parainfluenza III & we partied like it was 1999

This week has been pretty terrible, Lottie Sue had a virus that landed her in the hospital for five days. FIVE DAYS! It's a long long long story, but we are so happy that she is on the mend. We came home yesterday but she is still a mess, she does not feel well at all. We are trying our best to keep her comfortable and entertained but it is hard as nothing is fun for her when she feels like poo.

I was so good last weekend, I completed four posts and I was going to post them every other day but that just didn't happen. So be sure to check the blog this week as we'll have new posts up several times. OK, here's our post from NYE...

Jonathan had a NYE party and it was so much fun! He and his lovely Tabby are wonderful hosts. Here's the invite, I say JP never looked better.

looking good

We shipped Lottie Sue off to Gramma and Papaw's, so we only have one of her and here it is.

lottie sue on new year's day, wearing marty's hat

And here are a few photos from the party, doesn't everyone look dapper?

tabby puckers up

mr. and mrs. america

kenley, moi (and matt) and jo looking gorgeous as usual

shonnie bear and patterson

jennifer and tabby strike a pose

marty and shawn

megan dances up a storm and looks very cool doing so

jennifer and will ring in the new year

mr. t and blake

kenley, jo and mrs. t (aka, cheri)

patterson and brad

amy and seth

marty gives it his best shot

We spent New Year's Day playing Rock Band 2 and Mortal Kombat with the Smiths, Gilmores and the Masons. We spent the day in our pajamas. It was awesome. More to come later!

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. ..

lottie sue pets jasper & pictionary man

I'm STILL sorting through photos but can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But in the meantime I'm posting a few to tide you over. The first one is of Lottie Sue and Jasper, she really loves him and enjoyed petting him. She kept saying "ooooh - baby? oh - baby!" - the two of them were almost too much.

lottie sue pets jasper

And here are a few photos from Pictionary Man, this was the first time we played and two of Tommy's tries REALLY cracked us up. Can you guess who these people are (click on the image to find the answer)?

yeah baby

me gusta viajar

Alrighty, I will post more later. It's taking me longer than expected to get back into a routine after the holidays!

the mowrer family christmas pajama party

Boy, I have a lot of photos to go through but I have one section of them finished. The holidays were very busy with gatherings, slumber parties and lots of wonderful visitors (Cera, the Gilmores AND the Linkers came in to see us!!!). The photos below are from the Mowrer Family Pajama Christmas Party. It's our tradition to play games, eat homemade pizza and desserts - and let's not forget the present opening. OK, here we go...

papaw and gramma love on their lottie sue (i love this photo so much)

assembling the pizza, made with extra tlc

grandmother made these guys, too cute (and yummy!)

farkle gaming

We all settled in to watch Christmas television before heading to bed.

sydney and matt have a little girl talk

The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast (oh, the croissants!) and then opened presents.

matt putting the croissants in the oven

coffee time before breakfast

pajamas are the required dress, grandmother
drove over the next morning in her robe
(glad she didn't get pulled over!)

sydney and her stocking
(made with love by gramma and grandmother - we all had one)

lottie sue fit into her stocking
(um, what a sweet face)

grandmother gets a stand mixer (fancy!)

michelle and sydney dig for goodies

matt helps lottie sue open gifts

lottie sue tries to steal sydney's bag

lottie sue hammering on a toy

i took a photo of of gramma and matt taking photos

sydney and lottie sue rock away

lottie sue must have been very good this year, gramma and
papaw gave her a kitchen (she loves to cook)

playing around in her pajamas

checking out a deer in the woods

papaw and lottie sue rock

Lottie Sue loves Elijah (the cat), but he's not such a fan of hers. Here is why...

elijah racing away from lottie sue

she never stops no matter how far he runs

OK, that's all I have for now. I will sift through the other photos and post more. If I get behind it takes so much to get it done!