Kara's Magical Journey

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Bye bye bye...

Seriously summer, I am SO done with you. Bring it on, winter! It is 108 right now! Last night at 10pm it was 90. Ugh. Just making a quick trip to the store makes you need to come home and shower.

On a happier note, I'm quite enjoying reading Breaking Dawn. Hee! AND I get to go see Mama Mia! tonight. Woot!

It is with great sadness...

Since the inception of the Nelsen blog I have stood back, watching and silently worrying about what my sweet wife was posting. As time passed I eventually began to express my concerns to Kara that the site did not adequately represent the majority of the Nelsen population. I told her that I would be forced to start posting if for no other reason than to inject some manly testosterone into the blog for myself, Andrew, and Grant. Well, that day has finally come, and I am not as happy about it as I thought I would be. You see, I often wondered what topic would finally fill me with enough manly pride to sit down and actually blog about it. Would it be about what I'm going to do if gas prices finally break $4.00 in Texas? Would it be about "The Dark Knight"? (Which if you haven't seen you need to stop reading this and go see it right now. Yes it's that good and yes it lives up to all the hype and more. I'm serious, get up and go see it right now!) Would it be about my brother's marriage and our (interesting to say the least) bachelor party the night before the wedding? Or would it be some other manly endeavor like camping, building, fixing, hunting, cool cars, BBQing etc.?

Well, what finally brought me to sit down before you today is to relate the realization of my deepest and darkest fears. It is an event so horrifying that it has been plaguing my waking moments for nearly two years now...and it finally occurred in my home yesterday evening. The funny thing is that I actually had begun to think that I might have escaped it, as I had outlasted the majority of my friends. My, what foolishness! If only I'd known as I mourned with their losses while silently cheering my luck! But my time has come :(

For those of you who are familiar with the Xbox 360 you know the fear of which I speak and how it haunts the owners on a daily basis. What do we the owners of one of the greatest pieces of machinery of our day have to fear you ask? Well, I will tell you....The Red Ring of DEATH!!!

You see, when you first turn on the Xbox 360 you are greeted by the familiar power ring, which leaves you feeling very confident and manly, ready to kick the tar out of whatever alien, zombie, terrorist, etc. you are facing.The complete ring fades down to the number controllers that are plugged in during game play, serving as a monitor of sorts to the status of your wireless controller.

All Systems Go!

It was not long after the initial release of the console, however, that those feelings of confidence were replaced with the aforementioned fear and dread. Gamers soon began to witness not the familiar green glow welcoming them to battle, oh no, but a strange and mystifying Red Ring. To everyone's utter shock and horror, this ring was followed shortly (if not immediately) by the complete and total crash of the Xbox 360 system. In other words your $400 system just experienced a hardware failure and is now worth less than the game you were trying to play. The Red lights became known as the Red Ring of Death because they, like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, signaled the complete and utter destruction of your system.

I'm Sorry Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That...

From what I understand the problem is due to the poor the soldering of the internal components. You see the 360 runs pretty hot (it has to handle all the spiffy graphics) and it heats up during use. Couple this with insufficient cooling and the specific type of lead-free solder used and WHAM!!! Stress builds up between the joints of the CPU, GPU, and the motherboard, and they all break, breaking your soul with them. Fortunately Microsoft has recognized the error of their ways and has extended everyone's warranty, so I all have to do is ship it back to them and they will fix it. The process generally takes anywhere from 3-6 weeks depending on who you ask. This cuts it dangerously close to the release of Force Unleashed, but I think I'll live.

Yikes.In the mean time....

what am I going to do while Kara is blogging?!?!?

I've come for your soul!

Drewbie makes me laugh...

So Andrew was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and he shut the door...never a good sign, right? I go to open the door and he had locked it. "Andrew, what are you doing? Open the door!" Nothing. "What are you doing?" Andrew opens the door and says "Awwww, nice hug" as he throws his arms around me. Haha! Smart kid, trying to soften me up. I think he was sitting there eating his toothpaste...

Not even five minutes later, we were sitting on the couch enjoying a chocolate chip cookie. Andrew wanted another bite and started to say "Eh ehhh!" which is this horribly annoying noise he makes when he wants something. I gave him The Look. He then says "Andrew no 'eh ehhh', Andrew please", which is the Drewbie version of what we always tell him: "Andrew, don't say 'eh ehhh' when you want something, say please instead." He's listening! He may not be DOING, but he's listening!

"Eh ehhh!" Andrew wants more of the little popper firework things.

And just now, as I was sitting here typing this, Andrew ran into the kitchen, opened the fridge, got out a yogurt drink, and shut the fridge. I guess he thought he shut it a little too hard or something, because he said "Oh, heh, sorry fridge!" Hah. It is a good thing he makes me laugh.

Grant's Blessing

Grant was blessed on Sunday, July 6th and we were lucky enough to have both of our families here for the beautiful event. The whole Mangum family (ALL of the McEuens included...thanks for making the trip from Boston!) was able to come, which was fantastic because we have not all been together since Christmas of '06 (either John and or Scott are often not able to come to our family gatherings). And the entire Nelsen clan (minus Adam and his fiance, who were understandably a bit busy finishing wedding plans) drove 20 hours from Utah to be with us. Now that's love! There ain't a whole lot to see during that long drive.

Anyway, our ward had a 4th of July celebration that we were able to take our families to, and it was a blast. We also got to have a nice family dinner that night, which was great (though fitting 15 people in this apartment is nuts).

The aftermath of the Jello eating contest...I did not win. Or even come close.


Andrew is the coolest kid around.

