balrina, lottie arizona and henry everett & great greats (plus books 2 read)

Lottie Sue talks about dancing like a "balrina" a lot the past few days. We don't know why this started but have been enjoying it very much. Today she wanted to wear a tutu to Mother's Day Out and I can't tell you how excited she was - she kept shouting "I A BALRINA! I DANCE!" - it was awesome.

Here are a few shots of her and some dance moves...

yeah, we know how cute she is

Matt's mom sent this photo over last week. I'm not sure if you know, but we got the name Lottie from Matt's great-grandmother, her name was Lottie Arizona (her sister's name was China Bee - I love it). We found out after our Lottie was born that she shares the same birthday as Great Grandmother Lottie - freaky! But neat!

This is a photo of Lottie and her husband Henry Everett (Matt's great-grandparents - I think Matt looks like Everett!).

lottie and henry in their 50th wedding anniversary photo

Matt's mom sent this note over with the photo, it's about Everett:

He was quite a fellow, a big man, very intelligent, taught in a one-room school most of his life, played the banjo, knew an amazing number of folk songs, led singing schools in his area. Then when a college degree was required to teach school, he drove the school bus. He loved to entertain the grandkids by playing the banjo and singing all those oldies. Actually Grandma Lottie taught him to play and sing to begin with. Lottie was the sweetest, kindest woman, and she's the one who was always doing some kind of needlework. They both laughed alot.

This picture is for their 50th wedding anniversary. She was 16 and he was 21 when they married on May 28 in 1918. They had 8 children, 2 boys and 6 girls. All the kids played some sort of stringed instrument so they had some lively singing sessions. My mom, Ima Jean was the 4th child, and the only one who taught in a one-room school. All the children have lived into their 80's--pretty amazing.

Anywho, I love family stuff like that (send more Mom!). Thanks for sharing!

Lottie Sue and I went to see Grandma the other day for lunch, she found this photo of me when I was little.

maybe this is where lottie gets it?

She also had this photo and I asked to scan it in. The woman on the left is my great-grandmother, Grandma Carter (Grandma's mother), and she is with her brother Oscar and their parents, Grandma and Grandpa Rainwater (my great-great grandparents).

hello, family!

I have also had the pleasure of loving several of the books I've recently read. I found three of them in our bookshelf and am pretty sure these are books that Cera left here before she moved - so THANKS CERA!). Anywho, I thought I would share...

• Vinegar Hill by Manette Ansay thumbs up (enjoyed it very much)
  
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - thumbs up (I loved this book, wonderful)
  
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett- thumbs up (it's a fast read and I enjoyed it very much)
• Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi - thumbs up (ate it up)
  
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (this book is a graphic novel, I thought it was great)

Alrighty, over and out. Blog for ya later!

a baby boy close-up

I had an ultrasound yesterday and we got a pretty good shot of baby boy - he is SO cute! I'm 33 weeks in so we are in the final stretch. Can't wait to meet the little booger.

in every single face photo he has been snuggling his hands

what's up, doc?
(he looks like a bunny rabbit here, it was cracking us up)

That's all for today, thought I would share the neat photos of baby boy. Over. And out.

UPDATE: Tommy just returned this photo of baby boy, also known as Jimmy Ray in our circle of friends (don't ask). Please notice the cigarette and "hang loose" hand signal.

nice.

I'm putting this one in my baby book.

Another Update: Becce sent a few photos of their trip to Destin and I thought I would share. Harlan looks like a little MAN. Becce said that the other morning Harlan came up to her and said "you neva find yo keys - ha ha ha" - he hid them from her in her purse. Not the best hiding place, true. BUT the fact that he did it is funny enough.

little man harlan

beach bumz

OK, for real. I'm over and out!

leisure suits, old and new quilts, jo owns page 35 & other randomness

First, let me open with Lottie Sue in her "pretty shoes" - she loves these so much. Matt and I find them disturbing but oh well.

these platforms were made for walking...

