a shonnie bear baby shower & dr. g changes a diaper (a success!)

Shonnie Bear and Chris are expecting Baby G early next year - it is SO very exciting! Last Saturday we held a baby shower at Patterson's house for our dear friend. Check it out!

here are the yum yums, and they were yummy

please look at the drink dispenser on the left (it's
mishi's) - i am obsessed with it (must. have. it)

these are the party favors, they are recipes of the dishes we served

quicki quichie made by mishi

shon, chris and trent

brandi and chandra

i took a picture of trent, mrs. graham (grandmommy
to be) and chris taking a picture

shon opening gifts (there were a million, i cannot stress to how much
they cleaned up. family members showed their love by giving big
ticket items and having them shipped to their house - SMART!)

rowdy is with his auntie beth and jo, megan and mary ann look on

brad and mr. cassady make an appearance
(please not cassady's tuft of hair on top - it's awesome)

hahahaha, jo wrapped the card inside the gift

For the first time ever, Chris changed a diaper. Better get used to it - hahahahaha! Anywho, he did a perfect job!

here we go...taking off, cleaning up and putting on

voila! a complete success

We then watched some football and ate TOT, here is a picture of Shon talking to Matt after he made a remark about Georgia.

matt is in troubbbbbble

they make her want to drink (no bowl game this year)

Anywho, I will try to steal photos as they come up. I was busy with the shower and I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked.

I meant to put these up in October, better late than never. Mike ran his first (and last I think) marathon in Chicago. Way to go! When Matt and I lived in Chicago the marathon ran on our corner, we would go out with coffee in hand and cheer on runners. It was so much fun, we would always see people wearing UT stuff. Cool.

run mike, run
(that's 26.2 miles, people)

And here is Harlan in his Halloween costume, he was Tigger.

becce said that harlan went nuts after he figured out trick or
treating, he RAN full out to each house yelling "I NEED CANDY"

And now, a few interesting reads for you...

• No more Santa for you!
• Read a little bit into Jung's mind...
• 'The Onion': Mocking All Who Deserve It Since 1988
• Google keeps getter cooler.
• Note for parents: A Hamster is the Hottest Christmas Toy. Go figure.
• Here is your complete guide to Thanksgiving television. Eat some turkey and veg out for a few days.
• If you like to read or need holiday gift ideas, here is the list to the National Book Award winners.
• Forbes names Hollywood's most overpaid actors.

I am so ready for turkey, gobble gobble. The next time I post it will be from our new iMac. I am so excited! We ordered on and it came with a cracked screen. Bleh. But we should be set up tomorrow.

Have a happy Monday!

CHOMP, granray/rayray has a birthday & other random items

Ooh, I did this post fast and I apologize in advance for my lack of witty Jen-isms. I am pooped and it's time for the kid's last feeding of the night. Soooo, forgive me - my next post will dazzle you. If you want to be entertained with rapier-like wit you can check out Megan's blog - it's good like that.

Beth held a party for JP and Tabby a few weeks ago, let the celebrating continue - whee! I tried to be good and take lots of photos but it didn't really pan out that way. I have a few...this first one CRACKS me up.

ahhhhhh....CHOMP
(btw, this is lila, carrie, moi and beth. and matt.)

Here are the other ones I have, I wish I had taken more!

seth REALLY dressed up for the occasion,
the clothes do make the man as they say

matt and tommy chat it up

beth checks on a sleeping rowdy mowrer

matt, moi and beth - lookin good and feelin fine

Then there was the game the next day, here we have Rowdy happy that we won!

our big orange baby

Lottie Sue was showing us how she does ballet on her "tip toes" - adorable.

point and flex...point and flex

GranRay/RayRay celebrated a birthday on Monday but most of the family got together at the club on Sunday (a BIG thanks to Kathy for setting it up!) - we had a very nice time and it was great having everyone together.

the granbunny and granray

rowdy makes a somewhat scrunchy face for the camera

granray/rayray was opposite these folks during this shot

he was given copies of old photos i don't think
he'd seen in many a moon (i am going to get
these and post them, they are great)

johnny, judy and mowrer jr.

kathy is on the left and linda and ray are checking out the photos

aunt judy feeing little row mow

and a group shot!

