Another Sign of Parentdom

Yep, this is us at 11pm on New Year's Eve. We do have champagne in hand, but we're in our jammies, bundled under blankets, watching other people party while we have our own private celebration of our 2009 and anticipation of our 2010. Old though it may appear, it's a WONDERFUL life, and I'm so glad it's mine!

L&S,

Leslie

A Preview

I will upload all the Christmas pictures sometime this week, but until then, a preview of how fabulous our Christmas was...

L&S,

The Bowers

Remember THIS? It took me a while, but I FINALLY got the picture. West family, remind you of anything? This has been my final sight before closing my eyes for the last month and every night it has brought back a flood of memories from Christmases past - all of my Christmas memories for so many years had a tree JUST like this glowing up the hill (from Munner's, where so many of my memories center). Ahhhhh......

L&S,

Leslie

Merry Christmas!

Hello, all! Wanted to throw out a little Christmas gift before leaving town for a few days. (Secret, hidden meaning: "I won't be blogging for at least a few days.")

Last year I shared one video from "A Colbert Christmas", a funny Christmas special in the style of an Andy Williams (tracked laughter, cheesy music, and fake sets). If you get some time over the holiday, I recommend you go to www.comedycentral.com and search for "A Colbert Christmas" and watch it in its entirety. Until then, though, here are some of my favorite songs. :) (You MUST listen to the lyrics. They're hysterical!!! Also, please remember it's all meant to be tongue-in-cheek.)

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/211033/november-23-2008/a-colbert-christmas--jon-stewart

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/211029/november-23-2008/a-colbert-christmas--feist-sings

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/211037/november-23-2008/a-colbert-christmas--colbert-costello-duet

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you have a blessed holiday full of good food, quality time with family, laughter, and relaxation!

L&S,

Leslie

Wordless Wednesdays - My First Movie - "Charlie Brown Christmas"

L&S,

Leslie

Meme Monday

A couple of housekeeping items before getting into the Meme today.

First of all, SEVEN (that's right, Ricky and Pam, not eight) years ago today, Drew and I became "The Bowers" in snazzy clothes with lots of music, pictures, family, and friends. Happy Anniversary to ME (and him)!!!

That also means (those of you who were AT the wedding probably remember) that today my precious little Tooter Booter turns TWELVE!!!!! My sweet little girl who was born when I was in COLLEGE, spent boo-coodles of time with me in Carrollton, was best friends with Stuart Little (and his wife, Tina), and used to ALWAYS reply with, "My name is NOT Tooter Booter" until I was pregnant with my own baby when I heard, "What are you going to use as HER nickname? 'Cause Tooter Booter is already taken. She can't have it," is turning TWELVE!!! She is a beautiful, vibrant, kind-hearted goober of a girl and I adore her. Happy Birthday, Tooter! (Oh, and by the way, yesterday at her birthday lunch with us, we got Tucker to start calling her Tooter! Hahaha!)

Ok, now on to the Meme. I thought I'd go all traditional and talk holiday memories. Drew and I were upstairs folding clothes (Yep, I finally got that Thanksgiving beach suitcase unpacked) and started talking about our favorite childhood memories and then our favorite memories since we were "on our own". What are some of your favorites - from childhood and/or adulthood?

Here are some of my favorites:

*Working on Grandaddy's Christmas tree farm - "helping" by carrying the measuring sticks out for everyone, talking up the mistletoe, "helping" bag the trees and tie them on cars, and most importantly, decorating the Charlie Brown Tree down in the farm so it would surprise people when they came upon it

*Decorating PawPaw's tree up the hill from Munner's (a little different perspective of PawPaw's decorations from yours, Unclewesty) - This always seemed the beginning of the real Christmas season for me. Everyone that could came. The men did the light throwing onto that HUGE tree while we kids played tag, held races, and did a million other things, I'm sure, to get in the way of the real task at hand. :)

*Singing in the choir for candlelight service at the Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve, going to (and a couple of times our family providing music for) the candlelight service at our church (First Methodist) and occupying the two rows mid way down the lefthand side of the sanctuary (You're right, Unclewesty, God DOES live there. haha) with my Munner, and before that with my Munner and Grandad.