On Saturday the we all drove down to Dallas, ate some awesome BBQ and checked out Dealey plaza. After seeing the area, reading the evidence, and talking to conspiracy theorists, pretty much everyone agreed that there had to have been more than one shooter in the JFK assassination. Hmmm. After Dealey plaza, we took the boys to the Age of Steam Railroad Museum at Fair Park. Needless to say, they loved it. It was insanely hot, but they didn't care. Sadly, I had to sit in the car to feed Grant and therefore missed out on the heat...darn.

Having a blast at the train museum.

Andrew with Grandma Chris, Grandpa Jeff, and cousin Evan.

Sunday was blessing day, and by some miracle we were ALL early to church. Wow. Good thing, too, because there were two other blessings that day. Grant's blessing by John was absolutely beautiful and I was so proud of my little family. I am quite lucky.

Sweet baby Grant in his blessing outfit. It's the outfit John was blessed in over 28 years ago.

The Mangum and Nelsen clans gather to honor Grant.

Andrew and Evan love their aunt 'Chelle.

So we've always wondered what it takes to get Andrew to finally crash. The answer? Five days of relatives, late nights, and almost non-existent naps.

Thanks to our wonderful families for making such a long trip in such a short amount of time. We really appreciate it.

One of THOSE days....

Today was one of those days...sigh. Most days with two kids are good, but then there are the occasional off days. Lets just say little Grant is a snuggler. No, more than a snuggler...he LOVES to be held. There are some days where he just won't really let me put him down. And even once daddy is home, he still wants ME to be the one holding him. Now I love snuggling with him, but seriously...I never get anything done! I didn't even shower until after 4pm today. I know it's temporary, so I'm trying to remind myself to enjoy it while I can, before I know it he'll be 2. Andrew on the other hand won't slow down enough to cuddle with me anymore.

Anyway, days like today aside, things are going quite well. I absolutely adore my boys. Grant is so smiley now and is starting to laugh and it is soooooooo cute. Seriously. And this kid is so long and lean, it's crazy! He has his two month check up on Friday and I am NOT looking forward to the shots.

Andrew is in his big boy bed. Hooray! Well, it's not all good. It's good that he's in his bed, we need him to be so that Grant can have the crib. But this also means that every morning around 6:30 we have a little invader squirming his way into our bed. Cute, but waaay too early, especially considering the fact that he used to sleep past 8. Getting up so early has made us quite cranky, but it had to be done.

Andrew has also become quite the chatterbox. I'd heard that some kids tend to take a little longer to talk, storing their vocabularly until they've got a lot before they really start to talk. I think that's how Andrew is. I can't believe how much he talks now, it's like he just flipped a switch or something. Some of the things he says really make me laugh, I love it. A couple of weeks ago when a lactation consultant had stopped by to give me something, he started telling her all about the fun walk we went on. She would listen attentively, but when she would turn back to me to say something, Andrew would get her attention again and tell her the story over again. He also kept shushing her because his trains were sleeping (I need to take a picture of his sleeping trains, it's cute...he puts them on their sides in the middle of the room).

Oh, another Andrew milestone is that he sat through his first movie in the theatre! John had taken him to see Horton Hears a Who a few months ago, but they only made it through have the movie. On Saturday we took him to see Wall-E (which, let's be honest, we did for ourselves, not for him). He was great for the first 45 minutes and not so great for the last 45 (that's when the snacks came in handy). We really enjoyed the movie, Pixar always does such great work. And it was cool to see because John's friend worked on it. Anyway, Andrew enjoyed the movie too and spent the rest of the day talking about Wall-E and what happened to him (I'll leave it at that, don't want to spoil it for anyone). Heh, so cute.

Well, this has turned into a novel and it's bedtime, so I'm off. Here are some cute pictures to end with:

Ok, they Blogger is having issues uploading them. But pictures are forthcoming!

Has it really been a month?

Well, we're back....back from traveling, back to blogging, back to normal...

I can't believe we welcomed little Grant into the world a month ago tomorrow! Time has really gone fast, though perhaps that's because things have been so busy. Grant has already been on an airplane three times, and he's a fabulous little traveler.

About a week and a half after Grant was born we went to Utah for a funeral. Though the reason for the family gathering was sad, it was really nice to see everyone and have them meet Grant. From there I flew to San Diego (by myself with a toddler and a newborn, might I add...thank heavens for children's Dramamine) for my dear friend Liz's wedding. It was wonderful to have more of my family and friends meet Grant. I got to show him and Andrew off at Liz's wedding reception (which, by the way, was beautiful!) and I had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed getting to see Nicole (and her fiance) and Tessa, friends from back in the day. :) My wonderful mother-in-law was then kind enough to join me in San Diego so that I wouldn't have to make the 3 hour flight back to Texas by myself.

And now we're back...and things are starting to return to normal. As of tomorrow afternoon, I will be on my own with the two kiddos for the first time. I'm somewhat nervous because Andrew has been so used to having someone to play with him constantly, so who knows how he'll handle things once grandma leaves.

Grant is an adorable, sweet baby boy. He's doing great and is already 10 pounds and 22.5 inches tall! Unfortunately he might be having trouble digesting proteins from dairy products, so I have to eliminate them for the week and see if that resolves some of his issues. No dairy for a week? Yikes...no cheese, no milk, no chocolate?!?! I really hope dairy is not the issue...

Andrew is a blast; he has become quite the chatter box and constantly makes me laugh. He heard me say "shoot" once and has since decided to repeat it frequently. Now, shoot really isn't such a bad thing to say, but when it's coming from a 2 year old....I don't know, it just seems a little wrong. Anyway, I told Andrew he and mommy weren't allowed to say shoot, so he goes around repeating that we're not allowed to say shoot. Quite adorable.

And now for a few pictures!

Sweet baby Grant....looks like he's trying to whistle or something.

Four of the Magnificent 7. :)

Andrew loves the ladies!

Daddy and Grant sharing a cute moment.