Family Pictures

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!

No Doubt Christian Loves his daughter!!

A special thanks to my good friend Shani who took these for us! She did such a fabulous job! We have never had such beautiful pictures taken of us..they are so crisp and clear! Delia was such a good sport, especially since it was getting close to her bedtime! She is so photogenic and LOVES getting her pictures taken! These will definately be cherished for years to come.

Our trip to Mississippi...and Tornado weather!

Delia walking to the Lake with Grandpa.



Delia getting ready to get in the water...you can clearly see there is a storm coming!



look at that beautiful face!




Braving the cold water....

Then the strom hits us like a ton of bricks...

not just any strom..a tornado! Well luckily it didn't hit us directly, in a town about 2miles away. Wheww. but it was much darker than the pictures are showing.

Still baring down on us...

continues....

Wil it ever stop?

Safe with Grandpa.

The storm hit faster than I have ever experienced! The wind was blowing 60 mph. Trees were falling down. The rain was blowing sideways, so we were all drenched. We were right in the middle of a fish fry and three pans had boiling oil in them. You could harly see anything right in front of you because the wind was blowing so hard. Nobody expected this. Apparently this part of MS doesn't get weather this severe. It was so scary, but exhilerating at the same time.

The Delia Generation

This is a picture of Delia with her great, great Aunt Carolyn, and her daughter, Delia...who was also named after her grandmother which is my Delia's great, great grandmother. Hope that made sense. So Delia is the thrid generation of Delia in the family..kind of neat. What is also weird is that all the boy and girl names that I like for our future children are also family names..hmmm ;) It was nice to be able to see people we hadn't the last time we went and learn a little more about the whole family lineup and where everyone fits. George, my father-in-law, has done SO much geneology work and was able to share all that he found, plus some old pictures of family members and get some more information to continue his work. It was so much better than last time. We first went to the Anderson family reunion we were first in dental school, about 5 years ago, and both of us went into it blindly...we had really never met anybody. Since we had met these people before it was easier to be comfortable around them. We had a blast.

Vicksburg, MS Military Park



Delia in front of a smaller cannon.

With daddy in front of the cannons.

Delia attempting to pick up an object....

...not realizing it is a 12 lb. cannon shot, is trying to pick it up...too funny!

Delia with the Confederate boys!

Christian and Delia wearing confederate army hats!

Delia in an old Coca-Cola barrel at the Coca-Cola Museum where it was first bottled!

Delia striking a pose!

The seige at Vicksburg, MS was one of the biggest and quite possibly the deciding battle for the end of the civil war! Because it is on the river, President Lincoln thought it was the best chance to hinder the south and it's Confederate Army. For six weeks it raged on in hot and extremely humid conditions. We were able to hear a cannon shot and it was so loud the shock wave literally knocked the wind out of everyone and all we could do was drop our jaws in awe. that was one of there smallest Cannons, weighing only 2000 lbs total and they went up to a whopping 25, 000 lbs. Incredible I couldn't believe it...then the actors told us to imagine 100 of those going off at once! I'm sure it was awful to have to be subjected to all that! Throughout the park, they have a bunch of memorials of all the infintries that faught in the siege..mainly the states of Illinois and Indiana. 16 miles of land were the fighting took place. All of the Union soldiers are barried inside the park..and of course the Conderates, outside the park. Interesting. It was so much fun!

For the Love of Pineapple and a New Fashion Statement

So 2 discoveries were made in one day, a new fashion statement and long lost love, pinapple! I say this because Delia likes fruit, but will only eat them pureed she refuses to eat them any other way except pinapple. I gave her her first taste the other day and she absolutely loves it! Now why is it her "long lost love" because that was the top thing I craved while pregnant with her. I was never a big fan of pinapple until she came along and now I still love it.

As for the new fashion statement. Delia found daddy's mask in the garage and decided to wear it a "different" way..yep that's what you see, she is wearing it on her behind! It was sooooo funny! I even took a video of her dancing with it on. She thought she was pretty cool! I can't wait to show this to her when she is sixteen and say "see nobody cares what you wear!"...yeah right! ;)

Saving the Apple Tree

Our Apple tree had a brush with death yesterday and we still don't know if it will make it! As you can see the lovely backhoe behind the tree was brought here to grade out our dirt. As it was being graded, it made a tight turn and the hydrolic line ruptured spraying...yes you guessed it, hydrolic fluid all over the tree, along with that black, sticky, goopy, greasy stuff all over it too! You can't really see it in the pictures, but the branches, leaves, and the newly budded apples are shining with an oily cover. In the second picture, if you look at the dark dirt surrounding the trunk of the tree...no it is not wet dirt..that is oil! We have tried spraying it with water and soap and soap and water and using towels to wipe off as much oil and the black goopy stuff as we can! We will not be eating any of the apples it will produce this season, and if the poor tree does live by some miraculous intervention, we will have to make sure that all of the dirt surrounding the area of the apple tree is replaced before we put grass in because it could also kill the grass later. Ahhh!! What a nightmare. It has taken so long for the dirt to be graded in the first place, but now it will take longer(the repair man has to fix the backhoe on-site..if you turn it back on it will just start spraying again) and that our apple tree might die and then have to pay for it do dug up and disposed of OR we will end up doing the labor ourselves :( Funny while I was wiping off the black stuff it reminded me of those specials on discovery channel where the animal people are saving those poor ducks from oil spills and cleaning them up...except for me it's an apple tree :) I guess we will just have to cross our fingers!

Latest Project

This is my recent project that took a week to do. I kind of went all out on this one, but only because an idea popped into my head and I didn't want to spend the time to think of anything else. I was really excited to do this one and posted it especially for my friend Charlotte in Denver. That is her little girl with Delia, Eden, and was the one who invited me to go with her on Earth Day...free admission. It was so much fun and was able to get these really special pictures! Delia was 8 months old, one of my favorite ages! My how time flies!

6th Anniversary!

Yesterday was Christian and I's 6th Anniversary! Wow, I can't believe it has been that long! We went up to Bayfield, Co to see how his pottery that was fired turned out. It was awesome! The weather was beautiful and the scenery was gorgeous! His pieces truned out spectacular! We have only had 1 mug break the rest have come out very nice! Afterwards we stopped off in Aztec, NM and got Deli sandwiches at Safeway, which were huge and delicious! Then Chrsitian's anniversary/mother's day gift...A new TV. He found one on sale at Sears, but I found a MUCH better deal on line, so we ordered it, along with some other electronic goodies and should be here in about a week or less. I am so excited. Both of us have been wanting a nice, new TV since we've been married and have finally got it. It is a Samsung 52" LCD widescreen!! Yippee! Best gift ever! I wonder what we'll get "ourselves" next year? I have also had a wonderful mother's day. Christian got a box of chocolates for himself..*sigh*..and "shared" with me because he knows I have a "fitness" goal. so I have only had 3 chocolates. Sooo proud of myself! Delia made me a card with a picture of a butterfly she painted using her hand prints...sweetest mother's Day gift so far! Below are some reminicing wedding pictures, the well fired pottery and the new TV.