World in a Minute

We keep meaning to post, we really do! There's just so much going on with our little family right now that we hardly seem to have a free moment. To catch everyone up, here's the Reader's Digest version of the Texas Nelsen's past couple months:

1 - Grant is learning to talk much more now (see video) and Andrew continues to amuse us.

2 - We were able to surprise John's mom by showing up (along with the rest of John's family) at Disneyland for her Birthday when she thought it would just be her and John's dad (see video)

3 - We spend a fun-filled, and slightly chaotic, Thanksgiving with Kara's family.

4 - We decorated our Christmas Tree. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the bottom half (thanks Grant) but it was quite nice looking that first night!

5 - We will be home owners before the year is out!

6 - We are preparing for the long drive up to Utah to spend Christmas with John's family.

We hope to post more details about all this soon, though it could easily not be till February or later after we move into our new house!

This is Halloween...

As we've said Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. We love decorating the house, picking out and carving pumpkins as a family, and getting our costumes ready. This year was no exception. Breaks between conference sessions was spent hanging ghosts and bats around the house. The weeks that followed were spent planning our costumes. Before we go any further, here's a quick look back at previous years:

2004 Murder Mystery Party: An Affair to Dismember (John: Hannibel Shecter, Kara: the Gypsy Aretha Garlik)

2005 Murder Mystery Party: The Chicago Caper (John: Billy "The Kid" Thrower, Kara: Molly M. Awbsterr) 

 

Special 2005 Bonus Costume: Honest John the Used Car Salesman

2006: Dracula, Witch, Yoda

2007 Wizard of Oz: Dorthy, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion

2008: Frankenstein & Bride and Woody & Buzz Lightyear

This year we thought it would be fun to hearken back to our pre-marriage days. Christmas break 2003 John and his family were at Disneyland celebrating the holidays. We had arranged for Kara to come up and spend a day with John in the park. After riding Star Tours you can do this thing where they take your picture and put your face in a Star Wars scene. Both being Star Wars fans (3 of our dates were seeing the trilogy at the Varsity Theater at BYU!), we loved the idea and the following photo has become legend in both Nelsen and Mangum households. We therefore thought it was time to recreate the historic moment. 

 

2009 Han, Leia, Yoda and a visitor from a distant galaxy...SpongeBob

We had a great time this year! It was our first time taking the boys trick or treating and we really pounded the pavement. We'll have candy for months! It was so much fun because Andrew really understood the concept and Grant was happy to be out and about (and trying to gnaw through snickers wrappers). Click the play button on the bottom of the video to play.

One of the great things we both love about Halloween is the chance it gives you to be scared without being in any real danger. Andrew found this out first-hand!

Under Construction

As you can probably tell, we're undergoing some major revisions here at Nelsens with an 'E.' We hope you'll enjoy the new format! Kara would like everyone to know that while John was updating the site he neglected to save the old info, resulting in the loss of all the old widgets, gadgets, etc. We've tried to frantically remember everything we had, but our memories aren't that good. If you used to be featured on our page and aren't, don't be offended, the deletion was not done on purpose. Please just comment and let us know and you'll be right back where you belong.

Howdy Y'All

After 3 years of living in Texas we finally made it down to the Texas State Fair! It was everything we were expecting and hoping it would be, and more.

Big Tex welcomes us to the fair

We made it down shortly after opening, so it wasn't too hot or too crowded, which was very nice. We started things off by taking the boys to the animal pavilion. Just as we were expecting, the boys were terrified of anything bigger than the little chicks. Grant was so terrified of the llamas that he literally wet his pants (which ran out onto Dad's shirt)!

Grant's few months of life flash before his eyes

Of course, a big part of going to the fair is the fried food. Here's a small sample of some of the things we found:

Believe it or not, the fried butter was the biggest attraction! We didn't try that one, but I can tell you that you haven't lived till you've sampled the divine goodness that is the fried snickers!!! Our favorite though was what was called "Pork Chips." It was fried thin shaved pig. Sooooo tastey!



