Cat Tales

For Nixon's Birthday week we went to Cat Tales. It is a mini zoo that only has cats ... plus a few other animals:)

This was where the mini cats lived.
Tanner and Nixon on the "Steel" cat

Nixon loved the animals... he really liked when they moved around the most, I think.

A BIG white Tiger. He was pretty good lookin'.

Me and my big boy.

Nixon and Daddy-o

Our friends Ari and Parker came with us too. Parker is 6 months older than Nixon but about the same size.

If you pay extra you can feed one of the tigers. We got to see a girl do it, it was pretty cool. Yet you are behind a screen and it seems really safe.

Nixon saying "Hey"

This Tiger was really active and Nixon loved it. He was walking around and actually jumped up at Nixon when he turned his back... kinda scary. Good thing for the big cage!

Us with the Tiger!

Emily and her kids came too, although I didn't seem to get a picture of Katie. But her is Garett sharing his gram cracker with Nixon.

The white Tiger again.

The BIG BAD Tiger wanted to play with the Tiger in the next cage...

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... he is actually only 21 months old.

Parker and Nixon in the bed of the truck. What a fun Birthday Week for Nixon!!

Her is Nixon walking on the tramp... he loves to have us chase him around the tramp. Or his other favorite thing is to look through the tramp to see us underneath.

Nixon walking a lot. Man he is only been walking for a week and he is off like lightning.

We sing this song with him "slippery fish"... please disregard our singing voices. But he loves to sing.

Curse Homemade Icecream

So I have attempted to make homemade ice cream twice recently, after the first failure I told myself I would try until I made it right. But let's be honest how much crappy ice cream can one family eat, especially with me who can't even eat it?! Both times I put the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker to "freeze" for OVER three hours it still didn't turn out. I even tried two different receipes and gave the maker a lot of ice and rock salt...so i have come to the conclusion that the ice cream maker hates me. I mean I talked to my Mom, my Sister, my Aunt and my Grandma to get tips and they all said.."Oh it's easy, it will freeze in 30 minutes." HA, I fooled them. So I curse homemade ice cream and say "I will try another day" and for now I will live with Bryer's ice cream and Zips twist cones:)

Nixon turns ONE... HOORAY!

For Nixon's birthday we decided to celebrate for a couple of days.. I mean how many times does your first born turn one????
So we started out by building block castles and letting him knock them down.
Was this more fun for us or him... we aren't sure yet.

But he did LOVE knocking them down.

And daddy loved building them... Nixon didn't like the waiting part though.

Jon used EVERY block we had and built one HUGE castle. Of course he did this while Nixon was taking a nap... ok I took a little nap too.

Monday morning Darby and Nixon snuggled on the love sac while watching Baby Einstein.

Later on Monday we took Nixon to the pet store to see some cool animals.
He REALLY wanted to touch the fish but was just a bit too short... thank goodness really.

There was this South African Alligator too. Here is it's cage... it kinda freaked me out really.

It isn't very big but still scary lookin'.

Nixon loved the birds in this cage because they were just his size.

There was a BIG red parrot too, too big for Nixon though.

The big turtle that just roams around the store.

Nixon wanted to chase it and he kept saying "oof oof" like it was a dog... it was so adorable.

That night we went on a walk and ended up getting ice cream at Chester Store. Nixon stood up in his little stroller car wanting more and more ice cream. We barely made it home with ice cream left.

Needless to say... he loved it!

AUGUST 11, 2009
Nixon's Birthday!
Well the morning started out really good... Nixon slept in until 8:30. Jon and I both woke up BEFORE him and wondered what to do with ourselves. We heard him making noises finally and we both went in singing Happy Birthday to him. He clapped and gave us both morning pats.
We opened Nana's package for breakfast.

He liked the Elmo card that talked to him.

Nana sent him a baseball hat with a bear on it and a matching shirt.

There I am trying NOT to let him take it off.

Ta-Da it's the birthday boy.

He really liked the wrapping paper and the noise it made.

Here he is trying to eat the phone instead of talking on the phone to Nana. I did get him to say "Nana" though so she could hear it.

We were planning on swimming on Nixon's birthday but the cover wouldn't come off of Grandma's pool so we decided to take him to the dog park. Nixon seriously LOVES dogs and he now can say "oof off" and "gog" and wants to "pat" ever dog we see.
Cam came with us and we took the dogs and Nixon to the dog park.

Nixon liked to stand at the bench and all the dogs would come up and droll on him... yes it was gross but he loved it.

His cute butt after sitting in the leaves.
(Don't worry we all took baths after the dog park:)

Jon and I made Nixon homemade cake in the shape of a baseball for his birthday. Jon was awesome at icing it and decorating.

Before the icing!.....

During the icing and decorating....

Oh and I iced one too.

Nixon sat in my lap for awhile and tried to "help" me by sticking his fingers in the icing and tasting it.

Decorating the basketball. We had to get the right design from the real thing (in the background).

The birthday boy and his cakes!!

Ta-Da the finished product... I think we did a pretty good job considering this was our first attempt. I have decided that from now on for birthdays my kids will be able to chose what they want their cake to be... as long as it is a round shape.

We had the whole family together for waffles, stawberries and bacon.

Nixon LOVES waffles and strawberries, fitting for his birthday dinner.

Playing outside after dinner.

Opening presents.

Grandpa and Grandma Pickett sent him a package too...

Yeah a birthday teddy bear and a gift card to Target.

Grammy and Pompa got him a scooter... beep beep comin' through.

Katie, Tanner, Garret, Emily and Kirt got him a cute shirt and a little piano.

I always have said that I will get my kid a box of tissues for his birthday.
1. because he doesn't know the difference of how much we spend on the little guy
2. because ... hello he loves to pull them all out
3. it seems like we spend money on him all the time getting him things he needs so why not get him something he always wants but i take it away usually

Well it was a HIT and he loved the tissue box!!

Singing to the big One year old.

And now for the mess...

He wasn't so sure about sticky icing being on his hands.

I had to help him get a little of the cake.

The cute birthday boy.

Oh yeah...

He must like it, if he is sucking it off his fingers.

Slammin' it into his face... classic.

How cute is that face?

At the end he knocked the cake onto the floor and started sucking on the ring that helped it stand up. What a cutie pie.

On Monday Nixon started WALKING... we couldn't believe it. He has been so close forever it seems like and finally he let go and walked to me and then walked 13 steps to get Gauge.

This is Nixon walking with his new dump truck... you'll love it.

Here he is walking to Gauge... YEAH for Nixon.