Emma Learns to Ride Her Bike

We finally took the training wheels off Emma's bike. We had tried riding it a few times, but she was nervous. I gave her a "controlled" fall (meaning I held the handle bars and lowered her down to the ground), and she immediately hated riding her bike. Yeah...I've got serious Dad skills.

I searched the internet and spoke with Brett Harkey about how to teach her how to ride her bike and gain confidence. Brett's idea seemed plausible, so last weekend I took Emma to the old driving range near Lewis & Clark. They have a ton of grass, and a few little short hills. I held the bike for her halfway up the hill, then let her coast down it, learning how to balance. I reminded her to use her feet to keep from falling. She coasted down and used her feet to not fall when she slowed down!! She was SOOOO stoked! We kept doing that over and over, going higher and higher up the hill. She started pedaling at the end of the hill, and was riding all over that driving range! It was awesome! We called Mommy, and she beamed the news over the phone. She eagerly wanted to ride on the road, so we got in the car to head home.

On our way to all of this, Emma found her camera in my car. On our way home, she said she wanted to go on a "photo adventure" with me. So we stopped at the railroad tracks in Johnson and went exploring with our cameras. It was so fun! I'd take a shot, and she'd try a similar shot, then show me and ask me if that's what I was trying to do. There are some pictures from the adventure (her's & mine) below.

When we got home, the fam went outside to see Emma show off her new riding skills. Here's the video. Please disregard my fatness and moobs. It was a pretty perfect day!

Destin Vacation: Day 1

Sadly, this post should be titled "Cozumel Vacation: Day 1". However, since the WHO brought some good ol` fashioned fear mongering with that whole "swine flu" jazz, we postponed Cozumel and went to Destin, Florida instead. Downgrade? Yes. Regrettable, not at all!

The night before we left, the Tokar's called and asked if they could join us on vacation! They planned a vacation in roughly 4 hours, which is amazing! They got a condo at the same resort as us, so we planned on meeting there on Saturday.

We left Fayetteville early last Friday morning. We stopped in Little Rock for lunch and to watch Kris Allen (American Idol) perform at the River Market (we watched on TV...didn't want to fight the crowds with the kids). We then hit the road for Hattiesburg, MS, where we planned on staying the night.

Bullet-Pointed Recap of Driving to Hattiesburg:

• Southeast Arkansas sucks. Bad. It's amazingly boring.
• Mississippi sucks, too. Just sayin'.
• My Blackberry stopped working as a Blackberry. Only a cell phone. It didn't take long to miss my data connection to the internets.
• Looking at the map on Allison's iPhone (our ONLY map), we decided we would cancel our room and just drive straight through to Destin.
• Allison's iPhone died shortly after Hattiesburg. We were blind-driving the rest of the way.
  

Unfortunately, we mis-read the map & distance. We were about 2 hours further out than we thought. So, instead of arriving at 11:00 PM, we got to Destin at 1:30 AM. The kids slept for about 2 hours (aka Power Nap). They were wired when we got to the condo.

The only good thing that came out of us driving all the way there was when we woke up, we could go straight to the beach! All in all, it was a great trip down. The kids were fantastic in the car, which helped a lot. Day 1 complete.

Treehuggers are Crying

With all the ice, sleet, and freezing rain (c'mon snow, get here!!), there's a lot of downed trees here in NWA, causing the treehuggers to cry. Which is funny and sad at the same time. Thankfully, we only have a small tree in the back yard (about 30% of the limbs are down). Our neighbors, however, have tons of trees and lots of work to do. Smashed sheds, privacy fences, and limbs to pick up. In particular, our favorite tree at our backyard neighbors house lost it's entire top half today. The saddest part is that this tree gives our house a TON of shade during the summer. Our air conditioning bill just went up $15/month with the loss of that tree. Bummer.

I got up and took some pictures earlier this morning. The situation has worsened since the pictures were taken...I'll add more pics later.









Our trampoline net is a solid wall of ice! I hope it doesn't tear...it's a pain to assemble!









Some of the neighbor's trees. They aren't so upright anymore. Most are supported by my back fence at the moment.









Ice coats the limbs of our Japanese Maple in the front yard. I'm pretty sure there's already another 1/2" of ice accumulation now.









A male cardinal keeps flying between trees as each one collapses.

