Grandpa Bill asked for a new wallet photo of the family, so mama took off work early on Friday so that the fam could pose. Silly family.

Romy asked for an update on the garden, so here it is. Can you believe how big the plants are already?

Lots and lots of green beans (in the front row). Enough to pick for dinner almost every night. And tomatoes, so many tomatoes. We will eat gazpacho until it comes out of our ears.

Salad tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

Roma tomatoes

Beef Master tomatoes

Eggplants - we have eggplant parmesan to look forward to...mangia!

Jalepenos to spice things up

Butternut squash

Yellow summer squash

Basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, tarragon, morning glories and cabernet grapes (in the white pot)

Cabernet grapes. Too bad they don't taste like wine. Shannon and I found that out the hard way!
One night's bounty...more to come

Keegan eyeing the tomato...

Yum, mama...I LOVE tomatoes. Game over.

Happy early Father's Day!

As an early present, and with the able assistance of Sha, mama painted the downstairs bathroom for dada. The card says "Happy early Father's Day!" Mama surprised dada with it when he got home from the beach this weekend. Dada went into the bathroom to use it and about fell to the ground. Mama and Sha taped, painted, faux finished, hung two shelves, built this cabinet, and bought all the accessories. They left the cabinet for dada to hang because they were scared it would fall on their toes.
You can see in this picture that the "faux finish" did not really come out as well as hoped. Mama says she is done with faux finishes. She'll stick with my faux hawk.
A picture of the shelves. Again, you can see the faux finish defects. The flash on the camera really makes the finish shine (called Candlelight). Luckily, when there is not a flash, the defects are hardly noticeable. Or, not so noticeable that dada is going to make mama fix them, yet.

Visiting with Shannon

This weekend, Mama's best bud from college, Shannon, came to visit from Atlanta to help me celebrate my 11 month birthday. Shannon was lots of fun and chased me all over the place. She brought me so many new books that I'll be reading forever - there is even one with a little boy that looks just like me. Mama was so happy to see Sha. Shannon is a chiropractor and a super fly pilates instructor. Her body rocks. I showed her my "downward dog". Mama can't wait to see Shannon again, although, rumor has it that next time, Mama's going to Atlanta to visit Sha. I guess dada and I will be bachelors.

For dada's 34th birthday on May 24 (mama apologizes for her lack of blogging and blames work), mama surprised dada by flying in his best friend from college, Richie Malave. Richie lives in Washington D.C. now and works for the Discovery Network. He's a smart, fun and crazy guy. We had a ball together.
Richie brought everyone gifts from the Discovery Network: t shirts, hats, a stuffed koala for me, and even an authentic Lance Armstrong jersey for dada. When mama went to try on her hat, Richie noticed that there was a manufacturing defect. Can you see it? Animal Planl?

Although Richie was mad that he got a defective hat, mama thought it was kind of cool and unique. She posed with a sad face so that Richie could show this picture to the marketing guys up at the Network. He's going to take it to them, literally.

With date stamp to make it authentic! We miss you Richie and can't wait to see you again!

Mama invited a few friends out for a little Karaoke and pool at the local pool hall to celebrate Dada's birthday.

She even bought him a cookie cake. Mama doesn't really bake, and they decided to leave Ga's super tasty carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting at home.

It's time for crawfish again. Mama is seriously trying to make up for not having any last year! And Richie's visit combined with the rainy Memorial Day weekend was the perfect opportunity to soak some mudbugs.

Say hello to my little friend Beaudreaux.

Sorry Beaudreaux.
We tore you up!

Even crazy Richie from New York liked crawfish!

Paw paw gave us a good feed. He even has the veggie cooking mastered. There is nothing like the rutabaga. Trust me.

After the crawfish boil, my friend Sher showed me how to wash off my fingers in the rain water on the street. It was fun to play in the water.

I am the man!

What are you lookin' at?

The crab on my bottom?

Grandma sent me this outfit from Chicago. Hi Grandma!

My Uncle Billy came all the way from Minnesota to visit this weekend. We had a blast. When he saw me at Christmas, I couldn't even sit up on my own. Now I can walk all around.

Staci and Chris came to visit this weekend too. Staci tickled my belly until I screamed. I'm going to her wedding the day before my one year birthday in July. She's getting really excited and filled mama in on all the wedding planning.

We took Uncle Billy to the Astros' game on Sunday. We checked out Ga's brick on the way in.

Our buddy Dan met us there. He's a Rangers fan, and was very happy that the Rangers beat the Astros. We were a little embarrased sitting next to him, but not too bad.

Uncle Billy took me on a tour of the stadium when I got frisky, and bought me this super cool hat along the way. Sweet. Mama says I've got him wrapped around my finger. Yep.

I was wiped after the game and promptly passed out in the truck.

A trip to the park...

My first trip down the slide. I planted my feet so mama wouldn't make me go too fast.

Uncle Billy pushed me in the swing. Not too fast, not too slow, just right. Mama loves how my faux-hawk blows in the breeze.

Goodbye Uncle Billy, I'm going to miss you. It was lots of fun.

Mama won her mediation today (yeah!), so she took off the afternoon from work. We took a walk around the neighborhood with daddy, which was quite exciting because they are not usually home from work until after dark. The neighbors wondered who mama and daddy were, and where Ga and Pawpaw are (who are actually in Boston visiting cousin Peggy this weekend). Hope y'all are having fun with those cats!