more bad photos of me & good photos of little rock

happy birthday to cera (yesterday)!!! we miss you and love you SO VERY MUCH!!!

so...although we take a GAzillion photos of our doings, we do not have a family photo. so over christmas we asked cera to take a few in hopes that one would turn out. well, NONE DID and we are going to have to rock the photoshop on one to get it juuuust right. but this one right here is my favorite.

that about sums it up

this is my second favorite one, rowdy is pulling a hannibal lector look.

 

rowdyman loves him some fava beans and a nice chianti

and one more bad photo to grow on - ME. senior picture, casual style.

what am i looking at?

omg, i just realized i have a mini snooki bump thing going on with my hair there. nice. and in regards to old senior photos, i've seen better - i've seen worse. at least i am not wearing a bolo tie (AHEM, MATT MOWRER).

let's get on to the fun, for thanksgiving matt and i packed the car up with kids and necessities and hit the road. destination: little rock, arkansas. matt's grandparents live there, along with his aunt jan, uncle jim and their kids jeff (with wife mandy with kiddos james allen and baby timothy) and julie (not present this holiday, she was indiana with her honey bunny this year). we had such a wonderful time, it went by too fast.

grandma and grandpa got to meet little rowdy for the first time and our kids really enjoyed them. lottie especially liked crawling on grandpa's lap and rowdy enjoyed banging on grandma's pie pan.

anywho, see for yourself...

here we have lottie sue crawling all over grandpa

and here we have rowdy banging on that pie pan

grandma and rowdyman

grandpa carving the turkey

here i am eating something

matt and grandpa hard at work

grandma and mom hard at work as well

mom sent this photo to me, not sure why i had that look on my face

if you are a robinson girl then you absolutely do two things at a gathering. one is make a craft of some type. the last time we got together we made super fancy hats and this year we made super fancy bracelets. out of SAFETY PINS. oh, you heard me.

here we are making them one evening

and her we are modeling a few

the second thing it that we play some farkle, but i don't have any photos of that. but TRUST ME, we played it lots. i love it. grandma loves it so much that jan bought her a t-shirt that says "i sparkle when i farkle" - she is adorable in it! jan, i can't find the photo so if you could email it to me i will put it up. i don't know what i did with it!

also, please check out our ballerinas. jan gets to wear a pink tutu because she kicked breast cancer's b-u-t-t the past year. she is also currently training for a half marathon with uncle jim. way to go, guys!!! and oh yeah, lottie sue is wearing a pink tutu because she is lottie sue. 

GO JAN!!!

baby timothy tells grandma a funny joke

baby timothy being super cute

the men working on a church project for aunt jan

we had such a great time in little rock, the kids had a ton of fun and matt and i enjoyed visiting. 

miss you guys!!! smooches!

the same day we drove back from little rock megan called to see if we could make it to her parent's house for dinner. earlier i said no because i thought we would be worn out, but i could not turn that cutie pie megan smith down, so we went as soon as we got home from arkansas. glad we did!

tommy is about to fry a turkey

matt keeps rowdy safe from the fire

megan showing off said-turkey

mary ann wearing a bib

it was, as always - a great time. we are looking forward to the beach trip, it will be here before we know it!

then some other week when matt was out of town i went over to jo's house for dinner. she oftentimes feeds me and the kiddos when matt is out of town. year, she's a saint.

jo presenting blake's spaghetti

the palmers were there

thanks for the grub, y'all!

here's a thing we mowrers like to do, build a big pillow pit and jump or be thrown into it. the kids love it so it happens quite regularly. here are some photos...

a lot of those are blurry but we are moving so fast it's hard to get a good photo. we'll try to get better ones next time. lottie sue and rowdy LOVE the pillow pit. i highly recommend it.

and then i have these photos of the night lottie sue made her gingerbread house. i forgot to take a photo of the finished product though - bad mommy. it was cute though, trust me.

lottie sue about to decorate her gingerbread house

sugar HIGH

and as always...a few items of interest:

1. here's a neat story on a woman that has the job of picking out typefaces for books - i would love that job, btw

2. matt and i just watched "exit through the giftshop" - we LOVED it - truly fascinating (in a related story shepard fairey is off the hook in regards to his obabma/hope poster)

3. the freakonomics group discusses whether or not expensive wins taste better

4. here's a story on jonathan ive (he is the guy that designs for apple, he makes everything so pretty)