2008 Christmas

We had such a great Christmas. The actual day was a blast, but so were all the activities leading up to it.
On Dec. 14th, we celebrated Christmas with John's family. Since we were going to Little Rock for the actual day and John's parents were in town, we got the Nelson/Hannon crew together. Everyone came to our house for a non-traditional dinner of lasagna, salad, bread, apple pie, and many, many cookies. We exchanged gifts with one another and everyone got cool stuff. Uncle Sam surprised the girls with sleds and Emma has asked almost everyday when it is going to snow. The girls got Barbie stuff, super cute personalized plates that are worth a separate blog, pj's, etc.....John's parents are taking us and the Hannon's to Cozymel in May for their retirement celebration. We have know about that, but they did wrap up masks and snorkels for all of us. (including Brooklyn!)

On the 23rd, we packed the whole family (including Belle) up and headed to Little Rock. We were able to go hang out with Kate and Travis later that night after the kiddos went to bed. We hung out talking and having drinks for a few hours. We miss them!

Christmas Eve was very low key. John and I took the girls to Walmart to pick out a cake for Jesus' birthday. I would have liked to make it with the girls', but there was to much cooking going on that day. We thought they would enjoy picking it out. They picked out a cookie cake with pink icing. We also picked up a new puzzle while we were there. Emma is addicted to puzzles right now, so this was an inexpensive activity for the afternoon.
At 5:00, we went to Immanuel's Christmas Eve service. Emma loved that she got to go into "big church" with us. It was a sweet service and special time to worship as a family. We then headed over to my sister's house for dinner. It was so very yummy! We exchanged gifts with Sarah and Jason (my sister's husbands kids) since they go back to their Mom's house for Christmas morning. We headed back to my parent's house to get ready for bed. The girls got Santa's treats ready and then PaPa read Luke 2 and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Emma did not wake up until a little before 8 which was perfect because Zia (Cathy), T, and Claire were coming over at 8. We woke Brooklyn up and headed downstairs to see everything.
Santa brought the girls the walking Sleeping Beauty horse with the Sleeping Beauty Barbie to share and then got Brooklyn some really cool dot paints and Emma some new markers. Their stockings were full of all kinds of fun things. Probably the biggest hit of all of Christmas were the Tinkerbell flash lights that have different pictures to put on the wall.
Everyone did their stockings and exchanged gifts. The girls got a dollhouse from us as their big gift. My parents supplied many rooms of furniture for the house. They also both got scooters from GG and PaPa. Zia and T got Emma a GiGi Sweet Dreams Devotional and Brooklyn a super cute sleeping bag. The girls had a great time!
We finished opening gifts and then had our traditional breakfast of sausage/egg/and cheese casserole, glazed bacon and monkey bread.
It was a beautiful day, so we all went outside after breakfast to let the girls ride on their scooters. We layed everyone down for naps (except Emma who got to have undivided GG and Papa time) and John, Zia, T and I headed to the movies to see Marley and Me. I LOVED the book and have been waiting for the movie. It was really cute and I do recommend it, but I still say the book is better.

Some of our extended family came over later that afternoon to visit for a bit and then we all headed to Hunan for dinner. We wanted to get out and no other place was open, so Chinese it was. We saw the Tokar's there again and the girls got to say their goodbyes.

We hung out on the 26th for a bit and then headed back home for the weekend. It was a Christmas full of many memories. Emma and Brooklyn were so much fun to be around and really very grateful for the toys they received. Claire was precious and sat there and took it all in. Next year will be full of fun with a 2, 3 and 6 year old running around.

Here is a little recap of our holiday! YOu can click on the collage to see it bigger.

A "Happy" Weekend with my Family

This weekend was so fun and full of time with just the 4 of us. Here is what all we did:

Friday Night:
Emma has been wanting to camp outside in the backyard, but we could never figure out a good time to do it this summer. At this point, our nights around here are pretty chilly and we don't have the right gear to camp outside. We decided that on Friday night we would grill hot dogs, jump on the trampoline in the dark, look at stars (Emma's idea) and then set up camp in the living room and watch a movie. We all had so much fun together! The actual sleeping situation wasn't quite camping. Brooklyn couldn't calm down in the tent with Emma, so she had to go to her crib around 9:30. John's body was hurting, so he went to the bed. I took the couch, Emma slept in the tent and Belle slept on her bed that we moved to the living room. Emma woke me up around 2 AM wanting to get in her bed. I headed to my cozy bed too. We woke up and had yummy powdered donuts and headed off to our next outdoor adventure!














