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...

vote for evy! & lottie sue: waking up, with a ballon and zombified

Please click here (or on the photo) and vote for Evy - she's in a photo contest and would love your vote! It's obvious she's the cutest and has the best photo - so vote away!!! She is photo #3 and here is the adorable picture...

seriously, easter never looked so cute

In Lottie Sue news...I brought the camera in the other day when Lottie Sue was waking up from her afternoon nap. Um, what a sweetie pie. And check out those chubby legs. I love them.

stttttrrrretttccchhhinnnnggggg...

awake? asleep?

Lottie was quite taken with the balloon we had for Patterson's shower. She is still playing with it today and it's sad and deflated. She calls it her "boon." It's funny because the first word she tried to say was balloon and she would say "bah-oon."

this was the highlight of her afternoon

I wanted to list a few more Lottie Sue-isms for you:

• She wants all of her dolls sans clothing, that's right - buck neked.
• She loves to brush her severed head's hair and her Barbie doll's hair. She is equally smitten with brushing mine or Matt's hair as well.
  
• Her third haircut was a disaster, she was NOT digging it. She started crying right away and then Cindy Lou thought it might be OK if we went outside and put LS on her motorcycle. When she saw the motorcycle she started saying "orse! orse!" (horse) and wanted on, but once she was sitting on it she started screaming again and Cindy Lou was cutting what she could while LS caused a major scene. Cars were driving by and staring, like we were torturing her.
  
• She still talks all day, every day. Here is a conversation we had today:
  

The scene: I'm at the computer and she is in the hallway with her pusher, babbit, puppy and baby.
Lottie Sue: "MOMMY! MOMMY! Dit (sit)! Peeze. (she says this while pointing to the den)
Me: "Oh, Lottie Sue - do you want Mommy to go into the den with you?"
Lottie Sue: "Yes. DO IT!!!"
Me: "Um, certainly. Since you asked so nicely..."
- end scene

And here we have a few shots of Lottie Sue on the deck steps, just hanging out. She wants to walk up and down them over and over and over again. Phew.

yeah baby!

After a while she turned into a zombie - yikes! But don't worry, we had the antidote and she's all better now.

me name lottie sue, me gonna get youuuuu

To feed your brain with information:

• My hometown made the NYtimes on Sunday...
• Sylvia Plath's son committed suicide a few days ago.

That's all I have for now, I will post to you later - but until then...smooch!

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...