We capped the day off by letting Andrew ride some of the cheap little carnival rides, which he loved. 

Giddyup little dawggy

I don't know if we'll go back (it was insanely pricey) but all in all we had a great time at the Texas State Fair!

It's here....

Fall is finally here. It was a long, hot, busy, and brutal summer but it's over and we're coming down the 2009 home stretch! As is tradition, Kara and the playgroup went down to the pumpkin patch last week. It has been a cold and rainy Fall so far (uncharacteristic for TX in our experience, but very welcomed!) so it was very muddy and wet, but the boys thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's a few pics from the trip:

October has got to be one of my favorite months. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! We're planning a great party at work (HR is the best place for work parties!) and Kara and I are working on some classic costumes for this year (stay tuned for pics). Just yesterday we visited the local costume shop looking for some of the last missing pieces. :)

I love this costume! The best part is the kid's face!

Not only is it the kick-off to the entire Holiday Season, but we also get colder weather (I'm very much cold-blooded so Yey!), and the baseball playoffs. Being a Cubs you wouldn't think I'd get very excited to see everyone else but the Cubbies play in Oct. but I love baseball and it's all good (except the Yanks). I'm hoping for a Dodgers/Yankees match-up and to see Joe Torre wipe the floore with the Yankees.

And if that wasn't enough, it's my brother's b-day (go Chad) Really, is there anything bad about October? If there is, I can't think of it!

5 Years

Five years ago today John and I were married in the San Diego LDS temple. It was a beautiful day. Has it really already been five years? Has it only been five years? Crazy. I love John and I love our little family. He's patient with me and works so hard for us, and is an absolutely wonderful father. Happy anniversary!

Here are some pictures of us through the years:

Awww, wedding picture.

Honeymoon in the Bahamas (why won't Blogger let me un-bold this?).

Taken in Cape Cod the month before our first anniversary (I've learned that the only time there are pictures of us together is when we're traveling and we have someone to take pictures).

Thanksgiving time in Salt Lake, a few months after our second anniversary.

Mont-Saint-Michel in France, the month before our third anniversary.

Halloween a few months after our fourth anniversary. My parents were visiting, so that's the only reason there's a picture of us together. :)

At a Red Sox-Rangers game last month. It was a fun date, and we had awesome seats...but the Sox lost.

Through the Eyes of Andrew

Andrew got his very own camera last Christmas. It ran out of batteries a few months back and was buried among all his other toys till this past week. We went over to target to get some batteries and transferred the pics onto the computer. Among the literally 100s of pics we've put together our favorites. Enjoy life from Andrew's perspective!

Andrew's Life 1.0

Andrew's Life 2.0

One Fish Two Fish...

The boys starting swimming lessons this month! Andrew loves the water, and has never been afraid to jump in. We're accordingly anxious to have him learn to swim on his own as soon as he can! Grant has never really liked the water, so we were interested to see how he'd do. Take a look at both our little fish.

The Orca shall be mine

Kick, kick, kick!

Bubbles!

Dumb Bell

Going Solo

Air Grant

I'm still alive...

I've been gone awhile, though my lovely hubby has been blogging in my place (thank goodness, or else we'd be one of those woefully neglected blogs--ahem, Maren!). Anyway, I've been rather busy of late. For those of you that don't know (which I think is most of you) I have a job. Woo! Or something. I--like John--work for the city of Denton. Unlike John, however, I don't work in the cool HR department ;). I work in the aquatics department, as "lead cashier", meaning I'm in charge of all the cashiers within the aquatics department (in other words, about 20 people, though that number has been decreasing lately...that's a whole other story though). In December I went in and interviewed for a cashier position, thinking it would be nice to work once or twice a week. But at the end of the interview I was offered the lead cashier position, and I accepted it. It's a very interesting job, and I've certainly learned a lot. During the off season I work just a few hours a week, but during the summer it's a 40 hour a week job. And it's exhausting. So my blogging has suffered. And when I actually answer my phone, my family makes comments like "Oh, it's a miracle! You answered your phone!" or "So you're not ignoring my calls anymore." Very funny. I'm appreciative of this experience, but I'm definitely looking forward to summer being over.

