This is a special post for Jennifer. There was a really windy evening recently & I told Jennifer I was worried about falling branches. She scoffed at me & said I was being silly. Well, here's Brandon standing next to a huge branch laying under a tree the next day. Can you imagine that thing falling on you??? Ouch!Jennifer - don't worry - I'll stop pointing out fallen branches eventually.

We recently went bowling at the Millenium Bowl. I'm lame & forget to pull out my camera until AFTER Rich, Regina & Jackson had left - sorry guys... Anyway - here are a few pictures of those remaining when I DID remember to get the camera out.

It's interesting to see how differntly everyone releases the ball. Tyrus has great form & alot of power. This alley shows the speed of your ball on the overhead monitors. Tyrus clocked some impressive speeds.

Nick, of course, beat us all. But he only beat me by 3 points (hehehe) After many many frames without a kiddie ball hill, I finally managed to nab one. It mades it SO much easier. When Brandon has to roll the ball himself we somtimes wonder if it will even make it to the pins it rolls so slowly. Seriously it was painful to watch/wait.


Laedyn obviously had a good time watching everyone bowling ... or is she just learning to pose for the camera from her big brother?!? We all know what an expert HE is! Yet another example of Brandon's hamminess...
The flash really made for a bad picture, but turning it black & white made major improvements to the exposure...Besides - I HAD to post that cheesy grin!

We had planned to hang out & watch election returns last night, but Mother Nature intervened. We had quite a storm and all the local stations had on nothing but storm coverage. Luckily the tornadoes that wreaked havoc in neighboring areas missed Little Rock completely. The storm that did come thru was short but strong. Heavy rain, strong wind, lightning & very loud thunder. Brandon had trouble sleeping the rest of the night. He came into our room, scared, several times. I guess next time they're showing constant weather updates related to severe weather we shouldn't let him watch. As you can see from this picture, he's looking kind of worried.When it first started coming down, I went out on the back porch to take a little video. You can kind of see the wind flinging the rain around. The actual thunder was MUCH louder than what the camera was able to pick up.

Jennifer & Mark came over to watch the Superbowl on Sunday. I made chili & hot wings, Nick cut fresh veggies, Jennifer made cheese dip (the best ever), and Mark brought York peppermint patties, hershey kisses & beer. Brandon brought out his crazy velvet top hat & we all took turns tyring it on. You'll remember it from Nick's Halloween costume...


Brandon had fun hamming it up for someone other than me... Jennifer bought a new digital camera & all the superbowl pics were taken with it. It's a Canon Powershot - but a few steps up from mine.

As you can see, Brandon was enjoying Superbowl food - chips & cheese dip.

Nick was very comfortable sitting in the desk chair. In fact he looked so comfy, that Romeo & the kids joined him. I hopped into the picture just so it would be a complete family portrait.

This walk led us across some railroad tracks and under Cantrell Road (highway 10). Some old supports run adjacent to the railroad tracks. I thought it looked nice with the downtown skyline in the background.
Mark decided to play balance beam...Jennifer stepped out too.This is along the bike trail that goes under Cantrell Road near Dillard's. On the underside is an old "No Parking" sign bolted to the underside of the road. That's what Jennifer is looking up at. I thought these cross supports looked interesting with the light and shadows and dead vines.
There were some lower ones further along, so I had Nick put Brandon up on them. Brandon wasn't too thrilled about it - he thought it was scary. But he's a good sport & smiled so I could take a picture.
Nick pushing Brandon & Laedyn on the stroller near downtown.
It was getting too late to go any further, so we turned around at the next stop light, went up to Markham & home.

Nick led a recent neighborhood walk & took us to a really really steep hill. We all came down very carefully. Mark helped by holding onto the front of the stroller just in caseThen Jennifer decided to go back to the top of the hill! She just can't get enough of those suckers...
Nick & Mark stared back up the hill at Jennifer's craziness...
Brandon wanted to go back up too, so we let him follow her. He got about half way and was scared to continue, so Mark had to go after him. Brandon refused to wait until Jennifer was on the way back down - he just stood there crying pitifully until Mark got to him. Poor thing! It's hard to tell in the picture, but just past where Brandon stops it gets much steeper than it is up until then. If you're going up, you can practically put your hand out in front of you & touch the ground without bending over at all...

Laedyn's growing up so fast. She's started using the highchair instead of the Bumbo seat and bouncy seats now. She really likes it with the big tray to hold her toys and cheerios (yes - she's eating cheerios too).