Christmas 2008: Everything but the snow

We spent a week in Missouri, from the day after Christmas until the day after New Year's. It's always a blessing to get to spend the holidays with family. The three of us celebrated on Christmas morning and then enjoyed an afternoon with Ian's mom and stepdad in Waco. The following day, on the exact anniversary of my moving to Austin, we made our way to Missouri. For the next week, we made food, watched movies and hung out with old friends. Julian and YaYa baked cookies, sang "Jingle Bells" and played in parks. Julian, Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Kenny wrestled for the first time. GaGa taught Julian how to do the "This Little Piggie" toe game. PaPa brought Julian along on emergency trips to the grocery store. No snow, but plenty of good family lovin'.

(If you're not seeing a slideshow of images above, log into your flickr account or add me as a contact. If you're not on flickr, you'll have to start an account, but it's easy.)

Holiday cheer and a happy boy

(If no pictures show up, then you either need to log in to Flickr or become a contact on Flickr.)

November and December have been a whirlwind. From planning and executing more than a dozen holiday-related stories, columns, live chats, blogs and events at work to moving from our old apartment a mere 85 steps to a duplex, which now seems like world away from our old home.

Julian has been helping more in the kitchen, peeling onions and putting things in the pot. He's developed quite the sweet tooth; he usually wakes up in the morning and goes to the freezer, asking politely for ice cream. After the move, Julian got a table and chairs, an easel, a rocker and his very own rug. He got to play with markers and the easel for awhile, until ripping out the ink-saturated tips was more fun than coloring with them. We also put the bars on his crib back on after a week of trying out the toddler bed, and we're all sleeping much better because of it.

We're going to Missouri the day after Christmas, but until then, I have a few last minute things to wrap up at work, including a column about what I'm looking forward to in 2009, which inevitably means I'll have to reflect on 2008. I thought that deluge of holiday food coverage would make me weary this far into the season, but it's quite the opposite. So far, this has been one of the best Decembers I can remember. Lots of good times and fun people. A happy family. Oh yes, and good food.

Yes, Virginia, beauty does exist in Houston

I encountered some very beautiful things on my journey to Houston and back. Painted naked ladies, real almost-naked ladies, a young Richard Gere.

The most beautiful thing, however, was sharing a few minutes with my mentor from college. I was at this AASFE conference to speak on multimedia and food panel, and she was there to be inducted into the organization's hall of fame (although she admitted in her acceptance speech that she'd never been a features writer just that she always tried to write news stories with elements of features-like storytelling). I didn't know until Thursday night that she was going to be there. It had been about 3 years since I'd seen her. Before Julian. Before Ian. Before Austin. Before Troy died. (She was Troy's favorite sensei first.)

I caught up with her right before the luncheon. We caught up on life in general and the journalism industry, but for a wordsmith master and a wordsmith-in-training, it didn't take many words to communicate our thoughts and emotions.

I've always thought of Jacqui as so much more than a teacher, and for the first time, I realized she probably feels the same way about me.

We parted; she had a gravely ill mother waiting on the other side of yet another long plane ride, and I had my job, my baby, my family awaiting me in Austin. Such different lives, but always connected by a bright, hopeful, encouraging thread.

That, young grasshoppers, is far more beautiful than a 28-year-old Richard Gere.

Ohhh-klahoma, where the families camp

A few weeks ago, the Knox-Broyles family drove six hours north to meet up with the Broyles duo, who had driven six hours south. A little place called Chickasaw National Recreation Area was our home for two days. We cooked. We hiked. We saw tarantulas. See for yourself in this photo gallery. (If you can't see it, you need to become my friend of Flickr. It's a pain, I know, but if you have a Yahoo account it's even easier. I have to keep one iota of privacy here, people.:))

Julian photos August 2008

I didn't realize what a busy month it had been until I flipped through all the photos from the past four weeks. Between hanging out on the potty and eating barbecue, Julian has had a couple of trips to the library, a weekend with Erin in Houston, a run-in with the sofa (thus the scabby lip) and a camping trip with Corey this weekend to Enchanted Rock, west of Austin in the Hill Country.

