Christmas in November...

1st let me start by apologizing to any long-term locals from our sweet little town...I'm about to deprecate a time honored tradition...the Christmas Parade...

It all started over dinner last night..."WHAT?!?! Your not taking your children to the Christmas Parade...what a horrible parent you are...every GOOD parent will be there with their darling, precious, points of light!" (ok, I admit...I have a flair for the dramatics and improvised a bit for you, the audience...) Well, we gave into the peer pressure that was suppose to end it's hold on you in high school, and went to the dreaded parade...the Lingenfelters and every Tom, Dick & Jim Bob in a 45 mile radius! Thank the dear Lord our friends the Bakers (locals) had the wherewithal to park their truck right on the parade route the night before so we'd have a place to corral our children! We stood there for what seemed like eternity, enduring way too many marching bands, semi-rigs, and forlorn teenagers, all for the piece de resistance...Santa & Mrs. Claus (you can barely see them at the top left of my picture). The saving grace of the whole night, & honestly the deciding factor in our decision to trek up to the square for this yearly ritual, was the opportunity for us to hang out with our friends, the Bakers & the Westmorelands. Thanks for putting up with my crankiness!

Magic

This has to be one of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen! It's almost magical. I use to pass it all the time in my old life, you know the one where I got paid to work... I've written before about how beautiful this Autumn in the South has been and thankfully it's still hanging around!

Daddy's girl

She's turned into a Daddy's girl...it's about damn time! Takes some of the heat off of me!

I scream, You scream...

My friend Kerri & I have decided to start keeping each other's little girl on alternating Monday's. This gives the Mama's an extra morning of peace & quiet to get some things done (or nothing for that matter) and at the same time it gives our darling, precious, sweet, lovable girls an opportunity to play with each other. I wish this picture had sound so that you could hear the screams they were emitting, just for the heck of it, no reason, no rhyme, just screaming.

Me & my Old Man...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent yesterday with my sister, Carolyn, and her family! My children love, love, love her kids! Yesterday a.m. when we asked "Amy-Lee" what he was thankful for he blurted out "my cousins!" He had so much fun playing with them in the woods! This is the only picture I took all day yesterday, too full from dinner!

Leaves

I am so in love with the light these past few weeks! This time of year it is just to die for! It's just absolutely beautiful here! I don't remember the leaves being so colorful & vibrant last year! Not too mention how much fun it is to wrestle in them with your Dad!

*this cute little scene quickly turned into our 1st attempt at Christmas photos...don't have to tell you how well that went...

2 boys in a tree

We've finally found a way to keep the boys still & in one place...

SOA

We travelled in support of closing the SOA...what a great day! There was lots to see, dancing to be done, puppetista's to watch, flags to wave and of course...PEACE

Autumn cutie

No real reason for this picture except that I think she looks so cute! We had a great time outside before it got to be chilly, well chilly for folks in the South...

Tree Hugger

I realized yesterday that it has been over a week since I've posted a picture of my kids, it's been kinda a nice change, good for me to flex my photography muscles & take something other than those 2 precious muses of mine! However, I'm back with one of Amy-Lee...he's quickly turning into that little boy I've been dreading...climbing things, fascination- bordering on obsession - with guns and all things violent, doesn't want to cuddle with his mama in the mornings "tomorrow I'll cuddle with you" "tomorrow I'll hold your hand." But I guess these are all signs that we are doing our jobs correctly, he's growing up, exerting his independence, at least that's what I tell myself in a feeble attempt to comfort my bruised mama-ego...

AL + LL = TLA

Pepper

Although he/she is not our cat the kids have given baby-cat an official name...Pepper! I love hearing Lou yelling for him/her..."Pep-Pa...Pep-Pa..." However, I'm still fond of "baby-cat" which is what I'll continue to use.

Mums the word...

I planted these boogers early in the spring & they kept growing and growing and growing...they were tall, fell over into the driveway and have been laying there for several months. They looked bad! But wait, look at them now! Of course they had about 2 good days before the frost got them...

unchartered territory

Tonight, after a lovely dinner at our favorite resturant, Venucci's, we went to the big High School game between the two rival high schools in town... I had the pleasure of photographing a promotional event for a local radio station in town, a field goal kick from the 30 yard line for a new Toyota truck...needless to say the gentleman didn't make the goal...c'est la vie...

Finally!

It's over! I've passed off the school pictures to the "Directoress" they are officially out of my control! I don't know if I should laugh or cry? One thing I do know...they look GOOOOOD!

*I should have posted this earlier, but especially want to thank Casey & Fiona for coming over last night & helping me put those packages together! Also, thanks to Kerri for helping me those 2 days we took pictures! Y'all are the best!

Baby-Cat

The cat to the left is ours, Scully, the cat to the right is "baby-cat" a stray cat that our good friends & neighbors found under their house one day about 6 weeks ago. Baby-cat has decided to play both sides of the street...we feed it/they feed it/we feed it/they feed it...smart cat!

Shout out to Donna!

I've been working with rubber cement for the past two days for a work project. It's some foul smelling stuff, actually gave me a doozy of a headache yesterday, but to be honest...I love that stuff! Everytime I work with it I can't help but think of my friend and college roomate, Donna Hartley (now Pixler) whenever I work with that stuff. She's the brilliant mind who showed me how to put the glue on both sides of the project your working on to make it stick better! Genius! OK, so it states that on the directions, but who reads the directions?

Today is my birthday. . .

No need to bother counting the candles on my beautiful, homemade, by 2 wonderful kids & their sweet daddy, cake...I'll tell ya, I'm 39 & still going strong! What a wonderful day! Dinner with the girls topped the day off! Thanks everyone for your cards, gifts, dinner, & love!

Shine

This morning, the boys went at church, while Lou & I stayed home because she wasn't feeling too well. I put on my new favorite CD, Joni Mitchell's Shine and she started painting. Between this cutie painting, the beautiful day, and Joni's wonderful music I was blown away! Too bad you can't look at this picture & hear that music at the same time...it was one of those moments!

"She Loves Me"

We had the most wonderful evening! It started with a yummy dinner with the Baker's and then we all headed over to see the College's production of "She Loves Me" which was absolutely wonderful! Amy-Lee was mesmerized, Lou fell asleep right before intermission, c'est la vie! She woke up right at the end & kept saying..."that was good, that was good."

Two for the price of one!

I'm catching up here! I finally, finally finished the pre-school portraits and have a few extra minutes before I devote the rest of today to my very patient family. So without futher ado... It is with great pleasure that I present to you the blog photos for today, Friday, November 2, 2007... Ms. Lou at her finest!

Lou with the dog that she loves the most, Jasime (Jazzy), although I'm not so sure that Jazzy feels the same...

Lou painting in the afternoon. This is the easel we gave her for her birthday and I think we definitely have gotten our money's worth on this present!

rushed...

I'm in a time crunch with those pictures I mentioned earlier in a blog post...no time for witty musings...hopefully tomorrow! Here's a random picture of Lou from this past weekend @ our friends Tim, Leigh Ann & Eva's house!

Finally, it's over!

Is it just me or did this Halloween season seem inordinately long? But we made it through, only one costume change & loads of candy! Can't wait until next year. By the way...doesn't it seem wrong that Christmas decorations are up before the taste of your last candy corn is gone?

Here are my precious children, ever so cooperative when it comes to taking pictures...

This is a good example of why we LOVE our neighborhood...spontaneous group trick or treating

More of our little munchkins! I love this picture because you can see Amy-Lee helping Mary Maddox down the steps...what a kind fellow!