Babies in a Wagon

We babysat Amelia Saturday evening while her parents threw a shower for some friends. The girls went for a wagon ride before baths and bed.

"Hey Amelia! Let's go cruisin'! There's a boy next door with a sweet tractor."

"Is that him in the Bob the Builder hat?"

"Hey Lake!" "He's so dreamy!"

"Helloooooo Ladies"

"Whatever. We are so not impressed."
(Delia hasn't sucked her thumb since she was 3 months old. Monkey see, Monkey do!)

First Steps!!

Delia has been walking with help for a while now, but as soon as you let go of her hands, she stops short like her feet are glued to the ground.

Grady's student brought over her new puppy for Delia to play with. Still no walking.

She'd rather sit and play.

Two cute babies in pink.

Thursday after work we went to happy hour at Grumpy's - a great walk-up restaurant near downtown with awesome BBQ sandwiches and chili cheese fries. A recent restaurant review called it "an upscale picnic." They have a nice deck with lots of tables and umbrellas, a grassy lawn, and last but not least, a giant TV that is always playing ESPN.

While Delia was waiting for her chicken sandwich, she took 3 real steps! The manager loved that! He took her picture to put up on the wall, gave us a t-shirt, and ice cream!

Delia's Dress, Miller's Collar

Thank you Grandma Amanda for the new outfits you sent Delia in the mail!

Delia models her new dress, shoes courtesy of the Nolan cousins!

She still refuses to walk on her own at 15 months old!

Guess what. Miller is still climbing the fence and getting out. The neutering helped, but Buddy recently remembered how much he likes to chew Miller's electric fence collar, which destroys the box that holds the batteries, rendering it useless.

Grady did some research online and found a type of "chew guard" for these types of collars. Unfortunately, the company is not selling them any more. So Grady manufactured his own using sheet metal scrap and a Dremel.

Miller models his new collar.

When we got home from work today, it appeared to be untouched...
Stay tuned...

Super Fun Saturday!

This weekend was a huge weekend in Starkville: Super Bulldog Weekend, which is pretty much Homecoming for Baseball, AND the Cotton District Art Festival, both of which easily draw tens of thousands of people. Personally, if I were MSU Athletics and/or the City of Starkville, I would have done my best to schedule these 2 events on different weekends so as to maximize the economic impact on the city, but I digress.

It was cool and drizzly that morning, but the sun came out and made it a really nice day.

There were tons of artist tents with paintings, ceramics, photography. Then there was my favorite row: the restaurant competition tents! We tried citrus-chicken sandwiches, sliders, and chicken and steak kabobs.

Here is Ryan tackling the biggest box of ribs I've ever seen, while Brandy shows off 6-week-old Will.

A dog walking service? Nope, just some friends of ours with a million dogs.

Apparently, this kid likes dogs too. (As the beagle looks wistfully at the Budweiser.)

Fun times with Mommy!

After the Art Festival, we went to Amelia's 1st birthday party!

Carmen had the house looking so cute, with giant flowers and butterflies everywhere.

What a sweet family!

Carmen's mom made this amazing strawberry cake that was soooooo good.

YAY! Presents!

Amelia kisses the tiger puppet that we gave her.

Amelia got a beautiful snow globe from her mom and dad.

The girls!

Delia and a Ducky.

Amelia's cake! I'm jealous.

Before...

...After!

Delia and I both loved the cake and ice cream. Great party Amelia!

Just for Fun

My Mammaw asked me to post a link to some wedding photos that I took in March for a family that goes to our church. It was my first real paying wedding gig. I borrowed a fantastic Nikon D300 for the occasion - my camera wouldn't have been able to get the indoor shots with the low lighting. Super fun job... champagne and sausage balls while you work?! Grady put together the website!

Mammaw: Take the mouse, move your cursor and click HERE. It should take you to the wedding photo website automatically. There are 7 different categories/albums. When you click on one image, it will take you to that gallery. Then you can click on any image to make it bigger, THEN you can click the "NEXT" button to click through them all.

Easter weekend

Melissa went to Chicago to visit her friend, Erica, so Delia and I went to Southaven on Friday to visit cousin Wesley. We all went to the Memphis Zoo on Saturday, where Delia most enjoyed being close to the horses, donkeys, and chickens.

Calmly observing the donkeys.

The joy finally hit her.


Next, we decided to let the kids ride the carousel. Sounds fun, right?

Both kids disagree.


So, we rode on the boring bench while both kids continued to look around suspiciously.



Yeah, I'm scared of the carousel. You got a problem wit' dat?


We all played in the back yard until supper time. Delia swung, Wesley slid, and both laughed while watching the other. Eventually, Wesley started digging in the flower bed, so Delia had to go see what the fuss was all about."Hey, Delia. You are so pretty, you should be in a flower bed!"

Calm before the storm.

It has been a long weekend at our house. Delia spent most of Friday throwing up. I was bed-bound all day on Saturday after throwing up that morning. Around 12:30 am on Sunday, we woke up to discover that Delia had a "blowout" requiring a bath and a change of sheets. During this lovely time, Melissa began her bout with vomiting. It is now 8:45 pm on Sunday, and I am the only healthy person in the house. Melissa is taking her 5th or 6th nap of the day (each followed or preceded by vomiting), and Delia just passed out after vomiting in the living room. Instinctively, I caught a handful, but there was much more than a handful to account for.

So, I provide this fun video that was taken literally less than 5 minutes prior to Delia's last episode...don't worry, it was a high point in the day and perfectly safe for family viewing. Yes, both her t-shirt and skirt are way too small, but I was looking for clothes that I could just throw away in the event of a really bad night. Thanks in part to my quick hands, I think I spared both items from the dumpster.

Fun in the Bath

Yeah! Let's get clean!

Showing off to Grandma Amanda

Peek a boo! Where's Delia?

"Here I am!"

Sweetie pie