*There are a MILLION memories of the ENTIRE crew (for those of you who don't know, we're a BIIIIIIIIIG family - 6 original kids, all married with at least two kids, six of them married, two of them engaged, and 7 great-grandkids if I'm counting correctly) at Munner and Grandad's, but the most vivid is the year Grandad decided we all needed to watch this video (of unknown length) about the life of Jesus in its entirety before "Opening the tree". Great in theory, BAAAAAAD in practice. We were young and hopped-up on Christmas Eve energy and that was a LOOOOOONG video. I believe the final deal was that we could stop the video on the promise that everyone would take a copy home and watch it later as a family.

*Many small memories (without specific timing or years in my mind) at our own house like kneeling around the Advent wreath singing little hymns and taking turns reading scripture (and taking turns each year as to who got to light the "Mary candle" - the pink one); hiding my favorite ornaments in the back of the tree and hiding back there playing with them; finishing up Christmas decorations, turning out every light but the Christmas lights, and lying on the floor looking at their reflections in Mama's beveled mirror with Mama and sometimes Scott; making ornaments out of dough - sometimes with Mama, at least once with a babysitter; "Helping" Mama decorate the Christmas cookies

*As an adult, the year that Drew and I started dating stands out in the tiniest details to me - our first kiss, staying up all night talking about everything for the first time, him coming to MawMaw's Christmas (and our favorite Michelle line EVER while there), driving back to Carrollton to meet the delivery guys with my new couch (and Drew coming over to wait with me), going to see the Nutcracker at the Fox, talking on the phone at length between our Christmas activities - sweet, sweet memories

*Then the most obvious - my wedding and honeymoon. We had SUCH a blast in New York and our very first (and only) white Christmas! :)

Unclewesty beat me to this game of memories if you'd like to go check out some of his (and see that some of his are the same as mine, only from a different perspective).

What are yours? (Answer in my comments or do it on your own blog and give me a link to it in my comments so I'll know to go check it out.)

L&S,

Leslie

You're Gonna Miss This...Curiosity!

You're Gonna Miss This is a blog that tries to focus on the small blessings we sometimes overlook through the chaos. It's an attempt to cherish the moments that you know one day you will miss.

This week, I can't help but realize how much I cherish Tucker's endless curiosity and how much I will miss it one day when she's "too cool" to show intense curiosity for the world around her. She spends pretty much every minute of everyday figuring out how things work, the multiple things that can be done with any object, sounds things make (especially when banged together), and even her own abilities. She's discovering so much, mastering so many new skills, and increasing her vocabulary (including a few multi-word phrases now). I am amazed daily at how many things she can discover in a day. I will definitely miss watching her discover her world when these days are gone. What a sweet little wonder!

Checking out the piano on stage at Daddy's concert

Exploring (and conquering) the tree while it was still in the box

Pointing out every branch, light and ribbon on the tree for Mommy and Daddy to see

What are YOU going to miss?

L&S,
Leslie

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

I don't know about "raindrops on roses" or "schnitzel with noodles" (I mean, they're both fine, but FAVORITES -- that might be a stretch...), but here are a few of MY favorite things about the holidays.

footie pajamas and snuggling up

Beautifully decorated Christmas trees (and compliments from my husband on my tree)

Family, family, family (and giant group hugs to boot!)

Kiddos galore (and many a picture taken)



Flat-out silliness
*note this is a picture taken from above of 4 kids in 1 box

What are some of YOUR favorite holiday things?

L&S,

Leslie

Memories

I was reading on a friend's blog about favorite Christmas ornaments and decided to share a short story I wrote when I was in college about my favorite ornaments. My favorite part about this story is when my mom read it, she said, "I didn't know you did that." Haha!

Blue Cloth Covered in Lace

by Leslie McKee Bowers

As she climbed under the thin wire that held the tree to the wall, she couldn’t help but think how amazing it was that she could be so close to everyone and them be oblivious to the fact that she was even there, but there they were sitting on the couch watching TV with nothing but the Christmas tree hiding her and they didn’t know she was there. They would never know that she sat back there playing and watching. They would never know that all of the prettiest ornaments were hanging at the very bottom of the tree back there where she could enjoy just how special they were. The horse, the wreath, and the fan made of blue cloth covered in lace; the glass violin; and the Santa and Mrs. Claus with the kitties in their hands – these ornaments were too pretty and too special to be put on a tree with all of the other ornaments. They didn’t need lights or a pine tree to make them beautiful. No, they were much prettier in her secret place without the other ornaments to clutter their beauty. They only needed to be hung on that bottom branch so she could stare at them and appreciate the true beauty they held.

