Cornelius Chronicles

Rebekah has finally decided that getting dressed by herself is something she wants to do. YEA! This is so great for me as I now just have to wrestle Loyd down to put his pants on in the morning. On the other hand, as you can see from the picture above, her sense of style is definitely interesting. The weather is cooling down. We have enjoyed some very nice days in the upper 80s lately. The children rush outside any chance they can get to enjoy their new found freedom. Loyd is especially good at finding sticks in the backyard to do battle with my poor plants and to wave about in a generally menacing manner. :) The cooling temps and the much needed rain have given my flowers a second lease on life. Here is our little Plumeria plant. We literally just stuck it in the ground this June and it has already grown a bit and given us these amazing flowers. My rose bush has sprung back into life too. I love the color and smell of these roses and I'm quite proud of myself. When we ...

Contrary to the looks on the kids' faces, they had a lot of fun at the beach yesterday. It wasn't too hot and the water was nice and warm. Bekah woke us up at 7 AM already dressed in her swimming suite. She knocked on our bedroom door and said , "Mom! I'm ready to go to the beach now!" She kept this chant up until we finally left after eating breakfast and packing the car. She was really excited to play in the sand and the water again. Loyd thought it was his personal responsibility to throw the sand back into the water. He diligently worked at this task until lunch when we devoured a corn dog, cheese doodles and some watermelon. I guess putting sand back into the Gulf of Mexico is hungry work for a little guy. :) Bekah was trying to make a sand snowman, but eventually gave up and just settled for making a cool bump in the sand. She has taken a new interest in making sandcastles. I think it's from watching too many beach episodes of Curious George...

Yea! The summer heat wave is starting to end! This week it has been cool enough that the kids can play outside again. To celebrate we broke out the little kiddie-pool and enjoyed a nice morning of getting wet. Here's to surviving a Southeastern Texas summer and looking forward to a wonderful Texas fall.

Not much to tell from our end of Texas. We've just been keeping busy keeping busy. We have started doing a small story time on Wednesdays with a few friends. The kids love it. Rebekah likes spending time with the other kids and Loyd adores doing the finger plays. I'm sure Great Grandma Young is helping him learn all the actions. He's really quite good at them and picks up the plays rather quickly. Loyd also went in for his 18 month old well baby visit. Everything is looking good for our young man. He is tall and skinny and seems to be ahead of the curve on his developmental milestones. The pediatrician was impressed. Rebekah is turning into quite the social butterfly. She loves to play with her friends. She would have them come over every day, all day if she could. When they have to go home she turns to Loyd and spends the rest of the afternoon telling him what to do. She taught him a few games with some carpet squares and has him trained on how to play a good g...

On a sad note for me, shortly after getting back from our trip Loyd found the camera. In a moment of pure destructive glee he threw it to the floor. Luckily it still takes pictures. Unluckily, the LCD display no longer works. So, I can take pictures, but I can't tell if they are any good until after I download them to my computer. I guess we just have one more thing to save up for. In the mean time please forgive my even more less than stellar pictures. Loyd is turning into quite the little boy. Along with practicing his throwing skills he has also decided to dabble in the world of stunt biking. Keep in mind, he really can't ride the trike anywhere yet because his legs are just barely too short to use the petals. However, he does like to climb on the bike and go back and forth and inch or two for practice. The other day he was enjoying his big-boy bike practice when it struck him that he could make it even cooler. So, he decided to try riding the trike with no feet! H...

What do you do during the hottest July in SE Texas history? Leave town, of course! We just got back from a wonderful trip to Utah. We got to visit Grandma and Grandpa P and Grandma and Grandpa C and all of our cousins and uncles and aunts. We had a terrific trip and found lots of wonderful activities to keep us hopping! Here are just a few of the pictures we took in no particular order. The kids thought Grandma and Grandpa P.'s house was wonderful. It took nearly the 2 full days of the drive back home to convince Rebekah she was ready to leave. She loved sleeping in the nice cool basement, eating yummy snacks and treats all day, and picking peas and cherry tomatoes at her every whim. Besides, nobody loves you like your Grandma and Grandpa do. My mom was a saint and spend way too much time helping me to make curtains for all the bedrooms in my house and making yummy food for us to eat. We all came home a bit fatter than we left. :>) Grandma's backyard is beautiful ...

So, what do you do when it's over a 100 degrees outside and it's the 4th of July? Why, spend the afternoon outside at the park, of course! We had a fun 4th of July. They really know how to celebrate here in Texas! We went to the church for a joint ward breakfast. Then, we went over to League City park where the city provided free hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones and sodas for lunch along with free entertainment. We ate our yummy lunch and then the kids went to the petting zoo and took a pony ride. Bekah loved touching the geese and Loyd was sure his job was to stay on the pony all afternoon. Then, we got our balloon animals and went to the face painting. Rebekah had a seashell put on her arm and Loyd had the batman bat put on his arm. Sufficiently tired, we went home and everyone took a long nap. After we woke up and ate dinner we went to watch the fireworks show at the Kemah boardwalk. It was an awesome show that kept Loyd "Oohing" and ...