smiley boy

some of my favorite pics so far

aunt steph and uncle james

we have been out of town and i just started back to work this week so my blogging has been light. i will catch up on things soon but in the mean time, here are some great pics of uncle james, aunt steph and tripp. they got here today for tripp's baptism on sunday. it is always great to have them around!








james might not like me after seeing that i posted this pic


happy boy

Montreat

We got back recently from a week in Montreat, NC. It is a beautiful area where lots of Nelson's family lives/gathers for the summer. We spent the week relaxing; doing things like walking, playing games, hiking up a mountain (that wasn't too relaxing, especially when you are caring a baby with you), eating at My Father's Pizza, and just hanging out. The highlight of the week was probably the film festival in which members of the family submitted films and we all watched them and voted on winners from each category (music video, adaptation, documentary, original screen play, etc) and also things like best actor, best picture, best cinematography, etc. It was a great evening of being together and enjoying the movies everyone had made.

new front porch

our front porch has been falling apart pretty much since we moved in. we have been putting off getting it fixed because we knew it was going to be a pricey endeavor. in hindsight, we probably should have gotten it fixed earlier because it would not have gotten in such bad shape while we were putting it off. what happened was that the previous owners put a thin layer of concrete on top to make the top surface look nice. then over the winter, water got in there and froze and expanded and broke the concrete. the water kept getting deeper into the concrete and freezing and breaking deeper down to the point where there were big holes in the stairs. also, a storm came and a tree branch got knocked down and broke our railing. so we figured now is the time to get these fixed. we got some bids and decided to go with Bob Brown. Bob is a very nice guy and he and his men did a great job. here are some pics of his work! i don't have a final with the rail on (the concrete is still drying so they will do the rail last). i am resisting the urge to carve my initials into the concrete, i guess that would not be good for resale value.


i forgot to take a better before pic but if you look between the wood, you can see the broken concrete


all framed out


new porch (please disregard the two dead bushes next to the new porch. i choose to ignore them myself so that i do not have to deal with them)!!

two months!

today Tripp had his two month check up! he did great with his shots (he only cried for a few seconds!!) and passed everything else with flying colors. he does have one side of his neck that is a little tighter than the other so we will have to add some stretches to our daily routine of tummy time, reading, his activity mat, etc. His stats:
Weight: 13 lbs 5 ozs (83%)
Length: 24 1/2 inches (92%)
Head circ: 15 1/2 inches (33%)


Tripp demonstrating one of his new tricks- bearing weight on his legs


Tripp and me!

car troubles...

yesterday on our way to church, nelson's car suddenly broke down. we heard this terrible thunking noise and it seemed like something fell out of the car. then the power steering went out, the check engine light came and a few other lights came on too. thankfully we made it into the church parking lot and left his car there till this morning when we got it towed to the dealer to get fixed. i was at home doing some sewing waiting for nelson to call me and tell me what was wrong. so then he called. i am usually a little afraid of the calls that follow talking to the car repair person because it is usually bad news. but when i answered the phone, nelson was laughing. yes, laughing. he was laughing about what happened to his car. it turns out the drive belt was broken. that is not so funny you might think. the funny part is how it was broken. well, it turns out that they found a rat. a dead rat. the rat had eaten through the belt and then got caught up in it and died. a foot long rat. yes, this is disgusting. but pretty hilarious nonetheless. they even asked nelson if he wanted them to save the rat for them. he passed on that one. that would have made for a great pic for my blog though! instead i got a semi-blurry picture of the work ticket with the description of what happened.

happy fourth of july!

it has been a great weekend for us! Nelson had friday off so we went to the zoo in the a.m. with some friends, and both Nelson and Tripp had their first zoo train ride. Last night we had dinner at Five Guy's Burgers and Fries which serves one of the best (if not the best) hamburgers ever. It is also the place where I started having contractions before having Tripp. So it was fun to introduce him to the restaurant. Then we went to Baby's R Us to get Tripp a new activity mat. Now that he can actually see things, we thought he might enjoy having some fun things to look at. The mat has a cowboy theme so he can be reminded of his Texas roots).

Then we were supposed to go to a fourth of july parade this morning but it was pouring rain so we went to the mall to walk around with friends instead. We decided to dress patriotically though so it we wouldn't completely miss celebrating the fourth.

We will probably pass on watching fireworks tonight since Tripp doesn't always sleep well in his pumpkin seat (well really it is more once he falls asleep in it, he doesn't transition well out of it and vice versa). Also, he is now sleeping in his crib like a big boy (he was about to out grow his basinet- his head and feet almost touch the ends)! So it has been quite a great weekend! Happy fourth of july to everyone!

you know you might need more sleep when...

...you have a conversation that goes like this:

Emily: Hey Nelson, did you see those pictures that (so and so) just posted on Facebook?
Nelson: No, did you?
Emily: uh... I forgot what I just asked you