Merry Christmas! Savor each moment of this blessed season!

L&S,

Leslie

Meme Monday

Alright, guys! Being the music lover I am, I decided to go with another music theme today. My family always laughs at me because when I want you to love a song as much as I do, I'm constantly saying, "Ok, be quiet and listen to these lyrics..." (getting my family to be quiet and listen to an entire song is quite a task). I LOVE lyrics and generally pick my favorite songs based on them. :) So today, we're going to share favorite song lyrics. :)

A few of my faves:

1.) Most Romantic: "Everytime I think of you, I always catch my breath."

2.) Most Frequently True: "It's no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy, 'cause every now and then, I kick the living s*** out of me."

3.) Most Useful: "You can't find the answers 'til you learn to question; you won't appear stupid, just ask for direction. You're insecure and it clouds your perception, so stop and listen and learn a lesson in love without condition."

What are some of your favorites?

L&S,
Leslie

My Poor, Poor Husband

Last night, as I was closing my eyes to go to sleep, I caught sight of a lit tree one street over that has become my last sight before closing my eyes each night. I decided that because of all the things it brings to mind, I would get a picture of it to share with the blogosphere. So at 11:30, I snuck downstairs in the dark, felt around for where I thought the camera was (and it was actually there - wow!), snuck back upstairs to the window (of course on Drew's side of the bed), and as I was turning the blinds open just enough to fit the lens through to capture the picture, Drew woke up and did a little half-asleep freak-out at what I was doing. No matter how many times I said, "It's fine. Just go back to sleep," he wasn't going to do so until I explained why I was standing over the window with my camera in hand (poor fellow). So I explained that I was trying to capture a picture of the tree out the window and received his usual response to my insane exploits, "OH good grief!". He rolled over (in a teensie bit of a sleep-induced huff), and as I turned to finally capture that picture, I watched the lights on the tree go out. They turned it off before I could get my picture.

So alas, I will try again tomorrow night - hopefully BEFORE Drew goes to sleep this time. :)

L&S,

Leslie

Wordless Wednesday

Ready for Christmas

L&S,

Leslie

Stupid Blogger!!!

I apologize for the jumble that my blogs become sometimes (see below for an example). For some reason, on some days, blogger REFUSES to save any formating I do. It simply will NOT keep a linespace between paragraphs or new paragraph indentations. DRIVES ME NUTS!!! BOO!!!

L&S,

Leslie

Meme Monday

Ok, so I'll fess-up. I kind of took last week off. It wasn't a planned vacation. Heck, I did more blogging when I was actually ON vacation. It's just that I came back from vacation and realized that I had SO MUCH to do. Work was busy, the family from Japan was in, the house needed cleaning, Christmas decorations needed finishing, laundry needed to be started and finished, unpacking needed to be done (I'll admit I still haven't done that one - Yikes, Poor Drew), and my baby got SICK! I still have about half of that stuff to do, but I have better perspective about it this week than I did last week. (This is mainly due to the fact that I have a half-decorated tree sitting in my periphery at the moment. Ahhhhhh.) Ok, so back to it this week, and again, I apologize for the impromptu blogcation. :)

For today's Meme, I'm going to kind of meld the meme with another common blog practice called the "Not me Monday". The Not Me blog is basically a way of fessing up to your shortcomings from the past week/weekend without actually taking any blame. It's pretty fun. Please join in, have fun, and I'll start!

I am NOT the girl that still has four (that's right, count them, FOUR) loads of clean clothes in my bedroom in piles needing to be folded or hung (and another in the dryer). I assure you, my bedroom floor is perfectly clean and spotless without a single item of clothing. I am also NOT the one with a suitcase full of random pieces of outfits that haven't been pulled out to wear yet from vacation a WEEK AND A HALF AGO!!! I promise I would NEVER be that irresponsible and messy. Ask Drew. It's absolutely NOT within my character.

