Happy Birthday Katie (4 months ago!)

Yes, Katie's birthday is in January. And yes, it is April (almost May!) now. Add to that the fact that this is my first blog post of 2010, and I guess you can tell we've been a little busy!

For her birthday, Katie wanted an American Girl tea party. With the help of my good friend Korisa, we pulled it off. Here are some of the moments:

All the girls and dolls!

At the table: Katie is ready with Felicity and Kit in her arms.

A big hit: the cupcakes. Korisa decorated these beautiful treats with a flower decoration on top. The recipe: (not red velvet!) Half of these were the Skor cake recipe from Aunt Mavis, half were just a yellow box mix. Everybody loved them!
The table settings. The white china came from Katie's Great Grandma Jo, and the real silver engraved with a "K" came from her Great Grandma Rose. They were both here in spirit! Korisa filled in with the blue and the napkins were borrowed from Grandma Gloria. The napkin ring: a ponytail holder with a hair ribbon tied on it which doubled as a party favor.
Kaya, Katie, and Camden, ready for the party to get started. Party girls!
Dessert: Ice cream flowerpots. Found this idea online and thought it was just perfect! Ice cream and crushed oreos make up the flowerpot filling with a fake rose in each one. The girls loved these too!
A sweet picture: Bellah, Katie, and Ella with their dolls.

Katie turned 8 this year! Here she is in preparation for her party with her matching dress to Kit's.

There were about 500 pictures to go through, and evidently I have been putting that off. But, here are just a few so you can see what our fanciness was like! It wouldn't have happened without Korisa's help, so I owe her a big one!! Now we are getting ready for Camden's 3rd party. We've agreed: low-key, family style cookout! The theme: Dora. Stay tuned. Maybe in about 4 months, we'll post some of those pictures....

Wow, isn't technology amazing?

I am sitting here on the couch on my phone loading this all on to the blog!
It is amazing how fast everything can upload just like that!! I am amazed.
Let's see if I can share some of my favorite pics from our vacation. Well I guess not. At least I haven't figured it out yet. The girls are having a great time at the beach with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. We came home today, but they will return on Thursday to spend New Year's together. Katie has requested to have salmon for dinner so I guess I'd better get to the store!

Nature in Our Backyard

So, at any given moment you can find lots of nature in our yard. Obviously, because we live in the woods across the street from a mountain! But this morning we found 2 very different, very amazing examples of the ecosystem we live in.
This butterfly landed briefly on the rocks by the playset. The moment I snapped the photo, it flew away. But how pretty it is!

The most surprising one was the spider. Not just any little spider, either... a HUGE one! Like Camden said, "that's a BIG spider!"
Here it is from the back. Isn't the design in its web different? I had never seen one like that before.

In case you couldn't see the size of this creature from the last picture, here is Ben looking at it from behind.
Soon after we found it, Eddie the exterminator was here doing his monthly spraying of our house to keep critters like this from coming in. I showed him the picture of the spider and he said oh yeah, that's a yellow writing spider. They're supposed to be harmless. You could just put your hand out and it will just sit there. (I said I probably wouldn't be testing that one out.) Then he said they say that if you tell the spider your name 3 times, it will write your name in the web by the 3rd day. So, I shared this with Katie and the next thing you know, she is right next to the spider whispering "Katie, Katie, Katie. Camden, Camden, Camden. Pellie, Pellie, Pellie."
Later we ran errands and when we came home, the spider had changed its web. Now the lightning looking part has disappeared and he's started working on something else. I know at least one of us is hoping the new web says Katie. or Camden. or Pellie....

The Girls

These pictures are classic. The Nelson girls are quite.... what's the right word? Oh yes, that's it... sparkly. There is an even better word, and that is one of Katie's creation.... SISSYTASTIC! That's everything sistery, and everything fantastic. Put it together and what do you have? Yep, you guessed it.
Here are this week's sissytastic pictures:

Katie and Pellie dressing up:


Camden can't be left out of the fun!


Does it get any better than this? You all wish you were sissytastic, don't you? :)

The newest Nelson

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Here she is! Meet Pellie the Basset Hound. She became part of our family on Tuesday of this week when Ben and Katie traveled to Alabama to get her. We got her from the Basset rescue of Alabama. She had been in the Pell City shelter for a while, and then fostered by the rescue people who called her Pellie. We had planned on naming our Basset "Dixie" to show off her Southern heritage but they thought she was pretty used to this name. Plus, I'm not sure how easy it would be to get Camden and Katie to call her something else by now, so it looks like this is going to be Pellie.
She is GREAT with the girls. She's about 3 or 3 1/2 years old, housetrained, and sleeps in Katie's room on Katie's bed with her, all night! Camden has played in her food while she eats and she doesn't do anything! She seems like a perfect fit so far! Here are some shots from this week...




This is the area on the side of our house, looking toward the mountain. It's fenced in along the property line in the woods to the back of the playset for now.
Helping Katie type her Summer Reading Project...
Poor Pellie, the girls took over her bed!
Katie, Camden, and Katie's friend Abbie made a "beach bed" for her yesterday. She's not spoiled, is she?

July (Part 2)

So, the next week in July we had a visit from Uncle George! The girls were SO excited to see him, they couldn't do anything else. I finally let them have a popsicle while they waited on the deck for him to get here. Yum!This time, Camden was pretty good about being snuggly with George. She talks about him ALL the time. Where's my George? over and over. Here they are making googly eyes at each other...
We did get a day out on the boat. Katie's in her floatie ring, and ready to snorkel!
This was right before George threw Katie off the top of the boat. I didn't get a mid-air shot of her on this one, but it was the highest she'd "jumped" from. She loved it!
We visited Point Park on Lookout Mountain, where the Battle of Chattanooga took place. Here they are before we went in:
Here's George, Camden, and Ben at the gate to the park
George, me, and Katie on Lookout Mtn overlooking the TN river and the "Scenic City".
And finally, the girls needed a break from walking up and down all those steps! Sheesh! Who knew walking around hills and mountains are that tiring! Just imagine what it was like for those soldiers who climbed straight up the side of the mountain in the Civil War!
Thanks for visiting, George! We had a great time with you here! Can't wait to see you next time. Sorry it took me so long to get this up here. Love you!