When we were huffing it around Enchanted Rock, I realized that the last time Julian and I had been to the top of that giant granite rock was when I was about seven months pregnant. It was also his first camping trip as an interactive toddler, but I think he's more work at home than he is in the wide outdoors. Too much to explore. I guess that's why we all get out in the woods every now and then.

Update: I've started making many of my photos on Flickr viewable for only friends. So, if you can only see a handful of pictures in this slideshow and would like to be able to see more, make me a friend/contact on Flickr. You'll have to set up a Flickr account if you don't have one. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Pink is my favorite color

0818081549-04.jpg, originally uploaded by broylesa.

Dinner at Uncle Tom's house was an excuse to listen to the rain, no matter how shortlived, on the roof of his garage, get out in the country for a little while and wear pink bandannas.

Julian photos July 2008

I'm going to let the photos tell the story of Julian this month. They include lots of animals, good friends, some creative (and messy) projects and one very energetic and vivacious toddler.

A snake and a spoilsport on the Greenbelt

(you'll have to turn your head to watch it. sorry!)

Jules, Shiva and I thought we'd stroll the Greenbelt this morning before it got too hot out and I had to head to work. Not only did a cop on a bike bust me for letting Shiva go without a leash, but I also saw a snake! (Maybe a Texas rat snake?)

So much excitement and it's not even 11.

Take this, bike cop!

Birthdays and cupcakes

My dear friend Meghan celebrated a birthday just a few days after mine, and we had a cupcake party! Julian had an awesome time, and I took this accidental (and awesome, despite the phone camera quality) feet picture! You can see how creative we got with the cupcake decorating!

Prepare to be horrified

Oh, gez, check this out -- I found this image of me on What Not to Wear with straight hair. If you look closely, you should be able to see my red, tear-stained face, the result of crying off camera for 20 minutes after catching a glimpse of my new 'do.

More than six months later, I still cringe at the image.



For those of you who haven't seen the episode, what do you think?

P.S. We'd gotten a call this week from the show; they wanted to ask a few questions in preparation for a follow-up episode they were going to shoot at the end of the month. Told them about the food job, my new style, etc. etc. and thought it was a signed deal, but we got a message today saying they regretted to tell us that they weren't going to come to Austin this time around. Too bad, I say. They don't get to see my new kick ass teal heels.

Summer

Snapshots of love (and a wedding)

If we hadn't done about nine loads of laundry out at Uncle Tom's National Park today, I'd probably feel a little more like sharing what's going on in this crazy life of ours. Let's just say that at the end of the day, we're all pretty pooped. The great news is that it's a good kind of busy.

Guilt tapping me on the shoulder to edit these wedding pictures finally won, so I was able to at least get this small gallery of the wedding ceremony itself. Our incredible photographer Brian Diggs took thousands of beautiful photos, now it's just a matter of sharing them in an easily digestible manner. (Speaking of, does anyone have any ideas to make a stop motion movie with these photos? I've been trying iMovie, without success, and I just don't think Jump Cut could handle it.)

Anyway, looking at these photos takes me back to this beautiful moment in time, standing under my sister's yucca and lavender altar, Alberto's voice and soothing words of wisdom, Julian tugging on my dress to be with us while we shared our thoughts on loving each other. My promise. Ian's promise. To do our best.

Because that's the only thing we can really promise.

Julian photos June 2008

Whew! A story, a column, several blog posts, a handful of Tweets and now an updated addiebroyles.com, I've been busy all over the place but on the blog! Lots happening with the Fourth of July (I went downtown with some neighbors to watch the fireworks and check out the portable pool at the Beauty Bar), a long weekend (Barton Springs, and — get ready, casino-lovers — Chuck E. Cheese) and a full week to recover from (see above and next Wednesday's Statesman).

It's been an on-the-go month. Julian and I met up with Dallas Erin in the middle of the month and took a colossal (or maybe it just felt that way in the middle of Oklahoma with a fussy kid) and totally awesome road trip to visit our friends Rachel and Russell (we lived with Rachel in Spain). Picked some blueberries, hung out with the grandparents and PDX visitors. Made me wish we all didn't live quite so far apart.