I am also NOT the girl who showed up at the pediatrician on Friday with my daughter saying, "She had a slight fever last night and a VERY croupy cough, and was in contact with a cousin who has croup. But she hasn't been warm AT ALL today, so maybe I was just jumping the gun since she had been in contact with someone with croup, and she doesn't really have it," only to have the nurse tell me that she currently had a 103.5 temp. I promise that did NOT happen (nor did the shame and "proving my good mommyhood through other comments" that followed).

I am also NOT the GROWN WOMAN who sat on the couch with Christmas tree ornaments in clasped in my hands, feet curled under me singing "Christmas chimes are calling SANTA, SANTA!", "Come on, old Kris Kringle, down the Milky Way!" at the top of my lungs. Nope, not me. If you heard it from 3 streets over, it must have been your imagination that someone was being so childish and LOUD. I would NEVER be that silly or immature. Must have been one of your other neighbors.

Man, I'm sure glad I didn't do ANY of that (and didn't realize how many ridiculous things I had NOT done recently). What did you NOT do lately?

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Thanksgiving Videos

L&S,

Leslie

Meme Monday

So I'm barely getting this in on Monday this week, but it counts, right? (I'm at the beach. Be glad I made it at all.) Tee-hee

This week, let's play it traditional and do thankfuls. Give me a list of 5 things for which you are thankful. :)

1.) My beautiful, healthy, hysterical baby girl

2.) My intelligent, good-hearted husband

3.) The rest of my amazing family (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and MUNNER) - They are all so supportive, loving, and fun.

4.) That I was born into a family that taught me about God from day one, rather than having to struggle with his existence later in life. Even when I have struggles in my faith, they are never questioning God's existence. That is an ever-fixed fact in my soul.

5.) That even though I don't love my job (or even like it an inkling some days), I do HAVE a job that doesn't include anything disgusting and still pays the bills.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

L&S,

Leslie

At some point in the not so distant past, Munner gave me these two singing bears. They are pretty stinking adorable, but not NEARLY as adorable as Tucker playing with them. When she first discovered them, she watched them hypnotically like 6 times in a row - just wide-mouthed staring, trying to figure them out. Then suddenly, she broke out some new dance moves. The hip movement rivals one of those hula girls you can suction on your dashboard, and I have no idea where (or why) she learned the one hand up thing, but that's persisting in dancing these days. Now the bears are the first thing we find when we come into the living room (after breakfast or after daycare).

She has, of course, finally figured out how to turn these kinds of toys on by herself. (She hadn't quite gotten it with the ghost over Halloween, but she's got it down pat now.) I told Drew we're going to be SO SICK of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" before Christmas is over ('cause she'll play that sucker 20 times in a row without batting an eye), but we both decided that if this kind of dancing keeps up, it will be well worth it. :)

L&S,

Leslie

Autumn Beauty

This week's I Heart Faces theme is "Autumn Beauty". I read the theme a few weeks ago (looking ahead like the cheater I am - ha!) and knew INSTANTLY which picture I would use. When we went to the pumpkin patch, the minute I saw this picture on my camera, I knew it was a winner. The most amazing part is the coloring - I didn't do a single touch-up to the vivid colors. Tucker had so much fun analyzing all of the pumpkins, but she became so content when we sat her on one. She just sat there looking around, taking it all in. So sweet - such wonderful memories!

For more Autumn amazingness, go to and have a looksie.

L&S,

Leslie

Meme Monday

Five Questions

Today it's some get to know you questions - nothing so personal you don't want to put it out in cyberspace, I promise. :) Answer the questions in my comments, and then post the questions on your own blog to learn more about your blog readers. :) Just number your answers to coincide with the question's number. :)

Let's talk dreams:

1.) What's your DREAM day (the activities, not the date)?

2.) What's your DREAM way to make a living (doesn't have to be a REAL job - just if you could make a living doing anything at all, what would that be)?

3.) Do you remember your DREAMS? If so, are they normal or crazy?

4.) Tell me a DREAM you remember.

