silhouettes (the good and then ours) & nice girls finish dead last

i hope all the mommies out there are having a great day so far, i sure have. it started with a wonderful breakfast in bed with my family - lottie sue and rowdy gave me a very lovely pair of earrings and i LOVE them. thank you my sweet babes (and matt)!

here's the card they gave to me...it cracked me up.

"best blogger ever" is RIGHT

this post is comprised of a major photo dump, i have photos from several things i'm thowing on here.

i'm going to lead with the silhouette section. this should be entertaining for you.

a lottie sue and rowdyman, april 2010

here is mr. harlan's right side

for mother's day we are giving all the mommies/grandmommies silhouettes of the kids. we had them cut by clay rice at smart toys and books in early april. the guy is pretty amazing, you sit your kid down and he looks at them while cutting out their profile with tiny scissors. i assumed he was going to trace their profile with a light and a wall but no - he cuts them out. i found this photo on his website so you can see what i mean.

he could be tim burton's brother

last night the smiths came over to hang out and i was explaining how he did this then of course we get idea that WE can do just as good a job as clay rice and decide to draw each other's profile. we talked about cutting them out like he does, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. anyway, overall they were pretty terrible but made for many laughs. there were a few good ones in there here and there. the name on top is the object and the names below the drawings are the "artist."

we voted that mine was best (but still not very good)

tommy wins this round although matt's is pretty good

it is a shame but i can't find tommy's drawing of matt, i
am pretty sure it was good (i will continue the search)

megan thinks i look like jimmy durante i guess

last week lottie sue's school put on a program for the end of the year. her class performed three songs, lottie participated in about 30% of the performance and the rest of the time she stood up there and smiled at the audience. you never know what you will get. here is a shot of her during a moment when she was actually performing.

center stage

this is what rowdy did the whole time.

nom nom nom nom nom

i stand corrected, he also did this with his pops.

my two favorite boys

later that day i had lunch with carrie, patterson and cassady at one of our regular spots, TOT (taste of thai). good food, good times.

carrie and rowdy

rowdy and cassady play together. rowdy was reaching for cassady's pacifier here, you can see in the next picture cassady has it under tight wraps.

rowdy reaches for the pacifier

cassady thinks not

carrie invited us to join her at the pool on friday and we gladly took her up on that offer. it was FUN FUN FUN but sorta busy with two little kids, hence only one photo. rowdy is a chick magnet, when they left to do something else he started crying. he likes the ladies, what can i say?

hi girls, how YOU doin?

that saturday i ran in yet another race, the tennessee school for the deaf holds a race each year. it starts on their campus then runs through the gorgeous island home community.

it was awesome. i beat my prior race time by a whole minute plus the route was so so so pretty and so so so flat (my heart is a flutter). you can view their photos here, i found this one of me. i have my running friend ava behind me there (she's completed three (or four but it could be six, i can't remember but i know it's a lot) half marathons in the past year) and we stayed together the whole race. i think we were about to round the corner and hit the first mile mark. anywho, look how happy we are!

it's just one foot in front of the other

after the race we met the smiths downtown for breakfast and to pick up our first delivery from colvin family farms. again, here i am being super happy (along with megan, she's super happy, too).

our first loot

we joined a csa and are very excited about it. here is a link to the family that grows our produce for us. they are super nice people and do a good good thing. to quote them:

At Colvin Family Farm we proudly raise the freshest, best tasting produce, grown without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides. We don't use seeds that have been Genetically Engineered (GE), or that are of Genetically Modified Origin (GMO). We raise our produce right from the ground up using natural and sustainable farming methods with the goal of protecting our community's health and environment.

we really try to buy local if possible, we get a lot of items from horn o'plenty. please note that the horn serves breakfast and lunch, plus they have way better prices than lowe's on plants, flowers and herbs (although not a big selection like lowe's). anywho, back to the post...

it was a very pleasant morning, here's a shot of the boys. matt has a weird joker smile and tommy is too cool for school. rowdy chews on his finger.

this kinda cracks me up

all lottie wanted was a balloon, it was her number one objective. look at the joy.