Matt's mom sent these photos over the other day, it's boy Matt and he is SO CUTE. He loved leisure suits as a kid, I guess he always has been fashion forward...

Let me point out HOW MUCH LOTTIE SUE LOOKS LIKE MATT in this first photo. It's nutz.

the clothes make the man

This is a photo of Matt's room when he was a little boy, take a good look at that quilt because it's going in baby boy's bedroom. We have a twin bed in there and it's just perfect! Matt's Grandma made it for him when he was little and now Matt's son will have it in his room. I love it.

i need to zoom in on this photo to see what all is in here, i see matt's
star wars spaceships and a tootsie roll bank on the windowsill

Gramma/Matt's mom/Linda made Lottie Sue a throw quilt for her new bedroom. It has the alphabet on it along with an object that matches. It's so pretty! Lottie Sue likes it a lot, she won't let us put ANYTHING in bed with her but she'll let me put this in there. So thank you Gramma, we LOVE it!

i loves me some quilts

If you live here, be sure to pick up this month's Skirt! magazine. Jo is featured on page 35 - she looks so GREAT and they blurb they wrote is super cute. Love it!

click on the image to see it bigger, por favor

Let me take a moment to talk about the arts. Matt and I have seen more movies at the theater the past month than we see in a year. We are on FIRE.

• District 9 - thumbs up (I've never seen a movie like this and the special effects are rad)
  
• Harry Potter and the half-Blood Prince - thumbs up (you know I loves me some HP, I am still sad about the fact I've read all of the books)
  
• Funny People - thumbs up (but I'm pretty sure I am the only one that liked it, I think JP said he "hated it" if memory serves)
• The Proposal - thumbs up (I probably like Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds better than I liked the movie if that makes sense)

Now I have several random photos I'll share with you, enjoy!

I found this photo on my phone, it was taken at the beach one morning. Lottie Sue's pack-n-play was right next to our bed so if she woke we'd pull her on in with us. How sweet is she?

zzzzzzzzzzz

Brandon sent this photo out the other day, it's almost football time in Tennessee! I'm not sure how much football fun I'll have this season since we'll have a newborn moving in with us soon, but I'll find a way I'm sure.

lane kiffin is younger than me (wah)

Jonathan's mom gave these photos to Jo and she let me scan them in. Boy, someone we know REALLY likes to pose for photos. JP blamed the red robe photo on his sister coercing him into doing it but now that I see these I'm just not sure...

yeahhhhhhhhh

i'm pretty sure jp still wears this shoe style
(what was old is new again)

And here's the last photo, I took the trash down to the road this morning and came back to this.

i guess it could have been worse?

Have a great hump day, toodles!

a shower for jp and tabby (banana hammock, anyone?) & a crush for lottie sue

This past weekend we threw an shower for JP and Tabitha, it was an intimate affair with the big day coming up in October - it will be here before you know it - WHEE! It was a very nice evening. I regret that I don't have many photos to share, I may steal them from crackbook if any go up. Megan blogged a great post here, and it includes the shower (PLUS the Heartland Series Homecoming event - looked like fun).

Let's get on with the photos! Matt made this photo of the lovebirds, we had it on the table tents - awesome!

jonathan and tabitha, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

here is a shot of some of the food

(pardon the blurriness, i didn't have the flash on and
couldn't hold the camera still enough for the artsy shot)

this is a photo of the party favors, i took the leftover
fabric from the garland and made little baggies

patterson, jo and baby cassady party it up

now jo has him all for himself

here we have beth with baby boy (he was quite popular)

megan and amy chat it up

jo, blake and shon hang out while brad munches on the munchies

shon practicing for january

here i am with the bride-to-be, mrs. palmer

As a gag gift we gave Jonathan a banana hammock for the honeymoon. We told him it was a gift for him, but also a gift for Tabby ifyouknowwhatimean...