5.) What's the DREAM item on your Christmas list this year (the thing you REALLY want, not necessarily the thing within anyone's budget)?

Have fun!!!

L&S,

Leslie

Tell Me Something Good....

Alright, blogworld. It's confession time. I am going to share with you one of my deepest, darkest, best-hidden secrets.

I.

Love.

Christmas.

Now, this may not seem to be that big of a confession. In fact, most of you have probably seen me during the holidays and realized that I'm a fan. But I don't just love Christmas like the normal Joe Schmo on the street loves Christmas. Heck, I don't even love Christmas like your basic Christmas-enthusiast. I'm a FREAK when it comes to Christmas.

I can not get enough Christmas. If I could buy a new Christmas decoration every single day from the time they put them out in the stores (this year it was in late July that I first saw them) until the after-Christmas sales were done, I would STILL not have all the lovely things that I want to decorate my home (and the homes of others if I ran out of room).

And don't even get me STARTED on gift-buying. I LOVE finding the perfect gift (or 10 of them) for each person on my list. My budget is the only thing limiting my gift-buying excitement.

Then comes the wrapping. For those of you who don't know, I even create a theme for my wrapping each year. All of my presents coordinate in very specific ways and are wrapped painstakingly while I watch all my favorite Christmas shows (which I own on DVD, thank you very much). I'm even thinking of taking my wrapping-coordination one step further this year and making each of my "variations" within my theme represent a specific house to which that present will go - to make the in-car sorting easier as we visit all 10,000 houses in our big Christmas circle. Paper A - Munner's, Paper B - Mama's, Paper C - Cindy and Rick's, Paper D - Ricky and Pam's, etc. Are you jealous of my insanity yet?

Of course, then you must take into account my craftiness that's a little over the top on the average Tuesday. It gets a bit out of control around Christmas. I love to "fake knit" (this is what I call my Knifty Knitter) things for people, scrapbook things for people, and make EVEN MORE decorations for my house. I even hand-make Christmas cards for more than 100 people each year. Poor Drew puts up with all of my crafting as long as I follow the "no glitter" rule and lets himself believe me when I say this is a way of saving money on decorations and presents ~ when we both know the REAL reason I do this is because I LOVE IT. :)

And Christmas music... there are NO WORDS to describe my love of all things in the Christmas music category. And my dear husband actually joins me in this obsession. Our Christmas cd collection is almost as big as the entire rest of our cd collection. We own all the compilations - old standards like Nat, every cd Bath and Body ever put out, basic Carols, wonderful choirs, instrumental, King Singers (listening to that one as I type this for you)... the list goes on and on. I will admit that some of my Christmas music love is the love of mocking the HORRID remakes of Christmas standards. NEWSFLASH: Not every single song needs to be popped-up or Mariah-Carreyed. This is a FACT, not my opinion!!!

And the worst part of my sickness? Even though you'll hear me mock the fact that stores are now putting Christmas stuff out in late July (I swear there was an entire quarter of Hobby Lobby dedicated to Christmas before they even put out the Fall decor), because I DO understand that most people don't share my obsession for this holiday in quite the same way, in reality, it's the first week of November and it is KILLING ME refraining from going into the garage and bringing in the Christmas decoration boxes. I'm already sneaking in Christmas music when no one is around to witness it, making out my present lists for everyone, planning my wrapping theme, and taking stock of the house and where my favorite decorations will go.

Afterall, how can you possibly think that twenty-five days is EVEN CLOSE to enough days to enjoy all my favorite things on Earth? Each one of my decorations has a memory attached that makes me feel like I'm a kid again getting wrapped up in the excitement. Every song makes me think of Christmas Eve in candlelight service and then driving to Munner's to yack it up and have fun with the whole family. All the Christmas smells take me back to waking up at dawn on Christmas morning and "sneaking" into the living room to see what arrived while I slept. The twinkle of every light reminds me of lying on the living room floor with Mama - all the lights out but the tree, looking at the reflection of the tiny lights multiplied ten-fold in her beveled, layered mirror. Christmas is home, love, warmth, joy, family, memories, and best of all, the most blessed birth of a baby that ever happened (and YES, I mean even more amazing than Tucker's - who knew).

