This is Texas....Parker, Texas that is...

While our house was being finished we stayed at my parents for 5 weeks after Maison was born.  I had visited my parents often and we had stayed there on and off through our home remodeling but I had never been there long enough to notice several oddities in their neighborhood until we were there for 5 straight weeks...

My parents neighbor has a live nativity scene and when I say live I mean living animals that they purchased and care for all year long so that they can participate in the Christmas pageant at the church each year.  Ok...so anyone can feed and care for a few donkeys...right?  Uh, this guy not only has donkeys, he has a camel...are you kidding me?  Who buys a camel for a yearly gig?   Here is the camel hanging out with the donkey...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I took Maison to Bob Woodruff park almost everyday.  After a few trips I decided to venture to the trails that spawned off the lake.  One of the trails went on forever and along the way I found a peculiar sign..."No Horses Allowed Beyond This Point"

I've lived in Texas a long time and have ridden horses most of my life and I have never seen such a sign.  This trail is NOT a horse trail; it is a paved bike, run, skate, etc trail.  I have no clue why anyone would even think to take a horse on the trail much less need a notice not to take a horse past a certain point.  The sign was conveniently located about 10 yards from a huge picnic area and then another 20 yards or so to reach the lake that is always highly populated with walkers, runners, children on the playground...so why on earth would anyone take a horse there?  I thought this sign was so odd...yet the more I walked on this trail and the further I went I now know why it was there.  Apparently some people DO ride horses on paved trails and let them 'do their business' on said trail.  I've run/biked/skated/walked on Plano trails for about 20 years and have seen a lot of 'dog business', 'duck business', and even a some 'unidentifiable business' (possibly squirrel or rabbit???), but never in my life have I seen horse poo up close and personal on a running trail....eeeewwwww!

So each day I either went a different route or went further on the trail than I did the day before...on several outings I noticed people picking pecans.  I'm not talking about 3-4 people...I'm talking 20-30 people.  Most of the trail I was walking on is part of the nature preserve.  I'm not versed in nature law but I don't think that is that legal.  Can you just take pecans from a nature preserve?  Uh, not like a sample but 5-gal buckets by the dozen?  I would have taken a picture or two to document the pecan pickers but there would have been a mass exodus towards the southern border so I decided to limit the pecan picking description to verbiage only.  

After telling my dad about the pecan pickers he told me that Carlos, our gardener, said Texas Pecans are 'big business'.  You can sell your picked pecans by the 5-gal bucket for money.  Who knew???  Apparently Texas Pecans don't go through any sort of processing before they are packaged and sold to the buyer.  Let's just say I won't be buying 'local' in the future...

The Pram Parade

While we were staying at my parents house I would take Maison on a walk every day.  We started going when she was about 2 weeks old just around their neighborhood and eventually we got confident enough to drive to Bob Woodruff park and walk around the lake.  I called this our "pram parade" because everyday for the first several days Maison wore a different Halloween costume and thus it was a parade of different costumes or characters.  Some days she was a pumpkin other days a white tiger or just a normal newborn in a hat and a onesie....it just depended on the weather and how tall she had gotten as to which costume/outfit she wore. 

       

Ok...so the 'pram' part of this post:

If I was a celebrity I would be getting paid millions for the following comments but since I have yet to be discovered I will give the disclaimer that I have not been compensated for the following endorsement:

If you are in the market for stroller you HAVE to get an UPPA Baby Vista...it is AMAZING and worth every penny!!!  The stroller has a pram attachment that is for a newborn that pops on an off with the click of one button.  The stroller then collapses with ONE HAND.  It has sturdy tires like a jog stroller that corners like a luxury vehicle.  If that wasn't enough to warrant the exorbitant price it has an attachment to work with our car seat and it converts to an umbrella stroller...but oh wait there is more....it grows with your family.  It can work as an umbrella stroller WITH the car seat attachment so one child can face backwards in the car seat and the other forward in the umbrella seat.  Wait one stroller carries 2 kids that is not marketed as a dual stroller?  I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT...thank you Mom and Shari for such a fab gift!!!!
 

Gators, Dogs, Cowboys, Cows...and Skeletons!

Halloween was quite eventful for a 10 day old...

We started the afternoon with the Florida vs Georgia game which was immediately followed by the Texas vs Oklahoma State game.  2 football games combined with my entire family, trick or treaters, and Charlie was a little too much stimulation for little Maison.  

To make matters worse we changed her 'outfit' about every 4 hours throughout the day to try to accommodate all the halloween costumes she received.  There were so many she started wearing them about 3 days before Halloween and wore some of the larger ones to the park after Halloween (see next post regarding the "Pram Parade").  On actual Halloween night she was a skeleton including a white skull hat. 

Here is the fam watching the Texas game and celebrating Halloween with our little spooky skeleton!

   

A New Madcow is born - Maison Marie Maslow

After 16 hours of labor, 3 hours of pushing, and a c-section, Maison Marie was born on Oct. 21st at 4:45pm.  Here are her very 1st pics...

                

Day 2, Thurs Oct. 22 - recovery and lots of visitors!  My parents, grandma, sister, and Heather all came to visit us.

        

Hanging with G'daddy, Nooey, and Aunt Shari

    

Notice the cute hat with the bow on it is only in one picture.  That's because Maison pulled it down over her eyes so many times that it eventually started to fray so we had to 'dispose of it'.  We ended up sending it to my parents house so their dog, Charlie, could get use to her scent.

Day 4, Saturday Oct 24 - HAPPY B-DAY BUBBA!

We were still in the hospital on Saturday so we missed celebrating Bubba's bday....Shari even beat me to singing "Happy Birthday" Marilyn Monroe style...bummer.  The hospital photographer came by to take Maison's newborn picture.  She scratched her face literally right when the lady walked in the door and we had to pay to have it touched up...what are the chances of that?  Here are her 'professional' hospital photos when she was 4 days old:

   

Day 5, Sunday Oct 25 - Going Home...kind of!

We were released from the hospital on Sunday and our house was still not finished so my parents graciously agreed to let us stay at their house until we could finish ours.  Here are the pics when we were leaving the hospital and arriving at Nooey's and G'daddy's!