a kitty kat, books & suckers plus lottie leibovitz

here is our christmas card photo of the kids and santa claus.

poor santa

it didn't go that well, rowdy is planked out (AND wearing a bow tie, yes he is, indeedy!) starring straight up at the ceiling and lottie sue is trying to escape santa's lap. everything was fine with lottie sue but the little girl in front of us was going ballistic and we think it messed with the mood. he lured her back with a candy cane. funny photos are just as good as perfect ones anyway i say. when santa asked lottie sue what she wanted, she whispered "a kitty kat, books and suckers" - that is a major burn to ernie and kevin but kevin deserves it at least.

in other photos, this is lottie's photo they took at MDO in september. we didn't buy any of them because they came back the week rowdy was born and you just know something like that slipped our minds. her teachers made an ornament with the photo though and i scanned it in - it's so good!

lottie sue, 27 months old and adorable squared

and please let me share this photo with you...going with "school photos" i give you cera as a sister wife.

um, i simply cannot stop laughing

this one is great as well, the hair! the hair! the hair! plus i think that cera picked out the biggest glasses in the glass store. they cover 85% of her face.

nice perm

side note: cera is here with me and knows that these photos are going to be published. we had a very good laugh about it, mostly me laughing when she asked me not to post them.

a few weeks ago we went over to granbunny and granray's house to decorate for the holidays. i found the photos you just laughed at there, in the basement in a mason jar. anywho, here are one of the trees. i need to say that aunt judy has the MAGIC touch when it comes to decorating. she can make anything look gorgeous.

merry christmas

here is the mantle before as judy ponders how to make it glow with holiday cheer.

hmmm, what to do

and voila, gorgeousness for all to see

last friday we had our mowrer family christmas pajama party and it was awesome. we ate a lot and played games, we even skyped with other family members in arkansas and kentucky. good times.

lottie sue plays with the doll house and her "peoples" as she calls them

lottie gives matt a massage

grandmother enjoys her 6th great-grandchild

gramma/matt's momma and grandmother made a ton of chocolate goodies. we told lottie she could have whatever she wanted because it was a special occasion. she ate 12 cookies.

yummy yummy in my tummy

oh my gosh, this photo cracks me up. michelle looks happy to hold rowdy. rowdy isn't so sure...

hmmm, anyone else want to hold me?

we opened presents the next day - what fun! lottie sue received many goodies but the one thing she took to was her new camera.

as of right now she's taken 312 photos
(BLOG GOLD)

here are a few, she doesn't quite know how to take a good photo yet but she LOVES to snap shots. most are blurry because she is usually running somewhere.

here are a few photos for you, all of these were taken by lottie.

this is the nativity at gramma and pawpaw's house,
after she took it she said "good job, guys!"

presents under our tree

this is a photo of her laptop, this is where she works she tells us

rowdy crying in his swing

making funny faces with bb

this is me with rowdy during bottle time

her beloved (and i mean beloved) puppy

grandaddy and cera

during a diaper change

a photo of our fowl with pearls

some of her books

her boots (she was in the chair with her legs up on the side)

auntie cera

a self portrait

she is very busy with that thing, it's pretty awesome to see what she comes up with. she's a budding annie leibovitz.

today lottie sue and i made "nutty cracker delights" - this is a recipe from gramma. you have to sprinkle almonds on the crackers and i thought that would be a super fun thing for lottie sue to do. she was great at it, she made "mountains" and thought it was awesome.

lottie sue doing a super great job

here's the recipe for you, these are very easy to make and if you have little ones they can help!

