our little bucket head, cupcakes, jaydiohead & i've been hearing, but I haven’t been listening

Here is Lottie Sue this afternoon. Whatever floats your boat, I say.

bucket head

These photos are of Lottie Sue on Sunday afternoon, she's really into cooking right now. She often copies Matt when he's in the kitchen making dinner. She'll get her kitchen on if Daddy is creating a meal, too cute.

the most delicious meal you'll never eat

And this is a photo I took of Lottie Sue giving me a big hug. Love her.

lottie sue is a lover, not a fighter

Here are a few Lottie Sue-isms for you:

• She has three babies that she plays with all day, she wants to take all three of them with her if we go anywhere.
  
• On Sunday night she kept telling me "I your little girl" over and over again - it made me cry it was so sweet. Side note: my pregnancy hormones make me cry at just about anything. Like I bawled at the end of The Amazing Race (???), and I really didn't care who won. I was just so happy for them I couldn't contain myself. I also cried the other day when Matt barely mentioned Lottie Sue getting married one day. Waterworks. It's funny.
  
• She loves to eat blackberries and raspberries, I think she might turn into a berry.
• She loves her pajama set that has the Disney princesses on them. She will tell the shirt "HIIIII" and then count the princesses over and over again.
  
• Lottie Sue had a bona fide #1 in the potty last week (see photo below - and yes, we took a photo) with a #2 yesterday.
  
• Lottie Sue loves to hug people, she is a very sweet little girl.
• Lottie Sue does not have a shy bone in her body. She is very social.
  
• She loves to wear Mommy's doos (shoes).
• Lottie LOVES to dance around, her favorite song is the theme song to The Family Guy. She goes nutz every time.
• She loves to fake sneeze, she thinks it's hilarious.
  

Last week Carrie hosted another Cupcake Extravaganza (and has a post up as well), a splendid time. She made dinner for us girls (this was one of the dishes and it has my name all over it - I even made it last night and I never cook: Giada's Pasta Ponza recipe) in addition to prepping everything for the fun. I stole some photos from Carrie and Kenley's crackbook pages.

here i am with patterson, kenley and amanda
with our creative juices flowing

carrie taking a picture of me about to take a picture

nomnomnomnomnomnom

megan about to chomp down

wonder woman herself with part of the cob

see? do they look real or WHAT?

Next we made monkey cupcakes. These guys were super cute.

gimme a kissee

i named him "burt"

the whole family of monkeys

Next up was a batch of lion cupcakes, these were my favorite and were so much fun to create. I really enjoyed doing the detail work on these babies.

roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (my lion is at 4 o'clock)

Here is a shot of the cupcakes together, all I can say is AWESOME. I LOVE decorating cupcakes!

voila

megan, amanda and p-dub post decorating

megan and amanda now with kenley

OK, here is a TMI shot for you. It is Lottie Sue's first real #1 in the potty. It is weird to think about how excited Matt and I got over this. Matt was in there with her and he starts yelling for me, I run in there and it's confirmed then I run after the camera. To take a photo of urine. Help me.

lottie sue is getting to be a big girl (wah)

Some news you can use:

• There are two albums out that are available for download and are free to you. One is from Coldplay (oh Chris Martin, you can do no wrong) and the other is from Jaydiohead - yes, that is JayZ and Radiohead. And yes, it is awesome. Enjoy.
• Here is a list of everything Tracey Jordan said this season on 30 Rock. I love that show and he especially cracks me up. Two of my favorites: “Pete, how am I going to live? I only have three hundred million dollars" and "I've been hearing, but I haven’t been listening."
  
• The trailer for the Sherlock Holmes move is up. I'm a big fan of Robert Downey, Jr. and love just about anything he's in. Check it out here.
• I am going to watch the Fox show "Glee" this evening. I've heard great things about it.
• Please please please set your DVRs for "So You Think You Can Dance" - it premieres this Thursday night. It. Is. Awesome. Even if you think it's not your thing, you will love it. This is one of the pieces from two years ago, it's titled "Hummingbird and Flower" or something like that. I think it is gorgeous.
  

PS - I just stole these photos from Jamie's crackbook page. They took the girls golfing last week and had a few photos. They were too cute not to share.

john with a very happy evy and campbell

campbell, jamie and evy - campbell and evy cracked me up on this one

Alrighty, check you later...

linker fun (cupcakes, food to die 4, graffiti & the zoo)

Post #3 for the week, btw - content RICH. Here is a post that is ALL LINKER, how wonderful is THAT? The Linkers had a little post-holiday vacation and went to Maggie Valley (awesome) and then to Knoxville to visit (even awesomer). I have loads of photos of the kiddies and then of course, the food. I don't have one of the gang together, I need to remember that next time...