In more exciting recent news, I've now made two cakes that people have paid me for. It's so fun! And it's made me realize that I very much need a bigger kitchen. I could also spend a great deal of money on kitchen/baking supplies. When I made one of the cakes the other day, I went to get out my whisk attachment for my KitchenAid and I couldn't find it. Anywhere. I got very upset and searched the apartment, but was never able to find it. I was kind of frightened by how emotional I got about a KitchenAid attachment. But I LOVE my KitchenAid and use it frequently! I had to use a hand mixer to make my cake! Not cool. And it will cost me $20 to replace it. But I did discover that I can buy more bowls, so that's pretty exciting. Anyway...I know some of you out there understand the KitchenAid obsession.

So here are the cakes I did. The first one was for John's coworker's son's 1st birthday. The bottom layer was cookies and cream with vanilla buttercream, and the top layer (for the birthday boy to destroy) was white cake with vanilla buttercream. The second cake (for John's coworker) was chocolate fudge cake with chocolate fudge buttercream. My kind of cake.

Clearly photography is not my forte. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to work on that...

Speaking of things that are not my forte...frosting and piping with buttercream. I really need to work on that, but I've been having too much fun with fondant.

Mawwiage is what bwings us togethuh today

I logged into the computer this morning to check up on the latest news (still can't believe Billy Mays died too...they're dropping like flies!) While visiting MSN, I found this link:

On marriage: Let’s call the whole thing off

As I'm sure most of you are aware, I work in HR. I chose this field primarily because of my interest in social psychology. I enjoy trying to understand how people see things so differently and why they do the different things they do. This is particularly true when it comes to views that are in direct contrast to my personal views and those of the church. So, I followed the link to see why they though marriage should be abolished.

It became very quickly apparent that there was no grand revelation or reasoning behind the plan to scrap marriage, but rather a simple author trying to rationalize her decisions for adultery and divorce. She spends a large part of the article making sure we know she's not afraid of the hard work that would be required to fix her marriage, but in her mind that's beside the point because that's not where the real problem is. The real problem is marriage itself. All she is doing is simply following her genetic preprogramming and moving away from a man-made institution that doesn't fit with her personal views and feelings about modern society.

This reaction is unfortunately not at all uncommon in today's world, and seems to be the favorite argument of anyone trying to rationalize their behavior. In her case, with marriage gone, there is no accountability for her "bad" actions. With no accountability, she's free to do whatever she wants, and no one can say anything bad about her. She can now sleep soundly at night knowing she is a "good" person.

I also find it interesting that the only reason people can think of not to get divorced is "the children." But even that argument is losing ground because the kids don't fit in with the selfish desires of these parents! (and people wonder why kids are the way they are nowadays) Quite frankly it makes me wonder if they truly understand what a parent really is.

Accountability (and marriage if the author had her way), appears to be headed for the same fate as abstinence and monogamy, a lost value with little or no meaning other than a punch line. This denial of accountability coupled with overarching selfishness is, in my humble opinion, the primary contributors to the downfall of society that has taken place in previous historic cultures and is currently taking place in our own.

But, back to the topic at hand, why is marriage necessary? Why do we get married? Or maybe a better question would be: What is the value of marriage? (To speak in the terms of modern culture: What’s in it for me?) Those are big questions, and I've always found that big questions are best answered with stories.