5. matt and i loved the movie the station agent, vanity fair has an interview with peter dinklage

6. angry birds is coming to a tv near you

7. woody allen has a piece in the new yorker

alrighty, i am burning through the past few weeks here. it will be SO NICE to finally get caught UP. blog to ya later, taters.

bed head, chicago and the holidaze, randomness & plumber's b*tt

hey - look at me! post #2 already in less than 6 weeks...call me awesome. i have our holidaze photos followed by a photo DUMP of other things/photos i have collected.

yesterday was my birthday - it was pretty great. bb and grandaddy took the kids overnight (serenity NOW) so matt i went out to dinner and a movie. we saw black swan and matt described it as a dream you have with a fever and i totally agree. it's pretty intense and not so pretty with ballerina stuff. anywho, happy birthday to ME! WHEE!

the next few posts will be a walk down memory lane (circa december 2010). like i said before, we were busy little bees and have the photos to prove it.

i'll start if off with an untouched photo of lottie sue in the morning - talk about BED HEAD. goodness gracious, girl.

 

 BZZZZZ-T

(that is a sound effect of lottie sue
sticking her finger in the light socket)

lottie sue attends preschool and really really loves it. every december the whole school puts on a christmas parade. lottie sue's class were angels (awwww), she was way excited.  they provided the white gown but if they wanted wings or halo it was up to us parents to provide. lottie sue had wings (of course) but no halo.

i basically told her tough cookies, mommy is WAY to busy to figure out how to make a halo (she doesn't know what google is yet) and she'll just have to go sans halo this one time. at home this was acceptable but once she got to school that day and saw other halos she HAD TO HAVE ONE. i again said my apologies and left her to get a good location.

when her class came around we saw that she had a halo, we later figured out that she basically demanded one and her teachers made a makeshift one for her. that was somewhat of a diva move but the girl does like to dress up. next year i will make her whatever she wants.

"shy" lottie sue in the parade

(that's one of her besties, vincent, behind her)

lottie sue back there in the flock of angels

that kid in front put everyone to shame, GREAT halo and wings!

rowdy and matt/daddy await the parade

so that was fun, lottie sue basically cracks us up all day long but she gets super silly when she's on stage or something. we were happy that she stayed in line.

THEN the friday before christmas her class had a birthday party for jesus (can i get an amen!). rowdy and i went, plus bb was in the area so she stopped by for a minute. we were leaving that night for chicago.

lottie sue and vincent, of course

 vincent with his mommy (and my gym buddy), lisa

rowdyman is sporting his track suit

lottie sue taking the biggest bite ever

vincent taking photos

those kids were ALL ABOUT rowdy, they all wanted to hold him (unless you are lottie sue and all she wanted to do was pin him down).

trapped like a drown rat

again, very popular

so after naptime matt comes home and we hop in the car to drive halfway to chicagoland.

there is a commerical for these new chicken tenders at hardees. they look so delicious, matt and i have been talking about trying them out for several months. we are usually not ones to deny ourselves but i have been on a "no fast food" kick for a very long time. i bet that i have had fast food MAYBE 5 times last year. not kidding, it's a thing with me. i usually feel icky after eating cr*p like that and have been avoiding it. so anyway that's why i haven't ried them. BUT on our way up north we saw a hardees and it just happened to be dinner time.

they are fine, not great - but 100 times
better than a mcdonald's tender

typical lottie sue

we spent big and get a room at the knights inn, somewhere in indiana. lottie sue was so excited, we let her jump on the bed like we just didn't care.

yes, rowdy fell off the bed right when i turned
my head - no more jumping on the bed

the next morning we woke up early, got some starbucks and made the rest of the trek to the apple residence.

here are some photos of our awesome trip!

rowdyman eating dinner, happy as happy can be

wine from trader joe's - all of it under $7

(what i would do for a trader joe's AND to be
able to buy wine at the grocery store here, ugh)

the dinner table one night

(blurry photo but it was pretty that i wanted to post)

lottie sue and harlan eat dinner after bathtime

this is funny, becce gave these lovely hood scarf thingies to sara and me for christmas. they are super soft scarves and i sure do love it, i get many compliments basically every time i wear it. i think she got it urban outfitters but i can't find them online. 

anywho, we were playing with them one night and sara and i tried to recreate the famous  national geographic photograph of the girl from afghanistan.

this is her

this is us - HA

we had a really hard time trying NOT to laugh, if i wasn't giggling it would be better. cera, on the other hand, REALLY cracks me up.

