight, it's pretty awesome. Mainly, because we only fight over who gets to suction out Brooklyn's boogers! Yes, we are disturbingly weird.

However, it is unexplainably fun to suck boogers from her nose! You get to use this big suction thingy, and it's never easy to get them out of there! Thankfully, she really doesn't mind us doing it. Wouldn't you be thankful to breath from a nostril again, too? Don't worry...she looks scared as hell in this picture, but she was scared of the flash on the camera, not the booger-sucking process. I wanted to make sure everyone got a good glimpse of the "object" we are attempting to extract from her nose. Mission accomplished!

The best thing about it all? Getting to blow the booger out of the suction thingy after you get it out of her nose! It makes that "ShwoooPPP" sound. If it's big enough, you can hear it hit the counter or wall! Yeah...gross, but deeply satisfying.

In other news, we think Brooklyn is getting tired of her toys. So we busted out the Jump Thing. It's a jumpy thing that hangs from a door frame and allows the kids to jump up and down. Load of fun! Of course, Brooklyn hasn't figured out how to jump for herself, but she enjoyed herself nonetheless. You can see the video here.

Is that a cat on the trampoline?

Have I mentioned that Emma LOVES to play dress up?

American Idol

American Idol is back and rolling! 5 hours of Idol this week...lots of late nights full of great TV. Tonight, in fact, I have 2 hours of Lost (last week's episode, too) and 2 hours of Idol to watch. I'm looking forward to it! Of course, it's all manageable with a DVR. 2 hours = 1 1/2 hours of true TV, especially for Idol.

You can keep up to date with my episode opinions over at the TV Addicts blog. If you'd like to join up and voice your own thoughts, let me know and I'll send you a contributor invite.

In other news, Allison has contracted the blogging bug. So she now has her own ID to blog under on this site....show your support by commenting a lot on her posts. Positive Reinforcement!

I Love This Weather

I don't know about you, but I could get used to this weather very quickly. Emma, Brooklyn and I (Allison, not John) had a great time being outside this morning and getting some fresh air. When Brooklyn took a nap, Emma and I jumped, played chase, used the sidewalk chalk to make pictures, etc.... It has been a good day so far.

I will also have to mention that between the hours of 8:00am and 1:30pm, Emma was dressed up like a cheerleader, a cat, a ballerina, a mermaid (she wore her bathing suit), and a princess. That is a lot of personalities to deal with in a short amount of time.

Despite Brooklyn not feeling 100%, she is still smiling behind her pacifier. I love that!

Here are some pictures of us swimming this weekend. It was B's first experience in the pool. She liked it, I guess. There were no tears, so that seems like a success to me. I'm not sure we will ever get Brooklyn to look at the camera. She would much rather stare at her sister.
Yes, I did swim, but I took pictures before I got in.

Thank You, President William Henry Harrison!

First of all, a big shout out to the long-dead President William Henry Harrison for giving me a 3 day weekend. He served less than a month in office. He died of pneumonia that he contracted giving the longest recorded inauguration speech in Presidential History. Good thinking there, Bill.

For our long weekend, we got away from the house and traversed to Branson. Change of location is a good thing after 4 months of staying at home. My parents met us up there and watched the kids while Allison and I shopped and hung out. It was very nice.

Saturday, we all went to the Butterfly Palace. It was pretty nifty. A great big tropical room with thousands of butterflies everywhere. Emma liked it, but the adults loved it. You can see some pictures here. Sunday night, we went to the club house and used their indoor heated pool. Emma floaty-d around while I held Brooklyn in the pool. Brooklyn seemed pretty indifferent, but that's good. She didn't freak out, and looked pretty cute in a little polka-dotted bikini. I'll post pics of that later (camera's in the car still).

Today was beautiful, though windy. A great start to a forecastedly incredible week. Emma and I played outside for a while, including tossing a football around. Below, you can see her with her "I'm gonna kill you" football player on. The other picture of Emma is her "Ghetto Princess" outfit. I'm not going to lie to you...she dressed herself. Hard to believe, I know.

Bumbo Madness: The Pirate Ship Thing

I'm not even sure what to call this locale. It has a swing. It has a slide. It has a spyglass. It has a ship's wheel. So I'm calling it the Pirate Ship Thing.

I know...I'm a genius.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our two little sweethearts!

Dressing Up For Bed

Most of you know that Emma LOVES to play dress up. If we are at home, she never has on normal clothes. For the most part, she is a princess. Not always a girlie princess. She can be a ghetto princess, sporty princess, ice princess, pirate princess, and the list goes on. Emma has convinced John and me that she MUST wear her princess skirt and shoes to bed each night and for every nap. The first picture is our sporty princess. Dead asleep with her hat on and of course, princess attire that you cannot see.
My Mom and Dad got Brooklyn a tutu for Christmas, so that she could join in Emma's dress-up fun. Today when Emma woke up I showed her the outfit Brooklyn was wearing. It is a sleeper, but the feet look like she is wearing ballet shoes. (thanks GG) Here is the conversation between Emma and I:

Me: "Look at Brooklyn's ballet shoes on her outfit."
Emma: "Oh, she needs her skirt."
Me: "Let's put it on later because she is about to take a nap."
Emma: "But Mom, we ALWAYS wear skirts to bed!!!" (in her most serious tone)

Brooklyn has no idea how much fun she is going to have with her sister! We put the skirt on Brooklyn after her nap. Of course, she is in her Bumbo.