Saturday:
The new addition to the Skull Creek Trail had a Grand Opening this weekend so we piled in the bikes and headed down there. The new trail is awesome and now connects to Mud Creek Trail with a REALLY long bike tunnel going under I540. (3 cheers for City of Fayetteville Parks and Recreation!!!) We spent about 3 hours out there riding, playing at the park, eating the provided lunch and then feeding the ducks at the hospital pond. I must add that only Fayetteville would have a free lunch and serve hot dogs and veggie burgers. It was very funny to me, but I was glad. I love veggie burgers.
Last time we tried to feed the ducks, none of them wanted any bread. The girls were very excited (and us too) this time when a Mommy and her 11 little ducklings came swimming toward us. Precious!
We invited ourselves over to the Hannon's house for dinner on Saturday night. My parents had given us some fillets and we asked Sam to grill them for us. In return, I made his favorite cheese grits and a dessert. We all had a very yummy dinner and had fun visiting. We see each other often, but it is usually for a short drop by.













Sunday:
We went to church on Sunday and then were supposed to go to Community Group that night. The people hosting were sick and we were already missing a couple, so we canceled for the night.
It worked out great because we had been wanting to go to the Pumpkin Patch in Pea Ridge. We headed out there and had a blast. The pumpkins are actually on the vine, but there were not many left. We found 2 that we cut off and brought home with us. We also enjoyed a fun hayride. It was a really fun place and John got some great pictures of the girls. It was hard for me to choose what to put on here. Next year, we will go earlier in the season so we have a better selection of pumpkins to choose from. We ate dinner at Wing Stop on the way home. We had 2 very tired girls!
It was a great weekend full of time with just the 4 of us!

Me & the Girls (less Allison): Day 1

Allison started leading a Fellowship girls cell group again. This time, she's staring with 7th grade Springdale girls. The fun part is, our niece, Grace, is in that group. What a neat relationship that could become! I love the fact that we are close to my sister and her family!

This evening, Allison left for Fall Retreat at Camp War Eagle. She'll be gone until Sunday afternoon. That gives me about 2 full days of Father-Daughter time, which I'm excited about, and a little scared about. So, what do I do with them for 2 whole days???

Tonight after dinner, we did "Movie & Tent Night". It really doesn't need much more explanation...we built a big flippin' tent, and watch the Little Mermaid 3. I also bathed Belle just before Allison left, because she's shedding about 4 handfuls of fur per day and smelled terrible. So while me and the girls laid under the tent and watched the movie, Belle laid at the front window, drying and growling at walkers.

First night down...1 1/2 days remaining...

Dear Razorback Football: We're Ready for You

Adventures with Emma: Mud Creek

Last Saturday night, after it rained so hard during the day, we took the girls to the low water bridge in Johnson to see the bridge under water. Emma and I walked out across the bridge to experience it. We had a blast, though in retrospect, it was pretty dangerous.

Tonight at dinner, Emma wanted to try out her new rain gear: a kitty cat raincoat, boots, and umbrella...all pink, of course. We thought it was going to rain, so I asked her if she wanted to go to that creek and wade around in it with her rain gear on. She changed faster than I've ever seen her change before! So, we headed off to the creek. Sadly, it didn't rain. We followed a path along the far side of the creek and wound up underneath a railroad bridge going over the creek. Someone had made a big tree swing that swung out over the edge of the water (shallow water). We played there for a bit, then just waded downstream for a while. Emma's boots kept filling up with water, so we stopped (a lot) to let her dump the water out. She carried her umbrella the entire time (opened, of course...just in case it rained). After we got back to the main bridge, we were going to wade out to a rope swing someone put up, but the water had risen almost 2-2 1/2 feet since we got there! Apparently, it was raining somewhere upstream! As we stood on the bridge, we watched the water rise until is overflowed the bridge. It's crazy how fast it rose! We loaded up and came home. On the way home, Emma said "Daddy, I'm putting polka dots on your ceiling!". I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her jabbing my ceiling with her umbrella. I now have mud spots (aka polka dots) all over my Jeep's ceiling. Lovely.

It was awesome to hang out with just Emma and do "adventure" stuff! I may have two girls, but that doesn't mean they don't love adventures! Boys just don't stop to pick flowers as much as Emma does!

Mud Creek Trail Bike Riding

After dinner last night, we decided to take Emma to the Mud Creek Trail in Fayetteville to practice riding her bike. The whole family went, including Belle. Lord knows that dog loves a good walk! Last time we tried taking bikes to a trail, Brooklyn ditched hers after about 15 feet and walked the rest of the time. This time, we put her in the stroller, which she pleasantly enjoyed. Emma rode her bike like a champ, with only one little fall after doing figure 8's. I took my camera and caught the highs and lows. Pictures at the end.