The other day we went to cracker barrel. After dinner I took an antsy Andrew outside to burn off some steam. Being quite hot outside, and having a 1/2 pound of ground beef in my gut, I plopped down into a nice rocking chair in the shade and whipped out my cell phone to play a little bejeweled. Andrew ran to the oversized checkerboard in the sun, and promptly asked me to play with him. After thinking it over I decided I probably should. After a few futile efforts of teaching him the basics of the game we opted for building towers. We were both sweaty and sticky when all was said and done. When Kara put him to bed that night, the last thing he told her was how much fun he had playing checkers with Daddy. I can't tell you how much that really impacts me, and reminds me to continue to act accordingly in the future, especially when I consider how close I was to just sitting back in my shaded chair and letting him do his own thing.

Now, I don't share that to illustrate what a great dad I am. I still have more than I’d care to admit to learning when it comes to being a good dad/husband. But I think it effectively answers the above questions. You see, I might not be able to tell you all the reasons to get married, or for that matter why marriage should even exist (outside gospel principles), but I can tell you I'm a damn better person because of it. If I'm fortunate enough to meet "the Big Guy" in the end, it will only be because of Kara, Andrew, and Grant, and I'll defend that one to the grave!

When it comes down to it, marriage is not easy, it is not fun a lot of the times, it is not pretty sometimes, and it's more work than I ever thought it would be (and that's only after 5 years!), but neither is life, and it is all worth it. It is worth it because it teaches me selflessness. It teaches me accountability. It teaches me respect. It teaches me that sacrifice is more rewarding than personal gratification. It teaches me the true meaning of love. It teaches me who I am. Just as others would seek to abolish marriage because they fear these truths, I embrace it because I fear the absence of these truths in my life. Would I still rather play X-box than clean day old formula out of bottles, take the garbage out, or vacuum goldfish crackers out of the carpet 3 times a day? You better believe it! And I will continue to play, probably more than Kara would like on occasion, but I hopefully will do so with a better understanding of who I am and what I need to do to improve my marriage and myself :).

So, to Kara, Andrew, and Grant: Thank you and I love you guys. You are literally my salvation. To everyone else, married or not, appreciate the difficulties in life, because you are the result of the choices you make, and the more opportunity you have to make big decisions, the greater your potential is for greatness.

Since I can’t have an entirely serious post, here’s a parting clip:

Back in my day...

As Kara and I watched Andrew watching Spongebob Square Pants we got to talking about how they don't make cartoons like they used to. Back when we were growing up, cartoons actually told a story and generally had some sort of moral or take-away. Now-a-days it's all either dumb jokes or pointless action. I thought it would be fun therefore to run down memory lane for this post and revisit some of the top cartoons of the early 90's. These are the cartoons we can both remember running home from school, dropping the bag on the floor, and turning on the T.V. to catch. (Sometime I'll have to do a post on the really old-school cartoons I watched when growing up...can anyone say He-Man!!!) Vote on your favorite or let us know if there's any we missed.

For the Benefit of family outside of Texas...

We had our first tornado warning tonight. I was quite excited! (I want to see a tornado...not up close, but off in the distance where I'm safe) Sadly, but much to Kara's relief, while Denton is in fact in tornado alley, it's generally a little too north west to get the serious stuff. We still get some pretty good storms though. Here's a couple videos I promised my brother in Utah.

It's a little too quite...

Sound the alarms...

In the bear cage!

A Hard Day's Nap

Today we had to wake Drewbert up from his nap. This almost never happens. He was so out of it that he seemed to think we'd woken him up during the middle of the night. Needless to say, he was not a very happy camper (would you be if someone pulled you out of bed in the middle of the night and tried to force Bruchetta Chicken down your throat!) Kara and I had to try really hard not to laugh at him as he bumped into things and tried very hard to form complete, coherent sentences. This experience got me thinking a little about sleep.