Julian's setting the pace for our summer. He's an energetic toddler these days, climbing on top of the table, lovingly throwing trash away and talking to any stranger or animal or inanimate object he encounters. I didn't catch any photos of our swimming adventures this month (Julian is into sitting on the edge and falling in, with a half second underwater, to mommy's arms) or of the regular barbecues we've been having with our neighbors. Or just the plain jane afternoon tickle fests, where we all fall down on the pillows and make funny noises and laugh ourselves breathless.

Julian photos May 2008

What a month! A new job for MaMa, a wedding for MaMa and DaDa, and a whole new Julian. New words (baba for apple, tsss for teeth, fuh for foot, fuh for food, quu for squirrel, tuh for truck, baa says the sheep, ohoh says the monkey, babo for belly button, uhoh for drop, and I swear I heard him say "water" one day), climbing on top of chairs and tables, gathering berries, sticks and leaves outside. He had such a fun time with all the wedding guests, getting to know the grandparents and the boys again and some friends he'd never met. Oh and the laughter. What joy Julian brings to this world. We are so thankful for him.

Pre- and post-wedding photos

Ian and I are still buzzing from the good energy spread around at our wedding two Sundays ago. We were surrounded by some of our favorite people, many who traveled a good number of miles to join us in a celebration of love. Here are the photos I got with my camera, so there's not many from the actual wedding celebration itself. These are from the pig roast preparation and post-wedding party.



You can buy any of my flickr photos at flickr.com/broylesa.

Also, I've never given a shoutout to the Web mind who makes it so that I can produce these slideshows. A Fabio Cavassini has made a site where you can use photos you've uploaded to flickr to make slideshows. Thanks, Fabio!

Julian photos April

Julian turned 15 months and celebrated with new words (signing bird and plane, saying "nama" for banana, "uva" for raisin, etc.), a big ol' fat round of sick (consider yourself forewarned of a snot photo that's really one for the books) and a newfound gusto for getting into everything he shouldn't (cabinets, the top of chairs, Shiva's bidness).

He's just over 20 pounds and 30 inches tall. He's got 8 full teeth and four vampires and two molars working their way through He likes sleep as much as his mommy (just not past 7:30, quite unlike his mommy) and he's eating like a true member of the Knox-Broyles clan (hello, perogies and sausage. how nice to see you again, homemade mac and cheese.) He's even got a notorious raw carrot eater (me) to enjoy the steamed variety on occasion.

As you can see from the photos, he's really into sneaking up to the music area and grabbing guitar picks, and he's not very happy when we take them away. He's also obsessed with taking dirt from a pot we have outside and using it with his porch "kitchen" we set up. He and Ian have developed a special no-shirt bond. Now, all we have to do is train him not to put our wedding rings in his mouth in a few weeks.

Giant

Whew, what a nice break from everything. We drove out to the Big Bend of Texas (not Big Bend park itself, but the area just to the north) to take in Fort Davis, Marfa, Alpine and any other adventures we stumbled upon. We found much success in our main goal, however, which was to get away from the craziness that has built up around us in Austin and enjoy each other with the help of Mother Nature. Eight hours of driving was worth it to be surrounded by miles of open land and open sky and a couple million of our closest stars. Javelinas outnumbering e-mails and phone calls. Julian running around wild-child like among the brush and rocks. Addie and Ian filling up the wells. Feeling small never felt so good.

I've posted a slideshow over in the Through My Lens section of the Web site, which I reserve for other photo galleries. Here are a few of the highlights:

Julian photos March

Very little time for photo editing today, but here are some pics from last month. Just think of it as stop motion animation.:)

Revealed

What a treat! After a late night watching, blogging and celebrating my national television premiere, Julian contradicted my previous post and slept all through the night until 10:30 this morning! I could hardly believe it, either. Now we're still at Uncle Tommy's out in the Hill Country, trying to figure out how to enjoy this beautiful Saturday!

I had such a fun time blogging during the show; all kinds of people were chiming in with comments and questions. It was fun to hear from folks at my parent's party in Missouri. They had a houseful of badly dressed friends (They awarded prizes to people who dressed the worst. I'm sorry I missed that one!).

Here are some photos of the engagement party that I couldn't show until after last night's "What Not to Wear":

February photos!

I posted photos from this month at www.addiebroyles.com/frameview. Enjoy!

(More photos of the What Not to Wear party will have to wait until after the show, March 21.)