So if you come to see me after Halloween, don't be surprised if it takes me a minute to answer the door. I'm just hiding my decorations and muting the Christmas Carols to continue hiding my secret from you.

L&S,

Leslie

Prayer Requests

While I'm on the blog posting Meme Monday (read the blog below this one), I thought I'd use this venue to get some prayer chains going.

Request #1: Tucker is having tubes put in (AGAIN) tomorrow. It's a "minor surgery" but it does invovle general anesthesia, so it's still scary for Mommy. :)

Request #2: For those of you that don't yet know, some dear friends of ours, Scott and Laura Martin, had their twin boys, Joseph and Campbell, last Saturday. They were due Mid February, so they were only 24 weeks (though the dr. said size-wise they were closer to 26 weeks, so that was good). They are both still fighting through and for this we are grateful. Campbell has had 2 surgeries, so please pray for his recovery, healing, and continued development. Joseph has an infection that they think is increasing his heart rate and his bili levels (jaundice). Please pray that the antibiotics heal his infection and for his continued development as well.

The boys are currently at different hospitals (making a hard situation even harder for Mom and Dad) and Mom and Dad are trying to get back to work so they can use their maternity/paternity leave in January when the boys are hopefully able to come home from the hospital. This family could use your CONTINUEd prayer. They have MONTHS of difficult times ahead, so if you could add them to your church's long-term prayer lists and to your OWN PERSONAL long-term prayer list, it will be prayer-time well-spent. :)

L&S,

Leslie

**Don't forget to participate in Meme Mondays below!**

Meme Monday

Ok, blogiverse, here we go! Are you ready to join in? I hope you're as excited as I am. This first one should be easy AND fun! :)

Today will be (surprise, surprise) about MUSIC!!! Here's the game:

1.) Lucy in the sky with diamonds....

2.) DIAMONDS are a girl's best friend...

3.) GIRLS just wanna have fun...

Do you see the game yet? I've posted three lines from songs. Number 2 has a word from number 1. Number 3 has a word from number 2. For your post, you should use a word from the song line (doesn't have to be a title, but should be a recognizable line) in the post above yours. So the first poster will use a word from MY #3, and the next person will use a line from the first poster's song and on and on. Get it? (You just have to do ONE song. I did three just to get the ball rolling.) Feel free to post more than once, be creative, and HAVE FUN!!!

L&S,

Leslie

Fair Warning

Hello my faithful blog readers (aka - my family and a random friend here and there)!!!

First of all, I am saddened by the fact that most of my blog friends have COMPLETELY STOPPED blogging. I check with hope everyday, and am very rarely thrown a bone. :( I tried encouraging some blog-activity by challenging some of you to a color tag and not a single one of you did it. :( (One said she would do soon and had a good reason, another at least told me it wasn't his thing, but the rest of you just ignored my fun. ) So sad. :(

Because of this, I have decided to step-up my blogging efforts! I am challenging myself to do more WRITING (along with my pics and vids), but I am also challenging myself to try and get the conversation going again, but getting you guys involved!!! This means that at least once a week, I will WRITE SOMETHING (who knows what) and I am implementing "Meme Mondays".

Now the actual definition of "meme" is long and scientific, but on the internet, it basically means "viral" or "immitated". It's something that SPREADS. Sometimes it refers to articles or videos that are spread rapidly, but in my case, it will be ACTIVITIES that will spread amongst us (and maybe beyond us). It might be a question (or series of questions), a game, or something else kookie and fun that I find. You can participate in the Meme in my comments section OR you can participate by doing your part of the Meme on your own blog if you have one. For those of you grandparents who are basically "blog stalkers" (reading but not writing), YOU, TOO, can participate. You can create your own account on blogger WITHOUT creating a blog - so you can sign in weekly and participate, or you can even participate in the comments without an account by clicking "anonymous" - and just signing your name at the bottom of your comment. The most important thing is THAT you participate, not HOW you participate!

I wanted to give you all FAIR WARNING. I expect you to come find me on Monday and I expect your full participation - ALL OF YOU! :)

L&S,

Leslie

"The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers...."

Tucker spontaneously decided to bounce along with her Tigger doll tonight! SOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!