Why is it when I get more sleep than I usually do, I'm so much more tired the next day? Who has a position they have to be in before they can go to sleep? Why is it that I can take a nap while laying on my back, but can't for the life of me go to sleep for the night on my back? Why can I nod off all day (we call it riding the bull because of the wicked head snaps you get when you go limp and whip back up suddenly) but when it comes time to actually sleep I'm wide awake? Have you ever nodded off, only to open your eyes in what you think is a few minutes later only to find out it's time to get up? That's the worst! Conversely have you woken up in the middle of the night fully refreshed and thinking it was time to get up for the day? I love that! What makes some people heavy sleepers while others (such as my lovely wife) bolt upright at the sound of rustling carpet. Kara still accuses me of faking being asleep when babies are crying, an accusation I will fight till my dying day! But of all the quirky things about sleep, my all time pet peeve is waking up 10 minutes before my alarm goes off!

Anyway, I'm off to bed....sweet dreams everybody!

A little bit lumpy...

After Andrew learned to walk our lives were never the same. I know those of you who never knew Drewbie as a baby will think I'm exaggerating or flat out lying, but Andrew really was a very good-natured baby. We could take him anywhere and he'd be happy just to be there. No crying, no fussing, just smiling and looking around. Even when we stuffed him in a car and drove him 10 hours down to Mesa (Cubs Spring Training) it didn't phase him at all. In fact, he actually enjoyed it!

Baby Andrew rooting the Cubs on in Mesa

Ahhh, those were the good old days. But it seemed like overnight our mild-mannered, well-behaved baby had transformed into a maniacle toddler with one thing on his mind...destruction.

The last thing the poor photographer ever saw was the
pudgy baby feet coming at his head...

We quickly learned that nothing was put up too high or hidden well enough to protect it from Andrew and his new abilities. Our poor DVDs lived (and continue to live) in fear.

The Incredibles were no match for the destructive force of Andrew

Drewbie's destructive force was amplified by the fact that he was up and walking by the time he was 9 months old. It was during this chaotic time when we turned our heads heavenward in supplication. We fervently hoped that child #2 would be a lump, who would just sit there and not bother to run and jump like his older brother. Enter Grant....

This does not bode well...

We actually got, for better or worse, pretty much what we asked for. Grant is our cute little lump. (He made up for this by being very opinionated and stubborn) It isn't all bad though. He enjoys sitting and playing with objects much more than Andrew ever did. It's great to watch him spin a truck wheel or play with blocks, analyzing every little detail. Much to Mom and Dad's relief, both of them will now play in their room alone for extended periods of time (something Andrew only recently started doing, and still doesn't do for very long).

Grant has since learned to crawl. Staying true to the lump reputation, he started off doing the army commando crawl, as you've seen previously...

It took him awhile, but he eventually learned to crawl normally. This past month we found out that he also can stand if he wants to, but most of the time doesn't want to. Once he realizes he's standing he carefully drops back down and will crawl to what he's after.

But it was inevitable I suppose. Our little lump is no more. Grant took his first steps the other day.

I'm sure he and Andrew have been keeping each other up at night plotting new ways to cause mass distruction and histeria in the Nelsen home.Whatever ends up happening, I'm sure it's not going to be pretty...

Celebration

We had a wonderful time celebrating Grant's birthday yesterday. We're very blessed to have John's parents visiting right now, so Grant got to have grandma and grandpa around for his first party! For Grant's birthday dinner, we had one of his favorites: chicken fettuccine Alfredo. As always, he devoured it! When it came time to open presents, he wasn't too interested in ripping the paper off; it actually seemed to almost make him nervous. However, he does love the actual presents. He got some buses and cars, a ride-on car, a little guitar, and a toy CD player. His favorite things are vehicles and music, so these gifts are a big hit. Present opening was followed by cake destroying. We gave Grant his own little 6" cake and it was so fun to watch him with it. I think he was almost more interested in playing with it than eating it. Oh well! It was lots of fun, I think he had a good birthday. We love you baby Grant!

Not as excited as you would think...

Cars go straight to the mouth, of course.


A giant bus, sweet!


Grant's first cake.


Face first into the cake!

Grant loves cake!