lottie sue was cutting a rug here

and here

shirley and bb chat it up

lottie sue was "wunning" very fast here, a blur

granbunny's infamous "bug" climbing on lottie sue

lottie sue and benton take a walk

if you REALLY want to make granray laugh, get
him a card that plays music - it was a hoot!

rowdy doing what he does

Matt's family stopped by later on Sunday to see the kiddos, due to numerous illnesses across the group it had been a while...

gramma with her youngest grandkids

gramma with a chunky-looking rowdy

michelle holds rowdy as he whips his little head all over town

The Smiths also came over that afternoon, Megan spotted Matt's high school letterman jacket hanging in the garage.

megan is too cool for school

And speaking of Megan - Mary Ann stopped by earlier this week to see Rowdy - how adorable are they I ask???

mary ann is the greatest

This past weekend we had a baby shower for Shonnie Bear - it was great! I cannot believe that baby G will be here very soon. Blessings! I tried to take a lot of photos but I was busy! I need to be better with the camera, I have been slacking. I admit it. Will be better.

high art, candy lust & lottie sue catches like a girl

This past weekend was BUSY. But fun. Lucky for you we are photo-taking fools and we have lots to share with you. It will be like you were there. Or here I guess.

Oh yeah, if you live in Knox Vegas and get the News Sentinel be sure to check out A4 next Monday (I think, it could be the Monday after that). They are running my Matt and Lottie Sue photo (look to your right) in their "Reader's Eye" feature. Once it goes up online I will post a link, but once again I'M FAMOUS!

Anywho...Tommy was featured as an artist in the Maryville Art Walk on Friday. It was a big honor and also a big hit. His show was held at Boyd Thomas (go shop there, I bought an awesome sweater that I wore all weekend) and there was a great turnout. It was pretty awesome to see his paintings in such a venue, we have one of his paintings and he used it in the show - some fella wanted to buy it but we said NO WAY! He also created a new and very special painting...see below.

two lottie sue mowrers, there is a rip in the space/time continuum

kristina and megan pose with lottie sue
(who couldn't bother to put her phone away for this shot)

the ar-teest

check out the painting of kristina there, purty

and let's not forget megan on the wall!

matt, sam (aka, dipsey) and tommy talk about the finer points of art

here is a better shot of lottie's portrait

matt took this and i thought megan's face was funny so i'm posting it

megan, amanda, christina and moi

Saturday was a busy day, we did a little shoe shopping (everyone scored but me, I have Big Foot feet...sigh) and then it was Halloween time. It was a rainy day but Lottie Sue got a few houses in before we quit. She was quite pleased with a handful of items.

lottie sue was a flapper and rowdy was a pumpkin pirate
(the non-pillaging kind)

kisses for baby brother

Here she is after we got home, drenched. At the beginning of the trick or treating, Lottie would get her candy then walk into the neighbor's house. She wasn't quite getting it, but after a few houses she was down with it. The rain really put a damper (pun intended) on the evening, we had only a handful of trick or treaters and we usually have a ton - PLUS some of the neighbors turned their garages into haunted houses for the kids and the rain just poo poo'd on it. Anywho, here she is with her candy.

nom nom nom

And here she is going ballistic on Bebin (Kevin) for getting too close to it - she DID NOT want to share.

GO AWAY BEBIN

The Vols stomped South Carolina Saturday night, but their outfits were almost as exciting - go black and orange!

how fun, i loved it

Then yesterday was church, YUMMY lunch followed by a lazy afternoon.

Side note: If you like meatloaf you HAVE to make Martha Stewart's All-American Meatloaf - it is the bomb. And you don't have to use veal in it if you don't want to, adding pork is enough to push it over into the awesome category. I think we first had this with Megan but it soon fell into our fall/winter meal rotation. Trust me on this, make it.

We took a lot of photos while watching football, see?

rowdy was upset by how peyton was playing

here i think he was trying to look up a cheerleader's skirt (the shame)

lottie sue was busy doing flips and laughing

rowdy the composer

Before dinner we went outside to play - Lottie Sue loves to run, climb and go down slides.

here she is running

and climbing

and sliding - WHEE (high on life)

She also likes to play ball, but she totally catches like a girl.

it would help if her eyes were open

Have a great week, over and out!

PS: New York Magazine wrote an article about Knoxville, I learned a thing or five. I need to get out more.