NUTTY CRACKER DELIGHTS

42-44 club crackers
1-1/2 sticks of butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of slivered almonds (or more if you like)

cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. place crackers in a single layer. in a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter then add the sugar - stirring constantly. boil for two minutes. remove from the heat and add vanilla.

pour evenly over the crackers then sprinkle with almonds. bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. immediately remover from the pan, cutting between them if necessary and cool on wire racks.

go ahead and make some more because these won't last.

oh yeah, and i know i need to take a photo of her in her boots but this photo shows them pretty well. she wants to wear them all of the time. she also wants me to wear my boots and now auntie cera purchased a pair so we must all be twinkies. or triplets. auntie b better bring hers down when they come for christmas! that would make us quadruplets!

a stylish chef

i found this photo in my phone, i think matt took it during a trip to the mall with lottie recently. i remember him telling me that she went ballistic when the ride was over and he told her to get down. i am sure jimmy ray did not enjoy that news...

outta my way, buddy

alrighty, christmas is almost here! i hope everyone is planning on a fabulous holiday!

matt finally gets a jimmy ray & you say no but i say yes

meet jimmy ray! he's our very own elf.

howdy boys

we started Elf on the Shelf and it has been a lot of fun. lottie sue named him jimmy ray and it made matt so very happy. you may or may not know, but matt SERIOUSLY wanted to name our son jimmy ray mowrer and he had many supporters (sam, mike and tommy). don't get me started, but all is well that ends well. we have a rowdy.

we are constantly cracking ourselves up with jimmy ray, we actually say things like "lottie sue, if you do NOT pick up your toys jimmy ray is going to fly to santa tonight and give a bad report. you really don't want that, do you? now please pick up your baby dolls with a cherry on top!"

good news is that it works but doing this with a straight face is really hard. we are looking into keeping jimmy ray here all year long.

before i go in with the gatherings and what not, let me post a few photos of the kids. lottie sue is doing very well. she went through two weeks of unusual behavior (it was "time out central" here) but we think it was due to her being sick and dealing with the new addition. but she's back and better than ever. she loves her ballet class and is really into saying "well, you say no but i say yes" when she wants to do something i won't let her do.

it is hard to say "no" to her, just look at this sweet face

she loves to sing songs and knows many by heart. she loves to kiss rowdy and she is very interested in him. her interest doesn't last that long, after 2 minutes she wants to play with her toys or something. i bought her a pair of silver boots and she thinks they are the best thing since the little einsteins, she wears them constantly. i will take photos for you.

here are a few photos of rowdy, he is coming up on the three-month mark - it's crazy! he is a wonderful baby, he loves to smile, coo and kick around. he eats well and sleeps well (um, at the 6 week mark he was 11 to 5 or 6 and now he's 10 or so until 8 - ROCK STAR STATUS). he is just the cutest thing ever!

as snug as a bug in a rug

the retrospective look

matt's mom gave us this photo of matt, he was just a few days old - how cute! do you think he looks like rowdy here?

a baby boy matt

right, so this is the only photo of thanksgiving we have. the day got away from us. johnny and judy have a gorgeous home with gorgeous views as you can see.

prayers go up, blessings come down

we went to see the lighting of the christmas tree downtown thanksgiving weekend. it was pretty neat. when they turned the lights on they also let loose fireworks - startling. didn't see that coming. you can also check out megan's blog, she did a post on that night as well.

we watched everything from the side of the stage, there was a group of dancers there that performed and lottie sue was enthralled. she kept telling matt she was going to go up there and dance. she was serious, she made it up the stairs before matt got her down.

lottie sue was in need of a hat, this was
her baby hat - it kept popping off

tommy and moi

lottie sue and matt

heather with rowdy

the smitties

the tree and fireworks - i jumped about 5 feet in the air

we went to visit with some of matt's family, people were in town from far away places (texas and missouri) and we had a great time. we welcomed two little ones this year (anna and rowdy) and everybody got meet them for the first time.

laura plays with lottie sue and jackson

here we have jackson huggling lottie sue hugging puppy/babbit

jackson and lottie sue sang "twinkle twinkle little star" - it was cute and
hilarious, jackson basically screamed the words (matt said it was a la
henry rollins and i about died laughing) and lottie sue whispered them

here i am with miss cutie patootie, anna

grandmother and uncle dave chat with anna (she is very popular)

there was also outside activities, exploration and races. jackson is VERY fast and won every time.

exploring

racing

after that race, lottie sue and jackson went back in. but being ever-so polite they rang the doorbell.