The Mud Creek Trail is a really fantastic trail! It's 2.1 miles long, and winds around between Paradise Valley Golf Course and the Target store in Fayetteville. Also, the actual creek is pretty cool. It's now on my places to visit with my camera (I'm getting a pretty long list!). Anyway, if you're looking for a nice place to stroll, jog, ride bikes, or explore a cool creek, give Mud Creek Trail a visit...you won't regret it!

Kid Pics

Allison and I watched Bret & Jayme Walker's kids (Molly & Morgan) tonight. It was their 7 year anniversary. Molly and Emma are good friends, and play really well together. Brooklyn just wants to do whatever they're doing (typical "little sister" syndrome). Thankfully, with 3 enthusiastic girls around and playing dress up, it provided me with some good photo opportunities. And a chance to practice my post-processing skills. Here are some of the pictures from the evening...the girls were toast at the end of the night! And a Happy Anniversary to the Walker's!

Kids Will Put Anything in Their Mouth (aka It Wasn't Mine!)

I recently started a photography business. Specifically, I'm focusing on kids sports photography, but am willing to give anything a try. There's my plug, and the background needed for the following story.

A story entitled "Kids Will Put Anything in Their Mouth (aka It Wasn't Mine!)"

I went to take some pictures of a few T-ball games for the Cramer's. While standing around talking after the game, all the kids were climbing around underneath the bleachers. Parents would glance around long enough to see if their kid(s) were about to die, but we pretty much kept the conversation the main focus. While talking with the McGooden's, I hear Allison tell Brooklyn "Stop...don't put that in your mouth!"

Then...

"Oh gosh! STOP!"

I look over to see Brooklyn with a mouthful of brown stuff. Apparently, one of the parents (NOT ME!) took their big plug of Copenhagen and tossed it under the bleachers...where my 2 year old was playing. Brooklyn just stood there, mouth WIDE open whining, while Allison frantically dug out my daughter's first dip. We got a wet wipe and cleaned her off (externally and inside the mouth). When everything calmed back down, about 5 parents turned and look right at me.

"It wasn't mine!"

That night, Brooklyn was suspiciously wired at bedtime. I think she had her first buzz. Or she was having withdrawal. Here's some pictures.
Publish Post

Fourth of July Weekend

This July 4th weekend was a busy one for us. On Friday, we drove up to Branson for the day. We swam at the condo's pool for a little bit, ate lunch, then laid Brooklyn down for a nap. My parents watched B as she napped, while Allison and I took Emma to White Water. Emma has been taking swim lessons this summer, and has really progressed a lot...she can now stick her head under the water, and swim(ish) without floaties. White Water has three kids areas with lots of fun stuff. Emma spent most of her time at the big kids park, where she fearlessly did all the water slides. Over. And Over. And Over Again. It was really fun! We drove back home that night after eating with my parents at Fudruckers. When we got back, all our neighbors were beginning their annual festivities. We walked down to shoot a few fireworks off with the Archer's before going to bed.

Saturday morning, I got up about 4:45 AM and drove down to Lost Valley (near Ponca/Boxley) to take some pictures of Eden Falls. I recently purchased Tim Ernst's guide to all the known waterfalls in Arkansas, so I've been trying to hit the local ones when I get the chance. The hike is crazy easy and the falls are absolutely amazing. There are 3 falls (Cave, Middle, Lower), and I shot the lower 2 (I'm not going into a cave by myself). I picked up McDonald's for my girls on my way back into town.

Saturday night, the Hale's hosted a big shindig out at their farm. Tons of people, food, games, and fireworks. This is the first year Emma hasn't been totally fearful of fireworks. She actually held a sparkler without crying, which is a big step. Here are some pictures of the kids in attendance at the Hale's party. We had to leave before the big fireworks started, as the whole family was thoroughly exhausted.
















On a side note, I got locked inside my office building this morning before church. We apparently had a power outage at the office that lasted for quite a while. Interesting thing to know: at our office building, when the power is out, the external security still works, while the internal security system stops working. What does all that mean? I can open the external doors and go inside, but the doors won't open from the inside. Yes...I got locked inside a 4 story oven (no AC) for 30 minutes this morning. Thankfully, my boss lives 2 miles from the office and came to let me out. Good times.