Party Party

We have been to a LOT of birthday parties over the past few months. There have been castle inflatable jumpers, indoor cardboard castles, tunnels and ball pits, and on and on. Usually, if I am toting 2 kiddos and all their stuff, the camera doesn't make it out of the car. I had just been to a photography workshop the day we went to this party for our friend Joseph (late March), so I was playing with some pretty sophisticated things that I had learned, like... taking the camera out of Auto mode.

Look at this face! This girl would never sit down to supper and say "Yuck!" then go screaming to time out because she refused to apologize.

Money shot.

Delia is getting really good at pumping her legs to swing herself - I think that is what she is doing here.

Delia's friend Amelia. They are getting so big!

Who teaches these girls to pose?

Could Joseph be having any more fun?? Birthday!! Balloons!! Pizza!! Yeah!!

Springtime

Holy guacamole I am behind on my pictures. SO, here goes!

I took these pictures in early March on one of the first days when it was warm and pretty.

Delia loved all the little teeny flowers that were blooming and just started running through them.

These flowers are really teeny!

Delia and Miller, just chillin'.

I don't know what is going on here.

This is me trying to be good at photography when I'm really not. Still fun!

Storm Chase Update

Had a solid chase on Saturday. We started in Pratt, KS and weaved our way up toward Topeka where this storm first started showing good rotation.



As the storm passed over residential areas of Topeka and Interstate 70, it produced a menacing funnel. Thankfully, it did not touch down here. The animation speed of the gif above is 1/10 of reality.



North of the interstate, there was a river with few crossings, lots of dirt roads, and more trees than we prefer. We muscled through it and were rewarded with some good views.


We came across some damage, including a large tree across the road. We never saw a tornado touch down, but it is possible. May have also just been downdraft winds.


We followed the storm to Leavenworth, KS where we crossed the Missouri River. We then found a bluff and watched the remaining storms roll by.

Bananas

SO many pictures to catch up on.... for now, here's this.

Delia's First Dance Recital

Delia has been taking ballet (and tap) since January. She loves it and looks forward to class all week every week. We were concerned that she would be very shy in front of the crowd (~250 people), but that was definitely not an issue.


This is when they first ran out. Notice the two girls on the left still trying to find their marked spots on the stage. Also notice the teacher on the bottom right giving instructions. This is the last moment where all the kids were even close to being on the same page at the same time.


I think two of the other girls are about to jump or maybe just landed, but you can see Delia's amazing "vert" here. She is still shorter than the middle girl.


Delia strikes this pose a lot. It may or may not have actually been a part of the planned routine.

Ok, I was wrong. They actually got in sync pretty good for the exit.

After the show. Thankfully, mom knew to take flowers because dad was new to all this. Despite the fact that he takes her to practice each week and he took her early for dress rehearsal and "curtain call," he was woefully underdressed and sans flowers.

Passe or Crane Kick?

The Pioneer Woman! In February!

I haven't really been in the mood to post happy fun things because of the tragic tornadoes we had in April. Over 340 people were killed in Mississippi and Alabama, making it the second worst tornado outbreak in history. Since there are only about 3 degrees of separation in Mississippi, we had several family members or friends who knew people who were killed. Grady spent a Saturday in Eupora, MS behind a chainsaw and a tractor helping some old friends remove fallen trees from their property, and he's going back tomorrow. I dropped off some toiletries and blankets at a collection station downtown. So, send money to the Red Cross and help your neighbors. Now, on to lighter things.

Since we've dropped The Biggest Loser (it really is the same thing over and over), I don't watch much TV at all. My only celebrity obsession is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. Long story short, she married a cowboy, moved to his cattle ranch in Oklahoma, started a blog, and people went nuts over it. Her recipes, her photography, her kids, it's all fantastic. So fantastic that she has won tons of awards for the website and she's recently been featured on the Today Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, the View, Good Morning America, Southern Living magazine, etc. I check her site almost every day, I have her cookbook and use it often, and I am in the middle of her latest book, which tells the story of how she met her husband. And she is hilarious. The rumor is that she is getting her own cooking show. So when she came through Memphis in February on her book tour, I took baby boy and went up to stay with Jennifer for a girls weekend.

Cameron (7 months), Brooks (4 months) and Jennifer

You had to have a ticket to even get in line and we didn't realize that you could have gotten these "line tickets" ahead of time. When we arrived at 6pm, they were letting group A get in line. We bought the new book, got our line tickets, and our group letter was something like "T." So we went to eat dinner, came back, got coffee in the bookstore, looked at some books, strolled the babies around the store, and finally, around 10pm, we met Ree and she signed our books.

Yay! A nice lady with a really nice camera took our picture and emailed it to us!

Shopping the next day with the babies. Everyone kept asking if they were twins. "Shopping" with babies is kind of a joke. I think we went to 2 stores, but it was still a great weekend!

Grady in the media

Due to the terrible tornado outbreak and the coincidental timing of one of my research papers being published this month, I have been bombarded by folks wanting interviews. Here are some of the highlights:

USA Today
Associated Press
Wall Street Journal
Clarion Ledger
Christian Science Monitor
Washington Post
Agence France-Presse

...along with several hate-filled blogs and websites run by climate change extremists (on both ends of the spectrum).

Erica! in February!

Because I have a really slow laptop at home, and I'm not that good at Flickr, I am just now posting my friend Erica's pictures from her visit in February, when she escaped the wintry mix of Chicago for Mississippi. There was snow on the ground when she got here, followed by some sunny days of upper 60's - if I remember correctly. Brooks was NOT sleeping through the night at that time, so many things are fuzzy - not to be confused with Erica's cute hubby Fuzzy.

We had the perfect lunch at Little Dooey BBQ, a Starkville original. Pictured here: pulled pork, BBQ sausage, fried pickles, potato salad, and some buttery bread. MM-MMM!!

Saturday morning, Grady kept both kids so we could get pedicures and go shopping!

Sunday, we bundled up the kiddos for a picnic at the wildlife refuge.

Brooks Bear, ready to go!

It was a beautiful day to be out and about.

One of the first pictures of Brooks smiling!

Gettin' tickled...

I will do some silly stuff for this little man's giggles!

The fam at the observation deck, where on warmer days, we've seen alligators float by! Thanks for the pics Erica!

Random Precious Things from My Phone

Itty bitty Brooks when I had to go into work during those first few weeks to cut checks.

Two tired dudes.

Bundled up for a very cold day!

Christmas morning? Nope, that's Delia's haul from her school Valentine's Day party.

Delia has started a 3 and 4-year-old ballet and tap class. She loves being a ballerina!

Brooks with the preacher's granddaughter Emma. They were born barely a week apart.

One of the many birthday parties we've been to in the past few weeks. This one was Delia's friend Will!

Hallelujah

Brooks is sleeping through the night.