Friday, November 30, 2007

christmas parade




have you ever wondered why you do something that you don't enjoy, but continue to do it every year? this is the case with the local christmas parade. we bring the kids every year along with every other family in lagrange down to the square to watch countless high school bands, cars with kids, and flat bed trucks carrying loads of people waving. it is SO long waiting for santa's arrival in the fire truck. we even quilted the lingenfelters into going this year. telling them that when you live in lagrange, you have to bring your kids to the christmas parade. last night i was thinking why do we go every year and why we are we giving the lingenfelters such a hard time...the reason is that we do it because our parents did it, even though they didn't enjoy it either. i think that we are trying to do the same things our parents did so our kids can have the same experiences growing up as we did.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

happy birthday katie!

today my niece katie turns one! doesn't see look like the queen waving in this picture. katie and her big sister maggie are at disney world celebrating their birthdays! love you katie!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

hailey

here is a catch up picture from the long weekend. this is my niece hailey. isn't she a cutie? her eyes are incredible! most of y'all know that john is a twin so when we found out that john's brother and his wife were pregnant their mom told us that their child and our kids would have closer dna than normal cousins. weird huh?

anyway, here is sweet hailey. she is the best baby...not like my wild kids! poor thing has already survived a lot just with mm & g visiting her! mm LOVES her and we do too!

happy belated birthday maggie!


happy 4th birthday maggie! auntie fi loves you!

i was going to wait until tomorrow to post both of my nieces birthdays, but thought that they each needed their own post, especially since their birthdays are so close. this picture is from this summer, but i love it because it is so maggie!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

it is finally cold!

we had our first really cold snap this weekend...just in time for a little time off with the kids. i am sure that we will be in short sleeve again by christmas. anyway, being the great mommy i am, i took the opportunity to bring my already snotty nosed kids out for a photo op!







binks take "2"!

so apparently mm is a trendsetter...g decided to try the two binks are better than one approach! i promise this is not staged...mm did this last week and g ran up to me this weekend showing me his new trick...he thinks that it is so funny and gets so tickled at himself he can't get the second one in because he is laughing!


Saturday, November 24, 2007

she has done it again!

lindsey took some christmas pictures of the extended "and co" the other day for mom and dad's christmas card. here is what we got! they are super cute...especially since g screamed the whole time (there are a few screaming ones too for fun!)

i know that all of you think that i am obsessed with lindsey...the truth is that i kinda am because i feel so fortunate to have their sweet family in our life and to say the least i am incredibly jealous of her day job! i don't have any regrets at all in my life, but if i were to change one thing, i would have concentrated in photography! oh well. for now, i can just be jealous and thrilled that my friend can take these "a day in the life" pictures of my cute family!

take a look here http://lindentree.instaproofs.com/

password is Christmas (Capitalize the C)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

okay, so i am not so good at math...

my grammar could be better...science, not so much...history couldn't hold my attention...spelling, thank you spell check...organization? ha!...but i must say, i LOVE being crafty! this is what i love doing...creating things with my own hands, with my imagination. sure, i stay up countless hours that i should be sleeping, but it was worth it. it was all worth it because when mm saw it this morning...she said, "a TURKEY! on my shirt! GOBBLE GOOBLE!"

(ps...i think that mm is going to be crafty too...her favorite activity is painting at school and montessori! i knew that girl was mine!)

here is why i am so sleepy today...


do they know what they are doing?

i thought that i would share some good/scary news on the work front. as most of you know that in the past year and a half i have been working at interface as a carpet designer. it is as close to a dream job as i could ask for. after having several jobs that weren't creative, i was so happy to be back where i can use my left brain! my friend destin called while i was working at hutchinson traylor and told me that there was an design job open. shortly after i was hired she was promoted to manager and recently director of custom development. the good news in all of that is that i got the manager position...interface should be scared that the two of us are running a department! i am excited and scared to be managing 10 designers...we will see how it goes!

btw...mm took the picture above...we had to chase the lens, but i thought it was cute...she is getting better at this picture thing!

weekend catch up

here you go...a quick weekend catch up

auntie p was in town for a tennis tournament.


pelham, melissa, and the birch girls camped out at melissa's house on saturday night. i think that they look pretty good for not getting any sleep!


speaking of sleep. my kids would not go down for their nap on sunday. i finally put them in the car to do the job. mm asked where we were going and i told her that we were going to sleepy town. they both were asleep before we got out of the neighborhood.

agh! will we every get rid of the binks...apparently two binks are better than one.

Monday, November 19, 2007

okay...maybe just one...


i said that i wasn't going to post any old pictures of sinead...but i found this one and thought that y'all might like to see us all pre-kids...don't we all look so young, skinny, and rested?

Sunday, November 18, 2007

happy birthday sinead...2 days late...




i am two days late wishing my sister, sinead happy birthday. i did call her on friday...i am just late posting it...i haven't had the chance yet...sorry sinead!

since i am such a bad sister, i won't post any old pictures...and man i have some good ones. these are really great pictures that lindsey took of sinead and the girls...thanks lindsey for letting me share them!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

happy birthday margaret!

wow... turning 16 almost a year ahead of me doesn't seem too bad now, does it? he he!

margaret is one of my best friends and has been since i was in 4th grade...she turns 30 today... so since this is such a special occasion, i thought that i would share a few pics from our past....


man...i think that we look pretty good! this was 97...our sophomore year in college...

class of 96...margaret is the on on the far right...that is me next to her...anyone recognize the baldy 3rd guy from the left...that is right...that is john a month after we started dating...isn't he cute?

so happy birthday margaret!


ha...you didn't think that i was going to be that nice to you did you....here are some good ones that i have been saving for a long time...payback for the pages in walmart...and the many other pranks....love you!