this the apples nativity scene - i don't know the full story but i think harlan says that the figurine looks like becce so he put it there. i think it may actually be a star wars toy or something.

a modern nativity scene

here's mr. knox chillin

rowdyman eating breakfast reading the times

on sunday we planned a trip into the city, it's as easy as hopping on a train - you're there in 30 minutes. sah-weet.

the kids had hot chocolate while waiting on the train

a bundled up rowdyman

lottie sue giving harlan the stink eye

and here we are on the train!

harlan and lottie sue loving life

everyone is all smiles

we get into the city and have fish n' chips (and beer) for lunch

then it was off to marshal fields (which is now a macy's) to pick out a christmas tree ornament. matt and i used to do this every year when we lived in the windy city. we got one for us and the let the kiddos pick one out.

a very bundled up rowdyman looking at the window diecorations

here we have the kids opening gifts, they are totally in to it this year.

so that concludes our chicago trip. it was fun. lottie sue and harlan REALLY love each other and only want to be together - they are not so interested in anyone else.

we make the trek back home and then it was time for family christmas time! whee! here are a few photos from christmas eve up at johnny and judy's.

tri-CERA-tops

you can see that we like to make interesting faces for the camera

bb is welcomed with hugs all around

johnny and judy's gorgeous home/tree

rowdyman and granbunny hang out

matt and cera

rowdy gets a music set for christmas - he really likes to bang things

lottie sue gets a cinderella dress
(that she literally wears two out of three days)

we go home that night and lottie sue puts out milk, cookies and a note for santa.

sweet

and the next morning the kids wake up to find gifts from santa, they were actually pretty good this year.

rowdy gets a ball (he is pretty much obsessed with balls)

lottie sue gets a doll house and is so happy that she looks crazy
(she is saying "yesssssssssssssssss!")

after lunch with grandma (forgot the camera) we come home and get ready for our christmas night tradition of dinner and gifts with the smiths.

lottie sue and rowdy wrestle with uncle tommy

rowdy gets some back scratches from aunt megan - he was in heaven

lottie loves on mary (she was in town from nyc for the holidays)

megan giving me some love

it actually snowed on christmas night so lottie sue woke up to a white wonderland.

 

"yippee"

  

that night we drove over to matt's parents to do our annual christmas pajama party. it is so much fun! we always make mowrer pizza and then play games, we have a slumber party and then in the morning open gifts. 

michelle, syd and mom make the pizzas - delicious

this is during present time - lottie likes to help everyone (wearing her cinderella dress of course)...

gramma and papaw went big this year - lottie sue and rowdy got their own car!!! it was too cold outside that day so we had her driving around the garage. and please let me say that i would have given my left arm to have one of these as a kid.

 beep beep - stay out of her way, she's a terrible driver

and here are a few photos that i found on the camera, i am slowly getting caught up on our lives for your entertainment...

lottie sue and matt are making dressing in this photo

here i am making my beloved garland before the holidays

rowdy and papaw at calhoun's for dinner one night

 

you know i love my snuggie, matt found this
and said it would be perfect for me and rowdy

a texted photo of my super cute nephew, knox and his puppy

our little ballerina ready for class

bb sent this to us after picking lottie sue up
from school while we were visitng cera

 kevin wearing the hat lottie made (see above)

rowdyman reading a book, or really probably about to eat it

we always help granbunny and granray decorate their house for the holidays. i really just like for judy to tell me what to do, that woman has the magic touch. she has a true gift for decorating and making things beautfiul.

judy's mantle-piece (masterpiece, get it?)

and yes, here are a few items of interest for you...

1. i cannot wait for parks and recreation to come back, go away outsourced! this slideshow has all of the murals you see in the building on the show - they are funny (it's always the little things), here's one for you but you can click here to view all of them

2. matt and i recently watched exit through the gift shop - loved it. here's ebert's review if you are so inclined...here's the first few minutes - watch it, it is fascinating

3. steve carrell is leaving the office before the end of the season, you can click here for what they call a spoiler (it wasn't shocking to me)

4. flea talks to NPR about a new red hot chili peppers book

5. michael cera as a bad boy? no way...he's too charmingly awkward

6. 30 rock's jane krakowski is pregnant - i heart her

7. lottie sue with plumber's b*tt

 

nice and klassy

alrighty, over and out. check ya later (soon!!!)...