Happy Birthday Boof!
I'm a little late blogging this - Riley's first birthday was last Sunday!
Here we are on the big day:
We wore our spiffy new orange-ish colored shirts and khaki pants to church Sunday morning to celebrate. Why orange-ish? Not sure. Christy dressed Riley and I matched him. Manda gave me a Hokie-colored polo shirt for Father's Day (have I mentioned that every day is Father's Day around here?).
One of Riley's first "words" (a sound really, but he made it a lot) was "boof". He would look at me when he was a couple months old and say "Boof," to which I would respond, "Are you calling me Boof?" And he would laugh. So I sometimes call him Boof. Hopefully that won't stick as a nickname...
B4
We had Boof's Big Birthday Bash (B4) the day before. A lot of the family made it over for a cookout and it was a nice day - the humidity settled down some and we enjoyed a consistent breeze on the deck. Here's Mom and Jimmy Lee:
Here's Mark (Merdoc), Sandy, and Alison:
Here's Jason and Kim:
And here's Manda, Tim, and Penny:
Riley scored way too many toys and enjoyed playing with them and the wrapping paper and bags they came in.
Christy amazed everyone (again) with her awesome culinary skills. The bacon-wrapped BBQ chicken bites didn't last long at all! And the mini-cupcake pops were a huge hit:
The evening didn't end until late, after a marathon Rock Band session courtesy of Jason and his kewl game console. I got to be the drummer. Yay. For the record: Most bands are composed of a singer, one or more musicians, and a drummer.
Here's Emma rockin' out on lead in her princess PJ's - it was definitely past her bedtime:
After almost everyone had left, I inflicted my singing on the those remaining and the hostages (kids). I actually pulled off a 98% (Medium) on Synchronicity II - without going falsetto. Take that.
We had fun!
Christy's New Camera
On another note, Christy is working on a cool new project that I cannot publicly talk about yet. But I can tell you it's new. And it's cool. And it's a project.
She needed to take better pictures as part of it so we picked up a Nikon D80 digital SLR camera for her. The most important thing about her getting a new camera is that I get the old one.
Christy's been reading up on digital photography and snapping pictures around the house like crazy. As of this writing we're still waiting on one lens, an 18-70mm. Nikkor lenses are tough to find for some reason. She bought the last 50mm / 1.8f in southern Virginia on Thursday - and had to check stores in Roanoke and Lynchburg to find that one.
Here's a few of her shots - included in this post for comparison with the old (my new!) digital camera.
Emma:
Riley:
Riley hasn't been drinking. Well, not that we know of... He was coming down with a nasty sore throat when this was taken. Hence the read eyes and flushed cheeks. Stevie is starting with it now, and I plan to catch it when I leave town tomorrow to deliver the SSIS for DBAs course in Maryland. 
Stevie:
I love this shot. He's in my office. That's my wallpaper in the background - Ward Cleaver would be proud. Stevie Ray's a handsome boy - watch out ladies!
Stevie and Emma:
Here are Stevie Ray and Emma Grace out back on the swingset. They are both on the same part of the swingset and not fighting - making this is a rare photo...
Note: the eyes are not photoshopped - they have their mother's beautiful eyes. I'm no expert on photography (or anything really) but I think these are great pictures! Part of it is having a nice camera. Christy also has a good eye - and it shows! And (grabbing some credit here), we make cute kids.
Here's hoping you are having a great summer. Things are fun here in Farmville.
:{> Andy