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!

the rest of the christmas photos

OK, I finally finished going through our photos. I have for you the remaining Christmas memories...

Lottie Sue's Christmas dress looks like the outfit the Rockettes wear. I loved it and she was soooooo cute. Lottie Sue had a great time on Christmas Eve, she loves attention and got plenty of it.

here she is saying "OOOOOH" over a present

here's the outfit sans the shoes, but still cute

Here are a few of Lottie Sue around GranBunny and GranRay's tree.

sweet girl

Then it was present time...

bb helps lottie sue unwrap

grandaddy gets a clapper

granray and granbunny open their loot

another baby??? yes!

moi and my little lottie sue

And here we have Christmas morning, Santa brought Lottie Sue a dollhouse. She liked it a lot, and she was all about opening gifts. She has too much, you can see how the den is overflowing with toys. We have since then cleaned up a bit! But she still has too much.

a doll house for a doll, it's perfect for her at this age

the severed head is from becce and mike, lottie sue knew just what to do

a music box with a ballerina from the apples, lottie sue loves to open and close it
(she'll do it 40 times in a row)

Here we have the opening of the stroller, notice her face - she was very excited.

see ya

And here she is with her spiral toy thing, a gift from Aunt Judy and Uncle Johnny. She was squealing while playing with it. The first photo in the sequence is totally Lottie Sue, she is such an expressive little girl. She gets so excited over everything.

she plays with this a lot

We went to Grandma's for Christmas dinner, she made WAY too much food but it was good. She spoiled Lottie Sue but it's her job. Lottie Sue was sitting in a literal pile of presents.

we should be good on clothes and toys for years now

Cera was with us over Christmas but the only photo I have of her is on Christmas morning and she has major bed head, not sure if she would still love me if I put it out into the world. But I may put it up anyway. We had a great with Cera and I really hated to see her go, I miss her terribly. Poo poo poo.

Matt was home for THREE weeks in a row, amazing. It has been wonderful squared. He really got into making his own beef and chicken stock. He spent many hours making the perfect broth. He's adorable. Right now he is making his famous french onion soup and homemade french bread. He starts his travel back up tomorrow though so I'm back to my own cooking (it's sad, people). I may pack myself and Lottie Sue up in a suitcase and go to DC with him.

This week I'll have several posts to publish, we have a lot of photos from the past few weeks. The holidays and all of the visitors gave us lots of photo ops. I hate it that I didn't get any of Cera! Ooh, I think I do have one of her at dinner one night but I'll have to check my phone. Matt's mom also gave us a ton of Matt's old drawings, I am going to scan them in for your enjoyment. The drawings really are great, but it's the subjects that crack me up (Lionel Ritchie, anyone?). And I have tons of photos of the Linker family, we - when I say that I mean John and Matt - cooked DELICIOUS food (no joke, high gourmet), played games and went on a trip to the zoo.

I almost forgot, this year I sang in our church's Christmas Choir. I loved loved loved it. I had so much fun and it was a wonderful way for me to celebrate the reason for the season. God has blessed me with such a wonderful family, I can hardly believe it. Here are a few photos of me la la la-ing.

count four rows up and second from the left - that's me

outside warming up - la la la la la la laaaaaaaaaa

OK, I'll zip it for now. Matt and Lottie Sue are playing "baby" while daddy watches football. Lottie Sue is wearing her bloomers on her head (she insists upon it), so I need to grab the camera. ..