Gumbo Saturday

is a tradition at the Horton house - it's just like Thanksgiving, but instead of Thursday, it's on Saturday and instead of turkey, we eat gumbo. This makes perfect sense, I guess... Anyway, when I was little, I guess you could say I grew up with the Horton cousins. I mean, we didn't see each other everyday like Hannah, Morgan and Avery, but I went to preschool with my cousin Brett and I totally remember being terrified when Brett and Darrell were together. I clearly remember being terrorized when they would look at me and ask, "Whatta ya lookin' at?". For some odd reason, this made me want to cry (probably because I was a ninny little girl). I also remember that they LOVED Star Wars. The only big screen movie I ever remember seeing as a child is Star Wars - with them - so clearly, the thought of R2D2 today makes me break out into hives. Lisa was older and WAY cool to me. Then four years after me came Ashley and then I guess about four years after that came Jenny. So my memories were really about Brett and Darrell (and so was my therapy!).

I GUESS you could say that we are all grown up now - or maybe I should just say that we are older. Lisa has four children, I have two and Ashley has one, so Darrell, Brett and Jenny are basically off the procreation hook. The 7 new little cousins are plenty loud enough!

Before I post the pictures of us "all grown up", I thought I could post a few pictures of us in our earlier years. This should be good for a few laughs!

This picture was taken at Christmas in 1979. My sister Ashley was one at the time and apparently, the only one smart enough to refuse to get into this picture! Does Brett still have that shirt?

I can only imagine that Grandma Ethel insisted that some of the "little ones" be in the wedding. How they picked me and Darrell, I'll never know. My mom reminds me that during the ceremony I took off my stockings because they were too itchy. I figured this out at 4 - so why are women still wearing them?

Ahhh, St. Ann preschool where Brett and I sat next to each other. Hopefully it was Halloween and our mothers just weren't playing a sick joke on us! After college, I walked into my first job and the secretary said, "Oh, I know you, you were in my preschool class and you came with your little cousin. You were so quiet and shy with straight blond hair and he was so loud!" Can you say mortified?

Here is Ashley's first birthday with all of us huddled around the cake, trying to appease the moms with one picture before diving in. Is Lisa's finger touching the cake?

So now that we have had this precious trip down memory lane, check out the shutterfly link to see the pictures from 2007. Enjoy and be sure to laugh out loud!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DbN2TNy1Zlw&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Thank goodness for small miracles

Like my in-laws calling to take the girls to lunch and shopping. Granted, they are CRAZIER THAN ME to take Morgan, Avery and Evan to Cracker Barrell and the toy store on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but hey - I'll take any relief I can get! It gave me the opportunity to get creative. Our neighborhood HOA had a Halloween party and it was the first time we managed a girl picture in ages. I just love it!

Believe me, had I printed the Thanksgiving pictures, I would have scrapbooked these too, but for one, I stayed in my pj's all day and I REFUSE to enter the After Thanksgiving shopping madness - and that includes even fighting shopping traffic to pick up pictures. So, I'll just share these pictures of Morgan and Avery for now.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We are heading out today for "Gumbo Saturday", kind of like Thanksgiving, Part II at my aunt's house. Have a great day - and AVOID the MALLS!

How could I forget...

To show you the "shopping bags" from By Design? I mean, really, could they be any cuter? Some ladies even scored the gigantic ones. I should have shopped more...



Many of you know about my boycott of malls and big box stores for gifts. In my new effort to ONLY give gifts that actually involve thought and hopefully some meaning, I have made these room decor items for some of Morgan and Avery's friends. Hint: If I called and asked what color your daughter's room is, one of these is headed to your house!

Stop trying to figure out what it spells! Each one is for a different little princess!

I have recently discovered a fabulous website: www. etsy.com
If I can't make a gift (and since I DO sleep occasionally, I can't make everything!), I love browsing this site for handmade goodies of all kinds. Kind of like an ebay, where "artists" can set up a shop, but you buy instead of bid and it's all handmade. So many of my Christmas list was purchased straight from the site. Check it out if you have a chance.

Have a great Thanksgiving! Thanks to Angel Stormo, I made the yummiest looking sweet potato dish EVER!!! Hope your day involves lots of laughs with friends and family.

Who needs enemies?

Believe me, I only sent the blog birth announcement to "friends" and family. I've listed a few of the comments I received for your enjoyment: (1) BITCH! (2) Where's your ridalin? (3) You are so Type A! (4) You are kidding! And to think, I thought I was sending this to my dearest friends and family. At least every comment made me laugh out loud - and that's the goal of every day!

First layout postings ever!

Since I don't plan on becoming a famous scrapbooker, I don't have to worry about the imperfections in these layouts, photos, or photos OF the layouts.... Just promised a friend that I would show her my most recent pages and it seems like this might be the easiest way. I've been a blogger now for at least 2 hours - that's BIGTIME!



Here are Morgan and Avery in late August - actually heading out of the door to Morgan's birthday party.

I just love seeing how Morgan's handwriting is progressing. And apparently, she thinks caterpillars have human heads - who knew?




There is a corn maze not far from Baton Rouge - so what do we do? Pack up three little girls and head to the pig races! Seriously - there were pig races! Of course Hannah called them puppies and I think Avery wanted to take one home. Don't you love the pic of Morgan showing that she's "this tall". And Jen - have no fear, the pregnant belly next to the John Deere tractor is getting a page of its own!







After receiving golf shoes, clubs, shirts, pink balls, bascially the *works* from Shane over 2 years ago - we finally got out on the golf course. It was our 10th anniversary "date". The big buttons are from Creative Cafe (you buy them by the scoop - I pretended it was ice cream!)



Ashley and I are trying to spread the word that there are no "Misters" at Bellanger and McQuiddy. Most of our clients realize it, but the telemarketers sure haven't. We are sending out 5x7 calendars with this pic on it for Christmas cards. Jess told me I need to journal about how great it is to work together, blah, blah - maybe next time, Jess!





And lastly, how could I choose - I HAD to do a four page layout. This was the Christmas card photo shoot in the backyard. Morgan showing her true "girly girl" with the flowers and Avery showing me that no velvet dress would stand in the way of her fun! Of course, these are my favorites.

By Design store - OMG!

Seriously - I want to live in this store! I actually saw a man napping on the big round pink sofa! This is my Graceland, the Disneyworld of scrapbooking stores, my pink heaven on earth! The products were amazing, of course it was great to see Jessica and I met a bunch of people who will be going to SE. I got the Jessica "juice" while I was there and created 10 layouts - it didn't hurt that she was cropping next to me.