what was your "favorite thing" today?


http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Things-Kimberly-Bradley/dp/B000KHXBTK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195095324&sr=8-3

mm has a book called favorite things...it is one of my favorite children's book. the story is great and the illustrations are so vivid and imaginative...just like a child (or maybe their creative mommy) would dream up. the mommy asked the son what his favorite thing was that day... he dreams up all these crazy things that he did like a elephant driving garbage trucks in the race to school or giant squirrels named Rex that draw pictures of race cars...anyway, at the end of the book the little boy hugs his mommy and says that this (her asking what his favorite things were) was his favorite thing...it is so sweet.

anyway, i have thought about this a lot. wouldn't it be great if at the end of every day we ask ourselves what our favorite thing was during that day... i think that it's so easy to think of all the little things that don't go quite right in our day... so here goes....

my favorite thing today was going to mighty joes for dinner with friends & enjoying the walk home afterward (it would have only been better if john could have joined us...only 2 more weeks!)

now it is your turn...what was your favorite thing today?...leave a comment letting us know (you know how nosy i am!)...we might be surprised and remember that there are good things that happen everyday even though we might only think about the bad things.

Monday, November 12, 2007

dinner at home...what's that?


well..needless to say we haven't eaten dinner at home much lately...john is studying for his CPA exam so after i get the kids home from school i can't think about making dinner. well, this weekend i decided that we were spending WAY too much money on eating out so i thought that i would try this cooking thing again...as you can see the kids loved it! grady ate it all up. we will see how long it will last! bon appetite!

the many faces of mm




i think that mm has the best expressions...you can tell what she is up to by the look on her face. the last one is the "mommy...i want to take pictures NOW!" face...when i look at it, i see a teenager that is going to give her mommy fits!

a great day

sunday was an awesome day. after we got home from the wiggles we went out to eat, got some ice cream and came home. the kids were in such a good mood. mm & grady were racing each other across the room and laughing so hard...it was a really great day!

a wiggly good time...



we went to see the wiggles with our friends molly and walker today. it was really fun...
even though as soon as they came out first, mm said...i'm ready to go home! we did stay for the whole thing. i was very proud of her for staying still for that long!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

this is proof that i am a bad mommy...

my mother and every other good mother that i know would have said..."don't make that face or else it will stick like that"...do you think that i said that ... oh no... "i said oh quick hand me my camera"...sorry dermot & aimee if will's face sticks...i take full responsibility!

school pictures?

we all remember our school pictures right?... you took so much time and effort determining what you were going to wear... you made sure you brought your brush to school so your hair wouldn't look bad in the pictures ... then finally the day came and you walked onto the school auditorium stage and they rushed you in front of that blue backdrop and sat you on that stool while the photographers wife fussed trying to put your hair where you didn't want it! he would look through the lens and say "put your chin down dear" (never good for the turkey neck...see previous post) and he took it...weeks go by with anticipation of waiting to see how they were going to turn out...finally they came and they looked like every other school picture. boring!

fast forward 10-20 (deep sigh) years...my little girl is having her school pictures at montessori...it starts all over again. i made sure her hair was just right and hoped that she wouldn't pull it out before the pictures...

here is the result...


ouch!...that is really bad...as you notice i thought that these needed something so i took the liberty of adding mm's crimes to her lovely pictures. (as most of you know...mm has had some issues with biting...she does look like the class bully doesn't she)

the best part of this story is that on the same day as our kids were getting pictures made at montessori, lindsey was hired by first methodist early learning center to do their school portraits. these were her first school portraits and she was very nervous...i am sure it had something to do with her worrying about how parents would react to their babies school pictures...well on the same day that we got mm's proofs back, lindsey got hers back. i went across the street to look at them and was blown away! they were incredible!

this, my friends is a real school portrait that families will LOVE to have!...


this is sweet abby grace...her mommy is the smart one who hired lindsey!

maybe next year everyone will come to their senses and use linden tree photography...my fingers will be crossed!

by the way... here is her website in case you were looking for a photographer... http://www.lindentreephotography.blogspot.com/ ... she is a great photographer, neighbor, and friend...even though our politics might be a little different :)

Friday, November 9, 2007

for the kiddos...


i had the pleasure of chatting with friends last night. we talked about lots of stuff, but one thing stuck with me...we talked about how we always hate pictures of ourselves...why is that...i am sure that it is because i always see my turkey neck or muffin top...etc. you get the picture. anyway. lindsey said and it is so true that we need to let go of our insecurities and just take pictures of ourselves so our kids have them when they are older...she is right. maybe mm & g won't notice my turkey neck or muffin top!

ps-did you notice that i picked a picture of myself that doesn't show my neck or muffin top...i guess our insecurities will always be there...oh well.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

okay, okay...

sorry y'all... i hate bulk post, but i had a lot of content from the weekend. i will try to do better!

one day...


this is my dream...i am going to one day buy some sort of property that is not a home (ie: a barn, school, church,etc) and renovate it into a home. we saw this barn coming back from huntsville..it would be perfect except for one thing...i would have to cross too many bridges to get to it. :) (that is a joke between my family and i...i told john once that we can't live in a house that you have to cross a bridge to get to...the reason you ask?...if you have to cross a bridge, that means that it is too far out. i always want to live in town...close to everything)

i already have my sights set on the old coca cola building downtown lagrange...i am sure lots of other people do too...i will have to save my pennies!

here is lots more pictures from this old house.com... http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20052183,00.html



katie't baptism

sweet katie

sinead's family

dermot & aimee minus will who was playing on the playground with mm



here is our whole waters family...aren't we cute.
(this was a difficult picture to get!)