she picked out an orange one

here's a shot of our half of the produce. it's early in the season and our pickings are on the small side, once it gets going we should have more than we can eat. and we only get what they grow and what is in season. one week we could get a ton of beets or okra so that is what we will eat all week. it's going to be fun. the hussars, cases and matt's parents are doing this as well. check out megan's blog, she did one on the csa and it's entertaining.

yummy eats

here's a random photo of lottie sue that night, she is covered in ice cream.

she calls it chockey cream

and on friday we drove out to rockford (my town of residence until the 6th grade) to attend john and amanda's wedding shower. their wedding day is next month and we are looking forward to seeing them get hitched. megan is making amanda's wedding dress and i must tell you how pretty it is - i have seen photos and it looks so beautiful on mander!

love is in the air

kristina, megan, candace (one of the hostesses,
it was her home), mander and moi

there was even live music, for reals - such a neat party!

pickin and a grinnin

the next morning i ran in a FOUR MILE RACE (yeah, you read that right) in oak ridge with amy, hilary, tara and manissa. the moment i walked in to get my packet i knew this race was different. for one, it was pretty small and b - there were some serious-type runners. and i guess they are there for every race but you notice them more when the race is small.

we came. we ran.

anywho...i totally came in LAST PLACE.

i ate everyone's dust

it really didn't bother me that much until i saw them pulling up the road cones ahead of me. they thought everyone finished and were about to really break it down. but they saw me coming and quickly put them back and i had lots of people cheering me on at the end. i shook it of just fine.

even though i came in last it's still great, i did it at least and i really am getting better/faster each week. next year i am going to run this race and i will not come in last. i hope!

we took grandma out for lunch for mother's day, afterwards we visited for a while. lottie sue found suckers there and was so so so so so happy.

here she is telling the sucker she loved it

grandma and rowdy hang out

i thought i would jot down more lottie sueisms for you. she is a firecracker and i really mean it.

* she LOVES reba (the tv show) and only likes the scenes with reba in them
* she tells us every morning that she only wants to wear BIG dresses (flowing, fancy ones), she also wants them pink
* she is somewhat obsessed with mermaids and will pretend to be one, she calls herself lottie sue mermaid
* she loves it when i make up stories about lottie sue mermaid or lottie sue princess, her face LIGHTS up - it's awesome
* she asks for the same lunch most days: peanut butter and jelly sandwich (cut in sticks), pretzels, raisins and milk
* she loves for me to play "lisztomania" so she can dance to it - she says it's her favorite song
* she loves to play "chutes & ladders" but doesn't play it right at all, she calls the blond gril piece "lottie"
* she also calls any blond barbie doll "lottie" and has named two of her baby dolls "carrie" and "olivia"
* one day she gave me her barbie dolls to play with then came over to get them, telling me i made them bored
* ernie is now her best friend, kevin is out
* she was playing cornhole with matt and he made one in the hole, she ran over there and said "wow, that's incredible!"

let me mention a few rowdyisms, he is just past the seven-month mark and is doing very well. he is one easy baby, lemmetellya.

* he loves bananas, they are his favorite but he doesn't discriminate much overall
* he cried the first time i gave him peas
* he rolls over quite well and is starting to his behind in the air so maybe crawling or scooting in next
* he loves bath time, he is MOST happy in the water - he loves to kick his legs and splash around
* he will try to grab anything near him, he loves his book - it's his favorite toy
* he is really into lottie sue, he smiles so big when he sees her and he loves to watch her play

and since it is mother's day i wanted to post a photo i came across of my mom. she is three here - lottie sue's age now.

little miss connie sue

it is hard to believe it has been seven years, but it has (sigh). this is my favorite photo of all time of her.

miss connie sue

ok, time to sign off...i'm leaving you with this photo, it was taken a while back - i think last september. i know i was working on a sewing project and matt came up with lottie sue to the bonus room to hang out with me. matt was on lottie detail while i finished up but i looked over and took this shot.

i call it "parenting 101 - what NOT to do."

yes, that's a plastic bag

alrighty, that's all i have for now. let's all have a great week and meet back here in a few days for more from the mowrers. until then!

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.