First swim of the season.

The last 2 days have hit over 80 degrees, so we decided it was time to bring out the swimming pool. Today, Luke took his first swim of the season in our "backyard pool." As you can see, he talked Dad into taking a dip with him. Looks like a big game of H20-teeball was in the works, too!

Salsa-licious!

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson returned to Arizona for one final visit before it gets blazing hot this summer! Speaking of hot, we tested our taste buds at the Salsa Festival on Saturday. For salsa lovers, this is a dream come true ... more than 75 different varieties of homemade salsa recipes. Some restaurants enter, but a greater majority is your average Arizonan who enjoys a good chip and dip. Luke loves chips and salsa, but we had to steer him clear of the hot stuff. What goes better with salsa, than a big bag of Tostitos ... pictured here!

Luke's ready for American Idol!

Luke is ready to audition for American Idol! He's been working on his singing and can now officially belt out his first song. It goes something like this.

To the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

Row, row, row, row, row, row BOAT (boat is always shouted with great gusto and there's a lot of extra rowing before you get to that part!)
(Long pause) Stream.
Merry, merry, merry, merry.
(Long pause) Dream.

As you can see, he has his own rendition of this time-honored classic, so we're not sure what Simon would have to say about that!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Luke the Leprechaun would like to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Leahy family! Hope your day was full of green, good luck, and good times! Mom and Dad went out to a St. Pat's party with some friends, while Luke enjoyed a date night with babysitter Abby. For some reason, he thought her name was "Happy" and kept doing the sign language for "happy" every time he said her name. Funny little leprechaun.

Ruby Slipper Design's First Show!

Today Jami participated in a first for Ruby Slipper Designs -- a vendor fair. It was hosted by the Scottsdale Parenting Group and held outdoors in the parking lot of a church. It was a great morning ... and a great opportunity to pass out a lot of business cards for new potential clients!! Another fun challenge was creating a display table for the event pictured here.

Go Phoenix Suns!

Scott scored some free tickets from a vendor to tonight's Suns vs. Clippers game, so we enjoyed a family night out to the b-ball game. We had great seats in the lower level, and Luke was on his best behavior. Scott was scouting out "celebrities" and spotted in the suite behind us one of the local news anchors. Luke was pretty intrigued by the monkey (AKA the Suns Gorilla mascot). It was a great game, too ... the Suns are doing well this season. Here are the wild fans (and someone more interested in sneaking a sip of Dad's coke).

Rain ... after a long drought!

On Saturday, we finally had rain after 140-some-odd days. The last time it rained was Oct. 18! It started raining in the early morning hours on Saturday and rained continuously all day and into the night. Since it's usually sunshine and blue skies here, Luke is accustomed to playing outside, and it really threw a wrench in his schedule to have to make alternate plans! He tried riding his bike while Dad held the umbrella over his head to protect him from the sprinkles, but that didn't last too long. So we planned a tour of inside play areas ... McDonald's and the mall and the Leahy basement ... to keep him occupied during the rainfest. He was all too happy to wake up on Sunday and see that the sun was beaming brightly! His first adventure was to explore the backyard ... good thing the thirsty ground soaked up the water so we didn't have any mud to contend with. Our dormant winter grass should be springing back to life in the next week with all that rain.

Prison break!

Another milestone has been reached -- Luke managed to crawl out of his crib today! He's made a few attempts to date but has never officially hit the ground running ... until today. He was supposed to be taking a nap, which on occasion he also decides to boycott with the simple reply of "Not sleepy." But today he decided to make his big break. We've caught him a few times riding the crib railing like a horse, but he was always a little confused on the next step. Obviously, he figured it out today (and with much silence, too) because we never heard as much as a thump or thud or any loud sound other than him standing in the hallway crying (probably because he was shocked at his feat!) He wasn't hurt but a little dazed (most likely from the adrenaline rush of scaling the outer banks of his crib.) We had to give him the "why it's not a good idea to crawl our of your crib" speech. Scott and I were both chuckling to ourselves ... we knew this time was coming. Better head to IKEA and get the big boy bed.