Now that's what I call severe weather!

So for the past week, our weathermen had been predicting that it would rain all day Friday and Saturday. It didn't. Not one drop. And still no one predicted the downpour we received this morning. Actually "downpour" is probably an understatement. There were 2 tornado warnings within 10 miles of our house. It started with a little thunder, and it was really dark outside, so I opened the blinds so we could enjoy it. Yes, I said enjoy it. I LOVE rain. I've only lived in places where it doesn't happen very often, so I LOVE it. When we lived in Lubbock, there were often Tornado warnings, usually in one of the many outlying cities/counties (since Lubbock was the news hub for a huge area). The weathermen reports would then take over the TV stations for the rest of the evening, yet we rarely ever saw the severe weather. So this morning when the wind was blowing like crazy and it started raining, I turned on the TV, thinking I would get lots of info. Nope. Nothing. Apparently our weathermen wouldn't interrupt the morning news shows. I took Billy into our bedroom so that I could get dressed. The rain started totally pouring down, so I opened the door and Billy and I peeked our heads out to watch it. Not more than 10 seconds later, there was a huge clap of thunder and a bright flash of light as lightning struck in our backyard! I couldn't believe it. I've never been that close to lightning before. It was incredibly bright and incredibly loud. Billy started crying, and I slammed the door shut, but my ears kept ringing for a few minutes afterward. Wow.

We got so much rain. I opened the garage door and took pictures of our street, which looked more like a swimming pool. Garbage cans were knocked over and had floated down the street. The pictures didn't come out great, but I'll post a couple anyway. The rain has all but stopped now, and most of the water is already gone. Amazing. I'm used to Lubbock, where they didn't quite understand the concept of drainage systems, so the water stayed in the streets for a long time and caused lots of problems

Here's the intersection that is totally submerged. I don't even know who those two garbage cans belong to.

This is in front of our garage. Notice how deep the water is across the street by the other garbage can! Those trash bags are literally floating in the middle of the street. The street was completely submerged. (It's trash pick-up day, that's why I have so many pictures of garbage cans!)

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It's a . . .

Blob???

I had a regular ultrasound instead of the up close and personal sonogram I had with Billy, so the kiddo totally just looks like a blob in the picture. It was much cooler in person than the picture shows. The little guy was wiggling around like crazy and we could totally see his little arms and legs. Everything looks good, and we're looking at a due date of December 7th.

Bumper Sticker

Jay and I saw a great bumper sticker while we were in San Antonio last weekend:

I was anti-Obama before it was cool.

Enough said.

12 month check-up

It's hard to believe that our little boy is already a year old. He is so much fun. We've noticed big changes in his development since we've moved. He has really thrived on being able to crawl and cruise around basically wherever he wants without being told, "No, sir! Don't touch that!" In our tiny apartment, we had stuff everywhere! I couldn't baby-proof the place, so poor Billy couldn't do anything. Here, at the house, there is so much room for him to explore, and all sorts of little stairs and rails to play on. In the last two weeks, he has learned to go feet first down stairs and off the couch, use the rails to step down into the family room, and has finally begun to stand alone for a few seconds! William loves playing outside. He does a little bear walk crawl so he doesn't scratch his knees up, and heads straight to the dirt, where he proceeds to grab handfuls of dirt and watch it fall through his fingers. Such a little boy. He also loves books, mostly just pulling them all off of his bookshelf, but sometimes he sits and turns the pages. :) William also weaned off of formula last week, and we're working on the transition to a cup, but he's doing well with it. It's so nice not to have to clean bottles every night! He's a good eater, and enjoys peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or just about anything we are eating.




At his check-up today, Billy clocked in at 25.3 lbs and 31" tall, dropping into the 80th percentile!

William Buckley's 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Billy! Jay's co-workers and the Thomas' came over to celebrate with us. Amy made a cake to look like a big doughnut. (see pic below) It looked awesome, and tasted better! Thanks Amy! We were floored by everyone's generosity in bringing Billy gifts! He scored big time! Here are some fun pics from his celebration.

Bow Tie

I went on a summer study abroad program to England 9 years ago, and we took a weekend trip to Scotland, where I bought the cutest little bow tie. It was so fun to finally get to dress my little boy in it!

Like Father, Like Son

We were finally able to get some really good smile pictures of Billy. He usually stops as soon as I get the camera out. But Jay figured out the secret way to get Billy to smile. Laughing. He cracks up when Dad laughs. It's hilarious.


William - 10 1/2 months


Jay - 12 1/2 months