balrina, lottie arizona and henry everett & great greats (plus books 2 read)

Lottie Sue talks about dancing like a "balrina" a lot the past few days. We don't know why this started but have been enjoying it very much. Today she wanted to wear a tutu to Mother's Day Out and I can't tell you how excited she was - she kept shouting "I A BALRINA! I DANCE!" - it was awesome.

Here are a few shots of her and some dance moves...

yeah, we know how cute she is

Matt's mom sent this photo over last week. I'm not sure if you know, but we got the name Lottie from Matt's great-grandmother, her name was Lottie Arizona (her sister's name was China Bee - I love it). We found out after our Lottie was born that she shares the same birthday as Great Grandmother Lottie - freaky! But neat!

This is a photo of Lottie and her husband Henry Everett (Matt's great-grandparents - I think Matt looks like Everett!).

lottie and henry in their 50th wedding anniversary photo

Matt's mom sent this note over with the photo, it's about Everett:

He was quite a fellow, a big man, very intelligent, taught in a one-room school most of his life, played the banjo, knew an amazing number of folk songs, led singing schools in his area. Then when a college degree was required to teach school, he drove the school bus. He loved to entertain the grandkids by playing the banjo and singing all those oldies. Actually Grandma Lottie taught him to play and sing to begin with. Lottie was the sweetest, kindest woman, and she's the one who was always doing some kind of needlework. They both laughed alot.

This picture is for their 50th wedding anniversary. She was 16 and he was 21 when they married on May 28 in 1918. They had 8 children, 2 boys and 6 girls. All the kids played some sort of stringed instrument so they had some lively singing sessions. My mom, Ima Jean was the 4th child, and the only one who taught in a one-room school. All the children have lived into their 80's--pretty amazing.

Anywho, I love family stuff like that (send more Mom!). Thanks for sharing!

Lottie Sue and I went to see Grandma the other day for lunch, she found this photo of me when I was little.

maybe this is where lottie gets it?

She also had this photo and I asked to scan it in. The woman on the left is my great-grandmother, Grandma Carter (Grandma's mother), and she is with her brother Oscar and their parents, Grandma and Grandpa Rainwater (my great-great grandparents).

hello, family!

I have also had the pleasure of loving several of the books I've recently read. I found three of them in our bookshelf and am pretty sure these are books that Cera left here before she moved - so THANKS CERA!). Anywho, I thought I would share...

• Vinegar Hill by Manette Ansay thumbs up (enjoyed it very much)
  
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - thumbs up (I loved this book, wonderful)
  
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett- thumbs up (it's a fast read and I enjoyed it very much)
• Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi - thumbs up (ate it up)
  
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (this book is a graphic novel, I thought it was great)

Alrighty, over and out. Blog for ya later!

lottie sue screamed at santa, matt had a birthday & the conchords are back

Lottie Sue met Santa last weekend and it didn't go very well. There was kicking, screaming and crying involved.

we gave her a cookie before going up, but that didn't help at all

i was holding back laughter, does that make me a bad mommy?

Children's Hospital Rehab Center (those peeps are near and dear to us) hosted the Holiday Party with Santa. Lottie Sue's physical therapist, Deidre (love her), helped Santa pick out the perfect gift for Lottie Sue - a baby doll! LS was crying and when I took her off Santa's lap I said "thank you" and she screamed "DAY YOUUUU" (her thank you) to him - it was hilarious. At least she has manners.

these photos are of ls after we stopped her beeline
toward the mountain of stuff animals - she was MAD

Here she is opening her present, she got very excited when she saw the baby doll.

thank you santa (and deidre)!

Matt celebrated his 35th birthday last Sunday (whoa, somebody is O-L-D...). Just kidding...not. I have no room to talk as we are only a month apart. But Matt will ALWAYS be older than me. Hee.

lottie sue helps her dad open his birthday gift

Matt made a special birthday dinner for himself (me no cook) that started out with his delicious french onion soup. It's the best I've ever had - YUM.

ooh la la

And here are a few random photos of Little Miss for your enjoyment...I must mention that Lottie Sue is just a wonderful little girl. She is so sweet and funny, this kid has a lot of spunk.

our happy happy kid

And here she is climbing on some of her Christmas presents.

yee haw!

OK, time for me to do some type of house something. Lottie Sue woke up at 5am (why oh why) and I've been quite slow today. I am way impressed that I got this post out. I hope it's not full of typos, if so I'll have to fix when my brain is working again. This Friday night we have the annual Mowrer Pajama Party Christmas and I am WAY excited. We eat Gramma's delicious homemade pizze and we'll play games, then the next morning we're doing presents and croissants (did you order yours???) It's going to be a BLAST!

I leave you with the premiere of Flight of the Conchord's second season. This show kerrrr-acks me up.

harlan is NOT a fan of the sc & if the shoe fits

Becce sent this last night and I saw it this morning, it cracked me up and started my day out with a giggle.

santa claus? not a fan

It is so COLD here, I personally like it. I like to wear fleece and bundle up. I can't believe it's December 8th! Where does the time go??? Oh well, here are some photos of Miss Thang playing with my shoes. Lottie Sue loves to play on the bottom step, I find her there with her babies (two baby dolls, two monkeys and a puppy dog that she calls gog) a lot. It's adorable. She is all about babies right now, she calls all of her brood "babies" and they are always close. Right now she has Big Monkey in her rocking chair and she just gave him a kiss. I'm telling you, she is such a sweetie pie! Oh yeah, back to the shoes...

the girl has taste

all girl

Remember the boa? I forgot how much Kevin LOVES anything with feathers. The boa has caused some tension between these two...

i think lottie sue won this one

And here is LS coloring in her giant book. She loves to color and gets very excited, sometimes she gets so crazed about it I have to put it away and let her do something else.

coloring = excitement overload

OK, that's all I have for now. We are about to brave the cold and head to the store. Talk with you later!