Amanda McCoy took these pics of us in February 2009. She is an amazing photojournalist, who doesn't normally do portraits, but we twisted her arm just a bit. Here are a few of our favorites.

James's dad spent about 3 years creating an amazing barbecue sauce and rub, and opened a barbecue shack up in Jayess, Mississippi. He did that on weekends for about 10 years, and it got to be quite popular- legendary in fact. We still hear from people all the time who knew and loved Bates Bar-B-Que. Jamie says his dad, James Russell Bates, always smiled when people were eating his barbecue. So we are keeping his dad's dream alive with "Daddy's BBQ." We spend a lot of our time now on this little business we've created, mostly selling wholesale (we are available in stores in at least 26 states now,) doing a few retail shows here and there, and have even done a competition or two. Last year we took first place (well, tied for first place technically) at the 20th annual Barbecue Under the Oaks benefit for the Gulf Coast Symphony, and did it again this year on March 28, 2009! Our products have also won or placed in the top three in 3 national competitions- one out of Albuquerque, and two in NYC!!!

We had all the gang at Bayou View Park for the annual Christmas shoot last year, although, we actually weren't all there at the same time because of the boys' school schedule!