Sweet Baby Grant

Happy birthday to our sweet baby Grant! I can't believe he is already a year old...how time flies! I absolutely adore Grant, he is the sweetest, smiliest, stubbornest little guy around. I knew before he was born that he was going to be stubborn--he just did not want to come out! He lets you know how he feels...and don't try and force something on him, because he won't have it. But he is still so sweet and loving. He just melts my heart. This age is so much fun, but when I look back at him as a sweet newborn, I get a little sad. My baby is no longer a baby, and he just keeps growing so fast!

We love you Grant!

The Scarlet Letter

So a few weeks ago, Andrew (who just loves writing letters) wrote on Grant:

Branded.

So distraught.

Apparently he has forgiven Andrew.

I'm glad to know that Grant is not an adulterer, but what can "H" mean? Hiccuper? Head banger? I just don't know.

Easily Entertained

So I'd forgotten how much babies love Kleenex boxes! They can be entertained by them for quite awhile. And sometimes it's just best to let them take every single tissue out of the box because they're so cute when they're so engrossed. Here is Grant's recent Kleenex adventure (guest starring an excited Andrew):

An Idea...

I had an idea recently, and I wanted to run it by all ya'll (see, ya'll is just to one person, and I think I have more than one loyal reader...I hope...). Anyway, as you all know, I quite enjoy baking (and cooking, to a lesser degree) and so I'd toyed around with the idea of starting a baking blog or something. But then I thought c'mon, really...who would read it? There are SO many baking blogs out there, what would mine add? But, I thought it would be fun to do a food blog with anyone else that might be interested. What it would really be is a forum for us to share recipes, ideas, techinques, etc. with each other. That way, I wouldn't be making a fool of myself trying to start my own food blog. So, any takers? I'll try not to be too terribly offended if no one wants to....might go cry myself to sleep though. :)

Proper Motivation

Well, for better or for worse, it's official: Grant is crawling! Apparently all he needed was some proper motivation, because I think he's been capable of it for awhile. Stubborn child! Anyway, as you will see in the video clip, Grant is willing to crawl in order to get his hands on a bag of Crunch Eggs (must be my kid!). I told him that if he could crawl to them, I would let him have a little piece. Yep, I gave my ten month old chocolate. So? :)

Anyway, it's neat to see how different each child is. I know you always hear that a lot, but to observe it is really interesting. Andrew was crawling on all fours at six months, and when he was Grant's age he had been walking for a month. And Grant has just not been interested in any of that. I'm really curious to see how Grant's personality continues to develop.

And now our feature presentation....

Fat Tuesday! And other recent baking adventures...

So in honor of Mardi Gras, John's office had a little lunch party. He signed up to bring dessert (of course :) and I had a hard time deciding what to make. I didn't really feel like doing a King Cake of a pecan pie, so we started tossing around the idea of a regular cake decorated Mardi Gras style. We discussed some design ideas and looked up some pictures online, and well, one thing led to another and here's what we ended up with:





I guess I got a little carried away...it's a monstrously large cake and there are 13 people in John's office. Heh. I had SO much making it though. It's my first tiered cake (and only my second attempt at fondant) so all things considered, I'm relatively happy with how it turned out. I could have easily spent another hour working on it, but John had to have it to work by 1:30, so unfortunately, some of the other decorations I wanted to do (such as a few bead necklaces made of fondant and some additional purple stars) didn't happen. I also seriously rushed through the top layer, which you can definitely tell. The cake itself was having issues, so the frosting and the fondant didn't adhere as well. So yeah, don't look too closely...there are some serious issues. The bottom layer (two 10" cakes) is a homemade funfetti cake (using my new favorite yellow cake recipe) and the top layer is a divine chocolate fudge cake. Yum yum yum. I'm happy to say that I've finally found a decent vanilla buttercream recipe, one that uses just butter (no icky shortening) and still manages to have the right consistency for layer cakes. And the fondant is a marshmallow fondant, so the taste is actually decent. I mean, fondant is still fondant, but it's the best I've tasted. John--who hates frosting--actually likes the fondant.

