Allison pulls up

Allison has been able to pull up for a couple weeks but she doesn't do it very often.  This video shows she just needs the right motivation.  Sophie jumps on the couch to get away from Allison - you can see how that works out for her.

Gardening

little tomatoes

So far I haven't killed any plants.  I mostly leave them alone and they seem to be happy with that.  Kevin picked our first tomatoes tonight - yummy!  We have three plants - two of which have tomatoes.  When we get back after the weekend hopefully there will be a couple more.

Zoo Day

After Church we headed into Fort Worth to the Zoo for a Rice Alumni sponsored lunch.  On our way we drove past the entrance for the botanical gardens and decided we will definitely visit there, although I vote to wait until the fall and cooler weather.

We got to the lunch towards the end but met a few Rice Alums, no one there I knew.  Today was the first day Fort Worth felt like Houston - it was 100% humidity and I thought I was melting!  Allison got too hot riding in her stroller as we walked through the zoo, so she got to see most of it from her favorite spot on Kevin's shoulders.  She holds on by grabbing his hair, but he still has to keep a hand on her.  At one point she got very interested in his ear (see picture).  Though she slept through the second half of the zoo, it was a fun trip, though very hot.

Kevin put in another couple hours on the yard (I helped a little) so now the front flower bed is done, we just have to take care of the tree.  The next phase of the yard will be tearing out the builder's ugly plants, but first we have to decide what to replace them with.

We are counting down to our Wyoming trip on Friday!

Weekend Adventures

We've had a busy weekend so far, and still Sunday to go!  Friday night our friends Wes and Angela offered to babysit Allison so we could have a date night.  Kevin and I had a nice dinner at PF Changs then walked around Sundance Square and looked for some new books at Barnes & Noble.

This morning we went to the Keller Farmers market - not many vendors, but we found yummy tamales for Kevin and split a fried apple hand pie.  Then we were off to Walmart and Home Depot in Roanoke where we ended up getting border stones for the front yard flower beds.  The community pool opened for the summer yesterday so we headed there to check it out.  Kevin finally got to see Allison in her swimsuit.  We have a terrible time getting the sunblock out of her hair so she always has the sunhat.  From 4-8:30 we (mostly Kevin) worked on the front yard.  We moved grass, dug space for the stones and pulled up a couple plants.

Tomorrow we have church, a Rice Alumni sponsored Zoo trip, and more yard work.

Jenny's shower

Kelly and Jenny

This weekend I co-hosted Jenny's baby shower at our house.  This was our first big event at the new house, with about 20 people coming to celebrate Jenny, Lucas and baby Cole.  Holly and Kelly (my wonderful co-hosts) helped make it a great party.

Tons of food and a diaper cake centerpiece

Nursery photos

Here are some pictures of the finished nursery.  We painted it green so if we have a little boy next we won't need to repaint.  Some of our favorite touches are Allison's initials on the wall and the homemade curtains (thanks Cathy).

First Tooth

Allison's first tooth finally emerged last night.  This explains the last couple days of fussiness.  It will be awhile until it's big enough to be seen in a photograph.  

Helping

My little helper

We did a lot of house projects while the guys were working on the fireplace this weekend.  One of my projects was to clean out our closet under the staircase where I keep all the holiday decorations.  Allison decided to 'help' by going through the ribbons.

Fireplace Refinish

Before

After

It took going through 4 different contractors, but we finally got the fireplace refinished.  Two guys did the whole project in a day and a half.  Our ceiling in the living room is 18 ft, they had a two tier scaffolding to get to the top.  We love how it turned out, it makes the room much more personalized.  Now to find some artwork . . .

Happy Girl

Here is a photo of Allison taken this morning.  She is surrounded by a pile of toys but happily playing with a piece of tupperware.

Lufkin Weekend

Kevin's parents hosted us and my parents at their house in Lufkin for the weekend.  We had a great time visiting and hanging out by the pond.  To prepare for our Wyoming trip in a couple weeks Kevin got some skeet shooting practice and I got a fly fishing lesson - and even caught a fish.  The dogs had a great time running around and chasing balls thrown in the lake.  Sparkie (my parents dog) decided to try fishing and almost caught one or two.  Another couple days and he would have been swimming.  Allison loved having all 4 grandparents around and got thoroughly spoiled.