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!

our own little neanderthal

Last minute on Thursday I finally made myself get moving on Lottie Sue's costume. It took me about an hour and it was so easy I kicked myself for not starting earlier - think of the embellishments I could have made. Oh well. She had a prop, a big bone but we don't have any photos of her with it. She likes to bonk you in the head with it. She also LOVED the kiddies coming to the door for candy, she was wide-eyed.

me name lottie sue

our own little neanderthal

Both sets of grandparents (BB, GranDaddy, Gramma and PawPaw) stopped by to check her out. PawPaw went all Mr. T on us using one of Lottie Sue's fur leg warmers.

pawpaw pities the fool
(i knew this photo would be blog gold)

And this is Drake, he's our cute little neighbor. His costume was the best all night.

drake wows us with his rendition of spaghetti and meatballs

And without crying, CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW MUCH SHE'S GROWN IN ONE MEASLY YEAR? It's killing me.

halloween 2007, principle ballerina

family shot - boo!
side note: looking at this photo makes me
want to be a brunette again. hmm.

I'll leave you with this random photo. This was taken the other day during the afternoon Blue's Clues/snack time.

the sweetest kid i know

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Boo!

fort lottie sue was built in a day, don't make fun of my crocs & megan creates another fab dress

We spent ALL day Saturday erecting Lottie Sue's swing set. It was her big birthday present (yes, her birthday was in early June but this was the first opportunity we had to put it together) from us and Gramma and PawPaw Mowrer. It was so hot, we almost melted away. We had a downpour toward the end and it only intensified the humidity (lovely). But now it's complete and it's pretty awesome. She can only use the swing and slide right now but I envision Lottie Sue hiding out in the fort with her dolls playing house one day.

We plan on making a sand box under the fort and we have to fix the ground around it. But that can wait, we're exhausted. Here are a few photos from the day...

the before spot

lottie sue oversees the construction
(there were about one million parts to this thing)

matt and dad work on the fort part

attaching the swings and glider here while lottie sue swings
(it's hard to see but lottie sue is smiling so big, she was literally squealing with delight)

lottie sue tries out the swing and loved every minute of it
(i think this might be her grubbiest state yet)

this is a shot from the back - there is the ladder and climbing wall
(on the opposite side is a table and bench for little ones)

Matt's taken a fair share of Aleve today, he should rebound by tomorrow. He's actually in town this week (no traveling, I can't believe it). I am so excited by this! He's been gone 8 out of the past 10 weeks, poor guy.

Here is a photo I took of Lottie Sue Saturday AFTER her bath, any shoe she find she puts it on those adorable little feet of hers.

(a not grubby at all) cinderella
(yes, these crocs are mine - sue me, they are so comfortable and good for bumming around)

Oh, so that reminds me of this gem from icanhascheezberger...

he has a point

I leave you with a photo of Megan in one of her new creations. Could this dress BE any cuter? I think not.

cute dress, cute megan
(there are pompoms here people - need i say more?)

OK, now I'm signing out. Have a great week everyone!