I had a canister of the Sprinkles Cupcake Mix in the pantry and thought it would be fun to make cupcakes with Campbell. This wasn't her first rodeo, she was a natural (she might get that from her dad).

campbell hard at work

And here is the finished product, they were chocolate peppermint - I LOVED THEM!

sprinkle cupcake mix, i love you
(and a big thank you to campbell for making these!)

Our tradition with the Linkers (and one that I am VERY fond of) is that the boys do all of the cooking. And it's not chicken nuggets and mac n'cheese if you know what I mean. They throw down in the strongest sense. High style. John had a few meals in mind, he and Matt really wowed us - here are some photos.

fried oysters with a yummy sauce

the before: they prepared the fish (i have to ask what type of fish it was specifically) by wrapping it in prosciutto

the after: fish in prosciutto topped with caramelized onions on a fried heirloom tomato topped with pimento cheese

The second nigh the boys made a beef tenderloin meal, I can't tell you how good it was. Matt made it again not even a week before we had it the first time.

the appetizer: matt with his onion tarts before they went into the oven

i don't know what i ever did without tarts, they are one of matt's specialties

i mean whoa, seriously - it was delicious

And here are a few random photos of the weekend...

campbell on her razor thingy

john was reading to all three but notice only one is paying attention

campbell graffitied the tub, a work of art

evy and lottie sue closed themselves in the office

this is my new favorite game, blokus (love it) - john and campbell were on a team

evy loved to hide in the curtains, it was perfect because lottie sue loved to find her (they would both squeal with delight)

One morning the boys played golf and Jamie and I took the girls to the zoo. It was Lottie Sue's first visit, she really liked it. Every time we would see an animal she did her usual "hiiiii" with a wave - adorable.

mommy and baby chillin with the elephants

lottie sue meets a zebra

here she is greeting the rhinos

this is campbell when we arrived home, she was out like a light

Alrighty, I am scanning in Matt's drawings this afternoon and will put the post up this weekend. You won't be disappointed...

chicken little is soooooo cute & croissants

Kat sent these photos out the other day of Chicken Little - how cute is he?!?!?! I can't wait to meet him, he'll be here in December!

oh boy!

I love Fall! I love Fall! The weather is so perfect right now and we have Thanksgiving around the corner followed by Christmas. I love this time of year! Look at what Lottie Sue drew (or I guess fingerprinted for you) for your enjoyment...

one day this will be worth millions

And I took this photo of Lottie Sue this morning, our artist chewing on a lint remover.

it looks like she's dressed for a flood

Changing the subject: Perfect for those warm holiday mornings, I give you the best croissants in the world by Williams Sonoma. I think Becce saw them on Oprah (the favorite things episode) a few years ago and she turned us on to them. They are not cheap, but are so very worth it. I suggest the mini croissants, buy a few lovely jams and good butter and you have a little piece of heaven. We have them on Christmas mornings and it's such a delight.

A few other notes of interest...

• Here's a Q&A with the curator of the punk-rock auction at Christie's.
• Here's an interview with Paul Rudd - he's one of my favorites...
• Lost returns on January 21st! I know that's a long time away but still...
• I HATE the Saved by Zero commercials. It seems like I'm not the only one. And it's not just that I hate the song, it's that it is on about 1,000 times a day on every channel. I can't escape it. Ugh.
  

I'm currently scanning in old photos from my grandparents, these are of my cousins Melinda and Michael. They look the same! Michael has a little girl Campbell (and a boy Russell) that looks just like him. EXACTLY! I'm posting a photo of her as well so you can see how much they look alike.

a cutie pie melinda rockin the pigtails

here is michael as a little boy...

and this is campbell (last christmas) - it's so neat how much they look alike

I also found this gem of Michelle and Matt from the 80s. Lookin GOOD!

they both look the same today

This photo is Tyler and Witne (my cousins as well), I'm not sure when this was taken but it's not that old. Isn't our family full of handsome people?

smiles and a bear hug, good stuff

This is the only photo I have of the game on Saturday. My battery was dead, I thought it was charged but no.

even though we lost, us girls looked cute at least

OK, I hope this is the beginning of a great week for everyone. Peace.