what a hoot

once upon a time, i thought owls were ugly.

we would visit gregg's mom's home,

she had owl pictures, owl paintings, and ceramic owls.

usually all in brown.

back then, i did not have the appreciation i do today for the color brown.

& i surely didn't like brown owls.

then harry potter came along 

& that adorable white owl of his changed everything.

i present hedwig.

then i saw legend of the guardians on a snow day with caroline.

& darn if they weren't entirely too cute

my sweet home alabama bestie found this little sweetie perched on her front porch

cruising around online i stumbled upon this stylish owl themed baby shower. 

seriously.

i had no idea owls could be both lovely & stylish.

where have i been?

& an owl themed first birthday

again, even the little brown owl is precious.

& of course

anthropologie knew all along

~ owls are all the rage

the winking wisecracker jar. how cute is he? i think he needs to perch on my kitchen counter.

some more owl images via anthro

how 'bout this snazzy little umbrella stand

even mini boden jumped on the hip owl scene

& oh my word. check this out.

little miss addison must love eating her pb&j on this

& our favorite stationary contact on etsy

melissa has several cute little owl options...here's one we love

then of course blabla kids makes such sweet things

such as this.

have you ever?

spectacular images...

found

found

makes me wish i had treasured those little brown owls

at grandma miller's home after all

her love language

do you know your child's love language? 

i think it's one of the most fascinating discoveries 

to find out how to love well

those in our little nest.

birth order  and their specific personality

  are also important to factor in.

i'm fairly certain

little bit's love language is receiving gifts.

"Don’t mistake this love language for materialism; 

the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift.

If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you.

A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous—so would the absence of everyday gestures."

as much as she feels loved when someone 

gives a gift to her

she has her own generous spirit.

for christmas she went out

& spent her money 

on gifts for each of us.

she spent a great deal of time & made thoughtful decisions

on what the perfect gift would be.

( she gave me a fabulous ring
& gold journal from charlotte russe! score!)

she loves to wrap each gift

& write a sweet little note to go along with it.

one year, her pop pop gave her $50.

it burned a hole in her pocket.

not at target.

not at the mall.

she wanted to give it all away.

every penny.

she wanted to give it a family in need at church

or put the 50 spot in the offering.

yesterday she received a package from one of my precious readers

who has also become a friend.
susan most certainly has an incredible generous spirit.

as she opened the package she exclaimed

"oh mama, she so knows me"

last year when caroline was seeing both a neurologist

& a gastroenterologist for her migraines
and some other issues,

my sweet friend sent her a plethora of love!

i have the same love language.

whether i open a card or an extravagant gift

i'm always blown away that the giver took the time 

to pick out a special gift to make me feel loved.

so when my sweet friend loves on my baby girl

she loves on me too.

thank you susan.
you are truly a blessing to me.

i would love to hear how you feel loved~

John 13:34& 35

Let me give you a new command:
Love one another.
In the same way I loved you, you love one another.
This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples
when they see the love you have for each other

ps. her super duper cute posies in her gift are from the pleated poppy

so you think you can dance

i've been known to crank up 

the tunes during our post dinner clean up time.

sometimes i surprise the girls with my fierce dance moves.

it truly is a site to behold.

after all 

we do have some dancers around here,

some more classical in nature than others.

& while we appreciate a wide variety of music,

{classic 70's rock my chosen genre}

we 

& by we i mean all of us sans dantheman,

love some rap

it will probably disappoint you in my capabilities as a mother

to divulge the song sung after dinner last night

was none other than 'low'

the clean version.
of course.

i'm certain it's moments such as this

that validate dan's decision to refrain 

from the frivolity known as facebook...
because i would have totally tagged him in this link.

sing along if you so desire.

"shawty had them apple bottom jeans"

 "boots with the fur"

 "the whole club looking at her"

so
in the event you have nothing to do in the next 15 minutes of your life
enjoy a fantastic laugh
{disclaimer: i will not include a you tube video in the next blog post. promise }

( & btw, there is a more current video of the university of oregon guys
but this raw/original one is hysterical)

i hope savannah finds fun friends like these guys to hang out with in college!



(check out granny at the end of this one.
she obviously has a great sense of humor)

( of course i couldn't leave this one out)

madi, the mystic, morrison and meringue

yesterday after fiddling with html codes
& online work/computer issues
i ended up with a big whopping headache.
 clearly, i'm not as techy as i'd like to be.

take for example my itunes status.

my itunes library is on the desktop computer, not my laptop.

& i've yet to learn how, to or shall we say, make the time to switch it over.
rumor has it that it's a time consumer
& i'm consuming my time with html and
three hundred and sixty five photos for crying out loud.

so my sweet madison uploads my songs for me.
i keep her hopping around from U2 to vanilla ice to zac brown.

when zac brown first came out
singing things like chicken fried and i've got my $%@ in the sand
i wasn't all yay zbb.
then i heard highway 20 ride, free, and colder weather
& now i'm a true fan.
so anyway, she uploaded what was apparently the extended version of free.
awesome tune.
with van morrison's 'into the mystic' thrown in there.
love.

i'm certain most of you have a more refined sophisticated taste in music
& have no familiarity with the aforementioned songs.

so
speaking of madison,

i'm a little behind posting some of her cheerleading pictures from this past fall.

she left 11 years of ballet & entered the world of  cheerleading 

as if that's what's she done all along.

 

besides being my techy tunes girl,
madison is also our resident baker

who loves to be in the kitchen

& is helper extraordinaire.

her current form of blessing our family

is baking cupcakes. from scratch

i gave each of the girls a book to open on christmas eve.

madison's, while not technically a book,

the cupcake deck 

was drawn from the best selling book 

& is filled with super cute folded cards & recipes.

here she is making meringue frosted chocolate goodness

& for those of you
who might enjoy a moment of unrefined,
unsophisticated musical preferences,
enjoy~