In this one, about halfway through, she realizes she can't possibly keep up with Tigger, so she decides to use her hands. EVEN FUNNIER!!!!

*We were doing bedtime, so the only camera I had with me was my cell phone, hence the sketchy quality. Ah well!*

L&S,

Leslie

I Heart Faces - Balloons!

It is, once again, time for I Heart Faces. This week's theme is "Balloons". I instantly thought of this day at Munner's 80th birthday party. Nan tied balloons to Tucker's ankles (is anyone who knows Nan really surprised by this?!?) and Tucker was, surprisingly amused, not tortured. ha! There was a great shot of Tucker's face, but you couldn't really see much of the balloons. I decided on this one because I love how you can see her reflection in the balloons. :)

L&S,

Leslie

My friend Tracey challenged me to a "color tag" blog. She gave the color black, and I am supposed to find 7 things around my house in that color. Sounds like fun to me!!!

Although ours gets played surprisingly little, these black and whites play a VERY important role in our lives.

I spend the majority of most of my days sitting in front of this pile of black.

Mmmm, I love my mantel - black and white photos, frames, and fleur de lis.


A picture of Cosmo, sweet goober of a cat that I miss dearly

I was determined to find a 3-D fleur de lis before leaving Louisiana. I love this thing!

I'm a shoe nut (shock to most of you I'm sure). I got these new black "go to heels" this summer and I adore them. They are SO girly and surprisingly comfy.

Yep, this appliance is maybe the most used one in our whole house. :)

I tag Andrea, Allison, Lisa, Angie, Nan, Laura Kate, Katie, Mandapooh, Unclewesty, Fogged, Randy, and Brandie. The color is PINK!!!

L&S,

Leslie

Oooh, Oooh, Oooh, Aaah, Aaah, Aaah

For those of you who haven't seen this (as she's not too keen on showing off her mad skillz - ha) one of Tucker's first animal noises was a monkey. She has a stuffed monkey given to us when I was pregnant and I play with it all the time when we're in her room, making monkey noises (and they're pretty good if I do say so myself). One day she was reading a book with Ashie and when Ashie said, "What does a monkey say?" Tucker said, "Oooh, Oooh, Oooh." Thus began the idea of her being a monkey for Halloween. How CUTE would it be if we walked around with her in this costume and said, "Tucker, what does a monkey say?" and she said, "Oooh, Oooh, Oooh!" Well, the only problem with this is the aforementioned lack of desire on Tucker's part to ever do any of her animal noises in front of other people. haha! Oh well, it's still a darned cute costume!

This is the best shot I could get of the curly tail this morning while she was running around tryint to take the costume off. :)
And there it is. Dind't take long at all for her to find that velcro. haha!

Fewer than 5 minutes after putting the costume on, we were, once again, in our underclothes, dancing to music. Oh well! She's pretty cute that way, too!

L&S,

Leslie

"Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer!"

Today is "Orange & Black Day" at daycare. Last year she wore this adorable outfit made for her by Paige.

This year, you know it included a tutu. :) haha!

L&S,

Leslie

She's a Maniac, Maniac on the floor!!!

Dress-up days at Daycare are back again. (They're the same days every year, apparently, which gives me more of a need to be very creative. haha!) She wasn't at school Monday because we were in Tuscaloosa and I hadn't unpacked (and couldn't find) my camera Tuesday morning to get a pic of her in her CUTE Bama cheerleader outfit for "Sports Day". But today is CRAZY DAY. Now, they mean for this to be what I would've called "tacky day", but I was never very good at that, so I always take it as the other kind of crazy - wacky and out of the ordinary. Last year she was a biker babe, if you recall. :)

This year, "She's a maniac, maniac on the floor!!!" We went flashdance to make her a maniac (aka - crazy). :) Fun that I got to use the same leg warmers for the same day both years. :)

"Mommy, why are you taking so many pictures?"

I was telling Drew that when I was changing her shirt earlier, she was playing with her belly button, I asked her what it was, and she said, "Be-buh" (belly button). She heard me say the words and immediately tried to find her "Be-buh" again. :) ha!




Playing with a yardstick (VERY safe, I know) momentarily and doing her almost ever-present "oooh" lips. :)

L&S,

Leslie