As I mentioned, I recently made my first fondant cake. I made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting for my boys, and I was rather happy with how my first attempt turned out.

It's obviously very amateur, but I'm working on it.

And since I was sorting through my Food folder, here are some more semi-recent pictures:

V-Day truffles that John took to his co-workers.

A couple of weeks ago for FHE Andrew wanted to make "pink cake." I was craving a nice yellow cake, so we compromised by using pink sprinkles. :) Andrew loves to help bake.


Ok, so this is really late, but here are my Christmas cookies. I made plates for friends and ended up making over 180 cookies. We had sugar cookies, iced pumpkin cookies, cranberry orange cookies, raspberry thumbprint cookies, Rolo cookies, and chocolate biscotti (which were not deemed worthy to be included in my cookie plates).



And last but not least, the cute tartlettes I made for my parents last time they were here. I of course didn't eat any, but I snuck some of the Bavarian cream that was left over--yum!

So I just saw this on Robyn's blog...such a cute idea! Remember, it is only the first 5 people to respond and you HAVE to post it on your blog. If you don't put it on your blog then you don't count!

So I just saw this on Robyn's blog...such a cute idea! Remember, it is only the first 5 people to respond and you HAVE to post it on your blog. If you don't put it on your blog then you don't count!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice, my gift...To you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done this year (might take a while).

4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? (Not you, that's for sure!)

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FABULOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Good luck!

It's that time of year...

It's Crunch Egg time, and not a moment too soon! My outlook on life is slightly improved.

Bovine Update

When we last left you, we hoped that Grant's presence would scare away the cow. However, yesterday Andrew and I were in his room when he grabbed his stick horse and started swinging it through the air by his window. The conversation that followed was priceless:

Kara: "What are you doing?"
Andrew: "I'm smacking the cow!"
Kara: "Why?"
Andrew: "Because the cow mooed at my feelings! And it made me feel sad."

So apparently the cow has moved on from scaring to offending. Poor Drewbie.

Holy Cow...or is it?

Andrew has something against cows. The disdain first appeared at the San Diego County Fair when Andrew was just 5 months old. We visited all the different animals and his interest ranged from mildly entertained to fascinated.

(mildly interested Andrew)

When Grandpa Jeff took him over to see the cows however, it was a different story. He suddenly became very agitated and while he didn't lose it, he came close. Tears welled up and his famous pouty lip kicked into high gear. His little legs began to kick wildly and he did all in his power to get out of there.

(Andrew and Cow face off)

Fast forward two years. We'd thought Andrew had gotten over his fear of cows. He plays with a few cow figurines and even has a stuffed long-horn from the Ft. Worth Stock Yards that he's named (very appropriately) "Cow." The feud, however, was simply building up steam. One day, out of the blue he came running out of our room screaming at the top of his lungs "Aaaahhhhggggg!!!! COOOOWWWW!!!" We believe the trigger for this event was the Chick-Fil-A TV commercial where the cows go through the office building at night. (Click here to go to the site, then click "commershals" to see the ad.)

It wasn't long after that we learned there was a "scary cow" that lived in Andrew's window. You could often hear him playing in his room only to yell out "Uh, Go Away Cow!" shortly followed by the sound of whatever he had in his hand hitting the window. It progressed to where he wouldn't even go in his room without first snaking his hand through the door to turn on the light, peeking in first, propping the door open, and then making sure we were in view (for a quick get away and/or rescue).

Grant recently moved into Andrew's room (yes, I've finally convinced Kara to move our poor little son out of the pack-and-play wedged in the bathroom). Andrew was very excited by this because the crib is right under the window and we told him that Grant would now be there scaring the cow away! We'll see how long it takes for the cow to come creeping back into the Nelsen home, if he dares show his face here again!

(Beware the Scary Cow...You Could be Next!)