ella welcomes them in with open arms

here is a photo of many cousins! we have emily, laura, erica, darcy and matt.

cousins from all over the land

later that night we put our tree up. and when i say "we" i mean lottie sue and myself. matt and tommy watched football.

lottie hanging ornaments

matt and rowdy add the final touch, the star

i was going to put this nativity set in her
room but she likes to play with them

last saturday we woke up to SNOW. that's right. SNOW. it was great, enough of it to play around in but it was going after a few hours.

matt and lottie sue's snowman

the gilmores were in for a quick visit, um - HOW CUTE IS SHON??? seriously, i love it. baby g will be here SOON. i CANNOT wait to meet him. i am going to kiss him a million times.

shon working the pregnancy look

matt sketched this of the gilmores and it's too cute not to post...

baby on board

and last sunday annette had her yearly white elephant party - it is always so much fun and i look forward to it every year. this year didn't disappoint, LOADS of delicious food and spirits - not to mention the fabulous company.

jo munching on some yummy desserts

jen is our "rules enforcer"

anything sephora doesn't last long

annette, karen and jo share a laugh

denise scouts gifts to steal (i, on the other hand,
am going to steal her look - love this ensemble)

jane and stella in matching sweaters, yes - awesome!

ooh, this is kenley after i stole her precious pajama gift
(i swear it wasn't personal, it's business)

me with my awesome gift, yummy pajamas - whee!

annette's baby, chotskey, taking a break from it all

annette and lori

the dessert area

kenley is about to munch on lori's shrimp dip (delicious)

a group shot

michelle and karen

this is danielle, i stalked her because
i love 1. her haircut 2. her necklace

this is a photo of annette and scott's study, i
am posting it because it's pretty and perfect

jacque and denise drink up

here i am with jo

jacque and michelle were twinkies, same outfit
(same pants, same sweater, same shoes)

karen snuggles up with chotsky, he loves love

and now a few items of interest for you...

• check this out, LONNY magazine is an online magazine and is awesome. i'm hooked. it's aesthetically pleasing.
• it's official, no more conchords. wah.
  
• and talking about aesthetics! this is another website that i just like to look at: the selby. it's a website of quirky and hip places.
• here's a list of the year's top 20 internet lists. or even better, go here to check out the top ten lists on everything of 2009, brought to you by Time magazine. i love lists.
  

with it being the holiday season, i thought i would share a few things that i think are great gifts for peeps. i do know that most of these are pricey items, but they are just what popped in my head.

dansko professional clogs - these shoes are awesome, my favorite pair by far. they are THE most comfortable shoe and you can wear them with practically anything. a staple of my uniform. they also last forever and day.

trust me, buy these

this clutch is perfect in so many ways...jcrew is on top of its game.

delicious

buy a tucker dress! i personally don't have one but it is on my "to have one day" list (along with a balenciaga motorcycle bag (large) in black black black) - becce has one and it is awesome. you can wear it as a dress, shirt, in the winter, in the summer - very versatile and classic. you can give it to your daughter one day.

pretty expensive. yes. but worth it? yes.

these are great for kids and adults, wikkistix - sort of like pipe cleaners but way cooler. they stick together and the fun ideas are basically endless. and they are super cheap.

just one idea

we bought one of these mino hd iflip cameras and i love it so much. it's tiny and weighs basically nothing, and a monkey could use it - seriously, it's so easy! i've been slack on taking photos because i am constantly video taping everything. so now i have 100 video files but i have to edit them. and that is something i don't know how to do just yet.

ready...and action!

and one last item, the imac - we have the 27 inch and it is completely wonderful. we are getting used to it but so far we are SOLD. the huge screen is great, better than i thought it would be.

now all we have to do it put the apple decal on our cars (not)

i leave you with a christmas card that lottie sue made at school - i had to take the photo quick. she is somewhat obsessed with candy canes. loves em.

merry christmas, y'all

ok, i'm back and promise to blog regularly. i got so behind and then it was too much to do and then i put it off because of that.

it was a vicious cycle.