Pa's Pumpkin Patch

We've made a few trips to the pumpkin patch by our house this month, and Charley loves it. He could just run around picking up pumpkins for hours, and he is also a big fan of chasing the animals around the petting zoo.

Dad and C.

C.'s first pony ride

C. and Dad on the train ride

C. and Pops on the train ride, Charley takes the rides very seriously :)

Happy Autumn!!

Time for a Haircut

Last week I took Charley to get his hair cut at the barber shop on Main St. John-Paul has cut his hair before, but this was his first "professional" haircut. I don't know if the barbers had much experience with cutting the hair of very active one-year-olds, but it was an adventure.

C. sat in my lap so I could try to hold him still and bribe him with snacks.

C. showing the barber how he can comb his own hair :)



C. with his official "haircut certificate."

Shaving already?!

Since Matt practically lives at our house as our other child, it's not out of the ordinary for him to be over here before he goes to work doing laundry, shaving, getting ready, etc. And Charley, who has taken to carrying around Matt's senior portrait when he's not here, wants to do everything his uncle is doing. So today when I noticed that the house was a little too quiet, I went and discovered that Charley was practicing "shaving" with Matt. Charley took the whole shaving thing very seriously and I couldn't even get him to crack a smile for pictures. What a little grown-up!

C.'s new favorite toy... not annoying at all

A big thank you to Aunt Lisa for this nice and quiet new toy :)

Family Reunion in San Antonio Part 1

This past week Charley took his first airplane ride and his first trip out of California to attend a family reunion for my Nonna's side of the family in San Antonio, Texas. Charley kept us on our toes, and made sure my mom, dad, and I didn't try to do anything crazy like read or relax on the plane. Overall, he did pretty well, and we didn't get too many dirty looks from the other passengers :)

Charley traveled through airport in style, riding on my dad's carry-on bag.

Charley has his Grampie wrapped around his finger!

Really happy to be on his first airplane ride ever :) Luckily, a nice little boy sat in front of us on the way there who didn't mind Charley's amusing game of slamming his tray table up and down over 500 times...

We were off to the family reunion dinner shortly after arriving in San Antonio. Charley was a big hit with the Porterfield side of the family. This is the four generation picture: My Nonna, my Dad, me, and Charley.

Immediately after arriving at our hotel, Charley made a beeline for the bathroom. I knew he was being too quiet!

Strolling with Grammie and Julie on the Riverwalk.

Check back for Family Reunion trip Part 2: the Alamo!

July is flying by!

It seems like July just got here, and now it's almost August! Where is the summer going? We've been keeping busy with beaching, birthdays, weddings, and a whole lot of Charley chasing :) Here's a little slide show of what Charley has been up to lately:

Getting ready for the beach.

Happy Birthday Grammie!

Some pool time with Dad and Uncle Matt.

Good thing Charley left the pool before things got crazy...

Getting a horsey ride in Montrose

Charley snacking on his toes...


Charley was my pre-wedding date while John-Paul was hanging out with Eric and the groomsmen.

John-Paul and I on the way to Eric and Rose's wedding.

Announcing A Newer Nelson

When we started this blog, we called it The Newest Nelson instead of Charley's Blog because we had a strong feeling he wasn't always going to be the newest Nelson in our family. Although Charley James has held the title of The Newest Nelson for just over one year (his 1st birthday was on June 22nd), as many of you may already know, Charley is going to have a sibling in late October or early November. We decided to find out if it is a boy or a girl this time since it will make proper planning a lot easier, so without further ado, we'd like to present the first official photos of Charley's soon-to-be little brother! We will refer to him as Baby Bean from now on since we have no idea what we're going to name him yet.

Yes, we're sure he's a boy!

His "cute" little face

In the meantime, since Charley James is technically still the boy of the household and we don't want him to feel left out, here are some pictures from his 1st birthday party and his first vacation with Aunt Angela, Uncle Matt, Cousin Braden, Aunt Maria, and Uncle Billy. We stole these pictures from Braden's blog because Braden's Mom is such a talented photographer!

Happy Graduation Betsy!

Last weekend we took a day trip to Santa Barbara for my cousin Betsy's graduation from UCSB. We all had a delicious brunch at the Bacara and celebrated Betsy's big accomplishment :) The highlight of the day was getting to meet a hawk and two baby owls that the resort uses as "pest control" to keep away seagulls. The owls were only three weeks old and already huge!

Charley petting his owl buddies


Charley is always happy when he's with his Grampie, because he does whatever Charley wants him too!

Getting in some walking practice...he's so close! He'll take a step on his own every once in a while, and I think he's going to be walking all over the place pretty soon...

Checking out the hawk with Grampie.

Haircut + chocolate pudding = a big mess!

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John-Paul gave Charley his first haircut last week! It was a very messy endeavor, but it looks really cute :)

Water Baby

Charley has been preparing for summer by playing in the water every chance he gets!

C. trying out his floaty for the first time. He only liked it if Matt would pull him around the pool super fast :)

Swimming with Sofia, Ava, and Auntie Jennie. Jennie had her hands full!

All decked out in his beach gear from grammie.

Hanging out in his hippo pool.

Mind Your Peas & Blues

For the last few days, it's just been Charley James and me hanging out in Seal Beach because Kristen and the rest of the family is in Arkansas for JD & Rachel's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS!). I decided it would be a good idea to show some proof that I'm doing a stellar job acting as a temporary single dad by posting some pictures of Charley eating a couple of his favorite foods. It's a little hard to see in the picture because I'm a better father than I am a photographer, but here's a picture of CJ enjoying some frozen peas and blueberries and then a picture of the 2 men of the Nelson household.

It's been a while but we're back!

We took a little blog break but now we're back with a vengeance!

Charley's been keeping busy doing some modeling work for our friend Danielle's new baby clothes business. She makes and sells super cute monster onesies, and you can go check them out at her website mylilmonsters.

It's hard work being this cute :)

My Two Favorite Guys

Charley hanging out at the beach with his favorite guy in the whole world, his Dad :)