Bumbo Madness: The Trampoline

It's hard to tell where she is in the picture, but she's sitting on the trampoline. We could fend off Emma for only so long, so I had to snap the picture pretty quickly. I tried getting a picture of Emma jumping while Brooklyn was in the middle, but Brooklyn doesn't quite have the neck support to withstand bouncing on the trampoline. I also thought about Photoshopping a scene to make it look like Brooklyn was way up in the air and Emma had bounced her up. But my skills aren't there yet. Until then, we can only enjoy staged scenes on the trampoline.

Bumbo Madness: The Playhouse

Continuing the outdoors portion of the series, we find Brooklyn manning the outside playhouse. The only danger she was in came from Emma trying to get into the house by stepping over Brooklyn. The next closest danger was the vast amount of dog poop surrounding the house. Thankfully, Brooklyn can't walk yet so we were the ones in danger, not her.

In the future, we have planned a series of Bumbo Madness scenes at the Hale's farm. We'll refer to it as Bumbo Madness: The Green Acres Series. We'll wait for it to warm up before doing that.

Bumbo Madness: Winter Swimming

Here in the Nelson household, we live hardcore. If we were a truck, we'd be a Dodge Ram: grabbing life by the horns. And we Nelson's like our swimming: indoor, outdoor, summer, or winter. Bring it on.

In the latest of the Bumbo Madness series, we're in the initial stages of training Brooklyn for her future livelihood of winter swimming. You can see from the other picture of what our aspirations for Brooklyn are. Dang, those ladies are smokin' hot! I'm surprised the snow isn't melting around them.

Tummy Time with Brooklyn

Allison and Emma went to a birthday party this morning, so I got to hang out with Brooklyn while they were gone. Usually, she's asleep when we're here alone...today, it was prime awake time!

We spent a long time on her play mat looking in the mirror and playing with toys. At this point, she's really grabbing onto things and smiling a lot at her reflection. If you're a parent, you know that "tummy time" is vitally important. Of course, I'm not really sure WHY it's important, but it just is (which is enough explanation for me). Brooklyn can't last very long on her tummy before getting really mad, so we took a breather for a few minutes. During the breather, I grabbed the camera and snapped some reflection shots of us in her play mirror. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy these kinds of photos.

Bumbo Madness: The Oven

Before y'all start freaking thinking I really stuck Brooklyn in the oven, fear not. I had EXPLICIT instructions from my wife NOT to put her in the oven.

"In" the oven. "On" is a completely different word and outcome.

So in the veins of Bumbo Madness: The Dishwasher, I decided to get as close as possible. (note: I did check to see if the oven was warm, and it was not...it was cool to the touch before I even tried this. I'm not a monster.)






So you're in for a treat today...2 Bumbo Madness posts in one sitting! You can count your day as fully fulfilled now. You have my permission to leave work and call it a day.


In semi-related news, Bumbo Madness has been quite a popular series for the Nelson Blog! Looking at page load statistics for the blog, the hits have almost quadrupled! In fact, I even had a day with 125 hits on the page. All that means is that you people are obsessed with me. It's disturbing. You should really, really find something better to do with your time.

Bumbo Madness: The Dishwasher

Though it's not really feasible to put Brooklyn and her Bumbo into the dishwasher, we went for the next best thing: sitting on the dishwasher door. I tried taking out the dishes, but she still wouldn't fit.

Ok, not really. You can pretty much eyeball it and know she doesn't fit.

Benton Walker (aka MacGyver)

I could have written about this in the Superbowl Party post, but felt it needed it's own post merely because of the glory that should accompany the feat.

Benton Walker ( of The Walkie Talkie fame), pulled a MacGyver on us at the house during the party. We had 5 kids running wild in the house throughout the game. Running through the kitchen. Running through the living room. Running into Emma's bedroom. Repeat.

Somehow, in the 3 minutes of non-running, one of the kids locked Emma's bedroom door and closed it as they all ran out. Locked door. No one on the inside. Though it made the quandary much less dramatic with no kids locked in, it did present a problem. We had no key for the door. In fact, it's one of those crazy doorknobs that just has a circular hole in the middle of the knob. While I went looking for a tool that was small enough to fit through the hole and unlock the room, Benton (aka MacGyver), decided that he just needed a paper clip. I'm not sure if Benton has a criminal record for breaking and entering, but he sure has the skillz to pull that crime off. He jimmy-rigged the paper clip and effortlessly opened the door. (to my credit, I had a tool in my hand that would have worked, but felt like Benton should have honors since his idea was so nifty and handy)

Way to go MacGyver...you saved the day. By the way, if you'd like to see a list of all the genius MacGyver tricks pulled, Wikipedia has a comprehensive list.