I bought it on ebay and it's supposed to be swimwear but it's so see-through - I am not sure what beach it's meant for but I'm sure JP will rock it.

jp loves his gift

oh my, and so does tabby it seems

On to more photos!

a group shot with megan doing her patented funny pose

jo and jp are warming up with their
robot moves, dance party to come...

We moved the party outside later on and the regular hilarity ensued (banana hammock dance plus regular dancing)...

a meeting of the minds, finding the
right song in which to break it down

brandon does his karate kid inspired dance move
(please notice beth's admiring gaze)

Then the banana hammock came out again, who knew it would cause such a frenzie? Amy and Megan were equipped with dollar billz.

jp ended up with three dollars and megan's phone number
(don't tell tommy)

And then there was more dancing, if you know us then you know we love to break it down. There is always dancing at parties and tailgates.

beth and brandon win the dance contest, hands down

I'll post more photos as they reveal themselves. Everyone is so happy and excited for the couple, can't wait until October!

This photo came in the mail the other day, Kat sent a card to me but Jasper requested this message get to Lottie Sue.

jasper, the answer is YES. a million times YES.

Alrighty, in other news for you...

• Mourning the death of handwriting...
• NPR asked listeners for their favorite beach reads, here is a list of the top 100.
• Mad Men premieres the new season on Sunday - icannottellyouhowexcitediam. Check out the Vanity Fair spread and then you can read the A.V. club's interview with Jon Hamm here.

Coming up in my next post: kid Matt in leisure suits (ADORABLE), Lottie Sue loves shoes only a hooker would wear and Jo is featured in Skirt! magazine (supahSTAR). Alrighty, happy Monday to everyone. Buh-BYE!

a big-girl room for lottie sue

So yeah, Lottie Sue is a big girl now. She has been in her new room for a week now and it's been a flawless transition - just PERFECT.

We have her room finished except that we are waiting on two stools to go with her table, they are on back-order but we hope to get them soon. I know I promised a "before & after" post, so here you go!

The room was just a guest bedroom, nothing fancy at all and we never put much thought into it. Matt and I are actually happy that it will be a functional room now, not just wasted space. We took the bed from this room and moved it into the bonus room. So now the bonus room is a guest bedroom, workout room, sewing/wrapping/craft center and ping pong tournament room. We worried it would be way too crowded but after moving everything around it's just great - room for everything.

Anywho, here is a "before" photo of the Lottie's room...

before the transformation

And here is the "after" - so cool!

a shot from the door

We had this bed and pink table (sans stools) for Lottie Sue already, the other furniture came from Ikea. I made the curtains and backed them with blackout fabric (BRILLIANT!), it helps so much with the sun during the afternoon.

another shot from the same viewpoint

here we have lottie's hamper, dresser and kitchen

this is her toy area

Matt thought it would be neat to post photos of family members on a board so we used leftover fabric from the curtains and covered two foam boards. We then printed photos of EVERY family member (we need photos for a few people but it's on my list of 'things to do' this week), we have family all over and this way Lottie can always see them. This morning she was naming people on the boards, so it's been neat.

the toy area with her table (imagine the stools here please)
- and do you LOVE the hanging lamp or WHAT

lottie sue's nightstand table with a lamp and doily
that Grandma (in Little Rock) made for her when she was born

And now some action shots for you...

lottie sue jumping on the bed

reading a few books from her library

And this photo was taken last Sunday, her first night in her big girl bedroom. She was VERY excited.

happy lottie sue

After we put her down I went in to my big girl bedroom and cried (um ok, bawled) - wah...Matt asked me what I was going to do when she started kindergarten. I can't even go there.

OK, that's all I have for today. Maybe I'll take a few photos of the bonus room so you can see what we ended up with. We are very organized, Matt made a gift-wrapping wall organization thing that I love so much, as well as a place for my sewing items. It ROCKS!

Enjoy your Monday!